It's not a Bug, It's a Feature

[cygnus]

PR, love it and hate it so much at times Mastered it twice now on dif servers and the weather is ALWAYS a pain.

In my experience, tracking is pretty much a waste of time in pr because of how small the window is for weather conditions and leads to more frustration than its worth. It doesnt take long to find out where the spots are anyway or you can use a website like ryzom.raum for locations.

On a new spot or for a different season I always propsect sup only, excel only then choice only. This then gives me the info for whats available in that particular season. Be wary of choice tho as some only pop choice with excel and/or supreme. After that, unless I specifcally want supreme, I use an up to supreme prospect with knowledge 3.

A few points to remember, it takes longer than a season for a spot to regen supreme/excel mats so if someone dug 10 supreme mats in Autumn and you dig it in Winter there will only be 62 available. If someone dug it all, just because you are on the spot at season change wont mean its instantly available. Server reboots cause all spots to reset and is optimum time to dig.

Prospecting with mat spec (eg bark, fibre etc) seems to give more precise information when the spot has already been emptied, prospecting without it often just gives the no mats here message as opposed to saying they were there and have been dug.

Using a choice only prospect will often get you a pop even if the supreme/excel has been dug. These are the best spots to dig just for levels as you can pretty much continually dig regardless of the weather.

Weather change occurs during the 3rd hour so from 00hrs to 02 hrs you wont get any different pops, from 02-03 I would prospect for sup only and if no pop I sit regen focus from the prospect then stand and prospect again. This continues until 03 hrs and if I dont get a hit then its a case of sit and wait again, repeating the process between 05-06 hrs. (applicable when I only want supremes)

Often you get a supreme pop, dig the first source and then prospect again and already the weather has changed, other times it stays as supreme for ages so you rush around like a madman as the other spots nearby are usually linked and pop at the same time.

I've waited over 8 hrs on a spot before waiting for it to pop, other times its popped as soon as I got there. To me its just how pr works and must be one of the reasons I love it add into that the <insert.aggresive.mob.name.here> who will happily munch on you while you wait, the herb pop that gets all the aggro running around, invariably just as the source you have been sat on for hours pops supreme and one of my all time favourites is blowing yourself up on the first dig trying to squeeze one extra mat out

Yes, I love pr, could just do with the Patrols back in to lend it that lil bit of extra spice................

[moyaku]

What Snaky said.

Basically what you need to know about weather in PR is only the time table.

time period in PR : (IG time)

00 to 02 (first time period of an SoR day)
03 to 05
06 to 08
09 to 11
12 to 14
15 to 17
18 to 20
21 to 23

Each of these last 9 minutes (RL time), and weather changes 8.30 minutes (RL time) after the beginning of each period.

Since Sup and Exe mats only pop in certain season and weather, you got to get to know the spots and their sup/exe behaviours (season/weather for each of them). Tracking for sup/exe in PR is useless as every single spot provides exe or sup every once in a while ; So just check the spots you marked and add season weather to your landmarks for sup exe once you get some out of luck. (one spot can be sup/exe enabled in more than one season)

[raisrev1]

There is one thing that I dont know if anyone noticed from the first post. The O.P. stated that while standing on the spot he did a Track for excel mats and came up with the within 1m message. Now this is important in that Tracking does tell you if something is in season/weather/time. He then states that he imediatly then went and prospected for that very same grade of mats he was tracking and it said wrong weather.

Now I too have seen the weather change that fast, however, He also states he did that repeatedly in a row, and got the same results. That is the issue he is talking about. I have never seen it behave that way. (hasnt gone and dug PR thou since before the recent resets)

The only other explanation I could see besides a possible bug on that deposit... You the O.P. (original poster for those not familiar) you absolutly certain the tracking action was Excel only and not Upto Excel? (fairly certain its not a mission mat issue as they dont come up as excel mats in Wastelands, they come up as Supremes)

[jamela]

Exactly, over a period of more than 2 hours (RL). I've never seen that. Sounds like something is broken.

[jared96]

There is one thing that I dont know if anyone noticed from the first post. The O.P. stated that while standing on the spot he did a Track for excel mats and came up with the within 1m message. Now this is important in that Tracking does tell you if something is in season/weather/time. He then states that he imediatly then went and prospected for that very same grade of mats he was tracking and it said wrong weather.

Exactly.....musta been a bug tho as after rollback all is right with the world again. And yes, no changes were made to stanzas but now its working as designed.....well at least a we are all used to.

[jared96]

Since Sup and Exe mats only pop in certain season and weather, you got to get to know the spots and their sup/exe behaviours (season/weather for each of them). Tracking for sup/exe in PR is useless as every single spot provides exe or sup every once in a while ; So just check the spots you marked and add season weather to your landmarks for sup exe once you get some out of luck. (one spot can be sup/exe enabled in more than one season)

Agree with almost all of what you said...except the bold / underline part. I have all my regular craft mats marked and have a table of seasonal availability so that not an issue. I do find tracking of immense value.

I still track for sups even when I know exactly the season and what blade of grass I need to stand on. For example, Silverweed sap spot in US where Raj roams. It's a hard spot to camp while sitting right on the spot because of Raj and all the other aggro. Certainly not an afk area.

Basically I just stand at safe spot wall within 150m of Silverweed Sap where nothin bothers me and use tracking for Supreme Sap (generic) at 200m. There are no additional sap deposits within 200m so if you get a hit, the only thing that can be up is Supreme Silverweed Sap. Once it's up, I run in between the jugs, vorax and kipucka and try and steal the sup mats before Raj comes by and eats me. In my experience, I have never gotten a hit on sup / specific mat tracking and not found the material when I prospected it.

I use this technique at just about every place I dig and would find digging much, much harder without it. Well at least I'd have much, much more DP w/o it.

[jared96]

When you started tracking, it was available.

When you prospected it wasn't.

There is a time delay between you starting your tracking action and running to the spot. In this time anything can happen. The weather can change again, the time of day can change. etc etc

No - Weather doesnt change repeatedly everry five seconds for an entire 20 minutes. You read the first half of the statement and not the rest.

No - there was no running to spot I was standing on it the whole time.

No - as others have said, weather changes occur on a schedule based upon 3 hour (atys time) - 9 minute RL time intervals.

This can happen:

Track - good weather
Prospect 5 seconda later - bad weather

This can not happen:

Track - good weather
Prospect 5 seconda later - bad weather
Track 5 seconds later - good weather
Prospect 5 seconda later - bad weather
Track 5 seconds later - good weather
Prospect 5 seconda later - bad weather
Track 5 seconds later - good weather
Prospect 5 seconda later - bad weather
Track 5 seconds later - good weather
Prospect 5 seconda later - bad weather
....repated 58 times within 9 minute period with identical results.

[jared96]

Geez ..this starting to be a real paranoia...newbies criticize game or oldies for their lack of knowledge! FFS mate- try to understand the game mechanics and learn how to forage and if you too impatient ask one of masters foragers for tips they will happily help u - but never ever moan about things u don't have thesmallest clue!

Er Ciri....

After 3 years in game (Beta / Focus Beta / Final Beta / Retail), and this being my 6th toon, I don't think I qualify as a noob. Especially not with current toon being Master Desert Forager, Master PR Forager and Master Heavy Armorer (and not just 1 skill).

And if ya notice, there's quite a few other masters agreeing with me, and now, so is CSR staff....seems original CSR was "misinformed". And finally, working as advertised again since rollback.

[jared96]

Don't you just hate it when people reply to your posts, and even criticize you, when they very obviously haven't bothered to read and understand what you say?

Yeah well, that's not uncommon. Since when is it necessary to get all the facts or attempt to understand them before forming an opinion.....just look at our politicians ! That's their stock and trade.....that's it, musta been that I had PMD's .... Picks of Mass Destruction !

But I'm used to it .... I get that a lot from my wife too....tho she starts her criticism before I even finish the sentence.

Interesting how being able to craft 250 items in six skill trees and mastering two dig regions (including PR) not to mention a few other master titles in melee and magic still qualifies me as a n00b.

On topic, jared could you just confirm that the prospection action you were using to pop the source only covered a very small area? Like 10m radius, 90 degree angle, or smaller? A larger area may well overlap nodes other than the one your tracking action brought you to.

Edit: I see that you did try no range as well.

Yes.....it was small....nevr use more than 1 usually tho will rtya 2 if I come up dry. I have dug this spot countless times and it's a pretty easy spot to dig even tho there's been a slight deposit shift again. I know both pre-shift and post-shifts spots well tho. I have used the same technique many, many times without issue. In fact I used it to suck the sups up in the same session.

Also note that I did go back there last nite and sucked all the exe out using the exact same stanzas, in the exact same order and standing in the exact same spot. I did confirm in speaking with a GM finally that it's not right and he indicated that original CSR may have misunderstood me. In any case, post rollback, it's working just fine. Now when ya track for exe and it gives you an number, ya can prospect for it and it pops.