Hydroponics Feedback

[Val]

Okay, so what i've taken away from this so far:
- Extract mushrooms for seeds

Yes, although they're really more like spores?

- Hints for mutation boundaries

How would this work? I haven't a clue as to what this would imply in terms of game use.

- Different reagents do stuff to different plants (?)

I think this idea is more of an excuse to incorporate hobochem into hydroponics or make certain mutations rely on help from chemistry, such as using napalm or similar to mutate regular tomatoes into explosive ones.

I think it was mentioned that you'd need to up a plant's endurance trait in order to get it to accept horrible reagents like welding fuel or plasma and not die because plants do not work that way. I don't really like this idea though. Thalermite-laced lemons anyone?

- Different kinds of nutrients/fertilizer like TGstation has it

Yes, with different kinds of nutrients having a profound effect on the plant that receives a specific type, as mentioned. Actually, a complete nutrition system would be kind of neat, although it'd make hydroponics a tad trickier to operate.

I find it kind of strange that your plants never die of malnutrition or infestation, but then suddenly drying up from a lack of water. Adding a new mechanic where you're forced to also feed your plants and perhaps protect them from weeds/pests would be a deal more fun in my opinion.

That and something about having chem get new recipes specifically to create these new fertilizer types. I'm planning on elaborating even more on this soon, if needed. Also, the compost cart will be massively more important this way.

- Pollination and/or splicing rather than the Gene Manipulator

Definitely this. Perhaps refurbish the Gene Manipulator into a big-ass plant analyzer that tells you exactly what this plant is capable of being, in addition to being a cross-pollination machine?

- No more tiny-ass seed sprites

Perhaps vending a packet of seeds instead of an individual one would be better? Though it'd be kind of silly if we replaced the seeds that come out of harvested plants with packets... blow the "seed" sprites up by 75% and it'll be fine, I guess. If we make them too big, they might look a bit odd. Just big enough to click on consistently and not be a pain in the ass.

- Seed processor/manipulator hand tool

This is nice too.

I'm not going to do hybrid plants since that'd be kind of awful to sprite and code for honestly. Mostly what I need to figure out is how to do this whole pollination/splicing idea, since it sounds interesting.

I'm not sure how to elaborate on this particular regard any further. I guess if anyone else has any input on this, it'd be nice to know.

I think a big idea here is to have the spliced seeds gain properties of the plant it was spliced with. Someone wants to splice cannabis with a tomato to have tomatoes that contain THC, which in turn will show up in its byproducts (THC-laced ketchup) and so on.

:arrow:

What's the word on incorporating new crops/mutations though? I'm not much for spriting, but I know that it will be a big thing if we want to see any new seeds anytime soon. I guess we should also think up recipes that we can use with mutant plants...though those belong in the chef thread.