Making Weeding Optional

[EpicAaron]

In the next update to my addon, I plan to add a config option for weeding. I think this might be a good idea for CE and other BTW versions as well.

I actually really love weeding as a concept and plan to use it in my single player world. In multiplayer, however, the mechanic falls apart. If players are massed at spawn, but some players happen to be away, the crops will die if nobody is online to attend to them. This creates a janky situation where spawn players have to set up a second base just outside of spawn chunks in order to avoid accidentally wiping out their crops. My friends and I are currently doing this on our latest session, and I have experienced this on other servers as well.

In general, weeding puts chunk loading front and center, which I think is an unfortunate gamey thing to force players to think about so early in the game. It is also inconsistent--farming at spawn is way different than farming at an HC spawn. The always on spawn chunks mean that players have to manage their time away from the garden so as not to let weeds overtake it. This is balanced by the fact that plants still get to grow when the player is off caving or logging or exploring. I think this is a great dynamic (and possibly what FC was intending when he made the feature), but this balance is lost during HC Spawns because the crop chunks are not loaded. Instead, the crops will freeze in time if they are not babysat. Practically speaking, that means the player has to loiter or AFK around base while waiting for crops to grow, and weeding is just an extra chore on top of that.

In short, the feature isn't all that well implemented across the various ways to experience the game. I feel like giving server players an option to forego weeding might take a load off.

In my ideal world, HC Spawns will also be temporarily chunk loaded so that every survival experience can have the same level of convenience and consistency. Crops are not the only thing affected by an unloaded base--clay drying, smelting, cooking, and machines all function a lot worse outside of spawn, making gameplay away from home a lot less fluid.

[dawnraider]

So right off the bat I want to mention that I do not think a config option for weeds is a good idea for BTW. I think it's much better suited for something like an addon, like you mention.

That doesn't, however, mean I think weeding is perfect as it is. I've never been a fan of the maintenance demanded by weeds, or the fact that if you die your entire crop field is guaranteed gone, unless you did gamey stuff like put it outside loaded chunks. I may consider something like making it so that weeds don't kill your crops. That way you are still incentivized to weed your crops since they won't be growing, but you don't have the failure state of weeds killing your crops. I'd have to think on it.

As for chunkloading on HCS, that's definitely something to consider. Once I get the code in for variable location chunkloading to add playermade chunkloaders, I can look into HCS chunkloading. The issue there is figuring out when to make it stop chunkloading the HCS area. You don't want it to stop chunkloading while you're still using it, but you don't want it to keep chunkloading forever because then you'll run into performance issues.

[PlasmaFox]

I may consider something like making it so that weeds don't kill your crops. That way you are still incentivized to weed your crops since they won't be growing, but you don't have the failure state of weeds killing your crops. I'd have to think on it.

Wow this is a perfect solution in my opinion.

[EpicAaron]

Now that I have re-entered the kiln stage of the game, I remembered that weeds incentivize a massive production of planters. Planters are like the first complex object you want to produce a ton of, and the thought of having more of them is spurring me to create a large tube kiln. It seems like weeds are a more complex issue than I thought.

[rohanguard1]

Another option would be to make weeds grow slower, so they only overtake your crops if you forget to harvest them when it's time. That way, early game farming is more manageable in general, as well as solving the away from base issue.

[Sockthing]

I was planning adding something to combat weeds in Sock's Crops. My idea was adding straw as a type of "fertiliser" like you'd apply like bone meal on farmland which would prevent weed growth at all. Since it acts like bone meal it would be used up when the crop matures and weed could grow again. This would mean that the plants can still be killed by weeds.
I've realised there might be two issues with this. Getting straw from wheat isn't exactly a crop you have access to in early games when you don't have planters.
And then this method would still mean dead plants eventually.
Or I was thinking an item like cut grass that needs to be dried or something to be used for this.

I like the ideas above too. I'll think a little more about how I could combine them with mine.
Maybe you guys know how to combine them?

Edit:oh Sock's Crops also adds a compost block. Maybe a compost item could be used as a fertiliser to combat weed growth? It is used as a block you can grow crops on that are not planted on farmland and give them a speed up of growth like bone meal on farmland. Compost you can get from converting stumps or dung blocks with the Hügelkultur method or from a composter that needs 7 wood planks to be created. So accessible early game

[EpicAaron]

Or I was thinking an item like cut grass that needs to be dried or something to be used for this.

This is similar to a note I wrote down originally for my knife tools. My thought was that players would cut grass for paths and dry the material in the sun for a while to create useful straw or hay. Another part of that feature would be that tall grass naturally grows back over time, so really I would be trading one kind of weeding for another. Hardcore Lawn Mowing!

The thing with planters is that they create an important construction based goal for the player to strive for. And since kiln setups are not easy to optimize on the first try, the project of perfecting a kiln setup and churning out as many planters as possible is rewarding. It could be argued that tool melting and soul urns present their own reward, but the player doesn't need mass urns until steel production, very late game.

Can we somehow recreate that dynamic early game? That's a real design challenge. We don't want to deal with weeding, but we also don't want to lose the awesome feeling of achieving planter tech.

[abculatter2]

Or I was thinking an item like cut grass that needs to be dried or something to be used for this.

... Compost you can get from converting stumps or dung blocks with the Hügelkultur method or from a composter that needs 7 wood planks to be created. So accessible early game

You could use some kind of 'weed killer' crafted thing, such as throwing Stump Remover onto the plot. Doing so would make weeds no longer spawn on that farmland for a few harvests, but removes the ability to use bonemeal on the plant and slows its growth a bit.

I like the idea of using buried stumps to make weed-free farmland. It opens up possibilities for a somewhat more dynamic succession-based system, where you grow trees in a plot first, then grow crops there next. Ideally the stump should be consumed eventually, so that a permanent static system would be reserved for planters. Maybe you could also add some kind of interaction between farmland and ash, acting like bonemeal?