Some findings & bugs on how Skill Level & the RNG work for Farming & Foraging

Not going to eat boost food, i got to lv 5 on the testing char, focusing on getting level 6 and testing out on summer foraging.

 

Well I tried it out with one of the previous backups I keep of my test character, and for the Salmonberries in Spring Year 1, I get:

Foraging Level 1 = 1 berry per bush
Foraging Level 2 = 1 berry per bush
Foraging Level 3 (1+2 using Pancakes) = 1 berry per bush
Foraging Level 4 (2+2 using Pancakes) = 2 berries per bush

Just to be sure, I retested this on Fortune Teller Very Displeased, Neutral, and Very Happy days, so Luck does not appear to be a factor here.

This matches the +1 Wild Berry gathering being at levels 4, 8, and 12. Not sure what might have happened in your test, perhaps some outside effect modifying it?

 

Interesting update: After some more testing involving different fertilizers, it seems that + Farming Skill foods can have an effect, but only when used with Basic/Quality Fertilizer, and even then, only roughly half of the expected effect. Explanation below.

Reddit user /u/rabidcow found the formula for crop quality to be:

For other crops: gold = 20% * farming / 10 + 20% * fertilizer bonus * (farming + 2) / 12 + 1% and silver = the remaining percent * (twice the percent change of gold to a maximum of 75%)

I had worked out empirically that the fertilizer bonus for Quality Fertilizer is 2, and the fertilizer bonus for Basic Fertilizer is 1, when it comes to plugging in values for that formula. It seems that the first "farming skill" variable in the formula is bugged to not take food buffs into account, but the second 'farming skill" variable within the "fertilizer bonus" section is working and takes food buffs into account. Working out the formula while always keeping the first "farming" variable at 10, but changing the second variable to 13 when using a +3 farming buff, it matches perfectly with my test results.

So even when using Basic/Quality Fertilizer, you are only getting part of the expected boost from the +3 Farming buff. E.G. with my 277 Peppers on Basic Fertilizer at Farming Level 10, I get 40.9% golds with no buffs and 47.3% golds with a +3 Farming buff. Plugging in the formula with all the "proper" values predicts 41% golds with no buffs and 52% golds with a +3 Farming buff. However, plugging in "10" for the first "farming" variable and "13" for the second, it predicts 46% golds, which is essentially what I got.

Also, I did more tests with 268 Strawberries on Quality Fertilizer, and once more my results match the prediction of the formula if you only apply the buff the second "farming" variable. In this case, I get 60% golds with no buffs and 70.5% golds with a +3 buff, while the "correct" formula predicts 61% golds with no buffs and 77% golds with a + 3 buff. Only a "modified" formula where the +3 farming buff is only applied to the second variable predicts a matching 71% golds.

So in summary, + Farming Skill food buffs have no effect, unless you are using Basic/Quality Fertilizer, in which case you still only get roughly half of the intended effect.

MORE UPDATES!

So it turns out this issue is a much bigger problem than I initially thought. After it was pointed out in the code on the subreddit by /u/rabidcow, I confirmed through several tests on multiple characters that outside of the partial benefit from Basic/Quality Fertilizer, the game either considers you to be at Farming Level 10, or Farming Level 0, with no other possible values.

Just to clarify, as confirmed by my tests, this means that when you are at Farming Level 0, or 1, or 2, up to level 9, you get no benefit from your Farming Level, and all your crops will always be 97% regular, 2% silver, and 1% gold. When you hit farming Level 10, suddenly your crops jump to 46% regular, 33% silver, and 21% gold. And then using buffs to go beyond Farming Level 10, the game still only considers you being at Farming Level 10. So outside of fertilizers, these are the only two quality chances for crops used by the game.

More details in this thread.