Farming and why I think Factorio could put a fun unique spin on it.

[TwoBit]

First, I know this probably won’t be added.

I think farming could be very unique in Factorio. Here's how I would do it. Imagine starting in a field full of corn, but then mowing it down to put a smelter and conveyer belts, you would have to plan, weighing the need for food vs the need/want to progress fast.

The pollution can add another factor, you might not want to put your smelter in that field ether, because the pollution would kill your food supply. I think this would need to include some farming techs and options.

Again, this is just my two cents. Not expecting it to get added.

[It'sDannn]

Sounds like a cool concept, all though if it was added to main game i'm assuming they would add food and water bars and probably make it too complex for newer players.

[AlexMBrennan]

Who would be eating this food? The single humanoid on the planet? Do you want to add human workers to all assemblers (reverse automation I guess) to force us to start delivering pizzas to every assembler? Or MREs to the turrets?

The pollution can add another factor, you might not want to put your smelter in that field ether, because the pollution would kill your food supply.

That seems impractical given the enourmous pollution clouds you tend to see by endgame.

[Zamber]

Mods.
Such things are open for modding.

You have nauvis for killer pollution and farming in one of Angel's mods.
If i remember some time ago there was even one mod for supply basic needs (hunger, rest, thirst) for character...

[FlameWar]

Originally posted by TwoBit:

First, I know this probably won’t be added.

I think farming could be very unique in Factorio. Here's how I would do it. Imagine starting in a field full of corn, but then mowing it down to put a smelter and conveyer belts, you would have to plan, weighing the need for food vs the need/want to progress fast.

The pollution can add another factor, you might not want to put your smelter in that field ether, because the pollution would kill your food supply. I think this would need to include some farming techs and options.

Again, this is just my two cents. Not expecting it to get added.

Well, this sounds like a great idea for a mod mostly, so get to it :P
Jokes aside, the idea is not bad, but I think that is something that the devs will keep in the mod realms, as it is not part of the core gameplay and is not everyones taste.
And on that topic, don't forget some of the devs are actually making mods, like the lovely KS_Power mod by Klonan to add stuff liek oil boilers and direct coal burners and such. It seems the devs wnat to keep it mostly to a 'one horse pony' for all mechanics. E.g. 1 type of boiler for the water boiling mechanics, one type of nuce reactor, one type of renewable energy and so one, while leaving it to mods to add more.

Most mechanics necessary for food growing are already in the game for mod makers to use. There's 'eating' for the fish, which you could turn into indirect food metering by buffing hp and having a constant decline of them you have to 'compensate' by eating.
For growing the stuff you could have entities as tiles or buildings, with a very slow 'animation', aka just a few different growth frames that change every mintue or however long it should take.
Add automatic deconstruction marking when they are fully 'grown' to harvest them, which is used by some mdos so it definitely possible, and voila, you got a working field.

Of course there could be more elegant solutions if the devs implemented it, with mroe mechanics added liek actuall plant growth support, or vehicles for harvesting or such, and stuff liek 'watering' towers to make it grow faster while consuming water etc.


And last but not least, two version of pollution.

Originally posted by TwoBit:

The pollution can add another factor, you might not want to put your smelter in that field ether, because the pollution would kill your food supply. I think this would need to include some farming techs and options.

Your example hits the problem with that idea and the current system. At the moment there is only one type of pollution, which represents both stuff like oil/dangerous usbtance leaking, all sorts of contamination, noise, and all kidns of gaseous aor heat output/input.
It would sense not to have chemical production right next to your fields, as the polution there probably also represents stuff like oil spills, chemical leaks and the like. Same with mines and stone/ore dust settling all over your fields.
On the other hand, the smelters would actually be perfect near fields, as thier 'pollution' output mostly represents the CO2 ouput (and the CO1, but that reacts to CO2 naturally in the atmosphere, so no problems there). Plants love CO2 and, as many studies have shown, actually grow better near big CO2 producers like smelters or coal generators, and grow fastest if you pump the CO2 rich gases from factories right into greenhouses where plants grow.

So you'd optimaly want a 'CO2' pollution, and a 'chemical' pollution or something liek that as different game mechanics (would also make sense for trees and such). Don't think you could emulate that with modding, so if you want to add the polliution aspect at all that would need dev help.


TL;DR:
It's actually reasonably doable with modding right now, and dev help would msotly only smooth things out in the process.