Impossible quest

[Bärentill]

Some old man in the village told me to gather 60 bunches of bear pipe leaves for him. The problem is that it was late seedtime month and that bear pipes sprouts in swidden month and need about 90 days to ripe and that I was given 30 days to complete the task. Well, this isn't possible to do at all. The old herbalist should have known that it isn't the right season for bear pipe and should not pretend to be disappointed then. Silly old man. I think I should get one punch for free.

Could you do something about this? It isn't nice when you get a quest which isn't feasible from the beginning.

[PALU]

No, you CAN do most of these quests by gathering the fresh leaves rather than wait for a proper harvest. I haven't checked your case, but most of mine were given prior to proper harvest, but while the leaves could be gathered.
Silly young kid who believes to know it all

[Bärentill]

Thank you for the information but not for the joke.

[JEB Davis]

I have had a similar quest and failed to find the requested herbs after much searching.
Decided to give up. It can be roleplayed as a "test" that the old man gives to the "young one".
The quest could either be refused from the start if you have foreknowledge that makes
you think it would not be possible to complete, or just taken as a failure and learned from.
Seems very realistic to me, especially considering the possibility of gathering the young
leaves and I would like it kept in the game.

[PALU]

I'll be more direct than trying a joke: It might be a good idea to ask in the Gameplay questions forum about something that seems wrong rather than immediately jumping to the conclusion that the issue is a bug.

[Bärentill]

You don't have to. I unterstood very well and, yes, I made a mistake. This happens. But guess what, it is quite natural since you can't harvest nearly any herbs when they haven't ripened yet. You have played this game probably a thousand times more than me and you should have known this. By the information given, I would likely do the same mistake again.

Thus, I have learned two things from you: First, I can harvest the leaves of bear pipe in game while it hasn't ripened yet. Second, people here, especially you, are quite impolite and if they are in a bad mood, they are insulting each other just for fun, because it isn't just enough to be right, trying to humilate others while having the advantage is fun.

Unlike me, you didn't learn anything. Now, the puzzle is solved. There isn't to anything say else, except for one thing maybe. You could save a lot of time if you were letting people doing their mistakes and not trying to educate them. People might actually think that you are a nice person then. So it was the best if you wouldn't say anything now. I'm done.

[bethefawn]

I wonder if you maybe missed his joke. You said "silly old man" about the sage, and he said "silly young kid" about you. Your character in the game is likely 17 winters old. I don't think he was trying to be nasty.

[koteko]

Thus, I have learned two things from you: First, I can harvest the leaves of bear pipe in game while it hasn't ripened yet. Second, people here, especially you, are quite impolite and if they are in a bad mood, they are insulting each other just for fun, because it isn't just enough to be right, trying to humilate others while having the advantage is fun.

Without entering the specific subject of this topic, I want to remark on this. This forum doesn't seem to be such a hellhole, does it? It's quite the opposite. Some nastiness may happen from time to time but mostly people are very nice and helpful. Where does this anger come from? Have you had bad experiences?

PALU especially is a great help in this community - and I've never seen him being rude. Take that as you will.

[spamgoose]

I was slightly hesitant to bump this thread what with the off-topic hijinx, but I've reached a point where I am pretty sure my quest is impossible. As JEB Davis said it's not necessarily a bug, and I don't particularly mind but still wonder if impossible situations are possible (you know what I mean). It's also possible that I'm somehow just not finding it.

I've been asked to collect heather flowers in dirt month (wiki says it shouldn't be withered yet) and don't think my character recognizes heather. Nothing odd in that... however I've gone around from cliff to cliff for quite a long time and cannot find a matching herb. Only three plants still seem to be alive... two of which gives me leaves (that the old man scoffs at, and one of which is likely sorrel), and the third says there is nothing worth harvesting at this point. My gut tells me that the uncollectable one is heather. I definitely could be wrong, but figured it was worth including in this discussion.

[PALU]

Heather is weird in that it can be harvested after the flowers are gone, and the harvested plants can be processed (which takes time), but you get nothing at all as a result.

I typically find heather in forests rather than cliffs (but since I find them in forests I might just not take note of them on cliffs). One thing to remember is that plants mature and wither/shed flowers at different times in different locations, so you may have been to areas where the flowers have already been dropped (I don't refer to different parts of the world, but rather places a few kilometers or less apart in more of a patchwork pattern).
Finally, there are two ways to harvest from plants: picking and harvesting. Picking takes leaves and flowers, but leaves the rest of the plant (roots, etc, if applicable), and harvesting can only be done when the plant is mature (while picking can be done prematurely). It seems that plants with useful underground parts take a lot more time to harvest than those that only yield leaves/flowers.

Anyway, in your situation I'd try to wander around and try to pick flowers in several locations, and if you believe you have identified heather you should take note of what the description is so you can locate other heather plants.

[spamgoose]

That's a good point about areas where the flowers haven't dropped. I've been sampling every time I find the plant in question so far, but have been looking within 2 or 3 regions max, so I'll go further afield.

The wiki says heather can be found on cliffs and pine mire (and river banks), but I am in the islander areas so I haven't seen a lot of pine mires. I also only just learned that animals can eat the herbs! Or at least I think so... I found cliff islands where I've never visited (but spent time near by) with piles of old tracks around, and all the herbs were "picked". I even saw one small patch of picked herbs (with others not picked around) that had reindeer tracks leading right up to them.

Edit: Your report on heather's harvestability seems to add evidence that the plant I think is heather actually is. I can still harvest it but when I thresh I get the "no usable parts" message.

[spamgoose]

On a sort of unrelated note. Any way to move this thread from bugs to gameplay questions? I don't think it should be classed as a bug unless Sami had no intention of it being impossible (and it may not be impossible), but I think players in the future will ask these questions and it's nice to have the reference. Sami, as forum administrator maybe you could move it?

[PALU]

I've definitely seen birds "pick" berries, and I've had my cereals "picked" in the few hours between ripening and my character harvesting it. I've also had an early case of lots of reindeer or elk tracks over a patch of unidentified plants, and the plants were completely gone afterwards, so they may be able to eat the whole young (wild) plants as well (I've had fields devastated by badgers and reindeer, so cultivated plants can definitely be eaten whole while young).

[caius]

In 3.50 beta, I was just offered a herb gathering quest that was impossible herb gathering quest for my current character to fulfill. 

On day 6 of 4th week before winter, I was asked to collect 30 yarrows.  My herblore is 42% and I haven't yet been able to identify yarrow.  This quest was offered after the first snowfall.  I declined the quest.  What else could I have done?

[PALU]

In 3.50 beta, I was just offered a herb gathering quest that was impossible herb gathering quest for my current character to fulfill. 

On day 6 of 4th week before winter, I was asked to collect 30 yarrows.  My herblore is 42% and I haven't yet been able to identify yarrow.  This quest was offered after the first snowfall.  I declined the quest.  What else could I have done?

Yarrow can be picked for leaves and seeds quite late (in fact, that "early" I'm not sure seeds are available yet), so that quest wasn't impossible at all. Now your skill might not be up to scratch, but as discussed in the bug section (where I report what I think IS an impossible herb gathering quest), you can bring what you pick to the quest giver and try to give it to him. If he says he doesn't want it it's the wrong herb, if it's the correct one I think he says he needs more of it (assuming you just bring a sample). You then have to remember what you brought, of course (or keep one sample for yourself when giving him the rest), and then look for more of <randomized name> herbs, as the name is fixed per game once allocated.