Variable Plot Size and Mixed Seed Plots

[Kajin]

I got this idea while working in my own garden. This year I've decided to follow the Three Sisters planting scheme for some of my food crops. Basically put, you plant Corn and Beans and Squash in close proximity to each other. The Bean vines climb up the Corn stalk, using it as a pole. The Beans in turn anchor the Corn stalk to the ground making it harder to knock over. The Beans also pull nitrogen from the air and put it into the ground around the roots, enriching the soil and providing greater nutrients to satisfy the heavy nitrogen requirements of the Corn. The Squash plant, meanwhile, grows outward along the ground, the leaves shading the ground and stunting weeds from growing in without bothering the tall Corn and Bean plants. All of this together makes the plot more efficient, increasing overall food yield and reducing amount of maintenance work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sisters_(agriculture)

 

So with that in mind, I suggest the ability to mix different seeds into the same plot. Complementary plants bolster each other, increasing overall food yield and reducing maintenance and fertilization requirements (possibly even leaving the plot slightly more fertile than it was before). This also leaves room for mistakes, though. A foolish survivor that doesn't plan out his garden properly could end up with conflicting plant types in the same plot, taking energy and nutrients away from each other while the plants compete for the same light and nutrient resources. Smart plant placement by a good farmer would do wonders for farming in general.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants

 

And with that, we move on to my next idea: Variable Plot Sizes. Right now, crops are planted one tile at a time and cared for one tile at a time. This is all very very tedious from a game play perspective. So what I suggest is being able to design plots of different sizes covering several tiles. If I wanted, this option would let me create one large plot three tiles by five tiles wide instead of just digging out fifteen individual tiles. Once I designate where the plot is my character moves to plow the tiles within the plot. Once I select the seeds my character moves to plant all those seeds within the large plot. When I go to water or weed, my character moves to tend all the tiles within that plot. The game would still calculate tiles individually inside the plot, though, so you would still get a diseased plant tile somewhere in the plot that would have to be treated or removed before it spreads to the whole rest of the plot.

 

I'm not suggesting this because I think farming should be easier, but it would make farming require less micromanagement and thus become much less of a pain in the neck. Your character is still performing all of the backbreaking, time-consuming menial labor but the player isn't as mentally exhausted trying to micromanage a whole bunch of different plots.

[Pelaaja2]

That is really good idea.

You should be able mix different seeds.

[mamen963]

HMM, this could be a mod and if the creators like it they'll implement it, one example was farming and tents , all mods that are now part of the game

[Kurruk]

Not sure how viable would be mixing plants, without introducing a new type of plant, that benefits from all of the seeds and takes up one tile of land...

 

but I do support an idea of working on a larger plot of land. Think it would be possible to add a new menu entry to "*xxx* all" and it would check for the tile in place of clicking and then expand to surrounding tiles and do the same type of work if required (at least without introducing anything new to the system).

[Kajin]

Not sure how viable would be mixing plants, without introducing a new type of plant, that benefits from all of the seeds and takes up one tile of land...

It's a pretty commonly practiced thing in the real world. There'd need to be some updates to the codes and we'd certainly need a few new sprites, but I think it'd add to the game immensely to have that little bit of interplay between different kinds of crop plant.

 

HMM, this could be a mod and if the creators like it they'll implement it, one example was farming and tents , all mods that are now part of the game

There's a farming overhaul planned for down the line, I think, so I'm suggesting these now in the hopes that the devs see it and think it'd be a good idea to include them in the overhaul.

[Kurruk]

Not sure how viable would be mixing plants, without introducing a new type of plant, that benefits from all of the seeds and takes up one tile of land...

It's a pretty commonly practiced thing in the real world. There'd need to be some updates to the codes and we'd certainly need a few new sprites, but I think it'd add to the game immensely to have that little bit of interplay between different kinds of crop plant.

From the game perspective it won't be just few sprites, but also few internal objects that the game would have to track, at least without introducing any change to the core of farming (allowing for multiple plants to occupy the same space in world)... but that's of course just my guess.

[mamen963]

It could be one sprite several "drops" or "loot", doesnt look very hard 

[Kajin]

You'd have to modify the in-game code a little bit to show the higher or lower quality results you'd get from planting together complimentary or competing plants but that's about it. It doesn't sound too awful hard, but I have no programming knowledge so I don't know.

[Houski]

This is called "companion planting" and while not common is an advanced agricultural technique. A quick google search should show the variety of plants and herbs that benefit from this method.

Perhaps as a mechanic it would require farming lvl 3 or 4 to co-plant atop an already planted plot.

[Kurruk]

I don't think the problem lies with the level where it should be attached, but more so to the actual world item that would have to be there. So from my point of view the world itself looks like a simple grid, where each tile can have a value, that value determines the object that will be used when drawing the map. Now even if for simplicity sake you disable possibility that one plant can get sick (from this "group") you still have to have separate art for each stage of plant growth. And that applies to each and every combination you will allow to make, including RNGods outcome of the harvest.

 

So making that happen will be challenging at the very least.

[Kajin]

That would probably only be a necessity for the plants that are actually growing on top of each other, like the aforementioned Bean vines and Corn Stalks. For all the other plants that would just be growing next to each other (and from what I can tell that's the vast majority of companion crops), you could just tweak the system a bit so that it divides each tile into different sections, with each seed planted inside taking up a number of sections based on their space requirement.

 

Say you divide each tile into twelve sections and the plants take up a number of sections based on their space requirements. Carrots take up one section per plant because you can plant twelve Carrots per tile. Tomatoes take up three sections per plant because you can only plant four Tomato plants per tile. So if you plants Carrots and tomatoes next to each other, six Carrot plants would take up one half of the tile while two Tomato plants occupied the other half. You wouldn't have to create a new sprite just for this exact scenario. You could simply use the existing sprites for individual plants and have them occupy space on the tile based on their size requirements.

 

I think it's worth it to add such a feature to the game as it would make farming a much more involving process as opposed to some hurdle you have to jump over if you want to continue playing the game like how farming currently is. Give players incentive to play around with it in the hopes of finding good combinations and stuff.

[Kurruk]

That's what I'm saying - you have to think per tile, currently stuff is based on tile having one thing on top of the ground. So you would have to create image of each possible combination regardless. But now that I think of it, there is yet another solution - you would still plant as you do, meaning one plant per one tile, but when plants are getting updated you would have to add logic to check surrounding tiles in search of "companion" plants. That could be archived with current system I think and wouldn't have to add any new assets.

[Kajin]

I'm not saying to make a dozen different brand spanking new tiles. I'm saying to make the farm tiles modular so that they update small sections of the tile base on what plant is in each section rather than just making a dozen new sprites for every possible combination.

 

But yeah, you could also do it that way. You wouldn't get as much benefit if the combination relies on overlapping root systems providing each other nutrients, but there are combinations that help drive away some kinds of pests and increase pollination rates.

[Kurruk]

Well the thing is that I don't believe you will be able to support multiple plants in one spot and save/handle/draw them properly, without it looking weird separately... so the only solution I see in implementing your idea into the game is to have it grow separately (meaning as they are right now), but treat them as if there were growing together in one tile (neighbours), adding x% to growth/immunity boost.

[Kajin]

I'm gonna have to disagree on the fact that it can't be done, but I do agree that having the plants recognize nearby neighboring plots and factor them into resulting plant health and food yield would be the easiest way to do it, at least in the short term.