Make Foraging Great Again!

[LadyGoo]

Several people from my faction and some from the forums have complained about foraging being quite bad for the late game: craftable curiosities overweight the foraged ones; the best food doesn't require the stuff you could forage; forage doesn't affect the quality progression and the industry. There is a concern for the curiosities becoming too easy to grind via botting, if they'll become too good (mind the glimmer moss, edels, royal toads nerfs). However, the foraged goods are almost the only source the starting guys could use for trading. World 3 example: people used to exchange 3 blueberries/chanterelles per 1 metal bar, since the pies were really good in combination with the over powered cutlery and bonfires. Some people would have their own little villages of the noobs or agreements for the forage supplies. I have attempted to buy the newbie goods for 3 worlds in our market, but the offer (forage) would always be significantly bigger than the demand (money in exchange). IMHO, to increasing the forage input into the game would help:

- to trade more easily for the new players / higher motivation to trade and have trade outposts for the advanced players;
- to increase the satisfaction from completing the quests: you are not only getting some exp/lp and fun by exploration but also multiplying the usefulness of the time spent by selling the forage at a higher price;
- to increase the motivation to socially interact with the newbies and protect them for the sake of the curio;

Alchemy has been suggested previously by a few people, but they have not given any socio-economical reasoning for it. I suggest implementing alchemy to increase the meaning of foraging + keep curio botting levels low. You can craft 2 alchemical objects: potions and bombs.

Potions.
For the potions, you can only use the clay cauldron (make the clay cauldrons great again!). Simply, place the ingredients into the cauldron menu, boil for some time and get a potions. They should work similarly to the meat pies: the ingredients dictate the boosts they could provide. Also, the moon cycles, the day and night also affect whether the boost would be positive or negative.
There should be 3 types of ingredients:
1. Basic stats (animal products, ores, rocks and etc.)
2. Boosters (foraged plants like mushrooms and etc.)
3. Conservants that increase the potion effect time (local resources, drinks and etc.)

For instance, if I'll mix bear tooth, deer antler, and boar tusk at the convenient moon phase, I will get +5 str, +5 agi, +5 const. With the mandrake root booster, the base quality would increase to 15. The conservant (salt) will ensure, that the potion will last for 3 hours.
Or, use the rock crystal, mother of pearl, guano and get 5% lp boost, multiply it with the use of a heartwood leaf to 15% and the option would be a good compliment to crack the ice.

The potion quality and effects might also depend on your lore or whatever skill/stat level as well. Similarly to the meat pies, they do not need special names, just 1 more model + animation of drinking. Cheap content! Possible uses:
- harvest, mining, chopping, butchering!, constructions, leveling and etc. speed increase;
- fights boosts or debuffs (if applied on the sword);
- crafts boost when you do not have enough skills/stats to prevent capping the item;
- poisoning meat, food, water, clothing you could sell;
- creating new 0 quality stuff to crack the server.

Bombs.
Crafted with the use of a potion + some metals on an anvil. The bomb, once dropped to the ground, will create a smoke that will have the half or third of the potion's buffs or debuffs. Might be fun for the fights! The smoke duration also is halved and depends on the ingredients used.

[Granger]

I have attempted to buy the newbie goods for 3 worlds in our market, but the offer (forage) would always be significantly bigger than the demand (money in exchange).

I'n unsure if I shall read that as 'got more stuff than needed' or 'not worth their time as of to low price'?
Could you word that less confusing, please?

Potions.
For instance, if I'll mix bear tooth, deer antler, and boar tusk at the convenient moon phase, I will get +5 str, +5 agi, +5 const. With the mandrake root booster, the base quality would increase to 15. The conservant (salt) will ensure, that the potion will last for 3 hours.

Permanent effect and the 3h are the time to drink it before it spoil or temporary effect lasting 3h?
Any downsides so it wouldn't just be another 'have to have'?

Bombs.
Crafted with the use of a potion + some metals on an anvil. The bomb, once dropped to the ground, will create a smoke that will have the half or third of the potion's buffs or debuffs. Might be fun for the fights! The smoke duration also is halved and depends on the ingredients used.

So debuff bombs would be used by the side with higher stats (as it increases the relative differential between the opponents) and buff bombs by the side with the higher stats (as it decreases the relative differential). Dosn't sound like fun.

[yozzik111]

I can't say i'm in a "late game", but while foraging doesn't really help a lot, it's a fun mechanic of exploration and partly-mindless travelling, watching my neighbours build up, gathering localized resources etc. At the same time i don't like other kinds of "late game", like batteries of crucibles, tons of cheese racks, huge fields etc. - so it's all about the personal playstyle and favorite mechanics.

[LadyGoo]

I'n unsure if I shall read that as 'got more stuff than needed' or 'not worth their time as of to low price'?

Thanks for pointing it out. I'll elaborate on that:
I have been buying the curios & berries even without needing them. Even more, I would resell them for the same price that I have used for purchasing. People would buy a lot of the curios, but the forage brought by the newbies would always overfill my cupboards. Also, there is the profit/effort problem: the forage has low value due to its low impact on the industry, but requires time to gather. So, the traders won't set a high price for them, while you cannot really make a fortune by foraging.

Potions.
For instance, if I'll mix bear tooth, deer antler, and boar tusk at the convenient moon phase, I will get +5 str, +5 agi, +5 const. With the mandrake root booster, the base quality would increase to 15. The conservant (salt) will ensure, that the potion will last for 3 hours.

Permanent effect and the 3h are the time to drink it before it spoil or temporary effect lasting 3h?

The temporary effect, of course. Stacking a few potions should cause some hhp damage (ideally, hhp/over time). Each consumed potion reduces the efficiency of the next one by 50%. The downside could be the time spent on production, the ingredients needed, the local resources being needed for a longer-lasting effect and etc. Theoretically, there should be a balance between how much you could drink at a time and the efficiency.

Bombs.
Crafted with the use of a potion + some metals on an anvil. The bomb, once dropped to the ground, will create a smoke that will have the half or third of the potion's buffs or debuffs. Might be fun for the fights! The smoke duration also is halved and depends on the ingredients used.

So debuff bombs would be used by the side with higher stats (as it increases the relative differential between the opponents) and buff bombs by the side with the higher stats (as it decreases the relative differential). Dosn't sound like fun.

The debuff and the buff could be the % from the person's stats and skills. The point is to have some strategies involving them, changing the battleground direction/warrior positioning and etc. Other uses I had in mind at the first place:
- troll/mammoth boss fights;
- smaller NPC fights (instead of trap use);
- fighting/sieging/challenging a place.

[DDDsDD999]

Consumables and drugs for combat stimulant would be pretty fun. And being able to drop smoke bombs that affect a combat zone could also be pretty cool.

[ChildhoodObesity]

MFGA MFGA MFGA MFGA MFGA MFGA MFGA MFGA MFGA MFGA MFGA MFGA MAGA MAGA MAGA MAGA MAGA MAGA MAGA MAGA

[jorb]

Adding this to my list also containing...

viewtopic.php?f=48&t=59007
viewtopic.php?f=48&t=60684

... those. Pretty cool stuff.