An Idea, Or Probably Just Another Rant.

[Whinemaker]

I don't really mind the randomness of the resource system, however I wish they would make possible through an item/a skill for us to tell apart a plain vein from a coloured one. You don't have to tell to me what colour the vein yields, I just want to have a general idea on what I can eliminate to make resource harvesting more time efficient.

It's frustrating enough that the valorite vein you've just found only gave you a general 2-3 coloured ores (out of 16) per harvest, and then turned plain after 3-4 rounds without you knowing it, but you just kept digging and digging and hoped that something might show up...
If I had known that was a plain node I would have just moved on...

 

[Taylor]

So, you're recommending a skill that will tell you whether or not to keep digging at a vein? GM Prospecting or something?

 

[Whinemaker]

Just a bonus thing from GM lumberjacking/mining/item ID(?) would do.
Or perhaps an item.

I mean, just a simple message that says "you can't seem to find any special material here" after the first dig/chop can be a major time saver. For example, if I'm just looking for plain logs to do quests/training I will just stay at the spot. If I'm looking for something coloured for enhancing etc, I'll just move on.

Right now you just have to chew through everything and hope whatever you find stay the way it is the next time you're there.

 

[Jhym]

Using the prospector's tool or a gargoyle pickaxe would tell you that. Though with the pickaxe you have to keep digging to see what the type is and might get an elemental. Bumping the level for one batch with the tool at least tells you what the base metal is, and the next time you come around you can decide whether to bump the vein or not.

Currently lumberjacking has no way to know what the wood type is, but you also can't bump the wood types either.

 

[Whinemaker]

Thanks Jhym. Although the idea is not to find out what the base metal/wood is, I just want to know whether something is plain or colour, that's all.
For example, I'm beginning to donate to the Vesper museum now, but I only have so much time to play each WEEK. I'm trying to avoid all the plain trees but with my crappy luck it seems like they are all I'm running into, and when I find something ranging from Oak to Yew they usually disappear not too long after I decided to mark a rune for them.

Onto a seperate matter, I've had times when I got nothing but iron using a gargolye pickaxe, on a full colour vein before they randomised the spawn to how they work nowadays (sometimes I just think with my real life luck I should never be playing this game). I honestly wish they would just remove the plain metal/wood from the colour nodes, even though I don't think that'll ever happen.

 

[Silverbird]

The problem with your method is, that, if everyone would use it, there would be only plain nodes left.

 

[Warpig Inc]

Yes the prospector tool already gives a heads up.

Long before the colored woods came out I gave a whole rundown on the concept. They just did way better on my ideal what each wood would do. But in my ideal there would be the ability to farm reaper axes from reapers doing the same as goyle picks. With the chance of spawning a colored wood treefellow. With colored wood 50 count coming only off the treefellows. Was my way to aviod the scripting of wood.

The new randomizing of gathering was a better ideal and should stay. My time spent on gathering the further out in the wilds you get the better the hits. Being to close to a town or any other tour spot just reduces the amount and quality of what you get. Area meant for starter training characters.

From the days of the excuvator pickaxe I have run a combat miner smith. The prospector tool was a big help and the double bump means you rarely get dull copper. On that need dull eli to spawn with goyles and give them 25 ore. Look at all the rewards from dull it wont hurt the game. Combat mining in spawn areas yield the best stuff. On the double bump one screen inside the Destard enterance used to have 7 val spots before randomizing. Many times in spawn areas I find spots that yield over 30 hits. One theese high count val spots I spawned 4 val eli. Even with few fails still had 204 val ingots from one spot. Mark 8 spots in despise lizard man area. Firebeetle on guard mine and wax the spawn. Loads of ore and spine leather. I put earth eil slayer on the Bone Crusher for rare ore killing. No pally pump and redlines a shadow in one hit.

Play smarter not harder. The old mage miner was best for marking spots. Like the pure mage tamer it is out dated. Stone mining to a fighter and have some fun mining. Takes a few months to get used to the rare ores jumping out of the rock face.

 

[Megilhir]

I would suggest that the various levels of capability SHOULD allow a measure of assessment. This applies to wood, stone, fishing and any other resource dependent skills.

Seriously. I cannot imagine a seasoned lumberjack walking up to an Elm tree and thinking, "Gee I hope I get some Oak outta this baby..."

So if you can harvest it you should be able to see it. Plain and simple. Add a line of code where copper ore in the rock shimmers or gently twinkles copper (like the stone color) if a person has the skill to gather copper ore.

Same with wood. A Yew tree should never yield Oak or any other type of wood.

And kick the abundance levels up. As an aside, please do not enter into the passe' arguement that the original DEVs believe the rare ores should be rare. The original UO ideas have been slain, bastardized or sacrificed on the altar of change and commercialism.

Find a good use for fish resources please. With over a million fish-cakes the old tower gets a bit ripe in summer.

PS: I like the Reaper idea. Well done.

 

[Whinemaker]

The problem with your method is, that, if everyone would use it, there would be only plain nodes left.

I can't really speak for you, but plain nodes are still useful for me. Just depends on what my needs are at the time I go out chopping/mining. I still use the plain ones for doing quests or making furniture etc.

Yes the prospector tool already gives a heads up...

(Too Long, Cropped)

I agree that the prospector tool does give you a heads up, but what you're doing really, is forcing an upgrade.

No I wasn't saying the randomising of resources was a bad idea, nor was I saying I wanted the old system back. I did say I don't really mind how the way it is in my first post. However if you already have your play time limited due to real life or whatever, sometimes it can be a very frustrating experience when you try to get something done but run into a patch of bad luck with the randomness. And for the second time, no, I don't need/want to know exactly what colour the nodes yield, I'm just asking for something for us to narrow down our options, that's all.

I don't think the location of where you mine/lumberjack is that relevant, there were many times I was the only person digging in Cove (Fel), so I don't see how that affects the "amount and quality" that much. I guess it depends on when you log in.

The mage/miner thing... mine can still handle a val ele, definitely not as well as a fighter, but there is a thing called spell channelling earth ele slaying -20 mage weapon you know.

And I don't know how you managed to get 30 hits. I thought a node is drained after 16 hits max, depending on its surrounding squares. But anyway with the last 3 points we're getting off topic so I'll end here.

 

[UOKaiser]

Got to remmeber everyone of them gives plain. Us resourse gatherers being doing this for ages. With the woods once you find a tree that gives a certain type of wood that you want you gonna want to mark it. That tree wil rotate between a couple of different color resource types always so you know thats a tree you want to come with as well make sure you get lots of chops from it. Once you encounter a tree that only gives plain skip it this resource change hangs around for a day or less if you constantly chop it. the next day you can come back to those trees to see what new color it changed to. Skip the plain ones. It takes alot of time setting up but once you set them up in your runebook when you start to chop each day you will recall to each of the trees to see what they give for the day. If it's plain only you skip it for the day and move on to the next rune. It's a good method to not waste time every day to randomly chop things untill you find what you want.

Theres some other methods out there might be better methods but this is at least one of them.

 

[ZippyTwitch]

I vote No change to current system. Frost and Valorite are supposed to be rare.

 

[Stupid Miner]

I'd be happy if you could just use the prospector's tool without having to mine the location once first.