unfortunately due to the way spawns (herb or ore) are handled, that's not possible (well let's say extremely difficult and beyond what we which to add in Gatherer), let me explain that a bit.

all nodes are regrouped into sets of the same type (including rare ores), each set (the geographical location of these may overlap) has 2 timers assigned.

So for each set there is a short timer (which is runs about 10 minutes with a random component added or substracted) and a long timer (from memory that should be around 8 hours, again with a random component) which are ticking independantly from each other.

Once one of these timers run out, a random node is spawn in the set. The expired timer is on hold at that point. When a node spawns, a despawn timer is assigned to it (around 2 hours with, again, a random component). That despawn timer is Blizzard's mechanism to eliminate so called bad nodes, it ticks until someone perform a gathering operation on the node (at which point it reset to its full value if the node wasn't completely emptied) or until it expires (at that point the node despawn).

When a node in the set despawn (due to despawn timer or gathering), the timer that originally made it spawn starts again (time depending on which timer it was) and we go back through the cycle.

Occasionnaly both timers (short and long) for a given set will expire (thus spawning 2 nodes in the set), that particular one is always true just after a server reboot, since there is no check done on which node in the set is spawned (geographically speaking) you can sometimes find 2 nodes spawned on the same location (the double tooltip effect on minimap with the appropriate tracking skill on).

Knowing this, you can generally make a good harvest following roughtly 10-15 minutes trip around the zone you're in, note that node content (ie. quantity) seems to be linked to the speed at which nodes are gathered (a quiet day in the badlands and you'll be hard pressed to find a node yielding more that 2 iron ore, add a few people farming the area for ore and you'll find node with 3-4 ore inside quite often), in other words more people gathering a given type of ressource means less nodes for you to find but an increased yield (that pattern seems fairly repeatable).

Edit: of course that's the general way things are handled there are some exceptions on the way timers are handled for specific items (black lotus to name one)

As for making an audible sound when the tracking skill makes a new active ressource node appear on the minimap that's completely impossible from the constraint of Blizzard's API since that information is not available to the player side of the API (not even the graphic element are accessible or even visible).

As a side note, a word of caution against using a pixel analyser since these are usually part of external macro software (ie. third party in Blizzard's terms) and as such it may be against the TOS (not sure exactly what you're using but I though I might point it out).

Posted by: Britana on Jan 18 2006, 04:03 PM
One thing that I would be interested in knowing is more information about the node groupings. For example, can it be easily determined which nodes are part of set?

experience, and hours-long grueling farming, once you got most of the nodes in a zone for a particular type, there's no definite rule as to the placement, in some case nodes from a set will be placed within tracking distance of each other, in other case they can be placed as far a 2 or 3 tracking distance worth from each other.

Quote:Do these node groupings span across zones (i.e. worldwide) or are they zone limited?

they usually are limited to a single zone, though there are a few exceptions (Tanaris/Un'goro mithril spawns come to mind), the thumb rule is that nodes from the same set are reachable from each other without any major terrain feature blocking access between them (in some case, Stranglethorn comes to mind as an example, there are passes dug out in the mountains to )

Quote: Your reply implies that each set is related by type (i.e. all dreamfoil nodes form a set) - is that understanding correct?

yep, that's correct, although there is evidence that it can be modified.

For example if you take a standard Tin node you have a chance that Silver will spawn instead of tin (rare ore), in effect a standard tin set can contains either Tin or Silver nodes.

Now, if you look at ore nodes in the badlands (basic ores: Iron or Mithril) you get the standard occasional spawn of the corresponding rare ore (gold and truesilver respectivelly) BUT you also have a chance to have plain Silver spawning too. The sets there thus contain 3 types.

It doesn't seem to happen for Herbs (though I haven't done herb in ages) but the mechanism does already exists.

Quote:Perhaps the most reliable "analyzer" I have found is my son, who is easily trained to "beep" when he sees yellow and seems endlessly entertained by "fishing," which I personally find mind-numbing Not sure how that might violate the EULA, but I'm sure it could be so interperted if desired . . . .

these are the best as long as they enjoy themselves

Would it be possible to add an option to enable/disable a tone/sound that fires when a yellow ring appears? I know it would not be a dream come true, but would allow me to know when a previously found node appears, whether or not it has respawned in that location.

Posted By: MentalPowerNow THAT is something that can be done. I'd say create a trac ticket, but trac is currently useless.

Edit [Islorgris]: what have been drinking lately Mental ? ;) it's of course completely impossible since the tracking dot is offlimits to the player side API.

Referring to the addon's yellow ring, not the server-side yellow dot :)

then it's possible, was evaluated a long time ago and kind of ruled out in order to preserve player sanity (imagine what would happen when you come in range of a concentrated cluster of recorded nodes).

Perhaps not totally on-topic with the original discussion, but in a similar vein...

As a reference, I've been calling the node groupings 'clusters' since I first noticed them.

Copper clusters usually consist of exactly 2 nodes.
Tin clusters consist of mostly 2 nodes, sometimes 3.
Mithril clusters mostly consist of 3 nodes, sometimes 4.
Rich Thorium Vein clusters consist of (I think... I don't know for sure that there are no 4-node RTV clusters) minimum 5 nodes, up to 8.

There are 3 RTV clusters in Darkwhisper Gorge, kinda hazy on their separation because it takes less time to travel them than it does for them to respawn, and they don't hold much to geographical features, just location.
There are 5 RTV clusters in Burnings Steppes: 7 nodes around Flame Crest including the 3 in Ruins of Thaurissan, the one in the hills to the north between Blackrock Stronghold and Flame Crest and the one at Slither Rock. 5 nodes around Blackrock Stronghold. 5 nodes around Western Draco'dar including the one at the Altar of Storms. 5 nodes around Southern Draco'dar, one in viewing distance of one of the ones in Western Draco'dar, but definately not in the same cluster. And finally 5 nodes around Pillar of Ash.

I don't know EPL, Un'Goro, Silithus or WS clusters because I did this back in March of '05 when there were no such thing as farming bots. I had Burning Steppes to myself, so had no reason to ever leave :P

Posted By: rowaasr13Hm, isn't this dot represented by some frame that you can find if you cycle through all of them? Even name plates are accessible in that way, allowing people to passively track monsters in visibility range, so I wouldn't be surprised if dot is somewhere among the frames too.

Nope, trust me on this one, while nameplates are frames that are controlled by the client directly, the Minimap tracking dots are rendered as part of the Minimap itself and are not seperate UI widgets.