Farming may not be the most efficient way to farm!

[Hew]

So, having been on a fair share of farms, I have found that as team size grows on a farm, mob variety in a given farm changes, capability of the farmer in question, and a million other things, that straight up running mishs (Mishs, NOT radios!!!) on a team can generate a LOT of exp.

 

Consider that on a proper mish, you have a wide variety of teammates that can (and hopefully do) contribute all sorts of benefit for the team. It isn't hyperspecialized (s/l farm, fire farm, ambush farm, etc etc), so with pretty much any mix of people you can cruise right through content at +2-+4, _even if people are on generics or totally unslotted_. Farms are driven by the ability of 1 (or more if the farmer is dual boxing or the like) person. Teams are not. As such, the whole team can contribute pretty effectively.

 

A 50+1 person can run at +3, and the exp for the whole team is great (effectively +4 to +5 for exempees). Moreover, team buffs mean that at +3 to the leader, the team can actually hit things. And +3 to a 50+1 is really just +2 to +3, and depending on what they are, steamrolling content is going to be done.

 

But it isn't just a 50+1 thing. A savage/shield stalker gets two big damage telenukes by 35. Coupled with support for the team, they can run around beaming into mobs, smashing things, and carrying on with great abandon. You can even misbehave in this way with defenders! Look at the malfeasance elec affin fenders/cors/trollers can get into! 

 

I guess that is ultimately my point. Teams, while maybe not 100% as fast as a highly tuned farmer on a small team, sure as hell can generate exp fast anyway.

 

Skip a farm!

Start a mish team!

Be proud!

Be different!

[Luminara]

What a bunch of sense.  No shame on you, bringing your "logic" here!  Don't you stop that, Mister Man, or I won't send you to your room.

[Lines]

I feel like the conclusion of your post is that farming is, in fact, the most efficient way to farm.

 

But I mean yeah, I've always found just playing the content awards plenty.

Edited October 11, 2020 by Lines

[Coyotedancer]

Nuthin' wrong with a good smash team.

[Twisted Toon]

Getting a team of 8 to run a Portal Corp Freakshow mission or 12 might work as a farm...

[EmmySky]

Dont confuse us with facts!

 

No seriously, if your only goal is moar XPs or inf then its farming.  AE, portalcorp, radios, it is all farming because you do it for a specific goal.  If you do it because its hella fun and what's a few team wipes between friends because there is some seriously questionable chat going on and we are laughing our hineys off....THEN its not farming because its just fun.  All the XPs and inf are the icing on the giant cake we call fun times.  

 

I have fun in AE, in big teams, in small teams, in task forces and while licking the floor to see if it tastes like syrup.  The moment the game stops being fun is when I will exuent stage left even.  

 

MOAR FUN FOR ALL!!

[GM Aurarius]

1 hour ago, EmmySky said:

... while licking the floor to see if it tastes like syrup ...

I feel I must strongly caution against doing this in the Hive or the Abyss.

[Coyotedancer]

Or in Pocket D.... o_0

[jubakumbi]

18 minutes ago, Coyotedancer said:

Or in Pocket D.... o_0

You mean the pocket dimension is not sterile like I was led to think?

Uh-oh...I think I need to make a few phone calls...

[jubakumbi]

On Topic.

 

I have been perhaps 3-4 times in 'farms' since I started playing, Day 4 on Live and about that on HC and the other servers after the Snap.

I will never door-sit a mission again, ever, for any reason, I would rather gouge out my eyes, TBH.

When I play games, I like to play them, not watch someone else play them, I don't 'do' streams either, for the same reason.

No, I don't have the desire to just talk in chat while door-sitting, I come play COH, not to chat.

 

I can remember people getting characters hitting 50 in record times from the very beginning of the game, times that others thought were impossible and the developers bent over backwards trying to prevent (which I found hilarious, TBH).

So powerleveling as the end result has been here from the start, as you point out, there are a great many ways to do that.

 

From my POV/IME, the current idea of farming is more based around getting the resources needed to IO multiple characters more easily and quickly.

IMO, HC gives so very many boosts and perks and easy access to IOs, there is that much less incentive to 'farm' over just playing.

I have the two characters I wanted to be tricked out good to go in short order from my POV, they both sit mostly unused, I am about to pull out the IOs in one for a new idea that might keep me playing.

 

So playing, with easy leveling and easy IOs, through whatever conduit you enjoy, IMO, is just playing the game.

Play how you like, play how you have fun.

 

I think sitting and watching others play the game while my time on the planet passes is not Fun.

This is also wrapped up, IMO, with the whole FOTM club, with the players that are determined to find the exact, perfect, most mathematically efficient way to get the games slot machine to produce dopamine rapidly...I play characters, not mathematical constructs. 🙂

 

So, I think 'farming' stuff in COH, has many flavors, just like playing the rest of the game, and is simply a reflection of the more modern take on many games that do not have the MMO based leveling idea.

Most games IME now have a totally different outlook on 'levelling' that while fine in it's own right, is not how most 'traditional' style MMOs were built, where the leveling process is not simply a speed bump, but a large portion of the game itself.

This was already occuring with the end of the Live servers, IMO.

 

When we look at the 'masses' in gaming community terms, they want the 'time spent to dopamine saturation' to be as short as possible - just look at the way people lose thier minds from a few seconds of a loading screen, for example.

It's like gamers are trying to tell game companies they have to be paid as players to play the games, when it's a hobby, a pass-time, not an investment in anything other than sanity, IMO, but we have people that think ther acocunts have some value that games companies 'owe' the player. 🙂

 

This change in the landscape of games with little to no 'leveling experience' becoming more popular is fine for the people making the games and thier profits, that's cool, but it does make it harder for someone like me to find games that have any value of play past 15 minutes though.

 

I play games to Play and Relax, not for Advancement or Rewards, just Fun.

 

When my wife and I setup vacations (not currently easy as we all know) we would have a day or two with one activity each day, followed by a day of nothing, etc., while we watched poeple on 'vacation' to 'relax' go down a list of activities lined by the minute and exhaust themselves trying to 'get in all the fun in one go'.

People are just wired differently. 🙂

 

[The_Warpact]

1 hour ago, Coyotedancer said:

Or in Pocket D.... o_0

Thats not syrup btw....😜

[CFIndustries]

Having dipped my toes in the farming pool out of frustration, I can make a number of observations:

 

• Even with an a not-too-expensive farmer and a decent farming mission, Influence and XP comes faster for me than any missions I've ever been on, including PI Council Radio roflstomps and Ephram DA mission endlessness.
• I can't speak to the influence/XP generated on TFs or iTrials as that is content I don't usually participate in.
• In the hands of an experienced farmer with a wicked-expensive build, this effect only intensifies.
• In the hands of the above experienced farmer and one or more support buddies, multibox mules, or multibox helper alts, influence and experience go off the charts. I have see truly insane farming setups that blow my mind.
• Being the farmer and doing some types of farm missions is no less exciting than silent chat during endless Council PI Radios (some of the farms are actually quite clever and interesting). Actually, farming is more fun in alot of ways than Council/DA roflstomps. I'm going to have to take back alot of bad things I've said about farmers in the past (*stares at feet in shame*).

So honestly, for XP and influence: farming wins. The vehemently anti-farming part of me can't argue with that; I've seen it for myself now. At least this is the experience for me, anyway; YMMV.

 

Mind you, except for this one farming alt of mine, fairly new, all my other alts go 1-50+ "the hard" way; no farms (I find I learn my alt and powersets better and the teaming is more fun). I built my farmer to generate a extra funds for my altitis. So my farmer is a practical matter; a way to make a necessary chore more fun. For my other alts, I'll see you on one of those teams, woohoo!

[Twisted Toon]

3 hours ago, EmmySky said:

Dont confuse us with facts!

 

No seriously, if your only goal is moar XPs or inf then its farming.  AE, portalcorp, radios, it is all farming because you do it for a specific goal.  If you do it because its hella fun and what's a few team wipes between friends because there is some seriously questionable chat going on and we are laughing our hineys off....THEN its not farming because its just fun.  All the XPs and inf are the icing on the giant cake we call fun times.  

 

I have fun in AE, in big teams, in small teams, in task forces and while licking the floor to see if it tastes like syrup.  The moment the game stops being fun is when I will exuent stage left even.  

 

MOAR FUN FOR ALL!!

That's farming too. You're just farming fun, instead of Inf or XPs.

It's City of Farming. Just not everyone farms for the same thing...In your case, Emmy, you're probably farming syrup.

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

I'd venture a guess and say it depends on what you are farming for.

 

[Luminara]

3 minutes ago, Twisted Toon said:

That's farming too. You're just farming fun, instead of Inf or XPs.

 

I want to farm potatoes.

 

Potatoes can grow in buckets.  Potatoes can grow in trash bags.  Potatoes can grow in water.  Potatoes can be placed on top of a straw bale, lightly covered with more straw, and the damn things will grow.  Potatoes grow anywhere, in absolutely any medium, except Co*.  This is the one place where I can't farm potatoes.  This needs to be changed forthwith and posthaste in order to increase my fun index to an appropriate ratio.

 

TATER FARMING PLZKTHX!

[jubakumbi]

16 minutes ago, Luminara said:

 

I want to farm potatoes.

 

Potatoes can grow in buckets.  Potatoes can grow in trash bags.  Potatoes can grow in water.  Potatoes can be placed on top of a straw bale, lightly covered with more straw, and the damn things will grow.  Potatoes grow anywhere, in absolutely any medium, except Co*.  This is the one place where I can't farm potatoes.  This needs to be changed forthwith and posthaste in order to increase my fun index to an appropriate ratio.

 

TATER FARMING PLZKTHX!

"The Flaming Tater Tot", perhaps?

Or the drops could all change to Potatoes as a prank...if I ran a server, there would be so very many tears...

Edited October 12, 2020 by jubakumbi
speeling