Stripharvesting

Riluna

With the new changes to the decay of herbs outside rifts, it is more important than ever that we protect the herbs themselves, to keep the economy well stocked, and the herbs flowing. One of the major obstacles to this is stripharvesting, and it can be disastrous to have a fully stocked and seeded area completely stripped barren.

As I understand it, every single Nature user, whether they are an herbalist or not, has the ability to ward any herbs behind them, making them completely immune to stripharvesting, desmene or environmental effects, or natural decay during dormancy, for a little over a full day. Nearly drained powerstones are excellent for this, as each individual charge required is small. Once they understood the function they could provide, most of the current population of Nature users are the type who would do this sort of thing for free, assuming the powerstones and mistletoe required were provided. Throw in a little gold, and the deal would be practically sealed. Your replanting efforts are assured.

I've been tending to a small garden of perhaps 100 or 200 rooms for about a week now. If there were more than one of us coordinating our efforts, we could lock down entire species of herbs from extinction, under any circumstances. If you are interested in coordinating such a thing, please contact me in-game. Riluna would do all this IC, across any political affiliation.

If any of my information is wrong, please feel free to correct me. I'd like to hear any thoughts on such a coordinated effort.

Elanorwen

I know druids seem to get a better deal out of it. 34 days for a fully transed druid compared to something along the lines of 15 or so for non-druids? Not sure about the exact timing there. I know I've been trying to guard here and there when herbs have been close to dormancy and nature isn't set to protect them... but reguarding on a pretty much daily basis might be a bit overkill. There's a reason there is a herbal/power component to it... and that is so it's not viable to keep guarding locations 100% of the time. It gets even worse when I, personally, don't get anything out of it due to the fact that I'm not a herbalist myself, so me doing the guarding for free means I'm just making things easier for someone else to take a profit... and really, I don't see how you'll talk a whole lot of people into that in the end.

Ssaliss

Meh. Not sure the new decay of herbs will actually affect the amount of stripharvesting done. Personally, the only place I tend to guard is the Water plane, because it's so immensely limited in amount of rooms (only 24 harvestable). Sure, it never hurts, but for me it's a matter of effort vs. reward. It's faster for me to replant (and costs me less) than to go around guarding an area before the hibernation.

Ssaliss

Elanorwen said:

I know druids seem to get a better deal out of it. 34 days for a fully transed druid compared to something along the lines of 15 or so for non-druids? Not sure about the exact timing there. I know I've been trying to guard here and there when herbs have been close to dormancy and nature isn't set to protect them... but reguarding on a pretty much daily basis might be a bit overkill. There's a reason there is a herbal/power component to it... and that is so it's not viable to keep guarding locations 100% of the time. It gets even worse when I, personally, don't get anything out of it due to the fact that I'm not a herbalist myself, so me doing the guarding for free means I'm just making things easier for someone else to take a profit... and really, I don't see how you'll talk a whole lot of people into that in the end.

I don't think there is a difference between druid and non-druid. I get around 34 days too (I thought it was 33, but I could be off by a few; I haven't really checked lately, since it's over a month).

Riluna

As a Moondancer, I get a full 33 days from each guard. It reads as 34 for the first few moments. It's easier for yourself to profit in the end, because you are helping to ensure the availability of things you also need in the end. Perhaps because a formal contract could be involved, paying you gold for your time.

Even if it's of more interest to herbalists alone, if there's enough of us, we can support each other's work. 100% of the time.

Fluer

Yea. I had been strip harvesting and hadn't even known it when I first started. A few people caught me and explained what was going on, and now I'm more careful about my harvesting.

Riluna

Part of the organization's efforts could be instructive. Teaching new Herbalists the ethics and etiquette of herbalism, and providing information to help maximize your own harvests.

Elanorwen

Riluna said:

Part of the organization's efforts could be instructive. Teaching new Herbalists the ethics and etiquette of herbalism, and providing information to help maximize your own harvests.

I try and teach anyone that picks herbs as a trade. That said, I can't really teach people that don't bother to ask questions... and am not about to randomly start checking skills on guild mates to make sure I've caught all herbalists.

Majanishi

There is a clan called the Herb Tenders that I now wish I hadn't left before. I can't remember who started it, but whoever it was I think they are dormant now. We used that clan across all orgs for about 50 in game years to coordinate replanting and protecting. It's of interest to everyone, since everyone needs herbs. Your benefit comes from the fact that your herb prices aren't going to get jacked up due to limited supply.

We might consider commissioning a clan for this express purpose once more, or determining if anyone has the right to take over the old clan.

Elanorwen

Name a reasonable person to lead the clan and I might dump half a mil gold on them to make it. How's that for contributing? I have enough other things on my mind to worry about running around to places and guarding herbs.

Majanishi

I'd nominate Xenthos or Riluna

Xenthos

You really don't want to nominate me; I've long since burned out on herb replanting, and tend to just replant Glomdoring itself when I need something like coltsfoot.

It's far too time consuming & tedious for me to really enjoy spending my game time doing.

Ragniliff

Xenthos said:

It's far too time consuming & tedious for me to really enjoy spending my game time doing.

... says the guy with every curio in existence.

Xenthos

Ragniliff said:

Xenthos said:

It's far too time consuming & tedious for me to really enjoy spending my game time doing.

... says the guy with every curio in existence.

Isn't that rather telling of how awful I find the process?

Riluna

I'd be perfectly willing to, as I do enjoy it. For me, it's sort of just blending two hobbies, diverting a bit of focus so my boyfriend doesn't get too upset with the size of the forest in his living room. I actually randomly guard a few things already, though I don't always replant them, too. Point me in the right direction and I'll usually happily walk through an area you've planted. For all but the largest, it tends to only take a few minutes, if that's all I'm doing.

A clan would actually be immensely helpful, but like I said before, please feel free to contact me in-game. It's not quite rolling yet, but a couple people have, and they seem to like the setup so far.

EDIT: The only real question is how long I would be able to maintain such a thing, as I don't play as consistently as some do. But for now, it could be fun.

Elanorwen

@Riluna well, let me know about the planned project. As the head of a druid guild, I think you have reason enough to contact me IC-ly about such a matter... and I'll dump some gold on top of you for a clan.