Changing Source Mode: Fairplay or Exploit?

[eegreen]

I've noticed quite a bit of controversy on this topic. If you change the source mode while extracting, are you just using your intellegence to get the best type of mode, or are you exploiting a bug in the game? Please vote and reply with any additional opinions or comments.

[Fred1l1]

The main reason i think it should be kept as a feature is because of when you switch to a different source mode the quality of the mat is taken down as if you stopped harvesting for a second...i don't see why it needs to be changed in the first place..it seemed perfectly balanced to me

[stygeon]

If it is a bug than it should be fixed ...

If it is an exploit than it should have been fixed yesterday or notice made to the community.

So either it gets fixed or stays ingame. At this point Nevrax cannot jump up and start banning people though for using something that has yet to be officially labelled as an exploit ... unless I missed that announcement.

[eegreen]

To clarify, I am asking what each persons opinion is regarding this issue, not what the official determination by Nevrax is. I am asking if you think it is a feature or a bug, because no one but Nevrax can answer which it actually is.

[jesder]

Here is the problem ...

The actually changing of the source mode is game design. It happens without exploiting the system and it has drawbacks in place.

However there is a way to exploit this design with no drawback. I do not know if most people are talking about the same thing. I will not post details about this. I had this conversation with a GM and in the end he agreed it should be looked at and could be considered an exploit (he did not say it was one or wasnt one). He did tell me that the slight degrade in Quality was put in during focused testing to fix another exploit

this is not an exploit or a bug. This is the way the system works and IS NOT what the real exploit is -

1 - Prospect a source
2 - use an extraction plan - get source mode 2
3 - hit another action - get a source mode 3 - Quality of mats gathered so far are degraded slightly
4 - hit a care plan action - get a source mode 5
5 - hit an extraction plan - get source mode 0 - Quality of mats gathered so far are degraded slightly


Now here is an example of team harvesting which is by design-

1 - player 1 prospects a source
2 - player 2 uses an extraction plan - gets source mode 2
3 - player 1 uses a care plan - Both players get a source mode of 3
4 - player 1 uses another care plan on the source - Both players get a source mode of 1
5 - The end.

[daleknd]

To clarify, I am asking what each persons opinion is regarding this issue, not what the official determination by Nevrax is. I am asking if you think it is a feature or a bug, because no one but Nevrax can answer which it actually is.

This is something that happens clearly every time you extract. Players do nothing special to take advantage of this "feature". The designers clearly know it is doing this.

Obviously this is not an exploit. I doubt you could even call it a bug. I do think it is a poorly designed feature and would like to see it removed.

On the other hand, until they adjust item decay, it is virtually impossible for foragers and crafters to meet current demand for goods. Making it harder for foragers to gather mats is just going to make things harder for everyone.

Without the ability to adjust source mode, you will at best see forager produciton reduced. At worst you will see a number of foragers rack up large DP and give up.

Dalwin
humble forager of the Fyros

[jesder]

This is something that happens clearly every time you extract. Players do nothing special to take advantage of this "feature". The designers clearly know it is doing this.

See my above post ... There is something special people do that is outside of the intended system. Neverax knows what it is .. I made sure to explain it in painfull detail to a GM.

[shaded]

Changing Source Modes is one of the things that makes harvesting interesting. So it's not only acceptable, it's almost a "must have".

Let's see how it works now: Almost everybody is using the aggressive method which means that you have to watch and change your source mode, you have to keep the right distance to the source so that the toxic cloud doesn't harm you and you have to cancel your extraction just in case you do not get the desired mode....1.

After Patch One: No more changing of the source mode. No more keeping distance from the source. Means? No more things to care about.
Just change to gentle extraction, press it one time per source and you can secondary watch television as if you were a fighter battling a big creep that has a lot of HP and you have your special attack locked in for permanent execution.

I so much hope I'll prove wrong about this as it would make harvesting veeeery boring after P1.

[jesder]

Changing Source Modes is one of the things that makes harvesting interesting. So it's not only acceptable, it's almost a "must have".

Let's see how it works now: Almost everybody is using the aggressive method which means that you have to watch and change your source mode, you have to keep the right distance to the source so that the toxic cloud doesn't harm you and you have to cancel your extraction just in case you do not get the desired mode....1.

After Patch One: No more changing of the source mode. No more keeping distance from the source. Means? No more things to care about.
Just change to gentle extraction, press it one time per source and you can secondary watch television as if you were a fighter battling a big creep that has lot of HP and you have your special attack locked in for permanent execution.

I so much hope I'll prove wrong about this as it would make harvesting veeeery boring after P1.

If it wasnt for the exploit .. I dont think they would be changing it at all. What you said above would stay. However since some people exploit, we all pay the price.

[korin77]

Rack up DP? I have 1500 hp, 1700 if I get a suit of HP armor. I don't think I will die from a puny little source explosion unless I am really careless. I always harvest source 0s and you know how large those explosions can be. I think even if they hide the source mode, you can still monitor the source life so what is the problem? If you are afraid of explosions, then make the cheapest forage action possible, leaving out source life upgrades and have the source run out as fast as possible. Then harvest with a quick harmful extraction and just pull 1 mat at a time. Most of the modes will not expire in the time you pull out 1 mat and without using that much focus, you can forage/harvest imediately again without any downtime. If you forage with multiple sources, you can probably forage 3 before they run out. Thats 3 mats at a time without downtime.