I have done low level farming in my time, but personally never needed to compete with level appropriate groups because they simply were not there. The zones were empty. My competition was with other farmers like me, and it was a nice rush when I made it to a named first and was able to kill it and get some nice loot. I realize that people have had bad experiences and understand the fear of it happening in Pantheon. There will always be jerks, sometimes lots of them. I recall watching a high level character kill an NPC over and over again for hours just so people couldn't turn their quest in. Trivial loot code, while a decent idea in principle, isn't a panacea for solving this problem. If someone wants to be a jerk, they could come in and completely wipe out a low level zone, with no interest in loot, and do so over and over again. I think the community has a certain amount of power to contain people who act like that, the /ignore feature makes it hard to find a group if no one can hear you. Granted, they probably have friends to play with, but I can see it changing the behavior of some "lone wolves" out there.
So, to my thoughts on the camping thing specifically. I preface this by saying that I will probably incorporate other ideas, as many of you have come up with good ones, and add my own to them.
1. Have named that respawn in a different location once killed, it is a good idea and has been mentioned.
2. Without making things crazy, make a certain desired loot item available off different NPCs, perhaps each on a different continent. (This also mentioned perhaps)
3. Mob AI, if a lvl 50 is camping a lvl 20 named, it should run much sooner and call for help earlier than it normally would. I think this could also be applied to any mobs in the zone. This has also been mentioned, and is a good idea imo.
4. Why not make the chance at an item dropping scale with level? A given mob is level 20. A lvl 20 group gets lets say (random numbers) a 20% chance for awesome loot A to drop. A level 30 group gets a 15% chance, a level 40 a 10% chance, and a lvl 50 a 5% chance.
My math is in very simplistic form, and again I am not a developer and have no idea the process involved in something like this, but I look at it this way: One of the reasons many of us want to be involved in Pantheon is to have an actual relationship between risk vs reward. There is very little risk involved in going back into a lowbie area and camping named for loot, so the reward should be very little, or, in this case, the chance at reward should be little. In this way content is not blocked, if you decide to go back and farm, that is fine, but you have a very low chance of actually getting what you want. I think combining a few different ideas together is the real solution, so this is just another for the team to chew on :)
A thought I had is to have "ninja spawns" spawn periodically at random places in a given area for any loot that proves to be overcamped or problematic.
What I mean is in a dungeon or area, you could have code in place to allow for an NPC to spawn in an area that no player is near and "create its own camp" so to speak in any area suitable while no players are near, as though it snuck into the area somehow and had a task to perform in that area and would stay until killed, or until it's task was completed maybe and then leave or despawn, working away at watever task in the meantime. Nicer to see than NPC's just stand there waiting for us to come kill them and could be written in as part of the quest content or drop content too, see the NPC actually working on the item or looking nervously about and moving nervously as it "protects" the item and waits for another NPC to come and get it maybe (for story purposes). The NPC could show up, put up a tent, roast hot dogs, read the latest issue of Gnoll Life Weekly etc and the point is, no one can camp an area if they don't know where that area or camp will be. Trackers imo are important and this would make tracking even more desirable as a skill maybe?
Another option is to have "spawn signs" or things that appear on the ground that are signs that something is coming or happening soon... and that players should be prepared for something, set up camp here etc - a murdered corpse, a half destroyed crate of supplies of some kind... would make looking for a camp and hunting potential camps a thing and once that camp is done, poof. Might never happen in that exact place again, who knows. Also, if the devs want, a player finding this "spawn sign" or group could then maybe have "ownership" over the camp until they get the drop or all die and cannot complete the kill, then the camp "ownership" is up for grabs (FTE yellow text so ppl know the camp is up for grabs or something maybe if the group wipes or all leave the area for whatever reason?)
People are saying they want challenge, not spoon fed content, and I agree. I would love to explore for potential camps, but I would also like to say that I do enjoy static camps and would not want to see them taken out out of the game as a solution personally. Sometimes I am feeling a little lazy and love static camping spots.
However, as much as I love static camps, it is the allure of a static camp being a "sure thing" and only a question of time to get the rare loot drops is what invokes the on-going farmer mentality imo.
Yes these ideas need more exploration re: mechanics and details etc, but I need food so I'm out. Post any thoughts you might have to help this work if you like the ideas
I never got the chance to play EQ, but EQ2 had pretty much the same issues just in better graphics.
When going back to EQ2 after playing all these newer MMOs, I have to admit, it was quite annoying. But I was lower level, so I moved on. Then I thought, these guys are also gonna be doing the same thing at higher levels.
I used to do the same thing before I quit EQ2 the first time. Camping was quite fun and time consuming. Which I think this game is mostly about anyways. You're not suppose to get to max level right away.
With that being said, if its suppose to be slow, someone camping a mob everyone is going to need is going to be really annoying to deal with. The only solution I see to this is crafting. They said crafting gear is still going to be just as important as finding it in dungeons. I mean, dungeons are way more fun than farming and crafting it yourself, but that's the only work around I see. That and maybe make the spawn times random for every mob. Like maximum of 20 mins, but sometimes it pops in 5, 3, or 7 minutes, whatever number really. And make it cycle through the random minutes every time it is killed. If someone wants to sit and wait those exact minutes, let them. Eventually they will have to take a break to go to the bathroom, answer a phone call, make food for themselves. Atleast without a specific and set timer they won't be able to afk and come back at the exact time its suppose to spawn. And if they want to sit there all day farming that, and you expected to do the same thing, might as well get into crafting then. You might end up spending less time farming mats than they are farming for a chance at the specific drop.
Feel free to politely correct me if I've got the wrong idea.
fancy said:I never got the chance to play EQ, but EQ2 had pretty much the same issues just in better graphics.
When going back to EQ2 after playing all these newer MMOs, I have to admit, it was quite annoying. But I was lower level, so I moved on. Then I thought, these guys are also gonna be doing the same thing at higher levels.
I used to do the same thing before I quit EQ2 the first time. Camping was quite fun and time consuming. Which I think this game is mostly about anyways. You're not suppose to get to max level right away.
With that being said, if its suppose to be slow, someone camping a mob everyone is going to need is going to be really annoying to deal with. The only solution I see to this is crafting. They said crafting gear is still going to be just as important as finding it in dungeons. I mean, dungeons are way more fun than farming and crafting it yourself, but that's the only work around I see. That and maybe make the spawn times random for every mob. Like maximum of 20 mins, but sometimes it pops in 5, 3, or 7 minutes, whatever number really. And make it cycle through the random minutes every time it is killed. If someone wants to sit and wait those exact minutes, let them. Eventually they will have to take a break to go to the bathroom, answer a phone call, make food for themselves. Atleast without a specific and set timer they won't be able to afk and come back at the exact time its suppose to spawn. And if they want to sit there all day farming that, and you expected to do the same thing, might as well get into crafting then. You might end up spending less time farming mats than they are farming for a chance at the specific drop.
Feel free to politely correct me if I've got the wrong idea.
There definitely is no "wrong idea" or wrong ideas on these forums, only ideas for the dev team to onsider when they implement what they feel will be best for the server.
Keep the ideas coming!
Enitzu said:Sevens said:Enitzu said:So if I want to take my lvl 60 to farm an FBSS for my alt you're saying I should have to bring a full group to do so? This is quite possibly the worst idea I have seen yet on these forums. What you experienced was what happens when a game has been out for a long time and the older areas become empty. People take advantage and farm plat by farm old drops to sell. Hell if you were only looking for xp you could have went to a few places in velious and gotten better than Lguk but I am betting you went there for that same reason, the drops.
The problem most have is not of a single high level player camping an item for an alt...usually they get the item and move on
the problem is when its someone farming an item ( usually to sell for money), they dont just move on when they get the item but monopolize the camp for weeks or months
That is what everyone is worried about
And I can agree in that mindset but most of the purposed changes/fixes to this include cutting out the ability to farm items. Nothing I have seen posted in this thread (granted I didn't sift through all the pages) makes any viable way to combat this issue. Pantheon is based on the open world, go anywhere, do anything mindset. That is what people fight so hard on these forums to protect. Yet some are advocating to throw that to the wind for fear of camp disputes?
Solution 1 - Make no loot drop for those too high lvl
You just forced the playerbase to level multiple toons just so they can attempt to farm other areas of the game. Hell what if I need leather? I can't kill level 20 mobs to skin? This solution is quite possibly the worst thing you could do to an open world game.Solution 2 - Put mentoring in game and only allow lvl appropriate for loot
Better but still not a great idea. Not a big fan of mentoring. IMO it's simply an attempt to give content replayability but if that's the case why do we bother leveling up? Magically giving an NPC the ability to make you forget all you've learned and experienced is far fetched even for a fantasy game. But so far this is the best option for viability if it had to be done. But if mentoring is in they need to find a way to make it worth it and not just "because you can't get loot any other way". Give perks to mentoring.Solution 3 - Make popular items short term
Uh what? Take items and turn them into short term solutions? How does that help anything? So the higher levels now need to camp said items multiple times which did nothing but exacerbate the entire issue.So far in this thread the best response I've seen is:
NoobieDoo said:-Multiple mobs can drop the same magical items. Why not have 3 mobs located in 3 very different locations around the world drop a FBSS or similar sought after item? As long as the world is big enough, this could help spread out the potential farmers. This could also help alleviate any issue with having most items tradeable, even really powerful items.
-Have an exchange merchant/vendor NPC for mats. Have an NPC that higher level players can take their high level mats to and exchange them for lower tiered mats. This way a level 50 doesn't have to spend time farming tier 1 leather and tier 1 iron, potentially taking over an area where low level players might play at. The high level player can farm mats around their level and for example take a tier 5 material like obsidian and exchange it at a vendor to get 50 tier 1 iron ores.
-Have a robust mentor system where players can receive good benefit from mentoring lower level players. Rather than just having a mentor program so that higher level players can play with lower level friends, actually have it as a prominent feature where a high level player would want to spend a considerable amount of time mentoring even strangers. Maybe link AAs to mentoring or other types of rewards for doing so.
-Mobs have behavioral AI that causes them to react accordingly to dire situations such as a level 10 mob being attacked by a level 50 player and knowing there is no hope of winning.
I've suggested a couple times now that loot needs to not be tied to 1 named mob in a static location but to all mobs of a 'type'. For instance, Gnoll Shaman across an entire dungeon should have the same chance to spawn a named in their place through out the zone. Making it impossible to "camp" any certain item. If you want that named then you farm those mobs which could be spread out around the zone. This gives a lot of people the chance to get the named mobs at the same time.
The exchange vendor is a great idea to keep the over farming of lower lvl mats down. Would be no reason for a max lvl to farm low lvl mats and take mobs from lower lvls with this in place.
Essentially there are a lot of ways to handle this that don't involve telling anyone "you can't do that because you leveled too much". Cutting content from anyone is not what the game is about. If we really didn't want things being farmed by higher lvls then why not just ask for level ranges on gear? Or making most good gear soulbound? Those would both solve this issue a lot as well. But again it takes away the freedom.
Im all for just leaving it alone...I dont want the devs "fixing" things that by and large the community can fix
I really think with PROTF being a niche game the commuity will be smaller and more close nit. The biggest problem will be the Gold farmers and well I think the general consensus is no one likes them or wants them around so hopefully the devs can work on banning them and the community can police itself
fancy said:With that being said, if its suppose to be slow, someone camping a mob everyone is going to need is going to be really annoying to deal with. The only solution I see to this is crafting. They said crafting gear is still going to be just as important as finding it in dungeons. I mean, dungeons are way more fun than farming and crafting it yourself, but that's the only work around I see. That and maybe make the spawn times random for every mob. Like maximum of 20 mins, but sometimes it pops in 5, 3, or 7 minutes, whatever number really. And make it cycle through the random minutes every time it is killed. If someone wants to sit and wait those exact minutes, let them. Eventually they will have to take a break to go to the bathroom, answer a phone call, make food for themselves. Atleast without a specific and set timer they won't be able to afk and come back at the exact time its suppose to spawn. And if they want to sit there all day farming that, and you expected to do the same thing, might as well get into crafting then. You might end up spending less time farming mats than they are farming for a chance at the specific drop.
Feel free to politely correct me if I've got the wrong idea.
I don't like the idea of random spawn times. In order to keep camps broken you need those static spawn times. If mobs are all spawning on various ever changing timers then it would be a nightmare to hold any camp. You would have things spawning all kinds of crazy like.
Enitzu said:fancy said:With that being said, if its suppose to be slow, someone camping a mob everyone is going to need is going to be really annoying to deal with. The only solution I see to this is crafting. They said crafting gear is still going to be just as important as finding it in dungeons. I mean, dungeons are way more fun than farming and crafting it yourself, but that's the only work around I see. That and maybe make the spawn times random for every mob. Like maximum of 20 mins, but sometimes it pops in 5, 3, or 7 minutes, whatever number really. And make it cycle through the random minutes every time it is killed. If someone wants to sit and wait those exact minutes, let them. Eventually they will have to take a break to go to the bathroom, answer a phone call, make food for themselves. Atleast without a specific and set timer they won't be able to afk and come back at the exact time its suppose to spawn. And if they want to sit there all day farming that, and you expected to do the same thing, might as well get into crafting then. You might end up spending less time farming mats than they are farming for a chance at the specific drop.
Feel free to politely correct me if I've got the wrong idea.
I don't like the idea of random spawn times. In order to keep camps broken you need those static spawn times. If mobs are all spawning on various ever changing timers then it would be a nightmare to hold any camp. You would have things spawning all kinds of crazy like.
I think the "boss" mobs should be on a random timer...have a place holder and when it dies there is a random chance of the boss spawning.
Sevens said:Enitzu said:fancy said:With that being said, if its suppose to be slow, someone camping a mob everyone is going to need is going to be really annoying to deal with. The only solution I see to this is crafting. They said crafting gear is still going to be just as important as finding it in dungeons. I mean, dungeons are way more fun than farming and crafting it yourself, but that's the only work around I see. That and maybe make the spawn times random for every mob. Like maximum of 20 mins, but sometimes it pops in 5, 3, or 7 minutes, whatever number really. And make it cycle through the random minutes every time it is killed. If someone wants to sit and wait those exact minutes, let them. Eventually they will have to take a break to go to the bathroom, answer a phone call, make food for themselves. Atleast without a specific and set timer they won't be able to afk and come back at the exact time its suppose to spawn. And if they want to sit there all day farming that, and you expected to do the same thing, might as well get into crafting then. You might end up spending less time farming mats than they are farming for a chance at the specific drop.
Feel free to politely correct me if I've got the wrong idea.
I don't like the idea of random spawn times. In order to keep camps broken you need those static spawn times. If mobs are all spawning on various ever changing timers then it would be a nightmare to hold any camp. You would have things spawning all kinds of crazy like.
I think the "boss" mobs should be on a random timer...have a place holder and when it dies there is a random chance of the boss spawning.
I would like to not only see the times random but also the location. Would love to see every named have 4 to 10 places in a zone where it could spawn all on anywhere from a 2 minutes to 2 hours timer. That would open it up to more people having access without having to add in game mechanics that som many hate like TLC. One or 2 high level guys cant camp a named bythemselves ig there are 10 places it could spawn.The way things were before that could happen.
More randomness, more freedom not less.
Problem is that you can't have completely random spawns. If that becomes the case then you effectively kill any kind of camping. The random spawn generation would promote moving around a large area consistantly. So instead of having 2-4 camps in a given area you are effectively killing 3 of them.
I don't think adding more randomness to spawn mechanics makes things better. It certainly makes it harder to farm, but that still operates on the premise that farming is a serious problem worth addressing with such heavy handed mechanics.
Random spawn timers and locations also just means that high level players will be poopsocking the entire dungeon to farm instead of one static spawn. Is that somehow better?
corpserunner said: Liav, there's a certain school if thought that says if you're 6-boxing and paying for 6 accounts, you've earned the right to play how you wish. How many people actually 6-boxing though, unless they are large scale gold sellers? In which case making excessively-farmed items TIMED NO DROP LORE ITEM, and LORE ITEM ON ACCOUNT would help throw a spanner in the works, no?
Yes, you can load up items with flags to cripple farming. It still doesn't address the question of why farming is a problem worth going these lengths to "fix", though.
I am sure someone might have said this but without reading through all 8 pages I feel the solution to this is fairly simple. Makes the enemies dynamics and some skills timed and must use against different types of enemies. Here are a few simple things that will pretty much eliminate all but the most advanced bots.
A few examples.
1. Rare spawns have no set spot in the zone they can appear anywhere at anytime with a complete random spawn timer from 1 minute to 24 hours.
2. A random spawn algorithm. Say there are 30 different types of enemies in the zone. Make the spawns random. Not just 3 orcs spawn here every 30 seconds. Maybes it's 2 orcs 5x in a row then 2 orcs and a super orc. Then maybe once every few hours a 10 orcs and a zombie king have a chance to spawn in that spot.
3. With that said add random enemies into every spawn that can kill you instantly or must be countered. A super giant troll demon that is super easy to kill but when spawns winds up a big smash and you have 3 seconds to hit block or it will 1 shot you. Maybe a demon eye that has a huge cleave that does massive damage but is slow to counter and no matter what you only do 1 damage to him but his hp is only 10. Even without adding in odd enemies you can just make a standard orc do an attack like this but give him a .01 percent chance to use it.
4. Some invlunerabilty skills for enemies to prevent super high levels from just botting and 1 shotting around their mechanics. Red Demon Orc spawns with 10 second invlulnrabilty skill active and one shots you with special skill at any level if you don't block it or move in time.
Stuff like this would make it hell for bots and add some excitment for players.
@Prominus
This thread isn't specifically about botting, and all three of those suggestions are really bad, in my opinion.
1. Poopsocking galore, still doesn't stop high level players from farming zones.
2. See 1.
3: Max level players getting one shotted by level 20 mobs because farming? Please no.
Liav said:@Prominus
This thread isn't specifically about botting, and all three of those suggestions are really bad, in my opinion.
1. Poopsocking galore, still doesn't stop high level players from farming zones.
2. See 1.
3: Max level players getting one shotted by level 20 mobs because farming? Please no.
Explain how the ideas are really bad? Do you think a group of 2 orcs should appear in the same spot over and over again? Do you really want to camp a spot and pull the same 3 enemies over and over again? Wouldn't it be fun if random and rare things that were dangerous appears every once in a while?
As for max level players getting one shotted by a level 20 mob why not? If you are paying attention it wont happen. If doesn't matter how big or strong you are in real a life a tiny snake can 1 shot you :P
I like how old games were and I want them to keep a lot of older mechanics but if this game is going to survive it has got to be dynamic as well.
Liav said:I don't think adding more randomness to spawn mechanics makes things better. It certainly makes it harder to farm, but that still operates on the premise that farming is a serious problem worth addressing with such heavy handed mechanics.
Random spawn timers and locations also just means that high level players will be poopsocking the entire dungeon to farm instead of one static spawn. Is that somehow better?
I'd say yes, not being able to lock a particular spawn down can, in some cases, be better. Like you, I don't think it's necessary in all circumstances, but for certain highly contested items, it would give more than a single player or party a chance at the item.
It can also be better if the emphasis is on dungeon crawling rather than camping. Most of us probably like the old EQ camping, but the devs have also mentioned that they like crawling. Random mob spawns would encourage that.
Dullahan said:I'd say yes, not being able to lock a particular spawn down can, in some cases, be better. Like you, I don't think it's necessary in all circumstances, but for certain highly contested items, it would give more than a single player or party a chance at the item.
It can also be better if the emphasis is on dungeon crawling rather than camping. Most of us probably like the old EQ camping, but the devs have also mentioned that they like crawling. Random mob spawns would encourage that.
I don't really think it would decrease locking a particular spawn down, though. It would just add an incentive to clear even more trash than you would normally (static ph) to try to get a spawn, which would be even more disruptive than camping a specific mob.
Also, crawling is only really relevant in content of the same level. A level 50 has no incentive to play by the rules and "crawl" in a low level area, instead opting to slaughter indiscriminately, if it were me.
It seems like it's counterintuitive to the end goal of reducing farming.
Liav said:I don't think adding more randomness to spawn mechanics makes things better. It certainly makes it harder to farm, but that still operates on the premise that farming is a serious problem worth addressing with such heavy handed mechanics.
Random spawn timers and locations also just means that high level players will be poopsocking the entire dungeon to farm instead of one static spawn. Is that somehow better?
Again simple things can prevent your so called "Poopsocking". Just make it because you are level 50 does not mean you can just run into a level 20 zone pull and AOE kill the whole zone while searching for a random enemy. Add things to prevent that. How about dungeon traps that reduce hp or poision and are percentage based. So if you hit one at level 50 you lose half your hp same as if you hit it at level 1. How about rooms that trap you in and spawn enemies and oh whoops you also pulled the entire dungeon at this point and have no possible way to kill the 30 enemies even at level 50 because when they come together they get stronger and buff each other. These are all mechanics that would be fun and also prevent what you are worried about.
Prominus said:Again simple things can prevent your so called "Poopsocking". Just make it because you are level 50 does not mean you can just run into a level 20 zone pull and AOE kill the whole zone while searching for a random enemy. Add things to prevent that. How about dungeon traps that reduce hp or poision and are percentage based. So if you hit one at level 50 you lose half your hp same as if you hit it at level 1. How about rooms that trap you in and spawn enemies and oh whoops you also pulled the entire dungeon at this point and have no possible way to kill the 30 enemies even at level 50 because when they come together they get stronger and buff each other. These are all mechanics that would be fun and also prevent what you are worried about.
You're just moving the goalposts every single time. I've already said as much in this thread that it is trivially easy to remove farming as a whole, but I have yet to receive a well reasoned response to the actual question at stake: Why is farming worth preventing in the first place, particularly by high level players?
Liav said:Prominus said:Again simple things can prevent your so called "Poopsocking". Just make it because you are level 50 does not mean you can just run into a level 20 zone pull and AOE kill the whole zone while searching for a random enemy. Add things to prevent that. How about dungeon traps that reduce hp or poision and are percentage based. So if you hit one at level 50 you lose half your hp same as if you hit it at level 1. How about rooms that trap you in and spawn enemies and oh whoops you also pulled the entire dungeon at this point and have no possible way to kill the 30 enemies even at level 50 because when they come together they get stronger and buff each other. These are all mechanics that would be fun and also prevent what you are worried about.
You're just moving the goalposts every single time. I've already said as much in this thread that it is trivially easy to remove farming as a whole, but I have yet to receive a well reasoned response to the actual question at stake: Why is farming worth preventing in the first place, particularly by high level players?
None of these idea would prevent farming. This is not to prevent farming. This is in response to the original post in this thread. You could still farm as a higher level player very easily in a low level zone but you would have to pay attention and it would prevent you from disrupting an entire zone because you pulled 40 enemies and they all hit you for 2-3 damage each.
The original poster of this topics first point was AFK Farmers Lower Guk. Well Random spawns and the other things I mentioned would almost completely prevent AFK Bots. He mentioned that they were afk waiting for a named. The named spawns randomly in a wide radius so again AFK botters are no longer viable.
He was worried about those spots no longer becoming viable spots for lower level players. Well with 200 possible spawn points for a rare enemy the lower level player does not have to worry about viable farming/xp areas no longer being viable.
I simply answered the original topic with ideas that would be fun and dynamic to the game.
Liav said:Dullahan said:I'd say yes, not being able to lock a particular spawn down can, in some cases, be better. Like you, I don't think it's necessary in all circumstances, but for certain highly contested items, it would give more than a single player or party a chance at the item.
It can also be better if the emphasis is on dungeon crawling rather than camping. Most of us probably like the old EQ camping, but the devs have also mentioned that they like crawling. Random mob spawns would encourage that.
I don't really think it would decrease locking a particular spawn down, though. It would just add an incentive to clear even more trash than you would normally (static ph) to try to get a spawn, which would be even more disruptive than camping a specific mob.
Also, crawling is only really relevant in content of the same level. A level 50 has no incentive to play by the rules and "crawl" in a low level area, instead opting to slaughter indiscriminately, if it were me.
It seems like it's counterintuitive to the end goal of reducing farming.
I can think of numerous ways to prevent all of the things you just said, and I think the devs can as well.
If the player is 50 and the content is so low that it's trivial to move around a zone, A) they should change the way the AI works to make it more dangerous, and B) the item may not belong in content of that level or there needs to be better higher level alternatives to encourage players to engage in level appropriate content. If it's hard lock down an item and there are other higher level alternatives, then farming low level content will be more rare.
The worst cases of over level farmers and it being a problem existed mostly in EQ when developers were still getting a handle on balancing server populations and providing enough content. Those two things alone could avoid most of the problems being discussed in this thread.
Dullahan said:I can think of numerous ways to prevent all of the things you just said, and I think the devs can as well.
If the player is 50 and the content is so low that it's trivial to move around a zone, A) they should change the way the AI works to make it more dangerous, and B) the item may not belong in content of that level or there needs to be better higher level alternatives to encourage players to engage in level appropriate content. If it's hard lock down an item and there are other higher level alternatives, then farming low level content will be more rare.
The worst cases of over level farmers and it being a problem existed mostly in EQ when developers were still getting a handle on balancing server populations and providing enough content. Those two things alone could avoid most of the problems being discussed in this thread.
I'm well aware of how simple it is for the developers to reduce or eliminate high level farming. I also have zero interest in going through an inexhaustible list of ways that can be done. Instead, I'll simply reject that it's a problem in the first place. Certainly not a problem going out of your way to code for.
I'm happy to hear arguments for why high levels shouldn't be able to farm things, but only if the arguments account for the fact that a level appropriate group could accomplish the same thing and have the same end result. End results are all that matter, and the economic/social/whatever impact of a group of 30s killing a level 30 named for a drop is hardly different than a single level 50 doing the same.
In EQ it wasn't even a problem. I'd say it positively influenced things by allowing players to buy super rare items they probably wouldn't be able to get for themselves.
It won't come into play really for months/years if the content is what the team promises it to be. Yeah, I farmed some low level content to twink/make money, but those zones were empty anyway and only the odd farmer was in them. No one is hurt by this. I went back to zones occasionally just to slaughter for revenge, again they were empty. I made my suggestions to what I think could be done if it becomes a huge problem, but I lean toward Liav's point of view on this one.