Jun 5

Adjust Gathering mechanics to affect just harvesting speed rather than yield

I would like to see an adjustment to the Gatherer skill so that you can pick faster but not pick more items per node. It should be like mining or logging: a miner doesn't get more ore from mining a single ore block, and a logger doesn't get more wood from cutting down a single tree; they just do it faster while consuming fewer calories. Gathering is currently the only profession where resources are actually permanently lost or depleted if a non-specialist harvests them. Non-miners don't delete ore while mining, non-loggers don't lose wood, and non-hunters don't lose carcasses. This fact makes it incredibly frustrating from a teamwork perspective. If the miners or loggers on your server are falling behind and not meeting demand, other players can jump in to "help" gather with them without hurting the world's total resources. But you can't help your gatherer when they are busy, because doing so depletes the resources for the whole server. The way gathering is currently set up, you are penalized twice by having a non-gatherer pick a node. It takes longer to harvest the same amount, and you destroy potential server resources by getting a lower yield from the same node. Instead, it could work like this: a huckleberry bush has 10 berries. A gatherer can get all 10 in a single pick, but a non-gatherer needs to click the bush 2 or 3 times to get all 10.

Pending