Ploughing

Ploughing
(Skill - Worship)
Learned From
School of Worship
Requirements
Ranching
Tuition Cabbage 100 Carrots 100 Cucumbers 100 Leeks 100 Onions 100 Peppers 100 Watermelons 100

A bull in the process of plowing a field

Uses

Ploughing is a skill that allows a Bull to be harnessed to a Mouldboard Plough to create a Vegetable Field. Fields grow vegetables similar to how greenhouses grow grass. The skill is also required to plant vegetable seeds in the field, though it is not required to harvest grown vegetables from a field.

With the ploughing skill, you will receive a new option, to make a Mouldboard Plough, on a Carpentry Shop equipped with a Vice Bench.

The Mouldboard Plough can be equipped on a Bull that is located inside a Ranch. In order to plough a field, you must also have filled the XP bar for Farming 1.

Site Selection

• With a Mouldboard Plough in inventory, a bull in a ranch will have the option "Attach Plough". Selecting this will produce the message With a lasso you can plough fields across the land.
• With a Lasso in inventory, you will get an option "Instruct... Start", this will produce the message Walk to the task location, and start a suitable Farming project.
• You will get a new menu option, Self > Projects > Farming > Plough Field. Select this as the desired location of your field.

The site must meet a number of conditions:

• It cannot be too close to a ranch (you will get a popup if you're too close, which seemed to be about 7 coords)
• It must be flat (you will get a popup if it's not)
• It must not be close to any existing plants (you will get a popup if there's plants in range)
• The bull needs to be close (you will get a popup if the bull cannot walk that far, 20 coords was too far)
• It cannot be close to another field (seems to be about 5 coords east–west but allowed one just one coord apart north–south)

Note:

• You must also have Farming skill 1
• It is possible to plough a site that has a mix of terrain (e.g. Dirt and Grass)
• It is possible to plant peppers in a field that has mixed grass and dirt, and plant onions in a field that is on just grass (although read note in vegetable section below as you may not get back any yield)
• Where you are standing, when you start ploughing determines suitable veggies. Even if your plough site touches grass, dirt and sand; the terrain where you are standing determines what can be planted. i.e. If you were standing on dirt (and dirt icon appears) when you begin ploughing, then you can plant peppers. Likewise, if the sand icon is appearing, when you begin ploughing, then you can plant onions, etc.
• If you are standing on rock, the bull will appear to plough a dirt field. You will not be able to plant anything there and must tear it down.
• A field that is torn down before the crop is harvested will Not return the seeds.

The ploughed area will let you plant any type of seed, regardless. But when it's time to harvest, you will get a land is not suitable message and zero yield. Remember the center of the plot is always where you were standing when you started ploughing.

Preparing Field

Create a field by selecting (Self -> Projects -> Farming -> Plough Field)

• A field measuring 5 coords east–west and 8 coords north–south centered on your location at the point of selecting plough field will be built
• The field size and orientation are preset. It isn't possible to rotate them. Where you are standing when you Start a field is the center point of the field.
• The bull will walk to the site, plough it for 4 minutes, then return to the ranch
• The plough has a chance to break on every use. If that happens, it will drop on the ground and return a Broken Plough.

• If the bull dies in the process, the ground will have bones, leather and the plough.
• Attempting to plant seeds during ploughing will produce a popup (The Vegetable Field is busy. Please wait).

Planting Vegetables

• You will require exactly 5 seeds of the same type to plant. (With less, you get a popup, "To sow this field you need: 5 Veg Seeds: Type")
• Growing takes ~2 Duck Hours, after which you can harvest.
• The colour of the site indicates the type of soil. Green is Grass only, Sandy White is Sand only, Brown is Dirt only.
• A field yield from the wrong type will tell you after clicking Harvest "Your field didn't produce anything useful. Maybe the land is not suitable?"

Vegetable	Terrain	Variations
Cabbage	Grass	Mut's Fruition (?), Bastet's Yielding (100)
Carrots	Grass	Osiris's Orange (?), Green Leaf (100)
Cucumber	Grass	Isis Bounty also grows on dirt
Eggplant	Sand
Garlic	Sand	Apep's Crop (?)
Leeks	Sand	Hapi's Harvest (50), Horus' Grain (100)
Onions	Sand	Amun's Bounty (?), Tears of Sinai (?)
Pepper	Dirt	Ra's Fire (?), Ptah's Breed (?), Isis' Bounty (also grows on sand) (200)
Watermelon	Grass	Isis' Seed (?)

• You will receive
  • 25 farming xp per field harvested
  • your original seeds
  • 50x yield (so a Mut's Fruition Cabbage Seed which would generate 2 Cabbage when grown in the traditional fashion, will generate 100 cabbage on field harvest; a Ptah's Breed Pepper Seed which would generate 3 Peppers will generate 150 peppers)
  • Insect (may receive, if you have skill)
• A field can be replanted immediately after harvesting.
• After a certain number of harvests (10?), a field will be rendered unsuitable for farming. When the field is exhausted, it will disappear and you will receive a message stating that "This field can no longer support another crop cycle."
• It is possible to replough a new field in exactly the same place
• If you accidentally plant the wrong seeds, your only viable choice is to allow them to grow and then harvest with an error message. Tearing down the field before harvesting will Not return your seeds.

Other Notes

• Veggies harvested from a field do not apply toward offlining.
• Grain cannot be planted (these are veggie fields).
• Water tables are unaffected by farming in vegetable fields.
• Bulls risk sudden death while ploughing fields. Bulls that expire in this way will return bones and leather.
  • Per Malard, a Bull can work fields at least 10 times before risking death.
  • It is unknown if a Bull can recover back to a fully healthy state, if left unworked for a time.

What the devs say

• "We're calling it 'ploughing' instead of 'plowing' because I guess we're an English game now"
• "We're gonna do ploughing"
• "My idea for how ploughing should work is that you plant a field, and you have to 'turn it over' every 24 hours, sort of like greenhouse, but for veggies"
• "The problem is, there is no room for ploughing with pyramids, crossbreeding, region/faction bonuses, and aqueducts."
• "Ploughing will be a skill, not a tech"