Farm nerfs

[Snarky]

I am probably out of the loop on this.  I have not been on game very much last couple months

 

Just now me and two SG mates took three working farmers and tried to level a 40 fender. Got two levels clearing 6 farm tunnels. (The S shaped ones).  This should have been way more than that.   
 

Are they just nerfing everything now?

[Glacier Peak]

13 minutes ago, Snarky said:

I am probably out of the loop on this.  I have not been on game very much last couple months

Yes. The double xp temporary power was providing triple xp. This bug was fixed. 

 

13 minutes ago, Snarky said:

Just now me and two SG mates took three working farmers and tried to level a 40 fender. Got two levels clearing 6 farm tunnels. (The S shaped ones).  This should have been way more than that.   

Check the AE critters in the mission to see if they're providing the full 100% XP. 

 

14 minutes ago, Snarky said:

Are they just nerfing everything now?

No. 

[ScrewlooseCohh]

Yes they were worried that you would run out of things to be snarky about.

[Lines]

My memory of those tunnel farms is they've never provided that much xp. I think they were popular way back when, but just got made obsolete by asteroids and atta caves.

 

The removal of the triple xp bug is probably a contributor here though.

[Snarky]

I seriously used to take a level 1-50 in 3 hours like clockwork, just me solo.  There were three of us farmers pulling one guy for almost an hour and got two levels

 

Bottom line… I am not buying the 2x was 3x but it is fixed. It does not take the ability to do calculus to know there was a way bigger nerf than a 50% difference.  
 

They nerfed the crap out of farming from what I just saw.  

[Glacier Peak]

13 minutes ago, Snarky said:

I seriously used to take a level 1-50 in 3 hours like clockwork, just me solo.  There were three of us farmers pulling one guy for almost an hour and got two levels

 

Bottom line… I am not buying the 2x was 3x but it is fixed. It does not take the ability to do calculus to know there was a way bigger nerf than a 50% difference.  
 

They nerfed the crap out of farming from what I just saw.  

Do you need me to link the patch notes? I told you the two things that changed. 

[Snarky]

4 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

Do you need me to link the patch notes? I told you the two things that changed. 

 

4 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

Do you need me to link the patch notes? I told you the two things that changed. 

I know you are a stand up guy Glacier. Thx

 

However, as me and my mates discussed the dismal performance it was mentioned that Ukase has stopped farming.  He had logged off earlier so I have not heard it from him.  But, if true, that is a horrid indictment of the state of affairs.  Ukase farmed like a sharecropper behind on the mortgage, has for years

Edited October 9, 2022 by Snarky

[Coyotedancer]

4 hours ago, Snarky said:

I seriously used to take a level 1-50 in 3 hours like clockwork, just me solo.  There were three of us farmers pulling one guy for almost an hour and got two levels

 

Bottom line… I am not buying the 2x was 3x but it is fixed. It does not take the ability to do calculus to know there was a way bigger nerf than a 50% difference.  
 

They nerfed the crap out of farming from what I just saw.  

 

You would have gone faster with one farmer and one lowbie. Having three or more people on the map slows you down, since the increase in clearing speed and "team bonus" won't really be enough to offset the reward splitting. 

[MoonSheep]

hmm this thread is staying surprisingly civilised, lemme get things going

 

yes, nerf those farms! ban AE! farmers are bad people who leave the toilet seat up

[Digirium]

Page 4 also brought in massive levels of aggro against farmers f.ex every critter on asteroid map shooting the farmer. Atta map (a favourite for AFK farm makers) suffered similar fate at the crossroad junctions. How inf/xp was decided in AE was also nerfed.

 

Page 5 changed Burn and Irradiated Ground (pseudo pets, procs, damage) and tried to make Burn a once in forever power, added -def to fiery melee powers. Even shifting when T1-9 powers can be added to lower down in builds is a change in part to counter the "players power level their characters because of large gaps in getting powers" argument - more reason to level up the "normal" way, huh. I think it was better to keep things the way they were except for adding a choice of T1/2 in secondary power which is only what players have wanted forever more or less.

 

Farmers usually catch up with things after the patch. I reckon most players do not read forums or care about what is coming on test servers because they are (or were) enjoying themselves too much to bother. Page 4 caused a lot of farmers to "throw in the towel". Page 5 expecting a ditto.

 

Future will be whatever meta is most popular amongst farmers getting "special" dev attention like "whack a mole".

 

I expect drops within AE will be hit and inf/xp will take further hits.

 

It seems to be a time tested certainty that developers of a game eventually make their game less popular over time. Players accept the fun times are over, fun has died and move on to something else that is still fun.

[America's Angel]

6 hours ago, Snarky said:

I seriously used to take a level 1-50 in 3 hours like clockwork, just me solo.

In Page 4 this is still possible.

Edited October 9, 2022 by America's Angel

[Neiska]

@Snarky - My hot take on things.

 

If you are an afk farmer then yes some of the changes make it more difficult, and I suspect this was by design. The AI wont sit and twiddle its thumbs waiting for its turn to be bonked anymore, now if your aggro list is full, they won't ignore you, they will use ranged attacks. So no longer is softcapping DEF and RES enough to afk farm, now you have to put in enough passive regen/ranged def as well if you want to be 100% automated. It's still possible sure but have to build differently. However, for some farming setups, this change in AI actually made farming faster, especially with Mastermind farming where the point is to fight as many things as you can at a time. So if mobs run to your pets more that means you spend less time chasing things down. So the AI change shaved about 20-30 seconds off my farms.

 

The EXP in AE, well, it's been adjusted 2 or 3 times now. (I think?) So if you are comparing what you get now to what we got 2 years ago, it will definitely feel slower.

 

But what I suspect you are experiencing is the "how" exp is awarded. Details fail me (haven't had my morning coffee yet) but I seem to recall that the enemies powers affect the EXP awarded. You can't just load up an AE full of critters with Blargh powers and expect full exp. Now you need to give them actual legit powers. I can't recall seeing this in the patch notes, but this is what those of us farmers were discussing in the super secret forbidden discord that totally doesn't exist. So you may want to remake a map with updated enemies and try again. Again, I can't remember where this information originated from, but the scuttlebutt is that old maps award inferior EXP compared to ones remade after the latest round of rebalancing.

 

Hope this helps hon. Stay Snarky.

[roleki]

Meanwhile, in City of Doesn't Everyone Feel Better Now That Farming Is Nerfed Again, the shards that actually have people left on them are about to implode because everyone who hasn't yet been driven away from the game is farming the living shit out of the ToT event. 

 

Things that make you go hmmm

[Snarky]

Heh.  I was never much of a Farmer.   I made an alt acct after about a year and a half passed of being back.  I used that to 50 all my mad AT ideas.  That, and jumping in to help an SG mate, is the extent of my farm experiences.  I just do not like it

 

Did they think that the people that liked to farm (and there was a dedicated crew) would just magically decide to start running Synapse and LGTF when they stomped on their fun toy?   
 

Indeed.  Things that make you go hmmmm

[Glacier Peak]

5 minutes ago, Snarky said:

Heh.  I was never much of a Farmer.   I made an alt acct after about a year and a half passed of being back.  I used that to 50 all my mad AT ideas.  That, and jumping in to help an SG mate, is the extent of my farm experiences.  I just do not like it

 

Did they think that the people that liked to farm (and there was a dedicated crew) would just magically decide to start running Synapse and LGTF when they stomped on their fun toy?   
 

Indeed.  Things that make you go hmmmm

Didn't you also run all the story content red side already? Or was it all blue, gold, and red side? I did that and afterwards I had to take a break lol

[Snarky]

34 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

Didn't you also run all the story content red side already? Or was it all blue, gold, and red side? I did that and afterwards I had to take a break lol

That is indeed me lol  triple sided

[Coyotedancer]

46 minutes ago, Snarky said:

Heh.  I was never much of a Farmer.   I made an alt acct after about a year and a half passed of being back.  I used that to 50 all my mad AT ideas.  That, and jumping in to help an SG mate, is the extent of my farm experiences.  I just do not like it

 

Did they think that the people that liked to farm (and there was a dedicated crew) would just magically decide to start running Synapse and LGTF when they stomped on their fun toy?   
 

Indeed.  Things that make you go hmmmm

 

I suspect they really, really wanted us all to give up our farms and run their Hard Mode content as often as possible. In spite of a lot of us being people who either don't have that kind of time or don't have any desire to team. 

[Snarky]

3 minutes ago, Coyotedancer said:

 

I suspect they really, really wanted us all to give up our farms and run their Hard Mode content as often as possible. In spite of a lot of us being people who either don't have that kind of time or don't have any desire to team. 

If we get rid off all the french fries at mcdonalds they will buy the mcsalads?

 

[Coyotedancer]

Something like that, yeah. 😝

 

"You guuuuuys! You're playing the game all wrong! You're supposed to be doing it THIS WAY, not like *that*. Don't you know anything?"

[Troo]

11 hours ago, Snarky said:

I seriously used to take a level 1-50 in 3 hours like clockwork, just me solo.  There were three of us farmers pulling one guy for almost an hour and got two levels

 

Bottom line… I am not buying the 2x was 3x but it is fixed. It does not take the ability to do calculus to know there was a way bigger nerf than a 50% difference.  
 

They nerfed the crap out of farming from what I just saw.  

 

2 levels in 6 tunnel runs is not working as intended even after nerfs.

 

I'm going to say it was an old mission not providing expected xp and the more folks in the mission the more the xp gets spread around.

 

You could try a fire farm I threw together after page 4. Arc #52116 "Summer's Over: A Halloween Fire Farm (page 4 version)".

It's should be max xp. Be aware it's a smidge more challenging than pre-page 4s due to the ranged damage for mobs over the damage cap.

 

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by Troo

[Sanguinesun]

6 hours ago, America's Angel said:

In Page 4 this is still possible.

 

3 hours is somewhat iffy.    If I am taking 1 toon on runs to level them, I can use patty's dreck farm clearing it 3 times n change to get a toon to 50 and get it very close to 3 hours if transitions are between runs smoothly and not taking too long to sell stuff during the transitions.  It there's more than 2 in the process, it will take over 3 hours.

 

13 hours ago, Snarky said:

I am probably out of the loop on this.  I have not been on game very much last couple months

 

Just now me and two SG mates took three working farmers and tried to level a 40 fender. Got two levels clearing 6 farm tunnels. (The S shaped ones).  This should have been way more than that.   
 

Are they just nerfing everything now?

 

As others  said, that's going to be a combination of the exp reduction( they call it a bug yet it was up like that for a very long time without them "patching" it so I'm just gonna call it an intentional nerf due to mindset changes by the dev team)  and that there was a change to the ability/power requirements when making mobs between min- Elite boss that older farms that their makers have not returned to revamp have resulted in significant exp/influence  reductions.    Patty's dreck and some other missions now are more optimal BUT due to positional defense changes and the change to the aggro (by mobs), you'll take considerable more damage with older build farmers in general.  Angel has some build recommendations they posted in another thread for certain power sets that may match improvements but its still going to be an adjustment for most.

 

Alternatively right now, hit peak times on excelsior and just join the league halloween farms(yes isnt it interesting they're farms....) since there's no transitions between missions and you're just clicking doors and letting the blasters do the work, its fast exp.   Only inconsistencies will be when leagues dwindle due to leaders not keeping the invites going out.

 

1 hour ago, Coyotedancer said:

 

I suspect they really, really wanted us all to give up our farms and run their Hard Mode content as often as possible. In spite of a lot of us being people who either don't have that kind of time or don't have any desire to team. 

 

 

There are segments of the player base that essentially hate farming as a whole, hate farming only in the AE, hate people leveling fast, hate people, hate use of procs and want to see them removed from the game etc etc etc.   They all find a convenient intersection with AE farming unfortunately.  Some of those mindsets also seemingly would be found within the devs and their associates.  It mostly boils down to people wanting others to play their way or hit the road (ie elitism) vs what others enjoy or simply have little choices else to do(not everyone plays well pop'd servers or at peak times or wishes to deal with teams with misanthropic personalities) and this has been an entrenched, ongoing thing for years now with changes trickling down to further discourage farming and specifically targeting AE farming.   

 

Best way to counter it is to farm more, and teach/get others to farm more, honestly.... not quitting(though there are a few people that I know that stream coh play that have been talking about quitting because they enjoy streaming farming and then using the proceeds to fund contests or other in game activities.  That'll be a shame if they do quit but I've told them don't let them discourage their fun.

 

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

If we get rid off all the french fries at mcdonalds they will buy the mcsalads?

 

 

Nothing stopping folks from either going to other fast food joints or starting up their own of course.  Right now I'd say that the offerings of Mc'D's still outweighs most changes/negatives though but the scales can always shift.

 

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by Sanguinesun

[Snarky]

Just to be clear my "Three hour time" to farm a 50 was pretty accurate.  I hate farming so I know how much work it took.  But that was "time in tunnel"  I took breaks, etc.  But it was three hours button mashing to pay for a new 50.  Approx 18 tunnel runs at 10 min a pop.  although I was not OCD enough to count them ever.

 

I am sure the combo of changes is what killed my teams expectations, and enjoyment last night.

 

Not a flaw, it's a feature! Working as intended.

Edited October 9, 2022 by Snarky

[Troo]

3 minutes ago, Snarky said:

Just to be clear my "Three hour time" to farm a 50 was pretty accurate.

 

yep.

3 hours was broken.

changes hurt those who are/were less efficient or less effective than those posting record times. (poor get poorer)

 

resetting the expectation is what it is.

[Troo]

LOL

[Troo]

Playing on test is sooo easy now.

Insta50 and Incarnates. Can even export an file with all the enhancement shopping in it. I don't know why folks don't play there more. Sure it can get wiped but it's so easy now to spin or re-spin up a character.

 

 

Edited October 10, 2022 by Troo