Fields in winter

[Moyocoya]

What happens to fields (especially vegetables and fruits) in winter?
What happens to:
-fields half grown;
- fields full grown but not haversted?

[Flin Fredstone]

You can see the health on the crops. If it reaches 100 they can be harvested, when it goes down to 0 they need to be replanted afaik.

[Moyocoya]

OK, so if I have too much of something, I just don't harvest it, it will die and disapear during the winter?

[Flin Fredstone]

I guess that depends how cold the winter is. You might not have to resow it but it will have to regrow back up.

[Moyocoya]

OK, if I understand correctly, it means that the aging of the plants is not taken into account? If the winter is mild, the ones that have grown remain as they are and would be harvestable the following year?

[Flin Fredstone]

They lose HP during the winter and have to grow back up to 100. It wont take as long as seeding the plant anew. Just hope you wont get any severe cold snaps.

[Moyocoya]

OK, I understand, thank you so much for your time in responding!

[Jaggid Edje]

Worth also pointing out that different crops have different tolerance to the weather, so 'what' you have growing will also be a factor in what ends up dying and what might actually sprout and be harvestable even in the dead of winter if it gets warm enough.

[Daynen Drakeson]

Plants stop growing when below a certain temp. When below a certain LOWER temp, they start losing health and disappearing. If there's no cold snap, most crops are fine as the cold just delays the harvest.

Hmmm...I wonder if it's possible to heat outdoor crops?

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Daynen Drakeson:

Hmmm...I wonder if it's possible to heat outdoor crops?

It is, you can even get them to grow if you provide a heat source that gets the temp for them high enough.

Now I'm wondering if that is the reason why all of the heat sources have such a low radius of affect. . .

[Daynen Drakeson]

you know what? I think we just stumbled onto something there...SCREW HYDROPONICS, IT'S FIREPLACE FARMING FOR US!

[Daynen Drakeson]

I'll be damned, it actually works. time to find the optimal distribution of heating to plants!

Let's see: a heating stove or heater are the smallest heating devices I know of, only one square. Heater takes 4 power so it needs to be able to support AT LEAST 4 squares to be equal to hydroponics. If it IS, then you can heat 4 plants for the same power but one fourth the metal cost. If it can sustain MORE than 4 squares it's an absolute win for the heater. Wait...need power poles. Poles can connect up to...12 squares away. So 12x12 grids to distribute power and the heater can reach from...six squares! SWEET.

Turns out, the heater has a noticeable effect on the surrounding 8 squares. Given the build cost and repair cost, it's still leagues cheaper than building hydro gardens AND helps with crops that hydros CANNOT grow, though it DOES require more space...however you get heaters with electric grid research whereas hydros are their own tech, which we would then not need. You COULD of course do the same with heating stoves which have apparently equal heating radius, which would eliminate the malfunctions and require even LESS tech, but then you have to keep refueling the sticks. Also the plants will still grow more slowly because the heat sources won't get them all the way up into the perfect temp range but even when the weather is below freezing the temps can be pushed up into the forties (F, not C, yea I'm American, you wanna MAKE somethin' of it?) which is enough to get them above 0% growth rate!

If you've got abundant stone or brick, fireplaces CAN accomplish the same thing in approximately two square radius, but then you're taking up two squares per place and heating in a more diagonal radius than square. Would take some different arrangement to tessellate properly. The heater still remains the least maintenance heavy, needing no sticks to fuel and just the occasional repair.

HOLY CRAP, GUYS! WE FOUND A USE FOR THE HEATER!!

[Jaggid Edje]

Heater has a larger radius of heat output than the campfire, fireplace has a larger radius of heat than both.
If you want to see the exact radius of each, in meters, just go into the mod editor and look.

Also, btw, if you are using smelters for other things, you would want to work those into your equation. Seeing as they are going to be throwing off heat wherever you put them, might as well have them in the middle of fields.

[Bjørn]

Heating the fields! Brilliant... Interesting how they deal with cold snaps?

Wonder if there's any benefit in having freestanding walls around the fields, to keep heat from 'flowing out'? Realistically hot air will go straight up, though, but from reading above it seems the heaters are as effective outside as inside, radius-wise?

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Bjørn:

Heating the fields! Brilliant... Interesting how they deal with cold snaps?

Wonder if there's any benefit in having freestanding walls around the fields, to keep heat from 'flowing out'? Realistically hot air will go straight up, though, but from reading above it seems the heaters are as effective outside as inside, radius-wise?

No, not nearly as effective, but within their defined radiation radius they do warm the area.

Inside, they also warm the rest of the interior, the better the insulating factor of floors, walls and ceilings, the better they do at that. Outside, they are pretty much limited to that defined radius, and even that isn't kept nearly as warm as it would be in a nice house built of brick, cement or carbon.

It is why, however, that I never rush to get an actual 'structure' built for my people to live in. They can do just fine, even in winter, with good clothes and a campfire near the sleeping spots. Most often what I also do is put the smelting furnaces that are churning out bricks and metal near the sleeping spots. That makes a shelter very cozy.

[Moyocoya]

Interesting discussion, very technical by the way! We are not very far from a course on thermodynamics.
That said, our farmers IRL (in France anyway) sometimes use fires to save their crops from late spring frosts...
Anyway, I prefer a certain realism: people in heated houses and crops replanted in spring.
The fact that fruit or vegetable crops can overwinter, i.e. be planted in autumn and harvested in spring, disturbs me. As much as I think the simulation in this game is exceptionally well done, I think that for agriculture it's a bit weird.