Hello gamers. It has been a while, and a lot has been changing. I think it is due time for an updated "state of the game" introduction post, but I will compile some of the changes that have been happening anyways, as I might save a full-fledged game rundown for the new site I am working on. This blog will be discontinued eventually in favor of it, though Weebly seems to keep these up forever, so who knows if this page will even get taken down. There is a lot to go through, and I'm afraid I will miss a lot of the changes, as I haven't been keeping great track of them and it's been so long since the last post. But here is a quick rundown of the insignificant things:
For the larger changes, I will start with combos. Variety Value has been removed, as it was ultimately a bandaid on a larger problem: encouraging planting variety. Variety Value was essentially slapping a flat sum of money on variety, but such a solution is not particularly motivating or engaging. I have resorted to other mechanics to help the issue, but many of the existing features like Variety Value are mere scaffolding of what I ultimately want them to become. It just takes time for designs to mature and it helps having other system designs equally developed so they can intertwine with each other in meaningful ways. The UI hasn't been scrapped, though, which is the crop icons/quantities you see here that display what crops you have harvested in the current combo. This UI is actually quite helpful for discerning combo limits (each crop can only add to the multiplier so many times), and has been repurposed as such. On a similar note, however, combo limits themselves have changed as well.
Old combo limits were as follows: each crop had its own combo limit, and harvesting that crop would add to the combo multiplier up to an amount of times equal to the limit. If a crop's limit is 10, I can only harvest 10 before it stops adding to my combo multiplier. While this seems okay on paper, in practice it is cumbersome. It is unreasonable to expect a player to memorize every crop's combo limit to optimize planting order, and counting the amount of harvests until each limit quickly becomes extraordinarily tedious. Optimizing combos becomes "plant 8 Eggplants, plant 10 Corn, plant 20 Tomatoes, plant 40 Rice, etc." and usually follows a specific order since combo limits overlap. New combo limits, on the other hand, are universal. All crops share the same limit (currently 30), so there is no memorization of individual crop limits. Combo limits are mutually exclusive as well, meaning up to 30 of any crop will be added to the combo regardless of order, which is much more intuitive and free than pre-planning specific planting orders--just plant what you've got until you have 30 of each. Overall both the UI and intuitiveness of the system has improved significantly, and the system no longer encourages its planting variety at the cost of player choice. The 30-crop limit is doubled if you're harvesting Quality crops, which drastically extends the potential of a combo as it takes significantly longer to "max out". The old combo system maxed pretty quickly, but now farming any crop is fairly valuable for a while until you've completely maxed at 60 (30 + 30 Quality). Quality crops are rarer, which means adding a new crop to your combo will add value faster than an existing one, which encourages variety over quantity. Combos also become far more valuable because you can build them bigger. Another large addition has been crop Statuses. Statuses already existed (e.g., Frosted and Malnourished crops), but hadn't been merged under a cohesive system. Now they are under one roof and are being broadened to include more as I go. Crop Statuses can slow a crop down, speed it up, prevent it from being harvested, destroy it, or many other things. Similarly comes the addition of Weather Anomalies (working title), which further diversifies the weather system. Weather is now comprised of three major components: temperature, weather, and anomalies. Temperature determines what can/can't be grown. Weather inflicts varying effects that change the playfield such as Rain, Heatwaves, or Frost. Anomalies occur independent of weather but also change the playfield with events like Mildew, Insects, or Fungi. This means days become exponentially more diverse, as any day can combine both a weather event and an anomaly. Anomalies were partially inspired by the long-aforementioned Free Farm Game, or what little of it I've seen. However, I plan on crops having resistances to certain Statuses and Anomalies. Most crops will have one or two resistances that separate them from other crops, which restores the depth lost by refactoring combo limits and some other old traits. These resistances will likely be shared with adjacent crops, meaning what you plant and where suddenly becomes very relevant and important. This is traditionally called companion planting, and it is a mechanic that is sadly absent from most all farming games, which I find disappointing. Most farming games lack depth to me, but I want this game to change that (without becoming too complex). Resistances add very little complexity (as it's not adding new mechanics, it's using existing ones) but add a ton of depth through how you choose to arrange and plant crops. I am working towards a decent vertical slice that I can forward to playtesters for some meaningful feedback, as feedback on incomplete systems isn't as helpful. Right now the largest hurdles are art, populating content, and balancing. |