I've been playing on US Sourge for 3 years now, and the meta has always been dominated by massive hemp (now orchid) farms and factories crafting Explosives. Here are a few ideas I have floating around, but I’m not sure how they might fit into the current server dynamics:
Limit the number of plots
We could cap the number of plots a player can have to reduce the extreme farm setups that take up a lot of server resources and create imbalance.
Limit the number of Bee Hives
Similar to the plot limit, limiting the number of bee hives per player would encourage a more balanced economy and reduce the over-reliance on automated resources.
Adjust Explosives Market
Lower the buying price of Explosives. This would make it less profitable to mass-produce Explosives and encourage more diverse strategies for making scrap and trading.
Increase prices of other items
Raising the buying prices for other items would create a better variety of ways to earn NW (Net Worth) and encourage players to diversify their approach to farming and trading.
New ways to generate Scrap
We could explore new ways to earn scrap outside of traditional farming methods. One idea is to buff horses and fishing, while also limiting how many each player can own to prevent mass accumulation.
Reconsider Orchids
Sadly, I think orchids need to go. While they are currently the best method of earning scrap, they require four times the water usage compared to other plants, which is too taxing on server performance, especially with the current state of mega-farms.
