teapotting claynodes

[barra]

While stopping by a clayspot to collect a kiln load of bricks for our wall, another guy was digging as well. I hear a ton of splashes and he tells me "I'm making teapots, I just want lp >:(". The node had dropped to empty by the time he left and it was 20 points the day before. I didn't threaten him about it or attack, but it made me think, especially if he was leaving to teapot another node.

I know low q clay is next to worthless and teapotting is less destructive than bucketting, but does anyone get the feeling that if buckets were nerfed the next thing to suffer would be the clay? Pulling 20 levels out of a node for teapots to drop in the river seems like a huge waste of resources.

[Onionfighter]

I don't see a problem if it is an unclaimed, low-q node.
The problem is that higher q nodes are bigger, and it is hard to claim all of them. Last map I had a q104 soil node, and though my claim was over 200k lp, it didn't come close to covering it.

[Kaldo]

I guess it's better than bucket grinding?

[Vraatjuh]

I don't see a problem if it is an unclaimed, low-q node.
The problem is that higher q nodes are bigger, and it is hard to claim all of them. Last map I had a q104 soil node, and though my claim was over 200k lp, it didn't come close to covering it.

It took me 450k LP to cover my current node, and its far from 104 x).

[Humbaz]

I say: To fix this give LP-gain to brickmaking. Like you have to mould or form a brick befor placing it into a kiln thus gaining some LP. Bricks are cute, tasty, sexy and handy - i realy like them and i think lots of advanced towns out there will buy them from you engros.

[TeckXKnight]

The issue is less that someone was using the resource and more that there is an economic cost/gain difference. You wanted to use the clay for a useful purpose that is beneficial in terms of economic gain and security. He wanted to use the clay for lp gain. Both can be lost at the drop of a hat and neither is wrong. One is definitely looked at with more disdain, as I don't think anyone thinks highly of bucket grinders, but neither is inherently less profitable.
It breaks down to how you perceive value. For a new player who's desperate just to be able to afford his skills and maybe enough exploration to find some WWWs, the clay is good for lp gain and nothing else. For a village looking to make a brickwall, using clay for anything but bricks is a revolting thought.
Nothing was wasted and the node served to better the lives of both the village and the individual. It was merely a violation of expectation in that you did not get as much profit from the node as you wanted. Trees are no different. Our expectations of our resources shift with time but that's about it.

There is one key difference between clay nodes and trees should it be decided that teapot grinding is better lp than buckets or what have you. People are much more likely to kill and go to war over clay than trees. With trees, you can plop down anywhere and have a forest to yourself. If there's a decent clay node somewhere you better believe that there's a village on top of it or a city utilizing it. Failing that, why aren't you colonizing it rather than buying unarmed from 200 to 202?