Wednesday, May 13, 2015

The Stabbed Farmer Debate



I’ve been reading the latest spontaneous bantering between Rixx and Kirith Kodachi with some amusement. The discussion regarding plex farmers and what they should and should not be able to fit inside a plex is about as old as the Inferno expansion, when CCP introduced LP for plex. And, it feels a little like beating a dead horse at this point. (Or perhaps the dead horse’s ghost.) However, it never ceases to amaze me how this topic always comes up, again and again, in various forms.

The first problem I have with the discussion is that Rixx, and many other like him, have essentially claimed that warp core stabilizers are the problem. When in reality, they are merely a symptom of the problem. Removing them might satisfy an ideological itch someone has, but it won’t solve or fix anything. Just like taking a cough suppressant might make you more comfortable for a little while but it’s not going to heal your underlying illness.

Making farming harder will result in less farmers. It will NOT result in more pvpers, or better fights.


Secondly, I have to make a few comments about the argument I keep seeing regarding “Faction War being about war” and therefore people should be expected to fight, and etc.

Faction War IS about war. But war is not necessarily restricted to ship to ship combat, nor limited to ship to ship combat.

The war, as implemented by CCP through the game mechanics of Faction War involves plexing systems to contest them, ultimately to take over sovereignty. If you run a plex against a Faction you are committing an act of war. If you run a defensive plex, you are committing an act of defense for your militia.

Running plexes is not ‘less’ an act of war or defense, based on any particular module you do or do not have fit to your ship. And running a plex is not more or less legitimate based on whether you fought another player or not. In the end, he who finishes the plex, gets the rewards --both in LP and system control.

Furthermore, I find it a bit ironic (and somewhat funny) when pirates  make arguments along the lines of militia plexers not wanting to engage in war. Pirates are neutrals chasing around militia inside Faction War plexes. Technically speaking, they are the ones not participating in militia or committing to the war within the Faction Warfare warzone.


Thirdly, “because of new players” is never a good argument to defend bad game mechanics. Now that I’ve picked on Rixx and pirates, I might as well pick on Kirith a bit as well.

Faction War is like a tech 1 frigate. While it may have been designed to be accessible to newer players as far as requirements and skills, that doesn’t mean it’s ‘for’ new players. (After all, many veteran pvpers enjoy flying tech 1 frigates, just as there are many veteran players in militia.)

Anything easy or accessible to new players is easier and more accessible to older players. And I would bet that many stabbed farmers are not ACTUALLY new players. After all, anyone that aware of how to min/max the current FW meta, is probably not new enough anymore to be called new.

While I would argue that WCSs are not the real problem, I also would say that arguing they’re okay because new players use them to make ISK is probably not the greatest argument in their defense.


Fourthly, good gameplay is more important than someone not having warp core stabs fit to their ship.

In this post regarding stabbed plexers, Rixx talks about encounters he had where people also ran away unstabbed, and implies that in that case it was okay. He even implies that they ‘outplayed’ him.

In other words, the gameplay of people running away is okay. The only thing that’s NOT okay is if they happen to have warp core stabs fit to their ship when they run away.

To be honest, this seems fairly ridiculous to me. I’d rather CCP make changes that produces good gameplay (ie: more fights!), then make changes that make it so someone else can’t fit a module I dislike… 

Rixx also makes claims about WCS being a ‘crutch’. However, if we use that logic against Faction War then we need to look at all the other ‘crutches’ people use to avoid engagements they do not want to participate in. 

Such as plex restrictions making people ‘safe’ from ship sizes they don’t want to fight. A common crutch solo pirates use to hunt in Faction War zones. =)


Fifthly, and finally, not all is as it seems, or is chalked up to be.

Many proponents of the ‘remove Warp Core Stabilizers’ movement paint a picture of hoards of stabbed farmers running away from a poor solo pirate who only wants a good fight.

But this is EVE. And we know better, right? In the end, you have a low-SP alt running away from a high SP, experienced pirate who wants to gank someone. 

After all, experienced pvpers who are looking for challenging and serious fights are probably not going to spend time crying over the stabbed, tech 1 frigates that ran away.



In the end, I hope that someday the conversation regarding Faction War turns and that people start talking about practical changes that will improve the gameplay. I hope that someday we can get beyond these ideological 'issues' that people seem to get so obsessed with –warp core stabs, gunless farmers, and etc.  and turn to solutions and ideas that will make Faction War (and EVE) a better place for everyone.

27 comments:

  1. Your arguments are good. For the players using them WCS are a solution to a problem.

    I'm not involved in Faction Warfare in any way. I live in wormhole space. And although we do see ships stabbed up the wazoo they are usually only used in specific circumstances, like when closing wormholes, doing Planetary Interaction and such.
    I think the reason that WCS are not very common when running content in wormhole space might be due to the fact that you need those low slots for other mods. Could it be a solution to make the sites harder, so that gimping the fit with multiple WCS is not an option? Would that raise the bar too high for the sites/new players?

    Also: "Beating a dead horse's ghost". Gold!

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    1. Like Akely I am a wormholer, so FacWar n plexes mean na-da to me... but I have weighed in on RIxx's blog more than a few times as game mechanics and gameplay are very important ot me, as they should be to all of us.

      I cannot possibly agree with you more on this topic. WCS, a module, is not the issue. The issue is some players being disappointed because they feel other players are using an 'unfair' advantage to 'escape' fights. As you said you have a "...low-SP alt running away from a high SP, experienced pirate who wants to gank someone."

      The high SP player feels cheated by a game mechanic, where, as Rixx said, he does not feel 'cheated' if a player is able to escape without the assistance of a 'module' but by what he perceives as 'skill'... be it superior flying or just being on the button on Dscan and initiating warp before he can get a lock and point.

      This feeling of being cheated is an illusion... WCS is a valid module and defense tactic and there are counter measures that can be employed against them... and this is where I get my dander up... Rixx et al want 'solo' kills.

      This is, to me, the key issue... they are not WILLING to use the counters available. IE fitting multiple points or hunting in groups and they want to change the game so they do not have use these counters and just deal with the fact that WCS is an effective defense module and tactic against solo attacks on solo ships.

      As I have said... the players who are all stabbed up and plexing are just 'missioning' for LP and FacWar War goals... as you so very well put it;

      "I find it a bit ironic (and somewhat funny) when pirates make arguments along the lines of militia plexers not wanting to engage in war. Pirates are neutrals chasing around militia inside Faction War plexes. Technically speaking, they are the ones not participating in militia or committing to the war within the Faction Warfare warzone."

      THAT is real gold!!

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  2. Great post! Very succinct and clear and I strongly agree.

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  3. Great post! Very succinct and clear and I strongly agree.

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  4. Was is litterally cancer in FW, it should be remove, you have to commit yourself to earn the money.

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  5. These ideas would be great if ccp showed any inclination to overhaul the entire faction warfare system. As evidenced by them eliminating cloaking near the buttons in plexes, I'm suspicious of that possibility.

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  6. ccp and others tend to forget that, like any other society, there are people who are not interested in the activities of others. Not everyone wants to be an actor, not everyone wants to be a teacher, not everyone wants to be a builder. However all of those people are needed in a society. In EVE not everyone wants to be a pvper and if everyone keeps trying to force pvp on those who don't want it they will simply leave the society. Some of us like to build and mine and we don't want pvp. Some like to rat and run plex not pvp. Some like to pvp and do not like mining or building or ratting....good for them. Where do you get your ships if you run off all the builders? EVE needs to be a place where you can chose to do what you want without being forced into any thing.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. I really dislike this inane argument. No one is "forcing" anyone to do anything. Play Eve the way you want to play it and stop blaming other people for playing it the way they want to play it. You are doing exactly what you claim others are doing. Name a time, any time, ever, when someone forced you to play a way you didn't want to? You can't.

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    3. And so it is... but it is not a SAFE place and it should never ever be a SAFE place. The risk, even for those as are not interested in PvP is what makes things and gameplay so valuable in EVE...

      Risk is REAL and Loss is REAL are the cornerstones of EVE... if your game is to win out against the ebil PvPers... kudos! If your game is to burn down the horribad PvErs... kudos! We have both and hence we have balance.

      And yes Rixx... you actually are trying to force PvP on players... cause you have never ONCE (that I know of) responded directly to the fact that points... scrams and warp disruptors and webs are Ewar and without WCS both long and short points DO FORCE an attacked player to either fight (and probably die as they are PvEing not PvPing..) or just die.

      Rixx... why don't you quit picking on PvEers? You aren't even IN FacWar... so it's not YOUR War they are 'fighting'... =P

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  7. I think a stabbed ship shouldn't be able to earn FW-LP.
    The farmer has a cheap, disposable ship, he is protected by an acc gate and ship restrictions and he has d-scan - it is trivial to farm LP without stabs and there is no reason, no advantage to bling your ship to do this so you earn your ship back in no time.
    Stabbed LP-Farming is against the risk-reward balance, it is against fight-club low-sec, it is wrong and CCP should do something against it.

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  8. You cannot FORCE people to play your way. If you try then they will quit.

    If CCP were to say to farmers "No stabs, noobs!!! You will let ganksters stamp on your face and you will lick their boots because they are special snowflakes" then they will find other games to play. That may not bother the ganksters, but CCP are a business, not a leet-kiddies ego charity, and they need customers.

    Will CCP do something to ban stabbed farming? Are the epeen cult alone enough to keep eve running if CCP start to damage the attraction of their product for other players? I don't know but it would be interesting to see.

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  9. Nice post! IMO worrying about WCS is silly. My deplexing alts don't fit anything at all to their ships.

    - Than

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  10. Anon 7:18 says if you ban WCS "You will let ganksters stamp on your face and you will lick their boots because they are special snowflakes", I say the LP-farmer "is protected by an acc gate and ship restrictions and he has d-scan - it is trivial to farm LP without stabs". Who is right? Removing WCS won't feed noobs to wannabe elitepirateganksters, it just means that you can't make ISK semi-afk without caring about d-scan and local - in low-sec. And rightfully so!

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    1. ”Removing WCS won't feed noobs to wannabe elitepirateganksters”

      Nope… ‘cause they will all go grind ISK somewhere else… and we all lose.

      "…it just means that you can't make ISK semi-afk without caring about d-scan and local - in low-sec. And rightfully so!" uh no.

      Players gotta make ISK man… otherwise no one PvPs... and some if not most players have to make their ISK via PvE cause CCP doesn't just wanna hand out ISK.

      So I agree you should have to do 'some' work for it... at the same time the 'work' required has to tread a fine line between...

      (1) being so much fun EVE becomes a Themepark, which I believe both CCP and the players do not want hence the kinda lackluster nature of PvE in EVE... and,

      (b) being so terribad as to drive players away from PvE and hence away from the game.

      Away from the game? Yes… would YOU keep playing EVE if you couldn’t ‘afford’ to buy ships n shit? So, FacWar LP is a good course of income… and so some players are ‘missioning’ in plexes to make ISK… good and I agree with Gamerchick…

      ”Anything easy or accessible to new players is easier and more accessible to older players. And I would bet that many stabbed farmers are not ACTUALLY new players. After all, anyone that aware of how to min/max the current FW meta, is probably not new enough anymore to be called new. ”

      IE like her I bet a LOT of FarWar farmers are the same as Wormhole Sleeper farmers… alts of vets grinding ISK for their PVP mains… They are not interested in FacWar, they are grinding ISK for their next Sov Fleet Metaship or Titan or some such…

      So… quit whinin about a module and fit more points or hunt in a gang… learn to fly better instead of crying to nerf your prey down to where you can kill him without having to work for it…

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    2. "The fine line..." is just what I'm talking about. My reasoning is: "The farmer has a cheap, disposable ship, he is protected by an acc gate and ship restrictions and he has d-scan - it is trivial to farm LP without stabs"

      You say: "Players gotta make ISK man… otherwise no one PvPs... and some if not most players have to make their ISK via PvE cause CCP doesn't just wanna hand out ISK."

      Agreed - but you ignore my arguments. FW-plexing without WCS is profitable, reasonable and newbie-friendly.
      Really no reason to do it stabbed.

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  11. A WCS is another tool among many, such as webs, scram, disruptor, bubbles, etc., etc.. What seems to be the problem as you state is the mechanics for faction war. I agree that war is not about fighting per se. Rather, it's about attaining political objectives. If the polity wishes to control a star system, then that's the objective, not seeing how many enemy ships you can explode. Plex farming is odd because the mechanics of faction warfare is odd. The entosis link approach being introduced in null sec makes more sense in that it's an attack on an organization's information network as well as their control structure. Providing a low sec version of entosis link mechanics would change that.

    Part of the problem came when it was decided to create plexes as dead space rooms to limit ship size. That was to provide a venue for selective ship engagements, which was a nice twist, but it has created some complications as well. An entosis link structure to taking faction warfare systems will likely make it more attractive to use a wide variety of ship sizes, it all depending on the effort taken to control a system combined with the response given in defending it.

    I saw an article that provided some information on where players played. The overwhelming majority play in hi sec, as it turns out. That says something to me, basically that most EVE players are into PvE. It may be that EVE is about PvP, but for most players in EVE that's not their choice. When the large majority of players choose not to do PvP, then that carries its own weight in terms of gameplay. There has to be balance, and that means tools need to exist for both sides, prey as well as predator. Just as in life.

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  12. There are many things wrong with your article and you make some gross assumptions about my statements and the entire purpose of the campaign. First of all this was never about banning a module. I've made this clear many times. The module itself is not the issue, it is the fact that people feel the need to use it on combat ships. As a Pirate I couldn't honestly care less, and this seems to be the thing that trips most people up - keep using them and we'll keep killing you. It actually doesn't matter to Rixx or even to most Pirates. However, as a blogger/fan/advocate of Eve and especially Low Sec, this is a small part of a much much larger issue. And no one can truly argue against this larger issue, not Kirith and not yourself. FW has game mechanic problems that need to be addressed. Believe it or not, I am all for FW and would like to see it grow, thrive and become even better.

    From my talks with those at CCP during Fanfest I know they also agree and that plans are in development to address these concerns. So arguing about WCS is more than likely rather pointless at this stage, since more than likely the issue will be resolved in the near future.

    Until then however, I will continue to point out badly fitted ships including those that use WCS on my blog and on Twitter. I do so in the hopes that people will learn and grow and eventually fit better ships to give me better fights. And if a little shame helps them do that faster, then so be it.

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    1. "...and eventually fit better ships to give me better fights." which is, of course, the reason we all play EVE.

      Not.

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    2. and here is the rub... what, where, how and why YOU play the game... has no effect on my game AT ALL.

      I do not need you to fit better ships to give me better fights... ever. And I never will.

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    3. Good for you. Woot! Go forth and play the game. I have never once, ever, tried to make anyone play the game any other way. I do advocate a play-style that I enjoy and will continue to do so. But that is, after all, also my right.

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  13. Stabbed farmers/non stabbed farmers used to bother me, but now I just pass them buy when it's obvious that all they want to do is circle that button. I mark all the pilots that stick around for a fight orange in my contacts and get a big smile when I see them in local. For me its fights/fun per hour that's important. If I can easily see who is and who isn't up for a fight all the better. I will often pass pilots who name thier ships with obvious signs of farming activity. "Farmer", "Stabbed", "No Fights", even "leave me alone" are all good indicators of the LP plexer.

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    1. Exactly my point... why worry about the guy who is not playing the game the way you feel he should? There are a helluva lot of us on the server... I don't see any need to whine that this guy or that guy were in "X" place and didn't want to fight me... itsa big verse, I just keep keep looking, same as Rhett.

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  14. Susan's blog, once again, delivers a read that's not only enjoyable, but filled with common sense.

    When she labels someone 'ridiculous,' it's best to pay attention, especially if you're the one she has fingered. That is, if you ever want to stop being ridiculous.

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  15. I've only dabbled in FW, but the people there tend to say that it's the farmers who dictate the real progression of territory control. However, it seems like every time I join a public fleet, all we do is roam, and only occasionally sit on a button.

    It would seem like it is really just a risk vs reward issue. The simplest option would be to require a deployable to flip the button. If you warp off, you leave your valuable deployable behind, and the winning part then gets to keep it along with the button. You keep your farmer ship, and the pvper gets paid.

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