Gathering materials can be a tough and time consuming job. To increase productivity, you can use the Construction Tradeskill to produce specialized buildings that aid you in harvesting materials.
Harvesters[]
They are used to produce non-organic materials. They operate for 3 hours and can only be placed in PvP zones near a Control Point or Keep your Faction controls in a Conflict Town. Each harvester has its own zone placement level restrictions in the description, so don't expect to use high-end harvesters on a low level PvP zone. The machines can not be destroyed by other players. Zones do affect the work rate of the machine.
The spawn rate of Barrel Nodes is low at the start of the harvester's life, with an average rate of 1 every 3 minutes. Throughout its lifetime, Barrel Nodes will spawn at a faster rate, with the highest spawning rate in its last hour lifespan. The System chat will warn you if, and when, your harvester is about to expire.
Even though Level 15 PvP Debuffs and Extreme PvP Debuff are in place if a high level player enters a low level PvP zone, players of any level can place harvesters in these zones as long as the zone level complies with the harvester level requirements in the description. Having said that, going with this method means you will be hindered in terms of defensive capabilities.
Usage[]
To start, pick a spot some distance away from the Keep or Control Point. The terrain must be plain, free of nodes, mobs, buildings and players around. After that, double click it and choose "Use" to place it. As soon as it is placed, a Barrel Node wil respawn nearby (which is one of two places to harvest the materials). The second place is gathering the materials from the internal bin of the machine (click it and choose the option "Collect harvested items").
Barrel Nodes can be picked up by any player, so placing them is a high risk in a highly populated zone. If you want to prevent giving materials to your enemy for free, you can deconstruct it by clicking it and choosing "I would like to deconstruct this harvester". Just remember that any units still inside the machine, along the barrel nodes, will be despawned and destroyed. You will also not get any materials back from the machine, even if it was just placed a few minutes ago.
If the Keep or Control Point in which you placed it goes under control by another faction, it will stop passively generating units and you can not interact with it . Still, Barrel Nodes will continue to spawn until the end of its lifetime. The harvester will be re-enabled once your Faction regains control over the Control Point/Keep.
Some particular places have higher spawn rates of certain materials than others. You could use a Harvesting Prospector to indicate what is the best resouce for the zone. You could also use a First-Class Harvester Fuel, which brings you more resources than usual. Combining knowledge from both items can get you a very high maximum output. As of Patch 2.6, these two items are no longer obtainable through the Marketplace.
As a side note, the machine will always passively work at the same rate, independently of the zone it was placed. You will have to weight the time invested and the zone you are currently in if it is not of a good quality. Also, one type of harvester can have a low input in the zone while others harvester could have a better input.
Unit Generation[]
The machine passively generates up to 50 units of the chosen material per hour, with a maximum internal capacity of 100 units. That means, that if you don't empty the internal bin in two hours, it will stop the internal generation of the unit. The maximum possible earning in this method is up to 150 units.
On the active side, each Barrel Node can contain from 2 to 7 units of the material, but the machine has a maximum limit for Barrel Nodes currently active. For example, the first hour can only generate a Barrel Node each 3 minutes. If it is not picked, the counter for it will stop and it will not generate another one until the maximum limit changes or the Barrel Node is gone. Units tested with Scrap Gears and Scrap Glass.
Each Barrel Node has it's own spawn timers that start as soon as you pick up said Barrel Node. If one wants to optimize time and earning, it is needed to pay close attention to timers for each Node.
Working Rates[]
Level 1[]
This could be considered a zone of bad quality for the harvester of the chosen material, as it is the lowest possible input of the harvester.
- Hour 0 to 3 to end.- Maximum one Barrel Node every 3 minutes.
- Expected Returns.- Up to 150 maximum units from passive generation, an average of 226 units from active generation, for an average total of 376 units in the span of three hours.
Level 2[]
This is considered a zone of standard quality. Not good, but also not bad. Times are an average and not exactly on point.
- Hour 0.- Maximum one Barrel Node every 3 minutes.
- Hour 1, minute 3.- Maximum two Barrel Nodes every 3 minutes.
- Hour 1, minute 28.- Maximum three Barrel Nodes every 3 minutes.
- Hour 1, minute 58.- Maximum four Barrel Nodes every 3 minutes.
- Hour 2, minute 28 to end.- Maximum five Barrel Nodes every 3 minutes.
- Expected Returns.- Up to 150 maximum units from passive generation, an average of 704 units from active generation, for an average total of 854 units in the span of three hours.
Level 3[]
This is considered a zone of high quality, as it is considered a sweet zone for your machine. Expect high returns. Times are an average and not exactly on point.
- Hour 0.- Maximum one Barrel Node every 3 minutes.
- Hour 0, minute 45.- Maximum two Barrel Nodes every 3 minutes.
- Hour 1, minute 7.- Maximum three Barrel Nodes every 3 minutes.
- Hour 1, minute 30.- Maximum four Barrel Nodes every 3 minutes.
- Hour 1, minute 55.- Maximum five Barrel Nodes every 3 minutes.
- Hour 2, minute 24.- Maximum six Barrel Nodes every 3 minutes.
- Hour 2, minute 46.- Maximum seven Barrel Nodes every 3 minutes
- Expected Returns.- Up to 150 maximum units from passive generation, an average of 969 units from active generation, for an average total of 1119 units in the span of three hours.
Farms[]
Farms are used to produce organic resources, plants and animals. Unlike Harvesters restricted to being near Keeps, Flags or Towers, they can be placed anywhere, the only restriction being in flat, unobstructed terrain. It is really specific when it comes to those restrictions. You will need seeds or cloning kits to produce anything in a farm. Farms can operate for 6 hours, and can be extended by using a Deluxe Farm Maintenance Kit.
To produce anything you need to have seeds or cloning kits. They can be crafted by the Nature tradeskill (for example Seeds 1 Instructions) . It's wiser to craft the items you wish to place in a farm before you construct a farm. The amount of seeds needed depends on the size of your farm. The more plots your farm has, the more seeds you will need.
- Shacks have 3 plots, can produce 3 resource nodes at once
- Cabins have 6 plots, can produce 6 resource nodes at once
- Frontier Homesteads have 9 plots, can produce 9 resource nodes at once
- Wasteland Ranchs have 12 plots, can produce 12 resource nodes at once. Note: Since Patch 2.6, this item can no longer be bought from the Marketplace.
When you have a supply of materials, you can then place your farm. A mission will be added to your Journal, which marks the location of your farm without the need of a personal waypoint, which keeps track on the remaining time on said structure.
To sow seeds or use cloning kits, enter the fenced area of your farm. You will see grey piles of dirt - those are plots. Click on one of them, then go to your inventory, right click on your seeds and select "Use". Fill other plots as well. Materials will grow some time before you can harvest them, with a usual waiting time of 10-15 minutes (Basic Shiva Weed, as an exception, need 1h 30 min to grow). The message on screen and System Chat will notify you that your crops are ready to be harvested. Harvested goods go to the crate inside the building, where they can be picked up.
Farm buildings can also be used as part of roleplaying or a sort of "players mobile base" - all of them contain a mailbox and a sector vault. Homesteads also have a barter vault and crafting workshop.
To extend productivity, there are marketplace items to improve your farm. Deluxe Farm Maintenance Kit extends the total time the farm will operate, First-Class Fodder increases the amount of materials gathered, while Genetic Enhancer gives a chance to get twice as many materials in each harvest. Placing farms in PvP zone increases the amount of materials as well, and other players will not be able to steal your crops.
The following are some results of Intermediate Seeds/Cloning Kits:
- Chickens give 2-4 Cracked Egg
- Roaches give 2-4 Impure Biologic Chemical
- Mushrooms give 2-4 Impure Botanic Chemical and have a chance to give Impure Antibiotic at a lower rate.
Please note that each one of the available seeds or cloning kits has two drops. The first one being the mail unit drop, while the second one being a less common unit drop. Only one of the two can be granted at a time when harvesting.
If you interact with the Harvested Goods Crate, three options will be available to you. The first option is to check what is on the farm's inventory (notified via text in System Chat), the second option allows you to gather all available items (one is added at a time to your inventory), and the third option is to deconstruct the farm (in case you want to refresh it with a new one as the timers won't allow your goods to grow on time).
HARVESTING CROPS / LIVESTOCK[]
Note: For a general list of all goods, drop tables and their timers, see Category:Seeds.
- Basic Stump Seeds - 7 minutes 15 seconds
- Questionable Grain Seeds - 7 minutes 10 seconds
Update History[]
- Patch 2.41 June 14th, 2012
- Increased yield of all harvester, both the number of nodes and the amount of components on each node.
- Patch 2.4 April 25th, 2012
- Harvesters can only be placed in Territory Control areas that are a high enough level to generate the resource they create.
- The rewards for harvester barrels containing uncommon and rare components have been reduced.
- Harvesters now persist through a restart.
- To prevent an exploit, players now get the Active Camp and Active Harvester effects every time they log in and these effects persist through death.
- Harvesters no longer despawn when the nearby keep or flag changes hands. The owner of the harvester can no longer get items from the internal bin if the keep or flag changes hands.
- Harvesters now have varying spawn rates based on the area they are placed. Approximately every 5 days, the resources will move from one location to another.