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Gathering and Resource Ecology

Design Goals

Gathering should be more than walking to a node and clicking it. It should connect exploration, local knowledge, travel risk, tools, extraction skill, and town demand.

Core Gathering Rule

Resources should exist as part of a living regional network.

  • some resources are abundant and renewable
  • some are seasonal
  • some drift or migrate
  • some deplete and recover
  • some only appear because town or world state changed

Because this is a browser game, gathering should stay plan-based and timer-based rather than becoming a manual node-clicking loop.

Dynamic events should be able to change resource availability temporarily, creating short windows where certain sites become more valuable, more dangerous, or newly visible.

Resource Categories

Common Structural Materials

These are the backbone of the economy and must stay relevant forever:

  • timber
  • stone
  • clay
  • fibers
  • leather
  • bone
  • iron-bearing ore
  • coal, peat, or charcoal fuel inputs

Regional Production Materials

These define local specialization:

  • hardwoods
  • salt
  • resins
  • dyes
  • alchemical plants
  • whale oil
  • fur types
  • rare sands

Rare Functional Materials

These should add identity or specialization, not replace all earlier materials:

  • drake scale
  • wight ash
  • storm crystal
  • fae silk
  • void residue
  • giant sinew

Monster-Derived Materials

Monster parts should function like a gathering layer tied to combat content.

Examples:

  • venom sacs
  • hides
  • marrow
  • horns
  • gland fluids
  • spirit cores

Node Types

Stable Nodes

Reliable sources such as forests, quarries, common herb fields, and fishing waters.

Surveyed Sites

Veins, hidden groves, buried ruins, and water tables that must be discovered or re-confirmed.

Seasonal Sites

Resources that only become efficient during a season, weather band, or event window.

Roaming Sources

Resources that move over time, such as migrating herds, monster nesting grounds, drifting shoals, or shifting fungal blooms.

Crisis Sources

Sources that appear when town or world conditions worsen, such as salvage from ruins, emergency peat pits, or plague herb growth.

These should usually be created by the event system rather than by static placement alone.

Gathering Loop

  1. learn or discover a source
  2. choose extraction target and team
  3. bring tools, containers, pack space, and protection
  4. travel to the site
  5. resolve extraction over time
  6. haul raw materials back or forward to a processing point
  7. refine or sell the result

The player interaction should be concentrated in planning and review screens. The extraction itself should resolve as a job, not as a long foreground activity.

Why Early Materials Stay Relevant

The game should never make common materials obsolete because they fill roles that scale with the whole economy:

  • every advanced weapon still needs a physical frame, grip, sheath, wrapping, or fastener
  • every workshop needs fuel, flux, oil, water, cloth, wood, and packaging
  • every repair loop consumes staple materials
  • every town project consumes bulk construction goods
  • every caravan uses rope, boards, leather, barrels, nails, and feed

Rare inputs add behavior or specialization, but common inputs carry most of the volume.

Extraction Quality Model

Raw extraction does not always produce the same result. The quality of what a character pulls from a node is determined by three factors combined.

Three Quality Factors

1. Node Grade Each node has an inherent grade that sets the quality ceiling of what it can yield. A Common-grade iron vein cannot yield Superior ore regardless of skill or tools.

Node Grade Maximum Output Quality
Depleted Common only (reduced volume)
Standard Common to Crafted
Rich Common to Fine
Prime Fine to Superior
Ancient / Hidden Superior to Masterwork

Node grade is not always visible. A Survey check reveals the true grade before committing an extraction run. Without surveying, a character extracts and learns the grade from the result.

2. Skill Band The character's relevant gathering skill determines how much of the node's quality ceiling is actually reached. This uses the same efficiency curve as combat.

Skill Band Extraction Efficiency
Untrained 0.30
Familiar 0.55
Practiced 0.70
Skilled 0.82
Veteran 0.92
Expert 0.97
Master 1.00

Efficiency determines the probability distribution for output quality. A Veteran miner at a Rich node has a high probability of Fine ore and a moderate probability of a Superior unit. An Untrained miner at the same node will mostly produce Common and occasionally Crafted.

3. Tool Quality The equipped harvest tool sets a modifier on the distribution. A Masterwork pick shifts the distribution toward the upper end of what the skill band can reach. A broken or Common tool leaves the skill band at its raw baseline.

Tool Quality Quality Distribution Shift
Common None (baseline)
Crafted +5% weight toward higher quality tier in distribution
Fine +12%
Superior +20%
Exceptional +28%
Masterwork +35%

These shifts are applied to the probability distribution, not to the output directly. A character cannot exceed their skill band ceiling or the node grade ceiling regardless of tool quality.

Output Quality Formula (Summary)

output_quality_distribution = f(node_grade_ceiling, skill_efficiency, tool_shift)

A Veteran miner with a Superior pick at a Rich node: - Rich node ceiling: up to Fine/Superior - Veteran efficiency: 0.92 — reaches near the top of the distribution - Superior tool shift: +20% weight toward higher end - Result: mostly Fine ore, a meaningful chance of Superior units, rare chance of hitting the top

An Untrained miner with a Masterwork pick at the same Rich node: - Same node ceiling - Untrained efficiency: 0.30 — distributes heavily toward Common - Masterwork tool shift: +35% - Result: mostly Common ore with occasional Crafted; the Masterwork pick is largely wasted

Skill is the dominant factor. Tools amplify skill but cannot substitute for it.

Yield Volume Model

Volume (how much raw material is produced per extraction run) is calculated separately from quality.

Volume Factors

  • Node richness: depleted nodes give less; prime nodes give more regardless of skill
  • Extraction skill: higher skill means fewer wasted actions per unit time; volume scales with skill band
  • Tool yield: some tools are optimized for volume (broad axes vs. precision cuts); item properties define this
  • Profession set bonus: active gathering set bonuses add a flat yield modifier on top of base volume

Volume Reference (Base, No Set Bonus, Standard Node)

Skill Band Base Volume Index
Untrained 0.40
Familiar 0.60
Practiced 0.75
Skilled 0.88
Veteran 1.00 (reference)
Expert 1.08
Master 1.15

A Veteran gatherer at a Standard node is the volume reference point. A Master gatherer produces roughly 15% more volume from the same node with the same tool. An Untrained gatherer produces about 40% of the reference volume.

Extraction Timer Model

Gathering is asynchronous. When a character commits to an extraction, a timer is created. When the timer expires, the output is resolved.

Base Timer by Skill Band

Skill Band Timer Modifier
Untrained ×2.0 (twice as long)
Familiar ×1.6
Practiced ×1.3
Skilled ×1.1
Veteran ×1.0 (reference)
Expert ×0.90
Master ×0.80

A Master gatherer finishes the same node in 80% of the time a Veteran takes. An Untrained gatherer takes twice as long for a worse result.

Tool speed bonus: harvest tools with a speed property tag reduce the base timer by a flat percentage (5–20% depending on quality and item type).

Profession set bonus: speed bonuses from gathering sets apply as a further multiplier after skill and tool are calculated.

Combined example — Skilled miner, Fine pick (speed-tagged), 4-piece Mining set active: - Skill timer modifier: ×1.1 - Fine pick speed: −12% - Mining 2-piece set: −10% on top - Net effective modifier: approximately ×0.88 (12% faster than Veteran reference)

Material Tiers and Permanent Relevance

Materials are not made obsolete by character progression. The economy prevents this through several concrete mechanisms.

Tier Labels and Their Roles

Materials use a descriptive tier label. The label reflects the typical source difficulty and typical application, not a strict power hierarchy.

Tier Label Typical Source Permanent Use
Structural abundant, surface nodes frames, handles, packaging, repair stock, town projects
Refined processed from structural standard weapon/armor components, tool heads, bindings
Regional Specialty explored or seasonal sites local flavor items, mid-range recipes, regional production trade
Rare Functional hidden nodes, boss drops augmentation inputs, high-end recipes, special effects
Legendary unique events, ancient sites single-instance or very rare augmentations

Structural Materials Never Leave Demand

The following categories remain in demand at all character progression levels because their uses scale with the whole economy, not with any single character tier:

Timber and Wood: every weapon handle, bow blank, shield core, cart part, crate, building material, furniture piece, and fuel batch needs it. A Master-tier town still orders timber from the market daily.

Leather and Cloth: armor linings, straps, grips, padded layers, wraps, saddles, tent fabric, sails, trade sacks. Advanced armor always has leather or cloth components. A late-game robe still needs a cloth weave base and a thread binding.

Iron and Common Metal: fittings, rivets, nails, barrel rings, tool heads, reinforcement bands, hinges. No workshop or town project ever eliminates demand for common metal fittings.

Fuel (Charcoal, Peat, Coal, Oil): every forge, alchemy bench, kiln, smelter, and cook fire needs fuel every cycle. High-level crafting consumes more fuel per batch, not less.

Salt, Wax, Resin, Oil: preservation, finishing, sealing, treating. These materials run through every food preservation, armor finishing, potion sealing, and waterproofing recipe in the game regardless of tier.

Bone and Common Stone: construction fill, tool supplementation, early-tier medical supplies, weights, mortar, kiln inputs.

How Rare Materials Fit In

Rare materials do not replace structural inputs. They add a slot. A late-game weapon has:

  • Ashwood or hardwood haft (structural)
  • Iron or steel fittings (structural/refined)
  • Leather wrap (structural)
  • Wax or oil finish (structural)
  • One or two rare material inputs that define the weapon's special behavior (frost shard for cold affinity, giant sinew for range penalty reduction, void residue for a corruption resist property)

Remove the rare input and you have a solid high-quality weapon. Remove the structural inputs and you have no weapon at all.

Node Depletion and Recovery

Nodes are not infinite. Extraction reduces a node's current richness. Recovery is automatic over time but can be influenced.

Depletion Mechanics

  • Each extraction reduces node richness by an amount proportional to the volume extracted
  • A node that reaches Depleted grade still produces Common-quality output at reduced volume — it is never fully locked off
  • If a node is left completely unextracted, richness recovers faster
  • Profession set bonuses that increase yield also increase depletion per run proportionally (no free lunch)

Recovery Rates

Node Type Base Recovery Rate
Stable Node (forest, quarry, common field) Full recovery in 3–5 days
Surveyed Site (vein, grove, buried deposit) Full recovery in 7–14 days
Seasonal Site Resets to full at next season window
Roaming Source Moves rather than recovering in place
Crisis Source Created by events, exhausted by extraction — does not recover passively

Cultivation and Maintenance

Some node types can be managed to improve recovery or sustained yield:

  • Replanting or seeding a logged area speeds timber recovery
  • Salting or treating a vein area (Alchemy reagents) can restore richness above baseline
  • Tending fishing water (Fishing skill + Farming skill crossover) maintains shoal size
  • Town projects (Forestry Station, Irrigation, Quarry Maintenance) apply area-wide recovery bonuses

These actions create long-term investment value in the local landscape and give guilds or settled players a meaningful territorial advantage over pure nomadic play.

Gathering Skill Crossovers

Most gathering activities use one primary skill but reward secondary skills.

Primary Skill Beneficial Secondary Skills Benefit
Mining Endurance (burden), Surveying (site discovery and grade visibility), Smithing (recognizing ore grade) Surveying improves node grade visibility before committing; Smithing improves quality assessment of output
Logging Woodworking (yield from cuts), Endurance (haul) Woodworking increases usable plank yield from raw logs
Foraging Alchemy (plant identification), Cooking (food-plant recognition), Surveying (range bonus for hidden sites) Alchemy improves herb potency chance; Cooking adds edible plant recognition bonus; Surveying extends foraging site visibility range
Hunting Archery / Blades (kill quality), Tracking (locate game), Leatherworking (field dress yield) Leatherworking improves pelt/hide quality; Tracking reduces approach time
Fishing Surveying (shoal discovery), Cooking (fish quality assessment) Surveying unlocks hidden shoal sites; Cooking adds a minor grade-recognition bonus to fish output
Farming Alchemy (soil treatment and crop medicine), Cooking (crop quality identification) Alchemy allows specialized soil treatments and blight remedies; Cooking identifies quality-crop variants useful for specialty rations
Quarrying Masonry (stone quality judgment), Endurance (haul) Masonry improves identification of high-grade stone blocks; Endurance reduces timer penalty on large stone extraction

Secondary skill benefits apply automatically when the secondary skill is at Familiar or above. They do not require a deliberate action — they are passive modifiers on the extraction resolve.

Technical Model

Core Tables

  • gathering_node: node_id, region_id, node_type, material_family, current_richness, max_richness, recovery_rate, last_extracted_at
  • gathering_extraction_job: job_id, character_id, node_id, tool_item_id, skill_band_at_start, profession_set_tier, timer_end_at, status
  • gathering_output: job_id, material_template_id, quantity, quality_tier — resolved when timer fires
  • node_discovery: character_id, node_id, discovered_at, last_surveyed_at, known_grade

Resolution Logic (on timer fire)

  1. Load node current richness and grade ceiling
  2. Load character's relevant skill band and tool quality tier
  3. Apply profession set modifiers (speed was already applied at job creation; quality shift applies now)
  4. Roll quality distribution: generate per-unit quality for all units in the batch
  5. Apply secondary skill bonuses (passive flat shifts on distribution)
  6. Write gathering_output records
  7. Reduce node richness by extraction volume
  8. If node richness crosses a threshold, update node grade

Quality and Yield Model

Each gathered output should carry structured traits:

  • grade: poor, standard, fine, prime
  • purity: contamination or refinement burden
  • yield: quantity relative to effort
  • freshness: important for plants, water, hides, and meat
  • regional_tag: source identity for recipes and contracts

Advanced gatherers should become better at extracting quality, reducing waste, and unlocking difficult nodes, not simply ignoring common materials.

Tool and Profession Interaction

Gathering should care about relevant gathering skills, tools, and expedition role.

Examples:

  • Rangers improve safe harvesting and site identification
  • Artificers improve extraction efficiency and salvage rate
  • Wardens improve herb and medicinal gathering quality
  • Vanguards reduce casualty risk in hostile extraction zones

This keeps the browser interaction readable: the player chooses setup and specialists, then the system resolves outcomes from those choices.

Depletion and Recovery

Each site should track one of three models:

  • renewable: steady refill over time
  • recovering: refill after a cooldown or weather cycle
  • finite: eventually exhausted unless a world event or deep survey reveals more

This keeps exploration valuable and prevents static optimal routes from dominating forever.

Event aftermath should also push sites between these states, for example turning a stable forest into a recovering zone after fire or opening temporary salvage nodes after a storm.

Regional Examples

Frontier Marches

  • grain fields
  • oak and pine timber
  • clay pits
  • iron seams
  • flax and wool
  • wolf and boar byproducts

Frost Tundra

  • fur-bearing herds
  • whale and fish products
  • bone and ivory substitutes
  • cold herbs
  • ice crystal and peat fuel sources

Sunscar Desert

  • salt flats
  • rare glass sands
  • alchemical cactus and spice plants
  • copper and rare mineral seams
  • oasis reeds and water rights

Storm Coast

  • fisheries and kelp beds
  • driftwood and rope fiber
  • shell lime and salt
  • reef monster parts

Ashwood Wilds

  • resin-rich hardwood
  • rare mushrooms
  • fae herbs
  • dye flowers
  • beast hides and antlers

Technical Model

Core Records

Store:

  • resource_family
  • resource_template
  • resource_site
  • resource_site_state
  • gathering_job
  • gathering_tool_profile
  • resource_output_stack
  • resource_quality_roll

Commands

Support commands such as:

  • discover site
  • start gathering job
  • reserve extraction slot
  • refine raw material
  • haul shipment
  • mark site exhausted or recovering

Settlement Pattern

Gathering jobs should settle like expeditions:

  • validate actor, tool, and location
  • lock site state if needed
  • store seed and duration
  • resolve yield, danger, and byproducts on completion
  • write outputs and site depletion changes
  • exploration and cartography
  • crafting and refining
  • town demand and public works
  • market logistics and contract boards