Farming... Ores?

[FunnyBunny14]

The new crafting system is turning out to be much better than the old one. I'm confident that Calbiri will make it really good in the next update(s), so all the current problems will then be solved.

And then the era of the crafting system is born. We need to be prepared for it, and I have a couple of ideas that might be a nice addition to the crafting system. Both of my ideas will basically make farming resources possible, so no more introductions. Here it finally is:


Growing crystals
We all know that the current crafting system requires us to go out salvaging for resources all the time. To make you, the player, have to go salvaging less, I thought that it would be nice to be able to recycle the things you don't need. The first thing you would need is a way to grow crystals. That's right! I want people to be able to grow crystals. 'And how would you grow them?' you ask. Well, all you'll need is some water, a special variant of the crystal (you will use multiple crystals to make a plantable version) you want to grow and the rock type of the asteroid you would normally find that crystal in. You will then:

• Use the rock, but not the water.
• You will use one rock for every crystal block that grows.
• The crystal will spawn in the rock, so you will be able to get it back.
• You will have a random chance of getting 2-4 crystals and their rocks for just one, because the space dust will supposedly also get used.
• Not use the water. Because you don't want to have to get water all the time.

The last bit is important for my next idea:


Recycling
If hull isn't your cup of tea, then this is for you. The basics of this idea are that you will have a new factory that will recycle a certain amount of rocks for you to get ores. The ore type will be the same as the ore type that is found in the asteroid the rock type that you used goes with.
Maybe there could be ways to increase the efficiency of the recycling machine, so you won't need as many rocks. Maybe there could be a recycling enhancer.

These things aren't meant to replace salvaging, but rather provide you with a bonus income of resources, that is also very reliable. The reason it won't replace salvaging is that you'll need quite a lot of space to grow crystals properly. A 5x5x5 cube should make it require so much space that it just is a fun thing to do. Of course, if you are serious about making a massive farm, you could theoretically use it as your only means of income (in terms of resources). It would, however, prove to be too little for you to be able to build that massive ship you always dreamed of having.

You could of course always decide to recycle every rock you got, but you would then be a really unhappy person once you realised that you actually needed rocks for hulls.


Edit: Trees should also grow and have seeds, but there is another thread about that already. Just a quick thought: If we would have (at least) 8 types of trees we could maybe recycle those trees into rocks, and then we would be able to recycle the rocks into ore. Just to have a better way of getting ore.
Link to the other thread: http://starmadedock.net/threads/trees-grow-and-other-things.3058/#post-46557

Edit 2: The recycler could also get you half your resources in capsules back from blocks/items you don't need.

 

[Lecic]

I think it'd be cool if we could farm plants and extract certain types of minerals from them.

 

[MossyStone48]

I still like the growing crystal idea.
Crystal, plants, trees, critters and some sort of power units. Like a second currency. Little canisters of energy that you can plug into something to run something else or recharge. Exchange full canisters for resources or buy filled ones at a discount for empties. Give power beams a purpose in life.

 

[Planr]

Farm-Made?

 

[Megacrafter127]

Recycling
If hull isn't your cup of tea, then this is for you. The basics of this idea are that you will have a new factory that will recycle a certain amount of rocks for you to get ores. The ore type will be the same as the ore type that is found in the asteroid the rock type that you used goes with.
Maybe there could be ways to increase the efficiency of the recycling machine, so you won't need as many rocks. Maybe there could be a recycling enhancer.

I'd actually say: make the recycler not create ores from rocks, but instead make it revert a crafting recipe. So one can dispose of unwanted pirate loot without wasting it, and also crafting excess becomes less of a pain.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

I'd actually say: make the recycler not create ores from rocks, but instead make it revert a crafting recipe. So one can dispose of unwanted pirate loot without wasting it, and also crafting excess becomes less of a pain.

And how would you then go about getting the ore? Straight from the trees?

 

[Megacrafter127]

And how would you then go about getting the ore? Straight from the trees?

Yup, 10 capsules -> 1 shard/ore/rockblock

 

[FunnyBunny14]

Haha, not the crafting trees, because I know that bit, but the trees that grow.
So the question was:
Would it be a good idea to grow trees which blocks you could recycle into ores?

 

[ltmauve]

You could recycle them into capsules at a very limited ratio (200 blocks -> 1 capsule) or you could synthesize them directly into hull at 5:1 ratio.

P.S. Recycling made blocks shouldn't give ores, but capsules. Does it make sense that when you pull the copper wiring out of a circuit board, you get copper ore? No.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

No, that would defeat the objective of the tree harvesting. I want for the wood of the tree to be recycled into raw ore (not capsule).

I'm thinking of changing the recycle and tree bit to make it clearer. I also have an idea of how it will work:
You will have whatever it is that you normally need to plant for a tree, and then infuse multiple of those (what in minecraft are saplings) and infuse them with quite a lot of capsules (about 200-400). That would give you a special item which you could plant to grow the ore tree. The infused tree wood would then have to be recycled to get you ore and normal wood. You would only get 1 normal wood per 2 ore wood.

Let me know with another post what you think of the infused trees.

 

[ltmauve]

So infuse the seed with crystal, and it'll grow more of it? Simple and it makes sense.
Harvest the leaves to get the crystal. Don't harvest the wood, because that's what respawns the leaves. Of course, those saplings from the infused tree aren't infused (because otherwise your harvest grows exponentially even if you take all the crystal.) If you do want to grow your operation (pun intended) you'll need to invest the crystal you got from your tree in more infused trees.

Also, what about other plants? Maybe a tree would be more efficient per capsule invested, but infused soil which grows the sprite-plants will produce a yield faster?

Coarse Extractor (takes blocks and extracts ores and shards) -> Capsule Refinery -> Micro -> Macro?

 

[FunnyBunny14]

I was actually thinking that the ores, not the crystals, would be the one that could be grown through infusion. The ore trees would grow quicker than the crystals, but with the crystals you wouldn't have to infuse something the whole time. You would just have to supply a specific type of rock that you would get back more of and you would need water nearby.

My new ideas/explanation/clarification:
The differences:

• The trees grow fast but don't drop seeds, meaning that you need to harvest normal trees to get seeds so you can infuse them. So you would also need a normal tree farm besides the ore tree farm.
• The crystals grow slowly, but require less effort to grow: once water will be common (I hope there will be oceans) it isn't that big a deal to get it.
• There will be an infuser to get ore trees.
• There will be a catalyser for the crystal (in which all the rocks and water goes, and the concentrated crystal capsule of course, but that doesn't get used).

Examples (math with some example numbers) for the ore trees and crystal growing:
Ores + trees:

• The ore trees will give you about 4 ore per wood block. There are about 5 (I think?) wood blocks in one tree, which adds up to a total of 20 ore per harvested tree. You'll need 12 (120 capsules) to infuse a seed. That gives you 8 ore profit per tree that you grow.
• Normal trees will give you 1-3 seeds when salvaged completely.
• A tree will take approximately 20 minutes to grow.

Crystals:

• Every fully grown crystal will take up a space of 5x5x5, which will also be the area that needs to be available for it to grow.
• There will be 25-50 crystals+rock in that area once it is fully grown.
• The catalyser will have a time bar to show how far it is. It will only reset when you clear the entire area.
• Once that bar is full, and thus the growing time has elapsed, you will have to salvage everything in that area to be able to grow again.
• For every crystal+rock that grows, you will need 1 of that rock.
• There will, however, be a certain gain on that. Because once every 5-10 crystals the catalyser won't use a rock. This can be explained by the space dust that also gets used when growing those crystals.
• Every 10 crystals 1 water gets used.
• A concentrated crystal capsule will take 400 normal capsules to craft. It won't be used.
• It will takes 30 minutes for a crystal patch to grow completely.

Edit: These numbers are just examples, but I think they won't need changing. Also, if other people think that this is clearer and better, I will out my old OP in a quote and change it to give the new information.

 

[NeonSturm]

I like the concept. Maybe not for all servers, but it could be a feature increasing SM's popularity by far (you actually need stations! Make crystals don't like movement :D ?)

But please no randoom chances!

 

[FunnyBunny14]

But they make people feel that they can have more luck than they actually do... Just look at the lottery! :p

 

[jayman38]

Randomness could be a server configuration with the default at 0 (0%).

 

[FunnyBunny14]

I know random can be bad, but here it just is something positive. It just is a small bonus once every 5-10 crystals grown. That seems harmless enough.