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Gardening needs to be fixed.

AuthorMessage
Explorer
Mar 24, 2009
58
I, like many others, think the mana price is WAAAAY too high. It doesn't seem to matter how many plants you have, but I can't keep up with it. I used to have a giant garden with at least 20 Dandelions, some Fly traps, and other assorted plants. I'm leaving for a cruise soon, so I stopped planting so that I don't waste them. Of my original 36 plants, I'm down to 12, but even with this, I'm unable to keep up mana-wise. Every time I log back in, everything is either wilting or has Level 5 Pests or at least 2 afflictions. Here are two changes they should make that would make this a lot more convenient in my estimation.

1.) The mana cost needs to be lowered drastically. Each affliction costs us 3 points to get rid of. That's WAAAAY too high. Luckily I grouped my plants as close as I could to start so I was able to use the area spells a bit, but even then it's useless. I think single plant spells should be 1 point, medium should be 2 and large area should be 3. The pests are absolute KILLERS though. If I get a Level 5 pest, then I'm in big trouble. 25 points to get rid of it? Are you kidding me? With only a max of 70, that's almost 1/3 of my allowable mana! Not cool. I think the pests could be done in multiples of 2. With Level 1 being 2 points, and Level 5 pests being 10. The 48 hour spells I think will be fine as is because you're still saving mana over the long haul.

2.) Lower the time it takes to get more mana. Since you're combining the pet mana with the gardening mana, I think you should up the rate we get points back. Say instead of 1 point every 10 minutes, make it 1 point every 5. As of right now, if I were to completely spend my mana, it would take 700 minutes of just over ELEVEN HOURS to refill it! If I have my Grizzleheim suit on that gives me extra pet mana, then I'm lookiing at almost FIFTEEN HOURS to completely refill my pet mana. I'd say give up the total amount of mana you could get, but that would do us no good because it's already virtually impossible to get it filled as it is!

The system being set up as it is just looks like a money grab to get people to buy crowns so they can continue to fill up their mana bank. If that's true, it's sad. I'm sure some people will still do it, I'm probably one of them, but this is a game clearly geared towards children, and a lot of them don't have means to be depositing money for crowns every week or two. Something needs to be fixed about this KI, and soon.

Survivor
Aug 23, 2009
2
Mana recharge is too slow. Agreed +1

There's another issue that drives me crazy. The ability to cast a spell on an empty area, or on a plant that doesn't need that buff. (Please don't let me cast a worthless spell.)

Situations I've dealt with and gotten angry over.
1) Think that I've switched from pollinate to sunlight, and cast spell, only to find out that when I clicked on sunlight, the pollinate was still being animated, so I got to waste 3 mana (30 minutes worth of mana - wasted) on a buff the plant didn't need.

2) Casting a group pollinate on 5 plants, 4 that needed it, and a 5th that didn't. The fifth was the center plant. Spell went off, and nothing got affected. there went 8 mana (1 hour and 20 minutes of mana - wasted)

3) Clicking from one app, back to wizard 101 while Wizard 101 is in gardening mode. Poof, the last spell used was suddenly cast on *nothing*.

4) I was getting ready to cast a spell on one plant, but when I clicked on the spell, another plant had jumped in front and got water when it didn't need it. (30 minutes worth of mana wasted - minimum)

2 things,
1) if you're going to allow me to cast an area effect spell, let it do it's job on the surrounding plants.
2) if I'm casting a spell on a plant that doesn't need the effect - ask me if I'm sure? The extra click may be irritating, but much less irritating than losing the mana.

Survivor
Nov 19, 2010
49
While I agree gardening has problems, energy is not one of them. If you don't have enough energy to take care of your plants, then you either have too many plants or you aren't spending your energy wisely. Whether you reduce the energy per spell or increase the rate of energy regeneration, you totally destroy the entire point of gardening. Points:

1) You can get very hard to find items from plants. If it was easy to have a whole bunch of plants, the rare items you get would no longer be rare. Do not change the energy use, it is fine the way it is.

2) Organize your plants better. Group plants by what they are going to need so instead of having to cast a bunch of 3 energy spells on multiple plants, you just have to cast a few 8 or 15 energy spells.

3) You don't have to take care of a plants needs the second it pops up. If one plant in a group need polination, wait until more need it so you can use your energy more efficiently. If a plant has pests, don't cast a pest spell for a single plant. Wait for a few hours to see if others get it and then cast the spell to take care of multiple pests.

4) If you do 2 and 3 and you are still having energy problems, you just have too many plants.

@ malcolmanderson

1) I had this happen for a while when I first started gardening. It is really frsutrating. I started paying attention to what I was casting before I cast it. The spell you are using goes darker than the others when you have selected it. Just make sure it actually did get selected before you cast.

2) I have never had this happen to me. I don't remember if I have ever cast a spell where the plant I was casting on didn't need the spell. If it is in fact happening, just wait until that central plant needs the spell cast on it. You also don't actually need to have a plant highlighted when you cast rank 2 or 3 spells. Just center the circle close to the middle plant without actually being on it.

3) I have also never had this happen. If it is a problem, either close gardening before you switch to a different app or instead of clicking in the window for Wizard101, click on the icon on the task bar.

4) The plants don't "jump in front" of you. You shifted as you were going to click on the plant you wanted and moved the mouse over the other plants "area". Move closer to the plant you want to cast the spell on instead of trying to stay further back.

I don't want to have to click to confirm that I want to cast a spell and the KI staff don't need to spend more time programming that in for people who just need to make sure they are casting the spell they want on the plant they want.

I know I'm not a gardening expert but this is what I've learned already and I still have more to learn. With the exception of one wilting episode, I have had no really major problems with gardening.

Delver
Sep 26, 2009
227
I think KI should make a way to pause gardening. Maybe in gameplay options there can be another switch that says, "Pause Garden" and then yes or no. That way the people who cant get on don't have to worry about their gardens for the entire week. And a tip for the people who don't have enough mana, dont plant so many plants, i have only 4 at a time at most.

Defender
Aug 08, 2010
134
Part of the problem is, some plants are VERY needy. To the point that it gets level 4 & 5 pests frequently (25 pts gone) and will have a lot of other needs. So even 4 plants could be out of the question.

I have totally given up on pet training on one wizard because I just don't have enough energy to garden, much less train a pet on top of it. My garden is very small and I have a lot of items that they like (including the secret items) and still I run out of energy. Now I just leave them needy, because I refuse to buy anymore energy.

I was going to replant a more efficient garden when they all went elder, but I've had several plants regress to immature as I was unable to care for their needs in time. :-( :?


Defender
Dec 01, 2010
153
I am reaching mid way through Rank 6, I have not had any of the issues mentioned. I currently am running a garden of 12 plants. I have them all grouped together and none of the like or secret likes. I am level 38 with 59 energy. I usually run to the teens in energy and usually never below it. I do agree the pests seem to zap all the energy. The key I use is to plant only the one type of plants then they all have the same needs. I check on them once a day. I clear them of all their needs harvest, then check on them 24 hours later. I hope this helps.

Survivor
Nov 21, 2010
7
Agree totally:

I am an adapt gardener (lvl 8) with only 5 plants (two over level 2), and had one wilt on me (lower it level) do to bugs I had to wait a bit for energy to kill.

As to my many pets they can not be trained do to gardening.

Gelwyn wrote:
Part of the problem is, some plants are VERY needy. To the point that it gets level 4 & 5 pests frequently (25 pts gone) and will have a lot of other needs. So even 4 plants could be out of the question.

I have totally given up on pet training on one wizard because I just don't have enough energy to garden, much less train a pet on top of it. My garden is very small and I have a lot of items that they like (including the secret items) and still I run out of energy. Now I just leave them needy, because I refuse to buy anymore energy.

I was going to replant a more efficient garden when they all went elder, but I've had several plants regress to immature as I was unable to care for their needs in time. :( :?