Farming

Clans Definition of Farming

“hitting a player more than 5 times within a 24 hour period.  This includes steals assassinations an attacks on active players.”

Basic advice is usually is

• if you’re being farmed DO NOT farm back.
• Tell an admin
• Self pin. The goal of this is to stop the farmer from farming you not revenge as you can always get the gold back off the OSF. 
• Avoid threatening the farmer
• farmers often thrive off the attention they get and it is more likely to make then farm you more
• you give them a link back to you so it makes you easier to find when they want to farm you.
• if they are sneaky they can use your words to demonstrate harassment, especially if you bypass the filter on their wall you could get silenced
• Retaliation is normally done as a clan, hence telling an admin

And just as a thought clan members caught farming and not playing by clan rules may be kicked from the clan and farmed by the clan

 

 

Grel’s Thoughts

So I’ve been mulling the idea of farming since being strip farmed overnight.  Going to bed with 2b worth of allies for the clan to open me, waking up to find some one other than the clan had opened me.  Got me thinking… When is farming bad? Why is farming different to war? What exactly do we mean by farming.  I know I don’t like farmers, but what am I saying I don’t like?

 

So Where does the term farming come from?

Initially the concept of farming goes back to the origins of OSF … open secret farm (no I haven't got that wrong that’s what they were originally called).  These guys would allow people to attack them 5 times a day, which is the origin of the no more than 5 hits rule.   There would be hidden threads in the forums to say who was open, hence secret and there were enforcers who made sure this was stuck to.

 

So what is farming?

There seem to be a number of definitions out there, please correct me if I’m wrong.

• More than 5 hits in a day
• 1 scout and more than 5 hits in a day
• hitting another player consistently over a period of time, several times an hour to once a day.
• 5 or more hits on 2 consecutive days

So there is some kind of idea that its is about the number of hits, but also the prolonged nature of it. 

Its a war game, I expect to be hit, and I expect to retaliate, and do (oops not following the rules above).  As some clan members have found out when they have hit me outside of plunder war when I’m not open.  Hit me  5 times, I will hit back five times (or more *cough*), hit me more I will get my friends involved because you are going down. But that's war, and this is a war game. 

 

So why talk to an owner and admin if there are problems?

The consequence of the approach above is that there may be negotiations that need to happen to stop these attacks.  Having been a clan leader and had to try and smooth feathers I would prefer it if you talk to a clan leader because it makes their job easier… just saying.  Generally with new players a gentle word from someone much bigger than they are, saying its against the rules to hit a player more than 5 times, please join my clan to learn how to grow, is enough to solve the problem.  I’m not sure this is farming so much as us conditioning new players into how we want them to behave. 

Bigger players who are actively choosing not to follow the 5 hit convention, this is unlikely to work, but it’s always worth seeing if this will make a difference.  However the key about talking to an owner or admin is that it is likely that the clan will need to take action to resolve problems.  This is because the farmer knows about the farming conventions and chooses to play the game by different rules, they choose to get their enjoyment at the expense of others.

The other thought about talking to an owner/admin first before retaliation is that farming another clans player is often used as a tactic to initiate a non-system war.  So before things escalate it is worth everyone being on side to resolve problems.

 

So is it farming to find an easy target and consistently hit them, say 17 times spread out throughout a day?

I’ve been mulling this and yes it is.  I know that some people say that 24 hits, in one go is not farming,  it is simply a troop dump and part of war.  But the issue with the idea above is that you have found an easy mark and you are exploiting it just as you would do with another clans OSF over a period of time.  They are farming that individual for the profit they can reap.  If you are a spy to ensure you are not found out you are need to spy at full troops.  That takes planning and cunning… but again is that just war? Does it help the other person improve and change their build and strategy so they cant be exploited?  That for me is a key question in the idea of farming, exploiting another player.  I think it’s wise to have a build to make it hard for others to hit you, but consistent attacks over a period of time need to be revenged, need to be prevented and our clan members need to be protected from exploitation.

Having been farmed and farming others (pre dark moon, ask me I might tell you the story) the bit that gets me the most about farming is that it is intentional and planned and feels like bullying.  And for me that's the difference between being hit because this is a war game and being farmed.  Ignoring bullies doesn’t work, neither does giving them attention, what works is showing that you are stronger than them.

Please remember these last statements are my thoughts and do not necessarily represent the clans opinions