View Full Version : Enough of these rumours BB Tell the players where we stand with the celebration event
Dear BlueByte,
All we have officially been told to do is: Collect balloons and donate them to an Inter server event. to reach a vague target of 100%, 150% and 200% which reward all the players on that server with a prize for each target.
Now unless your understanding of % is different than the rest of the world, there can not be a difference between the number of balloons donated up to 100% and those donated after to reach the higher targets. So why have you not made any statement to that effect back to the player community, where speculation and rumours are abound as to why there ` appears to be' a sudden slow down on the leaderboard of servers once they pass the 100% threshold.
Now there is some more speculation, driven I believe from what has been seen on the test server, that another reason for this `slowdown' is that at some point the balloons will have a gold coin value and players are balancing the prize value of the donated balloons against the in-game value of the gold coins. There has been no official announcement of this, with details of when, if or how this will be implemented, so please get your act together before you unleash even more bad feeling of this event, when those who are generously donating in the spirit of a server community, suddenly discover that really the 150% and 200% targets were never worth playing for, and those greedily stockpiling balloons on the speculation of gold coins profit from the hard work and generosity of others, benefit so unjustly.
IF you are deciding to go the balloon/gold coin route, make an announcement NOW so everybody can make an informed decision on how they wish to proceed. Also if, like other aspects of the event, you haven't quite thought this through, ( Phase 1 and subsequent pairings and staggered gem happy hours quite easily spring to mind) may I suggest that any value of gold coin to balloons increases after each of the three targets proportionally, thus still giving the incentive to those wishing to profiteer to at least still keep contributing to the server event.
Please, Please give your GM's a statement to give to their players, you must have set out a plan for this event, by not sharing it with us you're not helping. As a surprise may be a good party idea, if its badly thought out it could be a disaster like sending an Alpaca as the entertainment to Hungry Lions convention :eek:;)
Here's hoping my concerns will be heard amongst those popping balloons.
Happy Anniversary
Larili:
The statistics have been available for many days, many servers/teams seem to already be acting upon them, so why wait so long before asking a question you likely know will not be answered?
P.S. (Some guesswork based on historic similarities)
I really doubt BB will give excess balloons a gold value, I think they will just sum them within the final count for any server and effectively delete them.
I have a suspicion that BB might 'tweak' the end-goal requirements to allow at least one server to reach the final 200% goal.
How could they refuse not to tell our new GM Lulu?
http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2012/sanderfo_ange/breathtakingly-adorable-alpaca-kiss.jpg
The statistics have been available for many days, many servers/teams seem to already be acting upon them, so why wait so long before asking a question you likely know will not be answered?
P.S. (Some guesswork based on historic similarities)
I really doubt BB will give excess balloons a gold value, I think they will just sum them within the final count for any server and effectively delete them.
I have a suspicion that BB might 'tweak' the end-goal requirements to allow at least one server to reach the final 200% goal.
I'm asking the question now Tripi, at the halfway stage, simply to end the continuing speculation and the rumour mill that is eroding the event. Whilst I'm sure a simple statement will still not satisfy everybody, as some want to blame everybody but themselves anyway, but right now it also wouldn't hurt to revitalise what is a long event.
I hope you're right about the GC and balloon issue, as this is how it should be, but as for tweaking the 200% threshold, if 200% is simply twice that of 100%, as it should be, looking at the rankings barely at the halfway point this will not be necessary. But what is necessary, is for BB to recognise that players are becoming unsure about what is happening because of these rumours, and by saying nothing BB are not helping those players both in the short term game event, and in long term confidence of BB. My Gran's favourite saying was `a stitch in time saves nine' BB would do well not to ignore my Gran ;)
How could they refuse not to tell our new GM Lulu?
http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2012/sanderfo_ange/breathtakingly-adorable-alpaca-kiss.jpg
awww sweet but they probably wont or they will only tell her bits of it :(
awww sweet but they probably wont or they will only tell her bits of it :(
As long as they give all the Community Managers the same information at the same time, then that is fine. If some are receiving more information than others, or information earlier than others, then that is less than fair.
We continue to make balloons, we campaign for a 'proper' 200% (ie twice 100%) and the prize goes to the server that has got the furthest past 200%. What's the problem with increasing the cap to 300%, for instance?
As long as they give all the Community Managers the same information at the same time, then that is fine. If some are receiving more information than others, or information earlier than others, then that is less than fair.
We continue to make balloons, we campaign for a 'proper' 200% (ie twice 100%) and the prize goes to the server that has got the furthest past 200%. What's the problem with increasing the cap to 300%, for instance?
ha ha I think we will all need a little therapy after this, I saw an EotW adventure on TO a few days ago and felt `the urge again' Luckily it was either to expensive or my rehab must of worked :p
ha ha I think we will all need a little therapy after this, I saw an EotW adventure on TO a few days ago and felt `the urge again' Luckily it was either to expensive or my rehab must of worked :p
After this I collapse and get therapy for balloon aversion and screaming at clowns.
http://www.smileyvault.com/albums/userpics/10172/Bored-cute-big-smiley-animated-066.gif
http://www.smileyvault.com/albums/userpics/10172/Bored-cute-big-smiley-animated-066.gif
lol told you they wouldn't tell you :P
I have a cunning plan and oh bother my galaxy phone wont run amiga software, back to evil plotting.
I think this is the best explanation of what the percentages actually mean - it's taken from the German Forum and BB_Pandur's explanation in the following post:
http://forum.diesiedleronline.de/threads/94212-Jubil%C3%A4ums-Event-Feedback?p=874976&viewfull=1#post874976
I'm only posting the sentence that actually pertains to the percentages, as my translation tool let me down with the rest of the explanation,
"The percentages are approximate values - only expressed in percent. 200% stands for gold, 150% stands for silver and 100% stands for bronze."
Now, if that is the case, why did they not use Gold, Silver and Bronze? At least it would have been less controversial.
I think this is the best explanation of what the percentages actually mean - it's taken from the German Forum and BB_Pandur's explanation in the following post:
http://forum.diesiedleronline.de/threads/94212-Jubil%C3%A4ums-Event-Feedback?p=874976&viewfull=1#post874976
I'm only posting the sentence that actually pertains to the percentages, as my translation tool let me down with the rest of the explanation,
"The percentages are approximate values - only expressed in percent. 200% stands for gold, 150% stands for silver and 100% stands for bronze."
Now, if that is the case, why did they not use Gold, Silver and Bronze? At least it would have been less controversial.
But then you would have people asking " where is the silver? I can't find any on my island and my explorers never find it on a search, and the drop rate on adventures is really poor" :p
Someone within the design team knows what the % figures really mean, I can't see why an assurance that the rate above 100% hasn't changed can not be given if players have this concern, and maybe are leaving the event simply because of rumour or mistrust. If we are not being told, because it has been made more difficult, then IMO they have made a serious misjudgement, and many players will feel they have been mislead as to the requirements of the event. If keeping quiet is there way of ducking the issue then they will never be able to get constructive feedback in order to both keep their current players happy, and improve the game for the future, something they keep saying they want.
Had they comeback with a simple clarification as I asked last week, I am positive that, even with the issue with the rankings table over the weekend many players would still be in the event that may have seemingly lost interest. ( The very fact that many on these servers did not donate during the period the table was down, despite the official line that all donations were being counted, speaks volumes in how deep this mistrust is at the moment )After all every one that seems to think that the prizes after 100% are not worth the effort. However, IF the difficulty has not changed, then I would like to point out that we are doubling the gem rewards for each of the 50% targets for the same effort that we have already put in to reach 100%, or to put it another way, we would get 5x more gems for the next 100% than we did for the first 100%. We've seen we can do it within the time frame so I'm slightly puzzled why players who have clearly got the ability are prepared to settle for a fifth of gems available, unless they mistrust BB so much because of their lack of transparency in these events. BB therefore need to learn to be more forthcoming with relevant information if and when players ask for it.
I believe the reason for the slow down is that once you reach 100%, the counter is effectively 'reset' meaning that 150% is the same amount of balloons again, plus half.
So if 100% is 1000000 (which we know it's not, but let's go with it for the sake of argument) then to reach 150% we would have to donate a further 1500000.
But then you would have people asking " where is the silver? I can't find any on my island and my explorers never find it on a search, and the drop rate on adventures is really poor" :p
Yes, I can see Bronze, Silver and Gold targets being a bit difficult, since only two of them are resources. Slightly better than 100%, 150% and 200%, but still could do with improvement. Obviously targets would need names that don't have some in-game confusion (so no gems or diamonds, wood, copper, etc). Other ideas with a three-tier ranking could be:
1. Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced.
2. Top 20, Top 10, Top 5.
3. Novice, Improver, Expert.
I can't think of anything better for now, but it shows that there are more options than using percentages....
Yes, I can see Bronze, Silver and Gold targets being a bit difficult, since only two of them are resources. Slightly better than 100%, 150% and 200%, but still could do with improvement. Obviously targets would need names that don't have some in-game confusion (so no gems or diamonds, wood, copper, etc). Other ideas with a three-tier ranking could be:
1. Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced.
2. Top 20, Top 10, Top 5.
3. Novice, Improver, Expert.
I can't think of anything better for now, but it shows that there are more options than using percentages....
How about just 'Target 1', 'Target 2' and Target 3'? Anything would have been better than the clearly misleading percentages.
But the fundamental problem of a hidden target would remain. I don't see the point of this little argument: the lack of transparency has dogged this event from the start and painting an opaque wall a different colour doesn't change that...
But the fundamental problem of a hidden target would remain. I don't see the point of this little argument: the lack of transparency has dogged this event from the start and painting an opaque wall a different colour doesn't change that...
I agree Gerontius, what these events need is not an obscure target, but one that is there in black and white for all to see from the off. It has to be achievable by the majority of players in a realistic time frame, and the challenge should be matched by the rewards ( although there is another thread on this ). This thread is more of a insight into how competent BB are at handling these events when problems become highlighted by the players....so far its not looking good :( . If the contributors stray a little off topic while we await my request at least it bumps the thread, at least they can't say they missed it :D
p.s. The sceptical, conspiring dark side of me has been whispering that they want a safe margin between the bottom German servers and our servers before the information is forthcoming :o Naughty dark side:p
2. Top 20, Top 10, Top 5.
This one might be what you are looking for if you want more clarity - it's absolute position on the leaderboard. So the groups 20th-1st get rewards for being in the top 20, and the group that is 21st doesn't. This could be combined with figures rather than a bar.
Eg
Group C .... 21st 4,235,091 balloons
Group B ... 20th 4,235,100 balloons
Group G ... 19th 4,235,203 balloons
It would mean that the group that came 21st would be annoyed that they lost out by 9 balloons, but at least it would be concrete.
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