75 is way too much. Pumpkins are 0.75 and sugarcane is instant harvest. I say 40 or 45 cents.

 

I agree with dwite but it should go up to 0.50

 

Spell Right Aaron :D

 

it should go up pumpkins are to low so you cant realy compair them to sugat cane

 

Reed prices are fine the way they are, they match other crops for the most part and are a pain to harvest in lag, I paid for most of my tycoon reed farming, the price is fine the way it is.

Also quick edit: Reeds don't require tools or replanting, other crops should be able to make slightly more because of it.

 

This.

 

A thread about reeds, eh? I guess I had better weigh in here, although I doubt most of you will like what I have to say.

First and foremost, it's important that we have some data to work with. Fortunately for you, I've run countless tests on my reed farm and we can play with numbers all day long. My farm, as many of you are aware, is by an order of magnitude the server's largest at 175 x 16 x 51 layers. It can be farmed permanently and requires zero AFK time. Thus, it should serve adequately as a platform by which to run our calculations.

Introduction:

Now, before we dive into the math, let's go over reed farming in general:

Pros:
No tool use
No replanting
Can be harvested very quickly

Cons:
Slow regrowth
Requires donation features (fly)
Requires a massive farm to reach peak efficiency
Extremely sensitive to lag
Earns less than other crops
Only crop/farm to have minimum system requirements on a properly built farm: people with slower machines cannot enter my town without lagging out or even crashing outright.

Reed farms are the most difficult to build and require the most investment in terms of actual farm construction. My farm is a bit of an extreme example, but it required 200 man hours of labor and cost about $200k. Since growth rates have been boosted in 1.3, 50+ layers are no longer necessary. However, one still needs 75-100% more levels than pumpkins or melons, and 150-200% more levels than wheat. Like pumpkins and unlike wheat or melons, this crop also requires fly/speed to reach maximum income per hour. This massive upfront investment is compensated by one of the easiest crops to farm: with no tools or replanting, reeds are a breeze to harvest once your farm has been completed. That said, instant-break blocks seem to be the most sensitive to lag and without proper server/client performance your income will drop tremendously.

The data:

Now that we're properly acquainted with reed farming, lets look at some numbers. It's important to keep one thing in mind as we're discussing these figures: I will mostly be talking about the maximum possible income. That means no chatting, no mistakes, no lag, and flawless floor transitions. This is extremely difficult to maintain - chatting alone can reduce your income by 20-40%, and nobody runs level after level perfectly. Every one percent decrease in efficiency on a farm capable of $20k/hr results in a $200/hr loss. Replant a couple missing crops, reply to a message, take a toilet break, and you've just cut your income by 20%. A player can realistically expect to achieve 80-85% of the maximum rate on a given lag-free farming session. Throw lag into the mix and 60% is far more realistic.

On a perfect run with no lag, no chatting, no replanting, and mistake-free movement from start to finish, I can clear a floor in my 175x16 farm in just over three minutes. Each floor has 1730 plants, and so at 100% growth the yield is 3460 reeds. At the current price of $0.30, that results in a maximum possible sale of $1038 per floor. However, because of block break limits, poor crop collection at speed, and nominal server lag the actual average income per floor is about $900. This number has been averaged from a sample size of over 50 clears (pre-1.3 and thus pre-lag), so I feel it's quite accurate. We'll use $915 for these calculations, to ensure we do not underestimate. At 3 minutes and $915 per clear, we reach a maximum possible income of around $18,300/hr ((60/3)*$915).

Based on these numbers, it's quite easy to test any price point we please. If the average clear at $0.30 pricing is $915, we'll hit on average 3050 reeds per floor ($915 / $0.30). Thus we can simply multiply Any price point we like by the number of reeds cleared, then multiply by 20 (60 minutes divided by 3 minute clears). Lets have a look. I'll include both the maximum possible as well as what we can actually expect given realistic farming conditions (assuming 85% efficiency):

$0.25 - $15.2k/hr maximum, $12.9k actual
$0.30 - $18.3k/hr maximum, $15.5k actual [current price point]
$0.35 - $21.3k/hr maximum, $18.1k actual
$0.40 - $24.4k/hr maximum, $20.7k actual
$0.45 - $27.4k/hr maximum, $23.3k actual
$0.50 - $30.5k/hr maximum, $25.9k actual [proposed price point]

Conclusion

As the math clearly shows, the proposed price of $0.50 is absurd.

That said, I would not totally rule out a small price increase. Reeds are the least popular crop and although their current pricing looks alright on paper, in practice they are performing under par compared to other crops. However, to make a real argument for an increase in price we'd need to take a closer look at other crops. I can only speak and provide solid data for reed and wheat, so until my new melon farm gets built I'll hold off on that.

What I will say is that given the server admin's stated goal of roughly $15-20k/hr (as can be seen here: http://www.ecocitycraft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=27715 ), all crops ought to be adjusted so that their maximum possible income be right around the $20k/hr mark. In practice almost nobody will be capable of this, while most will still fall within the low side of the $15-20k/hr range. For reeds, this puts us at right around $0.33 per reed (3050 reeds per clear * 20 clears per hour / $20,000 = $0.328).

Thus, I'd suggest one of the following:

A) Leave reed price point as is.
B) Raise reed price point to $0.33.

At $0.33 per reed, we get $20.1k/hr maximum and $17.1k actual. On your average farm given typical play-style (as 85% efficiency is still quite hard to get) your normal user is likely to see $10-15k per hour depending on their setup and whether or not they've got fly. This seems both reasonable and well within the stated goal of server administration for desirable hourly income. I therefore would suggest option B: raise the reed price point to $0.33.

 

im not 100% sure if it work all this hassle to raise it 0.03 i dunno, all farms atm are rubish(melons are best, but still rubish compared to old prices) i dont realy see much point to change its i think the sever (andrewkm and game admins) are trying to make other methods of earning money up there with farming. mining is still down on farming i think the only think that realy earns as much is selling plots and thats only at certain times(as the isnt as many people to buy plots on none 'prime time' and land runs out while farms stay forever.
I dont think reeeds should go up i think melons should go down, i thinks reeds are basicly right atm.

 

wait but fly is 60 bucks so it should go up

 

If you read carefully you'd see that Andrewkm et al are trying to balance most sources of income to fall within the $15-20k/hr range. Although a 3 cent increase on reeds may not seem large, keep in mind every click of the mouse harvests two reeds. Keep in mind also that reeds break instantly. This 3 cent increase results in an additional $1.8k/hr income under 100% efficiency scenarios (bringing the maximum amount earnable by reeds to $20k/hr). Farm for three hours and that's over $5k. It adds up.

 

Though I would point that out. :D

@rockdassie

 

Re-read.

He's saying an extra $0.03 per reed would get you an extra 5K every 3 hours.