[Poll] Mobs only dropping XP when /you/ kill them

Hi gang!

This is a poll made in response to this thread about recent EMC changes. As such I request that any discussions about this change are kept out of this thread to make sure it remains unbiased. If you feel the need to discuss then simply click that link over there. And if that thread spiraled out of control and got locked by the staff: bummer. That's still not a valid excuse to start it here as well.

The change

In a recent update Aikar has changed the way in which mobs drop XP orbs. In plain singleplayer Minecraft mobs can drop XP orbs when they die, even if you didn't attack and/or harm them. This has been changed on EMC: if a mob dies without having been attacked by a player then it won't drop any XP. Also: if a mob dies while the majority of damage done wasn't caused by the player then it will drop a reduced amount of XP.

The issue

In short: for an XP farm to work the players need to kill the mobs themselves. XP farms which were build on mobs dropping XP after they died no longer work. Ergo: you can no longer gain XP while standing still (afk) near your farm.

Also noteworthy

My poll is meant in general. However, the trick to gain XP whilst being AFK involves around zombie pigmen (gold farm). Those drop XP after being killed, even if it wasn't the player who killed them. This is a known and confirmed bug in Minecraft (but unresolved so far, only on EMC).

The question

Do you agree with this change or not? Poll runs for 2 weeks.

SkarCboi gets 10 alts to vote for bad change

Personally? I could care less as I don't have a massive XP farm, but I can understand why some people are upset about it; especially since enchantments are not worth spending tons of time killing mobs.

Sure, but although we can't see who voted for what (I did that on purpose) I'm pretty sure the staff can. So in the end I think that using alts to try and get your point across will only hurt the process either way.

Other:
Good change - I don't think XP should be 'free'. Sure - the farm was a pain to build; it took tons of time; etc... Build it so the mobs gather and you bop them with a stick and they die. Winner - XP. Work around the limitation MC and EMC force.
Bad change - (and I don't know if vanilla is meant to remove this or not) I for one prefer my vanilla - vanilla. Any change to MC is a bit 'suspect'. I understand the need for some - others, not so much.

I voted good, and I truly feel like we need this. I can see why they are pissed about it, and quite honestly I would be too if I had one. But I don't. It's an exploit, and they are aware of it. They aren't fooling anyone, we can tell they know. Yah, you put a lot of work in it. But you can still get gold, so I mean it's not a complete loss. I mean I'm all for farms, but not for these afk things, and I share the same feelings about it as Aikar and Matheus. Oh and by the way, if this is written poorly it's because I'm tired and just feel

Edit: Also, just use healing pots to murder them all.

I can't argue against the change Aikar made, especially while knowing of his past opinion/policy. I had been tempted to try one of the Pigman farms but decided to wait expecting that it wouldn't be allowed.

I feel that XP rewards are way out of proportion compared to Villager Book trading. The preparation and effort is comparable. Building a grinder and supporting facilities for potions or food are comparable to the effort it takes to set up Villagers for trading and to build the farms to obtain the items to trade. Because Macro mod is allowed by EMC for trading (yet not allowed for XP) the time spent AFK is also potentially similar. Villager trading is no more a Group activity than XP farming is either.

I prefer XP farming over Villager trading. It is the means to an end for me: Mainly repairs or enchanting new items that I can in turn use for mining or building. Yet it's really become a grind. It took me hours to repair a set of armor and tools the last time I used them hard which I think is the opposite of what the intention of the nerf(getting me out and doing other things). I've started using my Voter's gear almost exclusively because of the cost of repairing items so that I'm not sitting at a grinder all the time. I was upset recently when I found that it would only be replaced once if I ever lost it now that I've started relying on them so much.

It seems unfair to me that one has been nerfed and the other left untouched leaving me to feel that I need to do an activity that I dislike in order to get the benefit.

I would like to see them brought in line somehow. I can't see nerfing Villager trading as being very popular and I wouldn't want to hurt those who enjoy it, so bringing XP rewards back in line so that the rewards are comparable would be something I would like to see so I can get back to playing instead of grinding repairs.

If this is being considered an exploit, then removing this XP feature speaks for itself.

ive never graced the texp never bothered me, i usually am just trying to get the drops and in the process get enough exp to repair the armor i broke fighting a momentus on 10. i dont see the vanilla mechanic of getting exp at a farm you arent afking at (cause mobs stop spawning when afk anyways) as gamebreaking nor have i ever even noticed any kind of outcry against gaining exp that way.

seems to me its purely on a whim from someone who is anti-farming in the first place. but why "fix" what isnt broken?

This is a bump. And I dislike bumps. So it is a bump in which I was planning to add some comments of my own about the whole thing but then I realized that I'd be breaking my own rule if I did that. And that's not cool either.

So unfortunately this bump is all you guys will have to put up with.

No ramblings, no endless stories, not a 3 page essay. Just a bump.

What is a bump anyway you wonder? Well, its an acronym which stands for Bring Up My Post and basically means just what it says. Of course I prefer: GMPOTLA

GMPOTLA is bumping for forum die-hards

You wonder what that monstrosity actually stands for? Well, maybe I'll share in an upcoming GMPOTLA! Errr, I meant: BUMP

This is totally a guess let me try, Get My Post Over The Last Article

My opinion -

- fixing the pigzombie bug - good
(I have a farm which allows this mode of operation, but I didn't really use it much - well, it will still work in the other modes of operation)

- changing behavior of all other mobs - not sure if this is good, I think this needs a careful thought, discussion and vote before deciding.

While exploring the wild / waste I used to find xp orbs around. Not sure where they come from, but my impression was that mobs that die in the morning sometimes leave not only drops, but also xp. While exploring today, I did see drops lying around, but no xp orbs.

EDIT: checked two xp farms - they still work and give xp for 20 levels (from 0 to 20) each turn, so one and half turns are needed for level-up from 0 to 30 levels

*makes a pigmen farm* update comes out

I was going to put this on the other thread but Aikar closed it 2 minutes before I hit post. Figures lol. It still applies here though, so for what it's worth -

I don't think Aikar's point is "farms are bad". I believe he thinks "sitting there doing nothing" is bad, especially when you are rewarded for being AFK. I think the other side of the equation is players feeling that "we didn't 'do nothing' - we spent MONTHS building this!".

I don't care about the economy one way or another, so I won't speak to that aspect of it. If the server is reliable and there are at least a few cool features, I will submit that the reason people stay on any server is usually the community. What do you add to the community while you're AFK?

I know people can build great really cool farms together and then use them together while they are not AFK. I know we can maximize hunting grounds where you can go for a bit of an adventure and fun killing mobs that aren't helpless. Once newer players have experienced those, maybe they'll decide that the wild and waste are pretty cool places, and they'll learn some tricks and skills to survive better there, and have more fun/adventures on their own. More importantly, they'll hopefully meet some really great people at those farms. Because they weren't AFK off watching a movie or whatever. They were running around Sushi Drop shooting farting hearts bows at each other, or riding their horses there having a race. Maybe they went to NHG and found out about fire res potions, and they'd never tried brewing before and got to see it in action up against blazes for the first time. You get the idea

My final two cents for what they're worth - Get creative, do some research, and approach your farms from the server owner's stated vision. I know it hurts a lot to invest a ton of time into a build only to see it broken, or have it not work as intended (Squid Doom, how I hate thee) after all that effort. It's frustrating to say the least. Perhaps you can experience a whole lot less of that pain if you ask staff or Aikar about what aspects of these builds are acceptable and in line with Aikar's vision for EMC. And who knows? You could turn out to be EMC's TangoTek or MumboJumbo. Now wouldn't that be really cool?

Happy gaming everyone, and hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day.

That might've been the best EMC bump ever

(only quoting you because you said this sentence, this comment is not directly meant for (only) you)

I'd like someone to teach me how to play on 2 accounts at the same time, let alone 4 accounts. Now that I have these alts, for some random reason, I'd like to be able to usilise them too, by putting them AFK at some spot, making them gain stuff for me.

And then my main account, when I'm doing my homework, and my computer is turned on anyway, why not drop it on EMC at a nice farm, and have it aswell generate some stuff for me? I know, I'd rather actually be playing on EMC, but homework also has to be done.

Get My Post On The List Aikar

Okay probably not, now I thought of it again, lol

Stuff. More stuff. And cheap.

But you also need to consider this: http://empireminecraft.com/threads/why-farms.62049/

I do think you shouldn't get xp from sitting afk. I agree on that.

However, I saw something about dogs killing a mob not getting xp. I understand this can be an exploit at a farm, but what if I'm running around my frontier island with a few dogs slashing up mobs? If the dog does the most damage does that mean I don't get anything from it? I don't want my dogs to become a hindrance; quite frankly, I love running around with my pets and I have over 60 dogs on my frontier island. No, I do not run around with all 60 following me. At the most I'll have 20 with me to help with Marlix's guardians since it is ridiculously hard to take him out on any difficulty other than 4 (oh, and he purposefully flies too far above the ground to be hit with a sword - so if you're vision is bad like mine and you are awful with a bow like I am, too bad). I agree that earning xp while sitting afk is wrong and just lazy, but don't nerf the dogs completely. If they must be nerfed, then how about just making them do a little less damage or something? Making it so that it takes them too long to hurt mobs in a grinder so that they produce the xp too slowly to be of any real use.

I just...don't want my dogs to get turned useless XD everything else is okay, just don't break my dogs please XD

well we are getting rewarded for investing money into the farm, i paid 640k for a gold farm and now i am getting my money back through gold and experience