Farming Suggestions

[LiveLaughDie]

I really like the farming system in vintage story, but it's quite boring as you just plant and forget. I would like the farming to be more interactive. The following suggestions are something i would like to see in the game

-Weeds, Diseases-
In the game there are currently no big threats to farming (except temperature and animals), weeds would add a more active role for the player in looking out for the grown plants. Weeds should have a chance to appear every couple days so it wouldn't be too annoying to deal with. They wouldn't kill the plant but just reduce the speed of it's growth. Now for something in less control for the player are diseases, such as blights, fungal diseases and various types of viruses, they also should have a chance to appear from time to time but way more rarely than weeds.

-Ways to fight the farmland threats-
During the times way before modern fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, farmers didn't really have many ways to fight the threats on their farms so they had to work a lot more than the farmers do now. Fighting the weeds and mostly preventing them would be a quite simple job for the player. The Player could place mulch (which could be dried grass or thatch) to reduce the chance of weeds sprouting, and if the weeds to sprout the player could just remove them with a knife or a hoe. The diseases however would cause a bigger threat for the player as they would be impossible to cure and would reduce the yield and or just full on kill the plant, no farmer has a 100% yield in the world.

-Droughts and rain-
Maybe it rains for weeks straight? Or maybe there is no rain at all and its really hot outside? Plants really don't like this and it stresses them out, Extreme weather should decrease plants yield and cause more diseases.-

-Minor Suggestions-
I would like the soil to stay wet longer as it's quite tedious task to water them often and make it so that rain waters the farmland. I would also like to get more than one seed from a plant as it's difficult to expand my farms (I know there is a chance to get more seeds from a mature plant but maybe increasing it's chance?) 

What do you think about my suggestions?  
 

[LadyWYT]

5 minutes ago, LiveLaughDie said:

-Weeds, Diseases-
In the game there are currently no big threats to farming (except temperature and animals), weeds would add a more active role for the player in looking out for the grown plants. Weeds should have a chance to appear every couple days so it wouldn't be too annoying to deal with. They wouldn't kill the plant but just reduce the speed of it's growth. Now for something in less control for the player are diseases, such as blights, fungal diseases and various types of viruses, they also should have a chance to appear from time to time but way more rarely than weeds.

https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/23655

The biggest issue I see with this suggestion, is that it might be fun for those who really like to micromanage their farms, but quickly become an aggravating chore for other player types. The more time a player has to spend managing their farms, the less time they have to devote to other gameplay. Gameplay loops generally have quite a bit of downtime, so that players have plenty of opportunity to explore other gameplay options as well, or otherwise complete necessary tasks. The variety of opportunity helps keep the gameplay as a whole interesting, given that the player has plenty of options to pick from instead of getting bored with one specifically repetitive task.

Keeping in mind too that the game requires the player to spend a lot of time away from home in order to complete the main story; with the current state of farming it's possible to plant a harvest, leave, and return to a nice full harvest when you're finished with your expedition...which is very nice if one wants to get an extra planting of flax or other crop before winter arrives. Likewise, the player also has the option to not plant--they aren't penalized either way. By adding things like weeds and pests that will hurt the crop if the player isn't actively checking their farms, players have less choice about when they deal with their farms and how, and are discouraged from exploration and other travel if they want to farm successfully.

In any case, this particular feature I think is best left to mods; that way those that want that specific challenge can have it. Even if the weeds and diseases aren't able to actually kill the plants, I don't think many players will be content to just let their farms suffer if they want to go exploring or focus on other gameplay that they may prefer more. 

23 minutes ago, LiveLaughDie said:

-Ways to fight the farmland threats-
During the times way before modern fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, farmers didn't really have many ways to fight the threats on their farms so they had to work a lot more than the farmers do now. Fighting the weeds and mostly preventing them would be a quite simple job for the player. The Player could place mulch (which could be dried grass or thatch) to reduce the chance of weeds sprouting, and if the weeds to sprout the player could just remove them with a knife or a hoe. The diseases however would cause a bigger threat for the player as they would be impossible to cure and would reduce the yield and or just full on kill the plant, no farmer has a 100% yield in the world.

Again, see above. It might be fun for players who really enjoy farming, but what about the rest of the players? The more attention you demand from a player regarding a specific portion of gameplay, the less attention they're able to devote to other gameplay. 

Another thing I'll mention is that adding mechanics like these also reduce the freedom players have in how they build their farms. It might be fine for a small vegetable patch out back, but what about a massive field of flax? I was discussing similar ideas with another forum member here recently, and he described his experience with this type of mechanic in the mod I linked above. Essentially, as one to build absolutely massive farms, he ran into the issue of starting to weed the farmland early in the morning with the hoe, and not even being able to finish the weeding before he had to start all over again the next day. 

27 minutes ago, LiveLaughDie said:

-Droughts and rain-
Maybe it rains for weeks straight? Or maybe there is no rain at all and its really hot outside? Plants really don't like this and it stresses them out, Extreme weather should decrease plants yield and cause more diseases.-

This feature has already been implemented. If the weather gets too hot or too cold, crops will be stressed and yield a lower harvest, and will eventually die if stressed too long. I don't know if going without water too long will kill them, but it will pretty much stop all growth. Rain varies depending on the region; players that settled in regions of low rainfall/planted in greenhouses will either want to irrigate their crops, or spend time watering them manually.

In any case, I will note that if a player plants a crop tile and takes care of it to the best of their abilities, they're going to expect a full harvest from that tile. If they do everything by the book and still lose the crop, then it's going to feel like arbitrary punishment for trying to play the game well, and end up more frustrating than fun. Likewise, as I've said before...the more micromanaging you require players to do with their farms, the less time and options they'll have for other gameplay loops. 

38 minutes ago, LiveLaughDie said:

-Minor Suggestions-
I would like the soil to stay wet longer as it's quite tedious task to water them often and make it so that rain waters the farmland. I would also like to get more than one seed from a plant as it's difficult to expand my farms (I know there is a chance to get more seeds from a mature plant but maybe increasing it's chance?) 

This is why I've harped so much on how much attention tasks demand from the player--the more often one has to do something, the more likely it is that the task becomes a tedious chore instead of fun gameplay. In any case, I think current seed drop rate is fine in terms of balancing. If one needs more seeds quickly, they can search for cracked vessels, wild crops, or purchase seeds from an agricultural trader.

As for getting the soil to stay wet longer, I think this a great place to implement your mulch suggestion. That way, players aren't going to be punished if they keep playing the farming loop as-is, but if they want to spend a bit of extra time mulching their farmland then they get the benefit of needing to water less often. Of course, if one's irrigated their farmland, they don't really need to water at all...75% moisture is just fine for growing crops, and keeping it at 100% moisture doesn't really save you much in terms of growing time, to my knowledge.

44 minutes ago, LiveLaughDie said:

What do you think about my suggestions?  

Overall, I think most of the suggestions are better suited to the modded realm, rather than an addition to the vanilla game. It's a more niche style of gameplay(the mod I linked that implements similar concepts isn't very popular, and there's not many mods otherwise that deal with the concepts), and not the kind of thing that I think most players would enjoy.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

I gave this a quick glance and the first thought that popped into my head is another comment I made on another suggestion post. Vintage story doesn't discourage exploration and adventure. It rewards forethought and investments.

So I ask you:

How does this suggestion play into that pre-established schema? How does adding more to the farming gameplay loop avoid discouraging exploration and adventure? How would it reward forethought and investment into your proposed changes? I'm just not seeing anything here other than a collection of needless activities added to a mostly passive method of food gathering--activities that consume the time that could be used doing other things like smithing, claymaking, cooking/baking, or exploring the world for resources or story locations.

Also: your ideas have partially been made into a mod. Have you downloaded that mod and tried it out yet? If not, I would encourage you to do so and see if you need to make any edits to your post.

23 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Overall, I think most of the suggestions are better suited to the modded realm, rather than an addition to the vanilla game. It's a more niche style of gameplay(the mod I linked that implements similar concepts isn't very popular, and there's not many mods otherwise that deal with the concepts), and not the kind of thing that I think most players would enjoy.

I agree on the sole premise that mod popularity is reflected in the download count. The mod I mentioned that does half of the things here does not have very many downloads compared to other farming mods. That should tell you something about what players want/like. To OP: How can you improve upon the concepts that the mod has already implemented to make it more fun/popular/something players will readily download?

Edited July 10, 2025 by traugdor
spelling

[Facethief]

LEAVE ME ALONE!

I mean uhhh I don’t know if it’s been long enough since the incident for another suggestion like this.

[Zane Mordien]

I personally have no desire to see farming get more complicated.  The idea is solid, but the game is already hard enough for new players to get farming under control in my opinion. 

[Rudometkin]

10 hours ago, LiveLaughDie said:

What do you think about my suggestions?

Vintage Story isn't exactly a "one size fits all" type of game. It's an uncompromising wilderness survival game. So in theory, adding this kind of depth to farming is appropriate. In general these farming suggestions are great. They would need to be implemented carefully.

If implemented carefully, the players who don't care to go in depth with their farming can take a rough estimation of, say, maybe 30% decrease in crop yield. The ones who do care can reap their rewards. So it doesn't have to "demand" anything from players, and the players who neglect their crops can still go on extended adventures. This could be a fair solution to at least begin introducing more in-depth farming mechanics.

As for scalability issues, there are many solutions, and there is even justification on dismissing the "what if the farm is too big to take care of?" problem. The most direct answer to justify dismissing it, is: "One farmer can only handle so much". But the answer does not have to be so brutal. Progression can allow a farmer to manage larger farms. Mulch could guarantee weeds stay out for several weeks. So once every several weeks you may need to dedicate an entire day to the farm to mulch it. If you don't mulch at all, then you're looking at a yield cut. A yield cut does not necessarily mean 0 yield. But if it did mean 0 yield, then perhaps the farmer should stop trying to farm by way of neglection. Anyone who farms in VS is a VS farmer. Not all are passionate about it, and not all maximize their yields. This is a fine system.

I have already spoken to Tyron personally regarding this subject, and he confirmed that he is always open to adding more depth to the existing mechanics. When he said this, the context was "Farming" and "Plant diseases". So there is no red light on weeds and plant diseases in the VS development room.

I'm glad to see this suggestion here, and I'm glad I could leave you a realistic response that gives the suggestion some justice.

10 hours ago, LiveLaughDie said:

Extreme weather should decrease plants yield and cause more diseases.-

I think if this is implemented, there should be certain plants that are more accustomed to certain climates. This way the farmer has a "proper" solution to the problem. Don't grow X plant in Y climate, or else it may struggle more.

[Rudometkin]

9 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

The biggest issue I see with this suggestion, is that it might be fun for those who really like to micromanage their farms, but quickly become an aggravating chore for other player types.

I don't see this as an issue, because it does not have to require micromanagement. Fully neglecting a farm could have a rough estimate of X% yield decrease.

Also, it seems to be no issue even if it did demand micromanagement.

Early-VS survival demands micromanagement: torch burnout. Tending to the torch burnout mechanic might be an "aggravating chore" for certain player types.

On this basis, shouldn't we also be advocating for torch burnout to be removed from the game and reduced to a mod?

Certainly light is just as important as agriculture. Why only make the torch burnout haters suffer? Shouldn't we be supporting them so they can have more free gameplay as well?

[Teh Pizza Lady]

21 minutes ago, Rudometkin said:

I have already spoken to Tyron personally regarding this subject, and he confirmed that he is always open to adding more depth to the existing mechanics. When he said this, the context was "Farming" and "Plant diseases". So there is no red light on weeds and plant diseases in the VS development room.

@Tyron, can we get a fact check on this please? I couldn't find any public record of this on the forums.

[Rudometkin]

20 minutes ago, traugdor said:

Tyron, can we get a fact check on this please? I couldn't find any public record of this on the forums.

Dang, you don't trust me! Hahaha

Also note I did not say there is "green light" on the subject, either.  

I just know Tyron is refreshingly thoughtful and open to consideration for Vintage Story. Also very busy!

Edited July 11, 2025 by Rudometkin

[majestik]

Between the other farming thread and this one, I've come to realise that I am totally on the team "ok to invest a bit of time to set up fields but i don't want to play a farming simulator".

For my liking, mulching + alternative to irrigation (like ollas or irrigation canal - for aesthetics purposes) are all that i'd like for an hypothetic change of the farming mechanic as it is, aside of "pls moar seeds n crops". I think that is linked to the fact that i have started gardening irl, and i'm planning to reuse old flowerpots to make ollas and to learn how to mulch my plants ! So i admit i am totally biased with theses ideas 

[Teh Pizza Lady]

6 hours ago, majestik said:

Between the other farming thread and this one, I've come to realise that I am totally on the team "ok to invest a bit of time to set up fields but i don't want to play a farming simulator".

For my liking, mulching + alternative to irrigation (like ollas or irrigation canal - for aesthetics purposes) are all that i'd like for an hypothetic change of the farming mechanic as it is, aside of "pls moar seeds n crops". I think that is linked to the fact that i have started gardening irl, and i'm planning to reuse old flowerpots to make ollas and to learn how to mulch my plants ! So i admit i am totally biased with theses ideas 

Certainly. I feel given the way that the current systems are setup and how the game operates that the dev team would never intentionally hurt another aspect of gameplay in favor of another. Example being farming of course, but let's take smithing for example. When you are smithing, you are doing nothing else. But you get tools, weapons, and armor as a result. Failing to engage in smithing does not prevent you from getting these things. You can still find them in the world, and you can still craft lower-tier alternatives. Also failing to engage in smithing doesn't mean that your current weapons, tools, and armor will start falling apart randomly. Same for cooking. Failing to cook your food doesn't mean that your already-cooked food will randomly spoil because you didn't reheat it before eating. It instead gets a timer. Your food *WILL* expire in x-amount of time.

so apply this current philosophy to the expansion of farming. it doesn't make sense that engaging with farming improperly should result in a net loss of crops. Instead doing it right, mulching to prevent weeds (because that's what mulch is for, not water retention... did ANY of you study how gardening works first???), and proper irrigation should makes the plants grow faster and produce more than they would if you just stuck a seed in the ground and called it a day provided that the current system wasn't altered to guarantee a crop failure as a result of spending time tending to something else that was equally important in the game.

Also the current design philosophy is that Vintage Story is a challenging game, but it's not impossible to play. If you were required to base-sit and never explore, never engage with the story, never do anything else *but* farming during the growing season, then you would be left with Spring and Fall to do everything else. The rest of the time you're stuck at home because winters are hard and there are story locations in Chapter 2 that are already difficult to navigate as a new player in the heat of summer... and would be nigh impossible to do in the dead of winter. TRUST ME ON THIS. In fact... there is one quest in the game that was already made easier by the devs because they realized that it was just too punishing for most players and toned the requirements for completion down to a more manageable level.

Given the devs' track record, the current (and obvious) design philosophy, and how important other aspects of the game are, I say you're on the right track for what should be implemented as a potential expansion to the farming system.

TL;DR: Expanding farming is totally okay as long as the farming expansion doesn't punish the player for engaging with other systems in the game while the farms are growing.

[Thorfinn]

I think farming will get some adjustment, but maybe not anything like this. Look at the crops JSONs. From a code standpoint, rye and spelt and rice are identical with different textures and a couple parameter tweaks. I'd expect all crops to be consolidated into a single JSON much like the way goats are done. Want to add a new crop? Add a couple lines of text, come up with a set of crop textures, and that's it.

I suspect they are gathering ideas to incorporate into the game. More uses for hoe or shovel harvesting root crops or tubers, for example. Pests and blights? Doubtful. Much is made of it being "uncompromising", but entirely too little of "game". It's supposed to be enjoyable. So far, only a few hundred want that kind of "fun" enough to bother clicking a single time.

[EDIT]

Hey, if you are skimming ideas, maybe include the wildspawn characteristics in that same file, and pull them from those parameters rather than having to also tweak worldgen? That single source of data would also come in handy for a hypothetical respawn of wild crops each spring, making multi-year multiplayer servers viable.

Edited July 11, 2025 by Thorfinn

[Teh Pizza Lady]

19 minutes ago, Thorfinn said:

Much is made of it being "uncompromising"

[majestik]

I agree that farming shouldn't take over other aspects of the game. 

42 minutes ago, traugdor said:

so apply this current philosophy to the expansion of farming. it doesn't make sense that engaging with farming improperly should result in a net loss of crops. Instead doing it right, mulching to prevent weeds (because that's what mulch is for, not water retention... did ANY of you study how gardening works first???), and proper irrigation should makes the plants grow faster and produce more than they would if you just stuck a seed in the ground and called it a day provided that the current system wasn't altered to guarantee a crop failure as a result of spending time tending to something else that was equally important in the game.

I think I might have been unclear in my answers, sorry about that, because I agree about you. What I think is really on the side of "invest a bit of time at the beginning and that is rewarded at the end - quicker growth or better yield - but if you don't you are not punished and get the normal amount of crop".

Like if you make ollas, that take clay and time to make but in the end you have a passive watering system, and for rewarding the investement one can imagine better reach for humidity than the classic hole-with-water (like one or two block more, for example).

As for mulch, while it is for preventing weeds to grow irl, it is also used for water retention and temperature regulation. In the game, since we agree that weeds would be too much an hassle, that can translate as primitive way to protect crops from cold before making a greenhouse (not as effective as a greenhouse, but until you have enough glass, it is helpful) or protect the crops that are sensible to hot temperature in summer.

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Thorfinn said:

I suspect they are gathering ideas to incorporate into the game. More uses for hoe or shovel harvesting root crops or tubers, for example.

Actually that gives me an idea. What about tweaking the existing weeds for fallow farmland, and require the player to use a hoe to remove them? Planted farmland remains unchanged, so the player doesn't need to worry about running off to explore or devoting time to other things. If the tile remains unplanted for a decent period of time though, that gives weeds the opportunity to establish themselves, so the player will need to put a bit of effort into turning it back into usable farmland, but it's not a task they'll need to do very often at all. Of course, if the weather permits, the player could opt to keep the farmland tiles planted instead of letting them lie fallow, which gives more incentive to use fertilizers(or more careful crop rotation) to keep that kind of constant growth.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

24 minutes ago, majestik said:

I agree that farming shouldn't take over other aspects of the game. 

I think I might have been unclear in my answers, sorry about that, because I agree about you. What I think is really on the side of "invest a bit of time at the beginning and that is rewarded at the end - quicker growth or better yield - but if you don't you are not punished and get the normal amount of crop".

Like if you make ollas, that take clay and time to make but in the end you have a passive watering system, and for rewarding the investement one can imagine better reach for humidity than the classic hole-with-water (like one or two block more, for example).

As for mulch, while it is for preventing weeds to grow irl, it is also used for water retention and temperature regulation. In the game, since we agree that weeds would be too much an hassle, that can translate as primitive way to protect crops from cold before making a greenhouse (not as effective as a greenhouse, but until you have enough glass, it is helpful) or protect the crops that are sensible to hot temperature in summer.

Okay so I admit I made an assumption and unfairly called people out for not knowing how gardening works when I myself didn't know. I was going off what my mother used to say, "Get the mulch out before the weeds set in!" So my apologies there, but for the rest of what you said, I am unsure about temperature regulation since frost is a thing that isn't emulated very well in the game. Just if you set some plants out too early you get a message saying that the growth will be stunted due to cold temps. I'm drawing a blank on how mulch would prevent frost without having to cover your plants every night.

[Echo Weaver]

Haha. I read this exchange about mulch and felt like I needed to go look up my gardening lore. I enjoy gardening, but I can't really say that I'm good at it in the real world. But I did think one of its purposes was to keep the ground from drying out as fast.

[Echo Weaver]

More to the point of the thread, I wouldn't mind some weeds and mulch, but overall I like the design of farming. The big thing I see is that by the time I can make enough terra preta to matter, I don't care anymore. Also, I need to look at the full list of crops available, but it certainly seems like the crops are heavily weighted toward K. That may be accurate from a simulation perspective, but it makes crop rotation difficult, especially when you have a huge need for flax.

I think a better irrigation system would be nice, something better than building out on ponds or moving water source blocks. Moving water source blocks isn't very immersive, but I find the alternatives too annoying to attempt. I'd love to see something along the lines of a craftable well as a water source with irrigation pipes.

Edited July 11, 2025 by Echo Weaver

[LadyWYT]

13 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

but it certainly seems like the crops are heavily weighted toward K. That may be accurate from a simulation perspective, but it makes crop rotation difficult, especially when you have a huge need for flax.

It wouldn't be so bad if there were another fiber crop that used a different nutrient, like cotton. Currently, the only way to get cloth in any useful quantity is flax. Yes, one can trade for linen, or kill monsters for fibers, but those methods aren't reliable for acquiring large amounts of cloth. 

[Teh Pizza Lady]

21 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

It wouldn't be so bad if there were another fiber crop that used a different nutrient, like cotton. Currently, the only way to get cloth in any useful quantity is flax. Yes, one can trade for linen, or kill monsters for fibers, but those methods aren't reliable for acquiring large amounts of cloth. 

I think @Thorfinn (sorry for the ping, dude...  ) has mentioned that it is relatively easy to modify a few JSON parameters to add more crops. I fail to see why Cotton couldn't easily be added via a simple mod or something.

Edited July 11, 2025 by traugdor

[Echo Weaver]

So, there's the sheep shearing mod that produces wool fiber. I actually think this is the direction to go, though I'd happily use cotton if it was provided.

This has been brought up a bunch, I know, and longhorn sheep don't produce much wool, but that's the point. You need domesticated sheep to produce a lot of wool, and we have a domestication system. I think we need domestication to mean something. 5th or 5th-gen sheep could start producing usable amounts of wool with more every generation.

I haven't messed much with the wool mod, but I think I may install it when my sheep get to 5th or 6th generation. I can add some recipes if I can't use it to repair armor or whatnot.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

10 minutes ago, Echo Weaver said:

I haven't messed much with the wool mod, but I think I may install it when my sheep get to 5th or 6th generation. I can add some recipes if I can't use it to repair armor or whatnot.

Just so you know that will take a few in-game years since sheep require at least 34 days between generations. 20 days gestation, 14 days to mature into an adult). If your average month is 10 days you might get 2 generations per year before you run out of stuff to feed them in the trough. They have to consume 10 food portions out of a large trough which is about 20 pieces of fruit or vegetable. They will also be sharing this with the males so you'll have to plan ahead to need more.

I'm sure you know all this already but you're going to be around year 3 at least before you can start shearing them, I would wager.
 

[Echo Weaver]

18 minutes ago, traugdor said:

Just so you know that will take a few in-game years since sheep require at least 34 days between generations. 20 days gestation, 14 days to mature into an adult). If your average month is 10 days you might get 2 generations per year before you run out of stuff to feed them in the trough. They have to consume 10 food portions out of a large trough which is about 20 pieces of fruit or vegetable. They will also be sharing this with the males so you'll have to plan ahead to need more.

I'm sure you know all this already but you're going to be around year 3 at least before you can start shearing them, I would wager.
 

Sheep eat grass, so I don't need fruit or vegetable.

I'm in year 2 with gen 4 sheep, so that makes some sense, though due to shenanigans my first wild ewe didn't give birth until winter. So it seems like one could get shearable sheep in year 2.

[majestik]

2 hours ago, traugdor said:

Okay so I admit I made an assumption and unfairly called people out for not knowing how gardening works when I myself didn't know. I was going off what my mother used to say, "Get the mulch out before the weeds set in!" So my apologies there, but for the rest of what you said, I am unsure about temperature regulation since frost is a thing that isn't emulated very well in the game. Just if you set some plants out too early you get a message saying that the growth will be stunted due to cold temps. I'm drawing a blank on how mulch would prevent frost without having to cover your plants every night.

Haha no problem, in my area we have nothing but drought and hot waves in the summer so technics to preserve humidity are known even for beginners gardeners 

However, I admit that I haven't really thought of a practical application in the game like how to implement it and what tangible effect that should have... Oh no, I have to use my brain now, how dare you 

[Teh Pizza Lady]

4 minutes ago, majestik said:

Haha no problem, in my area we have nothing but drought and hot waves in the summer so technics to preserve humidity are known even for beginners gardeners 

However, I admit that I haven't really thought of a practical application in the game like how to implement it and what tangible effect that should have... Oh no, I have to use my brain now, how dare you 

muahahahahahaaaaa I have now shifted the onus onto you!