Gathering Survey for Alpha Build 13

[Nihimon]

Nihimon wrote:

I kind of wonder, though, if the overabundance of Middens might be due to folks cherry-picking Plant nodes.

I am extremely pleased to report that this does not appear to be the case. This is based solely on my subjective sense, rather than on hard data.

I spent a significant amount of time in a Croplands hex clearing out only Plant nodes. I covered the entire hex probably half a dozen times. During that time, I did not ever get the feeling that there were fewer and fewer Plant Nodes spawning, and in fact never noticed a Trash or Sparks node that seemed to be newly spawned. Again, this was purely subjective, but I'm comfortable that it's not a problem.

[Kero]

I've also spent some time harvesting plant nodes in a hill(?) hex. I believe there were a whopping total of three(!) plant nodes in the entire hex. But everytime I harvested one, another appeared somewhere. It was always exactly those three nodes.

Also, you sometimes have a node respawn right on your minimap. Never ever did I have a node respawn of a different type than what I was currently harvesting.

I believe the total number of the different kinds of node per hex (or hex type?) is currently fixed and does not change. However, I've never come close to strip-mining a hex by myself, maybe the composition of node types will change only when one type of resource is close to exhaustion. But even that seems unlikey, remember when we had all those "empty" scavenger nodes?

[Lee Hammock]

Thod wrote:

When I did the testing I tried to gather every node in sight - no matter if sparks or middens or plants and I tried deliberately not to prefer certain ones.

I also gathered until I had >30 of the most prevalent node.

Now here is the question that is rightly asked:

Hex x has
2000 pine
3000 herbs
1000 ore
250 gems
2500 Essence

Will the nodes be distributed 4:1:2 ?

What happens if middens are collected most? Will the distribution of nodes shift - and how?

Algorithm 1:
A new node is spawned relative to abundance - so if a midden node was picked and 2 resources taken this would be 5000:1248:2500

This would lead to certain nodes become less common.

Algorithm 1b:
Varient of 1) A new node is spawned relative to max abundance - so if a midden node was picked a new node would be spawned in the ratio 4:1:2

This would lead to certain nodes become less common.

Algorithm 2:
A midden node is picke - a new midden node is spawned

This would keep the abundance of different nodes the same,

When I checked the swamp I tried deliberately not to have an effect of nodes by preferring certain ones. But off course I can't rule out others doing so.

Algorithm 1 will drive distribution slowly back to the ratios as it becomes more and more difficult to pick node type A.

Algorithm 2 will avoid this problem but will make it more easy to completely take out one node type.

I can't say what is better.

The way the system works currently is there is a set of relative weights for each terrain type. Whenever a node is spawned, those relative weights are used to figure out what type of node it is. For example, is a terrain type had 40 geology node, 30 forester node, and 30 essence node, nodes spawned in those hexes will have a 40% chance of being a geology node, 30# change to be a forester node , etc. I can technically make as many terrain types as I want, so each hex could technically be it's own terrain type with custom numbers, but running custom numbers of resource types for each is enough world already.

This does create a problem where if someone comes through and harvests, say, all the geology nodes in the above example and left the rest, when the hex gets back up to it's full allotment of nodes it would be 16 geology nodes, 42 forester nodes, and 42 essence nodes. If the geology cherry picking continued, this would only get worse. So we know this is a problem in some sense, but not a huge one so it's low priority to fix.

[Nihimon]

Lee Hammock wrote:

The way the system works currently...

Are you sure this is the way it works currently? The reason I ask is because I intentionally went into a hex and harvested only Plant nodes for a significant amount of time and it seemed like each Plant node I harvested ended up respawning as another Plant node.

It seems Kero had the same observations.

[Thod]

I have to agree with Nihimon - a few times now I have seen a new node spawn while harvesting - it ALWAYS was the same type I just had harvested.

This would imply algorithm B. Nothing wrong with that - apart maybe that you can more easily drain a resource.

[Lee Hammock]

Actually you guys are right, I misunderstood something Paul said a long time ago, it is a flat count. So if you harvest a forester node, another forester node shows up.

[DeciusBrutus]

And that is true no matter how many forestry-node resources are present in-hex. Per-time yield is roughly constant until the hex is fully depleted, but per-encumbrance yield varies a lot.

I'm still trying to guess the implications of that on economic competition between settlements—which means it's working as intended.