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A few weeks ago, I had some questions on how to USE care planning.

I *think* I have it figured out.

Watch the bars on the "digging window thingy" and when one gets too low, hit the "care plan button thingy" when the bars go back to "normalish" then resume the "extraction" "button thingy".

Repeat if needed until the top bar gets really really close to gone.

So, now I have to watch the "digging window thingy"

Is that correct-ish???

Additionally, it is even *more* boring to forage, as I now have to watch the {bad word} "digging window thingy"...

booger!

That is pretty much correct.

The top bar is how much time is left before the spot disappears.
Those of us who "kill-dig" pretty much ignore that bar as we kill the spot before time runs out anyways; I average ~35 seconds a spot.

The second bar is how many mats are remaining in that spot.
When it hits zero, you've emptied it out. I ignore this as it rarely hits zero more than a couple of seconds before I kill the spot anyways, but some slow-dig styles make this bar more important than it is for us kill-diggers.

The third bar is the source life, which is "healed" with Resource Preservation.
When it hits zero, the spot is dead; no more digging that particular spot. Collect your mats and move on. 
Kill-diggers intentionally deplete this bar in order to save time and prevent from running out of Focus.

The fourth bar is source stability which is "healed" by Ground Stability.
When it hits zero, you either explode or create a gas cloud.
Any digger who likes to live tries to keep this bar above zero.

The fifth bar is Kami Tolerance.
In all the time I've been playing (nearly 5 years) I've never seen that bar go below 1/2, and it's uncommon for it to even get below about 7/8. For that reason, I feel it safe to ignore.

The main two you care about are the third and (especially) fourth as those are the only two you can really do anything about. Those are the two bars affected by careplanning while the other three bars are beyond your control.



A slight digression;

While Fight, Magic, and Craft remain fundamentally the same only with ever-increasing numbers as you advance, digging changes considerably as you rise. Some high-level diggers do it slow-and-simple, others go for a fast-paced kill-dig style that requires paying attention to three different windows while your fingers fly around the keyboard, using a different extraction action for each source mode and multiple careplan actions, and some find a balance between "lazy-dig" and "need 3 Red Bulls to even attempt" dig styles.

I suspect that you would prefer to keep it simple, so I'll just tell you right now that there will come a day when you will want to use lower speed and rate stanzas than your forage level allows in order to not run out of Focus before the spot is finished. As a side benefit, lower-level speed/rate stanzas do less damage to the spot which in turn reduces the amount of careplanning needed. If you remember that little heads-up, careplanning will remain the most complicated part of digging. Otherwise, you may find yourself in a situation where you will have even less fun digging than you do now.