AFKing while multibox army of skirm soldiers grind tokens?

[Lilka]

I suppose technically, it's not a cheat or an exploit but it doesn't really seem in the spirit of things - to have a 4 character multiboxed army, to then summon their 4 skirmish soldiers and park them up at a lowbie spawn spot, and then go AFK while they grind tokens for you. I guess there's no bot involved, so it's not botting, but it seems, well... like legalised botting.

Thoughts?

[Yula_the_Mighty]

I do not see the problem since your characters are not doing anything. We used to do this activity all the time with Captains and Lore Masters. Park the character in the middle of a target rich area. Summon our pets or Heralds. Set the pets to aggressive. Turbine's solution was to greatly reduce the aggro range for Pets and critters. The yield of kills per hour was greatly reduced.

[Anyelir]

This behaviour may not exactly be forbidden, but it creates problems for the low-level characters who actually need those mobs for their quests or deeds, especially when the characters doing this with their skirmish soldiers are of a high enough level to oneshot everything. The low-level character has practically no chance of getting any kills.

I consider players who hogg mobs in such a manner extremely impolite and if they don't give me a chance to get my quests done even after I send them a tell, they go straight to my ignore list as they're clearly not the kind of people I want to spend any time grouped with.

[Sapience]

First, remember, the most important information in Yula's comments is in his sig.

Second, if you believe this person is intentionally AFK for the purpose of farming, report them. At least make a GM aware so they can look into it.

[manstan]

Many a criminal has walked on a technicality.

When I'm deeding with my LM I do something similar, but not multiboxed, and not AFK. I usually set on a hill, playing a tune, and giving target commands. Never done it with my cappy, but my LM is still low level and needs all the perks she can get lol

I'm against mutliboxing to begin with. So AFKing with multiboxed LMs or cappies, so the pets/soldiers are doing all the work is just way wrong.

[redwoodtreesprite]

Well, if the mobs are greyed out for them, then they cannot fight them with their pets and heralds. Seems silly to burn through skirmish soldier landscape tokens that way too.
And wouldn't most mobs in low level areas be greyed out for level 20s? So they would not be able to have skirmish soldiers fighting things like wolves in the Shire or Ered Luin.

I am curious, which area was this in, and what quest mobs were they fighting?

I have always been against high levels farming low level mobs that are special quest mobs BTW. Especially when there are others in the same zone they can farm.
But of course, everyone has a right to do their deeds, even when they are in greyed out zones. So as long as they don't do them in quest specific spots like the den near Dora's farm or that valley near Celondim, it is OK.

[DelgonTheWise]

Seems silly to burn through skirmish soldier landscape tokens that way too.

That is the strangest (and most self-limiting) part of this "exploit", if exploit it is. Most farming schemes, legal or not, presumably wouldn't involve store bought consumables????

[DEATHKNYGHT]

First, remember, the most important information in Yula's comments is in his sig.

Second, if you believe this person is intentionally AFK for the purpose of farming, report them. At least make a GM aware so they can look into it.

It may vary from server to server, but the Brandywine GM's seem fine with it. There are several areas where this is done. I reported it once when I thought one person was taking serious advantage of it (used to do it for 8+ hours a day for over a week), but the GM said it was fine. The person did time out occasionally for brief periods of time and eventually respond to tells (even if it took 15 minutes), so you could tell it was not a bot. It really was just a very dedicated person. I periodically check on several of the areas (using /tells or stealth burglars) and so far everyone seems to play by the rules.

If you chose to engage in it, I recommend that you report someone first. That way, you (1) can see how at least one GM on your server feels about it and (2) have some minor proof that it is accepted by Turbine in case anything ever does happen.

Personally, I do not recommend doing it alone. Do it 5 other players if AFK or 23 other players if semi-active. It is much more efficient. That is how the German servers earned so many Bounder's Tokens so quickly.

Edit: When I say "the GM said it was fine" I mean the GM closed the ticket and did not ban the person.

[Anyelir]

Well, if the mobs are greyed out for them, then they cannot fight them with their pets and heralds.

I don't know how skirmish soldiers behave in this case, but LM pets set to aggressive will attack grey mobs within their range and even some scenery animals like the little snakes in the Barandalf in Evendim. I suspect that heralds behave the same as LM pets.

[Yula_the_Mighty]

Well, if the mobs are greyed out for them, then they cannot fight them with their pets and heralds. Seems silly to burn through skirmish soldier landscape tokens that way too.

Sure they can. An aggressive Pet will auto attack grey mobs. I just checked to make sure by taking my Captain whose in her 70s to the Shire. I believe they will even go after the useless - squirrels - snakes - deers. The Pets aggro range is fairly short.

The likely hood of getting punished is extremely low. Turbine has always been very lax in their enforcement in both Asheron's Call and in Lotro on the issue of automation (doing stuff while you are not at the keyboard). In Lotro they even build automation into the crafting system by allowing us to order 100 identical crafting operations to be done.

The only person that I know of that ever got punished for killing mobs wasn't doing it while AFK. He was playing his Loremaster and had a bear out. He was killing everything in sight for the hides and deed credit. He refused to group with a level appropriate character. The low level character wasn't getting many tags. Must have been a class like a burglar. The low level character put in a griefing report. My friend got a short duration game ban. One day or something like that for griefing.

Nowadays with personal loot there is no reason to refuse to fellowship someone.

As for getting dinged for AFK. I do not see this happening. You have to keep coming back to reset the inactivity log out timer. You are playing the base game as provided by Turbine with no modifications and no additional hardware or software. Add in a piece of software that provides a keep alive to reset the inactivity timer. That would be a problem. How would a Game Master know the difference between a keep alive software and someone like me that would do vacuuming, dishes, cook, laundry, fold cloths, open mail and occasionally bring the game into focus and press a key.

There is the other issue of Turbine does not seem to do anything about the folks that are running automation to plant and harvest crops for hours or even a full day. You have to be using some sort of add on or additional software to buy more materials, discard stuff you do not want, harvest the crops ...

[Sapience]

The person did time out occasionally for brief periods of time and eventually respond to tells, so you could tell it was not a bot. It really was just a very dedicated person. I periodically check on several of the areas (using /tells or stealth burglars) and so far everyone seems to play by the rules.

If the person was responding to tells then it wasn't unattended game play. He/she was there. That's why there was no issue. Multiboxing isn't a violation.

[Fearless.one]

I would say that since they have the drop rate so messed up on the bounder tokens that any way you can farm these things is open game. Had they left the drop rate set at the proper rate like it was the first week and kept the the statement that bounder tokens would be got from normal play. Then I might agree that this would be out of line a bit out of line. But since people are forced to run festivals and grind long hours just to get a handful bounder tokens. I say anyway you can get it done is all good with me.

The way it set up now most casual players won't get much or nothing out of the whole Bounder event I did the entire shire last night with my wife 75 quest and all the slayers. Just normal playing and for our 10 solid hours of playing we where rewarded with a grand total of about 150 tokens for each me and my wife. SO I would say for many this whole event is going to be a bust and they will be lucky to get a craft tool or outriders token and have to call it good if they can't put in 40 plus hours a week farming tokens that was supposed to be got from just normal game play, no hard core farming or running festivals till your eyes bleed.
I would say that since the DeVs lied to us about being able to the fact of being able to attain any real amount of tokens in a reasonable and turned it into a grind fest that only people that have unlimited time would ever see so much at as 1 of the big ticket items.


I would say for many this might be the only way they can get anything out of the event . I am glad you bought this to my attention I will have to set me one of these pet farmers up too. I was hoping to get 5500 hundred tokens so I could get 4 tarnished tokens and 1 horse on my main character. I did not think that goal was set to high as i have over 100 character and 3 account but so far I have only managed to get 1200 tokens so far after donating 600 when the drop rate was right. I wish now I never donated a single token.

I refuse to grind festivals for bounder tokens that was suppose to come from regular game play this sound like a good answer to my problem too!!

[TheCrossbow]

I don't get people's fascination with trying to turn multi-boxers into criminals. Those of us who utilize it do so because we have realized that adding more bodies to take advantage of the loot system generates more efficient results than we could get on 1 character.

I'm pretty sure Turbine is happy with people who multi-box. That typically means that more money is being spent to fund those extra accounts. Yes, you can operate them as freebie accounts. But, eventually, you have to spend some money on them to bring them up to the level of your [main] account.

Oh and I"m an admitted multi-boxer. I run a Lore-master and Captain together quite often. Many times I use the pair (with their pets) to steamroll lowbie areas for loot... a large amount of that loot usually gets put up on the AH or given to people if I can't use it or don't have space in my vaults for it all. In other words, other people usually benefit from my habits. Lately, I've been on a journey of seeing what instances I can successfully dual-box which has presented a fun challenge.

As Sapience said, it isn't against the rules.

[Yula_the_Mighty]

I would say that since they have the drop rate so messed up on the bounder tokens that any way you can farm these things is open game.

I am not about to waste my valuable game play time on features that require me to find rare drops. I have no desire to automate my game play beyond what can be done easily using the base software and manual input.

I will multi-box. I am always at the workstation able to receive a Game Master tell. Generally I only use multi-box very simple stuff like log in my Captain and another character for easy transport. Or I multi-box to complete emote deeds. I did the Minstrel rez deed via Multi box. I made my Hunter jump to her death and splat in front of the Minstrel. Got my daily limit. One of these days I may finish the Captain rez deed the same way.

We get very heavy and frequent storms in South Florida. When I am not around everything is turned off. I got tired of coming back from the store and finding my modem burned out. Or the PC shut down due to the UPS being drained. Some weeks get multiple power system failure. I even turn the UPS off when I go to bed so the UPS does not wake me beeping away because the power went out.

It does not take much noise to alert me. I scared one of these people that put hanger ads on your door today. I heard her walking up on the porch and messing with the door. I yanked the door open before she got off the porch.

[Gandie2]

I will multi-box. I am always at the workstation able to receive a Game Master tell. Generally I only use multi-box very simple stuff like log in my Captain and another character for easy transport. Or I multi-box to complete emote deeds. I did the Minstrel rez deed via Multi box. I made my Hunter jump to her death and splat in front of the Minstrel. Got my daily limit. One of these days I may finish the Captain rez deed the same way.
.

Make you hunter port himself and cappy to forachell and let him walk into the water - strip down first and put stuff in the vault - vault keeper just inside -- this is how my cappies got the rez deed. Just park cappy and hunter at the edge of the lake and log to them once every ... what ever it was - then log to someone else and quest.

I must admit I have used this -afk- pets killing a couple of times. Never to farm loot. Gawd what a waste of time. But if I'm doing a kill deed and have driven myself to distraction and want to go make a sandwich I'll set the LM's pet to agro and the cappies pet to agro and put shield wall on the lm's pet with everyone on follow on the pet. Don't get a lot of kills but sometimes just the thought that I got some killed while making my sandwich eases the pain.

I don't see it as any different then having a crafter 'make all' while I go shower.

[JBomber]

I would say that since they have the drop rate so messed up on the bounder tokens that any way you can farm these things is open game. Had they left the drop rate set at the proper rate like it was the first week and kept the the statement that bounder tokens would be got from normal play. Then I might agree that this would be out of line a bit out of line. But since people are forced to run festivals and grind long hours just to get a handful bounder tokens. I say anyway you can get it done is all good with me.

The way it set up now most casual players won't get much or nothing out of the whole Bounder event I did the entire shire last night with my wife 75 quest and all the slayers. Just normal playing and for our 10 solid hours of playing we where rewarded with a grand total of about 150 tokens for each me and my wife. SO I would say for many this whole event is going to be a bust and they will be lucky to get a craft tool or outriders token and have to call it good if they can't put in 40 plus hours a week farming tokens that was supposed to be got from just normal game play, no hard core farming or running festivals till your eyes bleed.
I would say that since the DeVs lied to us about being able to the fact of being able to attain any real amount of tokens in a reasonable and turned it into a grind fest that only people that have unlimited time would ever see so much at as 1 of the big ticket items.


I would say for many this might be the only way they can get anything out of the event . I am glad you bought this to my attention I will have to set me one of these pet farmers up too. I was hoping to get 5500 hundred tokens so I could get 4 tarnished tokens and 1 horse on my main character. I did not think that goal was set to high as i have over 100 character and 3 account but so far I have only managed to get 1200 tokens so far after donating 600 when the drop rate was right. I wish now I never donated a single token.

I refuse to grind festivals for bounder tokens that was suppose to come from regular game play this sound like a good answer to my problem too!!

I was playing for about an hour yesterday and got around 120 tokens, I am pretty sure they only drop from humanoid mobs since I picked up several sacks while doing the slayer deed in hauhd iricth(sp?) but none while doing the corresponding barrow spider deed, yes it is not extremely fast and it only drops from human mobs it seems but they are the ones with the best loot excepting hide animals anyways. Then again all of that could just be a coincidence since I had not logged in recently until yesterday and had not known about the event until then so I may be speaking nonsense so feel free to ignore me if that is the case.

[redwoodtreesprite]

I was playing for about an hour yesterday and got around 120 tokens, I am pretty sure they only drop from humanoid mobs since I picked up several sacks while doing the slayer deed in hauhd iricth(sp?) but none while doing the corresponding barrow spider deed, yes it is not extremely fast and it only drops from human mobs it seems but they are the ones with the best loot excepting hide animals anyways. Then again all of that could just be a coincidence since I had not logged in recently until yesterday and had not known about the event until then so I may be speaking nonsense so feel free to ignore me if that is the case.

They do drop off of non humanoid mobs.

And wow, I was unaware of LOTRO pets attacking greyed outs. So used to another game where pets and mercs don't do that.
I see no point to it being that way in LOTRO, but ah well...

[Thrugghelm]

That is the strangest (and most self-limiting) part of this "exploit", if exploit it is. Most farming schemes, legal or not, presumably wouldn't involve store bought consumables????

Landscape Soldier Tokens are only 20 Bounder's Tokens each from the Bounty Vendor. So assuming each one earns more than 20 in an hour it is a positive return.

[Lilka]

First, remember, the most important information in Yula's comments is in his sig.

Second, if you believe this person is intentionally AFK for the purpose of farming, report them. At least make a GM aware so they can look into it.

Thanks for the advice. I considered it but then realised I could not accuse him of 'botting' as there was no evidence of a bot, and being AFK isn't really a crime... but. Yeah. It just didn't seem fair, I guess. Or something. Bit of a grey area.

[Siquayetsga]

AFK or not, is pet-farming this really any worse than level-cap Champion going into a low-level zone and vacuuming up all the mobs? Such behaviour is rude as heck to any lowbies trying to complete quests, but well within the rules AFAIK. I've lost count how many times I've had to put off completing a quest or deed because some capped character was camping the respawn point.

[Tuco]

Landscape Soldier Tokens are only 20 Bounder's Tokens each from the Bounty Vendor. So assuming each one earns more than 20 in an hour it is a positive return.

Even if you had to buy the Landscape Soldier Tokens from the store, getting a Michel Delving Pony from the Bounty Vendor this way is still going to be cheaper than buying a unique horse from the store.

[CrimsonBladeEU]

There is the other issue of Turbine does not seem to do anything about the folks that are running automation to plant and harvest crops for hours or even a full day. You have to be using some sort of add on or additional software to buy more materials, discard stuff you do not want, harvest the crops ...

I used an auto-key presser to help with leveling up a farming toon. The tools wear out too quick to do it unattended for more than ~1-1.5 hours. Nevertheless it was enough time after doing it several times over the course of a few days to get a weeks ban. I foolishly thought using the keypresser to help with farming in a non-fighting way would be fine since it wasn't killing mobs someone might need etc. The weeks ban proved it wasn't. I haven't used a keypresser since and hadn't before anyway it's just planting and harvesting was so boring and repetitive. That was my reason but not a justification. I did wrong and took my punishment without complaint. It was a lesson learnt: just because you see someone else doing it doesn't mean it's OK.

[Fearless.one]

Thanks for the advice. I considered it but then realized I could not accuse him of 'botting' as there was no evidence of a bot, and being AFK isn't really a crime... but. Yeah. It just didn't seem fair, I guess. Or something. Bit of a grey area.

There is nothing to report Multi-boxing is 100% legal and there is no reason to bother the GM and waste his time it may go against your moral judgement but but as the ELA goes it 100% legal. LOTRO made the client so it would allow you to multi-box. You may not like it but that just your opinion and has no bearing as there in no rule being violated.

[Lilka]

There is nothing to report Multi-boxing is 100% legal and there is no reason to bother the GM and waste his time it may go against your moral judgement but but as the ELA goes it 100% legal. LOTRO made the client so it would allow you to multi-box. You may not like it but that just your opinion and has no bearing as there in no rule being violated.

I'm not reporting multiboxing. I'm reporting AFK farming, as Sapience above has advised me to do.

Read the thread.

[leyna012]

I've never seen this on my server (dwarrowdelf), or I just never noticed it.
I remember setting my archer on aggressive and sit there, I usually invite people who are questing there, goes much faster for me and for them:P
I am against multiboxing IF you do it to annoy others or just AFK there.