Z-Stuff, Nickolas pre/post, how does it work?

Ok, Wiki shows the Z-mission/bounty/combat for the current day, the following day and the day after that.

Wiki shows the collectible item Nicholas Sanford is taking currently, as well as the next two collectibles.

Why is there no heads-up on Nicholas the Traveller? I don't know how they're getting the advanced information but it'd be nice to know at least what the Traveller will be collecting the following week.

I believe some stuff is contained in the .dat file on particular updates.
I tihnk zaishen combat is on a schedule or pattern type thing every month too

The guy in pre collects the same things each week that is why they say what the next days will be. Same with the Zaishen quests. There are maybe 20 zaishen quests in the cycle (look on wiki) and they just repeat. Nick in post has a much bigger cycle since it is once a week(which might repeat each year or something).

It's because the Z-Missions and Pre-Sear Nic have already cycled through all the collectibles, quests, and missions, so they're just looping now. That heads up is just looking at what it was last time it was at this point in the cycle and assuming that you'll have the same collectables and quests as you did last time.

Post-Sear Nicholas hasn't started looping yet however, so we don't get a heads up. When he shows up outside of Fort Ranik collecting red iris flowers, then we can start doing the same thing for him.

This. I don't think Post Searing-Nick has even reset yet, probably won't for at least another year or longer.

When he does, I'm predicting there will be a totally new section of market for GW, because people will begin to farm ahead of time and pinpoint when they can start selling early, price high, so the people who don't farm can pay for their collectibles. There is a lot more value in stuff with Post, because in Pre, you don't need to put in a whole lot of effort to farm obviously..

I'm looking for the quote where it said something about Nick having some 200-odd individual locations with individual items for collection. That's around 4 years before he needs to reset.

That coupled with certain updates just resetting him on their own, and there's a good chance that no schedule is ever going to be plotted out for Nick.

post-searing nick has not reset.
for all we know, he might go through every SINGLE collectable / trophy / material before he resets. highly unlikely....

VERY highly unlikely.
but don't count it out....ANET is crazy

Well, thanks everyone for your input. It suks that we won't know what's coming up till GW2 is out, but I definitely got my answer.

I agree with most of these statements posted ^^^

so nick in post will be taking all items that are not salvage items in post as he does in pre. there is only ONE regular drop in presearing that Nick does NOT take.

He takes, seeds, legs, skulls limbs, belts, carapaces, fins, flowers, husks, carvings, neclaces, i -loadstones, e - loadstones ect.. all salvage to NORMAL ITEMS..

So what is the ONE item that Nick does not take in pre that drops on a regular basis when the foe is killed??? SPIDER WEBS. Webs are salvageable items as it says in the description when you pick one up and hover your mouse over it in your inventory.

So if this logic is sound.. and we only have one example of this in pre... you can eliminate all of the drops in post that have a similar description and eliminate all of the things nick in post has already taken and then make a list of what he MIGHT take next.

In other words.. because the spiders drop 2 types of items, nick will only take ONE of them. Nick could have taken webs and not legs but legs were taken for TRADERS webs not.

So you can also eliminate all drops that are not taken by regular traders. You can also eliminate all things in the underworld so ectos will never be taken.

so there is some figuring to do!

What you could do is collect the items in the elite area's that are harder to get. like essences in the fire islands. i am sure that those will be required at some point.

Also if you look at the progression of nick he is advancing THROUGH THE GAMES. So all areas of Kryta that he has been to up to that point can be eliminated.

So the next item in NF that he will take will be AFTER the ridding of the wurms - cause that is where he is NOW!!. so farm After that point. not far after but just enough

There should be some formula to try and figure out what distance from the last spotting he has traveled. My best guess there is that its a logarithm for time and distance relating to the depth of each title.

So right now is he not to the desert in Prophecies so I would collect something that drops in the desert for there cause he has never been there. (maybe he has cause I do not follow him that close - if he as been to the desert then get things that drop in the fire islands)

so by a process of elimination you should be able to have a good guess at what to go for in each chapter.

In the early days of Nick,I wondered about why spider webs weren't on the lsit of things he collected. The things he collects are "trophies" webs don't fall under that catergory.

Yes, you can eliminate everything that's catergorized as a "salvage item."

I like the theory, but sadly it's not necessarily the case. He collected Gloom Seeds one week - there's no regular collector for those.

Actually, his pattern is not based on progress through the game. For just one example: Several weeks ago, he was in Poisoned Outcrops. Last week - Mirror of Lyss. (But it sure would have been nice if it were based on progress through the storylines!)

I'm speculating that he'll hit all of the explorable areas and begin the cycle again. Since there are 136 explorable areas, it may be a while before the cycle repeats. (That is, IF my theory is correct.)

Untrue. Roaring Ether Hearts are salvage items, as are the Charr Hides he wanted a few months ago. Though the majority of Nick's requests in post are for trophies, he is also known to request salvage items and rare materials as well. We have no way of knowing that he will never request a common material or certain quest items that can be obtained repeatedly (such as Taro Leaves).

I hadn't realized that those were salvage items. And I had forgotten about him collecting rare mats like Linen. I guess the more we know about what he has done in the past, the less we'll be able to predict what he'll do in the future! As for quest items - DON'T GIVE THEM ANY IDEAS! LOL