Plat seller tip #666: farming level 70 masters from MOA3

[electricninjasex]

On our Permafrost server it's quiet now in Bonemire.  But something caught my eye and it bugs the heck out of me.  In a matter of less than a week, we have 5 suspected plat pharmer/seller mage characters disappearing from the public eye and mysteriously accumulating 6-7 total pages of level 70 masters.I thought to myself, this can't be!  So I asked in channel where they were doing their farming, since they rarely appeared in any of the KoS overland zones.  Someone sent me a tell that they were zoning in and out of Halls of Fate, hailing the ghost every time.  So I parked my character at the entrance.  Sure enough, they were zoning out, hailing the ghost, zoning in, staying a while, zoning out, and repeating the cycle again and again and again.  Like clockwork.<div></div>For the confused, the third Mark of Awakening quest is a trial that gives you godlike powers and swarms you with level 70 solo mobs, which are extremely easy to AE burn and evidently drop master spells.  If you zone out without killing the final named, you can zone back in and redo this zone in perpetuity.  Most people don't pay attention to this because they enthusiastically complete the quest en route to receiving their MoA neck item reward. This drop rate needs to be stopped because now it is being energetically bent towards an "evil" cause in an unbalancing manner.The funny thing?  A lot of people knew that masters dropped here, many months ago, but nobody ever took the time to exploit it like this.

[Outerspace]

So that's what they are up to!Same on my server.<div></div>

[Anoixia]

<DIV>at least it is not in a shared zone >.<</DIV>

[lancekortesoja]

get there names and report them

[Killerbee3000]

it also has a good side.... many of the living tombs farmers lvl'd up and are now farming moa 3 instance so you only have 75% of the players in lt being chinese bots onstead of 99,9% like before....but yeah.... stop that moa 3 exploting thx.....<div></div>

[Arkturis]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> lancekortesoja wrote:<BR> get there names and report them<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>It's not against the EULA to farm plat.  Just to sell it.</P>

[Qwindar]

I despise plat sellers as much as the next guy, but I do, however, see a need for players to be able to farm plat for themselves. IMHO, what they are doing is not an exploit. They didn't do anything to make themselves unkillable, all they did is do something most other players didn't think of doing before. Think back to EQ1, monk FD pulling was never intended to happen. It was a tool given to monks to lose aggro, but some enterprising monks started to use it to split mobs. Was that an exploit? What about wizzy and druid kiting? They were using the tools the devs gave them to kill stuff in a way the devs never intended. Let's not mention bard kiting! I think if people are using the tools given to them in game to earn plat or items, then it's not an exploit. If they have a crafting bot or some other 3rd party program running, that's an exploit. Why? Because you, or anybody else, can simply do what they are doing and give them competition all within the current rules of the game. <div></div>

[ReviloTX]

<DIV>Ugh, stop complaining already.  Leave them in an instance where they don't effect the rest of the server.  They are going to farm masters somewhere, might as well be out of our sight.</DIV>

[LokiHellsson]

You want the plat pharmers gone, just stop buying their plat.  They'll disappear fast.

[Pins]

How to end plat selling as a buisness people ask.Easy, ban the buyers.

[electricninjasex]

<div></div><div></div><div></div>How bout this.  You look for the buyers, I'll look for the sellers, and we'll see who turns up more leads.This MOA3 gluttony cheapens the entire game, I don't even feel like playing while this is going on.  Park your character at the Halls of Fate entrance and watch the little rabid ants zoning in and out, it's completely disgusting.<p>Message Edited by electricninjasex on <span class=date_text>01-08-2007</span> <span class=time_text>12:29 AM</span>

[DarkMirrax]

<P>i wondered why the nameds in bonemire have been up a lot more than normal , explains it ..</P> <P>discusting hell yea but can we do anything about it nope , all zones have a chance at dropping a master so technically they arnt doing anything wrong </P> <P>i love your war vs the bots though mate <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> good work !</P> <P> </P>

[Traxor789]

awesome , so as long as you dont kill the named and do it enough , MASTERS FOR EVERYONE<div></div>

[electricninjasex]

<div></div>Tell you what, these plat pharmers/sellers have been making a <i><b>killing </b></i>off of this.If it is not fixed in a week, I am going to sell my characters on Station Exchange and quit this game.<div></div><p>Message Edited by electricninjasex on <span class=date_text>01-08-2007</span> <span class=time_text>01:49 PM</span>

[DarkMirrax]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> electricninjasex wrote:<BR> Tell you what, these plat pharmers/sellers have been making a <I><B>killing </B></I>off of this.<BR><BR>If it is not fixed in a week, I am going to sell my characters on Station Exchange and quit this game.<BR> <P>Message Edited by electricninjasex on <SPAN class=date_text>01-08-2007</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>01:49 PM</SPAN><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>isnt that a bit of an overreaction ?</P> <P> </P>

[electricninjasex]

<div><blockquote><hr>DarkMirrax wrote:<p>isnt that a bit of an overreaction ?</p> <hr></blockquote>No it is not.  What's going on is absolutely horrible and I will no longer associate myself with a player base or a developer team that overlooks it.</div>

[ashen1973]

<P>i'd much rather them doing it there than in the open zones.</P> <P>Same thing happened with Harclave originally, they soon fixed that</P>

[DarkMirrax]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> electricninjasex wrote:<BR> <DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> DarkMirrax wrote:<BR> <P>isnt that a bit of an overreaction ?</P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>No it is not.  What's going on is absolutely horrible and I will no longer associate myself with a player base or a developer team that overlooks it.<BR></DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>i agree with the above poster it will be changed you know that , same thing happened in clefts when DoF Hit and like already mentioned harclave , plus the up side is that they are out of the [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] way for a change .... </P> <P>i miss them tbh who else am i going to clobber <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> lol</P> <P> </P>

[Ixnay]

<div><blockquote><hr>electricninjasex wrote:<div><blockquote><hr>DarkMirrax wrote:<p>isnt that a bit of an overreaction ?</p> <hr></blockquote>No it is not.  What's going on is absolutely horrible and I will no longer associate myself with a player base or a developer team that overlooks it.</div><hr></blockquote>I must agree with my friend Illuminator on this point.  The people who are exploiting this master chest windfall opportunity are those who play EQ2 for a RL living.  Please restore integrity to EQ2 and eliminate this loophole immediately.</div>

[Trynnus1]

This explains why sooooo many zerker masters on the broker. Too bad I had already bought all of these before EoF.

[Brigh]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> electricninjasex wrote:<BR>On our Permafrost server it's quiet now in Bonemire.  But something caught my eye and it bugs the heck out of me.  In a matter of less than a week, we have 5 suspected plat pharmer/seller mage characters disappearing from the public eye and mysteriously accumulating 6-7 total pages of level 70 masters.<BR><BR>I thought to myself, this can't be!  So I asked in channel where they were doing their farming, since they rarely appeared in any of the KoS overland zones.  Someone sent me a tell that they were zoning in and out of Halls of Fate, hailing the ghost every time.  So I parked my character at the entrance.  Sure enough, they were zoning out, hailing the ghost, zoning in, staying a while, zoning out, and repeating the cycle again and again and again.  Like clockwork.<BR> <BR>For the confused, the third Mark of Awakening quest is a trial that gives you godlike powers and swarms you with level 70 solo mobs, which are extremely easy to AE burn and <FONT color=#ff6600 size=4><EM>evidently</EM></FONT> drop master spells.  If you zone out without killing the final named, you can zone back in and redo this zone in perpetuity.  Most people don't pay attention to this because they enthusiastically complete the quest en route to receiving their MoA neck item reward. This drop rate needs to be stopped because now it is being energetically bent towards an "evil" cause in an unbalancing manner.<BR><BR>The funny thing?  A lot of people knew that masters dropped here, many months ago, but nobody ever took the time to exploit it like this.<BR><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>Yet another ....rententive person bothered by the influx of stuff <EM>they could use</EM>, be grateful for, and who obviously<FONT color=#ff0000><STRONG><A href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=quest&message.id=128481#M128481" target=_blank> <FONT color=#3333cc>has never done this instance run</FONT></A></STRONG></FONT> several times over.</P> <P>As I have said before, it is no different than Harclave or other instances where you encounter random trash mobs.</P> <P><U>ALL</U> mobs meant to drop loot have a chance to drop masters. As you can see, I have received a master in Harclave from trash, and a former guildmate got one from another instance off trash. Both are solo instances.</P> <P>Since these are high 60s and the boring repeating wave are all 70s OF COURSE you will have a CHANCE to have a master drop for this level range IF YOU REPEAT IT ENOUGH!!!</P> <P>This does NOT explain the influx that you allegedly see unless you know for a FACT this is where they come from.</P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P> </P>

[Cakassis]

<DIV>Seems to me the solution isn't to ban accounts or screw tih loot tables, but to put a lock into the zone so that they can't go in and out.  I don't know what the mechanics of the quest are, but is it something where zoning out without killing the named could be considered a "fail" and thus mean you can't go in for X hours?  Nerfing the loot table would do more to harm the rest of the players who aren't botters, while SoE will never ban the accounts for that offense because it's not a ToS/EULA violation.</DIV>

[Brigh]

There are certain types of people that have to latch onto issues that are of no consequence to themselves or anyone else in order to feel good inside. They are on a holy crusade for themselves.The other solo instance where I have farmed cash I don't want people like OP to take away my fun and safety from PVP hit squads on Venekor so I refrain from saying what it is.<p>Message Edited by Brigh on <span class=date_text>01-08-2007</span> <span class=time_text>08:10 PM</span>

[electricninjasex]

<div><blockquote><hr>Brigh wrote:<div></div><p>Yet another ....rententive person bothered by the influx of stuff <em>they could use</em>, be grateful for, and who obviously<font color="#ff0000"><strong><a href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=quest&message.id=128481#M128481" target="_blank"> <font color="#3333cc">has never done this instance run</font></a></strong></font> several times over.</p> <p>As I have said before, it is no different than Harclave or other instances where you encounter random trash mobs.</p> <p><u>ALL</u> mobs meant to drop loot have a chance to drop masters. As you can see, I have received a master in Harclave from trash, and a former guildmate got one from another instance off trash. Both are solo instances.</p> <p>Since these are high 60s and the boring repeating wave are all 70s OF COURSE you will have a CHANCE to have a master drop for this level range IF YOU REPEAT IT ENOUGH!!!</p> <p>This does NOT explain the influx that you allegedly see unless you know for a FACT this is where they come from.</p><hr></blockquote>The rate of 70 master drops provided from exploiting this quest is surpassing anything I have seen in almost two years of playing this game.  Harclave doesn't hold a candle to this, and I never had a master drop from there.  The GMWorker employees shuffling in and out of MOA3 can rest easy for the next two weeks, from all the plat they must have made from this.It is a FACT that this zone is giving them all their masters.<i>  “It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”</i>If the big picture is lost on you, I'm not going to hold your hand and tutor your way back to it.  If it is a habit of this game's design process to NOT take time to imagine the potential end-user abuses of each design decision, then it will be a habit of mine not to endorse it or pay the subscription fee to play it.This game has zero progression in any dimension, zero sense of urgency to its worst and most easily fixable flaws, and I'm not going to defend it anymore.  It is a disservice to both the casual and hardcore players when reward is not commensurate to effort or skill.  In fact, any game known to humankind will fail under that kind of ethic.  And the icing on the cake is seeing clowns like yourself <i>defending</i> this kind of behavior.  That puts so much into perspective, I don't know if I should yell at you or thank you.</div>

[Brigh]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> electricninjasex wrote:<BR> <DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Brigh wrote:<BR> <P>Yet another ....rententive person bothered by the influx of stuff <EM>they could use</EM>, be grateful for, and who obviously<FONT color=#ff0000><STRONG><A href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=quest&message.id=128481#M128481" target=_blank> <FONT color=#3333cc>has never done this instance run</FONT></A></STRONG></FONT> several times over.</P> <P>As I have said before, it is no different than Harclave or other instances where you encounter random trash mobs.</P> <P><U>ALL</U> mobs meant to drop loot have a chance to drop masters. As you can see, I have received a master in Harclave from trash, and a former guildmate got one from another instance off trash. Both are solo instances.</P> <P>Since these are high 60s and the boring repeating wave are all 70s OF COURSE you will have a CHANCE to have a master drop for this level range IF YOU REPEAT IT ENOUGH!!!</P> <P><FONT color=#ff6666>This does NOT explain the influx that you allegedly see unless you know for a FACT this is where they come from</FONT>.</P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>The rate of 70 master drops provided from exploiting this quest is surpassing anything I have seen in almost two years of playing this game.  Harclave doesn't hold a candle to this, and I never had a master drop from there.  The GMWorker employees shuffling in and out of MOA3 can rest easy for the next two weeks, from all the plat they must have made from this.<BR><BR>It is a FACT that this zone is giving them all their masters.<I>  “It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”</I><BR><BR>If the big picture is lost on you, I'm not going to hold your hand and tutor your way back to it.  If it is a habit of this game's design process to NOT take time to imagine the potential end-user abuses of each design decision, then it will be a habit of mine not to endorse it or pay the subscription fee to play it.<BR><BR>This game has zero progression in any dimension, zero sense of urgency to its worst and most easily fixable flaws, and I'm not going to defend it anymore.  It is a disservice to both the casual and hardcore players when reward is not commensurate to effort or skill.  In fact, any game known to humankind will fail under that kind of ethic.  And the icing on the cake is seeing clowns like yourself <I>defending</I> this kind of behavior.  That puts so much into perspective, I don't know if I should yell at you or thank you.<BR></DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Maybe you missed it so I changed the color.</P> <P>No where did I defend people selling items in the hopes they get your cash to offer back to players through 3rd party gold seller websites.</P> <P>I HAVE this quest and have run through it several times. It's a horrendous hair pulling experience with just silver drops, occasional looted treasure drops, and occassional vendor armor drops.</P> <P>Only ONCE have I received a chest at all and that was for an adept.</P> <P>Before you come here complaining about something you only hear from other people, who probably only hear it from other people, who gossip what they heard, you should do tihs as I have done.</P> <P>When masters start raining from the sky for me in this place, then I will reconsider.</P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P><BR> </P>

[JimmyMa]

I noticed this on Everfrost the other day.When they came out,  they just kept on casting their out of combat aoes. They would zone out, have about 4-5 interupts while they got the instance ready again, then zone back in. Whatever script they have running for it just keeps the aoes going event while zoning in and out.Awful.<div></div>

[Rahatmattata]

It's funny this has not effected my gameplay in any way what-so-ever. I haven't even noticed or cared.

[electricninjasex]

<blockquote><hr>Brigh wrote:<p>Before you come here complaining about something you only hear from other people, who probably only hear it from other people, who gossip what they heard, you should do tihs as I have done.</p> <p>When masters start raining from the sky for me in this place, then I will reconsider. </p><hr></blockquote>It's because you haven't played the numbers nearly enough.  Have you stood outside the zone?  Have you watched the broker like a hawk and noticed that these players are almost exclusively adding <i>level 70 masters</i> to their listings?    Are you this ignorant by choice or can you honestly just not help it?  Are 2 and 2 really so hard to put together?<div><blockquote><hr>JimmyMach wrote:I noticed this on Everfrost the other day.When they came out,  they just kept on casting their out of combat aoes. They would zone out, have about 4-5 interupts while they got the instance ready again, then zone back in. Whatever script they have running for it just keeps the aoes going event while zoning in and out.Awful.<hr></blockquote> Every one of these chinese plat selling players will walk away from this with gobs of virtually free plat and zero threat of punishment.  If it continues after being so openly exposed, then the last of the game's credibility is formally dissolved.<div><blockquote><hr>Cannibas wrote:It's funny this has not effected my gameplay in any way what-so-ever. I haven't even noticed or cared.<hr></blockquote>People seem to care about this as much as they care about North Korea counterfeiting U.S. currency on an industrial scale. But it's most like the frog in the pot, he doesn't notice the temperature increasing a degree at at time until it's too late.</div> </div>

[Nizmar]

<P>Back before EoF and when this quest was still in its prime, I noticed this trick and did it for a couple of weeks.</P> <P>Yes..there is a LOT of money to be had...<STRONG><U>But NOT FROM GETTING MASTERS</U></STRONG></P> <P>I spent a good portion of 40 hrs in there and did not once get a master chest.</P> <P>you get a lot of coin, and you get junk that regularly drops from mobs over and over, and you sell that.</P> <P>The plat farmers are doing this because 1) it IS out of sight and mind 2) it can be done with just one person 3) certain classes (warlock and wizard) can finish it very quickly.</P> <P>The point is, I would rather have the plat farmers do this then taking mobs needed for quests in SS or PoF.  </P> <P>I would rather they do this than farm named mobs in The Obelisk Of Lost Souls.</P> <P>I would rather they do this than farm nameds in Runneye.</P> <P>You are complaining because the plat farmers are doing this instance over and over again...well sure beats them ruining other zones and preventing me from doing certain tasks I wanted to do.</P>

[grimgolem2]

<div></div>i dont see a prob<div></div><p>Message Edited by grimgolem2 on <span class=date_text>01-09-2007</span> <span class=time_text>07:45 PM</span>

[Valarye]

<P>I wondered what those lil botters were up to when I was waiting for my group members to get to HoF last week.   I really don't think that the master drop rate there is so much that this would concern me.  I would have to agree that as long as they are there, I don't have to look at them and they aren't taking the mobs I want/need.  Yes, it is an exploit and I am sure that SoE will eventually take care of it by making a failed timer or the likes.</P> <P>But until then, the rest of the world is free and clear for the rest of us <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P>

[Troubor]

<DIV>My random thoughts on this.  Bear in mind, other then skimming a bit I really only read the original post, so I might be covering ground covered by someone else.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>1)  For now, at least they aren't hitting writ mobs, nameds needed for quests and so forth, FOR NOW, they are mostly out of sight, out of mind.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2)  No idea if people buy from them on the broker, but at least from the people vocal on my server's 60-69 and 70th level chats, people just tease and then ignore the known plat farmers who sell for IRL money on my server (NO, won't get into a debate as to "HOW we know".  :p )...there's a running joke now on my server to post "[random linked item]sell" in level chat, often something of little value and/or that the person has no intent to sell, to make fun of how one plat farmer used to post her Masters in level chat to try to sell them for instance.  Anyway, if this is a basis, not too many on my server are buying the masters from plat sellers/farmers...they just make fun of anyone with an obviously randomly generated name who doesn't seem to do anything but post such a link.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3)  Okay, for now they are kind of out of our hair..but even for someone farming plat, this might get old.  Or, they might change the MOA trials so this can't be done.  Sooner or later they will be back enmasse disrupting zones.  Out of sight, out of mind doesn't cure the problem, just means we don't have the problem today.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Anyway, SOE has their thread with their propaganda of 50,000 banned CHARACTERS (note it's not accounts..and also note that if I recall, their thread really just mentioned the cleaning out of old Characters already banned, not new bannings).  Makes me wonder though, if SOE plans on ever doing much about these people now?  No, farming MOA3, other then being an exploit, isn't against the EULA.  And it will be both good and bad if/when SOE fixes the MOA trials to stop this, since we'll have to deal with all the farmers back in their old haunts again....and also bad since I'm sure whatever fix SOE does, it will be one that will be just as obnoxious to the legitimate player also.  Does make me wonder...will SOE ever do anything to truly stop the botters?  The Plat Farmers?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I doubt it.  Best we'll get is more propaganda 6 months down the line.  Probably even mention 50,000 banned CHARACTERS again...the same ones already cleared, I'd suspect...</DIV>

[Dragoneyed123]

I don't believe they are doing the solo MoA 3.... What they are doing is, one person has access to either MoA1 or 2 and zones the group in, the person with the access then zones out.  SO the people left in zone kill the named get the loot (masters) then zone out.  They again have access because the quest holder never completed the quest. Rinse and repeat...  THAT is what they are doingIn that case the drop rate would be alot higher.  MoA1 and 2 named drop decent stuff, as well as masters nearly every time.  It could be termed an exploit, however its simple logic if you ask me, however the effect of what they are doing is devistating to the economy.  I work my [Removed for Content] off for getting master spells so that I can buy equipment and such, and seeing 5 rain of arrows, fusion, ice storm, firestorm, whirl of blades, sonic boom, lucky ploy  and other formerly rare masters on the server causes my newly looted master to be worth about a copper... it pisses me off.  Not only that, but when they overprice the [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] spells wreaks even more havic.  <div></div>

[electricninjasex]

<div></div>The test update notes for today vindicate everyone, I'm happy as a clam and this is a wonderful day for EQ2.  Shall we dance?<div></div><p>Message Edited by electricninjasex on <span class=date_text>01-09-2007</span> <span class=time_text>05:15 PM</span>

[Jerr]

<P>It's amazing to me that some people replying to this thread are so clueless as to say this exploit isn't that bad or doesnt effect their gameplay--sad.</P> <P>Just happy they removed the trial drops from the universal spelllist in test update notes.</P> <P>cheers,</P> <P>Jerril</P>

[grimgolem2]

what are people excited about? now theres going to be less masters on the market, and now the plat sellers are going to be out stealing your named all day. if anything this makes things worse, and people don't even realize that. Keep the farmers at bay in an instance and flooding the market with masters is a good thing , they are cheap and easy to get for everyone and they weren't bothering anyone in the process.<div></div>

[WAPCE]

<blockquote><hr>grimgolem2 wrote:what are people excited about? now theres going to be less masters on the market, and now the plat sellers are going to be out stealing your named all day. if anything this makes things worse, and people don't even realize that. Keep the farmers at bay in an instance and flooding the market with masters is a good thing , they are cheap and easy to get for everyone and they weren't bothering anyone in the process.<div></div><hr></blockquote> <B>Extremely</B> naive. Mass inflation hurts us all, and encouraging this behavior out of view is the wrong approach and won't fix it. Fortunately, the designers think so too.

[Methriln]

I agree this is a load of bs. I can sit on my assassin on pvp and sit an watch 9-10 people on both sides zone in and out all day and night long. And like said before when i go to buy masters i need gusse whos selling them. It needs to stop.

[grimgolem2]

how does cheaper masters hurt anyone? if anything it hurts said plat farmers because the prices keep going further down and they can't sell for as much. lol, i dont understand =<div></div>

[Carvium]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> grimgolem2 wrote:<BR>how does cheaper masters hurt anyone? if anything it hurts said plat farmers because the prices keep going further down and they can't sell for as much. lol, i dont understand =<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Totally agree that more masters on the market helps bring the price down espacially when the prices people want for them is what keeps plat farmers in business.  But from looking in the test server notes the farmers won't be there much longer as they are changing the MOA trial 3 loot table so it doesn't have a global table.

[AratornCalahn]

Ok I still dont get this. Here is a few simple truths I accept. You cannot stop plat sellers. You cannot stop plat farmers. You cannot stop plat buyers. Soe can change zone after zone and loot table after loot table, but all they do is MOVE the plat farmers, not stop them. They dont go "oh well, good while it lasted, lets go back to making Nike shoes instead." (thats a joke btw, humor FTW) I mean apart from the botting part (and since they are probably sitting at the comps that dosnt even seem to be an issue) they arnt doing anything wrong. Not that they can be stopped for in any short time period anyway and if they are banned by some miricle it starts all over again straight away with new chars. So what happens? Farmers continue to farm somwhere else, someones quest mobs get killed, someones fun gets ruined (like has happeend to me oh so many times). <div></div>

[Kali]

<P><EM>"You cannot stop plat farmers."</EM></P> <P></P> <HR> <P>Perhaps not...but you could seriously hurt them by simply removing the /follow command.</P> <P>One fix and bot groups would be reduced significantly. Hydras would adjust...they play the game for challenge not loot right?</P> <P> </P><p>Message Edited by Kaliak on <span class=date_text>01-10-2007</span> <span class=time_text>11:22 AM</span>

[clamdiper]

<div></div>Not completely remove it 'cause it is a useful tool, restrict it. Make is so you can only /follow a person who either isn't already followed, and not someone who is following making it so the leader can only have one person following, and the others can’t play train. A little logic in their code would fix it to a small extent. Now I doubt this would do much for the MOA plat farmers but it is a start. <p> <span></span></p><blockquote><hr>Kaliak wrote:<div></div><div></div><p><em>"You cannot stop plat farmers."</em></p><p></p><hr><p>Perhaps not...but you could seriously hurt them by simply removing the /follow command.</p><p>One fix and bot groups would be reduced significantly. Hydras would adjust...they play the game for challenge not loot right?</p><p>Message Edited by Kaliak on <span class="date_text">01-10-2007</span><span class="time_text">11:22 AM</span></p><hr></blockquote><div></div>

[electricninjasex]

Plat pharmers/sellers flock to areas that have the highest sustained plat income.  If the plat income at a given location is too high given the effort needed to pharm it, then it needs to be reduced or eliminated.Why?  No legit player can compete with the 24/7 robot mentality of a plat seller combined with above-average income, therefore no legit player will be able to earn enough plat or items in parallel to the plat seller to offset the imbalance the plat seller is causing to the economy.In this case, no legit player could have <i>dreamed</i> of producing level 70 masters at the same rate as these guys.The second reason is that you don't want adventurers focusing only on one place for the life of the game and not consuming the rest of the content.There will always be plat sellers, but then again, there will always be annoying people like myself who disrupt their bottom line every chance I get.  Saying that there will always be crime is no excuse to disband the Police.

[Zmobie]

<blockquote><hr>Pinski wrote:How to end plat selling as a buisness people ask.Easy, ban the buyers.<hr></blockquote>Yep. Just look how well that strategy has worked in the War on Drugs.--Plague

[Killerbee3000]

<div><blockquote><hr>electricninjasex wrote:In this case, no legit player could have <i>dreamed</i> of producing level 70 masters at the same rate as these guys.<hr></blockquote>atleast people on crushbone have reduced their buying of master spells of known bots to a minimum..... it's funny to see them spamming that they want to sell spells like owl's reparation (lvl 70 fury group hot) as an example and it takes them several days to sell them....</div>

[Rahatmattata]

<P>I still stand by my earlier comment. Plat sellers have been around in both the MMOs I've played (I've played many but only 2 for more than 2 years) since I began playing. They effect my gameplay none. It's so easy to make coin in this game, and it's not hard to compete against bots for named in the rare chance you have to (for me at least). The ironic thing is, if you ban the plat sellers and buyers, well there goes half the game population. I don't buy coins, never have never will (I even refuse to use cheat codes in a single player game until I have beaten the game), but I could give a [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] less if other people buy it. I still make my coins, and I still get my masters with little to no competition from plat sellers and/or botters. This game is so freakin instanced anyway, it's like everyone hides in their own little dungeon, very little competition.</P> <P>Anyway, gratz on your little quest to move plat sellers from one instance to another, as if it's going to make a difference.</P>

[electricninjasex]

<div></div><div><blockquote><hr>Zmobie wrote:<blockquote><hr>Pinski wrote:How to end plat selling as a buisness people ask.Easy, ban the buyers.<hr></blockquote>Yep. Just look how well that strategy has worked in the War on Drugs.--Plague<hr></blockquote>As long as (1) the southern U.S. border is unprotected and (2) drug references and fearless admissions of continued drug use are pervasive in popular media, there is no real War on Drugs.</div><p>Message Edited by electricninjasex on <span class=date_text>01-10-2007</span> <span class=time_text>05:28 PM</span>

[FluffyGoat]

I reported this like 3 weeks ago heh. I wonder if they'll ban all "illegal farmers" ...just think how many they could get, all they'd have to do is stand their GM character outside and watch the people come in and out keep an eye out on those people and what they do with their earned money <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Rahatmattata]

Yea, too bad it's perfectly legit to farm instances and give however much plat you feel like to another player. If they can't prove the coin is being sold for real life cash, not much they can do about it.

[Tokam]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Zmobie wrote:<BR><BR><BR><BR>Yep. Just look how well that strategy has worked in the War on Drugs.<BR><BR>--Plague<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>America sure does have a lot of Wars.<BR>

[Killerbee3000]

<div><blockquote><hr>Cannibas wrote:<div></div>Yea, too bad it's perfectly legit to farm instances and give however much plat you feel like to another player. If they can't prove the coin is being sold for real life cash, not much they can do about it.<hr></blockquote>even if those guys would stay within the eual and woudnt bot and woudnt sell their plat it would still be an exploit in the case of the moa 3 trial, bacause it's definitly not working as intended if 90% of the lvl 70 masters for sale all come from a solo zone with no lockout. not working as intended = bug, bug + taking advantage of it = explooiting = bannable offense.well, atleast soe put in a fix....... but in my opinion it took them too long......</div>

[MysidiaDrakkenbane]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> grimgolem2 wrote:<BR>what are people excited about? now theres going to be less masters on the market, and now the plat sellers are going to be out stealing your named all day. if anything this makes things worse, and people don't even realize that. Keep the farmers at bay in an instance and flooding the market with masters is a good thing , they are cheap and easy to get for everyone and they weren't bothering anyone in the process.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>They can just go farm in Nek 3, but like the rest of us, they'll have to work for those 70 masters, too.

[Brigh]

Hope you are happy.If this doesn't at least give me my cash farming in another place to do, then I spit on you.There are practically no solo zones once you leave Split Paw and what I have to do is farm greens or do this for my income, since it is not easy to get an income for myself.

[Traxor789]

<font color="#ff3300"><font size="7">OMG soe fixing an exploit that botters use to make money??????Maybe they will fix Oblisk of Lost SoulsQuick someone post a thread on it and lets keep making jokes about it . 0.0</font></font><div></div>

[Beghard]

<div><blockquote><hr>Brigh wrote:Hope you are happy.If this doesn't at least give me my cash farming in another place to do, then I spit on you.There are practically no solo zones once you leave Split Paw and what I have to do is farm greens or do this for my income, since it is not easy to get an income for myself.<hr></blockquote>So what your saying is that the only way you can solo somethign is if you have goodmod on? Are you missing some of the keys from your board or mouse by any chanse? Because you sure seem to be missing some thing. So what your saying is that you are mad that they fixed an exploit because now you cant use it any more?Yes, the fact that it makes your life a little more unhappy does make me feel good."what I have to do is farm greens or do this for my income,"Are we talking vegshibales? Hah, kinda funny. Because of the fact that another money exploit was taken out to stop the botters youll end up having to buy from them<span>:smileyvery-happy:</span></div>

[malnurish]

To those that are saying well ok id rather that than them runnin around BM killing stuff, wouldnt it be better if they were entirely gone? Soe sould get off their [Removed for Content] and sort this crap out

[SinIsLaw]

Did a HoF run and after that waited a few minutes at the zone in to help a friend with her MoA trials - so while waiting for the rest to show up i had like 5 - 10 Anon wizzards in crap gear showing up at the door, hailing the npc and zone back into the trials ... ... guess either someone can't read and desipte bad drop rate of 0 they keep on trying or the fix aint working!

[TheBu]

<DIV>this was a pefect place for the farmers.. . a solo instance....</DIV> <DIV>they could have fine tuned the instance to slow the rate of the drops and keeped the farmers from effecting others as much.</DIV> <DIV>They could have also watched the list of zoners and the money trail....</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[TuinalOfTheNexus]

Aye, they should use this opportunity to watch where the plat is going and ban buyers and sellers. Even a simple script to note players doing 50+ MoA runs, and see if they make any significant cash trades with little or nothing in return.

[jam3]

well i remeber when eof came out all the plat farmers on nagafen were still in tt and barren sky so alot of qeynos pvpers would kill them and OFTENthe moa thing busted out and became big,..they were gone for monthsin the past week i have seen over 10 plat farmers back and im getting tokens <span>:smileyhappy:</span><div></div>

[Natturabi]

<DIV>  I know this issue has been dealt with, and I can't be for sure the origin of the exact spell I bought..but I'd like to tip my hat to the guy on my server that parted with the 70th lvl Dirge spell "Banshee" for 4p.  Being stuck with an Adept III and seeing on the broker for 120p and the generous guy who undercut by one gold for 119p 99g was lame.  Now I have it, and don't have to worry.   </DIV> <DIV>  </DIV> <DIV>  What we need now is the farmers to get access to T6 masters for affordable prices.  the 57-59 lvl spells are the rarest in all cases.  (except maybe for the 52nd and 55th Sands masters)  Give the people their master spells!  </DIV> <DIV>  </DIV> <DIV>  Just don't buy the gold online to purchase these spells, that would really fuel their operations.  They wouldn't even have to farm plat, just keep recycling the same plat to the same people over and over!</DIV>

[Brigh]

<blockquote><hr>Beghard wrote:<div><blockquote><hr>Brigh wrote:Hope you are happy.If this doesn't at least give me my cash farming in another place to do, then I spit on you.There are practically no solo zones once you leave Split Paw and what I have to do is farm greens or do this for my income, since it is not easy to get an income for myself.<hr></blockquote>So what your saying is that the only way you can solo somethign is if you have goodmod on? Are you missing some of the keys from your board or mouse by any chanse? Because you sure seem to be missing some thing. So what your saying is that you are mad that they fixed an exploit because now you cant use it any more?Yes, the fact that it makes your life a little more unhappy does make me feel good."what I have to do is farm greens or do this for my income,"Are we talking vegshibales? Hah, kinda funny. Because of the fact that another money exploit was taken out to stop the botters youll end up having to buy from them<span>:smileyvery-happy:</span></div><hr></blockquote>Reading Comprehension 101....or you didn't even read my other posts saying I am on a PVP server at 70 with few zones to solo in without being attacked.As it stands there is only one now with greens. It is nice to change things up now and then.

[frigginfragged]

Are they hurting anyone??? yes.  they are making the trial zones absolutely impossible to play.   The lag in there is so horrible on every trial that it is not even worth it to try.   SOE needs to do something about this, putting a one hour lockout on these zones might be a start, maybe 12 hours is better...after all, someone that wipes on trials 1-3 deserves to sit out for 12 hours and think about what they've done (or not done)

[Noaani]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Brigh wrote:<BR><BR><BR>Reading Comprehension 101.<BR><BR>...or you didn't even read my other posts saying I am on a PVP server at 70 with few zones to solo in without being attacked.<BR><BR>As it stands there is only one now with greens. It is nice to change things up now and then.<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Your a wizard (according to your sig), you can solo anything. On a PvP server, the prime hunting spots for a competant wizard should be Poets, Nest and Acadechism. Once you have them down, find a healer and duo OoB, Valdoon, Vaults, Blackscale, Den, and HoF.</P> <P>The first three zones are doable by a competant wizard in less than an hour each, with no deaths (or even real risk of death). If you are able to play at off times, there is not a single overland name in T7 that you can not solo, with the right strat/AAs/Deity.<BR></P>

[SinIsLaw]

so yesterday evening some peeps wanted to get Moa4 done for their alts! As we formed up to zone in, we all had 2 see the severall toons Anon & crap gear appearing back at the HoF door, spawning the ghost and zoning back in ... Yepps Botters for the win!!!Then we zoned into MoA4 and started  and [I cannot control my vocabulary], SoE pls if u allow a botter heaven at least adjust the server capacity!! Massive lag spikes & LDs  made this easy run through event a small nightmare!Pls add an 8h lockout on fail, for all the trials ...  <div></div>

[Tyrus Dracofire]

<P>i completed this quest few days ago, not 1 necklace or any masters, all i got was the corpse loots and dragon pet. i feel robbed by SOE, not the plat farmers.</P> <P>i do agree, Obelisk of Lost Soul need revamp, since i was unable to get a goblin pet quest.</P> <P> i am not happy with SOE policy and some of questlines get unavailable once mobs turned greyed. i even try to find folks that i could mentor down, but none i knew wasn't interested with OLS. even trying to join the group with platfarmer irk me and knew that i would not be able to loot since they had set leader loot only.</P> <P>I do want those Devs look into this problems and possible redesign questlines for total enjoyments, if they cant do it, or delay for more than 6 months or longer will hurt the health of the game. i would like to see "Must to do list" plans from dev teams, not backburners for months.</P> <P> </P> <P>so here what i am thinking to stop the "Exploits" of reusable zones if that was designed to get completed. think of that Night of the Deads event in haunted house in Q and FP. if you failed dance 3 times, and you get "automatic" pass the quest same with 2005's frostfell on grumpy the goblin, if you failed the spoon drumming 3 times, you get updated. so if those keep zoning and they should get some warning of remaining attempts, if failed or zone out 3 times, and you get automatic lockouts and get dragon pet reward, then it perma lockouts.</P> <P>if they cant do it, well, i am considering a better game plays and questlines which make senses, and i am not allowed due to NDA contract. those guys excells with anti-exploits quests, and i did enjoyed. reason why platsellers wasnt stop, and they dont care if the buyers get banned when i feel that sellers should be banned base on cards and IP adresses. it seemed that plat sellers are paying SOE lot of money. my question is, Are they taking bribes and turn blind eyes?</P> <P>Dymus is on my top list which ruined the game and nothing to fix bugs or revamping any questlines that need attentions for several months. and none of those questing zones and questlines are "Anti-Exploits".</P> <P>any normal zones such as Everfrost, Lesser Feydwar, and many other zones where we all see hostile conned and would still be okay, and those instanced zones would need major overhaul to prevent exploits and set up with timer lockouts.</P> <P>seeing 6-7 pages of masters on broker by 1 person is so insane, and they had raised the value of masterspells when they were at least 5-15 plats and now we see most on brokers for over 100 plats on each spellbook.</P> <P>If i was in charge of SOE development team, i would trash all spellbooks from the chest drops, and made them "Class Quest" to learn new spells and can be repeatable within timeframe and training zone lockouts for a durations, finding adept 1 is lame, and could add difficulty tiers base on spell levels, low tier would be easy and get adept 1 as rewards, and get a group to get master rewards, then no more exploitations with chest lootings and brokers with several pages of masters is too crazy with inflated prices. </P> <P>it would free up the server loads and improved server performances if they get removed from chest drops and never to be seen on brokers again. you only get them on class quest or writs for spells, and you could select which spell that you need or your groups recommended that you need some nice upgrades. so this is what all about "Everquest".</P> <P>bringing back "Class Quest" is good example which we all could learn and upgrades the spells, the old class quest was you took at 10th level learning professions and 20th level, but that was it, so it would be revised for learning a new spell.</P>

[Moongloom]

<DIV>My take on this is that you would have to sit on the server and ban whoever is selling/buying as soon as it happens.  Which I doubt will happen.</DIV> <DIV>Because going the other way and changing a zone that is being used for pharming...they will move to a new zone.  Then you 'fix' that zone and they move to a new one.  Soon ALL zones will be changed to next to no loot or extremely long timers so there can be no pharming.  And most everyone will leave the game because there will be no more reward for any risk.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV><p>Message Edited by Moongloom on <span class=date_text>01-30-2007</span> <span class=time_text>06:29 AM</span>

[Krontak]

I wonder... now that my alt is up to farming obelisk of lost souls for stupid transmute fodder and seeing the same 3 farmers in there any time of day that I log in...is it possible that SoE is getting some kickback from the farmers?  I mean, I think its pretty big or at least decent profit.  I wonder if SoE doesn't cut a break with some of them for parts of thier profit.  In return, they allow them to farm as long as they don't interfere with others gameplay.  Its just a thought but one I'm seriously starting to wonder about.

[Dragoneyed123]

I'll state this again... You will keep seeing them at the MoA instance because they aren't doing the solo MoA 3.... What they are doing is, 1) one person in the group has access to either MoA1 or 2 and zones the group in, 2) the person with the access then zones out.  3) SO the people left in zone kill the named get the loot (masters) then zone out.  4) They again have access because the quest holder never completed that particular part of the quest. 5) Rinse and repeat...  THAT is what they are doing...  If you do the solo MoA 3 instance, the quest updates when the final mob is killed, thus the same character can't go back in. IMO MoA1 is the easier and quicker of the first two, so that is the one that is being abused (can just invis go to the back and kill easily and quickly, about 5 minutes tops). In that case the drop rate would be alot higher.  MoA1 and 2 named drop decent stuff, as well as masters nearly every time.  It could be termed an exploit, however its simple logic if you ask me, however the effect of what they are doing is devistating to the economy.  I work my [Removed for Content] off for getting master spells so that I can buy equipment and such, and seeing 5 rain of arrows, fusion, ice storm, firestorm, whirl of blades, sonic boom, lucky ploy  and other formerly rare masters on the server causes my newly looted master to be worth about a copper... it pisses me off.  Not only that, but when they overprice the [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] spells wreaks even more havoc. <div></div>

[sah]

<P>I was under the impression that the recent change meant that all of the MoA trials no longer drop any spells?</P> <P> </P> <P> </P>

[Trynnus1]

<P><A href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=stat&message.id=348" target=_blank>http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=stat&message.id=348</A></P> <P>As per this message - no more spells from MOA trials.</P>

[electricninjasex]

<div><blockquote><hr>Moongloom wrote:<div></div><div>Because going the other way and changing a zone that is being used for pharming...they will move to a new zone.  Then you 'fix' that zone and they move to a new one.  Soon ALL zones will be changed to next to no loot or extremely long timers so there can be no pharming.</div><hr></blockquote>The fixes are for zones that are being abused or exploited, and which are almost always done so ONLY by the plat pharmers.<blockquote><hr>Moongloom wrote: <div>And most everyone will leave the game because there will be no more reward for any risk. </div><hr></blockquote>Careful, you might not want to go there.</div>

[Noaani]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Tyrus Dracofire wrote:<BR> <P>i completed this quest few days ago, not 1 necklace or any masters<BR></P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Are you saying you did not get the quest reward for completing this quest? if so, /bug it.<BR></P> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Tyrus Dracofire wrote:<BR> <P>i do agree, Obelisk of Lost Soul need revamp, since i was unable to get a goblin pet quest.</P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>You are complaning about not being able to get a chest to drop from a grey con mob?<BR></P> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Tyrus Dracofire wrote: <P>if they cant do it, well, i am considering a better game plays and questlines which make senses, and i am not allowed due to NDA contract.</P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>You just broke the NDA by admitting you are under an NDA!<BR></P> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Tyrus Dracofire wrote:<BR> <P>my question is, Are they taking bribes and turn blind eyes?</P> <P>Dymus is on my top list which ruined the game</P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>If I worked for SoE due to these two comments, I would perma ban your account on these forums, the game account tied to it, and any accounts that may be assiciated with the credit card or e-mail address provided for these accounts.<BR></P> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Tyrus Dracofire wrote: <P>If i was in charge of SOE development team, i would trash all spellbooks from the chest drops, and made them "Class Quest" to learn new spells and can be repeatable within timeframe and training zone lockouts for a durations, finding adept 1 is lame, and could add difficulty tiers base on spell levels, low tier would be easy and get adept 1 as rewards, and get a group to get master rewards, then no more exploitations with chest lootings and brokers with several pages of masters is too crazy with inflated prices.</P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Its a good thing you are not in charge, because that would totally kill the game for everyone except for you.</P> <P>It seems what you are forgetting in this case is that this zone did not have an insanly high drop rate of master spells. Killing a single mob in here had the exact same chance of dropping a master as killing a droag at one of the dig sites on dreadnever crashsite. The exploit was in them using the buff in the zone to be able to kill indivudal mobs at a much faster rate.</P> <P>You have so much as said you would have done the same, and therefore have admitted to not only wanting to cheat, but not being fast enough to do so, and being upset at the fact that this particual means to cheat has been taken from you.</P>

[Espyderman]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> WAPCE wrote:<BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> grimgolem2 wrote:<BR>what are people excited about? now theres going to be less masters on the market, and now the plat sellers are going to be out stealing your named all day. if anything this makes things worse, and people don't even realize that. Keep the farmers at bay in an instance and flooding the market with masters is a good thing , they are cheap and easy to get for everyone and they weren't bothering anyone in the process.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR><B>Extremely</B> naive. Mass inflation hurts us all, and encouraging this behavior out of view is the wrong approach and won't fix it. Fortunately, the designers think so too.<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Mass Inflation? Its a game for pete sake. I want a master, more of them means it costs LESS.  As it was, masters were not worth their investment and mostly still arent due to the time it takes to get them. But yea, mass inflation hurts, if it were the real world....<BR><p>Message Edited by Espyderman on <span class=date_text>02-04-2007</span> <span class=time_text>02:07 AM</span>

[Cakassis]

<P>Has anyone ever thought of running a sting on a plat seller?</P> <P>It seems like it wouldn't be too hard to make a throwaway account and then go purchase some plat from one of the sites.  You log in, record the transaction, and then report it.  I don't know how this would work w/ the EULA and such, but it seems to me that would be a pretty good idea.</P> <P>I'm sure that the sellers don't use the "cash" accounts to provide the plat to the buyer.  Like a drug dealer there are probably several levels between the buyer and the seller.  But this isn't drugs in the real world.  This is plat in a virtual one.  Even if the sellers simply create a new level 1 toon for the final transaction, they still have to provide the money to that toon.  That is a transaction that SoE can track back.  Even if they transfer it several times, it's still trackable.</P> <P>Maybe if I have some free time and extra expendable income I'll see about doing this myself.</P>

[madha]

That explains alot did a hof run for wife's alt for her hooloh helm and a bunch of people spamming the ghost dragon, i mean spamming so bad i had to put them on ignore.. Now i knwo why.. I did get any loot when i did it, of course i can go through any t7 instance any day and get a ton of wooden boxes

[Fatkiddown]

<cite>Alaedraa@Najena wrote:</cite><blockquote> <blockquote><hr /></blockquote>This game has zero progression in any dimension, zero sense of urgency to its worst and most easily fixable flaws, and I'm not going to defend it anymore.  It is a disservice to both the casual and hardcore players when reward is not commensurate to effort or skill.  In fact, any game known to humankind will fail under that kind of ethic.  And the icing on the cake is seeing clowns like yourself <i>defending</i> this kind of behavior.  That puts so much into perspective, I don't know if I should yell at you or thank you. </blockquote> I think you should delete your character and cancel your subscription, it would make the rest of us who enjoy the game much happier.   I think the game is doing great, the devs are doing a great job, as best they can anyways.   Some things take time to fix, get over it or get out, end of story.