So I was having a so-so play session on Esamir today when I joined a zerg vs. zerg battle at the Octagon. On a whim, I decided to pull a Lightning tank from two hexes south and drove up to the outer walls of the Octagon. Now, this was a completely stock Lightning with 0 certs into it. I proceeded to sit in the same spot and Viper-cheese the same tower platform for the next ten minutes. This was by far the most I've farmed in a vehicle in Planetside 2 up to this point. I'm not gonna say that I felt bad about farming, because that would be disingenuous. Honestly, I recognized that it took no skill for me to sit and click on the left mouse button. But hey, free certs. There was no real incentive for me to leave and stop farming. I stopped even glancing at the names of those victimized by the force of my explosive barrages. They were mere objects, puny infantry, literal cannon fodder. I was a different breed from the peasants who buckled under my monstrous strength; I was Übermensch... When I finally got C4'd after ~60 kills, I accepted it as a karmic inevitability. I saw the LA floating above me and didn't even try to leave the tank. It occurred to me that I was just being a ********* farmer the whole time and that I deserved to die. The first symptoms of Nietzschean self-hatred, perhaps? Anyway, I'm not even sure why I created this thread. For catharsis, maybe? To cleanse myself of the impurity in which I have indulged? I guess the point is that I see why they're going to nerf the Viper. Oh well. What are your experiences with farming? Are you a certified member of the Auraxian Agriculture Association, or do you hate those hicks with a passion?
Way back when, back when PS2 was first launched, the mythical OP Zepher was a common sight in the Indar skies, and I was sadly a member of such that race, near the start of the AAA. But that char got deleted and lost in the realms of time.
You really should have been here at launch. First there was the true age of the skygods, a dark period where fire rained down from the heavens constantly and there was nowhere to hide. Following splash nerfs, tanks came to rule the peasants of Auraxis by blasting their spawn boxes like the fallen gods before them did. It was during this time that the Magrider shone the brightest. Only after more splash nerfs and the acquisition of cursed tools of AV did infantry finally repay their former masters for their suffering. The wounds of this epic struggle have not healed. Even today, you can hear whispers of the skygods' return.
I too have 'farmed' in the Lightning with a C75 Viper... but only a couple of times. Also, the M60-A Bulldog on the wing of my Galaxy did some 'primary-producing' too... (PS - I only played this way to grind to BR100 on my NC character. It was boring too...) Frankly, I can't bring myself to 'farm' in PS2, it's just not fun. Spamming LMB is what Diablo was made for...
Farmed with a friend over an amp station today with him gunning the Dalton from about 275m up on my well certed Lib with me flying. Prowlers, Lightnings, Infantry alike fell to our diabolical ways. Can't say I felt bad for them as the fight was of relative size and the battle was an amp station (like 20 AA guns). All it would have taken would be two MAYBE three engineers manning AA guns at the same time and they would easily out range and out TTK us. This is just the ebb and flow of Planetside, sometimes you farm, sometimes you get farmed. Tomorrow when he wants to gun Doltan on my lib, we will die outright to long range flak and lockon HA rockets before getting a single kill.
Were you surrounding a camped location that your side was attacking? Cause, yeah, anyone can farm in that sort of scenario. The relative power of the Viper has no bearing on whether or not you're able to slaughter hordes of infantry when you've encircled the enemy position and are already winning the fight. You could achieve the same thing in an HE Prowler, Heat Prowler, Heat Lightning, ect. At this point, you've essentially won the fight and are just racking up additional certs while you wait for the cap.
Next time try it with a motion sensor underneath your tank...you can stare at the minimap while you spam the mouse button. Boba Fett be damned.
This is too true. Best example for me was farming so good my Lib crew topped the leaderboard on one day, the next day we couldn't even fly there was that much AA. The zergs remember things man.
Strangely there is a few of threads being started all of a sudden about Viper being OP because they used it to farm. I must say it is a refreshing direction from the "its OP because it killed me" threads. And it also looks like we have a real challenger for the Dalton on forumside.
This confuses me. If you're in a position to farm with a vehicle, the weapon used doesn't particularly matter. A Prowler with an HE turret can farm just as well as a Lightning with a Viper, and no one is complaining -that's- OP. It's like complaining about the gun you're using to shoot fish in a barrel.
Indeed. Stupid players will get killed anyhow. The only way for a Viper Lightning to be effective is if it is ignored. It's very easy to counter, whether it be Lockons, dumbfires, basilisks, MBTs, other lightnings, AV turret, C4, ESF, lib, harasser etc.
I enjoy my Scythe more for farming more than the Viper. PPA w/ Thermal, ext. mags Hover, Stealth, Radar Halftone Lumifiber (purple of course) You wouldn't believe how good you can hide at night by afterburning around a corner, turning off lumifiber and then silently fly away after the enemy flew by. but then that build actually requires a decent amount of skill (not for the infantry farming part, flying around till there is reddots infront of you and then point'n'clicking to kill them with the PPA is the essence of easymode, but the "not getting killed by a lone ESF or a lucky dumbfire or just some small arms fire" part is really tricky) so it is actually providing fun by having challenge, not by flashy numbers on the screen. But after all you can't really do anything against farmers and a single one already ruins every battle, so we will just live in planetville 2 and complain about cowclickers.
It is an instinctual, animal memory. Like a wounded beast, the zerg reacts to the threat of the moment, quick to lash out, and yet, quick to forget. For the moment it tastes the scent of certs in the air, all is forgotten and nothing remains but the hunger, the hunger for certs. And then the zerg feeds, and is fed upon by the parasites that follow in its wake. It feeds until it's hunger is satiated and it returns to the warpgate to AFK until the Prime Time season returns.
Having played an HE Prowler quite a lot during the early pre-nerf days, I am currently of the opinion that the Viper Lightning is HE Prowler Redux. If you ever wondered how an original HE Prowler was, the current Viper Lightning is pretty close. I have zero certs in mine as well and pretty much get the same results as a year ago with a certed prowler.
SOE should remove indirect hit indicator. This will work like mole invasion to yours fields filthy farmers
To be honest the most fun you can have in a Lightning is getting good enough with the gun to hit floating C4 fairies 99% of the time.
I am guilty of this. I joined this Farming association and it has escalated, I am using a Barrage on a LA and I toss C4 every chance I get. I started on this KD adventure in a Lightning just like you...
