Topic

Loam - once a valued commodity, now a worthless bag-filler?

With the changes to urth blocks, I find myself digging more loam than I can use.  I know there is some proportion used in blockmaking, and some for projects but I can't help but think it's now a junk item.

Anyone else?

Posted 6 months ago by chicgeek Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • I agree. There's too much of it. I've tried selling them in the Auctions, but they don't sell. Now I just give them away.

    Perhaps they will be valuable again when (hopefully many) new players enter the game and will want to expand their houses.
    Posted 6 months ago by Flowerry Pott Subscriber! | Permalink
  • God I hate loam.
    Posted 6 months ago by Pale Queen Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I was under the impression that donating and vendors would prevent anything worthless.
    Posted 6 months ago by Akhen Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I donated 4k loam yesterday - will keep saving it up to donate from now on :) Get so much for free (loam) when gardening!
    Posted 6 months ago by ~Arabesque~ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • and need a lot of dirts for all the homestreet projects :(
    Posted 6 months ago by rosedragon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • we need a dirt upgrade card - get x percent  more dirt and less loam per digdigdig
    Posted 6 months ago by Treesa Subscriber! | Permalink
  • What's funny is levelling up soil appreciation gives you more loam.

    The problem is that loam -replaces- dirt in a dig. Loam should instead be an added bonus, but dirt is always dug each time regardless.
    Posted 6 months ago by Lorraine ♪ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I ended up unlearning the top levels of Soil Appreciation in the hopes of getting less loam.  My loam overflow isn't as bad as it used to be, but it would be great if it was a bonus rather than a replacement, as Lorraine suggests.
    Posted 6 months ago by Twotone Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Lorraine I agree. At 75 dirt per crop plot restoration, I find myself needing dirt much more than loam.
    Posted 6 months ago by Janitch Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes, the higher level skill now seems to be a hindrance since loam isn't really used for much.  Hopefully, they balance this out at some point.  Tempted now to unlearn SA5 at least...but suspect we'll eventually need it...the question is when...it might be worth that 9+ day relearning penalty just to get more dirt than loam for now.
    Posted 6 months ago by b3achy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I noticed that something was off, too - I have five large plots in my backyard, and what with the restoration, I actually managed to run out of earth and still have quite a bit of loam left.
    Posted 6 months ago by Not a Princess Subscriber! | Permalink
  • My only use for loam now is donations, really...
    Posted 5 months ago by chicgeek Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I didn't play around with blockmakers much when they had the A AA AAA and Brick blocks, because I didn't figure I'd never use them (street projects weren't around, etc etc), so I don't remember the recipes. Because those blocks came in different tiers, they had different balances of earth vs loam and loam I'm guessing was quite valuable on the higher grade blocks.

    Now that they removed most of those recipes, leaving us with just one unified block, it gives loam very little use outside of that one recipe. Earth is ultimately what winds up being used in all the garden projects.

    Honestly, they should cut the earth cost in garden restoration quite a bit and add in a significant loam requirement, especially if they don't intend to change the current dirt pile/soil appreciation yield system.
    Posted 5 months ago by Lorraine ♪ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Even when it is worth selling, people will sell it for under vendor price like they do about everything else.

    >.>
    <.<
    -.-
    Posted 5 months ago by Serra Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Earth is fine and useful and sometimes runs out under the demands of crop bed renewal, loam I just stack up till it's worth dumping in the round file for img.
    Posted 5 months ago by Benzyl Subscriber! | Permalink
  • That's the problem Benzyl. Earth is needed too much, Loam needed way too little. Thing is, with SA5 you get loam more often than you get earth from a dirt pile, and the two rewards are currently mutually exclusive. This makes it very tough to keep up with the garden restoration requirements, let alone making Urth blocks.

    Also, loam, by definition, should be richer, rarer, and more valuable than standard dirt. Currently, it's the opposite in terms of how those items are used in gameplay atm.
    Posted 5 months ago by Lorraine ♪ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • This is a definite problem; add more loam quantities in items, such as a more equal loam:dirt for urth block ingredients.
    Posted 5 months ago by Palindrome Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Loam might be nice to allow you to upgrade the quality/size of your garden or herb plots.

    Might as well put it to use.
    Posted 5 months ago by ☣ elf ☣ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It is high in minerals, vitamins and fiber.  Why can't we eat it?
    Posted 5 months ago by WalruZ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Id eat mine.  Often.  MMMM LOAMS.
    Posted 5 months ago by ☣ elf ☣ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I unlearned the top two Soil Appreciations so I wouldn't get as much loam.
    Takes a little longer to dig but significantly less loam.
    Posted 5 months ago by Otto Otto Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Tool vendor buys it for 8 currants, i think. 
    Posted 5 months ago by Papa Legba Subscriber! | Permalink
  • *ssshhhhh*

    we werent supposed to talk about that~
    Posted 5 months ago by flask Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It'd be nice if large gardens took 50 earth and 25 loam to restore, instead of 75 earth.
    Posted 5 months ago by Guts Duodenum Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Start using it for the machine badges at other people's houses and stuff sheesh peoples!
    Posted 5 months ago by PeanutbuttahJelleh Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i have found the giants like it quitw a bit
    Posted 5 months ago by tiggy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think they made a change to loam received from gardening. I did my 5 large plots this morning and no loam! I did get a fuel cell and a ruby and that's the first time i got either of those from gardening!
    Posted 5 months ago by UrgleBurger Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yeah I got a fuel cell and ruby this morning too. A very nice surprise indeed
    Posted 5 months ago by Jessenya Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Anyone who doesn't want loam is welcome to donate it to me. :)
    Posted 5 months ago by dm Subscriber! | Permalink
  • my only issue is when i'm digging for urths, I never get enough.  instead a ton of loam...
    Posted 5 months ago by Airya Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Because higher level Soil Appreciation skill gives a greater chance of getting loam instead of Earth, it is probably a bad thing right now.  I bought quite a bit of earth at what I thought was a reasonable price of around 60c per lump (20 times it's list value) but for some reason people are selling loam at auction for 5c (please take note you can sell it to most vendors for 6c or the tool vendor for 8c).

    As Lorraine said, the real solution is to change the cost of fixing gardens to have much less earth and to include loam (perhaps get rid of the earth entirely).  Another possibility would be a way to use a high level Soil Appreciation skill to extract earth from loam - maybe using a shovel (2 energy + 1 loam + 1 unit of shovel wear + 1 second = 4 earth would be less than generous but people would be doing it).

    Alternatively they could just make loam useful for something in the quantities it is generated.
    Posted 5 months ago by Humbabella Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 to making loam the primary ingredient for restoring gardening plots (it's what you would use in a real garden anyway, see loam).
    Posted 5 months ago by Janitch Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm sticking mine in an SDB because I just *know* that if I get rid of it all, a Really Cool Thing that requires lots of loam will be introduced. See also, donating all my Planks before Furnituremaking was introduced.
    Posted 5 months ago by Batsgirl Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree with Batsgirl. Store it up just in case of...something.
    Posted 5 months ago by dm Subscriber! | Permalink
  • you all can be happy now...your loam has a use!
    Posted 5 months ago by phelps.mike Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @phelps.mike Oh? Do tell! :D
    Posted 5 months ago by Pascale Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Change log beat him to it, Pascale. =) "Restoration projects for gardens now require more loam; high-level herbalism now drops less loam (fuel cells and rubies instead?!) — bonusy!"
    Posted 5 months ago by Magic Monkey Subscriber! | Permalink
  • What Changelog said! Watering, planting and clearing of herb plots now results in less loam bonuses (but more rubies and fuel cells), and restoration of all gardens now requires Loam instead of Guano.

    Thanks for your feedback as always!
    Posted 5 months ago by Mart Lume Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thanks Mart!
    Posted 5 months ago by Maxy Cat Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Love the change from guano to loam. :)
    Posted 5 months ago by Tibbi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Off to re-learn Soil Appreciation 4 and 5. Thanks, Tiny Speck!
    Posted 5 months ago by Flowerry Pott Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Awesome, thanks!
    Posted 5 months ago by WeavingTheWeb Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I love that Tiny Speck is so responsive to feedback! yay for a great change :)
    Posted 5 months ago by Vastra Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Whoa, thanks for the change, especially from guano to loam....and oh, goodie... Rooooobbbbbbieeeeees!!  :D
    Posted 5 months ago by b3achy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Dude, awesome! Thanks for the fix, TS - you guys are great.
    Posted 5 months ago by Tathak Subscriber! | Permalink
  • TS works in mysterious ways.. lol
    Posted 5 months ago by I'm Chris Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yessssssssssssssssss.  Thank you!
    Posted 5 months ago by Brigitte Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yippee!
    Posted 5 months ago by Jarhaven Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Loam instead of guano??  Oh THANK YOU~!  Feeding batterflys is such a pain!
    Posted 5 months ago by Genki-baba Subscriber! | Permalink
  • So grateful for the change. Still wish digging dirt piles would give more urth on average. Got 12 urth and 8 loam from digging two piles 5x each :(
    Posted 5 months ago by foolbunny Subscriber! | Permalink
  • So happy to have a loam-sink again.

    Additionally happy to have insanely responsive developers, a well as rubies and fuel cells...
    Posted 5 months ago by chicgeek Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Way better now ~Thank You! I think it's awesome how awesome our Awesomers are! =)
    Posted 5 months ago by ~Scilly~ Subscriber! | Permalink