This Halloween Event

I don't find this event very enjoyable because of the setup with pumpkin refills. Way way too much grinding just to keep my noble pumpkin fields going - I have probably been averaging 6 adventures a day since this event started and that is way too much time for the results.

The only people who seems to be able to get ahead on this are the people who can run the Abi Baba and Treasure of Wisdom and for many people that isn't an adventure they have or can get in the large quantities needed.

I much prefer if pumpkins were directly gained from adventures, this refilling business feels more like a job than a game.

At the very least most of these adventures should be dropping enough refills so that someone only needs to do 2-3 adventures a day to keep these fields going.

I am sure other people have different opinions on this, but this is how I feel about this.

I just popped into the forum to post something very similar, as Narasn has posted. Very early on, and my Noble plots are nearly exhausted. I have almost concluded to stop trying anymore for refills and just rely on what my explorers bring back in pumpkins. I did run TOK the second day, but it is such a very unpleasant adventure and I have other things to do than run constant other adventures for a minimal amount of refills. I do think the refill situation is not as good as in the past. Or maybe I am just using better buffs. Regardless, I think I am going to give up trying to keep my noble plots going...I agree with original post.

I do like the new skin for the Excelsior and used my pumpkins to buy a permanent version. And overall I like the event. But Halloween Event shouldn't be a full time job to keep noble plots operating.

Thank you for this information. I will be sure to pass it on.

-BB_Odhran

I also find it very discouraging that the fertilizer that can be purchased in the shop doesn't count toward the refill achievements for the event. Plus to spend 75 pumpkins to get only 10 in return is extremely wasteful. I understand it is to be used to bring the field back to life but with adventure refills being very low & the only thing that counts toward refill quota, I have come to the conclusion to just use the fertilizer I foolishly purchased, let the fields run down, delete them, & just rely on what my explorers bring back. And I will remember in Halloween events that may come in the future to NOT purchase fertilizer & waste pumpkins & to just let the pumpkin fields run dry as a 1 use item.

absolutely agree. and i'm one of those who 'can' run wisdom etc.. however, i'm not willing to buy them, have them in short supply, and they are time consuming (even if i had them 1 a day max with my RL schedule), plus rebuilding troops in elite is excruciatingly slow.

I much prefer the old method of straight pumpkins ... no more stupid fields i have to waste rainbows on, watch constantly, ensure they are refilled... log in my my lunch break to make sure they didn't run out, worry that some unannounced, short notice maintenance happens while i'm away and they empty during that.... too much work.

Grumble is right too - no matter how you get refills they should count towards achieves. Heck, if you had to buy em with gems thats beneficial to bb. So its kind of a kick in the pants to have them not be applying towards achieve.

ciara

Unless receiving pumpkins directly somehow produces more, I don't have any issues with how the event is structured. Although it would be simpler (less micromanagement, no buffs), I don't expect I would earn any more pumpkins the other way. Granted, I haven't seen pumpkins just randomly disappear before, unlike the last refill I dropped.

The event is less satisfying and way more complicated with the refills instead of pumpkins on adv rewards. Can we please go back to getting pumpkins?

Been trying to iterate what is in this thread for the last 2 years (this is 3rd Halloween run with these stinkin' refills). Just give us back pumpkins as loot drops. I mean, I like to adventure normally, but to keep these things filled requires many adventures to be run... so if you have any sort of rl going on, you out of luck. Unlike the German server, where refills are reasonable priced, our greedy NA TO monopolists force the refills to exorbitant prices. I kid you not, if BB offered to let me move this account (or, at least my goods) over, I'd be gone like the Flash! Though there are many nice and friendly peeps here, the TO types are pathetic.

I will be sure to share this information with the team.

-BB_Odhran

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Originally Posted by Raubhautz

Unlike the German server, where refills are reasonable priced, our greedy NA TO monopolists force the refills to exorbitant prices.

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I suspect the reality is that supply/demand holds true on the German servers just as well as the NA ones, but that there is simply a much higher supply available there due to the volume of active players running adventures.

In 2017 loot was x3 increase, which made pumpkin drops higher than what we're getting with x2. That combined with no low end adventures having a substantial drop makes this year a little harder. In 2017 Outlaws dropped 36 & 54, so with prem this was probably the absolute best adventure to be running. There is nothing like that this year, aside from ToW which is in an entirely different universe than Outlaws. The x2 XP doesn't compensate for the lack of pumpkin refills available this year because of x2 instead of x3 loot.

But don't forget that a few years back we got pumpkin fields that ran out and explorers did not bring back pumpkins. The only way to get pumpkins was to run a crapton of adventures. Which makes complaints about having to run so many adventures to get refills kind of superfluous. Now that explorers bring back pumpkins, having explorers makes a huge difference. If people don't have explorers, that's not BB's fault.

With that being said, so far I've been able to keep my nobles going without a lot of difficulty. I just put everything I can get into them and not worry about the others. I was out of town for 4 days last week with computer access for about 20 minutes in the evening 2 of those days and that's it. I already have the laboratory and just got the mad scientist this evening.

Bottom line is, I kind of enjoy the challenge of making the refills work. It's different than the other events and adds a little strategy combined with the dreaded...... "use of math skills".

Glad you are taking the challenge on and find it to be a good change of pace. It's also great to see that you've been able to get a few of the rewards as well.

-BB_Odhran

the refilling mechanics of this event is really bad.

for one, I didn't realize you have to turn off the Noble field before it finishes. I find out I can't refill it and have to buy fertilizer and then on top of that I find that the cost of the fertilizer eats pumpkins as a cost AND you don't get the amount of that either as a refill. the trade off cost is just ridiculous but at the expense of not getting the information anywhere in game or warning about how this refilling achievement works.

anyways- I did enjoy the new Terror quest adventure map. I like how it sort of reuses the same map and gives you a feeling that you're continuing your adventure from the last time you did the adventure. rather than a totally new map layout. felt like a solid adventure experience.


changes for the future? don't make the field expire in such a way where you have to use the fertilizer just let the refills be used directly.


another thing I don't like about the event is the achievement for the golems and their differently level. it creates a huge disparity in the guild and friends where if you have a buddy you trade buffs with and he's lower level than you are or vice versa, only one of you will benefit from doing the higher level golem water achievement. which results in the one guy having to go to general chat to 'friend' some random stranger outside of your friends list or guild members, just to complete the achievement. and in some case its wasted water because you aren't getting a watering trade back. having to double up on water duty basically. if a guild has no member at the higher level golems, it kind of gimps the guild a bit as well.

I don't enjoy this buff water trading aspect of the event. too complicated and not everybody gets the same golem.

changes for the future? get rid of the achievement of the golems watering. or have a generic, water "X" times

Though there are a lot more ways to get pumpkins, there is also plenty of new content to spend it on, and each new content item is increasingly higher priced than the last, no matter what level of usefulness it may have. Still, I am not feeling as if I am lacking in event resources. With enough effort, I will be able to get everything I want, though I may have to skip some things I may have otherwise pursued. I want all the unique non-tradeable rewards first, which is simple enough, and then I will worry about whether to get things like improved deerstalkers.

I'm fine with the water mechanic. I traded some, but mostly just found people to drop water on. They in turn can hit mine if they like. At least now it doesn't destroy until the person who owns the island says it should.

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Originally Posted by BB_Odhran

Glad you are taking the challenge on and find it to be a good change of pace. It's also great to see that you've been able to get a few of the rewards as well.

-BB_Odhran

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It isn't about the challenge of it. I think the mechanics of not getting those pumpkins directly makes it feels less rewarding. Normally if you do an adventure you see a direct reward it feels different than a refill which starts an entirely different process which isn't all that satisfying in itself.

I have got plenty of rewards already and probably won't have a problem getting everything I want either but I am retired and can spend hours and hours in the game a day. I just think the amount of time needed this event is excessive.

I prefer the refills to direct rewards for adventures. If I do a bunch of grinding at the start, I can relax and let my patches give me pumpkins. If it was direct, then not adventuring means getting nothing, and that means you have to keep grinding for the whole event. It becomes like Easter and that one nearly makes me quit each year from burn out.

As for the event, I love the new quest line, though waiting a week between each step is too long. Maybe increase the number of sections and make the wait 3 or 4 days. The lab is nothing but a star coin maker for me and that is okay, but for what it does, it takes way too much space. Especially since there are two. That second only speeds it up but still costs a lot of room. Not too sure on the specialist... I'm sure he will have his uses but they seem to be limited. As for the mansion, new pop buildings are always welcome especially when they have that much room.

My only real disappointment with the event, is that the rate that explorers find the higher return seems to have been dropped drastically. I can have my 29 explorers come back and it isn't unusual that only 1 or 2 get the higher reward. This is definitely a reduction from previous events and I cannot understand BBs recent need to restrict our event item return. Reduce what adventures give out, reduce the he chance of getting good returns... this doesn't add challenge for me, just unnecessary aggravation and I don't like it. An event should be fun, and having to grind all day and night to get my rewards is not fun at all.

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Originally Posted by Trialgame

I prefer the refills to direct rewards for adventures. If I do a bunch of grinding at the start, I can relax and let my patches give me pumpkins. If it was direct, then not adventuring means getting nothing, and that means you have to keep grinding for the whole event. It becomes like Easter and that one nearly makes me quit each year from burn out.

As for the event, I love the new quest line, though waiting a week between each step is too long. Maybe increase the number of sections and make the wait 3 or 4 days. The lab is nothing but a star coin maker for me and that is okay, but for what it does, it takes way too much space. Especially since there are two. That second only speeds it up but still costs a lot of room. Not too sure on the specialist... I'm sure he will have his uses but they seem to be limited. As for the mansion, new pop buildings are always welcome especially when they have that much room.

My only real disappointment with the event, is that the rate that explorers find the higher return seems to have been dropped drastically. I can have my 29 explorers come back and it isn't unusual that only 1 or 2 get the higher reward. This is definitely a reduction from previous events and I cannot understand BBs recent need to restrict our event item return. Reduce what adventures give out, reduce the he chance of getting good returns... this doesn't add challenge for me, just unnecessary aggravation and I don't like it. An event should be fun, and having to grind all day and night to get my rewards is not fun at all.

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I am curious what adventures you were able to grind to then be able to relax because as I mentioned originally the only people I know who were able to do this was the ones running the one ali baba.

And the explorers issue I think is fine - passive rewards imo should always be less than active ones.

im too tired to think and type, but everything they said i agree, way too much work for little in return. even the wisdom's not enough bc last 5 i did all doped low deposits.

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Originally Posted by Narasn

I am curious what adventures you were able to grind to then be able to relax because as I mentioned originally the only people I know who were able to do this was the ones running the one ali baba.

And the explorers issue I think is fine - passive rewards imo should always be less than active ones.

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Wisdoms. It was the only adv with good refills (and the double xp is awesome).

Agreed 100%. I am not quite sure how people who have to work for a living are able to keep the cemeteries running. I am struggling and I am on disability so I am home all the time. Not quite sure why I can run Arctic Explosions and get minimum of 12 refills but if I run one of the Tailors which takes 5 times as long and at least 5x the troops, I would get paid a minimum of 5 refills... huh? Come on, guys...

Wisdom is a decent adventure to run as far as time since you can mostly tackle it in two halves with two groups of generals. I didn't have a lot stockpiled but enough to run every other day, to coincide with the scouting post bonus. I shut down my nobles for a day yesterday. Probably have to do that for a couple more days further down the line but mostly running smoothly.

I kind of like the pumpkin fields. I feel like a pumpkin farmer. I wish there were permanent pumpkin fields in the game that produced pumpkins year-round… but not like a spooky cemetery… just a regular farm field for growing pumpkins.

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Originally Posted by AlphaGrayWolfe

Agreed 100%. I am not quite sure how people who have to work for a living are able to keep the cemeteries running. I am struggling and I am on disability so I am home all the time.

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I guess it depends on how they manage their time when they're logged on. Also if they're on premium or not. I ran some ToW's in the beginning which gave my fields a quick boost. Since then I've been doing a round robin of Bandits Nest and Traitors. Since each uses a different set of generals I can start Traitors as soon as BN is done. With a horseshoe I can finish either one of them in 35 minutes from start to finish. Minimum payout for the 2 combined is 22 pumpkin refills, with prem that's 33 minimum. If I run three of each it takes about 3 and a half hours in the evening and I can keep my nobles going just fine on a minimum of 99 refills, which is 33 each for fields that need 37 a day. At least once I'll hit max payout which adds a few extra, bringing me closer to the 37 needed. If I have to I can always shut my nobles down till I have time to replenish them, but so far haven't had to.

I have to do 6 bastilles a day by my calcs to keep the nobles going (not worried about the smalls and commons)...(102 a day on the low loot amount) and i'm sadly rainbowing the nobles to save time managing them. Every 2 ish days i run a tok (outta wisdoms) on scoutpost.. but ya they drop a stupid low amount for such a large loss adventure (i mean 11 for bastille and 24 for tok...)...(and i have premium).
but the only reason i can run 6 bastilles is cause i log in before work and dedicate a solid 90 min or so to it, and have my mma's booked to be fast arriving...and i have multi mma.. so i can send 1 major and 4 mma.. by the time the major gets there the mma's are done.. send final.. send em all home, repeat with the OTHER major - and resend the 4 mma when they get back in 7 min (I could speed this up by making more cannons and filling both sets of mma.. but i dont want to lol). ... still i'm not a fan of running 37 bastilles.. and once i'm out.. (in about 5 bastilles) i will have to come up with another plan of attack.

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Originally Posted by RonEmpire

the refilling mechanics of this event is really bad.

for one, I didn't realize you have to turn off the Noble field before it finishes. I find out I can't refill it and have to buy fertilizer and then on top of that I find that the cost of the fertilizer eats pumpkins as a cost AND you don't get the amount of that either as a refill. the trade off cost is just ridiculous but at the expense of not getting the information anywhere in game or warning about how this refilling achievement works.

anyways- I did enjoy the new Terror quest adventure map. I like how it sort of reuses the same map and gives you a feeling that you're continuing your adventure from the last time you did the adventure. rather than a totally new map layout. felt like a solid adventure experience.


changes for the future? don't make the field expire in such a way where you have to use the fertilizer just let the refills be used directly.


another thing I don't like about the event is the achievement for the golems and their differently level. it creates a huge disparity in the guild and friends where if you have a buddy you trade buffs with and he's lower level than you are or vice versa, only one of you will benefit from doing the higher level golem water achievement. which results in the one guy having to go to general chat to 'friend' some random stranger outside of your friends list or guild members, just to complete the achievement. and in some case its wasted water because you aren't getting a watering trade back. having to double up on water duty basically. if a guild has no member at the higher level golems, it kind of gimps the guild a bit as well.

I don't enjoy this buff water trading aspect of the event. too complicated and not everybody gets the same golem.

changes for the future? get rid of the achievement of the golems watering. or have a generic, water "X" times

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Agreed on the Golems - it definitely isn't right to dangle event achievements that not everybody can make without at least making it thoroughly clear that they can't get them and therefore should not waste time/resources on setting up to do so. There should be CLEAR and CONCISE guidelines posted for each event by the creators!

I found it to be a little difficult to get the 3000+ refills needed for full nonstop production at 20-40 refills per run, par some wild marys and T3 expidition runs, which seemed to offer the most at 78-101. I still had to sleep nobles at various times due to the time that is needed to chain 1-3 a night or full day off smashing 7-12 adventures. Not really down to spend 3 hours a night but i can manage a bit on days off.

The adventures for this year were pretty bad, big long maps, or chain cuts, wild mary, nest, outlaws.. i saw some potential with co-op and3 man swap runs, but never bothered, cause solo is generally faster.

The price of pumpkins in trade was two-fold this year, topping 7-8k a hundred. I just cant fathom buying ANY building or grout, when you can sell pumpkins and buy more on trade potentially compared to your merchant prices.. these items definetly needed to be lowered in merchant for our server economy. Pretty much farming for gens and mansions, lab maybe.

End all, i liked the event adventures, achievements were achieveable, but the chosen bonus adventures were bad to run for time issues. i can only imagine the grind others had.

I totally get BB making us work for our refills and in reality for high level players it is still no problem. Where I think they have gone wrong, especially this year, is there are few if any "good" multi player advs to run so people can help each other more. Yes the high lev players can share refills somewhat but be much better for all levs if we could have couple decent multi player advs to run. Events used to be a special time of co-operation in guilds now even the high lev players have to take care of themselves first.

agreed. pochucker. i ran bastille, sftr, sleepy reef during all cool down periods of scout (and tok once every 3 days w/ scout). i was super disappointed to get 9 pumpkins from 2nd thief... i mean really?? that much effort for 9 refills. several other larger adv were single digit refills (after prem).. compare w/ 8 for low on sleepy reef which i can do in 4 attacks and 250r... and 17 from that one on top spin. they do need to rethink their refill drops for sure.

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Originally Posted by Pochucker

I totally get BB making us work for our refills and in reality for high level players it is still no problem. Where I think they have gone wrong, especially this year, is there are few if any "good" multi player advs to run so people can help each other more. Yes the high lev players can share refills somewhat but be much better for all levs if we could have couple decent multi player advs to run. Events used to be a special time of co-operation in guilds now even the high lev players have to take care of themselves first.

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I do think the adventures they picked has something to do with this but I think it was more along the lines the best ones for refills weren't easily available. I had 2 of the wild marys and neither of the two ali babas with double bonuses.

Dark brotherhood is a three player adventure and was run a lot this event (i imagine BB actually has stats on that type of thing) but the refills weren't particularly good in that one.