[Feedback] Dev Diary - Halloween Event 2017

[ginny31]

I started event with 10 Outlaws, and so far I've done 60-70 Outlaws, since they can be easily bought for 1.3k - 1.8k coins in TO, plus you can get 1.2k - 2.4k coin drop in Outlaws loot without premium. You don't need any special time since you can do Outlaws with new bronze or platinum horseshoe for 20-40min without landing time, at least 3-4 Outlaws per day will keep your cemetaries alive till the end. You could have used Stadium snacks or Werewolves howl buff on your Noble/Common cemetaries not Rainbows ( like i did ). You don't need hundreds of gens, you need MMA MG and 1 Champ, if you like 1 fast suicide general as well. This years Halloween was easier for me than last year due to Outlaws. As hades8840 said, you could have sold some refills for pumpkins or coins in TO. Only reason why some people got too much refills and pumpkins is the lack of offers in Merchant, not in my case since I found things to buy, but some players complain about that.

agree with the above i started with 5 outlaws got more from buying the mystery boxes and gaining outlaws from them so far done 120 or so outlaws bought all i needed from merch by selling off refills for cheap and then buying up in my case candy buckets for the smelters will have a years worth soon

[t00tie]

I have mixed feelings about this event and sadly mostly a bad feeling. I'll try and explain:

For me events have always been about playing together and having fun. Sure, the event loot is good and 2 generals is great, especially for the newest players but for me it's about the cameraderie (sp.?). It's about the hustle and bustle, the mad frenzy of TO and everyone swapping or selling ls. None of this is there this event. The event is so bad that my 18 player guild has lost two experienced players, lvls 64 and 67. These were (obviously, given the level) experienced, enthusiastic players you would normally expect to spend all there spare time in game during an event. One has lost the spark and seems to only log on to do gq, the other has quit the game entirely after claiming BB support scammed him of gems and pumpkins (I know no details nor could I divulge them if I did).
Normally we would be doing adventures, preferably 3 player ones, honouring the old unwritten creed of "swap one guild one" so that high level players swap an ls and gift one to lower levels in the guild. Fun for all that helps build a sense of community. This is entirely absent this event.

This is also the major issue this event. BB has done a very poor job of balancing what (pumpkin) refills you get from adventures. All the popular adventures (bk, vlt etc.) have been nerfed so hard nobody is doing them. Two of the seasonal adventures (mse and nords 2) is just a money grab from BB given that the only reasonable way to get them is by using gems on lottery box - with very poor odds.

I know some people were sick and tired of constant bk in previous events. The answer to that should be to make event loot balanced so that all adventures are equally desirable to do. This isn't an easy task and has to take into consideration both how easy it is to get the adventures, what losses and rebuild costs (including the most important one, time) you incur from doing one and how long an adventure takes to do.

There's a reason nobody normally does (most of) the seassonal adventures: they are horrible and most have very bad loot for the costs incurred.

STOP promoting co-op adventures! They aren't co-op at all. They are 2-4 player nightmare ego trips. SLT is by far the best co-op adventure in the game. Even bk is a better co-op than any of the designated co-ops (let your noob friend kill the top left two leaders for very cheap xp, fits well with you doing fast version).

So the event has turned into a bunch of players each doing their preferred single player adventure. This, for me at least, defies the whole point of the event.

On a side note: this exact same problem exists in all the Ali adventures: the few multi-player adventures there are hard to get and most (well, all except second thief) have truly terrible loot. Past level 56 the game turns into a massively multiplayer SINGLE player game with the worlds worst irc client.

I'll try and summarise some other stuff:

The good

• Imp bakers
• No more 0 in loot
• Fast gens for the newest players
• As lvl70 I had a mountain of tit ore and made a killing selling it
• YWC gives decent loot

The bad

• Refilling cemetaries. I hate having to babysit them, I hate refills. Very unfair on lower levels who don't have good or long buffs and on players who aren't always on
• Surprisingly many players don't discover the achievements. There should be an Achievement quest with sub-quests for every achievement. The achievement rewards should be sub-quest rewards.
• Yet another event that starts with a mess and a hot fix.
• Insane lag, freezes and general quality issues. Especially on co-ops (why are these seasonal???)
• Cemetaries limit how many pumpkins you can get
• After a week my cems were full. Any more refills I get feel wasted (I give them to guildies but people want to make it on their own).
• Arctic explosion. Seriously? Have you tried snow blindness? Send your devs on a usability course
• The seasonal adventures

The best news we got all event is that there might be a fix for the things mentioned in my signature - and that has nothing to do with the event.

There's probably more but if you want to know I want a salary

[Opper]

I suggest to have a voting about the refill system. I'm not a fan, not a fan at all. And I'm hearing the same a lot.

[adriaa]

Well said t00tie

Not sure who made the decisions with the refills , but i am a big fan of pumpkins drop in loot from the adventures.
This event was mostly orientated for players which have plenty of time on their hands , higher levels ( 50+) .

Really hated the fact that i need/needed to baby-sit the cemeteries and also to find the time to do adventures, to refill them. I am your average TSO player , with a Real life ( family, work , etc) and this event is/was time consuming and found it really hard going , even though, i am a high level player with all the generals at my disposal.

I get it , not everyone needs to obtain everything from this event , but this kind of events should be orientated in keeping newly started players, in the game and encourage more communication between the players.

(The adventures for this event were poorly chosen and mostly orientated towards higher level players.
I mean, how many Sleeping Volcano adventures a lower level had in their stars and can only buy the adventure with gems. Outlaws , while it's a easy adventure for a higher level player with all the generals , for players under level 45 , it's quite hard to do , losses are big , also, can only be bought with gems . Yeah , i know your explorers can find this adventures, but lol, if you are a low level and don't use gems , the tavern explorers can only bring ..so much.
Co-op adventures , not the way to go , as many high level players don't want to be stuck in an adventure, for hours, waiting for someone to do their side .)

[Umine]

Well said t00tie


Co-op adventures , not the way to go , as many high level players don't want to be stuck in an adventure, for hours, waiting for someone to do their side .)

that problem is long gone in co-ops. Only start them with known players and now as there is cancel/leave adv button also so u wont be stuck on them like before. i think that playing co-ops is best that these events brings to us, as normal no one does them but in events they are really fun to do and speedrace them also.

[SSSecretSquirrel]

Over the years BtR (Before the Refill) I kinda remember 1 or 2 people giving feedback that they wish they could to refill their cemeteries. Obviously it means everyone wants it. They suggested to refill with omniseeds though.



Co-op is a misleading title on par with the PVP. There is (almost) no way to actually co-op on a co-op. Its a single player adventure for more than one player. That does not make any sense. Now on regular adventures players can actually help each other but since BB is scared to death of leeching they are trying to push the co-op. In my experience forcing someone to do something does not end well.

[Areop-Enap]

Outlaws , while it's a easy adventure for a higher level player with all the generals , for players under level 45 , it's quite hard to do , losses are big , also, can only be bought with gems .

Uhm, no. Outlaws can be gotten for map frags in merchant (Mysterious Adventure Box).

http://settlersonlinewiki.eu/en/guid...-adventure-box

[IndianKid]

the best halloween so far
Love the ideea for the refills.
Keep up the good work

[Reapertje]

I enjoyed the halloween event as usual, thanks BB.

But i do have the same feeling as t00tie concerning the way pumpkin reward drops are over different adventures.

Altough its fun to do the siege, since its coop i noticed its best to do it with a other higher level, otherwise i'm just waiting and waiting for a person who only has 1 or 2 good gens.

Outlaws is so good to do everyone is just playing event for itself.

If outlaws would drop like 10 or 15 pumpkins less, i think a lot more players would be doing db and we would get a more playing together feeling.

I actually just banned outlaws on principle and didn't even do one of them this event

[lordloocan1]

Won't bother quoting all the bits from above but to clarify a few bits.

Outlaws is not an easy adventure for a lower level player if you do not have cannons/elites and no mmas/coa's from previous events - have a go with just tavern gens sometimes and feel the pain again.

It can be obtained from the lucky dip adventure box for map frags but the players we are talking about do not have thousands of map frags and do not have either the recipe or the stock of paper etc to make the map frags even if they did.

Yep, can buy outlaws off trade for gold coins, but again players of this level do not have the stock of coins that higher level players have from selling ft/ali lootspots.

I made this account in order to keep in touch with the game reality that many players have each day and am glad I did as it is a real eye-opener. On Northisle I have 8 mmas, all the coa etc etc so any adventure is dead easy. Here the account has few generals and is self supporting. Maybe other level 50/60+ players should give it a go in order to see why the lower level players are not happy.