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Re: Prospecting more than 1 spot

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 8:43 am
by borg9
I am a bit confused ... not a rare occurance :P

Major and Minor material prospecting - I was under the impression that these allowed you to search for a specific material type (Wood, Seed, etc). The Major just gave you a better chance.

Specifics eg Motega wood can be added to allow tracking of that specific material. (I want MOON resin, not just any resin)

Grade (Basic, Fine, Choice, Excellent, Supreme & the Mission mat equivelents [?, ?, ?, Select, Superb]). This can be filtered using the upto and only stanza.
(I have found that the error trapping on this may be a bit 'bugged'. Stand on a basic and look at a choice, then prospect for choice only. The other qualities message, kicks in before it find the choice. Also if a fine seed spot exist under a choice wood, the results can be unpredicatable, I have overcome this with major and minor specifec type filters.)
One very annoying thing is that mission mats fall in to the same grading systems as real mats...... eg Superb=Supreme. So tracking Supreme in a ql250 area will usually lead you to a mission mat! again specific material types help here, but then you have to prospect lots of times to find out if anything is really there.

AFAIK - A node is a node size wise. They can overlap (depeleting one depletes all touching nodes ... this is a guess). In EI and Loria there are resin feilds which contain basic, fine and choice grades of Dung resin. This gives the impression of 'infinite resin' however after some research they are infact a large group of nodes, which in some cases overlap. Prospecting 'across' 2 nodes effect means its possible to delepte both with one set of prospects. (again just a guess)

Sources (the green Bubbles) So far I have found no relationship between the 'look' and the content.... if fact the same Source can look different to two players on different machines.

Source content - this appears to random, I was starting to beleive that the closer the source was to the 'centre' of a node the more it contained. This has not yet been seen to be ture. I also have seen no evidence that there is a total qty, as I have had prospects which have had very full sources (25-30) in numbers and ones of 18 max. So source content IMHO is random. (capped at 30 mabe)

Range has a strange way of working from max distance towards you feet so, stand in the middle of a node and using max range and sometime find you nothing! Once I know where the spot is range is pretty much usless and often causes me to deplete 2 nodes.

Angle very useful to overcome some of the 'stand in the right place issues. I have talked to a number of people about this and I still don't fully get it. Prospect pointing north get nothing, walk 10m forward turn round, use the same prospect .... source pops! (Overlaping scenery? who knows).

Tracking - sometimes this is great other times its not!!! I have my own solution. Go to a mat feild. using wide angle and long range and specific grade. walk forward prospect every 5 to 10m look at the pretty green dot :D ... see Lisha's Sap feild for an example of how to map an area! 20 mins of prospecting and a few well places markers and tracking becomes obsolete..... I have also found the Tracking gets me dp.... hit tracker, run in direction of possible source, get eaten by mob :(

Material distribution - I have found (except the roots) materials tend to be in 'feilds' in the Fount 4 of these 'feilds' exist ASAIK, but there are other 'spots' dotted about. I have also found the these 'feilds' tend to be mostly aggro free, wanderers mabe, patrolled yes.

So, unless we get told its most specualtion and opinion based on player findings.

There is always a 'way' of doing something, if we think its impossible we just haven't tried all the possiblities :O

Re: Prospecting more than 1 spot

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 10:16 am
by maroo
@Frydes

I don't think that the way of prospecting has anything to do with finding choice seeds or not. I always use major (mainly because I was/am under the impression it just raises your chance to find a spot) and harvested a lot of choice seeds in the Fount (1 near the normal seed spot in the aggrofree zone and 1 above the lake in the seeds/amber zone).

I will however try using minor to see if spots will turn up that i don't know yet.

Re: Prospecting more than 1 spot

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:57 pm
by hans1976
maroo wrote: a lot of choice seeds in the Fount (1 near the normal seed spot in the aggrofree zone and 1 above the lake in the seeds/amber zone).


One above the lake? Didnt know of taht one, thanx! :D

Neun, about tracking:
Sometimes I want a mats fast and dirty. I dont have an ultra wide angle (just a mere lvl 152 digger) and to me it seems that angle and range combined with mat spec has the tendence to show nothing at all (while I am pretty sure it must be here somewhere :-) .

So I use tracking, and with mat spec it seems to work (for the general family type, dont have the others). I was looking for excellent silverweed sap in Fount and WoM a few days ago (a guildy wanted some for testing shields). So tracking that goes up to 500m, ex only and sap family was build. Now 500m is about a third of the length of Fount and three times the width too. So I moved around, actioning once or twice and as you might know, this hardly costs focus. I had a lead at 280 when about 150 east of the Karavan and this tracking costed me less focus then my regenration can take. So I had all the time to keep an eye on my radar and screen to avoid mobs.

I found some ex enola seeds, but forgot to note down season / tod / weather. In WoM I found Ex Dante sap.

So tracking is not nessarily bad or semi optimal, I think it is great when used correctly. But then again, I think the same about ranged fight :D

Re: Prospecting more than 1 spot

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 2:27 pm
by borg9
hans1976 wrote:I found some ex enola seeds, but forgot to note down season / tod / weather. In WoM I found Ex Dante sap.

So tracking is not nessarily bad or semi optimal, I think it is great when used correctly. But then again, I think the same about ranged fight :D


Maybe I didn't express myself on the tracking thing :D

WoM and Fount - easy to find the excellents there :D

E Per Bark in Harvest heaven that is near Karavan.
E Sap/oil and wood, under kipees (by the ragus and Zerx) on your way in.
E Shell east of lake on hill
More E sap near the ruins & red horsey :D
E Moon resin NW of pools
and loads of others too :D


These can all be found using the tracker :D but this is because its a ql150 area.

My issuse lie in EI (mission mats are of excellent grade here!) and for some reason tracking and prospecting has some oddities when you are on the same mat type (not grade) that you wish to track or prospect.

I am soon in the position where I will have more skill points in Harvest than I need (lvling a different eco-system) I guess at this point I will find those stanza's that I should have bought earlier.

The aggro in EI has been placed in the form of walls, it is not possible to go to the Kami TP without a form of invunerablity or a hunt team. There is no hole no matter who long you wait. The same is true travelling from the lake to the Beachcombers, who ever I have seen gaps here, but they are not wide and the 'sprinting' aggro usually get you while you waiting.

On the plus side the 'aggo groups' tend not to sit of mat fields, which is also the case in Loria. You can clearly see where the aggro lines start and the mat fields end in loria. (the kinpsta and Grender) don't count as an aggro group..... these were dev placed aggro to reduce stop loria being a one stop level shop for Tryker. The old days of every mat with Zero aggro all up to ql250, we good times but really where no challange once you had the spawn. Even now its 'easy' for the regulars to level their chosen craft with little to no trouble.

Re: Prospecting more than 1 spot

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:55 pm
by usinuk
To clarify what I mean, I've found these very small spots (like a single minor sap node in the middle of a shell major node) when using minor node prospecting, where major node showed nothing. I have no idea if this is the way this is supposed to work or if it does so consistently, since deposit tracking is so bugged/weird that its hard to reach any conclusions with it.

A couple other comments.

I don't use range at all once I have a spot marked. You tend to start moving between nodes that way.

Something is very, very bugged with specific mat prospecting when you use it with prospect and range. Often don't show any mats whatsoever, but then switch stanzas to no range/no specific mats, get close to where you know stuff is and...pop. Had this confirmed by a number of people.

Explosion damage reduction is a waste of 50 sps (for each level!). Works only 1 tick before explosion, which means if you are quick enough to use it you can use ground stability and just avoid the explosion entirely. Avoid this stanza unless you're like me and have so many sps from cross training harvesting that the only thing left to buy is the completely useless craft mat type stanzas....

Re: Prospecting more than 1 spot

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:04 pm
by borg9
usinuk wrote:To clarify what I mean, I've found these very small spots (like a single minor sap node in the middle of a shell major node) when using minor node prospecting, where major node showed nothing. I have no idea if this is the way this is supposed to work or if it does so consistently, since deposit tracking is so bugged/weird that its hard to reach any conclusions with it.

A couple other comments.

I don't use range at all once I have a spot marked. You tend to start moving between nodes that way.

Something is very, very bugged with specific mat prospecting when you use it with prospect and range. Often don't show any mats whatsoever, but then switch stanzas to no range/no specific mats, get close to where you know stuff is and...pop. Had this confirmed by a number of people.

Explosion damage reduction is a waste of 50 sps (for each level!). Works only 1 tick before explosion, which means if you are quick enough to use it you can use ground stability and just avoid the explosion entirely. Avoid this stanza unless you're like me and have so many sps from cross training harvesting that the only thing left to buy is the completely useless craft mat type stanzas....



I have started using range again even, tho I used to drop it for the reasons above. I need sources that and 25+ mats in them this is the only way I have found of getting the at least 2 25+ sources that I require for my agressive digging style. Getting close to being a Kami target :D

Re: Prospecting more than 1 spot

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:47 pm
by maroo
it is not possible to go to the Kami TP without a form of invunerablity or a hunt team.


I do remember us sneaking in there Neun, with you escaping 5 zerx on your tail :D

Re: Prospecting more than 1 spot

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 5:00 pm
by borg9
maroo wrote:I do remember us sneaking in there Neun, with you escaping 5 zerx on your tail :D


Invunerablity used :P

Soon as I get melee protection aura lvl4 no place on atys will be unreachable :D