Ryzom

Ive just recently started harvesting, and although I disliked it at first, I have found that it is the most challenging and detailed aspect of the game.

I would like to comment about the first bad point that the original poster made. When I first started I would run out of town and throw out prospecting actions randomly, and very often was met with no results. This quickly became frustrating, and made me think like you, that there was no rhyme or reason to where you can find mats. However, I eventually tried to start focusing my actions more by finding distinguishing landmarks like a cemetary, shrine, dirt comming out of the ground in the middle of a field of grass, things like that to prospect on. By doing this it seems like I get a lot more success in finding materials. Wether this is my perception, or materials are actually purposely placed in these areas, I cannot be sure. However, I will say that it has really increased my overall organization and effectivness with prospecting. I would recommend running around in the wild, looking for these spots, prospecting around them, and then creating landmarks with details that remind you of what you found noteworthy in the area. That way, next time you say "man i need 5 more blades for my sword", you can look at your map for landmarks like "choiceBladeToTheRightOfHeadstone" and quickly find your old spots.

I also have found that the level of customization in your prospecting and extracting actions as you lvl up becomes quite amazing. You can make prospecting actions with 4 or 5 modifiers (im sure more, as you get higher) making them quite detailed to suit your individual styles and needs. In comparison harvesting beats fighting hands down in this department where i can mabye make one useful action that combines increased dmg with bleeding.

IMHO harvesting is working quite well, and is a lot of fun.

when i find a spot with a resource i desire. i mark it on my map. ( i could use more marks)
I then make a sketch of what i see in front of me. maybe a screen shot would work for the artisticaly impared.

once i have been back to the same spot more then a few times i can remember what it looked like.
even if i am a little off it does not take long to find it again

one thing i found is that in newbie land at least is that specific resources are grouped to gather. one example: forest big shell, buo, vsic

each starter town seems to have its specific set of mats
once you find one choice item in a group the others are not too far away.

please dont change harvesting. all the people i play with who have put some time in to it have liked it. dumbing it down for a few whiners would be a crime

If you want an easier time harvesting, I would suggest the Fyros race. If you turn your micro vegitation on and set it at 10% you will see brown pebbles. Look for those around "odd landmarks" like trees grouped together, on hills, in valleys and yes...near agro mobs (sigh, I got to level 25 fighter and 10 mage just by defending myself during harvesting). Nine times out of ten if I aim wide angle long distance prospecting in the direction of those pebbles, I get SOMETHING.

The visual clue for Trykers is a bit harder, and you have to ramp the Micro Veg to about 50% or so. It is a Jellyfish(melted jello mold, melted Gumi bear splotch) at night it glows sorta amberish. It is harder to see than the Fyros clue.

So far, ALL my attempts at GUESSING the Matis clues have been for naught, but many have just said "hug trees" which leaves me feeling like a dog marking my territory, and I find more trees that have NOTHING than trees that have anything.

I just wanted to say that source mode, as far as I've been able to tell, is an indication of how fast the life will diminish on a node.

In my exp, mode 0 is the most stable, lasting at least 45sec with full agressive pull. Mode 1 is only slightly less so.

At the other end, mode 5 will die quickly, sometimes before I get even one mat.

The other modes seem to be in between as you might expect, but with some variation in pattern, at least it seems so to me. Possibly, the variation I saw was just a result of a little randomness.

Fitz

I was only going to build up fight, and craft, but my buddy was fooling around with harvest, so I tried it.
It is as fun, if not more fun than mining, tailoring, and crafting in UO. Not as much fun as Fishing however.(HINT HINT!! NEVRAX HINT!!)
The mats and their placement is beginning to make sense to me. Landmarks are, of course, important like finding wood and bark near, you guessed it, a tree, or tree like shrub. There are seemingly unrelated mats found is strange places too, but that could be attributed to the vicious carnivores eating and ****ting willy nilly. You get it.
I agree that Harvesting/Foraging is working well, and IMO is very much a game within the game(to quote my friend) Please make it even deeper!!

I am still trying to get a handle on caring for the resource sites. I will usually run my care action after I have acquired what I am looking for, and it seems to destroy the resource. My friend and I were switching off prospecting then excavating while the other ran care for the site. I was still new to Harvesting and was a little impatient, and was wondering why we just don't get our own. I feel differently now. When i find a Choice spot, I want it to last as long as possible.
Now does care have to be run by a separate person, in order to be useful or can I work it into one of my excavation actions?