There was a thread recently made about watering seeds, and it got me thinking about how gardening works on Subeta in general. The way it is now, you just obtain a seed, stick it in the ground, water it for a few days, and get the fully-grown plant (unless you forget about it and it dies). Now admittedly most people probably like that it's this simple and don't want it to change at all; that's totally fine. There's plenty of other places to go and games to play if I want to be a virtual farmer (looking at you, Rune Factory 4.)

However, in case other people might be interested in something else to do on Subeta, I had a few ideas kicking around that might make the gardens a little more interesting.

• Be able to plant more than one seed at a time. Not that many, I was thinking maybe three, five at most? I honestly don't know how many would be a good number. But having more than one seed to keep up with, especially if they're given different growing times depending on the type of seed, would make gardening a little more of a challenge.

• Make weather and seasons a thing. Maybe a rare-ish random event that waters your seeds every so often with rain ("Oh, has Tempest passed through recently?"). Or one that warns of a very hot/very cold day the next day, so you might need to buy something to put on your garden to guard against wilting or frost. Or seeds that grow faster/into something different depending on what season they're planted. Again, I don't know if any of this is actually doable, but hey, won't know unless I ask, yeah?

• Have your active pet help. The first thing I thought of was that occasionally a pest would try to dig up your seeds or eat your plants; your active pet could chase it away or catch it. The pest could maybe drop an item, or be caught as a minion. It wouldn't actually damage or kill your plant unless you didn't check on it for a couple of days, just as if you'd forgotten to water it. Your pet could also possibly catch minions like butterflies or hummingbirds that are attracted to certain flowers.

- One seed, many possibilities. Hydrangeas will actually change color depending on the pH of the soil they're planted in. Why not try something similar in Subeta gardens? You can buy different bags of nutrients, or use a magic item or something, and depending on what's used (or not), the same seed can produce different results. Maybe a minion that changes appearance depending on the season its seed is planted. Maybe a different color flower or variety of plant depending on nutrients added. EDIT: I don't actually mean having stats on the soil or plant, maybe that was a bad real-world example. All I meant was changing the final plant depending on what it was planted with. Just forget this one, please. I wasn't clear from the start, and people are getting hung up on the wrong thing, apparently not reading my corrections in later posts. It's not that original of an idea anyway.

There's probably drawbacks I haven't thought of, aside from people not really wanting it. (I imagine someone that planted an Aeanoid seed, for example, probably doesn't really want a whole lot of stuff endangering their plant.) I also don't know if some of these things - or any of them, really - are even possible to do. But hey, no way to know unless it's suggested, right?

Anyway, thoughts?

I doubt the gardens get too much use how they are now, except for the curious user, someone doing it for an achievement, or someone growing a stat booster. Oh and aeanoids, always forget about them. I'd support any revamp of the garden.

I would love more attention for the Gardens. There's a lot of potential.

I suggested this before, but they should make new seeds that do not only grow plants but other kind of items. Like plushie seeds that grow plant plushies, or seeds that grow foods and wearables.

I would like a revamp. And an alert, I always let my seeds die. xD

I'm okay with the gardens being updated for being convenient, but adding weather hazards and pHs does not make this convenient, or fun at all.

I always forget about the gardens lmao I would love to see it get a revamp and a little more attention.

I don't actually mean having stats that you have to keep up with. I just meant add this item, get this result. Add different item, get different result. The item could be anything, I just thought bags of soil/nutrients because they're garden-related.

That still probably won't make it any more fun in your opinion, I just wanted to be clear.

Yeah no, that's 0% fun at all. We already have things that can combine X with Y to get a Z result, we don't need the gardens to be the same! except with an annoying timer.

I would love to see the Gardens updated in some way.

I was disappointed when the staff used that other garden during Vesnali, but I imagine it was due to the way the current one is set up.

Well gosh, 0% fun's a little harsh. But still, fair point. I didn't really think of it that way.

I love all of the ideas, maybe not so much the exact emphasis on pH, but I do like the hazards. They may not be convenient but not everything needs to be straight forward plug this thing in get this thing out. I think the randomness brings a bit of fun to it. It's like when you change the amulets into tomes, you're not guaranteed for it to work, yet that's part of the appeal. Maybe even more hazard %ages for rarer items. (I also don't know how much of a coding nightmare that could be, but the idea itself seems nice.) I always thought the whole garden thing seemed like it had huge potential but then... it's just there for now. I'm still looking forward to the spring because I'm hoping that something magical happens at that point.

I like the sound of all of it but especially this:

and also a timer alert please.

I personally think making the gardens a bit more interactive would be fun! :D I'm not too keen on the pH thing, though. I think it's a bit too...intrinsic and specialized to be on Subeta. But, I do love the idea of weather affecting your seeds. During frost/wintery days, maybe we could be charged a small fee (like 500sP) to "move your seeds into the greenhouse". And we could be charged like 100sP to water daily, but the Tempest thing you mentioned could give us a free watering. ^^ I also LOVE that idea about the random minion digging in your garden, and your active pet catching it. It sort of brings out the world of Subeta a little more, reminding people that yeah, the pets/minions are actually running around in the world. And frankly, the possibility of your aeonoid seed being dug up/ruined wmight just boost the value of aeonoids a bit.

lmao @ the 0% fun comment. It's not like the garden is exactly fun now.

I clarified it earlier in the thread and a little in the first post, but I am not suggesting that there be an actual pH stat (I actually agree that that's a bit too much realism). I used my example poorly. What I meant was, the plant changes depending on what you add to it as a seed. To use the example a little better; people will sometimes add nails to the soil around hydrangeas in order to change their color (it changes the chemical makeup of the soil).

However, it's already been pointed out that this is too similar to the Genetech combination stuff we already have, and again, fair enough. So I'm not sure why I'm still trying to clarify it. I guess if the idea's got to be shot down, I want it to be for the right reasons, lol.

Also, to the people suggesting a timer: that's been suggested and shot down many times already, which is why I didn't include it. But other things have changed over time, so maybe that could too. Depends on how staff feels, I guess.

So I'm gonna put myself on the Neopet box real quick, even though it's been years and I don't know if this is still relevant, but.... The idea of your pet chasing away pests and maybe getting a minion out of it viciously reminded me of Petpetpets

Like...

Hold me I'm having flashbacks. Pet my hair and remind me the world is a good place.

All of this, plus I'd love to see some sort of (re)interaction with the Centropolis Green Project. All that lovely garden, just sitting there!

Maybe the Green Project can only grow flowers, or whatever you grow there goes to your neighbor when you're done, like a free gift kind of situation. Something. Anything.

I plant a lot of Aeanoid seeds so I'd be really upset if those have a chance to be messed with but for general seeds this would be a lot of fun. Right now gardens are just useless and boring. I only use the garden once a year tops for a new Aeanoid but if they were actually more than "keep a tab open and water once a day" I'd use them more.

The thing about special items though is that in the past that if one item got messed with they all got messed with.

Aenoid seeds would be annoying but they're also an item on site and that unless, they're coded not to be affected means that if season changes or things of that nature were implemented they would be too.

As for the suggestions I'm not keen on certain seeds requiring different watering times because it was in general sometimes pretty inconvenient on farmville, especially if you planted one late or wasn't on at the EXACT TIME required to gather the plants from the seeds.

As for PH.. that would probably take the fun out of it for me honestly.

That said, I do like the idea of adding in active pet interaction because it'd be a way to include the pet into the site since there's so few avenues lacking pet interaction wise as is on site.

I really love the gardens, but it would be nice if it were more interactive. I don't really have any specific ideas to add and some of the ones on the thread already are really interesting. And I liked this: