As far as I can tell, the chance of finding nothing with the compass is still very high, as is the chance of finding something on someone else’s ban-line-protected property, so I don’t see that a HUD feature would solve the problem, especially if it’s worse than using the compass. That’s the frustration we’re trying to express. Using the compass is more work and more time, with less yield and less actual RP potential than anything else in the system. We burn a lot of high-energy food to find twigs if we find anything.
What you might consider doing is adding a feature to allow for foraging certain landscape features–a rotting log for mushrooms and insects, for example–and limit the range to within 20m of the object. You could code it like the fishing pool, including an appropriate loot table for that feature and a reasonable percentage chance to find loot, with some professions (herbalist, ranger) getting a boost to their percentage because they would have familiarity. You could then have the compass as an available add-on (and even sell it, rather than automatically including it) that would help you locate foraging “stations” and give you a boost to your find percentage in locating loot. To keep it grid-wide, you could allow it to do random high-value loot in addition to locating foraging stations.
You might even make the theme selectable on the foraging station, though I think that might be more of a PITA than is acceptable. I’m picturing a station that you set up, and during the setup, you choose its type (forest, desert, water’s edge, meadow, etc.), which sets its appearance (object from inventory?) and its loot table. With this, you’d have to build in cheat prevention; maybe only allow it to be changed once a week, and only by the owner or server owner.
The easier (and more lucrative) option would be to create several variations of the foraging station, so you can choose the station that fits your land. For example, for Crimson, we would buy something for the forest floor (like the rotting log for mushrooms mentioned above), water’s edge, and meadow. Someone else might buy something for desert terrain, which with our current theme, we would have no use for. That would encourage trade between groups who have one type but not another.
Yes, someone will buy one or more of everything and put them on a 20x20 box (because they only care about winning, not playing), but some people are just going to try to find every cheat and exploit, and you can’t code the entire system around those people. That’s how they have their fun; the rest of us shouldn’t be punished for their enjoyment of finding exploits.
The other alternative that occurred to me is to make everything the herbalist requires farmable in the herb garden. I don’t see this as a viable option, or a realistic one, or a fun one, but it is an option.