Suggesion to revamp Gathering (Please leave your Feedback)

[Jinko]

So I think the gathering system could do with a revamp, It seems pretty obvious what needs to be done :P, but I'll detail it below, hopefully a Community Rep will see this and forward it to to yoshi-p.

Logging/Fishing/Mining

Would work pretty much in the same way as it does now, you select the skill "Abor's Call" "Lay of the Land" or "Gulleye"

Instead of displaying text "You sense .... to the northwest" you would get an arrow on the minimap and a high-lighted circle similar to how fieldleves work.

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/8666/67394293.jpg

Main map

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/6999/69961624.jpg

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Harvesting/Quarrying/Spearfishing

Firstly we need more of these nodes per area !!

Remove the skills Triangulate, Prospect and Dowse and replace them with Harvesters Call, Quarrymasters Call and Spearfishers Call. (I'm sure SE can think of better names)

Like above the map would be marked with a highlighed circle and arrows on the minimap showing you where a suitable site to gather from is located.

I think these are fairly basic and simple changes as the system is already in place for fieldleves.

What do you guys think ?

[Jinko]

33 views and nobody left any feedback /sigh.

[SeleneVenizelos]

It's easy to memorise the current location of three nodes without having an arrow hold our hands and walk us there. It's also unusual to have three newly spawned nodes exhaust before gathering fatigue kicks in if you're gathering constantly. Considering the off hand locations are always in the same places, a minimap ping to show their location seems pretty pointless and will only make an easy pastime easier.

The minimap ping for leves is helpful, but even then, isn't necessary. After a couple of leves you'll memorise which part of the map the nodes will be near anyway and they never move for Fishing.

It would be convenient, I agree with that, however I don't think it's necessary.

[Jinko]

Yea never said it was necessary, lets not forget that a lot of new players won't have memorised where nodes are, to be honest i don't remember where half of them are and i been playing the game since launch.

This is hardly hand holding, especially when we already have lame text based skills that tell us where the nodes are.

[Estellios]

I think it would be useful to have the minimap thing for new players and when you go to a new zone you haven't gathered in yet. It's a lot more user friendly than having to rely on maps on another site.

[SeleneVenizelos]

But isn't half the fun of levelling a job learning it and using your experience to become more efficient at it? Add in minimap markers for conventional gathering nodes and you're basically taking away any point for people to memorise where nodes are; and I don't mean long term, by the way, I just mean remembering where the nodes that form your triangle are. To find them, the abilities are more than sufficient, I think.

[Ravidrath]

I fully support these ideas, Jinko.

I'd also like to see more variety in the leves. Harvesting/Quarrying/Piking leves would be a start, but there have to be more interesting ways to vary these up and make them seem more exciting.

For example, spawn some NPCs - say, three fighters and a crafter. Beastmen are attacking with acid-coated weapons, and the crafter needs materials to replace their weapons. The more stuff you bring them, the more beastmen they kill, and the better your reward will be. We're supposed to be supplying a growing war effort, so let's make us actually feel that way!

And hile it's nice and predictable, I think randomizing sweet spots at every node would be more interesting. Part of the game would be to find the sweet spots, and then giving better or more frequent rewards for hitting them.

But isn't half the fun of levelling a job learning it and using your experience to become more efficient at it? Add in minimap markers for conventional gathering nodes and you're basically taking away any point for people to memorise where nodes are; and I don't mean long term, by the way, I just mean remembering where the nodes that form your triangle are. To find them, the abilities are more than sufficient, I think.

Memorizing spawn locations is not fun for most anyone. While you may enjoy it, it hardly constitutes gameplay and these classes should be made more fun so more people want to partake of them. Maintaining the status quo shouldn't really be an option just because you've found your niche.

Furthermore, making the classes more accessible and helping other people get into the job doesn't preclude your ability to remember the locations and be more efficient than they are. You are still free to memorize away.

I do think some kind of exp. chain system to incentivize becoming more efficient would be good, though. It'd add some much-needed drive to these classes.

[SeleneVenizelos]

Memorizing spawn locations is not fun for most anyone. While you may enjoy it, it hardly constitutes gameplay and these classes should be made more fun so more people want to partake of them. Maintaining the status quo shouldn't really be an option just because you've found your niche.

Memorising the locations of nodes, what drops from there, which part of the aim to hit; these all come from practising and repeated gathering in specific areas. The more you do something, the better you become at it. Gathering really should not be any different in my opinion. Minimap markers will just make it too easy to find the nodes and it will not promote any form of skill or initiative, which game content needs in order to not become the means to the end and, essentially, a boring grind.

I'm not necessarily against making it a little easier, but adding minimap markers would be too much. The beginner levequests for gathering are ample enough to teach new gatherers how to find nodes, do we really need to grab them by the hand and lead them there? I'd prefer to see and play a system that encourages skill and experience more than being able to follow a minimap marker. There is no skill in that whatsoever.

[Ravidrath]

Memorising the locations of nodes, what drops from there, which part of the aim to hit; these all come from practising and repeated gathering in specific areas. The more you do something, the better you become at it. Gathering really should not be any different in my opinion. Minimap markers will just make it too easy to find the nodes and it will not promote any form of skill or initiative, which game content needs in order to not become the means to the end and, essentially, a boring grind.

I'm not necessarily against making it a little easier, but adding minimap markers would be too much. The beginner levequests for gathering are ample enough to teach new gatherers how to find nodes, do we really need to grab them by the hand and lead them there? I'd prefer to see and play a system that encourages skill and experience more than being able to follow a minimap marker. There is no skill in that whatsoever.

Again, just because you like it doesn't mean it's currently fun. Everything you said would be fine if people liked it the way it is now, but they don't.

As I said, they need to tackle it from both sides: making it more fun and accessible for everyone and then raising the skill ceiling on the play for the pros with some kind of chaining system or other device that rewards efficiency. People that are better should be rewarded for it, but not at the exclusion of everyone elses' enjoyment.

[SeleneVenizelos]

Again, just because you like it doesn't mean it's currently fun. Everything you said would be fine if people liked it the way it is now, but they don't.

As I said, they need to tackle it from both sides: making it more fun and accessible for everyone and then raising the skill ceiling on the play for the pros with some kind of chaining system or other device that rewards efficiency.

A vocal minority posting on these forums does not represent the playerbase, don't assume to speak for it. Whilst I'm not saying either is right or wrong, this thread is an opinion thread where direct feedback was requested; my opinion is no less correct or incorrect than yours, please don't dismiss it using what the playerbase that you don't represent wants as the reasoning.

There is already a reward for efficiency: increased gathering speed and yield. Those who take the time to learn the class thoroughly and practise various methods and styles will always perform more efficiently than those who don't. This applies to every class in the game, why should gathering be any different?

Skill and practise should always be rewarded, regardless of what style of job or class you're playing.

People that are better should be rewarded for it, but not at the exclusion of everyone elses' enjoyment.

If you don't enjoy gathering stop doing it, nobody is holding a gun to your head. Leave it to those who do enjoy it and maybe find another hobby in the game to pass the time?