Minecraft Forums

I'm always hearing people say that getting food in Minecraft is too easy. Well I have an idea that will make it so growing food will be a little more harder (but not too hard!). The concept is simple: farmland has a certain amount of uses until it becomes regular dirt once more. This is because IRL, farmland loses nutrients little by little. All you have to do is re-till the dirt and you're good to go. That way those that have giant farms will have to get a little more involved with the land, and those that have small farms only have to till a few blocks. I propose that farmland gets a certain amount of uses (see below) before it becomes un-tilled (is that even a word?). Farmland is "used" when a player harvests whatever crop is planted or when a melon/pumpkin is broken from the stem. In villages, the villagers would make sure to till the land when necessary. In addition, maybe a command can be implemented to disable this new mechanic (maybe /gamerule farmlandretill ?) As I said, this will probably not have a major impact on most farms, but it will mean people have to put just a little more effort into their crop production.

As suggested by brando4885 (thanks man): Using different tiers of hoes will keep the land tilled for longer.
Wood: 10 uses; Gold: 20 uses; Stone: 30 uses; Iron:40 uses; Diamond: 50 uses
(please note that this refers to the uses of the farmland that is tilled, NOT the uses of the hoes)

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions. My activity on here is a little random, so I may not get to you right away.

Thanks for reading!

I like the idea but I do not feel you have elaborated enough.

Will there be certain biomes that can only grow certain crops?

Seasons?

Can the crops go bad if you don't harvest them soon enough?

Will high grade hoes, such as diamond, keep the farmland tilled for longer periods of time?

Will snow and rain effect the crops?

Will growth patterns change?



Partial Support

Quote from brando4885»

I like the idea but I do not feel you have elaborated enough.

Will there be certain biomes that can only grow certain crops?

Seasons?

Can the crops go bad if you don't harvest them soon enough?

Will high grade hoes, such as diamond, keep the farmland tilled for longer periods of time?

Will snow and rain effect the crops?

Will growth patterns change?



Partial Support

Huh. I hadn't thought of any of these things at all (that sounds bad I know)

If seasons were to be implemented, I should definitely think that growth patterns and certain crops would be affected. However this isn't about seasons, mainly since tons of people have already suggested that(don't get me wrong that would be awesome). In reality, the only thing I wanted to change with this is the dirt mechanics (if that's even a thing). The only thing that I will definitely add is the fact that different tiers of hoes will keep the land tilled longer. I will update the OP ASAP.

Also, thanks for the partial support.
Ok, I've updated the OP now.

Quote from brando4885»

I like the idea but I do not feel you have elaborated enough.

Will there be certain biomes that can only grow certain crops?

Seasons?

Can the crops go bad if you don't harvest them soon enough?

Will high grade hoes, such as diamond, keep the farmland tilled for longer periods of time?

Will snow and rain effect the crops?

Will growth patterns change?



Partial Support

I like the idea of seasons (weren't those mentioned to be added eventually?), biomes, etc. affecting growth patterns and rate of crops, but the farmland retilling thing seems unnecessary to me. It adds no extra element of gameplay and no real challenge, it's just a minor inconvenience.

Quote from Badprenup»

Iirc Dinnerbone mentioned seasons as a *possible* feature for 1.9. No guarantees there, although Red Dragons got the same amount of mention and people STILL think they were promised by Mojang on a bible at their mother's graves under death penalty of perjury. Because people are silly.



That said, this wouldn't really make farming more difficult. It would add a single extra step to replanting crops, sometimes. And the balancing for this is just... terrible. 30 harvests for a Stone Hoe, the most common Hoe used in farming? If you make a field that uses an entire Stone Hoe, you get 132 squares of land. That and 30 harvests means you get 3960 crops until you need 2 Sticks and 2 Cobblestone. Using Iron instead? 10,040 crops. Diamond? 78,100. For trying to make things more difficult, it sure seems you get a lot of crops still.

Alright I see your point. To be honest now I'm not sure on what the numbers should be. I know that as the op I should be the one to come up with them myself. However, I ask that you help me come up with more reasonable numbers to make it more of a challenge.

I like the idea of seasons (weren't those mentioned to be added eventually?), biomes, etc. affecting growth patterns and rate of crops, but the farmland retilling thing seems unnecessary to me. It adds no extra element of gameplay and no real challenge, it's just a minor inconvenience.

Not to sound rude, but why are you telling me this? I asked questions to the OP, its not my idea

Quote from brando4885»

Not to sound rude, but why are you telling me this? I asked questions to the OP, its not my idea

I wasn't really responding to you, I was just referencing what you said in agreement as a way to explain my opinion on OP's idea.

gotcha

This doesn't necessarily make farming more difficult. It just forces a person to go out of their way. For those with smaller farms, it doesn't really add to the challenge, for those with larger farms, it only adds to the tedium by forcing them to re-hoe everything every once in a while, and for those with semi-automatic farms, this would be very obnoxious.



To put it simply, I don't think anyone would like this. At the very least any new farming mechanic should add some interest to farming, not repetition.