Stop the small/big/patty distinction on ground-basis

[zenith veldt]

currently you can make small plots, big plots and patties. but honestly... nobody does that in reality.
if you've seen farm lands they all just plow a giant mass of ground all together and then the plants allocate a small/medium/big amount of space.

that would look a lot better since it'd fill all the space there is. then you can fill for example a complete plot of land (that's seperated by the elevation) and fill it with crops, it'll definitely look beautiful and you're closer to get a real full-fledged rice terrace (japanese "田")

also please keep in mind that crops that need to be planted in paddies like rice... should be flooded. like under water. completely. not a little puddle but like in the photo, just sayin 🙂

[split bone]

Pretty sure this would require an entire rework of the engine. Yes, it looks cooler and is more accurate, but that’d be a different game.

[zenith veldt]

i mean... okay i see where you're coming from. currently plowing is like placing objects on the ground, but my approach would be more like texture-painting 🤔

but still i think this is the better approach... it'd be better looking and more realistic.

so leaving aside the question how much effort is behind it... what do you personally think, would you say it's a good idea? would you say it make not really much difference? or would you even say you like it better the way it is?

[rotund nova]

As lovely as that looks, I prefer the functional mechanic in the game as it makes it possible for other systems to work with it too.

Game engine and work load limitations as they are, I think it's fine the way it is. I'm sure there will be ways people will make lovely farms decorating.

[pallid hearth]

yeah there's no way they're gonna overhaul the farming system. what you're asking for would take like a year of dev work lol

and the way they have it now is fine. it's a gameified version of farming. you're playing a video game after all

[zenith veldt]

it wouldn't be that harsh. it's not like they need to substitute their whole game engine, it's just ground painting. or they can interpret it like paths, like fences, that the textures become docked to each other instead of looking separated, there are easy alternatives

i mean think about it, if you paint grass on a ground, you can also paint plowed earth on the ground. and then you interact with the earth the same way like you interact with the grass.

but if you feel like it wouldn't be much value in it, then it's okay.

[rotund nova]

There's no argument about whether it would be lovely, the changes would take work though. Especially when it comes to a plot being it's own object. Because it's not just textures, the player would still have to be able to interact with the plot: how big would each plot designed that way be? How many seeds can be put into it? It would still have to be its own object because it would need to be differentiated from the rest of the terrain. Different terrain has different mechanics tied to them. It wouldn't be a simple system to implement in the way you're thinking of.

Now if you just meant a non functional paint tool to help the plots blend a little better perhaps. But gameplay and mechanical wise it would be a big project.

[zenith veldt]

no it would react the same way the farmland would. we just need to redefine terms. think about it. you place objects on the farm ground. the farm ground has certain boundaries, like you can't build stuff on edges, you can't build stuff that's already occupied.

now let's assume the SEEDS are an object. and the seeds allocate space which is either 1x1 or 2x2 or 3x3.

then the only difference is that we need a check whether the ground you're building on is plowed...

speaking in terms of game engine the act of plowing would be like using a paint tool. then all we need to do is some math to check if all the area that's covered by the requested plant size is covered by "plowered earth paint" i think that should be possible without much ado, even though i'm not perfectly sure.

[rotund nova]

That still seems like a lot of work to me, especially having to redefine such an integral part of the game. And object definitions and the checks. Let alone how it'd interact with the critter/weather/raccoon stuff. Could always wait and see if Rainy responds to how much work it would take.