Not sure what extraction you are talking about. I find that ones are HEAVEN, I can harvest the FULL number of units that are on the blue potion bottle number. I can even get the FULL number of units on a two...IF I use Agressive speed, agressive rate, GENTLE quality and am willing to SIT before the heartline vanishes. I have managed, at over level 40 forager, to get a FULL q20 Choice unit off of twos with the sit fast at Q20 ONE unit.
I have also found 0's modes to be more explosive than 1's. Maybe it is luck, maybe it is different regions, and maybe it is the action you use. *shrug*
Twos and threes I agree, they are touchy at best and a good reason to sit at worst.
I find Gentle quality also eliminates MANY of the explosions and harvesting TWO steps back from the node helps me miss MOST if not all of the gas.
FYI exhausting a node is different from exhausting an area...if it says AREA is exhausted...you are going to have to move about ten meters, you killed ANYTHING that was in that area for at least FIVE minutes. And this means it is dead for ANYONE that tries that area. If you go around trying for TWO units and strip mining everything....you are going to leave a nasty mess. And eventually your tactics are going to gain a few enemies in the forager community. (not saying that the author is like this, just that IF anyone does this...their actions will catch up to them eventually).
And since there are ways to AVOID destroying an area...I find it sloppy and bad mannered to destroy an area once you know better. I think of it as ruining the books in a public library. You are destroying something that someone else might have also wanted.
Options to avoid destroying a node/area include:
Gentle quality added into a custom extraction action (I haven't finished all my experiements on Gentle modes yet, but I will say that Gentle speed with all the rest aggressive was a BAD action...do NOT do it. I got three explosions and a gassing and lost the area, all in three seconds. The lag caused me to not be able to sit in time to save the area. Sorry folks that were still up in Fyros newbland at two am that night.)
Control S to stop the action before it destroys the area (this way if you have enough focus you can start another prospect while you wait for the node timer)
Sitting to avoid destroying the area (this helps if you don't have enough focus regen)
You can also hit the extraction button again and "roll" for another node mode, you might get lucky and you might get a WORSE number than before.
I think of not destroying a node as a matter of concideration. In Fyros areas, it is not ALL that necessary, but nice. In Matis...I would concider destroying a node carelessly to be selfish and down right MEAN.
Also I will add that ANY node mode number over ten means you are under level ten, you are mostly safe, and your gas/explosions...if you even get any, won't hurt as bad.
WHY would anyone WANT to exhaust an area?? I don't get it, you don't get anything there for five minutes...but then neither can anyone else.
Maybe we are just talking different thoughts, I think of destroying and exhausting as different things. When I exhaust an area...I have 25 units of that material...and I am more than likely ready to move on...I haven't ruined the area for anyone else that might come along in the next five minutes and need that same material, I just finished gathering ALL of ONE node. In fact there are some areas in Fyros lands, where you can turn 20 degrees and find the other mats you need for the same project. I got a FULL suit of choice armor mats within 25 meters of each other.
mikwana wrote:Just some help for harvesters that havn't figured out the source mode meanings yet:
0: Should be able to harvest until time runs out with no problems.
1: As above, though with the possibility of a mishap (explosion/gas)
2: Node will exhaust, but you'll be able to get a bit of extracting done.
3: Node will exhaust, mishap will happen, but you'll get a decent amount of harvest done.
4: Node will exhaust before half the time runs out, you will get a mishap.
5: One, possibly two mishaps, and the node will exhaust.
That's a generalization, of course, as it depends on what kind (harmful/gentle) of extraction and if others or yourself are also using care-plans to sustain it.
Also remember that you can ctrl-s to stop the action (timer keeps decreasing, but health and danger bar won't drop, nor will you get any materials) and then re-start hoping for a lower number, or just re-activate the harvest command and the mode will change randomly. Also remember, that depending on what you are doing, you may WANT to exhaust a node...
