Gardening - Some Ideas to Make it More Fun

[Panties]

Hi all! I’m currently working on the Flower Arrangement skill, and while growing flowers, I’ve had time to come up with some ideas that I think could make Gardening more fun and interesting (my Gardening skill is 73 fyi). I’m a first-time poster here, so please let me know what you think!

It would be great if the number of flowers and vegetables a player could simultaneously put down scaled with gardening skill level (like Cheesemaking and more firkins/skill level).

As it works right now, gardening is very boring and tedious. The water and fertilizer requirements make gardening demand just enough attention from a player that he/she can’t really do anything else, but they certainly don’t make the skill exciting or interesting in any way.

Perhaps a greenhouse could be crafted with Carpentry or a new skill such as Polymer Synthesis. This would enable the player to plant significantly more flowers/vegetables than would otherwise be possible. Greenhouse flowers/vegetables would grow at a certain rate and be collected in bulk after a period of time (like how ice fishing works right now).

If appropriate, a greenhouse could still require the owner to come back and water/fertilize it after a while. Alternatively, the greenhouse could come with its own garden tender (like the mobs in shroom cave) or built-in irrigation, or could even be watered via the weather witching skill. Special potting soil could also be a thing, with tailored NPK (Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium) ratios and etc. for (possibly plant-specific) increased yield ratios and also circumventing the need for manual fertilization to boot.

Well that’s all I’ve got for now. Thanks for reading!

[srand]

Special potting soil could also be a thing, with tailored NPK (Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium) ratios and etc.

Only in PG ...

[ShieldBreaker]

Only in PG ...

Oh no <worried>, what level of alchemy are we going to need for that.

Greenhouse sounds like an alright idea to me.

[Crissa]

Hehe, greenhouses popping up around PG just like you find barrels and drying racks everywhere. I like the idea!

Yeah, the new UI should help the clickfest that gardening is now; you can't just click on the plant you're pointing at. It'd be much simpler if you could.

Fertilizer/mulch/etc could be area-effect instead of single items, and tilling-prepping could be a thing, if we're talking structures.

Juggling gardening with playing music seems contemplative, but at higher levels, it's just tab-tab-tab with your head in the plants.

[Celler]

Some nice ideas .
My biggest issue is it's hard to place anything above 5 without overlapping or just placing them in an awkward pattern that's hard to work with. I'd much rather have a list of things planted which updated there status that i could interact with rather than having to click/hover over each individually. Wouldn't mind character moving to them as I clicked the icon to do whatever though.

[Crissa]

Yeah, planting patterns needs to be a thing. Maybe they could be skills that are unlocked through higher levels of skill.

[ShieldBreaker]

I think anything that simplifies the pattern or is just clicking on a list, would defeat the anti-bot objectives the current system is trying to implement. For those reasons they would likely not be implemented. I almost think a mini-game , maybe something like word hunt which is already in game, some game like activity representing cleaning off bugs, pollinating, weeding. If that game increased your harvest and gave bonus experience in gardening and other skills, it would reduce the boredom. If for example it was cleaning bugs, maybe +1 to Anthropoid Anatomy. If to start the game you needed to load in enough water and fertilizer and then the water and fertilizing and harvesting is done for you while you play the mini-game and it runs for the length of time required to grow all the plants that would hopeful be more bot proof, fun and easy.

[Panties]

I'd much rather have a list of things planted which updated there status that i could interact with rather than having to click/hover over each individually.

This is a great idea! A plant status list would certainly make gardening less tedious. Of course, you can do this right now, but it requires using a timer for each water and fertilization cycle (which is definitely not fun).

If implemented however, this could introduce possible problems with botting, as ShieldBreaker has rightly pointed out. The minigame idea is good also, but this would also require the devs to come up with the new system. Personally, I've reached max Vocabularly skill while sitting around and waiting for plants to ripen, so for me, a minigame would definitely help pass the time (that is, if I continued to get skill levels or some other benefit by playing it).

[Crissa]

Anti-bot of the current system?

The only way to select them is to tab through them and look for the right name. Nothing anti-bot in that, as a bot would do it better. :P

Planting patterns would at least make it look bearable.

[Baldrith]

I agree with these ideas! I was just thinking that the other day while growing Barley (what a time sink)...I have 66 gardening and I can still only grow 2 plants, where is my benefit for raising my gardening?

Also, I agree with minigames for getting rid of bugs or increasing the yield etc...always a plus to me to be more interactive in my crafting/harvesting! I feel my character should get better at things when he raises...

[Greyfyn]

Just to check--you can grow two of every vegetable, 5 cotton, 3 flowers and two barley at a time. If you're still growing just two plants at a time, ouch. I'm sure there will be adjustments, but you can find Citan's thoughts on gardening here: http://wiki.projectgorgon.com/wiki/Citan%27s_Gardening_Limitations

If you already know this, great! :cool: