So, trying to codify my feelings regarding this event.
For a little background, I am by profession an IT Tester, both back end and front end application. I have been involved in the development and testing process for more than a decade. This will be pertinent because I do have experience to back up my comments.
Please understand, I very much enjoy Elvenar, I would not be so vocal if I did not. I am highly ambivalent regarding InnoGames and their development team.
I think the concept of endless, random event quests is wonderful. I also feel that it was very poorly implemented in this event.
However, the more disturbing implications to me are what it reveals regarding the development process.
The 54 currency quest that asks for 4 t-1 1day productions but requires 7 is an actual bug. It is not a text error, but a defect because it has a negative impact to the user experience. This is also a bug that should have been caught and corrected during a unit test (unit testing is a test that the devs do as a quick check on the code they have written.)
The greater worry is that this event leaves me unsure if IG does any internal unit let alone alpha and beta testing.
We've commented regarding the various quests. The structure of the quests and the fact that they are geared for late game players, causes me to wonder if IG when they do internal testing simulates with cities at all levels rather than 'idealized' cities.
The quests requiring relics such as Gain CC, Gain Enchants (granted there are multiple ways of doing this), Gain Vision Vapor, Complete x encounters / x5 tourney encounters, complete x provinces strains lower level players. I am in chapter 6 and the recurring requests for vision vapor, CCs are eating my relics at an obscene rate. That impacts this event.
The other issue is that this is a continuing trend with past events and is likely to continue into future events. Players above chapter 8 & 9 may be able to comfortably due 10 provinces in a day, at chapter 6 and below we cannot. That means our relic accumulation is far more limited than upper level players.
The complete encounters and province quests can cause players to have far more provinces completed than they need to unlock the next chapter. This means that they cost a great deal more (if even able to do them with troops) for troops or goods. That lengthens the recovery time from the event and impacts player progression.
I will be interested to see as this event progresses how many players stop participating in it and if it is a higher rate than previous events.
Why I am bringing up the development process, I left in 2016 due to how the 1.0 release was implemented. This event indicates to me that the Elvenar teams development process has not matured in the past three years.
There should be an internal test that ideally simulates play at all levels so that events and changes can be weighed on the impact for players starting out as well as players in the late chapters.
Events should not move to the 'live' servers until they have completed in the 'beta' server. A week lag would be ideal to address any major bugs that negatively impact players. The lack of time between beta and the live servers means that corrections cannot be made prior to the live drop and could have unintended consequences.
Things I have advocated for in this event and previously that would help to address some of the event stress
1) Scalable Quests
The problematic ones here are the upgrade buildings & Complete Encounter quests. For the love of bunny rabbits, players below chapter 6 cannot upgrade buildings to 16 and they may be technology blocked for various reasons, but most especially due to lack of resources. Players in Chapter 3, 6, or 8 have a lot more difficulty completing 10 encounters or 50 tourney encounters than players in chapters 11 or 12. The gain supplies/gold quests scale, these ones should as well.
2) Expensive Quests
With endless, repeating quests, the vision vapor, spell fragments, combine CC, complete province, and complete encounter quests all become problematic IF they are repeated. These should be limited in occurrence and not on an endless repetition loop. Again, these are not necessarily problematic in any single event, but the culmination of them in continuing events means that eventually all players are likely going to have issues completing these quests for various reasons.
3) Blocked Progression
With no daily quests and no way to decline or expire a given quest, there is a higher likelihood of player frustration and quitting event participation. It could lead to greater dissatisfaction with the game and the player leaving.
4) Quest rewards
Really truly, reward based on cost and effort not on how many quests we have completed. Seriously, giving neighborly help even on the browser is not equivalent to producing 5 vision vapor or completing 4 encounters / 20 tourney encounters, they should not be valued the same. VV and encounters have a higher cost given that NH IS FREE.
Quest rewards come into play as the Elvenar team should have a relative idea what a casual (1/day, every other day) player would gain in the event, vs. a multiple x day player, vs. someone who's paying for the building and actively using boosts and diamonds to progress.
5) Chest rewards - Going KonMari in the 142 currency chest, KP and AW KP do not spark joy. I am not sure they spark joy for anyone. Throw them out and bring in RR, spring flower cage, CC... anything but KP, AW KP, Coin Rain, or Windfall.
The non-event things that contribute to my ambivalence
1) The fact that in 4 years, browser NH still has not been addressed. This was likely the #1 recurring request prior to the mobile app. It probably still would be if a good number of people didn't play both browser and moble
2) Autobattles - given that mobile can only do autobattle and there is no way to preview terrain - take out the terrain. It is extremely frustrating to be penalized for something I can't see and have no control over. If I am using appropriate units at an equivalent level, I should not be losing battles because there are terrain features I have no way of knowing about.
I do personally hate manual battles because they are very slow and clunky.
3) Trader - seriously remove the limitations for cross-tier trades so they can actually fluctuate to the player market value rather than have a false prop.
4) Warehouse trader - expand into cross-tier options & reduce the cost for goods being purchased within tier.
5) Map - players who are on the edge of the map need to be moved to active zones if they are checked. New players should be slotted into an active area and if they go inactive within 30 days they should be moved out within 60.
I do think Elvenar is a beautiful game and engaging to play. The update to the FA quest system re-invigorated it. I think there are ways to make the individual event quests less tedious and hopefully less frustrating.