Since farming is going to be more fleshed out in 1.8, I thought of some ideas to improve it even more.
First things first, right now farming isn't all that great, or even looks like farming, most people just have a place in their home with some light, some water running, and stone everywhere, it doesn't look very appealing or like a real farm, it looks like a secret drug farm.
Solutions:
The ability to right click a grass/dirt block with the shovel, that will turn it into a special dirt block that grass won't grow on (so mobs won't spawn on it), and it can be reverted to normal dirt by right clicking it with the shovel again, this means you can have a big field outside that looks like a real one instead of one underground or something.
A fence door. So you can have a big fence around your field and be able to get in without putting a normal door down or worrying about animals getting in.
A watering can. Basically, instead of carrying buckets of water to fill in little canals, all you have to do is take the watering can to a single water source, fil it up (the source isn't depleted, and the water in the can will last for a certain amount of usages), then pour it on the crops, and they will stay watered until you harvest them.
This could make for more in depth farming instead of just having a weird looking water canal farm in your house that you only occasionally go to when you need food. (you could still use a canal if you wanted)
Make more crops, and make it more rewarding to do.
However, the thing with more crops, is just having more useless food items that aren't really different from what we already have in terms of how the heal you.
Solutions:
Crops can be traded with NPCs in villages for other supplies, some will be worth more than others, but may take longer to grow
Some crops can be mixed together to make soups and other dishes that will give you boosts temporarily or heal large amounts (by boosts I mean stronger attack, stronger defense, make you walk/sprint faster, and other things)
For instance, let's say you mix together some Tomatos, Carrots, Pork, and Potatos. You get beefPork stew that would increase your health.
Or let's say you mix Bread, Pork, and Bread, you'd get a ham sandwich that would fill double the health of the individual items.
Furthermore, you could give certain foods to animals to tame them, like you could give corn to a chicken, or an apple from an apple tree to a cow. (do cows even like apples?)
Let's actually get into tamed animals.
Tamed animals would be your friends, they'd follow you around, or you could make them stay, much like wolves, but cows and pigs won't be willing to take down a skeleton for you. The real reward comes from what they can do for you. For instance a tamed chicken lays more eggs or will collect seeds for you. Or let's say a pig would find mushrooms for you. Sheep could also give you more wool or make loud noises if a monster is near (like creepers).
So what do you think? What ideas do you like, which ones don't you like, do you like all of them, do you hate all of them? Even post more ideas if you want.
Good ideas! I like the sammich part :biggrin.gif: and the NPC villages i am SO EXCITED ABOUT! im going to live in a village =P anyway, those are good ideas
I enjoyed reading your post. You've put a lot of thought into how farming could be improved. The trading idea is a great one as the way the game is now there's really no point in farming at all. I can get all the food I need from pork and fish without ever needing to till the land if I choose. Now that we have mushroom farming which is basically just planting a few mushrooms under some nearby trees and coming back sometime later {little effort required there} and you have a simple 5 heart recipe for your 'stacked' mushrooms.
The game really needs to have a major overhaul if farming is going to remain worthwhile. Trading for other items such as minerals and ores would be a great start as it would allow players to 'increase' the difficulty level {and variety} of their games by choosing to play a level where for example they can't mine but instead must remain above ground and obtain all their ores etc thru large scale farming.
First things first, right now farming isn't all that great, or even looks like farming, most people just have a place in their home with some light, some water running, and stone everywhere, it doesn't look very appealing or like a real farm, it looks like a secret drug farm.
Solutions:
The ability to right click a grass/dirt block with the shovel, that will turn it into a special dirt block that grass won't grow on (so mobs won't spawn on it), and it can be reverted to normal dirt by right clicking it with the shovel again, this means you can have a big field outside that looks like a real one instead of one underground or something.
A fence door. So you can have a big fence around your field and be able to get in without putting a normal door down or worrying about animals getting in.
A watering can. Basically, instead of carrying buckets of water to fill in little canals, all you have to do is take the watering can to a single water source, fil it up (the source isn't depleted, and the water in the can will last for a certain amount of usages), then pour it on the crops, and they will stay watered until you harvest them.
This could make for more in depth farming instead of just having a weird looking water canal farm in your house that you only occasionally go to when you need food. (you could still use a canal if you wanted)
Make more crops, and make it more rewarding to do.
However, the thing with more crops, is just having more useless food items that aren't really different from what we already have in terms of how the heal you.
Solutions:
Crops can be traded with NPCs in villages for other supplies, some will be worth more than others, but may take longer to grow
Some crops can be mixed together to make soups and other dishes that will give you boosts temporarily or heal large amounts (by boosts I mean stronger attack, stronger defense, make you walk/sprint faster, and other things)
For instance, let's say you mix together some Tomatos, Carrots, Pork, and Potatos. You get
beefPork stew that would increase your health.Or let's say you mix Bread, Pork, and Bread, you'd get a ham sandwich that would fill double the health of the individual items.
Furthermore, you could give certain foods to animals to tame them, like you could give corn to a chicken, or an apple from an apple tree to a cow. (do cows even like apples?)
Let's actually get into tamed animals.
Tamed animals would be your friends, they'd follow you around, or you could make them stay, much like wolves, but cows and pigs won't be willing to take down a skeleton for you. The real reward comes from what they can do for you. For instance a tamed chicken lays more eggs or will collect seeds for you. Or let's say a pig would find mushrooms for you. Sheep could also give you more wool or make loud noises if a monster is near (like creepers).
So what do you think? What ideas do you like, which ones don't you like, do you like all of them, do you hate all of them? Even post more ideas if you want.
The game really needs to have a major overhaul if farming is going to remain worthwhile. Trading for other items such as minerals and ores would be a great start as it would allow players to 'increase' the difficulty level {and variety} of their games by choosing to play a level where for example they can't mine but instead must remain above ground and obtain all their ores etc thru large scale farming.
Not too powerful, but useful.
Like underwater breathing for a minute, lava invincibility (also for a minute), faster running, maybe faster mining, swimming faster, etc.