How to survive a farm collapse and how to avoid it in the first place

Lily · 2018-04-24 17:51:22

I always ask my children if they know how to farm, and most of the time they say yes, then everyone starves to death ten minutes later. Some times it isn't their fault, some times it is, but I think we all experienced farm collapses, as they are happening all the time now. They key to avoiding disaster is planning ahead and recognizing the signs of coming doom. So here are some signs and what you can do.

1. There isn't enough plots of soil. If the population is growing you need to expand the size of the farm. The first thing you should do if you are put in charge of a farm is expand it. Every generation it needs to expand. You want at least 3 plots of carrots for each person, if carrots are your main source of food. Later you can transition to other food sources, and you don't need as many but early on this is important. It may even be worth going to 5 or 6 plots per person. This is a fairly easy thing to fix though. So if you see there isn't enough soil, just bring more in.

2. There isn't enough seeds. This is the big one, and what kills a lot of people. If you look at the rows of carrots and there is two or more plots without seeds in them and there is no seeds around, then you are already at the first stage of collapse*unless you are in the process of expanding the farm and that is why they are not seeded yet). Even if every other row is planted, and the carrots are growing, it is critical to remember that you are still in the process of a collapse. Most do not recognize it, as it seems like they are doing fine. However, what happens is that when those carrots grow and get picked even if you leave one for seeds, it will take 5 additional minutes for the seeds to form, then two more minutes for the replanted carrots to grow. So while you might get a big harvest of carrots and all will seem fine, the next batch of carrots will be 7 minutes out instead of the normal 2 and that is deadly.

So first thing you should do to correct the situation, is check for carrots that are already grown and immediately make them seed carrots. If they been there for a few minutes already, then you might get lucky and can get seeds quickly. If so you can avoid the collapse with only minor issues. If they just come up then you will need to make sure you have extra food for the upcoming delay. Make sure to water all the rows that are not watered, try to make pies, or roast rabbits if there is a lot of them around. If you produce a large number of carrots, you might still be able to survive this without a full blown collapse. This is also the time to check nearby area for bushes or cactus. If you is a decent amount to supplement the carrots during the delay you have a good chance.

3. There are no seeds. So you look at the farm and half or more of the plots are bare and there is no seeds in sight. Worse, there is only one or two plots with carrots growing and people are telling everyone not to pick because they are for seeds. At this point you are in dire straits. Remember it takes 2 minutes to grow carrots and 7 minutes to get more seeds. So even if you replant the entire field, you will run out of seeds when they get picked and the next seeds will take even longer to get.

If there is carrots growing and enough food to survive several minutes without any carrots being picked, then you can still salvage things. The key getting as much seeds as possible. Not just enough to replant the field, but to replant the field a second time after that. If you can do that you might be fine. Still there will be delays so you should seek other food methods, with pies, or from bushes and what have you.

If there is so few carrots growing that you can't even replant the entire field when the seeds do grow, then you are totally screwed. If you are having these issues and there is a large population, there is also a high chance you are totally screwed. In this case you have to find wild seeds, and you will have to find food else where. Even if there is a lot of picked carrots laying around, those will disappear in the blink of an eye. You are in a full blown collapse. No matter what you do, a bunch of people are likely to starve at this point. You can try to save as many as you can by finding wild bushes and bringing food back to town, and cooking up everything, roast any food you find, cook any pies or whatever.

4. There is no food. So this goes along with the other two seed problems. Ideally, you are dealing with the seed issues while there is still some food around, perhaps some carrots just came up so there is some to at least try to survive the long delay ahead. However, if that is not the case, then you have a very serious problem. 9 out of 10 times a starving person will pick seed carrots in a desperate attempt to survive, even when knowing they are seed carrots.

While I don't condone murder, I do consider you justified in killing a person who picks the seed carrots at this point. At this point if you don't have a backpack full of food you will likely have to flee the village and look for food in the wilds. If you do have a backpack with food you can try to wait things out. The best bet is probably run into the wilds and come back a few minutes later. Everyone will likely to be dead at this point, except the others who did the same as you and fled the city.

5. There is no water. This usually isn't an issue. However very bad farm placement, or griefers stealing baskets full of water pouches and stuff can cause an issue. If water pouches go missing, make new ones as quickly as possible or use bowls. If you want to expand the farm but water is a little lacking, consider moving the farm or building wells and cisterns.

6. There is no people. Or rather, a lack of people working the farm. This usually isn't an issue though can happen when there is a murderer or an old person is farming and dies. If carrots are left they will all seed and that will cause issues. Luckily this is an easy problem to solve as long as you run by the farm every once in a while. If carrots are not being picked, then pick them. At that point you determine whether you want to focus on farming or do something else. Often times if you have a lot of carrots, it is okay to leave the farm with no one working it, especially with very small populations. However, you should pick the carrots and seed the farm to prep it for later before going on to do whatever you plan to do.

7. All the soil is harden. I have yet to see a farm die due to this, however it is a possibility with the limited use of tools. My suggestion is to make sure to plant some milkweed for extra string and rope. That way you can make a primitive hoe in the worst case scenario. Also worms can til soil for you but it takes a long time. I have considered using them to leave some soil resting for a while to save on tool usage but that is a long term thing for very big farms, most people don't need to worry about. I have found that you can still use a hoe to til a wormy field, so if you try it and suddenly decide you can't wait, that is always an option.

8. Shrinking field. Composting is very important, but it is now more difficult than before. So you may have to relay in finding soil out in the wilds, luckily there is often a lot of it. It is usually fairly obvious when a field is starting to shrink in size due to soil loss, and it is just really a matter of finding more, either in the wilds or with composting. It is a long term issue, so when you notice it, you should start considering plans right away. However, it usually isn't a critical issue and wont cause the farm to collapse and everyone to die. Not unless you also have a large overpopulation issue.

9. Way too many people. I think everyone been in cities where there is a ton of people all over the place. They eat all the food and things can collapse quickly. Luckily if you follow the rest of the guide overpopulation can be avoided, as you should be expanding the farm as people are born. Of course, there are practical limits to how fast you can expand it, and you might not even be the person running the farm. Heck you could be a baby born into this situation and so have no control over what happens.

Overpopulation usually corrects it self as several people will end up starving off. Remember what I said in #4 though. Starving people will pick seed carrots. So it is very possible to go from an overpopulation problem to a no seed problem. If you have an overpopulation and seed problem, the only real answer is to flee the city. Even if you make a bunch of pies people will eat them all up and still starve. Often times this is when people randomly start to kill each other as well, trying to solve the population issue. However they are often not very picky about targets, and might kill you even if your the only person actually doing any work.

If possible, you want to try to prep the field a bit prior to fleeing and even water some new carrots, so that when you return there is something to come back to.

Anyway those are my tips for recognizing farming problems and solving them before everyone starves to death. Ideally you do want to advance to where people can make pies, and even get meat from sheep and stuff. Though short term a lot of people relies on those carrots.

Turnipseed · 2018-04-24 18:48:26

I would really like to see a sign with a carrot seed on it to mark rows.

mulgara · 2018-04-24 19:01:18

Also, as soon as you set up a working carrot farm, your goal should be to move up the tech tree and begin establishing better sources of food. Carrot farms at this point are not a sustainable option long term. I've seen so many settlements set up carrot farms as their only source of food, and then just rely on it until an inevitable famine.

Get started on pie production after you have carrots all set. Plant some berry bushes. Once you have those all up and running, you should then be concentrating on sheep farming and making mutton pie. Move as quickly up to this as possible.

breezeknight · 2018-04-24 19:07:26

just evaluate how many people the food in the area in reach can support & then you know how many kids you can actually afford as a female at the given moment & then stick to it

but if there are several potential mothers, then it gets complicated, because probably there will be overpopulation & nobody really will want to farm, nobody knows how to make compost (i myself didn't make compost since the worms arrived, so i do not expect others to know better), wells, should they have water will be probably soon driven to dry out & yes, the old nuissance of the seeding field

it all depends on if you want to care for those who don't care for nobody, for you neither
or if you care to survive yourself first io to be able to support others with your work later

also the scenarios in the settlements are every time very different
sometimes there is someone who actually can make pies & is efficient, sometimes you have to rely mainly on berry bushes, sometimes you have to sacrifice the rabbits & cook them instead to make pies & sometimes you're lucky to have cactus fruits in reach

i think in the end, everybody playing OHOL has to learn how to farm & how to evaluate the food situation, has to be at all conscious about it

pein · 2018-04-24 19:32:46

1 dont make seeds in actual farm, make it further, manage it
2 make a cistern and a fence next to farm for water runs
3 dont water al lthe same time, this maeks them realize that is a shortage, if you water it with 15 sec difference, gives chance for survival, if all runs out in same time, and all grows back same time, some of them die, same reason you leave spaces, takes less time picking more time watering

Artarda · 2018-04-24 20:27:55

My biggest issue with the whole "Oh, the farm ran out of seeds so we all starved and died" is like people forget how to forage for food as soon as a carrot farm is put in place.

The nice thing about living off of carrots for the last 15 mins? All the wild berry bushes should have regrown 2-3 berries, as long as they haven't been picked. Put a home marker down and go exploring; it's better than standing by the empty farm starving to death like an idiot.

Every time I play as an Eve, I get to the farming stage, and then once I start keeping more and more kids, they generally just stand around and eat my carrots and don't do anything useful and its so frustrating.

YAHG · 2018-04-24 20:54:31

Thanks Lily, there was a lot there. I never really think a ton about farming , I just water
em and pick em mostly and avoid the seed row. I do, do what pein says and plant the seeds
further away. I have only ever been in one village that had compost since the apocalypse
and it took a LONG ass time to get that sheep poo.

Compost gives 4 soil, you only get poo from sheep that are growing up, not from adult
sheep you feed. To feed a sheep you need whole berry bush, so one soil (assuming no lucky
regrowth or wilds) to get the wheat stalks to compost you need another soil (assuming not
wild wheat which again I think is fair) this leaves you two soils to grow a carrot to toss into
the mix and seeding soil. I don't know what the math is but you can end up with a decent
amount of carrots in change (you may want to send one of the soils into milks as well which
still leaves one spare soil to toss back into carrot farm, which is enough to catalyze the process
again). I think that even if you put one soil towards milks you will still have enough carrot
profit to use up all the grain/flour/dough/crusts you are generating as a side product.

I think given composting also generates sheep, which can just be killed for muttons you can just
generate Mutton pies off soil generation while increasing milk and beri bush count by one each
per cycle. Given the current state of the game this is probably the best use of compost. If you
are getting domestic regrowth berries and wilds you are even generating an extra soil a cycle.
It is interesting to notice that you will only get regrowth from the berries planted by your
ancestors. It brings up the famous quote.

"A society grows great when men plant trees under whose shade they will never sit"

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2018-04-24 17:51:22

How to survive a farm collapse and how to avoid it in the first place

#2 2018-04-24 18:48:26

Re: How to survive a farm collapse and how to avoid it in the first place

#3 2018-04-24 19:01:18

Re: How to survive a farm collapse and how to avoid it in the first place

#4 2018-04-24 19:07:26

Re: How to survive a farm collapse and how to avoid it in the first place

#5 2018-04-24 19:32:46

Re: How to survive a farm collapse and how to avoid it in the first place

#6 2018-04-24 20:27:55

Re: How to survive a farm collapse and how to avoid it in the first place

#7 2018-04-24 20:54:31

Re: How to survive a farm collapse and how to avoid it in the first place

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