Farming Community...

[Zyon Rockler]

I was just wondering if there would be an interest to bring farming into UO? Say an expansion pack was released that allowed you to buy large plots of land. Different size land plots or farms could be created. A type of system could be implemented to acquire or buy the land.

Once you owned the land, you could build a home on it depending on the type of farm it would be. So, you would pick the type of farm, maybe you would have cows or chickens or maybe you would grow corn or wheat.

You would then be able to harvest and sell your goods. Maybe even a type of breeding system, where you could sell to players as well, as NPCs in different towns.

Kinda of like, fishing. Maybe you would need a horse and buggy to carry wheat or something like that, so you can transport your goods to different towns.

Maybe it could be, similar to, Farmville, where you can work with other players to grow grapes for wine makers and then sell the wine for a higher price.

I have played alot of different farm, simulation games and I could spend days, maybe even make a living, doing something like this in UO.

 

[old gypsy]

I think it's a wonderful idea.

 

[Trebr Drab]

I think maybe you read my post in another topic, so you'd know that I'm 110% for such a thing. Lots of problems to overcome, though. Need, how to handle advancement, how the current game affects it (I mean, why breed horses when you can just tame a Nightmare?), etc.

Space is another thing to look at.

That doesn't mean I don't think it can be done in the present UO. I think it probably can be. Just sayin'.

 

[Lady Storm]

Hmmmmmmm

We have gardening... Its good.

Farming??

I dont think it can be done, but you know the dev they would do the crazyest stuff.

But.... to be honest gardening could be expanded. A Plot type garden that has rows and spaces for plants with a npc support of a sort to buy produce.
from Apples to Zuccini... hehe

Well its the idea that counts.

 

[Chardonnay]

Gotta do something with all this open land we have from people leaving!

 

[Ox AO]

Sounds like an intersting idea in concept.

 

[Victoria Navarre]

We could use our own plots for the farming and instead of bowls,we could target a dirt tile to plant the seeds.

 

[LetheGL]

Play farmville if you want to farm. We already have too many half baked systems with little to no support to fix the myriad of problems with them.

 

[Goodmann]

Farming sounds awesome. I hope they include a shotgun so i can proceed to blow out my brains

 

[Coppelia]

You mean farming something other than mobs!?
That reminds me Lineage II where you can seed a mob, and when it's dead you harvest it to get a fruit. ^^


Well, this has been suggested in the past, but farming plots would be fun.

 

[Babble]

How would you get the farming land?

Chicken Pens for eggs and such things should be easy house add-ons

The land for the farming would either be on housing plots, or you reserve some space.

Might do a new housing plot which can be 25x25 or such but where your house is smaller and the rest of the space you can use for farming?

It should be doable, but not sure if it is good for UO, as it would limit space and with that population - such concepts are better for 'one world' concepts

 

[old gypsy]

It could be made relatively simple initially. As one poster noted, there is plenty of open land around most housing. One idea might possibly be to allow each account to place one small garden spot close to their house (7x7 or even smaller) where they could grow whatever crop they wanted. I can imagine a little fence graphic around the plot, like the cotten or wheat fields in Moonglow. It could have security settings as other things do in game. Chefs could grow their own wheat -- tailors might want to grow cotton. Or it could allow gardeners to grow various other seeds. To keep things under control, there should be limits to how far away from the house the plot could be placed.

The plots could be removed and placed in a new location if need be, like an add-on deed.

 

[Daga Taga]

Interesting Idea, I'd be game if they came up with a good idea. Maybe even put in the wine and Ale brewery that some have mentioned.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

Play farmville if you want to farm.

This

we already have resource farming, people complain. we Used to have monster farming, people complain. I've head enough complaining. Get people to Want that current bugs get fixed instead

 

[Lord Frodo]

This

we already have resource farming, people complain. we Used to have monster farming, people complain. I've head enough complaining. Get people to Want that current bugs get fixed instead

 

[Zyon Rockler]

I play hundreds of games. I try to master and learn the systems and see what all you can do with it. I have, for a long time, played UO and i'm always playing a few other games at the same time. Sometimes I will take a couple days break, so I can fully master the game.

I love Sims, map builders, like TrainZ. The Sims is fun to build a house with 8 people and then see if the house design works for them. So, I have built many dream homes.

Sid is the best, I think, because he has layed the ground work for what these games will become or I should say, systems. Such as, Civilization, City and so on...

I have just this year, played a few farm sims. One on facebook, which is like all those old games used to be, from the 80s and one that is a bit more real, from Tri Synergy. My son and I built a one thousand acre farm, each. You start out with junky stuff and work up to really nice stuff. You can run a few tractors at a time, taking care of very large fields.

That's more based on real farming. You can sell your harvest, that allows you to buy more seed, upgrade and so on...

I would think something in the middle of the two. Easy like farmville but real in the way you can trade or sell to either NPCs or players. Certain farm crops, might have to be limited to NPCs. Such as, green thorns, orange pedals or limited.

I would hope they would at least test something. Maybe you somehow, bid, win, wait like a house falling, for a farm to become available, then you claim the land somehow, like a 50 x 50, for example. Now, depending on size of said plot, maybe 100 x 100 or 25 x 25, dictates the type of farm you can do and size of house you can build.

So, you would need, maybe, a barn or a tool shed or chicken coops, after you pick the type.

Then maybe a fence would be required. You place say, maybe 2 mares in the fence and in time there is a baby. Then say the baby mare is easier to train until it is fully grown, so you can GM them faster. Possibly raise hit points, mana, dex, so it's better to train this type. Once traded, they could bond faster. So, this is just mounts for breeding. Dogs, mare, hyrus.

Something like the zoo, where you can place the animal into it and then when there is a baby, take the baby out, without having control problems.

For breeding, maybe a small farm would be ok to hold 2 adults and 1 baby.

For planting, just use a ground tile, plow, plant, water, care, wait, harvest, sell. A ground tile could be like 10 bowls but with only 1 graphic for the plant and 1 menu to manage the plants. So, if you had a farm, you would need people working with you. I would say tax like vendors, would need to be in place, so people use the farms.

 

[Zyon Rockler]

I'm always inspired by what other players post and hopefully new ideas will come from our ideas and maybe some day, we'll have an actual world that's filled with everyone's ideas.

 

[G.v.P]

Maybe it could be, similar to, Farmville, where you can work with other players to grow grapes for wine makers and then sell the wine for a higher price.

I have played alot of different farm, simulation games and I could spend days, maybe even make a living, doing something like this in UO.

You lost me at Farmville. If I want to play a farm game, I'll play Harvest Moon, or SimFarm ;P ... we do have Chicken Incubators, and plant growing ... but spending a week to sell something worth less than 50k isn't that inspiring. I wonder if people even use battle chickens.

 

[Amathist]

it is an interesting idea, I do something similar only my chef and tailor collects all her goods for crafting so she goes out to the cities and harvests from the gardens or she shears some sheep for wool or kills a few for meats for her cooking. I have always been interested in this kind of thing. She even has herding skill so she can go out and get the wild animals back to her house to use them.

 

[old gypsy]

it is an interesting idea, I do something similar only my chef and tailor collects all her goods for crafting so she goes out to the cities and harvests from the gardens or she shears some sheep for wool or kills a few for meats for her cooking...

Before cooking tools were implemented, it used to be possible to use the pumpkins in the field near Skara Brae to make pumpkin pies, but last time I checked that was no longer possible. It might be nice to have a pumpkin patch of one's own.

 

[N49ATV]

Gotta do something with all this open land we have from people leaving!

 

[EvilIan]

It might be nice to have a pumpkin patch of one's own.

Some of us do have a pumpkin patch of our own, you just have to be creative.

 

[G.v.P]

I like the accidental snow leopard stretching

 

[Amathist]

To grow crops of wheat and cotton would also be a great addition I mean we grow every other plant style why not those...and maybe instead of a gardener making the items deco they can have a planting option and every few days they spawn new crops.

 

[Merion]

Sounds like a fine idea! Let there be a Farmville Booster!

 

[old gypsy]

I agree. It's fine to place a deco garden on a roof, but it would be nicer to be able to grow your favorite crop yourself.

To grow crops of wheat and cotton would also be a great addition I mean we grow every other plant style why not those...and maybe instead of a gardener making the items deco they can have a planting option and every few days they spawn new crops.

 

[Bman]

Ya, like growing some Cannabis to share with my fellow smokers!

 

[Trebr Drab]

Possible "needs" for food to give it value...

• Pets, for loyalty again
• Pets for skill amd stat gains
• Institute stat loss over time, mitigated by being well fed
• City merchant NPCs, if hungry they charge an added percentage more for items, in stages. Feed them to get their pricing down. This might help get players more involved with their "own" cities again.
• Drop foods of types to increase spawns?
• Bonus to player Focus skill, based on food types. In other words, a 5% bonus for each of the 4 main food groups, plus another 5% for a drink (milk, alcohol, wine).
• Well fed characters gain skills and stats faster
• Institute a stat loss (Str, Int, Dex) over time to a max of 10 stat loss, and let "well fed" status be used to prevent it, as with Pets.

Livestock pens, fenced in, can't enter, use the gate to "do" things, one art inside pen that's a copy of numbers of the animal type within. In other words, make new art that fits inside of each of 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 animals with some animations. This would be one piece of art to keep lag to minimum, and why you can't go inside, because you'd either be "in front" of the numbers of animals or "behind" the art, making a cow that's supposed to be behind you look like it's flying over top of you. Leave a corner open for a Bull or other stud for breeding. These represent the numbers of the herd, and mousing over the art gives you the number. "25: Cows, Well Fed, Healthy".

Strategy game rules, large numbers of herd breed more (if a stag is present), but have a chance for more disease and losses to the herd, depending on "well fed" -or not- status.

Herds produce dung used for fertilizer for crops. Crops produce food for Herds.

Crop "pens", similar to animal pens with their own rules?

NPC hirelings to care for livestock or crops? Require foods like players?

I think all this could be done in the existing game. Could be in a player house, or as a separate location taking up a "small" house size.
It would be a lot better in a game with more lands, in which case "clumps" of art (2s and 3s of animals) could be used and players could walk among them (inside of pens).

Again, this is part of why I believe in very large worlds. Then you have space where these things could be done on much larger scale and feel much more realistic. New social rules would be needed to add "Ownership Rights" to things in the world and the Justice System. I'd love to see UO go there.

 

[hen]

If we are going to introduce animal slavery, why not introduce npc human slaves as well? It would fit with the time line.

 

[Tazar]

If we are going to introduce animal slavery, why not introduce npc human slaves as well? It would fit with the time line.

But not with the "T" Teen Rating...

 

[old gypsy]

Possible "needs" for food to give it value...

Again, this is part of why I believe in very large worlds. Then you have space where these things could be done on much larger scale and feel much more realistic. New social rules would be needed to add "Ownership Rights" to things in the world and the Justice System. I'd love to see UO go there.

I love your vision! I also understand the viewpoint of those who have no interest in such things and therefore see no need for this in game. But the real beauty of Ultima Online has always resided in its great diversity and its potential to appeal to every sort of player, from PVP lovers to those with a more peaceful bent. I think it would add so much to UO without taking away anything from those whose interests center on other aspects of the game.

 

[Lynk]

Just wanting to get this thread back on topic.

Regarding this alleged farming community.

When I hear the word 'community' I think of a bunch of people with common interests. Maybe that isn't the same as Webster's definition.

Are there really enough people that actually 'farm' to have its own community, or is this like that '4 person RP Community that writes their own literature on shard events'.

 

[old gypsy]

Just wanting to get this thread back on topic.

Regarding this alleged farming community.

When I hear the word 'community' I think of a bunch of people with common interests. Maybe that isn't the same as Webster's definition.

Are there really enough people that actually 'farm' to have its own community, or is this like that '4 person RP Community that writes their own literature on shard events'.

I don't think any of us really know for certain. I suppose someone might consider creating a poll to get some feel for the level of interest.

 

[Babble]

The thing is that just building a fence around houses is not as easy as people think it is.
You could easily block all access to areas with that or do other nonsense with uncontrolled building.

Easier to implement would be rentable fields or that you can make fields on house plots. House plots has the advanatage that players would have to open another account for it, so more money for the company.

 

[old gypsy]

...Easier to implement would be rentable fields or that you can make fields on house plots. House plots has the advanatage that players would have to open another account for it, so more money for the company.

That would be one possibility. I know I'd be willing to open a second account if something like that was implemented.

 

[Lady Storm]

Some of us do have a pumpkin patch of our own, you just have to be creative.

Yes You do need a creative mind. Now I do see the use of a few improvements as suguested above. They did make it so you could milk a cow. Why not be able to use the Battle chicken dud eggs in cooking? Would give them a use. As for cooking itself... We do need a small revamp. I'd like to see uses for what we cook and bake. The hunger factor was removed years ago and only slightly ajusted back not too long ago to allow eating of items like the fish pies. I know if I dont eat on my mage spells go down hill casting wise.
But I will admit it should be much higher.

As for the Idea of a farm.....

Ok I have been an advocate of opening up placement to more then 1 house per account from day one when they made the Stupid move to make it one per. Yes I know it was to boost $$ for EA and curb the growing crowding on shards.... but guys look around you..
What crouds??? It forced people to make choices that hurt the game not help the bottom line. Mythic should revert it this would allow players to place plots and with that develope "NEW" houseing. Farm is not a bad idea, they could expand it to other venu's.

On the farm they could choose to be:

Ranchers: cattle ,sheep ,goats..etc(meats that cooks could use in new recipys)Exotic meats and animals like Turkeys Camel, Ox, Borra ostrich the list of new meats abound ??gator? hehe... New art I know but think of the possibilitys )Alpacka for wool....

Textile Farmers:Wool, flax, cotton, silk(new adition for tailors in this idea)Leaves needed from the Forestry keepers

Food production Farm: Vegies and fruit. (new seed planings and new seeds for new kind of vegie production like vines and stocks. (might be a nice idea for Gensing and Mandrake plants for cooking herbs.)

Tree plantations: Foresters... grow your own trees for the wood... To get seeds for this you would need to chop and find seeds off natures trees and grow them. Non renewable. (hey have to make it so players will still chop old trees). Not too easy to do but a tree would take a few weeks to grow to full harvestable size, you would get say 100 to 500 logs off it (to make it viable to do log amount should vary depending on type of tree). It then would be gone and you would need a new seed to get more.

Vintners: Fruit of the vines. Wine and Ale. We all know if you grow hops they are used in beer and ale so are wheat and corn in liquor. Why not add this type of farm as well. Sugar, and herbs for flavor... new uses for things in game already.. Add in rye and oats to the growing plants for the Ale. Would give those who want to brew items to do so...

Develope new Cooking/Skill recipys, make in various difficulty to obtain (off monsters and found in chests of fishing and t hunters) and make with select types of items from the new farmers.
Nothing should be easy as walk up pick and grow.... on real farms its hard work so should this. Crops and animal husbandry is not easy nor is cooking exotic foods.

Hehe I should be a Dev... I have ideas aplenty

 

[old gypsy]

I love the idea of making cooking useful again for something other than roleplay. Lots of good ideas there, Lady Storm.

 

[Victoria Navarre]

I like the accidental snow leopard stretching

It's bowing to the awsomeness of his garden.

 

[Lady Storm]

Oh Dear...
Hun you lost the point SP was not PVP capitol of UO ... never was. Yes you all made PVP with SP a house hold word. (wish you didnt) You see players get tired of pvp... after a while the new people avoid anyone who is known to do pvp like your typhoid mary.... and old players are bored with you and your fighting style. (the You I am refering to is anyone who is doing pvp not you personaly) I read what goes on in Chat .... the pvpers on most shards gripe about the same things over and over.... many leave cause they get sick of it.
Ok you want to pvp. Great but if the rest of the shard dont ??? Any change to SP would be good. Farming or no just open it up to accounts to place homes and try.

OK this is and Edit:

Just talked to players who once played SP the main reason for 3 of the 4 I talked to was for leaving SP was houseing.... They left cause finaces couldnt warrent spending for another account to just have a SP house. They played another main stream shard and when new houseing came in and a juicy spot opened up they had to go for it as one said to me. Hense the SP house had to go....and there went their playing days on SP.

Griping isnt the main reasons someone leaves a game or shard..... sometimes its the RL cost. If you havent noticed money is tight for millions of people around the world. As I have always said RL First game DEAD LAST. Its how it should be, I love UO and its people are great but RL beats it hands down.

Never assume the reasons players leave... Farming and other ideas are to keep players interested and the enjoyment there. EA made bad moves on advice that was ill founded. To correct it will take more then an act of congress...it wil take guts on the part of the company to trust in the game and its players.

 

[Zyon Rockler]

I will try not to speak for anyone else. I think everyone has their right to their opinion and I hope that whatever it is they would like to have in their game world can also exist.

But what I think people need to understand is that once you've done something in the game, sometimes people don't feel it necessary to do it again and again. If I am capable of doing something, maybe I find it to easy, maybe it no longer has a challenge or maybe I just know the result. If every Christmas package had the same gift in it, what would be the point of wrapping it?

Some of us like things that last forever. Like a choose your own adventure, or a movie that can be continued, something that keeps us wondering and dreaming. The keyword is "forever". In theory, if you roleplay, I can really only kill you one time but then again I could roleplay that you were resurrected and then I kill you again. So, I have to ask myself, Why am I doing this? I'm giving it meaning, so that it's more exciting, so it has more depth.

Or I become bored, which I have become bored with PvP. To me, PvP is this simple, if I wanted to kill you, I would. To me, more of a challenge would be to save you.

You're in a PvP battle and I cut your arm off, then I cut your other arm off, then your leg and then your other leg, as you look up, you see a beautiful farm and within the wheat you see an angel and the angel looks at you and says, "My son/daughter you were meant to be a farmer," as you take your last breath.

If you give me a reason to fight, then I will fight. Just as if you give me a reason to farm, I will grow things. What we want is a world, a virtual reality. To look at one small aspect of this world would cause any other part of it to die. We need all of the aspects of real life, not just small arenas but an entire universe.

 

[Zyon Rockler]

They may be able to add an expansion of land where farms are already designated areas. So, it would be just figuring out how to get the farm.

Also, you would want to be able to work with other people. For example: To be able to set the farm to guild or friends would allow for any guildmate or friend on the farm, to help work. So, if you were doing crops that maybe took 10 minutes, and then selling the crops to the NPCs, you would not have to be there the whole time.

If you were growing crops that took maybe 6 hours or 12 hours, they might be crops that you would just grow and sell for money. Maybe you could trade crops for other goods. So, you would essentially have a working farm right away and these types of crops could be made compareable to hunting. So, if you were farming for 6 hours, you might make the same amount of money that you would make hunting for 6 hours.

But then of course you would have the option to also invest back into your farm, allowing you to make even more money. Maybe as you farm the land, you would find an artifact or maybe a God of Farming would grant you with an item or maybe even just a small power to help you.

The interesting thing about farming, is that you would be able to do it and then go hunting, maybe go PvP, do a champ spawn and then come back and check on your crops. So, it wouldn't have to be the only thing you do, it would just be another addition of what you can do.

 

[Lady Storm]

Zion your 100% right.

If you want to fill alot of dreams its to add to the experence of UO.

Farming is not just a pot with a seed in it....

As in RL did you know many small farmers are poping up?? The want of organic and fresh fruit and vegies are on the rise. Buy a bag of mixed greens at the local superstore... let it sit in fridge for 2 days ....its gone bad. But buy a fresh head of lettuce or any other vegie the spoilage factor is reduced by days giving that salad for dinner a few days if not fully consumed that meal.

UO needs ideas for new game material, Farming is just one that can be expanded to incorporate alot of in game life we do already. Much of the art exists and much can be made simply.

It just takes the Dev to get our meaning and act on it. Cal if you read this give it some thought on your holliday time off.. If you need help or ideas just ask. UO players are good for ideas.

 

[old gypsy]

Zyon Rockler and Lady Storm, I also hope that Cal reads this thread and gives these ideas some thought as possibilities for the future.

 

[Trebr Drab]

Possible "needs" for food to give it value...

• Pets, for loyalty again
• Pets for skill amd stat gains
• Institute stat loss over time, mitigated by being well fed
• City merchant NPCs, if hungry they charge an added percentage more for items, in stages. Feed them to get their pricing down. This might help get players more involved with their "own" cities again.
• Drop foods of types to increase spawns?
• Bonus to player Focus skill, based on food types. In other words, a 5% bonus for each of the 4 main food groups, plus another 5% for a drink (milk, alcohol, wine).
• Well fed characters gain skills and stats faster
• Institute a stat loss (Str, Int, Dex) over time to a max of 10 stat loss, and let "well fed" status be used to prevent it, as with Pets.

Livestock pens, fenced in, can't enter, use the gate to "do" things, one art inside pen that's a copy of numbers of the animal type within. In other words, make new art that fits inside of each of 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 animals with some animations. This would be one piece of art to keep lag to minimum, and why you can't go inside, because you'd either be "in front" of the numbers of animals or "behind" the art, making a cow that's supposed to be behind you look like it's flying over top of you. Leave a corner open for a Bull or other stud for breeding. These represent the numbers of the herd, and mousing over the art gives you the number. "25: Cows, Well Fed, Healthy".

Strategy game rules, large numbers of herd breed more (if a stag is present), but have a chance for more disease and losses to the herd, depending on "well fed" -or not- status.

Herds produce dung used for fertilizer for crops. Crops produce food for Herds.

Crop "pens", similar to animal pens with their own rules?

NPC hirelings to care for livestock or crops? Require foods like players?

I think all this could be done in the existing game. Could be in a player house, or as a separate location taking up a "small" house size.
It would be a lot better in a game with more lands, in which case "clumps" of art (2s and 3s of animals) could be used and players could walk among them (inside of pens).

Again, this is part of why I believe in very large worlds. Then you have space where these things could be done on much larger scale and feel much more realistic. New social rules would be needed to add "Ownership Rights" to things in the world and the Justice System. I'd love to see UO go there.

Zyon Rockler and Lady Storm, I also hope that Cal reads this thread and gives these ideas some thought as possibilities for the future.

Hey, thanks. First I get slammed by a PKer for having ideas outside of, you know, PKing. Then I get forgotten and left out.

So glad I participated. *growls and grumbles*

 

[Amathist]

how did a thread about FARMING get turned into the trammie v's pvp battle all over again - this is what I am sick of.

I get it some people Pvp and well great enjoy have fun but do you really need to troll every NON pvp thread just to mention it and gripe about it or hassle those who do not?

Do you not realize this mentality just annoys people and turns them off the idea of participating in it?

BACK ON TOPIC:
I love the idea of making the farms guild accessible that would be very very cool.

 

[Cailleach]

I love the ideas in here, they're fantastic.


Something I did think of - instead of making it so you can have two houses per account or whatever, why not make it so you could have a house and a farm? Could even make it so that certain sections of forest/jungle could be completely cleared by lumberjacks to plant land there, and that what you can grow would depend on where you put your farm?

Oh, and, green houses and irrigation systems, very important. Queen Dawn Orchid or Sosarian Rose on a 'hard to cultivate' list maybe? Things you'd need a green house for.

 

[old gypsy]

Hey, thanks. First I get slammed by a PKer for having ideas outside of, you know, PKing. Then I get forgotten and left out.

So glad I participated. *growls and grumbles*

I'm SO sorry Trebr! I didn't mean to leave you out in my last post... I'm just a very old gypsy who misplaces things (and my thoughts) at times. Please forgive me.

 

[old gypsy]

I love the ideas in here, they're fantastic.


Something I did think of - instead of making it so you can have two houses per account or whatever, why not make it so you could have a house and a farm? Could even make it so that certain sections of forest/jungle could be completely cleared by lumberjacks to plant land there, and that what you can grow would depend on where you put your farm?

Oh, and, green houses and irrigation systems, very important. Queen Dawn Orchid or Sosarian Rose on a 'hard to cultivate' list maybe? Things you'd need a green house for.

Yes!

 

[Trebr Drab]

I'm SO sorry Trebr! I didn't mean to leave you out in my last post... I'm just a very old gypsy who misplaces things (and my thoughts) at times. Please forgive me.

No problem. I just feel under-appreciated sometimes and I don't know if I should. Thank you.

 

[old gypsy]

No problem. I just feel under-appreciated sometimes and I don't know if I should. Thank you.

I personally appreciate all the thought and support you've given to this, and I'm sure others feel that way, too. *dreams about a farming homestead*