Announce post #2984: Farming and the Agriculture system!

Autoposter · July 2019

<pre>7/17/2019 at 1:48
Kyna, the Cookie Monster
Everyone
Farming and the Agriculture system!

Hello!

I know many of you have been wondering where I have disappeared to lately – "What has Kyna been working on behind the scenes?" Well, now, with much excitement, I can finally reveal to you what has kept me so busy.

This project has been my biggest one yet - and there is still so much to do - but its roll out begins today. Let me introduce you to the Agriculture Skillset.

WHAT IS AGRICULTURE?
--------------------

You will find the following information in HELP AGRICULTURE, however this skillset is about craft, and commodity, yes, you read me correctly, commodity, generation. You are now in charge of the economy, my friends. With a little bit of guiding help from us, of course, to keep things as balanced as we can for you.

Agriculture will consist of three (3) skills. However, you will only be able to have two (2) of them at any given time, with the second skill costing more to learn.

------ AGRICULTURE ------------------------------------------

Farming | Tend to a field. Grow crops. Care for animals.
Mining | Coming soon(not tm).
??? | To be revealed?!

Stage one is the rollout of Farming.

WHAT IS FARMING?
----------------

Farming is the production of certain fruits, vegetables, produce and raw materials. AB FARMING lists the skillset and HELP FARMING is also available.

However, what makes farming EXTRA special is that these farming plots are on a new type of map. Each city, or community, has a designated area that houses their plots - we will expand on plot maps in the future, however you may only own one (1) farm plot per map on release.

Bloodloch | Shamtota Hills | v66678
Enorian | Village of Jaru | v66430
Spinesreach | Southern Tundra | v66677
Duiran | Eastern Ithmia | v66679

Your first plot of land on your city-centric maps is free. After you have received your first deed, enter the farmland that aligns with your city and CLAIM FARMLAND WITH DEED. From there, you can ENTER FARMPLOT.

Once you enter your field, you will notice it is empty, save some grass which you will want to remove if you plan on growing anything - or maybe you want to leave it, I heard animals love grazing.

I would suggest erecting a shed as soon as possible, this building is your own personal hub and storage for your raw materials. From there? That is your choice. Experiment and explore the skillset, but I will give you a few pointers:

> What scares the crows?
> Watering is important.
> Some seeds are seasonal.
> Nothing grows in winter.
> Fertilized crops produce extra.
> Is that a bandit on your field?
> Trees need more space to grow.
> Winter field maintenance promises early spring.

WHERE DO I LEARN THE SKILL AND BUY BASIC MATERIALS?
---------------------------------------------------

There is one (1) NPC who teaches the skill and sells the basic materials and tools you will need to get started. However, as I mentioned earlier, they will only sell items until all of the Agriculture skills are rolled out. At that time, they will ONLY be a tutor for farming. Make sure you GREET him, too!

Tutor NPC: Ives, an Elder of Kald (v66435)
Skill Cost: 10,000 gold

Due to the importance of these skills on the economy, we felt it is important that they are more readily accessible to players; therefore, they will only incur a gold cost to learn.

However, to progress within the skill, it will continue to cost lessons as any normal skill tree does.

In order to learn the skills of FARMING, go to the tutor and type LEARN ABILITY OF FARMING FROM <tutor>.

I GREW SOME TREES, NOW WHAT?
----------------------------

Certain raw materials can be grown, and harvested, to then be processed into commodities. Yes, as I said earlier, we are giving you control over your cities, and personal, commodity supplies. This is achieved through production, which you will find is housed within your city. Each one has a new, designated area dedicated to material production.

Lumber Mill | Trunks into Wood
Tanning Room | Cow Hide into Leather
Clothier | Cotton into cloth. Hemp into rope.

Materials can only be sent to your city via a caravan, which you request from your farm shed. It is VERY important that you are aware that cities MUST invest in the production Research Tree to begin accepting resources and orders, as your first production facilities cannot constructed without the knowledge unlocked through that. Please take the time to read HELP PRODUCTION, as the process introduces a bunch of new functions for players, and cities or communities.

However, a few things to note:

> Travel time is a thing.
> Caravans can be attacked.
> City buying, and selling, is a balance.

Let me elaborate on that last point by explaining how we intend for this new system to be used:

1) You grow the raw commodity.
2) You harvest the crop, or tree, to your shed.
3) You request a caravan to come collect raw
commodities and ship them to a city for
processing.
4) You are charged a gold cost for the production.
This comes out of your bank account, so keep
gold in there!
5) You pickup your processed commodities from the
city warehouse once it has been refined.
6) You can then sell your commodities back to the
cities. They need them to keep production rooms
open, which you need to continue producing
commodities.

This keeps the whole system entirely in your hands on a fully interactive level by bringing in new ways to offset your costs by selling to the city, but the cities also make gold by charging you for production - these profits can be allocated to the trade ministry for future purchases; and around we go. It will be a delicate balance for you to find.

This also opens up new opportunities for creative ways to use commodities in future systems!

Lastly, a thing to note is that, the more workers at a particular station, the quicker the queue, however, the heavier the cost. This employment, and tax, is set by the leaders of each city or community.

SHOUT OUT
---------

I absolutely could not have done this without the support of the Pools. Everyone has had input on this new adventure and all of us are super excited to share this with you.

Special mention to Keroc, who has babied this project with me from the beginning and Razmael, who has added some magical flare and mechanics. Without their coding knowledge, work and additions, none of this would be ready for you to explore today.

We hope you enjoy it and we look forward to the future of this particular corner of Aetolia.

Happy farming, friends. Please feel free to send cookies.

With love,

Kyna

Penned by my hand on Quensday, the 7th of Haernos, in the year 481 MA.</pre>

Moxie · July 2019

I'm very excited for all of these changes! I did have a question though, how will this affect the city trade ministries? Are there any extra steps I will need to do? I do know the concept of warehouses from another IRE I play and understand that they can be very expensive, will more information come out concerning this?

Tiur · July 2019

It's mostly encapsulated with Development, which we had to split into two files!

Razmael · July 2019

Taken from HELP PRODUCTION:

Ministry of Trade responsibilities
----------------------------------
- Checking caravan departure times and informing city so they can be vigilant of pillagers when it departs.
- Ordering caravans to depart early, if necessary to ensure a safe, guarded travel.
- Managing the price the city will buy commodities for.

Refer to HELP TRADE for further details and syntaxes.

Let us know if we can explain anything further and I'll try my best to explain.

Moxie · July 2019

Tiur said:
It's mostly encapsulated with Development, which we had to split into two files!

Where is my celebration reaction????

Macavity · July 2019

Any new artifacts to look forward to with this??

Aymah · July 2019

Sooo I have some questions about farming;

1. Do I need to place a scarecrow in each field I plant?
2. I noticed winter just started in the game, does this mean soon we won't be able to play with all the farming skills until it ends?

3. Who will eventually make all the farming supplies, or from which crafting skill?
4. Will we get ingredients from the things we plant or is farming intended only for the production of commodities?
5. And on that note, a processed cow will only produce leather? How about some steak or milk? What sort of commodity will chickens generate?
6. Is the production/obtention of seeds by other means than buying them something we can expect to see in the future? Quests for rare seeds?
7. Does farming have to be off plane? I don't want to be a lonely rancher

These are only a few things that come to mind, it feels like a skillset with a lot of potential!

PS. I love farming.

Tekias · July 2019

To answer the one I know of:

2) Ere made a changelog post stating that, this Winter only, there will effectively be a 6 month Spring season as far as Farming is concerned.

Aloli · July 2019

I don't want to rush a good thing but I'm so curious what the third skillset will be and find myself wanting to wait for its release before deciding what to invest in.

Kalinaar · July 2019

*stares at his pine tree orchard*

Wait... patience was an option??

Zaila · July 2019

To echo @Aymah - could the farming plane at least be able to send TELLs to people? It's a bit of a bummer to be totally cut off from everyone - especially if you've got questions!

Razmael · July 2019

Aymah said:
Sooo I have some questions about farming;

1. Do I need to place a scarecrow in each field I plant?
2. I noticed winter just started in the game, does this mean soon we won't be able to play with all the farming skills until it ends?
3. Who will eventually make all the farming supplies, or from which crafting skill?
4. Will we get ingredients from the things we plant or is farming intended only for the production of commodities?
5. And on that note, a processed cow will only produce leather? How about some steak or milk? What sort of commodity will chickens generate?
6. Is the production/obtention of seeds by other means than buying them something we can expect to see in the future? Quests for rare seeds?
7. Does farming have to be off plane? I don't want to be a lonely rancher

These are only a few things that come to mind, it feels like a skillset with a lot of potential!

PS. I love farming.

We'll get to some of these other questions soon, but for the off-plane problem, that's just an oversight on our part. I'll poke around and fix it.

Razmael · July 2019

for the off-plane problem, that's just an oversight on our part. I'll poke around and fix it.

And done

Kyna · July 2019

Aymah said:
Sooo I have some questions about farming;

1. Do I need to place a scarecrow in each field I plant?
2. I noticed winter just started in the game, does this mean soon we won't be able to play with all the farming skills until it ends?
3. Who will eventually make all the farming supplies, or from which crafting skill?
4. Will we get ingredients from the things we plant or is farming intended only for the production of commodities?
5. And on that note, a processed cow will only produce leather? How about some steak or milk? What sort of commodity will chickens generate?
6. Is the production/obtention of seeds by other means than buying them something we can expect to see in the future? Quests for rare seeds?
7. Does farming have to be off plane? I don't want to be a lonely rancher

These are only a few things that come to mind, it feels like a skillset with a lot of potential!

PS. I love farming.

1. One scarecrow is required per farm plot, not per "square".
2. Already answered, but for the sake of staying neat, Ere gave a pixie blessing that made farms behave as if it's spring during this winter so you got time to play!
3. Various crafts, not just one, will be able to make the supplies for Agriculture.
4. The things you grow are not just for commodities. Cotton, hemp, cow hide and pine trees are the raw version of commodities.
5. There is no steak or milk yet for cows, as for chickens, they give eggs!
6. There is a super rare event of a merchant already who offers a rare seed. As for the future, SPOILERS! Sorry!
7. That Razmael lad fixed the off plane oversight.

PS. I'm super glad you love it!

Rasani · July 2019

Will animals eventually produce food as well? This is clearly a very ambitious project, so really hats off

Kyna · July 2019

I sense the Steakhouse desire here. We certainly want to bring that food to your table, but it's not on the agenda for right now. We have some other things on our to-do list to get to first before we can expand on that.

Rasani · July 2019

You can tell I want Rasani to be the bumpkin farmer/tavern owner she was born to be, and I thank you for it.

Kalinaar · July 2019

6. There is a super rare event of a merchant already who offers a rare seed. As for the future, SPOILERS! Sorry!

I'm curious about this one. Does this merchant show up in the FARMLANDS map or our personal FARMPLOT?

Tiur · July 2019

Inside your plot. He's either an ASCII ! or has his own special sprite.

He visited you, Kalinaar! While I was stealing pictures of your farm for Jumpy, and you were farming, he walked right past.

Kalinaar · July 2019

Tiur said:
He visited you, Kalinaar! While I was stealing pictures of your farm for Jumpy, and you were farming, he walked right past.

!!!

Aymah · July 2019

I've been visited by the merchant, even if he was a little understocked hehe.
Sooo, can I put a house in my farm? Is that a thing?

Phoenecia · July 2019

So, regarding growing non-commodity things (fruits, vegetables, wheat) or having chickens (eggs), why would we WANT to grow those if they're available to buy from the crafting shops or can be harvested as opposed to just focusing on producing things for comms important to other crafts (wood, cloth, rope, leather, etc)? Are cooking materials going to be spawning at slower rates now or be fueled by their availability from player production? Only reason I ask is because it doesn't feel like there's a point in growing 'non-essential' crops unless you really want to double down on being a farmer, ESPECIALLY since players can purchase garden patches or fruit trees for some of those things already.

Also, for crops with Regrowth, do they only regrow once after harvesting or do they continue to regrow until you uproot it?

Rasani · July 2019

God I hope not, it's already a bloodsport to get some food comms

Fezzix · July 2019

/rolls a character named Dwight and plants beets.

Razmael · July 2019

Well, commodities are always going to be the main draw of the system. BUT! We actually accelerated something up our timetable that gives a small purpose to other crops, due to the popularity being well beyond our expectations.

Rhyot · July 2019

Fezzix said:
/rolls a character named Dwight and plants beets.

Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

Ansidia · July 2019

Can we have pigs? We need the bacon!

Aishia · July 2019

Yooo could minipet wander work in farms!?

Teani · July 2019

Ansidia said:

Can we have pigs? We need the bacon!

We already have wereboars, isn't that enough? Just call it farming PK and hunt some of those down!

Nerakh · July 2019

YFW you realise the Atabahi up to their usual "CULL THE BACON" nonsense

Kalinaar · July 2019

I'm a little confused about how caravans are going to work. Will a separate caravan depart for each individual farm or will one caravan depart with the goods from all city farms combined?

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Announce post #2984: Farming and the Agriculture system!

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