Farming in T:V

It just seems to me that a lot of the skill there was to farming is going to be gone. Sure, you'll still be able to find optimal layouts and deploy orders, but the locations of your farms are going to be much less dynamic than they were in previous games. For example, you won't be able to throw up some turrets on a hill that your enemy is using as a point to disk spam from as easily as you would be in T1 or T2.

I totally agree, from the looks of things now. I dunno, I hated TFing for a long time, but eventually learned to enjoy my job. I understand the inventory clutter issue, but the rest of this doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Why only one turret per deployable station? Personally I've always felt like turrets shouldn't control a game, they should just aide its flow for one team, but this seems like a bit much. I dunno, hopefully there's just something we're not seeing since we haven't played the game.

I think I like the idea behind the new system, though I don't know exactly what to expect from it. On the one hand it can take the role of a dedicated farmer and spread it out among all the team. I think this is a good thing, that way you don't have to rely on 1 player having to give up a prefered fighting role just to farm. Because you no longer need to sacrifice your pack while you farm, players can alternate more easily between what they normally do with replacing missing deployables from the teams strategy. Am I making sense? (I'm not sure if I am). For example, Offensive players can all take along a sensor and deploy that sensor along the way to their objectives during game startup, thus quickly establishing or repairing the sensor net. Offensive players can now bring along deployables to use on offense without sacrificing their potential, something really unexplored in current tribes strategy (outside of say, the field INV).

Sure, you can still have the dedicated farmer role, but that role is now alot more flexible and allows that player to expand their benifit to the team. The Farmer can always carry his Repair Pack and can easily and more readily assist in combative roles supporting other defenders. So, while the role is less direct, I can still imagine a player dedicating his time to moving between all the dispensers and stations by making the rounds to keep the base up and running. One new facet of the Farmer I am intrigued by is the Offensive Farmer. The player will go along on Offense but not directly engage the defense, instead laying back abit and creating turret traps and spy sensors to covertly interfere with the enemy while again, supporting his Offenders with repairs and possible supplies as needed.

The one thing that generates questions for me is the 1 turret per dispenser rule. From what I know, Farmers each have thier unique views and methods of deploying their equipment, from where each one goes to how many actually go there. My Spidey-Senses are tingling when I consider that some players may not like the idea of being told where and how many turrets or other deployables should go. Isn't it squelching a bit of personal freedom and expression for a map maker to be dictating that "2 turrets in the generator room" and "3 in the flag room" and "no turrets outside by the East Tower" is how it should go by the layout of dispensers?

The only other thing I was wondering about is the theft of deployables. If I attack the generator room in a rush and destory it, what's to stop me from then immediatly redeploying the newly respawning turrets from an enemy dispenser nearby? Isn't that leaning towards the encouragement of base rape? Wouldn't that also mean some one has to be consistantly watching the dispensers and keeping idle deployables out of the hands of the enemy (I guese we're back to a dedicated babysitting Farmer) I would think it to become fustrating to have to be consistantly cycling through all the deployable dispensers to make sure none are idle and waiting to be stolen in the next offensive rush. Is there a timer on when a deployable respawns? If so, are turrets more durable and threatening then their T1 counterparts which tend to sport of life expectancy shorter then the time it took to physically move the turret from the INV to the place it was deployed?

The proposed system strikes me as stupid and redundent. I don't see how it improves, simplifies, or innovates on the existing system. What is the logic in having multiple turret dispensers that can only put out 1 turret apiece? What happens when the enemy destroys the turret invs, you have to repair 3 instead of 1 to access turrets again? It strikes me as very clunky.

The one point that has been raised here that makes sense is the one about inventory crowding. Fine, so why not just have an inventory station and a turret station (one that functions like the ammo stations in t1 perhaps?) near important areas? I mean, they should be there anyhow. Turret inventories that you can take as many turrets from as you want, but there can still be a map limit to the number of deployed turrets, I think that allows for more freedom, and keeps it simpler.

The only justification for the new system that I can think of is to counteract the new separate deployable slot. If invs could drop more than 1 turret, I picture most if not all defenders carrying a turret on the slot to deploy at opportune times. I'll be the first to say I don't like the sound of that, but at the same time, the system as Thrax describes it sounds cumbersome. Hopefully the system will be ironed out before or during beta, but something about inventories with only 1 corresponding turret rubs me the wrong way. Blech.

Well. Nolonger any need to find the inv, everyone knows where the turrets are coming from. Sounds boring to me but I'm hoping beta will prove me wrong.

I think I like the idea behind the new system, though I don't know exactly what to expect from it. On the one hand it can take the role of a dedicated farmer and spread it out among all the team. I think this is a good thing, that way you don't have to rely on 1 player having to give up a prefered fighting role just to farm. Because you no longer need to sacrifice your pack while you farm, players can alternate more easily between what they normally do with replacing missing deployables from the teams strategy. Am I making sense? (I'm not sure if I am). For example, Offensive players can all take along a sensor and deploy that sensor along the way to their objectives during game startup, thus quickly establishing or repairing the sensor net. Offensive players can now bring along deployables to use on offense without sacrificing their potential, something really unexplored in current tribes strategy (outside of say, the field INV).

My opinion on this point (and experience) is that having one TF who knows his/her setup to perfection, knows the order in which turrets need to go up and which ones are more important than others is far superior to having several players who sort of get the idea and are just trying to follow orders. I personally feel like when a person plays a position, they should just worry about that, it simplifies what they have to think about, their goals and objectives. Tribes is a pretty complex game as it is, I don't think it's terribly wise to try to spread turret defense amongst an entire team.

Perhaps it's because I've played the position for so long, but I've always in a way resented people on my team who wanted to go O turret, or deploy out in the middle of nowhere. O turrets are useful in T1 only when you have a base fully taken and don't want to keep committing people to keeping it down. Turrets (if they are implimented like T1 turrets are) will go down very fast if left alone, especially if they are O turrets.

What you say makes sense, and I may be totally off base (since none of us have played T:V after all), but my experience running clans, being a TF and trying to coordinate people tells me that it would be difficult at best to get an entire team working together to deploy effectively.

I agree strongly with Siward. People make a lot of fun of the turret defense player even just with titles like "turret monkey". I know from experience that a skilled turret monkey can have a tremendous impact on the game at the even at the highest skill levels. The current T:V system, taken to what I imagine as its logical counclusion, sounds like it effectively removes that role. If so, I suspect that turrets will not see much effective use in T:V. As with all, we will see in beta.

Depends on the power of the Deployable turret, falling someplace on the continium of T1 weak and T2 overkill.

I think we'll still have a dedicated Farmers out there who will spend 20 mins a map just running around seeding the terrain with deployables while repairing stations, generators and now players in between. His job will be less mundane and more colorful (IMO). Afterall, somebody will have to babysit the dispensers to keep respawned equipment from sitting there idle and being stolen (I don't know if I'm hot for that thought). The limitations on Numbers, Patterns and Locations a Farmer can express himself with(I should say themselves as I know diehard girls who farm rather well). The dispensor idea is a little shakey to me, but I'm not leaning towards hating it.


What I do like to hear about is the Pack Slot, which I feel will impact the role of deployables to a greater degree then the dispenser. No one deploys sensors other equipment into the field very far from a station structure. The amount of time it takes is just counter-productive. The effort involved pays little, if any, dividends. To me, and I have played the role often, Turret Farming amounts to 20 mins of continously running back and forth between a station and the field and not much else. I'm stuck in the most cumbersome, combat handicapped Armour in T1 and I have no use of a pack to aid me against superior foes. This basically keeps me regulated to 1 mundane role (for me). There is a reason why the Turret Farmer isn't viewed as a glamerous role and why many won't sacrifice to fill it despite the "potential" gain to the overall team it provides.

That's where a Pack Slot comes in. There will still be a need for, shall we coin a term, Turret Captain, who will take the responsibily of monitoring the execution of the teams deployed assets and overarching strategy. That, I don't think will change becasue the HoF can't be bothered with keeping the integrity of the "grid" on his mind while worrying over where the next capper is coming from. Nor will the LO cappers want to have to inspect sensors in the defensive perimeter in thier race back to the enemy flag. So, there will still need to be someone will who concentrate on keeping turrets up. It's just that The Farmer is more flexible now and its easier for the team to help him.

While you say that its not really possible to coordinate the entire team in trying to manage a deployed strategy, I would agree, but only so much as that pertains to the sustained attention by the entire team over the course of a map. However, the initial start up of the map is the most critical time for a team and its efforts. Starting from scratch, trying to put up all the turrets, the needed INV(s) and throw up sensors is alot of time consuming work for the farmer. Everything has to come off without a hitch and on schedual for more then just the farmer, but for his enitre crew. Each error, delay and ineffeciency could be the death knell from which they never recover from for a high ranked T1 team. That's why the farmers job is perhaps toughest at the begining, nothing is deployed, the enemy is going to be rushing the door in less then 60 seconds and theres no time to waste. If the farmer fails by miscalculating or by a delay, he may never recover. It's one thing to replace and maintain a turret strategy once it goes up, but its another to put an effective strategy up from scratch (in T1).

That's why the Farmers role is as specialized as any other role, but also why its the most underrated an unnoticed of the roles. It's why I am hopeful for the effects of the "Pack Slot". It'll help a Farmer get through and survive that critical startup so he can focus on less of being a turret conveyor and more of the Turret Defender. His team can help because once a team develops a plan of defence and the Turret Farmer develops his layout he can easily teach that layout to his team so that in the first critical moments of the game his odds of success improve. As players leave the base on Offence they can take a sensor with them and deploy it along the way. Or the HoF can carry a turret to the flag room since he's already headed that way. After the initial startup the Farmer need only maintain it and replace what gets destoryed. That should free up alot more of his attention for fending off the odd aggressor and supporting his other teammates.

In T1, only the turret and INV were used, everything else took too much effort without recordable, benifical payouts. The Pack Slot should greatly help put those deployables back into play and expand the options for a teams "deployable strategy".

The proposed system strikes me as stupid and redundent. I don't see how it improves, simplifies, or innovates on the existing system. What is the logic in having multiple turret dispensers that can only put out 1 turret apiece? What happens when the enemy destroys the turret invs, you have to repair 3 instead of 1 to access turrets again? It strikes me as very clunky.

A repair pack can repair many things at once, and you dont need to stick around to repair it.

However, I agree that a single turret station would do the job just as well. Map makers just assign it an integer value for how many turrets can come from one station. Space-saving design, and it does everything the current system does.

Actually I'm not sure about the accuracy of the "don't have to stick around" part of the repair pack any more.

Anyone have any recent info yay or nay?

I think you have to stick around within 18meters I beleive from KP's post