Overlapping nodes (area of land that contains materials):
When a node is dug to depletion, all nodes that overlap will be depleted.
EG a Fine seed node which has an overlapping Choice wood node, the seed will depleted if you dig the wood to depletion and visa versa.
Important - when using multi spot it is possible to pop sources in two different, non-overlapping nodes! Digging these can cause the depeletion of two non-overlapping nodes, if these nodes overlap other nodes it is possible to deplete a very large area with only one or two digs!
Base digging time
The time you dig for, excluding +source time and rites, is based on the QL extraction stanzia you use.
EG use a ql50 stanzia you get less time to dig than using a ql100 stanzia.
This I believe is to prevent a high lvl digger extract more lower ql mats.
Digging Credit
The credit used on you extract plan has a fixed value of focus, so building an effective extract plan is down to fitting you 'best' extraction stanzia's into the lowest credit. The difference between a good harvester and a great harvester is building an effience extract plan. Hit MAX everything, is not necessarily the BEST plan.
Mats per source
Maximum mats you can extract from a single source (green blob) is 30, this is the game limitation.
Mats per prospect
Its possible to dig more than one source per prospect only if the time spent digging is less then the time-out period on the prospect.
The time-out period is based on the 'number of sources stanzia' used in the prospect.
Note: There is a finite time-out period for a prospect, however if you prospect and don't start digging immediately this time is extrended slightly.
Without killing a source I believe its posible to dig a maximum of 3 sources a prospect. However multiple Harvesters can make the best use of a spot, by digging 3 sources each.
Prospects per node
A node depletes after a fixed number of mats are extracted. However this can be exceed!
Ways to exceed the fixed number of mats from a single node.
for the sake of arguement lets say the max number of mats is 70.
If you prospect twice with 4 equal lvl diggers who can pull 20 mats a spot and dig 3 spots. It is possible to pull 240 mats from a node. However the next prospect with show the node as depleted, becuase the magic number has been exceeded.
A Single digger can prospect once and dig a spot then prospect again a dig 3 more spots. This exceeds the magic number, but again once exceeded the node if depleted.
This leads to confusion as different harvesters can pull different amounts of mats from nodes.
A gentle harvester pull 13 mats a source on 3 digs a prospect can often prospect 3 time a node giving total mats pulled in the 100 mats region. An aggressive harvester may pull 71 mats from their first prospect, this hints that gentle is 'better'. However 100+ mats 9 digs vs 71 mats 3 digs, its imporant to consider all factors. The aggresive digger will need to work more nodes but in roughly the same time period will pull about 2.5 times the mats!
ofc running around depleting spot in a high pop area (theos, dyron, upper bog) will not make you popular with the other harvesters!
Aggressive vs Gentle
Its has been a great debate, but AFSIK, they don't affect the speed of depletion.
This above is based on many hours of trial and error, studing and talking to other harvesters and reading everthing I can find about Harvesting.
I am not the highest level harvester, there are many lvl 250 digger out there.
I am not the most experience harvester, I have yet to play with the lvl 250 toys and I haven't dug extensively in all the ecosystems.
Final tips:
Focus is everything ..... more you have the longer you can dig for. However being effecient with 2k focus is much better than wasteful with 3k
I almost exclusively dig with a carer! ..... I will fight tooth and nail against anyone who tells me this is not the best way! I average 25xql dug per pull and 3 digs a prospect (can pull 28 but its not time effective). I get on average 1.4k XP as a number of spots contain less than 25 mats. My carer on average gets the same (usually more if a lot lower level). I use the analogy of a fight + healer vs solo fighter .... solo fighter can get more XP from the same mob, but when combined with a healer the XP goes down but the effectiveness goes up.
Tracking
Tracking with a mat grade is a real PAIN! If you are stood on a node that contains a different mat grade, it reports a error about different grade. This is not helpful. Also lvl 50 areas contain 'basic' mission mats, lvl100 areas contain 'fine' mission mats, lvl150 areas 'choice' mission mat, lvl 200 excellent and lvl 250 supreme .... this can be a nightmare for hunting do excelent and supreme mats.
Tracking with mat spec has similar issues and when you combine the two its a real nightmare. I have been lead to fine seeds when tracking for choice seeds and the seed part kicks in and ignores the grade and also visa versa!
Time of day
If you didn't know already you do know, so sorry
, mats are affected by time of day as well as season and weather. Yes snowy is different to raining. Yes it can be graphically raining when the weather is fine
Hope the above help, and I haven't made too many errors, the numbers are for llustration purposes.
