Agriculture - Dissapointment and Intended future use?

I agree with a lot of the points/comments in this thread. Agriculture took a step in the right direction but still needs some work.

In regards to exp: I think it is absolutely mandatory that at least one step in the process of growing crops provides, at least, minimal exp. It takes exp to level the agricultural skills up, a player should be able to slowly recoop that exp cost by using the same skills that took the exp in the first place. Harvesting in the wild produces exp, based on skull level of the zone. I can understand a significantly reduced amount of exp if you are doing it from the safety of a player owned lot but there should be some return.

I hadn't thought of the PTW angle and I do see how this could be construed along those lines. In reality though, this is a VERY small amount of gold/exp we are talking about. Yes in theory you could buy 50 city lots (Seriously? Have you though of the actual financial cost of what that would be?), to fill with only planters and then spend 16 hours a day planting/watering/harvesting. In fact, even with the new mass planting/watering/harvesting I doubt you could logistically keep up with that many plots. If you are spending 16 hours a day in the game doing something there should be some reward. Though in this case, I would say it should be significantly less than could be earned by adventuring. In my mind that negates the whole pay to win angle of it. You are then paying to get a slower/less ROI on time spent versus the things every player in the game has access to. Remember, botting/macroing is illegal so this is not really a "passive" exp/gold generator in my mind.

I also personally hate the time cycle related to agriculture, this system penalizes people who can't access the game every "x" specific hours every time you want to plant.

Just my random, wandering thoughts on a Saturday morning.

 

I agree, it should not take so long to get a bucket of water, but for now, don't waste your time on gathering water. In the time you can gather 10 buckets, you kill could a few enemies and get 10x as much water AND exp.

What I do for my x2 growth spots is grow the plants that take longer to grow, and faster ones at x1 or even .1 growth rates. Watering at 8 hour intervals is not hard for me, might be for some though.

 

sure in the MEAN time, but the post is about how badly programmed crafting is (specifically agriculture). All you are doing is clearly proving the point.

 

I am just sharing that bit of knowledge so that people are not wasting their time on gathering water.

 

@Arradin Great feedback. I wonder if a skill that increased watering time frames would work. Like, at GM for that skill, you could simply do all 4 waterings at time of planting (or maybe for immersion, be able to use an automatic waterer that you could load 4 buckets into).
Heck, I mostly do agriculture in my basement and frequently don't make it home often enough to hit all the waterings .

 

In the end, watering needs to be automated by upgrading my well to sprinklers, employing a NPC or building some glowy Kobold contraption.
In the mean time another, limited approach is to move things in and out of a greenhouse for some flexibility.

 

Thank you all for the constructive feedback and discussion so far.

I am very well aware of the " how to " fixed , like doing outside of greenhouses etc, but the Points of this thread was to start the discussion with portalarium on where to go from here, or atleast where they intend to go from here.

The system, as it is now, is broken, and just because there is a work-around to a broken system, doesnt mean that we shouldnt just fix whats broken.

Agriculture give EXTREME penaltys to everyone but the super hardcore players, for various reasons. You need lots, you need to give up lockdowns/decos to be able to plant, AND you need to log in every X hours, and if you miss ONE cycle, you get absolutely nothing and it cost you Money. There is absolutely no way possible that this is intended from the devs, and it need to be changed ( or atleast we need to be told that it will change. )

 

I stopped farming completely after doing the math on missing a single watering because my life doesn't revolve around SotA (sorry, but its true).
I would prefer it if the mechanism was changed from the current 'log in during the timed window' approach to having plants only being available for harvest once they have had four waterings REGARDLESS of how long that takes.

The growth environment would still matter, like it does now so, a greenhouse plant would still need at least 4 hour gap between waterings and a basement plant would need at least 40 hours between waterings, but this would now be this is a minimum gap with no maximum gap.

So if I plant some crops in my greenhouse, then go on holiday with the family and log in a week later, they are still ready for their second watering, and have been waiting at this point for days. I have not missed a window, I've just delayed the entire growing cycle far longer than necessary because I had other stuff to do.

This way, no-one is punished for having a job etc and you always make a return, the difference is that your return over time is based on how often you want/can play. I appreciate this is unrealistic in a pure plant growth POV, but it is a game and I believe it far better than the current 'login or loose out' approach.

 

Another Telethon completed, and not a single one of my questions answered.

I guess that is an answer in itself.

 

@DarkStarr always does second pass post-telethon to go through most if not all the questions that were in the list but not brought up in the session. It should take just a few days.

 

A small chance to harvest seeds (from both cultivated and wild plants) would be nice, too.

 

There's about a 4% chance of finding seeds when harvesting plants.

 

Oh wow Novia's soil isn't very fertile... must be those damned shardfalls huh

 

Great feedback in the opening post. We all know that POTs are largely devoid of 'life' other than a stray avatar, generic looking vendor, and occasional reindeer pet. Agriculture, including raising animals, has such as huge potential to bring further 'life' to player-owned lots and player-owned towns. Unfortunately it sounds like some of the animal features are contemplated for Episode 2 or beyond now. The good news is that the potential for this kind of expansion is there and planned.

 

You know, I wondered after posting that if I was just really unlucky so far. Is that for plants in the wild, too? I haven't done much farming yet, but I've harvested a fair amount of garlic and cotton in adventure scenes, and I've never gotten seeds. Or am I just that unlucky?

 

no seeds from wild plants.

 

Good, now I don't feel so unlucky. Though it would be nice if that were a thing.

 

Damn all this freakin blackrock !!! all plants in novia are eternal and can be harvester eternally anyways, no big deal

 

Actually, it's really more like two days. This calculator is very helpful.

 

No. Planting in a basement ( or indoors in general ) adds growth time by x10.
So a carrot would actually take 10 days, as i wrote.