Farming reagents (e.g. mandrake) might need a balance pass

Bugs & Suggestions board archives from Act V forums.
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Sacasa
Posts: 13
Character: Jacques Sacasa

Farming reagents (e.g. mandrake) might need a balance pass

Post by Sacasa » February 24th, 2019, 2:57 am

I've been cultivating Turmeric, which is highly suspectible to fungi. To combat fungi, you have to make fungicide - an alchemical perparation that costs 8 mandrake per 10 uses (in addition to 4 ground teeth and some garlic). If I have to manage 4 turmeric crops, I can expect to spend almost 2 bottles of fungicide (i.e. 16 mandrake) a day.

I thought I would combat this shortage of materials by risking farming the torment-prone mandrake, considering how it seems to be more difficult to find these days (even with prospecting pointing it out where the small plant can be seen in the first place). However, it turned out that not only does mandrake take 90ish hours to mature, it also feels like it is amassing conditions as fast as a plant that is meant to mature in 24 hours or less.

I gathered that I should try removing torment whenever the percentage reaches 45% (to minimize loss to yield). However, it seemed that I might end up losing up to 2 yield every day to torment. Over 90 hours, it means I might lose a plant of 8 yield to torment even if I never failed a check (which happens often) and always removed the optimal amount of torment - not to mention the risk of letting torment fester that far or even further depending on one's busy schedule.

Of course, this was not the end of my woes. It turns out that mandrake is vulnerable to pests. While the buildup seemed more reasonable at a glance, it is somewhat ridiculous that you have to spend mandrake in order to farm mandrake. Together with torment-based losses to yield, it is probably not possible to gain anything out of this equation.

Undying
Posts: 18
Character: UNK

Re: Farming reagents (e.g. mandrake) might need a balance pass

Post by Undying » February 24th, 2019, 2:45 pm

Seconded, especially with the fact that mandrake is an essential ingredient to fortification powder which an essential ingredient to an entire skill tree.

Kadda
Posts: 45
Character: Basti

Re: Farming reagents (e.g. mandrake) might need a balance pass

Post by Kadda » March 13th, 2019, 1:05 pm

Want to +1 this, and nudge it to to the top again.

A fungicide takes 2 Fortifying Agents to make, so if you're using a bottle on a mandrake plant you're spending 8 Mandrake root to save your mandrake plant and - at best - you're barely breaking even.

Undying
Posts: 18
Character: UNK

Re: Farming reagents (e.g. mandrake) might need a balance pass

Post by Undying » March 13th, 2019, 4:19 pm

Also pie crust...and we know how much I love my pies.

Rex
Aeolian Staff
Posts: 252
Character:

Re: Farming reagents (e.g. mandrake) might need a balance pass

Post by Rex » March 13th, 2019, 11:52 pm

Good points all around. Adding to my tasks list.

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