Rhyme and/or Reason to Gathering!

[PunkyThaTaru]

This may be purely speculation/coincidence but there appears to be a pattern, at least with fishing. At first it seemed pretty random when I was out logging/mining but with fishing it seems there is something. I noticed vongola clams, merlthor gobies, and Tiger Cods all seemed to be in their own little section of the seemingly-fucked-up hot and cold game http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/x...newfishing.jpg
red is where I got clams, green was always tiger cod and brown was always goby, purple is ocean cloud
Has anyone else noticed this?
edit: clearly my amazing MSPaint picture isn't perfect, there's a bit more to the area of the fish, but I always reeled in tiger cods on the first try hitting that spot.
Updated the picture for better readability and stuff.

[PunkyThaTaru]

http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/x...Taru/fish1.jpg
http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/x...Taru/fish2.jpg
http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/x...Taru/fish3.jpg

[Illek♫]

I've gotten Botanist to 11 now and find that there does seems to be some patterns, or at least a "feel" to it.

From what I've seen the lower the notch you select the lower the mark will be on the quarter-circle thing, and the opposite for the higher you select.

[PunkyThaTaru]

I was actually starting to notice that with fishing the bottom fish, such as clams were over on the left, whereas top fish like cods/gobies over on the right. So perhaps it's not as complex as it seems. If you view the right as the "top" and the left as the "bottom" on the Jig part, that holds up. Perhaps, while not 100% guaranteeing what you're gathering, if an item should be at the top of the slider scale, it will be somewhere near the top of the hot and cold, should it pick one of those items for you to gather.
Purely speculation, obviously. I will keep on tracking the patterns.
Perhaps there's also a sweet spot for specific items, I noticed I always got a good haul on cods in that one spot previously posted, but if I caught a cod more off to the right, I only hooked one cod.

[neptunet]

Today I clicked "tutorial" on the tutorial mining leve and it said the mark of the initial selection determines what items you get. So I think you're figuring it out. I've only done botany and mining, but my theory is that every time you go to cut a tree the game spawns a pattern for you.

For instance, let's say selecting the middle projects the spawned pattern this way:

-- - < ----------
- -
- -
- -
- -
-- <-------> - < ------------
- -
- -
- -
- -
-- - < ------------

There are 3 areas of interest on any given spawn pattern. Top, middle, and bottom. Let's say the spawn pattern is as above but you select a different notch, like this:

-- -
- -
- - < ----------
- -
- -
-- - < ------------
- -
- <-------> -
- -
- - < ------------
-- -

The notch you use determines the projection of the spawn pattern onto your curve. The idea is to use the notch that allows you to predict the 3 hit points, since you only have about 3 tries in any given swing attempt.

If you stumble upon the right predictions, you can continue to use them for the duration of that tree. I try to get it locked into either of the above two projections, either extreme top, middle, and bottom, or like a 1.5 o'clock, 3'oclock, 4.5 o'clock pattern. If your notch is sandwiched between the above two projections, your 3 hit points will be kind of hard to predict.

If you determine that you're on a funky projection you can change your notch until you hone in on a predictable one.

I'm pretty sure the spawned pattern has to do with the appearance of the twinkling on the tree. I try to judge where to put my notch by my waist height. If it's above or below my waist I'll move my notch slightly with the idea being to try to get my waist equal to the middle notch choice.

It's the exact same principle with mining, except instead of a curve you have more like a different perspective. Your bottom is the full circle, middle the middle, and top the center. Then there's your halfway between bottom and middle, halfway between top and middle.

So to sum my theory up:

A botany gathering point spawns a set pattern that is reflected in the twinkling.
The pattern is projected onto your curve through the notch you pick.
There are a max of 3 hit points on your curve at any time, and they are evenly spaced.
Picking a notch that "fits" the "pattern" will let you exactly predict where on the whole curve your 3 hit points are.
You can adjust your notch while on the same tree and it doesn't alter the initial pattern.
The original spawned pattern lasts for the duration of the gathering point.
Try to get your notch to project onto your curve hit points of extreme top, extreme middle, and extreme bottom to make it easiest to hit all the points.

Also, if you miss the correct hit point completely it will still be there for the next swing attempt. So if you eliminate 2 hit points, try for the 3rd on your next swing.

Make sense?

Also punk's theory also applies to trees. That initial notch has something to do with where the items appear.

[Kida]

I am not quite sure that I understand the theories you are presenting. Will you be able to predict the result of the harvesting or are you actually trying to influence the result?

[jinkazama]

fuck i dont have it on me, but last nite i wrote down 50 attempts of harvesting a grade 2 tree in Skull Valley at the top notch.

76% of the time I got a Gridania walnut (With the occasional +1) I only got like three logs, so yea the notch seems to play a role on what you get. im gonna try to get around to compiling it in excel and also doing some middle and low notch tests too

[arshesney]

Eyeballing, but I noticed a trend: the trees in The Black Shroud have a higher chance for fruits/feathers in the high notch area, branches/logs in the low notch area. Older trees also have a chance at yielding Beehive chips in the high area. Almost seems that notch is related to the actual height at which you're gathering stuff. Tree apparent age seems to matter as well and I wouldn't rule out, for harvesting, that brushes density could be a factor.

[PunkyThaTaru]

I think that the slider scale influencing results was already established, I'm more trying to figure out the positions on the hot and cold game part.
I'll try some botany and more fishing some time tonight when I get home from work to test out more.

[Deadgye]

I'll probably start writing down my botany and mining results as well. I do the same sequence of notches every time so eventually it'll build up data.

[Meresgi]

Has anyone found a good location for logs while lumberjacking? I tend to go between the bottom and middle and move around that area yet I still end up with a lot of feathers, seeds, sap and random other shit I don't need for carpentry.

[Kida]

At disciplesoftheland.com we are trying to map all this information to find out whether or not something can be concluded from the initial decisions when logging or mining. Data is just not sufficient yet. I have tried to make some stats from the info that has been stored but nothing conclusive can be stated yet.

[Nevex]

Miner 14.
I've noticed that Iron ores are always on the outer ring of the radar and that they're considerably harder to mine compared to the other Grade 2 mats.