Gathering materials can be a tough job. To increase productivity, you can use the Construction tradeskill to produce special buildings that aid you in harvesting materials.
Harvesters
They are used to produce non-organic materials. They operate 3 hours and can be placed only in PvP zones near a flag or keep your faction controls in conflict towns.
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 the harvester and choose "Use" to place a harvester. It should immediately spawn a barrel nearby - one of the two places to harvest the materials. A second way would be to collect the materials from the harvester (click on the harvester and choose "Harvest item").
The spawn rate of barrels is low at the start of the harvester's life, with an average rate of 1 every 10 minutes. Throughout its lifetime, barrels will spawn at a faster rate, with the highest spawning rate in its last hour lifespan. Observe your System messages chat - it will warn you if, and when, your harvester is about to expire.
Barrels can be picked up by anyone, so placing a harvester is risky. To prevent giving materials to your enemy for free, you can deconstruct your harvester by clicking it and choosing "Deconstruct this camp".
If the keep or control point which you placed your harvester goes under control by another faction, your harvester will be disabled. During this time the harvester will not produce materials in its bin but barrels will continue to spawn until the end of its lifetime. The harvester will be re-enabled once the your faction regains control over the control point/keep.
Note that particular places have higher spawn rates of certain materials. To check that you can use the Harvesting Prospector to indicate where you can get more resources that you need. Also, using a First-Class Harvester Fuel will bring you more resources than it usually do. Combine knowledge from harvesting prospector with first-class fuel to get maximum output.
Farms
Farms are used to produce organic resources, plants and animals. Unlike harvesters, they can be placed outside PvP zones, the only restriction being in flat, unobstructed terrain. 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
When you have a supply of materials, you can then place your farm.
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 will inform 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 farm in PvP zone increases 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.
HARVESTING CROPS / LIVESTOCK
- Basic Stump Seeds - 7 minutes 15 seconds
- Questionable Grain Seeds - 7 minutes 10 seconds