prospecting broken ?

[tibber2]

While standing in a sea of raw materials , I decide that I only want the creme of the crop . So, I change my 50M Deposit Tracking Stanza to ONLY Choice . Then I begin prospecting . 1M message rapidly begins to spam me . I back up some and try again .... 1M message again ... Thinking " Wow I have hit the Motherload of Choice Materials" I begin to Prospect for ONLY Choice .... There are no Materials of your specified action present ...... OK try changing my Prospecting stanza to UP TO Choice ..... of course ... theres 142 nodes right beneath me that are all Basic in Quality . To me that says that the Tracking actions do not check whether or not the node is of the proper Quality of the action making the ????? ONLY stanzas all broken . It is only checking to see if there is a node close by , and then after finding one , tracks to it if it is of the specified quality . So.....
1. is this how it is supposed to work ? If not then that means it is broken .
2. If it is in fact broken , or working buggy at best , when will there be a fix put in ?
I really would like this to work how it appears to me it should . It would be very nice to stand in a sea of Materials and be able to only get from it what you need without all the wasted time dancing around within a 2M section of sand recasting over and over agian just to find out what you are looking for is not even there .

Thanks

Dayten

[blaah]

To me that says that the Tracking actions do not check whether or not the node is of the proper Quality of the action making the ????? ONLY stanzas all broken . It is only checking to see if there is a node close by , and then after finding one , tracks to it if it is of the specified quality . So.....

hehe, new ppl always think that tracking is broken... even some lazy old ppl think that

tracking, like name says, works with deposits, not with nodes.
deposits are collection of nodes of different mats and grades.
deposit size can be 1x1 (well, it can) to 100x100 or bigger areas (in meters).

no, tracking is not useless.

[tibber2]

yes , I understand the nodes . but what I am saying is that ....
********************
****************0***
***********x********
********************
********************
********************

I am the X , The Basic nodes are the * , the Choice node is the 0 .
When I set my stanza to Choice only it tells me the 1M spam message.
So I think that I am close . I cast my prospect in a full circle ( upwards of 12 times to complete the circle ) and then when it tells me there is no materials , I back up to check the spot that I am standing on . Thereby fully covering the entire area up to 5M away. And every time getting the message telling me nothing is there . the Tracking however is telling me there is a node 1M away from me . Im thinking that it is finding there first node it sees and notifies me the status of that one and not actually looking for a choice node . When I run out away from all nodes both basic and choice , using Choice stanza I can track right to the source of a Choice, but only as long as nothing else is closer to me in my way . So if I am already close to the Choice node and If there are basic nodes around me , It pretty much nullifies the effectiveness of my Choice stanza . Or so it seems to me . I may not be setting up my stanzas correctly or something , This is one of the most complex systems I have delt with . I am just saying that I am having trouble getting it to work how I would think it should work . And because it is not , Im guessing that it is broken or not working properly .
Thanks

Dayten

The legend is each character *, 0 , and x , = 1M

[akicks]

yes , I understand the nodes . but what I am saying is that ....
********************
****************0***
***********x********
********************
********************
********************

I am the X , The Basic nodes are the * , the Choice node is the 0 .
When I set my stanza to Choice only it tells me the 1M spam message.
So I think that I am close . I cast my prospect in a full circle ( upwards of 12 times to complete the circle ) and then when it tells me there is no materials , I back up to check the spot that I am standing on . Thereby fully covering the entire area up to 5M away. And every time getting the message telling me nothing is there . the Tracking however is telling me there is a node 1M away from me . Im thinking that it is finding there first node it sees and notifies me the status of that one and not actually looking for a choice node . When I run out away from all nodes both basic and choice , using Choice stanza I can track right to the source of a Choice, but only as long as nothing else is closer to me in my way . So if I am already close to the Choice node and If there are basic nodes around me , It pretty much nullifies the effectiveness of my Choice stanza . Or so it seems to me . I may not be setting up my stanzas correctly or something , This is one of the most complex systems I have delt with . I am just saying that I am having trouble getting it to work how I would think it should work . And because it is not , Im guessing that it is broken or not working properly .
Thanks

Dayten

The legend is each character *, 0 , and x , = 1M

In this case it is telling you that you are 1m away from a field with a choice mat... Which you are.

[blaah]

When I set my stanza to Choice only it tells me the 1M spam message.
So I think that I am close.

1meter message actually means, that you are standing on the deposit area. it does not mean you close to what you looking for (choice in this case).
well, sometime it does lead you to kind of exact spot. and thats the fun part, personal experience (and not just some silly game mechanics) are playing big part.

I cast my prospect in a full circle ( upwards of 12 times to complete the circle ) and then when it tells me there is no materials , I back up to check the spot that I am standing on.

bad luck
i usually, mark nodes in new area by poping few sources without filter, then foraging one mat (to get focus back when source dies), and then spamming my filter prospecting to pop all nodes it can find. then running to node, and putting flag on my map.
ofcourse, i have 3 sec prospect

Thereby fully covering the entire area up to 5M away. And every time getting the message telling me nothing is there.

to cover 5m area you need "bit" more than 12 prospects. it does not take exact spot to pop node, but the more materials in area, the harder it is to pop node.
basicly server randomly selects location in your prospecting arc (5m/20degree for example), then checks if there is source, if there is, then it compares it to your filter, if there isn't, then it checks a bit around that spot.
now, when it does not find any node, it tells "no materials". if there is node, but you filter is blocking it, then "different kind mats present".
(exact logic on pop or error depends server code which i dont have access , so just speculations)
just mark that spot as "hard to pop" and move on

ofcourse, they could change it so it selects all sources based your filter from your prospecting arc and pops randomly sources from it, but imho it would make prospecting bit to easy and not a challenge.

[tibber2]

[QUOTE=blaah : to cover 5m area you need "bit" more than 12 prospects. it does not take exact spot to pop node, but the more materials in area, the harder it is to pop node.]

Ok I see what your saying , So the stanza for Choice only in tracking is useless , more or less .

But I meant , I stand in one spot and turn in a circle casting my prospect choice only in every direction usually 12 facings , then take 1 step forward or back or to one side and spin in a circle and cast another 12 or so facings of prospect , Im using 5M range and Choice only stanzas . By deduction I find it , might take a few weeks ... but I find it .

Thanks

Dayten

[mavebone]

fear not, it won't take weeks.
Dig what you can find, upgrade your prospecting angle and range when possible and things get much easier pretty quickly