Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2020 5:14:16 GMT -5
I'm not going to lie, I've got a sort of strange fascination with farming. I'm in love with the concept of creating large complex things and having to maintain them. Whether it be machines in IC2 or gardening in real life my bias is undeniable. Most of what I'm proposing comes from this preference. As such some of this may not fit the beta styled gameplay that New Frontier Craft is attempting to continue and evolve. I'm hoping though that all of this would fit into NFC nicely. My ultimate goal with these ideas is that if they were added they would not overshadow the three core gameplay elements, those being exploring, mining, and building. The food system from beta is boring and unbalanced which is why I'd like to see an update to this side of the game. However I don't think farming should overshadow those three elements rather it should be a supporting feature. Some of what I'm proposing comes from the New Frontier Cast Agriculture Update video, the suggestions channel in the Discord, and from me.
Like I said the reasoning for this is I have come to the conclusion the food system is boring and unbalanced. The cause comes directly from a lack of variety in food and two food items that make bread and fish a waste of time and resources. My solution is to increase the difficulty in farming crops while nerfing cooked porkchops and the dreaded mushroom stew. Bread requires resources, time, and effort to craft while mushroom stew not only heals more health but also is easier to obtain. The same problem exists with cooked porkchop although it's not as bad.
First I'll discuss exactly how cooked porkchops and mushroom stew are causing an imbalance in the food system. Mushrooms will spread like wildfires from alpha if left in a cave. Even if there is torch light they will continue to spread. Eventually after having spent enough time in your world you'll have a self replenishing food farm that doesn't require any effort on your part to set up or maintain. If you ever want food you just need to craft a bowl and venture down to an already explored cave and start gathering. Oh but guys it's okay because mushroom stew cant be stacked so it's not overpowered, right? Something I find ironic is how there are quite a few people who don't want stackable food in NFC but no one seems to care that mushrooms can stack up to 64. If you want to technically carry extra mushroom stew on you just bring enough bowls to create a stack and a stack each of the required mushrooms. So technically you can carry 64 mushroom stews on you. Yes you have to craft them but it's not that big of an inconvenience. And finally worst of all the stew heals up to four and a half hearts. Not only is it easy to obtain, can be stacked up to 64 technically, but it also heals a ton of health? Why should I use any other food item in the game?
Cooked porkchops only carry half the problems that stew does that being it's too easy to obtain and it heals a lot of health. Pigs spawn just enough that if a player really cant find mushrooms they still have no need for any real agriculture.
This is where the fun begins. So before I discuss ideas for new features how can the existing ones be fixed? It's simple really. To prevent players from carrying an excess amount of ingredients for food mushrooms should only be stackable up to four. This prevents players from being able to carry enough food to last through a million different caves and it requires the player to think more wisely about how they're going to manage inventory space. Mushrooms should not be able to spread. This will keep caves looking nice and it ties into my next idea. Mushrooms should have growth cycles like wheat. As they grow older more mushrooms should stem from the center root. However this process would only take place with player intervention by being provided water. However dumping a bucket of water next to the crop will only destroy it, I'll get into this part later. Mushrooms that naturally spawn in the world would retain their vanilla texture until being watered by a player. Once fully grown the big mushroom could be harvested to attain normal mushrooms from beta. Red mushrooms and brown mushrooms should also have different growth requirements. Red mushrooms would be able to grow in pitch darkness while brown mushrooms would thrive under shade, no too dark or too bright. And in the end I'd only make mushroom stew heal three hearts.
Cooked porkchops only carry half of the problems that mushroom stew carries. I'd make pigs far more rare and cooked porkchops would only heal two hearts.
A highly debated topic is how cheese should be obtained. Honestly this isn't even a real issue. This isn't my idea but I support it one hundred percent. Milking a cow gives off a milk bucket, with that milk bucket heating it up should create cheese. In the end cheese should only heal half a heart as in real life no one eats this stuff by itself, I'd also consider it a side food which is why it heals so little similar to cookies. This prevents cheese from becoming an endless food supply if there's a cow around, no one is going to live off unstackable half a heart healing food items.
Wheat should take longer to grow, it already takes a while longer than vanilla but I really want to see the process slowed down even more. Something I find annoying about farming is how if you want seeds you can only hope the wheat you cut down actually drops enough for you to be able to replant. If a player needs seeds more than wheat breaking a fully grown crop without a hoe will only drop three to four seeds. This also ties into my next idea, crops should require a hoe in order to receive the product such as wheat. This would give hoes much more use. Finally bread should only heal two hearts.
The last change to something already in the game is fishing. The process of catching a fish should take longer. Several minutes of waiting should pass by before a fish pulls on the bobber. However without bait the fishing rod will not lure anything. If the player places a fishing rod in the crafting UI with a worm they'll get a baited fishing rod which will only be able to catch one fish. Once the bait is used up the player would need to craft another baited rod. To compensate for the added challenge of ultimately getting a fish, a fish should heal four hearts.
Now what about worms? How should they be obtained? I think zombies should drop worms. Not only would worms be used for fishing but they could also be used for something else I'll go into in a moment.
Water blocks would no longer be the main way of moisturizing soil since now they'd only dampen the soil blocks that are touching. If a player doesn't want to maintain a large farm water blocks are perfect since they automatically moisturize blocks it's touching. For larger farms this would be inefficient since there'd be water blocks everywhere. To make room for more plants players would need to water them using a watering can made out of aluminum. The watering can would have 16 uses before needing to be refilled. Soil now would stay damp for twenty minutes after receiving water either from water blocks or watering cans.
To prevent crops from instantly growing bonemeal would no longer work on plants but rather on the soil itself. Plants placed on bonemeal enriched soil would grow slightly faster.
Now if the player really wants to grow plants fast they can use compost. Formed by using a compost bin it would have a UI requiring bonemeal, a worm, and some plant matter to be mixed. It would take a long time to form but afterwards the player would have compost which would do the same thing as bonemeal but be better.
So with all these new mechanics what can the player grow using them? Corn, squash, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, cotton, blackberries, grapes, lemons, pears, lettuce, blueberries, and strawberries. Some of these would grow on vines while others would grow from trees but the majority would grow from soil. Now why should so much food be added? It's all about variety and adding new building opportunities. Personally I'd like to see players grow different things based on their preferences and personalities. With all the different food items meals could be created. Steak and mushrooms, blueberry pie, salad, and lemonade. For food items that don't really fit into meals their crops could take way longer to grow but the food would provide more health such as corn.
I'd also like to see different spices added for the benefit of adding extra health boosts to foods. Cinnamon, garlic, and flour etc. Although flour isn't really a spice but I didn't know where to fit it into this.
Like I said the reasoning for this is I have come to the conclusion the food system is boring and unbalanced. The cause comes directly from a lack of variety in food and two food items that make bread and fish a waste of time and resources. My solution is to increase the difficulty in farming crops while nerfing cooked porkchops and the dreaded mushroom stew. Bread requires resources, time, and effort to craft while mushroom stew not only heals more health but also is easier to obtain. The same problem exists with cooked porkchop although it's not as bad.
First I'll discuss exactly how cooked porkchops and mushroom stew are causing an imbalance in the food system. Mushrooms will spread like wildfires from alpha if left in a cave. Even if there is torch light they will continue to spread. Eventually after having spent enough time in your world you'll have a self replenishing food farm that doesn't require any effort on your part to set up or maintain. If you ever want food you just need to craft a bowl and venture down to an already explored cave and start gathering. Oh but guys it's okay because mushroom stew cant be stacked so it's not overpowered, right? Something I find ironic is how there are quite a few people who don't want stackable food in NFC but no one seems to care that mushrooms can stack up to 64. If you want to technically carry extra mushroom stew on you just bring enough bowls to create a stack and a stack each of the required mushrooms. So technically you can carry 64 mushroom stews on you. Yes you have to craft them but it's not that big of an inconvenience. And finally worst of all the stew heals up to four and a half hearts. Not only is it easy to obtain, can be stacked up to 64 technically, but it also heals a ton of health? Why should I use any other food item in the game?
Cooked porkchops only carry half the problems that stew does that being it's too easy to obtain and it heals a lot of health. Pigs spawn just enough that if a player really cant find mushrooms they still have no need for any real agriculture.
This is where the fun begins. So before I discuss ideas for new features how can the existing ones be fixed? It's simple really. To prevent players from carrying an excess amount of ingredients for food mushrooms should only be stackable up to four. This prevents players from being able to carry enough food to last through a million different caves and it requires the player to think more wisely about how they're going to manage inventory space. Mushrooms should not be able to spread. This will keep caves looking nice and it ties into my next idea. Mushrooms should have growth cycles like wheat. As they grow older more mushrooms should stem from the center root. However this process would only take place with player intervention by being provided water. However dumping a bucket of water next to the crop will only destroy it, I'll get into this part later. Mushrooms that naturally spawn in the world would retain their vanilla texture until being watered by a player. Once fully grown the big mushroom could be harvested to attain normal mushrooms from beta. Red mushrooms and brown mushrooms should also have different growth requirements. Red mushrooms would be able to grow in pitch darkness while brown mushrooms would thrive under shade, no too dark or too bright. And in the end I'd only make mushroom stew heal three hearts.
Cooked porkchops only carry half of the problems that mushroom stew carries. I'd make pigs far more rare and cooked porkchops would only heal two hearts.
A highly debated topic is how cheese should be obtained. Honestly this isn't even a real issue. This isn't my idea but I support it one hundred percent. Milking a cow gives off a milk bucket, with that milk bucket heating it up should create cheese. In the end cheese should only heal half a heart as in real life no one eats this stuff by itself, I'd also consider it a side food which is why it heals so little similar to cookies. This prevents cheese from becoming an endless food supply if there's a cow around, no one is going to live off unstackable half a heart healing food items.
Wheat should take longer to grow, it already takes a while longer than vanilla but I really want to see the process slowed down even more. Something I find annoying about farming is how if you want seeds you can only hope the wheat you cut down actually drops enough for you to be able to replant. If a player needs seeds more than wheat breaking a fully grown crop without a hoe will only drop three to four seeds. This also ties into my next idea, crops should require a hoe in order to receive the product such as wheat. This would give hoes much more use. Finally bread should only heal two hearts.
The last change to something already in the game is fishing. The process of catching a fish should take longer. Several minutes of waiting should pass by before a fish pulls on the bobber. However without bait the fishing rod will not lure anything. If the player places a fishing rod in the crafting UI with a worm they'll get a baited fishing rod which will only be able to catch one fish. Once the bait is used up the player would need to craft another baited rod. To compensate for the added challenge of ultimately getting a fish, a fish should heal four hearts.
Now what about worms? How should they be obtained? I think zombies should drop worms. Not only would worms be used for fishing but they could also be used for something else I'll go into in a moment.
Water blocks would no longer be the main way of moisturizing soil since now they'd only dampen the soil blocks that are touching. If a player doesn't want to maintain a large farm water blocks are perfect since they automatically moisturize blocks it's touching. For larger farms this would be inefficient since there'd be water blocks everywhere. To make room for more plants players would need to water them using a watering can made out of aluminum. The watering can would have 16 uses before needing to be refilled. Soil now would stay damp for twenty minutes after receiving water either from water blocks or watering cans.
To prevent crops from instantly growing bonemeal would no longer work on plants but rather on the soil itself. Plants placed on bonemeal enriched soil would grow slightly faster.
Now if the player really wants to grow plants fast they can use compost. Formed by using a compost bin it would have a UI requiring bonemeal, a worm, and some plant matter to be mixed. It would take a long time to form but afterwards the player would have compost which would do the same thing as bonemeal but be better.
So with all these new mechanics what can the player grow using them? Corn, squash, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, cotton, blackberries, grapes, lemons, pears, lettuce, blueberries, and strawberries. Some of these would grow on vines while others would grow from trees but the majority would grow from soil. Now why should so much food be added? It's all about variety and adding new building opportunities. Personally I'd like to see players grow different things based on their preferences and personalities. With all the different food items meals could be created. Steak and mushrooms, blueberry pie, salad, and lemonade. For food items that don't really fit into meals their crops could take way longer to grow but the food would provide more health such as corn.
I'd also like to see different spices added for the benefit of adding extra health boosts to foods. Cinnamon, garlic, and flour etc. Although flour isn't really a spice but I didn't know where to fit it into this.
