Farming, Carpentry and In-Game Functioning Furniture

Realistically speaking, there are plenty of high specialization, high difficulty crops irl that artisan level skills makes sense for.

For example orchards. Most fruit trees take a lot of grafting(super difficult dexterous work you must get right every time), time(3-7 years depending on fruit and cultivar), and therefore much higher maintenance for pest management(-shakes fist at apple borers-)

High quality plants irl aren't higher difficulty usually, they are just more expensive and sometimes higher maintenance. I dislike when a game makes end game farming JUST 'oh you can now farm magic crops that make you ultra efficient and you can now harvest this difficult to harvest class of mundane seed.' Farming as a crafting skill is difficult to translate level wise due to the nature of the job. So here is how I think this should really work.

Basic Farming:

- Choosing area should be fairly important to what kind of crops you can grow productively there (bdo's system was pretty good in this respect.)
- Pest management should have an active component. Building fences to keep out pests, maintaining fences, removing weeds at earlier stages maybe for some trash loot, manually removing giant beetles, birds, etc very rarely at later stages.
- Fertilizing, irrigation and crop rotation should be a fairly important aspect. Farming irl is 20 percent planning and problem solving and 80 percent maintaining what is there and working.
- Crop diversity should absolutely be dependent on climate. (Don't plant to tomatoes in shady areas, dont plant corn if you don't live by abundant water etc.)
- Seasonal rotations and climate variations/weather is also a strongly desired mechanic.
- Edit: Yeah there should be a similar plot management system to bdo. A moveable grid area effected by terrain. My only qualm was you were forced into different sizes of squares and size was level dependent. It should be a little more freeform, but 'staking out your plot' process should be similar. But planting 1 plant per 'space' in your grid (or more for large crops like grapes trees and squash.)
- edit: The only thing restricting plot size should be land rights and money. Land rights should give you passive protection via guards from bandits. You should be able to set up a farm in the frontier though. High risk with the reward of you not paying anyone for your secret garden.

The Meaning of Leveling:

-It is fine to restrict certain classes of plant to higher level farming. But staples need to exist just like irl. Herbs, grains, root vegetables, should never require high farming levels, only good real estate. There should always be demand for potatos and the like for cooking.
-Mid level farming should be about efficiency and tools. Mid level farmers should start having an easier time moving nodes and setting up shop through irrigation, tilling, fertilizers. Essentially more efficient and accessible versions of what is available to early farming (probably restricted.)
-Advanced farming should be about 'being the most qualified to take care of high maintenance/high difficilty crops. I personally do not want access to plants restricted vetween mid and high level farming. But it should be more economically viable. And advanced farming should be able to set up shop in more flexible locations through manipulation of the various efficiency tools like high level irrigation and fertilizer.
- Keeping player skill at all levels is about learning to adapt to new situations, maintenance, understanding of crops relative to their needs, and letting an increase in yield be the reward for that. Do not make profitable yields solely a matter of level.
- a side note: I think crop breeding should be an herbalist thing and focused on resistances to harsh environments/bonuses to optimal hard to maintain climates basedon regional variation and difficulty in irrigation/soil quality upkeep

Tl;dr
Farming can be fun and about player skill if weather, soil quality, and pests are a key piece of farrming's puzzle.

Leveling should be about an increase in flexibility, ease of relocating, and increasing over all yield by giving you tools that make you more effective at managing the land. The node system naturally requires this layer, of gameplay.

There should be some restriction to crop types available to farmers of lower levels due to their increased complexity to maintain (mainly fruit mushrooms and herbs). This restriction should be by tools requiring a certain farming level to use. Mid level farmers should have the same access but need 'easier' Farming land to make it work.

High quality plants shouldn't be restricted by level of farming. Let breeders feel important. Make 'high yield'ones fussy (and therefore easier to take advantage of by higher level farmers or lucky/rich individuals, with good land.)

We have not received permission from maouw to share the quoted post.

I like your blueprint idea. Good examples of high 'level''tools' allowing to grow things in more flexible ways relative to climate. I don't agree with the notion that beginner farmers should be low yield farmers however. Yield should be a factor of resisting environmental debuffs, keeping optimal moisture, keeping out parts relative to the crop in question. It's a players built up knowledge, location, capital and hard work/skill that should be the determining factors. Bdo's system was a good direction in this regard (if a little dumb due to their broken crafting and economic systems.) A little bit of dedication and investment should give you ok profit. Advanced should make you both more capable of being high yield in more environments, with more opportunities for higher profit crops as a result.

We have not received permission from SkylarckTheBotanist to share the quoted post.

Shrooomz maaaan. I think building a well makes slightly more sense realism wise. Also tapping a river like that has some logistics complications. But I also don't see those as barriers to your vision. Which ever option lets them reuse the most sets is my preference for that sort of thing. The sentiment is the same. Underrealm farming sounds fun.

Pity about the genetics thing. Itd be an interesting thing to add to herbalism. Maybe in a later update. You could put the same function in alchemy/fertilizers but that's less interesting to me and moves it outside gathering.

We have not received permission from maouw to share the quoted post.

@maouw I think that might just be a translation error on my part. I'll try to explain in a clearer way.

Simply put I meant that you want incentives to reward the engaging part of farmings gameplay loop at all levels.

Example (Please take none of the items or quantities used in the example seriously at ALL. They are not the point of the explanation.)

Beginner Farmer has a small 10x10 wheat field. This takes work to water and keep pests off of, but generally, if well tended to gives you 5 wheat per square. The higher level farmer on the other hand has irrigation and a scarecrow(or pesticides or w/e). The higher level farmer, with little effort also makes 5 wheat per square. Both players made the same amount of product. One of them put in more effort, but the reward is still the same.

Let's pretend then that a higher maintenance and more needy crop, a pumpkin in this example, is worth twice as much for the same amount of space. A higher level farmer now needs to put in some amount of effort in order to achieve maximum harvestable pumpkins. The beginner farmer on the other hand would not be able to achieve maximum harvest because they either don't have access to pumpkins or the pests are less manageable due to lacking some tool. The higher level farmer has the freedom to spend low effort to get some profitable amount of wheat (ie 'there is no wheat niche that only makes sense for beginners to be in.') The higher level farmer has access and capacity for more profit farming pumpkins. Economically speaking the higher level farmer (if they are doing nothing else fun or profitable,) has no REASON to not farm pumpkins IF they want to maximize their profit. The beginner level farmer does not because wheat is most accessible to them due to their plot of land, available resources, and time relative to managing the pests and water levels.

So in simple economic terms, yes the beginner farmer is less efficient than the higher level farmer, but there is also no need to exclude the higher level farmer from competing in the same market. But if you make the higher level farmers' participation through higher yield, it lowers the possible reward to lower level farmers by pressing down on price. The goal therefore is to make the economic incentive for 'higher difficulty crops' good enough that not many higher level farmers WANT to farm wheat, but if they do they are rewarded with lower effort and more free time. This is farming, you want to use the carrot not the stick.