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Magically Modified Organisms (MMOs) - Farming expansion idea
Nerror
Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
I was inspired by all the farming talk in my thread about seasons being too short. Well that, and animal husbandry. As the title says, this is an expansion idea and not for release as I feel it's scope creep.
Farming can be so much more than sow 'n reap! Or sow, water, fertilize, weed, reap. Even if they get fancy with crop rotations and different fertilizers, any ole' peasant can do that.
Enter the Magic Peasant, or MP. That's you, the player! The MP can create Magically Modified Organisms, or MMOs, and it'll be a new processing artisan skill line on par with animal husbandry.
As with animal husbandry, there are two parts to this:
1. First is optimizing existing crops, like wheat. The MP can magically modify wheat to improve yield, increase pest resistance, and reduce water requirements and maturity periods etc. It'll be an iterative process, just like with animal husbandry, where the MP improves the wheat over time, harvest cycle after harvest cycle. At harvest time the MP can choose to harvest some for seed grains, and name the batch so any progress is saved. The MP can harvest the rest as generic wheat for crafting or selling on the market or make bread with.
In other words, you need to save some seed grain every harvest for the next crop, and then you sell the rest as regular wheat. What you gain is easier maintenance and faster time to harvest.
2. Second part is where it gets really interesting. Again, just like with animal husbandry, the MP's knowledge of MMOs is now so great they can crossbreed and create hybrid crops! These new hybrid crops can be used to create new types of food and potions by the other artisans in the game.
Or, perhaps instead of creating an entirely new type of plant, the MP can create hybrids of plants that can grow in weather they can't normally grow in. For example the MP can create a cold-resistant strain of wheat that can grow in winter by combining regular wheat and and the magic essence of a snowflower normally only found in the frosty mountains. This should probably be a lower-yield wheat, but better than nothing.
Once a new hybrid is created, it can be further improved and iterated on as per the first part above.
TL;DR: It's like animal husbandry for farming crops.
Farming can be so much more than sow 'n reap! Or sow, water, fertilize, weed, reap. Even if they get fancy with crop rotations and different fertilizers, any ole' peasant can do that.
Enter the Magic Peasant, or MP. That's you, the player! The MP can create Magically Modified Organisms, or MMOs, and it'll be a new processing artisan skill line on par with animal husbandry.
As with animal husbandry, there are two parts to this:
1. First is optimizing existing crops, like wheat. The MP can magically modify wheat to improve yield, increase pest resistance, and reduce water requirements and maturity periods etc. It'll be an iterative process, just like with animal husbandry, where the MP improves the wheat over time, harvest cycle after harvest cycle. At harvest time the MP can choose to harvest some for seed grains, and name the batch so any progress is saved. The MP can harvest the rest as generic wheat for crafting or selling on the market or make bread with.
In other words, you need to save some seed grain every harvest for the next crop, and then you sell the rest as regular wheat. What you gain is easier maintenance and faster time to harvest.
2. Second part is where it gets really interesting. Again, just like with animal husbandry, the MP's knowledge of MMOs is now so great they can crossbreed and create hybrid crops! These new hybrid crops can be used to create new types of food and potions by the other artisans in the game.
Or, perhaps instead of creating an entirely new type of plant, the MP can create hybrids of plants that can grow in weather they can't normally grow in. For example the MP can create a cold-resistant strain of wheat that can grow in winter by combining regular wheat and and the magic essence of a snowflower normally only found in the frosty mountains. This should probably be a lower-yield wheat, but better than nothing.
Once a new hybrid is created, it can be further improved and iterated on as per the first part above.
TL;DR: It's like animal husbandry for farming crops.
3
Comments
Please: Join with myself and others as we stand against the tyranny of Sanctus power broker-controlled farm production in which food is - IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM - magically modified.
The corporations want you to believe that Big Magic is going to be good for our kids and for food production - but without regulation (you know - the way that people like @Nerror would just LOVE for things to be!), there's no telling the ends of your personal information that Big Magic will be able to not only farm through the magics in the food that you'll be eating - but also to keep your said personal information in a database, FOREVER!
Come and sign our petition in your local goods-market. Aren't making regulations for the future the only way to ensure that the magical side-effects of MMO foods don't turn all of our poo's purple and neon blue?
THIS MESSAGE IS ACCEPTED AND ENDORSED BY THE SANCTUS COALITION FOR NORMAL-ARSE FOODS.
It's not the "MMOs" that are bad. It's the large Guilds/Cooperations controlling them that are bad. MMOs themselves are just a technology that can can be used for the greater good of all races on Verra. Well all use magic in our daily lives or know someone who uses magic. No one is against the clerics and their healing magics for making our lives easier and longer. Likewise, some clerics mainly spec into harmful magics and make peoples lives shorter. MMOs should be seen as the tool they can be. They are a tool with the potential to make all of our lives better.
If I had more time, I would write a shorter post.
MMOs will lift the masses. They will empower the workers of this land to create something for themselves; to forge a future full of hope and prosperity. @Vhaeyne has the right of it. This is a tool, a gift, and it can be used for good. MMOs will create independence for the workers of the land that feed the world. MMOs provide food security through droughts and floods. MMOs feeds and strengthens our heroes that fight the corruption that spreads throughout this land.
It makes you wonder. If Big "Natural" and their paid shills like @Tyranthraxus are against this, are they not in fact in league with the Ancients?
[I was actually gonna use Magic Farmer instead of Magic Peasant first, but the abbreviation made me change it in the end.
If I had more time, I would write a shorter post.
My personal opinion is no.
Not because I don't think the ides is interesting, but because I personally think Animal Husbandry and growing crops should be different play experiences in as many ways as possible.
With crops you may have more variables: biome, water access, fertilizer, possibly different player actions (hoeing, weeding, thinning....), north vs south facing slope. But a valid question is whether it is worth the developers' time to build that into the game.
With taming and animal breeding they have decided that it is worth the development time. But we know that mounts and pets are interesting to plenty of players. Perhaps more-so than growing large pumpkins. Personally, I would find it fascinating, but I am odd in my hobbies and curiosities. But then...those of us attracted to AoC might mostly qualify as an odd bunch so maybe it's worth doing.