Winter Magic Event Feedback

[Deleted User - 1599294]

If a player is really trying to gain all 10 Gingerbread house evolvers

@EarthbornIcarus, only 9 artifacts are needed to fully evolve the building. . .when I hit the "extended" questline that reduces the ribbons to 20, I had 9 artifacts and the "new" prize was a 2nd Gingerbread house followed by the opportunity to begin the quest for another 9 artifacts for that building. Since the quest was to build 3 Toolboxes, I stopped pursuing the quests.

 

[DeletedUser3468]

And that is why Inno wants to change this dynamic.

Creating a glut of powerful buildings that bypass the larger footprint requirements of normal population and culture buildings means that players do NOT have to purchase diamonds to get more land. Traders and manna sawmills work the same way. The footprint requirement is steeper for the normal buildings.

If you can make do with less land, then you do NOT need to purchase diamonds to buy land.

Simple business economics...

Simple business economics? Then what would you call doing something that angers the paying customers, those players that do buy diamonds? Sorry, but that is NOT a good business practice, simple or otherwise. That is what many of us are trying to get across to you (and Inno). If you annoy us enough, we stop buying and spend our money on a game where the developers and owners do NOT do things we've told them we hate. (or intensely dislike, if you want to put it in milder terms.) I have spent money here but won't any longer. Another game I play by another company just did something that majorly ticked off it's players/customers by ending the bonus awards for the current event a half day before the event officially ended. I won't be spending money there very soon unless they make it up to us somehow. On the other hand, my hubby plays yet another game where the developers not only listen to their players, but actively seek input and if something goes wrong, they make it up to the players, sometimes before some of the players are even aware there was a problem. (This resulted in hubby being surprised to find the equivalent of 1000 diamonds when he opened the game one day after the developers saw there was a problem with the game. How's that for customer service? Needless to say, he and many other players of that game are more than happy to spend money for extras on that game! Oh, and their artwork and animation is amazingly good!)

Sorry but good business practices trump simple business economics every time. If you want to keep your customer and keep them spending real money, you keep them happy! (or at least don't go out of your way to tick them off!)

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

Just completed my spreadsheet for the event. My average of bricks/hammer is 1.65. So either I was very unlucky AGAIN, or I'm on some kind of blacklist or I just get generally screwed. It's pretty much with every event that my results are way below average and I have had that experience over the last 2 years.

If you had a meaningful number of hammers (say, 100+), 1.65 average would be extremely low if all 3 outcomes are equally likely; I'd be pretty unhappy about that. Given that draw results are coming from a server, it is theoretically possible that probabilities are adjusted based on player profile, but I have no personal experience with that. Not in this particular case at least.

@MinMax Gamer
That extra click on the hammer makes it WAY more clicks than the system with the chests. But yes, recording everything takes time.

Not really (speaking of spending currency in total), at least not in my case. So in this event:
- opened 234 presents at 2 clicks each (select present / confirm reward)
- did 25 shuffles at 1 click each
- Converted 246 hammers at 2 clicks each (click hammer / confirm bricks)
- Confirmed 25 Grand Prizes at 1 click each

So almost exactly 1000 clicks.

In the last event, I opened 744 chests at 2 clicks each, so that's almost 1500 clicks right there (this doesn't even include GP confirmations).

Chests were just so much cheaper than presents in this event. Of course, I also didn't get as much as I did in the last event, but that's not a clicking issue.

 

[DeletedUser3468]

OK, just for the heck of it I decided to go to my 12 cities and list from oldest to youngest just where I finished in this event as far as the main prize is concerned. I don't actually have the building placed in every one of my cities - don't have the room in a couple but if I find I need the T2 goods, may put it up later.

So from oldest to youngest, by chapter (not world):
1: Chapter 12 - Level 5
2: Chapter 12 - Level 6
3: Chapter 12 - Level 9
4: Chapter 12 - Level 10
5: Chapter 12 - Level 9
6: Chapter 11 - Level 9
7: Chapter 10 - Level 8
8: Chapter 9 - Level 9
9: Chapter 9 - Level 8
10: Chapter 6 - Level 10
11: Chapter 4 - Level 7
12: Chapter 4 - Level 6

Not sure what this says since I worked just as hard at the event in all of the cities yet my oldest and most advanced city did the worst and I only made it to level 5 yet it's random enough that both another chapter 12 city and a city that's only in chapter 6 both managed to get as far as level 10 with the Gingerbread Mansion. Both the two oldest and the two newest of my cities did the worst which shows that it was a difficult event (at least for me) in the newer and older cities because of the type of quests I got in those cities. (too many VV or complete a research or scout in the large cities and too many gain goods, buy KP or deal with the wholesaler in the small cities) Far too many cities where I didn't make it any further than level 8. I spoke before of player expectations and how, even if they aren't reasonable expectations, they are nonetheless human nature. My expectation with an Event like this is that I should have a good chance of my cities - all of them - being able to make it at least to level 9 with a majority of them being able to upgrade the main building completely. Maybe that isn't reasonable to some people but it is what I expect of an event that I enjoy. The idea that Inno doesn't want to have people having more than 1 of the main event building is something that is very easily addressed without making it ridiculously hard to make it to at least level 9. It's been said before by many here: if you don't want us to have more than 1 of the building simply don't offer it more than once! Give us a good/fair chance to get a fully evolved building but don't make it possible to get a second!!!
The mechanics for this already exists. It already is in play where the magic chessboard is concerned. Just use it for the special Event buildings too!


As for the event as a whole, I did not enjoy it as I have other events. Random quests that are anything but random (I don't care what wording you use - getting 5 quests in a row to gain or make supplies is not random!) are boring beyond belief! The whole having no choice on how much of the event currency we spend and having no strategy for what box we pick was tedious. I much prefer being able to choose how much to spend on one of three "boxes" depending on the percentage of chance I have of getting something I might actually want. The whole setup used in this event was badly flawed and the 2x and magnifying glass ones were worthless. I actually am one of the few that didn't mind the shuffle one... I saw it as a bonus hammer since we got the 50 ribbons back and I actually was fairly good at figuring where the best items were based on the type of box. (even though the best changed type of box each time, I was still lucky with my guesses...) If the next Event is based on this style, rather than on the rotating 3 prizes like in the past, I will be much less likely to work very hard at it, if I bother at all. Boring, tedious and basically annoying... that pretty much sums this event up for me.

 

[GlamDoll]

@InnoGames , Thanks for the Las Vegas crap-shoot! Was all that I expect gambling to be. This Event is so much better, THAN what the next one will be! Cheers!

 

[Risen Malchiah]

My 12 cities

Wow! And most of them quite advanced at that!! I have my hands full with just 3. (I do like to sleep occasionally, but hey, I'm not perfect.)

 

[DeletedUser23252]

I enjoyed this event. I got two wishing wells out of this, just doing what I'd normally do (crafting, visiting, tourneying, donating kp). So, thanks for the winter magic!

 

[DeletedUser23252]

Maybe Inno could circumvent some of the unhappiness around this event by establishing a loyalty prize program for members who've made a purchase in the past (bigger loyalty prizes for people who spend more) for these types of events. So, they'll win more than a person who has never put money into this game. As someone who has not made a purchase (yet), I don't feel cheated by these events because I'm getting prizes for things I do normally anyway within this game, and I wouldn't feel cheated if someone who pays got more than I did during these events, because I'm still getting a prize for things I do anyway. Just a suggestion.

 

[Socrates28]

I think the lower third of the prizes should be dropped (1 kp as an example) and the number of choices reduced to 9 (a 3x3 grid instead of 4x4). I was surprised how many times I had to go through almost the entire prize grid before I hit reset. 650 to 750 ribbons to get a shot at a main prize if entiely too high a price to pay IMO. This at lease makes the prizes more evenly worthwhile and there is a much better shot at the daily prize.

 

[Ashrem]

Uninspiring.

 

[WizardKrieg]

Glad it's over. Events aren't much fun, especially when you have no where to put the event buildings.

 

[shimmerfly]

Repetitious.
The most boring event I've played.

 

[DeletedUser3468]

Wow! And most of them quite advanced at that!! I have my hands full with just 3. (I do like to sleep occasionally, but hey, I'm not perfect.)

I'm retired and disabled so I don't have much to do but play games. My hubby thinks I'm crazy to have so many but I try different things with different cities. Also the main reason I have the last 5 is to keep track of what is going on for new players since hubby and I have a training Fellowship in Arendyll (The Dragon's Lair which is currently full but we may be deleting a few players that seem to have stopped playing to make room for more newbies) and I like to stay current with what the newbies have to deal with so I can keep my tutorials up to date. I can also find the most effective ways (from my point of view) after going through the various guest races multiple times. Each time I go through them I find better and more efficient ways to set them up and make the most of the space I have to work with and then pass that on in the tutorials for our Fellowship members. For example, my first time through Halflings, my guest race area was a mess of wasted space over 20+ expansions and I've now improved that on Sinya Arda to an area of 12 expansions in total with virtually no wasted space and enough of everything to meet my needs. (OK, I could probably have more apples but I have sufficient to make good progress though some might disagree. )

 

[Tauriel Dragonwood]

Stop and think about this line for a minute. You've been playing since 2015, yet over a period of 4 years you're still ending up playing the game less and less. To me that means that voicing concerns doesn't really do much good. If the end result is still playing less, then at best you're probably just losing interest in the game after such a long time and at worst, you're fighting a losing battle with a company that doesn't really agree with your concerns and thus does nothing about them.

Or in other words...if you don't like it, quit playing. Most games don't change at all once they're released. Games that receive continuous updates tend to have this idea that players get to be involved in the development process since they're playing 'as it happens', or at least get to be more involved than they actually are. Expectation vs reality is a tough lesson for some to learn, apparently.

I still love this game and the banter back and forth with players and fellowship members. These recent Events, on the other hand, need to be improved. All the fun that used to exist in Events has been replaced by random quests. I lost count the amount of times I received the same quest over and over again. To avoid frustration, I don't log in as much during an Event that has random quests.

 

[DeletedUser24458]

That survey was a joke lol. They didn't ask any questions about the mechanics of the event or the ribbons given. Fail

 

[Crow Last Elf]

@Crow Last Elf
You may not mind the scouting, but that depends on the chapter you're in. In the earlier chapters it takes maybe a couple of hours. For those of us who are in the endgame, it takes around 90 hours which is a pain in the ass to say the least and when the reward is only a few ribbons that makes it very disappointing. Same goes for completing tech, that gets significantly harder and at the end of the techtree it is over. I'm glad they added the option for crafting, but having to craft enough to gain 15 VV takes a lot of time and resources as well, not to mention the fact that so much of what is offered is crap that is no use, so crafting that is a pure waste.

I realize that different players will have different perspectives of which quests are achievable with reasonable effort or amount of resources. I've read the entire thread and I realize I would be out-voted on some of my opinions, and that is fine.

Maybe it would be useful to have a "cancel quest" option which cancels the quest, but also doesn't award a new quest for 36 hours or something. So that players aren't forced to spend what they think is an "unreasonable" amount of time or other resouces. It would also send a message about how often a player would rather opt out of a quest rather than see it as a challenge to overcome - surely this would be good information for the developers about the enjoyability of the game.

 

[Deborah M]

I did not go to extra effort for this event. I hated it! And I hated it even though I got the house to level 10. It just was not fun with the new prize system. Definitely the worst event ever IMO. The house was not worth the effort I put in either. I only built it for Christmas decoration. I don't see any reason to keep it since I have level 10 Panda which is almost the same. T2 inventory is pretty ho hum anyway. As the events get progressively worse my resolve to not spend on them only increases. That's OK. It saves me the $100 per event I used to habitually spend

 

[DeletedUser24458]

I did not go to extra effort for this event. I hated it! And I hated it even though I got the house to level 10. It just was not fun with the new prize system. Definitely the worst event ever IMO. The house was not worth the effort I put in either. I only built it for Christmas decoration. I don't see any reason to keep it since I have level 10 Panda which is almost the same. T2 inventory is pretty ho hum anyway. As the events get progressively worse my resolve to not spend on them only increases. That's OK. It saves me the $100 per event I used to habitually spend

I agree. I also got my house to lvl 10 but there was no fun in selecting random prizes and adding random bricks. During other events, I try to keep collecting game currency to the very end so I can grab a few extra prizes. Not this one.

 

[DeletedUser2959]

I miss having the option to at least choose the odds I want to play.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Maybe it would be useful to have a "cancel quest" option which cancels the quest, but also doesn't award a new quest for 36 hours or something. So that players aren't forced to spend what they think is an "unreasonable" amount of time or other resouces. It would also send a message about how often a player would rather opt out of a quest rather than see it as a challenge to overcome - surely this would be good information for the developers about the enjoyability of the game.

We used to have quests to make the 48-hour goods productions, but they finally took those out a few events ago. Maybe they will eventually listen to the players about all the other quests that take longer than 24 hours, without having to spend boosts or diamonds to speed up. Personally, I do not think any quest should have an unmodified completion time of more than 24 hours. I do not include in that the quests that ask for a certain amount of something that would make a player with not enough production take longer to complete. Those are on the player to have enough buildings for if they want to get the supply or production quests done faster. I do not even mind the Toolbox quests, since you can set a couple of workshops on those and then ignore them til you need them. But something does need to be done about the time required, without spending anything to speed up, for the more time-consuming quests. Scout and Research are not good for late chapter players and any of the MA quests are not good for early chapter players. I doubt we will ever see a "skip quest" option, as they will probably claim it would mess up the coding for the reward system or something.

Maybe they could do something "radical" like have an option on the Scout, Research and the more time-consuming of the MA quests to collect the three reward chests from visiting your neighbors, which can be done by every player, even within a day or two of creating a city. You can only do this once per game day, so it could act like a 24-hour skip/cooldown, but it would get you around at least one of those bad quests per day, instead of waiting several days to finish a scout or make those MA items or forever if you have no research left to do. And if you already did your visits, you just have to wait up to 24 hours at the most to do them again, which fits into the 24-hour quest completion window I think should be the max, especially if we keep the "random" quest system. @Fairy Dust If you think the devs would be interested in this idea, could you pass it along?