Stanzas and You: Harvesting

Oren pyr, folks!

I was checking blog traffic last night and noticed we were getting quite a few searches for "stanzas". Then I noticed there's absolutely nothing posted here on the topic.

We should rectify that with a new fixed-run column - Stanzas and You.

In today's installment, we're going to take a brief look at one of the four basic types of stanzas you'll be using in-game - harvesting, crafting, fighting and spellcasting. Today's how-to: Harvesting.

Now, this by no means will be exhaustive or authoritative. The reality is that stanzas get quite complex as one gains new skills, and taking an in-depth look at each possible stanza one can make would drive the both of us absolutely insane.

So, we'll just stick with the basics and you can develop your own stanza style as you progress. Here we go!

Harvesting - four sets of stanzas in one

In reality, harvesting actually has four subsets of stanzas - prospecting (finding hidden material sources),  revealing hidden sources (can't harvest what you can't see), the act of harvesting itself (rippin' that loot outta the ground) and careplanning (making sure you don't explode in the process). The harvesting skill tree has a wide variety of skills available, so we'll keep it simple by examining the basic stanzas for each.

For prospecting:

A harvester should always strive to locate their own material sources. Using the ones that self-reveal (like the ones seen outside various stables or the sources on Silan) yields lower quantity and quality.

The average prospecting action starts with a Prospecting Plan blueprint and consists of a Deposit Tracking skill, a Find Better Materials skill, and a green-tiled skill called the Counterpart. The first skill sets the radius of where you'll be looking for resources - 50m, 100m, 200m, 350m, 500m and so on. The second skill helps locate material that's in better condition than "Basic" - Fine, Choice, Excellent, Supreme.

The third skill is the most important. It "pays" for the stanza's accumulated cost requirements by dictating how much that cost actually is. Each added skill of, say, a harvesting stanza increases the amount of Focus required to use the action. In the two illustrations here, we see what happens when cost is met, and what happens when the cost is not met:

This is your stanza. This is your stanza with an insufficient counterpart. Any questions?

Now that we've got a proper tracking stanza, we're ready to find the resources we need. But we're not yet ready to make them visible for harvesting. We need another stanza for that.

Simple "Reveal" stanza

For revealing:

It's not enough to know where the materials are. Oh no. They're bashful sorts and need to be coaxed into coming out of the ground so you can dig a pick into 'em. (No wonder they're hiding.) For that, we'll need what I call a revealing stanza. (I have no idea what the official name is so we'll just go with that for now.)

The average revealing action also starts with a Prospecting Plan blueprint and consists of a Cone Angle + skill, a Range + skill, a Find Better Materials skill (for anything over Basic, anyway - and let's face it; you're not after Basic stuff) and another Counterpart to pay for it all.

"Hey, that looks a lot like the previous stanza. What's the difference? I even use the same Prospecting blueprint to start!"
The difference in this case is the lack of Deposit Tracking skill in the revealing stanza. Certain skills added to certain stanzas can alter their intended purpose. Deposit Tracking is one of those skills. (We'll cover the intermediate/expert stuff later though.)

You'll also notice the similarity with the usage of the Find Better Materials skill. You'll want that skill to equal the one you used in the prospecting stanza. (Example: If you are looking for "only choice" materials, then you'll want to reveal "only choice" materials or else you'll know where it is, but won't be able to reveal it.)

Okay. We know how to track, and we know how to coax 'em out. Let's get it out of the ground and into our inventories.

For actual harvesting:

Simple Harvesting stanza

The average harvesting stanza is pretty straightforward. It starts with an Extraction Plan blueprint, and consists of a Speed skill, a Rate skill, a Quality skill and a Counterpart. These skills are unique in that they come in both "Gentle" and "Harmful" flavors, each of which affects things like source health and explosion risk. (We'll learn more about those in just a sec.)

Naturally, the "Gentle" flavors are easier on the source at a tradeoff of slower extraction efficiency, whereas "Harmful" flavors whale on the source to extract as much as possible without a care to how much damage you're doing to the resource point.

Why is that important?

It isn't if you're okay with dying.

Medic!

But if you prefer to live, don't worry - there's always a little careplanning one can throw into the mix while digging, and that can mean the difference between 12 pieces of Shu in your bag... or innumerable pieces of your person littered along the landscape!

For careplanning:

Simple careplan stanza - meks not included

The average careplanning stanza is also straightforward. It starts with the Care Plan blueprint, but only generally consists of a Preservation skill and Stability skill along with the ever-present Counterpart and doesn't get very much more complicated as time goes on.

"But I can't careplan and extract at the same time! This is useless to me solo, isn't it?!"

Not only is that imaginary assumption completely untrue, it's the direct opposite. Just use it once or twice sprinkled in with your harvesting, and then click back on your Extraction action. Piece of cake instead of pieces of you! But the real charm of careplanning - as is the case with most of Ryzom - is in teaming up with your fellow players for gobs of easy XP and materials. We all get by with a little help from our friends, they say!

And speaking of a little help...

Tips and Tricks

- A good basic rule of thumb for Extraction plans is to use a Gentle Speed skill, but a Harmful Rate skill. Do not do the reverse.

- Looking to get your sources to stay revealed longer so you can extract more than one? Get the Multiple Spot + ability.

- Looking to increase the amount of time you dig on one certain source? Get the Source Time + skill.

- Chatting + harvesting = death. Even knowing this, though, you're probably going to have it happen to you at least once. We all have.

- When looking for Excellent materials with a Prospection plan, be careful - without any kind of further modifier like a Material Specialization or Craftable Item Part Specialization skill, you can often find mission materials by accident. Mark those spots and learn to avoid them if you don't need them. (Most don't.)

- Prospected resources also give back focus lost during the location and extraction process, which is a huge bonus over self-revealing sources which do not do this. (Less resting = more materials.)

= = = = =

That's it for this exceptionally basic tutorial! As always, questions/comments/critiques/anything that's not spam welcome in the comments below. Keep your sights aligned and powder dry, travelers! See you on tomorrow for a brief overview on fighting stanzas. - D T'k