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In the current economy, we have found a variety of issues which need to be tackled in such a way where the solutions will not only be useful for redoing the economy, but all solutions need to be in some way understandable enough so that players can make use of them and still make money.

As you can all understand this a fairly dynamic problem, as economics has never been something which you have direct control over(unless you are from Israel), and because of this we need to make solutions that are not only somewhat trackable, but our solutions need to ensure that the most freedom possible is available.

With our first order of business relating to economics in Limelight, our biggest priority should be dealing with the four major merchant teams of limelights economy…

Gun Dealers
Chefs
Black Market Dealers
Doctors

All these classes will need to be dealt with seperately in some fashion or another in order to deal with the variety of problem that’ll come from the reworking of their economic dynamic.

With today’s post we are going to tackle something which is vital to every player on the server, regardless or not if they are involved in aggressive rp or passive rp, the thing I am talking of is the Chef job. At the current moment, the Chef job’s activities mainly comprise of selling food to players. Seems simple enough right? But wait! What about the fishing rod?

The fishing rod is something of an oddball in the world of CityRP, and it’s purpose is even weirder. Anyone who understands how the economy relating to fish works understands that fish at the moment is one, if not the only form of item economy which can be considered player runned. The whole fish market on it’s own is something which greatly mystifies those trying to figure out why certain things work, but in order to make it easier lets do some real talk!

Fish’s price is based off it’s hunger return which is 70%. This price is related back to Chinese Noodles which return 50% and per item it’ll usually cost you $275. Most sane non-idiotic people will take these numbers in mind and charge $300 to $450 per fish, as they return more hunger, and therefore should cost more then Chinese Noodles, right?

Well it’s not exaclty that easy. You see, one of the problems that has come alive from Fish is that because their is no set market price, players are free to experiment and create prices which would otherwise be impossible with other items. The Pre-2011 Crash price of fish was $500 and thanks to the market being overstocked with glitched fish, it crashed to $25. 

This is not even abiding the rule of Chinese being 50% return and fish being 70% return. So what’s the big deal here?
Well the difference my child is in the way these economies work. Fish is an actual player runned economy in which the players who are involved in it, take pride in their work, and at the same time suffer from periods of overstocking and period of decreased stock. Even if the fish has a certain amount of hunger return, the value is generally based on how much fish are on hand and ready to sell. Chinese Noodles is based on the F1 Marketplace, in which Chefs magically manufacture an item from thin air after making money sacrfice to Lord Gaben, and from such are granted items. In otherwords, Chinese Noodles are not player-runned but rather they are simply an economy where a player spawns the items, and slaps $250 on top of the manufacture price.

The current system for manufacturing items like food, weapons, vehicles, drugs, and medical supplies is almost all like this, and the only item which remotely touches being a player economy is the market behind the fish. Strange is it not?

Well in this Community Input post, we’d like to discuss something which is an ongoing developement, and we want to know how the community feels regarding a few things, and how they’d like to see certain things done.


First off, we’ll give some background to current developement and see what appeals to you all the most. Alright? Good.

With the current merchant jobs, it’s almost near impossible for player-based economies to come into play, but a solution DOES exist for this problem. As we are discussing the Chef job, lets talk symantics of how things can operate. Instead of the Chef selling food, the developers have talked about changing the name of the Chef into a “Cullinary School Supplier” who supplies players with a variety of items for hunting, fishing, farming, cooking, and recipes. In order to explain these items in depth…

Hunting: Small Game Cages, Bird Snares, and Dead Fall Pit Kits

Fishing: Lobster/Crayfish Pots, Fishing Rods, Different Reel Types, and Different Baits/Lures, and Bait Containers

Cooking: Moonshine Distillery, Pots, Pans, Stoves, and Donner Kebab kits.

Recipies: Begineer Cooking Recipes

These items once sold by the CSS, would be used by players to go about and begin making player economies that’d evolve across the server. This is a new direction the server could theoretically take. It does not remove the chef job, but instead makes it so chefs simply supply the items for player economics to sprout about.

Our first question of today’s post - Would you prefer the system mentioned or would you rather keep the Chefs as is?

Onto the second portion of today’s discussion!

The next part of our discussion is regarding the aspects of farming. As we all know, farming is going to come in eventually, and players will be able to make their own food. This system has been batted around a bit with the admins and devs, and we’d like to get some input from the community regarding it.

Our biggest problem at the moment regarding this is a discussion of where do the seeds come from and how are they planted. The developers as it stand are simply unsure of how to progress with this system in such a way where the users would feel good with using it. So let us discuss the different options available!

#1. Seeds are found from wild plants that grow in grass and dirt textures around the city. These plants once harvested will provide five to ten seeds, all of which will be randomly chosen. Certain seeds are rarer then others, and will require more grinding to find. At the same time though, players will be able to purchase basic food seeds like potatoe and carrot seeds from an NPC within the city who’ll explain the system to new users. All seeds can be planted in pots to be grown indoors or grown outside on grass and dirt.

#2. All seeds are purchased from the CSS instead of being found in the wild. These seeds are then put into pots and farmed.

#3. GMStranded type system where players simply go up to the ground with say a farming hoe from the CSS, and harvest seeds. These seeds can later be planted in pots or on the ground, and grown until they yield fruit.

As you can see, pretty simple options! We also have another problem which needs to be talked about… Where will the seed go?

#1. Pots

#2. On the Ground(PERP Mushrooms)

#3. Both

With all of this out of the way, we have finally began to enter the last part of today’s innovation discussion! This part of the discussion is something which some users may find confusing so we’ll explain, and if you have issues understanding please just post!

After players harvest the fruits, vegetables, hops, or drug plants of their labor, they’ll soon have the choice of eating them. We are hoping with this system to expand away from simply restoring hunger, we want to provide a new aspect to eating food, consider stat boosts if you will. The idea is rather easy to understand, but also quiet complex.

All fruit, vegetables, hops, and drugs have different stats which are gained upon consumption. These stats are UNKNOWN and the players must find them out for themselves through hard labor and work. Why is this you might ask? Because this would add a whole new system, it’d allow companies, clans, and corporations to make their own types of lunches and foods for certain RPs. Not to mention it’d just be fun doing some research around what does what.

The problem is though, many of the devs and admins believe that in doing this, we may stray to far from the original playstyle of the gamemode. Mind you this is understandable considering the stats we’d be hoping to increase are things like running speed, stamina, weapon handling skills, health points, damage resistance, ect. All stuff which the player would have to figure out and write down on their own with some friends as a tinkering quest of sorts. Mind you this is all doable.

Either way though, we have come to the community for input…

Should farmed food have stats… Yes or No?

#1. Yes
#2. No
10/10. Farm food stats. My zucchini has 100 dexterity.
Id say

#1. Seeds are found from wild plants that grow in grass and dirt textures around the city. These plants once harvested will provide five to ten seeds, all of which will be randomly chosen. Certain seeds are rarer then others, and will require more grinding to find. At the same time though, players will be able to purchase basic food seeds like potatoe and carrot seeds from an NPC within the city who’ll explain the system to new users. All seeds can be planted in pots to be grown indoors or grown outside on grass and dirt.

#3. Both

#1. Yes

This is something that is quite needed
The current lumbering system has provided the necessary proof that this system would succeed so long as we have the system setup where maybe an NPC can sell potato seeds and buy the potatos, but all other food is something that must be sold to players, and the seeds are found in the wild instead of bought from the F1 Menu.
We need to split the city into Urban men and Mountain men
YES im all for it

now our city have real men
#1

#3

#1
I think as long as the merchant jobs stay as how they are, we will never achieve a true economy or anything like it.
With the addition of Scrap Metal we have 2 items that are player-controlled, Fish and Scrap Metal.
It's proven to be pretty damn good so far, I love it and I think the whole crafting system surrounding meth would be even better with more player-controlled items involved... But I digress from the topic in hand.

To answer the first question posed, my answer is that it's essential to change the Chef job in order to economize our community. Our current systems are just so damn linear that they're.. boring.
I think one issue that could arise from changing Chef to CSS would be that if an inexperienced player were to choose the job and someone were to go and ask him for x and y items it could be confusing with the itemset you've listed back there.
Upon the launch of a growing and farming system with the CSS, we could experience a mass famine, and fish prices will most likely skyrocket until the economy begins to become more stable and balanced as people learn how to grow food and the sale of food begins. Of course this potential short-term downfall would be worth it as in the end we would end up with a player-controlled market for food (Fantastic!) and passive money (Brilliant!).

Anyway, moving on, your second question -- Where do seeds come from?
Option one seems almost flawless and I cannot see any downfall from it. Maybe the NPC should sell just one type of seed so that it serves as more of a way to learn to grow and farm as opposed to a money maker itself. Infact, I think that with just one type of seed sold by an NPC with instructions too, almost like a tutorial, option one would be perfect but still I will explore the other options.
Option two is, to put it bluntly, stupid. It's just reverts any kind of radicalization to the chef job that was proposed and would turn it into the source of all food again, indirectly but at the end of the day, seeds only obtainable from chef is the same as food only obtainable from chefs if it has the same outcome further down the line, if you understand what I'm getting at.
Option three is option one except with no tutorial NPC and a hoe. I think if we were to merge option one and three we would have our perfect solution, which I'll outline below.
Proposed Solution: An Option Four - Merge 1 & 3
"Seeds are found from wild plants that grow in grass and dirt textures around the city. The seeds can be harvested by using a hoe bought from a CSS. These plants once harvested will provide five to ten seeds, all of which will be randomly chosen. Certain seeds are rarer then others, and will require more grinding to find. Players can also purchase a basic seed (e.g. Potato) from an NPC that will also teach them how to use the system. The basic seed will serve as a way to learn instead of a way to make money. All seeds can be planted in pots to be grown indoors or grown outside on grass and dirt."
Of course further suggestions could improve my proposed solution.

On to the next question, where do the seeds go?
Well that's already been answered in my proposed solution but still I will explore the different options.
Option One (Pots) - This allows for us to protect our crops indoors just like we currently do with Cannabis crops. It means our crops aren't likely to get stolen but then again have no risk. Not that farming should have a major risk but I guess some people will still want to steal or destroy crops (Rules should be thought up involving those criminal activities).
Option Two (Ground) - Props are exposed to the open for all to destroy or steal with enough effort and brings a major risk to farming which could shy people away from actually using the system and just using fishing instead (That is of course if the fishing system stays as basic as it is now, a massively overpowered one).
Option Three (Both) - I think this is the most ideal option. Let's keep realism by making it so that only certain crops can be grown indoors and some outdoors, in accordance with realism and what can and can't be achieved in real life.
Proposed Solution: Option Three With Limitations To Both (As detailed Above)

Next!
Should Farmed Food Have Stats?
This is a very, very tricky one. Personally I don't like it, I think we would take it too far and complicate the GM by adding lost of different stats. In my opinion, if you were to finish a crop, go to collect it and you have actually farmed one of these crops with stats, it should say in your inventory (70 Hunger, 15% Less Stamina Reduce) instead of having to find them out. With many different crops and no detail of these statistics I think that we're going to end up with huge over-complication (A bit like the initial reaction to the new weapons system except way worse) and again, people shying away from growing/buying food in this manner. Let's have crops with stats, but only if the effects are noted on the item in our inventory.
Proposed Solution: Yes, but with detail of stats in inventory

An additional thing which may or may not belong here is my idea for a change to the lumber system.
Let's make lumber an ingredient needed in one of our systems. It could be our fishing, growing or meth system.
If we were to introduce this asap, and remove the NPC, congratulations we have our 3rd economized, player-controlled item.
Of course I'd like to think that it would be better to wait and see where lumber could fit into a new growing and/or fishing system instead of rushing it in.

Anyway apologies for the wall of text.
#1

#3

#2 - Massive NO!
bumpppp