Report 1255

Report #1255
Skillset: Herbs Skill: Harvest/Plant
 Org: Ebonguard Status: Completed Dec 2015
Furies' Decision:
Approved for solution 1. Solution 2 should already be the case (there is code
for spreading plants, though it's possible that something does not work, or
possibly plants just never reach high enough to spread). Solution 3 was the
initial reason for implementing lastharvest, but due to the way stripharvesting
works (i.e. removing the actual plant reference in the room), this did not work.
We will investigate the possibility of adjusting the mechanics to allow this,
but it may not be possible to make it work.
Problem: Tending to herbs takes a very long time. Now that forging no longer
requires reforging repeatedly, it is THE most time-consuming tradeskill in the
game. Because it is pure profit, it should still take more time than other
skills, but even so the relative time required is excessive. Planting them
nowadays tends to come down to a very small number of individuals, who exhaust
themselves quickly. Most of us who are herbalists tend to just pick over their
hard work to get what we need, because we have long since burned out on the time
and energy required to replant areas. While there do exist some workarounds to
attempt to the problem (Nature Guard as a primary example), it has become very
clear over the years that these are more of a band-aid than a real solution.
Another very frustrating aspect is that it is IMPOSSIBLE to tell if all the
herbs were stripped from a room by a person, or by dormancy, which burns out
once-eager young people very quickly as they see their hard work go poof.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #1: Instead of having a % chance for the entire stack of
 herbs to die on midnight during dormancy, make it so
 that there is the same % chance for 1-10 herbs to die
 from the stack in the room instead. Thus, herbalists
 leaving areas well-stocked prior to the plants
 entering dormancy will end up with a good stock to
 resupply from, instead of (if they're lucky) four or
 five rooms out of an area the size of the Glomdoring.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #2: Solution 1, and when an herb is at 100% in the room
 (60 plants), give it a 10% chance at midnight to
 spread to an ADJACENT room of the same area type
 where that herb does not already exist. This allows
 for herbs completely left untouched to slowly
 spread-- as plants should do-- but if they are
 harvested at all then they will require manual
 intervention to spread.
[A: 0 R: 0] Solution #3: In addition to the above solution(s), allow
 LASTHARVEST to work even if the herb in the room was
 reduced to 0. If reduced to 0 by natural causes
 (death due to dormancy, or due to being terrained by
 a mage) indicate that the herb was last harvested by
 NATURE (or DEATH). Otherwise, show the name of the
 person who reduced it to 0.
Player Comments:
---[Xenthos on 12/11 @ 02:37 writes]:
Solution 1 at the very least, because it will make life much better in general
for the average herbalist. Pots, guard, and all the rest will still be needed
for acts of terrible RNG luck or intentional saboutage a la stripharvesting.
Solution 2 is kind of a neat idea, allowing nature to spread instead of only
forest fires spreading. It's so slow that it won't actually remove the need for
manual replanting, but if nobody has harvested an area for a long time it at
least won't be devoid of life (because frankly, if plantlife in Lusternia really
worked that way, all plants would be long since dead by now).
---[Raeri on 12/11 @ 08:54 writes]:
Support for all.
---[Tredian on 12/11 @ 09:07 writes]:
I support Solution 1 for the reduction of effort in maintaining the poor plants.
I'm good with same % for 1-10 (per midnight right?) although 100% removal for 1
herb per midnight is fine too (so you just make sure to leave more than 25
before dormancy or guard, or risk replanting). Solution 2 is alright but can
also be applied on the peak month instead, the chance of spreading increasing
with the number of herbs in the room. I support solution 3 so that those who
still make mistakes can be easily found out and corrected.
---[Rivius on 12/11 @ 11:41 writes]:
Support for all three solutions.
---[Enyalida on 12/11 @ 19:51 writes]:
It's really silly that without extensive player intervention, the entire world's
supply of herbs will die on their own. I support this.
---[Xenthos on 12/13 @ 03:36 writes]:
Note that herbs will never die ENTIRELY without player intervention. The month
after hibernation, there is a super-low chance that an herb can spontaneously
start growing itself in a room of the correct environment. But the herb will
never spread, and in small areas there is a chance that in a given year one will
not pop up. This is not, however, enough to do anything useful with and means
that after a couple years with no player intervention, there will only be a
handful of rooms in the entire game with any of the herb at all.
---[Lerad on 12/14 @ 15:44 writes]:
All supported.