Masquerade part II

[Risen Malchiah]

@Brooster Soo, I'm just gonna take a wild guess here based on your posts. You don't like the event. I could be wrong.

What I find interesting is that even those who hate the event (almost all it seems) are at least attempting it. It goes to show that if the event was at least moderately enjoyable, or if we had a few extra days, or if the rewards were worth the effort, it would please a lot of players.

 

[DeletedUser7367]

Risen.... pls. address the salient complaints..... What's the point in wasting precious time/resources while in ORCS??? Space is beyond a precious commodity: As such, I am indeed doing those 'things' in the quest line which benefit me.... but to literally 'rape' resources and bog down my normal 'flow'??? In NO way can anyone convince me that this 'event' is lucrative! I do NOT produce mana....will be bogged down in ORCS for a while..... Need I say more?

 

[DeletedUser9474]

I have built two more WS (22 total) and now feel I will finish in time. I have to do more WS aside from the 10 or 12 because I don't have enough supplies. And, surprisingly, supplies earned through different quests do not count in what I need (would it be so hard to tell us that ahead of time?) However, I normally would not have this kind of space so I'm still not happy with the game. I probably would not have enough space in 2 weeks time should the same intensity of quest come along. I'm a long time gamer and my instincts are always to try to do the quests. If they aren't obtainable with reasonable effort then I will likely get bored and mosey along. I found it 'interesting' that they are offering to let me buy time savings.. bwahahahahahaha Don't get me wrong, I don't mind them making money but I do prefer things were a little less in your face. They set up a quest where the first half is pretty easy although it did take some pondering and they introduce these 'time saving' tokens to the game. Then they follow it with an intentionally hard to do part 2 with a very short time frame... and WOW they offer to let you buy the time saving tokens... Yeah, no I've put my credit card away, thanks anyway. The biggest problem I have aside from the obviousness of the money grab is that it's more challenging for folks in some chapters and yet our prize is gimped. Either figure out how to do the quests on a sliding scale or don't gimp the prizes based on when you win it but rather when you place it.

 

[DeletedUser7370]

I just did the 26 relic part... got my 7 minute boost WOOHOO [NOT!] and then there's the LITANY of busy bodied horse excrement that remains.... Sorry, but I'm KNEE DEEP in ORC DUNG, literally... I do NOT derive mana from this space wasting 'grand prize'... It's pitifully pathetic and obviously lacking, pursuant to the not so gradual DEGRADATION of rewards that INNO 'provides'.... Only a ZOMBIE or a shill... or perhaps someone higher up in the game would find this nonsense 'Masquerade' appealing... Go fish... Not even considering dropping another dime on this nonsense..... FYI, I've spent PLENTY up to this point!

Oh, I agree the prize is not worth building. It will sit in my inventory until I have no cares about running an efficient city and only want a very pretty city. The Menhirok's Barrow is doing the same thing; I only bothered with these events because the prizes are pretty.

I certainly did not say this event is appealing. It happened to fall at a fairly good point in my city. I have space reserved for: 4 armory upgrades, 2 wonders, and the mercenary camp; and I held a city expansion research for the 'research something' quest. I failed to mesh well with my tournament schedule because I over slept, but I had lots of armies in reserve and expected to need relics or KP after the first event so I had 5 provinces scouted already. I scouted another one to gain supplies to finish off one of the earlier quests because I did not feel like wasting Power of Provision spells.

I mean really anyone who didn't expect needing relics and KP after Part I must not have been playing this game for very long. Between the first announcement of Part I and the start of Part II was over 3 weeks. Even the people with 400 provinces cleared could have prep scouted 5 provinces in 3 weeks. So anyone whining about not having time to scout lacks foresight, but I can respect people that say they do not have enough goods or military to clear the provinces. Although I would again tell them to use the tournament; anyone with all 5 troop types can do the first 8 provinces through round 1 making 22 relics. Doing 6 provinces on round 3 is not hard and, if I recall correctly, that makes 15 relics.

As of this moment I am an hour and half away from finishing the 12 hour workshop jobs. I have 4 L1 workshops that have their 24 hour job done. I just put PoP spells on my big workshops and will grind off the supplies requirement of the last quest before bed and leave 6 L1 workshops running out the final 24 hour jobs. So I will be finished with 66 hours to spare, and I only crammed 8 L1 workshops into my city to shave off 1 day with minimal inconvenience on my normal play schedule and activities.

 

[Risen Malchiah]

@TedGrau It's the amount of relics and KP that are excessive. With the tournament, it worked out ok, but I would not have done it using world map provinces. And most of the feedback on the beta forum suggested they not put so many workshop quests back to back and that the KP quest should have followed the relics quest.

 

[DeletedUser7367]

You cannot rationalize depreciating return based on pretty pixels.... Get over your abysmal acceptance of this affront of a greedy Developer and speak truth, would ya? This game has become a whisper of any inherent 'value' that it was merely a year ago... I've not lost either my sense of sanity or worth: Inno's completely pulled the plug on WE, the long time daily players, who fed their audacious aspirations... Now this??? Bollocks.

 

[qaccy]

You cannot rationalize depreciating return based on pretty pixels.... Get over your abysmal acceptance of this affront of a greedy Developer and speak truth, would ya? This game has become a whisper of any inherent 'value' that it was merely a year ago... I've not lost either my sense of sanity or worth: Inno's completely pulled the plug on WE, the long time daily players, who fed their audacious aspirations... Now this??? Bollocks.

Disagree. I'm a 'long-time daily player' and I don't feel like this event has screwed me over. I'll have it finished by this time tomorrow and it really wasn't that hard. If you find it difficult, you're probably either a newer player who hasn't even got their city and military fully fleshed out yet or you just don't plan out your gameplay very well.

By this point, any late-game player who has difficulty with scouting or province-related quests kinda missed the memo that they aren't supposed to be constantly scouting all the time. If your scouts take more than a day, it's time to ease up on the gas and wait until you've researched another scouting technology. Or at least, that's what I've done and I don't feel like I'm any worse off for it. I've got plenty of space in my city that I don't feel like I need to be constantly rushing through provinces that are always getting more and more expensive to reach.

 

[DeletedUser7370]

@TedGrau It's the amount of relics and KP that are excessive. With the tournament, it worked out ok, but I would not have done it using world map provinces. And most of the feedback on the beta forum suggested they not put so many workshop quests back to back and that the KP quest should have followed the relics quest.

As I said I missed lining it up with my tournament rounds. Had I waited to line it up then I would not have gotten round 6 in, which is only a minor loss, but could be the difference on getting 1 more chest in my fellowship. I did all of it on province encounters. It was not hard because I learned from all the events (my first was the Valentine's Day of this year) that you should always have some provinces ready to clear and some available to scout. I am in the right chapter when combat gets easy because I have stayed under the chest requirements; basically learned that by chapter 2 without visiting the forums. And my final advantage is that I build heavily military and low factories. Negotiating one province encounter for me averages to about 2 production hours for 1 of each tier factory so long as those factories are running 3 hour productions. I generally manage 5 or 6 of the 3 hour runs each day with the rest of the day wasted. So that is 6 production hours; the same encounters will use about 1 squad of troops each and it only takes my barracks 2 hours to produce 1 squad. Military is more efficient. This is why I have only 1 factory for each tier in my city and still regularly hold a supply of goods sufficient to research the next 2 chapters.

You cannot rationalize depreciating return based on pretty pixels.... Get over your abysmal acceptance of this affront of a greedy Developer and speak truth, would ya? This game has become a whisper of any inherent 'value' that it was merely a year ago... I've not lost either my sense of sanity or worth: Inno's completely pulled the plug on WE, the long time daily players, who fed their audacious aspirations... Now this??? Bollocks.

Games do not have inherent value. They exist to entertain and waste time. I still love to play to M.U.L.E. sometimes. Yep, this event is not great. The too easy Part I sucked because it was too easy, and most people seem to think Part II is too hard; it seems easy to me and that is the truth.

 

[DeletedUser7367]

Disagree. I'm a 'long-time daily player' and I don't feel like this event has screwed me over. I'll have it finished by this time tomorrow and it really wasn't that hard. If you find it difficult, you're probably either a newer player who hasn't even got their city and military fully fleshed out yet or you just don't plan out your gameplay very well.

By this point, any late-game player who has difficulty with scouting or province-related quests kinda missed the memo that they aren't supposed to be constantly scouting all the time. If your scouts take more than a day, it's time to ease up on the gas and wait until you've researched another scouting technology. Or at least, that's what I've done and I don't feel like I'm any worse off for it. I've got plenty of space in my city that I don't feel like I need to be constantly rushing through provinces that are always getting more and more expensive to reach.

New? Read my posts... I've formerly EXALTED this game on numerous occasions.... In Arrendyl, approaching 100K score in Orcs and have 257 provinces in hand.... You cannot belittle my achievements to date NOR saliently deny TRUTH. Inno has progressively diminished rewards and prizes throughout the game for over a year now. Your assumptions are merely that...... foolishly placed. You mentioned above 'taking my foot off the gas',....lmao! That's a two edged sword. More provinces? More visits and with a lvl 7 Lighthouse I do quite well, resource wise..... It's not the CHORES I find unbearable, it's the ridiculous and NON MANA producing prize that pisses me off, no end.. Sure, You're an upper level player, smiling from Chapter 9, 10 or 11 land.... yet most of us proffer NOTHING from these two grand prizes. Seriously?

 

[SoggyShorts]

Sure, You're an upper level player, smiling from Chapter 9, 10 or 11 land.... yet most of us proffer NOTHING from these two grand prizes. Seriously?

Yes the prize is not very good for chapters 1-8. Agreed. But were you on the forums posting 50 times when the Herds rewards gave no mana and were therefore totally useless to most players in chapters 9-11? (just like every single pure culture building was in every event before this one)
You win some you lose some.

As for the difficulty of the event, @TedGrau has some very good points. You know that events ask for relics. You knew an event was coming for the past 3 weeks. Did you do any prep? Did you scout some provinces and save some goods/troops for clearing them?

 

[qaccy]

New? Read my posts... I've formerly EXALTED this game on numerous occasions.... In Arrendyl, approaching 100K score in Orcs and have 257 provinces in hand.... You cannot belittle my achievements to date NOR saliently deny TRUTH. Inno has progressively diminished rewards and prizes throughout the game for over a year now. Your assumptions are merely that...... foolishly placed. You mentioned above 'taking my foot off the gas',....lmao! That's a two edged sword. More provinces? More visits and with a lvl 7 Lighthouse I do quite well, resource wise..... It's not the CHORES I find unbearable, it's the ridiculous and NON MANA producing prize that pisses me off, no end.. Sure, You're an upper level player, smiling from Chapter 9, 10 or 11 land.... yet most of us proffer NOTHING from these two grand prizes. Seriously?

You have the option to simply not do the event. I'd argue that, though the prizes are still fairly efficient for what they do prior to the Woodelves chapter (despite being pretty boring effects), these two events are actually more for the people who ARE in the mana chapters, this being the first time a mana-producing building has ever been offered from an event and the two halves of this event each provide one.

We obviously each play the game differently, but I personally don't see the value in scouting 'very hard' provinces when I can wait until later to scout and acquire them when they're 'easy' or even 'very easy' instead. I've currently got 13 very easy and 9 easy provinces available to me, and everything within range of my scout is also easy. All told, if you've been scouting through hard or very hard provinces all this time you've probably paid more than me to acquire all of them and I'm sitting at an even 300 right now. Doesn't seem like a wise use of resources, honestly...and it also continues to ensure you have a rough time when events roll around asking you to scout or deal with provinces in some way.

 

[DeletedUser7370]

gave no mana and were therefore totally useless to most players in chapters 9-11? (just like every single pure culture building was in every event before this one)

I disagree with the "totally useless...chapters 9-11" part of the assessment of Herds prizes. A solid analysis of the mana and culture buildings shows that having {pure culture (no road needed)} and {highest mana per square with low culture} produces the greatest values for both over the same number of squares. You don't even have to calculate per square, or adjust for roads, because the differences are that great. Toss 2 willows for a great auction and 3 witch markets, just off the top of my head but I believe that is more culture and more mana per hour for the same space; or at least pretty close.

 

[Maz Mellor]

Sadly, given my work schedule, there is just no way I will be able to complete this event. It seems to me like these quests are harder, and there is less time than usual (proportionally) to complete them. Oh well. I'm glad to know there's another, larger event coming down the pike before too long.

 

[DeletedUser7367]

No one 'pays me' to point out the diminishing returns as elucidated throughout this thread.... No Johnny Cochran or F. Lee Bailey. The game's events USED to provide ALL players, at all levels, substantial rewards... Again, I will boldly ASSERT that it's NONSENSE for someone DEEP in ORCS, as I am.. to even WANT these prizes.....I, and those BELOW Orcs.... do not make or need manna... Period. Being cynical when trying to dissect 'how I scout'.... what I allocate? That is simply dismissive of the points that I've CLEARLY made. INNO has decreased [rewards]
noticeably over the past year... THAT IS FACTUAL. Now, why the angst over what is clearly TRUTH?

 

[qaccy]

I disagree with the "totally useless...chapters 9-11" part of the assessment of Herds prizes. A solid analysis of the mana and culture buildings shows that having {pure culture (no road needed)} and {highest mana per square with low culture} produces the greatest values for both over the same number of squares. You don't even have to calculate per square, or adjust for roads, because the differences are that great. Toss 2 willows for a great auction and 3 witch markets, just off the top of my head but I believe that is more culture and more mana per hour for the same space; or at least pretty close.

Well...to be fair in that comparison, you're using buildings from two different chapters. The second option also takes up far less space, as two willows require 50 squares while an auction and 3 witch markets only requires 37. But you do bring up an interesting point, that it's better to specialize with your buildings to focus on either mana or culture, not both. Where does population fit into all of this, though? That tends to be a focus as well, perhaps even moreso than culture is.

 

[Risen Malchiah]

As I said I missed lining it up with my tournament rounds. Had I waited to line it up then I would not have gotten round 6 in, which is only a minor loss, but could be the difference on getting 1 more chest in my fellowship. I did all of it on province encounters. It was not hard because I learned from all the events (my first was the Valentine's Day of this year) that you should always have some provinces ready to clear and some available to scout.

You prepared and that's good. The only suggestion I'd make is to consider skipping round 6 and opt for pushing ahead a few extra provinces. I used to reorganize my life and set alarms to do 6 rounds and that just wasn't fun. Since they dropped the encounters from 8 to 4, I found that I can easily push into the teens and I tend to do 12-18 provinces for 2 rounds, followed by whatever I have time for in the first 8-10 provinces and usually 4-5 rounds in the ones that yield KP. Province 10+ are very profitable (4 relics each, Provision first round, 5 KP the second, and a rune 3rd if you're desperate and have the goods/troops).

Yep, this event is not great. The too easy Part I sucked because it was too easy, and most people seem to think Part II is too hard; it seems easy to me and that is the truth.

Indeed, Part 1 was surprisingly easy, though it almost wasn't. I remember the original quest list which would have been significantly harder. For Part 2, it seems they were trying to avoid all the excessive pay and gain supplies quests from the Herds event. It sill baffles me though that they would ask the beta forum for feedback and then ignore it all.

 

[DeletedUser9601]

As for the difficulty of the event, @TedGrau has some very good points. You know that events ask for relics. You knew an event was coming for the past 3 weeks. Did you do any prep? Did you scout some provinces and save some goods/troops for clearing them?

1 scouted province plus 10 rounds of Ring 1 of the tournament got you the runes you need. I don't understand the complaining about "too many relics." Either you're advanced, and relics from provinces are hard to come by, but you should breeze through the first 10 rounds of a tournament. Or you're pre-Dwarfs, and relics from provinces are easier, but you can't easily do the later tournament rounds.

I feel like there's 10+ pages on the forums of people complaining about the quest, but the real complaint/discussion should be about rewards. Part II felt "too hard" to some because, for pre-mana chapters, the rewards were bleh. Compared to the 2016 winter event rewards that some people still rely on. I think its just a hard realization for some that events aren't going to be an easy source of overpowered culture/pop buildings, and if you've been relying on them, you maybe have some tough decisions ahead about city layout.

If the Part II reward gave you a 100pop/100culture per square building, I feel like this event discussion is completely different.

 

[Ashrem]

No one 'pays me' to point out the diminishing returns as elucidated throughout this thread.... No Johnny Cochran or F. Lee Bailey. The game's events USED to provide ALL players, at all levels, substantial rewards... Again, I will boldly ASSERT that it's NONSENSE for someone DEEP in ORCS, as I am.. to even WANT these prizes.....I, and those BELOW Orcs.... do not make or need manna... Period. Being cynical when trying to dissect 'how I scout'.... what I allocate? That is simply dismissive of the points that I've CLEARLY made. INNO has decreased [rewards]
noticeably over the past year... THAT IS FACTUAL. Now, why the angst over what is clearly TRUTH?

The presumption that how the game used to be was working for everyone (players and developers) is probably at the heart of your frustration. The game has to provide the developers with an adequate return or there's no point in them running it. Just ask people who played "City of Heros" only to have it shut down without much warning.

The developers have to try to make a game that fulfills their needs, which includes keeping enough people happy who are willing to spend money. Our choice is to play or not play. Getting angry because the game has changed isn't going to help.

1 scouted province plus 10 rounds of Ring 1 of the tournament got you the runes you need.

To be fair, you have to be mostly finished chapter 4 to have enough provinces clear to do 10 rounds of a tournament.

If the Part II reward gave you a 100pop/100culture per square building, I feel like this event discussion is completely different.

The developers did warn us that the earlier prizes were more generous than they should have been for what was intended, and they were going to have to cut back. I happen to think they are wrong, but I'm not designing the game.

 

[DeletedUser9601]

To be fair, you have to be mostly finished chapter 4 to have enough provinces clear to do 10 rounds of a tournament.
The developers did warn us that the earlier prizes were more generous than they should have been for what was intended, and they were going to have to cut back. I happen to think they are wrong, but I'm not designing the game.

Agreed. But if you haven't finished Chapter 4, then its probably easier/quicker for you to get relics via provinces. There's some folks out there who over-scouted and are still in Chs 3, 4 and 5, and those people are definitely in a tough spot.

 

[mucksterme]

I haven't bothered reading all the comments
but most of you are so predictable
whine whine whine

the event is incredibly easy
they took out all the pay out tasks people complained about
with no prep at all i am now just waiting for my ws to complete the final task and i'm done
there is really no pleasing some of you

i think the only way the devs could please you is have an event like this

1 Have at least one workshop - prize 100 diamonds
2 Have at least one manufactory - prize 100 1 hour instant spells
3 Have at least 2 buildings - prize 100 KP
Finished
Grand Prize 1x1 building that gives 5000 population 5000 culture 5000 mana , no matter your level

although now i think about it
that "no matter your level" thing would probably get complaints
" Booo Hooo I am in chapter 8, why do i get the same lousy prize as someone in chapter 2? and where am I supposed to find the room for it?"