Category Quests, Sagas, and Events (6)
Topic Hot Summer Nights 2002 (31)
By GS3-CYR from PLAY.NET (Cyr)
On Jul 4, 2002 at 15:50
Subject On Foraging (long-ish) (3493)
Issue with Day & Night
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There was an issue with day/night availability of the few species we have that can only be found at one time or another. That was fixed a day or so ago. They are now found at the appropriate times. I also adjusted the failure messaging order so that you may more easily determine why it is you aren't finding what you are looking for. A side note: Mushrooms do not always only grow in caves.
On foraging
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I will try to give some help here that will hopefully clear some things up about finding where things can be foraged. I certainly don't want to take anything away from those who would rather try to figure it out completely on their own, but I felt this was necessary due to the posts by people saying they can never find anything. Forgive me if this infringes upon anyone's enjoyment in any way.
First and foremost, when foraging you must be sure to type out the entire noun of what you are looking for. With so many things available in the system now, with similar names, you need to type the entire word out to be able to find what you're looking for. For example: FORAGE FOR MUSH will find absolutely nothing, while FORAGE FOR MUSHROOM will at least have a chance to find a mushroom (though not likely the type you want). You may abbreviate the adjective though, so for instance: FORAGE FOR VORN MUSHROOM will allow an attempt to find a vornalite mushroom. Keep in mind that FORAGE FOR VORN MUSH will still not find anything though - because again the noun must be typed out in full.
There are five important properties that pertain to all forageable items to indicate where they can be found. In order of general to specific, they are: area (such as Solhaven areas, Teras areas, Icemule areas, etc.), climate, terrain, location (such as inside or outside), and time of day (day/night).
For example, if you receive a message on a failed attempt that indicates a wrong terrain, then you are likely looking in the right area and type of climate already, and just need to locate the right terrain. Likewise, if you are messaged that something can't be found right now, then likely you have found a prime location for what you're after, but it just can't be found at the time you're looking. The key is to be watchful of the messaging in order to determine just how close you are to finding what you're looking for.
Additionally, not everything in the flora guide can be found by foraging. The guide is intended primarily as a general compendium of flora that is in our world, and in truth a large portion of it can be foraged in some form. Some things were not included for various reasons (such as trees as one example), and it is also possible that new things will be added. The new foraging system is very open-ended and now allows us to easily add such things as needed, whereas before it was extremely difficult to do so.
Foraging was re-designed with two primary goals in mind. One was to allow for future expansion into other potential systems, such as alchemy, herbalism, and perhaps even a skill for the artisan guild (those are examples -- not guarantees). The system is now flexible enough to handle such things. The other reason was to provide a wider range of flora for people to find and use, either for roleplay or in other systems. We've gone from the limitation of finding only the basic healing herbs, sticks, and a few flowers to an expansive trove of 220+ types of flora, with thanks to a number of people for their help. I feel that this is an extraordinary accomplishment in itself.
Though I may not reply to each one, I have read, and continue to read, your comments on foraging -- both the good ones and not-so-good ones. In fact, a number of folks have posted ideas with which I did agree and asked myself why I hadn't thought of that. I subsequently made the appropriate adjustments. I AM listening. :)
I hope this helps bring to light why the system was changed, and helps those who are having a hard time finding things to better understand what will help with success. I truly appreciate the comments, and thank those who have been helping to post answers to others' questions. I appreciate the support and wish everyone luck in exploring what the expanded system has to offer.
-Cyr