Sprinklers - annoying

[Goemaat]

I would like the 'water now' button to work when the sprinklers are 'unpowered' or to only water once. 

They don't require constant energy anyway.  The way they work by 'water now' starting a cycle where they water every hour doesn't really make sense.  The 'water now' button should just water once.  There should be a separate button for making them water automatically.  There are many times when I plant when I just want to water my 24 plants without enabling automatic sprinkling.  Right now I have to leave them powered off, then power them on, click 'sprinkle now', then power them off again.

Of course it would be best if they would only water crops that needed watering, but I can see how that would be difficult since you wouldn't want them watering every time you planted one seed.  Maybe 'auto' mode could just not water if there are no plants that will require watering (i.e. they are all ready to harvest or there just aren't any crops)

It would also be nice if they didn't block actions on crops.  Also it would be nice if they didn't block movement as badly as they do now.  Maybe they could be made smaller so you could walk around them easier and they didn't block the crops above them.

Thanks

[ai_enabled]

Hello!

Thank you for your feedback (and for registering here!).

Of course it would be best if they would only water crops that needed watering

This is already done in some form: the sprinkler scans around to check if there are plants that are not spoiled and have their water level below 100%. If there are no such plants, watering will be skipped (no water/electricity consumed). Even when you manually press the button it will not spend water/electricity if there are no valid plants nearby.

However, it doesn't check for plants that have harvest. We will check and improve if necessary.

Right now I have to leave them powered off, then power them on, click 'sprinkle now', then power them off again.

I don't think having a button to water only once is a good idea. The presence of such a button will create confusion and make players approach it wrong. Our intention is to provide convenience and reduce micromanagement.

Please note that in the latest patch (released just a day ago, before you posted this topic) we've made that sprinkler consumers 3 times less water. It will last (when filled with water completely full) for 5+ days even when it will be watering every hour plants around it.

Regarding their size causing problems for you when walking around—if you can, please share a link on a screenshot. We will check and consider adjusting the collision bounds.

Regards!

[Goemaat]

Maybe I'm the odd one...  Everything about them confused me when I started using them.  I didn't figure out until yesterday that watering crops that were ready to harvest prevented them from spoiling. 

First off I didn't know why my sprinklers weren't doing anything.  I had them powered on and full of water, but they just didn't do anything.  I think the first few times I used them I pushed the 'water now' button and didn't see the countdown, so I came back to click the button again every time.  It wasn't natural for me to think that a button that says 'water now' will actually enable automatic watering.  I assumed that they would water automatically if powered on.   Just changing the text to 'Enable' and leave it watering immediately would prevent more confusion than it causes I think.

Them consuming less water is a very welcome change, thank you.  When I started I didn't even care about automatic watering, it just used too much energy and refilling the water was more work than it was worth.  I was just happy I could water 24 plants at a time without clicking on each one with my watering can and refilling it several times.