Category:Foraging

This article is about the act of foraging. For information about the Foraging spell, see Foraging (603).

Foraging enables a character to find various plants, such as herbs and flowers, in the natural environments of Elanthia. Certain plants only grow in certain environments, so in order to find a specific plant, one must ensure they are in the proper climate and terrain. Rangers can determine the climate and terrain of a location by using the SENSE verb, and anyone with at least 25 ranks in Survival can use FORAGE SENSE to detect every herb in the room. Other professions are hard pressed to determine the climate or terrain, if it isn't indicated within the room description, although there are maps of such information on various websites available to aid in foraging (see resources below).

Syntax

• FORAGE {adjective} {noun}
• FORAGE FOR {adjective} {noun}

"FOR" is optional.

The system is quite particular about the entry of the plant's name, and failing to send the proper syntax will still deplete one usage from the room temporarily. The adjective can be abbreviated, but the noun cannot. For example, if foraging for ephlox moss, the command can be typed FORAGE EPH MOSS, however, FORAGE EPHLOX MOS will not find the ephlox moss, even if successful. Prepositions such as 'of' must be omitted ('a handful of oats' is found via FORAGE HANDFUL OATS). Sometimes an herb may have multiple adjectives; the rule of thumb is if the first adjective is a color, distinguishing it from other differently colored plants, then both adjectives must be used, whereas if the first adjective is not a color, it cannot be used to find the plant of interest.

Foraging will not reveal a character from hiding. Roundtime from foraging can be reduced with Celerity (506).

Forage Sense

• FORAGE SENSE

At 25 ranks of Survival the ability to FORAGE SENSE is unlocked, allowing the character to determine every herb that can be foraged in that room.

>forage sense
Glancing about, you notice the immediate area should support specimens of cactacae spine, calamia fruit, haphip root, sovyn clove, spearmint leaf, small flower, small rose, small daisy, angelica root, soft white mushroom, withered black mushroom, daggerstalk mushroom, flathead mushroom, genkew mushroom, blue trafel mushroom, small violet, heath aster, golden buttercup, Imaera's Lace, fennel bulb, ginger root, lettuce, rose-marrow root, green tomato, striped tomato, red tomato, yellow tomato, orange tomato, motherwort, sprig of bleeding-heart, small carnation, purple crocus, pale yellow daffodil, stem of freesia flowers, large white gardenia, honeysuckle vine, iris blossom, sprig of jasmine, sprig of lavender, sprig of mournbloom, wild pansy blossom, small primrose, Elanthian snow rose, snapdragon stalk, sprig of holly, branch of kerria, orris root, small pumpkin, raspberries, small apple, white lily, tiger lily, blue whortleberry, witchwood twig, yew twig, luckbloom blossom, wavepetal blossom, sunburst blossom, and onion skin.
The surroundings look lush and verdant.

The last line of the FORAGE SENSE message indicates the number of remaining herbs:

Resolution

The following section and subsections are Player Research:

Foraging resolution is an open d100 roll. Each plant has a natural foraging difficulty. If the plant is available in the room and the open roll surpasses the foraging difficulty threshold, then the foraging attempt is successful and the plant will be placed in the forager's hand.

The availability of the various plants depends on an area's terrain and climate. As many areas do not possess certain climates or terrains, many forageable items cannot be found in a given area.

A specific room can only be foraged for five items at a time. When one successfully forages in a room, the "inventory" of the room decreases by one, and the room begins to regenerate its "inventory" at a randomized rate of approximately one per 5-10 minutes. This is not on a per-herb basis; this "inventory" is shared across every forageable item in the room. Certain auction-quality items are able to replenish the "inventory" of a room.

The foraging difficulty threshold is modified by many factors:

Profession

Positive factors

• Agility bonus / 2
• Intuition bonus / 5
• Survival ranks / 3
• Perception skill / 15
• +10 for kneeling
• +10 for Foraging (603), increases with Ranger Base ranks
• Assume Aspect (650), Aspect of the Yierka
• +1 for Light (205)
• +15 for dwarf in subterranean terrain
• Character level (unknown bonus)

Negative factors

• Injuries to hands and eyes (rank 1 hand scars do not confer a penalty)
• -10 for having only one hand open
• -2 for each herb recently foraged in the room (also adds +1 roundtime when finding an herb)

Non-affecting factors

• There is no penalty for foraging in a naturally dark room
• There is no penalty for foraging in a naturally foggy room
• There is no bonus for foraging in a naturally bright room
• There is no bonus from Presence (402)

Messaging

The foraging resolution check cascades through a series of checks to determine success, so the order of the messages is consistent. The check will only progress until a step in the check fails, or the forage is successful, and then stop. Knowing this order can improve the understanding of climates and terrain that forage-able items can be found in, and extends to all forage-able items. The resulting message displays the line that is not successful, so knowing which order affirms that all preceding checks passed.

The order of the cascading check is as follows:

1. Resolution roll to determine success / failure
2. Plant noun which must be spelled correctly and be valid
3. Region type (this needs a bit more research)
4. Climate type
5. Terrain type
6. Time of day which can affect select forage items
7. Type of Room, such as indoors or outdoors
8. Specific room, for very rare items that are placed in only certain spots (e.g., witchwood twigs, moonflowers)
9. Forage item availability which may be zero if someone else has been foraging the area

The resolution roll results can be:

Freshly Foraged Herb Quantity

This table shows the herb name, the quantity of the herb after freshly foraged, and it's weight at the maximum quantity of 50.

Resources

• Outdoor Elanthia maps
• Greminty's Visual Foraging Collaboration
• Virilneus' Room Data
• Willow Hall's Foraging Guide
• Elanthian Flora Guide
• Foraging locations
• Script Narost
• Alisaire's UFS via web.archive.org