[Gardening] The old plant system vs the new one

[FrejaSP]

Some are unhappy, that the new system can't be cross polled.

It's two different systems, some will like the old one and some will like the new one.

I like the way they made it this time. I special love I don't need several chests of plants in different colors with seed. If I take a break from plant growing, I don't need to store any of the new seed, I can go and hunt for them next time I feel like grow plants.

The old plants, I can't just drop my old seed, I would have to start over crosspoll next time to get all the colors and plants. I grow tired of old system very fast and do only grow the resource plants and maybe a few plain flowers for deco.
I like the fact that I don't know what I get from the new system, even when I know what 4 kind I can get from one kind of monsters it's still more fun for me than grow the old ones.

Maybe the old system need a tweak, so the players again get a reason to hunt for the seed. Add banana tree, Date palm, pipe Cactus and Coconut palm to the seed on the Bog monsters but don't allow this plants to give seed. It would be fine to allow it to resources bananes and coconuts.
Only allow them plain colors.
This could give us a reason to hunt Bogthing again for seed and grow the seed even if there only would be around 20 chance that the seed would give one of the new plants. It should not have special labels, you would need to grow the plain seed to see if you are lucky.

Here is some plants that could be added to the Bog monsters. Just adding a few of them would make me hunt for old seed too and grow them.

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

This question has been debated to death...


Those that like the old system because they like the flexability to control what they grow and when and how many... dislike the new system because they have no control over any of those aspects and also because they have to fight a LOT more to get the seeds or buy "random" ones.

Those that like the new system, like you, didn't enjoy the old system because you couldn't just "Jump In" and have access to the whole range of plants... you had to start at Gen 1 and work your way up through the generations and colors... many don't want to dedicate the time and effort into getting to the plant they want.

There's two different audiences and we'll never agree.

I'm glad that Sakkarah has given us a little more than originally announced in that we'll be able to get black and white versions of the new plants through the Naturalist quest, and I'm still hopefull that at some point we'll be given a mechanism to either ID "Unknown" seeds and store them in seed packs, boxes or whatever, or that we'll have the ability to stack "Deco Mode" plants of the same type and color so if we do have to grow everything we find, at least we can store them until we can use them.

I know you (Freja) have stated several times that you hope they never add an ability to ID seeds, but if they do add such an ability, I'm sure it will be flexible enough that you won't have to ID them if you don't want to.

 

[Beastmaster]

Without arguing the virtues of either system specifically, I think the whole approach of having to go out and kill something everytime we want to access new content just shows a lack of creativity or laziness on the part of the Dev teams we have had. This game is immensely rich in game mechanics. There are hundreds of ways they could implement new content, but it always comes down to going out and slaughtering mass amounts of mobs.

The quests that were put together to reach Melissa were great. I know they were time consuming, but everything doesn't have to be that elaborate. Knock out the bits where you have to run the gauntlets and you have simpler quests but they can still be worthwhile for less important content.

The Naturalist quest is nice for a crafter, though still somewhat risky unless they can hide or finish the quest to become friended to the hive. Sure the powerplayers blow through these quests in nothing flat, but they aren't the same players that continue utilizing those quests on a regular basis. We need more new blood on the Dev team, someone with less desire to see blood. I really do appreciate what Regine has done, but her mindset has been made clear to us, and it doesn't lean in favor of the crafters.

In short, we need balance on the Dev team.

 

[Flora Green]

I have gotten over the fact that we have to hunt for the seeds and that the plants don't, and apparently never, will self-pollinate. I do not agree with it and my opinion on it and the implementation of this new system has been made clear. No point in going over that again. What I find unbelievable is there STILL isn't a proper method to store seeds and then we get this mess of 16 peculiar seeds with no identification to them and they cannot be stored the same as the original plants. How hard is it to rehue a bod book, call it a seed packet and stick it in the game?

DHMagicMan's suggestion regarding ItemID would be VERY useful. That way people like Freja can still utilize the new system exactly as she is now and anyone who wants to work up the ID skill and use it on the seeds can do so. It would simply be a choice to know what you are growing or not. Hopefully Sakkarah will take this into consideration.

 

[Crysta]

Its also not a new system, just new plants.. all the plants use the same system, just in slightly different ways.

 

[Strawberry]

I like the way they made it this time. I special love I don't need several chests of plants in different colors with seed. If I take a break from plant growing, I don't need to store any of the new seed, I can go and hunt for them next time I feel like grow plants.

You only need one secure full of parent plants. It's outlined in the FAQ. I don't like the new system because it's hunting, not gardening. Which of these sounds more like a gardener:
Player 1: Logs in, kills several monsters, plants seeds. Tends to those plants for seven days. Throws out three-fourths of them, tends the plants s/he wanted for another day, then sets it to deco on the ninth day. Goes out and kills more monsters to get more seeds.
Player 2: Logs in, cross-pollinates several plants to make new plants. Tends those plants for seven days while planning what possible crosses to make next. On the eighth day, cross-pollinates the plants. Two days later, sets some of the plants to deco and continues to tend some of them to get more seeds.
The first player is a hunter who gardens a bit, the second player is a gardener.

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

Its also not a new system, just new plants.. all the plants use the same system, just in slightly different ways.

You are correct, it's not a NEW system... it's the Bonsai system with new artwork. It's 18 individual and independant plants all in plain color only, all but one seeds named identically so the seeds can't (yet but hopefully one day) be diferentiated... and on and on and on...

Do we need ot have this discussion?

Can a mod please lock this thread?

Those that like the new "System" won't convince the "Classic" gardeners and vice versa... There may have been reasons why this set of plants was implemented this way but it's been very frustrating and I'd just like to see it all put behind us...

We have the original gardening system and we have these new plants. Now we have to figure out how we can move forward and be able to organize, store, etc...

 

[Flora Green]

We're using "new system" and "old system" to differentiate. I think it's obvious that those of us who have been growing plants for years know it's not technically a NEW system.rolleyes:

 

[Fink]

Beastmaster, I don't think I've seen a post that so succinctly sums up my view as yours. To seize on your main point, though..

I think the whole approach of having to go out and kill something everytime we want to access new content just shows a lack of creativity or laziness on the part of the Dev teams we have had.

I think a third factor is at play. I'm willing to believe a lot of creative stuff gets thrown out in favour of the kill 'em & loot 'em approach due to time/cost constraints. UO is still "wildly profitable", and I suspect it's because EA spends a bare minimum on development, ie: just enough to get a box out every (other) year. I'd hate to think the devs had unlimited budget and hours and this is what we get, another one-dimensional hack & slash activity.

 

[Beastmaster]

I agree budgets probably play a huge role as well.

 

[FrejaSP]

With my best will, I don't understand why your guys find cross pollen so great.

I did the cross pollen when we got the old seed, got all the seed in all the colors. I never did cross pollen again sinse then.
Sure I can grow some plants of the seed from crosspollen but selling the old plants was never a good busines to me and all the colored plants should never had been added IMO.

Do you keep cross poll to get black and white plants?

I think I like the new plants better because it's not as much a singleplayer game as the old one. I do have to get the new seed from somewhere, hunting, maybe with friends or donated from friends or I can buy them.

With the old system, I did not have to leave my house at all except to buy regs.

Standing in my house all day growing plants or doing crafting is not good as friends are what make me enjoy the game.

I don't say my way is only way, but that's how I love to play and why I love this new plants.

 

[Beastmaster]

FrejaSP,

The flipside of that could be the more we are home tending plants, crossing, planting, merchandising, etc., the more likely we are to meet a customer. That gives us a chance for interaction that might not have occurred through our bulletin board. We get to talk with them and find out what they are looking for, what they think of our selection, or our prices. Perhaps we get to visit their home and see how they've used our goods to decorate.

Two sides to every coin.

 

[the 4th man]

You are correct, it's not a NEW system... it's the Bonsai system with new artwork. It's 18 individual and independant plants all in plain color only, all but one seeds named identically so the seeds can't (yet but hopefully one day) be diferentiated... and on and on and on...

Do we need ot have this discussion?

Can a mod please lock this thread?

Those that like the new "System" won't convince the "Classic" gardeners and vice versa... There may have been reasons why this set of plants was implemented this way but it's been very frustrating and I'd just like to see it all put behind us...

We have the original gardening system and we have these new plants. Now we have to figure out how we can move forward and be able to organize, store, etc...

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't be asking a mod to lock a thread because one person(you) out of how many has an issue with a subject being redicussed. Don't read it, or try and ignore it when you see it on the forum list......that's what I would do.

I get tired of seeing players whine and cry about a dev not adding new content every 5 seconds, because players lack imagination, or are bored easy....but I don't go to a mod and ask for it to be removed or locked.

The new plant system is good.....it's different, and hopefully, in time, they'll add something like a coconut tree, I'd love one. Pollination as well, that may happen....things take time though, it's called appreciation. A social trait going down the toilet fast.

I think, the devs are doing a good job, with what they have to work with.

 

[MalagAste]

I think I've gotten over the whole gathering seeds thing... the only thing that bothers me is you can't get colors this way.... I can see where it would be hideously ugly for anyone to have a bright red hedge or something... But really... Black and white are good.... I love black and white.

I think it was said in here that we would be able to get black and white seeds with a chance of them growing the new plants is that true or isn't it???


Also I really love those plants that FrejaSP posted...... any hope we may ever get to grow those?

 

[FrejaSP]

I think it was said in here that we would be able to get black and white seeds with a chance of them growing the new plants is that true or isn't it???

They made it so we can get the red and white plants from the Naturalist quest. It's not perfect but better than nothing and I would hate to see the new plants in the old Naturalist quest colors. I wish they had added a bloodred color too, the trees and henge would look great in autumn color.

I'm not happy, they are only added to the part of the quest where you use a green thorn.

I would had loved to see the white, black and a blod red color added to the seed from monsters but the seed should look plain, first when the plant comes out at day 7 you should see the color. It's to easy to get them from the quest, it should be a bonus to the garteners who use there time to grow plants.

 

[Flora Green]

MalagAste,

The black and white plants will be obtained through the naturalist quest. You have to do the fifth part where the fire seeds come from. You will have a chance to get fire in the original plants as it is now, the new 4 barrel cactus in fire and black and white in the new 17 plants. I think the percentage chance is listed in another thread somewhere.