Orchidsexual

[Death]

Feedback related to the upcoming balance to orchid exchange rates.

[Catatonic21]

I’m on board with the orchid nerf, it makes sense to try and slow down how fast people can stack up net worth with all this inflation. But I really think RustEZ should also set a limit on planter boxes. Like, if I’m running a 100-planter farm now, next wipe I’ll just build 130 to make up for the nerf. That kind of defeats the purpose and just adds more strain on the server with extra entities.

[Recycler]

I to agree that nerfing the orchids will make me want to build much bigger gardens. 

[rustEZfan]

I am against the nerf for several reasons.

1. This does not discourage megabases, but promotes it. You now have to build 1.5x bigger to get the same amount of scrap per cycle. Bigger bases mean more lag, which is one of the biggest issues with servers now. The main reason why I do not go past a certain amount of planter beds is because I cannot process the scrap fast enough without needing to buy more recyclers. The current bottleneck for a lot of players is recycling (hint: more recyclers = more money) and crafting, not planting.

2. It makes it harder for casual players to make more net worth, while barely affecting the "whales". The jump from 100k NW to 1m is a 10x multiplier. Above 1m, every extra million feels "pointless," as at this point you have basically infinite self-revives, and can do all the player spawned helis and bradleys you want. Nerfing orchid rates makes that first million way harder, while everything past it remains effectively the same, creating a greater disparity from the new players who ration out their unlocked self-revives vs those summoning 50 helis at the start of wipe.

3. It does not diversify the way of generating scrap, (which in turn increases net worth). Orchids still blow everything out of the water BY FAR, nerf or not.

4. Folks who grinded to, say, 300k orchids this wipe to make 900k scrap, now need 450k orchids to make 900k scrap hit that same threshold. That sudden devaluation of orchids and hours feels far more discouraging to people who played the previous wipes and then want to play again on the new wipe. This can cause a section of the long term player base to quit, as they do not want to put in more effort to do the same amount of work they could do previously.

Edited Tuesday at 01:27 PM by rustEZfan
typo

[KR6SSY]

I agree that some players will just build farms with more planters to make up for the difference, even though I believe 2 scrap per orchid is plenty.

I agree with a comment I saw earlier regarding roses or sunflowers, to buff them instead. Orchids require way more water which requires more entities to grow them, along with heat. I'm not sure if the other flowers are the same but it's my opinion orchids contributed to lag because of way they suck water. 

Would be nice if water could connect directly to planters so other entities wouldn't be required, as in Moo-Viper's vision. Also un-nerf poo so not as many horses are needed for poo farms.

All I know is I'm not playing as much because I can't ride my motorcycle or fly due to lag, the lag is so bad in places by huge farms of some sort (orchid or poo). Also, every time I TP to my farm, I DC and have to relog.  

I hope something changes the lag next wipe, but nerfing orchid prices without planter limits may not be the answer imo. 

[Sim]

Not sure if this would be possible to do or not.  Can you make it to where like the first 20k orchids you exchange for scrap give a bonus each day, after that you get diminishing returns. That would push player to grow other things and reduce how much scrap they receive.

150-200 cap on planters i think would be fine.  

[Catatonic21]

Did some testing comparing what we used to farm (cloth/hemp) to orchids—even at a 2:1 scrap ratio.

Both orchids and hemp have an average grow time of about 2 hours with 2G4Y genetics, and each produces around 65–70 per plant depending on conditions.

At its worst, orchids generate roughly 1170 scrap per planter (at a 1:2 ratio).
At its best, hemp produces about 79 scrap per planter (at an 80:10 ratio).

So, one orchid planter is worth about 15 hemp planters in terms of scrap output.

I think a cap of 150 orchid planters TOPS would be reasonable—that still comes out to around 175k scrap every 2 hours.

I can only speak from experience on Scourge, but I’ve talked to a few Survival players and things seem quite different over there.

Another idea would be to bring sunflowers, roses, and hemp more in line with orchids in terms of scrap value. That would give players more viable farming options, instead of everyone growing just one thing. Right now, it feels like a race to buy out all the Ranch stock right at reset, which leaves players who can’t be on at that time at a disadvantage.

Also, orchids put a heavy load on server resources compared to other plants—just watering alone takes 4x as much. If other plants were made more rewarding, it could encourage more diverse farming and reduce overall strain on the server.

[YetiBacklash]

If Dad says we need a nerf then so be it. But not sure this way makes much sense to me. At 1:2 my initial thought is to just forego orchids altogether, split up the 'extra' sprinklers/pumps to additional planters, and just do either sunflowers or roses. Comparing one wipe to the next it'd be the same water related deployables but like +60%(?) more in planters, lights, and base footprint. Why get a 2:1 scrap yield with orchids when you can just split up the water usage to more planters and basically get 3:1?