The night disturbing the foraging?

[Gricker]

Well...
The Night Has Begun
forage blah
It is too difficult to see the ground.
open backpack
get torch backpack
wield torch
drop torch
You drop a burning simple, leather-wrapped bone torch, which falls to the salty ground. Shown to the room as:
A burning simple torch made of a piece of bone lies here.


Now to what I think i should be able to forage what ever i am foraging for.. but i cant so.. tell me what do you think of adding it if you put a torch onto the ground you can see the ground and be able to forage???

What do you think.. -Gricker  :wink:

[Nameless Face]

It probably makes more sense to have to "hold" the lightsource.  You can cover quite a bit of ground when foraging, even in the same coded room.

[Cuusardo]

Take a maglite out to a dark field and look for rocks in the middle of a dark night sometime.  It's not as easy as it sounds.

[Djarjak]

Take a maglite out to a dark field and look for rocks in the middle of a dark night sometime.  It's not as easy as it sounds.

Then compare that with the craptastic light that a -torch- would provide.

Anyone who has ever tried to play D&D around a camp fire knows how much it sucks to forage by fire light.

Oh my god, I am such a geek...

[Moofassa]

Take a maglite out to a dark field and look for rocks in the middle of a dark night sometime.  It's not as easy as it sounds.

Then compare that with the craptastic light that a -torch- would provide.

Anyone who has ever tried to play D&D around a camp fire knows how much it sucks to forage by fire light.

Oh my god, I am such a geek...

I actually feel your pain. I was writing with the charred end of a stick. I'm cooler than you.

[X-D]

On the flip side.

Go to that same field when the moon is up and at least half full.

turn on no lights and close your eyes for 15 minutes, when you open them it is quite bright and clear, often you can even begin to see some colors.

And Zalanthas has two moons.

[Fnord]

I'd say a strong light source, like an irig lamp, magickal light, or both moons out should allow foraging.

[Djarjak]

I actually feel your pain. I was writing with the charred end of a stick. I'm cooler than you.

And here I thought my glow in the dark d20 made me cool.

Personally, I'm not fond of the concept that enough light to navigate equates enough light to find things that you would otherwise miss, even in daylight. Even with an irrig lamp (we've already pointed out how little light a maglight really provides) and two moons, it's well short of real daylight.

[Eternal]

Personally, I'm not fond of the concept that enough light to navigate equates enough light to find things that you would otherwise miss, even in daylight. Even with an irrig lamp (we've already pointed out how little light a maglight really provides) and two moons, it's well short of real daylight.

Actually, I can think of one way to make it bright enough to see to forage... pure speculation, oh, oh... it's magick!  You know!  Never believe it's not so!

[Dalmeth]

I would like to point out that moonlight is not enough to go looking through a dark crevice where you will probably be blocking most of the light as you work.

Now, two moons work.  I've done it before, and my outdoorsy characters always check the moons at dusk so they can plan their night.

[Cuusardo]

Anyone who has ever tried to play D&D around a camp fire knows how much it sucks to forage by fire light.

That's hardcore.

[Eternal]

Hehehe, I lost a very good 1st edition AD&D book to just that situation, Djarjak.  I have glow-in-the-dark d10's.  Then, I'm a White Wolf fanatic.

[Dan]

*pointless post about how it is hard to find stuff in the dark*

[alger]

Actually the only places I've ever foraged were in deep caverns where it was totally dark save for my glowstick.  If I could forage there, I would have expected to be able to forage outdoors at night.

[MorganChaos]

I'd say a strong light source, like an irig lamp, magickal light, or both moons out should allow foraging.

Both moons out does allow foraging.

[Gricker]

what im trying to say is.. a torch offers alot of light.. place it on the ground.. or get glow crystals.. light them those arnt hot i wouldnt think.. place them around the room.. just an idea.. i thought i'd be nice to forage at night..

[Tuannon]

A torch does not offer a lot of light, add to that the factors of blown sand and so on and you have poor foraging conditions.

Also worthy of consideration, Zalanthas is a desert environment, thus most predators would hunt at night. Therefore it is not WISE to forage at night when they can see you long before you can see them, the light in the middle of the desert would make you stick out like the proverbial dogs balls.

[Hymwen]

In my opinion it depends what you're trying to forage. If what you want is a specific kind of root and you're in the middle of the scrub plains, a torch is not gonna help you a lot. What could be done is to allow foraging by torchlight if it takes ten times as long and costs ten times as much stamina per attempt, but that doesn't seem like a very worthwile change.

But the forage code is a little wonky in some ways. I'm guessing it's due to balancing issues that you can stand in the salt flats and fail to find salt, or walk into a forest but find yourself unable to locate any wood. Realistically, in some places you shouldn't even be able to fail, but how much of a challenge would it be to get rich if you were paid money for something that you can scoop up by the shovelful just a short walk outside the city?

Maybe a reasonable fix would be to allow players to forage by torchlight if they're looking for something that they can't miss considering the area they're in. Let people forage salt in the salt flats with a torch, wood in the forest, rocks in the mountains (are there any of those?) and so on. I don't think this is desperately needed, but if any change should be made that would be my suggestion.

[rufus]

make a big fire.
forage food.
after that, set forest on fire.
out run smoky the braxat.

edit:  Foraging at NIGHT?  Why aren't you sleeping, hrrrm?

[Cuusardo]

It is a little silly to forage at night, when you think about it.  No only do you have a difficult time seeing the ground, but also any predators that may be coming after you.  Human eyesight is not as good as that of a lot of the critters that live in the wilderness, and while you're focused on staring at the ground by the light of your torch or glow crystal you are easy prey.

I'd like to see more of this kind of thing happening actually, since a light source should be like a beacon to raiders, gith, halflings, etc.

[Dalmeth]

Well, on second thought, it'd be nice to forage for wood and kindling at night.  It's not like I settle down for the night in the middle of the day so I have plenty of time to look for a group of four of the exact same branches to make  a fire.  That's not even getting into the kindling.

[Fnord]

I'd like to see more of this kind of thing happening actually, since a light source should be like a beacon to raiders, gith, halflings, etc.

That would be the hotness. A little script that, when at night/before dawn, if you have a light in the room and are outdoors, there's a small chance that a random aggro baddie from the area would load in an adjacent room and then, naturally, come in to play.

That aside, I maintain that two moons, irrig lamp, bonfire, etc. should allow night time foraging. Add the above script to make things interesting.  Would be nice if it was rare enough that even with a light you didn't get jumped every time, but it could happen. Ooooh, exciting.

[daedroug]

Frankly it's my opinion that while it might be slightly feasable to forage at night it wouldn't be realistic, what kind of right minded Zalanthan would go out at night to forage when a blinding sandstorm could blow up at any moment.

Edited to add:

Also adding such a script I could see hunters all of a sudden deciding to go out at night to hunt because they might get that nice kill attraction from the torch

[Dalmeth]

I was under the impression that fires and bright lights usually drive off nasty things at night.

[spawnloser]

Some things, Dalmeth...some things are attracted by light.

[Quani]

Take a maglite out to a dark field and look for rocks in the middle of a dark night sometime.  It's not as easy as it sounds.

Then compare that with the craptastic light that a -torch- would provide.

Anyone who has ever tried to play D&D around a camp fire knows how much it sucks to forage by fire light.

Oh my god, I am such a geek...

I read that and just paused, reread it paused again, reread it a final time and went wow... they love to RP.

and they are a geek

[Cuusardo]

I read that and just paused, reread it paused again, reread it a final time and went wow... they love to RP.

and they are a geek

Let's just say I've had experience looking for wood in the dark.  

[rufus]

Geek, pshaw.
Ever run out into your yard, take the nearest branch and carve it into a short spear and start planning gith raids? huh, huh? Yea, I didn't think so...

afk, mantis are attacking.

[Angela Christine]

I think I remember foraging at night before.  I was surprised.  Of course it was a clear, bright night in a clear, flat location, so maybe that helps.  Wandering around on wind-blown sand dunes looking for a particular kind of pebble seems like it would be hard during the day, and impossible at night no matter how many moons you had.  Vegetation or disturbed soil would also make it difficult.

[Nao]

Even if I agree that foraging at night should be hard to near-impossible, a torch will most likely provide more light than your average maglite...

[spawnloser]

Used a torch before?  Torches couldn't be more than 100 lumens...as in 100 candles worth of light.  Most maglites are in the thousands.

[Nao]

Used a torch before?  Torches couldn't be more than 100 lumens...as in 100 candles worth of light.  Most maglites are in the thousands.

I've used torches before (they provide a LOT of light), but never a 'real' maglite.
It still seems to me that a torch provedes mroe light than your average hand-held little lamp, maybe because a torch radiates in all directions instead of just one or doesn't burn as bright, spreading the light over a larger area.

A 'dim' light can be an advantage over a bright one, too, because if your eyes get used to something too bright they won't be able to see anything besides that small lit area.