Farm Together 2 - Harvestable items
Today we're starting the first of a (hopefully weekly) series of posts detailing the core features of Farm Together 2. In some cases they will be new things, in others they will be improvements over mechanics already present in the first installment.
Let's start with the main thing you'll be doing in your farm, which is planting and harvesting items!
[h2]Introduction[/h2]
Pretty much like in the first game, in Farm Together 2 you'll be planting crops, trees, etc. and they will take some time to grow (ranging from a few minutes to whole days of realtime in extreme cases!) before they're ready to be harvested.
Do not be frightened by those times! A crop taking one day to grow means that it will be ready when you play the next day, you don't need to keep the game running for 24 hours!
Harvesting items grants the following things:
Every type of harvestable has its own mechanic, which we'll be explaining in detail. Let's get to it!
[h2]Crops[/h2]
In order to plant crops, you need to plow some land first. Also, they require a specific season to be planted on.
Once planted, they will take some time to grow and be ready for the harvest. If you regularly water them (either manually or by placing sprinklers), they will grow twice as fast!
After harvesting crops, the land has to be plowed again in order to plant new ones.
We're keeping the same mechanics from the first Farm Together for crops, as they worked pretty well and there were no major complaints with them (other than visitors not plowing after harvesting!), other than it can take some time when working on large fields. We hope that tractor improvements (explained in a later post) will help with that.
[h2]Trees[/h2]
Trees can be placed at any time, and will grow fruit when specific seasons start.
They can be quite expensive, so it will take a number of harvests before they start being profitable, however they require little manteinance and are easy to work with.
Trees are also keeping the same system as in the first Farm Together. Don't worry, from now on everything starts being different!
[h2]Animals[/h2]
Animals, require food to grow, and after some time they'll yield resources that can be harvested for profit.
Every animal requires a specific resource to be fed (for example chickens eat cereal and pigs eat vegetables) and they have a maximum food capacity that can be increased by placing feeders.
If they run out of food, they will stop their growth until you feed them again.
The main difference from the first Farm Together is that they now take resources instead of money to feed them (this was partially done with Feeders in the first one), and that the amount of food is no longer tied to their harvest time (which leads to potentially having several harvests per feed, depending on the animal).
This means they're much easier to understand, while the core mechanic remains similar.
[h2]Ponds[/h2]
Fish tiles are merged together to form ponds. Every fish tile will take some time to be ready, but the whole pond can be harvested with a single click.
We've completely reworked fish and now their growth time is based on seasons. For example a clownfish may take 3 seasons to be ready to be harvested, while a swordfish may take 10 seasons, etc.
We've also removed the random factor from ponds, as it could get really confusing, specially when trying to fulfill quests or getting resources.
Finally, you can now fish whole ponds with a simple click, however there will be a growing income reduction for very large ones (50+ tiles).
[h2]Flowers[/h2]
Once placed, flowers can be regularly harvested. If you water them, they will grow faster.
Flowers have also been changed, as it was the most confusing mechanic from the previous game, with people not understanding why they wouldn't give their full yield (not to mention it was technically impossible to get it because of weather effects!). Now they work the same way as crops, with the difference that they're permanent.
[h2]And more in the future![/h2]
While the first Early Access version of Farm Together 2 will not feature new kinds of harvestable items, we definitely want to add new ones in the future. We have a couple of them in mind, but we're eager to hear your suggestions!
Let's start with the main thing you'll be doing in your farm, which is planting and harvesting items!
[h2]Introduction[/h2]
Pretty much like in the first game, in Farm Together 2 you'll be planting crops, trees, etc. and they will take some time to grow (ranging from a few minutes to whole days of realtime in extreme cases!) before they're ready to be harvested.
Do not be frightened by those times! A crop taking one day to grow means that it will be ready when you play the next day, you don't need to keep the game running for 24 hours!
Harvesting items grants the following things:
- Money that can be used to plant more items
- Experience for your player and the farm, that will help you unlock new stuff.
- Mastery of the item you're harvesting, leading to new unlocks and higher yield from crops.
- Resources (such as fruit, cereals, milk...) that can be used in a number of ways.
Every type of harvestable has its own mechanic, which we'll be explaining in detail. Let's get to it!
[h2]Crops[/h2]
In order to plant crops, you need to plow some land first. Also, they require a specific season to be planted on.
Once planted, they will take some time to grow and be ready for the harvest. If you regularly water them (either manually or by placing sprinklers), they will grow twice as fast!
After harvesting crops, the land has to be plowed again in order to plant new ones.
We're keeping the same mechanics from the first Farm Together for crops, as they worked pretty well and there were no major complaints with them (other than visitors not plowing after harvesting!), other than it can take some time when working on large fields. We hope that tractor improvements (explained in a later post) will help with that.
[h2]Trees[/h2]
Trees can be placed at any time, and will grow fruit when specific seasons start.
They can be quite expensive, so it will take a number of harvests before they start being profitable, however they require little manteinance and are easy to work with.
Trees are also keeping the same system as in the first Farm Together. Don't worry, from now on everything starts being different!
[h2]Animals[/h2]
Animals, require food to grow, and after some time they'll yield resources that can be harvested for profit.
Every animal requires a specific resource to be fed (for example chickens eat cereal and pigs eat vegetables) and they have a maximum food capacity that can be increased by placing feeders.
If they run out of food, they will stop their growth until you feed them again.
The main difference from the first Farm Together is that they now take resources instead of money to feed them (this was partially done with Feeders in the first one), and that the amount of food is no longer tied to their harvest time (which leads to potentially having several harvests per feed, depending on the animal).
This means they're much easier to understand, while the core mechanic remains similar.
[h2]Ponds[/h2]
Fish tiles are merged together to form ponds. Every fish tile will take some time to be ready, but the whole pond can be harvested with a single click.
We've completely reworked fish and now their growth time is based on seasons. For example a clownfish may take 3 seasons to be ready to be harvested, while a swordfish may take 10 seasons, etc.
We've also removed the random factor from ponds, as it could get really confusing, specially when trying to fulfill quests or getting resources.
Finally, you can now fish whole ponds with a simple click, however there will be a growing income reduction for very large ones (50+ tiles).
[h2]Flowers[/h2]
Once placed, flowers can be regularly harvested. If you water them, they will grow faster.
Flowers have also been changed, as it was the most confusing mechanic from the previous game, with people not understanding why they wouldn't give their full yield (not to mention it was technically impossible to get it because of weather effects!). Now they work the same way as crops, with the difference that they're permanent.
[h2]And more in the future![/h2]
While the first Early Access version of Farm Together 2 will not feature new kinds of harvestable items, we definitely want to add new ones in the future. We have a couple of them in mind, but we're eager to hear your suggestions!