Where do Resources Come From in SOTA?

I haven't seen a single bit of information on Resource Gathering in SOTA. There's been plenty of mention of crafting, and it's obviously pretty important if you look at this forum compared to the others. But no mention of what you're crafting things out of, or how you get them.

Where will you get your resources? Will it be just 'click on the resource node two hundred times' or will there be any sort of mini-game element? Will they deplete? Will you ever have to fight monsters to get resources? Will they be in instances, or on the world map?

Even if it's technically still 'clicking two hundred times', I'd rather have something like swinging the mouse back and forth to chop wood or smack a rock with a pick, than just clicking the mouse button over an object over and over again.

Oh, one more thing. Please, please, pretty please make the animations fit the resource nodes. It's sort of embarassing to have your character stand three feet away from a bush and wiggle their fingers at it to gather. At the very least, do some kind of checks to make sure te character's hands are actually IN the bush, or plant, or whatever. Otherwise, maybe have a different animation for each node, wherethe character is actually touching it. That'd be great!

 

"At the very least, do some kind of checks to make sure te character?s hands are actually IN the bush, or plant, or whatever."

This is precisely why us backers have been given alpha and beta testing access.

 

Having your character's hands "in the bush" is a bad way to gather anything, though it's good for grinding. ^_^

Seriously, though...

I had an idea on this just today- don't require repeated gathering at all. Instead, resource points are scattered around adventuring areas like collectibles in most games. You find it and click it to stake a claim, getting a little mark on your map. Or the location gets added to a list. To harvest the resource, you have to set up an operation. Say you have a desk somewhere in your house. Clicking brings up an interface that lists resource points discovered. Each day using this interface you pay X gold for workers, and they gather Y resources for you. All of this is manageable from your house. Craftsmen can thus set up a steady flow of resources by means of exploration and money management instead of grinding. Non-crafters can gather resources to sell to crafters who need resources immediately or aren't as interested in exploring.