CLOK BBS

Since the implementation of farming there have been a few changes to how it works. The two primary ones being crops no longer grow within a day or two and the riln received from crops was vastly reduced. Now, some of this may be covered in other threads, but I really just want to add exposure and bring this up fresh.

The trouble I'm seeing now is the following:

1) Each type of plant grows at a different rate, making it difficult for farmers to keep track of their crops or efficiently harvest should they wish to plant a variety. Of course the flip side is that thieves will find it harder to effectively steal an entire crop.
2) Weeds grow very quickly and have a huge negative outcome on the harvest. So much so that it takes several trips to a farm per day to keep them manageable, or it takes getting down to an exhausted level several times once per day for an extensive field.
3) Not sure if this is actually a change or not since there's nothing I found in the changelogs, but it seems that crops do not grow at all in cooler areas. They used to, and maybe they still do, but it's been about a week on this one field of mine with no change to the plant descriptions.
4) It now takes over a week for plants to grow to harvest levels (again maybe there are conditions I'm not aware of), yet the yield and potential riln reward is so low as to make it not worth the amount of hours put into a successful crop - unless potentially you are planning to cook the food yourself. This makes the profession not viable compared to just about anything else which nets large rewards for very little time or effort.

So here are my suggestions:

1) Allow seed descriptions in shops to give a rough estimate on grow-time so that players know what kind of investment they're getting into before starting a farm. This seems reasonable since any seed packet you get in a store will have such information on it. Or, perhaps more period relevant, there would likely be some kind of Farmer's Almanac or Farming Guide which would describe growing conditions, times and rates.
2) Reduce the weed growth rate to allow players to truly check their farms once a day without finding that their fields are nearly overgrown with weeds. Water levels last a full day, but weeds still require you to check several times without potentially incurring negative effects to the harvest levels.
3) This one's pretty simple - state somewhere if weather/temperature mechanically affects growth. I could understand it being the case, but without it being stated anywhere and with cold weather affecting so much of Clok in the fall, winter and spring it would be nice to know for sure. Possibly mention this on the actual wiki and not just the bbs.
4) If it's true that crops will not grow in the cold, possibly make it so weeds won't either. The field should just remain stagnant until it warms up.
5) If it's true that crops won't grow in the cold, maybe make messaging in-game that says the ground is too frozen to till so people are encouraged to seek warmer climes.
6) Reduce growth time commitment (even if it's not a huge commitment per day, it's a commitment several times per day and takes a week or more), or increase the yield or profitability. I feel the balance here is not in line with other professions currently. While it was definitely too easy in the past - easily the most profit for the time and effort, it is now well below things with instant gratification like logging, mining, fishing, or herbalism.

Thanks for your feedback and consideration and please keep any discussion positive.

Also, if we can make a way to help reduce farming theft, that could be neat. I mean, it is half a week to a week's worth of work, in many cases. A lot of people do not farm simply because of this one thing. and if you hear of, catch, or track down a farm thief, you will do some pretty horrific things to them.

I've identified and corrected an issue with farming that has been affecting crop growth since at least late October, if not earlier. This should make the crop growth timers much more generous.

Note that this issue also affected weed growth and water usage, so you may notice your fields requiring more frequent maintenance, though it's really just the same as it was back before that change in October.

Thanks for working on that so quickly!