Feedback: May Fellowship Adventures

[Rocce Sqirl]

What I loved about the early-May Adventure: Every quest resulted in additions to players’ inventories, although some were hard to acquire (nothing wrong with that). And some required a player to change his usual strategy (I really don’t want to do a 48-hour build, but it’s what the Fellowship needs at the moment).

What I hate about the late-May Adventure (also February’s): The requirements to dump large amounts of hard-won goods and relics into a black hole that gets you nothing in return except maybe a spot farther along on a path. These items would be far more useful trading and building than just throwing them away.

One version of the Adventure is a time-management contest that encourages fellowship members to work together and is accessible to even the newest players. The other is a contest favoring only the rich player by demanding the loss of goods and relics that only the higher-ranked players will have in such quantities (if they even choose to donate) and, thus, puts the Adventure out of the reach of the newer players and thwarts goals of working together.

Add in the Wonder Society, Elvarian Guard and Sack of Coins quests and you add more difficulty but still meet the parameters of quests that, when completed, add to players’ inventories and are still accessible to even the lowest-ranked players.

But the practice of just dumping goods and relics is a detriment to the Adventure and the game and should never be required. It is among reasons why my Fellowship, after a most successful and enjoyable Adventure in early-May, decided not to play the late-May Adventure.

 

[Risen Malchiah]

What I hate about the late-May Adventure (also February’s): The requirements to dump large amounts of hard-won goods and relics into a black hole that gets you nothing in return except maybe a spot farther along on a path. These items would be far more useful trading and building than just throwing them away.

Yeah, unfortunately players who can't afford to give up relics might feel pressured to do so which may hinder them from maximizing their boosts or making spells. I'm utterly buried in them so I can afford them, but many players cannot.

I also agree regarding the Pay Goods waypoints. Originally, they were exclusive to 1 path. Almost everyone hated them. I'm not sure the solution to that was to sprinkle them onto every path.

 

[DollBaby222]

Two FAs in one month is sucking the fun out of the game for me. One a month would be too much but two is ridiculous! The cost of my time and energy, let alone relics, orcs, etc., is too high for these weak prizes. Please Stop!! An FA once in awhile would be fun but what you have done is not fun at all!

 

[Sirenia]

Two FAs in one month is sucking the fun out of the game for me. One a month would be too much but two is ridiculous! The cost of my time and energy, let alone relics, orcs, etc., is too high for these weak prizes. Please Stop!! An FA once in awhile would be fun but what you have done is not fun at all!

Agreed....and the MENUS! ARRRh.... they need to develope a drop down menu for the F/A's

 

[DeletedUser4139]

We didn't participate. As long as the devs are deaf for the cycling trough the quests issue, we won't do any FSA

 

[DeletedUser3507]

We did, but, I am still protesting. Scrap FA events and do a major redesign
The only thing I like is the fact it builds a better fellowship.

 

[qaccy]

We didn't participate. As long as the devs are deaf for the cycling trough the quests issue, we won't do any FSA

A revamp of the entire quest UI is in the works, which would affect the entire game in addition to FAs. The devs are not 'deaf' to the issue, this is just something that's taking a while to iron out.

 

[Mykan]

Its also not surprising that the quest system is under going an overhaul. Other than the outcry about it and the other issues with quest looping the development of the game kinda pointed to it eventually. Parts of the game were put in to give us basic functionality and get playing, now the game looks like going long term they can take time to put in better quality options that will last the long term. Quests (and I hope chat) are the obvious things in this space.

I will cry however if they put in a drop box system.

I am enjoying the current FA, I like the coin, wonder and troop badges. Its a nice change to the other badges and more in-line with game play.

 

[DeletedUser3468]

Playing it in 2 worlds... our small Sinya Arda Fellowship is having a blast just filling in whatever we can on the first map and not worrying about finishing. We're currently in 64th place with 2400 points. We assume that there aren't many Fellowships playing at all in Sinya which how we manage to be at such a good level without really trying.
The other is actually trying to finish and are most of the way through the second map and in 129th with 3100 points apparently because a lot more Fellowships are playing in Winyandor. (Older world, more Fellowships... seems logical) We aren't being particularly gung ho here either but we all seem to just be following the selected path and tossing in badges as we get them. There isn't any really intense planning going on this time. It almost feels like we're doing it as an afterthought... What the hey... it's there, might as well toss some badges in...

 

[DeletedUser8709]

my last 3 fa was didn't finish skipped and didn't finish seams the biggest problem is waiting for badges from members when we reach a way point. somehow inno needs to come up with a solution to the badges can't be played because the way points are reached when members can't be online .

I agree! We are in the final four hours. I have family obligations that mean I will miss the ending, and it looks like most of our FS is at work. There are lots of badges in my inventory that no one in my fellowship will be able to use. In addition to the many other issues mentioned already (scrolling instead of a pull-down menu, too many badges that require all three Tier 1 productions and/or 24- or 48-hour waits, poor returns for the time and resources invested) that have not been addressed, I'd like to see a "shelf" or "dropbox" where a FS can have access to all the badges produced, whether the player is online or not. I am not holding my breath on that, though. On the up side, I have gained new skills in using google spreadsheets.

 

[DeletedUser17455]

We made it to stage 2! It was harrowing. We were down to 4 hours, with military badges being the major blocker. Somehow we pulled it together!

I love how much the FAs encourage communication between players. I don't like the cycling, that's a hell of a lot of clicking (especially if you are focusing on just one or two badges). The rewards are also a bit of an anti-climax. I think adding more small rewards along the way would help, but also the reward at the end should be: thematic, and dramatic.

However: I enjoyed doing the late-may FA enough that the reward is not a huge downer. The excitement of just squeezing through was my reward.

 

[DeletedUser17001]

i would not often be critical of an event, but this latest one, other than the shorter duration, was way off being worth the time and energy. If you are going to have me give up supplies and give up relics, the prize better be worth the expense. At least make me think I am not getting completely duped by the thing. The small buildings were almost useless to me and the few boosts were certainly not worth the effort. Other than creating more bonds among the team, this one was a complete dud.

 

[DeletedUser3602]

Well. it's almost over again. I liked that they brought back the 3 new Badges (Wonder, Coins & Guards) But I still don't like the usual: The quest cycling, the amount of Spells Badges (especially Wands) and the amount of Guards (especially since researching Squad Size-upgrades adds so much time to finishing them). But that's all been said before.
One thing that I didn't quite understand this time, is why the 2 prize buildings for 4th-12th place give less culture per square than the 1 for finishing 13th-20th. My FS quit adding to the Bottomless Pit because we want to stay in 13th place. Bit weird.

 

[DeletedUser3507]

I heard another FA adventure will be hitting beta soon...ARGH...STOP..THE..ABUSE...

 

[SoggyShorts]

I heard another FA adventure will be hitting beta soon...ARGH...STOP..THE..ABUSE...

LoL that would be funny. It's a normal mini event, not another FA

 

[samidodamage]

One thing that I didn't quite understand this time, is why the 2 prize buildings for 4th-12th place give less culture per square than the 1 for finishing 13th-20th. My FS quit adding to the Bottomless Pit because we want to stay in 13th place. Bit weird.

We figured that out this morning when we were in 10th place. We quit doing anything but watching the rankings and it took until about 2 hours before the end for us to get down to 13th place; then we moved to 15th place pretty quickly. About 30 min before the end, there was some shake up in the rankings around us, so we knocked out a couple windows to get back to 15th place as we felt pretty safe there and that's where we finished. At least 8 of us had swarms of leftover badges ( I had 30+ of bracelets & necklaces just by myself).Not sure what their reasoning was for that. As one of our members said 'how do they expect to make any money like this?' I know I'd have rather been furiously throwing in badges and snatching productions the minute they finished instead of basically sitting around trying to lose; felt really odd to congratulate each other for a drop in rank even if we don't put a high value on rank itself (good thing since we are only ranked 129 overall, lol).

 

[Shellizzie]

We had a blast! We ended in 1st on Elcysandir (US). We worked together and finished the map with 78 hours to spend in the pit, the most we have ever had! We had so much fun, our goal was to hit 30,000 points and once we hit that today with an hour left to go, the team kept going! Putting in as many badges as possible to go as high as possible ending at 30,450. We sat on chat counting down the seconds with crazy silliness. So much fun!
Oh! And we completed 10 chests in the tourney!
There are things we did not like. The constant clicking and quest rotation. The amount of magic badges etc etc. But for us we thoroughly enjoyed it!

 

[Risen Malchiah]

We ended in 1st on Elcysandir (US). We worked together and finished the map with 78 hours to spend in the pit, the most we have ever had!

Can I ask what strategy was used along the way? Everyone just assumes the top players spend diamonds on the FA and while I'm sure that happens, my assumption is that it's simply a matter of using a spreadsheet, coordinating really well and having a few members between chapters so they have extra space.

Did you do multiple paths each stage or was the strategy to get to the pit asap so you only have 9 badges to worry about?

 

[Shellizzie]

Can I ask what strategy was used along the way? Everyone just assumes the top players spend diamonds on the FA and while I'm sure that happens, my assumption is that it's simply a matter of using a spreadsheet, coordinating really well and having a few members between chapters so they have extra space.

We do use a spreadsheet. Most of us are comfortable keeping it updated along the way with what we are creating and have in stock. However, we have a spreadsheet mage who keeps it up to date with entered badges so that it is kept accurate. We work together really really well. I keep a running message with what is needed for each message in the stage, plus our chat is very very active. Most of the time it is a race to complete waypoints! We did have a couple of people who were in between chapters, plus a couple of people who just made space. Everyone participated to some extent. We learned from the past and had people making long run badges continuously that way we could form a stockpile to keep us going. We did have one person who spent diamonds in a decent amount for guard badges but for the most part, there was very little diamond spending.
We really only had one goal in mind, to stay in first place! 2nd place gave us a good competition so we were determined to stay ahead of them. However even when we knew we had it in the bag, everyone just kept going and going and going. I was pretty amazed!

 

[DeletedUser1369]

My Fellowship had just taken Second Place and was Fully Prepared to Fight for that Position. The Glitch Did NOT Unlock, but Somehow the Other Team was Able to Pass Us by 200 points--while Our Pit remained Locked Down. I Understand that the DEVELOPERS are PEOPLE, and I Do Not Hold Them Personally Responsible for this... I Will Say that I am VERY Suprised that there is NOT an Apology from Inno in the Forums.
My Fellows were NOT Thrilled at the Prospect of an Adventure beginning ONE Week After the last One Ended, and having it End on Such a Sour Note has left a Bad Taste in Many Peoples Mouths. We have always placed High in the Adventure Ranking, with the exception of the ONE Time We Tried to "take it easy". Regardless of the Paultry Prizes, We Enjoy the Challenge. I WILL Say that If SomeThings Do NOT Change, I Will be Hard Pressed to Get My Fellows to Engage in Another Adventure.
As Far as Changes Go, I have Two Suggestions:
1) Once the Final Waypoint Drop for a Specialty Badge(such as Magic Badges) is Completed, The BADGE Goes AWAY from the Quest Icon Choices.THIS Would Help with The Endless Clicking.
2) A Collective Tally When Gathering Badges. Say You have 40 buildings Set for Advanced Tools. You have the Carpenters Badge in Place, Collect from All 40 Buildings and Get Four Badges.This Would Save some Time, and Possibly Our Wrists. (( It is Amazing that I am Able to Use My Hand for Typing this Morning, as it is Numb)).
I Don't Know if This is the Appropriate Place to Express My Thoughts... I May End Up Starting a New Thread if There is No Response. In the Mean Time, I will Contact Support-- as a Fellow who Plays in Another World just told Me that Support is Applying Consolation Prizes.