Lets discuss farming....again

[Karmaterrorᵁᴷ]

I see a lot of arguments against farming for various reasons so il try to adress them here and propose a system i think can work well within SE.

"i wnat to build not manage bars"

OK so to this i say behind ever staus bar is gameplay. The requirements needed to fufill that bar. In this game they would clearly be building requirements. Having the right infastructure in place to produce the food. This wont detract from building but add to it, sure you will have to fill it up every now and then, but inbetween planning and building for it.

"We cant have liquid water"

We dont need liquid water, just the illusion of it. Your charicter isnt really breathing, the bar is on a timer and a sound effect plays. Thats how games do it, they build the illusion of an event happening.

To that end here is how we can build that illusion and keep us building the whole time...

Sprinkler - For lores sake it has a heating element to turn the ice into water (no need for water pipes and no worries about ice spewing out if its damaged) and can go strait onto a conveyor tube. Has a radius similar to a welder block, with a sprinkling water animation.

Planter block - 3x3 soil filled trough tat when placed under a 1x1 sprikler can all be watered (or not for balance). Plants need X ammount of time to grow, growing stops if water is not given for x ammount of time.

Harvester Block - 1x1 clears fully grown planters in a few seconds. Has similar radius to welder again.

Now we have the illusion of plants growing under sort of realistic needs. We have all the options to build different setups.

A spirinkler/havester on a drone with autopilot
a sprinkler/harvester on pistons and timers that waters and empties 10 planters
Crazy rotor driven sprinkler setup inside a rotating cylinder of planters

#engineering^^

So have i convinced you this could expand the engineering in a way where we dont need flowing water and keep us building things to survive?

[Karmaterrorᵁᴷ]

You can make the illusion of a shower.....and it would be great for those build contests that require crew quarters :P

[casualsailor]

And then the harvested food (like ore) goes into a "Food Assembler" block which converts them to "Food Packages" (like O2 bottles) that you carry in your inventory and your suit draws upon them periodically to provide you with sustinance?

In addition to the O2 and H bottles we'll have to produce "Water Bottles" and fill them in the existing O2 generators or will the suit just use existing O2 and H to produce water thus requiring that you carry both on you at all times?

And can I assume that the Medbay will in addition to changing your suit and filling your gas supply also feed and water the engineer provided it is plumbed to a source of the "Food Packages" and "Water?"

Can you go into a little more detail beyond what a planter would look like? How will the mechanics of creating the consumables and actually consuming them work?

[Karmaterrorᵁᴷ]

There wouldnt have to be a refinery type block, it could just be an "exotic fruit" inventory item or something. Or hint to the matian film with potatoes. But a refienry could be there aswell....i wouldnt be too bothered either way on that one.

Water would be a suitside thing imo. Astonauts have camel pack type deals right so they can drink while EVA?

Food it where i would advocate having to raise your visor to eat. As iv said in the past it creates a solid need for preassurised environments beyond "hey look its preassurised" haha

[casualsailor]

So your suit would have a built in water tank, like its built in O2 and H supply? Would you be able to carry additional water bottles? If so you're going to need a mechanism to fill them similar to the other tanks.

So you envision a literal animation where the engineer lifts his visor and puts a piece of fruit in his mouth and chews it up?

A little more detail would help me see this better.

[DrEarlInsanity]

still dun see how thins would add to what we can build...tis the same ole busy work assignment.

to me engineering fits more into the modular thrust market ect. <--allows a ship to do more

"but it allows the ship to grow food"
yea but too what end. the ship isn't doing anything better than it did before.

[casualsailor]

Originally posted by DrEarlInsanity:

still dun see how thins would add to what we can build...tis the same ole busy work asignment.

We're discussing Survival gameplay elements. This has nothing to do with the "space legos" version of SE that others play with. That part of the game is getting plenty attention by the devs.

[Tericc]

Actually with the sprinker system you can do more with it..

As minion joe said about airlocks. Have the sprinkler its own Block that way theres more that can be down with it such as proper decontamination rooms For that Scintillation counter on our suit.

And while where at it . If food is implemented I demand portable batteries.

[casualsailor]

I can see the sprinkler block. It would function just like the air vent block with a partical effect to simulate flowing water provided you had gravity and were not in a vacuum.

I'm just more interested in the mechanics of this for SURVIVAL rather than simply a block for Creative mode to simulate a shower.

Edit: If all people want is the ability to make what looks like a working shower then just give us a freaking shower block so that the builders can make shower rooms in their ships.

[The Big Brzezinski]

Keeping the actual bar-filling simple would be important. Oxygen and hydrogen do this well enough. Carrying a lunch box should be the same as a bottle. Getting a meal delivered to your cockpit from across the conveyor network should work the same as getting oxygen.

I can also see plant products being a renewable source of hydrocarbon fuel.

[MysticMalevolence]

I just really hate biological things, and dislike the idea of needing to stuff a farm on my starter ship. If I wanted farming I'd play one of my other games that offers it, I see no reason why I should be interested in putting up with it in this one.

[SpetS]

you starve to ded.....

[DrEarlInsanity]

Originally posted by Dylan the Cartographer:

I just really hate biological things, and dislike the idea of needing to stuff a farm on my starter ship. If I wanted farming I'd play one of my other games that offers it, I see no reason why I should be interested in putting up with it in this one.

we be in the same boat.

[VanGoghComplex]

If it's not simply a new ice biomass to mine harvest, so you can feed your oxygen generator food processor, so it'll produce oxygen food for you to consume, else you suffocate starve in a few minutes a few hours... I might be interested.

I just don't think Keen can or will do anything more involved than than.

[DrEarlInsanity]

Originally posted by MinionJoe:

Vat Cow => Molecular Milk => Space Cheese

why?

[Trelkovat]

Farming in Space Engi its a great idea :). At the end you can put an option in the new game section for those who like to play creative. New Game / Custom Game / Advanced / Food

But yea contrast its a good thing .. Organical vs Mechanical .

Also i think that it have the potential to attract more new players to the game.