piston farms v2

[acegdl007]

I've got to toss in my 2 cents to this discussion as I am working on building some complex large semi-automatic farming machines my self.
I can certainly understand the debate about fully automatic farms being good or bad.
There was some discussion here too about farming machines lacking creativity, being repetitive and not being very nice looking.
Let me up the ante a bit... I've been building my machines without placing water for the farms but instead creatively building into the landscape around naturally occurring water.  It's a unique challenge and has been an interesting way to play the game.  It forces you to think outside of the box and engineer some unique solutions that you can't just look up on youtube.

Try it some time.

[prinkey00]

It would be nice if people actually had to properly FARM these things.  Too bad Mojang made stems that'll reproduce pumpkins/melons on demand.  Would have solved this issue all together if they would have just did pumpkins/melons the same as they did wheat.  You know, requiring you replant them after harvesting.

It has nothing to do with Mojang here. It's the server's market that makes those items so valuable. If pumpkins didn't sell for so much, there's no way I would have a pumpkin farm like I do now. In my single player and local smp server, I have wheat farms, because wheat is a more useful item than melons or pumpkins.

That being said, always on AFK farming is pretty cheap though for an SMP server. I considered making one, but I just assumed it'd be too much for the server and that it'd be too unfair to other players. It would essentially break the server's already easily exploitable economy.

[ViperZeroOne]

It would be nice if people actually had to properly FARM these things.  Too bad Mojang made stems that'll reproduce pumpkins/melons on demand.  Would have solved this issue all together if they would have just did pumpkins/melons the same as they did wheat.  You know, requiring you replant them after harvesting.

It has nothing to do with Mojang here. It's the server's market that makes those items so valuable. If pumpkins didn't sell for so much, there's no way I would have a pumpkin farm like I do now. In my single player and local smp server, I have wheat farms, because wheat is a more useful item than melons or pumpkins.

That being said, always on AFK farming is pretty cheap though for an SMP server. I considered making one, but I just assumed it'd be too much for the server and that it'd be too unfair to other players. It would essentially break the server's already easily exploitable economy.

I actually do agree with you, but I still think that you should have to replant after you harvest.  Either that or the growth of them should be much longer.  My uncle grew pumpkins and watermelons (real) and if they popped up like they did in Minecraft he would have been a very rich man.  He only got 1 harvest per year, whereas his wheat fields he could do 3 and sometimes 4 harvests a year.  So why, in Minecraft, are pumpkins/melons so much easier to grow and harvest?  I could see them being worth more than wheat if they weren't easy to harvest.  Something is screwy in the market/Mojang area.

My little mini-server you couldn't even buy/sell them.  Only resources could be sold, no food, and when talking food only seeds and apples could be purchased.  That made player stores the only place you could get food products, which gave small player farms an actual purpose and kept players from building monster auto-farms.

[_Obi_Wan_]

Ok i read all inside this topic and i really have no smart comments on any of replies u folks made here but in some way i must agree that melons/pumkins are too easy money making way.And there is maybe better more creative ways to make money like selling crafted stuff such is cake or bookshelfs that require player to farm weat,milk the cow,collect eggs,harvest sugar cane and finnaly to mix that up and get a cake.Allow us to sell those things to market for good money and do what u want with easy making blocks that can be sold for lot of cash.There is no way u can automaticly milk the cow  or collect the eggs for cake.Just put milk on market also cos of big lack of cows :-)

Dont want to offend anyone, this is just my opinion and for now i do use a player activated pumkin/melon farms but will gladly demolish them if there is more creative way of making money besides hundreds of farm designs.
I love making cakes because it require time to collect and craft them.

[ViperZeroOne]

Ok i read all inside this topic and i really have no smart comments on any of replies u folks made here but in some way i must agree that melons/pumkins are too easy money making way.And there is maybe better more creative ways to make money like selling crafted stuff such is cake or bookshelfs that require player to farm weat,milk the cow,collect eggs,harvest sugar cane and finnaly to mix that up and get a cake.Allow us to sell those things to market for good money and do what u want with easy making blocks that can be sold for lot of cash.There is no way u can automaticly milk the cow   or collect the eggs for cake.Just put milk on market also cos of big lack of cows :-)

Dont want to offend anyone, this is just my opinion and for now i do use a player activated pumkin/melon farms but will gladly demolish them if there is more creative way of making money besides hundreds of farm designs.
I love making cakes because it require time to collect and craft them.

You know what?  I have to give you a huge !BRAVO! for your post.  Yes indeed, if you can sell food on the market you're absolutely correct that it should be stuff that you unavoidably have to put effort into.  (and no, crafting melon blocks from slices isn't effort)  I'd love to see selling melons/pumpkins removed, or SERIOUSLY nerfed (like $15 a stack) while simultaneously having the addition of being able to sell large crafting items like cakes for a decent cost.

Mind you, you'll probably see all of the melon farms replaced with huge cow stables and auto wheat farms.  But the manual labor involved each harvest would still make it better than the melon farms in my opinion.

[Kascas]

There is no way u can automaticly milk the cow  

lol i would hapily trade my life as a farm mega builder/designer for milking cows 24/7 and selling that at the market  

i dont think we will ever get an agreement here viper and others,  
as clearly you guys dont have any good word to spare about farms, while i have alot fun building them  

im so annoyed by the way you speak about auto farms, like they do not need any effort
so let me try once more to explain why they DO

i currently have a very good, if not servers best farm, and even then it does not make me that rich quickly in any way
looking at all the hours, if not full 24hour days i invested,  
looking at all the $$$ i spend for it that i earned with another huge ammount of effort  
if spended enough effort to grind my farms for a long time, without any profit for a long ammount of time  
imo farms are long term investments that do require alot of effort and by no means an easy afk money maker

but...as my words do not seem to make any sence to you, il give you some maths

atm im getting 20k/hour at max from my farm, and this drops to about 5k/hour when its crowded
i have a total of 14 plants each row x13 rows x14 layer x 1.5 pistons = 3822 pistons
what does a piston need? iron? howmuch is iron? keep going...50 at minimum
no one is going to sell you huge loads for minimum, 60 when your very lucky
what about the other materials 3 wood 4 cobble redstone...
all and all i would consider 80 each piston lucky, so 80x3822 = 300K??!?!@?!@?!@ omg!
and THAT ladys and gentleman is only the start...
2548 plants (all with bone meal!)
2548 torches!
3822 blocks of sand!
8918 wooden planks!
over 10k dirt!
countless inventory's cobble stacks for the walls/roof!
you think thats cheap?
2 diamond ps to protect the place, kaCHIENG there goes another 110k!

consider yourself very very very lucky to build one of my size for 500k
considering your time zone is again "lucky" to make the average rate 10k instead of the common 5k most of the day
considering you use it at least an hour long every day!(and no, you cannot use it multiple hours while afk)
well...enjoy nearly a month of grinding if not longer, in your "effortless money maker"
to just earn back only what you have already spend on it!!!!!OMG???

GET IT?
is that enough effort for you?
no? oh wait i did not even mention that other thing...
just a minor detail...
you could aswell just ignore it...
all of the above materials need to actualy be BUILDED  
howmany money you think i could make, if i did not spend these shitloads of hours on building it?
right........

those are 2 more then fair arguments, in why we DO take alot of effort in building these things

i hope these maths showed you a WAY differend view then you had in mind
and finely made you reconsider your "simple" opinion
based on your own experience and desire to "adventure on hardmode"

if this post does not change your mind the slightest bit, you will have lost all my respect...

[ViperZeroOne]

Actually Kascas, the argument isn't the effort it takes in BUILDING them.  Clearly, it takes effort to build ANYTHING.  The argument is what happens AFTER the build is done.

To make one of those massive auto-farms you simply have to put effort into replicating a very small design over and over again until it's a massive structure.  I know, because I built a small version (hey I need money too).  That said, once it's built all you have to do is press a button.  After the construction is complete you can just harvest, harvest, harvest, and harvest.  Where's the effort in that?

This is what I mean when I say "no effort".   I'm not talking the construction.  Any farm, even an automatic wheat farm, takes effort to build.  What I mean is, after it's built there is no effort required.  You never have to replant or anything.  You just have to click a button.  So it takes you $500K to build.  Big woop.  It only costs that much because you're buying materials.  It could be free if you collected the materials yourself, like I did for my small one.  That said, even if it did cost 500k, if you just AFK at the thing you'll make that back in under a week.

I have FAR more respect for a person who builds and operates a 2 story automatic wheat farm than I do for someone who builds a 100 story automatic pumpkin farm.  But that's MY opinion, and you're free to have yours.  It's a free country.

[Kascas]

Actually Kascas, the argument isn't the effort it takes in BUILDING them.  Clearly, it takes effort to build ANYTHING. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31g0YE61PLQ

So it takes you $500K to build.  Big woop.  It only costs that much because you're buying materials.

Yes i know you preffer to spend years underground to get such an ammount,
instead of working to get 500k in a couple months

if you just AFK at the thing you'll make that back in under a week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31g0YE61PLQ

besides my opinion, im throwing FACTS at you!
its not my opinion that it needs a month to earn it back, its a FACT

i could aswell just do it your way:
it happens to be my opinion that if you only play 1 minet a day
you need 9284 years to earn it back!!! wich is alot of effort!!!
wich is why in my opinion it does take effort!, its a free country right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31g0YE61PLQ

il give up on this discussion, as i didnt see anything change between the first speech and the last 
enjoy writing your next post, im not even going to read it 

[D00MKNlGHT]

Actually Kascas, the argument isn't the effort it takes in BUILDING them.  Clearly, it takes effort to build ANYTHING.  The argument is what happens AFTER the build is done.

To make one of those massive auto-farms you simply have to put effort into replicating a very small design over and over again until it's a massive structure.  I know, because I built a small version (hey I need money too).  That said, once it's built all you have to do is press a button.  After the construction is complete you can just harvest, harvest, harvest, and harvest.  Where's the effort in that?

This is what I mean when I say "no effort".   I'm not talking the construction.  Any farm, even an automatic wheat farm, takes effort to build.  What I mean is, after it's built there is no effort required.  You never have to replant or anything.  You just have to click a button.  So it takes you $500K to build.  Big woop.  It only costs that much because you're buying materials.  It could be free if you collected the materials yourself, like I did for my small one.  That said, even if it did cost 500k, if you just AFK at the thing you'll make that back in under a week.

I have FAR more respect for a person who builds and operates a 2 story automatic wheat farm than I do for someone who builds a 100 story automatic pumpkin farm.  But that's MY opinion, and you're free to have yours.  It's a free country.

There's a quote "you reap what you sow" kascas did the sow part by making the farm, so what's wrong with reapin by afk ing? It's better to afk and watch YouTube then timing ur clock every one min and click the damn button.

[prinkey00]

i have alot fun building them  

I agree.

[Kascas]

topic about the "farm activation" itself over here
http://www.opticraft.net/index.php/topic,10970.0.html
a mod has pm'ed me that he will contact an admin to make guidelines for this