Post by vex on Sept 6, 2013 17:55:44 GMT -8
Just thought I would share with you guys what I've calculated to be the best way to earn money growing crops. You can use this information if you're only interested in making the most money out of farming.
Long story short: Dragon Nip
Now here's why. I know Dragon Nip only gives you 20 gold profit, unlike crops like lavender that give you 96 gold profit, but just looking at profit ignores how long it takes to actually grow the crop. In the time it takes for one lavender to grow, I can grow 30 Dragon Nip.
(Long math based explanation follows. Feel free to ignore)
Basically, I just used a simple interest model of R=P(1+i*t) where R is the reward amount, P is the principle amount (the amount initially spent on seeds) and t is the time in minutes. I did all calculations based on a single bunch of crops i.e. the amount needed to get one reward from the job board.
For R, I took into account the leftover amounts of the harvest. For example, you need to plant three pumpkin seeds to get the required amount of pumpkins. But since pumpkin seeds give 6 pumpkins per seed, you have two left over when you give the required 16 to the job board, so R in this case would be 1.2 times the reward amount (since 18/16=1.2). This way you take into account what happens when you do this repeatedly and these leftovers accumulate.
P is simply the amount of required seeds times the price of each seed. Easy.
t was tricky, because what seems to be the bottleneck in the whole process is the water from the well. In order to take this into account it took the value for time to be the time taken for one plant to mature (since it's pretty safe to assume that people will plant more that one plant at the same time) plus the amount of time it takes for the water to regenerate for all of the plants. For example, corn only takes 5 minutes to grow, so if you were to plant 6 corn plants, in 5 minutes you would have all the necessary corn to get the reward. However, since doing this repeatedly will drain your well, you take into account the water needed to make the plants grow. Corn takes 2 waters per plant, so in all you need 12 water. Water takes about 1.5 minutes to regenerate (I timed it a 1m 25s, so I rounded). So in total for corn, I used a value of 12*1.5+5=23 for time.
Using this information, I just used the formula above (R=P[1+i*t]) and solved for i to see which crop would give the best yield. The results were as follows:
Lavender: 144(1+i*78)=1.2*240
i=.0128
Toothache Plant: 110(1+i*60)=220
i=.0167
Pumpkins: 126(1+i*48)=1.125*200
i=.0164
Cabbages: 108(1+i*48)=1.125*160
i=.0139
Sunflowers: 90(1+i*28.5)=140
i=.0195
Corn: 84(1+i*23)=1.125*100
i=.0148
Dragon Nip: 50(1+i*9.5)=70
i=.0421
As you can see, Dragon Nip gives a significantly higher yield than all the others. In order, the best crops are
Dragon Nip
Sunflowers
Toothache Plant
Pumpkins
Corn
Cabbages
Lavender
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I like to spend my free time. Use this information as you will, and if you actually read all that I salute you.
EDIT: I'm not 100% satisfied with this method, but it's the best I can come up with for now. I'll think on it, and if I think of a better way to calculate the yield, I'll update the post. (Really I'm just not sure what to do about the fact that the water regenerates while the plant is growing. For crops with long growing times, this would increase the yield, but it's a bit complicated.).
If anyone has any suggestions let me know!
Long story short: Dragon Nip
Now here's why. I know Dragon Nip only gives you 20 gold profit, unlike crops like lavender that give you 96 gold profit, but just looking at profit ignores how long it takes to actually grow the crop. In the time it takes for one lavender to grow, I can grow 30 Dragon Nip.
(Long math based explanation follows. Feel free to ignore)
Basically, I just used a simple interest model of R=P(1+i*t) where R is the reward amount, P is the principle amount (the amount initially spent on seeds) and t is the time in minutes. I did all calculations based on a single bunch of crops i.e. the amount needed to get one reward from the job board.
For R, I took into account the leftover amounts of the harvest. For example, you need to plant three pumpkin seeds to get the required amount of pumpkins. But since pumpkin seeds give 6 pumpkins per seed, you have two left over when you give the required 16 to the job board, so R in this case would be 1.2 times the reward amount (since 18/16=1.2). This way you take into account what happens when you do this repeatedly and these leftovers accumulate.
P is simply the amount of required seeds times the price of each seed. Easy.
t was tricky, because what seems to be the bottleneck in the whole process is the water from the well. In order to take this into account it took the value for time to be the time taken for one plant to mature (since it's pretty safe to assume that people will plant more that one plant at the same time) plus the amount of time it takes for the water to regenerate for all of the plants. For example, corn only takes 5 minutes to grow, so if you were to plant 6 corn plants, in 5 minutes you would have all the necessary corn to get the reward. However, since doing this repeatedly will drain your well, you take into account the water needed to make the plants grow. Corn takes 2 waters per plant, so in all you need 12 water. Water takes about 1.5 minutes to regenerate (I timed it a 1m 25s, so I rounded). So in total for corn, I used a value of 12*1.5+5=23 for time.
Using this information, I just used the formula above (R=P[1+i*t]) and solved for i to see which crop would give the best yield. The results were as follows:
Lavender: 144(1+i*78)=1.2*240
i=.0128
Toothache Plant: 110(1+i*60)=220
i=.0167
Pumpkins: 126(1+i*48)=1.125*200
i=.0164
Cabbages: 108(1+i*48)=1.125*160
i=.0139
Sunflowers: 90(1+i*28.5)=140
i=.0195
Corn: 84(1+i*23)=1.125*100
i=.0148
Dragon Nip: 50(1+i*9.5)=70
i=.0421
As you can see, Dragon Nip gives a significantly higher yield than all the others. In order, the best crops are
Dragon Nip
Sunflowers
Toothache Plant
Pumpkins
Corn
Cabbages
Lavender
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I like to spend my free time. Use this information as you will, and if you actually read all that I salute you.
EDIT: I'm not 100% satisfied with this method, but it's the best I can come up with for now. I'll think on it, and if I think of a better way to calculate the yield, I'll update the post. (Really I'm just not sure what to do about the fact that the water regenerates while the plant is growing. For crops with long growing times, this would increase the yield, but it's a bit complicated.).
If anyone has any suggestions let me know!
