Weekly Changes, Why does the genuine player gets punished, but not AFK farmers?

[DeanBB.4268]

On 3/10/2024 at 6:42 AM, ShadowKatt.6740 said:

As the old adage says, "You encourage that which you tolerate". Anet has done this to themselves because they don't want to do anything about it, so it must be A-OK in their book.

The AFK Farming problem was solvable years ago. In case you've ever wandered away from your computer long enough and left GW2 running you know that if you stand there long enough you'll be warned that if you don't move or use a skill, you'll be kicked. There are already tools against idling. All we need is one more. A somewhat shorter timer in the background that counts down and if you don't move or use a skill in X time, you stop getting drops. NOW, that easily takes care of necro farmers, but what about turret farmers? They use scripts to constantly drop turrets, which would reset that timer. Fair point. Alternately, we could simply make a different timer that says after killing X number of the same enemy, reduce the drops. No normal player is going through and killing hundreds to thousands of the same thing. A hundred, tops, if you wanted to do your WV weekly all in one go (which I have done when I was desperate). So say after 100 bandits, you just stop getting drops. BAM! Instantly farming is done. Now this can be circumvented by simply logging a new character in or jumping to a new farming spot but now we're at the point where Anet has to actually DO something. They're like alcoholics. We can set everything up for them, we can make their enviroment the safest and healthiest we can, but if they refuse to stop drinking....well, sooner or later GW2 ends up in liver failure. And that's their choice.

Edit: All confused emojis are AFK farmers.

FYI, "diminishing returns" already exists. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Diminishing_returns

I don't know why anyone would farm these bandits (do they drop butter and chocolate, maybe?) but in LW zones these farmers may still get loot in the form of unboud magic-type "drops."

I ran around those zones a fair amount last week, but never saw any AFK farmers. I killed the bandits in that cave off the lake in Queensdale, and honestly was more annoyed that another player came along so I had to share kills with them. I just did something else and went back later, and nobody else was there.

Honestly, I don't understand why they upset some people. I just do whatever I went there for, and move on.

[ShadowKatt.6740]

13 minutes ago, DeanBB.4268 said:

FYI, "diminishing returns" already exists. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Diminishing_returns

I don't know why anyone would farm these bandits (do they drop butter and chocolate, maybe?) but in LW zones these farmers may still get loot in the form of unboud magic-type "drops."

I ran around those zones a fair amount last week, but never saw any AFK farmers. I killed the bandits in that cave off the lake in Queensdale, and honestly was more annoyed that another player came along so I had to share kills with them. I just did something else and went back later, and nobody else was there.

Honestly, I don't understand why they upset some people. I just do whatever I went there for, and move on.

it's not about the bandits. I didn't even go kill bandits, I did the other things, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm sure AFK farming was going on and even if not there I can promise you you can visit practically any map and find at least one bot there.

Quote

DR was applied to dungeons due to their ability to be repeated quickly. Similarly, it is applied to Dynamic Events to limit players from exhaustively farming one area, reduce congestion in one particular map, and to discourage forbidden activities such as botting.

it's funny because I had no idea that that mechanic was even in the game, and on the wiki it even acknowledges that it's an anti-botting measure. One that's clearly not working since it continues to this day utterly unabated. Instead, it seems a problem of scale. If you cut down the rewards down to 10% of what they were, then the botters and multi-boxers just need to run 9 additional characters to get the same reward, which obviously they'll have no hesitation to do. So clearly it's not enough. DR needs to go down to 0 if there's going to be any disincentive for people to do it, and then they need to be targetted and removed from the game entirely. But again, this all requires the will to act, which no one has.

And yes, all confused emojis are still AFK farmers.

[Holmindeboks.3490]

On 3/9/2024 at 4:12 PM, Tuna Bandit.3786 said:

The worse part is, these are starter areas! What a good image to sell to new players.

Its good that they get warned early instead of wasting time to lvl 80 and then discover that spending time is a waste of time because you dont get rewarded for time spend. Everywere drops only junk loot and the real loot is super rare. 
 

so to get a (fair) balance in effort/reward ratio afk farming is the way to go (i never did this myself thats why i so dissapointed about loot because i have spend much time on it) 

if you afk farm your effort/reward ratio is in balance because you do nothing and you get the same as someone who does something… also nothing. 
 

its not strange that ppl go afk farm and spend their time better instead of wasting it. Even if you would reach 100 year age its bad to waste your time on meta’s that Never reward you. 

[SinisterSlay.6973]

I felt a little bad yesterday, 10 events in level 1 area.  So here we are effortlessly blasting events so the new players can't.

[RoseofGilead.8907]

17 minutes ago, SinisterSlay.6973 said:

I felt a little bad yesterday, 10 events in level 1 area.  So here we are effortlessly blasting events so the new players can't.

Then don't do that. Go to a zone that isn't for new players or do some world bosses instead of doing something you know causes problems for others.

[SinisterSlay.6973]

11 minutes ago, RoseofGilead.8907 said:

Then don't do that. Go to a zone that isn't for new players or do some world bosses instead of doing something you know causes problems for others.

Game and limited time made me do it.

[DeanBB.4268]

22 minutes ago, RoseofGilead.8907 said:

Then don't do that. Go to a zone that isn't for new players or do some world bosses instead of doing something you know causes problems for others.

I'd have been happy to do the Shaman boss, but in the time I played last night and this morning, he didn't spawn, so I did 10 events in Wayfarers. I have commitments Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and will be away most of the weekend, so really don't have time to wait on boss timers to get weeklies done.

I also worked on my 100 svanir and 1000 guardian pistol kills, so it's even worse.

[Sobx.1758]

On 3/10/2024 at 2:08 AM, Mell.4873 said:

You are right, most of the afk players are considerate and normally don't occupy anything that directly gatekeeps a heart.

Afk farmrs glitch themselves into walls and farm in secluded corners not "because they're considerate", but because it makes it harder for the players to spot and report them.

1 hour ago, SinisterSlay.6973 said:

Game and limited time made me do it.

I didn't want to rob those people. I just wanted to get money and didn't want to do stuff, so I was simply forced to do it. I did feel bad for those people though, so it's k.
-good person forced into getting easier reward.

Stop lying to yourself.

Edited March 12 by Sobx.1758

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

2 hours ago, SinisterSlay.6973 said:

I felt a little bad yesterday, 10 events in level 1 area.  So here we are effortlessly blasting events so the new players can't.

I kill the Arborstone HP bird repeatedly. There is a window where you can talk to her and reactivate the HP without having to wait. NKC and SP HPs also work, but are slower.

For doing "10 events" in general rather than 10 events in a specific map.

Edited March 12 by Lan Deathrider.5910

[kharmin.7683]

1 hour ago, DeanBB.4268 said:

I'd have been happy to do the Shaman boss, but in the time I played last night and this morning, he didn't spawn, so I did 10 events in Wayfarers. I have commitments Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and will be away most of the weekend, so really don't have time to wait on boss timers to get weeklies done.

I also worked on my 100 svanir and 1000 guardian pistol kills, so it's even worse.

He didn't spawn?  Did you check the event timer?  Did anyone not do the pre-event?  For me, every time I do the Frozen Maw on timer it fires.  However, there is an event which is almost identical where you destroy the totem ... and that's it.  I call it "Mini-Maw".   That's not the actual world boss event and can happen off-timer.

[kharmin.7683]

2 hours ago, SinisterSlay.6973 said:

I felt a little bad yesterday, 10 events in level 1 area.  So here we are effortlessly blasting events so the new players can't.

Not really any different than pre-WV dailies.  Not sure of the point here?

[Astralporing.1957]

14 minutes ago, Sobx.1758 said:

Afk farmrs glitch themselves into walls and farm in secluded corners not "because they're considerate", but because it makes it harder for the players to spot and report them.

WHich is exactly why i think the farmers OP saw had nothing to do with vault dailies. AFK farmers usually do not go to places where expect more people to visit.

[SinisterSlay.6973]

8 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Not really any different than pre-WV dailies.  Not sure of the point here?

Why does it have to be different unless your predisposed to assuming everything the old way was better?

[Sobx.1758]

42 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

WHich is exactly why i think the farmers OP saw had nothing to do with vault dailies. AFK farmers usually do not go to places where expect more people to visit.

Not really, existence of more careful afk farmers doesn't dismiss the existence of the other ones. It still doesn't mean that OP saw actual afk farmers, but there were -and still are- plenty of spots that are basically in the middle of the road.

Some of the most popular afk farms were right in the middle or near the entrance to the maps and we literally had threads about them on this forum. 🤷‍♂️ 

Edited March 12 by Sobx.1758

[kharmin.7683]

44 minutes ago, SinisterSlay.6973 said:

Why does it have to be different unless your predisposed to assuming everything the old way was better?

I'm not advocating for either the pre or post WV era.  The point was that the complaint of players zerging the low level zones to complete 10 activities has been an issue prior to the WV so I didn't understand why it was being brought up as an issue now.

[SinisterSlay.6973]

1 hour ago, kharmin.7683 said:

I'm not advocating for either the pre or post WV era.  The point was that the complaint of players zerging the low level zones to complete 10 activities has been an issue prior to the WV so I didn't understand why it was being brought up as an issue now.

If it helps I hung out by them and stole their kills

[DeanBB.4268]

2 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

He didn't spawn?  Did you check the event timer?  Did anyone not do the pre-event?  For me, every time I do the Frozen Maw on timer it fires.  However, there is an event which is almost identical where you destroy the totem ... and that's it.  I call it "Mini-Maw".   That's not the actual world boss event and can happen off-timer.

I guess I should have stated that I wasn't playing when he would spawn, thus that event was denied me.

[kharmin.7683]

17 hours ago, SinisterSlay.6973 said:

If it helps I hung out by them and stole their kills

If they are truly AFKers, then it probably wouldn't really matter in the long run.  They would, I presume, be in it for the long haul what with diminishing returns and all.  /shrug

[Danikat.8537]

22 hours ago, SinisterSlay.6973 said:

I felt a little bad yesterday, 10 events in level 1 area.  So here we are effortlessly blasting events so the new players can't.

21 hours ago, RoseofGilead.8907 said:

Then don't do that. Go to a zone that isn't for new players or do some world bosses instead of doing something you know causes problems for others.

Another option is to avoid "effortlessly blasting" events. Most events don't go any quicker just because one player is killing the majority of enemies, and it doesn't take much to get gold participation so you could kill a few things and leave others for other players to kill so they can get participation too.

[kharmin.7683]

2 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Another option is to avoid "effortlessly blasting" events. Most events don't go any quicker just because one player is killing the majority of enemies, and it doesn't take much to get gold participation so you could kill a few things and leave others for other players to kill so they can get participation too.

One doesn't even need to get gold participation for the event to count toward the daily.  Just tag a few and move on to the next event. As long as you stay in the zone, you'll get credit when the event ends. 

[Bollocks.4078]

I don't think DR is doing anywhere near as much as people think to deter unattended farming.  I have observed the same players who always seem to be in the same place months and months.  Also, pretty sure DR doesn't affect things like Karmic Retribution.  Seems like that would have been a no-brainer to have Karmic Retribution stop giving Karm based on DR.

[SinisterSlay.6973]

I almost want to see it like the old coin op games where if you stay in the same general place too long, super strong enemies pop out of nowhere and kill you.   The coin ops did that so no one could get a free play from someone that abandoned their session.

It could also make a hilarious meta game where people do this on purpose just to fight the strong guy that appears.

[Danikat.8537]

55 minutes ago, Bollocks.4078 said:

I don't think DR is doing anywhere near as much as people think to deter unattended farming.  I have observed the same players who always seem to be in the same place months and months.  Also, pretty sure DR doesn't affect things like Karmic Retribution.  Seems like that would have been a no-brainer to have Karmic Retribution stop giving Karm based on DR.

It doesn't take much to 'reset' DR, you just need to play on another map for a while. It's entirely possible farmers are switching to another map when they notice they're being hit with DR and then going back later. If a regular player who isn't staying there 24/7 has time to go away, do something else and then come back the farmers do too.

Although if they're genuinely AFK it won't deter them right away because they won't be there to see they're not getting loot, but it does mean their farming will be pointless.

[kharmin.7683]

2 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Although if they're genuinely AFK it won't deter them right away because they won't be there to see they're not getting loot, but it does mean their farming will be pointless.

Well, if diminishing returns drops the loot rate to almost zero, they are still getting something for doing nothing (in the case of true AFKers).  A million pennies adds up over time.

[Bollocks.4078]

I expect you'd be hard pressed to find one of these farmers who doesn't already know how long it takes for DR to kick in and already has it as part of their routine to deal with it so the affect on their farming is minimal.