CROSS-CONTENT DISCUSSION: Harvesting

[Ein]

Be nice if more food was on the market. Maybe add a caravan that specializes in trading Carrots, Apples, Brahmin Meat and so on. Would really help out. I've never really tried to make an NPC with that much scripting behind it though, so I don't know if you could just copy a template or what.

Another thought would be something like a food fabricator. You could find them in the diners of vaults, and they would work similarly to the Sierra Madre vending machines. The most likely currency for a system like that would probably be radroach meat. It's sort of easy to come by, it can be reasoned lore wise why it would operate on that and so on. The pay-out would be various pre-war foods.

Also, going way back, yeah. The first time you ever see Xander Root and Broc Flower in Fallout is up in Oregon in the Arefu settlement. They're most likely mutant plants, so they could go anywhere almost. Probably not some place like the Pitt.

If you really wanted to add a farm to Megaton, the most likely, and easiest crop for them would probably be Mushrooms. Just add a door to a damp underground area, like possibly a Drain Pipe that was exposed and broken open when the crater formed. Put various mushrooms around in there and that should work. It would give Megaton some reason to exist, outside of possibly also distilleries. That would be kind of an interesting little cash-in quest. Someone who pays you for empty bottles.

At any rate, DC has logic and design problems all over. But it does sort of make sense if you read too much into it. It's not about any one settlement self sustaining, it's about the caravans that supplement and supply everyone. Arefu sells the brahmin meat, Rivet City the vegetables, Megaton would be a natural fit for mushrooms and liquor. Then there are the smaller places that obviously only buy, like Tenpenny Tower, Temple of the Union, and so on.

It's been a long time since I posted anything, none of this probably makes sense or matters at this point lol

[yukichigai]

[quote=Senterpat]

What about jalepenos? I havent seen anyone mention them, peppers grow pretty much anywhere.

[/quote]

After poking around the internet for days I STILL cannot find any solid information on where Jalapenos do or do not grow naturally.  The information indicates that Jalapenos are "easy to grow", but it also mentions that they don't like cold climates, i.e. DC 5 months out of the year.  I suppose they could be cultivated.  Of course it doesn't say whether or not cold climates will kill the plant outright or just stop it from growing.  Plenty of plants do that, but given that Jalapenos are described as a "tropical" plant, I am skeptical.

As far as other harvestables/ingredients, Pinyon Nuts, Banana Yucca, Nevada Agave, Barrel Cactus, Honey Mesquite, and White Horsenettle are all straight out.  None of them can grow even as far east as Texas, much less DC.  Pinto Beans are another one I can't really find good information on, but my inkling is that they too will be confined to the Southwest US.

One thing that DID come up as okay though: Prickly Pear.  The Eastern Prickly Pear is known to grow as far North as Canada and is quite tolerant of cold climates.  It's technically a different species, but funnily enough I think it's actually the basis for the Prickly Pear which already exist in the game.  It certainly looks closer than any other variants I was able to pull up on Wikipedia.

 

So yeah, a little more to think about.

[Risewild]

Punga Fruit was to be made respawnable like the NV plants but for some reason it never seemed to respawn for me either .

[pintocat]

The way the harvestable scripts work, they actually respawn on cell reset, which means if you've visited the cell, it resets the respawn timer again. The reason vendor chests still respawn is that the actual containers are in another cell usually.

Gribbleshnibit8 has a mod called Bountiful Harvest that fixes the scripts to actually run on a timer (checked on load, so you dont have thousands running constantly).His current version only supports vanilla NV stuff. I have one with DLC and TTW I'll upload here if he doesn't mind

[frenzyslave]

You can always go underground and cultivate that. Grow some subterranean harvests, like perhaps mushrooms or other edible fungi.

There may be no suitable land surrounding Megaton (and defensible), but there can always be a subterranean entrance WITHIN Megaton's defended walls.

Also, you don't have to stay lore-wise to harvestible foods/crops. There was a nuclear war, and this nuclear war caused Brahmin and Centaurs. I don't think it is even slightly off to add some mutated plant life, that has adapted to the environment, that is useful for harvesting. Hell, we even do genetic engineering right now.

After surviving a nuclear wasteland for over 150+ years, I think all supermarket food would be gone due to scavengers. How are people supposed to find something to eat? Find a harvestible edible/useful item, or experiment on ways to make Centaurs actually edible. A good cook can make anything edible - it doesn't have to taste great, lol.

[CourierSix]

I did some brief research into native plants to the DC area that would grow in dry soil, and might be interesting to have in TTW.

New Jersey Tea (Redroot) -

[collapsed title=New Jersey Tea]

A low shrub with tiny white flowers in oval clusters rising from the leaf axils on the new shoots. The base is woody, while the upper portion of the plant is made up of herbaceous, spreading branches. Fall color is insignificant. The dried leaves of this nitrogen-fixing shrub make an excellent tea that was very popular during the Revolutionary War period.

http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CEAM[/collapsed]

Kentucky Coffee Tree

[collapsed title=Kentucky Coffee Tree]Usually a short-trunked tree with narrow, open crown of coarse branches and very large, twice-compound leaves. Its unique bark is dark brown and roughened with scale-like ridges in distinct patterns. It leafs out late in spring. The large, twice-compound leaves gives the foliage a tropical look. The roasted seeds were once used as a coffee substitute; raw seeds, however, are poisonous, the fruit pulp has been used in home remedies http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=GYDI[/collapsed]

Horsemint

[collapsed title=Horsemint]An aromatic, erect perennial ranging from only 6 in. to almost 3 ft. tall. Rosettes of yellowish, purple-spotted, tubular flowers occur in whorls, forming a dense, elongated spike at the end of the stem or from leaf axils. Each whorl is subtended by large, conspicuous, whitish, purple-tinged, leaf-like bracts. medicinal use: Fresh leaves crushed and steeped in cold water drunk to ease backache; used for fever, inflammation and chills. http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=MOPU[/collapsed]

I can think of more than a couple recipes for these, and if you want me to write them out I will, but something to go on anyway :P

[JaxFirehart]

Well, first, we would need these plants modeled and textured, then they would need to be hand placed. So don't bother for now, but if anyone reads this who is capable of creating these assets, I would be all for it.

[CourierSix]

Horsemint is near identical (in model) to White Horsenettle (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/White_horsenettle) if that helps at all. :)

[JaxFirehart]

That does indeed help!

[CourierSix]

Can I make the case for Xander Root and Broc Flower? It may have been said before, but they don't seem overly western, especially not Xander Root, as it's a root vegetable that grows in dry grounds. It seems to me like anywhere grass could grow, these could too. (In Ireland, there's an island called the Aran Islands. The island is too inhospitable to grow anything - except root crops, which survive the horrible mid-atlantic storms and overly salty soil). A lot of the Mojave wildlife is native, and couldn't be ported, but I feel without these two, or something similar, we're leaving a large hole open in crafting.