FARMING - What's the big deal?!

[Troo]

Folks wanna power level a new character or a friend's character while playing, I have no problem with that.

 

Folks wanna gather some funds to flush out a new build while playing, I have no problem with that.

 

Folks want to chill by frying hordes of gimped enemies without having to run all over Cryptic Studios creation, I like that too.

I don't think anyone has a problem with that.

 

It is ironic to see folks say 'don't tell me how to play' while the same folks promote 'get yourself a fire farmer' in answer to new players regarding earning or leveling. Not all who farm do this.

 

If someone chooses to violate the User Agreement or Code of Conduct, that choice has consequences.

Enabling someone else to violate those terms also has consequences, intentional or not.

 

In my opinion, having a way to level faster or cobble together some resources is good. Is farming the best way to learn the game, probably not, but folks can do what they want. I would certainly and have helped folks level up when asked. I'd rather hand someone resources than farm for them but not everyone is in that situation.

 

Honestly, very very few who farm are an issue. I have no problem with folks playing how they want.

 

 

------- What do I have a problem with? ---------

 

A Tanker with three spines Scrappers on follow with AoEs on auto-fire openly parading around a zone. Account deletion.

AFK farming... seriously?

Okay, I actually don't have a problem with someone doing a little on the down low.

I do have a problem with doing it excessively, writing a guide about it, and promoting it while e-peening how much they earn how fast.

This is just my opinion though.

Running scripts or code to exploit vulnerabilities in the program which could even potentially impact other players. Account deletion.

Non-stop begging in global channels to be farmed. It's annoying. Punishment = grumpy but polite tells.

Promoting farming as the only or best solution to a problem or question. It's counter productive and in my opinion short sighted.

 

There are somethings I won't mention here, but let me leave it at:

If YOU like to farm, other farmers who abuse and exploit are actually the ones who impact your farming, not anyone complaining.

 

[Apogee]

49 minutes ago, Troo said:

Folks wanna power level a new character or a friend's character while playing, I have no problem with that.

 

Folks wanna gather some funds to flush out a new build while playing, I have no problem with that.

 

Folks want to chill by frying hordes of gimped enemies without having to run all over Cryptic Studios creation, I like that too.

I don't think anyone has a problem with that.

 

It is ironic to see folks say 'don't tell me how to play' while the same folks promote 'get yourself a fire farmer' in answer to new players regarding earning or leveling. Not all who farm do this.

 

If someone chooses to violate the User Agreement or Code of Conduct, that choice has consequences.

Enabling someone else to violate those terms also has consequences, intentional or not.

 

In my opinion, having a way to level faster or cobble together some resources is good. Is farming the best way to learn the game, probably not, but folks can do what they want. I would certainly and have helped folks level up when asked. I'd rather hand someone resources than farm for them but not everyone is in that situation.

 

Honestly, very very few who farm are an issue. I have no problem with folks playing how they want.

 

 

------- What do I have a problem with? ---------

 

A Tanker with three spines Scrappers on follow with AoEs on auto-fire openly parading around a zone. Account deletion.

AFK farming... seriously?

Okay, I actually don't have a problem with someone doing a little on the down low.

I do have a problem with doing it excessively, writing a guide about it, and promoting it while e-peening how much they earn how fast.

This is just my opinion though.

Running scripts or code to exploit vulnerabilities in the program which could even potentially impact other players. Account deletion.

Non-stop begging in global channels to be farmed. It's annoying. Punishment = grumpy but polite tells.

Promoting farming as the only or best solution to a problem or question. It's counter productive and in my opinion short sighted.

 

There are somethings I won't mention here, but let me leave it at:

If YOU like to farm, other farmers who abuse and exploit are actually the ones who impact your farming, not anyone complaining.

 

 

The bolded section comes across (to me) that you are saying farming violates the CoC.  I don't believe that is what you mean, but some clarification would be good.

 

 

[BlackSpectre]

9 minutes ago, Troo said:

A Tanker with three spines Scrappers on follow with AoEs on auto-fire openly parading around a zone. Account deletion.

AFK farming... seriously?

In a non-AE zone? Never seen that. Crazy. It is usually less productive unless they're farming giant monsters (I guess)? And quad-boxing? Man, that dude has a nice rig to support all of that!

 

In a superhero game where the focus is on power and ability, there's always going to be people who buy into it and say "Hey! Look at me! Look what I can do! I'm amazing!!" and walk around flaunting it and showing off. They feel really good about themselves. And they want others to feel really good about them too. They think they've accomplished something no one else has done, or at least only a few, and want to enjoy the power trip. As long as it's harmless fun, I don't see anything wrong with it.

 

Is it sometimes annoying to see someone all puffed up, bragging, and with an ego about 10x the size of the Empire State Building? It can be. Me? I usually just laugh at them in my own mind and move on (if I'm feeling spiteful), otherwise I just smile and move on. They're having fun... even if it's AFK. They think they're doing something no one else can.

 

There's a lot of that that goes on in this game. People wonder if they can make a build that can do something amazing or difficult, and have at it. While running BAFs, every once in a while there is a player who splits off from the group and goes to door sit. They're seeing if their toon can shut down an entire door all by themselves. Does it bother me? Not at all. The league can almost always carry a few individuals who are off doing their own thing. They're having fun. I'll mention where they're supposed to be, because people often just don't know, but after that I let them be. They're having fun. And that's what I want people to do when playing COH... have fun.

 

 

9 minutes ago, Troo said:

I do have a problem with doing it excessively, writing a guide about it, and promoting it while e-peening how much they earn how fast.

To me, that shows that they are committed, really enjoying the game, and want to share their joy with others. Writing a guide is not an easy thing, and if they do there is a social reason why they do so: Sharing knowledge, sharing joy, or the desire for more accolades and approval from others. 

 

You are coming from a point of view that what they are doing is wrong, but I don't see it. The  code of conduct states "We allow a basic level of multiboxing on the Homecoming servers outside of peak times".  The only consideration is whether or not there is enough "space" for one person to take up more than one spot on the servers by multi-boxing... and that is completely conditional on how many people are on the server and in a particular zone. It is allowed. Not "wrong."

 

Using malicious code and hacking the game is not allowed, and it can mean account deletion, but other consequences can be levied too. whether or not someone is hacking the servers is something that is difficult for players to determine. I don't think what you saw was hacking.

 

Again, I don't see that they did anything wrong. Annoying? Maybe. Distasteful? To some. Were they hurting anyone else? No. Where they having fun? Yes.

 

9 minutes ago, Troo said:

If YOU like to farm, other farmers who abuse and exploit are actually the ones who impact your farming, not anyone complaining.

 

Historically, that's not the case. People who have complained about farming are the main antagonists to farming these days, but your point is well taken. One bad apple can often ruin the whole bunch. Still, I don't see the bad apple here.

 

Back when the game was originally live, NCSoft had moved to the "pay to win" model and that model depends on making things hard and time consuming in order to accomplish anything so that people will pay real money to get what they want quickly. Farming makes getting XP, Inf, and drops easier. AFK farming makes getting XP, Inf, and drops easier. So it went against their model for making moola, and that's why the old devs always seemed to take the anti-farming front's side. These days that model is gone. Everything is free, and the only thing our wonderful devs want is for their players to have a wonderful time playing COH. 

[Triumphant]

Yeah, I've never seen it in a non-AE zone.  Not sure why someone would do it, given the very low return for farming via street sweeping in regular zones.

[Digirium]

Alright, I am going to have a moment to complain about AFK Farmers. The type that go in to an AE data stream and the mission completes on a timer, they are ejected and remain inactive for hours. It must be really boring and tedious to the GMs to go visit AE and disconnect them.

 

Answer: An LUA script to automatically disconnect players inside and outside an AE data stream who have not taken/given damage. Not so much those inside the data stream on a mission but the ejected.

 

I reckon 5 minutes is a fair time. Fair, as well, to prevent them from logging in for a day or two.

 

Players in AE standing away from the data stream not included in this, they may be editing a mission.

 

Edited November 2 by Digirium

[ivanhedgehog]

Triple the inf/drops in story arc missions run at level. Incentivize people doing arcs. You cant run it over and over and you will level out of it pretty fast. It would get people leveling characters and flesh out the world.

[BlackSpectre]

1 hour ago, Digirium said:

Alright, I am going to have a moment to complain about AFK Farmers. The type that go in to an AE data stream and the mission completes on a timer, they are ejected and remain inactive for hours. It must be really boring and tedious to the GMs to go visit AE and disconnect them.

It's nice that you're trying to be considerate of the devs' time and effort, but is it your place to do so?  Believe  me, if the devs thought it a huge nuisance they'd do something about it.  As it stands, it follows the same rules as multi boxing... meaning, is there enough room for players to just sit around taking up a spot? Whether or not it's a problem is entirely conditional on how many people are on the server and/or in the zone at any given time.  You can complain if you like, but a toon standing around not doing anything isn't hurting anyone.

[Snarky]

5 hours ago, Troo said:

Folks wanna power level a new character or a friend's character while playing, I have no problem with that.

 

Folks wanna gather some funds to flush out a new build while playing, I have no problem with that.

 

Folks want to chill by frying hordes of gimped enemies without having to run all over Cryptic Studios creation, I like that too.

I don't think anyone has a problem with that.

 

It is ironic to see folks say 'don't tell me how to play' while the same folks promote 'get yourself a fire farmer' in answer to new players regarding earning or leveling. Not all who farm do this.

 

If someone chooses to violate the User Agreement or Code of Conduct, that choice has consequences.

Enabling someone else to violate those terms also has consequences, intentional or not.

 

In my opinion, having a way to level faster or cobble together some resources is good. Is farming the best way to learn the game, probably not, but folks can do what they want. I would certainly and have helped folks level up when asked. I'd rather hand someone resources than farm for them but not everyone is in that situation.

 

Honestly, very very few who farm are an issue. I have no problem with folks playing how they want.

 

 

------- What do I have a problem with? ---------

 

A Tanker with three spines Scrappers on follow with AoEs on auto-fire openly parading around a zone. Account deletion.

AFK farming... seriously?

Okay, I actually don't have a problem with someone doing a little on the down low.

I do have a problem with doing it excessively, writing a guide about it, and promoting it while e-peening how much they earn how fast.

This is just my opinion though.

Running scripts or code to exploit vulnerabilities in the program which could even potentially impact other players. Account deletion.

Non-stop begging in global channels to be farmed. It's annoying. Punishment = grumpy but polite tells.

Promoting farming as the only or best solution to a problem or question. It's counter productive and in my opinion short sighted.

 

There are somethings I won't mention here, but let me leave it at:

If YOU like to farm, other farmers who abuse and exploit are actually the ones who impact your farming, not anyone complaining.

 

I would add that garlic on pizza is always bad

[Sanguinesun]

1 hour ago, Digirium said:

Alright, I am going to have a moment to complain about AFK Farmers. The type that go in to an AE data stream and the mission completes on a timer, they are ejected and remain inactive for hours. It must be really boring and tedious to the GMs to go visit AE and disconnect them.

 

Answer: An LUA script to automatically disconnect players inside and outside an AE data stream who have not taken/given damage. Not so much those inside the data stream on a mission but the ejected.

 

I reckon 5 minutes is a fair time. Fair, as well, to prevent them from logging in for a day or two.

 

Players in AE standing away from the data stream not included in this, they may be editing a mission.

 

 

Its not an issue as you make it out to be though, really. 

 

5 hours ago, Troo said:

Folks wanna power level a new character or a friend's character while playing, I have no problem with that.

 

Folks wanna gather some funds to flush out a new build while playing, I have no problem with that.

 

Folks want to chill by frying hordes of gimped enemies without having to run all over Cryptic Studios creation, I like that too.

I don't think anyone has a problem with that.

 

It is ironic to see folks say 'don't tell me how to play' while the same folks promote 'get yourself a fire farmer' in answer to new players regarding earning or leveling. Not all who farm do this.

 

If someone chooses to violate the User Agreement or Code of Conduct, that choice has consequences.

Enabling someone else to violate those terms also has consequences, intentional or not.

 

In my opinion, having a way to level faster or cobble together some resources is good. Is farming the best way to learn the game, probably not, but folks can do what they want. I would certainly and have helped folks level up when asked. I'd rather hand someone resources than farm for them but not everyone is in that situation.

 

Honestly, very very few who farm are an issue. I have no problem with folks playing how they want.

 

 

------- What do I have a problem with? ---------

 

A Tanker with three spines Scrappers on follow with AoEs on auto-fire openly parading around a zone. Account deletion.

AFK farming... seriously?

Okay, I actually don't have a problem with someone doing a little on the down low.

I do have a problem with doing it excessively, writing a guide about it, and promoting it while e-peening how much they earn how fast.

This is just my opinion though.

Running scripts or code to exploit vulnerabilities in the program which could even potentially impact other players. Account deletion.

Non-stop begging in global channels to be farmed. It's annoying. Punishment = grumpy but polite tells.

Promoting farming as the only or best solution to a problem or question. It's counter productive and in my opinion short sighted.

 

There are somethings I won't mention here, but let me leave it at:

If YOU like to farm, other farmers who abuse and exploit are actually the ones who impact your farming, not anyone complaining.

 

 

Careful, your elitist slip is showing.....

 

Farmers be they afk or active are an important(yes I said it: important)  part of the game as it currently stands.  And Im not talking in terms of leveling either.  Without them,as the current game stands, you'd see it tank(pun not intended) really badly.

 

 

 

[Troo]

5 hours ago, Apogee said:

 

The bolded section comes across (to me) that you are saying farming violates the CoC.  I don't believe that is what you mean, but some clarification would be good.

 

Yeah, not intended that way. I could have added something there to be more clear. (I was happy to minimize misspelling in that wall of words)

"Overall and not limited to farming, if someone chooses to violate the User Agreement or Code of Conduct, that choice has consequences."

 

5 hours ago, BlackSpectre said:

You are coming from a point of view that what they are doing is wrong, but I don't see it.

 

Correct.

As stated, AFK farming is something I situationally have a problem with (keyword "excessively" which would need to be defined).

Is someone playing the game if they are AFK farming? To me folks simply found a way to mine resources without playing. (my opinion)

AFK farming can vary. Do all forms get thrown in the same basket? Are they doing it for just a couple hours once in a while? Are they having to check back every seven minutes or are they simply walking away for hours at a time while doing it 24/7 with three accounts going on each and every server? My opinion: it is something that is debatable.

 

5 hours ago, BlackSpectre said:

So it went against their model for making moola, and that's why the old devs always seemed to take the anti-farming front's side.

 

Well this is nonsense to me. Sure, they wanted to monetize shortcuts to capitalize on what they saw as unrealized revenue? It's fairly shallow what they were doing without some deep conspiracy or sinister goals. What does that have to do with S/L farming?

If I agreed with your premise at all, I would have to ask: Why even have players gather resources at all? Why have levels?

[Troo]

1 hour ago, Sanguinesun said:

Careful, your elitist slip is showing...

 

Oooooo name calling, the bastion of those "with the intentions of gaining advantage over, or defending themselves from, an opponent or critic" where "personal attacks are employed to devalue a speaker's argument by attacking the speaker" rather than their ideas or opinions.

 

-vs-

 

Because I can combine words and spellz some stuff?!

 

I couldn't choose a preferred response sooo...

 

[Glacier Peak]

Submit a support ticket and move on. 

[BlackSpectre]

2 hours ago, Troo said:

If I agreed with your premise at all, I would have to ask: Why even have players gather resources at all? Why have levels?

Why stop short? The next question that follows is "Why have a game at all?" And I think you can sense the absurdity of the line of reasoning that you started. No need to really comment.

 

 @Troo, you're a good person and a stellar COH player, and I see that you've narrowed down your objections to the idea of "excessive". There's that old pearl of wisdom, "too much of even a good thing can be harmful." And in that, there's no argument, at least on my end. For me, moderation and balance is usually a healthier way to live. If we apply it to COH, then I think even players who go to extremes eventually realize that it's not worth the cost (attention, focus, obsessiveness, work, time, etc.), and completely on their own reel in their own excessiveness.  Either that or they burn themselves out and drop out of the game. So for me, the issue of excessiveness is transitory at best. It's here, and then gone. Which brings us full circle back to just letting people enjoy the game the way they like. As long as no harm is done, it's all good.

[Digirium]

5 hours ago, BlackSpectre said:

It's nice that you're trying to be considerate of the devs' time and effort, but is it your place to do so?  Believe  me, if the devs thought it a huge nuisance they'd do something about it.  As it stands, it follows the same rules as multi boxing... meaning, is there enough room for players to just sit around taking up a spot? Whether or not it's a problem is entirely conditional on how many people are on the server and/or in the zone at any given time.  You can complain if you like, but a toon standing around not doing anything isn't hurting anyone.

 

That is your opinion (it's wrong and patronizing) factually those players are bypassing the AFK and auto-disconnect mechanics and the CoC says they are subject to GM disconnect. Nobody can know why those players are AFK we can observe them standing there for hours outside the data stream. This is disruptive to other players in AE trying to access the data stream. Better if those players did farm missions that were not timed and they were never ejected. Better if a script just took care of disconnecting them all.

 

As Troo noted they read a "guide" took it as "best  practice" when it is the opposite and established a disruptive anti-pattern.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 3 by Digirium

[seebs]

okay i think i'm missing a thing

as a person who is not doing this, why do i care whether someone is doing this? like, if they're enjoying it, and it doesn't hurt me, why should i care?

i guess there's two questions:

1. what rule, exactly, are they breaking?
2. why do i care?

because sometimes a rule is a little approximate and bans more things than we actually care about, and in other cases it just isn't enforced, and actually... that seems fine to me?

my friend, people are at this moment being killed. if you want me to think that someone, somewhere, should so much as push a button in order to solve your problem, first you will need to sell me on the idea that it is a problem which needs to be solved.

[Sanguinesun]

3 hours ago, Troo said:

 

Oooooo name calling, the bastion of those "with the intentions of gaining advantage over, or defending themselves from, an opponent or critic" where "personal attacks are employed to devalue a speaker's argument by attacking the speaker" rather than their ideas or opinions.

 

-vs-

 

Because I can combine words and spellz some stuff?!

 

I couldn't choose a preferred response sooo...

 

 

 

I said your elitist slip is showing, meaning you conduct yourself with elitism in mind regarding your opinions for players in these things.  Splitting hairs perhaps but there's no right way for you to defend the wrong thing.

Edited November 3 by Sanguinesun

[Digirium]

I did not think Troo was being elitist rather their OP and opinion was to the point, matter of fact and difficult to disagree with.

 

It's none of my business if another player AFK farms unless they are disrupting me and other players (see above).

 

 

Edited November 3 by Digirium

[BlackSpectre]

2 hours ago, Digirium said:

This is disruptive to other players in AE trying to access the data stream.

Someone is standing in your way and you have to move around them is disruptive??? Just because you're annoyed at being forced to deal with others doesn't mean they or the world around them is wrong. Certainly not "disruptive"... unless you're talking about disrupting your effortless clicking on something. In which case, who says it should be effortless?  It's a tiny thing that doesn't harm you or anyone in any way. 

 

It seems to be human nature to:

1) blame others for any problem one has instead of looking at oneself as the cause of the problem (disregarding any evidence)

2) If other people pose a problem to someone, the first impulse is to attempt to control the other person rather than look at what they can do to solve the problem themselves. To put it another way, try to force others to change rather than change themselves.

 

It's odd, but it is very prevalent. I see it in children and adults. For most of the discussions like this thread, this is the primary dynamic that I see going on. 

 

When playing this game, I've found it much less upsetting to find a way to change myself (work around people) rather than to attempt to force them to change (do what I want). But I you want to be upset, then by all means blame others for making you feel annoyed (hint: how you feel is not their fault), and then attempt to control them rather than look inward to oneself for the solution.  It's a sure fire recipe for conflict and heated emotions. Just some unsolicited advice, my friends. Nothing more.   

 

 

[Maelwys]

I'm guessing this vitriol about observing other characters standing around motionless in AE is coming from a server that tends to sit on more than one green dot.

 

Also, it'd be a very poor "AFK farming guide" that didn't tell these people (i) To put a PBAoE on Autofire and (ii) Not to just enter the mission and then take their hands immediately off the keyboard (the idea is to CLICK THE GLOWIE FIRST to disable the countdown ejection timer unless you're actively using it as a performance metric + throwing the toon out and back in again once the mob horde starts to thin...)

 

Anyways. I'm one of those filthy soulless monsters who not only occasionally AFK AE farms on HC; but also AFK farmed quite a fair bit on Live back in the day (with two accounts whacking each other in Warburg no less. So technically anyone who was bothered enough could have walked up and disrupted it. Nobody ever did).

I could argue that I was paying my subscriptions, and purposely going out of everyone's way, and generating useful loot that increased supply of highly-desired IOs and brought auction prices down, etc, etc... and all of that is technically true.

But the MAIN reason? Honestly I'm a min/maxer at heart. And so finding a method of generating major inf with minimal effort has a dopamine inducing draw to me. Plus, my computer wasn't doing anything else at the time anyway (I often left them overnight or whilst I was out at Uni. This was 20+ years ago after all). Most of the influence generated was spent by me or my coalition buddies on IOs and costume changes, so it "went back into the system" and the farming itself simply removed the need to sink any of our precious real playtime into influence generation.

 

I personally don't see any current harm in AFK farming in AE on HC unless the server you're on is oversubscribed and your toon's presence is therefore potentially negatively impacting on someone else's ability to play the game.

 

However if any AFK toon is genuinely blocking folk clicking on something important then by all means shove their silly polygons elsewhere or force log the bugger off.

 

Edited November 3 by Maelwys

[Clave Dark 5]

• Try looking for any sort of mission your level in AE without stumbling across bushels of poorly conceived, executed, and then abandoned incomplete farms wasting server memory.  (Maybe we should have some sort of "name release" program the AE trash, but really that's small potatoes, The AE is only for farming and I know it.)
• ToT AFK leechers who're farming my playing.  Imagine hopping into your favorite AE farm and finding others have invited themselves and you can't get rid of them while they door-sit siphoning off your drops.  Any other farmers would be be livid if they coudl do that.
• Farming is so important that the Devs ignored other directions that they might go in and spent their rare volunteer hours (and yes, I do fully know that they are) to build and refine a whole farm map for 45+ characters, because farming as existed just wasn't enough somehow.  Enjoy being the most catered-to players, you've won this battle!
• Now since every toon can be easily twinked out to the EXTREEEEEEME in a matter of hours, the Devs have to alter the game around us to keep it from being a dull cake-walk.  Seems to me that that's some kind of tell, a clue that "something has gone wrong," that was ignored or misunderstood...

See my sig, I think Matt was right. 

[kito]

What farm map?

[Ukase]

Do I dare reply? Of course I do! 

I see different sides to this. 

For me, and it's a damn good thing I'm not in charge, cuz I'd be the only one here most likely, if I saw a brute with 7 MMs in tow, I would get my account ban hammer out. 

If I saw them with just 2 in tow, I'd check the population levels and be poised to use the ol' ban hammer. Forget warnings. Thankfully, for me and all of you, I'm never going to be in charge. 

In all seriousness, there are many ways to solve different problems/obstacles/goals in game. 
I'm sure I've shared that most of my characters make their own billion. It's not like it's hard. It can be damned tedious, and the market and those other marketers can make things challenging, particularly the insane people who just dump stuff for cheap, undercutting my prices. 
But, inf can be earned in game so many different ways. It doesn't have to be by tedious crafting/converting. It can be done just by selling the surplus of what the game provides. 100 hero merits is fairly standard, I think, for most characters to earn as they go from 1-50. If it's not that, it's probably close to it. 

That might not net a full billion, but it would be close. As Snarky posted himself not too long ago - farming, marketing...all of that is unnecessary to have a full, rich, enjoyable gaming experience. 

But - some folks just like farming. They like feeling invincible, going afk to get the beverage of their choice and still be dishing out damage, and then continuing their savagery. I have no beef with these folks. Sometimes, I'm one of them. Not often these day, but there was a time when I had a farm running on two accounts while playing a third. That got tedious quickly, burning through 3000 converters a day, roughly. Made a ton of inf, though!

 
If I'm reading Troo's original post properly, the big beef seems to be against those advising new players to make a farm to solve their in-game struggles/opportunities/goals. 
The problem is those folks who give this poorly thought out advice aren't on these forums. Anyone who has a decent farmer understands that ATOs are not cheap for a new player. Heck, nothing is cheap for the new player. 

I strongly suspect that if CoH came out today as a new release, the idea of folks reaching level 35 and only having enough influence to put SOs in 1/3 of their slots...well, that would lead to a lot of players logging off and finding something else to do. I could be wrong, of course. 
Fortunately, we're in an environment where guides make it quite easy to earn enough influence to get what you need - if the player can be directed towards those guides. 

I suspect most players dislike the idea of tabbing out and reading for 10 minutes to figure certain things out. This is why I'd love for more information that we get from external sites like City of Data and HC Wiki to be in game. Even if it's just a click on a contact that brings up that same site within a pane while I'm in game, that would be better in my opinion. 

It would be a marvelous thing for a new player to not have to rely on the kind, thoughtful, concise advice from another player, but to merely click on a contact and make their own decisions. 

As for getting levels quickly, to me, AE farms are out of date. I wouldn't use them for levels. They give 1/2 the xp of content outside of AE. And they are boring unless you're the farmer. Maybe even for the farmer, depending on the farmer. Mind you, I will use them on alts that are afk, while I play on my primary account. But those occasions are now very seldom. 

Right now, an MSR will outpace an AE farm, if you can stomach the waiting for it to fill. And for a limited time longer, the ToT if you have a decent league will outpace AE if you're not hopping back and forth to get GM kills for the merits. (based solely on my anecdotal experience, nothing scientific) 
It should be said that most msrs will have a rough time if there are too many lower level characters. As for what is "too many", that's probably more than 2 per team under level 20. But, I'm pulling that out of thin air. No idea what the number is, but know it when it happens, lol. 

There are more than a few players out there that recruit for level 50 stuff that any level is welcome to join. That XP would be better than an AE farm. The only hitch is getting those invites, and making your way to that zone. Not so easy for newer players learning their way around. 

For now, AE farms are just an easy solution. Sadly, or not, those players that take that path...I have a feeling they will stop playing as they don't really have anything invested in their character. I hope I'm wrong about that. I hope they get a chance to play something fun outside of the farm and learn different things. If not, then they'll probably be gone in a couple of weeks anyway. 

[tidge]

19 hours ago, Troo said:

------- What do I have a problem with? ---------

 

A Tanker with three spines Scrappers on follow with AoEs on auto-fire openly parading around a zone. Account deletion.

AFK farming... seriously?

 

(Imma guess it was two scrappers, because I think the stated limit on multiboxing is for three)

 

18 hours ago, BlackSpectre said:

In a non-AE zone? Never seen that. Crazy. It is usually less productive unless they're farming giant monsters (I guess)? And quad-boxing? Man, that dude has a nice rig to support all of that!

 

Tanker+AoE Scrappers doesn't sound radically different to me than the multi-boxing Masterminds in open-world maps chasing Giant Monster rewards. I see several of them (different players!) every day.

 

[Scarlet Shocker]

15 hours ago, Snarky said:

I would add that garlic on pizza is always bad

 

Garlic's fine. Pineapple... that's another thing entirely...

[Seed22]

20 hours ago, Troo said:

If YOU like to farm, other farmers who abuse and exploit are actually the ones who impact your farming, not anyone complaining.

This is 100% not true. Neither of you impact us, you’re just fucking annoying. Both of you. 
 

What impacts farming is whatever the devs cook up as an excuse to take a whack at farming, and that whole fiasco with the market which wasn’t necessarily from AFK farming but a literal XP/Inf bug that gave roughly 3x of both I believe? Leading to farmers being overly flush with inf. Not so much an issue nowadays. Flippers still make more faster.
 

 

Sucks I had to be vulgar but honestly this rodeo keeps rolling into town too often. 

Edited November 3 by Seed22