Enriching the farming experience (+opinions)

[crystalslime]

I’ve been playing this game for around one year now, and there have been tremendous improvements and additions. Graphics have been enhanced, many areas have been added, the game has been enriched with Slime Science, treasure pods, new crazy slimes, much more stuff to do, and so on. Great evolution, and great game overall! So I’m not going to list all the great stuff, instead I’d like to share my opinions on two rather negative aspects that remain (imo).

First, while everything else was improved, there is one thing that has remained intact and boring: slime farming, the very core of the game. Look at these boring gardens and corrals! Exact same stuff since the first alpha release. A few clicks to add high walls and a net, maybe a port collector, and that’s it. It would be so cool to see crazy Slime-Science-like corral updates, with customization options, tools to ease farming of the most difficult slimes, etc. etc. Or to build bigger corrals, or change their design... There is big room for improvement here. Same thing for boring gardens and ponds.

Second, the difficulty of the game. It remains waaaay too easy. Actually, it is rather hard to find a strong purpose for Slime Science gadgets and all this stuff because it's already so easy to play Slime Rancher that there is almost no room for gadgets that help the player. I suspect the devs are actually aware of the issue because they sometimes seem to try hard ‘legitimating’ some gadgets. Because I mean, why would I build a taming bell if feral slimes are no threat to me anyway? Why would I build a water turret when the last time I was killed by a Tarr was... never? Etc. etc. If the bar was raised just a little bit for Slime Science to become *really* necessary and interesting, the game experience would benefit from it.

That’s all, thanks for reading!

[EmeraldPlay]

I agree with improving slime farming, it's needed.
I feel like the difficulty thing should be a "hard mode" of sorts instead.

[TheChaoticClappj]

Yeah not gonna lie a challenge mode would be nice. Just imagine a mode where all slimes in the wild are feral ! Or a mode where tarr are extremely fast and water doesn't manage to 1 hit kill them anymore or a mode where the tarr dont actually become stronger but water becomes practically unfindable. Or even a mode where food becomes an extremely rare ressource and gardens give way more crops and take triple the time to grow. Or even a special mode that puts together all three ! The potential is pretty much already there.

[NekoSlime]

Water turrets are more to fortify your ranch or to secure areas in the world where tarr outbreaks are common. They aren't supposed to be purely for self defense.

Taming bells can be placed towards entrances and exits of Feral zones so that those that follow you out of the zone do not continue to cause you trouble.

Usefulness of gadgets tend to be directly related to how much they cost. The Taming Bell is cheap because it's not the most useful of gadgets, but that does not necessarily mean it has no use. Would you rather it be expensive?