Faster Farming (picking of crops)

I discovered something today that sped up my farming a little and made it quite a bit less tedious. This might not be new, I certainly did not read every single thread in this forum to check. However, it was new to me after nearly 8 months of playing and it made picking the crops faster and easier.

So until today I would plant 15 crop patches at a time and then use my keybind for "select nearest item" followed by my keybind for "use selected item" and then when the lootbox with the crops and stuff would appear I'd hit my keyboard's return key to get all that stuff dumped into my bags. And then repeat, 14 more times. It didn't take that long but I had to sit there and pay attention for 15 "picks" in a row.

Today I decided to try something a little different: I changed my "select nearest item" keybind to "select next item" and went into my OPTIONS->UI SETTINGS panel and checked the box to "always loot all". I then planted the 15 crop patches and just hit my pair of keybinds ("select nearest item" first followed by "use selected item") as quickly as I could 15 times in a row. Now I could just sit there – or walk away – and my toon gathered all 15 patches and all the products were deposited in my bags. Wow, so much easier!

When farming is done, I go back to the OPTIONS->UI SETTINGS panel and un-check the "always loot all" box. It could be left checked, but I prefer to not loot everything automatically while I'm questing through landscape content.
edit: Because having "always loot all" checked puts all loot straight into your inventory, you don't get to use the extra space of the "pending loot" storage.

Why 15 patches at a time? Because I know I can gather that many before any of them despawn and go to waste. Maybe I can do more, I'll test that some other time. If you know how many can be done at one time, please share so I can avoid the experimentation time.

Just thought I'd share with my fellow farmers, hope this helps someone else.

Thanks for the info, I'll try this :cool:.

This works like a charm. Over 10 years and this is one of the better pieces of information I have read on these Forums.

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Originally Posted by Tralfazz

I discovered something today that sped up my farming a little and made it quite a bit less tedious. This might not be new, I certainly did not read every single thread in this forum to check. However, it was new to me after nearly 8 months of playing and it made picking the crops faster and easier.

So until today I would plant 15 crop patches at a time and then use my keybind for "select nearest item" followed by my keybind for "use selected item" and then when the lootbox with the crops and stuff would appear I'd hit my keyboard's return key to get all that stuff dumped into my bags. And then repeat, 14 more times. It didn't take that long but I had to sit there and pay attention for 15 "picks" in a row.

Today I decided to try something a little different: I changed my "select nearest item" keybind to "select next item" and went into my OPTIONS->UI SETTINGS panel and checked the box to "always loot all". I then planted the 15 crop patches and just hit my pair of keybinds ("select nearest item" first followed by "use selected item") as quickly as I could 15 times in a row. Now I could just sit there – or walk away – and my toon gathered all 15 patches and all the products were deposited in my bags. Wow, so much easier!

When farming is done, I go back to the OPTIONS->UI SETTINGS panel and un-check the "always loot all" box. It could be left checked, but I prefer to not loot everything automatically while I'm questing through landscape content.
edit: Because having "always loot all" checked puts all loot straight into your inventory, you don't get to use the extra space of the "pending loot" storage.

Why 15 patches at a time? Because I know I can gather that many before any of them despawn and go to waste. Maybe I can do more, I'll test that some other time. If you know how many can be done at one time, please share so I can avoid the experimentation time.




Just thought I'd share with my fellow farmers, hope this helps someone else.

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This technique sounds very interesting.
Most of the characters I have are Yeomen.
I will be tryng this technique the next time I hafta make food for all those other characters I have that aren't Yeoman.
Thanks again Tralfazz. You always find some way to reduce the tedium.

Beside the autoloot doesn't the nearest and next basically do the same thing? The only difference I could see right away is that the game seems to "queue" the commands so if you spam them it'll perform the actions as many times as you clicked the keys. This might be a "next" only thing but I don't know for sure?

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Originally Posted by huldus

Beside the autoloot doesn't the nearest and next basically do the same thing? The only difference I could see right away is that the game seems to "queue" the commands so if you spam them it'll perform the actions as many times as you clicked the keys. This might be a "next" only thing but I don't know for sure?

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I thought so too, at first! But I experimented with Select Nearest and Select Next and found that the queuing is not the only difference.

For example, if I'm out riding around with a character to gather ore, Select Nearest will always choose the nearest selectable item. That might be ore, but it could also be wood or a plant or a corpse or some other thing. Select Next will also choose the nearest selectable item but if you hit Select Next again it will choose the next nearest item, then the next, and so on. Hitting Select Nearest repeatedly will not cycle through all selectable items, it will always choose the nearest. So if my ore-gathering character taps Select Nearest and he targets a pile of wood that's near the ore node he wants, I just have to tap Select Nearest again and he'll target the ore (unless something else is closer than the ore, but then another tap or two selects the ore).

If you tap Select Nearest and then tap Use, and do so repeatedly, you will not get a series of gathers. This is because tapping Select Nearest repeatedly will select the same crop patch each time (for as long as it exists to be targeted) and so the subsequent gathers will fail and your actions interrupted.

So yes, they are different, and there is a good reason for them to exist independently. They're not just different names for the same function.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tralfazz

I changed my "select nearest item" keybind to "select next item" and went into my OPTIONS->UI SETTINGS panel and checked the box to "always loot all".

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Yes! "Next" is infinitely better. Select next enemy, select next item, etc. I always suggest people change their keybinds from nearest to next.

I used to feel very protective of my loot decisions, but if you leave "always loot all" selected, you'll be spared the infuriating situation of having 100 duplicated quest items in pending loot...

I didn't realise anybody didn't have auto-loot-all on. I turned it on years ago when it became an option and never even thought of turning it off since then.

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Originally Posted by Halphast

I used to feel very protective of my loot decisions, but if you leave "always loot all" selected, you'll be spared the infuriating situation of having 100 duplicated quest items in pending loot...

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Shortly after writing the OP of this thread last year, I decided to leave "Always Loot All" turned on all the time. If my bags fill up completely, the excess goes to Pending Loot. 99 44/100% of the time, everything just goes straight to my bags so I almost never have to deal with sorting of Pending Loot – but it's there if my inventory fills up. And for sure, the quest item handling when "Always Loot All" is disabled and the stuff goes to Pending Loot is a pain, it's a much better play experience now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tralfazz

I discovered something today that sped up my farming a little and made it quite a bit less tedious. This might not be new, I certainly did not read every single thread in this forum to check. However, it was new to me after nearly 8 months of playing and it made picking the crops faster and easier.

...

Just thought I'd share with my fellow farmers, hope this helps someone else.

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I don't really use the keys for this, but the "circle" method. Use the left or right arrow to turn your toon a few degrees, plant; lather, rinse, and repeat. Now, for harvesting, I can see where key binds might be good, but I really just repeat the planting maneuver so I can click on the names in turn. If I miss one, I still have time. Just an alternative method. I can also see combining the two. Plant in a circle and then use key binds...which would require two hands, fwiw.

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Originally Posted by Bothketbog

I don't really use the keys for this, but the "circle" method. Use the left or right arrow to turn your toon a few degrees, plant; lather, rinse, and repeat. Now, for harvesting, I can see where key binds might be good, but I really just repeat the planting maneuver so I can click on the names in turn. If I miss one, I still have time. Just an alternative method. I can also see combining the two. Plant in a circle and then use key binds...which would require two hands, fwiw.

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Sure, that will get the job done. The advantage to the method I described is that it requires less time and effort, no need to aim-and-click, and no need to plant in more than one stacking spot. Just click the button on your trade skill panel to auto-plant as much as you want or can gather before the first one despawns. Then tap your pair of keybinds as quickly as you can without fat-fingering, a number of times equal to the number of units you planted. Then tab to kin chat until all your crops are gathered. No turning, no watching.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tralfazz

Sure, that will get the job done. The advantage to the method I described is that it requires less time and effort, no need to aim-and-click, and no need to plant in more than one stacking spot. Just click the button on your trade skill panel to auto-plant as much as you want or can gather before the first one despawns. Then tap your pair of keybinds as quickly as you can without fat-fingering, a number of times equal to the number of units you planted. Then tab to kin chat until all your crops are gathered. No turning, no watching.

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I'm sold; thanks.