Mystery of the Misty Forest Event discussion thread

[Enevhar Aldarion]

That's what I hate about this ... the odds of winning the dailies seem extremely low, in comparison to the amount of event currency it takes.

Yep, the only one I got lucky with was Freakenspleen. I got two of them, so now I can replace the one from last Halloween. I only tried for three of four specific buildings, all the old Halloween ones, and this one was the only one I got any of.

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

So I wrapped up this event, and here is my status report. Played in two cities, both gained almost exactly 6,000 of event currency total. Both used the same strategy, and the end results were almost the same. Both cities got the 9 artifacts and the second hut, barely (i.e. not much else after that). One city went after Freakenspleens, and got 12 of those off ~5.5K of event currency. I didn't track closely dailies for the other one, but ended up with about ~15 total. This is with only picking chests that had opportunity cost of exactly zero - i.e. never opening tiles with chests unless there was another reason to do so. E.g. moving 1 tile forward had several equal options, so might as well pick a tile with the chest. Otherwise, I only picked chests that were uncovered doing other things.

All in all, about the same as other recent events on the grand prizes. Lower than usual on the dailies, but this is without targeting dailies at all. This format makes it difficult to target these efficiently. The same can be said for filler prizes - no way to effectively target these, so I completely ignored it. And it definitely takes a while to dump the whole stash of event currency in one go. Regular triple chests definitely go faster, and allow for better reward targeting. But hey, this is something different, so I suppose that's good. Don't know if it would be good for replay value. This time around the grand prize was pretty decent, but if we would be getting more usual underwhelming grand prizes and no real way to influence dailies/fillers, this may get old fast.

 

[DeletedUser21918]

Hello everyone,

The upcoming Halloween event has just been announced.
As always, please let us know what you like/dislike/love/hate in this thread!

We look forward to your feedback

I thoroughly dislike the Misty Forest. I got all the way through the quests and only have 6 of those evolving thingies (whatever they're called - I've forgotten at the moment). Even with the potential of getting two more in the upcoming FA, that will still leave me one stage shy of the 10 stages of the evolving building.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

So I wrapped up this event, and here is my status report. Played in two cities, both gained almost exactly 6,000 of event currency total. Both used the same strategy, and the end results were almost the same. Both cities got the 9 artifacts and the second hut, barely (i.e. not much else after that). One city went after Freakenspleens, and got 12 of those off ~5.5K of event currency. I didn't track closely dailies for the other one, but ended up with about ~15 total. This is with only picking chests that had opportunity cost of exactly zero - i.e. never opening tiles with chests unless there was another reason to do so. E.g. moving 1 tile forward had several equal options, so might as well pick a tile with the chest. Otherwise, I only picked chests that were uncovered doing other things.

Once we get the 45 ingredients later tonight, I will be able to buy my 15th 420-ingredient package. Add in 70 spent on candles and another 20 to gather before the event ends, and I will finish having had around 6400 ingredients. I am current sitting 22 cats away from the 9th artifact, so we shall see if the final package and a couple more candles will get it for me.

I finished Beta 12 cats short of the 9th artifact, with sub-optimal light buying and usage, but even being more careful on Live, if I have bad luck tonight getting cats, I will end up at about the same spot, which would be frustrating.

 

[Darielle]

I earned 8 artifacts; I'm counting on the FA to fully evolve my witch hut. I wish I had gotten the second witch hut; I accidentally collected the first one just before I entered halflings. But I'll get enough rrs to upgrade it soon enough, so that's okay.

I hope hope hope this event is a one off, and they won't repeat it. It does get old fast.

 

[Jiali]

I'm so confused. The Misty Forest event timer says 31+ hours more (as I write this) but yesterday's email from Elven News says the event is ending soon.

Also, elvengems.com shows the last prize building as The Mausoleum Wedding (today's prize). It's been a long day but ... we still have 24 hour days, right? I mean, if that's true... There's still another prize on the rotation???

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I'm so confused. The Misty Forest event timer says 31+ hours more (as I write this) but yesterday's email from Elven News says the event is ending soon.

Also, elvengems.com shows the last prize building as The Mausoleum Wedding (today's prize). It's been a long day but ... we still have 24 hour days, right? I mean, if that's true... There's still another prize on the rotation???

No, this is the last prize and quest 75 is the final quest. There was a timing error on Beta when the event was released. It had the final day of the event only lasting 9 hours, so to fix it, rather than just adding the missing 15 hours, they added an extra day. Beta did get an extra 45 ingredients because of the extra time, so we may get that on Live too.

@Darielle I have dealt with this kind of mini-game in other mobile games, so I am cool with it. Plus, the word is that the 16-prize scratch ticket system is back again for the Winter event. Now wouldn't you rather have this system than that one?

 

[tiG23]

i got lucky the first few days, bought several of the 420 packs, then it started taking too long, so went down to next pack, by the time the dailies came, I was buying candles only. I have a lvl 9 hut and more than half of the new buildings. didn't spend any money, had a great time. Not bad for a newb.

 

[hvariidh gwendrot]

two people with seven cities have six witch's hut at stage ten and one at stage nine .. most of the 6 worlds members will be at stage 10 by end of FA but not all and enough not finishing to notice .. "lost items" rewards seemed of a lesser quality which seems to be a trend, also the waiting to have enough to buy the 420 packs, people sit around 3 to 4 days waiting to advance while clearing witch scat at the outskirts of our cites, what's that all about ?

 

[zodiphd]

The one positive feedback is the event items found around the edges of the city are easier to see.

Otherwise, not a fan of this event and the way Inno has been leaning towards making things harder for players to progress unless they spend real $. Remember the requirement to have workshops and mfg at current chapter levels, and how angry that made players? Well, asking for amounts of productions that basically equal that requirement is just as cruel, especially for those who just open a new chapter and haven't gotten to the techs to upgrade their buildings (happened to me in Beta); so it took over a day to complete that 1 task, multiple times. Oh wait, slowing players down is another tactic Inno likes to employ.

The more complicated event structure takes the fun out of playing. It took a couple of days, watching a video, and asking questions from other Beta players to understand what was being asked and how to play the event. For those of us who have never had any experience with this type of event, it was extremely confusing to even begin playing, wasted a bunch of light items. Added atop the convoluted chapter requirements that grow exponentially in the later chapters (345k of a decaying sentient good for a tech that take a couple of weeks of dedicated daily play to acquire) is just ridiculous. The event buildings are barely worth the effort to spend event items to take a chance (5%+) at winning. And of course the event buildings that are kind of worth it have given me the worst % and RNG chance for winning. (I'd love to be able to save up event items to actually spend them on a reward I really want, rather than be given a low % to spend a high # of event items to gamble getting it.) Then there's the event structure that actually prevents players from reaching the full 10 event building evolutions, and that just screams insanity with a twist of cruelty.

It comes down to this: This is a game. I want to have relaxing fun playing a game. The structure of this game is morphing into something that takes a lot more work and real $ to progress. My satisfaction with the game has plummeted. My trust in the devs has evaporated. Note: I'm in chapter 15, so I've been playing for years and not liking where and how the devs are evolving the game.

 

[SoggyShorts]

asking for amounts of productions that basically equal that requirement is just as cruel, especially for those who just open a new chapter and haven't gotten to the techs to upgrade their buildings (happened to me in Beta); so it took over a day to complete that 1 task, multiple times. Oh wait, slowing players down is another tactic Inno likes to employ.

The 1 per day was the same for many advanced players too, not just new cities or those just entering a chapter. Inno slowing down players so that they can't finish the 21-30 day events in 3-4 days makes perfect sense, and this is coming from the guy who loved writing walkthrough guides on how to finish them in 24h.

The more complicated event structure takes the fun out of playing.

I get that from a casual perspective or from a new player, but I find it surprising from those who've been here for a while. I mean after the first few times mindlessly clicking on 100+ chests for your daily prize of choice gets a little stale.

Added atop the convoluted chapter requirements that grow exponentially in the later chapters (345k of a decaying sentient good for a tech that take a couple of weeks of dedicated daily play to acquire) is just ridiculous.

The key here for sure is teleport spells. I came into chapter 15 with 1 level 24 T6 building, looked at the tech costs, and immediately began work on 5 more. With 6xT6 I'm flying through the techs as fast as I can get KP now. Using teleports means that the overproduction isn't permanent and I can pop those factories back in the bag to pull my others back out when I'm done with CH 15.

Then there's the event structure that actually prevents players from reaching the full 10 event building evolutions, and that just screams insanity with a twist of cruelty.

I found the opposite. In other events (despite picking the best possible chests) I needed the FA artifacts to evolve my building to 10, and in this event not only did every one of my cities get 9 artifacts, they also got a second building and are tantalizingly close to one more artifact.
On top of that, I got 9,9, and 8 dailies which considering I didn't spend a single extra light item to get them and focused 100% on cats is pretty solid.

-------------------------------------------------------
I really think that the majority of the negative feedback in this thread stems from the learning curve of the new format.
Almost all complaints are from those who've never seen the fog game before and consequently wasted a lot of resources figuring it out which obviously led to worse results. Once the strategy is learned and a few efficiency tricks are incorporated, the results drastically improve and I hope Inno keeps adding more interactive events like this rather than the zombie clickfests of the past.

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

...they can't finish the 21-30 day events in 3-4 days...

Sure can, still. I did all the regular quests for this event in 7 hours (posted earlier in this thread). Did use some timeboosters on goods quests, but in amounts that most active players probably won't really notice. I am pretty sure I am not alone in this.

 

[SoggyShorts]

Sure can, still. I did all the regular quests for this event in 7 hours (posted earlier in this thread). Did use some timeboosters on goods quests, but in amounts that most active players probably won't really notice. I am pretty sure I am not alone in this.

Sorry, edit:

so that they can't don't all easily finish the 21-30 day events in 3-4 days makes perfect sense

Also, you didn't finish all quests, just the ones that weren't time-released which is a huge part of inno trying to keep us engaged daily rather than taking 3 weeks off after completing the event on the first day which is the point.
It's not "slowing us down" because inno thinks it's funny or w/e motive is assigned to it it's constant, regular engagement that's the goal.
You can't spend diamonds when you aren't online.

 

[Aritra]

I really think that the majority of the negative feedback in this thread stems from the learning curve of the new format.
Almost all complaints are from those who've never seen the fog game before and consequently wasted a lot of resources figuring it out which obviously led to worse results. Once the strategy is learned and a few efficiency tricks are incorporated, the results drastically improve and I hope Inno keeps adding more interactive events like this rather than the zombie clickfests of the past.

I think that this point is key. I do appreciate the intent to increase engagement over "zombie clickfests" (though, I'm still new enough that I don't mind those). I hope they can find some balance to keep this goal but reduce the steepness of the curve. This particular learning curve was unfortunately quite steep for a significant number of participants and this potential learning experience will hopefully aid players to do better next time. However, the problem will still remain for the new crop of players who join between now and then. This kind of frustration could be quite discouraging, especially those not yet invested in the game (and I'm not referring to money). Alternatively, those newbies won't know the difference, will they? Unless they come to the forum and read these threads or their fellows tell them, they will believe this is just the way it is: a challenge that very well might yield disappointing results the first event or two.

Taking an event or two to get a handle on it is likely common to some degree, or at least I suspect so when I project my own experience. I remember it took me a couple events to really develop some strategy regarding quest fulfillment. My first event, I was so confused and didn't quite realize what was happening until it was too late to get anywhere (it was running when I joined, or very soon after so I was still getting a handle on building and basic quests, etc, so I didn't understand fully the significance of the stuff falling to the outskirts or the additional quest box). At the next event, I knew what to do but had no efficiency so didn't get far. The next couple were a little better than the last. This time I was ready and was confident I would get level 10 for the first time, but the new format changed the game I was prepared to play so I didn't achieve what I hoped. Thanks to the beta list, though, this is the furthest I've accomplished (quest 74/75, not bothering with 75 because it won't result in an artifact so not worth the effort; unless someone assures me that it will, even though it doesn't say so, then I'll try to squeeze it out before time runs out).

In the end, it looks like I'll be finishing with a level 7 hut, but I feel like I missed out on getting further. I acquired nearly all of the potential currency, but it comes down to mismanagement of lights. I believe my strategy through the fog wasn't bad, though I know it could have been better. It is discouraging to feel helpless against the waste of those precious resources (ingredients/lights) while searching so desperately for those d**n cats.

 

[Ananayel]

Like I said elsewhere, I appreciate the effort to change it up, and I liked the theme and story. But this was so frustrating. I got the lowest number of artifacts out of all the events I've done, and the fewest of the buildings I wanted. I didn't even try to get the instant daily prizes. The lights cost far too much (I bought two of the 420 bundles, spent them all, and still didn't get what I was trying for. I felt as though I had to get each of the prize chances as I stumbled across it (even if it was only a small % chance of getting the daily prize) because I had no way to know when or if I would expose another one. I would like these buildings to be offered again. I won't be able to get the additional artifacts in an FA because my FS is quite busy with real life these days, so that won't work. Quite disappointed,

I would like for the earliest evolving buildings to be reoffered, so the people who are new to the game have a chance to get them, and those who are short on the artifacts have a chance to collect more. Using up artifacts for one building in the MA to build different ones is really not that helpful.

 

[Darielle]

Well, I just spent the last event currency on candles to go through the mist randomly to see if I can see anything .... anything at all ... to get with them. I got zip, zero, zilch. Not a single thing made visible except a cat that wouldn't get me anything because I needed too many, so I didn't waste a candle on it. Tell me, has there EVER been an event in the history of Elvenar where you can spend 110 event currency and get NOTHING, not even a single ensorcelment spell? I can't remember that ever happening before. But I guess that's fitting. This event has been pretty much a bust, except for the two headless buildings that gave me pop/culture. I like those. It wasn't a total bust, but this was sure an appropriate ending to the most sucky event I've ever played. Sorry, but I'm bummed I stayed up past midnight to get that last daily prize and squeeze out everything I could from this, just to get zip.

 

[Darielle]

And by the way, I don't appreciate the people who say "well, if you just learned some strategies, you wouldn't have that problem. You must not know how to play." Yes, I do know how to play, and I have studied the videos and the strategies. When nothing appears, there's simply nothing you can do. It's frustrating not only to have bad luck, but THEN to be told it's your own fault. How rude!

I'm sleepy. G'nite all.

Morning edit: That wasn't directed at anyone, just mad at the whole world last night. Peace.

 

[BrinDarby]

Just finished, I'm with @Darielle , worst event played so far. I believe just a couple
of tweaks would make this event a great event structure......

1) each fog tile should be 1 of 3 things , a cat .. a reward .. a blank tile.
when a reward tile is clicked you then get a choice of 3 chests, so you can
have some control over what you want.... basically which strategy ur after....
( going for evolves , going for daily prizes, or going for more event currency )

2) if #1 is used, use a system where when you earn a cat, yes you get 1 toword
GP, but its also add'd into a pool for apply'n when you get a reward chest, so you
can apply 1-5 pts to increase the value of the 3 reward chest options u would get.
( so it mimicks the chests varry'n event currency to determine good/better/best chests.

3) Cap # of tries before daily prize is awarded.

4) if you're gonna sell diamons pkgs, and the event currency also has pkgs like 195/420
then perhaps just sell 100, 195, & 420 increments.

5) for future evolve events, consider switching to a universal evolve artifact. That can be
used for ANY evolve .... past/present/future.

6) perhaps a different system for GP progress, like having to clear every tile in the most
efficient manner, thus # tiles would be the metric ( would need different light pkgs tho ).
Or even revealing ( light'n up the fog ) in every tile, still metric would be # tiles.

All in all I did enjoy a new challange, but with NO control really over prizes and a clumbsy
way to record GP progress, I found this event very lacking on so many levels.

 

[The Unbeliever]

My one big complaint for this event is that the RNG was waaaaaaaay too swingy in it's distribution of items throughout the creepy forest...

ie: I'd go 1 full screen with getting 4-5 tools + 2-3 'chests' + 6-8+ kitty cats! Bonanza! And then I'd hit multiple screens with maybe 3 tools + 2-3 cats & 0 prizes chests.
More even distribution to remove the RNG ganking... in the FoE version they took this from, we're typically assured of averaging 5-8+ lightbulbs/whatever for the GP per screen, meaning that efficient use of tools allows an active player to really rake in the grand prizes. (obviously for the trade-off of fewer 'chest' items/daily prizes)

Now I'll admit that I did for the first time ever, spend some dias to combat how awful the RNG was in my human city.
It can really screw a player over if you get too many screens of narrow 1-2 tile wide/long 'maze' set-ups of the obstacles, and my human city was getting spanked hard by these awful obstacle set-ups...
Now helping my dad with his 5 cities, and being his first time playing this style of event, (I've played it 4 times now in FoE), he managed in his cities;
A-world: 9 artifacts + Lv1 building
W-world: 9 artifacts
F-world: 10 cats short of 9th artifact
S-world: 3 cats short of 9th artifact
C-world: 9 artifacts

Also, please Elvenar devs, give us the creepy toys/spell books with the bonus 'mini quest' lines!!
Adding these in with the small handfuls of added event currency, (5 currencies x4 quests = +20 currency per toy/book), and a small 'quest reward' for finishing (ie: a pet food/small deco/3 pack of relics/5% coin or supply instants/etc types rewards... with the rarest ones offering an older Halloween themed building), will help especially new players to gain enough tools to at least get to Lv9 if they're good and active.


...now if only we could get the St. Patty's event format here for our yearly Carnival event.

 

[nightrider1]

general fellowship opinion was BLAH