Nature simulation:
For a better understanding of the nature simulation and the interrelationships in farming, I have integrated some changes and a new window into the game.
The new window opens automatically when you are about to plant seeds or plants in the ground and displays the values of the soil and plants and the local climate in detail and graphically. The game analyses this information and points out possible problems (for example: wrong soil, too few nutrients, temperatures too high, etc.).
An exclamation mark means that it is not advisable to plant this plant here at this time. A question mark indicates possible difficulties (such as a longer growth phase and stagnation over a few days). A cross indicates that the conditions are completely impossible and a green check mark means that everything is fine.
You can usually rely on this assessment. If you want to know more, you can get detailed information about the temperature and light of the last few days on the right-hand side of the window. You can also see what nutrients and water the plant currently needs to continue growing (please note that several plants in the same field add up their requirements). For temperature and light, the plant's comfort zone is shown as a green bar.
Of course, you can also plant a plant if the conditions are not right. As before, the exception is the soil, which must always be suitable.
In addition, the amount of experience the soil has already gained is also displayed. This was previously only visible in the farm overview (CTRL/Control).
The exact germination period for the seed, which also depends on the soil type, is also displayed, as is the minimum growth period of the plant.
If you have already read the relevant book on the plant or tree species, you will be rewarded with further information on the flowering time, the possible soil types and the growth period. This information can also be found on the seed packets.
Feeling plants skill:
I have removed the large speech bubble that was previously used for the "Feel plants" skill and instead the window with the detailed information is displayed. There are some additional details, such as how long the plant can tolerate the deficiency. If a tree and a farm plant grow together on a field, the tree is displayed on the right and the farm plants on the left.
If you also want to find out about self-planted ground cover plants, you also have to press the ALT key and then open the window as usual with the right mouse button. Since you rarely need this data in the game, I think this is a good way to further simplify operation (previously there were 3 regions on each field to be able to "address" the plants individually). In addition, it was rather annoying to always get the info mouse pointer on the pastures that you have planted with grass when you wanted to deal with the animals ;-) !
Game:
Trees now provide half the shade for the field when they are not yet fully grown.
The plant feeling skill can now also be used on planted seeds. The remaining germination time is always displayed.
The player's awareness requirements have been reduced in order to learn Sophie's Sense Plants skill.
In spring, the snow cover now melts faster or slower depending on the temperature and weather.
The plant overview (automatically displayed after the farm overview is shown) no longer uses the current values for heat and light, but instead displays the current deficiencies (from the previous day). The reason for this is that the display in the plant info window and the overview should match. During the day, the temperature and light can fluctuate greatly due to different weather conditions. It is therefore clearer to use the values from the previous day.
Tutorial:
I decided to use the window in full even in the tutorial, although you don't have the skills to analyse water and nutrients precisely at the very beginning. However, I think it is important to understand how farming works in the game right from the start. This may save some people a lot of frustration :-) ! The Plant Feeling skill still has to be learnt in-game.
Remark:
The average values of the last few days in the new plant info window are set to the current climate values at the first start after the update. A progression therefore only develops after a few days.