Testing 224 - Farming Earthyams and Bulb return ratio from harvest

I love this. This is a good idea. Then i could customize for sustainability or output.

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Also, shops can differentiate by stocking regularly and access. And having more item typesā€¦ And advertisement. Although and auction system or contract system would be cool as well. But I would expect those systems to take a while to implement.

@james Question: do wild varieties drop only seeds or do they also drop the end product, like starberries for instance. If so, then we still have a means of immediate gratification if perhaps reduced from regen methods.

Also, I assume that balance will occur. The farming test release seems to me to emphasize a concern about grind. And appears to be adding another few hundred posts which say: please less grind. I know im practically a God next to a newbie and even I must admit the that the grind is a little more than id like. But the devs are responsive so i really do assume that this will not add grind to the essential game workflow.

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As far as I have seen, they always drop the seed, and most times they drop the produce too.

The system allows any configuration.

ā€”ā€”ā€”ā€”

(As Iā€™ve tried to say regularly but it bounces off the enraged majority) balance (for example the number and chance of drops) are spreadsheet values that can only be balanced once you start playing the game. Whereas the systems (code, scalable server algorithms, etc) are all done. Weā€™ve spent months on the systems and minutes on the balance.

The aim of Testing is to fix bugs with the systems and find good balance.

So if we think 10 seeds and 1 crop from wild crops is good balance then we can set this. Or 10 seeds and a 5% chance of 1 crop, then this. Or 1 seed and a 5% chance of 100 seeds, then this. Or whatever.

The majority of comments are all focused on how terrible the current balance is hence farming is a disaster / car crash / devs-hate-fun-and-hate-players.

Iā€™m happy to discuss the systems - for example how fluids do and donā€™t flow through beacons based on beacon ownership, permissions, guild membership, and the associated interaction with regen. Or how the crops tick based on probability density functions and can be fast forward when players return so that the servers can support huge numbers of crops on worlds for players.

(If anyone thinks this msg is somehow inappropriate please PM me.)

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Hopefully this clears up to people what they should be testing instead of worrying about.

At this point I havenā€™t done the tint system but from what I can tell the farming system is ok. But I from what I can tell the farming system makes sense minus to key concerns I have:

  1. Cross influence of catalysts based on the crops area of influence. Some people like big farms and some want small ones but is there a chance some crops or catalysts or light sources can change the dynamic of another crop beside it in any way? Like if I have sand beside one crop it can help but it could hurt another crop it is close to. If not then this is of no concern. If so then maybe we need something that can negate the influence.

  2. What I state in this point and point out to you all : Farming Concerns

Basically the plot distribution requirements to gain the same amount of resources we used to get when using natural areas. The system might be designed where people are being adversely affected because they need large farms to get close to equivalent resources. That might need to be a system adjustment?

This is my kitchen. On the left in the back you can see the fountain I fill my buckets with water.

The water comes from the lake above and flows into the kitchen.

Because these blocks arenā€™t source blocks, they will no longer be able to fill my buckets. At least thatā€™s how I understand it. I assume thatā€™s because you donā€™t want me to take a single source block to Lamblis and build my base there?

Would it be possible to allow water flowing from natural source blocks to also fill buckets?

So the water can be under the blocks, they donā€™t have to be next to them woohoo interesting.

Is this because you are trying to do the Minecraft feature where you have a 2x2 water area and you can pick up water and the 3 other block recreate the source block?

You want to use the little fountain you have to fill water buckets up?

Catalyst blocks to balance the crops of seeds versus materials is a fantastic idea, that would be amazing.

gives james a big hug

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This is such a great questionā€¦ my thoughts are perhaps seed gathering will be just an easy maintenance thing after the initial set up? So the mass gathering of the first seeds will be the biggest effortā€¦ after that you may not need to actually farm seeds because youā€™ll just come across them easily. Like getting opals, rock salt and flint?

As for other comments regarding food for new playersā€¦ What about lamella? Canā€™t new players eat lamella? I remember eating that early on. Iā€™m just curious.

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I love everything about this game, one of the things I love the most is being able to explore new planets, find resources etc. The devs are doing amazing things for us alk in this game, the only thing I would like to see would be couch coop so my kids and I could all play on same device via split screen. That would be a dream.

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I have never played Minecraft.

Boundless doesnā€™t need a source block to fill the bucket, thatā€™s going to change with 224:

Yeah but if that source block is in a wild or reserved area it will regenerate when it is timeā€¦

it isnā€™t. Iead the water from the lake into my kitchen. There is no source block in the kitchen, nor an unplotted area.

sorry I guess I donā€™t understandā€¦ all source blocks will regen when no one is around or a regen bomb is thrownā€¦ now on testing there could be a bugā€¦ and if there is a video would help show that so they can look at it.

Donā€™t forget the comments from people who arenā€™t happy with the upcoming disparition of mud farms and other related methods to get earthyams and such, though. This is a legitimate critic, and it doesnā€™t seem alright to brush it off.

Donā€™t forget those who donā€™t like the idea that a lot of the content added by this update (like goo) is locked on exo-worlds where many players donā€™t go for various reasons.

Donā€™t forget those who were hoping that in-organic farms would offer an alternative to meteor-hunts by giving some kind of plant-based fuel for portals.

Since the farming update adds a lot of rules that we gotta take into account to have an optimal farm (you need water, the right type of soil, sun, proximity to things like sand/mud, fertilizer, time to grow, etc), it seems more difficult than just going to a mud farm and wail on mud with a shovel to get your waxy/exotic earthyams to keep building/cooking. Like, I just did that earlier, spent maybe 30 minutes, got 900 waxy earthyams with just a good 3x3 shovel and a speed brew.

But I donā€™t know, maybe all I just wrote sounds like crazy enraged talk?
< shrug >
< gets ready for Xaldafax telling him that heā€™s wrong and devs are right >

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Oort has always been the fuel for portals and there was never a community push on enough of a large level to even drive a discussion on the real validity of changing this. Hopes and dreams doesnā€™t equal the requirement to change a game system that has been around since the beginning. Especially when people just were given a whole more powerful Oort source to fuel portals longer.

Sounds like some valid concerns that just need to be portrayed in a context on how the systems need work.

Nahā€¦ no one is wrong and no one is right. People just need to communicate better.

Which requires even mooooore grind and farm. I havenā€™t even seen meteorite ichor yet. Requires to go on big hunts on Exo-Worlds / T7 worlds, last I heardā€¦ :expressionless:

Ha ha ha, see? SEE! You just told me that I was wrong to think that youā€™d tell me I was wrong and- urgh, hurts my headā€¦ XD

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