Harvesting

[azziane]

I am now trying to harvest. I read Vguerin's ultimate guide to harvesting, and that answered most of the questions I had. A few things were not very clear to me though.

1)What causes an area to become "depleted"? I guess harvesting mats just depletes the area. But I heard that not taking care of the ground made the groudn deplete faster. Is that true? And if so then do both the Health bar (heart icon) and the "Extraction risk" bar emptying cause depletion?

In other words what are ALL the causes for ground depletion?

2)Modes. I understand the concept in the broad lines. What I do not udnerstand is what causes the modes to change. I read in the guide that an explosion will change the mode. Is there a way to control the mode without getting blown up? There was a small paragraph about that in the guide, but I just could not figure out what it meant.

That's all for now. More late probably

[jamela]

1) Yes, there are only a certain number of materials in each node. In choice and excellent nodes on the mainland I get 60 and then cannot pop another source. It always seemed to me that if either the risk or the lifeline bars on a source were allowed to run out then there was a chance that the node would become depleted prematurely. I haven't noticed this happening to Jam in well over a year now, so it could be that terrain and material specializations reduce the chances, on top of the fact that I take care of my sources.

2) Two things cause the source mode to change: it changes when the risk bar runs out and it changes when the material you're extracting reaches the quality level of the extraction action you are using (or the region maximum). So there are two ways that you can try to affect a mode change yourself: you can run the risk bar down and take the consequences (know your modes ), or you can use two or more different quality extraction actions.

Edit : Whether it's any use to you is another matter A lot of effort for a small gain at best, probably.

[azziane]

For the modes, you mean extracting first with, say, a gentle lvl 20 up to a mats QL of 20 and then if there's time left use a harmful 30 to up the QL up to 30? This would change the mode when the QL of the mat being extracted reaches 20?

If so then I think I got it.

[jamela]

Yes. And if your extraction reaches ql30 then the mode changes again.

What might be actually useful though, is using a Gentle ql10 when your extraction reaches ql20 and the mode changes to a 4 or 5, say. Just one action cycle will drop the quality you've got back to 16 or 17, then you're back on your Gentle ql20 action and the mode changes again when your extraction reaches ql20 again, hoping for a nicer mode.

[karmelit]

The mode also give a hint on what will drop fast.

1 will drop the ground stablity, 2 and 4 the health. 3 and 5 lowers both bars.
I always keep an eye on the mode change to know what careplan I need next. But this might be just curiousa for you atm. Personally I started to pay attention to it some time after I hit 150+

[vguerin]

Ideally you will not see more than 2 modes on any source.

The first remains UNTIL you reach the source level of the stanza you are using (ie. Gentle 20).

The second comes when your source hits that max, you have harvested at least 1 Q20 (using above example).

IF you allow your source to explode/gas, it will change the mode. Depending on the mode, you might want to let that happen and take the hit. Some modes are a PITA to careplan and not worth the hassle (especially using harmful). Depending on the number of sources you can make, amount of chatting/TV watching you do while digging... you'll learn the art of which to watch closely, which to not worry about and which to blow up purposely.

[azziane]

Couple question :

1)What is a node? Is that the AREA where a specific source (say fibers) is located? Like a vein? Or do you guys call nodes the little green bulby things that pop out when you prospect?
If the former is true then what do you guys call the green bulby things? Sources?

2)Do you need to learn harmful before getting the new gentle? I have noticed that the harmful skill always is one level ahead of Gentle. But if I was to never learn any harmful, coudl I still max out Gentle? And vice-versa?

3)Is there any use to learning the +5seconds to timer in prospecting if you know you are not going to get an extra mat out of your harvests? And is there upgrades to that skill soon after? 10 seconds would do it for me, I think, but not 5.

As for the modes... Well already yesterday I noticed that checking modes helps me gets more mats. And I'm a lvl 25 harvester harvesting fibers on the lake island in the Noob Island...

Basically I have Gentle 20 and Harmful 30, both care skills lvl 1. No +time on my prospecting.

If I use harmful on most modes the health will drop much faster than the time. Except for modes 0 and 1. I have harvested 97 sources yesterday and every single time I did a harmful harvest on a mode0 or 1 I got 2 mats of max quality (30). The source always blew up once, sometimes twice But thew damage is pretty low and I have a good amount of HPs.

I can do the exact same thing on mode 4 half of the time. It is slightly random I guess, but sometimes the timer will end right at the same time as the health bar dies.

On Mode 3 I will start of with harmful (I always do since I do not know in advance what the mode will be). I switch immediately to gentle until QL reaches 15. I switch to harmful. This way I get 2 mats, do not have to use careplans, of a fair QL (24, or 26 if I take a chance and start off with gentle).

So it's useful even at my level. If I didn't pay attention to modes Iwould never do harmful all the way through, fearing not to get 2 mats (at my lvl I'd rather get 2 mats than one of higher QL)...

Now if I could just know for sure that blowing up a source does NOT make the area deplete faster, I could get a hell of a lot more mats by blowing more of them.


Thanks for the help all

[karmelit]

1) A node is the green source yes. The area is called a spot.

2) Yes the next gentle skill won't be available before you got the harmful.

3) The added time isn't needed untill you can get an extra mat. These time skills are pretty rare so you won't see them ever 10th level.

The blown up sources will not deplete the spot faster, but it will lower the kami tolerance if you keep at it.

Good luck on harvesting Azziane

[azziane]

Thanks a lot.

[frahar]

blowing up sources will not deplete the area, but killing the source over and over will. Don't let the life bar die, you can let the stability at your own risk.