Make Agriculture casual friendly

If you miss 1 watering you lose money. That's not casual friendly at all. Getting more return for higher level of effort is not a bad thing, but making it all or nothing is.

 

Something being casual and something being profitable are two completely separate things.

 

I don't disagree with this sentiment all. I just don't like the current implementation.

If someone plants a crop, and it takes them a week to get around to watering it 3 times - they are, by definition, getting a lot less than someone who optimses, waters as soon as they are able, and can get three full crops in that time.
That would be fair, I think.
The problem I have with the current system is if you aren't able to commit to the water increments you should not bother at all - you make a loss over just buying the items from the NPC in most cases. This is not casual friendly, it is the opposite of casual friendly.

I'm not suggesting that casuals should be able to make the same money for less time, that would not be fair.

 

With basements you could, for example, plant nightshade and have a month grow time, having to go water those once a week is casual enough AND is profitable.

 

Because its totally realistic that I'm growing all these plants in my basement, in the dark....

I hear what you're saying, and there are casual options if you REALLY want to plant, I just find the existing system to be inherently flawed with the time limitations that are, honestly, unnecessary.

Its immersion breaking for me to stand in my field, in the pouring rain, and somehow none of the water touches the crops, too.
Its immersion breaking to expect people who have access to MAGIC and low level technology to draw hundreds of buckets of water - by hand -
I don't really think the 'immersion' answer can really apply here - I think its more an economic reason for the limitation, which is why I doubt it will ever change.

I think its a shame, as mentioned, this excludes agriculture from my remit completely because I simply cannot make the timings. It would be nice if there were workarounds - even cost investment workarounds, like crafting a kobold sprinkler/irrigation system, to absorb some of the economic impact - rather than it just being a completely loss-making endeavour.

Instead, I did what I expect those of us who don't have the time are intended to do -

I made friends with a farmer.

We've worked out a cost arrangement of mutual benefit, he makes money, I save money. Voila, player economy.

So, in that way, the system works. I earn money doing things that fit my schedule to buy the things that don't. Doesn't mean I wouldn't like to see agriculture become a viable option, but its not what I would call a critical issue.

 

This effort blabla really drive me nuts .
F.... meritocracy bs, sorry no understanding for this.

But for goods sake i accept this attitude is part of SotA, imo it's also a cause it lacks players.

I'm just not at home or think it's a good Design if you have to login only to water some Crops.

I have 150 Spots btw.

 

So Yeah thank you for the input, i get it if i dont able to "put the effort into it" i'm locked of ...

 

Make friends with a farmer. Let them do the hard work. I've had shared farming arrangements in the past, IE i buy the seeds and they deal with the watering schedule and we split the crop in some way. I spose the one good thing about the limits of the system is it encourages player interaction. My current "farmer friend" manages a HUGE estate of crops that would be I think unsustainable without the "sharecropping" arrangements we have.

 

This isn't an attitude that is part of SotA, its an attitude to life in general.
People won't hand you stuff and you won't get the same outcome if you only put in 2 hours effort as apposed to someone who put in 30 hours of effort.
You are not entitled to anything.

you work, you get paid.
You don't want to do the work, don't expect to get paid.

 

Because we both hate it to sound that way i never accept these things and speak out loud .

It is only to cater to the effort = reward people neglecting that more players, more options, more casual friendlieness is something that gives all equal chances.
The only thing the effort = reward people are defending is this attitude of owning others, because the put effort in.
I cant sell any food this way, eben raw mats i planted i cannot sell, because i cannot produce that cheap.

Thing is, they divide players for effort stuff here and this is bad gamedesign imo.

 

Why?

It's a game, if you need something to Demonstrate you put effort innig, why not go and do some competetive Sports instead of making a game imbalanced because of different playing time the players have?

 

That would not be the case, i would water them maybe the next day, but then not beeing able to do it again the next day, but maybe a day or two later. In the meantine the serious farmer has already setup a new crop and is watering it the 2nd time.

I dont want to compete with people who stack their planting beds or have 1000 Fields, but to accept to get only 3 from a crop instead of 17 or so is bad.

 

If you are not wanting to compete with people who stack planting beds or have 1000 fields but still want the yield then do the basement planting.
You will get the same yield and won't have to login every day.

 

Something in the middle of 3 days and 3 weeks? Maybe

What is the problem if it takes me 5 or even 10 days to water 3 times?

Edit: i dont want to compete in time, but i want to compete at producing cost.

 

Perhaps a viable solution it to make an argument for changing the vendor prices - buy and sell values for certain agricultural items.

I don't have access to actual prices at work, but can still use an example.

If you are looking to profit from growing Nightshade, obviously your return needs to outweigh your investment. For the example, let's set the prices:
Vendors sell Nightshade @ 4gp, seeds @ 16gp
Vendors buy Nightshade @ 3gp
Vendors sell water @ 2gp

For one seed (-16gp) with regimented watering, you yeild about 15 units. Selling back to the vendor yeilds a profit of 29gp per seed. If you bought water for the seed (initial planting (2), scheduled watering (3)) that brings the profit down to 19gp per plant.

Now let's look at a missed watering schedule, assuming the yeild is reduced to 6 per plant. Selling back to the vendor yeilds a profit of 2gp. If you bought water, you are operating at a loss of 8gp per seed - however you missed at least one watering opportunity, so the deficit is 6 gp or less. Anyway, it's still a loss.

I propose that the vendor buy back price is equivalent to 1gp profit per seed assuming the player bought water for all the waterings, but missed one or more. What this means is that those who water on schedule will profit even more, but those farmers who are casual will still be able to profit even though the margin is slim.

In this example it means the prices need to change at the vendor level:
Vendors sell Nightshade @ 6gp, seeds @ 16gp
Vendors buy Nightshade @ 4gp
Vendors sell water @ 2gp

So if a player misses all watering (less the initial planting) the total investment is (16+4=20gp) . I'm going to assume the water that they purchased is not included in the calculations since thy will use it for their next planting.

Their single watering schedule yeilds 6, which is sold to the vendor at 4gp, equals a profit of 4gp for the casual gamer. The regimented waterer now has expenses of (16+10=26gp) and a yeild of 15, profiting 34gp instead of 29gp.

So the solution is rather simple. It's a matter of gauging how that affects the rest of the economy since the big producers will make more profit more quickly.

 

I like the idea of a 'water catcher' that you can fill anytime and then it will use what it needs at the necessary times to water the plants that are in the beds.

I do NOT believe that only having to water it once is the right solution though... that would be too immersion breaking for me.

As has been said, if you have an issue with daily watering - then grow inside and grow at 1/10th speed … lots more time to make sure you get it watered ... and you get the same yield as the other peoples.

I find that if I plant at night... before I go to bed.. then login at some point in the second day for the second watering ... and then login at some point (before harvest time) on the 3rd day for the last watering - it makes things a little easier.

Of course, you can always leave it to the professional farmers! Think Global, Act Local!!!

 

You all should take it more as a game and think about what are you loosing if a casual (time related only) can be up par and equal strong, can produce at equal cost etc.
The effort= reward meritocracy approach is completely outdatet and just a bad gamedesign from the past.
It's not me who is jealous i sometimes think but the hardcore players who just dont grant cozy players the same results, because they put less effort in it.
My god it's a game not my real work or a profession or something i can show of to be proud.
It's an US thing i guess sometimes.
Friends of me told me about college Boys and how they need status like nothing else, see my effort i put in my char, car, moto, muscles, Training, banking, spekulating, investment stuff.

Funny if i'm honest, but sad to see that for playing games.

 

I think of this ONLY as a game.. hehe. I do NOT feel that people who put in less time/effort should 'have' the things that people who put in more effort/time.

I think what IS most important is that EVERYONE can achieve the SAME things with the same effort!

Thank heavens we're talking about a game though... luckily with RPG you can pretend things are whatever they are and make your own fun - that way NOBODY has to spend anytime doing ANYTHING they don't want!

I'm not sure about this being a US thing though... most intelligent people read a topic and then judge it based on how it affects them - not how it affects their nationality.

 

No offence, but now it may be a watering inconvenience.

Tomorrow, how about changing combat system so you kill anything with one click?

Why stop there? Your “casual playing” argument can be applied to make many changes to this game ... Let’s have a DisneyLand casual game for all Novians!

 

Agreed