Fellowship Events Terrible Prizes !!

[DeletedUser12423]

I will never sit staring at and babysitting my computer for hours

You're not supposed too, my friend. Almost all of us, I'm sure, take breaks or check in when we want, and do other things. I read, write, draw, work, forum, and also play other games. This is a Real-Time Game, meaning, it's not played by the hour but by the day. It's not meant to be like a Nintendo game, beat in 2 hours. But by building friendships while you build your city, over time.

It's one of the best God/Sim/Construction games I've ever played! But, like all games, it's not for everyone ^ ^

 

[SoggyShorts]

You're not supposed too, my friend. Almost all of us, I'm sure, take breaks or check in when we want, and do other things.

There's not a whole lot you can do while making beverages. Even putting down your book to cycle through quests and collect/reset workshops every 5 minutes gets annoying, and I'd call that "babysitting" your city.
Personally I made a lot of various badges and different things for each like simple tools were good for binge watching a 22 minute TV show, and bakers were OK for an HBO show (~50 minutes)

The bottom line is that making endless repetitive badges felt more like an interruption to things I'd like to do rather than something I actually wanted to do.

I never thought to myself " YES, my workshops have finished, now I can collect them!"
As for what I was thinking the 100th time they finished, I'm pretty sure I'd get banned from the forums if I posted that.

 

[DeletedUser1766]

Not worth my time or frustration. The funny thing is they will generate a lot of revenue from the fellowships that buy their way to prizes; so Inno will think it is successful and popular. 1 out of the 5 FS I am in is doing this halfheartedly.

Yes that is very true. We were leading on sheer effort up til the last hour. We figured that everyone would have run out of 1 day production by then but no. the teams in 2nd and 3rd place paid to pass us and it must have cost them a fortune because at that point we were 1000 points ahead and finished drawn with 2nd. So we figure they must have paid a lot to make the 50 pits to equal us and then more to pass us.

What we will never understand is how the team that took second place got it when they were the same score as us. We watched all through the event and they were always on top of any team they drew with. The moderators tell us it was just random but how can a team always be on top if the draw is really random. Since we were no 1 and were passed by one team and then drew with the next surely we should have been 2nd and them 3rd but no they kept 2nd place all the way even when drawn. We thought it very odd and very frustrating as we would not spend the huge sum involved for such a piffling prize. We know that if money had not been an issue we would have won the event and that is enough. We did it through planning and team work not by buying our place.

Such is life. What we found happened though was that the teamwork needed to gain first and keep it for that long brought us all closer together and that was a great thing. We had some fun pit parties throwing in our badges and it became a race to see who could throw them in the fastest to start the next pit. At least until we started to run out. We got very tired towards the end and are not looking for a new one anytime soon but we are a great team and that is a good result for us.

 

[DeletedUser12423]

There's not a whole lot you can do while making beverages.

I know, Sog. That's why it's a guild event, right? Let someone else make the things you can't, or don't want too?

Festal had no problem with this event, we hit pit early. We have some over-achievers, sure, but I never babysat materials. I did a few of the beverages while scouting, and forums, here and there, but only because I wanted too.

You see, this event was easy. The trick to it was working only one path to the flag. We chose blue/blue/blue, and we had fun. The only suggestion I would have is improve the prizes. The rewards are the only reason I'd give the event a low 4.5 on the 1-10 scale. But I do hear you guys.

The next time your Fellowship does an Adventure, assign members to materials or steps, ahead of time. So the moment one unlocks, the next step is already half done - completed.

 

[SoggyShorts]

I know, Sog. That's why it's a guild event, right? Let someone else make the things you can't, or don't want too?

But someone has to. Whether it's me or another FS member doesn't take away from the grindy aspect of the quests.

You see, this event was easy.

I'm not disputing that at all, in fact I think very few people find the FA challenging at all, and that's a problem as well.

The next time your Fellowship does an Adventure, assign members to materials or steps, ahead of time. So the moment one unlocks, the next step is already half done - completed.

All of my fellowships finished in the top 20 in the FA(20 ranks better than our normal ranking), organization isn't the issue- tedium is.
A greater variety of quests and a better system for handing them in are desperately needed. Working in an assembly line isn't what I look forward to as a pastime.

I give the FA a 1/10 for the devs total lack of improvements despite months of feedback. They didn't even bother to fix the timer so that it shows days and minutes. I mean come on, how long could that fix take? Can;t they get the guy who makes the timer on every other event to implement it here?

 

[DeletedUser12423]

Working in an assembly line isn't what I look forward to as a pastime.

Okay, you have a viable point, and I agree, man. Let's also consider less fortunate Fellowships with fewer members and/or less organization. I do hear you, and I agree they need work. The FA are still new, afterall. You've been here alot longer then I have, and your one of the folks I learn from, but with that said, I still would rate it just below an average event. 4.5 solid. A 1 would be truly horrible, almost a 0, like it couldn't be much worse? That's a bit harsh, I think.

I was talking to one of our members, whom I'm also learning alot from, and she said she couldn't use the Mana Hut I think is an alright building. They read our feedback, so let's do a summary?

1) Some players were lost (in less fortunate FS) even with the most recent in game guide. Maybe the guide needs rewrote?
2) Almost everyone agreed that the prizes should have been better (I was happy with the Mana Hut, myself)
3) Less repeatables
4) More options
5) and perhaps losing the path system all together for something closer to a pyramid. Where no materials go wasted?

I'm not sure. But one thing I liked alot, were the rewards at each of the three flags (or stars). I hope they keep that, because I don't like having all the rewards at the end of the event, making it All-or-Nothing. I felt so bad for some players, last time. It's a great game, and it really sucks when people lost out after trying. Even with a guide and help from my FS, I almost didn't make the halloween event. I'm still learning ^ ^

And even if we don't agree, I have respect for many of the players and thier opinions. Have a goodnight, folks.

 

[DeletedUser10261]

My whole FS was disappointed. All that work for crap prizes. If they want us to put in so much time to do an adventure like that, then they need to make it worth it! Ugh...so disappointed!

 

[SoggyShorts]

. A 1 would be truly horrible, almost a 0, like it couldn't be much worse? That's a bit harsh, I think.

LoL I guess that's true, it could be worse(though I'm not sure how), but I still wouldn't give it more than a 2 out of 10.

Here's a slightly more comprehensive list:

1. The clock is terrible. Every other event has a more accurate timer built in, and there is no reason at all for it to be like this. This isn't one of those "But FoE has this feature" complaints. Elvenar already has this feature! Some of the below issues might be time consuming to fix, but for the clock there is simply no excuse, and really makes players think that all our feedback being heard is BS.
   
2. The declining of quests is very tedious. There are a lot of ways this could be improved.
3. They said there would be more badge types and that the routes would change, but none of that has happened.
4. Forcing players to add non-boosted buildings for productions doesn't actually add anything to the game. Doing the exact opposite would foster more FS interaction. If players could only make goods badges with their boosted type, fellowships would actually have to work together to get things done. The whole economy of the game is based on players making 3 of 9 goods and cooperating(trading) with players for the other 6.
5. The top prizes are virtually guaranteed to go to fellowships that are already at the top. This is the first time in Elvenar where you and your Fellow's efforts are not the only factor in your prizes, and most players seem to dislike it. The obvious fix is to make the rewards merit based by giving fellowships additional prizes for crossing various point thresholds. It works great in tournaments, so why the change?
6. There is no easy way to track who has contributed to each stage, meaning that FS leaders have to open every spot on the map and cross names off of a list(that they have to make) before activating the flag in order to make sure everyone gets a prize. The fact that many fellowships are using third party programs like google sheets to make the tracking bearable is a sure sign that your product is missing something.
7. Also with the 1990's era mail and chat systems the game has, communicating who has which badges is also terrible. Again many fellowships are using third party software to do this.
8. Members of ambassador rank being able to activate a flag is a bad idea(for reason #6 listed above) and was originally announced on Beta as an error, but they went back on that and said it is now intended(easier than fixing it I guess?)
9. The prizes need to be attractive to players in any chapter. The problem with the mana hut/orc nest for early players is that they aren't good enough to replace a workshop. You have to assume that players have enough workshops to run their city, otherwise it wouldn't function. Based on that, what does adding 0.5 of a workshop actually do? Kinda nothing.
10. The other prizes for getting extra points beyond the 3 stages are laughably pathetic. The Eldrasil event gave hundreds of hours worth of timer instants for failing to win the daily prize, but working hard for a week as a team to get in the top 50 awards you a single 30m timer? Ridiculous.
11. The clock is still terrible, and in the time it took me to make this post a half decent coder could have fixed it.

All of the above would be somewhat forgivable if it wasn't for the fact that all of those flaws were pointed out by the playerbase 3 months ago, with no improvements being made before simply relaunching it. For me, that's where the score drops from a 4 (which is still a fail) down to a 2.

/endrant

 

[DeletedUser12423]

Forcing players to add non-boosted buildings for productions doesn't actually add anything to the game. Doing the exact opposite would foster more FS interaction. If players could only make goods badges with their boosted type, fellowships would actually have to work together to get things done.

Well said, and many good points ^ ^

Maybe they had a different team working on this event? There are too many differences to make sense.

 

[SoggyShorts]

Maybe they had a different team working on this event?

I've seen that theory floating around the forums, and it does make sense. The balance is just so far off from events to the FA that it probably is a different team. That combined with an "events per year" quota* from some higher up is causing inno to release a very unpolished product.

*When the second FA was rushed through Beta so quick that they had to skip the Masq PT2 over there a mod told us it was because they were on a deadline, which makes no sense to me, but then again I'm not part of a multi-million dollar corporation, so maybe very frequent half-baked products make more revenue than making good products slightly less often, what do I know?

 

[The Unbeliever]

The prizes sucking so damn hard is my main gripe against the FA's...
Is it really too hard to just make it more akin to FoE's weekly Guild Expeditions? Keep the teamwork based progress, but make the following changes to the maps;

a) -'Green' becomes the 'Easy Path'.
Each point can give either some coins/supplies, or a broken shard for completion. Not worth much, sure, but then, this is why it's the 'Easy Mode' path!
- 'Blue' becomes the 'Hard Path'.
Takes more effort (ie: badges + various types) to complete, but the completed points can give out things like a broken shard/runeshard/instant/minor event deco. (ie: Silver/Bronze Guards, Victory Banner thingy, etc...)
- 'Orange' become the 'Lunatic Path'
Rewards here are the 'best' of the basic points, and can offer things like instants/runeshards and/or a better event deco or two. (ie: a couple of the pop+culture ones like Rainbow Gate/Unicorn)

b) The bigger 'Waypoint Intersections' can offer a slightly better prize, but bump up the badge requirement for them - perhaps by Lv3, even requiring say 4-5 different types of badges to complete!
Have fewer of them, but let them offer some slightly better prizes, such as the Elemental Codices, and/or the smaller culture buildings from previous events.
Again, those that cross over the blue/orange paths are the harder ones to achieve, but give the best rewards vs. the blue/green intersections.

c) Much better prize for each end stage!
Lv1 obviously should be modest - it's level freaking 1!
But where's the harm in say giving out a 2x2 or 3x3 event culture building, or perhaps a bigger package of better instants + runeshards + 1 deco?
Lv's 2 & 3 though should easily be worth a couple event buildings - an Orc Nest AND a Grounds/Orc Strat would make Lv2 'worth it' no matter what chapter a player is in for example.
Finishing Lv3? Why not the Mana Hut AND the 1st 'grand prize' of the featured 'special event building' (ie: everyone finishing lv3 this previous FA gets the Herds building?!)


Now damn, THAT would be worth jumping through hoops & grinding out badges for!
As is, I was drained after just 3 days this past FA, and everything about the game became a horrible, fun-sucking chore.

 

[DeletedUser12423]

a) -'Green' becomes the 'Easy Path'.
Each point can give either some coins/supplies, or a broken shard for completion. Not worth much, sure, but then, this is why it's the 'Easy Mode' path!

You may be on to something. Different rewards based on which path your Fellowship chooses, I like it. You should put something like this in the suggestions thread, too. I think it's pretty good ^ ^

 

[Shanubi]

Inno's at it again. The last FA was bad but we gave it a shot anyway. This latest FA is so awful no one even seems the slightest bit interested. Its a shame b/c the team building quest driven events are one of the things I really liked about this game. Would love to know what the developers are thinking when they make this ridiculous changes.

 

[NightshadeCS]

Is it currently on beta?

 

[DeletedUser]

Is it currently on beta?

Yes.

 

[DeletedUser5521]

Inno's at it again. The last FA was bad but we gave it a shot anyway. This latest FA is so awful no one even seems the slightest bit interested. Its a shame b/c the team building quest driven events are one of the things I really liked about this game. Would love to know what the developers are thinking when they make this ridiculous changes.

My FS on Beta is doing the FA, because we take our role as Beta testers seriously, and give (hopefully) helpful feedback, discouraging blanket statements like "this FA sux!" and "worst EVER!!", and suggesting instead that our members give subjective impressions along with suggestions for changes to the things we don't like. It's difficult to keep on doing that when sometimes it feels as if your words are only heard (read?) by Forum Members, and none of The Powers That Be, but we continue on nevertheless. So if anyone cares to hear (read?) a firsthand opinion, here-goes:

This FA feels better than the last (Jan '18) in many ways, including the quality of the prizes. Map level prizes include 20 and 30 KP instants, 5 and 8 hour time instants, coin/supply instants, and a recycled Menhirok's Barrow. Not horrible as far as prizes go, and definitely the best of any FA to date. The final prizes are as lack-luster as they always have been, but this time 100 lucky FS's get to rejoice upon the rewarding, instead of the mere 50 FS of previous FAs. There are not as many 1 and 2 day badge requirements--as a matter of fact, 4 flags into the second map, and I don't think we've had 1 yet! Who-wa!

That being said, there are 3 new badges (relatively easy to acquire, but more of the infernal click, click, clicking to get thru the cycle, and yes: still have to refresh the page to get that blasted quest-giver to show back up and let you continue to collect the same thing you were trying to collect 2 minutes ago. INNO, mi amor, what-up wit dat??? Makes me loca en mi cabeza. But I digress...) There is no longer a path where you DON'T have to throw away your hard earned goods to the greedy Adventure Gods, and in addition to that change, relics--yes RELICS!!-- are demanded on all paths so far, and some paths now ask for the Orc Head slave trade transaction. Sigh. Me no likey this.

All in all, my humble opinion is that this FA IS better than the last one that we slogged thru last month, but there is still not enough to bring it back to where many Fellowships are going to cheer "YAAAYYY!! A new Fellowship Adventure!!! Woohoo!!!!"

 

[NightshadeCS]

...and some paths now ask for the Orc Head slave trade transaction. Sigh. Me no likey this.

Wait, what is this?

 

[DeletedUser5521]

Wait, what is this?

This is this..

 

[NightshadeCS]

Oh, yuck!

 

[DeletedUser9601]

Oh, yuck!

You never need to spend Orcs to progress:
Path 1 - Orange and Blue = no Orcs
Path 2 - Orange and Green = no Orcs
Path 3 - Blue and Green = no Orcs

I'm encouraging my FS to go down an Orc-spending path, because its not that many Orcs if you have 10+ people in Orcs and beyond. And a lot of FS members would rather pay some Orcs than have another set of Tier 1 level 1 buildings, or workshops, to babysit for badges.