I don't know if this is hard coded or not. But it would be nice if there were more panning spots spawned. I almost never see them. Not a huge difference as I don't like things too easy. But a little boost would be nice.
You likely never see them because they despawn much faster then other resources do, most panning spots dont remain for more then a in-game hour.
The boulder removal/gold pan was probably the most underwhelming of all the CC bundle rewards. It seemed like a really fun idea, and as a new activity showed promise, but the spots are so rare and sometimes hard to get to that I wound up just putting the pan away in a chest years ago in my game.
