idea "Farmers Only" But A RustEZ Server (And Not A Dating App) — A Modest Proposal

[Theodore Baggins]

Farmers are a critical part of the RustEZ community. However, compared to more casual players—or players who just have a farm on the side—the "real" farmers have a footprint that can have a significant impact on the players around them, as well as the server tick rate. When the population is a mix of those who just want to fight some zombies to casually gain net worth and players with 144-plot farms and highly-automated recycling, it can be unpleasant for all. 

Instead of penalizing players by introducing build restrictions or modifying the economy, I propose we lean into the ethos of the super-farmer and introduce a new server that offers significant incentives for them: a sort of "Elysium for farmers". Imagine, for a moment, a server where the special events are farm-based, and there are buffs for farmers. Ideas include:

• A pop-up "farmer's market" (like a travelling vendor) that will trade scrap for the "in-season" crops: corn in potatoes in January, berries in May, corn in August, pumpkins in November. 
• An arctic flower exchange monument that you must fight through to exchange your flowers at higher prices than the ranch
• Occasional convoys (of tractors?) with high-grade clones. 
• A significant buff to large water catchers in the jungle, making it desirable to build off-grid farms in environments that are traditionally hostile. 
• Periodic bee migration that enhances yield at certain times

Of course then there is the recycling aspect, and the difficulty of keeping a suitable tick rate for conveyors to work. Ideas to help with this include:

• Taking a cue from pumpjacks, make workbenches/crafters "upgradeable" with a corresponding increase to yield. This would at least cut down on the amount of crafters.
• Conveyors that can pull from more stacks in a box, increasing throughput.
• Better returns on flowers in the /shop to increase direct-to-shop sales instead of going the recycling route.

Admittedly, these are all half-baked ideas. But I think a server that catered to farmers (and didn't have zombie AI) might help free up resources for Scourge and Survival, and the economics might make sense if the farmers with pumpjacks migrated over and the other servers became more playable for new players who expect a certain framerate (and would be a new income stream).