What is the reason for hiding the slots on a timed node?

Since we're getting the times listed in the gathering log, instead of requiring a memo to play the game, why is it that the actual slot the item is in would still require a memo?

I mean I've got used to it, but it feels like an inconsistent design. We even have in-game alarms now, why keep the hidden slot mechanic? Is it a kind of a in-real-life skill check like doging AOEs for combat jobs? :D

Wouldn't it be great if we actually don't need to remember these things? I wouldn't mind looking them up in the gathering log. Although I suppose I'd still put them in a macro because it's faster to press a macro than to click through the gathering log.

I'm not really that into gathering, I just gather for my own needs (I don't even sell stuff on the market board) so if I'm encroaching on something pro gatherers consider to be fun, please tell me. I really mean no harm. Just genuinely curious.

Agreed. I'm fine with having to take a swing or two to uncover the item, but why keep the "secrecy" around which slot things are in? All it does is force people to use an outside resource.

Post it note. Go there, Toil all the obstructions away, Gathering +50% ability, and then make note of what was in what slot as you uncover them ... though lately, there’s not much other than the one item there.

There’s your outside resource, not even a third party resource.

IMO they should have given another trait at 80, that upgraded the ‘free toil’ trait to work on nodes 70 and below. Maybe we’ll get such an upgrade in a couple years, at 90, for nodes level 80 and below ... who knows.

Life hack, I just put the slot number in my alarm description for the node.

The various "solutions" mentioned are great and all, but that doesn't really address the initial question. I could understand hiding it the very first time only, or hiding it for the very few items that don't have a set location ("That exists?" Waterfowl Feather, Dark Matter Cluster, etc.). However, for items that you have already gathered before and have a static location, hiding the item is simply inconvenience for the sake of being inconvenient. It's stupid. It's dumb. Please either change or remove it.

I'm pretty sure if your gathering stat is low enough, it can actually take multiple whacks to uncover something that's hidden. EVEN THAT would be more interesting than what we currently have, because it's been so long since I've experienced that, that I'm not even 100% sure that it exists.

Thanks for the input. We will deliver the message to the devs.

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Originally Posted by IntrovertAnt

Life hack, I just put the slot number in my alarm description for the node.

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Haha, this is what I do too. XD

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Originally Posted by Raldo

The various "solutions" mentioned are great and all, but that doesn't really address the initial question. I could understand hiding it the very first time only, or hiding it for the very few items that don't have a set location ("That exists?" Waterfowl Feather, Dark Matter Cluster, etc.). However, for items that you have already gathered before and have a static location, hiding the item is simply inconvenience for the sake of being inconvenient. It's stupid. It's dumb. Please either change or remove it.

I'm pretty sure if your gathering stat is low enough, it can actually take multiple whacks to uncover something that's hidden. EVEN THAT would be more interesting than what we currently have, because it's been so long since I've experienced that, that I'm not even 100% sure that it exists.

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You're right, your Gathering stat can be low enough that you don't uncover the item in one hit, and yes, items like Dark Matter Cluster, Unaspected Crystal, Mazlaya Greens, and Gregarious Worm are part of why this mechanic exists, as they may not even be present on the node. But obviously this design was abandoned, probably because it's dumb and annoying.

However I wouldn't hold your breath on a quick response even though we got a community response. Changing this mechanic would mean changing Endless Toil to something else, and, well, they've got more on their plate right now.

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Originally Posted by Elamys

You're right, your Gathering stat can be low enough that you don't uncover the item in one hit, and yes, items like Dark Matter Cluster, Unaspected Crystal, Mazlaya Greens, and Gregarious Worm are part of why this mechanic exists, as they may not even be present on the node. But obviously this design was abandoned, probably because it's dumb and annoying.

However I wouldn't hold your breath on a quick response even though we got a community response. Changing this mechanic would mean changing Endless Toil to something else, and, well, they've got more on their plate right now.

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Actually, this mechanic was in place WELL before "variable location" items became a thing. The "clutter" was in place from the very beginning of ARR, while the first variable items weren't added until, I think, Patch 2.5, nearly two years later. While it's possible that they had planned for variable items from the beginning, I think it's far more likely that they put the clutter in place to give gatherers a feeling of discovery when they figure out where the treasure is, and to give them something to memorize in order to be a successful gathering class (much the same as DoW, DoM, and DoH classes need to memorize action rotations in order to be successful in their roles).

The problem is, memorizing times and slot positions isn't nearly as engaging as memorizing job rotations, and every other patch added MORE items that needed to be memorized. It's to the point where the individual who can keep track of where everything is is pretty rare, and that's even with SE trying to help out by having certain slots be "common" (mining hidden nodes are 3 or 6, more often than not, for instance).

Bad as Gathering is, Fishing is so much worse. A myriad of external resources is practically required for Fishing, and while they EVENTUALLY started adding some of that information in-game (time and weather requirements for certain fish), what they have is vague yes/no answers, and even those are unavailable for Big Fish.

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

Bad as Gathering is, Fishing is so much worse. A myriad of external resources is practically required for Fishing, and while they EVENTUALLY started adding some of that information in-game (time and weather requirements for certain fish), what they have is vague yes/no answers, and even those are unavailable for Big Fish.

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That actually seems to be gone in ShB. All ShB fish just show ??? for time/weather/conditions (except the Crystarium delivery ones, which display like normal.)

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Originally Posted by Brightamethyst

That actually seems to be gone in ShB. All ShB fish just show ??? for time/weather/conditions (except the Crystarium delivery ones, which display like normal.)

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I don't remember for certain if it was the case for Stormblood, or not, but revealing the time/weather/conditions only applies for fish from previous expansions. The current expansion keeps it mysteeeeerious, even for regular fish. Again, this is likely to give fishers who do their homework an edge over those who don't.

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

Bad as Gathering is, Fishing is so much worse. A myriad of external resources is practically required for Fishing, and while they EVENTUALLY started adding some of that information in-game (time and weather requirements for certain fish), what they have is vague yes/no answers, and even those are unavailable for Big Fish.

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Agreed. Though while I wouldn't say that the outside resources are required to fish, they are extremely useful if you want to be efficient with time and bait, and also be proactive towards targeted fish with limited windows in order to maximize your opportunities to catch them.

I think a lot of the guessing game is to simulate actual fishing while still making a game out of things. Nothing in this game has more layers of RNG than fishing. I think this is fine when discovering holes, and adding simple normal fish to the log. After doing a fair bit of fishing you start to catch on with what baits to exclude and what various tugs and line cast times can clue you in to what has taken your bait. These are usually crash courses we learn quite quickly at any given hole so there is not much need to memorize.

However, for certain fish, I can't even begin to imagine seeking them out without external help. Is it a mooch? Does it require fish eyes or fishers intuition? Is it a straight catch with a ridiculously low gathering rate? What are the time and weather requirements, and is it a weather chain? Is this fish a combination of the aforementioned? Hell, one fish I caught required me to mooch a damn lord to catch the final fish. Jeezus!

How those sites acquire this information, I do not know. What I do know is that I would not be as successful of a fisher as I am without them, that is for sure.