NPC Farming Repricussions

[Rodrick VII]

While the server issues continue, just wanted to take some time to introduce a topic that never really seems to get out of the chat room, maybe it will help you address your own situation.

So you've saved an open city slot, built yourself a nice resource field of NPCs to farm, built up your army - nice job! Now suddenly you find that you quickly get all kinds of new neighbors: aligned friendlies, neutrals, non-aligned, and worst of all members of your sister guilds. Suddenly your nice little resource farm isn't able to support your needs due to the constant raiding of what you invested in to support your infrastructure, NOW WHAT??

What are your options to address:

Neutrals or enemies - Scout your neighbors to determine a) if they have the capability to even raid your NPC resource fields, b) do their stockpiles of resources indicate they may be doing so, c) what kind of army do they have.

Friendlies or Sisters - Get a senior leader of your guild to expel you from your guild so that you can then scout all of your neighbors to determine a) if they have the capability to even raid your NPC resource fields, b) do their stockpiles of resources indicate they may be doing so, c) what kind of army do they have. Once you've done your scouting with these types of neighbors you can either get back into your guild, or you can move on to your action options.

Action Options:

a) send your neighbor a friendly mail asking them either set up a schedule with you or stop outright. The size of your army or projection of capability will most likely determine whether or not they decide to work with you.

b) attack those neighbors that seem to be involved in your little problem and get your resources back. Easier done if neutral or enemies, but remember they will be able to do the same so be mindful of this type of a response.

c) if it's a sister-guild member or friendly, mail them and their host indicating your situation and the fact that you can't support their resource needs while also providing for your own and request there be some sort of work-around or cessation of their plundering.

d) if it's a sister-guild member or friendly and this is a pervasive issue you may also want to take the nuclear option under consideration: attack and destroy their ability to continue their efforts by either capping and burning their city, or just taking their city to a point where you can fight and kill the army components that allow them to do the plundering in the first place. Remember you can only do this while outside of your guild, so you'll need support from your alliance to undertake.

With any and all of these there are repricussions that may be extended to you moving forward, so take care to assess your situation and only take on what you can handle. Maybe you'll make a new friend or get your point across. If you are using option d) of the actions, it is also wise to let some leadership know why you're taking that action, or else you might find yourself alone in an otherwise hostile world.

Remember, NPC fields dont' magically grow and you need to protect your investment, or maybe your city will be the next to join the others as a NPC for your neighbors to plunder in the future.

[cityfan]

You are absolutely correct, NPC farming or raiding is the cause of more stress anger and war than nearly anything else. Common courtesy goes out the window, the “whatever dude” attitude. I write people around me and have come close on a few occasions to take the step of leaving the alliance, and killing those responsible and moving on. Resources are king in Evony, without them you are toast. Raiding other cities is the best way to gain resources and strong heroes. Using someone else’s NPC’s is simply asking for trouble, but maybe that is what players want?

Aragorn
Phoenix
server 34

[Onslaughtx]

I just move further away, and set up far more barbarians than needed. That way even if someone does move close, they arn't hitting the ones closest to me. Now if someone stole one of the lvl 5 npc for farming purposes, I would destroy him. When I was still active though I was first in prestige/honor on server 62, so this wasn't much of a problem regardless heh.

Another option - don't have friendlies. It solves this problem, while giving you more honor targets. My guild was about 18 members, top honor for alliance, with no friendlies/sister guilds. Never a problem.

[tombranstetter]

I think that should be no npc's whatsoever...In my opinion all extra rescource gathering should come from forests, hills, etc. and make them defendable with troops so it would force large armies to spread out a bit to keep what they got...and that would give people a way to take down a large army without a full frontal assault...That would, in my opinion put a whole new spin and challenge on growing largem