11/2/2022 Composter Notes & Seed Sowing

# Composting On Mars!

## Overview

It’s time to get dirty, Martians! In preparation for the expanding profession of Life Science and the upcoming launch of Cooking, Dusk Works Supplies is proud to offer a limited edition stock of Composter Blueprint packs! Available in limited supply and quantity, it may leave the shop at any time! Buy now while supplies last!

### How Composting Works:

* Players add things like Food, Regolith, Waste, and Ground Coffee to the Composter.
* Every day, resources are consumed from the building as they are decomposed, adding to the amount of soil storage in the building.
* Players can generate Fertilizer from the Soil Storage, which heat treats it further for contaminates, producing a higher quality product used for advanced farming processes with higher yields.
* Players can also extract Soil generated from their Composter.
* As players upgrade their Composter, they will unlock Composting Worms to be generated as part of the process. Worms will help consume food products faster, generating Biowaste and Soil faster, and are required in the production of Fertilizer!
* Worms will become an important part of Life Science loops as they’re also part of the process of generating Animal Feed. (More on the uses for this as we get closer to cooking!)

### Hazards:

* Players will need to manage moisture buildup inside the Composter or it will prevent any generation of Fertilizer or Soil from happening.
* This will not prevent the existing resources in the building from decomposing each day.
* If there’s too much moisture, this will also stop/or potentially kill off a % of the Worm population in the composter as well.

### Additional Notes:

* Players will need Fertilizer in the process of growing Mushrooms.
* Soil production will eventually be phased out of the CAD and become standard in the Composter loop.
* Fermentation will also be phased out of all buildings and occur exclusively in a new cooking building.
* We want to ensure that the CAD is prepared for chemical driven purposes, and that the Water filter also remains primarily in use for water filtration methods.
* Speaking of Water Filtration, consider this an official heads up that we will be adding an additional filtration loop to water filters where potable water is purified for Drinking and Cooking purposes. The current stock of water will be renamed “Potable Water” and will be used in farming and most existing recipe loops.
* There will be more uses for fertilizer in several new loops as the Life Science profession expands in the coming weeks!
* Consider this also an official heads up that Food Items will be grown in the Greenhouse when the Cooking System Launches! (Instead of getting “Food” you will produce the actual items you are growing like Lettuce, Sprouts, Sweet Potatoes, etc..)

### Shop

The Composter is available in the shop in limited quantities of Dusk (Degen Gambles and Straight Purchases), WAX, SOL, and Resource Credits (Degen Gambles and Straight Purchases).

### Market

Players can sell Blueprints and Composting related items on the in-game Marketplace for Dusk!

## Seed Sowing

Players with a max level Greenhouse can install a Seed Sowing Kit (Crafted in the 3d Print Shop by Fabricators) which converts their building into Seed focused production.

* Players will use Fertilizer in the process of planting advanced crops, and Sowing Seeds in the Greenhouse.
* Sowing seeds requires advanced level Life Science skills, and significantly larger numbers of Seeds than for normal planting, along with more power, and a much greater amount of time.
* Sowing seeds does not always produce a net positive amount of seeds, but has a range of output quantities that are intended to make it a worthwhile supply chain for those willing to meet the growing needs of player demands.
* Seeds will no longer drop from places like the Shop or Library.

## Life Science: After Sowing!

We thought this might be a good opportunity to give a heads up about the things in the works for Life Science that will impact the way gameplay systems are handled in certain ways in the future.

We will be introducing Building Kits like the Seed Sowing Kit, which are designed to be installed in a max level building. When installed, these kits will augment the stats and properties of that building, including and not limited to: Storage, Limits, Action Counts, Recipes, etc.. in a system we will call “Building Specialization”

Building kits can be removed by the Building owner, and replaced with a new one if they wish to change the building Specialization.

Our goal is to give players a range of customization options that make their decisions matter, and to give a strong incentive to upgrade those buildings to maximum level!

Here’s a look at some of the Kits we’re currently looking to implement in the future:

#### Greenhouse Kits:

* Seed Sowing Kit
* Aeroponics Kit
* Hydroponics Kit (Master Life Science Signet Required)
* Aquaponics Kit (Master Life Science Signet Required)

For the Greenhouse, we’re looking to build several kits which transform the gameplay from basic Soil Farming into a range of growing setups that have different costs and tradeoffs when used. We expect to see Aeroponic Sprout Farms, Hydroponic Tomato Farms, and Aquaponic Lettuce Farms fueling the supply chains needed to establish a healthy supply of ingredients needed to nourish the people of Mars. And that’s just the beginning! We’re saving the best for last in Life Science, and have something truly fun and special planned for those with dedication.

#### 3d Print Shop Kits (In-progress):

* Upgrade Shard Kits will provide Fabricators with an alternative means to spend their Signets instead of crafting expensive Blueprints and Packs.
* The goal is to give 3d Print Shops equippable Shard Kits that change the building into having the ability to produce Building Shards of a given Rarity, and to gate the production against a limited resource like Signets, so the supply and value do not fall into the floor.