Scout Archive

I know that foraging isn't technically "broken." But we don't get xp for it because it's too easy to macro.

So I took a note from surveying and fishing.

First surveying: Macroing for surveying used to be okay, but the new system makes it annoying. They "fixed" surveying by making it "interactive." While I wish they would make this interactivity a little more interesting and beneficial, it's not a bad concept.

Now fishing: I love fishing. I can't really do anything else while i fish. I know it's just clicking on some boxes,etc. But I feel like I can fish. I toss the line out, real in a little now and then or move the pole to simulate live bait, and then I try and set the hook when the fish bites. It might be cool if I there were a couple more options after the fish was hooked, but over all, it's a successful implementation.

Finally, let's look at foraging: Foraging bugs me. It's an interesting idea, but really, it's boring. The rewards are marginal, the same thing happens every time, and what i get in my inventory has pretty much no connection to the area I'm foraging in.

I think it might be fun if foraging produced a little box like fishing does. It might allow you to try and choose what kind of item to forage for (berries, tubers, insects). Ideally those success for finding those items would depend on location, etc. Perhaps you press the forage button, and you get a list of possible places to look, under a rock, in a nearbye shrub, or on a low-hanging tree branch. Looking under a rock might get a higher chance of finding a grub or an tuber, a shrub might have a higher chance for berries, etc. Even just one screen like this would 1. stop macroing as you'd have to actually click something to advance the screen (enter key would cancel and you wouldn't have macro interfaces for the buttons) and 2. give me at least a little control over what i was doing.

You could go further and make a little game out of it like fishing, Maybe sometimes you can't reach a branch and have to try climbing, shaking the tree, or throwing a rock. Results could vary. It doesn't have to be complex. Just give us something to do besides touching our toes and pulling up an onion.

But you don't really even need the game concept to fix macroing. Open a box, give me a few options for where or what to attempt to forage, and do every thing else pretty much as usual. That would fix macroing and allow you to put xp back into the foraging system.

Just an idea.

Wrrli, Proud to be a Master Scout.

Squeg,

Some interesting ideas here.

I'll put 'em on the list.

B

Thanks for taking the time to look this over, Delta. And double-thanks for putting some of those ideas on the list of possible suggestions.


Here's hoping that foraging becomes useful for more than pet food.

Wrrli