[Feedback] Halloween Event 2015

[TotoMok]

The shortage of pumpkins *COULD* be trying to enforce the concept that the goal is NOT to be able to get *EVERYTHING*. I understand some games are designed such that everyone can get everything during an event. But it is also reasonable to assume that this event was designed such that this is not possible and force the players to focus on a subset of items that are achievable. Personally I don't see anything wrong with a game mechanic where you can't get everything.

As for the mechanisms of getting pumpkins: I don't know if there is another weekly quest chain, but if not, it is indeed challenging to get many and you are forced to resort to a lot of adventures to do so. And looking at the list of adventures where one can get pumpkins, it is indeed an odd list:

Doing Co-Ops (I know BB want to encourage this, but the reality is that its rather cumbersome and not always worth the effort unless you are already part of a group that is geared to doing this regularly).

You are then left with adventures that may cost more than buying pumpkins straight off, or follow-up adventures which are difficult to get to begin with. Indeed leaving the list of do-able adventures very small (Black Knights / Stealing From The Rich for the most part unless you have a cache of others beforehand).

The downside of those of course is that you have to deal with loot-buddies (not always practical for casual players).

The overall experience for pumpkin acquisition could be made more positive if they added additional adventures or ability to acquire adventures, for example:

-- Add Outlaws or Bandit's Nest (not just Return to) to the list of pumpkin dropping adventures
-- Add Island of Pirates to the Shop

(This would add better variety and accommodate those who can not do enough/any multiplayer)


-- Ability to buy more pumpkin patches (at a much higher cost) -- or as a drop from adventures
-- More daily quests that give pumpkins
(This would give less a feeling of despair and allow one to dig deeper through their shopping list, but can still be throttled to prevent a full shopping spree).

[Xibor]

The shortage of pumpkins *COULD* be trying to enforce the concept that the goal is NOT to be able to get *EVERYTHING*. I understand some games are designed such that everyone can get everything during an event. But it is also reasonable to assume that this event was designed such that this is not possible and force the players to focus on a subset of items that are achievable. Personally I don't see anything wrong with a game mechanic where you can't get everything.

I agree with that - there's nothing wrong with not making "everything" easy to obtain through standard mechanisms (meaning not including trading, buying with gems, etc.). Overall I think that the event has been well done, I like the information widget, I think the spread of pumpkins is reasonable and I've already been able to obtain what I wanted the most without having to spend gems. So I'm not sure why so many complaints. There is still two weeks to go...

Not everything has gone perfect and there was a lot of frustration with problems when the updates were first implemented, bugs with the original pumpkin collectibles and with the Dracul, other assorted problems and those things impacted a lot of players and I certainly wish none of that had happened.

As far as the adventures, no matter which ones were picked there would be feelings that others should have been. I see a nice spread... some that lower levels can play, some that medium levels can play, and some that only higher levels can play. Some (BK) are available even with map fragments. You can't have much more availability than that.

But the overall 'structure' of the event I think is fine and the amount of effort you put in has much to do with the reward. For those who are complaining (I know not everyone is, some are only offering suggestions, but some are just outright complaining) I would suggest finding what you can do instead of what you can't.. there's a good amount of pumpkins built into the achievements and golems as it is.

[Peajay]

Once again there is a lot of disappointment because of the luck element the devs seem to use too often. Chance of getting 0 pumpkins from collectibles and adventure loot for example. This makes it possible to fail achievements, no matter how much effort you put in.

Allowing random players to kill each others golems is also a bad move. They should have been solo.

[puricosu]

"fail achievements" )))) well said Peajay, why the heck are doing that??

[FishSmell]

I think the collectible finding achievement should be the one thing that everyone could do - but higher levels might not want to bother with because it takes away time from higher pumpkin-yielding activities, such as doing adventures. Lower levels who aren't reallly set up yet for doing multiple adventures daily or not have enough resources to kill their golems should be at least able to complete the one achievement that only takes time.

[Brayarg]

Not really enjoying the event, My guess is its because its almost a replica of last years Halloween event... I do understand the team was probably kept busy with XXL but playable content not much was altered. Considering its event time too, population seems a little low to me.

[Larili]

I have to agree with the friend killing golem thing. Regardless that you are (suppose ) to not lose out if this happens, I look forward to my Golem killing spree, its my little bit of fun. I would not like to log on expecting to see a fully grown Golem ripe for the killing only to see him emerging at 1%...its not all about the pumpkins
I understand BB want to encourage interaction of players, and I see this concept as doing that with one minor tweak needed, friends should only be able to weaken other players golems by design, either by having a maximum to the apply bar stopping short of the kill or changing the achievement to supplying the water and making it tradable.
I also suggested in chat another way forward for the collectible issue. If BB used the `help a friend find their collectible' feature and incorporate a mechanism where by either one type of collectible per week of the event, and changing each week, or one type through out if the former is to challenging for coders . When found by a friend casting a spell, turns into a pumpkin, and/or any pumpkins found as collectibles by friends adds bonus amounts to the find/achievement.
The pumpkin fields do need a rethink. Its great to give some variety to events ( and explorers a break ), so I would not like to see them go. We all love the nobles, the commons do need a little extra work from the player management skills, and this is fine. But the small ones seem only there to run the theme for the duration of the event. The 8 hr production time does not really fit in with any buffing regime which makes them interesting and worth it in terms of bonus production. I would rather see an option to not have smalls but have a forth common field in the second week and a forth noble in the 3rd week.

[bio121]

For 3 days have only found 5 pumpkins on my island, BB say there will be more this year. (((

[Urd123]

I agree with that - there's nothing wrong with not making "everything" easy to obtain through standard mechanisms (meaning not including trading, buying with gems, etc.). Overall I think that the event has been well done, I like the information widget, I think the spread of pumpkins is reasonable and I've already been able to obtain what I wanted the most without having to spend gems. So I'm not sure why so many complaints. There is still two weeks to go...

Not everything has gone perfect and there was a lot of frustration with problems when the updates were first implemented, bugs with the original pumpkin collectibles and with the Dracul, other assorted problems and those things impacted a lot of players and I certainly wish none of that had happened.

As far as the adventures, no matter which ones were picked there would be feelings that others should have been. I see a nice spread... some that lower levels can play, some that medium levels can play, and some that only higher levels can play. Some (BK) are available even with map fragments. You can't have much more availability than that.

But the overall 'structure' of the event I think is fine and the amount of effort you put in has much to do with the reward. For those who are complaining (I know not everyone is, some are only offering suggestions, but some are just outright complaining) I would suggest finding what you can do instead of what you can't.. there's a good amount of pumpkins built into the achievements and golems as it is.

It is not at all about gestting the full shipping list. It is about having fun. For me event time is about a change in activity. It is a game- it is about having fun.

Doing BK and stealing from the rich over and over again is not fun. Doing 30 adventures and only getting 2- 3 times 18 pumpkins is not fun eitehr. The chance of finding should be higher- they say it is 40% but no way is that true. Even if it is - then it is too low to make it fun doing 2 adventures every day over and over again. This is a game - but this changes it into a drill practice- not fun at all.

I signed out of the pumpkin hunt, and did what I can afford to do - I just got what I wanted with gems.

I am a collector and it still bothers me not to be able to make the collctions achievement.

During easter event you had a chance of finding eggs ad more different adventures and the droprate was high enough for us to actually find eggs. Then the event was fun.

[lordloocan]

The easiest way to gain pumpkins is by trading. So far I have managed to gather 11.5k pumpkins and would guess under 1k of those are from adventures. Yes, I have the advantage over newer players of having a large stock of resources but don't understand why high level player are complaining. Come on folks, empty those stars onto the trade office.