Venting on the Halloween Event

There comes a time where a games devs completely screw things up. And it seems like the time is now. Prior events were too easy and you were able to build up a stockpile of most event items pretty easily if you were a decent level. Now, the devs have taken it completely in the opposite direction. Instead of making it a challenge, they made it darn near impossible to do anything. 10 adventures in a row out of the minuscule adventures allowed with no pumpkin drops, 14 out of 15 run in total the last 2 days without them. Only 5 pumpkins total on the collectibles. And the pumpkin patches are basically worthless unless you babysit them constantly.

I play this game for fun. Heck, I play any game for just for the fun. If a game ends up turning into more work then fun, I drop it. And this game is on the verge of doing so. I've already decided not to drop any more money into the game after the 2x gem debacle when I am running no blockers or adds on my browser yet still couldn't purchase after the other times I was able to with no problem. I already decided to cut my game time down as I am not going to spend countless hours following the stupidity of the devs on keeping a balance between needing to stay on the game constantly or failing to get much done.

The time would have been last year, as it is the same event.

Not sure but anytime you play a game that involves some sort of Gem you can buy to make life easier is always based on that in mind regardless of you play or if you or buy gems. Its a money game, want to buy gems to purchase fairies to locate items.

But my complaint is they did say there will be MORE PUMPKIN DROPS this year correct???? We have passed the half way mark & I still havent hit 50 pumpkins found on my island. If this is more then last year, what was last year -1 a day????? Im at 41 & I did use fairies & not one on my island. So how is this more drops if none show up ?????

yah, i think it's mathematically improbable (impossible?) to get the 100 pumpkin collectible achievement unless you get really lucky on random number generator.

At least the achievement exists this year. Last year you weren't getting 75 free pumpkins for getting lucky.

No, not impossible to get 100 pumpkins in the collectibles. I achieved that this morning, although I wasn't sure either at the beginning if that was ever going to happen. I must have been on the luckier side. I will say, though, that it would be nice for all the pumpkin adventures to at leave give us a few pumpkins in the loot, even if the lowest amount is 2.

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Originally Posted by humveetech

Not sure but anytime you play a game that involves some sort of Gem you can buy to make life easier is always based on that in mind regardless of you play or if you or buy gems. Its a money game, want to buy gems to purchase fairies to locate items.

But my complaint is they did say there will be MORE PUMPKIN DROPS this year correct???? We have passed the half way mark & I still havent hit 50 pumpkins found on my island. If this is more then last year, what was last year -1 a day????? Im at 41 & I did use fairies & not one on my island. So how is this more drops if none show up ?????

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The pumpkin collectible is bugged. The fix made it worse than before as the parent code that determines how many to place overrides any so called fixed.

Or the following is true:

1) You are punished with a lower amount of collectibles if you log alot of hours per day resulting in half spawns like 10-14 total collectibles. This is to counter getting 3 spawns a day since they gen about every 8 hours.

AND/OR

2) You are punished with a lower amount of collectibles if you have a full island saturated with with very little space resulting in less collectible spawns.


Everyone I know that either has a moderately empty island OR logs in only a few hours a day gets between 20-28 collectibles (with 2-7 pumpkin collectibles) when they log on. I know one with 76/100 as of Friday who logs on twice a day for maybe 30 mins. I get 10-12 with 0 to 2, twice a day being logged in for half a day. Yeah I'm at 40/100 and I might make 50. But these collectible spawn rates are ridiculous and quite frankly they need to reduce the achievement to 10/25/50 or fix the stupid algorithm.

Fix the algorithm I agree with, but it isn't BB's responsibility to make sure you don't have terrible luck.

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Originally Posted by upjyb

Fix the algorithm I agree with, but it isn't BB's responsibility to make sure you don't have terrible luck.

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lol - From some of the posts in the other 'pumpkin' complaint thread, terrible luck is not the word for it. lol (I am a fortunate one, actually, but my island has lots of free space as I spend my gems on other things than licenses)

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Originally Posted by soporosek

yah, i think it's mathematically improbable (impossible?) to get the 100 pumpkin collectible achievement unless you get really lucky on random number generator.

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I think it is mostly related to the over-crowding of the home-island. Seems that the folks I know of having difficulty getting drops larger than 13 are mostly high level folk with lots of stuff on their island. I'm one, have a whopping 54 pumpkins so far and have not missed a drop or collection; further my largest drop was a 13, this morning was 8.

Seems having a busy island is put at a disadvantage for this event/achievement.

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Originally Posted by Raubhautz

I think it is mostly related to the over-crowding of the home-island. Seems that the folks I know of having difficulty getting drops larger than 13 are mostly high level folk with lots of stuff on their island. I'm one, have a whopping 54 pumpkins so far and have not missed a drop or collection; further my largest drop was a 13, this morning was 8.

Seems having a busy island is put at a disadvantage for this event/achievement.

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I made room and still low drop amounts

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Originally Posted by Troll-Phu

I made room and still low drop amounts

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Same... Removed all decos; banished all my generals to a bogus adventure until the next collection drop and voila, I got an overwhelming total of 9 collectibiles (3 were pumpkins). SO, that was not the problem. -_-

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Originally Posted by Raubhautz

Same... Removed all decos; banished all my generals to a bogus adventure until the next collection drop and voila, I got an overwhelming total of 9 collectibiles (3 were pumpkins). SO, that was tot the problem. -_-

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62 so far............ :(

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the feedback, I have forwarded everything to my team.

BB_Endesmor

I don't normally post things here but I have to say I am disappointed with the drop pumpkins this year usually i don't care but seeing as how they decided to make it an achievement then it should have been done better I have 5 days left and need at least 12 pumpkins a day to finish with 100. I play everyday am on here for hours at a time and yet players that might get on for an hour get way more than I do its like I am being penalized for playing all day.

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Originally Posted by LadyRebelRose

I don't normally post things here but I have to say I am disappointed with the drop pumpkins this year usually i don't care but seeing as how they decided to make it an achievement then it should have been done better I have 5 days left and need at least 12 pumpkins a day to finish with 100. I play everyday am on here for hours at a time and yet players that might get on for an hour get way more than I do its like I am being penalized for playing all day.

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yes we are

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Originally Posted by LadyRebelRose

I don't normally post things here but I have to say I am disappointed with the drop pumpkins this year usually i don't care but seeing as how they decided to make it an achievement then it should have been done better I have 5 days left and need at least 12 pumpkins a day to finish with 100. I play everyday am on here for hours at a time and yet players that might get on for an hour get way more than I do its like I am being penalized for playing all day.

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Yea my only real complaint is the achievement, finding collectible pumpkins is a nice (albeit small) bonus, but when you add an achievement that's entirely based on rng it kinda sucks the fun out of the collectible hunt. I'm one of the fortunate ones who completed the achievement, but I didn't enjoy it one bit. Looking around the island and finding 12/14 collectibles is fun for me, spending 15 mins trying to find the last ones because you are afraid you'll miss out on the achievement isn't.

Think I found a connection with pumpkins and overall collection drops on island. From those I have spoken with it seems to mostly be people that have bought gems in the last month or so that have fewer collection items. Lets not forget this the next time there is a "sale". Some try and tell me it is because of space on island, but I use to get up to 27 collection items a day on a way more packed island. Lucky to get 9 a collection quest now ever since update.

lol linking this to gem sales, seriously how does that benefit BB?

If anything it's XXL

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Originally Posted by upjyb

lol linking this to gem sales, seriously how does that benefit BB?

If anything it's XXL

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*puts on tin foil hat*

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Originally Posted by Remnant

...people that have bought gems in the last month or so that have fewer collection items ...

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That would be a difficult thing to test. The counter-example I can offer is that I have two accounts, both at level 50, with approximately the same number of buildings. I bought gems at the 3x sale just prior to the event only on my Zeus account, and I finished the achievement at the same time on both accounts. That should be an adequate case-control. In an alternate case-control, my wife is level 50 and bought gems, and is on the same server as the account where I did not purchase gems this time. She finished the achievement on the day following, so would fall within an appropriate random range variation.

It is more likely that this is an observational phenomenon, where people who just spent money are more aware that they cannot use gems to meet the achievement.

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Originally Posted by Aurboth

[...] It is more likely that this is an observational phenomenon, where people who just spent money are more aware that they cannot use gems to meet the achievement.

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Yes - yes, we know how great you are already! As you are not one afflicted with a lack of collectibles, you are so haughty about it.

FYI - Never gemmed a quest (Oh, and achievements never have been gemmable).

wow a whopping 8 collectibles this morning 2 pumpkins now need 11 per day to finish achievement. Great job you did on this!!!!

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Originally Posted by Aurboth

...I have two accounts, both at level 50, with approximately the same number of buildings. I bought gems at the 3x sale just prior to the event only on my Zeus account, and I finished the achievement at the same time on both accounts. That should be an adequate case-control. In an alternate case-control, my wife is level 50 and bought gems, and is on the same server as the account where I did not purchase gems this time. She finished the achievement on the day following, so would fall within an appropriate random range variation...

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It would seem you are quite proud of yourself here, Mr. Fine Example. This is not the first time you 'share' your fortune in these threads. Since you are such the expert, please shed some light on the issue and help these players rather than just pat yourself on the back. I see lots of people in similar situations and are unable to overcome the challenge. These forums are normally for some to post issues and share, while other more experienced players can aid/provide advice the others. I do not appear to be affected by this blight of minimum collectible drops, so I don't the issue. Unfortunately, I do not know why or what the difference is and how I could offer advice to these others. Seems to be the fate of the RND function and/or collection drop algorithm.

Better luck on next drops all.

Will add my voice to the frustrations here, even though redundant as it's been my experience that the Devs do listen and pay attention to forum threads that have a high number of pertinent responses.

As of today, with 3 days left in the event, I have 4 clickables left to find. It was touch and go for awhile as I was averaging a need for 5+ per day and had several days with zero pumpkin clicks on one spawn and then a few on the other one. My island is far from empty, and is well decorated, but it is not as crowded as some -- so I'm thinking of it as an "average" island. I do have several open Archipelagos so there is room there. My spawns for collectibles in general have swung between 13(!) to 23, with a very low percentage containing pumpkins; I have had one at least that was zero pumpkin clicks out of 20. I do believe it is a combo between an algorithm and the corresponding RNG. I don't believe there is any Great BB Pumpkin Conspiracy. The source of the issue is likely a concrete one, and a frustrating one at that when an achievement is 'unachievable,' through no fault of the player. We have several players in our guild who have not missed a spawn, and yet are still going to fall way short of the numbers necessary to complete the achievement. Their islands also vary from crowded to average.

There is still time to fix this issue prior to the end of the event.....so I am closing my eyes, clicking my pumpkin spice jeweled shoe heels together and wishing for a morning in the next couple of days where pumpkin clicks abound on my island!

ShuttlePilot
Guild Leader
The Creators Guild

3 days 7hrs left... so far I found 73 pumpkin collectibles on my island and I am %100 percent sure, not missed a single spawn since the start of event because using fairy fires... so there is something wrong here, since nobody has any idea about it or BB could fix it and we could make the achievement within due time of event, can we get some more time after the first removal phase of event and keep the pumpkin spawns with other collectibles in our islands? at least some more unhappy players will have chance to complete it...

Hi everyone,

During the Halloween Event, several players reported difficulties in finding enough collectible items which is affecting the Halloween Event achievements. The Community Team and Support forwarded the reports and several examples to QA and Dev Team.
It was a little bit tricky, but an issue was found. Even though we cannot present a solution today: You will be informed next week via forum announcement about next steps.

BB_Endesmor

Is this same issue on test with the Christmas event? Because the drop rates there seem the same with similar achievements for us to try to complete.

since the release of the XXL package, my total collectables have dropped. I use to get up to 21 per spawn but since the release it's gone down to 9, with the rare 15(btw had zero pumpkins in it). yes the amount in each drop raised but the number dropped didn't.

as of today I have collected 100 pumpkins so it can be done and island is all most full on spaces with buildings with 16 to 21 collections at a time and most of the time just one collection done per day.

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Originally Posted by BB_Endesmor

Hi everyone,

.......It was a little bit tricky, but an issue was found. Even though we cannot present a solution today: You will be informed next week via forum announcement about next steps.

BB_Endesmor

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Thank you BB_Endesmor and Team for having ensured that the Devs were well informed of this issue, and for the update. Will be looking forward to hearing how this is resolved.

SP

But by that time the event will be over...........

The example given was in response to the theory that the number of collectibles being dropped was related to the player purchasing gems. To refute the theory, it is proper to provide examples. Unfortunately, the people who are not affected by these problems do not share their information, making the only information available the limited facts presented by the people having problems. Providing actual information can actually assist in pointing the developers in the right direction. When doing a survey of achievements for a group of daily players level 48+, the completion ratio was just over two-thirds with three days to go.Similarly, from accounts I am able to verify at the level of drops, there does not seem to be any significant difference between range of collectibles based on the level of the player. The only thing I have found that does effect the drop numbers is when the system is unable to place the collectibles on the island. The primary example of this are players that have not revealed their primary island.

So the question is why specific islands are having a continued lower drop rate than should be seen with a random generator. There are two parts to this, as the randomization is occuring at two stages. First, the system is randomly generating a total number of collectibles. This appears to be the primary complaint of the players affected. The distributions would help, as it would give information if the top ends of the ranges are being cut off with these players. Manually increasing the number of collectibles in the formula used would not help players if they were being cut off, as it would be happening after the numbers were generated. The second randomization is occuring when the type of collectible is being assigned. While increasing the proportionate drop of pumpkins would help players with lower total numbers, the effect would be limited with the absolute low total numbers. With relatively large changes in the proportions, it would allow players a better chance to get the achievement, but it would give much larger amounts of pumpkins to players who are seeing larger total numbers.

Fortunately, it seems the developers have an idea of what is causing it. We are just going to have to wait until Monday to find the cause and see how they are going to respond to it. They have typically acted very responsibly when there have been programming issues.

Why all the fuss??? You know BB will do exactly what they did with the Easter Egg Building - they will reward everyone across the board the extra points needed.

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Originally Posted by JohannusRex

Why all the fuss??? You know BB will do exactly what they did with the Easter Egg Building - they will reward everyone across the board the extra points needed.

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I try not to fuss but without rationalized complaining, BB would (probably) not think anything we dont complain about is a big deal, and like the Easter Egg Building- would not reward it to everyone.

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Originally Posted by Snacknado

I try not to fuss but without rationalized complaining, BB would (probably) not think anything we dont complain about is a big deal, and like the Easter Egg Building- would not reward it to everyone.

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Truehead must have his loooooooot.

I think the requirements to kill the ancient golems are unfair to younger players. First you need titanium (too expensive and rare). And you need to be lvl 36 to make Holy Water.

Why not make the ingredient for Holy Waters something like ... Lots of Gold Ore. That way all players can make it, and get rid of the Lvl 36 barrier.

1day 15hrs left and 74 pumpkins collected so far... the spawn rate getting better last 2 days, not a single drop of pumpkin yet... awesome achievement event!

I just got down doing my final collectable search. To make sure I would get to the click on 100 pumpkins achievement I spent the coins and used fairy dust twice a day to make sure I didn't miss any. Well even with making sure I found every collectable I didn't get the Pimpking (Click on 100 pumpkin collectable) achievement. So through no fault of my own I get to miss out on Achievement glory and my friends and others get to mock my lack of achievement success.

I'd love to hear from a BB on this. How in the future will you avoid this type of issue.

Thank you,

Zeffin

I made 1 bunch of holy water and said forget it for more. Not worth waisting the titanium!