Crop-like fruit trees
Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 6:54 pmSo now that food variety actually matters, we can finally have fruit trees and have them actually be useful. IMO the system should be based on both the reality and the crops system, for sake of consistency.
Let's take apple trees for example, though it should work for all fruit (including stuff like grapes). To get an apple tree, you'd obviously need a sapling. There's already growing trees from cuttings, but IMO this should just produce tier 1 apple trees (let's say crab apples). For more interesting stuff, you'd need to grow from seed (which is how new apple cultivars come about IRL). Growing from a seed would take longer than from a cutting, but you could get a tier 2 apple tree from it. It should be a fairly low chance, with ~90% of the seeds still sprouting into crab apples. Getting a tier 2 tree this way would take more luck than is reasonable for planting a big orchard, though, and this is where grafting comes in. While a sapling is still in the pot, you could graft a cutting on it using some cotton cloth and clay (or beeswax for better results if we ever get bees). After some time, the graft would either take or fail, in which case the sapling would die (the chance of success should involve S&C). Now, grafting a tier 2 cutting onto a tier 1 sapling would produce a clone of the tier 2 tree. Tier 3 should be more rare and valuable, and to that end I think it should be random chance when grafting one tier 2 cutting onto a different tier 2 sapling. Grafting a tier 3 cutting on a tier 2 sapling would produce a clone of the tier 3 (if the graft takes), but grafting a tier 3 on a tier 1 would produce just tier 2. IMO this'd be best balanced by making the tier 2 apples something you use en masse (make one a cooking apple and the other a cider apple), and the tier 3 as a sort of a delicacy (a dessert apple, good for eating straight). I'm guessing here we'd just get four cultivars (just like we have with crops - one tier 1, two tier 2s and one tier 3), but it could get really interesting if there were many different tier 2s and tier 3s, there'd be a whole market for exotic cultivars.
Just having tiers isn't all that I meant by crop-like, though. What I'd like to see even more is fruit harvests that don't depend on decay hits but rather active cultivation. So, just like a harvested field, a harvested apple tree would need to be prepared with humus to start flowering and producing fruit. Just like with crops, you could use fertilizers on the tree to improve the outcome. Upkeep, plenty and speed translate to trees perfectly, but influence as it is for crops doesn't really work for the fruit trees I'm proposing. IMO the best way to deal with this would be to make it produce either more cuttings on the tree or better cuttings (higher chance of success when grafting). Cuttings would grow when fruit grows, ofc, not when the tree gets hit by decay.
Now, this system does produce excess tier 1 trees, but I think that can be resolved when we get differentiated lumber by making all tiers of a fruit specie produce same lumber. So you could just use all those crab apple trees to smoke meat (apple wood is good for that IRL). Or you could mass plant tier 1 for animal feed (apples would be a great treat for horses when we get them) or something.
Let's take apple trees for example, though it should work for all fruit (including stuff like grapes). To get an apple tree, you'd obviously need a sapling. There's already growing trees from cuttings, but IMO this should just produce tier 1 apple trees (let's say crab apples). For more interesting stuff, you'd need to grow from seed (which is how new apple cultivars come about IRL). Growing from a seed would take longer than from a cutting, but you could get a tier 2 apple tree from it. It should be a fairly low chance, with ~90% of the seeds still sprouting into crab apples. Getting a tier 2 tree this way would take more luck than is reasonable for planting a big orchard, though, and this is where grafting comes in. While a sapling is still in the pot, you could graft a cutting on it using some cotton cloth and clay (or beeswax for better results if we ever get bees). After some time, the graft would either take or fail, in which case the sapling would die (the chance of success should involve S&C). Now, grafting a tier 2 cutting onto a tier 1 sapling would produce a clone of the tier 2 tree. Tier 3 should be more rare and valuable, and to that end I think it should be random chance when grafting one tier 2 cutting onto a different tier 2 sapling. Grafting a tier 3 cutting on a tier 2 sapling would produce a clone of the tier 3 (if the graft takes), but grafting a tier 3 on a tier 1 would produce just tier 2. IMO this'd be best balanced by making the tier 2 apples something you use en masse (make one a cooking apple and the other a cider apple), and the tier 3 as a sort of a delicacy (a dessert apple, good for eating straight). I'm guessing here we'd just get four cultivars (just like we have with crops - one tier 1, two tier 2s and one tier 3), but it could get really interesting if there were many different tier 2s and tier 3s, there'd be a whole market for exotic cultivars.
Just having tiers isn't all that I meant by crop-like, though. What I'd like to see even more is fruit harvests that don't depend on decay hits but rather active cultivation. So, just like a harvested field, a harvested apple tree would need to be prepared with humus to start flowering and producing fruit. Just like with crops, you could use fertilizers on the tree to improve the outcome. Upkeep, plenty and speed translate to trees perfectly, but influence as it is for crops doesn't really work for the fruit trees I'm proposing. IMO the best way to deal with this would be to make it produce either more cuttings on the tree or better cuttings (higher chance of success when grafting). Cuttings would grow when fruit grows, ofc, not when the tree gets hit by decay.
Now, this system does produce excess tier 1 trees, but I think that can be resolved when we get differentiated lumber by making all tiers of a fruit specie produce same lumber. So you could just use all those crab apple trees to smoke meat (apple wood is good for that IRL). Or you could mass plant tier 1 for animal feed (apples would be a great treat for horses when we get them) or something.
