Harvesting

Introduction
The goal of the Harvesting system is to provide the components through which players will craft a variety of items. These Harvesting materials will be provided in a variety of ways.

Our line of thinking in terms of access to harvesting is that all players will be able utilize all of the available skills as they wish, provided they have an appropriate harvesting tool. All material types will already be coming from Salvaging and looting materials directly from NPCs, so limiting players’ access to individual skills felt arbitrary.

Pantheon’s harvesting skills, as of 10/10/2018:

Overview of Harvesting
One method of Harvesting is the aforementioned traditional "find a node, and interact with it to receive Harvested loot". This is done by finding an ore vein and mining it, finding a tree and cutting it down, and so forth. Rather than having materials for more advanced Crafting recipes be gated by level content in a zone as has been done in some other MMORPGs, we will have the nodes and the items they provide exist in sensible locations within their ecology.

Our aim is that harvesting will have a large impact on the economy. With less reliance on a flood of harvesting nodes, the desired result is that there will be a bit more demand for harvesting materials than we’ve seen in more contemporary MMOs. As players adventure they’re going to need crafters to fill in the gaps in the equippable gear and consumable items at their disposal (and to upgrade their existing gear). Harvesting and its associated skills is going to provide the fuel for crafters to put (and upgrade) those items in adventurer’s hands.

Tools
Right now, tools are just necessary to interact with their associated harvesting usage. Long-term we’d like to explore upgraded tools that can slightly alter harvesting yields and/or harvesting speeds. Unique or upgraded tools might be required as well for specific harvesting targets. A couple examples might be a mythril pick necessary for magical ores in mining, or a specially enchanted knife for skinning mythical beasts. In cases like that the tools would function as basic tools for simpler harvesting nodes in addition to their specific uses. But again we haven’t landed on this as a sure thing yet.

Nodes
 Overview 

1. You require the appropriate type of tool to harvest nodes.

2. Currently, nodes are "first come, first served."

3. Nodes are going to be distributed based on local ecologies, rather than by the perceived difficulty of a zone or the content around it.

4. Nodes are going to be relatively rare compared to many other MMOs, with developers monitoring the dispersion and spawn rates to find a balance.

 Placement 

Similar to locale-based materials for purchase, harvesting nodes will exist by local ecologies, even if those areas lean towards the exotic or fantastical, such as colored mana-rich areas. Rather than providing harvesting opportunities by perceived difficulty of a zone or the content around it, we'll be placing them where they naturally make the most sense. Rather than saying "oak wood is a tier 3 crafting material, and so oak trees are found in level 30 areas", oak trees will be distributed where it makes sense. How the oak is treated will effect it's "tier" who

You’ll also find harvesting opportunities within civilized areas, such as gardens, parks, and the like, as well in the wilds.

Harvesting node locations will be randomized. While we’re still in the early stages of prototyping harvesting, we’ve already got a pretty decent amount of flexibility as far as how and when we can determine nodes spawn.

 Rarity of Nodes 

Our initial thoughts are that nodes are going to be a bit more rare than many current market MMOs have tended to be. Since we also have salvaging and scavenging in the repertoire of player’s skills, we’d like to lean on them a little bit to help fill the gaps. That way items gained while adventuring have a push/pull on whether players should use them, sell them to other players, or chance breaking them down into raw materials. We’ll be keeping an eye though on dispersion and spawn rates to try to find the sweet spot between being resource starved and resource flooded when it comes to harvesting nodes.

 Buffs/Debuffs on Nodes 

Some of the more exotic harvesting nodes may provide buffs (and possibly debuffs) to users when they attempt to harvest from them. One example might be a plant that’s gathered for use in mana potions. When harvested, the node might provide some raw mana to the user, or a light mana regeneration buff. Another example might be attempting to harvest nightshade for use in a poison. There might be a chance that the user accidentally poisons themselves while gathering the plant. We’d probably use effects like that sparingly though, so it doesn’t run the risk of being too gimmicky.

 Harvesting 

When it comes to harvesting nodes, we’re currently aiming for ‘first come, first served’. This way we can keep a better eye on how rapidly materials are entering and leaving the economy. In the event we do end up allowing for group harvesting, we might consider allowing multiple players to interact with the same node within a brief window of time before it despawns though.

 Rare Materials 

The short answer is ‘both’. Many nodes will be found by where they geographically make the most sense. There’s going to be a good bit of the world that has zone or region specific materials, and regardless of their location, there will certainly be some rare harvesting materials (the best crafted or upgraded items will require rare materials).

 Preventing Bottle-Necking 

If, hypothetically, you need jute to craft, there are a number of options available to acquire the jute you need.

1. Harvest jute plant nodes.

2. Salvage basic cloth goods made from jute.

3. Use Scavenging to acquire raw jute or jute-cloth goods.

4. Loot jute or jute-cloth goods from NPCS in areas where they possess those items if you're an adventurer.

5. Trading with other players.

6. Some repeatable tasks, such as crafting writs, could reward you with bundles of materials.

 Harvesting Other Items 

In addition to harvesting opportunities, we’re going to be adding several instances in our world where players can find and pick up items from the world. Some examples would be like picking up a weapon from a rack, a potion from a shelf, or sneaking some coins off a merchant’s table (just don’t get caught). Since we’re doubling down on putting the environment front and center of players’ PvE experiences in Pantheon, it seems only fitting that we reward players a bit for paying attention to their surroundings. Also, we just think it’s cool and immersive to be able to pick up actual items in the world. Some items will be super rare, or are only available once certain events have occurred in the zone.