What I would like to see in a farming system

[saltychipmunk]

Let me preface this with the understanding that TFP have finite resources that they can allocate to tasks and  that the current farming system is a "best we can do for now" solution and that my suggestions might be unrealistic.

 

Anyway onwards to the farm talk.

 

For reference I define the core loop of 7d2d as  an exploration focused hoard survival base defense game.  IE  you go out, explore , loot, collect , harvest , do quests to  build/ fortify a base to survive a potentially lethal threat to your existence and this loop continues with escalation until  either you prove yourself unassailable and get bored or get obliterated and lose.

 

In essence we can break the game down into

 

Exploration ( going through pois, looting , doing quests , mining for resource and farming)

Building up the base ( fortifying, constructing, improving gear , making items  and traps etc)

Surviving the hoard nights.

 

So big issue I have with farming in general right now is two fold.  First it is a rather flat system.  By that I mean  you set it up once you are largely done save for the tedium of crafting stuff into seeds and replanting.  Apart from a freak dynamite accident or a hoard night that went very wrong.. you wont be needing to do much to your grow plots over a play through.

Second it really does not have a huge impact on most of the core loop that is 7d2d.

 

The flat system is bothersome because it means there is no sense of progression anywhere.   There are no higher tier grow beds to craft / find which would facilitate spending more resources upgrade your farms .  no super rare plant types gated by game stage  which would warrant the expansion of an existing farm to grow.   You just make some plots find the seeds you want ..eventually. done.  

 

But I think the larger issue is the lack of impact on base design.  7d2d  kinda has an issue where the zombies are not really after your base.. they are after you. and you can often exploit the crap out of this fact by making a dedicated hoard base far away from where all the real noise is happening.  Now hoard bases are their own can of worms , I understand people like them and if they don't they can just ... not use them. fair point. wont debate it.

 

That being said I feel  base design is at its most interesting when it is actively working to solve issues. Case in point even your main base needs some defense from  the screamers when you have all of your forges on blast. I always found that dynamic interesting, but under utilized.

 

Enter my thoughts on farming.  Frankly put I am surprised we do not have large sources of noise associated with the farming system. Maybe not base plots. but imagine if the game introduced systems that allowed for plots to grow more food  per plot , but at the cost of potentially attracting unwanted attention. 

 

For example:

 

Tier 1, just plain blah crop plots , no noise, slow growth rates, even slower in bad biomes where the plants aren't native too 

Tier 2, Add electricity powered irrigation system,  increases yields of existing plots  but now you need noisy generators to keep the system going 

Tier 3, Green houses,  removes biome penalties  but requires expensive materials to make on top of some electricity based system to maintain climate control.

Tier 4, higher efficiency grow beds , hydroponics .. maybe just more expensive grow beds  so you have a larger dump of rotten flesh? 

 

You could also add animals to this too

chicken coups that generate some noise  in exchange for eggs (maybe need to feed them corn or something to add a resource drain and supply chain)

bigger animals could be added that make even more noise  but maybe yield products that create even better recipes.

 

Now you have the interesting dilemma do you keep things slow and simple with tier 1 grow plots?  or do you go fancy , risk the attraction of zombie hoards that you will need to defend against and invest fuel on the maintenance?

 

You could also have this system feed into exploration by making some of these things require new farming specific loot items  that you could stagger by game stage. 

 

Another perk to this sort of system is then you would not need to have the viability of the entire system dependent on a single perk (living off the land)  you could  shift some of that stuff into simply investing more in your infrastructure.  The trade being a decent investment in perk points  vs  more noise and resource investment. 

 

Edited December 15, 2021 by saltychipmunk (see edit history)