There was this post about the 'lone ranger' poll, so for once ;) I went out to vote. I looked through several polls and found the one with the skill-poll. And farming was at the bottom!

 

 

 

At the bottom, just 1%! Little under 4k votes out of 270k! That isn't much. Now I am not going to tell you guys to go out farming now and see how it is. Nor do I ask why farming is boring to many. But what I do ask, what would you like Jagex to do about it. Now that is an interesting question isn't it.

 

 

 

The poll below says, hardly anyone (1%) wants farming updated! So they find it boring, but do not want to change it?!

 

 

 

The same counts for herblore. A skill with many advantages, but what would take it for you, to let the skill be more fun.

 

 

 

Post away, give some ideas. Maybe experience rates, more ways to level? New uses for the products made on the journey? Cheaper seeds, easier to get seeds? Let me hear it!

 

 

 

The Edit Part:

 

Suggestions made and can be discussed along:

 

-Life stock (not great, but possible)

 

-New allotments/farming patches

 

-Seeds back from growing

 

-More (higher) seed drops

 

-New things to grow

 

-New uses for what we grow (usefull uses ;))

I think there should be more ways to level. Just dont make a farming minigame. *shudders*

I would like Jagex to give me 10,000 watermelon seeds. Seriously though make good seed drops more often. I can't remember the last time I got a watermelon seed drop. Fourteen hours for fruit trees seems kind of long to me. Maybe lower them a tad.

I don't find farm boring (planting trees takes like 5 min in total)

 

 

 

off topic: doesn't this belong in suggestion forum?

From BA, we know that putting guides in the right places isn't going to help because a lot of idiots don't bother reading important stuff, it's much easier for them to whine about it later

 

 

 

IMO, it's the whole idea of farming being a different skill that requires some scheduling (A lot of idiots thought you had to blankly stare at potatoes for them to grow didn't even bother trying to logout and see what happens) and so they don't try it because they don't understand it. So if you want to dramatically increase the popularity you have to basically erase what makes farming so special. It's ok for farming to be unpopular, it adds some upper class distinction for people who have mastered the skill.

the people that think farmin is boring sit there and wait for their plants to grow... Lol Farming is an easy skill i don't see why people dislike it so much

From BA, we know that putting guides in the right places isn't going to help because a lot of idiots don't bother reading important stuff, it's much easier for them to whine about it later

 

 

 

IMO, it's the whole idea of farming being a different skill that requires some scheduling (A lot of idiots thought you had to blankly stare at potatoes for them to grow didn't even bother trying to logout and see what happens) and so they don't try it because they don't understand it. So if you want to dramatically increase the popularity you have to basically erase what makes farming so special. It's ok for farming to be unpopular, it adds some upper class distinction for people who have mastered the skill.

 

 

 

Planning is evil ;) It isn't that hard to plan a what I and most others call, a farming round. A rotation between all 4 plots of .. maybe hops, bushes,trees and fruit trees. So yes, you have a point there. The upper class idea, well, we all know how Jagex looks at that don't we :

 

 

 

I would like Jagex to give me 10,000 watermelon seeds. Seriously though make good seed drops more often. I can't remember the last time I got a watermelon seed drop. Fourteen hours for fruit trees seems kind of long to me. Maybe lower them a tad.

 

 

 

More seeds, well ye ;) Or buy them of the few, expensive merchanters of the forum hehe. It is an expensive joke.. farming. So more ways of gathering high level seeds? Or better ways, faster ways? Kingdom gives bad seeds (when on seed collecting, not on wood).. and the Giant Mole hardly gives any good seeds (well, not to me).. Master farmer, not today. And monsters, when you are lucky.

 

 

 

So.. we are facing a contradiction. We have to make the skill 'easier' but without changing the skills essentials. Hm.. sounds familiar. Wonder if this is possible.. :ohnoes:

 

 

 

How about herblore anyone?

Farming is the sort of skill that appeals to players who are smart and patient.

 

 

 

And that's why 99% of Runescape hates it.

 

 

 

~q

I've personally done quite a lot of farming and seen these as the reasons why people don't really train it to high levels:

 

* It's either dirty expensive or slow.

 

* Seeds are hard to buy in bulk for reasonable prices-> merchants control the seed markets.

 

* A lot of spot switching involved.

 

* Advantages of it aren't as well seen as in other skills. Every lvl 70 member knows some tricks to fletch and so on, but not too many know that farming can also bring some good cash.

 

* Tree roots are useless.

 

 

 

The best way to get people into farming would be to either add some new farmable objects which are really helpful, add more patches or to make seed drops more common.

 

 

 

In my opinion few more seed drops would be ok. If we got even 10% more seeds, it would help the collecting a lot. This way people could be less dependable on merchants with bulk amounts of seeds. Also new patches would make it faster to train, thus more interesting for people to get it into high levels. We already got my arm for example, so I wouldn't really see harm in adding new tree and fruit tree patches.

 

 

 

Also tree roots should get a new use. Yes, you can do some junk from willow roots or an useless item called nature amulet from the roots of a magic tree. New usages should be given for these things. How would a magic strung bow sound?

Farming is the sort of skill that appeals to players who are smart and patient.

 

 

 

And that's why 99% of Runescape hates it.

 

 

 

~q

 

so true! hilarious

I sorta had to think of this: what if they made it more like FLETCHING! Completely ruin it? NAH! Just make the plants die less and make it seem more worthwhile.

I enjoy my farming... coming up on level 70 now. But in effect it should be more correctly termed "gardening".

 

 

 

With the abundance of farm animals already in the game - chickens, cows, pigs etc. I'd really like to see farming extended to include raising some animals as well. Raise a coop full of chickens and get X feathers and Y raw chickens to cook and fletch with. Perhaps players could lease space to raise their animals from the various farmers around the traps... or even make a Barn an available add-on for your POH.

The poll does not say that only 1% like farming.

 

 

 

The poll says that 99% prefer skills that aren't farming. Many of those probably rank farming somewhere between last and second.

 

 

 

That's what you get for being able to only choose one option.

The only reason i like farming is because i like growing trees. If i couldn't plant those then i don't think i would have ever started on it.

I think the things you plant should give you at least some seeds back. Like when you grow watermelon and they don't die, you should be able to pick at least 1 or 2 seeds from them. It would make farming somewhat easier and more enjoyable.

farming is great, people just don't like the idea of waiting. Most players on rs just want to get their exp, and not do something complex like farming is what i see.

 

 

 

Farming is the msot complex skill in the game by far, and it just takes a little bit of effort to get into it.

i like farming, but only if i have something to alch, cuz it take a freaking age to grow those seeds, trees are real good xp, got from 25 farming to 40 farming in 1 week, during slayer

Effective farming costs in the millions. Just the fact that you can buy xp and then walk away while it develops makes many high levels hungry for a 99. And prices go through the roof.

The main problem is theres no effective way to get alot of seeds with buying for insane prices. There needs to be monsters that drop seeds fairly often like herblore has for herbs.

 

I dont mind the waiting, I just cant get enough seeds.

Effective farming costs in the millions. Just the fact that you can buy xp and then walk away while it develops makes many high levels hungry for a 99. And prices go through the roof.

 

 

 

At the moment we got a bit over 200 players with 99 farming. Only construction and herblore got less peope with the maxed level. I wouldn't really say many high lvl players are hungry for 99.

 

 

 

Farming is by far the slowest skill to level in whole game. In all other skills you can make more xp in 1 day than in farming. No matter how you train it, it's the slowest. If you wanna make it with somewhat ok loss or even make profit out of it, you'll get around 1/5 of the xp in one hour that can be done in prayer in 1 hour. There's one reason why farming isn't really liked. Add that to constant trading and voilÃÆÃâÃâá.

Its unpopular because it is the hardest skill, any one who has 99 farming is a good player.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. Dont tell dusty this :-#

well, for a while i ignored farming completely, then once i started it i enjoyed it, except that i use up more laws than i'd like to traveling between patches...and yeah, i think there should be more ways to obtain good seeds, i figured i'd spend over 7mil getting to 70 farming, which is more than ive spent on all my other skills combined...the seed merchants really made farming way harder than it should be...personally i like a skill that i can invest a small amount of time in than do something else for the rest of the day, i mainly use trees for xp...

I dont think boring is the word that this skill needs, boring fits more with grinding skills like mining. Farming is tedious. Alot of attention needs to be payed, and alot of method is needed to pull it off well. This was what the skill was designed for, to give players much more difficult skill to train. The reason of its unpopularity is because its a skill that intrests older players, as younger players dont like the challenge.

I think most people that don't like farming have tried it once, found it too complicated and hard to level, and given up. I'll admit, I was once one of those people, but after trying out farming again later and putting a bit more effort into it, I found it to be quite enjoyable and very satisfactory.

 

 

 

I really don't know what Jagex can do about it, except to possibly make it more marketable and useful in every day life (maybe make a really good group of food that's easy to make and only grown through farming)?

what how? when you hit 32 farming its money for getting ranarr