Farming Expansion

First topic message reminder :

Split due to the fact a healthy discussion was blooming for an actual idea.

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MorbiusMonster wrote:More allotment plants. It's a pain trying to get higher levels when the only allotment crops available don't award enough.

3mptylord wrote:They should just add husbandry already. Sheep, Cows, Pigs, Ugwhatsit Camals, and 90+ Pak Yaks (probably more). They'd function similar to trees in that "growing" them is worth xp, but you can keep them as a persistent xp source for other skills.

As a perk, dung would make super compost (if the minimum level requirement is above watermelon). Dung would randomly spawn inside their pens.

Not sure of a way to start "growing" though. Maybe 2 summoning pouches? Buy them or make them. Could be a way to add a demand to the more useless summoning pouches. It also gives summoning a profit potential, albeit at a farming-rate.

They could require feed while being reered which would be allotment plants, thus encouraging those to be planted alongside.

What purpose is berries, then?

Also, we should have Poppies as a flower/herb.

Might be nice for farming patches to produce resources in a more en masse manner, for example if trees left up would not only allow you to chop them, but would also grant a slow continuous supply of wood accessible via the farmers.

Interesting. Just for trees? Or even the things that are currently destroyed upon harvesting?

everything, I mean farming should be a skill that actually produces resources efficiently, and the current setup really doesn't

Farming, and skilling in general, has the resources made divided into two categories; produce and perks.

Produce, is a low value, mass produced resource of a skill and is largely used to gain experience. This is what allotments usually are.

Perks are resources made that have a high value, require greater difficulty to acquire and aren't used for training as they are inefficient. Trees of all kinds fall under this category.

The main goal for our attempts to revamp farming are to improve the overall quality of the produce over the perks (at the moment, higher levels only seem to offer perks).

Of course only high levels have perks... The point of a perk is a reward for toiling. Unless the low level perks only affect low level activities, the entire concept of a low levelled perk seems flawed. In all fairness, livestock is perks... Particularly adolescent green dragons.

No, you interpreted me wrongly.

It wasn't a case of perks only being available at higher levels, it was a case of higher levels only having perks and not produce. It needs fixing, because the current method is inefficient, particularly since the only produce still going are herbs and they only take up one patch on the allotment.

Ah, so were merely stating something that we've already spent 8 pages discussing.

No, I think morbius does have a legitimate point. There are several skills that are based on "perks" more than harvesting. I mean really, dungeoneering and slayer I suppose are the two biggest, but so is agility in some way.

I never said his point wasn't legitimate... merely that we'd spent 8 pages already discussing it. The initial topic starter was a lack of high-levelled training/content.

Okay, the quest "Through the Grapevine" is ready. It seems suitable to launch the farming revamp as one of the rewards is a handful of the new seeds.

The Gardening Contest is a show of good sportsmanship and prowess in farming; at least that’s what it says on the posters. The Annual Contest is rife with cheaters of all kinds, and many of the honest gardeners end up on the receiving end of disqualifying rumours. But what were to happen if, say, a newcomer arrived to the games with no past knowledge of the shady goings on? It’s surprising what a stranger can hear “Through the Grapevine”.

You can begin this quest by talking to Olivia in Draynor Market. It appears the time of the Gardening Contest is upon them, but she is feeling disheartened. Whilst growing her plants, a rival sabotaged her attempt at competing, though when she tried to complain to the judges, her rival had already reported to them accusing her of trying to deliberately gain more time and thus resulting in her being disqualified.

For reasons unknown, her rivals tend to be the same group every year; always the victors and it’s their word against hers. The only way any wrong doing can be exposed is if they are identified as cheats by someone they aren’t familiar with, a newcomer. She asks if you can take her place in the contest and ask that you grow the same crops she was to see what happens. If you accept, she’ll take you to the contest patch and give you the seed for her juniper tree, renowned for being prize winning for their demonstration of skill.

To begin growing them, plant the seed in a pot and water it until it grows into a sapling. Plant it in the patch and leave it for a while. Olivia will recommend you have a seat in the deck chair nearby; the tree will take a while to grow. When you “wake up” the patch will have been vandalised and ravaged. Distraught you may be, but Olivia claims that this is part of the plan. Having coped with people stealing from the farmers in the past, she knows how to be ready for them and what to expect. This attack is identical to the previous ones, and if it was aimed at a newcomer, it can’t simply be placed as a petty rivalry. She will ask a contestant judge to take a look at the damage, taking into account the changes in circumstances.

The judge says he’s prepared to listen to you if you can provide further evidence of sabotage and cheating. If what Olivia says is true, then the saboteur has become sloppy and will likely slip up again. It’s time to talk to other contestants that’ve fallen foul of probable cheating. She will ask you to talk with the following;
• Lyra nearby Port Phasmatys
• Garth in Brimhaven
• Heskel in Falador Park
• Rhonen, North of Seers Village

At first, the gardeners will not be keen to reveal any kind of information regarding their contest entries, until you decide to use the Ring of Charos (a) to slip some information from them. Deal with them in any order you wish, but Rhonen will always be last.

Lyra nearby Phasmatys will explain to you that when she grows the rare, bloodveld orchids, her opponents tend to grow twice the size of hers, every year. Despite the soil being same and rules stating that a specific recipe for compost is used. Go and observe her competitor, Verity’s, plot on the prized patches. Quite rightly, the plants are twice the size, even though it should be physically impossible. When approaching the compost bin, Verity will tell you stay away, seemingly suspicious.

In order to acquire some of her compost, you’ll need to distract Verity; to do that, you’ll need to lure her some distance from her plot and knock her out with a black jack and then quickly acquire a bucket of the “Suspicious compost”. Take it to Olivia, who will take a better look. The first thing she’ll notice is how the compost has an unusual smell in comparison to normal compost; a compost mound familiar will tell you the exact same, that it has a spooky sort of smell. You will need to test it to be sure.

Give the “Suspicious compost” to Lyra and she’ll test it alongside a normal compost sample when growing a bloodveld orchid. Quite rightly, the difference is notable. In order to hide the real substance inside the compost, it’d need to be locally sourced so that it can be ignored under specific loopholes of the contest. As it reaches a certain point of maturity, the orchid in the suspicious compost suddenly begins faintly glowing. Lyra recommends you take a cutting of the glowing orchid with you and see what it’s responding to. As you move around Morytania, you find it responds as it moves closer to the Ectofunctus; it must be ectoplasm in the compost. Take your findings back to Olivia.

~

Garth in Brimhaven is having troubles with his crops dying very closely to the closing time of the contest and it seems strange. He will take you to his patch, where he asks you examine the dying plants properly. After observing them for a while, you are able to find a viscous substances oozing from the stems of the plants; bottle it in a vial and take it to Olivia. According to her, it’s a potent herbicide and Garth’s plants would have never stood a chance against it, but only one creature naturally produces it.

Return to Garth and inform him of your findings and he will agree to return you to his patch so you can track down the creature involved. Search the nearby foliage and track different objects to find a trail. As you reach the end of the trail, you reach a patch of Garth’s competitor, Lucas. He’ll accuse you of trespassing on his property, but you have to convince him you were just following a trail of something and didn’t mean to pass onto the territory. He’ll leave for a short while; in that time examine where the trail ends and you’ll find a leafy scale. Without a shadow of a doubt, this is what you’re looking for. Report back to Olivia and she’ll keep hold of the leafy scale for you.

Heskel will tell you that her plants appear to keep withering and dying at an unprecedented rate, even thought she cannot find a reason why. When you ask her why, she says that it always seems to happen when her competitor, Droma, plants her crops. It can’t be coincidence, as it affects her crops straight away. Ask Olivia as to what could be happening and she says she might not be able to explain, but perhaps a wizard might. Speak to Zavistic Rarve in Yanille regarding the conditions. He states that he cannot do any kind of analysis unless he has a sample to work with.

To acquire a sample, you’ll need to visit the prize patches and take a sample of some of the leaves from both Heskel’s plants and from Droma’s plants. Droma will try and stop you from going near her plants, but you can quickly remove her by luring her away and then using secateurs to take a cutting. However, when you report to Olivia, the leaf appears just normal and whatever enchanted had worn off. In order to preserve any enchantment, you’ll need to do it with magic secateurs in order to preserve the magic flowing through it.

Droma will not be fooled a second time when you try to lure her, so you’ll need some help to try and distract her. Probably the best idea would be to consult the leprechauns to work with you so they can allow you some kind of distraction to buy you time for collecting the samples. Knowing how important the competition is, the leprechauns will assist you, but only if you provide them perfect gold, as their magic revolves around the gold. The pure gold is available in Witchhaven mine, so make sure you have protection from the hell hounds nearby. Once a perfect gold bar is forged, they’ll assist you when you get to the plot. Whilst the distraction unfolds, take a cutting of the plant with the magic secateurs and give the sample to Olivia. She’ll immediately notice how the sample starts to sap the life from nearby living things, so she’ll send you back to Zavistic so he can take a proper look and hopefully find a way to remove the curse.

Zavistic will examine the cutting and will give you his findings; there is definitely a curse on the plants to sap life from other nearby foliage in order to promote their own growth. Return your findings to Olivia and she’ll look after the sample.

~

Rhonen, North of Seers village, keeps having problems with his grape vines. In spite of putting up precautionary methods, trolls keep breaking into the vineyard and eating all his crops. He grows a row of skunk’s cabbage, a plant trolls despise, so as to keep them away, but they always end up on his plot anyway. Take a moment to examine the crops on his plot when he takes you there and ask if you can set up a controlled environment to see why the trolls keep attacking.

Olivia will support your idea and suggest you grow grapes using all the resources Rhonen has used previously, but you’ll need a troll who will be able to work with you; one specifically fits the bill. Go and speak to My Hand and he’ll be reluctant to work on the test; use the Ring of Charos to convince him that it will be a good idea to do it and there’ll be goutweed in it for him.

Speak to Rhonen again and he’ll take you to his plot. Start by growing the skunk’s cabbage and then begin growing the grapes using all the resources present (do not use anything you’ve brought with you as it won’t work). Once you water the grapes and they reach maturity, call in My Arm to come and join you. At first he’ll be deterred by the skunk’s cabbage, then a particular odour will captivate his interests; goutweed.

He’ll break into the garden and proceed to gorge on the grapes, insisting he can taste goutweed on them. Rhonen will assure you that he hasn’t used any goutweed in the compost and there shouldn’t be anything in the soil either. Eliminating all the other factors, you believe that it must be in the water that the goutweed is entering the system. Take a bucket to the well and gather some of the well water and take it to My Hand at Trollheim. He’ll confirm that’s its goutweed alright, so take your findings to Olivia.

You’ll now need to listen around to found out who’s been dumping goutweed in the will nearest to Rhonen to suddenly attract trolls so strongly. Go around the other patches nearby and ask about the goutweed, but do it subtly until you find some more information. When you do, use the ring of Charos to better learn of who’s possibly involved. You’ll eventually be led to another farmer, Heston, who’ll insist that he’s had nothing to do with the goutweed getting into the water system.

Olivia insists that the best way to get anything to confirm who’s really involved, you’ll need to go somewhere where gardeners tend to have idle gossip; the Labyrinth. She’ll offer you a recipe for a potion called “Ent’s Essence”, which will allow you to nurture the rambling rose into being sentient so they can talk. The recipe requires spirit weed, leaves and willow roots to brew and the plants will need super compost to catalyse the reaction.

Mix the potion and go to the Labyrinth; pour the potion and apply the super compost on the rambling roses and leave them for a while to grow. Visit around the labyrinth from time to time and listen to the roses. When a conversation begins to become interesting, use the Ring of Charos to try and get more out of the dialogue. Eventually, you will happen upon a conversation from Heston, who’ll be speaking with a “contact” about the goutweed supplies. Take the rambling rose with this conversation to Olivia.

You now have enough evidence to show the judge about the cheating that is going on. Hand the evidence over to the judge who will begin reinstating entries for the wrongly disqualified whilst going after the cheaters. In the mean time, he advises that you get to work on your own entry whilst he does the vital work.

Olivia will hand you another juniper seed and you can begin to plant the tree again. As the tree begins to grow, someone will sneak up behind you and strike you over the head. You’ll come to in the labyrinth in a bed of roses. Carefully move so you don’t injure yourself on the thorns and proceed through the labyrinth to the exit. As you move through, you’ll hear something through the rambling roses. Verity, Lucas, Droma and Heston are arguing over whose fault it was that your first entry was mistaken for Olivia’s and how this wouldn’t have happened if they had kept their noses clean. Amongst them is the judge, who’s been captured. They’re planning on a little something as a surprise, one that you’ll never forget.

Return to Olivia and she’ll tell you that the cheaters have issued an ultimatum, if you come forward and pull out from the contest, the judge will be set free. However, from what you heard, they are more interested in just getting rid of you and taking the prize regardless, mostly through a violent means. Olivia will call her contacts to help aid you should something break out; when you are ready for the upcoming combat, she’ll teleport you to the prize patch.

~
When you are teleported to the prize patches, Verity, Lucas, Droma and Heston will be waiting. They admit to cheating, but since you went out of your way to expose them as opposed to staying away, they’re going to forcedly remove you from the contest. Each of them shows you their “prize entries”; it appears that the Essence of Ent isn’t just Olivia’s trade secret.

Verity unleashes her bloodveld orchids, Heston will use the trolls he’s been capturing on Rhonen’s property, whilst Droma’s plants have grown to full size, having sapped the life and essence from a foot found in the sandpit in Catherby. However, it’s Lucas’ creature that engages you first; the Ivy League Dragon. It appears you’re outnumbered, until Olivia and her contacts arrive; druids, leprechauns and adventurers prepared to take on the orchids, trolls and Droma’s plants. You’ll have to deal with the Ivy League Dragon alone.

The dragon attacks with dragon fire, melee and magic that can bind you and poison you, so make sure you bring some decent anti-poison with you to combat. In order to defeat it, Olivia tells you that you’ll need to break through the tougher “scales” otherwise it’s invulnerable. To do so, you’ll need to grind down the juniper berries from the now fully-grown tree into a vial and throw them at the dragon. When it is covered and the leaves become permeated, attack it with fire spells until you get a message that you’ve exposed the weaker scales.

The dragon is only affected by the magic secateurs, so you will need to use those along with anti-fire protection to spare you any unnecessary damage. The ground juniper berries and fire combo still works to lower its stats, but not for much damage. When you’ve finally bested the dragon, the remaining plants beasts will also be defeated.

The judge extends the deadline and allows the others to re-enter the competition, but the juniper tree is voted the best and you’re awarded the prize. Olivia will thank you for helping restore her reputation and give you the rewards.

Quest Complete

Requirements;
Fairy Tale Part II – Cure a Queen
Dragon Slayer
My Arm’s Big Adventure
Garden of Tranquility
Family Crest
The Feud
55 Farming
55 Hunter
Able to defeat a dragon with a different strategy

Rewards;
2 Quest Points
15,000 Farming exp
10,000 Herblore exp
7,500 Hunting exp
A bag of prize winning seeds
Access to more seeds from Olivia
Cheaper gardening payment rates
Ability to grow juniper trees
Ability to make plant cure and super compost potion (if you listen into one of the conversations of the rambling rose during or after the quest)
20,000 coins
Two spins on the Squeal of Fortune

I've done my part, when are you going to make a table?

Morb, have you put this on the RSOF?

His quest?

Also, I do the table whenever anyone decides to help me populate it. I've done allotments.

I noticed a message on the loading screen today I thought was interesting. It said something that Ghasts have a habit of rotting anything that smells tasty.

This gave me an idea, could you use a spice or herb that makes the food taste terrible? We could work on growing a kind of plant that, when mixed with food, improves the healing, but reduces a stat of some kind because it tastes foul. Also, we could have some kind of Morytanian herb that stops Ghasts from touching it, but it would mean it heals less.

The existence of the Ourboros Pouch would make ghast-resistant food redundant, Morb. In fact, I'm not even sure how the idea would be an improvement on normal druid pouches...

That said, the idea of herb mixes that repel certain monsters could be a very good one if it focused on other monsters. Hmm... What monsters do you find particularly annoying?

Anyway, I am going to work on another quest for the Farming revamp. In this quest, the player grows a canoe tree near Baxtoria Falls so that players can canoe from there to as far as Castle Wars. The purpose of this quest is to introduce to players the fundamentals of growing trees, such as planting, checking for illness and reaping the rewards.

Follow up rewards for the quest also include growing trees in other locations, provided the right quests have been completed. For instance, players can then carve canoes for locations such as the Salve and the Elid.