resources veins ala UO, or Protruding nodes?

Just curious if mining will be throw back to the other kingdom by mining mountains and caverns, or will it be nodes that protrude above ground?

 

Probably yes to both. Common ones easy to spot and harvest. Rare ones in more dangerous territory, deep in the mines perhaps!

 

I hope so! We've only see the whole tree cutting thing for resource gathering, so hopefully we'll get a peek at mining at some point here.

 

I think nodes are too simplistic and randomly changing veins is unrealistic. I would like to see "prospecting" tools & ore sampling devices or kits, plus ore processing table for crushing the rock to extract the metals & stone. I would like to see metals like Gold, Lead, Silver, Tin, Copper, Iron, Nicle, Mercury & Coal, Quartz, smelting Tin/Copper would get you Bronze, smelting Iron/Coal would get your steel, smelting Quartz you could extract the gold.

I don't believe that veins should randomly spawn, but they should become depleated forcing a miner to prospect in another area, Veins should be visable to an experienced miner and samples should be taken to prove a metals existance or it should be stone (marble, granite, shale, etc).

And of course you should be able to mine for Diamonds, Rubies, Emeralds, Saphires or at the very least find them periodicly.

Just my thoughts since there is gathering/processing/production.

 

Makes me ponder...what happens when I leave a hex, turn around and re-enter? Does the entire hex respawn its instance and if so, is it a fresh instance (basically tossed away when I leave it?)

Would make gathering resources rather simple. I don't remember off-hand if any of the KS or later videos talked about that.

 

I think it was mentioned in a hangout or livestream. Not sure I want to re-watch 100 hours of video for that answer. Easier to spam Chris until he responds

 

Well, since the games not out yet, I can only imagine that if you enter a hex, you create an instance just for you (and others who match your slider setting, friends, or others can enter it and you will see them), otherwise they will be creating an instance for themselves that you can enter.

Since the Dev's haven't said anything that I know of about "spawn" rates I can imagine that if critters spawn every 20 min and ore spawns every 2 hrs, if you leave the hex (intance) and re-enter it, you will simply be re-entering you're own instance of that hex in the condition you left it in, and if you wait long enough, even the instance will be reset, I'm sure the game will track you though.

But don't quote me as "gospel truth" here, the game is evolving all the time.

 

Yeah, I thought it was mentioned but only in a "maybe we'll do it this way context". No biggie, I was just wondering how long it might take for an instance of mine to despawn; kinda like doing good old 8x8 in UO

 

I don't know how it will all work, but ere are a few thoughts from my MMOG/gaming experiences:

(Terminology notes: Node = any harvestable resource location such as a vein, tree, plant, etc | Scene = any opened up map area that becomes an adventure area (term mainly decided upon because of the "Scene Jam"))

- I would rather see natural settings for resource gathering like in UO and what we saw in the video where the Node looks like it is a part of the scene and not like you see in WoW/LotRO/etc where the resource stands out in a way that clashes with the scenery.

- With #1 in mind, some things would have to be identifiable as a harvestible resource, specifically things like plants and herbs. Trees and rock faces would have to have some sort of feedback on whether the particular Node has anything meaningful to harvest or not.

- There should be a way to eliminate the static nature seen in UO prior to the randomization patch and the mappable static nodes seen in games like WoW and LotRO.

- The specific Scenes would have to have internal "rules" that state which resource(s) can spawn in that scene and at what frequency. Then when the scene is entered, the roll is made internally and the Scene is populated accordingly.

- To prevent "Scene Spamming" (basically entering, exiting, and re-entering the scene repeatedly to force rolls), the internal spawn rates should be applied even if the resource rolls "Do Not Spawn" so that the roll does not happen again until the timer expires, or the scene itself would have to have a timer that holds the scene in place for a specific amount of time. As a comparison, Path of Exile has each Scene outside of town as an Instance. Once you enter a Scene, the instance is open to that particular setup for 8 - 15 minutes. If you are not in that scene for that amount of time, the Scene resets. Due to the nature of PoE, you also have the ability to Ctrl-Click a Scene location to start a new instance with a fresh set of monsters to kill. Since SotA is not ARPG based the way PoE is, then removing the Ctrl-Click to reset would be a prudent move.

- The specific locations for a resource shouldn't be 100% static if possible. Maybe the last time you enetered the particular node, one section of mountain was giving ore, but later on it is "played out" (not giving useful ore) while another one that was not giving useful ore is now productive. Same with trees... different trees would be ready to harvest at different times. Plants for Herbalism could be more randomly placed.

 

I hope not...
Why? I think its horrible if always plants, enemies, doors and whatnot start to glow or whatever.
I think it should work like this:

-Activate your skill and klick on some scenery and maybe you can harvest or not.

-Activate your skill and klick on a gatherimg tool and your character will casually turn into the direction of the nex ressource you can gathee with it. Range limited by skill

-Activate your skill and klick on a already harvested ressource and the character will turn to the next similar source. Range limited by skill but much reduced range compared to above.

I guess the ressource doesn't have to be tracked by single scene but by the overland map.
If you clear out a scene of ressource X all new instances with radius of Y around this instance will spawn less or none of ressource X.

 

I have a whole bunch of ideas regarding obtaining resources in a new and innovative way that offers players the choice to tangibly, but temporarily, affect the game world. (see my sig link)
But setting that aside, I'd prefer players have to find a spot that looks likely, and then use harvesting tools. A simple example would be using a mining pick on rocky/exposed areas, or using a sickle on plants, shrubs, or herbs, and a scythe on a field of wild oats or wheat. Visually, it's not necessary for the world to change (but of course it would be nice) and it's easier to track individual uses of that tool at that location, to temporally limit the gathering, if that's a design goal.

Also, it's been mentioned a few times that harvesting and crafting tools will suffer damage/wear on use, so that's a good thing from my perspective.

Personally, I see no value in punitively restricting a players harvesting efforts, but rather using fuel costs with refining and production as a throttle & gold sink. Specifically, unless each hex is tracked uniquely, with respect to harvesting, per player, then I would prefer harvesting not be competitive at all. In other words, if there are say 20 unique wilderness hexes at launch, and each has their own resources within them, and one player can harvest them all, preventing other players from doing so, I'm not a fan of that. Let me chop my own trees. If I chop all the trees there are to chop, fine, I'm out of trees. But I don't want to compete with 50,000 other players all swarming over 20 unique hexes.

Finally, nodes should not be used at all, imo. Even semi-random placement of nodes leads to all sorts of negative player behavior, and it's amplified by it being competitive/shared. As far as guarding resources goes, that's fine, as long as it's meaningful or in theme, for the region. I would prefer very challenging guards for very rare resources only. I don't see the need to have resource guarding for common resources.

 

I agree with what everything in the above post, particularly the first bit. The game should be able to recognize that key resources are related to aspects of the environment.

It would be cool to see event-triggered resources. Like if blood moss grew on a corpse and consumed it, leaving the reagent. This could be used in various ways to provide "hidden" content that provides for more sandbox exploration.

 

Then there should be a timer for every zone (visited) and every player (group), otherwise all the nearby zones will be depleted (by someone who visited them just before you) and you'll be left to wonder endlesly in hope to find some spot untouched yet by fellow avatars

 

Can we use dynamite?

 

Note in the recent release of crafting and combat information there is a Surveying skill. Ability to detect where resources are. Final Fantasy 14 implemented a similar system. Ordinarily walking around you see nothing, but you actively check and then you see it. I'm not sure how it will work in this game, if it glows for you or if it just means you'll find hidden ones while others are visible.

The 3 month demo also showed a tree you could tell was a special tree, (1 of those isn't like the others).

 

I'd prefer UO style were you have to find them. Nothing worse than seeing a bunch of players running for the same node, plus it looks very unrealistic

 

Luckily this isn't an MMO though so that shouldn't be an issue too often (You can always drop out of Open play online mode).

 

True but online is all about a little competition so if I'm in open world anyone can get in. unless I have a blacklist block

 

Absolutely agree, love all those ideas. I would definately like to see "resource gathering" be more like it is out here, and not some hunt-the-whumpus/ wack-a-mole fest.

Perhaps even to the point of having to purchase temporary "deeds" to lock-off an area of resource to other players (some gold sink fee). Not forever, but my use case is something like:

A) You are out exploring for silver, coal, whatever.
B) you come across a great area of oak trees + water (fishing rich? <-- this a resource?), and a glint of some gold.
C) You put in for a resource land grant, some predetermined areas and durations, more == more gold sink
D) You can tag other players as "resource gatherers" as well, effectively allowing them access to your temporary resource land grant
E) You all resource gather away, hoping the area bears out good on that gold vein (maybe there is a lot, maybe there is not)
F) Resource grant times out
G) You can't immediately put in for the same area (cooldown period) depends on how long you locked it down, how large, etc...

I think this would allow for some great community around resource GATHERING, instead of just the atypical building portion
It could be a cottage industry, maybe even allow you to rent out time on your locked deed (!!) -- effectively making true "explorers" who venture out looking for resources for gatherers.
It prevents the stupid race to resource nodes/veins.

Downsides:

Seems weird when someone shows up to look for resources, and its already a locked area, how do you present that to players hunting areas to "farm"? Pop ups? Visual color(s) clues, etc...
Could cause a consortium to race out and lock off multiple sections for long periods of time (can be solved by limiting how many "groups" you can be a part of / deed access to at any one time)
Downplays "justice" in the overall world, if everyone is locked to areas, there is no griefing of players (taking resources when they are just trying to gather), so eliminates a self-policing need (but I am ok on this one =)

 

I have to admit, i'm torn on this one. I like the realism of having to get a permit or whatever to mine, its an interesting idea. But it would really suck to desperately need 15 units of silver to finish my sword of awesome +2, and I can't find any silver anywhere within 20 miles of my house cause all of the areas have been camped and locked down.