"Farming" is a common but notorious tactic used in many MMO games, including Astro Empires. It involves attacking newer and/or weaker players/guilds in order to profit from an easy conquest.
Farming Method[]
The tactic is most successful when a veteran player attacks a weakly defended base with a single capital ship with enough power to survive the attack at a minimal cost of repairs. This is often referred to as "titan/leviathan/Death Star tapping," depending of course on which type of capital ship is used. Because the cost of repairs is 50% of the cost of initial production, this tactic can be highly effective at earning the attacker a quick buck. The attacker then leaves a token defense force (perhaps a handful of fighters) to keep the astro occupied until the victim logs on. When the defender's economy recovers enough for the attacker to earn sufficient pillage, they will often return to the same "farms" until the defender grows strong enough to fight them off.
Permanent Occupation[]
Farming can also be defined as holding a weaker player's planets for the pillage and additional income and never releasing the base. Though in war this tactic can decide the winning guild, during times of peace this is another despised tactic. At worst this tactic can be used on all of a players bases, leaving the player unable to build their level up enough to escape the farm. At this point the player being farmed is left with few choices, they can either join a guild better able to protect them, disband the bases and try to escape, or leave the game entirely.
Benefits Of Farming[]
While there is an initial profit from conquering a base, mostly from the initial pillage amount, repeated attacks or permanent occupation gains considerably less. Following release from occupation a base's income is reduced by 30%, and gradually returns to normal. Because the pillage amount is based on the base economy, re-conquering a base prior to full recovery gives a diminished return.
The occupier gets a 30% hourly return from occupied base income, however since farming is usually engaged against newer or weak players, the amounts are often small.
The occupier may repeat pillage of a base after 24 hours, but the amount will probably be small. The pillage amount is based, in part, on the occupied player's cash, which has probably been spent producing fleet to overcome the occupier.
The most beneficial effect for the attacker's guild is the reduction in Construction, Production and Research ability of the occupied base. If a large number of a guild's bases are being farmed the Guild's strength is gradually drained. Income is down, and players are expending large amounts of their remaining resources attempting to free their bases.
Effects On The Game[]
Many new players have been 'farmed' out of the game lowering the number of players, and decreasing the interest and competition. While this tactic is very popular, many players criticize it as unfair, cowardly, and harmful to the Astro Empires community. While most of these criticisms come from new players and smaller guilds, some veteran members have raised some serious and detailed criticisms on the forums.
If a single guld could manage to farm all other players on a server they would surely find the game becoming extremely boring. What would remain to do?