Milkweed farming needs an overhaul

sigmen4020 · 2020-01-04 01:09:35

With the new tilling changes (2 soil completely removed as an option), milkweed farming is more infuriating than ever. It’s one of the only crops that doesn’t produce hardened rows, and also yields very little product for the resources put into it. The main problem with milkweed farming currently is that it’s incredibly unrewarding. Imo it’s a problem that one milkweed plant is worthless on its own.

I have two suggestions to make milkweed more rewarding, both involving increasing the yield. One suggestion should be easy enough to implement, while the other would take work redrawing sprites.

The easier suggestion:
Just to simply differentiate between wild and domestic milkweed plants, and make domestic milkweed plants yield one thread instead of a stalk. This would make even just one milkweed plant valuable and make the resource cost for milkweed more reasonable. Getting 8 rope rather than only 4 from a 4x4 field would make a huge difference.

The harder suggestion:
Make one soil row contain multiple milkweed plants, like how carrots work for instance. This ofc brings into question how you would get seed from these rows. One suggestion I heard was to have one row contain 3 milkweed plants in the different states (regular, flowering and fruiting).

Spoonwood · 2020-01-04 01:12:33

The milkweed system that the game had upon release might also work as better suited to the game.

Potjeh · 2020-01-04 02:36:35

Farming milkweed in the first place seems silly. Who the hell does that IRL? It should be a wild only plant used to bootstrap a new camp. Established camps should get rope from farming hemp. Heck, make hemp require some sort of processing infrastructure to balance out lower farming requirements, it'd still be better than milkweed farms.

Punkypal · 2020-01-04 03:52:56

I second hemp as something I'd like to see in the game ahead of anything else I can think of. Hemp should not only make rope, but also should be able to be made into clothing.

DestinyCall · 2020-01-04 04:15:08

Milkweed overhaul and more deep storage options are my top most wanted.

Mekkie · 2020-01-04 06:53:31

Milkweed should respawn in the wild... i mean.. it's a damn weed, why does it need to be cultivated in the first place?

Punkypal · 2020-01-04 07:07:55

Mekkie wrote:

Milkweed should respawn in the wild... i mean.. it's a damn weed, why does it need to be cultivated in the first place?

I think most wild plants should occasionally respawn. Onion, carrots, indigo, bananas, all of them.

I think the best way should be that the game would check a large grid at a time on a schedule. If NONE of a thing is in that grid, then it won't come back, because it's been wiped out so to speak. But if at least one is there and it's less that a certain number, then a variable number (depending on what it is) would spawn in random places in that grid. It wouldn't be enough that a large town could depend on it entirely, but small settlements with only a few players might just be able to make do.

Honestly I don't think this would change the needs in a city hardly at all. You can be in a town with 20 players and walk less than 50 spaces out of town and every wild berry bush is untouched. Some wild carrots and cabbage spawning wouldn't make it any different in a town. A little milkweed might get picked out to about 100 spaces or so I think, but if it spawned only once a day or so, we are really only talking about reducing a town's water and soil usage by a small fraction at most. Well, a slight reduction in those usages I think is an OK thing, but I support this mostly because it just makes sense.

No city on Earth has ever picked a weed into extinction but this is a game. My suggestion would make it possible to a HUGE city to maybe wipe out all the milkweed in their area, but it would take a good deal of effort. Yes it would be something griefers could do if they set their mind to it, but Jason seems to like leaving that as a possibility. I'm fine with that because the constructive player isn't losing anything in the end. The worst the griefer could do is make one area at a time go back to what already is. Since hardly any town lasts more than a week anyway I say let them try to do this. And domestic versions should count when factored for extinction. If a griefer does wipe out all milkweed in an area, all I have to do is bring in one seed from anywhere and plant it and now milkweed can return again.

Last edited by Punkypal (2020-01-04 07:15:21)

Dantox · 2020-01-04 07:11:56

We really need an overhaul, i have seen lots of towns slowing down on progress because they all lack rope. However having hemp as an upper tier of milkweed sounds way better

Punkypal · 2020-01-04 07:18:30

Dantox wrote:

We really need an overhaul, i have seen lots of towns slowing down on progress because they all lack rope. However having hemp as an upper tier of milkweed sounds way better

Both is best. Make some level of respawn for milkweed, but make hemp so that few would choose milkweed once hemp becomes an option. Hemp should take more work to produce, but that extra work should pay off with greater returns on the time invested. Milkweed could remain foolproof, while hemp could be ruined if not harvested at the right time, like most crops.

testo · 2020-01-04 07:35:49

We have a combustion engine yet we don`t have a tech to make a decent and efficient fiber rope?

Punkypal · 2020-01-04 08:01:00

testo wrote:

We have a combustion engine yet we don`t have a tech to make a decent and efficient fiber rope?

At a certain point we need to remember this is a game being made by one person and get realistic. Rope is very vital and it would be nice if we had a more efficient way to make it, but would you have no combustion engine in favor of Jason exploring every possible way a rope can be made?

I think Jason took the right path. He introduced rope. Then he didn't give us more rope, but he introduced other things. Now that we have lots of other things it might be time to circle back and revisit rope, milkweed, and hopefully hemp. It Jason took all the time to just perfect one thing perfectly way back when before he did other things this game might be called, "One Hour, One Hundred Very Realistic Ways To Make Rope".

I don't think it's a fair argument to suggest that Jason should perfect all low tech items before he gave us any higher tech items because if that was the case we'd really just have the world's best caveman life simulator. I'm not sure if that would be a better game.

testo · 2020-01-04 10:30:52

Punkypal wrote:

testo wrote:
We have a combustion engine yet we don`t have a tech to make a decent and efficient fiber rope?
At a certain point we need to remember this is a game being made by one person and get realistic. Rope is very vital and it would be nice if we had a more efficient way to make it, but would you have no combustion engine in favor of Jason exploring every possible way a rope can be made?
I think Jason took the right path. He introduced rope. Then he didn't give us more rope, but he introduced other things. Now that we have lots of other things it might be time to circle back and revisit rope, milkweed, and hopefully hemp. It Jason took all the time to just perfect one thing perfectly way back when before he did other things this game might be called, "One Hour, One Hundred Very Realistic Ways To Make Rope".
I don't think it's a fair argument to suggest that Jason should perfect all low tech items before he gave us any higher tech items because if that was the case we'd really just have the world's best caveman life simulator. I'm not sure if that would be a better game.

The thing is, milkweed is the one raw resource without changes since forever. Water/Iron and wood they all have been changed a lot in the last months either by making it different or by making it more abundant like iron or making trees hunger work and so on. Pretty sure the morse transmitter would be made a lot more if it was a rope buffer like say getting a rope out of a soil basket and a bowl of water. (Just to put an absurd example). Obviously I don`t expect ten ways to make rope. But I`d expect at least two.

Spoonwood · 2020-01-04 11:21:34

I guess the person who dubbed this game "Rope Finder" on reddit like a year or so ago, could still semi-accurately call it "Rope Finder".

Punkypal · 2020-01-04 22:43:43

testo wrote:

The thing is, milkweed is the one raw resource without changes since forever. Water/Iron and wood they all have been changed a lot in the last months either by making it different or by making it more abundant like iron or making trees hunger work and so on. Pretty sure the morse transmitter would be made a lot more if it was a rope buffer like say getting a rope out of a soil basket and a bowl of water. (Just to put an absurd example). Obviously I don`t expect ten ways to make rope. But I`d expect at least two.

And I agree that it's high time Jason circles back on a few low tech items and gives updates there. Rope being one of the most critical IMHO. Second a few more ways for high tech towns to boost their water supply. Semi low tech things like an aqueduct, water reclamation ponds, etc.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2020-01-04 01:09:35

Milkweed farming needs an overhaul

#2 2020-01-04 01:12:33

Re: Milkweed farming needs an overhaul

#3 2020-01-04 02:36:35

Re: Milkweed farming needs an overhaul

#4 2020-01-04 03:52:56

Re: Milkweed farming needs an overhaul

#5 2020-01-04 04:15:08

Re: Milkweed farming needs an overhaul

#6 2020-01-04 06:53:31

Re: Milkweed farming needs an overhaul

#7 2020-01-04 07:07:55

Re: Milkweed farming needs an overhaul

#8 2020-01-04 07:11:56

Re: Milkweed farming needs an overhaul

#9 2020-01-04 07:18:30

Re: Milkweed farming needs an overhaul

#10 2020-01-04 07:35:49

Re: Milkweed farming needs an overhaul

#11 2020-01-04 08:01:00

Re: Milkweed farming needs an overhaul

#12 2020-01-04 10:30:52

Re: Milkweed farming needs an overhaul

#13 2020-01-04 11:21:34

Re: Milkweed farming needs an overhaul

#14 2020-01-04 22:43:43

Re: Milkweed farming needs an overhaul

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