Is Foraging "Fun"?

[thebax]

hello Can you give an example?

Kk I mostly uses it above ground. When I be tracking fer exe mats only, it most often werks, tho thar do be de chance in 200 zones fer mission mats When I be tryin fer specific mat type, it usually werks (ie wood, seed, etc.) tho o' course de grade varies lots (cuz I puts de "up to exe" stanza in, jus in case I gits lucky ) When I say usually, I means aroun 9 out o' 10 times, in a place whar I gots mastery. Some chance o' failure be acceptable to me, e'en wit Webster's definition o' "mastery".

Wit all de followin', I uses terrain spec. When I looks fer "only excellent" and "wood" I be usually directed to de nearest, tho sumtimes farthest iffin I be usin 500m, source o' wood, typically a standard source field (basic-choice). Happens 8-9 times outta 10. Happens 100% o' de time when I be in wunna dem source fields when I starts trackin. Usin, say "only excellent" "Motega wood" yields de same result, e'en iffin de wood I finds be Abahaya. And at least once, usin de "only fine" and "amber" specs (I wer lookin fer a field fer grind mats) I wer lead to an exe Sha spot, wit NO other mats anywhar near, jus choice an' exe Sha. Dat wer de only pleasent surprise in o'er 10 months o' tracking (I experimented a bit afore submitting me problem, jus to make sher I werna doin it wrong). It don seem to matter iffin I uses e'en twice de cost to track in a place whar I be a supposed master, or wot permutations o' de bricks I mix together, when I be searchin fer sumptin specific success be about 10% fer me wit tracking.

[petej]

Yeah i think tracking is ok but some spots are broken/bad , i would like some more filter options tho ie:-

Exc and Sup only
Choice to Supreme
Mission mats only
Basic only
Mission mat blocker

Also id like tracking changed so it didnt report mats that wernt what you were looking for ie:- "some mats of a lower/higher quality" being detected , i just want the result for what im looking for , ie not in this area/not atm/wrong season/wrong weather

Edit- Oh yeah n foraging is fun as long as you dont get too carried away with it (much more fun than constant spawn camping for combat lvling *yawn*)

[magick1]

Basic only

Isn't that done by not useing any quality 'bricks'?

And a no mission mats filter would be nice as well.

[trenker]

So the majority enjoy foraging. Yeah right, I find that hard to believe. I mean you may enjoy fighting mobs on the way in or out, or you may enjoy selling the mats to folkses, but just kneeling there digging them up? Man alive, I thought this was a mature community, not an old people's home!

Imagine a table top game where you and yer mates sit around chatting and looking at pictures and every 5 mins the DM says "oh, you have 99 mats". Hmmm, exciting game not.

You may enjoy talking to your guild mates or watching other harvesters blow themselves up but just kneeling there digging?

Oh man, you are sooo easy to please its not surprising this game is still limping along.

Dont get me wrong, I have 200 levels in digging, but thats enough thaaaank youuuu for a lifetime. And after the same old stanzas got figured out it was exceeding dull in itself.

Not as dull as crafting earrings and rings to 180, I grant you, but dull nonetheless.

Sometimes though the goal is worth the grind; no pain no gain and all that. But if that philosophy applied to a game, it wouldn't be a game imo.

[mmatto]

There is plenty of room for small improvements in foraging but in general there is nothing major utterly broken if you compare foraging to combat (hint ranged).

However, I would like to see more sensible way of replenishing pr sup sources than server reboots and season changes. Maybe they could replenish slowly but continuously during right season and state of source would be stored in database.

Other thing that bugs me is high level sweet foraging spots e.g. Kipee Mull. You can go there as lvl 1 digger and dig there happily 24/7 for 220 lvls or so single mat type (or couple of different if you so prefer). This is quite dull.

Maybe diggers should get some bonus (xp?) when foraging in their correct level region. And those choice sources could replenish bit slower or something else should be done to make diggers move around little more. Kami Tolerance is one thing but it affects only couple of most highly populated areas. Another problem is that digger can easily dig only those mats he requires for own purposes, this does not help to generate extra mats for markets.

But biggest problem in foraging is not in foraging itself but in skill system and crafting.

As everyone can craft everything, most hunters/foragers will use all mats they get for their own purposes. Even if some of the mats might go for guildies, there won't be much mats ending in markets. I don't think that many foragers find foraging that much fun that they forage large amounts of mats for markets in addition to their own and guild needs.

Problem with crafting is that it is actually lacking much. After you have found recipies and maybe optimized xp/mats usage for overcrafting, crafting is all about getting the raw materials. Crafting action is the most uninvolving action in this game, just press button and after couple of seconds you will get failure, degrade or perfect item depending on random roll.

Crafting is so fast and amount mats required for leveling is so huge that one crafter can easily buy all mats from markets at any given time and use those in 5 minutes. Also, many hours of foraging worth of mats can be used up in 10 minutes.

Huge amount of end products will be just sold to npc or just dumped if there is no npc. I think that greater portion of grind items should end up in some more worthy use e.g. for outpost guards. This would make mass production more worthwhile.

Biggest improvement could be implementing more involving and time consuming crafting action. During this action crafter would use different stanzas to build item and counter any problems that might arise during crafting. This would mean that crafting 1 item would take minute or two and success would be based on player actions more than plain random number generator.

And sheer number of mats required for leveling crafting should be reduced to make it faster than it is now (especially armor/jewels) and to counter any effect that might slow advancement because of my other suggestions (nerfs).

[magick1]

Isn't that done by not useing any quality 'bricks'?

Should of course say

"Isn't that done by not useing any class 'bricks'?"

[svayvti]

There is plenty of room for small improvements in foraging but in general there is nothing major utterly broken if you compare foraging to combat (hint ranged).

Perhaps, but the poll wasn't about whether foraging worked or not. I don't debate that it is more balanced than when I last left the game.

Though Ranged combat is less effective, I find it to be a lot more FUN than the current state of foraging. I"m really surprised that this poll is changing from the initial result of people who thought it could be fun, to people saying they think this grind is fun. I'm still not even sure I entirely buy the answer as people seem to be glad more about chatting and not getting involved in the game while they play. Maybe I should have added a 4th option... I don't enjoy foraging but I enjoy the things it lets me get done! .. ?

Anyways, curious results and I must say I'm rather surprised. I think I'll go back to the fun but broken pursuit of ranged combat though.

[micrix]

So the majority enjoy foraging. Yeah right, I find that hard to believe. I mean you may enjoy fighting mobs on the way in or out, or you may enjoy selling the mats to folkses, but just kneeling there digging them up? Man alive, I thought this was a mature community, not an old people's home!

Stop scolding, i have a real problem with jewels and miss a particular jeweler

No, foraging could be very different. Those answers, mine included, are aligned to SoR as it is. Compared to the possibillities how foraging could be, this is nothing
See thread about ideal RPGs). But within the context of SoR foraging is ok for me.

[lienem]

Maybe I should have added a 4th option... I don't enjoy foraging but I enjoy the things it lets me get done! .. ?

Yes and no. Sure, the ability to chat in around, region, guild and PM while harvesting is great (not something you can do while you're a healer). And yes, many people use that time to do other stuff, like browse the forums and so on.
But personally i like the foraging itself, most of the time. For some obscure reason (maybe because I get claustrophobic, or because I can't see my character through all the weeds) I can't harvest more than three sources in Matis before I get bored, seriously bored. While I can easily spend four or five hours in the desert, in the lakelands or in PR (haven't tried Jungle yet), forest foraging has no appeal to me. And that has nothing to do with the fact that it doesn't let me get things done... since all in all different land foraging is the same stanzas used with different specs.

Of course, one of the advantages of harvesting is the facility it gives you to chat (and I wouldn't say that thus you aren't involved in the game, on the contrary, since the game is in some part the players) but in itself, it can be a pretty interesting activity if you do it "correctly".

[rushin]

Wit all de followin', I uses terrain spec. When I looks fer "only excellent" and "wood" I be usually directed to de nearest, tho sumtimes farthest iffin I be usin 500m, source o' wood, typically a standard source field (basic-choice). Happens 8-9 times outta 10. Happens 100% o' de time when I be in wunna dem source fields when I starts trackin. Usin, say "only excellent" "Motega wood" yields de same result, e'en iffin de wood I finds be Abahaya. And at least once, usin de "only fine" and "amber" specs (I wer lookin fer a field fer grind mats) I wer lead to an exe Sha spot, wit NO other mats anywhar near, jus choice an' exe Sha. Dat wer de only pleasent surprise in o'er 10 months o' tracking (I experimented a bit afore submitting me problem, jus to make sher I werna doin it wrong). It don seem to matter iffin I uses e'en twice de cost to track in a place whar I be a supposed master, or wot permutations o' de bricks I mix together, when I be searchin fer sumptin specific success be about 10% fer me wit tracking.

had a little play with above ground tracking last nite doing seaches for specific mats and grade. out of 10 i tried 8 led me to the correct spot, one was about 20m away not 1, and one blatently wasnt there Maybe there is a success percentage like other skills and when u fail to get that it leads you astray, or maybe as Petej said some spots are just broken/bugged. Whichever it is it works well enough to be considered useful still i think.

Other thing that bugs me is high level sweet foraging spots e.g. Kipee Mull. You can go there as lvl 1 digger and dig there happily 24/7 for 220 lvls or so single mat type (or couple of different if you so prefer). This is quite dull.

Indeed it is very dull. I suppose those who want to powerlevel digging do that. Using the mull example its actually not that good a spot, there is a low percentage of choice/excellent mats there, well the resins good round the back i guess. If I'm doing jungle i tend to dig in dementia; there are some really great places one with loads and i mean loads of choice armor mats, another in the north of the region that has a fair few excellent spots (patee, big shell, etc) and some great scenery.

Like everything else in SoR digging can be as fun (or dull) as u make it. The easiest option is rarely the most entertaining.