Watering my plants is really annoying!

So with the newest patch you have to water your plants for every single growing phase. Which is totally fine if you add some mechanics to make the whole thing more comfortable.
I have searched for a solution for this for quite a while now but weren't abel to find something. My guess is just that this will be implemented in the hopefully near future but now it is totally killing the whole "fun" with farming.
Maybe i am overseeing something and just make a fuss over nothing and if you know something please tell me. But i guess as long as this stays this way i gotta wait with my giant farm.

 

Farm on a planet with rain? Tbh i haven't tried the new farming system yet, but i imagine ill have to look into wiring for my space garden.

 

Everything actually can grow faster now with the new mechanics, it just takes more interaction. There's been some clever irrigation solutions, but you can also use the matter manipulator if you're careful not to flood. There also exists a plastic watering can, and a watering gun in the assets that will eventually come into effect. On top of that, there's been some speculation that pipes or liquid movement might make it in eventually, but not soon if at all.

 

Couldn't you drop a block of water onto the area and measure the amount of space it covers...then use wiring to wire something up that would let you do that for all your crops at once from a tank or something like that?

Especially if you use some kind of timer (not sure if this logic piece exists in the game or not, tbh...but I thought it did =x) to automatically open and close some sort of valve just long enough to let that amount of water out. ^^

That's kind of what I thought of when I first saw mention of that thing: LET THE CREATION OF IRRIGATION SYSTEMS COMMENCE! =D

 

While you are right that it can grow faster, it may inadvertently limit the size of growing gardens to whatever distance water still flows and wiring still runs. This is still a large area, but it is something to consider.

 

That's when you start getting garden skyscrapers, maybe?!

 

Rains like crazy on my starting planet, feels like it needs a nerf sometimes but I'm not complaining

 

It's actually not that boring IMO. I've been building a base of operations on my starter world and, between mining, building, woodcutting and farming, I am very busy and not bored.

 

I would agree with you, if not for the fact that it has long been a stated goal of the development team that they would like to make various professions, with a particular mention given to farming, to be viable progression paths, with plans to include associated skill trees. It's the same with the changes they made to the food and cooking mechanics. For the would-be chefs among us. I even remember mention of them working on a mechanic to set up a stall in your colony to sell whatever goods you make or otherwise acquire. They're thinking about the multiplayer experience as much as single-player, allowing people to specialize and tailor their experience to their individual tastes.

Seen in this light, things like changes to farming, cooking, adventuring, etc., make perfect sense. From that perspective I've largely approved of the changes made, as it seems like the pieces are finally starting to form a woven whole. It signifies the approach of the time when we begin to see some solid RPG elements brought into the game, effecting the course of developments for each play-through in a unique way. This can only increase re-playability in an already surprisingly addictive and fun game.

Like it or not, Chucklefish is setting a creative standard. I bought this game when it was first released in part, because I wished to support and encourage this kind of game design and development. I was apparently hardly the only one. The huge successes of titles like Starbound in the indie gaming community are something I am convinced has led directly to more of this kind of procedural sandbox game generation focused on re-playability being experimented with in more mainstream titles like No Man's Sky and to a certain degree, Fallout 4, are attempting. As such, I believe Chucklefish is attempting to set a benchmark in what can be accomplished creatively with this still new-born style of procedural sandbox game design.

In the time since I bought the game, I've easily logged over 1,000 hours playing it, as it has evolved. I can see myself coming back to it at least on occasion for many more years to come. I am 38 years old, and I've been playing games since I was 5. I have played many, many, many games. So understand that it is no small thing when I say that speaking in terms of longevity of entertainment value vs purchase price, Starbound is the single best investment I have ever made, and it just keeps improving. I say we see what the devs can do. We should definitely critique their work as it comes out, but when we do, we should keep the envisioned whole in mind. I do not wish to see us pushing the devs into short-sighted decisions that eventually compromise the scope of the finished work.

 

My farming procession before this patch:

1. Plant seed in greenhouse area
2. Go do something, anything else for a while
3. Check back on occasion, dropping off loot stored in greenhouse
4. If I need more of a crop, harvest completed crop then repeat from step 1
5. If not, go to step 2

My farming procession after this patch:

1. Plant seed in greenhouse area, water soil if needed
2. Go do something, anything else for a while
3. Check back on occasion, dropping off loot stored in greenhouse
4. If soil needs watering, do so, then go to step 2
5. If I need more of a crop, harvest completed crop then repeat from step 1
6. If not, go to step 2

Nnnot really adding much complexity there. And hell, I'd say that's making me marginally more involved than I was before... and even MORE involved once I get around to making a watering system with gates and wiring and whatnot.

 

Then there's people who like having more interaction with their farm. I know I favor building farms in Minecraft, and somewhat liked it in Spirited Giraffe. Then this update hit and I love it!

Personally I use farms as a gigantic source of income, dual-wielding watering cans and mass harvesting a free fortune.
I do wish there were better watering cans or something. I may make a mod that has a faster watering can, and a spreadshot watering can.. but I dont know if I wanna yet. I'm bad with recipe files.

 

I just had flashbacks to the Reinforced Watering Can from one of the Minecraft mods.

You could make tiered water cans that use various things....which accelerate the growth and/or how many TIERS the watering can lasts for. Maybe have them involve bones you can find, as well as other things from other biomes, as well. Basically...you could have different fertilizers that you 'combine' with the can to increase its values....and said can can have a durability from there (though it won't BREAK, but need repairing), which you then use the same fertilizer to repair it with (or...well...you could upgrade it, heh).


Just saying...if you're gonna do that...


I know in my case, I immediately started thinking about irrigation system stuff...but...that's easier said than done, and it's probably easier to just take a mod like...say...the spigot mod...and wire something together using the spigots, heh. =x

 

Well you could also add the sprinkle water from the watering can into the ammo list of any gun type (perhaps uzi or shotgun) then spawn some in until that ammo appears. Then you'd have a water (literal) gun that actually works on crops.

I wonder if you can do it without modding through json item spawning?

Looking in the files.. It looks like there MAY have been a mixup, or a missing item.
The wooden watering can fires watersprinkledroplet.
However in the same folder that projectile is located, there is a projectile called "watersprinkle" which fires three watersprinkledroplet projectiles at +25 and -25 degree angles, as well as the normal one. If that ammo was put onto a watering can, life would be MUCH easier for a farmer.

 

Could also simply make a simple sprinkler that fires off that projectile at set intervals when a wiring signal is applied. Not sure what radius the hits from that water affects. If nothing else, may be able to talk to the person who does the "Gardenbots" mod and ask them to put a bot sprinkler in or something like that.

 

i agree i a hate watering i have to make my farm on a ocean biome

 

Hmmmm... I wonder...

 

There is a craftable automatic sprinkler from the foraging station, its 5 durasteel and 5 gold but it automatically waters a set area and can be wired to turn on and off?

 

Why in the name of all that is good would you reply to the one-and-a-half year-old thread?

 

Yes, it can.

 

Attention though ... farm animals block the water drops "ejaculating" from the sprinkler and will prevent the crops getting wet.