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So gardening went live and I jumped on it to see what it was all about. I bought a Boom Shroom, a Dandelion and a Desparagus (sp?) and planted them. Nothing to do but wait and so I went out questing. In fighting a boss, i don't remember which one, I got a Pink Dandelion. Realizing I could get plant drops from bosses, i figured I would fight every boss up to where I was at to see what I got. I had four more Pink Dandelion drops. I planted them all and let them grow.

I think my Pink Dandelions (Rank 1, Difficulty/Reward 4) lasted for about two weeks from planting to elder. Right towards the end, I find out that plants like furniture/decorations in addition to other plants. I bought a Gnome and grabbed my Blue Ball of Yarn and put them out with my Dandelions. In less than an hour, they were all elder when they would have normally had probably at least another day or two.

Now that I have some gardening experience, I decide to expand. I planted 5 Dandelions (2 yellow, 2 pink, 1 orange), 4 Snap Dragons (2 regular, 2 burning) and 4 Venus Fly Traps. I put out my Gnome and my Yarn so the process would go faster. This was last Monday.

By Tuesday, all of my plants were Young already and on their way to Mature! Excellent! I just saved a couple of days on growing. I went out of town Tuesday afternoon and returned Wednesday evening. I was gone for about 30 hours. (I had no access to a computer while I was gone)

I came back to find every single plant, except the two yellow Dandelions, wilted. Annoying and I will not go into a sidebar here, I will wait until after I'm through with this to go into that issue. Nothing I could do but give them what they needed and start again. I basically lost two days because of the wilting.

Now for the part that is the problem/complaint. On Saturday evening (three days after bringing my plants back from the brink of death) my two regular Snap Dragons were elder. Three Days!! I only got two harvests out of them! Today, my Pink Dandelions are half way to elder. I have removed the gnome and yarn in hopes that I can get more out of the rest of my plants but I have already lost at least a quarter of their harvests if not more.

So Pink Dandelions on their own take at least two weeks to go from Seed to Elder. Pink Dandelions with three likes (Snap Dragon, Gnome, Yarn) take half of that time.

So here is the problem. While giving plants something they like helps them grow faster from Seed to Young and Young to Mature (these are benefits) it also makes them grow faster from Mature to Elder without also speeding up the time between harvests. This is not acceptable, imo.

Solution: As I said above, growing faster from Seed to Mature is a benefit. Less time to wait until we can start harvesting and less energy used on their needs/pest clearing. When the plant is Mature, one of three things should happen. Either the plant growth returns to normal and harvest time stays normal (this allows the normal amount of harvests but completely removes the need for likes), the plant growth returns to normal but the harvest time is reduced (this allows for more harvests which would be a very nice benefit from giving the plants likes) or both plant growth and harvest time are sped up (this allows for the normal number of harvests but reduces the time the plants are out which reduces the energy used on their needs).

The third solution has its own problem in that not all people can get on twice a day or three times in two days to be able to harvest the plants and gain full benefit. I believe that the second solution is the one that works best. I'm not looking at doubling the number of harvests (though that would be nice) but at least a quarter more or even half as much more would work.

Now for the next two problems: My plants wilted after me being gone for only 30 hours and then had to start at the begining of Young all over again.

Now I know that I checked my plants before I left so they should have had 8-12 hours before they had any needs. Maybe it isn't that long, but I've never actually timed it. That means that it took them only 18-22 hours to wilt. As has been said in another post, not everyone can get on more than once a day to be able to check these things.

We are already penalized if we don't get one enough because we lose harvests, since as far as I can tell, the harvest timer doesn't start over until we actually harvest the plant. We also already know that we can't harvest the plant while it has needs or pests. So this is already a pretty good penalty for anyone not checking their plants often enough.

If a plant has needs that aren't met, it should take at least 36 hours before they wilt. This gives people almost two days before they have an issue.

For the second part of that topic, why does a wilted plant have to start over at the beginning of its growth cycle? It's growth should be stopped where it is and then continue from where it was when you bring the plant back. This would even solve a good part of the problem from the plants wilting too quickly.

I also have one other concern that I intend to test this week. If it works out that I am correct, I'll post it here. I'll post if I'm incorrect too I guess just so people aren't wondering what I was talking about.

Thanks for reading through this whole thing and I hope you realize that I am not the only player having these problems.

I do not have the problem these people have, but I totally support and understand their needs. I think a "Freeze my Garden" option is a nifty solution that benefits ALL of us. Sooner or later EVERYBODY takes a trip, a vacation, schedules a hospital stay, that keeps them off the PC for more than 30 hours. This option allows them to plan their lives when possible.

Unplanned options should be considered also. A simple hardware problem can keep people off for weeks, not just hours. They should NOT be penalized for this. There is another alternative that should be considered in lieu of the "Freeze my Garden" button.

I personally favor and do not mind limiting the simulated growth cycle to actual playtime for each given character. This means nothing happens in the garden while that character is logged off. This totally solves the wilt problem ... but it also means the plants to not GROW while you are logged off either.

Some adjustments would be needed - like shortening the simulated growth cycle from DAYS to play HOURS to keep people interested and not bored to death, but a role being played in an RPG should NOT be affected by inactivity in the role.

I think will be great if was some kind of quests or dungeons or fighting bosses on getting energy back faster then what it is now, because we have to wait 10 mins to get one energy back, :( Specialy when we train pets or do gardening we get so fast short of energy, I can't keep up with my energy training my pets and doing gardening at the same time.. I got to level 7 doing gardening but now is very hard to train a pet and have garden when you energy go so fast, and have to wait so long to get it back, and we are a lot wizards that we can't aford or be able to buy energy with crowns all the time... all my friends think the same about finding a way to make wizards get energy back more faster then what it is.. :-)

Pssst! Hush. Don't tell anybody about the bodacious ratio of Pink Dandelion drops ... They might fix it .... lol.

Not EVERY boss has dropped a Pink Dandelion for me ... but it is above 80%.

I am thankful for the drop!

An Elder harvest of a Pink Dandelion yields a whopping 200 gardening XP!!! I have wizards that started gardening WEEKS behind my main character(level 7) and because of Pink Dandelions they have almost caught up - Both are well beyond Level 5.

I am also liking VERY much the Black Pearls, Blood Moss, and other rare reagents these Pinks are dropping that took HOURS of realm hopping to acquire before gardening went live.

I have planted every plant you can buy with gold and NONE of them produce value like the Pinks. Pip for Pip, they are hands down the best plant I have grown so far. Planted closely, 1 in the center and 6 in a tight circle around the center plant, the medium plot size spells keep them cared for at GREAT savings in pet/plant energy.

So ... let's not talk about it anymore and hope KI just forgets how generous they have been ... k?

;D

Before this thread becomes a hijacked thread in its entirety, as a response to the original post, the primary reason of the cycle having to restart is mainly a source of punishment and guilt. As this game is e10+, i assume the makers did this to help players assume the position of responsibility and consequences. Also, the primary reason, Toughcomp, is that this is another way for the company to, in a sense, nickel and dime you just a little bit. I am not in any way saying Kingsisle is a bad company, its just part of their business processes.

Taylor Lifebringer
Level 60 Life

So I think the energy used for gardening should be separate from the energy used for our pets. Anyone else agree with me? Since I started gardening, I can no longer level up my pets. They are two separate things, so why should the energy be shared? Once my plants are done, I am no longer gardening. I would rather get the benefits that come with leveling up my pets! Plus, I’m not going to spend 250 crowns just to buy more energy. What a rip off!! Sorry if I have the cost wrong, just going by what one of my friends have told me. We shouldn't have to buy energy and 70 is just not enough! There should be mini games set up for us to gain more energy back. When I started leveling up with the gardening, I thought maybe our energy amount would increase, but it doesn't and I think it should!! LAME