MMORPG Update: Harvesting Reveal

[Ketu 36]

You said in the article "...if multiple people all start harvesting from a resource node, they will deplete the health of the node much quicker than if they were doing it alone! "

 

I wonder if it would be worth considering

 

Group Harvesting Beacons

• active only while the group harvesting is occurring
• encourages highest skills to decrease total time
• draws attention to harvesting activity
• discourages harvesting bots/alts

[rajah 1,602]

I think multiboxers will always be winning vs monoboxers. Crowfall population is likely to be split into two rather distinct tiers. 
Not saying it's a bad thing.

Edited September 20, 2016 by rajah

[Tinnis 7,789]

Right now I won't call these TL;DRs ....as a LOT of information here......

 

but hopefully a handy summary at least on resource site

 

e.g. number one take away is the cascading organsation which is a lot to process...

 

Material Category (4 main families) > Resource tier type (1-5) > Node Rank (1-10) = Resource Quality 1-6

 

made for both this harvesting article as well as the older crafting / thrall article 

 

(as this is an area not really added much info on before now)

 

and shoved older siege stuff into one too...

Edited September 20, 2016 by Tinnis

[Zimm 61]

I just like that harvesting materials will actually be a large effort.

[Svenn 300]

This sounds pretty cool. A couple of thoughts:

 

1) What use do gold dust/gold coins have? It's mentioned that it's there to serve as a currency for players... but if it's only function is to be currency it will be worthless. Path of Exile mastered this with all of their currency being usable crafting items.

 

2) I don't see mention of resources actually having stats a la SWG which is what I was really hoping for. It's what made the gathering AND crafting systems great, and also what helped to differentiate crafters. If there aren't multiple stats per resource, then what is being done so that a crafter can really differentiate themself?

 

3) I like the group harvesting idea. Firefall actually did this really well (and also used resource stats similar to SWG) where you'd pop down a harvester and that would attract swarms of enemies you had to fight off until it finished gathering, or they'd destroy your harvester. What about something similar for Crowfall where some nodes (not all nodes, but some specific large group nodes) attract mobs when you try to harvest it?

[Zimm 61]

This sounds pretty cool. A couple of thoughts:

 

1) What use do gold dust/gold coins have? It's mentioned that it's there to serve as a currency for players... but if it's only function is to be currency it will be worthless. Path of Exile mastered this with all of their currency being usable crafting items.

 

2) I don't see mention of resources actually having stats a la SWG which is what I was really hoping for. It's what made the gathering AND crafting systems great, and also what helped to differentiate crafters. If there aren't multiple stats per resource, then what is being done so that a crafter can really differentiate themself?

 

3) I like the group harvesting idea. Firefall actually did this really well (and also used resource stats similar to SWG) where you'd pop down a harvester and that would attract swarms of enemies you had to fight off until it finished gathering, or they'd destroy your harvester. What about something similar for Crowfall where some nodes (not all nodes, but some specific large group nodes) attract mobs when you try to harvest it?

Firefall was my poorly made socks. RIP

[Hyriol 992]

How will this system factor in to what we already know about resource factories?  Will nodes in the wild always be the best place for high quality materials vs. mines for high quantities of low-grade, or is it more complicated than that?

 

[Zimm 61]

How will this system factor in to what we already know about resource factories?  Will nodes in the wild always be the best place for high quality materials vs. mines for high quantities of low-grade, or is it more complicated than that?

 

I hope it's just as you said it, to create more player conflicts.

[Hyriol 992]

This sounds pretty cool. A couple of thoughts:

 

1) What use do gold dust/gold coins have? It's mentioned that it's there to serve as a currency for players... but if it's only function is to be currency it will be worthless. Path of Exile mastered this with all of their currency being usable crafting items.

 

2) I don't see mention of resources actually having stats a la SWG which is what I was really hoping for. It's what made the gathering AND crafting systems great, and also what helped to differentiate crafters. If there aren't multiple stats per resource, then what is being done so that a crafter can really differentiate themself?

 

3) I like the group harvesting idea. Firefall actually did this really well (and also used resource stats similar to SWG) where you'd pop down a harvester and that would attract swarms of enemies you had to fight off until it finished gathering, or they'd destroy your harvester. What about something similar for Crowfall where some nodes (not all nodes, but some specific large group nodes) attract mobs when you try to harvest it?

 

1) I believe the idea is that you can mint your own coins out of whatever metal you wish (this may be an inference on my part, based previous conversations).  It's basically a smaller, more portable denomination for trading.  No metal in the game will serve only as currency; you can still use that gold to craft items or as a component in alloys (presumably after melting it down).  I imagine this will make the economic game very interesting as these coins will vary (perhaps wildly) in value over time.

 

2) If you have a look at the alloy chart chart from the old interview (the one linked at the top of the post), it does list a few stats for the various metals.  In this case, copper was 0.2 str.  So you could imagine that Legendary Copper may have a higher str stat or additional attributes attached.  Of course, it was a year and a half ago so those stats may not mean much at this point.

 

3) I'd rather see some sort of beacon light up on "special" nodes, so players in the area know something is going down.  Fighting zombies is okay, but player conflict is better.

Edited September 20, 2016 by Hyriol

[Nazdar 1,177]

Runes... cool.

 

Summoning animation... awesome.

 

Ghost pickaxe... kind of dumb looking.  That's the best the immortals can do?

[Nazdar 1,177]

Also,

 

I should say that while our harvesting system makes heavily use the combat system under the covers, that fact will be largely hidden from the players.

 

Testing nothing.  I promise this will lead to some very entertaining bugs in the future.  I can't wait.     (I honestly wouldn't mind if some combat abilities did affect harvesting.  If it fits thematically, why not?)

 

I also really like the notion of "boss" harvesting nodes.  There's room there for more creativity.

[corvax 696]

Runes... cool.

 

Summoning animation... awesome.

 

Ghost pickaxe... kind of dumb looking.  That's the best the immortals can do?

 

It's not just a ghost pickaxe, but a crafted ghost pickaxe that decays upon use, and stacks in your inventory! Only the trickster Malekai could come up with something like this.

[sluce 183]

I am impressed! After the small look at harvesting we got from the Crowfall livestream I was a bit disappointed. It looked as if the player was just channeling a beam of light to break apart and harvest materials. Therefore, I thought that harvesting was going to be pretty thoughtless. However, now i am not as concered about harvesting! It looks great. I like the mechanics that are being put into play and I love that we get to actually use harvesting tools instead of channeling a dumb beam of light. Cant wait!

 

The exploration skills are looking more and more like my type of thing! Geomancy here I come ;D

[corvax 696]

Be interesting to see if a Thief Play-style could emerge from group harvesting events.

 

When a resource node is harvested the components of the node pop out and fly in different directions, and then your avatar has to collect them off the ground by running over them like we do for Druid balls. It's a 2 part process, mine node then pick up scattered resources, or that's how it was last time I was in the Developers Playground spanking nodes.

 

If the resources could be picked up off the ground while in stealth I could see players stealthing amidst a harvesting group waiting for the resource drops to pop, and then sneaking off with a share of the booty.   

[chodie 674]

Be interesting to see if a Thief Play-style could emerge from group harvesting events.

 

When a resource node is harvested the components of the node pop out and fly in different directions, and then your avatar has to collect them off the ground by running over them like we do for Druid balls. It's a 2 part process, mine node then pick up scattered resources, or that's how it was last time I was in the Developers Playground spanking nodes.

 

If the resources could be picked up off the ground while in stealth I could see players stealthing amidst a harvesting group waiting for the resource drops to pop, and then sneaking off with a share of the booty.

 

 

I can see some emergent gameplay developing with this, like having a confessor put up fire aura rings while harvesting to deter stealthers from getting close enough to swoop on the resources.

[Jah 6,460]

Can't wait to dash through other people's exploding resource pinatas and then get chased all the way to the nearest embargo.

[corvax 696]

Can't wait to dash through other people's exploding resource pinatas and then get chased all the way to the nearest embargo.

 

This of course should only be done when naked.

[Jah 6,460]

This of course should only be done when naked.

 

Top guilds will have Dedicated Streakers.

Edited September 20, 2016 by Jah

[coolster50 2,109]

This sounds pretty cool. A couple of thoughts:

 

1) What use do gold dust/gold coins have? It's mentioned that it's there to serve as a currency for players... but if it's only function is to be currency it will be worthless. Path of Exile mastered this with all of their currency being usable crafting items.

 

 

Not entirely worthless. You can use gold coins to buy gear, materials, or  to hire help, and they, in turn, will use the currency to buy gear, materials, or hire help. Thus economy!

 

Or you could smelt the coins and make a Gold Sword.... Whatever floats your boat.

[Cordite 149]

In the Crow and vessel scheme, will "harvesting" runestones be perishable? Will my Crow keep skills for life or will they reset when a campaign closes?

 

It sounded like harvesting runestones will decay but not sure if that means just wear & tear or if all skills a vessel acquires resets with the world (or possibly complete decay of the runestone during a campaign).

 

"(in Crowfall, you are playing an immortal champion of the Gods. It seemed a bit silly to force you to punch a tree to fashion a wooden axe or shovel.)  Instead, we decided to use our Runestone concept – where the true name of an item or creatures can be inscribed on something to allow a Crow to conjure and control it – to provide a better narrative wrapper to this in-game activity."

 

" We included item decay on the harvesting rune as core component of this system (we need it as a sink for our economy) but this wrapper makes it look better (it makes the harvesting task feels less mundane) and, as a nice upshot of this idea, it also allows us to compress the harvesting items more efficiently in the player’s inventory (with limited inventory space, no one is excited about carrying around five mining picks.)"

Edited September 21, 2016 by Cordite