Too Slow Planting

Comments: 22

• 29 Mar, '21
  Smiffe Admin

  Hi Strigio,
  
  This wasn't something we added to make the game harder or more tedious.
  We fixed a broken animation that was in the game which allowed users to override the animations by spam clicking.
  The default times was 500ms (or 0.5 seconds)
  
  We are aware of the changes have had some negative impact to users. (it's all I can say atm)

• 29 Mar, '21
  Strigoi

  Thank you for your swift reply.
  I hope a solution can be found in the near future.

• 29 Mar, '21
  Smiffe Admin

  @Strigoi
  Try now with update 148.7 ;)

• 29 Mar, '21
  Strigoi

  The future came early, praise The All-Father, it's beautiful.
  A great harvest awaits!

• 03 Apr, '21
  Aaron

  @Smiffe Would it be possible to make farming just a little bit faster? As it currently is in patch 148.7, if you toggle walk and strafe and spam plant, the plants will be too close to each other and become unhealthy. If it were sped up just a tiny bit you could continuously walk left/right and plant things perfectly spaced.
  
  Again, thank you guys for all your hard work! The game gets better with every update and I appreciate all the things you guys are doing to make it happen!

• 07 Apr, '21
  Smiffe Admin

  @Aaron
  Something in the game is like it is because we want the players to learn as a real skill within the game. So I'm not sure atm, but I think we will leave it as it is (for now)

• 10 Apr, '21
  AniX

  it's maybe the wrong section for a suggestion, but the following would be a huge quality-of-life improvement:
  
  my example comes from a game named 'factorio'. it's a half-isometric building and automation game, and there are certain mechanics to make spacing between things really easy. you want to make power lines, but you don't want to walk and click for every powerpole, so the devs made it so, that you can just click for one powerpole 'manually' and hold the left mousebutton while walking, at the max distance of a powerline, a new pole gets placed automatically without having to reclick as long as you are holding down the mousebutton after you placed the first powerpole.
  
  so for Valheim: just make it, that you have to click once to place the first seed, and as soon as your crosshair has the minimum distance for a healthy plant, automatically place the next seed. you could still add them to close to eachother by clicking manually to leave room for the ''needs more space''-mechanic.

• 11 Apr, '21
  Smiffe Admin

  @AniX
  
  We don't want the task of planting to be semi-automatic tho. Hence we want the player to learn the optimal spaceing for each plant/crop.
  Some skills is ment to be learned. not being guided by the game ;)

• 13 Apr, '21
  OndeTv

  What about having floor tiles/beams not count as "too close" to plants then? That way, the player can both learn by trial and error originally, and later on measure out the needed distances. The planting itself will be exactly the same, just more quality-of-life for those aware.
  
  Or even better yet: Use (linen) thread for planting line markers. Just like we still do for a lot of gardening even today :)

• 14 Apr, '21
  Smiffe Admin

  @OndeTv
  It's because we don't want the game to be "easy mode" and the game will guide you every step.

• 19 Apr, '21
  Jrengo

  @Smiffe, I like the approach to keep the skill learned but @OndeTv makes a good point. Why not then introduce in-game tools (maybe locked behind higher level crafting) that can help while keeping immersion? A measuring tool with line markers where you can set out some specific intervals would be a good QoL improvement without making the game an "easy mode" (for example, such a tool would still require the player to learn the distances needed for plants to grow.).
  
  Just a visual tool so I can at least make interval plants in a line and equally spaced out so I can re-apply the skill I've previously learned so that each time isn't trial and error.

• 21 Apr, '21
  Patrick D

  I do like the farming/planting element, but there are times when I think - I'm sure I bought a Viking game, not a farming simulator. It needs a late game improvement on the farming, even if it a new cultivator (black metal cultivator?) that can plant 3 seeds at the same time (correctly spaced), so planting is still a mechanic, just a little quicker

• 22 Apr, '21
  Gisela

  I am for keeping the current speed and avoiding any kind of "easy mode", but my suggestions to reach a middle ground of sorts is to create yet another tool (I love the tools!) that can make nice straight rows with planting space! That way you still have to work for it (with the new tool) but can get a slightly smoother experience at the next step. Anyway, you devs can probably think of an even cooler solution, love the game!

• 23 Apr, '21
  Shawn

  Planting a 20x50 field of carrots on our team server noticeably exhausts my fingers and wrist. Repetitive use isn't often considered in game development and the current planting system results in a lot of repeated motions without interruption. It's ripe for a repetitive use strain and possible injury.
  
  So I concur with those who argue in favor of a higher-level farming tool that reduces the amount of interaction for the same yield, but for a different reason. This QOL concept has two benefits, reduced strain/injury and reduced percentage of time spent farming, which is something parents like me will especially appreciate. If VH doesn't add it, folks will use mods to account for it.

• 23 Apr, '21
  dRuEFFECT

  @Smiffe I agree with you. I appreciate the fact that some things like this are not guided. It's a part of the overall allure to the game that you need to learn the rules as you go, which let's you be more creative and the game is much less mechanical. Some might see it as a negative, but I like love that.

• 24 Apr, '21
  POP3D

  Seconding Gisela's suggestion... We already have Linen Threads in the game, we can use it to place a start point and end point that creates a line of Linen Thread connecting between the two pints (Linen Threads usage may increase based on the distance between the two points placed) just like how all farmers do when they create rows of threads, might even have a small Knot very 1M or 2M to give a visual indication of distance.
  
  There are even free PDF guides online that explains these methods and more for planting, I can link the Dev team to for reference. :)

• 02 May, '21
  TheOtherBCD

  Crops are a huge investment of time, but the food you can make after harvesting also lasts a long time. It's motivation to make large fields.
  
  I planted ~150 carrots and ~150 turnips and returned days later to discover two boars, 3 carrots, and 2 turnips.
  It was a very satisfying emergent moment. My crop harvest was 2 meat, 3 carrots, and 2 turnips.
  It was either the boars, or one of my friends on the server messing about. I like the idea that it was the boars.
  I've found it very relaxing to set up the first two rows offset by half, and then place the rest of the plants in line with a North East and North West diagonals.
  Hopefully that description is enough to envision how I plant.
  
  +1 to not add easy mode, if the mechanism changed I would lose my game play experience.
  I think this scenario is on the path to optimizing the fun and unique experience out of the game.
  
  I can see adding it as an accessibility option for those who need it, and making it available to everyone as a result.

• 04 May, '21
  Domatron

  The game will not guide every step if you were to make planting easier or more intuitive. For example, placing a plant that is too close to another and having no way to move or salvage the seed is not very intuitive. Unless some magic is preventing the plants from growing you would be able to put each plant very close without harm as they would still easily get enough sunlight and nutrients. If you insist on a grow or no system, you should at least allow for some salvage process to move or pick up the plants. A plant with *not enough room to grow* is not a dead one. One last thing, if the point is to learn an in-game "skill" why is the process so basic? If it's because the game is still in early stages I understand, but such a basic skill becomes more of a nuisance as you may have heard.

• 08 May, '21
  Brian Clough

  Personally I think farming is fine as it stands... Once I learned that 33% of the yield should be seeded again for Carrots. Grow your lines of carrots as you do Server members, and you'll be fine... :)

• 10 May, '21
  J. Maiwald

  My current harvest of carrots/turnips is usually around 200-300'ish and I feel it's not too much work.
  I could potentially go with less if I wanted to reduce the tedium.
  Yes, it wears your left mouse button quite a bit, but not more than any other game involving heavy left-clicking.
  I guess it boils down to knowledge and technique. Once you know how to do it, it's pretty easy. Use fences as reference points, switch to walking (press C), spam the LMB while going straight forward. It works very well. If you don't get ticked off by not 100% accurate lines or spaces, that helps, too.
  Not sure how the game could 'teach' those things, though.

• 21 May, '21
  Kai

  Couldn't you add a snap function for plants? That makes it easy and fast for lazy players but is maybe not the 100% optimal distance so that people that want to min/max could get the plants closer by planting them by hand.

• 22 May, '21
  CrystalDraco

  @all
  Have you ever got cramps? to finger and hands becouse you think to left farm like that. Have you ever try hours and hours of farming single clicking all that damned plants. 200 click to plant, 200 click to harvest it and do this for all time 400 + 400 + 400 + 400. Are you thinking now that you game view of farming is good? Becouse if you say yes, you don't play your game enought. Do what I say for 4 time at hr. 2 Things append.
  1) Your mouse sustain a Uber Click, hardware suffer
  2) Your body start to suffer, the multi click in days and days of game cramp my right arm and elbow inflammations in more point.
  
  I 've stoped all. After a fast search I found a mod for mass farming, installed it, saving my elbow and mouse.
  Left peoples a choice. Single or multi.
  
  Smiffe you say : "It's because we don't want the game to be "easy mode" and the game will guide you every step."
  
  It's not question of easy mode or hard mode, it's option and health question.
  Think at this, before answer. ^_^