Agriculture - put a slight random spin on the plants please - perfect straight rows break the visual

When stuff grows that you have planted they all end up perfectly aligned in straight lines.
Unfortunately they are too straight - it destroys the visuals as the brain expect slight imperfection.

So if a slight random spin is added to the plant visuals it would break the too straight lines.



Very boring...

 

I'd be ok with what you're saying...but it's not a big deal to me.

As someone that has planted rows of stuff before, it's normal to see things be in straight lines. Yes "perfectly" straight is probably rare, but I think this is something that might be too nitpicky.

 

Straight lines is fine, I think Spoon means rotate the plants to a random degree as they're all orientated the same and it looks unnatural as the plants are identical.

 

I was about to get a picture but I picked a couple of my cotton plants and noticed they now leave a seedling so I harvested the lot.

 

Maybe a pseudo-random tilt and/or rotation based on the location coordinates. Then they can be random but consistent.

 

Just as a comparison I've rotated the potted plants by random amounts and it looks much more natural.

 

So that's why I'm suddenly seeing a buttload of raw cotton on the public vendors.

 

I'm using all that I harvest for crafting, I think these are the culprits.

 

As I predicted. There will be no profit in farming for small guilds and individuals, and woe betide those minions who have the lowest standing in their mega guilds. They will be out in the fields tending cotton for no reward.

 

Its much worse for pumpkins btw. Its odd seeing pumpkins nicely aligned, all in the same position.

 

@Spoon, I see now what you mean about the straight lines. I agree. Once the plants are mature it looks too artificial.

 

You mean leveling your skills isn't a reward? Man have I been grinding wrong.

 

Watering and picking someone else's cotton won't make you a better blacksmith, or any of the other skills that can actually earn you gold. All it will do is give you repetitive strain injury.

 

the bottom picture... non of that cotton has made any of the public vendor's. has all been consumed in house. We have made 1 pvt sale. all in all less than 4k of cotton from that picture has even been available to the public. the only reason any of the cotton was for sale pvt and not used up was cause a friend asked me for some. the only reason that cotton was on the play vendor was to facilitate that trade while i was not in game.

 

There must be risk involved with using entire lots as profit machines. If there were a random component that would ruin all the crops on a single lot, that would stop a lot of this - or at least make diversification more important.

 

on this i see eye to eye with you drocis. (oddly enough as many times we have been on opposite sides of the table)

i do believe that with the actual agriculture skill being in the game will greatly reduce crop production rates. only a gm farmer should be able to successfully be able to have high success rate's

also believe that crops should be accessible to only farmers of x lvl

we tested cotton as it was only 1 of 2 plants in the game currently that have positive gold out come. so more variation of plants that are viable will open diversity up. (apple trees and cotton)

all the plants other than apple's and cotton bushes are either broken (immortality fruit and elderberry bush)
the mandrake, nightshade and garlic cannot currently be made into anything that creates a profit so no matter what you do with those 5 items not only is it a plant every time you cant even recoup the cost of the seed that you planted.

eventually there will be flowers that are needed for dye's and etc. tree's and hopefully many other vegtables and such.

I will be a farmer in the game, will i have a large lot probably not. will we see lots only covered in plants not likely like everything else in the game lots more than likely will have a cap like lights, containers, etc

what we are seeing now is more of a supply and demand problem in the game on a micro lvl. to few choices to few buyers to many producer's playing with a new toy. in a live system with 10oo's of active players the market will lvl its self out. no one will grow anything that they will lose money on.

this is pre-alpha Like many other players that have been here over a year or more i have grinded my skill's up numerous times after wipes, killed everything in the game numerous time's, to much gold and nothing to spend it on.

as an example the cotton plantation we have was a collaboration put together as a guild project that 75% of our members have contributed to with time and money. the seed cost alone was over 308k. not counting water or planter cost. It may look big and scary but the simple truth is something like what you see in the picture of our plantation would not be a viable source of income till almost release two and more than likely would take someone almost 6 months to put together.

i for see several changes along these line's to curb plantations in the future.

higher seed cost
limited planters on a lot
reduction of value of cotton
more resources required to maintain plants

by more resources required to maintain plants i see fertilizer, water requirements, counter infestations requirements.

not to mention biome selection for plants (snowy, marsh, desert) each probably will support a type of plant better than other biomes will with the same plant , seasonal variations (some plants don't grow well in winter months where others will probably only grow well in winter months) i am basing this guess by how detailed everything in this game is example fishing is said to be better to fish morning and afternoons (similar to winter/sumer) and certain fish will only be in certain areas (bime selection)

with this being said cotton will probably grow better in a dryer climate (desert biome) vs a snowy or marshy one.

final word to be said here I truly believe they will get the system flushed out well before launch.
I WILL TRY TO BREAK IT EVERY WHICH WAY TILL SUNDAY
why cause i want them to get it right. This is what i am passionate about. where some are all about story line, sp/online, pvp, rp, pvm, crafting etc.... test those systems break them make them better. fear not i will do the same to farming