Agriculture Feedback

To put my feedback into context I spent hundreds of hours doing agriculture under the old systems but hadn't played for the last 18 months, in fact not since I posted the following :

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/agriculture-feedback.61429/#post-644357


Overwhelmingly I want to say well done and thank you to the devs who have implemented the Agriculture skill trees. Water plants, sow seeds and harvest plant skills are a huge success in my opinion and are also something I haven't seen in another MMO. Kudos.

Couple of points to consider moving forward :

i) Batch Radius

The majority of players growing crops are doing so in planters which are rectangular. Having the agriculture skills use a radial aoe is counter productive and inefficient after a modest XP investment (ie if your 'circle' gets too big you are hitting multiple containers which is very difficult to track and control). It is highly preferable not to put more than 50-60 levels into the skills ie enough so you can do half a large planter or 2 x 5 plants in one action. . This is a conundrum because the present system is so good and I wouldn't want to change it ><

Suggestion : have the radius cap out at skill level around 50 but implement a small bonus eg 0.1% increased yield per skill point for a max 10% bonus at skill 100 for harvesting, 0.1% less water use for watering, 0.1% seed retention for sowing.


ii) Crop Yields Varying According to Time to Grow

Growth time doesn't appear to have changed over the last 18 months. Yields have been balanced but I'd respectfully suggest could use another pass.


Garlic (Tomato/Potato/Lettuce/Rose) still take 24 hours (12 in Greenhouse). They still need 3 additional waterings after planting.

Mandrake (Banana/Grape/Lemon/Corn/Cotton) still take 48 hours (24 in Greenhouse). They still take 3 additional waterings after planting.


Garlic and Mandrake cost the exact same amount of time and effort to plant and water. They both take the same amount of work/time investment in planting and watering multiple times. Garlic seeds cost 8 gold vrs 16 gold for Mandrake. BUT the harvest yield of the quicker growing crop Garlic is half that of the Mandrake.

Seed cost + water x 4 (price has been halved) 8g = 24g cost per Mandrake and 16 gold per Garlic.

Garlic harvest is 6-10 per plant, Mandrake harvest is 14-18. With the low return of 6 on Garlic you are making zero profit on buying them straight from a vendor.

I'd contend the time investment of the growth period and discount of seed price pales in the face of the time investment watering/planting ie it takes just as much work/time investment to grow the Garlic as the Mandrake.


Suggestion : Increase the yield of the 24 hour growing crops by 50% +. They take the same amount of work and you still have to log in and attend to them a total of four times.


iii) Cotton yield

Cotton yield seems around the same as 18 months ago, possibly marginally lower (small data set inconclusive).

It still seems to me to be far too high for a primary resource. It's giving an average of 9.5-10 per plant. I'd suggest halving this.



iv) Long growth period crops yield

The longer growth period crops (4 days to maturity/2 days in greenhouse) seeds cost almost double the 2 day crops (30 gold per seed). Apple yield gets a 75% increase on the two day crop giving a yield of 26-30, but Coconut and Tea get only a marginal increase to yield of 16-20. Not sure if this is intentional ? (They all have the same production costs and the same sell price per unit of the crop at vendors).


v) Time reduction - The time reduction effect is generally useless as it doesn't affect the cooldown timer on reusing the skills. You are still stood twiddling your thumbs for the full 12 seconds waiting to water the next plants. Suggestion : have the batch timer recution also affect the cooldown timer on re-use.




ps As an aside you'd figure a place called 'Harvest' would have a seed vendor Please could we look into adding one ? The area is kind of the 'food basket' of Novia lore wise.



In closing, I'd like to finish where I started and offer huge thanks, well done and kudos to the agriculture dev(s). Great job!