Resource Variability

I'm all for this. It can add a great additional level of depth for crafting.

I was thinking earlier only one game series has successfully made entire games based around crafting, and that's the Atelier games. They have a very similar random ingredients system - one healing herb might give you an additional +10% fire resistance, for instance, just because you got the grass in the desert or what have you.

Maybe good reference point for Portalarium.

 

That is exactly what we are referring to, having to use a visual location vs being to try your luck anywhere.

 

Is that the route that they are planning on pursuing? Cause that would be super lame if you ask me.

 

we do not know yet, so far none of us want nodes.

 

one thing that makes me hopeful that they do not have nodes is that they have talked about surveying. Nodes are visible and would not need surveying.

 

no nodes!

 

Have they talked about variability in types of ore or stats on ore, wood, etc?

 

not that I know of

 

I'm not sure what "nodes" means.

Does it mean fixed locations that can be harvested repeatedly upon their respawn?
What is the alternative, that their spawn location is random each time?

I thought we saw in the video you could just go into a hex instance and start cutting down trees. What are we talking about here?

 

While that is one way to do it, it presumes a few things, which may or may not be true.
On one hand, they've said that your friend can help you harvest.

GD: Brenton would like to know " If my friend chops down all the trees, does that limit my resources? "

RG: If you're both on the same map instance, at the same time, then yes. If one of you kills a cow, and harvests its meat, then that particular cow does not exist anymore on that map for this particular period of time. But fear not, I don't anticipate that this will be a problem as people will explore these maps.

CS: Yeah, there shouldn't be any shortage in that sense. The more rare trees will either.. the lower end trees we'll be just kind of guarding with "You can't collect too many of them because it's actually time consuming to walk from tree to tree and chop it down and that'll be the gating factor. As you get into the more rare trees, it will be hard to find and/or guarded by whatever creatures live around it. We will balance that all out for you. But no, you won't have to fight your friend probably for trees, you may want them to help you fight for the good stuff, but .. or spread out and search together.

This is concerning, as it means that harvesting is competitive & shared, not personal. Many games have removed this particularly contentious issue by making harvesting personal. This would be my preference.

Now, on the other hand, we have this:

GD: AvatarAcid would like to know " If resource nodes will spawn randomly, or if they'll be found in exact locations? "

RG: Both are possible, so, it depends on the designer again building out the space. They can be scattered or they can be probabilistic in a certain spot or they can always be in a certain spot depending on the needs of the design. It could be that, on the top of this particular hill, on a particular moonlit night that we really want a rare reagent to spawn in a very specific spot. It could also be that we just want poisonous mushrooms to be found randomly in the swamps during the rainy season so they could literally be anywhere. Both extremes will be possible.

Which is... vague to the point of frustrating, and doesn't address the actual concern at all.
The concern is: Will I be competing with 100, 1000, 10,000 or 100,000 other players to get that one mushroom or rare reagent?
I think it's pretty fair to say, if I'm competing with 100,000 other players across 23 other time zones, I'm not getting that rare reagent, EVER.

These issues are why I came up with the dynamic hex resource adjustment idea. In practice, it would mean you can go to an area and use a skill or item to determine what is nearby, and then use a tool to harvest it. There would be no need for an interactive object in the world that everyone clicks on. (node)

Now, if you had the money or the resources, though, you could adjust one of 10,000 adjustment locations per hectare and get the resource you wanted. The trick? The cost to adjust the world could be more than what you would get out of it.
This would ensure that you have to consume from the world to obtain what you WANT rather than searching for what you want in the native/un-adjusted locations.
As always, frequency and location adjacency limits would prevent abuse and preserve immersion, as desired.

 

@vjek I understand what he's saying. Doesn't sound like any competition will be there, or very little for the rarer stuff (unless certain ingredients are only available in PvP, in which case you can always turn on SPO). The resource spawns will be independent for your current instance of whatever hex and the _type_ of resource that spawns can vary depending on resource. This means: the magic flower that only blooms under a full moon, for instance, is probably always found in one or several specific locations. The trees surrounding it however are probably placed statically when the scene is built, and you can cut them down until they are all gone, at which point you can just leave the instance and come back later. The wolves, rabbits and boar that live in the grove would be generated randomly in both number and placement.

What I wouldn't want is your idea, no offense. Exploring and finding resources yourself, discovering what lies where is part of learning the game. Survey and auto-gather aren't something I would want out of a game like this. PARTICULARLY after seeing things like cutting down individual trees which persist as stumps until the instance is refreshed - that's pretty cool if you ask me.
Taking that away is a bit ridikalus.

 

Everyone can explore and find the resources themselves. I would never suggest that be removed.

With respect to temporary hex adjustment;
If it costs more to do it than you get out if it either/both more money and/or resources, there's no downside.
If it costs A LOT more to do it, it's then a very attractive resource/currency sink. Which is an ideal innovative mechanic, and would distinguish the game.

Scarce & competitive shared harvesting in 2014 is not going to be innovative, nor fun, nor challenging. It's going to be frustrating.
While your interpretation of what was said is possible (and optimistic), 15+ years of failed promises in this genre has led me to be a bit more critical. For example, there is no mention of respawning, nor any mention of respawn rates, for anything, neither flora or fauna.
The current design goal could be that they are extremely long. We have no idea, but given past games... yeah, that ominous feeling again.

If the big draw is the animation and the visual effect after the harvest, that can all be there with temporary hex adjustment, or without. It's an independent feature.