Hi, and thanks for viewing.
This is my guide to help you harvest like a boss.
You might also find this useful if you need to manage building licenses or save resources on upgrading buildings.
To illustrate this technique (which I call BCNS or Bigbelly's Collapsing Node Strategy) please consider the following layout.
Logically speaking this layout shouldn't work as there are just 3 foresters supporting 16 cutters.
Whats going on? 3 foresters wont make enough trees for 16 cutters. That wont work you are probably saying.
But it does, and not only does it work, but it works better than normal.
How ?
Because this isn't the real world, this is a game, and the game follows the rules laid down by the developers.
No real foresters or cutters actually exist !!!!
Duhhh thats obvious. Yeah it is but most people forget it - they make assumptions about what is happening based upon what they know to be true - but this isnt the real world, and these are not real cutters/foresters - they are code routines. Keep saying that over and over to yourself as you read through this.
So... how does it work?
http://forum.thesettlersonline.com/a...1&d=1479939790
First consider this question:
Presume you have a pinetree node, and that node has just 1 pinetree resource left in it.
You also have a level 5 pinetree cutter.
Your cutter enters the node, his timer runs down, and then he exits and returns to his base.
How many pinewood resource does he return to his base with?
You are probably going to say 1, because there was 1 left in the node. This is wrong. He returns with 5 (because he is a level 5 cutter)
So when your pinetree node collapses you actually get from it more than it contained.
Now consider a second question:
Presume you have a pinetree node, and that node has just 1 pinetree resource left in it.
This time you have 2x level 5 pinetree cutters.
Your 2 cutters enter the pinetree node, the timer runs down, and then the cutters exit and return to their respective bases.
How many pinewood resources did they gather?
Just 1? because there was only 1 in the node? Nope the answer is 10.
You just got 10 pinewood from a node that had only 1 in it.
Bonus !!!!
Additionally you also make a time saving that will speed up your harvesting.
How?
Assume that the cutters came from bases that were at different distances from the node.
When the first cutter exits the node, the node will collapse and all harvesters will be ejected from the node *** no matter where they are in their harvest cycle *** with full loot. So even though the second harvester may only be 30 seconds into his 90 seconds of production time he is ejected will full loot.
Not only did you gather loot that didn't exist, you also got sped up by 60 seconds.
Sweet !!!
So how do I get it to work on my island ?
This is what you need to do...
(I will use pinetree to illustrate)
1) turn off all your pinetree foresters and wait until all nodes on your island are empty.
2) move your cutters such that they are all bunched up together. The win here is getting the free loot from the collapse so you want as many foresters in the same node at the same time so that it collapses with them all inside.
3) put a forester at each point of a triangle around the cutters
4) turn the 3 foresters on (allow a small break between each one)
Important points to remember.
1) you are not harvesting a node - you are exploiting its collapse. It doesnt matter that it only has 1 resource in it.
2) you dont want multiple foresters loading up the same node. If you load up the node it wont collapse and that is our goal remember.
2) 3 foresters seems to be optimal. I have tried with 2 and with 4 but 3 works best.
3) Dont be put off if you see a ! occasionally. this will happen, but not very often, due to variances introduced by the travel time of your foresters. Remember that each time a node collapses every cutter that is ejected after the first is sped up so you are getting a win every cycle.
The last and to some the most important gain with this strategy is the resources you DONT need.
You dont need to build 1:1 foresters to cutters. This allows you to either save the resources you would have spent on building and upgrading the extra foresters OR use those licenses and resources to build more cutters.
My friend has 10 foresters and 10 cutters in a traditional layout.
I have 3 foresters and 16 cutters - easy to see who gets more loot isn't it ?????
What does this strategy work with?
As described this strategy only works with wood since the wood nodes dont die like a copper mine for example that has to be rebuilt
However....you do still get the collapsing bonus from any node that collapses and you can exploit this using part 2 of the BCNS strategy (Bigbellys Cascading Node Strategy)
To implement the BCNS part 2 you take what you learnt in BCNS part 1 and apply it to nodes that cant be refilled.
For example Marble.
On my island my marble harvesters are not placed one outside each mine. They are all together in one bunch. This is so that they all attack the same node together. The node dies with the maximum number of masons inside it, and I get a free loot bonus on each collapse.
This bonus depends on how much was left in the node and nodes can be of different sizes based on location and on geo bonus so its hard to give it an exact value but I would estimate that each night while I sleep I get the equivalent of one full extra marble node worth of loot.
The additional benefit of this method is that when I log off each and every marble node on my map (except the first one in the chain which they are active in) will be 100% full. Over night I get maximum harvest because all nodes are full to start with.
If I had a mason outside every node then even though the nodes would be there and active they would all be in diminished states. eg 20% full or 75% full. It doesnt matter what - just that they are not 100% full.
This can obviously be extended to granite.
I hope this makes sense.
Good luck and enjoy all the extra loot !!!!
