Farming Reform part I.5

[Rias]

Some significant farming changes:

- Farming growth times have been extended significantly. It should now take several days for crops to grow, rather than mere hours.
- It is now possible to get multiple harvests per plot. The maximum yields per plot is initially determined when tilling the plot for planting, and while planting the seed.
- Weeds now generally grow more slowly (though some can still pop up extremely quickly, so keep on your toes).
- Maximum weeds will no longer instantly wither/overgrow a plot, but will cause the crop's quality to deteriorate over time.
- Watering should now be necessary around half as frequently as before.
- Parched plots will no longer instantly wither at a certain threshold, but will instead degrade the crop quality over time.
- If a crop's quality gets too low, it will wither. This can be caused both by weeds and by lack of water. If the plot was a wilderness plot overgrown with weeds, the plot will disappear.
- If a regrowing crop's quality has degraded significantly from weeds and lack of water, it may be worth just tilling the plot and re-planting it.

Farming yields will generally not be so great at the beginning. Higher Farming skill will result in higher plot qualities and hence higher number of harvests per plot. Thusly, it will take time and dedication before the invested time and effort of the various farming processes is really considered worth it. Hopefully this will prevent a massive influx of farmers who are all doing it just because they can.

As always, expect things tweaked heavily over time and as reports roll in. A lot of this was done so that people won't completely lose all of their fields after missing a single day of play. It should be possible to miss a day or two and still be able to salvage some of the crops, though qualities will suffer, so get someone to look after your farm while you're away!

[Alexander]

Excellent news, thank you.

[Karasi]

This is awesome. I can't wait to play with the new system to see how the changes affect farming!

When I started playing Clok, I had no idea that farming was so rewarding. I did it simply for the enjoyment. I love the planting aspect and watching things grow. Never had the chance to do that in RL.

The changes sound fair to me, and reasonable. I'm excited.

[Rithiel]

There was a recent change to weeding that has your target the highest level weeds first. This means that players may not notice changes in their weeds until they have weeded a number of times. This is not a bug - you're still affecting the amount of weeds on your plot.