Random Encounter Never Ending Resource Nodes

02/08/2016 11:59
Title: Random Encounter Respawning Resources
Reproduction Rate: just this time
Blocker? No, but a potential exploit
Details:
So, I got pulled into a random Encounter, killed all the wolves, harvested all the nodes, but had to go afk for a while. I returned some while later to discover many of the resource nodes had respawned. So, I dutifully harvested them again, then got the idea to wait them out and see what happens. Low and behold, some of the nodes did respawn.
I'm not sure if this counts as a bug, but i see the potential exploit of hanging out in a safe, never ending resource scene and thought maybe someone ought to know what i found.
Steps to Reproduce: Haven't tried a different encounter, don't know if it can be reproduced.
User Specs:
OS: Mac OS X 10.11.3
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz (8) System RAM: 32768
GPU: AMD Radeon R9 M395X OpenGL Engine GPU RAM: 1024
SotA.EarlyAccess.OSX.64.376.Date.02.03.16
Area: Novia_R1_Encounter_Plains02_02_Road
Loc: (-43.9, 32.8, -3.0)

 

How long of a wait were you observing between harvests?

 

Not too long, maybe 15 minutes or so, not long enough for my avatar to sit down at least. I will add it was mostly the trees, but a few cotton and an Iron node also spawned.



UPDATE: In an encounter right now. 12:52 PM PST . Will take copious notes on timings of respawns, etc. Original harvest of 3 trees, 1 cotton.

1:25 Update: Two trees and 1 Iron node. rabbits are plentiful, but not killing the bunnies

Forgot Bug Info
2/10/2016 13:41
Title:
Reproduction Rate:
Blocker?
Details:
Steps to Reproduce:
User Specs:
OS: Mac OS X 10.11.3
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz (8) System RAM: 32768
GPU: AMD Radeon R9 M395X OpenGL Engine GPU RAM: 1024
SotA.EarlyAccess.OSX.64.376.Date.02.03.16
Area: Novia_R1_Encounter_Plains02_02_Road
Loc: (-45.1, 40.8, 11.7)

1:47 Update: 1 new tree spawned, also got a message about the Instance Closing, do I want to transfer to a new one. I chose NO to stay in the current instance.

2:05 pm pst: 3 trees, 1 Iron and 1 cotton spawn. Continue getting the instance closing message, continue to say no.

2:25: came back to screen to find myself on the overworked map - the instance had closed. So, I see that it is NOT unlimited resources, but i was able to get several respawns during the life span of the instance.

 

OK, even more detailed information - Definitely an exploit at this point. Last night, I quit while still in the encounter. I logged in this morning to find I could RESUME in the encounter. The encounter was fully stocked: 2 cotton, 9 cows, 2 sheep dogs, 4 trees and an iron node.
I quit and logged in 1/2 an hour later, back into the encounter again - Fully stocked: 2 cotton, 2 Iron, 4 trees and 10 cows. Quit, and logged back in 1 minute later, resumed encounter only had 1 cotton, 1 iron and 1 tree, no livestock. Quit and logged back in 15 minutes later, Resumed Encounter and it was fully stocked: 2 cotton, 1 iron, 2 trees and this time 2 dogs and 10 sheep! the Livestock Changed! Excellent for us cooks, maybe next time i get chickens!

 

So, to answer your question @Attenwood , 15 minutes seems to be the optimal time. Clean out the encounter, quit, log back in 15 minutes later to a fully stocked encounter.

 

Seeing nodes regenerate while idle in a scene is normal in my experience. Any scene will slowly regenerate harvesting nodes up to a certain limit, something like half of the potential nodes being populated.

Resuming after quitting in the encounter probably generated a fresh instance of the scene, which is why it was "fully stocked". I see this happen all the time when I log off in dungeon scenes. You have to be logged off at least a few minutes for the old scene instance to get destroyed first.

It is interesting that the livestock changed. This implies that it is only one scene, with the type of animals in the scene determined at scene creation.

 

Respawning nodes in a scene is normal and happens everywhere as far as I know.

The only way this would be an exploit is if they respawned immediately (or like less than a minute).

For this to happen in a random encounter scene is not a big deal because there are only a handful of nodes in those and if it takes 15-20 minutes to respawn that's not worth waiting around IMO. Anyone with decent harvesting skill levels could clear all the trees/cotton/ores/reagents in less than 10 minutes total... so waiting around for 5 minutes is a waste.

If anything, they should make these nodes respawn faster.