Node farming frustration(please advise)

GeminiEleven11 · April 2022

I have an area I node farm frequently, but often someone else shows up and jumps my route. I have Master gatherer slotted.Many times I beat them to the node and they still somehow get it before I can. How are they doing this? Are they somehow blocking me? How can I prevent this? Please help! Soooo frustrating!

Ipsius · April 2022

Very often, due to latency, someone who appears behind you is actually ahead of you on their screen, and more importantly, according to the server.

redspecter23 · April 2022

Ipsius wrote: »

Very often, due to latency, someone who appears behind you is actually ahead of you on their screen, and more importantly, according to the server.

I'll agree with this. Your screen isn't perfectly synced with the exact location of the other player. It's very likely you get there first on your screen, but they get there first on their screen and according to the server, which is what counts. The server will report that the node you are trying to harvest is in use. Visually you can't see it, but behind the scenes, it's already happened. You just have a small delay on the visuals.

UntilValhalla13 · April 2022

They're probably bots, honestly. They're programmed to run specific node farming routes efficiently. They're even programmed to pull up their maps to make it look like a real player. You can try to use the Questionable Meat Sack memento to throw off their pathing.

Nestor · May 2022

Simple trick, skip ahead a few nodes. Let the Bot harvest dust.

For humans, it helps to have a few favorite spots, one will always be empty. Also, humans will tend to move on after locusting their way through an area. Only the most dedicated farmer can stay in one area for a long time.

buttaface · May 2022

The best routes are all heavily farmed, competitive, and it's almost certainly not bots on those. Node bots are either static at a single out of the way, undefended node and log in periodically to pick it, or run a small route of the same cluster of undefended nodes over and over, I've never seen or heard of a node bot running long, popular farming routes that would actually compete with a player. Sure they could exist, I doubt it though.

For some reason, when another player picks a node just before you, it can bug out your picking for awhile such that you will have to click on the node a couple times and can get beaten on the next few nodes due to that.

There are players who cheat/exploit at farming nodes too, strange but true. It is very rare, have only seen it a few times over the years and I do lots of farming, but there are players who do use speed hacks and such farming nodes. The way you know you're dealing with one of those very few is that your game will start inexplicably crashing and acting up when they are around, similar to weird crashes around cheaters using lag switches and other hacks in PvP in many games. They move faster than speed cap, but not -too- fast to be obvious, and you know how you sometimes leap a fair distance towards a node when approaching one on a fast mount? They leap weirdly long distances.

But 99% of the time, your "node picker" can get a bit bugged when competing with other players for nodes. Have at least a couple of alternate routes, and avoid farming during whatever prime time is on your server.

Kahnak · May 2022

GeminiEleven11 wrote: »

I have an area I node farm frequently, but often someone else shows up and jumps my route. I have Master gatherer slotted.Many times I beat them to the node and they still somehow get it before I can. How are they doing this? Are they somehow blocking me? How can I prevent this? Please help! Soooo frustrating!

As someone who does a bit of farming I totally feel your pain. A lot of people who do farming routes will often be using sets that make them faster. I know people like to blame bots or blame cheaters, but many of these people are simply experienced at running a certain route and are wearing sets that make farming go faster. You'll also see lot's of Sorcs farming while using something like Hurricane. At first you'd think that they are using it to move faster, but Minor Expedition is actually really easy to get elsewhere. Many of them use it because it makes your character more difficult to see and thus more difficult for someone to try and copy their route or get around in front of them. The only solution I've ever found is to not farm popular areas at prime time, or to have multiple zones where you are comfortable farming.

But while we are griping about farming woes, my biggest complaint is people opening chests and not looting everything inside or even better, people who only loot chests that aren't Simple chests. Really grinds my gears.

MidniteOwl1913 · May 2022

I farm a lot in starter areas because of faster spawn rate and more nodes in general. There the bots are a serious problem. It's almost impossible to get blacksmithing/jewelry mats because of them. That does seem to be their main focus in those areas.

Even when I'm standing on the node when it spawns they are faster. Kinda funny to see all of them standing there noses stuck in the cracks of cliffs though...

And yes some of them do run routes. They are usually pretty short limited runs. They can't fight (although most are sorcs with pets to fight for them) so they need to avoid the NPCs. And if they screw up? Again funny to see them lying there dead because there is no human playing the toon to revive.

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Node farming frustration(please advise)

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