Water gathering and small farms...

I think the idea of gathering water for agriculture has taken some good steps forward in release 35 with the addition of being able to get buckets of water from a well.

Here is some data:
1. it takes 9 seconds to get one bucket of water.
2. it takes 3 mouse clicks to get it (two to initiate and one to take all)
3. on my village farm I have over 200 plots to grow in, so it would take me 30 minutes to gather 200 buckets.
4. To be clear that is 600 mouse clicks and 30 minutes if I don't space out.. haha
5. I have tendinitis issues so, so many clicks is REALLY not good for my hand and arm
6. It already takes me more than 30 minutes to plant all my plots, so adding another 30 minutes to gather water is not really what I'd prefer to be doing in SotA.

Please consider these changes:

1. At the least, please make a water gathering gump that will allow at least 20 buckets of water in a run. This would be in line with other crafting gumps so shouldn't be to big an issue.

2. It would also be nice if the time was about half or 5 seconds per bucket.

As a senior citizen and retired teacher, I think it would benefit the health and well being of all players if more elegant ways could be found to streamline the amount of clicking that is involved with these more mundane tasks.

 

Damn dewd, good argument for less tedium !
Agree completely....

Boring, repetitive clicks are why 3rd party apps are used, and having to do that shouldn't be necessary to enjoy gameplay.

 

ever wonder why farmers rise in the morning before the sun and get back after dinner as the sun is falling - it is called work.

True this is a game and should ne require so much tedium to do this but 200 plants should take time to work not just click a button and it is al done.

so gather like crafting in a list should still take the time perhaps not just the clicks.

Time needs to stay balanced with use sorry if all the things that are taking to much time in a players perspective and made instant then it would change much more in the game as a whole.

Less clicks sure less time nope.

 

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I don't think I was arguing for "click a button and it is al done" or have this farm work "made instant".

I am pleased that that you accept that less clicking is important.

 

Imho both repetitive clicks and long waiting times are not a great implementation of crafting.
Instead of making it more time consuming it would be really nice to make it more engaging, more meaningful. Of course that cannot be done for all crafting steps, but if the "real" crafting was more meaningful I'd be okay to deal with some waiting times in refining and gathering (gathering is already okay-ish, because you have to find nodes and fight some mobs to gather stuff).

 

We'll be in good shape if the fluidity of agriculture work is somewhere around the level of Stardew valley or Harvest Moon.

The soaked soil is a good baby step.. next could be getting rid of the confirmation gump. After being asked way too many times, I'm still.pretty sure that I want to water the plant.

 

If mouse clicks are a problem, you can use the 'E' key (or whatever you have the interact button bound to) to not have to click. I'm pretty sure I was able to do that when I was harvesting yesterday, but I'm not at the computer right now to confirm.

I'm OK with the time cost since I"d rather see agriculture as another style of gameplay than a free bonus for landowners, but I probably wouldn't complain if it were lessened since it's not a very engaging activity either.

My perception of the problem with water buckets that the harvesting is providing an alternative to was that the relative cost of buckets weren't profitable compared to the prices NPC's were selling produce for. But it's not been that agriculture's been too expensive but that NPC's are selling to cheap. Rather than reducing the cost of water, I'd rather see yields increased to get more from the cost that will put ag's profitability closer to the economic benchmark given earlier for gameplay being able to at least pay your rent.

 

I haven't been able to thoroughly test the yields yet but my first test showed only a few crops that didn't yield 8-16 per plant. I also haven't had the chance to gather waste yet eother but if it's really 9 second per bucket I'll continue doing my slow walk across town buying it. 4 gold per bucket isn't worth the extra time and clicking to me.

 

9 seconds is certainly not worth the four gold saving for anyone but the smallest farmer.

I stopped farming entirely about a month ago. I've got two empty greenhouses that I occasionally run one crop through to refill crafting mats.

A perfectly grown cotton plant yields 10 cotton and costs 3.2g per cotton using purchased water. It sells for maybe 4.5 or 5 per on the market. With the new system it costs 1.5 but takes 26 extra seconds per bush, which yields 10 cotton (low end, I've heard 12 seconds high end.)

So, since everything is done by stacks of 1000:

100 bushes (yielding 10 cotton each) x 36 seconds = 1 hour (if the 12 second estimate is true it's more like 1 hour 20)
1500g + 1 extra hour to grow by filling buckets
3200 to grow paying for water
4500 to pay some poor sap to grow it for you

So if they are filling water and can find a buyer, they've just made 3000 extra gold for 1 hour of boredom.

Of course, most farmers I have been talking to have also stopped farming, and sitting there filling buckets four hours on end will not bring them back. So eventually the supply will dry up and prices will go up, and perhaps then we'll have operations going again. I doubt they'll be filling buckets though, I think they'll just buy them.

 

Now's the time to introduce slaves for your plantations.

 

I agree, and while UO is still my fav game of all time, this is its weakest point to me. We shouldnt repeat that pattern in SotA!

 

On a related note, I was seriously considering charging people X gold a month to rent a room - or Y buckets of water

 

I just say that farming is not fun at all. It is awful unrewarding experience of grind of getting seeds, getting water, watering plans oh so many times and then you have to click every single plant to collect them with terrible waiting times, no option to water the whole planting bed... There is no "fun" and interesting stuff like fighting with pests and crossing varieties to get the best crop yields. No combining of plents to minimize fertilizer use and maximize efficiency. It is very dull grinding experience that requires minimal human input, just a lot of clicks on predefined locations, it is one of those areas that are very suitable for bots but not so much for human players.
The whole agricalture as it is is very boring as of now, I hope it improves, but to be honest the rest of gathering and crafting experience is very dull and grindy as well.
Please minimize the dull areas of the game and make more prominent the fun aspects.

 

Btw you did know you can press E to harvest the water, and E to loot it, so you can spread the load over 2 hands?

 

I'm all for streamlined mouse clicks. More mouse clicks for the sake of more mouse clicks, to achieve the same task, gets old.

 

I agree with the OP and have to give a special nod to Net. This is surely bot territory. They institute a part of the game ideal for bots and just prior to doing so, ban people who were boting. It is a bit of a mixed message. Particularly when the exact dialog to the boters was something like, "macros - attended or unattended - will not be tolerated for resource gathering" So, uhm, is getting water resource gathering? Whether it is or is not, making a person with a repetitive motion injury manually click a zillion times when a bot could do the very same thing, no faster and no more efficient, just less irritation to an already aggravated body is tantamount to asking them to play a different game.

As the OP suggests, the simple answer is to allow 20 at a time, like other crafting. Water gathering should not use nor produce XP. Simply allow the attempt to fill up to 20 buckets, baring in mind that the water source may run dry.

Or, if you really wanted to get weird about it, increase the time it takes to collect it, but make it a "fill all" option. Of course people will click it and walk away. However, if farming isn't revamped a little, people will simply walk away from farming.

edited for spelling and other foolishness

 

Tougher still - I have yet to find a well in my town (Storms Reach? anyone?). Not all towns have a well, most likely the cloned towns. Its gonna be a tough walk cashing in on some free water for me .

 

I'd like an automated draw, hit 'e' start drawing water, come back 30 minutes later have the 120+ water i need. Time spent, arthritic finger spared.

 

I like this idea very much. Even if it took 2-3 minutes to collect the 20 buckets, at least I could take the load off my hands. I also suffer from RSIs, and all that clicking is a problem. Same sized farm, too, about 200 plots.

 

I pointed out to someone the other day, you cannot place a well in your basement,but you can place a fountain there. So if you can't find a well in your town,you can craft a well and craft fountains.