Four Winds Quest

[RonPope]

I'm from the .net servers (forum) in the US.

I came to post my feedback. Four Winds Quest is a terribly designed event because it has a time limit. If it didn't have a time limit, it wouldnt be as bad.

What really bothers me is that people are confusing "challenge" with "luck". These quests are LUCK based. There is no planning involved no skill involved when it comes to getting stones/marbles/granite from searches. And definitely luck when it comes to getting granite from adventures. Specifically the 33% chance granite and the double luck factor of getting old friends AND granite.



Four Winds - Various Quest Chains Evaluation
Level 16-25 - This quest requires no adventures. And is the most easiest to do for 500 gems. And 4 noble houses.
(in fact any player could probably 'reroll' a new character and get this done if they just wanted 4 noble houses.)
Not to mention the amount of gems you get from rerolling You could in fact gift yourself the silo or watermill almost in theory if you loggin for a week.

Level 26-35 - This quest line sucks because of the granite requirements of repeating island of pirates (which has a really bad return on the resources spent to finish it.) BUT its not terribly bad with dark priest since its a 2 player questline that you can share with another player and piggy back off their quest completion without wasting your own troops to finish the zone (if you're low on troops and don't need xp).

Level 36-45 - This questline is the WORST of all of the different levels. Why? Bandits Nest is very hard to get from adventure if its even acquireable from adventures. Cost too much in map fragments. Has a poor return. Chance of getting granite is 33%. Can NOT be done with 2 players. And on top of that the last chain getting granite from "old friends" which can only be obtained as a "drop" from Witch of the Swamp. This means you have to 3 different adventures for this questline minimum. And if you're very unlucky, the old friends may not drop. And if it does, and you don't get granite it. You have to do witch of the swamp again. and then old friends again. Witch of the Swamp is a 1 player map, same as old friends. You can not share the resource load/burden with anybody else.


Level 46-50 - This questline is not terribly bad as it has 2 adventures that are shareable with 2-3 friends. And the reward for doing them is not terribly bad. But its jsut as frustrating as the previous as it requires granite.



You guys really really need to fix your game design. Possibly give players a choice to which quest chain they'd prefer. Maybe allow players to choose a quest chain to do once. It's unfair to have 4 quest chains that I'm forced into the hardest one when I never got a chance to do the easiest one because I passed that level already before you introduced these quest lines.

I think that we should be allowed to do the first 'tier' of quest chain if its our first time doing it. And then the second tier etc... later. etc.


For example, there are a lot of quests for new players right now that give great decoration rewards. But this was introduced way after I had surpassed that level and now I can't get those decoration rewards unless I start over and make a new account. We should be allowed to do quests even easy ones that were introduced later.



Developers: How to Fix BAD LUCK in Quests
You guys need to program in a 'fail safe' for the worst case scenario of Bad Luck. These Quests that require "X" granite for adventures is an example of really bad design.

Some people might get it in their first shot. But some people might never get it at all if they keep getting strings of bad luck. Especially the ones where granite is 33% chance instead of 50% chance.


Failing the first time is okay. Failing the second time starts becoming frustrating. Failing the third time is demoralizing. After that it becomes rage quit territory. Since its theortically possibly to never get granite at all with strings of bad luck.

I would fix this the require of the quest says get X granite in 1 adventure or Y exotic wood in 3 adventures.
Or generically "X" granite OR "Y" exotic wood. Where the X value is the minimum value you can get from adventures. and the Y value is the minimum cummulative total of 3 adventures of exotic wood combined.

At least this will ensure players to get the quest done in a timely fashion.

[RonPope]

Also- I prefer Silos as a reward over Watermill, as watermills are easily obtainable from easter event. Last year there was an unlimited purchase of watermills, and the egg requirements are cheap enough that you can get it from trade. Silos are very hard to get and its limited quantity during halloween.

Getting Water from trade is cheap too. Getting Wheat is not. I don't even know why Watermill cost so much in gems. Watermills have been given freely as rewards in the past during Xmas event and other events. Silos not so much.

I hate to say this but the designers are so out of touch with the game mechanics.

[Gerontius]

Actually, offering watermills over silos was presumably a decision made for financial reasons which BB would have plenty of knowlegde of: lots of people buying silos, but nobody buying watermills? Might as well give watermills away as a prize for an event. Simple and perfect business decision

Because, let's be honest, the only guiding principle is pushing people into buying gems to buy the buildings they actually need.

[RonPope]

Actually, offering watermills over silos was presumably a decision made for financial reasons which BB would have plenty of knowlegde of: lots of people buying silos, but nobody buying watermills? Might as well give watermills away as a prize for an event. Simple and perfect business decision

Because, let's be honest, the only guiding principle is pushing people into buying gems to buy the buildings they actually need.

When I say I prefer silos over watermills is because they're offering silos to the people in the 26-35 bracket. 36-45 got the watermills.

So that's why I am saying its quite unfair that the lower level folks are getting the silos.

[Sharpielein]

Currently running my THIRTEENTH Witch of the Swamp in a feeble attempt to get Old Friends... 23% chance, my goodness!

If the quest chain demanded me to complete WotS and Old Friends ONCE each, I would have been finished ten times over.
But like this?
The current TO prices for Friends are ludicrous, but my luck in (not) obtaining one is even more so!

BB, this quest is simply broken due to the element of luck.

How can it be other players do EXACT the same thing I do ONCE and complete the quest, and I have to do it 12 times and STILL NOT completed?

[Sharpielein]

Next time BB does a quest series, they may as well make stuff like "Obtain a Flowered Stone from Horseback" - some people will get it in a day (lootspotting) and others will not get it in 10 years.
Or they could just make a quest where once a day, you roll a 100-sided dice: if it lands on 1, you beat the quest.

Is this good design?

[Gytha_Ogg]

Overall as a player I have enjoyed trying to complete this crisis quest. However as a player I also got frustrated about the randomness and luck involved.

As a player I do have a viable way to do this kind of thing in the future that may appeal to all, but then again it may not.

I think a fairer way to do it would be to experience one discoverable adventure with under x number of losses, 1 premium adventure like Bandits Nest and then a discoverable multiplayer adventure for a luck drop resource.

Yes I know some will be outraged at the prospect of the luck/randomness but if they are multiplayer adventures that are discoverable then it gives 2 bites of the cherry at each adventure for those who have friends at the same level or even in a guild.

[Gerontius]

You are totally wrong in suggesting that even a multiplayer luck element would be acceptable. It's utterly outrageous on a time-limited event in any form.

[Iolanthe]

I can't say I'm outraged by MOD_Gytha_Ogg's suggestion but I do think taking a group of players, offering them all the same thing and then having them roll dice again and again to see who gets it for a cost of 1,000 resources and who must pay 10,000 or more (for example) if they manage to get it at all due to time restrictions is not in the spirit of the game I've been playing.

That neither the size of the gamble nor the time limits were made clear at the outset of this Event is just ridiculous but even if they had been and an Official List of all the Quests and accurate, confirmed droprates made players able to make informed decisions about the 'lottery' it still wouldn't feel particularly TSO. "Coins in the Street" and certain other Quests rely on luck but they have no end date and will be completed if one just bashes away at them long enough, the introduction of potentially impossible tasks in any form is something I also find entirely unacceptable.

[Ironistka]

I agree. It's fine to do adventure once, twice, or even 10 times if you like, but at least I need to let my economy rest for a moment in between. And now I'm doing adventure for a third time without really restoring my island, because I don't have time for this. And given the number of resources and troops I'm loosing, I really think that this may be my last attempt. And I'm really sorry, because I don't have any super-general (which makes doing adventures over and over again even more irritating), I wish to collect gems for one and would really appreciate 500 of them.