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Why not let alchemists grow their own herbs in the manner of farmers growing crops? It could be limited to specific kinds, of course...

Ready? Aaaand, DISCUSS!

unless this relies on herbalism it will make herbolism obsolite. if it does use herbolism it should require more skill to grow it then find it. other then that i can see why someone would want to do this. however for now it seems an impractical use of time to implement such a system. perhaps this may be put on the "In the next 100 years" to do list.

This actually sounds like a fine idea to me. If you limit the number of how much can be grown, and how hard it is to obtain, you can really have a working system with this.

However you need to make sure it doesn't replace 'walk around the land to gather herbs'.

Perhaps you could have 'herb gardens' in certain dungeons, or as monster drops or something.

Tanistian_Kanea wrote:unless this relies on herbalism it will make herbolism obsolite

Not if it is limited to only certain common plants. I'd still be tramping all over the isle searching for the ever-elusive perfect plant piece/s I need like I do now.

I think it should go to farming.

let the herbs grow on certain fields. some grow here, others grow there, to its still needed to walk around

Alright, problem:

These herb plants do not rot.
So, some things could happen:

1. all fields are full of herbs, no farming possible
1.1 farmers/cooks die cause of boredom or learn farming in the mountains
1.2 farmers could remove herbs with a sickle or...that big 2 handed sickle...whatever the name is. world would be empty, cause there are not that much herbalists around.

2. the fields are not used, but grass/swampland ect.
2.1 the world is already full of herbs. so if you want to plant one, chance is high you already stay steps next to it
2.2 there would be no ground cause herbs everywhere. zomg.

3. we would implement the rotting of the plants
3.1 the places not often visited by players are without any flora
3.2 every herbalist must be a farmer (almost) to plant the herb you need at the moment.
3.3 gm's have to fly through the map and set plants on the map. they have better things to do

4. all plants would rot after a certain amount of herbs collected from it
4.1 the places often visited by players would be without any flora
4.2 same as 3.2
4.3 same as 3.3

Why not do it correctly from the beginning by proposing a button that plays the game for?
I have noticed a trend in MMO(RP)Gs and that is that people want to play and level fast but do not want to put any effort into it.

I guess I will flesh out the concept purpose a little more fully. This is not intended to be a method of power-gaming. Trust me -- with an alchemist, adding an herb garden would NOT make it easier to power-game their alchemy skill. It would actually be much more difficult than the normal methods of skilling. There is always -some- kind of herb growing well that you can practice on. The thing that sparked this proposal is that herbs vary from season to season. That is, there are herbs I can get in the summer that I cannot get in winter, and vice versa. Of course this is intended, and is a great addition to the game, but my idea, more specifically, was for farming some common yet out-of-season herbs. It would probably take longer to do this than it would to simply walk over to an herb plant in the correct season, and the plant from which you get the herbs would disappear, but it still gives you a way (albeit much harder than normal) to get summer herbs in winter, or winter herbs in summer. I know this is not exactly true to life as far as temperature dependencies, but alot of this game isn't realistic. I hope this clarifies the purpose.

Fun Fact: Greenhouses were in existance in 13th century italy and a similar thing was practiced in Roman times.

I'd flesh this out if I were you, I like it.

Hadrian_Abela wrote:Fun Fact: Greenhouses were in existance in 13th century italy and a similar thing was practiced in Roman times.

Exactly what I was thinking. People have known how to do this for a very long time. The main reason for this came from not being able to supply healing potions to Troll's Bane inhabitants as easily as usual, due to the lacking of one certain herb, so I thought "Wouldn't I just grow some myself?"

A solution for the herb-poblem is planned... but well, we all know that this can take some time in Illarion :p
A new idea would just take the same time, when not even more.

Also, instead of growing the herbs you could just have a plot of land that spawns rare/out of season/whatever herbs more often, but still randomly.

nmaguire wrote:Also, instead of growing the herbs you could just have a plot of land that spawns rare/out of season/whatever herbs more often, but still randomly.

True, seems like less difficulty... hmm..

Would cause some dudes just walking across these fields everyday and sell the rare herbs.

Isn't that what you can do anyway, but on a bigger field?

Yep. A bigger field means less players on the same spot.

extreme example.
-->whole map spawns 30 super rare herbs a day.
noone could see where exactly, and they would find it per luck

-->single tile spawns 30 super rare herbs a day.
a guy would just hang around and collect herb after herb if he got time.
(Person A: Hey, that was my goomba mushroom! persons B-Y: NOOOOOO, MINE! Person Z: Hehe, mine now!)

And is it such a bad idea to consider that a 'herb greenhouse' would probably be owned by a group which would lock it?

Hadrian_Abela wrote:And is it such a bad idea to consider that a 'herb greenhouse' would probably be owned by a group which would lock it?

Druids got game. Powaa...

Alright, agreed.
If there is builded a house for it, with a lock, sure.
Then im for it. But no random map tiles who spawn more often. Then you have to make a ground where herbs grow better.

I'm so glad that you accepted the idea

#w Who is this guy anyway?

#w he wants a sibanac garden most likely ! but psssst, the guards !

Why not make it available to herbalists and farmers both? Location and time of year will determine what spices/herbs are grown and in what amount. Spices will give extra value to foods and the herbs will have value to those who make potions. Simple. Those who buy food and potions will benefit as well. The level of knowledge for either will be high enough that it aint going to disturb anything. No change in the status quo for you cowards. I personally would like to see salt added as a resource gotten out of mines. But I think we ought to find a new source of coal first?

Rye wrote:Location and time of year will determine what spices/herbs are grown and in what amount.

The point was to be able to grow a bit of out-of-season herbs when you can no longer gather them.

Neither me nor my char does like this idea
Herb gardens are "unnormal", not natural. I have written a book where this problem is mentioned, but sadly not translate yet. But this is just my personal thought about druids ideas. An alchemist would have no problem with it, though.

But what I want to say:
The lack of some herbs is a genreal problem. I really do not think that we need anything like a herb garden if we have a working herb-collecting-system. Really.