I think mdevol is probably a fairly decent guy to deal wirh. He's not really the problem or even his or any other clan in general.

The PROBLEM is that we have a declining player base. Honestly, a fair portion of that is attributable to clans allowing their members to be ridiculous and farm the "little guy". But it's also not the only reason. Not by a long shot.

In this particular case, on the surface, it doesn't seem unusually brutal that a player in 1 15 player clan hits 3 of 16 countries in a "one man tag", but for the "one man tag", that becomes a huge problem if 2 or 3 clans do that in a set.

Folks, we HAVE to police ourselves. We HAVE to set hard, fast rules that don't drive players away from the server. We also have to be willing to accept more "non-traditional" retals if we don't want to limit our more land-hoggish players.

That might mean eating a chem, GS, AB, BR or DSO or a few.

The prevailing retal policies of this server were set 15 years ago in a completely different environment and simply just aren't practically applicable now. No, I'm not saying that if I grab one of mdevol's fat countries that I should get off scot free or that if mdevol decides to do 3 or 4 single hits on my tag that it's cool.

I KNOW that at least more than a few players even today find "self farming" distasteful. I'm not all that fond of it, believe it or not. That doesn't alter the truth of what this game is today. We don't have 40,000 countries on the server. We don't have 99% of the players having the desire or time to be active in a clan.

Was CC a Bad Actor in this particular situation? While I may not care much for them, I say no. I don't think there was any evil intent, but that doesn't really matter in the big picture. If one player gets driven from the game or feeling he or she can't enjoy the game on their own, then regardless of intent, damage was done; doesn't matter "who's fault" it was.

All that said, you can't blow off a 15 year player like Swedish Viper. Dude is the fluff. Proven, loyal asset to the server and the game. That doesn't mean that he has some free pass that doesn't allow someone to eat his cotton candy if they see a good chance, but it does mean that "the game" can't afford to lose players like him.

I'm just saying that unless or until we double or triple the player base or TPTB add in 2 to 3 times the countries via bots, we have to be careful in what we do. It's in NO ONE'S best interests to see this server devolve into something like Alliance where 25 guys play in 5 heavily pacted alliances and eat the Newbies. It would be far better to disallow pacts becuase "critical mass" is not always something that indicates too big.

1 hit on 3 countries. A FFAT post is a bit much especially for a veteran player. Take the retals or contact HFA/clan leader. Most of the time, you'd get your retals and a DNH for the rest of the set. Complaining about this as farming, on FFAT, is frankly disrespectful and not the way to resolve this kind of issue. Swedish Viper knows better.

Not really, Kyle. 3 hits on the same day on a 1 man tag isn't being a good neighbor and you know it.

I've gotta side with Dragon on this one. We need to keep the player base high, and mistreating a one man tag that is a good player just because you outnumber him greatly is just wasteful of a good player. I've said this for years that this was why the alliance game was dying. You can't play in alliance as a newbie, and now you guys are working to make this server just like alliance server. No one has taken the lesson yet.

So how many hits in a 24 hour period on a 1 man tags isn't farming 1 ? 2?

How many hits from a one man tag would the big clans allow?

Tko allows 5 per 24 hours for tags 1-200 countries as long as they arent spam/suicider tags

I agree with Warster, but the problem is most times you never know who is a suicider and who is a legit one person tag that wants to play in peace. Jen is a good example of that. Ares has very little tolerance to unknown one player tags that come in unannounced and start grabbing. We retal heavy if we don't know you. Untags will likely be farmed and killed. But she reached out and asked for a DNH this set and we gave her one. State your intent and Ares will leave you alone. To many fluff tards out there to wait and see if they are intending to harm or not.

Woah...don't put the cart in front of the donkey here. This is a legit convoersation here, but I strongly object to the title of the post. CC isn't the only doing any 'said' farming on this server.

that's all well and good for a 200 strong clan like TKO, but 5 grabs on a 1 man tag is hitting 30% of the tag, I'm sure if icd hit 30% of TKO you'd be warring us tomorrow.

as for farming in general, I'm against it. It simply causes more issues than they are worth, and if you do it in icd, you're tasked with handling the fallout on your own, because if I have to handle it for you to keep icd from being declared on... You're fluffed :p

Desp I answered saintsinner's question, but I'm still waiting for my question to be answered.


It's TKO's policy to only allowed 5 hits per 24 hours and 10 if both tko and the other alliance is 200 + countries and all hits over that number will be retaled 2:1 .

This has been for a long time, even when we were 110 or so we had this policy.


So I ask again what do you class as farming??, if 3 is classed as farming then what is considered fair 1? or 2?

ok next set imma hit tko 5x every 24 hrs and see how long it takes em to kill me...now what do u expect a 1 man tag to do

Ah but you have a history of suiciding Tko and acting like a tool( grabbing us and so on) when you play in tags we are allied to so we would likely to be more harsh with you, or we might just retal your 5 hits and then do 5 of our own and see who wins.

I Said it before i will say it again 1v1 dont work for the one man tags or new players. the rule should be if you grab you suffer consequence be it old school traditional or modern day postal by any means necessary to stop aggressions

farming, at least how I'm used to it is hitting the same clan/country/strong x amount of times

its one thing if you hit the same clan 5 times, its another if you hit the same string 5 times, and if you hit the same country 5 times..

well.. you're just an asshole

still waiting for an answer on how many hits = farming

One man tags...id consider 2-3 hits on my string.fron the same string farming. And maybe 4-5 alliance wide on a 16 member string.

Ok seems 2 hits is the limit people think is fair.

I'll post tko new policy later today :)

updated

http://wiki.earthempires.com/..._Kings_Order_Retal_Policy

IN all honestly, on a full 16 country string, it doesn't becoing farming until there are >2 hits on half of them, >3 hits on a third.

This is coming from somone who rarely farms tagged clans.

looks real good, you could probably get away with a couple more in the 48-200 range. or maybe add 101-200 is 7 grabs but that'd probably wind up getting too much of a hassle

I strictly limit any grabs I do to a single strike with a time interval of three days (72 hours) between them. Hardly could be called farming.

I accept a retal for a grab no problem. No hard feelings, it's all in the spirit of the game. :)

I would look at three grabs against me from 1 clan tag as a possible problem that would need to be addressed, and I'd make contact. Other than that, a single grab is just that, a land grab, plain and simple, worthy of a retal and nothing more. Everyone has a good time and we all keep on playing.

I am a one person tag clan, and the first couple of sets here, I was getting mutilated by the big guys, and evertime I retaled, I was getting hammered even harder, and put on list that it was ok to kill me.
My brother came here, and started talking to ya'll and helped me to understand what was going on and why. If he hadn't have done that, I would have left.
I like the game.
I am independant, and like to learn new things.
But I had to come here, and get to know ya'll and I learned about pacting and stuff because ya'll were willing to help me. Even those of you that I had fought with, were trying to help.
If someone has a one man tag, give them a break. For real. That doesn't mean that someone can't defend themselves, for a little clan, or a one man clan, but if they are minding their own business....then let them mind it.
I'm just sayin.
And I like Swedie. He' has been a great help to me in learning this game and the different strategies.

To all ya'll that have a pact with me, I really do appreciate that ya'll have honored it. Thank you.

Great post, and it was a needed one. :)

Thank you Roscoe for what you said above. :D

Nice post jen

One man tags should do 1 of 3 things.....

1) Recruit more members to properly defend them self.
2)Join an all ready populated clan.
3) Not waste their time playing.

There is a 4th option which would appeal to this topic more so than the other 3. 1 man tags should not be random nobodies who use little to 0 communication. If a one man tag reaches out to the FFA community and really means no ill will towards established alliances they should work out agreements like everyone else. So say a new one man tag pops up and just wants to dink around with him/herself... they come to FFAT and express their ambitions, if some D-bag in some well populated clan farms them into the ground then yes, by all means the FFA community should do something about it.

Restricting members in alliances from hitting can damage the player base just as easily as farming one man tags into the dirt.... the game has a forum for a reason. I know if I was a solo tag and was getting D around I would post something or try to make some friends.... being independent or not.

I think its stupid to say that someone can't farm the crap out of a string but can have a hay day on untagged countries.... cry cry cry.

And lastly, there are always going to be "big guys" trying to dictate the server(like alliance).... its a flipping war game.....

I just have to laugh when guys like you, who already know how to play the game and are good players come up here and state that "it's a war game, get over it". If the situation were reversed, you'd be up here screaming about it. So you can stow that fluff, XNinja.

You are obviously one of the guys that uses this kind of situation to your best advantage, then hide behind that "it's a war game" IDEA. iF it's a war game, then, when you farm a one man tag, and that one man tag can identify your string, and farms you back, you want to have all your larger alliance buddies execute the "SUICIDER" who warred you for farming them.

Give me a break and just shut up about it. You're going to do it anyway, don't compound the idiocy with clearly insincere statements.

i'm pretty sure that most established alliances these days have a policy of "ask for a basic NAP and you get it" for one-man tags
i know mercs did it, i'm pretty sure tko does it, ESD did it, ICD probably would (depends on if despie's had a good lunch that day), etc. all you have to do is tag up and ask.

Guys like me? One of those guys? You "obviously" don't know me at all. I never farmed anyone with out remorse. I AM for a fair playing field...I try to go out of my way to help teach people how to play this game.... I am one of the leader of Chaos one of the most DISLIKED alliances in FFA, SO having BIG BUDDIES come help me kill is hogwash.... I actually do suffer getting the gang bang from BIG BUDDIES.... and yes there have been times I have come to FFAT and whined... but LOOK I'm still here.... I didn't run off the server like a poonstick! So you can stfu with your opinions about me. Me stating that this is a war game greatly influenced by murder by numbers as being the norm is not idiotic or insincere.... So laugh it up buddy.

1: Because the player pool is so large you can easily get 3-4 guys that are experienced to follow a noobie
2: What if you left a well populated clan to try and make a go of it on your own?
3: What else is the point to play this game exactly but to waste your time playing

What I have 100 Troopso; 32054; 578717]



1: Because the player pool is so large you can easily get 3-4 guys that are experienced to follow a noobie
2: What if you left a well populated clan to try and make a go of it on your own?
3: What else is the point to play this game exactly but to waste your time
playing [/quote]

1. I guess noobs shouldn't make their own clan then, they should join an existing one and learn how to play first... what's the good in populating a server full of people who have no idea what they are doing?

2. What's the point of running a 16 country tag in an alliance based server?

3. I am pretty sure most people have "fun" while playing...

It seems people are misunderstanding my post.... if its really such a big deal go cry to the mods/developers and make more stupid DR changes where massive farming does little no no real damage.

I personally have been solo in FFA and did 1 hit to a clan and was killed for it. So I am not the least bit unsympathetic towards this topic, which people seem to be thinking I am.

If people want the game to grow for real bring in your real friends... teach them to play and stfu.... that's what I have personally done and never once came to FFAT crying about killing the player base.... It seems it never crossed anyone's thought process that noobs who don't know how to play get discouraged just from that and quit.... what's the fun in playing a game you don't know how to play.

I don't see massive farming any different than clans gang banging, pact breaking or performing any other dishonorable act....

When I first started playing this game 10 years ago it was me and another guy from work. The two of us tagged up in Alliance and started grabbing. We were killed very quickly needless to say. We were recruited by MKR and here I am. I think that if you choose to play 1 man in this server it is simply because you want to avoid the politics of big alliances, your a vet testing strats, your an idiot that wants to suicide, or your special and don't understand the concept. What ever the reason, it is a risk you take. If you get farmed there is not much you can do about it except what has already been talked about over and over and over, and probly will be another dozen posts created talking about the same thing.

So until the next episode, tag up, pact up, retal, and handle your business.

:)

Thanks Crippler, I actually do appreciate some of what Ninja is tryin to say. It is a war game. It is. I know it is. But until i can understand the simple logistics of tryin to grow my countries, there's not benefit to my fighting with experienced players.
On the other hand, whether Ninja likes it or not, when an individual gets farmed, and then retals for it, we do get killed for simply trying to defend ourselves. That was happening to me in the first two sets.
To be fair....i don't think I was gettin farmed. I was simply land grabbed. But when i retaled the hits, I was beaten bad for it, by one after another over and over again.
Ninja gave the 3 points that everbodies is discussing, and then the 4th one that I've not really seen a comment on. The ones....like me, that is trying to play straight and learn the game....I come here and communicate and let my intentions be known. Ya'll have accepted me and visaversa.
I wouldn't want others to join me right now, because I am still a noobie. I think thats how ya'll spelled it lol.
I don't want to join anyone, because I don't have the appreciable time to devote to a clan and be an active participant.
And while I'm learning....i don't consider it to be a waste of time. Except in regards to playing a game of course.
I've not hit anyone, in or out of a clan so far this set, and have ever intention of starting to self farm this coming week. It's part of the strat that I am tryin.
So I like some of Ninja's points. Some are a little selfish, but we all have some of that in us and so thats no different than some of my own goals.
Thanks.
Jen

One other thing too, is that I came here this set and requested DNRs and pacts. A few clans accepted pacts to avoid hitting each other, and there were some that never responded, but at the same time....no one has hit me, and I think it is because I came and publically made the request.
I made it public, and everbodies has honored it.
If your a one man clan, then make your intentions known. I learned how to fight my first 2 sets lol. Now I'm learning how to play. :)

PM me any time for semi decent advise :P

I am no master strategist, but I seem to keep up and do just fine most the time.

And I can help with the basics hands down. I think mentoring should be more played out in these type of games.

I have to agree with Xninja on his last post. Mentoring is a very important part of this game, it also helps to integrate the new player into the community at large and makes them feel like they are a part of things.

In the solo servers that allow relations, I always try to set up alliances with newbies so that I can help them out and teach them a few of the mechanics of the game.

I'm far from a netting expert, but I do alright when I try to do that. Mostly though, I just build countries that are designed to fight with. It's just the style of play I like.

words