Gathering and Foliage Density

[Chompy_Nibblers]

Hey all,

One thing I noticed during the worldbreaker is that forestry gathering, especially for mushrooms and wood, was made substantially easier by having the foliage density turned to the lowest setting. I find this unfortunate as I prefer the visual look of the highest foliage density setting.

I'm wondering what options might exist to avoid having a low foliage density gathering meta. Perhaps as part of the gathering skills, there could be a directional indicator for the nearest relevant node (of a given type) that's within a minimum range. An alternative idea could be to have visual effects like a glow, sparkles, outline, etc.

 

[Penelope]

I agree with this. I also struggle with forestry items with the density turned up. I thought it was just my old lady eyesight. Maybe some kind of tracking that opens up with a bit of skill?

 

[ArcaneDisgea]

Yeah, Forestry really gets the short end of this. Flax and Cotton are easy but shrooms can be tough and wood especially at night feels impossible even with exposure cranked to be as bright as possible and foliage on lowest setting.

 

[Dalton]

Maybe adding a very subtle “sparkle” effect to nodes could be helpful to those with graphics up high. I play at total low and can spot them at view distance cap away lol. But I noticed when in a group and I was saying “hey Node, over here” unless I was directly on it those with high settings just couldn’t see where I was talking about.

 

[Penelope]

Maybe adding a very subtle “sparkle” effect to nodes could be helpful to those with graphics up high. I play at total low and can spot them at view distance cap away lol. But I noticed when in a group and I was saying “hey Node, over here” unless I was directly on it those with high settings just couldn’t see where I was talking about.

I hate the idea that we're penalized for higher settings. If this is the case (and I will drop my settings next I'm on to check) I think it needs some adjustment. Not sure how/what - maybe a different color palette?

 

[Undone]

This is something we certainly want to address - although it has been a task of lower priority. The initial idea was to give foresters and prospectors a sort of "track" ability that would allow them to detect nearby nodes (but then we run into issues with the limited action bar). Or maybe those nodes only light up for you in some sparkle way (although I'm not a huge fan of this aesthetically). The other option of course, is just making them bigger, but that also is kind of wacky?

I'll look into adding a vegetation "mask" to these veggie items that would essentially clear the grass in the immediate vicinity causing little "pockets" to form. Thoughts?

 

[ArcaneDisgea]

Pockets wouldn't seem very natural. It would certainly fix the issue but I feel it would detract from the games visuals as you would now have splotchy land in areas where nodes spawned densely for some reason.

For logs it may be better to convert them to actual trees that are just a bit different from the standard trees we have around. Maybe they are a bit smaller and differ in color or maybe they can be 2 or 3 logs laying across each other for an individual node just to add some height to them?

For mushrooms I have no clue what can be done really without making them appear ridiculous in size. Maybe you can take the current log design and put the mushrooms on top since to my knowledge in the wild mushrooms can and do grow on decaying logs.

 

[Penelope]

I agree that pockets wouldn't look very natural at all. I personally would love small trees vs logs, but that's maybe too big of a swap? (I dunno, feels like it though) I think texture or color might be the easiest way.

For mushrooms, what about exchanging the white areas for red or purple or orange - again, something that does not camouflage as easily?

For ore it might be something like up-tweaking the light reflection on the nodes. They'd be sparkly in their own right then with no artificial help.

For logs, what about adding lichen? You could add a soft "glow" effect with that, or simply alter the color patterns on the logs so that they simply blend less.

 

[Dalton]

Pockets could work but instead of the grass around being gone they are just scaled down in random hexagonal shape around the node to appear natural.

Having the grass/foliage around X node be scaled to 20% height and having it be a random pattern like this image is my idea to make it look normal but still help visibility.

 

[CypherWulf]

Or maybe those nodes only light up for you in some sparkle way (although I'm not a huge fan of this aesthetically). The other option of course, is just making them bigger, but that also is kind of wacky?

What if when you're not in combat and have nothing targeted, your character turns their head to look in the direction of the nearest node they can collect from within X meters? That would indicate to the player that there is something interesting over there, and it wouldn't take long before the habit of following the character's eyeline to find resources would become second nature, and allow players to find resources easier without having some sort of supernatural dowsing ability or sparkling mushrooms looking silly.

 

[Malakalmawt]

I'll look into adding a vegetation "mask" to these veggie items that would essentially clear the grass in the immediate vicinity causing little "pockets" to form. Thoughts?

This would be perfect, imo. Maybe even limit it to within the range of light from a torch/lantern? It wouldn't even need to completely remove the foliage, just a noticeable opacity difference.