Don't assume your teammates WANT to farm
By
AmazingMOO,
Posted on: 2009-06-02 22:01 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
I'm always amazed whenever there's a farming/PL craze at how many people assume exactly that - and even get hostile if other players don't want to farm/PL/meow/whatever.
Thanks for sharing this, it's refreshing to see things go the other way for a change.
Iscariot's Guide to the Tri-Form Warshade, version 2.1
I'm sorry that math > your paranoid delusions, but them's the breaks -- Nethergoat
P.E.R.C. Rep for Liberty server
This is the reason farming is bad for the game- people start thinking that the game's all about farming, and have trouble being convinced otherwise.
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This is the reason farming is bad for the game- people start thinking that the game's all about farming, and have trouble being convinced otherwise.
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Got it in one. I've been on a lot of teams lately that had people who felt similarly.
Can we carry this one step further and say "Don't just assume a potential new team mate wants to do AE missions at all .. Farms or not!" This happened to me enough that I now ASK what type of missions before I even consider joining a team.
The worst was a while ago and the team leader sent a tell asking of I wanted to team. I was about a bar and a half from my next level and teaming meant that would happen much quicker so I said yes. When I joined the team, in PI, I discovered I was the only team member in the zone so I asked .. "Where to?" The answer was Founders Falls which led me to believe it was a contact mission since most of the farms, etc, were happening in Atlas Park or Talos. Well I arrived and as I did noticed my mini map turn into the all too familiar Mission Archetect. Plus everyone on the team, aside from 2 others still zoning, was in the AE building. About that time another member zoned and made the comment "Guess we are doing an AE mission." He had not been informed either.
Well XP is XP and I figured if it was a farm or out and out horrible I could always just quit. The mission was on the Reclusive Victory map of Atlas... the one that provides no mini map so you have no idea where you have already been or even where your team mates are if by chance you get seperated. Technically it wasn't a farm and the entire villain group consisted of Void Stalker minions and lieutenants. Now the frustrating part begins as the mission called for us to find and release 12 custom build hostages scattered throughout the map. Not an easy task but they did glow so it wasn't completely terrible. After each release, and none of the hostages was an ally, there was an ambush and at some point the team got split up. Numerous deaths occurred at that point and with NO mini map it was impossible to find the downed team mate to attempt rez. So they had to go to the hospital and of course on returning had NO idea where the rest of the team was located.
Well we finally finished this nightmare and I am contemplating a 2 star with some comments about picking a better map. As soon as we got back out of the mission the team leader is gone.. quit the team without a word. My best guess at that point was that was HIS mission and he was basically tricking players into running it to get the number of players completing said mission up for a badge. Since we'd already completed it he bolted without a word of good bye or a word of thanks. Based on that alone I gave the story zero stars, quit the team and went back to soloing.
Now nothing that bad has occurred since but I still get tells and even blind invites to teams and once I join discover I am now on some sort of AE mission. Don't get me wrong I like the AE and my friends and I have even had group nights where we ran our own content and then ran contant we'd discovered that was written by someone else that we'd tried previously solo and liked.. But I do not spend every minute in game in the AE building. I still run TFs, I still do contact missions, and I still do Radios and Safeguards.
So I think the least a team leader could do is actually inform a potential member of what type of missions they are saying yes to in advance. It isn't polite at all not to do so. It's assuming all I want to do is Farm or run AE arcs and I don't stand for it anymore. If I join a team and the leader did NOT tell me in advance it was AE .. I quit the team and move on. It's bad enough we have players out there that think this game is nothing but a huge PL farm now we have leaders that just automatically assume everyone wants to farm AE missions just because they do.
There have always been a few rude and obnoxious players around but AE seems to have brought out the worst in some people. I actually asked a team leader a few days ago what sort of missions we'd be doing and he informed me it was radios and then asked why. I didn't go into THIS much detail but let him know why and then joined the team.
�We�re always the good guys. In D&D, we�re lawful good. In City of Heroes we�re the heroes. In Grand Theft Auto we pay the prostitutes promptly and never hit them with a bat.� � Leonard
�Those women are prostitutes? You said they were raising money for stem cell research!� � Sheldon
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This is the reason farming is bad for the game- people start thinking that the game's all about farming, and have trouble being convinced otherwise.
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*rollseyes*
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So I think the least a team leader could do is actually inform a potential member of what type of missions they are saying yes to in advance.
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Or you could just ask ....
Wait...what?
There are people out there who don't want to farm AE missions?
Inconceivable!
Don't they know this game is all about farming the same mission over and over ad nauseum?
Really, people have some nerve don't they?
/sarcasm
Seriously, I get where you're coming from, it's gotten bad enough I don't even join PuGs anymore, I just stick with my core group of friends.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
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So I think the least a team leader could do is actually inform a potential member of what type of missions they are saying yes to in advance.
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Or you could just ask ....
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Umm perhaps you missed the part where I said I am doing that now. The point was previoulsy I didn't have to ask. I'd still do so on occasion to make sure someone wasn't inviting me to a team with villains 5 levels lower than me or 9 higher with NO one to Mentor me but now people are so desperate(?) to get their story played they have to result to all but kidnapping me onto a horrible map to play their terrible mission and then don't even stick around long enough to say THANKS afterwards. At times if I am willing to team but not desperate to do so (I am never desperate to do anything in game) I will click the circle in my search comments and show that YES I am looking for a team. Then I will start to solo and IF a blind tell comes in I used to automatically accept it since I was advertising I was available. NOW.. I pull up search and check to see what level the leader is and what zone he is in. Even then I ask what sort of missions he plans to run. POINT was I didn't have to spend all that time researching something as simple as a team invite until recently. There are a ton of good things that MA has done and can do for the game but apparently it has also spawned some very rude and obnoxious players that assume no one has anything else planned that day and should be honored to be invited to their story or their little PL farm. Hey you ae putting together an AE team to do good missions, NOT farms, and I don't have anything else planned I may be happy to join you if, as the team leader you bother to tell me that, send me a tell asking if I want t team and I join and discover its in the AE building in Atlas Park and I'll quit without asking another question. You want me on your team tell me up front what I am getting into .. I don't want to have to play detective I want to play superhero.
�We�re always the good guys. In D&D, we�re lawful good. In City of Heroes we�re the heroes. In Grand Theft Auto we pay the prostitutes promptly and never hit them with a bat.� � Leonard
�Those women are prostitutes? You said they were raising money for stem cell research!� � Sheldon
I've put "Ma preferred but NO FARMs plz" in my search comment.
I get tired of being invited to PuGs who seem to think I want to do nothing but farm. I join up, roll into a mission and see that huge Paragon City street map and just sigh...
I remember joining one farming team that all got themselves killed in a few minutes. Nobody disagreed that the Meow farming attitude was to blame.
I assume teams that invite me aren't farming. If they are I usually bow out after the first go-round.
My scrapper doesn't need an AoE. She IS an AoE.
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I've put "Ma preferred but NO FARMs plz" in my search comment.
I get tired of being invited to PuGs who seem to think I want to do nothing but farm. I join up, roll into a mission and see that huge Paragon City street map and just sigh...
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I agree about farming, however I always wonder when I see the automatic perception about a given map. I've played arcs on that map that were not farming missions. It's not my favorite map by a long shot -- believe it or not, I like the big CoT maps better. At least there, the environment itself is conducive to a "search" atmosphere; it "feels" right -- but the big city map itself is not limited to farming.
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with NO mini map it was impossible to find the downed team mate to attempt rez
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Well, you could click on the person's name in the team window and hit follow. I hate maps without a map.
"Sorry bucko, but CoH and CoV are the same game." -BackAlleyBrawler
"Silly villain, CoX is for Heroes!" -Saicho
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I remember joining one farming team that all got themselves killed in a few minutes. Nobody disagreed that the Meow farming attitude was to blame.
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Ah for the good old days before Meow farming when PuGs NEVER got themselves all quickly killed out of sheer incompetence. 
Villains: Annie Alias, Dr. Amperical, Shade Golem, Knight Marksman
Heroes: The Clockwork Mime, Soccerpunch, The Fissioneer, Samurai Houston, Oversteer
Join The X-Patriots on Virtue!
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I remember joining one farming team that all got themselves killed in a few minutes. Nobody disagreed that the Meow farming attitude was to blame.
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Ah for the good old days before Meow farming when PuGs NEVER got themselves all quickly killed out of sheer incompetence.
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Just the map and identical mobs, the playstyle of 'put one of the MM's pets on Follow, an attack on Auto, and go do something outside' kind of gets ingrained.
The world is built on assumptions. Are you asking us to destroy the world?
Now officialy ignoring my laps of insanity. I would love to join MA teams that were running diffrent missions but I conciously/sub-conciously avoid joining AE teams people advertise because I keep mentaly seeing the word Farm when it's not there.
Which means someone's great/decent work is being missed out on.
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I assume teams that invite me aren't farming. If they are I usually bow out after the first go-round.
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This.
And I seriously have to question how frequently people run into this "zomg everybody's farming so you must be farming too" attitude. Everybody isn't farming (they weren't even when the rikti farms were all over, the ones that were or were looking just happened to be very vocal about it) and to quote the same argument used by people against farming, anyone that believes that the game is just a lot of farming that doesn't want to farm "won't be here long anyway"; they've obviously made no attempt whatsoever to do anything but.
Don't blame farming for other people's impatience and unwillingness to learn.
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Originally Posted by PleaseRecycle
it has gone from unconscionable to downright appalling that we have no way of measuring our characters' wetness.
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Originally Posted by Brillig
It's hard to beat the entertainment value of Whackjob Wednesdays.
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Interestingly, I use that outdoor Steel Canyon 'Farm' map in a serious arc. The time-travel-based story calls for the player to prevent a reporter from being assassinated by Arachnos forces.
The story I wrote simply had the reporter in Steel Canyon as forces broke in from Siren's Call, so that map was the most appropriate.
I hate that the map is considered a 'Farm' map. I wish the 'demon farm' mission had been removed in Issue 1.
"The Once and Future Freak"
Mission 1: Steel Canyon 'Destroy the Statues' map with Freakshow
Mission 2: Arachnos Lab map with Arachnos
Mission 3: Brickstown 'Breakout' map with Freakshow, Longbow, and PPD
Mission 4: Steel Canyon 'Farm' map with Arachnos
Mission 5: Arachnos Lab map with Arachnos, Longbow, Council, and Nemesis
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This is the reason farming is bad for the game- people start thinking that the game's all about farming, and have trouble being convinced otherwise.
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only if they're stupid.
and stupid people have trouble with many concepts.
also, these forums need another whiny holier than thou anti-farm thread like Lincoln needs an extra bullet in his brain.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
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This assumption is not restricted to AE.
A week or two ago I felt like teaming, so I hit broadcast and got a team together. As it happens the first mission I had lined up was "Rob the Mercy Bank", and I mentioned that in broadcast to let people know I wasn't forming an AE team.
Everything was going great until someone grabbed the money. Suddenly team chat looks like this:
Player 1: Oh no, someone grabbed the money!
Player 2: Exit quick!
Me: What?
Player 1: Don't kill the guards!
Me: But...
Several of the team run for the exit, and the rest of us are taken out by the now overwhelming security. Once everyone is either outside or faceplanted...
Player 3: What happened?
Player 1: Someone grabbed the money. We'd have completed the mission if we defeated the guards.
Me: Um... I wasn't planning on farming it...
Player 1: Really?
Me: No.
Player 1: Why not?
On reflection I realise that the Mercy Bank is a very popular levelling tool for lowbies, but at no point during recruitment or during the mission itself did I, or anyone else, use the word Farm. Having to explain and justify why I wasn't farming it was something I could have done without.
So it's not just an AE problem. It's just more pervasive in AE.
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I invited some friends to play through a lowbie mission arc I created this evening and didn't fill up my team. Rather than go with a small team, I opened my invites up to the zone (King's Row on Victory) and got a few more players.
Everyone on the team got a level from the arc and since we were all lowbies, a couple badges as well.
Quoth a DB/Inv scrapper on my team: "Wow! It's neat to see someone running something other than a farm!"
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I'm not surprised if I don't get into a farm. I would be really surprised if a low level team do Atlas Park/Galaxy city contact missions and King's Row story arc instead of sewers and scanner missions.
Recently, I did the Vahzilok disease story arc. I really missed that arc. Back in the old days, it was pretty common to see somebody with flies. Now, I doubt that people even know the disease exists!
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I invited some friends to play through a lowbie mission arc I created this evening and didn't fill up my team. Rather than go with a small team, I opened my invites up to the zone (King's Row on Victory) and got a few more players.
Everyone on the team got a level from the arc and since we were all lowbies, a couple badges as well.
Quoth a DB/Inv scrapper on my team: "Wow! It's neat to see someone running something other than a farm!"
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I'm not surprised if I don't get into a farm. I would be really surprised if a low level team do Atlas Park/Galaxy city contact missions and King's Row story arc instead of sewers and scanner missions.
Recently, I did the Vahzilok disease story arc. I really missed that arc. Back in the old days, it was pretty common to see somebody with flies. Now, I doubt that people even know the disease exists!
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Really, post-XP smoothing and with TFs, I level up so quickly that I don't even bother trying to grab story arcs until the low 20s. I'll just outlevel them 2/3 of the time if I do.
Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
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<QR>
This assumption is not restricted to AE.
A week or two ago I felt like teaming, so I hit broadcast and got a team together. As it happens the first mission I had lined up was "Rob the Mercy Bank", and I mentioned that in broadcast to let people know I wasn't forming an AE team.
Everything was going great until someone grabbed the money. Suddenly team chat looks like this:
Player 1: Oh no, someone grabbed the money!
Player 2: Exit quick!
Me: What?
Player 1: Don't kill the guards!
Me: But...
Several of the team run for the exit, and the rest of us are taken out by the now overwhelming security. Once everyone is either outside or faceplanted...
Player 3: What happened?
Player 1: Someone grabbed the money. We'd have completed the mission if we defeated the guards.
Me: Um... I wasn't planning on farming it...
Player 1: Really?
Me: No.
Player 1: Why not?
On reflection I realise that the Mercy Bank is a very popular levelling tool for lowbies, but at no point during recruitment or during the mission itself did I, or anyone else, use the word Farm. Having to explain and justify why I wasn't farming it was something I could have done without.
So it's not just an AE problem. It's just more pervasive in AE.
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hahahahaha! That's pretty funny.
Arc ID#30821, A Clean Break
The only problem with defeating the Tsoo is that an hour later, you want to defeat them again!
"Life is just better boosted!" -- LadyMage
"I'm a big believer in Personal Force Field on a blaster. ... It's your happy place." -- Fulmens
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<QR>
This assumption is not restricted to AE.
A week or two ago I felt like teaming, so I hit broadcast and got a team together. As it happens the first mission I had lined up was "Rob the Mercy Bank", and I mentioned that in broadcast to let people know I wasn't forming an AE team.
Everything was going great until someone grabbed the money. Suddenly team chat looks like this:
Player 1: Oh no, someone grabbed the money!
Player 2: Exit quick!
Me: What?
Player 1: Don't kill the guards!
Me: But...
Several of the team run for the exit, and the rest of us are taken out by the now overwhelming security. Once everyone is either outside or faceplanted...
Player 3: What happened?
Player 1: Someone grabbed the money. We'd have completed the mission if we defeated the guards.
Me: Um... I wasn't planning on farming it...
Player 1: Really?
Me: No.
Player 1: Why not?
On reflection I realise that the Mercy Bank is a very popular levelling tool for lowbies, but at no point during recruitment or during the mission itself did I, or anyone else, use the word Farm. Having to explain and justify why I wasn't farming it was something I could have done without.
So it's not just an AE problem. It's just more pervasive in AE.
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I was invited to a team out of the blue on my elec brute. We did this map and when we got to the back of the room, people started saying "don't touch the money"
It was then that I realized this was a farm map and left.
Also, a year ago, I was playing another brute and I was invited to a team where the map we hit was the University basement.
Not knowing the "way things work" I clicked the crate to complete the mission, as I was conditioned by the normal game to do this.
I was instantly assaulted by (poorly spelled and in caps) profanity from the "mapholder" causing me to bow out, and it wasn't until a couple months later that I realized I was invited to a farm focused on not completing the objective.
So how can a newer player know that?
I invited some friends to play through a lowbie mission arc I created this evening and didn't fill up my team. Rather than go with a small team, I opened my invites up to the zone (King's Row on Victory) and got a few more players.
Everyone on the team got a level from the arc and since we were all lowbies, a couple badges as well.
Quoth a DB/Inv scrapper on my team: "Wow! It's neat to see someone running something other than a farm!"
The lesson? Don't assume that if you run AE missions that your team wants nothing but to farm. Hopefully, they'll surprise you with willingness to do original content!