Harvester please read.

Qandor wrote:

Ehh you do have a point about the porting, I wasn't completly miffed about some of the amentities because in general travel in this game is painful for non porting classes. Granted I never minded opening portals for folks and always remained /who able so folks could ask cause Iknow getting around to be anoysome. I just don't want to see eq2 do what eq1 did where there was a zone where you could port basically everywhere.. Wait guild halls assuming you have all of the amentities you can get to where ever.. Even still I don't think it is as bad as eq1 where it killed off zones. There are still only a limited number of zones you can go into for leveling so in general all it did was make it a bit more streamlined for those that can't port. ESPICALLY with a 15 minuite call to guild house.
As to the harvesting bot, again I am not worried about it. The real kicker is a) will it return rares/materials and b) what is the harvest skill rate at. Even still with the low number of returns for that 2 hours we are kicking around ideas of how to deal with that mechanic considering like others have posted we usually like to acutally you know PLAY the game instead of stand right beside some stupid gathering thingie to click it every 2 hours.

I noticed there were only three harvesting type Hirelings and sent out enquiries. Here's what I got.

Gatherer Hireling* NPC - harvests for 2 hours then gives you random results of 100 pulls
* Harvests Lumber, Roots, and Shrubbery nodes
Hunter Hireling
* NPC - harvests for 2 hours then gives you random results of 100 pulls
* Harvests dens and fish nodes
Miner Hireling
* NPC - harvests for 2 hours then gives you random results of 100 pulls
* Harvests gem and ore nodes

Ohiv wrote:

Ditto. If its returning rares, then I'm going to have a problem with it. I really only sell regular mats that are leftovers or won't fit in my bank boxes. But, rares on the other hand. That's my bread and butter. I have 7 hungry mouths to feed (alts). I have no interest in competing with people on the broker who are playing LoN while the bot harvests for them and I'm out there dodging mobs and harvesting one node at time.

Spyderbite@Venekor wrote:

Well I know for PvP servers things are different, but can you pull more then 100 nodes in 2 hours? Odds are yes even on a PvP server so relativly speaking you won't be undermined with these sort of bots. Although like I stated the real issues are a) will it return rares/materials and b) if it does return them what is the skill level of the bot. If the bot is whatever the minium is for the zone then even if it does return rares it will be lower then if it was maxed with extra stuff. PERSONALLY I would say it should only return raws nothing else, no materials and no rares. Those 2 should be the perks of the real harvester not a bot and an afk person or worse a bot running the bot to go gather >.< I wouldn't be surprized if that started to happen!!

OK, I don't understand why some are saying no on givng rares. If I am wrong don't we have to pay this amenity to do this? The way I see it, is we have to do writs and pay an upkeep for this so why can't we get some payback for this? I know this won't kill the game as some have suggested for this amenity is only usuable every two hours so that is 12 times in one day. I see maybe putting one time use per day for a character but to not have this at all or to have not give rares isn't right either. Just think of it as interest on returns if you can get a rare even 20% of time you use the thing if you ask me. If the npc is not going to be giving rares then the npc is keeping the real profits if you ask me and this isn't right for we paying this npc to go harvest and......... he comes back with no rares? If I had done this myself I would have maybe would have got a rare or a few so why would the npc be keeping them? I know he's not keeping them in a real sense but if this was actual person doing this chore then he would be if that make sense.
All and all if we pay this npc to harvest then I want any rares he may have pulled. I just want to be able to get paid back sometimes for having this amenity.

Cinnimon wrote:

From what I understand rares/materials haven't been confirmed as being items you can get from these bots. Another point of interest is what is the skill rate this bot will use when gathering even if he does give you materials/rares.
I personally would prefer the bot to just return raws and that's it. Although that is my preference it has no bearing whatsoever on what it will really do or not do untill we actually get to see an official response on all of the amentities from SoE, or heck get a chance to "try them out" on test when it hits there.
I also understand your point, boiling it down to simply we have to pay an upkeep charge for this guy and there are already enough restrictions on this, rares/materials shouldn't be one of them.

Ohiv wrote:

Plus it's not 100 nodes in 2 hours , it's 100 pulls in 2 hours (33 nodes).

I don't get what the kafuffle is over this. 33 nodes is nothing. A skilled harvester will hit hundreds of pulls in the 2 hour time limit. 7.5 seconds, plus the time it takes to run to the next node. About all I would worry about is the rares.

Kaldrin@Befallen wrote:

I am amused this thread is over 20 pages now


The cost of these is so high that you are better off just buying the mats on the broker

Wreatch@Nagafen wrote:

My reply is only based on the OP, not the other comments so why I'm quoting him, just to be clear.

I wouldn't panic or worry yet. I think the key is "of a specific type" and that he does this once every couple hours. Along with that he's only gathering a specific node type each time he's sent out. Every tradeskill class needs a couple different types of harvests, and a lot use more then one type of rare. So, even if your guid hall's harvester NPC is out pulling let's say ore, you'll still need to harvest the other raws needed for your class. That and it's of a certain tier...so if you send the harvester out for tier 8 ore, and another person needs a bunch of tier 6 ore...well it's either wait for him to get back, or go harvest it on your own.
Mind you, I'm going on a fair amount of assumptions based on how I understood it and what you posted, but that is my take on it. Otherwise, sure the guild harvester will be a nice tool, but he can only do one type of node, and one tier at a time.
As an aside, I'm reading one of two things into what you posted. Either a) The harvester can be set for a specific type of node (ore, roots, etc) and then a specific tier or b) You'll need a harvester for each type of node, but one will still have to set the tier before sending him out to go gather. If the latter, well that (I assume) will cost one amenity per node. Maybe there will be enough amenity "slots" that this won't matter, but that does seem like a lot of slots just so one never has to harvest.
Second aside, they could always set the harvester's skill for the bare minimum needed for whatever zone he's sent to gather from. So that especially with tiers lower the 8th, one still has an advantage over a NPC harvester...I always did assume anyway that skill levels in harvesting did increase the chance of multiple items per pull and rares. Another idea is maybe make it so the harvester can't get a rare. That right there still leaves the harvester as conveinent, but makes harvesting on one's own still needed. Just throwing those out there..I'm neutral to both suggestions as an aside.

Cinnimon wrote:

I agree with most here. This bot should not be pulling rares.

wullailhuit wrote:

Actually, if any "nothing found" are also counted as pulls, then it's even less than the equivalent of 33 nodes.

If a player character can't harvest more than 33 nodes in 2 hours, then he's not really harvesting, he's just meandering and picking up a node here and there as he goes.

Cinnimon wrote:

Getting a rare is the reward for putting in the time to get your harvesting skills up to the appropriate level and putting in the time to go out and harvest until you manage to get said rare. That is not effort that should be able to be bypassed with some coin and status. You're getting your payback. You don't have to go out and harvest for raws. You can go do what you want to do while someone else harvests for you. Raws *and* rares is asking for too much.

The harvesting hirelings only gather common materials, not rares or imbue material. Rares are left for the players to gather in the wilds of Norrath.

We have been deciding on how many pulls the hirelings can do in two hours so I'd like to get all your feedback on it. So how many pulls do you think is fair for a hireling to do in 2 hours?

Some notes on it.
Hirelings don't get a "Nothing Found" result on a pull.
They have the player's standard chance to harvest a 1, 3, or 5 yield per pull.
They have a balanced chance of which of their targeted nodes they will harvest from per pull roll. So the miner has a 50-50 chance that each pull comes from either the Ore node or the Gem node, he can't be told to only get Gem harvests. On average he should return an equal amount of gem commons and ore commons.
They don't actually go out into the world and consume nodes, they simulate their pulls by sending their "crew" out into the lands.

Jindrack wrote:

Thank you for clearing this up Jindrack, I won't be getting one (I like harvesting) but I was still curious as to what they harvested.

About the amounts per 2 hour expedition, I don't know offhand because different tiers are different for the various raws. T6 ore anyone?

I think I will try an experiment and see what I come up with in a couple different zones/tiers just for fun. I'm nerdy like that =)

I assume this hireling doesn't have sow or a run speed above base so it will be slow going lol.

So glad it doesn't harvest rares or imbues!

Thank you, Jindrack. Until Domino makes me cookies, you're my favorite dev.

I don't think anyone can say what's a reasonable number of pulls until its seen in action. 100 pulls seems okay but in practice who knows. Vendor prices for handcrafted at launch apparently seemed reasonable (not to me, I knew they were going to be nerfed), but those were changed in short order.

NicolasKL wrote:

I guess a few of us obsessed people could go clear-cut a few areas for an hour and count pulls

Actually, I think anyone who goes out and harvests a lot can have an educated opinion about how many pulls they can get in two hours. I'd say I usually get around a node every two minutes on average while harvesting (on a bad day). That puts me at 180 pulls at my worst. Plus I get all the rares that come with that time spent.

I think it is about right to have the bots bring 100 pulls. Especially since there are no rares involved.

Jindrack wrote:

Amount of pulls as people have commented is dependant on danger, also dependant on player knowledge of good spawn locations for each type of node. If you know the sweet spots for a resource type you can pull a node a minute without competition and if your running around with competition for nodes its more towards a node per 2 mins. I'd personally aim the bots to act as if they have competition with a bonus for no rare pulls and a penalty on the highest tier of the game for danger avoidances . So lets say 75 (20% bonus for no rares) pulls per 2 hours for all tiers below current maximum tier and 60 (20% bonus for no rares and 20% penalty for danage, 0 net bonus) for top game tier?