I've noticed a general trend that people are starting to view harvesting other people's kills as acceptable and that if you want to keep your kill, you should occupy it with an army.

Why is this? Surely the fact that something's been killed means that someone probably wants to harvest said kill. 

I'd also like to know how you all deal with people who attempt to harvest your kills.

Thanks

-E

So it's not fair game when a drop is close to you, but fair game when it's far away? And since you don't know whose drop it is then it's ok to farm it? People come up with some distorted logic. From my pov these are the very reasons why you should not travel long distances to farm a drop. Especially when you can wait a day and see if someone is harvesting there. If a drop is just sitting around with no one on it, then, yes, I agree that is fair game. But to arbitrarily just send out willy-nilly is asking for problems.

And of course, for those that think anything laying around is fair game, remember that poachers are fair game, too. So if your harvesters end up dead, you have no cause for complaint. You just wasted the trip out, but were saved the trip back.

Poach boldly!  If someone isn't willing to put an army on it then it isn't important to them.  I tend NOT to kill poachers and I practice what I preach.  If I leave it unprotected then I fully anticipate that someone else will come in and pick it up.  How can it be theft if you won't hold claim to it?  Possession matters.

All that being said... communication is important and I wouldn't put an army on a square to harvest what I didn't kill.  This includes the Underworld forces leaving remains of each other all over the place.

Many people feel that they have claimed possession the anatomies and hides from a kill by virtue of them making the kill. They don't need to show possession because it is already theirs... 

Additionally, what if someone wants to kill more than 5 npc groups from a single town?

This doesn't sound like it is my problem as the poacher.

I'd like to hold all of the trove and brascan seed squares in the game but I'm limited to five commanders per city.  I can hold more by clustering my cities together near by but this is not the problem of other harvesting players in the game to figure out or guess what another player is attempting to achieve.  

There are built in limitations (5 commanders, 70 vans, # of harvesters).  We deal with them everyday.  As a community the above bullet point seems to be the most widely accepted norm and has served me well to profit from my efforts (and perhaps the efforts of others).

Then I'd say the cost of replacing harvesters isn't my problem when they get squished. Why communicate when a quick attack is a much faster and efficient method of ending the poaching of a kill? I've had issues in the past where people get annoyed that I've killed their skinners.

As for the trove and brascan comment, it differs somewhat from kills as no one has to lose troops hunting sentient trove... yet.... (who knows what the devs are doing)

However, I'd also like to point out that you haven't claimed sov or put armies on most of the squares around your town.... so would it therefore be totally fine for me to settle a town 5.1 squares away from you? 

As for llanedd's comment... I'd point out that in a situation where this has happened, you get 2 kinds of animal drop on the same tile. As these situations do not make up the majority of kill spots and are easily identified through scouting, I don't feel that they can really be used as a justification for poaching.

+1

I haven't worried about replacing harvesters in years.  A minor inconvenience for anyone who has played for a while.  Losing some while poaching, or harvesting from long distances, is just a known occupational hazard.   

Did you just mention scouting?  I haven't scouted anything in years when I hunt.  I don't believe I ever scouted during the most recent tourney.  If I can get a party size then I know what I need to do in order to win.  Minimizing losses isn't my number one concern.  I just threw 10k spears to Audrey what is a few extra cavs lost when hunting dogs or sending them up a mountain for a prized kill?  

Or for that matter, resurrecting a commander?  I hear it is good for the complexion to get some extra rest.

My thoughts were probably different in my first year or so in the game.  A good training alliance (remember those?) can get the new player up to speed on best, or not so best, practices.

Wartow wrote: I haven't worried about replacing harvesters in years.  A minor inconvenience for anyone who has played for a while.  Losing some while poaching, or harvesting from long distances, is just a known occupational hazard.

I have had people complain to me that I should've just bumped them and they've been extremely annoyed about losing some harvesters which is one of the things that prompted this poll.

Yes, the 10 square rule is the norm, which is the point I was making. Why shouldn't someone owning their kill be the norm and not having to deal with poachers?

Wartow wrote: Did you just mention scouting?  I haven't scouted anything in years when I hunt.  I don't believe I ever scouted during the most recent tourney.  If I can get a party size then I know what I need to do in order to win.  Minimizing losses isn't my number one concern.  I just threw 10k spears to Audrey what is a few extra cavs lost when hunting dogs or sending them up a mountain for a prized kill?

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This is the thread that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend. Some person started it, not knowing what it was, and we'll continue posting on it forever just because...

Having said that, like Eowan highlighted, I also have seen some questionable behaviors. As some of our alliance members are semi active, I have seen players (even senior players) harvesting and poaching on sovereign squares of our alliance members like nobody's business. There is one who even have claimed sovereignty within 5 square of a member's city to harvest. So there are people who are trying to push the limits...

Well said.

When faced with questionable behaviors... push back.

One of my cities is now a part of the ever expanding newbie ring and I don't care that they harvest on my sov.  They need the 1k clay and I'll never harvest it.

Inactivity is a tangent that we can get into.  I'd say the level is at an all time high and would speculate that there is more than aggressive harvesting practices occurring. 

Which leads to another lesson... choose your neighbors carefully.

If somebody really feels the need to harvest a kill then they can at least send a token size 10 scout force to it.

As far as I know, no one has said they'd be fine with sending troops to someone else's kill but to me it seems like the logical progression of the position of the poachers.

Hmm... have there been situations in the past where people have intentionally used someone's reaction to poaching as a pre-text for kicking off a war or something like that?

I agree entirely that the ownership of the kill is the one who paid in the form of troops to make said kill.

Most of my harvesting is from massive Critter on Critter kills.

Wasn't there a war about a useless Trove mine at some point?

Happy hunting, harvesting, poaching, or whatever is you do!

TomBombadil wrote: It is also very easy to just plonk down a tiny army on it for a day or two to mark your kill... I mean, you had to send an army there to kill it in the first place didn't you...

TomBombadil wrote: eowan the short wrote: Hmm... have there been situations in the past where people have intentionally used someone's reaction to poaching as a pre-text for kicking off a war or something like that? Wasn't there a war about a useless Trove mine at some point?

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This is the thread that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend. Some person started it, not knowing what it was, and we'll continue posting on it forever just because...

All of this puts the onus on every other person in Illy who didn't make the kill. That's just nonsensical.

It is far easier for the person who made the kill to claim it visibly that to expect every other single person in Illy to scout it out and play Sherlock Holmes first.

If you want it, show that you want it. Don't expect every other person on the map to go through the trouble of playing detective around an unclaimed kill because that isn't going to happen. You will inevitably be disappointed and have an unintended conflict that could all have been avoided by just controlling your own actions at a trivial personal cost.

And, I'd hardly say sending some scouts is Sherlock Holmes levels of investigation. You're checking to see if there are multiple animal drops on the same square.

Shouldn't a poacher want to scout the squares to make sure what they are collecting is actually worthwhile?

Haven't you shown that you want it by going to the time and effort of killing some NPCs? 

Here's the thing, as I have stated, the cost is not trivial. You lose 20% of your armies for an extended period of time and risk the time cost of resurrecting a commander.

The cost of scouting a kill is what is trivial; 10 scouts taking up 5% of your total ability to send out diplomatic missions for a short amount of time with no risk of them being killed by  troops or NPCs.

Given your real life philosophies on the right to retain that for which one has worked... I find that statement amusing.  

Maybe the poacher can make better use of the resources than the hunter?  

I kid.  Let this thread be done now.

as for letting a thread end... read my forum signature... :P