I have my beautiful plot of Couch Potatoes that I've all planted at the same time. Some strays has a water and music need. Not all, some.
Do I: A) Wait for every other Couch Potato to need water and music, then do my large AOE gardening spells.
or
B) Use my large AOE gardening spells on all of them, regardless of need, since casting it will prevent the need from showing up in the near future/reset a need timer.
I've always done A since I'm not sure B is how Needs work. Do their "timers" reset if the plant is cast on? I've had some progress to dead due to my negligent waiting so that's why I'm asking if B is how I should think. I've never had the heart to try for risk of losing energy and possibly not even verifying the result.
I think any timer reset is pretty minimal. If you tend the plants, and then return in 2 hours, I think you will find that most of the plants have needs now, and tending them a few hours ago did not prevent that. If you visit and only some have needs, I'd recommend returning in an hour or two if you are expecting a harvest or for them to progress. If not, or if you can't do that then just tend them and don't come back until tomorrow. You don't want to risk leaving them overnight with needs, because that will make them start dying.
But I think your main problem is you are visiting your garden way too often. If only a few have developed needs, they aren't in imminent danger of dying, but they also haven't progressed to where they will advance a stage or give you a harvest. So you gained nothing by visiting, and now you have to commit to use energy to tend plants that aren't doing anything. Visit once a day, or at most twice well spaced out, and the plants will all have needs and be ready to advance or harvest.
I have my beautiful plot of Couch Potatoes that I've all planted at the same time. Some strays has a water and music need. Not all, some.
Do I: A) Wait for every other Couch Potato to need water and music, then do my large AOE gardening spells.
or
B) Use my large AOE gardening spells on all of them, regardless of need, since casting it will prevent the need from showing up in the near future/reset a need timer.
I've always done A since I'm not sure B is how Needs work. Do their "timers" reset if the plant is cast on? I've had some progress to dead due to my negligent waiting so that's why I'm asking if B is how I should think. I've never had the heart to try for risk of losing energy and possibly not even verifying the result.
What I would do is attend your Couch Potatoes only once per day. Once you have been to you house and taken care of the needs unequip your house, so you don't accidentally return causing fresh needs. This stops your dilemma from happening. I think we have all had your problem at one time or another but once you get in the habit of unequipping your house you won't have any problems.
I do believe you have 4-5 hours from the time you visit your house, seeing Couch Potato needs and them starting "progress to dead". Other plants may last longer or shorter. I hope this helps.
Large spells have a limit of 69 plants, have you exceeded this? Still I have had some progress weird and out of step for no reason.
I would tend the needs, hopefully they still hit elder at the same time. If you leave your plants with needs they will progress to dead and be way out of sync.
-Crafted teleporters and unequipped my farm. This way, I don't accidentally trigger anything.
-Visit my farm way less regularly.
This way, I now have a surplus of energy I can spend without worrying about my farm. I'm on my way to making a second 69 plotted Couch Potato farm, which I'm very excited for. Thank you for all the posts.
