FARMING - What's the big deal?!

[Snarky]

1 hour ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

 

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

[lemming]

16 hours ago, Snarky said:

I would add that garlic on pizza is always bad

One of my favorite pizzas was Pepperoni, Pineapple, Garlic, and Jalapenos.    Great in college because I rarely had to share. 😄

 

Ok, on farming.

I don't mind it.  It's hard to balance the effort vs reward.  I don't think I can do AFK farming, but I'm heavily into distracted farming. (I think it might just be semantics...)

[Snarky]

17 minutes ago, lemming said:

One of my favorite pizzas was Pepperoni, Pineapple, Garlic, and Jalapenos.    Great in college because I rarely had to share. 😄

 

Ok, on farming.

I don't mind it.  It's hard to balance the effort vs reward.  I don't think I can do AFK farming, but I'm heavily into distracted farming. (I think it might just be semantics...)

i should really start semi afk farming as i practyice german.... except... i dont need the funds much and i really need to focus lol.  German is difficult.  Both complex grammatically AND filled with idiosyncratic expressions that have evolved over centuries.  

[madicen16]

2 minutes ago, Snarky said:

i should really start semi afk farming as i practyice german.... except... i dont need the funds much and i really need to focus lol.  German is difficult.  Both complex grammatically AND filled with idiosyncratic expressions that have evolved over centuries.  

I grew up in a bi-lingual home (Italian, parents are right off the boat), took Latin in grammar school for 3 years., and learned to speak Spanish as a young kid growing up in a predominantly immigrant community. The romance languages have always come easy for me....BUT German boy howdy I could not wrap my brain around it for the life of me. Hardest language ive ever tried to learn. Just made no sense to me. Granted it's been about 35 years since i last tried, but the trauma of that summer class long ago remains. 

[lemming]

10 minutes ago, Snarky said:

i should really start semi afk farming as i practyice german.... except... i dont need the funds much and i really need to focus lol.  German is difficult.  Both complex grammatically AND filled with idiosyncratic expressions that have evolved over centuries.  

I grew up with German and technically, the first words I ever spoke was german.   Nowadays, I can piece together the gist, but I suck at speaking it.  Then again, my English isn't the best either at times. 

[Snarky]

46 minutes ago, lemming said:

I grew up with German and technically, the first words I ever spoke was german.   Nowadays, I can piece together the gist, but I suck at speaking it.  Then again, my English isn't the best either at times. 

yeah, i am maybe 500 hours into german study ( hour +/- a day for year and half) and for slow distinct german i get the topic of the conversation 80%+ time.  and miss the point/misunderstand the meaning 80% time lol.  

[Apogee]

nice derail!  Move along folks, nothing to see here...

[merrypessimist]

22 hours ago, Snarky said:

I would add that garlic on pizza is always bad

 

There, there Snarky.  It's okay to be wrong.

[Snarky]

2 hours ago, merrypessimist said:

 

There, there Snarky.  It's okay to be wrong.

Ich bin richtig. Sie irren sich!

Edited Sunday at 11:45 PM by Snarky

[lemming]

1 hour ago, Apogee said:

nice derail!  Move along folks, nothing to see here...

Rails are for losers!  (or "Schienen sind für Verlierer")

[DoctorDitko]

I dislike farming as I dislike every other way of ignoring this game's below-50 content.

 

What I despise is idiots stand in AE spamming AOE powers that affect other players right next to the gorram mission entry thingy!

 

Once they get the (ineffable) out of my face, I literally couldn't care less! *

Are there folks getting XP and inf without putting in the effort I do? Yes!

Are there folks IRL getting money and influence without putting in the effort I do? Hell, yes!

 

I don't give a fleigenkindersheiss about either unless they are in my way.

 

(counterfactual scene)

Genie: OK, I brought back your silly game, now what?

Me: Make everyone everywhere believe in real things that are real.

Genie: Yeah, I'll get back to you on that.

(end counterfactual scene)

 

* If you know, you know.

[Apogee]

13 minutes ago, DoctorDitko said:

I dislike farming as I dislike every other way of ignoring this game's below-50 content.

 

What I despise is idiots stand in AE spamming AOE powers that affect other players right next to the gorram mission entry thingy!

 

Once they get the (ineffable) out of my face, I literally couldn't care less! *

 

 

* If you know, you know.

 

Oh I know

[Crysis]

On 11/2/2024 at 5:21 PM, 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.

 

 

That’s….not how AFK farmers work.

 

They are only AFK (for the most part) while inside the timed missions.  Depending on the farm, you may have to swap over to that instance and nudge them around a bit because the spawns aren’t assembling near them.  Then, when the mission timer ends and they are auto-ejected, you have to reset the mission (or go to next in arc) and place them in there again.  So, in no way is this totally “hands off” farming.

 

I AFK farm on a second account while actively playing my first.  And I rarely do it any longer as the rewards have been nerfed to the point it’s not effective use of my time to even do that any longer.  Powerfarming a new alt with an ACTIVE farmer, sure, do that all the time.

 

Mayby by AFK farming you mean joining a TOT league and just standing there while the League does all the work to farm you up?

[Ukase]

1 hour ago, Crysis said:

That’s….not how AFK farmers work.

 

Wow. Do I type a lot, or what?! I just deleted like 2 pages of stuff explaining the very real differences between not only active farming and afk-farming, but the differences between various afk-farmers. 
There used to be a dude who would recruit for a "sitter" who would have to fly overhead and lead the "active" farmer around while the farmer would go afk. The farmer would just follow the "sitter". Kind of funny/ironic. 

One player did them one better, removing the need for a flying "sitter", and rigged up a stone tank npc to rescue. This was before the change to stone tanks, and the npc was super slow. AFK-farmer goes in, and with burn on auto, targets the npc hostage and tabs out. While the afk-er is away, burn ends up "rescuing" this hostage, which then begins their very slow walk to the entrance of the map. And, as you can imagine, all the patrols and stationary mobs get aggro'd as both npc and afk-er make their way to the front. 

The hitch is when the geography of the map gets in the way, and somehow the npc just goes through walls. Sometimes, you come back, your farmer is dead because burn didn't fire because the geography had you in the air somehow. And sometimes, you're just stuck behind a rock or a trash can, while the npc has made it's way out. You never know how it's going to be. There's a fair amount of variance. 
 

Spoiler

There's a field of study called Psychology; a bit of an off-shoot of Psychiatry. Now, we're all different to some degree. and in a few ways, many of us are similar. And some of us are quite alike. Some folks will never like it when someone else comes up with a clever way of "getting over" that's within the guidelines/rules. They just won't. They may not think it's fair, they may think it's cheating. They have every right to think this way. But, on the other side of the coin, the other people who are being assessed by these folks have every right to look for the edge of that envelope and push right to it. 

These folks that push the envelope, these are, in a sense, the best assets we have in the community. Maybe 2nd best after the folks who consistently (and pleasantly) lead leagues for iTrials and various raids. Think of the many folks who pursue badges. Some badges, when you see the requirements and look at the steps to get them make you wonder how in the world anyone could get them. And that's where these folks who are thinking outside the box come in with their clever brains. 

Avoids the green stuff - a tough badge to get. Unless you just kill AM at the truck depot before the first oblit beam. Then it's quick and easy. (If you folks don't know how that's done, you just need to experience it to fully appreciate it! Whoever thought up this strategy used common sense in a very uncommon mindset. Truly a genius plan if you ask me) 

The incan method? As genius as that was, this way is better. 

And that trite, passe method of players actually understanding the 3 points where you want to control damage to avoid getting held and have an oblit beam ruin the badge for you? I know there are players who got the badge this way and probably look at any other way as unsavory and a bit of a cheat/hack, because there's a lot less skill (or simply different skills) involved. 

My point is this: if we find ourselves getting pissy about what other people are doing, it's probably because we lack the time, or the skill, or the gumption to do it ourselves. There might be one or two folks who want to claim some ambiguous, non-existent, moral high ground, but if it doesn't break the rules, then it's all fair. There's nothing "wrong" with it. 

If farming or afk farming were so bad, they could lock that down instantly. But it's common knowledge there was farming before AE. There will always be people who find a efficient way to do things faster than a team of 8. (when you take into account the time it takes to recruit) 

[Digirium]

Well, some of these replies make little sense to me.

 

And the "just move around the AFK'ers" replies are condescending.

 

The most popular place for AE farming is Pocket D. Near by it has everything anyone would need. I have seen farming teams (one player three accounts) in multiples standing around between the data stream and the contact for hours and obviously they are all AFK. 15-20 characters sometimes more. No joke.

 

Anyone who uses the Pocket D AE knows what I mean.

 

Troo rightly frowned on AFK farmers saying they need to keep their activity on the low down. Not draw attention.

 

It is obvious these players entered the data stream, set themselves up with toggles and auto-attack and went AFK.

 

The mission was timed and ejected them when the timer expired. If they were not AFK they would either get a new mission, re-enter the data stream, or move away from the data stream. Either of those two actions would signify they were not AFK.

 

These AFK'ers auto-attacks shake the camera and create a lot of sound adding to the disruption.

 

(Yeah, some genius might say "Hurr hurr hurr! Move around them! Turn of sound! Disable camera shake! Right, nincompoops none of us should have to do any of that to accommodate inconsiderate players that are not abiding by the same rules as us!)

 

It's none of my business what players do inside an AE mission. If they go AFK inside the mission and remain inside the mission until they return that's fine by me. If they use a timed mission and are ejected, they need to be there to take one or other action with their characters.

 

I have a problem and everyone else should have a problem with AFK'ers that really are AFK disrupting other players.

 

The Code of Conduct does too.

 

If you find yourself guilty of the above type of disruption please do yourself and everyone else a favor. Choose a non-timed mission in AE for your farm. Go AFK inside the mission to your own contentment. This will help you stop disrupting other players using AE and the data stream. And it shows your consideration.

 

The author of "that guide" that setup the timed mission could also remove the timer.

 

These are vital steps to help prevent farmers being seen as a damaging blight to the culture of the community.

 

 

* NB Please take no offense if you are a player that "AFKs" inside a farm meaning minimal keyboard input or makes movement but very little.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 17 hours ago by Digirium

[Gravitus]

On 11/2/2024 at 7:41 PM, Troo said:

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

So what? Is there anything virtuous about participating in mind-numbing active farming vs. afk farming? 

Seems like the smart thing to do, gutting out the mind-numbing active farming so I can concentrate on fun content and the thrill of min/maxing.

 

But even if I were to subscribe to mining resources without playing the game was somehow less virtuous , consider this:

 

 AFK farmers mine resources at a significantly slower rate than active farmers. In order to keep up with the rate of a return of an active farmers, you generally need 3-4 afk farmers. Building that many afk farmers takes a TON of RESOURCES and TIME to build. Not just gathering the resources to build effective AFK farmers but taking the time of slotting them out. You could argue that AFK farmers had to at one point PLAY the game a ton more than the average person to construct such a set up. 

 

I see building afk farmers as an investment similar to investing in stocks. I invest a lot of time and resources to make several AFK farmers to earn me passive income. (Except its worse than that since I have to reset my AFK farmers every 10 min or so) I take a "loss" when the devs change the mechanics of powers and make my farmers not able to farm effectively. (sorta like they did somewhat recently in fire farms and thus now i have to make a new string of farmers and spend a ton of time and resources yet again) 

 

As someone mentioned earlier, the more farmers you have, the more supply in the market and cheaper IO's become. 

 

 

I have not heard of AFK farmers negatively impacting anyone, quite the opposite if you consider the market. If your biggest gripe is they aren't "playing the game and they take up space near the data stream in AE, then I would have to say you do not have a convincing argument worth defending. 

Edited 16 hours ago by Gravitus

[Triumphant]

@Digirium  I don't want to be condescending, so try to take my response here as what it is:  Just another point of view.  None of the things that you  mentioned in your reply bother me in the slightest.  Though, if they did, I could easily fix it by using one of several AE buildings that are in regular zones.  As to leaving effects on, that happens everywhere, not just pocket D.  The solution is to turn camera shake off (which I have done).  If you want to solve that problem, it's the only practical solution.

 

I think that probably most players in this game (or any game, really) have pet peeves about things that they find personally annoying.  One of mine is masterminds.  I hate them, especially fire demon masterminds on constricted maps, because those flaming fiends clog up my screen and make it very difficult for me to see what the heck is going on in a fight and sort of impede my ability to concentrate.  When I join a pug and there are masterminds on the team, it greatly impacts my ability to enjoy the missions.  Maybe lots of other players have this pet peeve too (probably not, but I suppose it's possible).

 

So, what's the solution?  How about we just ask people not to play Masterminds?  Except... I'm not going to do that.  Players have the freedom to choose to play the thing that they want to play, regardless of how I feel about it (which is as it should be).   My solution to this problem (realistically) are the following:  1) Lead my own PUGs and clarify that Masterminds are not welcome.  2) Only play solo.  3)  Suck it up and live with it.

 

It's okay to openly discuss your opinion on these topics.  If enough people complain, then maybe you'll get enough traction to change the thing that annoys you.  But don't assume that most people share your pet peeves (or mine), because that is not necessarily the case.

Edited 17 hours ago by Triumphant

[Skyhawke]

[Without_Pause]

15 hours ago, DoctorDitko said:

I dislike farming as I dislike every other way of ignoring this game's below-50 content.

Flashback system and lower level TFs/SFs are needed for badges and accolades. I have a difficult time thinking of lower level content that is unavailable to a Level 50 outside of tutorial stuff. If you are that hellbent on getting the temp powers from doing Bank missions, you likely aren't doing farming anyway. Villains have an easy enough way to unlock those. 

[seebs]

On 11/3/2024 at 1:45 AM, Digirium said:

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).

 

 

i'm not seeing how they're disrupting me. like, i've just never actually had any of this affect me.

[Laucianna]

On 11/2/2024 at 5:46 PM, 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?

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.

I am a little bit confused here hun with your points, and since you posted them in a public place I assume you want to hear what other people think?

Unless that multiboxer is affecting your experience I am not seeing an issue here? If they follow you around stealing your street kills then you can submit a ticket and the GMs can take a look (Also good if you can video it happening for proof).

AFK Farming is how some people want to play the game, in a way that also simulates the market for the rest of us, there is no difference between this and someone who just wants to build bases or make costumes. People will log on, do what they enjoy and then log off and no one else (Apart from the Homecoming team) can or should stop them IMO 💛

I would give a warning first before straight deletion as I have met people who haven't actually memorized the Code of Conduct (Shocker I know!) So sometimes a reminder of "By the way that is against the Code of Conduct." is all it takes 😄

I get it's annoying the spam, hell I am sure people get annoyed with the way I advert for things I run since I like to make a more personal advert before the details 😄 But again it's not our place to tell people how to use a public channel.

I personally find the best way to promote other solutions is to be an example of this, when I run a Hamidon raid and says it gets you about 50m for 30 minutes of work (rough numbers depending on how eager Hami is to spawn) it gets people interested in that content as a break from farming but also high in profit for a non farming toon 💛 Basically for this is be the change you want to see in the game 🙂

[lemming]

Alright, enough about the German Garlic Pizza.

 

I'll admit I don't get the reasoning between a timed mission that kicks you out, and then the characters sit there for however long it takes the player to get back to the keyboard.   Sure, you don't have that time wasted zoning out, but I get annoyed at myself when I exit and I still have stuff on auto.

 

2 hours ago, Ukase said:

There used to be a dude who would recruit for a "sitter" who would have to fly overhead and lead the "active" farmer around while the farmer would go afk. The farmer would just follow the "sitter". Kind of funny/ironic. 

I actually did some active farming like that.  My setup has my alts usually just move from group to group, but once I had the one follow a blaster who would swoop down and nuke when it was safer.

 

I think as long as farming is less lucrative than "real" content, it's fine.  I'm not sure if we're there and there's a lot of variables.   I think when I farm, I make more via the market selling various drops.

 

I also find the actual farming fairly boring, but it can be relaxing which is part of the appeal.   I also like the tweaking various builds of the mobs, the maps, and the NPCs.

[Octogoat]

I was going to post something but now all I can think about is how much I want a seven cheese and garlic pizza.

[Skyhawke]

34 minutes ago, lemming said:

Alright, enough about the German Garlic Pizza.

 

Seriously. It's German. Let's put sausage on that mofo! Get some bratwurst up in this piece! 

[Seed22]

2 hours ago, Digirium said:

Well, some of these replies make little sense to me.

 

And the "just move around the AFK'ers" replies are condescending.

 

The most popular place for AE farming is Pocket D. Near by it has everything anyone would need. I have seen farming teams (one player three accounts) in multiples standing around between the data stream and the contact for hours and obviously they are all AFK. 15-20 characters sometimes more. No joke.

 

Anyone who uses the Pocket D AE knows what I mean.

 

Troo rightly frowned on AFK farmers saying they need to keep their activity on the low down. Not draw attention.

 

It is obvious these players entered the data stream, set themselves up with toggles and auto-attack and went AFK.

 

The mission was timed and ejected them when the timer expired. If they were not AFK they would either get a new mission, re-enter the data stream, or move away from the data stream. Either of those two actions would signify they were not AFK.

 

These AFK'ers auto-attacks shake the camera and create a lot of sound adding to the disruption.

 

(Yeah, some genius might say "Hurr hurr hurr! Move around them! Turn of sound! Disable camera shake! Right, nincompoops none of us should have to do any of that to accommodate inconsiderate players that are not abiding by the same rules as us!)

 

It's none of my business what players do inside an AE mission. If they go AFK inside the mission and remain inside the mission until they return that's fine by me. If they use a timed mission and are ejected, they need to be there to take one or other action with their characters.

 

I have a problem and everyone else should have a problem with AFK'ers that really are AFK disrupting other players.

 

The Code of Conduct does too.

 

If you find yourself guilty of the above type of disruption please do yourself and everyone else a favor. Choose a non-timed mission in AE for your farm. Go AFK inside the mission to your own contentment. This will help you stop disrupting other players using AE and the data stream. And it shows your consideration.

 

The author of "that guide" that setup the timed mission could also remove the timer.

 

These are vital steps to help prevent farmers being seen as a damaging blight to the culture of the community.

 

 

* NB Please take no offense if you are a player that "AFKs" inside a farm meaning minimal keyboard input or makes movement but very little.

 

 

 

 

 

Not only are you wrong, you typed a whole soliloquy of misinformation. Nowhere in the CoC is AFK farming explicitly pointed out as being against ToS. You and everyone like you should learn to live with.

 

 

>.> 

<.<
 

Psst! Come ‘ere….

 

Different playstyles than yours. Especially if the devs themselves don’t care.

 

This misinformed little rant of yours is not getting anything done, you clearly don’t know what AFK farming is, how it’s done, or even about the CoC. We get it, you don’t like it. We don’t care.