Impossible (?) herb gathering quest?

[PALU]

My character received the quest to gather 60 heather flowers. The problem is that all heathers I find have lost their flowers, and I expected that to have happened a fair while ago. The date is 3:rd day in the 11:th week before midwinter.
A further suspicion is that this may be tied to characters being able to harvest heathers at this stage, but getting nothing at all when processing it.

I'm not in dire straits as my character has a stash of heather flowers, so I can take them from there, but others may not be so lucky.

[Dungeon Smash]

yes, this has happened to me a few times as well.  not sure if it's a bug or if it's intentional that you may need a stockpile to complete the quest.

[PALU]

It shouldn't require a stash, as the quest is to "gather", not "provide", so I consider it to be a bug if it's impossible to gather (and I'd say that means the flowers/leaves to gather should have its last existence date at least the day the quest would expire). That they mature at different rates is natural, so every plant shouldn't necessarily give you what you need if it's flowers (I think you can get leaves until they wither). Thus, most heathers may have lost their flowers when you get the quest, but there should still be some somewhere.
In fact, it's poor planning on the part of the quest giver to wait until the very last moment to try to get the plant parts, although I guess asking the PC may be considered a desperate last ditch attempt...

[Sproink]

Possible fixes :

• Quest giver only asks for herbs that grow mature in current season and time limit is one season, Quest cannot be given in winter.
• Quest has one-year time limit
• Time limit is the day the herb in question starts withering in the wild + some days
• Let it be, (not a fix, this option is unfair to new characters and annoyance to older ones)

Also, it would be cool if taking the quest auto-identifies the herb.

[Dungeon Smash]

I agree!  If the quest-giver needs the herb, he should take the time to teach the player-character what it looks like.  On a somewhat-related note, it would also be nice to be able to ask villagers about nearby plants - "Excuse me, old fellow, but what is that flower growing there?"  "Why, that's a burdock, my son.  We grow it to help with wounds"

[caius]

I agree!  If the quest-giver needs the herb, he should take the time to teach the player-character what it looks like.  On a somewhat-related note, it would also be nice to be able to ask villagers about nearby plants - "Excuse me, old fellow, but what is that flower growing there?"  "Why, that's a burdock, my son.  We grow it to help with wounds"

I've had something similar happen.  My current character has a very low herblore stat and was given a quest to collect clayweed.  I was pretty sure what clayweed was but my character couldn't identify it for their life.  It would have been very helpful to collect some unknown plants, take them back to the quest giver, and ask if any of these were clayweed in order to complete the quest.

[PALU]

I agree!  If the quest-giver needs the herb, he should take the time to teach the player-character what it looks like.  On a somewhat-related note, it would also be nice to be able to ask villagers about nearby plants - "Excuse me, old fellow, but what is that flower growing there?"  "Why, that's a burdock, my son.  We grow it to help with wounds"

I've had something similar happen.  My current character has a very low herblore stat and was given a quest to collect clayweed.  I was pretty sure what clayweed was but my character couldn't identify it for their life.  It would have been very helpful to collect some unknown plants, take them back to the quest giver, and ask if any of these were clayweed in order to complete the quest.

I think the quest giver sort of does, if you try to give him unknown plants, although I haven't tried myself. I think the quest giver would accept the ones which are correct and reject the rest, and I suspect he'll say it's not enough if you bring too few, but, as said, I haven't tried it.

[Acolyte]

I agree!  If the quest-giver needs the herb, he should take the time to teach the player-character what it looks like.  On a somewhat-related note, it would also be nice to be able to ask villagers about nearby plants - "Excuse me, old fellow, but what is that flower growing there?"  "Why, that's a burdock, my son.  We grow it to help with wounds"

I've had something similar happen.  My current character has a very low herblore stat and was given a quest to collect clayweed.  I was pretty sure what clayweed was but my character couldn't identify it for their life.  It would have been very helpful to collect some unknown plants, take them back to the quest giver, and ask if any of these were clayweed in order to complete the quest.

I think the quest giver sort of does, if you try to give him unknown plants, although I haven't tried myself. I think the quest giver would accept the ones which are correct and reject the rest, and I suspect he'll say it's not enough if you bring too few, but, as said, I haven't tried it.

I can confirm this. The Quest giver will say "Thanks but I need more" or "This is not what I want right now" if you give him the stuff. It's how I do these quests with the terrible herblore I typically start with.  There is also a clue in the "pinches of flowers" or "bunches of leaves" or "fistfuls of" description.

   - Shane