Goblinworks Blog: Dust Off the Moon and Let's Begin

Discussion thread for Dust Off the Moon and Let's Begin

A gracious farewell to Rich Baker. Thanks for all you've done.

If you've been over-harvesting a resource in a hex, harvest nodes will be fewer for that resource, and may output more impure (heavier and less efficient) variants of the resource.

Does this mean we can assume that a Hex that is producing the impure variants has likely been over-harvested?

Finding a gathering node is like discovering a "gusher" or "mother lode" in prospecting slang...

Very cool :)

Once you discover a gathering node, you'll have exclusive rights to it for a limited amount of time... You can't pass these rights off or have them stolen from you... Once you've activated the gathering kit, all bets are off. The speed of the gathering operation is pegged to your own Profession rating...

It sounds like we're missing an opportunity to have Explorers go out and find the Gathering Nodes and then come back and sell that information to folks who are specialized in exploiting it.

Overall, I really like this blog. I'm not sure if I'm remembering it correctly, but I had the impression that the devs were considering having Gathering Nodes only produce Bulk Resources, and I'm really glad to see that go away (if it was ever a thing in the first place).

It looks to me like the first picture is of a Wood-processing outpost, and the second picture is of a Food-processing smokehouse or some such.

[Edit] And no, the early blog post most definitely did not go amiss :)

It looks to me like the first picture is of a Wood-processing outpost, and the second picture is of a Food-processing smokehouse or some such.

The fist picture looks more like a food (wheat) production outpost to me because of the windmill.. could there be more then one type of outpost for each type of bulk resource

I thought the second one looked more like an armorer or weaponsmith. A smokehouse would be more enclosed to keep the scavengers out and the smoke in, or that is what smokehouses were like in the mountains of western NC. I do see what looked rather like hams hung for curing, but those could have been several alternative things such as breastplates.

Both pictures have structures that look like they could offer housing. Will it be possible for players to live in an outpost and possibly use it for more secure personal storage and a bind point as well as bulk good production?

If so, I'm sure people who dream of owning a farm or living in a rural lumber camp will be quite pleased.

Quote:

Once you discover a gathering node, you'll have exclusive rights to it for a limited amount of time... You can't pass these rights off or have them stolen from you... Once you've activated the gathering kit, all bets are off. The speed of the gathering operation is pegged to your own Profession rating...

It sounds like we're missing an opportunity to have Explorers go out and find the Gathering Nodes and then come back and sell that information to folks who are specialized in exploiting it.

Disagree with what you are quoting here. It says you have the exclusive rights for a limited amount of time. A gathering node won't dissapear (I would say) So what would stop you from handing over the information to someone specialised? I can see a timer to be run and once the countdown is done the other can use it.

That is how I read it.

I love the "mother lode" idea so that it isn't "walk around and find a cave containing a crap load of iron" = gathering node. This makes it more fun. I do agree with Nihimon (Can't believe I just said that LOL) in that because finding these nodes makes them "BOP" to the finder, this does limit, or just remove, the "profession" of explorer and a form of scouting. Not sure if anyone was looking into scouting hexes for gathering nodes and such, but that could be a profession someone could make some money at.

I understand that this is a way to prevent someone finding a gathering node and then being bullied or robbed out of it before they could exploit it. Maybe leave it as it, but work some sort of "deed" to the node that can be sold or otherwise given away? I think that would make it more interesting while still providing the protection of "BOP"ing the node to the finder.

One question though on this part of the blog, if the person who finds it, does NOT setup a gathering operation within the time frame given, what happens? Does it despawn? Does it open up to anyone?

The pics near the bottom look great. I love the concept of having places outside the city to refine these items. Also love the idea of keeping "quality" of materials separate, as in bulk for settlement use and fine quality for weapon/gear crafting. I like it.

A suggestion for salvaging crafted materials, maybe something like melting/breaking down to the lowerst grade used, with a chance (based on salvage skill maybe??) to get some better quality salvage from it? Something like longsword made from quality 50 and 100 ore would salvage to quality 50 ore with a % chance, based on salvage skill, of getting some quality 100. Just a thought anyway.

please don't say

I don't care
no one said
life would be fair

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A gathering node won't dissapear (I would say)

Once you discover a gathering node, you'll have exclusive rights to it for a limited amount of time, after which the chance to haul in the resources from the gathering node disappears. You can't pass these rights off or have them stolen from you, either directly or by showing another player the site; if you find the gathering spot, [b]you are the primary character that must be involved in a gathering operation there.

It seems clear to me that the character who discovers the Gathering Node must be the same character who activates the Gathering Kit, and that the efficiency of the gathering operation is directly tied to that character's Profession rating.

Psyblade wrote:

A gathering node won't dissapear (I would say)

Quote:

Once you discover a gathering node, you'll have exclusive rights to it for a limited amount of time, after which the chance to haul in the resources from the gathering node disappears. You can't pass these rights off or have them stolen from you, either directly or by showing another player the site; if you find the gathering spot, [b]you are the primary character that must be involved in a gathering operation there.

It seems clear to me that the character who discovers the Gathering Node must be the same character who activates the Gathering Kit, and that the efficiency of the gathering operation is directly tied to that character's Profession rating.

I was just about to reread that because I thought the same. Leave it to Nihimon to find it and quote it first. Like a quote ninja....

One question though on this part of the blog, if the person who finds it, does NOT setup a gathering operation within the time frame given, what happens? Does it despawn? Does it open up to anyone?

... the chance to haul in the resources from the gathering node disappears.

I read this to mean the Node disappears.

Leave it to Nihimon to find it and quote it first. Like a quote ninja....

Those who can't do, teach.

Those who can't be real Ninjas, become Quote Ninjas :)

bleah, that part I missed. Guess I will get an Exploration/Gathering/Manufacturing char and a pvp/pve char for combat.

The main reason I can think of for non-tradeable nodes is miner-newb finds a node and then miner-newb's company says, "Sure we'll protects it, but miner-vet needs to do the extraction since he will take less time and get a better yield." And miner-newb says "But I really wanted to do the extraction!" To which his company retorts "Fine, but don't expect us to stand around all day while you do! Protect your own node!"

The worst part of this scenario is I think both parties have valid points. Miner-newb should be able to extract it himself since he found it, but doing so is selfish when he's relying on a group for protection. GW solves this by forcing miner-newb to be the extractor.

The problem with that is what if it's discovered by solider-vet, or explorer-vet, who were just mining to kill some time before the big dungeon trip or PvP raid, or what if miner-newb discovers it 5 minutes before he needs to log off for his big date?

I think the better solution would be a system where more people extracting always has positive effects. So when miner-newb makes a big find then miner-vet and a bunch of other soldiers/miners/haulers all come and make a big community event out of it, and when miner-pro makes his find, he invites everyone (including miner-newb) too.

That maximizes meaningful human interaction, solves both problems, and really makes the most sense. The claim system is still good, but you should be able to trade it or open it up to others from the moment you find it.

Awesome: The natives were getting restless! *primitive drums sound*

First, our hats are off to Rich Baker, who has decided that spending 10% of every day in a car driving to and from the Goblinworks offices is an (understandably) suboptimal allocation of his waking hours. Rich is going to be pursuing his writing, his freelance game design, and of course projects like Primeval Thule.

Thanks a lot also, Rich Baker. The "Darkness on The Edge of Town" and "Designing Thornkeep" were both great blogs that really adding a lot of sauce to this feast! G'luck.

They are very heavy and probably require a caravan to transport with any efficiency. (We'll get around to talking about caravans in one of these posts...)

I was just wondering this. Cool.

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The Outposts look awesome. Question on the placement in a hex for them? Is it directly attached to a POI or "on site" where the major finds or resources are?? edit: nvm found it!:

The outposts themselves are often close to the edge of the hex, located some distance from the central holding in that hex. This should make it desirable to subcontract companies to watch your outposts: they're far enough away that they may be hard to protect against raiders all by yourself. But we'll talk about raiding in a later PvP post.

Yeah, just as they subdivided settlements to need multiple companies to hold (with Influence) the main settlement and all the outlying hexes, this goes another step in suggesting outposts will sometimes benefit from having a separate controlling company. I'm feeling more confident in my prediction that a settlement will typically have 20 or more member companies.

It says you have the exclusive rights for a limited amount of time. A gathering node won't dissapear (I would say) So what would stop you from handing over the information to someone specialised? I can see a timer to be run and once the countdown is done the other can use it.

Once you discover a gathering node, you'll have exclusive rights to it for a limited amount of time, after which the chance to haul in the resources from the gathering node disappears.

Not the exclusive access disappears, but the chance to haul in resources itself... Sounds to me like the node disappears after that window is over. I wouldn't object to that mechanic changing a bit.

Quote:

Once you discover a gathering node, you'll have exclusive rights to it for a limited amount of time... You can't pass these rights off or have them stolen from you... Once you've activated the gathering kit, all bets are off. The speed of the gathering operation is pegged to your own Profession rating...

It sounds like we're missing an opportunity to have Explorers go out and find the Gathering Nodes and then come back and sell that information to folks who are specialized in exploiting it.

Dialing back a bit, part of this depends on who "you" is. The game is not supposed to be particularly solo-orientated, so discovering nodes should normally happen in the context of some sort of group... I would think if you are actively grouped in a company when you discover the node, the company as a whole should have ownership of the node? That in itself means alot more people's skills could be drawn upon, although the idea of selling the node rights (or contracting another character's harvesting skill) outside of any company structure (associated with the discovery) seems pretty reasonable as well.

A more generalized system also can feed back into company-based discoveries... A mediocre harvest skill member might want to do it themself, but if top-notch rent-a-harvesters would yield more harvest even at a higher wage, then the in-group harvester would need to offer a much lower rate to make it worthwhile to the group, and they themself may make more profit by contracting it out. Conversely, a member who themself has top-notch skills would be in a strong position to demand a larger 'cut' or wage for doing a good job with the harvesting (compared to a system 'forcing' in-group self-harvesting).

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Harvest Node vs. Gathering Node

These names just aren't resonating with me, they sound like they correspond to some different mode of resource extraction (i.e. farming vs. hunter/gatherer) but that doesn't seem the case from the Blog, Gathering is just a Super Harvest node apparently. I would rather the names be attuned to conveying that relationship more directly, i.e. that one is the 'super' version of the other... Perhaps call Gathering Nodes "Mother Lodes"? "Bonanza Nodes"? "Windfall Nodes"? I just don't see the point in introducing a distinct game term that isn't particularly clear/helpful in explaining the mechanic. Alternatively, they could all be considered "Gathering Nodes" (which suggests smaller scale hunter/gatherer vs. larger scale Outpost resource extraction, "Harvest Node" blurs that distinction IMHO) but SOME Gathering Nodes have the "Bonanza" special quality (perhaps players de facto calling them "Bonanza Nodes", but technically they are still a Gathering Node and the game can more easily describe mechanics affecting both of them using just one term, rather than "Gathering and Harvest Nodes").

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Holdings seem to still be a mystery, relatively, any hint on what they might actually entail, besides 'establishing control of hex'?
Is it necessary to have a Holding and control the Hex before Outposts can function?

Will Holdings be able to have their own Outpost style production, either as the Holding itself or adjacent/in the same zone of the hex as the Holding structure? Would Holdings potentially have secondary processing facilities which might take in bulk resources (or regular crafting resources) to turn into more easily usable/marketable/transportable forms? (things that might also be done at some Settlements, but it might be advantageous to do it at the Holding in some cases)

I believe "Watch Towers" were mooted at one point, are these intended to comprise the entirety of the "Holding" or would they be PoI which may be scattered more widely across the hex (or at the location of each Holding/Outpost, but not preventing other structures from also being built)? (which is a pre-requisite for Outposts to function?

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All wilderness and monster hexes in the game constantly generate harvest nodes... The chance of discovering a gathering node is based on the total supply of the resource in the hex, so they'll usually have a much greater chance of appearing deep in the wilderness in hexes (particularly monster hexes) that aren't regularly harvested... Not only will monsters attack in waves while you're gathering, enemy players will be able to take the items from the storage if you don't fight them off as well.

So is the plan for Monster Hexes that they will offer Gather/Harvest Nodes but not the opportunity for Outposts and Holdings? Or are the latter now also considered to be possible in Monster Hexes?

A good amount of the feedback around the question of "in-group only harvesting" for Gathering/Bonanza Nodes seemed to center on issues of balance/opportunity for low level harvester characters. Monster Hexes seem liable to offer an opportunity for higher risk/higher tier harvesting, perhaps even escalating along with Monster Escalations?

More generally, I think that the issue of low/high tier harvester balance could be dealt with by resource quality/rating tiers, with low level harvesters just not able to locate high tier nodes in the first place, and high level harvesters not likely to waste their time on harvesting low-tier nodes themselves. In such a system, worries about market forces havin sway on issues of who harvests what node don't seem as much of a worry, things would just balance themselves out as in other aspects of the game economy.

The main reason I can think of for non-tradeable nodes is miner-newb finds a node and then miner-newb's company says, "Sure we'll protects it, but miner-vet needs to do the extraction since he will take less time and get a better yield." And miner-newb says "But I really wanted to do the extraction!" To which his company retorts "Fine, but don't expect us to stand around all day while you do! Protect your own node!"

That's a good point, and I agree that it's important not to create systems that create incentives for groups to exploit their members.

The game is not supposed to be particularly solo-orientated, so discovering nodes should normally happen in the context of some sort of group...

Vanguard and Star Wars: Galaxies both allowed a single Harvesting Node to be harvested by an entire group, but as much as I'd like to see that in PFO, nothing in this blog gave me the impression that would be the case.

Maybe we can convince them this is a good idea, after all :)

Harvest Node vs. Gathering Node

These names just aren't resonating with me...

I agree. Even worse, they seem backwards to me. "Gathering" to me implies walking around finding berries or something, where as "Harvesting" to me implies a massive operation to bring in an entire crop.

I like your recommendation to change the name of Gathering Nodes to "Bonanza" or "Windfall" Nodes.

I'll agree with general consensus, the "exclusive rights" bit to gathering nodes seems a bit rough around the edges but otherwise a great blog!

Really, delete my post... Was going to put some good information in there once I was able to read it more...

Thats pretty sad

Really, delete my post... Was going to put some good information in there once I was able to read it more...

They're very consistent about doing exactly that...

Yup, some people jumped in two weeks ago with empty "first" posts and lost them as well.

Whatever, Ill make sure to do it more often then.

Looks like the Nodes will be some pretty SAD spots to be in.

This post looks like good news for the Pax Mercatorum, regarding the Bulk Goods mechanics that is.

As Ryan stated in the blog, most settlements will not have access to more than one or two bulk goods necessary for settlement construction/maintenance. Sounds like a great market to get into.

This post looks like good news for the Pax Mercatorum, regarding the Bulk Goods mechanics that is.

As Ryan stated in the blog, most settlements will not have access to more than one or two bulk goods necessary for settlement construction/maintenance. Sounds like a great market to get into.

Make sure to have multiple settlements so you can exchange goods and run equal across the board.

Is that BOP as in "bippity boppity boo!", or is it an acronym that I just don't recognize?

This sounds like a very work-able system. It will probably get a few tweaks before launch, but the core seems solid.

The windmill in the first picture made me think of a grain processing operation, too.

I like the versatility of salvaged materials. If I have goblin armor scraps, now I have to decide whether to smelt them down or recover the leather. If I don't have smithing or leather-crafting skills, I can try to sell them to people who have either skill.

Quandary wrote:

Harvest Node vs. Gathering Node

These names just aren't resonating with me...

I agree. Even worse, they seem backwards to me. "Gathering" to me implies walking around finding berries or something, where as "Harvesting" to me implies a massive operation to bring in an entire crop.

I also think 'gather' connotes collecting from more random, small-scale, and wide-ranging locations, while 'harvest' connotes a more planned, greater-scale, and localized operation. Maybe the words have the opposite connotations in the Pacific Northwest?

Thank you, Rich, for all your work here. You will be missed!

I like the premise presented, prospecting way back when was often a solo activity. If the 'mother lode' was discovered, then others were brought in to work it.

I do think that it would make more sense to be able to sell or trade a claim to a harvesting site. Not every prospector wants to be a mine foreman, or have to deal with waves of NPC and PC spawns trying to loot the hopper.

It may be the developer in me, but I am perfectly fine distinguishing the nodes as gathering and harvesting. Simple, concise, descriptive, if a little bland. Gathering evokes an image of a short cycle, small return activity, while harvesting feels to be a moderate cycle, moderate to large return activity with more material investment. In this respect they seem a little backwards in the blog, but the names themselves are fine.

Outposts look interesting, they should provide great targets and natural evolution to a settlement. Separating the settlement material from the item materials is a good step.

They describe harvesting nodes as randomly occurring within a hex at random times based on depletion of resources in the hex. This includes herbs but also minerals. I see harvesting as collecting a "renewable" resource. In this case ore appears to be a renewable resource.

Gathering nodes appear to be discovered during harvesting rather than being found on their own. It may be possible that there will be no way to have multiply characters simultaneously start harvesting a node, so as I read the blog ownership of a gathering node belongs to the individual who first started harvesting the node.

My take on ownership of a gathering node is that the restriction of using a gathering kit (within the initial time limit) only by the owner means that only the owner's skill levels will be used in determining the quality and quantity of gathered resources. This is a very good reason for every character to gain some harvesting/gathering skills.

Outposts and Holdings: I am very excited by this part of the blog. From my reading of the blog it appears that wilderness hexes with PoI can have outposts to do large scale collection and initial processing of resources. However as outposts are "linked to a holding in that hex", a company will have to build a structure at the PoI to hold that wilderness hex before they can build an outpost. The questions raised for me are:
1) Will all hexes that have "certain materials make sense coming from more established structures" have a PoI?
2) If any wilderness hex can have "certain materials make sense coming from more established structures", will all hexes have a PoI so the hex can be "held" in order to exploit these materials?

So Rich Baker leaves this project :( What if he can be persuaded to work remotely? All his works I had access to were built with sound inner logic and great deal of common sense. Stark contrast with most of the RPG products I got my hands on. This is really sad.
I wish Rich Baker success in his other projects and I must express my thanks to him for making this one better game.
About other disturbing news - harvest nodes will be all the same it seems. There will be no difference between picking the berries and cutting the trees. Just a short time - and you're done. Darkfall was designed with the same logic strain. All gathering was stamina-consuming and runs for about same time. Well, fishing is slightly different, but still depletes your stamina. Fishing! Not quarrying stone, not logging trees, not hunting sharks or setting the Sun manually - just picking these fishies out of the water:) Well I may be wrong, but it seems there will be not much difference in the process of gathering mushrooms and gathering iron ore. I don't know how difficult it is making some difference, so ignore my complaints please if they are stupid ones.
And it seems any gathering activity must be organized. Solo gatherers will be just missing their chances with these gathering nodes, because they need guards/haulers ready for deployment at first notice. Is this motivator for more meaningful human interaction? I don't know.

I also think 'gather' connotes collecting from more random, small-scale, and wide-ranging locations, while 'harvest' connotes a more planned, greater-scale, and localized operation. Maybe the words have the opposite connotations in the Pacific Northwest?

Nah, I'm just across a large lake from GW and I think your take is probably more in line with the NW (and the rest of the English-speaking world). I'd guess they had picked 'harvest' to describe resource collection from nodes, then they needed a word to describe this super harvest once they added that concept. To avoid the distinction between harvesting and gathering at nodes, maybe they might instead talk of gathering at nodes and lodes, and harvesting at outposts.

I'd like to see the claims system be a bit more fleshed out of a system. Like this:

Deeds- When you find an extraction point you get a deed for that claim. This is either an auto-threaded (non-droppable / instantly threaded for free) item in your inventory or a menu option, much like currency. On the deed you can set the foreman, extractors, haulers and guards. This deed is tradeable from the moment received.

Claim Radius- Owning a deed sets up a claim radius around it. This radius is used by the guard and foreman roles. You can also set a claim to "No trespassing" in unclaimed territory or territory where you have permissions to do so. When you do this everyone not allied to the owner who hasn't been given a role on the deed will be flagged if they remain in the area of the claim too long.

Foreman- The owner can set anyone to Foreman. When extractors are extracting from the node their success rate, the quality of the resources gathered, and their chance to find rare materials etc. is determined by the foreman's skills whenever the foreman's skills are higher. The foreman must be in the radius of the claim for this to take effect. The speed at which extractors operate is still determined by their own skills.

(The point of this is to enforce the idea that more miners is always beneficial.)

Extractors- This is anyone authorized to extract resources from the node, anyone else who attempts to do so will be flagged.

Haulers- Haulers can withdraw resources from the storage containers. Anyone else who attempts to do so will be flagged.

Gaurds- Gaurds are given permission to hang around within the claim radius and loot NPCs / players killed there without getting flagged even if the claim is flagged "No Tresspassing." The claim owner may also set up a system where they are paid for time spent in the radius and/or each kill received.

Is that BOP as in "bippity boppity boo!", or is it an acronym that I just don't recognize?

As much as I'd like it to be a reference to Bedknobs and Broomsticks, it's actually a reference to Bind-on-Pickup, in that the item is only ever usable by the character that first loots it.

This is a very good reason for every character to gain some harvesting/gathering skills.

I had an epiphany when I read that. I think the goal might be exactly the reverse, to reserve the Harvesting/Gathering game to those who are dedicated to it. I can't help but relate it to Stephen Cheney's prior statement about games where Crafting had no opportunity cost, so it was a black hole on everyone's character sheet, resulting in virtually everyone doing some Crafting.

I am confused about the reasoning behind making the person who discovers a node be required to be the one who does the gathering, and further with tying the gathering to that character's skill.

Would the same goals be met if the character who discovered the node had to be the one to place the kit, but once placed the site operated with speed and rate based on the kit itself.

It seems that the intended outcome is to not make it possible to run a group off of their claim and then continue working it; what's the basis behind that decision?

Tying the gathering to the characters skill is just speculation.

Probably kit based, but who knows.

The basis is to keep carebears happy that they will not lose their high end ore... But that in turn will just cause the claim jumpers to just camp it till the timer is up. Either way it will be lost, but no one will get the resources in the current plan.

The basis is to keep carebears happy that they will not lose their high end ore...

Wrong, but at least it was harsh and belittling.

Once you've activated the gathering kit... the output goes into a nearby storage object... enemy players will be able to take the items from the storage if you don't fight them off...

Tying the gathering to the characters skill is just speculation.

When you find a harvest node, your ranks in the related Profession skill determine if you can access it at all. For example, you only need one rank in Miner to harvest iron, but you need fourteen ranks to harvest adamantine. The speed at which you harvest the resource is based on your skill total; you won't ever spend more than a few seconds per item at a harvest node, but reducing that time might still be a big help if you're worried about attacks.

Xeen wrote:

Tying the gathering to the characters skill is just speculation.

Really?

Blog wrote:

When you find a harvest node, your ranks in the related Profession skill determine if you can access it at all. For example, you only need one rank in Miner to harvest iron, but you need fourteen ranks to harvest adamantine. The speed at which you harvest the resource is based on your skill total; you won't ever spend more than a few seconds per item at a harvest node, but reducing that time might still be a big help if you're worried about attacks.

Does it anywhere in what you posted say that the speed ANYONE who helps you gather that resources goes by your speed?

Xeen wrote:

The basis is to keep carebears happy that they will not lose their high end ore...

Wrong, but at least it was harsh and belittling.

Quote:

Once you've activated the gathering kit... the output goes into a nearby storage object... enemy players will be able to take the items from the storage if you don't fight them off...

And once your chased off, who can gather from it?

And once your chased off, who can gather from it?

From prior blogs, we know that you don't need to be present while the Gathering Kit is in operation. It's possible that they will be able to tear it down while you're chasing them off, but that seems unlikely to me, but regardless it's pure speculation at this time.

So, once the Gathering Kit is activated, and you chase off the character who set it up, you let it run its course and pull the resources out of the nearby storage.

I'm also of the mind that 'gathering' and 'harvesting' have the reverse connotations of those described by the blog and could use some renaming.

As for the mechanics of the actual extraction of large quantities of a resource, I think that requiring the character who discovered the site be the one who initiates the extraction, is on-hand the entire time, and is the determining factor in how long the extraction takes (only the time, not the quantity/quality, as far as the blog indicates) seems a bit overly limiting.

Perhaps a mechanism whereby the extraction point isn't visible as such, much less interact-able, to anyone other than the discoverer until they explicitly make it so (which would require close proximity) would serve similar goals of preventing claim jumping. To my mind, this also helps with game immersion in that one needs to know precisely where on a rocky outcropping the rich vein of minerals is hiding.

Does it anywhere in what you posted say that the speed ANYONE who helps you gather that resources goes by your speed?

Other characters can't help you in that way - at least there aren't any blogs or dev posts that indicate they can.

The other characters "help" by fighting off the waves of monsters, not by increasing the amount (or rate) of resources gathered.

... is on-hand the entire time...

I don't believe that's required. Other blogs have indicated that some characters might even try to have multiple Gathering Kits active at the same time, although that certainly may have changed.

I think this blog focused on harvesting for a reason. Perhaps instead of digging as deep as we can for the PvP related elements and turning this into yet another PvP debate between the usual suspects, we can keep this topic centered around the gathering aspects, and drag the PvP debate to another topic.

Perhaps instead of digging as deep as we can for the PvP related elements...

How else are they going to try to convince everyone that they're the "pro-PvP" faction?

From prior blogs, we know that you don't need to be present while the Gathering Kit is in operation.

Didn't the prior blogs suggest that spawned monsters would try to attack the resource site (now kit/camp)? So once it's activated, if it isn't guarded won't it eventually be destroyed and deactivated?

@Xeen

The way I read it is whoever sets up the camp on the lode determines, via their skill, the rate at which the extraction takes place. They do not sit there with a tool and beat on it. The gatherer's task now becomes protection. Material appears in the bin at the end of each cycle for anyone to take.

I would assume the camp disappears when the lode is depleted, leaving the storage for a time. I would also assume that the camp could be destroyed. Either way, if there's an absentee foreman any raider could help themselves to the loot within.

This manner of gathering is where a mini-game (like the hacking mini-game in EVE) would fit in nicely to increase yield or reduce cycle time beyond your normal abilities... and give the foreman something to do between monster and raider invasions.

The current blog also describes a similar dynamic:

Not only will monsters attack in waves while you're gathering, enemy players will be able to take the items from the storage if you don't fight them off as well.

It doesn't explicitly state that NPCs would try to attack/destroy harvesting sites or steal resources, but those seem pretty obvious and easy to implement activities once they can kill you or if you don't prevent them from doing those things... That can also make for some interesting NPC encounters especially with multiple types of enemies, some who aren't a strong threat but can cart off resources if not stopped, while other NPCs/monsters are a stronger threat to confront PCs directly. Harvesting/etc could very well even play a role in Monster escalations, i.e. successfully harvesting X resource (beating off monster attacks and thieving) could be a required goal to pass a certain stage (or even reverse it, the Monsters could be setting up their own Harvet ops and PCs need to disrupt those).