Guild Wars 2

I’ve been curious about this since not too long after I started playing GW2. Why is it that our characters only take three swings at a given mining or logging node (or just one at harvesting node)?

Is it a software/code thing that prevents the system from determining how many harvests you’ll get up front and then just allowing the players to hit ‘f’ once and be done?

It’s not that it’s a huge game breaking thing to have to hit ‘f’ a few times in a row (for instance if you are harvesting guild hall nodes), but I’ve always been curious as to why it works this way.

Anyone have any insight or reference to ancient dev writings?

Hardly a valid excuse but most special animations are designed for exactly 3 swings and would look weird otherwise (not that they don’t already).

Probably for immersion reasons. Small plants, vegetables can be cut with one motion. Mining ore or cutting down trees takes multiple strikes in real life and 3 per harvest in game.

Because clicking the same node 3 times is kinda silly and a waste of time (cept for rich which makes sense).

There’s a reason wow stopped that.

Given how much stuff I have in my Home Instance now, it certainly would be nice if I was able to just press F once per node. Farming my Home Instance now takes longer than doing dailies.

I think you’ve confused two different mechanics.

First, a single ‘[F] interact’ gives you 3 hits on a metal or wood node and only one a ‘plant’ node.

Second, regardless of node, there is a chance that the node will not be diminished (how big that chance is and how much it’s affected by buffs is beyond the scope of this thread). Wood & Metal nodes have a chance for up to 2 additional ‘interacts’, totaling a maximum of 9 hits (including the original 3), although 3-5 is much more common. Veggie nodes have a chance for up to 3 additional ‘interacts’, totaling up to a maximum of 4 hits, although 1-2 is much more common.

In other words, it’s true in every case that the opportunity for a bonus is only determined after you’ve completed the initial ‘interact’; there’s no difference between metal|wood & plant nodes as far as that aspect goes.

Changing any of the above would mean a fundamental change to the underlying mechanic, including the need to change the density of plant nodes in Tyria generally. It would be a ton of work for what amounts to a minor QoL improvement.

There are four strikes with mining nodes, at least there was this year and last year, maybe the one before. Idly observing them one time I saw that human and sylvari characters get the last two (if there is that extra one) on the third strike, and asura strikes four times. But I am not completely sure. I don’t remember how it works if there are 5 strikes for a node.
Rich mining nodes used to be 3+3+3+1, then it was 4+4+2.

I am seriously angry about that because now I have to stop after two strikes and carefully manage my twins so that their exp won’t get messed up…. I sort of stopped gathering.

Maybe it was done because of the rich nodes, trees don’t have rich ones so they stayed at three (no hidden extra one at least earlier this year).

I’m seeing some misconceptions. Everyone in the game gets 3 strikes from wood and mining nodes. You don’t get more for being a Slyvari. However, you always have a chance to get a bonus strike, and you can get a higher chance of that using various things like the guild gathering potion or banners on the map. There are other things but you can look them up.

Also not everyone has to wait to press f again to get that fourth strike. If you have something such as the cosmic logging tool, it has the quality of life to gather your fourth strike as well if you get one. That’s the one I have so I don’t remember what other tools will get your fourth strike as well.

When mining regular nodes, watch the xp you get. Sometimes there are four rows of xp, so four hits were done. If there’s more you have to mine it again. The fourth only happens if there is more than three strikes in the node (the bonus % because WvW bonuses) and is not animated, it happens with the third strike. Other than with the asura who always seems to strike four times.
Compare to tree nodes, always three, unless something has changed during the last few months. I’m not going to go gathering right now.

You’re just flat out mistaken Traced.

Nope, I’m just not writing very clearly and not getting my point across.

As far as I can tell you’re saying other races beside humans are getting more strikes then you. They’re either more lucky or have more gathering boosts then you or both.

No, that part was just about what animation for the races looked like. I came to here to rant about that fourth mining strike I did not ask for which ruins my precious xp. I can’t really bother much more than that.

Extra materials ruin your xp?

The two characters I play at the same time and who I want to have identical exp. I usually leave extra strikes ungathered unless I know the level range and can see another node and now what the exp will be. Mining nodes take lot of effort. So, since I had an okay situation with converted gems for now, I stopped gathering (and logging in, just waiting). Still, angry.

Ah, you’re being ridiculous, because things are interfering with restrictions you’ve placed on yourself. And there’s nothing wrong with that. So to answer you’ll always get 3 if you’re using the merchant tools on wood and ore. You have a chance to get more. Harvesting nodes however are extremely fickle and so are rich nodes. Rich nodes have a higher chance to give you rare gems though.

Oh, absolutely.
Mechant tools. If there are more than three strikes on a mining node, they will get the fourth with that same gathering action. And I wish it wasn’t the case, and I dislike the suggestion the thread started made, and I wanted, or tried to, to mention that the animation doesn’t matter since there are already four strikes despite animation, and asura animation is different.
Have you carefully looked at the mining xp results on the log? I have. Maybe someone can see if it still happens. Or gather a rich node without automatic loot setting on, watch the log for xp from gathering, and how it is grouped.

@Traced: do you have the same tools equipped on the toons that are seeing different results? There is a situation in which some of the tools sometimes get 4 ‘hits’ (which you describe as ‘four rows of xp’). I doubt very much it’s a race-related anomaly, because I can’t duplicate your result.

I’ve seen a regular (non-rich) mining or lumber node give 4 units off of 3 hits (and using generic tools from a merchant). The first and second hits give 1 unit like normal but the third gives 2 units. I’ve even seen this happen on the Home Instance nodes on rare occasion even though they normally seem to only be able to give 3 units. It’s great for people rushing dailies when they don’t have to hit that extra node to get the last unit.

Na, the tools? Usual merchant tools… I wish I remembered the wording the WvW tooltip uses for the bonus… I don’t think it depends on the tools, the bonus depends what the node feels like at the moment one strikes it, I guess. Or fate, or the universe.
(I’m ignoring the watchwork pick, and the gathering booster which I think exists or existed, in this)
Look at a rich mining node. Four strikes, with one action. Another four with the next. There’s two left, unless it has bonus strikes. I recall it can. I want to say that mining is always four strikes now, and it that used to be three. Rich node was 3+3+3+1. When I noticed that I first thought that rich nodes now have only 8 strikes instead of 10 (and internally screaming how it had been nerfed), until I went to look at the log, counting the rows of exp.

And race comment was only related to how asura has a four strike mining animation. No different gathering results… I wanted to comment about the three strike animation (which is the case for the other races I know about) and if it should be only three strikes harvest because that is what the animation looks like.
(It shoooould! Fix the results and fix asura mining animation!)

Again, unless it has been changed during the last few months. I think I last went to gather during summer or something.

Boysenberry.1869:

I’ve seen a regular (non-rich) mining or lumber node give 4 units off of 3 hits (and using generic tools from a merchant). The first and second hits give 1 unit like normal but the third gives 2 units. I’ve even seen this happen on the Home Instance nodes on rare occasion even though they normally seem to only be able to give 3 units. It’s great for people rushing dailies when they don’t have to hit that extra node to get the last unit.

Giving “four units” isn’t the same as getting four hits — the only way you know if you’ve got four hits is you are using a tool with charges and to see those decrement by four units. (I’m not sure yet if XP gained is reliable.)

Oh, with my twin characters I so obsess about, I have observed that xp gain is reliable, and that tools get consumed properly.

The materials in the loot window don’t matter as one strike can give two (maybe more) materials.

I was interested so I did some short research on it. Sometimes you will gather four when using the basic oricalchum tools. However, you will never get extra xp since only 3 tools will be consumed at one harvest. Gathering the extra wood and ore that remain there after a harvest will consume another tool and give you xp.

Ok, before this thread gets too far off topic, this isn’t about the amount of a given item you get per swing,.

I’d like to see them change the code so that your chances of “extra swings” is calculated before you start, thus allowing you to only have to interact with the node once.
That’s just a “want” though. Said desire got me thinking about why they do it this way in the first place.

Traced.3495:

No, that part was just about what animation for the races looked like. I came to here to rant about that fourth mining strike I did not ask for which ruins my precious xp. I can’t really bother much more than that.

You are the only person I know who complains about getting bonus exp. And you are wrong anyway, getting a 4th unit doesn’t increase the amount of exp you get.

It seems to have to do with all the animations being set to consuming tools. So in theory that shouldn’t be a problem for the endless tools, but then xp also follows that pattern.

So what you’re saying could actually be possible. If how much you’re going to get is determined at the start of each harvest then it could be consuming 4 or more tools during the harvest and then you don’t have to hit f again. But I think they like the way it is since it kinda shows, hey you got extra because you harvested and you can still harvest a bit more.

MoarChaos.8320:

It seems to have to do with all the animations being set to consuming tools. So in theory that shouldn’t be a problem for the endless tools, but then xp also follows that pattern.

So what you’re saying could actually be possible. If how much you’re going to get is determined at the start of each harvest then it could be consuming 4 or more tools during the harvest and then you don’t have to hit f again. But I think they like the way it is since it kinda shows, hey you got extra because you harvested and you can still harvest a bit more.

Ug… that’s a monkey wrench in the gears (the issue of tool useage). That alone might make the rework absurdly more time consuming than anything Anet might want to look at.

Ok, so I’ve been running my characters through a Rich mining node. Asura do have a four stroke animation, but the fourth stroke doesn’t do anything. Interestingly some of the picks will pull four some only pull three. The wintersday pick, for instance, will run two interactions on the third strike, regardless of animation, if a fourth interaction can occur. So it is possible for a pick to have more than the standard three interactions, but it’s unlikely for the animation to be changed to adopt it. It would just do three and then pull all possible interactions at once under the best circumstance.

MoarChaos, and Na, I realize we were talking about entirely different things. I don’t care about items per strike, that was not my meaning at all.

I can back up some of what Traced has mentioned as I have been mining the king size candy corn node in my home instance with an asuran alt and copper picks.

With my first interaction on the node I get 4 strikes. I see 4 lots of xp show in game and 4 “charges” consumed from the tools. My second interaction then consists of 2 strikes plus the remaining “wasted” animations that produce no materials.

I don’t recall how many strikes are animated on my asuran, but the 3rd and 4th portions of xp are awarded very close together. I also don’t know if the same results would apply to other races.

You results are like that because you’re at a king sized candy corn node. Not because you’re an asuran.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

(I’m not sure yet if XP gained is reliable.)

Depends on whether you are looking at the popups or the chat window. The chat window should be reliable. The popups not so much …