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Farming

Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 1:07 pm
by Viriato
Hail
After investigate a bit more about farming, here are the aspects to think about:
- it takes about 3-6 months for the main cultures be harvested
- to plant some cultures it is just a matter of put beans in the ground and wait to grow, others are the fruits from trees (example: acorns)
- one can plant in the ground, but would be eventually ridiculous to plant an oak tree, wait to grow up, and then wait for acorns...
- each game day takes 2 rl hours

How to \"translate\" this real aspects into gameplay without be boring?

Suggestion:
- In farming, each mud day correspond to 3 irl months
- Each room has multiple slots for planting, lets say 10, and every room with land can be used for plant crops.
- Builders, when making rooms, will create the trees, and so, players just need to get their fruits at the correct time (I am speaking for acorns, but also oranges, aples, etc, etc)
- For farming, a player shoud have PLANTING skill and HARVEST skill. Both skills (planting at the begining, harvest when getting the crop from ground) will influenciate the quality of the crop harvested - if 1Kg acorns=100 coins, if a player planted or harvested it badly the shop will only buy it for 75% (3/4 of the total).

Result:
- A player can find a \"remote\" place or can buy lands (imagine 10 rooms), where he can plant 10 beans. 2 hours later he will harvest those 10 rooms, getting 10x10 products to sell.

Even that not much realistic, I guess it gives some playability, fun, and it seems lucrative for farmers :) (well, the system is realistic but not corresponds to our mud days).

Say your opinions, please.

Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 1:23 pm
by Viriato
I have already a list of crops, but some of them probably were not planted at that time.

Anyway, we must consider the food to survive, but also flowers and gardens to decorate cerimonial places, as example.

I am imagining this: an old roman legionare is retiring from the army. His commander gives him lands in Italy as reward, the equivalent of 100x100 rooms. If he wants those terrains for farming, first he needs to raise is planting and harvesting skill. Then he needs a damn trigger and lots of beans to plant every bean. Then he needs again a damn trigger to harvest all of it, considering that a bean is small, but the result can be bigger (lettuce, as example), so he need to run to shop and return to the field. As the field is too big, and as 2hours=3months, the later harvested crops will have lower quality. Also, with so much terrains, he is a rich legionaire! SO, considering all this, this legionaire can pay other players a percentage of his profit to harvest his fields, or pay NPC to do that :) What do you say? Seems nice to me.

You can see I am giving some importance to farming... but it is logical, as was the main, more profitable and more needed activity at that time (excluding robery, combats, etc...).

About combat we later discuss, but I think it is important a one-on-one combat (assassins, etc), but eventually even more important one comanding an army, a legion, to fight against other armies. So the ones that have played T2T, I pretend to make Pelennor fields armies more wide geographically here, but of course detailing it abit more and making it more attractive (hmm... the known 13th legion, even that only from the Rome series... who wouldn't want to command it? A player character always commanding the 13th? - and with this comes more: there would be another player, eventually the \"emperor\" of Roman Empire, that appoints the legion commanders... too many plots, don't you think? :) I believe it so and I like it. And it seems easier to make, as it is a copy of what our world was some centuries ago!)

Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 4:41 pm
by Cadeyrn
hmm, not to sure if making 1 game day be equal to 3 rl months is good. If you calculate that, with 365 game days, youd end up being 91 years ahead of where the game started, depending on if the idea is to not have reboots that resets time..

Instead one should instead maybe accept crops to grow quicker than normal within a shorter time frame than whats come up as an idea...

One other thing about farming, to make people use it, then it must be lucrative.

As for the 13th legion :) It can be so that those that wish to become commanders must \"fight\" each other for that role, would become a competition. The current commander would be able to hold the command for a certain time, might later add certain factors that would either decrease or increase his/her time as commander.

Posted: Thu May 31, 2007 8:35 pm
by Viriato
That happened that way. Caius Julius Caesar had is 13th legion as the best of best... but before him, someone commanded it, after he went Emperor others commanded it, after his death others commanded it... The ruler would appoint the new commander. The nice thing is that the ruler can be a player, and the commanders can be other players too :)

About farming, the idea was that, make crops grow at an accelerated rate. I've make this comparison of 1mud day=3rl months for farming as a suggestion of how accelerated I wanted crops to grow, and wanted to hear your opinions, knowing that grain crops and such last 3-6 months to grow. I want a comparison because each crop grows at different rate, and to compare them in true, I need it. Lettuce lasts around 3 months to grow, but acorns just fall from oak trees, ready to be used, in 6 months. So I need a comparison, a standard, to define lettuce can be harvested in 2 hours and acorns in 4.

You think 2 hours is too much for farming? Consider that just one bean planted is NOT lucrative, and you must plant plenty beans. Also you can harvest crops earlier, but of course you won't have the better profit from them (selling, eating, etc).

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 6:54 am
by Cadeyrn
The accelerated rate is reasonable. Guess it can be settled with that, if the thought is that a person must plant then harvest the crops. But also if the game wont have a reboot time.

Producing crops might be lucrative, depends on how many will work with this and also finds it interesting to do.
So I need a comparison, a standard, to define lettuce can be harvested in 2 hours and acorns in 4.
This sounds fairly reasonable to me, if lettuce is the product that takes less time to from when its planted to when its harvested.

one bean wont be lucrative, you would need hundreds of em :), though planting them shouldnt take that long. Issue to discusse for this, is if a person should be able to plant say 100 seeds in one round and/or one seed at each round.

Then how long after a person has harvested the crops till he/she can plant new seeds? If it takes 2h from when a seed is planted till its harvested, then the time untill new seeds can be planted should exsist.

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 1:56 pm
by Viriato
Ahoy
one bean wont be lucrative, you would need hundreds of em , though planting them shouldnt take that long. Issue to discusse for this, is if a person should be able to plant say 100 seeds in one round and/or one seed at each round.
I've already defined that, per room, you can use 10 slots (or 15, can't remember) for farming. Each room has something like 2x2 km, so 10 slots would correspond areas of 200m x 200m. To fill an area like this one, with lettuce, we would need to plant like 1000 beans (per slot) :) Anyway I am thinking and comparing with modern days, where the fields are perfect and have enough nutrients, naturally or chemically put into the terrain. I would say that to fill a slot, a person would spend one round. If lettuce needs 1000 beans and corn needs 10000, that doesn't matter. The pattern will be the \"slot\", considering the area, and for farming a guy will need to have the beans of X crop to that area. Also, of course that in the real geography I intend to implement, each room will have 2km x 2km (of course that if in a city, in an oppidum, each room will be MUCH smaller), but we can also adapt it for farming, as we have adapted the time to a crop grow. I can implement in spite of 10 slots 20 slots in order to have areas of 100m x 100m for each crop, or I can maintain 10 slots but I would say that for each area of 200m x 200m, only 50m x 50m is good for farming.
Then how long after a person has harvested the crops till he/she can plant new seeds? If it takes 2h from when a seed is planted till its harvested, then the time untill new seeds can be planted should exsist.
Are you talking about about being fisically impossible to harvest and plant right after, lets say, with a trigger, or are you talking about a terrain that should rest X time before other crops be planted there?