Storytime under the spoiler! It's more or less a rough draft, but my brain had the idea in a death grip and wouldn't let go until I spit this out.
Spoiler
You’ve inherited your grandfather’s old — wait, no. You’re a skilled magi and have decided that in addition to excelling at magic, you’re going to apply your considerable determination into becoming an agricultural entrepreneur! Grow crops to feed your creatures or sell for profit. Buy plots of land to cultivate and seeds to plant, upgrade your farm and fields, and ally yourself with a guild, whether you’ve undertaken the quest to become a member or not, to help them meet their needs (you aren’t quite sure why the Society of the Trident needs so many rutabagas, but they’re paying well for them, so maybe it’s best not to question). Just as your companions are critical to your magical abilities, so too are they the driving force at your farm. The Farming Stat, unique to each species, will determine the role they play, and their Efficiency will measure how well they execute their role. Careful breeding can make even the most common of Koi a true powerhouse of benefits for your farm.
Osyra is the local expert on all things Magricultural. She coined the term and is very proud of it; she’ll use it liberally when she talks to you and her feelings are easily hurt, so just smile and nod. She’s also the one you buy your land, seeds, fertilizers, and upgrades from, so you’d do well to make sure those feelings of hers remain unblemished, no matter how silly Magriculture sounds when it’s said five times in two sentences. She also sells unique spells that she’s developed, such as one that will protect crops from withering, and enchanted items. She will buy anything you grow and pay a premium for quality crops. On occasion, her research or experiments may demand a specific variety, and she is willing to pay even more for that crop. Her experiments don’t last long, however, so you’re encouraged to take advantage while you can. Osyra has mastered her craft through years of dedicated research, pressing onward even when she received very little or no support from her fellow magi. Her determination has yielded incredible results, such as the discovery of food for both creatures and people that contains so much nutritional value that certain effects in creatures have been noted and studied. Osyra is thrilled that you’re interested in Magriculture (yes, you are interested in Magriculture, not its boring cousin agriculture) and is eager to work with you to continue making discoveries.
Sava is Osyra’s long suffering business partner and a leading expert in breeding magical creatures. They joined Osyra’s work when she approached them with proof that a creature’s elemental affinity impacts their Efficiency when working in a Magricultural setting. They were further enticed when Osyra implied that Efficiency in the field could be refined through careful breeding; unable to resist the siren call of improving a species via TMC (tender magical care) and careful application of their life’s passion, Sava decided that this would be their magnum opus. Sava is able to pursue their research while also offering the unique opportunity for you to rent creatures from them to assist on your farm. When dealing with the sheer volume of creatures that they do (think Master Belmos-level creature retention — yeah, that many), they’ve got to clear out their stock every so often. One weekend every month, Sava offers eggs for sale to magi who have begun their Magricultural journey. Some of the eggs they offer belong to creatures that haven’t been seen in many long years — maybe you remember them from your early days at the Keep, when you were a greenhorn student, eyes wide and misty with wonder and affection for your very first companion.
While the thought of research and progress is stimulating and intriguing, you can’t deny the allure of profit, and neither can the prominent guilds that frequent the Keep. The guilds have attempted negotiations with both Osyra and Sava; Osyra tried, but ultimately realized that her gifts and talents did not reside in the realm of diplomacy and bartering, and Sava was quoted as being “too blighted busy to bother with politics”. Thus, they have come to you.
The guild that you undertook trials and quests for clearly expects you to enter into an agreement that will benefit them, though they have grudgingly admitted that you will not be expelled from the guild for allying your farm with one of the others, despite the significant frown on the representative’s face. You are free to ally yourself and your budding farm with the guild of your choosing. The guild will not demand anything of you and will not penalize or charge you if you don’t offer some of your harvest, but they are more than willing to reward you if you do. Your crops are of good quality, improving every day, and the guildmembers’ creatures benefit greatly from the addition of such superior food to their diets. You can’t imagine their creatures eat that much, though. Every week, the guild will very casually (read: not at all) list, in excruciating detail, what they currently need for whatever mystery project they’re cooking up. If you fill this request by the deadline, you’ll receive a voucher for a predetermined amount of guild credits, which can then be exchanged for a reward with the guild’s quartermaster. The quartermaster is authorized to offer you creatures exclusive to the guild, gold, unique spells and items, and even the results of why they needed all those rutabagas (it’s really awesome fertilizer — the gift that keeps on giving!).
Your booming business has also garnered the attentions of one Mr. Underhill, a traveling merchant. He pops up at wildly erratic intervals, and seemingly out of nowhere. He’s laden with belts, bags, satchels, pouches, sacks, and what looks to be a miniature mead barrel tied to his waist. Truly, he’s so overburdened that you have no idea how he manages to even shuffle about, to say nothing of his ability to scarper toot sweet the moment he hears scuttlebutt of another deal elsewhere. Regardless of his baffling abilities, he pays an obscene amount of gold for what he wants; what he wants, of course, is no small amount of a crop. He won’t even entertain the thought of buying less than a hundred units of whatever his eccentric little heart desires, but he’ll buy as much of it as you’ve got to offer (with diminishing returns, of course). He won’t be around longer than a day, but he’s guaranteed to be back — you just don’t know when.
Despite your nervousness at attempting something new and relatively unexplored, you cannot deny the excitement thrumming through your veins and singing under your skin. Even your magic is reacting as you stare out at your newly acquired plot of land, tingling at your fingertips at the possibilities for discovery and advancement. By your side, your creature companion looks on with an eager, almost knowing glint in its eye, as if it’s been waiting for you to tap into the potential it has always possessed.
You’re going to do great things.
Osyra is the local expert on all things Magricultural. She coined the term and is very proud of it; she’ll use it liberally when she talks to you and her feelings are easily hurt, so just smile and nod. She’s also the one you buy your land, seeds, fertilizers, and upgrades from, so you’d do well to make sure those feelings of hers remain unblemished, no matter how silly Magriculture sounds when it’s said five times in two sentences. She also sells unique spells that she’s developed, such as one that will protect crops from withering, and enchanted items. She will buy anything you grow and pay a premium for quality crops. On occasion, her research or experiments may demand a specific variety, and she is willing to pay even more for that crop. Her experiments don’t last long, however, so you’re encouraged to take advantage while you can. Osyra has mastered her craft through years of dedicated research, pressing onward even when she received very little or no support from her fellow magi. Her determination has yielded incredible results, such as the discovery of food for both creatures and people that contains so much nutritional value that certain effects in creatures have been noted and studied. Osyra is thrilled that you’re interested in Magriculture (yes, you are interested in Magriculture, not its boring cousin agriculture) and is eager to work with you to continue making discoveries.
Sava is Osyra’s long suffering business partner and a leading expert in breeding magical creatures. They joined Osyra’s work when she approached them with proof that a creature’s elemental affinity impacts their Efficiency when working in a Magricultural setting. They were further enticed when Osyra implied that Efficiency in the field could be refined through careful breeding; unable to resist the siren call of improving a species via TMC (tender magical care) and careful application of their life’s passion, Sava decided that this would be their magnum opus. Sava is able to pursue their research while also offering the unique opportunity for you to rent creatures from them to assist on your farm. When dealing with the sheer volume of creatures that they do (think Master Belmos-level creature retention — yeah, that many), they’ve got to clear out their stock every so often. One weekend every month, Sava offers eggs for sale to magi who have begun their Magricultural journey. Some of the eggs they offer belong to creatures that haven’t been seen in many long years — maybe you remember them from your early days at the Keep, when you were a greenhorn student, eyes wide and misty with wonder and affection for your very first companion.
While the thought of research and progress is stimulating and intriguing, you can’t deny the allure of profit, and neither can the prominent guilds that frequent the Keep. The guilds have attempted negotiations with both Osyra and Sava; Osyra tried, but ultimately realized that her gifts and talents did not reside in the realm of diplomacy and bartering, and Sava was quoted as being “too blighted busy to bother with politics”. Thus, they have come to you.
The guild that you undertook trials and quests for clearly expects you to enter into an agreement that will benefit them, though they have grudgingly admitted that you will not be expelled from the guild for allying your farm with one of the others, despite the significant frown on the representative’s face. You are free to ally yourself and your budding farm with the guild of your choosing. The guild will not demand anything of you and will not penalize or charge you if you don’t offer some of your harvest, but they are more than willing to reward you if you do. Your crops are of good quality, improving every day, and the guildmembers’ creatures benefit greatly from the addition of such superior food to their diets. You can’t imagine their creatures eat that much, though. Every week, the guild will very casually (read: not at all) list, in excruciating detail, what they currently need for whatever mystery project they’re cooking up. If you fill this request by the deadline, you’ll receive a voucher for a predetermined amount of guild credits, which can then be exchanged for a reward with the guild’s quartermaster. The quartermaster is authorized to offer you creatures exclusive to the guild, gold, unique spells and items, and even the results of why they needed all those rutabagas (it’s really awesome fertilizer — the gift that keeps on giving!).
Your booming business has also garnered the attentions of one Mr. Underhill, a traveling merchant. He pops up at wildly erratic intervals, and seemingly out of nowhere. He’s laden with belts, bags, satchels, pouches, sacks, and what looks to be a miniature mead barrel tied to his waist. Truly, he’s so overburdened that you have no idea how he manages to even shuffle about, to say nothing of his ability to scarper toot sweet the moment he hears scuttlebutt of another deal elsewhere. Regardless of his baffling abilities, he pays an obscene amount of gold for what he wants; what he wants, of course, is no small amount of a crop. He won’t even entertain the thought of buying less than a hundred units of whatever his eccentric little heart desires, but he’ll buy as much of it as you’ve got to offer (with diminishing returns, of course). He won’t be around longer than a day, but he’s guaranteed to be back — you just don’t know when.
Despite your nervousness at attempting something new and relatively unexplored, you cannot deny the excitement thrumming through your veins and singing under your skin. Even your magic is reacting as you stare out at your newly acquired plot of land, tingling at your fingertips at the possibilities for discovery and advancement. By your side, your creature companion looks on with an eager, almost knowing glint in its eye, as if it’s been waiting for you to tap into the potential it has always possessed.
You’re going to do great things.
This is what I've got so far in regards to farming. Of course, if this idea is accepted even on a tertiary level, everything is open and subject to change, but I wanted to provide as comprehensive a baseline as possible. I know people want to see new things on the site, and I know the team is working so, so hard on bringing that to us, and so I've just been trying to think of something that could be helpful. This is what I've got.
Spoiler
Farming Skill and Efficiency
Farming Skills: Tilling, Fertilizing, Planting, Watering, Harvesting.
Skills are fixed per species and cannot be changed. The skills determine which role the creature will undertake while they help you with your farm. Select a field you want to work in and you will be presented with a brief description of its status and a selection of current available actions. Choose the action you want to do — Till the Land, Fertilize the Soil, Plant the Seeds, Water the Seed/Sprout/Plant, Harvest the Crop — and a list of creatures available to you to use to perform that action will become available to you. Choose the creature to use and they’ll help you out with your task! All creatures have a farming cooldown period. A longer cooldown period could encourage people to have larger collections of creatures and participate in Mercado to buy and sell good farming creatures.
Efficiency: Base scale of 1 to 10, however 7 is the cap for unboosted Efficiency. This value determines how well they perform their assigned skill, and affects other aspects of the skills as well. A higher efficiency rating means a higher chance of the following aspects of the skills activating. Tilling: Success rate of removing rocks from soil (increasing amount that can be planted) and, if the field has been used before, the chance for finding extra seeds from the previous crop. Fertilizing: Increased chance to use less fertilizer per field and chance to improve the quality of the crop. Planting: Increased chance to plant a seed without losing one from your inventory. Watering: Increased chance for the field to stay watered longer and a chance to improve the quality of the crop. Harvesting: Reduce the amount of crop waste and a chance to improve the quality of the crop.
There has been a massive focus on parentless creatures throughout the history of MagiStream. People want parentless and nothing else, to the point that bred stream creatures, unless they’re part of a lineage, are given little to no value by players. The Efficiency rating in farming changes that.
Stream, shop, quest, and event (including gift) creatures improve their Efficiency through breeding. In farming, a parentless creature will never have a higher efficiency rating than a bred creature. Inversely, a bred creature may have the same Efficiency as a parentless creature, but there is always the chance that the bred creature’s Efficiency could be higher than its parents. There are ways to increase the chance of offspring being hatched with a better Efficiency, such as utilizing items on the parents prior to breeding, or having a breeding bonus active. Without the parent creatures consuming an item, whether it’s a high quality crop you’ve grown or a potion you bought, the chance for a bred creature to have a higher Efficiency than its parents is randomized, but not impossible.
Stream, shop, quest, and event creatures all have the same chance for their offspring to have a higher Efficiency than them. For example, older event creatures or the more expensive shop creatures do not have a better chance at producing offspring with a higher Efficiency than a common stream creature or the grass forest quest creatures. The goal in farming is to encourage value in bred creatures, not to create a new rarity that will be coveted.
Donation creatures are unique in farming. Donation creatures do not have a skill or Efficiency level. They are capable of performing any task presented to them, but due to their lack of skill and Efficiency in farming, they will be less effective than a well bred stream creature. This mechanic encourages value in non-donation creatures — a sixth generation Baku that has been carefully bred to raise its Efficiency will be more valuable to someone interested in farming than a brand new donation creature. Donation creatures will never lose their value for being what they are, but every creature in MagiStream is worth our time and appreciation; in farming, donis can take a well earned break and let others have the spotlight.
Boosting Efficiency: Efficiency can be boosted in a number of ways. The Farm Shop has a potion that provides a small boost, and your allied guild can offer their assistance in the form of rewards for completing their requisitions. The largest boosts in Efficiency, however, come from the seasons. The seasons don’t affect the crops, and perhaps not really your creatures, but rather the element tied to your creature. In the Spring, creatures with an affinity to Air receive a boost to their Efficiency. Summer is for Fire, Autumn is for Earth, and Winter is for Water. Light aligned creatures work better during the day, and Void aligned creatures find success beneath the stars. Creatures whose affinity is Life find that their Efficiency is stronger when the overall health rating of the field they’re assigned to is high. Neutral creatures work with the residual energy left by the creature that came before it, and their bonus is tied to their Efficiency level, giving them significant potential.
Guild Alliance
You can ally your farm with a guild. The Dark Brotherhood, the Society of the Trident, the Herbalists Guild, and even the Preservationists Association are all interested in working with you. The Artificer’s Association doesn’t seem to care one way or the other about your crops, since none of their creatures eat normal food. You can choose one group to ally yourself with, and it doesn’t matter if you’ve completed the quest to become an official member of that group or not.
Large Reward Quest: Every Monday, at a set time, your allied guild will post a request for you to fulfill. This request is typically a large number of a specific crop, or many crops of a specific quality, though it could also be a request for them to borrow a creature with a certain skill or Efficiency. You have until Saturday, at a set time, to fulfill the requisition, and from that cutoff time on Saturday until the Monday refresh time to redeem your reward.
Your reward will vary. Guild credits, a guild-specific currency which can be redeemed with their quartermaster for their stock, are always included in the reward for fulfilling their requisition. They may also offer you rare seeds, unique spells to benefit your farm, breeding and Efficiency boosts, or even samples of the projects they’ve been working on. Many of the organizations are working on spells, potions, and supplements that only work on the creatures they specialize in, and may offer these as rewards for your continued contributions.
Small Reward Quest: Every day, you can fulfill a daily guild requisition to earn a small yet steady income of credits. This requisition is meant to be easily completed within a day, and so will ask for a reasonable number of crops. The volume and quality of their requests will scale with your guild alliance level and your farm’s level.
The guild’s quartermaster runs a shop available to you where you can exchange your guild credits, if you have them to spare and don’t want to wait for a particular item to be offered as a reward. The quartermaster also has a stock of their guild’s creature’s eggs available. They will only accept guild credits for the eggs, not gold, and you cannot buy guild credits with gold.
More to come: guild alliance level, guild rivalries?, guild strengths/weaknesses, farm level and field health, shops and gold earning mechanics, frequency of tending your farm, length of time to grow crops vs. acquiring crops to meet weekly guild requisitions, donation/shard options, retired event creature acquisition through a shop?, crop waste becoming fertilizer, and more as I wring my brain dry like a dishrag to come up with something that could be fun.
Farming Skills: Tilling, Fertilizing, Planting, Watering, Harvesting.
Skills are fixed per species and cannot be changed. The skills determine which role the creature will undertake while they help you with your farm. Select a field you want to work in and you will be presented with a brief description of its status and a selection of current available actions. Choose the action you want to do — Till the Land, Fertilize the Soil, Plant the Seeds, Water the Seed/Sprout/Plant, Harvest the Crop — and a list of creatures available to you to use to perform that action will become available to you. Choose the creature to use and they’ll help you out with your task! All creatures have a farming cooldown period. A longer cooldown period could encourage people to have larger collections of creatures and participate in Mercado to buy and sell good farming creatures.
Efficiency: Base scale of 1 to 10, however 7 is the cap for unboosted Efficiency. This value determines how well they perform their assigned skill, and affects other aspects of the skills as well. A higher efficiency rating means a higher chance of the following aspects of the skills activating. Tilling: Success rate of removing rocks from soil (increasing amount that can be planted) and, if the field has been used before, the chance for finding extra seeds from the previous crop. Fertilizing: Increased chance to use less fertilizer per field and chance to improve the quality of the crop. Planting: Increased chance to plant a seed without losing one from your inventory. Watering: Increased chance for the field to stay watered longer and a chance to improve the quality of the crop. Harvesting: Reduce the amount of crop waste and a chance to improve the quality of the crop.
There has been a massive focus on parentless creatures throughout the history of MagiStream. People want parentless and nothing else, to the point that bred stream creatures, unless they’re part of a lineage, are given little to no value by players. The Efficiency rating in farming changes that.
Stream, shop, quest, and event (including gift) creatures improve their Efficiency through breeding. In farming, a parentless creature will never have a higher efficiency rating than a bred creature. Inversely, a bred creature may have the same Efficiency as a parentless creature, but there is always the chance that the bred creature’s Efficiency could be higher than its parents. There are ways to increase the chance of offspring being hatched with a better Efficiency, such as utilizing items on the parents prior to breeding, or having a breeding bonus active. Without the parent creatures consuming an item, whether it’s a high quality crop you’ve grown or a potion you bought, the chance for a bred creature to have a higher Efficiency than its parents is randomized, but not impossible.
Stream, shop, quest, and event creatures all have the same chance for their offspring to have a higher Efficiency than them. For example, older event creatures or the more expensive shop creatures do not have a better chance at producing offspring with a higher Efficiency than a common stream creature or the grass forest quest creatures. The goal in farming is to encourage value in bred creatures, not to create a new rarity that will be coveted.
Donation creatures are unique in farming. Donation creatures do not have a skill or Efficiency level. They are capable of performing any task presented to them, but due to their lack of skill and Efficiency in farming, they will be less effective than a well bred stream creature. This mechanic encourages value in non-donation creatures — a sixth generation Baku that has been carefully bred to raise its Efficiency will be more valuable to someone interested in farming than a brand new donation creature. Donation creatures will never lose their value for being what they are, but every creature in MagiStream is worth our time and appreciation; in farming, donis can take a well earned break and let others have the spotlight.
Boosting Efficiency: Efficiency can be boosted in a number of ways. The Farm Shop has a potion that provides a small boost, and your allied guild can offer their assistance in the form of rewards for completing their requisitions. The largest boosts in Efficiency, however, come from the seasons. The seasons don’t affect the crops, and perhaps not really your creatures, but rather the element tied to your creature. In the Spring, creatures with an affinity to Air receive a boost to their Efficiency. Summer is for Fire, Autumn is for Earth, and Winter is for Water. Light aligned creatures work better during the day, and Void aligned creatures find success beneath the stars. Creatures whose affinity is Life find that their Efficiency is stronger when the overall health rating of the field they’re assigned to is high. Neutral creatures work with the residual energy left by the creature that came before it, and their bonus is tied to their Efficiency level, giving them significant potential.
Guild Alliance
You can ally your farm with a guild. The Dark Brotherhood, the Society of the Trident, the Herbalists Guild, and even the Preservationists Association are all interested in working with you. The Artificer’s Association doesn’t seem to care one way or the other about your crops, since none of their creatures eat normal food. You can choose one group to ally yourself with, and it doesn’t matter if you’ve completed the quest to become an official member of that group or not.
Large Reward Quest: Every Monday, at a set time, your allied guild will post a request for you to fulfill. This request is typically a large number of a specific crop, or many crops of a specific quality, though it could also be a request for them to borrow a creature with a certain skill or Efficiency. You have until Saturday, at a set time, to fulfill the requisition, and from that cutoff time on Saturday until the Monday refresh time to redeem your reward.
Your reward will vary. Guild credits, a guild-specific currency which can be redeemed with their quartermaster for their stock, are always included in the reward for fulfilling their requisition. They may also offer you rare seeds, unique spells to benefit your farm, breeding and Efficiency boosts, or even samples of the projects they’ve been working on. Many of the organizations are working on spells, potions, and supplements that only work on the creatures they specialize in, and may offer these as rewards for your continued contributions.
Small Reward Quest: Every day, you can fulfill a daily guild requisition to earn a small yet steady income of credits. This requisition is meant to be easily completed within a day, and so will ask for a reasonable number of crops. The volume and quality of their requests will scale with your guild alliance level and your farm’s level.
The guild’s quartermaster runs a shop available to you where you can exchange your guild credits, if you have them to spare and don’t want to wait for a particular item to be offered as a reward. The quartermaster also has a stock of their guild’s creature’s eggs available. They will only accept guild credits for the eggs, not gold, and you cannot buy guild credits with gold.
More to come: guild alliance level, guild rivalries?, guild strengths/weaknesses, farm level and field health, shops and gold earning mechanics, frequency of tending your farm, length of time to grow crops vs. acquiring crops to meet weekly guild requisitions, donation/shard options, retired event creature acquisition through a shop?, crop waste becoming fertilizer, and more as I wring my brain dry like a dishrag to come up with something that could be fun.
It could answer many, if not even all the issues in the game currently, and you clearly have put a lot of thought into it. I would be very excited to see it implemented, and I agree with your thoughts on the game wholeheartedly. I would like to add, that you should not be punished (or rewarded) if you go on a hiatus, so time should not affect your farming level. Different combinations of stats and elements would create a lot of variety for roles and niches creatures can have. Additionally I find the idea, that instead of being treated as a breeding fail stuck in a giveaway, even something so humble as a high gen koi that no one would look at twice otherwise would become a coveted and loved companion, heartwarming 
12th of Jan
I've already got like, three more ideas just from this wall of text, but I need to think and compile and plot. Fortunately, I've got a nice long vacation coming up 
I'll keep y'all updated with any ideas that don't sound completely dumb!
even if it was just something as simple as putting a small image of the moon shard next to the creatures type (so say female scarf wyrm -moon shard image-) then this image would disappear if you used a sun shard on it again
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