Did the 3.0 additions to gathering ruin the fun for you?

There seems to be a much more hardcore community here so I was curious how your opinion may differ from more casual players I've discussed this with.

I used to love gathering so friends and FC members often approach me regarding gathering in 3.0. The general consensus I get from like-minded players is that the collectibility and script system is overly complicated and time consuming and basically dissuaded them away from gathering any more in game. I assume this was SE's intentions though, to bottle neck progression so that only career gatherers were able to benefit from these supply lines. While that seems to have worked, it also had an extremely negative impact on morale for the game for a lot of my friends causing a few even to quit the game entirely.

I wonder how it has affected the larger audience, especially those very invested in gathering. Are you enjoying the new challenge? Did you feel like it gave you much more to do in game? Did it further or hinder your enjoyment of this corner of the game?

Thank you for taking your time to read.

The Collectable game was neatly designed. The rotations involving "appraisals" are flexible and fun. The scrip grind per week is a big chore and not enjoyable. But I can understand how S-E wants to delay our acquisition of the strongest gear, especially when there's nothing to be unlocked at the moment after the acquisition. So the scrip grind is OK. The RNG and rushed aspect of Favors is not fun at all. After all that hard work of leveling to 60, and after all that work of using our brains to develop cool collectable rotations, S-E gave us a complete RNG game that does not use any rotation, but needs to be RUSHED. The faster you hit nodes, the more chances you get rewarded. And especially when these items are the critical limiting reagents of the crafting game. Sorry, but this is very, very [swear words omitted].

It's definitely something that can be fixed. The new systems introduced in Heavensward (collectable gathering system, crafter specialist system) are not perfect, but they have a lot of potentials. All they need is a one big patch that addresses all our concerns (including the stagnant economy issue), and the game will suddenly enter new heights. As for now, it's quite a slump. Raiders are bored with esoretics grind. Crafters and gatherers are bored with red scrips grind and frustrated with the Favor game.

as a fisher i have more fun than ever before ^^

blue scrips farm for baits and potions, red scripts for gear, reduction, desynthesis... there is always something to do :O and the new HQ buffs are awesome. can't wait for new big fish ^^/

I really like the collectible system... gives me good EXP, and after I'm done leveling, gives me scrips which can be turned into good items.
I'm no crafter and I don't like to spend money, so I enjoy collecting the red scrips for gear.
Not to mention the new node spawn times, makes it easier to manage two nodes per Eorzean day than just the one.
I don't do favors because well one, gear, like I said, and two, I'm not a crafter so I don't need them.. I've done it once, and it was like "okay, but, I'm not getting much out of it". So I will see what they bring next for favors.

Don't forget the simple stuff! The 6-node setup with three nodes that have a random chance of having gathering buffs was a cool idea, and that alone was a big improvment over the dull predictability of the old 4-node arrays. Do I spend King's Yield here, or do I hold out and hope that a +2 attempts node spawns? Even just basic gathering is a big improvement over the way things used to work.

Favor gathering is a chore, it's true, though the shorter duration / higher spawn rate was a much-needed improvement I'm thankful for. It'd be nice, too, if concealed nodes could spawn at other nodes than just level 60 nodes; it'd be great if I could gather USEFUL materials (other than crystals) while depleting nodes to pop concealed nodes. If I need to gather Mythrite Sand, let me use a favor while doing so and get two things done at once!

Mixed feelings on the way Unspoiled nodes work. I like the fact that you can gather from them twice a day, but 55 game minutes is just so tight a time period. If you're not already at the spawn location when it pops, getting there in time can be hit or miss. It removes a lot of the "casual" aspect of unspoiled gathering. Like if you're farming Snurble Tufts and you suddnly realize it's 10:30 - plenty of time to swap to miner and gather some gold ore while you're in the neighborhood. Then Heavensward: farming Gryphon Hides when, oh crap, it's 12:30. Welp, that sucks, no Red Gravel for me!

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

The 6-node setup with three nodes that have a random chance of having gathering buffs was a cool idea, and that alone was a big improvement over the dull predictability of the old 4-node arrays. Do I spend King's Yield here, or do I hold out and hope that a +2 attempts node spawns? Even just basic gathering is a big improvement over the way things used to work.

Mixed feelings on the way Unspoiled nodes work. I like the fact that you can gather from them twice a day, but 55 game minutes is just so tight a time period.

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Both of these. But then again, the rush to get from one node to the other uses Cordials more. I never really used them before AND, I really have to time out my tele locations. Kind of like a mini game getting from one to the other if I really think about it. Maybe that was the idea. *shrug* :D

I really like this collectable system. It could use some tweaks to make it more interesting but it's a good concept.
Ephemeral Nodes and aetherial reduction I also really really like. Kills time and can score you some good stuff.
And I also like "unlocking" these Folklore Nodes. It's a sense of achievement.

I really enjoy the collectability system, gathering now is much more interesting. In 2.x it was just a mindless activity. What I do NOT like about the gathering system in general now is the endless grind to farm blue scrips to unlock folklore books ((99x50=4950 scrips)x9 books=44550 blue scrips...) and red scrips. Also, I don't like the fact that unspoiled nodes only last 55 eorzean minutes and are located in the most remote place of the map, you're always in a rush and what used to be a relaxing activity is now quite stressful.

I enjoy doing collectables. What I don't enjoy that there's a limit per week. I'm limited as to how much I can craft per week... Like I mentioned it before:

We are gathering for A week to craft for A day.....

What I don't like is the 99 tokens per legendary tome and the whole favor stuff. With the cost of the tomes the things that you get from favors should have been in those books and been done like a different set of ephemeral nodes instead of something that you have to spend limited scripts that are used for gear on.