Can we talk about timed nodes?

[Jojoya]

snip

It's not a farce. It's an important facet of MMOs, creating player interdependence and decision making opportunities.

Do I need more of this item? Do I farm it myself over several days or buy part of what I need from other players? Do I forego even getting that item and settle for getting something of lesser quality/value instead?

At least with the timed node system, you know you'll be able to get predictable quantities at known intervals. Would you prefer WoW's system where nodes are competitive and the high end materials are from nodes that are very rare spawns so not only are the chances of coming across a node very small but another player beating you to it means you lose out?

It would not stabilize the markets in any form nor does it give more players access. Everyone has access right now by simply picking up the required job and leveling/gearing it to what's needed to collect that material. It would instead crash markets as the material became so easy to obtain that there is no point in buying from other players.

As for watching and waiting for a node to spawn, the timers are out there if you don't want to set your in game alarm. No need to sit around waiting on it to spawn. It's not uncommon for someone to say "need to grab a timed node, brb" in the middle of a hunt train and they're back with the train without missing out on more than one or two kills because they were making use of those timers to go when the node spawns instead of waiting around.

[KageTokage]

I'll be honest in saying that I liked WoW's gathering system better in some ways; the biggest of them being that crafted items consistently hold value due to how limited the amount of resources coming in is.

XIV's unlimited gathering system would work if the bots were actually being managed so they wouldn't drive the prices of everything into the floor, but they aren't. I honestly think they need to gate all high-end crafts behind mats that can't be obtained through conventional means even making the stuff bind on pick up if need be, because the economy is always going to be dominated by bot farmers as long as they have easy and unlimited access to crafting mats. If they needed to, say, actually run dungeons to get the mats needed to craft things rather then always having the MB as an option the economy would be much better and mostly populated by people who are actually putting in effort.

[Adeacia]

I always wonder from a real life perspective, why would the items in timed nodes simply not exist other than a certain time of day?

At the same time that brings up the question of why don't the items you gathered vanish when it's not the right time anymore?

I also wasn't aware that when a location depletes IRL, it would replenish if you just went to a couple of other spots nearby.

Basically the whole gathering system makes no sense.

[Zetsumei_Tsunarashi]

Best way to handle timed nodes is just do them all in a rotation and build up a supply for yourself. That way when you need something from a timed node, you just go get it off your retainer and don't have to wait for the node.

If you're leveling up post 50, doing a rotation of timed collectible nodes is actually the best exp/hr.

Don't be stubborn, use garland bell and put in a list of timed node items to gather, you'll find you're always hitting a node within a minute or two of each other.

TLDR: If you're always just reactively going to a node everytime you need 1 item, you're going to have a bad time. Be proactive and farm the nodes before you need them and your crafting life will be a lot less frustrating.

[Frizze]

Leveling a BtN or any gatherer really becomes a damn chore with these things

This line right here. This confused me. Why specifically are timed nodes making it hard to level up? You can level from 1 to 70 without ever touching a timed node. The two best sources of exp are GC turn ins(sometimes but not often timed, always tradable) and levequests(uses quest nodes). Are you trying to level via collectables and stuck in the 51-53 range? Collectables are a decent source of exp, but they arent required for anything other then scrips/scrip-related turnins. So what level range/what materials are we talking about here? There might be a better solution.

[Erudito]

I agree that it’s somewhat tedious because, while you wait for a node, you can’t do anything because you will most likely miss the node.

As a console player I would also be interested in a way to keep track of when they spawn without having to turn on a computer. Maybe add a little line in the gathering log that shows the spawn time in Eorzean time that appears after you gather said item once? It would complement the alarm feature that was added not too long ago.

[Elamys]

I always wonder from a real life perspective, why would the items in timed nodes simply not exist other than a certain time of day?

At the same time that brings up the question of why don't the items you gathered vanish when it's not the right time anymore?

I also wasn't aware that when a location depletes IRL, it would replenish if you just went to a couple of other spots nearby.

Basically the whole gathering system makes no sense.

Gathering and crafting don't make sense in any game. If you've actually seen a bolt of fabric IRL you'd know how INSANE it is to require 5 bolts of cloth for one shirt.

[Shadygrove]

As a console player I would also be interested in a way to keep track of when they spawn without having to turn on a computer.

FFXIV clock has an android app

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...dev.ffxivclock

Vitallian, timed nodes are our current gathering endgame. You need scrips for the books, you need stats for the nodes. Goals to be reached in other words. I do a rotation when I am working timed nodes, I am at a different timed node every two game hours.

Would you expect anyone in any L70 set to be able to raid? This is our equivalent.

[Eric_Riot]

Hello all,

I haven't played in two years and I stop when 60 was the max and they just introduced the whole red and blue script thing. I didn't look into it much because I was getting burnt out and it seemed to me that they took a nice casual aspect of the game and decided to make it more complicated then they needed to. FFXIV is a very "Clicky" game.. lots of clicking lots of skill's lots of needs for Macro's. I understand that people who like this types of game are going to be playing this game and people who do not like this style of game have already left. So what we have left is a bunch of people who love the game and will defend it because it's their preferred method of gaming. It's like me walking into a math class say'ing "Ug.. Numbers hard." and everyone is super friendly and they sit down next to me and pull out this 300+ page "Crafting & gathering" manual that I have to study for the next few weeks and … I guess I'm rambling. What I'm trying to say to the OP is that you wont find much sympathy on the forums because everyone who hates this style of gaming is already on to something else.

As to the timers I'm 50/50 on it. I hate gates, and FFXIV is just Packed full of gates every where you turn, yet I know this and understand this and I deal with it. So I too hate the Timers, part of me feel's that people defend the timers because it's their main source of income, if the these "Timer Gates" help keep the Market boards $$ high then they will defend it to their dying breath because this is the only way they can make any real cash <-- just an assumption not point fingers or anything just feel's that way sometimes. "No don't make is so that everyone can get it, all my $$ will go away. This is easy for me!" I'm of the feeling that everyone should have access to everything. Now I understand that things should be hard and I like getting rare stuff that others are to lazy to get. But that shouldn't stop someone from enjoying every aspect of the game. Some people are handy capped in real life, should they not have the right to experience the same things regular people have access to? Some people are more tolerant then others.

Here is my issue with the timers, it's the dam scripts I need better gear but I'm not going to pay the prices they have up on the AH, it's ridicules to pay those prices yet my only other options is to grind scripts for gear that I'm just going to out level. Gear is my issue not Timers (even though if I could I would remove them), how do you get 60-65 gear that is cheap and worth the effort to get with out grinding hours just to toss it later? Leveling is easy Log in do the Daily GC quest and forget about gathering.

Sorry about all this... just thinking as I'm talking... TLDR Timers sucks the answer is the web links that are provided <-- thanks for that btw.

[Caitlinzulu]

You can allways take a notepad and write the times down like i do.
also ffxivclock has a smartphone app too