But.. wouldnt that take the need for Hypers amazing plant growing/farming simulation away from the game??
Good question. I'am not sure if I know the answer reely.
I was thinking.....let the player decide what he wishes to do with farm space.
Instal hydroponics trough and grow plants...Instal bowls and grow shrubs/trees...Instal fish tank/mashroom bind/worm bins/ or...Instal Algae tanks and grow algae.
Each has its advantages and disadvantages:
Plants take little space but you need a LOT of them so that you can harvest them regulary, when you need to. They need a lot of water and fertiliser. You can store the plants you don't need at the fridge. They need to be mixed with other food (meat, plant) in order to fill your Hunger bar up-to 75% (alone-25%). Older plants leave seeds that can be used to grow other plants, but you shouldn't harvest them up until then. You eat only a part of the plant (thats why it doesn't fill you up completely) - They remains of the plant can be thrown into composter and changed into fertiliser.
Fruits from Shrubs/Trees - Every fruit from them has lot's of nutrients and alone fills your hunger bar to 50%. Before a tree/shrub gives fruit it needs to grow for a very long time. All fruits apear on them all at once in a regular intervals. When it does, there are a lot of them - but up until then you have nothing. They use a lot of free space. They use less water than regular plants.
Fish tank/mashroom bind/worm bins/ - they use almost all of the farm space. They don't use any water (al least not in MCO
). You can harvest them when you need to but they grow slowly (yet - faster than trees & shrubs). Using them you won't get any fertiliser - yet they don't need any. Fishes/Frogs needs food (I don't know from where to get any in MCO, so i'll just leave it at that
). They all need high temperatures to grow fast, and that meens using lots of energy. You can only breed monocolonies in them. You can store additional food from them in the fridge, and start a new colony to harvest food regulary. Meat food is very satisfying and one of them fills you hunger bar with +75%.
Algae tanks - Algae grow rapidly - in few days. They need some water but not in as much quantities as plants. They don't need anything beside that at all (they don't need food and can even grow at low temperatures). They take little space to grow but you need a LOT of them to make a food that will satisfy your hunger (each Algae = +10% to hunger bar). You can't store them in the fridge, but you should usually have enough to eat in the tanks (when you need to, just go and pick some more). You take the Algae to Food Synthesizer instead to Fridge/Seasoning table/Microwave. Becouse of that - you CAN'T mix them with anything else but themselves. As was said - After a few days you would have a full tank of them (and in great quantity aswell) but ther's a drowback - Algae grow constantly (they die and reproduce all the time). They will consume the water even if the tank is 100% full, and if they use all of it - they die instantly.
As a bonus - the Algae can be used to produce by the way, Oil's and Alcohols to fuel some equipement or to charge specific batteries. They can also produce the oxygen for the base. I've read about advanced LSS on martian bases, and it look's like 90% of that LSS are organic from algae (mainly) and plant (poorly...), and only 10% are physical processes like air-CO2 crubber or O2 from electrolysis.