Feedback on Farming

[Velvet2]

I’ve really enjoyed the game so far, poured in more hours than I’m proud to admit. I’ve been playing with a large clan, so resources aren’t hard for me to get. Our base has a greenhouse that can fit ~80 planters in it. I’m comparing farming to manual gathering with star metal tools.

What I want from Gardening:

1. High yield of materials.
   I want to leave my garden growing for a long period of time and get a high yield at the end of the day.
2. Something that doesn’t require a lot of maintenance or attention.
   I want a self-sustaining farm, that requires a minimum amount of attention. So, an ideal farm would produce plant fiber that I can feed back into creating compost. Currently 50% of my compost would be used on sustaining the entire farm. As 1 compost costs 5 plant fiber, and produces 10 plant fiber. This isn’t factoring in bone meal and putrid meat/dung. Additionally, owning a garden should minimize how much I need to gather plants. However, seeds are not produced in the gardening process. So, gardening is an optional accessory, the only point of it seems to be to use the seeds you get from manual gathering. In other words, gardening has created more work when it should be a system that reduces work.
3. It would be nice to be able to grow Shadebloom!

Problems:

1. Manual gathering is far more rewarding than growing.
   The cost of creating compost, investing in planters and compost bins doesn’t lead to a high enough profit.
2. Manual gathering is far more time efficient than growing.
   There is a massive time sink when you start your farm, as you need to create a high amount of compost. If you’re trying to mass produce something like Aloe, you have to double your compost requirement to sustain your garden.
3. Growing plants isn’t self-sufficient.
   You can only get seeds through loot/manual gathering. This makes sense for rare plants such as lotus flowers. But is tedious for Plant Fibre and Aloe.
4. Premium compost should be usable on all seed types.
   I currently have to calculate how much compost I need to convert into premium compost. The production of premium compost is purely output – I can’t use it to feedback into the gardening system by growing Plant Fibre. Using premium compost on plant fibre/aloe/others should offer a higher yield as it’s expensive to produce.
5. Putrid Meat should stack higher than 25.
6. Compost & Seeds can be tedious to place in multiple planters.
   Compost stacks to 500, Seeds stack to 1000. In a world where I’m operating at maximum efficiency that’d be great. But it would take me 33 hours to produce 500 compost in one composter. For time efficiency I have multiple compost heaps and planters. At the start of my farm I don’t have stacks of compost, and I’m having to split compost and seeds between my planters. If the size of compost stacks were reduced, it would be easier to organise.
7. The sickle animation is nauseating.
   Firstly, I want to say Scythes > Sickles. Secondly, when I’m trying to mow my lawn I feel like I am cutting through the jungle forest. I feel like I am trying to attack the air. The camera jolts as you swing. Please make the sickle animation smoother/more satisfying!

[alfblack]

I second this. Would have imagined farming to be helpful… but its currently more work for less.

To the least, for me is allow the plant to generate seeds so it will be more or less self-sustaining (in the seed department, Just need to feed it fertilizer).

[DanQuixote]

Yeah, farming’s definitely a secondary activity in CE. I get the feeling it may have been added more as ‘we ought to have a farming system’ rather than ‘here’s a good way for farming to work’. If you’re free to use mods, both ‘Emberlight’ and ‘Seed Table’ add some value to the farming process - not least by providing ways to produce seeds so it becomes sustainable. That said, I have found that even with these mods, farming just doesn’t seem that relevant - it seems to always be easy enough to get the resources without the farming. TBH I’m not sure what the solution is - improvements to farming would be cool, but I don’t know how much they’d change that feeling of slight irrelevance…

(Oh - side note - if I recall correctly, Seed Table does include the ability to plant and grow Shadebloom )

[Velvet2]

Currently invested in an official server so no mods for me! :’(

But I will keep this in mind if I decide to use mods, thanks so much of the recommendations - they sound fun!

[Konar]

I agree.

Farming, fishing, raising pets and any other type of production is less profitable then simply fighting and harvesting your way through fighting. Hunting-gathering. This includes the keys materials for crafting including artisanship, blacksmithing, carpentry, alchemy, rituals etc (Drop pvp builds one or two bar down and load more to encumbrance at will… Which isnt even required actually…Making small cabins and boxes across the map solves most issues when harvesting through hunting and gathering)

Hillariously the exiles cant roleplay a survival game but have to be a master craftsman aswell as a big business guy, feeding tens of employees (?) at his gigantic settlement. Meanwhile this guy also has to grab the most powerfull armors and weapons and chase monsters for rare crafting materials (when his employees sit at home) aswell. (lol)

Since killng any type of agressive type of npc and having a great pool of vitality and grit also helps at any other activity. This includes cutting wood or mining or anything else. Both the survival and production aspects is centered around this mentality and the concept. Anything else seems to have cosmetic value and alternative way ,just to, kill time.

[TimeLord75]

Have you also noticed that of all the things you can grow, the one thing you can’t is FOOD? No fruit trees. No edible roots or tubers. No squash or corn or wild lettuce. I suppose there’s the desert & highland berries, but UGH.

[drachenfeles]

that’s why barbarians don’t farm nor abase themselves with other unproductive sources of wealth
barbarians raid and pillage, beats farming every time and is much more fun

[Velvet2]

You’re telling me you can’t imagine Conan the Barbarian pruning flowers in the most decadent greenhouse on the Isle of Siptah!?

For real though, I was surprised that this game had farming at all. But if it’s going to be a feature it should be done properly! Besides, I’d like to add some cool looking plants and flowers to my base, even if they have limited practical use.

[Force]

Farming definitely should be extended and reworked. I never bothered to do it because it seems just too much work and in the end I have so few resources gathered that it simply becomes not lucrative.
Would be awesome if we could cultivate land and make fields with corn for bread for example. The current way of creating bread is absolutely ridiculous in my opinion, the resources it takes and the place where you actually craft it would most likely create the worst bread in the world.
Planting fruit trees would be really cool as well, maybe they should make it that you can only plant certain types of plants and trees in specific areas, or make them more efficient there, for example: fruit trees grow better in the jungle, corn grows better if planted near the river or in the highlands etc.
There are so many interesting things that could be done with farming.

In general I also think that getting food should be harder, often it’s enough to simply kill a gazelle or a Kudu and you’ll have enough meat for ages. Prey animals should be easier to scare away because right now you can walk up to them and they won’t move an inch.

[Konar]

It is not only about farming actually, fighting side of the game is at similar conditions, exploration side samewise.

There should be optional routes which are unocked through roleplay for each perk of an attribute, so that players could focus at roleplaying a rich thrall lord, humble or rich or curious craftsman and may be explorer. Obviously an adventuring type that lusts for wisdom or power as the third option.

This would unlock new options for character customisation as the player levels up. It would be much better if everyone did not have to be a blacksmith, constructor, tamer, armorer, carpenter etc at the same time. But if we could unlock roleplay specific specialties instead unlocking crafting recipes with each lvl up aswell as points to distrbute between more health points or %2 more damage etc.

For example, a warrior roleplaying player (not specifically pvp or pve only character) would unlock new combat tactics and abilites and would empower his fighting and survival etc skills without even needing weapon (crafting recipe) upgrades.

Meanwhile a craftsman would be busy with unlocking new recipes. Not much to add here since the game is full focused at this right now.

An explorer would unlock new spots unlocked at existing game map which would help him discover new information, new animals, plants, forgotten knowledge of past times, he didnt see at earlier stage which might unlock ancient crafting recipes, artwork or may be something even more creative through expertising at exploration.

Farming would also be something different and would require profession unlock and would let the gamer specialise further not only at new recipts and tecnologies (watering systems, lightweight structures) but also practical ways to enjoy farming, such as unlocking terraforming or crossbreeding animals/plants etc.