Well, I'll be finishing up part two tomorrow. Overall the quests ran all right. They felt much like a lot of our prior events. I think the biggest problem for part two was the amount of time we had to complete it. Part one was short, but the quests were pretty easy. Part two was much harder, but we still only had a short amount of time to complete it (we won't talk about the sloppy way they rushed it out to the live servers). The only reason I'll be able to finish it is because I'm in between chapters right now and had space to build a bunch of workshops. A lot of others won't be able to because they just can't complete that many 9 hour then day productions in such a short amount of time.
Like I said, space is already the core challenge of this game, so I feel the events ought to compliment that, not be counter-intuitive to it. For those in the middle of a chapter, chances are very high they don't have a lot of extra space lying around to build extra building to help out in the event because they've used most of it trying to maximize the efficiency of their city. So they are using what they already have. If the prize is worth it, most of us don't mind slowing down our regular operations to fulfill the events. Cranking out supplies and goods and coins are things we want to do anyway, so even if we have to sacrifice some three hour productions to do a couple day productions, if the prize has better culture or mana and such then anything else we can buy in our current chapter, we'll call it a good investment and enjoy the break from the day to day monotony.
Things like "upgrade xxx buildings to level four" are not really in the best interests of a player who is trying to optimize their city. Unless it's someone still just starting out who needs to get a few building up to level 4 anyway, all that this quest does is force someone to build up a few buildings before tearing them down because they don't need them. That's counter productive. And for those who don't have the space to build extra buildings anyway, they're screwed. Slowing down we can do. Tearing something that we need down to make room for something we don't need, or rather, having to start from scratch with it again? Not something we care to do. That sets us back more than it's worth. Especially for higher chapters when you'll have to upgrade your buildings back up to 20 or more. How many resources get wasted in that venture I wonder?
I'm glad they're trying new things. Some of them will be good ideas, others not so much. The pay quests, while an interesting idea, didn't turn out to be a very good idea in practice. I don't even want to think about what they're planning with non-boosted factory requirements...
Quests that encourage activity are good. Things like spend (not pay) and gain xxx resources, as well as using the trader are things we need to be doing and will help us grow. We need more quests that encourage growth.
Honestly though, with the "solve xx encounters or gain xx relics", I believe the 'encounter' part of it is rather unnecessary. You can gain relics several different ways, including solving encounters in a providence, so why trick us into thinking you're giving us two options?
As far as the instants go, I like them. Even the minute time reductions ones can have their uses; late night, need to get to bed, and you just have a couple of minutes left on your factories... I do think it would be nice to see more of the hour ones, and I'd like to see ones that reduced time by several hours. Certainly they shouldn't be common, but I also don't think they should be uber rare or anything. In later chapters when your buildings take 16 or 20 hours + to upgrade, a three hour time reduction once in awhile is hardly a game breaker.