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[Djohaal]

Here's a mod where I attempted to make farming more difficult, if not a bit more realistic while mantaining the original DF crops.
Here's a list of implementations:

- Made all underground crops growable year-round, although with far greater growing times that can span over a year
- Made all above ground crops growable in specific seasons, taking from 2 to 8 months to mature
- Organized the growth times to allow for a very specific interval for planting the above ground crops, otherwise they will be lost on the season change.
- Farming Calendar included to ease farming.

Known issues:
- Bushes are more erratic, often many of them die after each season
- Requires more micromanagement of the plots to avoid failed crops that would waste seeds
- Balance issues?

Installation:

Just replace the .txt file on your raw\objects folder. The .png included alongside is for reference on the appropriate growing season.

Playing instructions:

Testing proved that setting the plant to be grown only in the season marked with a white "P" on the calendar allows for a minimal fuss and less seed wasting, although if your dwarves plant the seeds on the month after the planting season, those plants will fail to mature in time. A good group of experient farmers and a neraby seed stockpile is advised. On the first year you should focus on gathering seeds for above-ground crops and building the farming area, since most of the crops are planted on spring, it'll be hard to have them growing in time. Underground crops now grow very slowly, making underground farming an even greater challenge.

Here's a per-crop breakdown:

Underground Crops:
Available all year round.

Cave Wheat  - 16 months
Pig Tail - 15 months
Plump Helmet -12 months
Quarry Bush - 11 months
Sweet Pod - 13 months
Dimple Cup - 14 months

Above Ground crops:

Refer to

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'd like people to test this out and see how balanced it is on the growth speed. The planting seasons part is quite tricky and you might lose whole seed stashes at first, and I recommend making the above-ground fields as large as possible to minimize repetitive micromanagement.

Download Link:

http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=1775

[Martin]

I like the direction of this. I'll give it a whirl once the new version drops.

[ungulateman]

Improved is more of a personal opinion, right? Because TWELVE MONTHS TO GROW SOME GODDAMN FOOD seems...excessive.

Interesting idea though.

[3]

At a glance, what I can say is that even if this does help dissuade people from just using farming, it doesn't stop the fact that you can get a ridiculous amount of food off one trade caravan.

Now in order to fix that, you'd have to seriously rethink the way animals breed, the amounts animals are worth, and the general amount many common materials are worth. But it's a start, at least.

[Shades]

If your going to do this you need to change the values for crops as well. Sun berry wine for example is extremely valuable and yet one of your shortest grow cycles.

See http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=24666.0 for another farming mod which does a similiar thing to try and balance. Might give you some more ideas. (Chthonic's post 6 down in the thread has the original changes in the mod).

[Deon]

At a glance, what I can say is that even if this does help dissuade people from just using farming, it doesn't stop the fact that you can get a ridiculous amount of food off one trade caravan.

Now in order to fix that, you'd have to seriously rethink the way animals breed, the amounts animals are worth, and the general amount many common materials are worth. But it's a start, at least.

It's a closed circle. If you make the animals too expensive, the masterwork food biscuits will cost more than a suit of adamantine armor .

[3]

That's down to MODVALUE more than anything, though... I'm sure you could come up with something with enough balancing. If we had traders selling prepared food rather than raw meats, it'd work better.

If the MODVALUE is lowish, the value of your goods are low, the value of animals high, then the only issue would be that you could just breed animals for massive profit... I see this isn't going to work out whichever way I do it.

[Deon]

Well, the problem is not the value of ANIMALS, but the value of FOOD

the fact that you can get a ridiculous amount of food off one trade caravan

This.

And either the food is too easy to buy, or the cooked meal is too expensive.

And no, traders do not sell cooked food at all.

[3]

Well, the problem is not the value of ANIMALS, but the value of FOOD

Press z. Now press enter. Now press b.

And either the food is too easy to buy, or the cooked meal is too expensive.

Yes, that just happened to be... exactly the point I was making?

And no, traders do not sell cooked food at all.

Did I ever imply that they did?

If we had traders selling prepared food rather than raw meats, it'd work better.

If we had traders selling prepared food

If we had traders

If

[Deon]

I know, but we talk about "if" which can be done, not surreal. You're overquoting yourself, very bad boy, bad boy, bad .

[3]

"If we had traders selling prepared meals" is not the same thing as "If we had someone mod in traders selling prepared meals". The first statement suggests that the feature doesn't exist and won't exist except under exceptional circumstances, while the second suggests that it doesn't exist and might exist if someone attempts to make it.

But eh, grammar, I can see why misunderstandings occur and such.

[Deon]

My grammar is often bad, so I could miss the point. I don't want to argue about anything like that, seriously . We understood each other. I wonder how food is gonna be treated in the new version, we saw how many various things appeared out of a butchered elephant... There's going to be a rework, I hope it won't get worse .

[Djohaal]

Improved is more of a personal opinion, right? Because TWELVE MONTHS TO GROW SOME GODDAMN FOOD seems...excessive.

Interesting idea though.

The point is exactaly that underground crops will take so long to grow, somehow forcing the player into working with above-ground crops since they harvest more readly. This would add some extra consideration when you have to lockdown your fortress if a big siege knocks your doors.

If your going to do this you need to change the values for crops as well. Sun berry wine for example is extremely valuable and yet one of your shortest grow cycles.

While it has the shortest grow cycle (2 months), it can only be grown on summer seasons, what means you can have only one harvest per year

For the value modding I will have to read up the stuff with more attention. Modding the grow times was easy, however adjusting their value and etc will take some more wits...

[slink]

Iitreum's mod, mentioned above, addressed the values as well as the growing times and seasons.  I have enjoyed playing with that mod.

BTW, lockdown during a seige needn't mean losing access to the surface crops.  It's quite easy to have gardens for surface crops in a protected area.   

[Djohaal]

Iitreum's mod, mentioned above, addressed the values as well as the growing times and seasons.  I have enjoyed playing with that mod.

BTW, lockdown during a seige needn't mean losing access to the surface crops.  It's quite easy to have gardens for surface crops in a protected area.   

Well rather, that's a big issue. While any mod can make farming more difficult and require more area, I don't see a way of circunventing the above ground gardens, although the bigger area you'd need, the more difficult it'd be to build them...

Perhaps if it could be implemented (on toady's end of course) the depletion of soil so you'd need to rotate the planted area every few years, it could become a bigger challenge...