A modest proposal

[Jamillion]

So I think we can all agree that timed nodes suck, so I've been thinking about it and I'm seriously wondering why we don't just have daily or hourly limits on unspoiled nodes. It would accomplish the same thing while accommodating people who I don't know, sleep and work?

[Terrini]

And here I thought you were going to talk about babies....

In all seriousness though, it would be nice if unspoiled nodes weren't so finicky and were more accessible with limits instead.

[Eldaena]

And here I thought you were going to talk about babies....

In all seriousness though, it would be nice if unspoiled nodes weren't so finicky and were more accessible with limits instead.

I think I'm the only one that got your reference, lol

[Jamillion]

And here I thought you were going to talk about babies....

In all seriousness though, it would be nice if unspoiled nodes weren't so finicky and were more accessible with limits instead.

Mmmm.... Babies....

Yeah, it would definitely be a tremendous help for the majority of the player base I would think. I don't pretend to know how much coding would go behind changing that but it doesn't seem like it'd be too crazy.

[HakuroDK]

It would certainly be more convenient. Though I have to wonder how "Hidden/Rare" items like the Gregarious Worms and Mazlaya Greens would work in such a system.

[Zfz]

I don't mind timed spawns, but I don't like how it disappears within 9 earth minutes, purely for convenience sake I'd love to see them stay accessible for 35 earth minutes (i.e. 12 bells).

From a gameplay point of view, though, I hate the idea of just following a time table and riding through each zone chasing the spawns. The idea of searching for resources should take say a few (Eorzean) days in the same zone, with randomized spawn locations. So perhaps Truth of Forests could have a 15 minute cooldown and give us a 4-minute buff that allows us to see all the (randomly spawned) unspoiled nodes in that particular zone. The buff drops when we leave the zone in any way. Gathering from an unspoiled node will refresh the 4-minute buff time (so for people who like to chat, you can effectively spend up to 4*4=16 at a node by chatting between each chop that refreshes the buff to 4 minutes). Then, each zone will only spawn unspoiled nodes during certain times but the spawning period will last at least 30-60 earth minutes.

These nodes can also have randomized attributes that give us additional 4-minute buffs in response to our skill usage. By using the proper skills we will be able to juggle buffs between effects like +5 extra GP per action, higher run speed, once-off node-warp effect that will automatically teleport us to the nearest unspoiled node when we finish the current node, +5% chance (stacks 3 times) of finding "hidden" items from a node, etc.

In essence make it feel like we're "tackling the zone" managing buffs that will allow us to shift results of our "gathering venture" here in the zone.

[Shadygrove]

I think I'm the only one that got your reference, lol

Nope.

Others have read Dr. Swift.

[LordPhantomhive]

I'd actually like it if the time windows, or slot number were put on the node list... so I can stop referencing random sites for more info on node times and slots..

[Zfz]

You'd still have to reference random sites when you're looking for specific items, unless you memorize the whole timetable.

I've only recently started gathering the 1-star items (Umbral Rocks) and it was quite difficult weaving this into my other activities. In the end I resorted to just AFKing in South Shroud with an alarm clock to go back every 70 minutes. There are quite a few others like me who are just AFKing and waiting for the 70 minute loop.

When players resort to AFK farming you know there's something wrong with the design.

With my experiences in the past day or so, I'm beginning to like OP's suggestion. Just implement these nodes like treasure maps. We can only gather once from each node per 70 minutes, but they will spawn for the full 70 minutes. This way the supply isn't changed, and we get to organize our own route depending on what we want to gather.

[Squand]

snip

That is pretty close to what they've detailed they are going to do in Xpac.

The antumbral rock and Redolent logs are timed very well to make it so you don't need to afk gather. For example, I can gather 32 unspoiled nodes in an eorzean day and I find that gameplay thrilling. Finding the fastest routes and efficiently moving from zone to zone is a mechanic I enjoy.