Farming, cooking, & preservation.

[Chickfabulous 26]

As the topic states, this if about farming, cooking, and food preservation.

 

Starting with Farming:

First: Crop plot placement requirements are way to far apart.  It’s like a 6 inch gap on all sides as the closest they can be to each other.  While wanting to have more space it also doesn’t look pretty (for those of us who like it to look nice and tight).  

Second: Harvesting.  Don’t get me wrong the yield is nice, however it’s the same weather I do it (fully speced), the bonus mini-game, a company member does it (non-spec), making the points I put into the bonus useless, as well as not needing to do the mini-game (which I personally do enjoy).  

Third: Tundra Rock doesn’t work.  When I place a crop plot on wood or thatch I get the “tundra thatch or wood”, on stone it says “tundra rock”, but when I click to plant seed it says “no seeds available”.  If it’s not meant to be on stone foundations fine but make it where you can’t place them on stone floors.

Fourth: Water Tanks.  Where we live it rains enough that we don’t need water tanks, however I made a bunch to be able to fill skins and water jugs, however the water barrels hold I think (500-600 water), where as the tanks only hold 200.  Thats not a lot of water for a water tank when I could just make barrels that take up 1/4 of the space and hold 3x the amount.  I like the reservoirs because you can pipe them unlike the barrels but it’s not worth the space with such a tiny amount of water it holds.

Lastly: Fertlizer.  I love that I can just craft it but there are 4 types of poop, human, small, medium, and large.  I’d like to be able to take a large poop with like 150 thatch to make a bigger bag of fertilizer than have all the sizes make one size.  I don’t mind if it cost more thatch for bigger bags but it makes picking up bigger poops more useful.  I have PIGs but still when you feed your tames and they poop might as well use grab it and craft a bag of fertilizer.

i think that’s about it on farming.  I like the idea of it and that you can’t grow everything in one zone or on one surface but there are a few things that need to be adjusted.

Cooking:

I know there are plans to work on this and change it.  A few things to make sure they aren’t forgotten.

First: Meat.  Animal meat is used in some recipes however in the grill it autocrafts making you have to put double in the grill so you can make your food while the other half turns into cooked meat.  Also, can you make cooked prime fish meat look different in the UI then the raw prime fish meat because currently they look exactly the same, even if it’s just making the cooked a different color on the UI would be nice.

Secondly: Water. Unless you live on an island with fresh water, getting water requires tanks and barrels.  Not a huge deal because there’s decent rain fall in our area (I can’t speak for all zones), however, the waterskin and the water jug (even though one holds more) gets 1 use per recipe.  If I can use the water jug 3 times to drink from why can’t it get 3 uses in cooking?

That’s about all I’m going to say right now as it has been said the plans to rework it just a couple of things I hope you consider as well.

Finally Food Preservation:

Preserving Bags are cute and I love them, however they are small and don’t hold much, you can upgrade to the food lodder that holds more however I can’t put salt in it, and while it does have a decent life span it’s not comparable to the preserving bag, especially on custom foods like hot cocoa, which only stacks to 5 and has a 6 hour life span in the bag.  I’d love to be able to put preserving salt in the food lodder to add to the life span or given a bigger preserve bag.

Feeding troughs do not have a long enough life span on meat.  Berries stack to 100 so it’s not as noticeable how fast they expire, but the meat spoils so fast.  If either the time is longer OR we can put preserving salt in there to increase it that would be fine as well.  

Spoiled Meat has zero purpose in the game, can we make when meat spoils it’s like berries and just vanishes.  You spend 5-10 mins a day while playing just chucking rotten meat out of bags, troughs, in your inventory etc.  it’s space consuming with no purpose.

i think that’s all I have to say as these are important aspects in the game that I enjoy, farming and cooking, plus caring for our animals and ship crew.  So I hope you consider some of my ideas.  Thanks ChickFabulous! 

 

P.s. please make bolas stack! And a bigger storage beside large storage boxes.  Even in Pirates of the Caribbean they had vaults lol.  

 

 

[Shintai 117]

In terms of farming, anything rock cant grow anything. I don´t know why the plot simply isn't invalid like they did on ships now.

Large and small plot is currently the same.

I assume farming as such is waiting for a major overhaul, including more plants, fixing plot types and sizes and so on.

[Asanna 86]

2 hours ago, Chickfabulous said:

P.s. please make bolas stack! And a bigger storage beside large storage boxes.  Even in Pirates of the Caribbean they had vaults lol.  

Captaineering>Basics Of Crew.

It unlocks a basically unlimited chest to house resources it stacks them into the thousands and I havent found a limit to date for it.

[Chickfabulous 26]

1 hour ago, Asanna said:

Captaineering>Basics Of Crew.

It unlocks a basically unlimited chest to house resources it stacks them into the thousands and I havent found a limit to date for it.

Yes I have many resource boxes.  I mean for the basic items and blueprints would be nice having a larger storage for those that don’t go into the resource box. 

[Tindalen 33]

All of these are well articulated and reasonable requests, I love it.

The addition I would add is, unique storage units. Give me a book shelf that only holds blue prints, maps, and music sheets and has 100(+) slots! An armory that stores only armor, another for only weapons?

 

 

[Olivar 24]

The biggest gripe I have with the farming is the soil requirements. Unless you're living in Tropic/Temperate areas, you can't grow shit.
We have a Artic  base, and can grow wheat and peppers, that's it. Nothing else grows anywhere, even if we place it on grass/leaves.
Artic  doesn't grow anything for us.

[archaegeo 192]

Excellent post OP

On spoiled meat, its a hold over from Ark where it definitely has a use.

[ViperGuyMike 18]

My main complaint is with how useless the food system is as a whole. The other people in my company keep demolishing the grills and mess tables to make room for other things. None of them eat or drink, they just die and re-spawn every 10 or 15 minutes. I hate this and I continue to cook, but it truly is a waste of time. They get far more done in the same time as me since I am taking the time to gather, hunt, and cook instead of just dying and re-spawning like they do.

[Tindalen 33]

Keeping proper vitamins also gives you a decent buff, but I would suggest that if you enjoy cooking then you should keep doing it and tell your company to sod off if they keep destroying your equipment. I'm also a little concerned about them dying every 10-15 minutes, after the wolves were tampered a bit, we pretty much just stopped dying. This allows us to wander our large island exploring and not worrying about having to find our corpse to get our gear. 

I will absolutely agree that cooking needs to be improved and have no doubt that cooking will be given a good work over.

[Hodo 147]

1 hour ago, Olivar said:

The biggest gripe I have with the farming is the soil requirements. Unless you're living in Tropic/Temperate areas, you can't grow shit.
We have a Artic  base, and can grow wheat and peppers, that's it. Nothing else grows anywhere, even if we place it on grass/leaves.
Artic  doesn't grow anything for us.

This promotes trade... sorry but that is the harsh realities of living in the hard north.

[gadefence 148]

"First: Crop plot placement requirements are way to far apart.  It’s like a 6 inch gap on all sides as the closest they can be to each other.  While wanting to have more space it also doesn’t look pretty (for those of us who like it to look nice and tight).  "

No one cares but you.

"Second: Harvesting.  Don’t get me wrong the yield is nice, however it’s the same weather I do it (fully speced), the bonus mini-game, a company member does it (non-spec), making the points I put into the bonus useless, as well as not needing to do the mini-game (which I personally do enjoy).  "

Agreed, and tilling is a bitch. Right now, equitorial is op and the rest are not as good for growing. Should make a sweet spot system. If you're growing, say, cactus in the desert, tilling does basically nothing and it does as is right now (100 per bumper crops), equitorial does little (say 10) but better with tilling (say 25) and tilling would need 2/3 success if you're growing cactus in the arctic for just 1. Same but reverse for something like a turnip. Everywhere can go, but growing and trading makes it way easier, and equatorial is "just decent" for everything with no bumpers.

"Third: Tundra Rock doesn’t work.  When I place a crop plot on wood or thatch I get the “tundra thatch or wood”, on stone it says “tundra rock”, but when I click to plant seed it says “no seeds available”.  If it’s not meant to be on stone foundations fine but make it where you can’t place them on stone floors."

Seeds can be planted in limited locations (equatorial OP) - check the seed page on the wiki for where they can be planted. EX:https://atlas.gamepedia.com/Carrot_Seed

"Fourth: Water Tanks.  Where we live it rains enough that we don’t need water tanks, however I made a bunch to be able to fill skins and water jugs, however the water barrels hold I think (500-600 water), where as the tanks only hold 200.  Thats not a lot of water for a water tank when I could just make barrels that take up 1/4 of the space and hold 3x the amount.  I like the reservoirs because you can pipe them unlike the barrels but it’s not worth the space with such a tiny amount of water it holds."

Barrels hold 500 water, reservoirs hold 200 IIRC. Barrels evaporate water when the lid is open, and also only fill when the lid is open and it rains - reservoirs do not evaporate and always fill during rain. Barrels weight 500 pounds when full - I don't remember reservoirs but it's far lower, like 75 or 50 or something. Barrels cannot be hooked up to pipe networks, reservoirs can, and reservoirs have more slots to fill up jars with (although it seems bugged as I can't transfer jars over). You can pick up barrels, full or empty, reservoirs are stationary after built.

They server different purposes.

"Lastly: Fertlizer.  I love that I can just craft it but there are 4 types of poop, human, small, medium, and large.  I’d like to be able to take a large poop with like 150 thatch to make a bigger bag of fertilizer than have all the sizes make one size.  I don’t mind if it cost more thatch for bigger bags but it makes picking up bigger poops more useful.  I have PIGs but still when you feed your tames and they poop might as well use grab it and craft a bag of fertilizer."

I assume this is coming.

"Preserving Bags are cute and I love them, however they are small and don’t hold much, you can upgrade to the food lodder that holds more however I can’t put salt in it, and while it does have a decent life span it’s not comparable to the preserving bag, especially on custom foods like hot cocoa, which only stacks to 5 and has a 6 hour life span in the bag.  I’d love to be able to put preserving salt in the food lodder to add to the life span or given a bigger preserve bag."

As you point our, larder for high capacity low quality food (veggies meats) and preserving bag for meals. Do not put raw meats into preserving bags, waste of salt and the meat sucks (only the same benefit as raw meats)

"Feeding troughs do not have a long enough life span on meat.  Berries stack to 100 so it’s not as noticeable how fast they expire, but the meat spoils so fast.  If either the time is longer OR we can put preserving salt in there to increase it that would be fine as well."

You can put cooked meat in there. It's not a fridge.

"Spoiled Meat has zero purpose in the game, can we make when meat spoils it’s like berries and just vanishes.  You spend 5-10 mins a day while playing just chucking rotten meat out of bags, troughs, in your inventory etc.  it’s space consuming with no purpose.""

You can tame vultures with rotten meat.

[Domino 48]

23 minutes ago, ViperGuyMike said:

None of them eat or drink, they just die and re-spawn every 10 or 15 minutes.

This!  Even with easy access to all the vitamins, and trying to RP just for the sake of staying alive ("Okay, I'll make an effort this time"), a lot of times it is simply easier to scoop up a poop and eat that and reset.

I'm sure that will change when the effects of dying become more pronounced, though.  (Or at least I hope it does!)  There have been lots of positive changes since the initial launch (and, granted, a few questionable changes as well) so I'm still hoping that this will be addressed and balanced when the devs have time to get to it.

Side note: always a pleasant surprise to see a constructive thread!  Nice post, OP!

[Chickfabulous 26]

6 hours ago, Olivar said:

The biggest gripe I have with the farming is the soil requirements. Unless you're living in Tropic/Temperate areas, you can't grow shit.
We have a Artic  base, and can grow wheat and peppers, that's it. Nothing else grows anywhere, even if we place it on grass/leaves.
Artic  doesn't grow anything for us.

I'm not to familiar with the Arctic, but we're in the Tundra (super cold), and we have 14 things we can grow.  So far i've found I can't grow chickpeas, cactus, and I can't remember the other one but just those three I've found that don't like the cold.  I've found some stuff while mostly temperate, there is Tundra Thatch it can be grown on, but again idk your exactly what your zone is.  

5 hours ago, gadefence said:

"First: Crop plot placement requirements are way to far apart.  It’s like a 6 inch gap on all sides as the closest they can be to each other.  While wanting to have more space it also doesn’t look pretty (for those of us who like it to look nice and tight).  "

No one cares but you. (Actually a lot of people would like a closer fitting garden, no reason to be rude). 

"Second: Harvesting.  Don’t get me wrong the yield is nice, however it’s the same weather I do it (fully speced), the bonus mini-game, a company member does it (non-spec), making the points I put into the bonus useless, as well as not needing to do the mini-game (which I personally do enjoy).  "

Agreed, and tilling is a bitch. Right now, equatorial is op and the rest are not as good for growing. Should make a sweet spot system. If you're growing, say, cactus in the desert, tilling does basically nothing and it does as is right now (100 per bumper crops), equatorial does little (say 10) but better with tilling (say 25) and tilling would need 2/3 success if you're growing cactus in the arctic for just 1. Same but reverse for something like a turnip. Everywhere can go, but growing and trading makes it way easier, and equatorial is "just decent" for everything with no bumpers. (My main point is putting points into the system currently doesn't gain you anything in the boost to harvest which kinda of sucks)

"Third: Tundra Rock doesn’t work.  When I place a crop plot on wood or thatch I get the “tundra thatch or wood”, on stone it says “tundra rock”, but when I click to plant seed it says “no seeds available”.  If it’s not meant to be on stone foundations fine but make it where you can’t place them on stone floors."

Seeds can be planted in limited locations (equatorial OP) - check the seed page on the wiki for where they can be planted.  (The comment was mostly that Tundra Rock shows up on crop plots placed on stone gives it the name Tundra Rock as it's soil, but you're unable to plant on it, so if it's not meant to be Tundra Rock that's fine, but make it where you can't place them on stone floors).

"Fourth: Water Tanks.  Where we live it rains enough that we don’t need water tanks, however I made a bunch to be able to fill skins and water jugs, however the water barrels hold I think (500-600 water), where as the tanks only hold 200.  Thats not a lot of water for a water tank when I could just make barrels that take up 1/4 of the space and hold 3x the amount.  I like the reservoirs because you can pipe them unlike the barrels but it’s not worth the space with such a tiny amount of water it holds."

Barrels hold 500 water, reservoirs hold 200 IIRC. Barrels evaporate water when the lid is open, and also only fill when the lid is open and it rains - reservoirs do not evaporate and always fill during rain. Barrels weight 500 pounds when full - I don't remember reservoirs but it's far lower, like 75 or 50 or something. Barrels cannot be hooked up to pipe networks, reservoirs can, and reservoirs have more slots to fill up jars with (although it seems bugged as I can't transfer jars over). You can pick up barrels, full or empty, reservoirs are stationary after built. (While reservoirs can be piped they take up a massive space and have a small hold on water it makes it almost pointless in places that it rains.)

They server different purposes.

"Lastly: Fertlizer.  I love that I can just craft it but there are 4 types of poop, human, small, medium, and large.  I’d like to be able to take a large poop with like 150 thatch to make a bigger bag of fertilizer than have all the sizes make one size.  I don’t mind if it cost more thatch for bigger bags but it makes picking up bigger poops more useful.  I have PIGs but still when you feed your tames and they poop might as well use grab it and craft a bag of fertilizer."

I assume this is coming. (I hope so lol)

"Preserving Bags are cute and I love them, however they are small and don’t hold much, you can upgrade to the food lodder that holds more however I can’t put salt in it, and while it does have a decent life span it’s not comparable to the preserving bag, especially on custom foods like hot cocoa, which only stacks to 5 and has a 6 hour life span in the bag.  I’d love to be able to put preserving salt in the food lodder to add to the life span or given a bigger preserve bag."

As you point our, larder for high capacity low quality food (veggies meats) and preserving bag for meals. Do not put raw meats into preserving bags, waste of salt and the meat sucks (only the same benefit as raw meats).  (Mostly I hope that we can get a bigger sized preserve bag as the current one doesn't hold much, or being able to add salt to the lodder would be nice to increase it's current boost)

"Feeding troughs do not have a long enough life span on meat.  Berries stack to 100 so it’s not as noticeable how fast they expire, but the meat spoils so fast.  If either the time is longer OR we can put preserving salt in there to increase it that would be fine as well."

You can put cooked meat in there. It's not a fridge. (I don't want it to be a fridge, I just don't want to have to restock meat constantly because of how fast meat cooked or not rots inside of it, feeding troughs are designed to help keep your tames fed, and berry tames are super easy to keep food stocked in the trough because of their stack size, however meat just rots so fast making it a constant restocking job)

"Spoiled Meat has zero purpose in the game, can we make when meat spoils it’s like berries and just vanishes.  You spend 5-10 mins a day while playing just chucking rotten meat out of bags, troughs, in your inventory etc.  it’s space consuming with no purpose.""

You can tame vultures with rotten meat. (Okay cool, that is good to know)

 

Thanks everyone who has responded.  I really am enjoying this game and looking forward to upcoming changes they plan, and hope some of my ideas are considered.  I try to keep it positive and not make a post that's complaining, seems to be plenty of that already going on.  I think it's more helpful to make suggestions and why you'd like that versus being upset or mad about it, and hope the devs look at them and consider them.  I hope they add a suggestions thread.   .  Thanks All!  For the responses, and input.

 

Also, I few have mentioned that they usually just die to reset their vitamins.  I agree currently unless someone is taking the time on custom food it is a bit of a pain to eat 4 types of food, and not over eat, making dying easier, as well as traveling to a bed to another area it resets all your vitamins, making working on the buff kinda of useless if you're fast traveling a lot.  

Edited January 21, 2019 by Chickfabulous