Since I have always thought it silly that you "dig up" flowers from beneath the surface using a drill at an outpost, I suggest that flowers be removed from the production list for drills. Instead, create a new building that can be constructed at outposts: the Greenhouse. In the Greenhouse, you grow the flowers associated with the outpost, or plant seeds obtained in other ways for a different crop.
The Greenhouse would have specific growing seasons:
- Sow in early Spring
- Harvest three times: end of Spring, mid-Summer, mid-Autumn
- Garden lies fallow during late Autumn and through winter.
Not to worry, the game would automate this process. Guilds would just pay any applicable maintenance fees. If you don't pay your maintenance, your garden fills with weeds and the structural integrity of the Greenhouse is weakened reducing production, and eventually crumbling into a heap of rubble and weeds producing nothing. A Greenhouse damaged by attackers would have a reduced harvest based on the ideas from the other thread.
To change production, you would adjust what will be planted at the next Spring season. Your current crop would continue until late-Autumn/winter, and the new crop would be planted in the Spring. If you construct a new Greenhouse in mid-Spring, it would produce nothing until after the next Spring's sowing.
At this time, I only see one kind of Greenhouse. The difference would be the type of seed planted, which would determine the periodic maintenance cost. However, looking at it in terms of today's one-time costs, there would be a cost for the Greenhouse itself, and then a cost for the type of seed chosen.
If you have possession of some different kind of seed that you want to plant in the Greenhouse, there will be reduced maintenance costs for that entire growing season.
Have the Greenhouses also produce a low quantity of seeds, at the rate of a very small number per harvest. These seeds could be traded between outpost owners to allow a Greenhouse that normally produces Balance flowers to produce, say, Constitution flowers for a single growing season. Since the area is not really suitable for the alien flower type, no seeds would be produced and output could even be somewhat diminished. But it would be possible to get something different.
The number of seeds produced should be less than the number required for a full planting to eliminate the possibility of permanently dodging maintenance fees. For example, you need 10 seeds to plant a new crop, but you only get 1-2 seeds from a full (non-damaged) harvest.
Special events, or even marauder chests, could drop a small number of special seeds (double- or triple-output seeds for a single growing season? Maybe combination flower seeds like Con/Stam, etc?). These crops would definitely not produce seeds at harvest.
The images of what is growing in the Greenhouse should change based on what is planted and what is currently happening.
The Greenhouse would have specific growing seasons:
- Sow in early Spring
- Harvest three times: end of Spring, mid-Summer, mid-Autumn
- Garden lies fallow during late Autumn and through winter.
Not to worry, the game would automate this process. Guilds would just pay any applicable maintenance fees. If you don't pay your maintenance, your garden fills with weeds and the structural integrity of the Greenhouse is weakened reducing production, and eventually crumbling into a heap of rubble and weeds producing nothing. A Greenhouse damaged by attackers would have a reduced harvest based on the ideas from the other thread.
To change production, you would adjust what will be planted at the next Spring season. Your current crop would continue until late-Autumn/winter, and the new crop would be planted in the Spring. If you construct a new Greenhouse in mid-Spring, it would produce nothing until after the next Spring's sowing.
At this time, I only see one kind of Greenhouse. The difference would be the type of seed planted, which would determine the periodic maintenance cost. However, looking at it in terms of today's one-time costs, there would be a cost for the Greenhouse itself, and then a cost for the type of seed chosen.
If you have possession of some different kind of seed that you want to plant in the Greenhouse, there will be reduced maintenance costs for that entire growing season.
Have the Greenhouses also produce a low quantity of seeds, at the rate of a very small number per harvest. These seeds could be traded between outpost owners to allow a Greenhouse that normally produces Balance flowers to produce, say, Constitution flowers for a single growing season. Since the area is not really suitable for the alien flower type, no seeds would be produced and output could even be somewhat diminished. But it would be possible to get something different.
The number of seeds produced should be less than the number required for a full planting to eliminate the possibility of permanently dodging maintenance fees. For example, you need 10 seeds to plant a new crop, but you only get 1-2 seeds from a full (non-damaged) harvest.
Special events, or even marauder chests, could drop a small number of special seeds (double- or triple-output seeds for a single growing season? Maybe combination flower seeds like Con/Stam, etc?). These crops would definitely not produce seeds at harvest.
The images of what is growing in the Greenhouse should change based on what is planted and what is currently happening.