Abandoned Crops

[Pierre]

Just an idea...

As a player new to the shard, but not to UO (although it has been YEARS since I last played before coming to uoex), I am slowly grasping many of the changes from the systems as I once knew them.

One question that I keep coming back to is if there could be a system for long-abandoned crops to eventually wither such that any player could remove them and start over (i.e. say after 3 months of non-use, or some such figure).

As per the wiki on Harvesting, "You can find a public field outside a town, and if there is a spot empty, you can grow your crops there. However, you can only harvest your own crops and most public fields are filled up with long-abandoned crops from other players."

I can certainly vouch for this statement. It seems a shame that so much public farmland is being wasted by crops assigned to other players that may have been stagnant for who knows how long...

Of course, maybe there is already a system in place for this, as I am too new to the shard to have seen any old crops vanish, but from what little I have been able to find on the subject, this does not seem to be the case.

How hard would this be to implement? Is it even worth consideration (to other players, since I obviously already think so). I hate to think that the day may come when no public farmland is available, when all available crops belong to players that no longer use them...

Any thoughts on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

[Ilsanor]

Well, as far as I've seen there's a ton of free space on the fields, so old crops are not exactly a problem. Didn't know that you could plant anything on the 'public' fields, though. Is it actually doable, or just something that was left over but not implemented?

[Jecks]

Well, as far as I've seen there's a ton of free space on the fields, so old crops are not exactly a problem. Didn't know that you could plant anything on the 'public' fields, though. Is it actually doable, or just something that was left over but not implemented?

Yes, you can plant farming seeds in public fields.

[Pierre]

It's doable. I have a handful of flax crops on public fields at the moment (~10 plants or so). You have to plant around what is already there, which makes harvesting a little more painful, but for the moment you are correct, there is still a fair amount of empty space, possibly because many people do not realize that public farmland could be used for this purpose?

My concern is that this may become a problem eventually, and on a more immediate level, that these potentially abandoned crops make it so that others must scatter theirs across large areas, where they could otherwise consolidate to a smaller space for ease of use. Maybe this isn't seen as a problem in general - I just wanted to get my $0.02 out there. I know that I would certainly prefer to farm a set area rather than a spread out zone, especially if the other crops currently planted there are in fact long abandoned.

Thank you very much for your rapid response.

[Namorah]

If you buy a custom house and place it, you can put dirt down and plant your own crops there.

[Pierre]

I've read the wiki regarding getting the House Placement Tool to figure out where you can place a house, but am a little confused about how you actually purchase the house to put there. Not exactly in line with my original topic, but following the present course of the dialogue...

[Namorah]

Not exactly in line with my original topic, but following the present course of the dialogue...

My concern is that this may become a problem eventually, and on a more immediate level, that these potentially abandoned crops make it so that others must scatter theirs across large areas, where they could otherwise consolidate to a smaller space for ease of use. Maybe this isn't seen as a problem in general - I just wanted to get my $0.02 out there. I know that I would certainly prefer to farm a set area rather than a spread out zone, especially if the other crops currently planted there are in fact long abandoned.

Your argument is invalid I am offering a way for you to no longer have to worry about abandoned crops, OR that you cant place them how you want, since it will be in your home.

You need the money in your bank account to use the house placement tool. Select house, make sure house will fit where you are planning to place, then look at south wall of house. Look at the middle of that wall, remember where it is. Take targeting icon from house placement tool and put that where you want that point on the house to go. If all is well, house will place and you can get planting.

[Pierre]

Point taken.

Thank you very much.

[Veliant]

Planting in your house is all good and well and I do this as well.. but I agree that a system for removing old unused plants would be nice. Maybe a 2 week timer that turns them into weeds if they haven't been picked.. similar to old IDOC system on houses. I know when I was looking for a place to plant I came across a patch of carrots I vaguely remember planting about 2 years ago just to test the farming system out.. I hadn't touched them since. This means during all that time someone could have been actually getting some use out of that patch of land.

[Lagos]

I'm pretty sure i can't be objective about this topic, so I don't know how much my opinion might count for, but I do think that given the tons and tons of coding that +C could be doing, this one would be pretty far down the list...

[Veliant]

Ya its not a must have right now thing.. there are surely more important issues to take care of.. just thought I'd mention my personal experience with it. Long term it might be something to address when there aren't more pressing issues to deal with.