Ok, Kurame, my partner, doesn't like visiting the forums, so I thought I'd ask for him. He does herbalism and was a bit confused and worried when he found out that he was harvesting plants until they died because the number of herbs you get is random...or something like that.

Well...I guess the real question is...can anyone explain just how harvesting works here? We're so used to Aetolia and Achaea...Lusternia is still kinda new for both of us, at least as far as harvesting works.

Harvesting works more or less exactly like Achaea and Aetolia. You harvest however many plants from the room.

The major difference we have is the cyclical nature of herb growth. All herbs have peak months where they grow faster, and all herbs hibernate a certain month of the year and don't grow at all. If they are low (under 10, I think) when they hibernate, they die off.

so...it's ok if he harvests all of the herbs from a plant and it will grow back on its own? That's what confuses us.

No. Nothing will go extinct, but if you harvest to 0 it will not grow back unless replanted. Every so often rooms will pop up 1 herb so nothing goes extinct, but that's not nearly enough to support a trade. If you strip harvest, I will have to hurt you. I HATE having to run around replanting after people.

well...um...ok, I'm just confused...Kurame said the number of herbs you get from one plant is random and you aren't able to tell or something...what is the harvesting limit on a plant?

OK! I figured out the problem! Kurame's never had a forestal before and didn't know about the PLANTS command. All settled now!

You can use the PLANTS command to see how much is in a room. Try not to harvest it below 10 and you'll be fine.

EDIT: Blah, ninja'ed

Ah, that explains it.

Some small guide lines...

Never harvest below 10, ever, even during peak. (Seren, and glom I believe too, have enemied people who have strip-harvested a significant portion of our forests before.)

Don't harvest an herb when it is in hybernation, nature guard instead to save the crop for next year.

Replant-replant-replant. Herbalists who harvest without ever replanting get no sympathy from me.

It works on a 12 day cycle ooc time, 1 day is hybernation, where plants die out like mad if they aren’t nature guarded, 1 day is peak, where growth is doubled.

Also, mage demesnes kill off plants the same way hybernation does, so even if a plant is in peak, it might be dead because the cities were fighting over the area, or some novice geo/aqua was melding for fun.

umm, ya, and you pick 1 plant each time, not a random amount, don't know where you are getting that from. You need to check PLANTS to see how many, and the max number in 1 room is 60.

Edit: Where the did my sig go to??

Also, if a plant remains at 60 for too long, it will die as well.

What is annoying right now is how Oleanvir is flooded, and I'm not about to waste power foresting and replanting in the middle of a war, not that close to Celest. So rosehips are hellishly hard to get now.

Edit: that's weird.. ignore me...

It's back.



Really?

No.

It's mis-information by people who haven't spent enough time tending herbs.

Plants can die out during hibernation no matter HOW many herbs are left. I believe they have a greater chance of surviving with 60, but even an entire area at 60 will have most of them keel over and die during hibernation.

The month after hibernation, a few random places will sprout one herb that will grow over time from that point forward- I've never seen the one herb appear by itself outside of this month after hibernation, though I believe there's an ecology skill that can allow you to grow one herb for some power.

And no, Glomdoring doesn't like people stripharvesting inside its borders either.