I agree as they are making tinned food more rare it would be good to have a better foraging system on apple trees and berry bushes. I hate the current randum find system we have at the moment.

I think it should be a continuous action that drops fruits after random intervals (exp-distributed) without being canceled in the process.

The constant repetition of "press key to search" and "I have not found a thing." is driving people crazy.

Even better would be some kind of limitation that stops a people from getting unlimited apples/berries from a single tree and encourages visiting multiple berry bushes/apple trees (currently one tree is just as effective as a whole plantation).

Or a gathering minigame that keeps players occupied and rewards them according to their performance.

My idea was maybe make an apple tree have a 100% chance to find apple for 2 or 3 apples. Then lower the percent to 75%, sear a couple times, 50%, then 25%, then 0%. This would encourage you to go and look for other trees rather than sit at the same one for 20 minutes

Also, wild mushrooms would be a nice touch as an edible as well, at least to give you some more options

see also
http://www.reddit.com/r/dayz/comments/36uq56/there_needs_to_be_a_change_to_harvesting/

Firstly, this isn't a bug. More options for foraging would be great and already we see that mushrooms are being added (very little nutrition in there though).

Secondly here are some reasons why the current system is useful:

1. It's tedious. Why is that good? It prevents a great deal of abuse. Berries, apples, other foragables make sense as a supplement to diet or a diet of last resort but not a primary food source. By making the process painful you're assuring that very few people are going to rely solely on berries/apples for nutrition.

2. It's always available as an option (more or less). It's very difficult (and annoying if someone tried) to remove this basic food source for fresh spawns or other desperate people. By making berry/apple picking more rational you'll also be making it easier for people to deny this food source to the people who need it most.

3. No barrier to entry. You need nothing to forage, anyone can do it but because it's tedious, very few people want to do it. This means that starving people can use it to avoid dying but people with options are unlikely to rely on it.

Absolutely I can see the point of adding more variety and diversity to foraging through introducing different foragables and effects but the system as it exists I think serves a pretty crucial role in the game environment. We should be aware of what we'd be throwing away just seeking to make foraging "more fun".

Thanks for the input ebrim, But people are already trying to deny you from apple picking by chopping down the trees so a change in the system is not going to stop that. I don't want the source to be easy, but at the moment they show you apples and berries on the tree/bushes in abundance, yet it takes you ages to get them. If this changed as the items are picked it would make for a bit more believable immersion and you would not wast time on a tree without apples and move to one with. The same could be done with berries. Plus the devs could control this source of food a bit better like cans are in a more balanced way IMOP. As the game develops and more infected are put in being healthy is going to be very important and I have lost count of the times I have died in the last exp update due to not being healthy and getting damaged by infected and not healing. I have even been attacked by them whilst foraging. And yes I do try to avoid them and yes you can run, but that burns up calories making it harder to get to energized and healthy. And any one who has played the game for any time knows how important it is to be healthy. I just think people want it to be a bit more realistic not necessarily easy.

@Geez maybe close this ticket as obsolete?