Hi Farmers! Time for a quick introduction - I am PinkLlama (or PinkAlpaca on Discord) and I am one of the designers on Idle Harvest. (I am also the super chatty developer who often lurks in chat). Now that we have forums, I figured this would be the perfect space to pick your mind about new features and characters! **A little about how I work: ** I often do a lot of the high level design work behind how a new feature works (IE - with Boone and The Merchant Guild I spent a few days in Photoshop making grey boxes and exploring high-level how the guild should play). When I am designing, I really love to bounce ideas off of others. Iteration is the key to any good game, and iterating with you is a great benefit of having a game on Kongregate! **Thread Disclaimer** Any time you make or design a game, not every idea can make it in. There just is not enough resources to make all of it happen. So by that rule, not everything we chat about here will make it into our next update, but that doesn't mean it isn't a good idea or won't happen in the future! We are making a game with you, and we want to add as much of what you want to the game as we can! So with that being said, I hope you come join me in this thread and bounce some ideas around! Even if you think your idea isn't great, you'd be surprised at the features that are inspired out of nothing. (If you don't believe me, I will point some out to you when we release our next large content update in a month hehe) **Things I always am open to brainstorming:** * New Characters * New Shop types * New crop types * Costumes * Any system as a whole * New systems you think would be fun * UX/UI Improvements * QOL Improvements * And really.... anything else!

Elixir of instant wealth is the most useless elixir. I'd remove it and put in it's place Elixir of Bargaining: For 1 day, reduce the merchant order's crop requirement by 5%

Got an UI idea thingie for "The Magic Seed" shop that I quickly made in Paint. https://imgur.com/a/RXKki4f

The cooldown for destroying rocks is really annoying and doesn't particularly add anything to the gameplay. I suggest removing it. I you're concerned about people breaking rocks too fast (whci you shouldn't be, because it takes too long already) then you can nerf pickaxe speed.

Simple UIX ideas that would improve the game for me: - make the level panels in the shop dialogs collapsible (+ automatically collapse them when all upgrades are bought from that tier) - "Buy all crops" button for Ginger's shop

* Show "current income / second" or something like that. * Also, if lettuce say it gives 1ac in the selection below, sometime it seems bonuses are added which make them give more. This should be shown better why it happens. * An explanation of the x2 when the grid is full would be nice. (Kind of figured it is the growth rate, but I might be wrong)

Bunny costumes for all on Easter, please :)

> *Originally posted by **[Sugar_Free_Sugar](/forums/1044092/topics/1820631?page=1#13088563)**:* > Elixir of instant wealth is the most useless elixir. I'd remove it and put in it's place Elixir of Bargaining: For 1 day, reduce the merchant order's crop requirement by 5% I second that - 10 T is an "interesting" amount and not very helpful.

Maybe give us the option to send idle friends on a mission (send 1,000 pumpkins to an orphan house), so you need to meet storage requirements and the user has to evaluate if it is worth to him/her/it, that the friends is gone for n hours. idle = those that cannot harvest crops ATM

> *Originally posted by **[easterwave](/forums/1044092/topics/1820631?page=1#13089548)**:* > Maybe give us the option to send idle friends on a mission (send 1,000 pumpkins to an orphan house), so you need to meet storage requirements and the user has to evaluate if it is worth to him/her/it, that the friends is gone for n hours. > > idle = those that cannot harvest crops ATM I second this. It is the occasion to have a storage house building to limit missions you can take and a character to go with. He could take the salads because tomatoes are useless the moment you can have salads since Dijon is the harvester for these. In fact, it could make 2 new characters, someone has to give the missions right? ;) > *Originally posted by **[2074red2074](/forums/1044092/topics/1820631?page=1#13089177)**:* > The cooldown for destroying rocks is really annoying and doesn't particularly add anything to the gameplay. I suggest removing it. I you're concerned about people breaking rocks too fast (whci you shouldn't be, because it takes too long already) then you can nerf pickaxe speed. Missions could give gems and replace rocks system, I agree with 2074red2074 on this subject.

Right now, with carrots on the very left of the screen, you see 6 1/2 boxes for crops. Please make them either 6 or 7 (for tidy neatness sake). Also, please consider adding arrows or a scroll bar to the crops/sprinklers/scarecrows because right now scrolling can be at bit unresponsive. It's like the game is expecting you to pull out a seed when all you want to do is scroll. Thank you for your considerations.

I think a good way to prevent people from permanently getting stuck on a day would be to add a way to reset the day if you go past a certain time limit, even if you haven't made enough money. Something like 24 hours maybe? You could also scale it based on the current town level, but it would be nice to always have some upper limit on how a player has to wait before they can end the day.

> *Originally posted by **[Xavier00](/forums/1044092/topics/1820631?page=1#13090772)**:* > I think a good way to prevent people from permanently getting stuck on a day would be to add a way to reset the day if you go past a certain time limit, even if you haven't made enough money. Something like 24 hours maybe? You could also scale it based on the current town level, but it would be nice to always have some upper limit on how a player has to wait before they can end the day. Hm, rather give players the option to reset the day and forfeit something, so people don't start to harvest the cheap way. Personally, I'm no friend of automatic resets, but that's just me.

A really little thing-- being able to put in your name and gender so you're not just being called "Farmer" all the time.

@Mystakaphoros - A little thing that makes a big difference! That's on our radar :)

> *Originally posted by **[easterwave](/forums/1044092/topics/1820631?page=1#13091747)**:* > > *Originally posted by **[Xavier00](/forums/1044092/topics/1820631?page=1#13090772)**:* > > I think a good way to prevent people from permanently getting stuck on a day would be to add a way to reset the day if you go past a certain time limit, even if you haven't made enough money. Something like 24 hours maybe? You could also scale it based on the current town level, but it would be nice to always have some upper limit on how a player has to wait before they can end the day. > > Hm, rather give players the option to reset the day and forfeit something, so people don't start to harvest the cheap way. Personally, I'm no friend of automatic resets, but that's just me. I don't think you can get "stuck" on a day. Worse case scenario, you can always spend time shards at the apothecary and skip to the next day. Break rocks and buy upgrades at the Scepter. Repeat. The cost to skip the day is small as I recall. It's only the building cost that was substantial. With the merchant, worse case scenario, grind merchant quests until your multiplier is high enough for w/e you want to buy.

I love the Clear button, but could it be moved somewhere else? You can't access it whenever the Stamina bar is less than 100%.

Ooh, let's see if I can pitch an idea for each item on your brainstorming list (save 'anything else'): **New Character:** I'm not sure if the lack of a dedicated lettuce friend is by design or not, but there's always that niche. In terms of concept, you could include another sterotypical non-human, like an elf. (Ginger is already kinda dwarf-esque...) Other than that, (and I did this drawing from my other ideas; good characters aren't wished up out of nowhere) I'm thinking a nobleperson of sorts. Perhaps an older gentleperson or sharp-dressed administrator type, to try and target an unused demographic. In terms of personality traits, they could be posh, pretentious, or have a little bit of an ego, throwing titles and such around. I'd make them more of a good-natured airy person to contrast Boone, who is also a wealthy administrative type, but keeps a straight face while subtly talking about bribes. **New Shop Type:** A town hall, or some kind of stall housing a representative of the town. Not a shop per se, but the idea is that you would purchase (or 'invest' in) town improvements. What those improvements do shouldn't overlap with an existing shop, so it shouldn't be crops, passive crop upgrades, rock/sprinkler/scarecrow upgrades, or large buffs at a time cost. However, I can reasonably see the merchant guild-related upgrades being housed here, and if combined with a new system, it could potentially house related perks as well. The trick to distinguishing it from the Mystic Sceptre and Smithing Co. is by using it to affect systems outside of the crop square, unlike nearly everything else that focuses on working within it. Of couse, you could always give Quinn her bakery. Temporary buffs. Just throwing that out there. **New Crop Type:** It seems that simply flipping a shape (like 'L' shapes in tetris) is something you guys have stayed away from. In keeping with the current 5-tile maximum (because 5 divides well into a 5x5 grid, but 6 less so), I think that an s-bend shape makes the most sense. Make it like the pumpkin, but flipped with an extra tile to complete the S. That way, it fills the niche of a backwards 'L', but creates more tactical difference from a basic flip. As for what it should be, I'd go for something with an unused colour so you can easily theme a new character around it and have it distinct. Purple is the only relatively common colour you have't used; so you could go for a rutabaga, grapes, or eggplant. Also, purple would fit nicely with a govermental representative because of it's connection with royalty. **Costumes:** Aside from seemingly obligatory holiday costumes, I might throw in something in the RPG 'rogue' archetype. Presently most costumes ooze magic and fighting archetypes, but there's no non-blue tier costume that *isn't* one of those archetypes. Distinguish it with a hood and maybe some utility accessories to add interest. Just becasue it's based on a thief doesn't mean it can't be cute! **Any System as a Whole:** I think the addition of sprinklers and scarecrows is great because it allows you to fill those gaps that aren't big enough for a normal crop. However, towards late-game, you have 7, most of which buff existing crops. Because there's a sizeable difference in crop gold output later on, the best strategy (outside of guild quests - great addition, BTW) usually winds up being stacking buffs on the best crop. The reason I think this is bad is becasue it mitigates the puzzle gameplay when you're focused on a bunch of 1-tile pieces that fit anywhere. Insteading of puzzling what shape works, you can often mold a gap for the shape you want, and fill suboptimal gaps with loose bits. Fixing this might include making scarecrows somehow placement sensitive. Sprinklers feel a little bit better because you still care about the orientation of the boxes, but scarecrows don't care abount anything around them. If they did, working with those 1-tile pieces becomes a different puzzle in its own right. **New Fun System:** There's all this allusion to your farm aiding in growing a town. It'd be nice if we had some interaction with that town instead of just hearing about it. Perhaps you'd have the ability to trade crops with them for benefits. It would differ from the existing merchant guild setup by providing temporary rewards akin to potions instead of permanent ramp bonuses. Would either require storage to track what crops you have, or choosing 'quests' that would then fill up like the guild orders. **UX/UI:** I think plenty of good ideas have been mentioned elsewhere. One's I haven't seen so much would be some alternate options to display large numbers, perhaps some particle options for lower-end systems or just to ease the eyes or take screenshots, and maybe a scrollbar or tabs for the bottom menu. If that keeps growing with more items, it'll inevitably become unwieldy. Also, part bug, but still UI, I think the dropdown for Boone's orders covers the excamation point when you can afford new things at the Mystic Sceptre, even when collapsed. **QOL:** Again, some good ideas elsewhere. One that stood out to me was an option to lock the farm grid so clicking frenzies aren't disrupted by constantly picking things up. That menu idea above also veers into QOL territory. Then there's simply trying to keep your resource use at a manageable level. My computer has given me beep codes for memory failure before, and while the cause is not 100% known, I always had this game running at the time. Just something to remain mindful of as you update things. Ha! Less than 1000 words.

@nazetheeternal, thank you for such a well thought and organized post. There is some really great content in there! I really appreciate that you broke down each feature, why you like it, and how we could improve it. Giving us reasons why we should do something (Like, we should add a rogue costume to the rare tier since our other costumes hit other archetypes) really helps me gain new perspective into our features. I love your dive into character design - amazingly, a noble, airy elf from the city is a character we just did a concept for! (It's a female so we are open to name suggestions! She's kind of a fashionista...) In terms of the lettuce, we are debating adding a harvester for it. We have a character and art for it, but we did like that having Dijon harvest two crops was an unintended puzzle to optimize. My gut says we will eventually add a single harvester for it, and extend double harvesting later. Your critiques on the sprinkler and scarecrows make sense and it's an issue we acknowledge we are making worse when we extend unique placeable content. Do you think adding more types of single tile items (like a tile that catches pixies) could help combat this since now you must consider which single tile item is most optimal for the situation? I appreciate all of your comments on building types, too. Putting more weight into some element of town building or shop diversity is an interesting direction to take this, and one I am very open to since I feel I am hearing more and more suggestion to extend the town element of the game. I'm glad you brought up Quinn's bakery. Somehow I forgot about that plot point, but it fits very nicely into something else I am designing, and spurred a lot of creativity for me! As far as your QOL and UX suggestions - all of those are great. Locking the grid is something we have always wanted to have but haven't gotten around to. And we know our performance can get messy, especially after the game sits for long periods of time. It's hard to balance between building the new content we want to bring you, and optimization. It will all happen in time! Seriously, thank you for such a detailed and well thought post. This was a really great read, and I am curious to hear what others think about your suggestions :)

Could you please not the names of the "Friends" in the window every time they appear (as harvester or as shop owner). Thanks.

> @nazetheeternal, thank you for such a well thought and organized post. You're welcome! It's great to be recognized. > Amazingly, a noble, airy elf from the city is a character we just did a concept for! (It's a female so we are open to name suggestions! She's kind of a fashionista...) ...Great minds think alike, I guess? Sadly, naming is not my strong suit... An airy elf probably wants a floaty name. Soft consonants... Olivia maybe? Isabelle for noble connotation? For something more exotic, Gwyneth comes to mind. A little harsher sounding but means "fair, and blessed" in welsh while also being associated with nobility. And then there's the domain of fantasy names, where sound is the only thing that matters. Search 'elf names' and you'll get lists that number in the hundreds. Fashion-related names just seem too prolific for use. Like will be thinking about famous people and not the character herself. Personally, I think naming comes down to feel. The people most familiar with the character probably have the best name ideas. > Do you think adding more types of single tile items (like a tile that catches pixies) could help combat this since now you must consider which single tile item is most optimal for the situation? I think that's a fair option. Right now, it's easy to leave 5 open spaces and use everything but the pixie scarecrows for idling, since you don't catch pixies anyway when idling. Adding competition for that real estate would certainly be interesting. Adding a pixie-catcher, as your example, would bring those pixie scarecrows back into play for idle setups, and take up its own slot, changing the number of moving pieces from 5 to 8. Boone's orders typically leave you room for about 5 items, so needing to compromise on three at least gets the train rolling. For every tile you add after that, as long as the same kind of players will want that tile as want the other tiles, you exponentially increase the options they need to evaluate. Also, I do wonder if the wealthy scarecrow should be balanced. Right now, doubling gold on everything regardless of positioning seems just too powerful not to use. Every automatic 'yes' is one less question to think on. And with that, I'll step back for a while and let others share their ideas. I'm glad I could help!

Add support hiding level-blocks (roll/unroll) in shops. If all items at level purchased unneed show them. P.S. sorry for my english.

How about adding a tower defence element to the game? Like animals/monsters attempting to invade and eat your crops, so you have to buy and upgrade defensive towers and traps to keep them at bay. There should just be room for them around the grid and on the road leading past the buildings to the field. New building required for acquiring towers/traps/upgrades or possibly bought through the guild. Defeating invasions wins you points with the guild. Loosing means affected fields are damaged and will not yield anything untill replaced.

For the elf name, sticking with the food-related convention, how about Glacé?