"Link Hunting" What do you think?

[Palum_Q]

"Link Hunting" - is apparently defined as hunting groups of enemies (training) and then killing them all at once. (Via AoE spells/attacks). Also known as AoE farming.

So, I was farming in Konschat Highlands and actually killing sheep so Mary could maybe spawn.....(it never did). So I have this good train going, about six, seven sheep, when I see this high level (65 thf/rng) come up behind me and cyclone my enemies. Now, no matter HOW MAD I am that people do this to me quite frequently, I never really make anything out of it. If I was quite mad, I would just /angry and be done with it.

So the guy starts saying this: (this is our conversation)

Him - Link hunt is a very bad action, if you continue I will stop action
Me - Well, good for you. I'll consider you a thief, and you'll consider me a link hunter
Him - Can you speak Japanese?
Me - Nope, Sorry
Him - If you not understand, call GM and ask why I say link hunt is bad.
(I'll summarize what he said after because it was pretty bad english, but good on him for trying)

He was basically saying it's not allowed because he himself (a level 65 thief/rng (with widescan..of course) and Cyclone as he showed me) only hunts one enemy at a time so I should not be allowed to hunt AoE style.

So I call the GM and ask him about this, and we were discussing that people think it's more rude than anything. He was saying how a lot of new peopel think it's quite rude but he himself does it with his blm and we were actually laughing at its a good way to make some gil.

So anyways, "Link Hunting" IS NOT AGAINST THE RULES so if anyone tells you it is, ignore them. I did check with a GM.

How do you all farm, if you farm mobs that is? How do you feel about people doing this? I do it and I'll admit it, but I do it when there aren't people around or using the mobs. Generally I'll do AoE in Giddeus or on leftovers in the highlands. I just wanted to know people's opinions on this, and it's not really a flame thing (unless it turns out to be) so I didn't want to put it on those boards.

My last argument, is that players should be able to use their abilities to their fullest. As a blm farmer, I'm envious of the warrior who can provoke the n/m or the thief that naturally gets treasure hunter and gil drops, or the ranger who can wide scan eveyrthing. I don't expect the people playing to NOT use these abilities to their advantedge when they're making some money because S-E seems to have given us these abilities and are ok with us having them.

 

[Tyrion]

I had people stealing from my trains in Ghelsba yesterday for the sole purpose of pissing me off. I know this because I asked them repeatedly to stop, and they said no and told me not to farm in an EXP area. They were higher level than I was and there to log - there was nobody there levelling. They were just being jerks.

 

[Darkseph]

It's fine having trains and i hate people who think i need help due to my hp ( was doing a train as rdm ) i was like having fun till 4 people killed my train due to my hp, i could heal myself =/

 

[Nyahoho]

Game Mechanic: If a monster's name is yellow, it's not yours, even if it's attacking you. Anyone else may attack this monster because it is not "claimed".

So if you're grabbing up every Yagudo in Giddeus, don't complain if I pick off a few with my lance. Other people need gil and items, too. Watching some guy run by with all the Yags, screaming "DON'T TOUCH MY TRAIN!!!" is pretty discouraging when you need a bajillion Yag Necklaces to build your Norg fame.

 

[Sculli]

Man, this discussion goes around the MMO community since the inception of MMOs.

AoE (Area of Effect) hunting is called "class ability". More XP per time unit, higher risk, higher reward. If you play a class that can't do it and have grief, then switch you class and see how well you can do as AoE'er.

On the flipside, keep cool if someone picks a few mobs off of your train, in the long run it doesn't matter at all.

On the thrid flipside (bet you didn't think there was one), if someone threatens you with GM action, then make them. AoE hunting is not an exploit at all, it's class ability.

Done and done.

Edit: The true problem is that FFXI is screwed up. What I mean is that there is an incentive for high levels to hunt lowbie mobs. I have played quite a few MMOs and in none I came across does it make sense for a high level to kill hundreds of low level mobs. Ok, in EQ it did during Velious for faction farming, but that was a very limited amount of time one needed to get enough faction.

Bottom line is, complain to SE, not to the player using his abilities. There used to be a "trivial loot" system in some MMOs, where mobs simply would not drop any loot if the one who killed it was X amount of levels above the mob killed.

It's just wrong that a L60 player can actually get anything useful off of a L5 mob. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

 

[asiamise]

Link Hunting never bothers me as long as the amount of people in any given area is not too large. If there are only say, 15 people in a zone, i will link like crazy. If I see 25+ I will stay on the lookout to make sure im not killing anybodys fun.

This game is already filled with enough Buzz-Kills the way it is, and I certainly
try my best not to add to it.

 

[Marajade]

ehh

i dont do aoe farming, since i have found it to be less eficent. i just go into Klands as my THF/RNG, and hunt sheep. i kill them one at a time. I tried doing it as my friends BLM, runing around, makeing about a 10 sheep train, and blasting them all with blizzaga ans such. took about the same timeto kill the same number of sheep, but i had to rest as a BLM, since it took me a couple 50mp spells to kill them all.

anyws, thats just me. and i know that with an aoe WS, it would negate the resting.

 

[Squirrelin]

Game Mechanic: If a monster's name is yellow, it's not yours, even if it's attacking you. Anyone else may attack this monster because it is not "claimed".

So if you're grabbing up every Yagudo in Giddeus, don't complain if I pick off a few with my lance. Other people need gil and items, too. Watching some guy run by with all the Yags, screaming "DON'T TOUCH MY TRAIN!!!" is pretty discouraging when you need a bajillion Yag Necklaces to build your Norg fame.

And THAT is precisely why it is 'rude'. I suppose if someone were the only person in the area it might be different. But by voting "it's perfectly ok" I guess I would be implying that there are no circumstances where I'd have a problem with it. Rather to the contrary -- there are just a few circumstances in which I would NOT have a problem with it.

This is the same thing as the logging-poing / mining-point problem. The game *does* allow just anyone to claim-jump. That doesn't make it less rude.

If people are gonna try to train every mob in the area, they're treating the area like it's their own personal play room to the exclusion of all other people -- expecting others in the area not to interfere with their fun. Other people in the game pay $13/month too.

 

[Sculli]

Other people in the game pay $13/month too.

True, which is precisely why developers should fix what is clearly a broken system.

I am going to exaggerate, but if I take the few hours of time I have to get myself some online entertainment, then I should not be forced to include "oh boy, I wonder what others may think of me AoEing" in my line of thought, just because I happen to play a class that is capable of killing massive amounts of mobs at once.

The point I am trying to make is that this is an issue that needs to be taken up with developers, not with players of AoE classes.

 

[Keits]

AoE Farming isnt rude or wrong.

Yelling at other farmers for picking off 'your' train is wrong.

 

[OniTatsujin]

there were these two high levels camping spiny spipi and i was running through Dia'ing everything, and guess what they do?

Person casts Blizzaga II.

My whole train i worked for they murdered, i was very upset, and asked them why did they kill my train.
They say, oh, i thought you were a low level...

Umm...what low level is whereing Beetle Armor, Wool Slops, Twin daggers? I mean, come on really? Is anyone that is low level gonna go around casting Dia on everything and still live? Common Sense people.

And this was out of the leveling area, no one was leveling where i was training, so why they have to screw up my train.

 

[ThisIsHamburgler]

AoE Farming isnt rude or wrong.

Yelling at other farmers for picking off 'your' train is wrong.

Yes, picking is ok. One or two mobs dont really matter. But following someone around and taking one mob after another is rude, as is using a higher level -ga spell to kill them all off.

When I used to train farm and people would pick off, I would send them a tell explaining what I was doing. Nothing mean, because most people didnt know what I was doing. One person however followed me around and took one mob after another. His response was something like, "I know what you are doing, but I am obnoxious."

Incidently that was the last time I train farmed.

-Ham :shock:

 

[Daroth]

Hell i am a thf and i still link farm I just run thru giddeus with 2 bees to start and kill them off one by on in one of the paths people dont venture down/

 

[Mistaya]

wow this has a fancy name now o_o 'link hunting'.

mass training is what i called it. Anywho, i have no probs with link hunting in non exp areas. PPL who link hunt say, lizards in valk dunes deserve to be shot ^^. As my 70 drk icould go link hunt every single crawler in the nest (exageration but nearly accurate) for silk in front of that 40ish lizard killer, depriving him of all exp. But i dont since its r-u-d-e. Places like giddeus, or castle oztroja are great places to link-hunt since no pts compete for mobs there.

Oh... on my bst i was petting the mary-spawn sheep (unknowingly) and some AF dragoon kept running by and stealing my sheep. I was about to call MPK since his antics got me killed 3 times. I would be healing/standing next to my new pet and he would run up to me and provoke it. occasioanlly he would run by with 10-15 sheep. I got pissed while running for my life and charmed one of his train to save myself and he had the nerve to call me names in tell. This was after i politely asked him NOT to kill a sheep i was next to. (which he told me some four letter words about how he wasnt going to let me have any sheeps at all.) I mean i wasnt hunting mary, and my pets were gonna die in the next 2 min anyways, but i had to run for a zone that was a mighty long ways away several times because of his training.

Anyways link farming is fine but i would give priority to the EXP pt if you want to link hunt do so elsewhere.