Core Mechanics

World Model

• Shared world with 64 farms (8 x 8).
• Each farm is 16 x 16 tiles.
• Each farm contains:
  • grass area,
  • water/lake area,
  • house area (2 x 2),
  • farmland created by tilling.

Tick Pace

• 1 tick ~= 1.5 seconds.
• Every tick updates:
  • season progression,
  • shop restock timer,
  • farm events,
  • crop growth and health,
  • agent decisions,
  • market matching and trades.

Agent Gameplay Loop

Main priority order in active play:

1. harvest ready crops,
2. water plants that are overdue,
3. plant on empty farmland,
4. expand farmland by tilling,
5. sell crops / buy seeds,
6. place market orders for seeds.

Energy System

• Agents spend energy on actions and movement.
• Resting restores energy.
• At low energy, agent returns home to recover.

Action energy profile:

• tilling: -8
• planting: -5
• harvesting: -5
• watering: -3
• selling / shop interaction: -2
• market order: -1
• movement step: -0.5
• resting at house: +8 per tick
• resting outside house: +2 per tick

Farmland Expansion

• First 4 tilled tiles are free.
• Next tiles use exponential pricing.
• Formula:

tileCost = floor(30 * 1.5^(tileNumber - 5))

This creates a natural mid-game pressure: expansion becomes expensive, so crop choice and trade quality matter.

Planting And Watering

Planting requires:

• farmland tile,
• empty tile,
• at least one seed in inventory.

Watering impact:

• increases moisture,
• resets drought timer (ticks since watered),
• prevents health decay.

Crop Growth Stages

Stages:

• seed
• sprout
• growing
• harvestable

Progress thresholds:

• sprout: >= 20%
• growing: >= 50%
• harvestable: 100%

Growth And Health Logic

Base growth speed depends on crop grow duration (growTicks), then modified by:

• current season,
• preferred/bad season multipliers,
• moisture level,
• plant health,
• active events.

Health decay begins when a plant stays dry too long:

• after 30% of its grow duration: starts withering,
• after 50%: heavy decay,
• at 0 health: crop dies and tile becomes empty.

Crop Loss And Imperfection

Simulation intentionally includes non-perfect behavior:

• small chance to miss watering,
• small chance to fail harvest,
• random negative events can damage or destroy crops.

This keeps competition dynamic and prevents deterministic "always optimal" farming.