Official Q&A Thread

Basic idea: I'll answer one question each day, by copying the questioning post into the 2nd post of this, answer it and delete the original question post. The answer will use values from sourcecode and I won't keep stuff back. As well wil try to keep the QA updated, in case some code changes and causes an answer to be outdated.

However, there are some rules regarding the questions:
-One Question per post.
-You may not post twice in a row. You may not post twice within 10 minutes, either. (> prevents abusive combo-spamming)
-Questions such as "What's the source code?" "How does it work?" etc will be deleted without answer.
-Trivial questions as "Which color does Wheat have?" and things already answered will be deleted as well.

edit:
Since you managed to loose the game (missing out a day to ask a question), i'm, from that point, in no obligation to keep answering one question a day.
You're free to keep asking though, may I will answer somewhen.

Questions & Answers

Q: What are some of the more interesting effects or products that we can expect from high end crops?
Redstone, Gunpowder, eventually even a fractal of a diamond. Plants creating energy and applying it to adjacent storage blocks could be possible, but given this would mean 4 plants per block kinda makes it worthless again. Probably some crops affecting mob behavior, not entirely sure whether this will work out. In any case, you will get alternative access to all plant-based brewing ingridents. If i get into implementing some sort of industrialized brewing, new components will most likely come from crops.

Q: How many crops are available for discovery right now? (V 1.62)
16

Q: What exactly can FAP do ?
It can add 100 Nutrient points to any crops Nutrient-Storage, if the given storage is <= 100.

Q: Do you really have the coding ability to create everlasting effects or screen effects? :3
Sort off. there IS a confusion-potion in the vanilla engine (which causes the screen to warp around) and some other neat effects i can apply to players. And of course i could give these effects a REALLY long duration.

Q: Will there be a way to prevent weeds growing in empty crops?
No, but I intend to implement some sort of Unkraut-Ex, which will make your crops permanently immune (until replanted) against weed-influences, whilst having a chance to permanently reduce their resistance-value > Plant becomes more dependant on chemicals.

Q: Will nether wart be able to be farmed like other crops?
Yes.

Q: How (far) do plants chceck for air ?
All surrounding 8 tiles, as well as a "straight line to the sky".
It's using the vanilly skymap, thus everyone complaining about "omg each crop iterates to sky, eats cpu" will be shot.
Surrounding tiles must be non-opaque and not crops to be considered air.

Q: How does nutrient-storage affect plants and what can change their nutrient-storage value?
Nutrient-Storage can be filled by applying Fertilizer via hand or automatized (machine to come) means.
The higher the Nutrient-Storage, the higher the Nutrients Quality rating of the crop, required for more advanced plants, as well as generally increased crop growth.

Q: wjat is the air quality?
A value ranging from 0 to 10, indicating the quality of air and the space the plant got to grow.
Influenced by height, obscuration (other crops around the crop in question) and obscuration (to sky).
Influences growth rate and is important for growth requirements of more complex plants.

Q: Are there certain Growth, Gain, Resistance (GGR) minimum values required to cross-breed to the 16 "exotic" plants, or can we cross-breed default 1/1/1 GGR plants like crazy to get exotics, and then try to boost them to uber status through breeding?
Not every plant can be crossed into any other one, but starting with basic seeds and some patience, it's possible to reach any plant. GGR-values do not have any influence on crossing (except for the GGR-stats of the new plant).

Q: What effect does the "HowToHex" have on plants?
It adds 100 points to the Hydration-Storage of a crop. A single cell of HowToHex should last approx 100 uses.

Q: Is it possible to cross any two crops together or will some crops just not cross?
If the crosscrop fullfills the growth conditions for these 2 crops, yes.

Q: Is it possible to get any type of plant from any plant(s) crossbreeding...?
No. Some plants have too many differences to be bred from each other. As well, lower-tier plants have trouble breeding into anything above their-tier+1.
Except for those two points, most plants can breed into quite a lot other plants.

Q: Are there any plants that look like weed in the early stages? (except for wheat)
No, weed has an exclusive texture. Probably takes a close look, but it can always be distinguished from normal plants.

Q: Do plants grow differently in different biomes? And if so, does each species of plant have its own 'preferred' biome?
Yes, a few biomes affect the Nutrition and Hydration quality of crops. No, though this is possible, as of currently, no plant required a special biome.

Q: A question regarding the terraformer. Will we get a machine to improve the conditions for certain plants? Like increasing humidity or something or may the terraformer will get other impacts on aggriculture in the future?
A machine for automatized Hydration and Nutrition will be added. That's all there is, Terraformers will not have special effects, though they could be used to prepare the ground before starting the cropping.

Q: Can all plant be grown at height 64, or some more exotic plant like diamond will require to be below level 16?
Currently no plant has a special height limit in either direction, of course such a condition is easyly doable.

Q: Do hydration and nutrition decay over time, and if so, by how much and under what conditions (IE: only when something is planted on the crop)?
"Hydration" and "Nutrition" are statistic values recalculated every few seconds, basing on crop placement and different influence factors.
Hydration- and NutrionSTORAGE are a basic point value which increases by applying fertilizer/water, influences the both stats mentioned above and decreases over time if there is a crop planted.

Q: Does Growth affect weed growth in adjacent crops when attempting to crossbreed plants?
Yes, a high Growth stat grants "Weed"-Attributes to any sort of plant, causing them to spread Weed to nearby empty/different crops.
As well, Weed will upon creation inherit it's Growth stats from nearby plants and thus grow and spread faster if high-growth plants are nearby.
Take note, crops capable ofproducing Weed are immune against Weed by default.

Q: is there any way at all to actually create more of a cross-bred plant you created?
Either pick the plant after fully grown, for a chance to obtain 2+ Seedbags, or crossbreed the plant with itself (or a different plant) to spread it further.

Q: Does Resistance affect chances to spread weed or crossbreed at all?
I know it makes the plant more resistant to weeds, but for example: A reed with 31 growth and 1 resistance will cause weeds to spread like wildfire, but will a reed with 31 growth and 31 resistance stop this effect?
High resistance morely makes a crop immune to weed and trampling. As well, it grants a big bonus on recovering at least a single piece of seed when picking the plant.
On the downside, a extreme resistance value will reduce the speed the plants crossbreeds at.
Resistance does not effect a high-growth-plants weed-spreading.

Q: How does Gain work, just an increased chance/number of drops? Are there any negative effects to having a very high gain?
Gain does give a %-increase of the overall chance to drop (multiple) instances of items upon harvesting.
A extremely high gain value will reduce the chance to get multiple seeds upon picking a plant, though it does NOT affect the "basechance" to get at least a single seedbag.

Q: How does height affect air quality?
Hight ~ Air Quality
40% of the whole Air Quality rating is determined by height, thus planting in the upper dozen layers is always a good idea.

Q: Is hydration storage related to the 'wetness' of a farmland block (ie, how close it is to water?)
Nope, it's a seperate value, not influences by nearby water or farmland bock wetness (metadata).
Hydration-storage AND block wetness (and other factors) do create the "Hydration Quality" value for a crop, though.

Q: Does Radiation create mutant plants, that eat Mobs and Animals?
Unknown, given there is no radiation in minecraft, so far. Only explosion.

Does position and quantity of crops while breeding affect breeding in some way ?
Crossing exclusively affects directly adjacent blocks.
Crossing more plants gives a boost to the stats.
However, there's a randomized chance each few seconds for crossstick to try crossing nearby plants, applied to each plant individually.
Thus even with 4 adjacent plants there's a chance only 2 ill actually crossbreed.
However, more adjacent crops > higher chances to get good croops.

Q: What is the highest tier plant currently in the game?
Aurelia.

Q: Do certain crops require low hydration quality to meet their growth requirements?
Currently, no.

Q: Does this mean Directly adjacent, where it's only the ones touching a side, or are you including diagonals in this as well?
Directly adjacent does not include diagonals.

Q: How breeding works ?
Each crop has a set of stats (0-5) as well a undefined number of attributes (String).
Upon crossing, a tabula (representing all crops) will be calculated, based on stats and attributes matching, a tabula entry will be set to a value. This is done for each of the participating crops.
Each crop gives huge bonus points to it's own entry. As well, tier differences influence the value negatively (there are subtractions if the tier of the possible crop is >+1 or <-3 in relation to the current one).
After all entries are calculated, a random element of the list is picked, it's chance to be picked is based upon the value in the tabula. Higher value > higher chance.
In effect, crossing certain plants has a much higher chance to result in specific other plants, though usually there's a high chance to get whatever plant is directly participating in the breeding (f.e. crossing 2 plants usually has about 45% for each of the plants to be the result).

Q: is it possible under the right conditions to breed redwheat with out having any redstone in the first place to make fertilizers or hydration cells?
Hmmm... yes. Can't tell for sure, but if you put up a "perfect" crop except for nutrients, it should still work out.

Q: Which is more important for plant growth: Hydration, Nutrients, or Air Quality?
Per default all are weighted equally, however, CropCards do have the possibility to alter that weighting individually and some of the current crops already do.

Q: does bone meal actually boost nutrient storage like fertilizer?
Yes

I win, you guys ran out of questions :3

Q: at what light level(or rather range of light levels) does red wheat grow?
5 <= Light => 10

Q: Do you plan to differentiate the appearance of Venomilia and Tulip any more?
Nope, the similarity is intentional.
"Story"-wise, Venomilia is a mutated off-breed of Tulip.

Q: Does player affect air quality when stay close to crop?
No, even after eating beans soup, Steve's emissions are not strong enough to affect Air Quality in any way.

Q: does the number of dirt blocks under a crop have any influence on the crop?
Yes.
Up to 3 blocks of dirt below the farm-block (which again is below the crop-block) provide up to 30% of the Nutrients-rating value for Crops.

Q:What number of blocks above a crop is minimum for good growth?
0? You don't necessaryly need any air above a crop for it to maintain "good growth".

Q: are there ever going to be tin or copper crops and if so will they need ore blocks underneath like the iron and gold crops?
Assuming "ever" means "in indefinite team", the formula to your answer is INF*x with x being the base chance of implementing the crops.
Regardless of x, the result is INF, thus the answer is "Yes".

Q: What is the best biome to grow crops in?
Swamp, followed up by Jungle & Mushroom.

Q: How does Rain and Thunderstorm affects Crops?
Doesnt.

Q: Do perfect nutrition, air quality, light level, hydration level and circumstances in general influence crops stats?
No.

Q: RP2 Microblocks affects Air Quality of Crops?
While I assume no, given AirQuality is only affected by surrounding
-Crops
-Non-Transparent blocks
, i can't tell for sure.

Q: Are Diamonds and Glowstoneplants planned?
No.

Q: Will rum be in with beer or is that a teaser for something later?
It already is. Try putting Reed into Barrels.

Q: Would you consider removing trampling crops altogether unless jumped down on like the vanilla wheat does now?
Crops were already changed in exactly this regard. However, it appears the flags I used are inappropriately handled client-sided. Fix for this is in upcoming the 1.2.5 version.

Q: What is terra wart used for?
Cures all negative status effects upon consumption.

Q: can you make it possible to crossbreed weeds?
I can.

Q: Is it possible for a crop to grow, but never reach the last stage due to insufficient light/nutrient levels?
Yes.
Currently there is no Crop requiring special quality levels for reaching distinct stages, but
-some crops have special growth requirements for their final stage f.e. IronOre for Ferru
-if the ground quality "suddenly" drops, the plant will scale it's growth accordingly

Q: Also do you plan on adding divergent paths of crop breeding like nether plants or underground plants that have different requirements and can't be bred from the normal line of crops?
No.
However, the current breeding algorythm very well bases chances off similaritys and thus the chance to turn 2xWheat into Super-Secret-Ultimate-Hightier-Netherplant is probably below 0, while you got a fine chance whilst trying to cross other NetherPlants.

Q: Will Cacti eventually be added into plants?
Dunno, i just don't think they would look fine if you have four micro-cacti growing on each of the cropsticks. And any sprite else would be renderer retardedly.

Q: What two plants are best used to breed Ferru?
FerruXFerru has the highest chance to create a Ferru plant upon crossbreeding.

Q: How do you get hops? If that is too direct, what tier are they or what are the best plants to get them?
By crossing two plants. The best plants to have Hops as crossing result are HopsXHops.