Hello, prospective Shared Land Agricultural Engineers! It's been another busy week. A lot of balance testing happening, especially at the higher ranks, when there's a lot going on. This resulted in a few complete system rebalances, but the end result has been a smoother progression with fewer slow spots. I want unlocks to feel earned but not punishing, and sometimes that's a surprisingly tricky tightrope!
There are a few highlights that are less boring than spreadsheets full of seasonal pricing, though!
Juniper is one of the NPCs who visits your farm on occasion. They're a botanist and hobbyist gardener, and they'll come by looking for wild crops. This week I made their visits a bit more fortuitous for the player.
Wild crops grow in the undeveloped land surrounding your farm. They're rare, but when you come across one, you can harvest it for seeds. If you plant those seeds and grow crops, and then sell them through the Crop Bin, they become available through the AgShop. Wild Crops have all sorts of advantages - higher sell value, top-tier processing recipes, superior feed value, and more.
Juniper knows wild crops, and when they show up, that means it's a particularly good day for finding some! They'll tell you what to look for and there are always extra wild crops on those visit days. Set aside some time for hunting them down!
I fine-tuned the storage system a bit, to better address storage needs late game. When you first arrive at your farm, you'll have a small shed, with 10 storage slots. That's enough to hold on to a few mushrooms and stockpile some wood, but before long you'll want more.
There are two storage upgrades available. At Rank IV, you can unlock the Small Silo, increasing your storage capability to 30 slots. Then, at Rank VII, you can unlock the Large Silo - 60 slots of storage goodness. By then, you'll be using multiple types of fertilizer, storing honey, and saving ingredients for factory products, so the extra space is a welcome addition!
That system rebuild was the GigFarmer app, where you'll find custom orders from quirky locals who need your wares in a timely fashion. This is the primary source of Scrip, currency used to make top-tier purchases like sprinklers, tool upgrades, livestock pens, and the like. I found this scrip just wasn't coming quite fast enough, gating those important objectives more tightly than I'd intended. So the missions turn over more quickly and pay out better, with occasional "windfall" orders popping up from time to time.
I also added difficulty settings. They're pretty simple - the only real pressure in Agraria is time - there are no stamina meters or tight deadlines, but a day is finite, and as your farm gets bigger it can be trickier to get everything done. Some players might appreciate that gentle pressure; others might prefer a totally stress-free farming experience. The three difficulty levels only change the time in a day. It's a subtle change, but lets players have the farming experience they want.
That's about it for now, but there are some exciting things in the pipeline! Stay tuned!