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More Farming!


Susan

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Hiya!

 

I've been in and out of PZ and the forums over the years, so I do apologize if this is a topic that has been brought up before now. I love the game, and, obviously, farming is important in the long run. Based on the setting of Kentucky, being pretty similar to my home in Ohio, USA, I have a few suggestions on additional veggies that should be available for farmers, simply based on how common and easy they are around here. In my opinion, we should also be able to grow onions, lettuce, corn, and zucchini, at the very least; and also eggplant and bell pepper, really.

 

Also, it would be awesome if we could plant orchards of fruit trees and grow apples and cherries, which are pretty common and easy to grow here. :)

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27 minutes ago, Susan said:

Hiya!

 

I've been in and out of PZ and the forums over the years, so I do apologize if this is a topic that has been brought up before now. I love the game, and, obviously, farming is important in the long run. Based on the setting of Kentucky, being pretty similar to my home in Ohio, USA, I have a few suggestions on additional veggies that should be available for farmers, simply based on how common and easy they are around here. In my opinion, we should also be able to grow onions, lettuce, corn, and zucchini, at the very least; and also eggplant and bell pepper, really.

 

Also, it would be awesome if we could plant orchards of fruit trees and grow apples and cherries, which are pretty common and easy to grow here. :)

I think trees would be op since they're gonna spawn food infinitely regardless of fruit time/ climate unless you chop them, though yeah they should be a great addition to the game to add more realism and content.

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I don't think fruit trees would need to be op at all, depending on how they are implemented.... To be fair, cherries should just spawn in summer and apples only in fall. If anything, they would need to produce two or three times each season to even be worth it at all. But having fruit other than berries in the late game would be nice. That being said, having canned pineapple would also be both realistic and awesome!

Edited by Susan
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Yeah, fruit trees are the least OP thing about farming. You get a massive haul of fruit, all at once, on a yearly timer. So much that you can't even really handle it. There's a reason why folks use canning or make alcohol out of 'em. Apples may be pickable over the length of one or two months, but still it's probably something that works much better with foraging than planting your own.

 

Many of the other crops you suggested are already in the game, so it makes sense that we'd be able to plant them too.

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On 12/28/2020 at 6:56 PM, DXPOHIHIHI said:

I think trees would be op since they're gonna spawn food infinitely regardless of fruit time/ climate unless you chop them, though yeah they should be a great addition to the game to add more realism and content.

 

If they went the realism method, you would have to wait for a tree to mature before bearing fruit. Even then, it would take a lot more time to reach full maturity and maximum fruit. Farming is about 4x faster in-game compared to IRL. With this in mind, the average fruit tree should begin bearing fruit about a year after sprouting, and reach full maturity at 2 years old. This would mean a long-term investment and a very stable base to grow, negating the OPness of the trees themselves. Perhaps if they added an orchard or two on the map, these would become very important POIs for securing renewable early game food sources. People might even burn the orchards down on MP servers.

 

If we wanted to overhaul farming entirely, all crops should only grow under certain temperature conditions, Stardew Valley style. Survivors can plant crops whenever, but planting "out-of-season" food will take longer, produce less, and require more maintenance. Most crops should not grow at all in Winter unless they are placed in some kind of greenhouse set up. Carrots and Broccoli should be the most hardy crop. They should be able to be harvested from the beginning of summer until the end of Fall. High level farmers should even be able to keep these crops alive a little into December. Potatoes and Tomatoes would be the second best pair. They would flourish from June through October, and high-skill farmers should be able to make them last until Fall is over. Strawberries and Radishes should only bear fruit in May or June, and Cabbage should only grow in June/July. This would make certain seeds highly valued over others, however devs could balance it out by adjusting loot rarity, or even the amount of food harvested. Perhaps only a few potatoes per harvest versus dozens of strawberries for example.

 

Then, excluding animal husbandry that could come with B42, the only other thing we are missing to complete farming is a few more crops. As far as fruit trees go, there should be maybe 3. Apple trees should bear fruit from Summer through Fall, Peach trees should bear fruit in the Summer, and Cherry trees would only grow fruit in June. For regular crops, I think there are 3 important ones to add. Corn, Wheat, and Tobacco. These are the 3 biggest cashcrops in Kentucky, so there should be plenty of seeds and farms around. Wheat could make flour and bread renewable, making baking a viable option for food finally (maybe even its own skill!). It could also provide hay for feeding various animals that would come with an Animal Husbandry system. Corn could be used to make whiskey or just eaten in various ways. Tobacco is a given for Smokers until a dynamic addiction and withdrawal system is implemented. These could all grow from Summer through Fall, but none could be grown in a greenhouse, requiring you to stock up on this produce for winter. Other than that, I really don't mind what crops they add. Onions and Peppers of some kind could be good for removing boredom and unhappiness from meals. Watermelons and Pumpkins could be fun and use a unique growth system. Maybe they would even overhaul Tomatoes to make the vine keep bearing fruit like IRL, and then that opens the door for Grapes and Beans too.

Edited by TrailerParkThor
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  • 1 month later...
On 1/4/2021 at 10:51 AM, Pandorea said:

As an FYI : Farming overhaul - yes, with inclusion of new crops and such - is planned for one of the next builds (can't wait for that myself ;) )

That sounds amazing!

 

While this post was mostly about additional crops, earlier I was wondering if something like this could/would include improved crops with higher levels? A cabbage harvested at level 0 is the same as one harvested at level 10, and fertilizer/compost only speeds up growth. Having more nutritious/hunger filling crops at higher farming levels would be a nice addition. I'm a big fan of my cabbage, potato, and rabbit roasts, so having them be more nutritious now that I've mastered farming would be great!

 

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Edited by Sedgwick
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/3/2021 at 12:11 AM, Sedgwick said:

That sounds amazing!

 

While this post was mostly about additional crops, earlier I was wondering if something like this could/would include improved crops with higher levels? A cabbage harvested at level 0 is the same as one harvested at level 10, and fertilizer/compost only speeds up growth. Having more nutritious/hunger filling crops at higher farming levels would be a nice addition. I'm a big fan of my cabbage, potato, and rabbit roasts, so having them be more nutritious now that I've mastered farming would be great!

 

ncynYo2.png

I'd personally go with the stardew valley system of crop quality, but because PZ has all the nutritional values I'd say just tweak those, unfortunately I think this might just be a power creep! I'd tie farming into the natures abundance system but have the goal of keeping abundance low (pest free) compared to abundance high (infested), foraging your farms cell would reduce odds of plants catching a disease, and similar to foraging provide insects commonly, medicinal plants uncommonly, rocks rarely and mushrooms very-rarely or something of the such. Take away random chance remove frustration, provide more incentive to particular tasks without removing realism!

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