Hydroponics Feedback

[Val]

I am in total support for this

I think one of the bigger issues with the way hydro worked with mutations was the fact that it was completely unfun with just popping seeds away into the machine and clicking on a pop up and hoping for the best. The chemically-induced genetic mutation system seems to be a fair way to reduce that tedium, at the very least. Also, plant generations should have such malleable or consistent genetics in them as well.

Minor update

Nice.

Anyway, I honestly think this is a nice idea, and if nothing else is food for thought.

The grafting idea sounds kind of silly, although I suppose you could make frankenplants with some shady new drug or tool you can use for it. Watermelon vines with lemons growing out of it? Ha!

I definitely prefer the idea of splicing seeds together to make hybrids, with a 50/50 chance of that being either a "dual harvest" where you get both individual plants in a harvest or a hybrid plant that has properties of both plants.

I assume the hardest part of implementing this idea would be spriting the hybrids themselves. Perhaps only certain hybrids can truly actualize while everything else will only result in a dual harvest? Of course, splicing isn't so simple, so there must be a degree of complexity: Fail and success rates.

For example: there should be a high chance that the seeds just don't get along and kill themselves both/the other seed. So you get the chance of not getting both/anything, or getting either both in one or both as one. Something like this so you don't always automatically get mutants.

Half the fun is actually trying to get it, but the way it is now, it's not fun at all.

I really don't like how you have to run around holding only one seed in each hand.

Shit, why didn't I think of this? This is an amazing idea. Fuck trying to pick up seeds and fuck just being able to carry one at a time. I like your idea. I think I'm going to expand on it, even. A super-seeder tool.

Super-Seed 3000 (Yes it's a recolored hand labeler, deal with it.)

What it does:
You pick it up and hold it in one hand. When active, it picks up all seeds that are on a tile and places them into its seed sack or something.

How it works:
When you click on a hydroponics pot, an pop-up titled "select a seed to plant!" shows up and gives you a list of all the seeds that are in the seeder and you choose from that list which one you want to plant.

Game mechanics:
You select the seed you want and then just like that, the seeder plants the seed into the pot and you're off to do it again. You can carry multiple seeds and seed types in the seeder, up to 50 at any one time.

Other things:
If you decide you don't want whatever seeds you have in it, click on the seeder in your active hand and it'll dump them all out on the tile you're standing on. Either that or you get another screen that allows you to discard them individually.

Note:
You can get seeds from (most) plants directly by clicking on a plant with the super-seeder equipped. This seed is then added into the seeder's sack or something. Shares the in-hand sprite with the hand-labeler and spawns in its place within hydro.

Fun with e-mags:
With an e-mag, you can unlock the seeder's true maiming potential and use it to suck the life-juices out of your fellow man. Turns it into a fairly robust tool, but not much better than a fire-extinguisher or similar. Or you can plant seeds into people, who will take toxin damage or something.