Summer Mermaids Event feedback

[kctanzen]

Now, it could be because I'm a stop and light the roses on fire to delight in watching them burn type of person, but I see a ton of potential in the new questing design. There must be a removal, modification, or additional feature (or several) made to eliminate players getting slapped in the face with obstacles they can't budge, though. This significant an issue should have never been exposed to the light of day on the live servers in the first place. That said, kicking the chintzy, wrap up all quests in a couple days nonsense to the curb is still a step in the right direction of creating a balanced event, where players don't just blow through the content and return to business as usual in the shortest time possible (although I do understand that there are many who want that, and will continue to disagree with them).

This event has effectively stalled my city growth for a month, unless I choose not to help my city by getting all the instants I can snag up, along with a few dailies I hope to add to my collection, I don't have the space to finish out my elemental settlement and have enough small factories / workshops to make any reasonable progress toward the quests, with the random factor chucked in there.

 

[Risen Malchiah]

The random aspect of the event is interesting, but I recognize that my place at the end of the tech tree affords me the luxury of being prepared with multiples of everything. For anyone in the middle of a chapter, I suspect they'd find this event really frustrating.

Major takeaways:

1. Some quests are simply not possible for some people. New players can not progress very far due to the lack of relics, and possibly don't even have a Magic Academy yet. Make all quests scale by chapter. No MA = No quests involving spell fragments or vision vapor. Perhaps a Constructs player might be asked to buy 30 KP while a player in chapter 1 might only be asked to buy 2 KP.

2. In prior events, there was a trend to add more alternative quest completion options and the feedback was very positive. This event largely did away with that trend. Make more quests with OR options. (Especially when it involves expanding on the world map which is difficult for people either due to the orc barrier or ultra-long scout times. Yes, you could argue this is the player's fault, but when the game encourages players to continue completing provinces, this is bound to be an issue for the ill-informed.)

3. Some quests are particularly brutal. Players between guest race chapters can compensate by having extra factories running 2-day cycles, but many players can't. And since the quests are random, one player might get this quest just once while other players may get this quest repeatedly. Limit the repetition of particularly time-consuming quests.

4. I've mentioned how the storyline in recent events often didn't match the quests (like needing steel for a quest to get "fabric that's gentle on the skin" ). Since the quests were random this time, I expected the story might be more generic.... but I didn't expect there to be nothing at all. No quest dialogue of any kind? It's like you're not even trying any more. If you want something truly random yet follows a story that's unique and interesting, try Branching questlines with different tasks and multiple endings based on the player's choices. That would be truly dynamic! There was a thread about this concept ages ago in the feedback forum, so perhaps it's worth a revisit.

5. Thanks for the time boosters. Always my favorite.

 

[Socrates28]

I think that's also an interesting point. I'm at about half that, but it does highlight why I did make the suggestion that the quests be weighted by a different metric than how far or how many quests you have done for the value of currency you collect.
What would you do with a second fully evolved one?
Is the intent for players in chapter 10 and above who've set up and dedicated space for events to be able to gain 2 or 3 fully evolved prizes?

@Lyleth Just to answer your question I have no intention of putting out another Mermaid's Paradise. I only put it out because it was suggested that the quest line would only turn over if it was put out and fully evolved. I was just attempting to get out of the rut I am in. So far that turnover has not happened (now one day after setup and evolution). I am still on 64 coral quests.
I was going to wait until I had more room to put it out in the future but a little desperation got the better fo me and I did put it out now after deleting buildings to make room for it. No sadness in that as I was planning on deleting them anyway.

 

[Socrates28]

I LOVE THIS EVENT!!!! Well before you haters hate.....yah I deserve pitchforks for that, hear me out.This event has had what I've seen to be a record amount of time skips. I'm not shooting for the evolving building, I personally saw it as an attack on my Golden birdy, I'm shooting for those sweety and lovely time skips. Have I said how much I LOVE time skips? *starts frothing with joy*

Yes @NormalMoon I love those time boosts as well and the Portal Profits as well.

 

[Socrates28]

Now, it could be because I'm a stop and light the roses on fire to delight in watching them burn type of person, but I see a ton of potential in the new questing design. There must be a removal, modification, or additional feature (or several) made to eliminate players getting slapped in the face with obstacles they can't budge, though. This significant an issue should have never been exposed to the light of day on the live servers in the first place. That said, kicking the chintzy, wrap up all quests in a couple days nonsense to the curb is still a step in the right direction of creating a balanced event, where players don't just blow through the content and return to business as usual in the shortest time possible (although I do understand that there are many who want that, and will continue to disagree with them).

As I have disagreed in the past with my friend @Nonchalant Antipathy on the idea of pre-planning I will also heartily agree with him here.
The randomness of the quests causes me to think of different ways to approach meeting the quests ahead of time. It forces me to move from thinking like I was playing Tic-Tac-Toe to like I was playing chess. Yes space and population play into that calculation while at the same time it forces me out of the rut of just thinking of getting to the end of a known quest line and going back to business as usual, which is nice and at the same time just "the same."
In the end I come down on the side of liking the challenge and therefore the event.

 

[Arayla]

@Lyleth ... it was suggested that the quest line would only turn over if it was put out and fully evolved. I was just attempting to get out of the rut I am in. So far that turnover has not happened (now one day after setup and evolution). I am still on 64 coral quests.

The quests are never-ending using the 64 coral set repeatedly. It will not ever go back to the easier quests.

 

[Deleted User - 312108]

As I have disagreed in the past with my friend @Nonchalant Antipathy on the idea of pre-planning I will also heartily agree with him here.
The randomness of the quests causes me to think of different ways to approach meeting the quests ahead of time. It forces me to move from thinking like I was playing Tic-Tac-Toe to like I was playing chess. Yes space and population play into that calculation while at the same time it forces me out of the rut of just thinking of getting to the end of a known quest line and going back to business as usual, which is nice and at the same time just "the same."
In the end I come down on the side of liking the challenge and therefore the event.

So far I haven't had too many issues, but I do think you can be a little too at the mercy of RNG. I do think that limiting some of the expensive quests to unique status (aka, a given vision vapor or complete province quest only occurs once), weighting the currency given by the quests based on relative difficulty

For those who want steel (and human planks) T1 to be smaller - this is unlikely to happen and one of the reasons I would advocate to a gain t1 vs. a specific number of productions. For this event, the production runs have been relatively small. My preference is that they be kept in the 3-8 range as my human planks or steel factories I only require 4 to produce massive amounts of goods in chapter 6 and I don't think that changes in later chapters.

 

[Pheryll]

So far I haven't had too many issues, but I do think you can be a little too at the mercy of RNG. I do think that limiting some of the expensive quests to unique status (aka, a given vision vapor or complete province quest only occurs once), weighting the currency given by the quests based on relative difficulty

For those who want steel (and human planks) T1 to be smaller - this is unlikely to happen and one of the reasons I would advocate to a gain t1 vs. a specific number of productions. For this event, the production runs have been relatively small. My preference is that they be kept in the 3-8 range as my human planks or steel factories I only require 4 to produce massive amounts of goods in chapter 6 and I don't think that changes in later chapters.

Later chapters tend to stockpile goods; and this trivializes quantity quests as the trader just gets the large back and forth trades.

 

[DeletedUser10030]

Don't like the new format at all. I don't have endless time during the day - I work full time. Not being able to plan ahead severely limits the progress I can make. In addition having finished all the Guest Races, I have no buildings available to upgrade or Technologies to research. So for me - this quest is a non starter. Quest like this will only make it easier for me to stop playing this game.

 

[T6583]

I think the concept of endless, random event quests is wonderful. I also feel that it was very poorly implemented in this event.

I 100% agree with this statement.

 

[Deleted User - 312108]

@Pheryll Appreciate the insight! I think some combination of the two would be reasonable - or if they ever do scale by chapter (or race & boosted) there would hopefully be some consideration for what is doable for lower level players as well as upper level players. I know even at upper levels space can be an issue, though I do see more event farms of t1 & workshops with higher level when I visit. Plus having both adds variety! It's rather like having the big supplies and supply production run quests.

 

[Socrates28]

The quests are never-ending using the 64 coral set repeatedly. It will not ever go back to the easier quests.

@arayla Thank you.

 

[T6583]

Yep finally got unstuck in my smaller city this morning. Had been stuck on the 42 coral quest of upgrade 2 buildings to lvl 14 or higher or reseach 1 tech. Was in a tech lock with limited space. Finally got what I needed to do the tech and sell by guest race buildings. Now have a shanty town set up due to the room and started upgrading 2 marble manu's for similar quests. 5 quests after I finish the one that I was stuck on guess what I got again. Upgrade 2 buildings to lvl 14 or higher or research 1 tech. I've got my manu's at lvl 6 so far. Looks like I get to sit and wait again. Would love to make sure I had a decent amount of corals for some of the daily's I'd like but looks like it might not happen and I'll miss out unless I get extremely lucky with the random chests. This is my problem with the random quests. This is just horrible luck right now and I'm not even close to the ones that are really back. I was stuck for almost a week and now I'm basically right back where I was for another 24 hrs or so while I wait to either gain 115 kp to unlock my advance scouts or I get my manu's upgraded to the point where I can complete the quest. There has to be a better way to do the random quests.

 

[DeletedUser20951]

Yes space and population play into that calculation while at the same time it forces me out of the rut of just thinking of getting to the end of a known quest line and going back to business as usual, which is nice and at the same time just "the same."

I think this is a more succinct way of stating what I am trying to convey (never completely sure, not with how I tend to figure stuff out as I type it XD), which is that we should have to give some adaptive thought to the quests throughout the entire duration of the events, thus making them actual events, and I also agree (this is a record for us on agreement!) that there are limitations as to how 'different' plugging in the quests can be, given the constraints of the game, itself.

 

[Socrates28]

@Nonchalant Antipathy if we do not watch out we could agree even more! Horror of horrors! (Not really!)
It is just that I do not have your eloquence! Which I enjoy by the way even when we do not agree.

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

Was in a tech lock with limited space.

Well, that's one reason not to get into tech lock in the first place Almost a week between techs? This sounds way too long.

 

[T6583]

Well, that's one reason not to get into tech lock in the first place Almost a week between techs? This sounds way too long.

Agreed. I admitted in a previous post that I had made a mistake in calculating how long it would take me. I was way off on guest race goods and it just took me entirely too long to produce them due to the space restrictions. I'm now just more annoyed that I got that same quest so soon again. It's like I didn't even get a chance to correct my mistake to begin with.

 

[Deleted User - 312108]

Well, that's one reason not to get into tech lock in the first place Almost a week between techs? This sounds way too long.

Unless you have lots of space it's easy to get tech locked. I sit at it with dwarves and use the Portal Profits when I have my portal upgraded to 4 and wait for the silly quests to come around and unlock myself I also try to save some easy upgrades like residences. But there are things I get blocked on. *shrugs*
@T6583 2 weeks to go, so hopefully plenty of time

I was thinking about the quest structure - most of us like the OR option quests as it usually gives something viable to do.
What about having the 'quest' be a selection of 5 or 6 quests of about the same difficulty and you have to complete 3 of them to earn the reward.

So your easy quest selection might be:
Give NH 3 times
Use an Enchant
Use Petfood
Gain 5 KP
Accept 3 trade offers
Place 3 trade offers

Medium quest selection:
T1 boosted 3 hour 4 times
Building upgrade 2-10
Workshop production 1 hour 7 times
Workshop production 3 hours 4 times
Gain 1 enchant
Solve 3 encounters/12 tourney encounters

Hard/long
Workshop production 1 day - 4 times
T1 Boosted 1 day - 4 times
Complete 1 province or 3 tourney provinces
Building upgrade 11-15
Gain copious amounts of gold or supplies

Costly - so rare (goods or time)
Gain CC
Gain 100 Spell Fragments
Buy KP
Gain VV
Complete Research
Scout
T1 2-day build
Building upgrades 16+

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I was stuck for almost a week and now I'm basically right back where I was for another 24 hrs or so while I wait to either gain 115 kp to unlock my advance scouts or I get my manu's upgraded to the point where I can complete the quest. There has to be a better way to do the random quests.

Get that Advanced Scouts research done as quickly as you can, because then you will be officially in the next chapter and all buildings you win after that will get the new chapter stats instead of the stats for your current chapter.

 

[DeletedUser20951]

if we do not watch out we could agree even more! Horror of horrors!

And lose my contrarian status?! Nooooooo!!! I'm the sharpest dim-bulb rebel! The sharpest and specialest, hands down. *roars regally* THAT IS ME! ...Personified.

(this translates into, "Thank you")