Why don’t the plants self-pollinate to produce seeds?

[wrekognize]

Well here's the answer from the FOF on 08/15/2008 quoted below. Doesn't it seem like the seeds flooded the market anyways, and I personally have no desire to grow the plants anymore. I'm sure many others feel the same.

Aug 15th FOF response:

"This was a design decision. While the code is complex (way more than just telling it new vs. old), it wouldn’t take too much time to allow the plants to produce seeds. However, since these plants cannot cross-pollinate or give resources, if we allow them to produce seeds the market will be flooded with the most desirable plants within 3 to 4 weeks. And in 2 months from now, only a handful of people will bother with the plants anymore and definitely nobody will be hunting the seeds as everyone and their brother will have tons in store already. By limiting their availability and randomizing the drop of the seeds, it will make the most desirable plants rarer and thus more valuable while also expanding the life span of this mini-game."

...

 

[Flora Green]

Well some of us said the market would be flooded, but the decision remained. Go figure.

 

[FrejaSP]

You already have alot plants yoiu can crosspoll.
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.

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

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.

 

[Harlequin]

My hedges are selling out as quickly as I grow them. Rest of the plants are slower. And no one bought them trees...drats...not even the Cocoa trees.

 

[Harlequin]

You already have alot plants yoiu can crosspoll.
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.

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

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.

Actually, it's fine for me either way. Though making them gen 4 of the current plants would have been fun!

 

[Flora Green]

I think main problem, at least for me and some I've spoken with, is storage and organization. They added 17 new plants, 16 of which don't self-pollinate and STILL didn't add a way to store seeds. It's been years since people began asking for a seed packet (or something) and still there is nothing. Same with the jewelry box. At least with the old system we can have 8 seeds in storage at a time per plant. Now it's chests full of peculiar seeds. Which is also annoying for organizing.

A thread in botany suggests Item ID be used on unlabeled seeds. I think that's a great idea as it would be useful for any unknown seeds and not just the new ones. Yet the element of surprise some players want is still in place for the new seeds. Happy balance.

 

[gunneroforgin]

With the advent of engraving tools and others You could pick a box, crate, or bag and lable it until we get a new seed container,

 

[Flora Green]

With the advent of engraving tools and others You could pick a box, crate, or bag and lable it until we get a new seed container,

You think gardeners haven't done that already?

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

He doesn't understand that with the original plants... 17 different plants in plain plus 12 standard colors it's a LOT of secures and storage spaces... add to that any mutants, Naturalist Quest plants and seeds, Bonsai and now all the new plants...

Talk to me if you had to store all BODs without books... or maybe if ingots didn't mandrake root didn't stack in your pack when you are running around casting whatever.

 

[Spellbound]

Make identical type and color decorative plants stackable, please. I have a castle bulging with only plants and related paraphernalia. Out of 5625 maximum secure storage, 585 are lockdowns, 4680 are used in secures, and only 360 available. That doesn't include the 160 in my pack and on my beetle, or what's stocked onto vendors.

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

Amen Brother!

 

[FrejaSP]

He doesn't understand that with the original plants... 17 different plants in plain plus 12 standard colors it's a LOT of secures and storage spaces... add to that any mutants, Naturalist Quest plants and seeds, Bonsai and now all the new plants...

Talk to me if you had to store all BODs without books... or maybe if ingots didn't mandrake root didn't stack in your pack when you are running around casting whatever.

The new plant seed is easy to store. 4 boxes, one for each monster group.
Add to that a chest with 6 bags in the 6 colors from the Naturalist Quest.

The old one, I had 4-5 chests with 4-5 bags, one for each plant type, and in each bag, a plant of each color with 8 seed. Only the resource plants would I need to store more seed from.

I don't need to store 100 seed from each monster group and of each color from the Naturalist Quest, I can start grow them when I get them and sell the plants when ready.

 

[Crysta]

Pretty sure both banana trees are 2 pieces, Freja, meaning they couldn't be added to the plant system.. I can only say "pretty sure" tho 'cause I have no way of checking right now.

 

[Flora Green]

If the banana tree is 2 pieces, maybe they'll add it as they did the cherry, pear and apple trees in deed form. Eventually.

 

[Flora Green]

Yes, but everyone doesn't garden the same, Freja. Many of us are overflowing with plants and seeds. Running a full-time shop, we need some plants available on demand. Books or packets or allowing the seeds/plants to stack would be a big help.

 

[Crysta]

When I said two pieces, I literally meant they cut off half of the trunk.. it isn't at all like the trees with leaves. :\

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

Freja seems to believe that no one should play any way other than how she does... and if we do, we're just wrong.

Sorry, Freja. I'll leave now.

 

[Flora Green]

Thanks for checking, Crysta.

 

[Crysta]

I didn't... I did say I can't check before, didn't I? I can only go by memory now because my computer is dead and the one im on probably can't handle UO.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

The seeds flooded the market the moment they started dropping. The drop rate on the new seeds is so absurdly high that aside from MAYBE the Naturalist Quest (which isn't a bad side effect IMO), seeds are now yet another piece of garbage left on corpses.

Good idea, horrible implementation.

I would have had more fun PvMing for seeds had they dropped noticeably less than they do right now.

 

[Flora Green]

Sorry! I misread your post above.

 

[Strawberry]

The old one, I had 4-5 chests with 4-5 bags, one for each plant type, and in each bag, a plant of each color with 8 seed. Only the resource plants would I need to store more seed from.

You only need one secure full of parent plants for the original system. It's outlined in the Gardening FAQ:
http://vboards.stratics.com/showpost.php?p=797196&postcount=16

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.

If this system had been implemented the way the original one was, gardeners would be spending this week excitedly comparing notes on their Generation Four plants! What are we doing instead? Trying to figure if it's even worth tending a cactus or sugarcane plant after the seventh day.

 

[Harlequin]

You only need one secure full of parent plants for the original system. It's outlined in the Gardening FAQ:
http://vboards.stratics.com/showpost.php?p=797196&postcount=16

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.

If this system had been implemented the way the original one was, gardeners would be spending this week excitedly comparing notes on their Generation Four plants! What are we doing instead? Trying to figure if it's even worth tending a cactus or sugarcane plant after the seventh day.

After 7th? Nope, coz it'll likely survive growing 2 days if it's vibrant Just add water, but no potions. If anything goes red on the 8th day, then add potions if you want to keep it, if not, just water. If it wilts, then trash it

 

[Flora Green]

You only need one secure full of parent plants for the original system. It's outlined in the Gardening FAQ:
http://vboards.stratics.com/showpost.php?p=797196&postcount=16

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.

If this system had been implemented the way the original one was, gardeners would be spending this week excitedly comparing notes on their Generation Four plants! What are we doing instead? Trying to figure if it's even worth tending a cactus or sugarcane plant after the seventh day.

Good post and spoken like a true gardener.

 

[FrejaSP]

Freja seems to believe that no one should play any way other than how she does... and if we do, we're just wrong.

Sorry, Freja. I'll leave now.

You can still play the old flower system the way you want and I can play the new the way I want.
You may even be lucky to see the old plants get a value again because only the gardeners will grow them.
I'm not complaining about the old system, I'm just telling, that I love the new system Guess you can't allow me to love it, I have to feel like you

 

[FrejaSP]

Yes, but everyone doesn't garden the same, Freja. Many of us are overflowing with plants and seeds. Running a full-time shop, we need some plants available on demand. Books or packets or allowing the seeds/plants to stack would be a big help.

Easy, just go to your shard tradeforum, post "Buying new seed"

When I easy can buy more seed than I need on Siege, it can't be hard on other shards unless the economy is so screwed there, that not even a newbie want to make a little money from selling seed.

I got tired of hunting them and brought 300 seed of a player who needed to train combat skills and got 50+ for free of a friend who saw my post.

 

[wrekognize]

...

The seeds flooded the market the moment they started dropping. The drop rate on the new seeds is so absurdly high that aside from MAYBE the Naturalist Quest (which isn't a bad side effect IMO), seeds are now yet another piece of garbage left on corpses.

Good idea, horrible implementation.

I would have had more fun PvMing for seeds had they dropped noticeably less than they do right now.

This is exactly the point of my post!!!

...

 

[laurlo]

I would love to see seed storage.. I gave up growing plants due to storage space..

 

[Flora Green]

Again, Freja, you are missing the point. This has nothing to do with hunting or buying seeds. It's a storage issue. Why are you opposed to seed packets or books? Long time gardeners have been requesting these for years, long before the new plants were even thought about. It doesn't matter if I buy 300 seeds or hunt 300 seeds, that's still 300 lockdowns. With a packet or book that acts essentially the same as bod books (thought hopefully the count would work differently), it would greatly reduce the amount of storage required for the seeds, old and new and plants.

That has nothing to do with you liking the "new" system.

 

[FrejaSP]

Again, Freja, you are missing the point. This has nothing to do with hunting or buying seeds. It's a storage issue. Why are you opposed to seed packets or books? Long time gardeners have been requesting these for years, long before the new plants were even thought about. It doesn't matter if I buy 300 seeds or hunt 300 seeds, that's still 300 lockdowns. With a packet or book that acts essentially the same as bod books (thought hopefully the count would work differently), it would greatly reduce the amount of storage required for the seeds, old and new and plants.

That has nothing to do with you liking the "new" system.

From where did you get, that I'm opposed to seed packets or books?
Maybe the new kind of seed just need to stack and deco plants of same kind need to stack too.
Stacking would work fine for old kind too

 

[wrekognize]

From where did you get, that I'm opposed to seed packets or books?
Maybe the new kind of seed just need to stack and deco plants of same kind need to stack too.
Stacking would work fine for old kind too

Or they need to not spawn as many seeds on monsters, and reduce the amount of seeds that produce on old plants. In turn, you would not have to worry about storage and we would not have an over stock on plants which reduces their value. And I quote the FOF on this, “By limiting their availability and randomizing the drop of the seeds, it will make the most desirable plants rarer and thus more valuable while also expanding the life span of this mini-game."

 

[Flora Green]

My mistake, Freja.