Winter Magic Event Feedback

[qaccy]

I'm a bit ashamed of myself for not noticing sooner just how underwhelming the Gingerbread Mansion is. To me, it's basically a Mermaid's Paradise that produces in 48 hours instead of 24. Yes, it does produce T2 goods instead of T1, but so does Kirit from 2018's Harvest Festival. Kirit may be part of a set and overall takes up more space in the city, but it also doesn't require 9 upgrades to go into it to achieve that production.

Perhaps this is just me (finally?) realizing that evolving buildings only seem to be good when they're pets because the feeding bonuses are usually nice. The other effects tend to be quite underwhelming compared to set buildings we used to receive.

As for the event itself, yeah, not minding it at all. It's still free stuff while not changing my routine.

 

[DeletedUser12171]

today I got to experience the pure garbage-ness of the hidden prize system. I blew close to 800 ribbons opening almost every box in one shuffle round, without getting to another shuffle. so I got stuck at that round, with no ribbons to go, and winning all the nonsense prizes

I will not play any future events with this garbage system. probably not the game itself as well, in the near future.

 

[The Unbeliever]

I'm a bit ashamed of myself for not noticing sooner just how underwhelming the Gingerbread Mansion is. To me, it's basically a Mermaid's Paradise that produces in 48 hours instead of 24. Yes, it does produce T2 goods instead of T1, but so does Kirit from 2018's Harvest Festival. Kirit may be part of a set and overall takes up more space in the city, but it also doesn't require 9 upgrades to go into it to achieve that production.

Perhaps this is just me (finally?) realizing that evolving buildings only seem to be good when they're pets because the feeding bonuses are usually nice. The other effects tend to be quite underwhelming compared to set buildings we used to receive.

As for the event itself, yeah, not minding it at all. It's still free stuff while not changing my routine.

Nope, rather the problem is that the Elvenar team still think they can "balance" a game where you have players who've been around for 3-4+ YEARS up to fresh-faced noobs who sign up yesterday, and still make things "fair" across the board for absolutely everyone.

There is no balance in this game, nor is there even an actual need to care at all about game balance, since there's no PvP aspects!

Ranking points are a complete joke.
No one who signs up today should ever think they even *should* be able to catch up to players who have been around since week 1 of the game.
The actual way to 'balance' things out is to just keep cranking out the over powered event grand prizes. (ie: if everything is Brown Bear/Red or Blue Chocobo levels of power, then we'd finally see some ability for newer players to catch up a bit!)

As it is, we're now getting to point where especially for Fellowship membership, few if any in the top 50+ will take on newer players if they were unlucky enough to miss out on the 1 or 2 insane events, (ie: Phoenix + Autumn), as they're simply too much of a drag on the rest of the group.
So now because of pointless knee-jerking from the devs, we have not only a bunch of angry/disappointed players, but we're also now creating artificial 'Haves' vs. 'Have Not' to boot. >.<

 

[Risen Malchiah]

Few if any in the top 50+ will take on newer players if they were unlucky enough to miss out on the 1 or 2 insane events, (ie: Phoenix + Autumn), as they're simply too much of a drag on the rest of the group.
So now because of pointless knee-jerking from the devs, we have not only a bunch of angry/disappointed players, but we're also now creating artificial 'Haves' vs. 'Have Not' to boot. >.<

While I haven't turned anyone away for *not* having a Fire Phoenix or Brown Bear, I admit I have accepted someone *because* the person had a Fire Phoenix. And now with the hope of getting anywhere in the multiplayer Spire, having players with fully evolved pet buildings is a massive bonus to a fellowship.

I'm hoping beyond hope that the next Phoenix event will provide more Phoenix artifacts so more players can evolve their buildings (and possibly a 4th Phoenix for those who already have them).

 

[qaccy]

@Risen Malchiah I dunno about your hopes. If Inno provides artifacts, that's inevitably going to lead to players having artifacts they can't use. If they provide phoenixes to use the artifacts on, that breaks the balance they tried to create by limiting players in how many phoenixes they're able to have (unless they pay a king's ransom to obtain more). Besides, Inno to date hasn't really re-released grand prizes with the exception of some of the more underwhelming population and/or culture prizes from early events. Much like the set buildings we were obtaining from events in 2018, I think it's unlikely that the evolving buildings from 2019 will see rereleases in 2020. We're likely to either receive new ones (with their own unique artifacts), or some other new type of building.

 

[DeletedUser24458]

Frankly, I was looking forward to being banned. The event deserved every word I used in the deleted message.

Glad you are still here

Nope, rather the problem is that the Elvenar team still think they can "balance" a game where you have players who've been around for 3-4+ YEARS up to fresh-faced noobs who sign up yesterday, and still make things "fair" across the board for absolutely everyone.

There is no balance in this game, nor is there even an actual need to care at all about game balance, since there's no PvP aspects!

i do not know why game developers still don't get this concept.

 

[DeletedUser2870]

Exactly. I don't think anyone at Inno would have had any issues with diamond players acquiring multiple top prizes and paying excessively in the process. But instead, a ton of F2P players got so much stuff without paying that actual diamond spenders found it is hard to impossible to compete with such players. And that's just not a good business, hence all the changes that ensued. Basically, they want to construct a system where 1 fully evolved building is doable for free, but that's about it. Paying customers should be able to get more - for a price.

If paying customers should get more (I'm in favor of that btw) they as Dev team have screwed up majorly in several ways.
- too many of the eventbuildings available, mostly because there simply are too many events
- too many of the eventbuildings are outperforming even the premium buildings that are on the techtree, so why would anyone keep buying those?
- too many changes to 'balance' stuff that wouldn't need to be balanced it they had thought it through properly (and/or actually listened to feedback on beta)
- no understanding of the fact that if one leaves open giant loopholes players will find them and exploit them and apparently not enough common sense to come up with a decent answer to stop that except pounding everyone into the dust.

 

[Ashrem]

I dunno about your hopes. If Inno provides artifacts, that's inevitably going to lead to players having artifacts they can't use. If they provide phoenixes to use the artifacts on, that breaks the balance they tried to create by limiting players in how many phoenixes they're able to have (unless they pay a king's ransom to obtain more). Besides, Inno to date hasn't really re-released grand prizes with the exception of some of the more underwhelming population and/or culture prizes from early events. Much like the set buildings we were obtaining from events in 2018, I think it's unlikely that the evolving buildings from 2019 will see rereleases in 2020. We're likely to either receive new ones (with their own unique artifacts), or some other new type of building.

So instead, anyone who joined after the end of the spring event last year, but before the next fellowship adventure, has and artifiact they can't use, unless they craft a 4x4 building that they can only raise to level 2, and anyone who came after that will see a tempting 4x4 building in their crafting queue every few weeks only to discover that they will never be able to raise it from level 1.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

So instead, anyone who joined after the end of the spring event last year, but before the next fellowship adventure, has and artifiact they can't use, unless they craft a 4x4 building that they can only raise to level 2, and anyone who came after that will see a tempting 4x4 building in their crafting queue every few weeks only to discover that they will never be able to raise it from level 1.

Or they could have done what Inno secretly wanted and bought three of those 3-artifact packs on Black Friday for just $75 each. And if a few of the newer whales in the game did not do just that, I would be shocked. lol

 

[qaccy]

So instead, anyone who joined after the end of the spring event last year, but before the next fellowship adventure, has and artifiact they can't use, unless they craft a 4x4 building that they can only raise to level 2, and anyone who came after that will see a tempting 4x4 building in their crafting queue every few weeks only to discover that they will never be able to raise it from level 1.

I'd overlooked the FA. I'd also overlooked that artifacts can simply be disenchanted so they have 'value' in that sense to players who happen to obtain them without a building to use them on. Kinda similar to how blueprints can be turned into RR spells through crafting, for those who don't have any magic buildings to use them on (or otherwise can't obtain any).

However, doesn't really change what I said regarding events. That being, Inno doesn't really do re-releases for event grand prizes, at least not the 'good' ones. That's why I don't think it's likely we'll be seeing the original three Phoenixes in any future event, just like how we didn't see the previous year's set buildings in this one.

 

[Pheryll]

However, doesn't really change what I said regarding events. That being, Inno doesn't really do re-releases for event grand prizes, at least not the 'good' ones. That's why I don't think it's likely we'll be seeing the original three Phoenixes in any future event, just like how we didn't see the previous year's set buildings in this one.

I would wait till the spring before making such a claim. There is always something to do with phoenixes at that time. And since we have not yet let a full year pass, it is hard to say anything about whether evolving buildings will come back. Set buildings have never come back, but the major grand prizes before sets have made a recent debut. Also even if these evolving buildings do not, that still allows the possibility that other evolving buildings sharing the same artifacts would appear.

 

[DeletedUser2870]

So instead, anyone who joined after the end of the spring event last year, but before the next fellowship adventure, has and artifiact they can't use, unless they craft a 4x4 building that they can only raise to level 2, and anyone who came after that will see a tempting 4x4 building in their crafting queue every few weeks only to discover that they will never be able to raise it from level 1.

Yes, that's something that bugs me. In several of my testcities I see the damn mermaids paradise pass by every time I open the crafting screen, but those I never used in that event, so it's useless to craft there. In my main city I have 9 additional evolving instants for that building, but I've NEVER seen it pass by in the crafting yet. Same with the bears. I have 4 evolving instants for those, but never seen the brown bear pass by either in the crafting.

So what gives? either the buildings are on the list and one should be able to craft them and they need to be shown at times, or they need to be taken off. It's beyond me why they are there anyway since there is no way to get those evolving instants. If those can be crafted I sure as heck never seen any of them pass by yet either.

 

[Pheryll]

Yes, that's something that bugs me. In several of my testcities I see the damn mermaids paradise pass by every time I open the crafting screen, but those I never used in that event, so it's useless to craft there. In my main city I have 9 additional evolving instants for that building, but I've NEVER seen it pass by in the crafting yet. Same with the bears. I have 4 evolving instants for those, but never seen the brown bear pass by either in the crafting.

Not sure if you are factoring this in, but if you have an instance of an evolving building in either your city or your inventory, then it is removed from the crafting menu until that evolving building is sold or disenchanted.

 

[The Unbeliever]

...I'm hoping beyond hope that the next Phoenix event will provide more Phoenix artifacts so more players can evolve their buildings (and possibly a 4th Phoenix for those who already have them).

"Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment."

 

[DeletedUser2870]

Not sure if you are factoring this in, but if you have an instance of an evolving building in either your city or your inventory, then it is removed from the crafting menu until that evolving building is sold or disenchanted.

So if I have the instants, I won't get the buildings anymore, so the instants are useless.
But if I don't have the instants I will see the building appear in the crafting table, which is useless without the instants.
Well, that must make sense to the elvenar dev team. It pretty much means I have yet another whole bunch of useless instants in my inventory. Which I don't want to disenchant because I sure as hell don't want to see those buildings appear without the instants. Not to mention I don't want to have them slot up the already abysmally low chances of seeing the stuff I do want to craft.

 

[Risen Malchiah]

No @Dhurrin, you can have the artifacts. It's just the building itself that is only craftable if you don't currently own one. Currently it is not possible to get more than 1 of each evolving building unless obtained during the event itself.

 

[mephalia39]

Disappointed in the event. Thought there would be some nicer buildings and more things to help with pop/culture. Very hard to get ribbons and when there is something you actually would like.... woof out pops the reshuffle when you are finally close. By then your ribbons are gone and you have been stuck repeating supplies 5 of 7 times and dont have timers or catalysts,( vision vapor is something I also have been stuck on as opposed to scouting which takes way too long) or wish to waste what timers you do have left. I doubt I will get 10 evolves as Im only at 6 now and have played multiple times a day.. Since I have started this game, it has become much more difficult to complete or get rewards from these events. I had assumed that as my city grew, I would be able to actually finally complete one. But alas, this is not so. The only ones I have with 10 evolves were achieved the fs adventures... not the ones with quest line.. to the best of my knowledge. And those I dont have out because of space issues I truly feel you should listen to your players or the changes could eventually cost you most of your players and $$. Is it that bad to reward your players once a year with something truly nice.. to keep them playing and interested? What happened to the spirit of giving.. which is what Christmas is all about.

 

[mucksterme]

No @Dhurrin, you can have the artifacts. It's just the building itself that is only craftable if you don't currently own one. Currently it is not possible to get more than 1 of each evolving building unless obtained during the event itself.

which is why i'm glad i got a second building this time
that way when i tear down the one i placed a new one won't steal needed crafting slots

 

[The Unbeliever]

If the main issue Inno is taking offense with is 'players winning too many grand prizes', then why not just a system like;
a) *after* acquiring 1 'main prize' building + 9 evolutions, the prize system then goes;
Lv1 building -> 'other prize' -> 'other prize' -> 'evolution' -> 'other prize' -> 'other prize' -> evolution', etc, etc...

OR

b) *after* acquiring 1 'main' prize building + 9 evolutions, the prize system stays the same rotation, BUT! requires 40 feathers/stardust/bricks/whatever to obtain a grand prize.
Once a second Lv1 building + 9 evolutions are gained, then it becomes 60 feathers/stardust/bricks/whatever to win a grand prize, etc, etc...

Inno can even water down slightly the 'grand prize' rotation buildings by throwing in things like;
- 50 kp (or even 5x 10kp instants)
- 2x2/3x3 culture building
- 10x CC's
- Teleport spell
...and so on, if they're getting fed up with floods of WW's and/or the expiring production buildings.


Either of those systems would still keep a 2nd+ 'main prize' attainable/attractive, especially to the big diamond spenders, but at least it doubles up or more the effort required, and would (likely) lead to far fewer instances of non-diamond spenders especially being able to walk away with 1000's of hours of time instants and 3-4+ 'main' grand prize buildings.

 

[DeletedUser4194]

Thank you so much for these event mechanic suggestions with their analyses, we will forward them to the team. Please keep them coming