Platform: PlayStation 5
Issue Type: Gameplay
Game Mode: Single Player
Server Type: =SERVER TYPE=
Map: Exiled Lands
Server Name: N/A
Bug Description:
Since the Age of Heros we are no longer able to harvest plant fibre bushes with a hatchet or a pick. This was for most players the preferred method of obtaining bugs. While it remains possible to harvest bugs using a sickle and by handpicking then using the □/Interact button, the hatchet and pick were favoured from a QoL standpoint, as it eliminated the need to constantly open our inventories to discard surplus quantities of both plant fibre and seeds while harvesting bugs. I am hopeful that this was an unprecedented outcome and not an intended change. Otherwise I would speculate there will be some additional negative feedback incoming.
Bug Reproduction:
log into the server
walk up to a plant fibre bush/node
equip a hatchet or a pick
commence hitting a plant fibre bush/node with the selected tool
observe that plant fibre bushes are no longer destructible by the aforementioned tools
observe that said tools also no longer confer bugs to players when we strike them
Please see footage for steps 5 & 6 below for both tools in question.
Unfortunately, to the best of my understanding this was another intended change - ‘improving’ QoL by reducing it, like many other such changes - though I’m fairly sure this one significantly pre-dated Age of Heroes (at least on PC).
However, it would be good if someone at Funcom could actually confirm that this was intended since, like many changes, it was never admitted to. (Even better if they could offer some reasoning as to why this unnecessary change was made - but I hold out little hope for that ever coming.)
Edit: I do recall there was some mention at some point of ‘tools no longer destroying resources they cannot harvest’ - which I believe heralded this change. Perhaps also around the same time that it was made impossible to harvest crystal with a pick (though this latter has since been reverted).
I am personally in favor of it. Dumping bugs because you are chopping down a tree is a pain. Also it makes no sense to harvest bugs with those tools. If I want bugs for my alter or fishing I will pull my sickle. (the most important reason to get iron forging in my opinion, especially with Ancestral Knowledge granting iron weapons at the start).
Agreed. Sickle is better for it anyway. Doesn’t take very long to collect a stack or two of bugs, and you can always dump the excess plant fiber in a compost bin or make it into twine or gruel or spices. Similar options for the seeds. Or just toss it all on the ground.
Why does this not surprise me. It is entirely possible that I did miss this change at an earlier date @DanQuixote, I had not had to craft any elixir of freedom for some time now as I produced a bulk amount last time, and have just recently exhausted that supply.
Unless it was not communicated, which is certainly a possibility, it would appear that I have missed it. One of the two foolhardy changes reverted and one to go. Thankyou kindly for drawing this to my attention. It is now status ‘report received’ so I guess we will see where this goes.
Apologies peoples but I must respectfully disagree with you all on this one. This in many ways epitomises what is wrong with Funcom’s priorities. They ‘fix’ what is either benign or not broken and either ignore many of the things which are, or are very, VERY slow to do so. For example, ‘fixing’ flying rhinos, ‘fixing’ the ability to harvest several branches when hitting one laying on the ground, ‘fixing’ harvesting crytal deposits with a pick (now reverted), ‘fixing’ the UI system then, I use this term loosely, before ‘fixing’ it again.
This represents a self-conflicting, paradoxical statement. So you do not mind having to drop plant fibre and seeds when gathering bugs but you dislike having to drop bugs (and branches for that matter) when harvesting wood!? Purely from a hypothetical standpoint you could dump surplus bugs into a fishtrap or on a Derketo shrine with some slivers. Honestly who does not have a cornucopia of regular wood at this point? Alongside stone and plant fibre it is the most abundant raw material in the game. Heck you do not even need to go and gather it yourself, you could set Golems to work gathering it for you. Or you could walk 2-3 steps to the left and align yourself so you are not hitting the plant fibre too…?
No, I would assert that the Quality of Life component to be found here, was in being able to harvest bugs from plant fibre nodes using the hatchet or pick.
I always thought it was weird that you could harvest almost as many lotus, mushrooms, etc with a pickaxe as with a sickle. TBH I never really saw the reason to make a sickle and the only time I ever did was very early game when I needed stacks of plant fiber.
I don’t think it’s such a bad change. It makes specialist tools like sickles useful again.
I really wish people would stop doing this.
Every day I run by people’s bases that have a half dozen golems out harvesting crap resources like wood and stone. What do they pull in overnight? 200 of each? There is a server performance hit to anything that requires AI pathing calculations.
You can harvest in 1 minute what a horde of golems would harvest in a week either by hand or just one mass cull spell.
yea, but for me golems are used as quick drops, meaning, i place them near my base, so when i leave or come back they activate, and every now and then i would grab one to follow me inside and empty him, and repeat the cycle. I guess i just like to see my base ALIVE, something always going on.
It is entirely possible that I did miss this change at an earlier date 
Purely from a hypothetical standpoint you could dump surplus bugs into a fishtrap or on a Derketo shrine with some slivers. Honestly who does not have a cornucopia of regular wood at this point? Alongside stone and plant fibre it is the most abundant raw material in the game. Heck you do not even need to go and gather it yourself, you could set Golems to work gathering it for you. Or you could walk 2-3 steps to the left and align yourself so you are not hitting the plant fibre too…?