Farming: Fertilizers

[Badich]

The new system of farming with an option to inspect newly-planted crops is rather a short-term solution, which does not have much gaming value in it. I suggest returning the old system (when each tile might have different quality after harvesting) and add an opportunity to rise the quality using fertilizers (animal faecies).

New object: fertilizer is created automatically as a by-product of keeping domesticated animals. The quality of the fertilizes is equal to the quality of the animal. 1kg = 1 tile. You can place it into buckets - 10 kg, or barrels - 100 kg.

New building: compost box, a container for the fertilizers. It keeps up to 1000 kg of fertilizers. It works like a feeding fodders (has a radius) and is filled by the faecies automatically.

Crop inspection should be allowed only at the last stage of growth.
It is necessary to remove the system with 12 tiles. Cannot stress enough how important is it.

How it works:
1. The plowed fields have 3 levels of fertility: unfertilized, normal and fertilized level.
Unfertilized - the growth speed is 80%, quality increase varies from -1 to +2.
Normal - the growth rate is 100%, quality increase 0 to +3.
Fertilized - the growth rate is 120%, quality increase chance varies from +1 to +4 (the last parameter has twice less chance to happen. So chance of getting +2 = 28.6%, chance of +4 is = 14,3%).

To fertilize 1 tile you will need 1 kg of fertilizer. It works the same way as tile pavement. After this the tile becomes fertilized. After 2 cycles of crop harvesting the soil degrades to the normal level. After 3 harvests the field become unfertilized.

2. The fertilizers might be used for planting the trees. You could use the standard scheme of 4 soil or 2 soils and 2 fertilizers. In the late-game stage it will benefit the tree selection process since the natural resources will not be able to keep up with the trees quality.

3. When the compost box gets overfilled, the animals keep producing faeces, transforming tiles under them to dirt (even if the area is paved by stone). A little payment for the new opportunities.

[mamotromico]

The new system of farming with an option to inspect newly-planted crops is rather a short-term solution, which does not have much gaming value in it. I suggest returning the old system (when each tile might have different quality after harvesting) and add an opportunity to rise the quality using fertilizers (animal faecies).

New object: fertilizer is created automatically as a by-product of keeping domesticated animals. The quality of the fertilizes is equal to the quality of the animal. 1kg = 1 tile. You can place it into buckets - 10 kg, or barrels - 100 kg.

New building: compost box, a container for the fertilizers. It keeps up to 1000 kg of fertilizers. It works like a feeding fodders (has a radius) and is filled by the faecies automatically.

Crop inspection should be allowed only at the last stage of growth.
It is necessary to remove the system with 12 tiles. Cannot stress enough how important is it.

How it works:
1. The plowed fields have 3 levels of fertility: unfertilized, normal and fertilized level.
Unfertilized - the growth speed is 80%, quality increase varies from -1 to +2.
Normal - the growth rate is 100%, quality increase 0 to +3.
Fertilized - the growth rate is 120%, quality increase chance varies from +1 to +4 (the last parameter has twice less chance to happen. So chance of getting +2 = 28.6%, chance of +4 is = 14,3%).

To fertilize 1 tile you will need 1 kg of fertilizer. It works the same way as tile pavement. After this the tile becomes fertilized. After 2 cycles of crop harvesting the soil degrades to the normal level. After 3 harvests the field become unfertilized.

2. The fertilizers might be used for planting the trees. You could use the standard scheme of 4 soil or 2 soils and 2 fertilizers. In the late-game stage it will benefit the tree selection process since the natural resources will not be able to keep up with the trees quality.

3. When the compost box gets overfilled, the animals keep producing faeces, transforming tiles under them to dirt (even if the area is paved by stone). A little payment for the new opportunities.

I like the idea of fertilizers but I don't see the point of returning to the old quality system.

[bdew]

This suggestion is a load of ... fertilizer

Farming doesn't need any more tedium (spreading crap) added to it, it has more than enough already. It also shouldn't require you to keep tons of animals.

[Kelody]

I thought of fertilizer, but was thinking it's effect would slowly raise the quality of the soil, not influence crops directly. I also thought of a new skill, tree husbandry, to slightly increase the quality of growing trees. Also, could compost existing plants to create high quality soil. A building similar to the tar kiln.

[Sevenless]

This suggestion is a load of ... fertilizer

Farming doesn't need any more tedium (spreading crap) added to it, it has more than enough already. It also shouldn't require you to keep tons of animals.

If the fertilizer system removed test planting I personally would consider that a win. The test/inspect crap is annoying and real time management. I'd rather just shovel crap for a couple more minutes instead of deal with that.

The implementation being properly done is part of that though. It should be too much work to collect/spread.

[bdew]

This suggestion is a load of ... fertilizer

Farming doesn't need any more tedium (spreading crap) added to it, it has more than enough already. It also shouldn't require you to keep tons of animals.

If the fertilizer system removed test planting I personally would consider that a win. The test/inspect crap is annoying and real time management. I'd rather just shovel crap for a couple more minutes instead of deal with that.

The implementation being properly done is part of that though. It should be too much work to collect/spread.

I agree that test planting should be removed, but i don't think making farm animals required for (effective) farming is a good idea. Many hermits don't keep animals because taming and maintaining them is a very big time investment, and they will be screwed over by a system like that.

[Peonaz3]

That's bad imo

More clicking, hassle with dumping shit in fields

Division between noobs struggling to tame animals, and developed villages will grow even bigger. New players will develop relatively slower too, they already waiting long days to gather 10 straw for beehive..

[LadyGoo]

Division between noobs struggling to tame animals, and developed villages will grow even bigger. New players will develop relatively slower too, they already waiting long days to gather 10 straw for beehive..

Well, the system could be changed in a way that fertilization would be something optional (removing the unfertilized land part) or you could maxe compost bins to actually produce the compost without need in animals. As the OP stated, getting +4 should be a bit unlikely. And noobs cannot catch up with bigger villages anyways.

[DaniAngione]

What's what this testing thing I see a lot of fuss about?

I just plant, harvest and replant and quality is steadily growing side by side with my farming skill. Is there anything I'm missing?

[molenga]

This suggestion is a load of ... fertilizer

Farming doesn't need any more tedium (spreading crap) added to it, it has more than enough already. It also shouldn't require you to keep tons of animals.

If the fertilizer system removed test planting I personally would consider that a win. The test/inspect crap is annoying and real time management. I'd rather just shovel crap for a couple more minutes instead of deal with that.

The implementation being properly done is part of that though. It should be too much work to collect/spread.

Test planting needs to be removed alright, that shit is boring. Maybe we could just fill a bucket or a barrel with fertilizer and shift+right click it to mass fertilize the field, in the same way planting and harvesting works?

Also, the problem of people who don´t have animals not being able to use fertilizers could simply be solved by adding more then one fertilizer source, like placing vegetable matter on compost boxes to make it turn into fertilizer for example, or grinding bone into bone meal, which is a very good fertilizer.