How do you get inspired to design your own farms and what factors do you take into account?
- Thread starter SirTooti
- Start date
DragonGwen
Farmer
I just throw stuff together and maybe organize a tiny bit
REtroGeekery
Farmer
I'm not patient clever great at character creation, so I always base my farmer off another fictional character that I like and then use their personality traits to set the gameplay style for that run. Then that, in turn, leads me to certain design choices and I just kind of follow the natural theming form there.
For instance, one of my farmers whose farm I've posted on here (Jones Farm) is Jughead from Archie Comics. He values friendship and food above everything else. So socializing (something I don't normally focus too much on tbh), helping his friends, and being able to cook all the delicious recipes they send him were priorities. That meant little picnic or dining areas around the farm. Plenty of benches to sit and hang out with friends on. Enough farming space for every in season fruit or veggie, chickens/ducks for eggs, goats for milk, fishing and fish ponds/crab pots to make sure he had all the necessary ingredients on hand. Beautifying areas around town for his community (and giving most of them dining areas).
There's also a practical element. I don't want to have to run clear across the map to pet my animals on a mining/fishing day, so I either want them close or to have a clear, easy path to run to the coop/barn. I don't mind traveling further to water/check/harvest crops or chop wood though.
The shape of the farm helps. I favor Hill-Top and Wilderness, which have a lot of naturally defined spaces that tend to guide where everything goes. I'm currently using both the Four Corners and Beach farms for the first time. Again, the shape of the farms guided the design. For Four Corners I went with a four seasons theme. Each corner is themed on a season and that surprisingly split up 'uses' even more than the built-in function of each corner (foraging corner, mini quarry, lake, farmhouse) did. The farmer on the beach farm is based on Leon Kennedy from the Resident Evil games and I took a lot of inspiration from the S.D. Perry novelizations (describing his drive to Raccoon; the fields, the woods, etc) that, combined with the shape of the farm, made it really easy to decide what would go where.
For instance, one of my farmers whose farm I've posted on here (Jones Farm) is Jughead from Archie Comics. He values friendship and food above everything else. So socializing (something I don't normally focus too much on tbh), helping his friends, and being able to cook all the delicious recipes they send him were priorities. That meant little picnic or dining areas around the farm. Plenty of benches to sit and hang out with friends on. Enough farming space for every in season fruit or veggie, chickens/ducks for eggs, goats for milk, fishing and fish ponds/crab pots to make sure he had all the necessary ingredients on hand. Beautifying areas around town for his community (and giving most of them dining areas).
There's also a practical element. I don't want to have to run clear across the map to pet my animals on a mining/fishing day, so I either want them close or to have a clear, easy path to run to the coop/barn. I don't mind traveling further to water/check/harvest crops or chop wood though.
The shape of the farm helps. I favor Hill-Top and Wilderness, which have a lot of naturally defined spaces that tend to guide where everything goes. I'm currently using both the Four Corners and Beach farms for the first time. Again, the shape of the farms guided the design. For Four Corners I went with a four seasons theme. Each corner is themed on a season and that surprisingly split up 'uses' even more than the built-in function of each corner (foraging corner, mini quarry, lake, farmhouse) did. The farmer on the beach farm is based on Leon Kennedy from the Resident Evil games and I took a lot of inspiration from the S.D. Perry novelizations (describing his drive to Raccoon; the fields, the woods, etc) that, combined with the shape of the farm, made it really easy to decide what would go where.
Lew Zealand
Helper
Many aspects of my gameplay have come from offhand comments in the Forums, including half of my spouse choices and both of my thematically designed Farms.
So yeah, original thought ebbs at a minimum and I usually need a lotta help before inspiration strikes. However, after being acquired that thematic prompt still is constrained by locations. I really need the things that are focused on speed to be close by, like the Horse and Obelisks. Next up is outside storage if I'm going that way (I usually do) and in early game, the Barn and Coop for daily gathering and pets. Sometimes the Crops are farther away than the Animals as they sit on their own with Sprinklers for longer times, but by mid-to-end game when Animals are an afterthought, they end up in the top L of the Map with a huge field of Grass below created by Winter 28 Grass Starter's overnight grassplosion.
Bottom L of the map is frequently feral with whatever Trees growing there so there's always close Wood chipping to be had but that gets cleared out for theme Farms. I don't do paths of any kind on regular Farms but they are a feature on theme Farms. I tried the Hill-Top and mangle-edited my save to get away from the awfulness bit eventually fix-edited it and have a happy theme Farm set upon the ashes of that former disaster. Riverland will never happen. 4 Corners is too strict but I've played it decently. Forest is the bestest. Beach is great for big projects. So is the Standard Farm.
So yeah, original thought ebbs at a minimum and I usually need a lotta help before inspiration strikes. However, after being acquired that thematic prompt still is constrained by locations. I really need the things that are focused on speed to be close by, like the Horse and Obelisks. Next up is outside storage if I'm going that way (I usually do) and in early game, the Barn and Coop for daily gathering and pets. Sometimes the Crops are farther away than the Animals as they sit on their own with Sprinklers for longer times, but by mid-to-end game when Animals are an afterthought, they end up in the top L of the Map with a huge field of Grass below created by Winter 28 Grass Starter's overnight grassplosion.
Bottom L of the map is frequently feral with whatever Trees growing there so there's always close Wood chipping to be had but that gets cleared out for theme Farms. I don't do paths of any kind on regular Farms but they are a feature on theme Farms. I tried the Hill-Top and mangle-edited my save to get away from the awfulness bit eventually fix-edited it and have a happy theme Farm set upon the ashes of that former disaster. Riverland will never happen. 4 Corners is too strict but I've played it decently. Forest is the bestest. Beach is great for big projects. So is the Standard Farm.