I’m not understanding the problem.
You plant your stuff. Say it takes 8 hours to grow. So you go gathering, or get some sap, or go mining, or hunting, or work on your build, and then after 8 hours you do more farming, and then you go do different stuff.
Or is the issue you just want to farm 24/7 and have plants grow instantly or something?
(I just had to)
its more the game has too many prep steps for too little payoff when i used to watch some of the ex boundless streamers there biggest issue with the game was pre steam they would have to go out and gather or mine for hours then wait hours for the given item to then spend 20 or 30 min on steam building
unless you go farm crazy amounts of a given thing and have several of the given machine you get 20 min payout for hours of work this would be the same case
a person say wants a teaching pie to mine to max the xp they get will they need to farm the seeds back form there last run cuz its not 1:1 then tile, sow and wait to then get that mat that they need to then put the pie togather to then wait longer to get the pie its self to then go out and mine.
a 1:1 system would atlest take away a bit form that and just allow the person to focus on what they want to do cuz unless you are a dedicated farmer then whatever you are farming is just a part of what you need to do the thing you want to do.
All of this can be condensed to say one thing,
You, and other people, want more blocks per craft to build with.
The thing is, I don’t see people saying that, I see paragraph after paragraph of people trying to explain a very simple request, and it makes it very hard for developers to understand the demands of players.
If the crux of the issue is that you don’t feel 8 hours worth of gathering gives enough materials to make the blocks you want, then that should be a singular focus in your comments.
Would you considering yourself a builder? Is most of the activity you are doing to support building or other aspects like hunting? So all these things you are having to go out and do are just to make it easier to build?
I ask because the other parts of your post do make a lot of sense. Sometimes I feel the forced MMO approach is hurting us especially if people really just want more building… or to be a shop owner or whatever.
Sorry, but my testing found that this is actually not beneficial at the moment, but it’s possible that it’s an oversight. Only the devs can clarify accurately.
For more details please see why here:
i would i had a side shop that sold junk i collected but for the most part i had plans to do pixel art and stuff like that in early access i made a few big 500+ plot builds but lost the drive when the game released alot in part to do with forging and the kind of death of the economy in EA i did not have to worry about needing A to craft B to then craft C to then get the hammer i needed to mine i could just go to a stable shop and buy it and sell the by product to cover the cost.
but once wipe hit and we got forgeing those shops never came back the price for whats now end game tools skyrockted and being unable to find a stable shop i found my self forced to have to go solo or start up a shop just to cover the costs of tools for the few ones i did find.
so now on top of the metals i need for the hammer its self i now need to gather the mats to craft the stuff for the forge to then forge my hammer and with this new update if i say wanted a pie to go along with it boom more gathering and waiting to then go out and do what i want to do what was a 5-10 min shop run is now a day or 2 endeavor.
i get the farming update was released with co-op in mind but the tools to do it are just not there to be honest shop stands are just a minor step up form hand trading i still got to find the dang shop and hope the price is right and hope they have stock.
Yeah I get that game play loop you are talking about… I can see it isn’t fun. Honestly there are many parts of the game that I just don’t touch often because I’m not sure I like the a - b - c - d sequence. At times I like it and others I do not.
I appreciate you sharing because it does help to understand the other points you make and most importantly why.
Nope, i think your on the right track. I think there are 2 issues being convoluted. Grind and farming. I personally suspect that when your done balancing, farming will reduce grind. Im also cool with trusting that. And i respect your efforts at digging through the comments and rooting out the inputs that help. If i were you, id wait until the rate of responses comes down or focus on the testing result posts lol. Its like a really really tuff code review!
Overall the current WIP of farming does not feel like a very good replacement for surface gathering or for regen farming and that is the core issue. Farming would be better if it was in addition to the 2 old systems. The function of the farming systems are solid tho there needs to be ALOT more info in the tooltips as almost nothing is explained ingame. Fertilizer does not say it decreases grow time and where to place blocks to maximize yield is completely obfuscated.
I’m seeing some pretty big variance on crop growth times, and it seems to be caused by the usual, bad streaks of rng. I personally would like it if the algorithm had a ceiling for failed growth attempts. It’d give the crops an absolute maximum grow time, and lessen the rng bias thing, theoretically an earthyam can now take a week to grow.
The crop rules are also pretty samey atm, the same amount of blocks needed for most crops, the most effective farms for each crop can use the same design, you only have to solve the puzzle once and change the block types around and you’ve got most crops covered.
Also, I think it can be seen as a good thing that most of the complaints are in the balance section. To me it means that the rest of the patch is great!
Should we not give feedback on testing balance? Was the initial balance really just a placeholder and not even in the ballpark you were aiming for in live? If it was a true placeholder I think it should be clearly said so in the patch notes.
final edit: I also firmly believe that if the game had a more robust economy, so it’d be realistic to think you’ll be buying seeds to replenish your stock, players wouldn’t feel so threatened when a new mechanic has parts they don’t like. Make skipping those parts actually be possible, not this random “hopefully I’ll find the item I’m looking for, or a buyer in this mall of random things for sale at random prices”
final final edit: I hope the goo rates are also placeholder, there’s another storm coming if you can colour only 2 blocks from one full grown goo, which can take a long time to grow, and if wild goo also drops just one kernel, and they’re only found on exos that don’t have regeneration and are pretty rare anyway, and transmuting the colour has a big loss to it.
James,
I vehemently disagree that this is the lesson. Presenting a creative work and having it denigrated should teach you to be more consultative and not less. The lesson learned is not what to present and when, but how you will get there. I don’t want this to be perceived as just semantics, it matters.
WS has an opaque development process that reflects other issues of communication the studio has with its customers. The communication that currently exists is limited, infrequent and lacks vision. Additionally, you yourself refer to the “enraged majority” derisively in a later post. My only request, again, is that you adopt a more agressive communication style to keep the air clear.
This isn’t personal, I don’t care enough to be angry. I’m writing this because I genuinely want the game to be successful and my wife loves it. So, when you don’t communicate, or you let the forums fester like the gaping wound it is, or you refer to the “enraged majority” the itty bitty population doesn’t get bigger.
I don’t need a response, from anyone. I don’t care enough to respond. I just want you to communicate with your customers honestly and openly, listen to their feedback without judgement, and don’t be afraid to fail fast and fail often.
Take care James.
Which were spent is almost total secrety.
As far as I can tell, you only ever consulted the community about balance issues with how long crops should take to mature.
I can personally tell you that time for crops to grow wasn’t a concern for me.
So NOW that you release something to testing where players are unhappy with some core design concepts, you’re all like “but we spent weeks/months on that!” and you’re surprised when we tell you that we don’t want Mud farming to go away and other such things. You’re surprised when people aren’t happy with goo being locked on exo-worlds.
As a reminder, I’ve said times and times again that there was a real problem with how you guys communicate. How you have features which for us are only at the concept art stage, and can at any time jump to testing.
You people need MORE communication with your community.
Again, and I get it if people are sick of me making comparison with them, but Creativerse works by inviting willing players on Discord to chat about every thing, and they can then play on testing servers that are open 90% of the time to check out new features at any stage of development, and it works fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. I’ve seen CV features in their alpha stage months ago, they’re no-where near finished. Still allowed players to talk about it and give early feedback. But people aren’t throwing fire arrows at them. I wonder whyyyyyy…
Two things.
Do people really enjoy standing in one spot with an AOE shovel, holding left click, then throwing a regen bomb for an hour? Is it that much more fun than exploring a world and gathering plants as you see them, battling enemies, meteors, and grabbing anything else along the way?
I think not. This isn’t about mud farming. It’s about the grind.
I mentioned mud farming to relate to the concept of alternatives, of options, of choices. And yes, maybe it’s not the funniest gameplay ever, but it’s simple enough, simpler than what’s going to replace it. Already said it all above : Testing 224 - Farming Earthyams and Bulb return ratio from harvest
(btw, maybe don’t frame my quote to make it look like I said “we don’t want mud farming” when I added “to go away” ^^’ )
As for CV, SURE, sometimes, they do release things out of no-where, that happens, but that’s besides the point and it doesn’t negate what I’m saying.
Point is, I’ve still also been able to play around with features that are still no-where near ready (and might not get to live until a few more months), and some features that might never actually make it to live for X or Y reasons. Been able to give feedback on that, which I can tell is taken into consideration by the devs.
Can’t say the same for Boundless, where some of us are compared to firing squads and such, where features are being worked on behind the scenes for years and we have no idea at what stage they are, because there’s a lack of communication.
But when they read this message, devs are either going to gloss over it or they’ll be all like “nah, you’re wrong, we’re right!”.
Thank you for the clarification
Maybe this is what I am experiencing. If true then it will decrease the yield as I am unlikely to go through and determine plant by plant what is ready to be harvested and what will not. I will harvest everything dropping the yield not matter that everything is within the range of water and other materials that boost the yield.
As you can see, after two days I still have spots in my Kranuts that have not matured.
I think these testing notes should include some clear list what developers want players mainly to test and give feedback. At least when it is big patch like this.
It shouldn’t be surprise that most of us players will first concentrate how much we can get easiest and fastest possible way, all numbers are important 
I think in past to me some numbers have been crazy, for example cooking is real material and time sink with many refining and collecting phases. Overwhelming amount of subphases/crafting stages with many components.
Now farming will make it kind of longer, well I think players just want few certain items that seem to be removed from drops, which is not bad but I would like to see still those as option in game. Just make farming work so that players feel that it is efficient and faster those block-regen-zones 
here are my results from my first harvest. Each was planted across 84 blocks.
Oortia Grain - 162 Grain 43 Seeds
Chaggeatarin Grain - 161 Grain 38 Seeds
Exotic Earthyams - 160 Yams 36 seeds
Waxy Earthyams - 159 Yams 39 seeds
Raw Earthyams - 160 Yams 37 Seeds
I did not plant rice until yesterday so I want to give it time. Same with the in organics
I am waiting on the Kranuts to see if they ever all mature.
All had access to water within 3 blocks
so on top of the wait time we got forge style RNG if the thing even grows?
