seems encumberance does not affect it either

encumberance doesn't affect energy loss I mean

I believe granite is normalized speed, sand is based on foraging skill higher skill = faster speed. Still a bug but I believe that is why.

I do have both foraging and resources on - and 5.0 now though

I may be wrong again but it seems timing has just changed with this last update 5 min ago. Not only does it take 10s now to gather 1 sand instead of 8, but the animation is no longer in-synch with the green action bar. Or maybe I'm just letting the sand go to my head.

actually more like 11.5s

Currently rock gathering is a set time with one animation loop. Other gathering actions, including sand gathering, take into account your foraging skill.

The reason for this was that rock gathering was meant to represent a player picking up one rock while other actions represent gathering an amount of material.

If this does not feel 'correct' or consistent, I can easily adjust the code so that rock gathering takes skill into account to match the other skills. I would like opinions on this as this will make rock gathering take more time for low skilled players.

In addition:

1) For the next update I've revised the gathering skills to take into account the appropriate skill (foraging, forestry, scavenging or resources) for the resource being gathered instead of relying solely on foraging.

2) Timing has not changed on sand gathering. If you are getting inconsistent timings this may be due to low frame rate.

3) The timing on gathering actions do not take into account agility. They only take into account skill.

i would rather see a balanced gathering ( compared with all resources ) than a bugged one. if it would take longer, it wouldnt be nice. imo sand should be faster but you are the dev..

you said foraging skill, its resources.

'you said foraging skill, its resources'

On the live servers, currently only foraging skill is used for timing gathering actions. For the next update gathering actions will use the appropriate skill as noted above.

My options are:

1) Leave gathering as is, with rock gathering being a set time and other gathering actions based on skill. In this case, the appropriate skill will be checked for each resource (instead of just foraging).

2) Set up rock gathering time to adjust based on resource skill, to match the other gathering actions. Rock gathering will take longer for low skilled players. This will not affect players with high resource skill. This will make all gathering actions consistent.

3) Remove the time factor on gathering entirely. All gathering actions would take one loop like rock gathering currently does. Skill would have no effect on gathering time. I don't like this option personally but am open to it if this is what players want.

I'm completely open to players' opinions on this.

#2 in my opinion.

Also I thought you were going to put tools in for gathering? Sorta off topic. I would like to see all effect gathering speed. Tools, stats, and skill with skill having the largest effect.

Not my place to decide what the proper timing should be, as I'm not the dev, but my opinion is this:
skill timing should corelate with:
1. Agility (overall speed of character) - 30%
2. Stats associated with the skill used (i.e. Scavenging should take less time if you have high Charm/Perception, as you will find things faster than someone who has no perception whatsoever) - (20% primary, 10% secondary) - 30%
3. Weather conditions (try to gather sand in the rain or in winter irl @ frozen beach) - 40%
4. NOT skill level. Skill level should only affect the quality of the resulting material, not the speed of action. Stats are gained through practicing skill would affect the speed anyway, but if you lock the skill and loose the stats you will become slower.