Farm Hands, Gardeners etc.

[Galaad]

I know that at this point there isn't a plan for followers due to the complexity added to the game...What I'm suggesting here is AI controlled NPCs that you could hire to tend to your farm, garden, animals etc while you are away.

This could be a good thing for players that want to try to get the "Full experience" but don't want to micro manage the farm and animals themselve.

This would probably be a lot easier to implement, since there are villages, I'm sure that we could possibly simply hire other already existing NPCs rather than have to create new art or animation... Also the animations probably already exist since the world is a "living" one, there are probably other farms and such out there .

One thing I suggest though, if you allow Gardeners, Farm Hands and such to be hired... I think it would be good if there was a mechanic that made it so "special results" (if they exist for that, like they will for crafting) would only happen when the player himself tends to the farm.... Or maybe simply make it so the % is higher if the player is tending to the farm.

That way it still gives a bonus to those who take the time to do it...Or you could also make it that "helpers" have to be trained to achieve the same level of result than the player himself.


G.

[Bearhug67]

(07-18-2013 02:13 AM)Galaad Wrote:  I know that at this point there isn't a plan for followers due to the complexity added to the game...What I'm suggesting here is AI controlled NPCs that you could hire to tend to your farm, garden, animals etc while you are away.

This could be a good thing for players that want to try to get the "Full experience" but don't want to micro manage the farm and animals themselve.

This would probably be a lot easier to implement, since there are villages, I'm sure that we could possibly simply hire other already existing NPCs rather than have to create new art or animation... Also the animations probably already exist since the world is a "living" one, there are probably other farms and such out there .

One thing I suggest though, if you allow Gardeners, Farm Hands and such to be hired... I think it would be good if there was a mechanic that made it so "special results" (if they exist for that, like they will for crafting) would only happen when the player himself tends to the farm.... Or maybe simply make it so the % is higher if the player is tending to the farm.

That way it still gives a bonus to those who take the time to do it...Or you could also make it that "helpers" have to be trained to achieve the same level of result than the player himself.
G.

I do like the idea as I don't know yet in how much I will like the farming as I never played a farming game before even I look forward to try it (and hopefully like it).

If there are enough up and downs as reward to reward self-farmers it is a lovely feature which could attract mor people to the game which are maye less farmers but would still like to try all the other aspects of the game.

Training the helping hands could be fun too, getting the mentioned bonus when you are present.
To keep the amount of helping hands under control one cost beside coin would be a percentage of the crops being used for the helpers to feed them.

an additional aspect could be to maybe give the helpers basic weapon training so they can deal themselves with simple 'attacks' like animals going for the crops and maybe fending off very simple attacks from bandits.

When they survive they can inform the player when he returns and that could lead to a new quest to smoke them out before he can get back on his original questing.