Hey there, I am one of those players that propably did spend more time with farmin mushrooms and plants then killing stuff. Starbound has such a planting system too...but its very limited right now. Yes, this is beta. But it can't hurt to throw some ideas around. First off, the biggest problem right now: Plants won't grow when no player is on the planet Yeah, this is to preserve some ressources...I understand that...but in Starbound this is a problem. Just imagine you start your adventure and take a lot of time to build a giant plant-house ...thats what I was doing. Finally the house is done..I set all my crops. But, I am now too strong for the planet and there is nothing of interest to me here. But, if I leave nothing will happen to my crops...they would never grow. I have to be on the planet and...just wait. This is annoying...a lot. I hope something can be done about this. And now some suggestions: Have seeds drop more often when harvesting Maybe implement an item that is used to harvest. This would give higher chance for crops Have a new backpack slot just for crops and harvesting goods Let rain do "something" to the crops Let certain crops only grow on specific ground (Like terraria...where some plants only grew underwater or on lava) Let the planets temperature influence the growth rate Let the length of the day/night cycle influence the growth rate Let light sources influence the growth rate Fertilizing the ground? Maybe a sprinkler or something? Add wooden signs with images of the fruits. Would be perfect to mark some places The duration of some higher tier crops taken to grow is just evil. 90minutes? (Thats what was reported) ...consider nothing will grow if you leave the planet.... so you have to wait 90 minutes on the "boring" planet :< Unlock a few very basic recipes at the start. Maybe a tutorial quest? Add a armor made of fruits / crops. Having this equip will have a chance to get more crops when harvesting Add a machine that can extract seeds out of fruits (Like the rafinery...but instead of pixels...get seeds) Please leave your comments.
Absolutely agree with these wants. Nothing more frustrating than to come back to your home planet after a long stretch of time to see that nothing has changed. I don't know about a new backpack slot, though. I think it would be more interesting/realistic to have an exterior storage container. Would be best if it was mobile and followed you - think donkeys with packs for Glitches, harvest robots for Apex, etc. Don't light sources already affect crops, though? I tried growing some toxictops indoors, but they never sprouted. Do they just take a really long time?
We did collect some info on certain plants: http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/game-information-farming-crops-fruit.38972/
Ah, thanks for that. Yeah, that time length is pretty unrealistic if crops don't grow while you're off exploring the universe.
Agree. Perhaps the game can just calculate the time you've been playing since you visited whatever crop, and set the new maturity level based on that when you spawn there again. Also, some dishes should give small buffs. Farming is a fun-ish diversion, but if the only thing I get from it is a full stomach, and I only get really hungry once an hour or so, it seems a bit superfluous. Or at least overly fleshed-out.
I dont have any recipes for dishes yet...but ...those dont even give buffs? Health regeneration at least?
1. you need a cooking place, either looted form somewehre or made yourselfwith wood and iron. Every race has some recipes unlocked by default. 2. yes, all but the basic recipes like bread seem to regenerate your health. For floran "quisine" it seems to be regging you to full, but with some dishes (those involving Chilli), you take a bit of initial damage forst. Otherwise: I agree with you 100% about some plants growing too slowly. I just idled on my farm for an hour or so, just to see some of my plants grow to stage two. A possible change that would be easy to implement is to keep plants growing on your homeworld evne if you are away from it. The other stuff is debateable. I think special clothes to harvest crops are a bit much. I don't want to dress up each time I want to farm. A seed extractor wold be welcome, as would be a tool that stops seed drop, because you will at some point stop needing more seeds.
I agree with most of the original post's stuff, and I think your option for having plants grow on your home world, even while away is a great solution. I know you can just grow crops on your ship, but that seems like a waste when I want to do so much other stuff with my ship instead of turning it into a farm/cargo hold.
banana bread makes you move faster as well. agreed on the need for some changes here pretty completely. i DO think that the amount of seeds you get is already fine though... at least for wheat. i always, always get more seeds than i had with it, and barely get any wheat. i'd think you should get one food thing per plant grown, and 2-3 seeds. the same should probably be the same with other plants as well.
I would think you could avoid the resourcing issue by making people Homeworld their planet they grow crops on (since it will probably be their homeworld anyway), and flag it so that time continues on the planet that is flagged as Homeworld. Not sure how that would work in MP though. But for SP it would be a huge boon.
I agree with the OP. I want to necro this thread add something. We don't eat wheat and corn, we eat wheat and corn seeds. The developers need to stop doing stuff like this as it is making something potentally fun, bland. wheat should drop 50 seeds (lets say, you can balance this how you like). It should take 100-200 seeds to make bread. Now the player has a choice, plant more crops or make more bread. Corn should be a decision also, do I cook an entire cob and ruin 50-100 seeds? Or, do I process the corn into individual seeds? do I then mill the seeds into flour, or plant more corn? All plants should be like this. The fruit, veg, and alien plants that don't quite fit in should either be harvested when they fruit, or let go to seed. See, look at all the fun we are missing out on!!!
Completely agree. I absolutely love farming mechanics in games (Harvest Moon, etc) and was a little miffed when nothing would grow if I was off planet.
Those numbers would mess with the 1000-stack size, you' only be able to hold enough seed in a stack to make 5-10 loaves of bread, yet can hold a small mountain in the same stack ;p But yes; the differentiation between wheat seed, and wheat is nonsensical, or tomato and tomato seed is nonsensical. Taking a page out of minecrafts books would make more sense; most plants can be broken down into a few archetypes: Grains and roots: Though vastly different they are both mechanically the same; the component you eat/prepare is ALSO the part of the plant that can be re-planted and grown into a new plant, ie. wheat kernels, corn kernels, potatos, carrots. These plants need to produce enough product that you can afford to replant 1 per plant, yet also make a net gain. Fruits: The edible part of the plant, is also a container for the seeds - for example melons, tomatoes etc. You could spin this two ways, either give the player seeds back after consuming or using the fruit. Or give the player a means to extract the seeds. Either way, the plant needs to output at least 1 seed per fruit in order to remain viable. Alternatively allow players to "plant" the fruit; while technically incorrect it cuts out the middleman and would still work in practice. Cuttings: Some plants, such as sugar cane, bamboo etc, these plants should grow in two or more parts, so the player can "cut away" the upper parts of the plant and it'll regrow from the bottom, new plants being grown from transplanted cuttings rather than seeds. Thesekinds of plants need to be tempered to either grow relatively slowly, or make them produce relatively unimportant ingredients that cannot be eaten raw, or produce inedible bulk materials like fibre or wood Classic plants: As per the current model, where the part of the plant you consume or use is NOT the seed-bearing part of the plant (like a tree for wood)
I run a mod which helps with farming (it basically makes it so that crops grow when you're NOT on a planet. Well, TECHNICALLY that's not true, but that's the effect it gives*), but a lot of these I do agree with.. except the part about increased seed drop rate. IMO, it's fine - farming doesn't really need to be made any easier, just more convenient. Starting up a small farm and working your way up is quite cool, actually - I don't want to see that go. With my default 3 wheat crops, it took me about 10 cycles to completely fill out my set farm plot. Personally, I think that's pretty good. I will agree though that planet things like temperature, rain, fertility, etc should affect crop growth - while I don't think crops should be completely prevented from growing there, crops should have stunted growth times if the environment isn't suitable. * What the mod ACTUALLY does is pretty genious, actually - it counts the time taken between the last time the crop was loaded, and the latest time, basically fast-forwarding growth for as long as it would have taken. So you could leave a planet with a crop that grows 1% per minute (hypothetical) and come back 60 minutes later - and because the mod detects the last time the crop was loaded was 60 minutes ago, the mod basically adds 60% growth to the crop, making it seem as if it's been growing all the time you've been away. It's genious.
completly agree...i think farming is fine as is, it just needs that time calculation whilst off-world for me to be happy I wouldnt say no to more features though! The sugarcane 'a la minecraft' idea that Ryuujin suggested is a good one, and i'd quite like the plantable conditions/environment dynamic thats been suggested...not deal breakers, but would add an interesting element to farming One thing to consider - making farming more 'realistic' might be more enjoyable to some...it might scare others/new players if overly complicated.
I see what you are saying, but (this is not thought out numberwise, just an example) You need 1 seed to grow 1 plant which produces 50 seeds. 200 seeds = 1 flour 1 flour = 1 loaf 1000 seeds = 5 flour Yea, seems tedious when its written out. I suppose it is better the other way to keep the game fun and simple. 1 wheat produces 2 seeds. 1 loaf requires 2 seeds (or more) Then you don't have large numbers, and its just symbolic of large numbers. Then, 2 plants make 1 loaf and 2 more plants. Overly complicated sure, but overly simple, or too far removed from reality is just as bad.
