Pests & companion plants

[Hani]

Wouldn't it be awesome if companion crops along with competing crops were added to the game so that organic gardening has more of the spotlight vs monocultures?
I think each crop could have likes and dislikes about other crops that act upon the speed of growing and or the final quality based on each crop's properties?
Then there could even be pests, and we could use crops to decoy the pests (ie: use amaranth next to cucumbers to attract beetles away from the cucumbers). Maybe of you make enough companion crops variety in a specific radius it would totally negate pests, say if you have the correct 3-4 types of crops in a 3x3 tiles radius then it would make it fully pest resistant or other buffs, while if you decide to go monoculture you would get to purchase pesticides with the joja route only or super expensive at pierre's?
Let me know what you think of this idea, I think companion crops would introduce more depth to min maxing and would make experimenting with crops combo and layouts more interesting overall. It would also be an excuse to add more crops overall, I wouldn't be mad if there were 3x the amount of crops that exist currently.

 

[LRangerR]

If we have pests in the game then I demand spiders and ladybugs as well!

 

[Freizeitfarmer]

Wouldn't it be awesome if companion crops along with competing crops were added to the game so that organic gardening has more of the spotlight vs monocultures?
...

Nice idea.

But because the game is for relaxing and also for kids I think companion plants should be kind of optional. So maybe they should give a low buff - otherwise farming would become very complex.
Spiders and ladybugs would be funny!

 

[Hani]

Nice idea.

But because the game is for relaxing and also for kids I think companion plants should be kind of optional. So maybe they should give a low buff - otherwise farming would become very complex.
Spiders and ladybugs would be funny!

Yes it would be like Pokemon stats, powerful for those who master it, ignorable by casuals who don't want to think about it. Also real bees! Maybe pollinating could be a thing as well? To change what gets harvested out of a crop.

 

[Freizeitfarmer]

Yes it would be like Pokemon stats, powerful for those who master it, ignorable by casuals who don't want to think about it. Also real bees! Maybe pollinating could be a thing as well? To change what gets harvested out of a crop.

I am not sure about mandatory bees for growing crops.
Maybe having bees nearby could give a small buff as well!? Maybe similar to Speed-Gro!???

But at least there should be visible bees (buzzing dots) similar to the fireflies at night.

 

[Lew Zealand]

I am not sure about mandatory bees for growing crops.
Maybe having bees nearby could give a small buff as well!? Maybe similar to Speed-Gro!???

But at least there should be visible bees (buzzing dots) similar to the fireflies at night.

Bee buff for Crops would be great! Either could increase the star quality or add the chance of an additional drop to the Crop in range. The additional drop would be more in line with the action of a pollinator I think.

 

[Hani]

Bee buff for Crops would be great! Either could increase the star quality or add the chance of an additional drop to the Crop in range. The additional drop would be more in line with the action of a pollinator I think.

For pollinating I was thinking maybe it can remove the crop as a drop but give 4x seeds instead.

 

[Lew Zealand]

For pollinating I was thinking maybe it can remove the crop as a drop but give 4x seeds instead.

Sort of a chance at that Seeds drop? It'd be a big debuff to lose the value of a ripe Crop but if it was only 10% of the time, where you instead get Seeds that might be a nice option. However you kind of already have that option with the Seed Maker and it's voluntary instead of enforced. Not saying it's bad or good just thinking of how it would work.