Cash Crop Ideas (Ideas for Tom) (Straw Poll Added! Get to voting!)

Cash crops only have value because they can be used for something, so trying to have a ‘useless’ plant be valuable is rather silly. The only instance I can think of would be like… Tulips. Its a cash crop, but only because we like flowers. I guess.

I would stress that any cash crop that gets chose has value to the town, because it will be used for something later in a production chain. Barley can be used for bread, but you really want it for beer, which requires more logistics to make and supply, thus making it more valuable. Same thing with cotton, tobacco, etc. Spices are the only thing I could think of that has a notable value as a cash crop with limited usefulness to the settlement itself. Doesn’t matter how much saffron you make, you are never gonna use it all up in your Plate of Berries.

Flowers are okay, but it seems too… gamey to me. I would rather it be a practical resource, so you have to balance your production with your surplus sales. Tie it into the technology progression. Quick example?

You make barley a valuable commodity. Your town needs it to make beer, which keeps people happy. BUT, you also need it to supply beer to magmasmiths, who love to drink lots and lots of beer! A lack of beer makes them unwilling to work and sad. So, more barley! That way you have to balance your production and usage of the resource. Just having a field of flowers that you mindlessly sell is not engaging from a gameplay perspective.

EDIT: I just noticed the straw poll.

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Dwarves! How is everyone forgetting how Dwarves love beer?

I completely agree with this, but at the same time have an idea to equal it. Make something that can be used as a high level decoration. If you don’t want to use it to decorate your town, then that’s you.

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Hi that was me with the story of my 5 year old and his big blinky eyes not liking ‘trapping’ of Stonehearth’s animals. He also calls the little meat jerky things “Hearthling Happy Meals” haha he’s so cute.

I like your Flower idea (Fairybells!). I’m around from time to time but have not been keeping up on the game’s active development. We play the new versions as they come out and test things, see what’s new but we’re very casual. I love the game, the way it looks and the promise of what’s to come in the future for Stonehearth!

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I can get behind using them as a decoration, to an extent. I would still prefer something with tangible value to the town, personally.

Then it’d have to be like gold in Minecraft is. Has uses, but uses that aren’t worth it.

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Somwhat, yes. Gold has value because of its rarity, not necessarily because of its usefulness. (Though its super useful nowadays)

A good example of a cash-crop is something like sugar cane or oranges. Both are very particular about where they grow, and are very resource intensive. Oranges are immediately useful as a food stuff, whereas sugar cane needs to be refined and processed. So, going with your Minecraft analogy, reeds are more similar. Very particular in where they grow, resource intensive, and not immediately practical, but have applications once processed.