I am also slightly afraid, I have a feeling that the ones who want things fast and now, are in greater numbers then the people who want a slightly more realistic feel to farming, I would be a little disappointed if most crops took less then 12 hours to grow, I would rather have something to wake up to collecting and do the next day,doing it all in one sitting just doesn’t feel quite like farming in an online environment , But that is just my personal view on how farming should be.
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We are a niche game…and we neèd numbers.
The MMO crowd ain’t coming here. Going after hardcore gamers is a work of futility.
We need to steal the Minecraft and Stardew Valley crowd. And to do that, we need short term, repeatable, casual rewards. We need a sustainable gaming loop.
It’s all about optics and getting people to stay past the ten hour mark. Half the game is already endgame. Mid game and noob game is anemic. If you want casuals to become regulars, you have to hook them. And, right now, there is very little early game that does that unless you are already one of the converted.
That should be farming.
But if a Minecraft or Stardew player, who never has an crop take longer than an hour, sees that half or more of the crops take 12 hours+ to grow, they will quit before they start.
That helps no one.
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Why cant we have both?
Bunch of crops take 24 minutes, bunch that take a day, and a few extra special ones that take 4+ days?
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I think the key to getting people to stay past the ten hour mark, is mostly due to the lack of a good NPE, For a player who can not self learn or is not willing to, or doesn’t have the time to do so, The NPE will still leave the player with many questions, Then there are other basic problems such as the creatures being a bit overpowering to the new player who doesn’t understand how to combat them correctly.
I don’t think instant gratification farming is the solution to getting players to stay past the 10 hour mark, especially if they fail to even find out it exists due to the lack of a good NPE system.
NPE = New Player Experience, and any system designed to help the new player understand the game.
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Just putting this here in case anyone didn’t see it. This is why I’m not afraid of longer times.
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I spent 3 weeks setting a alarm clock for every hour to feed six puppies the mother rejected. Does that count, LOL. Seriously, she did, I had a warm slightly damp wash rag to rub on their bottoms to get them to “potty” in place of the mother’s tongue. They all survived, goats milk.
But I understand what you are saying, and I agree; some will make a commitment to the farm, just as some do to building and some to mining, or forging or other.
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Thats 28 game days. You can do that in one sitting.
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Only prestige plants will wilt after a while. What exactly does that mean, don’t know 
There’s no way I ever play 1 sitting of stardew through 28 days. That’s a good chunk of time if you actually play each game day through it’s entirety. That’s 5.5 hours. I don’t sit down for Boundless all day much less for stardew in 1 sitting.
That’s why I enjoy Boundless. I can play 15 min chunks off and on throughout the day and overall I may get 2.5 hours of actual game. 2 weeks would fly by in an instant.
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Just my two cents, but I feel like there are a few factors we might need to know to more accurately say how long we feel things should take to grow.
- What is the amount of produce we receive from harvesting a single plant?
- Are there ways to increase your harvest from tending to the plants more than just when planting them?
If the answer to 1. is just a single item harvested, then 24 minutes would be fine for the entry-level plant. But if 2. is a yes, then it might be better if it takes an hour, with growth tending cycles being possible every 1/3 or 1/4 of a plants entire growth time.
I believe this should apply to end-game crops too. I would say the growth time needs to be dependent on the amount harvest per plant as well. Having played other MMOs with farming in them, I can say the longest I have ever spent waiting on a plant to grow was a tree that provided teleportation capabilities, which was 3 days growth time. Obviously they should take longer than 24 minutes. I’d say for single harvest crops, 4-6 hours seems fair. If they have multi-harvest, then 1-2 days is fine by me.
The only crops that I feel should last 14+ days are ornamental crops, but those are excluded from these votes.
Fine. 5.5 for the hardest crop in the game. That’s not 12 or 24 or the week long insanity some folks here want.
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I think you missed my post:
I see no issues with having both types available to keep everyone happy, why do you?
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Another factor I think is important to know is how much tending do the plants need, if any. How intensive is farming (possibly) beans compared to foraging for them.
We just need more info before anyone can give an educated answer. They might have to do a lot of balancing when it hits testing. And if the plants grow for 4 weeks on testing, how are we going to test it?
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I would hope that plants would benefit from being tended but not necessarily die if unattended after initial planting and caring.
Like, watering them every day reduces how long to grow by a moderate amount, but not doing so wouldn’t kill them (except for the few plants that can wither)
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" 1. What is the amount of produce we receive from harvesting a single plant?
2. Are there ways to increase your harvest from tending to the plants more than just when planting them?
If the answer to 1. is just a single item harvested, then 24 minutes would be fine for the entry-level plant. But if 2. is a yes, then it might be better if it takes an hour, with growth tending cycles being possible every 1/3 or 1/4 of a plants entire growth time."
If we plant one seed and get one single item to harvest, then I won’t bother farming. Who want’s to plant that seed to have it grown one fruit? Just spend the time you did planting and go gathering.
That is going to be a big factor in the game, how many will be produced in a plant? If we can fertilize it will it produce more? I remember irrigation was mentioned, so does that give more fruit that will be produced if we irrigate it as since it can’t wither and die does not seeing that it gets water cause it to give less
So many questions . @james We NEED Answers, Please, pretty please with sugar on top of a bowl of starberries, could we have those answers?
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As long as that 4+ is exceptionally rare. Like, 1-3 things.
IMO, The vast majority should grow in a single sitting with the mid-high range no more than 24 hours.
Really, in a perfect world, excluding the handful of exceptions, when you plant crops in the evening, they are ready for you when you wake up in the morning.
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Yeah, I haven’t heard anything on the terms for prestige plants wilting, but I’m not worried about those.
The sword one did look pretty, though. I’d want it just for decoration, but have a feeling it won’t be worth it since I’m not a prestige hound.
These are the posts that give us some insight in to it.
That looks familiar. =D