So, I don't wish to register *yet*, but I do wish to register at some point in
the future, after my current win attempt is resolved. In the meantime, I'd like
to workshop a possible change to the Agoriculture rules. I proto-propose the
following proposal, entitled "Assetize Crops", with an adoption index of 1:
===
Amend Rule 2706 ("The Land Managor") to read as follows:
---
The Land Managor is an office. The Land Managor's report includes a list of all
defined Crop types and eir current Growing Season, Seed Cost, Growth Duration,
and Sell Price.
---
Retitle Rule 2708 ("Crops") to "Crop Attributes" and amend it to read as
follows:
---
Growing Season, Seed Cost, Growth Duration, and Sell Price are Crop type
switches, tracked by the Land Managor, with these values:
* Growing Season - all Crop Seasons
* Seed Cost - integers from 50 to 200 inclusive, rounded
* Growth Duration - integers from 3 to 24 inclusive, rounded
* Sell Price - integers from 100 to 400, rounded
Rules to the contrary notwithstanding, a Crop type CANNOT be planted while its
Seed Cost is null, and CANNOT be harvested while its Growth Duration or Sell
Price is null.
When rounding Seed Cost or Growth Duration, ties are broken toward the larger
value.
An in-season Crop is one whose Growth Season is in progress. All others are
out-of-season.
---
Amend Rule 2709 ("The Growth Cycle") to read as follows:
---
A player CAN create (syn. plant) an in-season Crop in eir possession by paying
a fee in Pyrite equal to its Seed Cost, provided that eir number of Hectares is
greater than eir number of Crops.
If a player owns a Crop with Age greater than or equal to its Growth Duration,
e CAN harvest it by announcement, destroying it and gaining Pyrite equal to its
Sell Price (exception: if the Weather for the week e planted it had already
been selected at the time e planted it, e CANNOT harvest it before the end of
the week after the week e planted it).
When the Fields Wither, all Crops are destroyed.
Once each week, the Land Managor SHALL randomly select and announce the Weather
for that week, which is either Good (probability 30%), Neutral (probability
60%), or Bad (probability 10%). At the end of each week in which Bad Weather
was selected this way, the Fields Wither.
At the end of each Crop Season, the Fields Wither.
---
Amend Rule 2710, "Genetic Modification", to read as follows:
---
A player CAN, once per Crop Season, pay a fee of 500 Pyrite to create a new
type of Crop, specifying its name and Growth Season. The Land Managor CAN once
by announcement, and SHALL in a timely fashion, amend the Farmor's Almanac to
define that Crop, and set its Seed Cost, Growth Duration, and Sell Price to
randomly selected valid values.
A player CAN, once per Crop Season, pay a fee of 750 Pyrite to alter a type of
out-of-season Crop's Seed Cost, Growth Duration, or Sell Price by up to 25% in
either direction.
A player CAN, once per Crop Season, pay a fee of 10000 Pyrite to amend the
Farmor's Almanac to remove the definition of a type of out-of-season Crop.
Once per Crop Season, the Land Managor CAN and SHALL by announcement randomly
select a type of Crop that was in-season during the previous season, select a
randomattribute (Seed Cost or Sell Price), and set that attribute to a randomly
selected valid value. If there is no such type to select, then e SHALL instead
announce that fact.
---
Enact a new Power 1 rule, "Crops", with the following text:
---
Crops are a category of asset, tracked by the Land Managor. All types of Crops
are fixed and indestructible. The Farmor's Almanac is a Regulation that defines
types of Crops. Changes to the Farmor's Almanac are secured.
Age is a Crop switch, tracked by the Land Managor. A Crop's Age is an integer.
When a Crop is created, its Age becomes zero. At the beginning of each Agoran
Day, every Crop's Age increases by 1.
Entities CANNOT own more Crops than Hectares. If an entity ever owns more Crops
than Hectares, all Crops that entity owns are destroyed.
---
Upon adoption of this proposal, enact a new regulation, the Farmor's Almanac.
This is the same regulation defined by the new rule enacted by this new
proposal. The Farmor's Almanac reads as follows:
---
The following types of Crop are defined:
* Okra
* Pea
* 4st
* Bell Pepper
* Cabbage
* Chard
* Spinach
---
All attributes of Crop types defined by the Farmor's Almanac are set to the
values of the corresponding attributes of the previous Crop type of the same
name. For each Crop owned by a player prior to the enactment of this proposal,
a new Crop of the corresponding type is created in eir possession. The Age of
each Crop created this way is set to the number of days that have passed since
the player planted the Crop it replaces.
All Crops that are not assets are destroyed. All types of Crop that are not
types of asset are destroyed.
===
The current ruleset never explicitly defines Crops, and the implicit definition
makes them somewhat ephemeral. They are defined primarily in terms of actions,
rather than in terms of concrete objects and properties. This bothers me
aesthetically, but it also has potentially dangerous subtle consequences.
For example, under the current rules, a player can harvest a Crop if e planted
that crop "earlier in the current Crop Season and at least <Growth Duration>
days ago". This is a reference to an event (the planting) not to the Crop
itself. In particular, nowhere do the rules state that a player cannot harvest
a Crop if the Crop has been "lost", due to Bad Weather or the Fields Withering.
Even if we assume that Crops are entities and "lost" is a synonym for
"destroyed", nothing but metaphor prevents a player from harvesting a
non-existent Crop.
Additionally, if Crops are entities, they are not destroyed when harvested, and
no rule provides for the loss or destruction of harvested Crops, causing them
to persist as lingering, untracked background entities until the end of time,
or at least until the rules cease to mention Crops. This seems both ugly and
undesirable.
Even if these interpretations are wrong and the current rules work fine, the
possibility exists that future rule changes may introduce more complications,
especially if they continue to follow this "Crops are defined by actions"
model. Assetizing Crops makes them more robust to future changes.
The purpose of the Farmor's Almanac is to create an official document with Mint
Authority that doesn't require quite as many hoops to amend as a Rule. If
anyone has a cleaner suggestion for how to define individual Crop Types, I'm
all ears.
This proposal also makes a few other minor tweaks to the Agoriculture rules:
* Clarifies some minor ambiguities in Rule 2710, the current wording of which
is not clear on whether its once-per-Crop-Season restriction applies to all
players collectively or just to each player individually.
* Allows players to replace destroyed Crops within the same Crop Season.
* Allows players to specify the Crop Season of new Crop Types when they're
created. I just think this isn't a huge balance issue and is more fun than
determining it randomly.
