Please feel free to leave your thoughts and comments on the [Dev Blog] Valentine's Event 2020 below.
The original post can be found here.
Happy commenting!
BB_Malkun
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Please feel free to leave your thoughts and comments on the [Dev Blog] Valentine's Event 2020 below.
The original post can be found here.
Happy commenting!
BB_Malkun
Where are the details? how can we give feedback when only mention slightly - 2 buildings ??
Where is the details to give feedback on?
I can only give this feedback.
changing the explorer return for event resource for long search please do not! long, very long and Prolong are often used by players.
You already have the multi player restriction to obtain event resource please do not "nurf" the explorer for longer like prolong search.
Not everyone in this game is 24/7 this does drastically reduce the amount of event resource players can obtain.
You do not provide much on the actually even but the change to the event from previous event and I do not like the idea that you are removing the ratio for longer search this make no sense.
Just remove all the treasure search for a chance at event resource if this is the idea that treasure search is not "into this vision" don't base your vision on that all your players base is players that play 24/7 you have the 2-3 times or 2 times a day type players nuking the return for explorer is a nice vision but your going to lose players if the fact that your event will be based on only the end reward is for the players that can game 24/7.
The chocolatier building is nice... I did get the information on testing.
Having been around since Easter Event of 2012 I can remember when we had a choice of 1 Veteran, 1 Experienced Explorer, 3 Water Mills and a variety of buffs. That was it, that was pretty much the entire event. I also remember when Explorers had a 55% chance to come home with 0 eggs (or other event currency). 55% chance of zero after waiting for hours!!!
It's been interesting to observe the changes over time and the overall improvements that have been implimented. I accept what BB is doing by expanding (almost) exponentially the number and variety of things we can purchase with event currency. It makes sense that we're not going to be able to get every single thing on offer during any given event given the recent explosions of choices. I make a list, prioritize it, and am generally happily surpised to find that I can get everything I really want, with enough leftover for trades and for contributions to our guild basket for helping other members.
At first I was pretty distressed at the reduction in flowers brought home by searches this event. Then I did a little thinking. Since the last Valentine Event I have gotten, with event currency, from event quests (or with BB dropping them as an apology) the following Explorers:
2 Lovely, 1 Princess Zoe, 1 Courageous, 4 Emphatic, 3 Bewitching, 2 Humble, 1 Candid + from 2 packages 1 Courageous, 1 Candid.
I skipped getting 1 Lucky, 2 Adventurous and 1 Intrepid from events and that is still a total of 16 more explorers than last year. Not only is it 16 more Explorers, many of them have multiple loot slots so it's a gain of 45 loot slots. I don't think the reduction is going to be as bad as people think it is, but I will reserve final judgement until after the event.
Obviously what we do need is a Master Explorer, similar to a general, where we can assign 9 or 12 explorers semi-permanently. When we send the Master Exlorer on a search using the mechanism we normally would, all the ones in his “army” are launched and come back as they normally would after their normal search time while still remaining assigned to the Master Explorer.
Have fun storming the castle!
Perwyn
Additional data - A thought experiment using actual numbers:
Valentine Event 2019 - one round of medium searches by my 36 scouts. Keeping it simple they all find the minimum of 3 Flowers = 126 Flowers. I had 1 Candid & 3 Courageous in the 2019 mix which means 6 extra slots for a total of 42 x 3 = 126 Flowers.
Valentine Event 2020 - one round of medium searches by my 52 scouts. Keeping it simple they all find the minimum of 2 Flowers = 190 Flowers. How? Lovely and Bewitching always find the highest, which is 8 slots x 4 = 32 Flowers. 4 Emphatics = 12 slots x 2 = 24, 2 Humble = 12 slots x 2 = 24, 3 Candids = 12 slots x 2 = 24. Plus all the single slot explorers = 190.
With the addition of 14 scouts I earned during events this past year + 2 from small bundles bought for gems, even with the lower drop rate of Flowers in Medium searches, I will get a lot more flowers from one round of Medium searches than I did last year.
Using the same criteria as the above example for Long Searches: 2019 would have net 210. 2020 will net 304 even with the lower drop rates.
What about Very Long? 2019 would have net 420. 2020 will net 483.
Last year I skipped playing this event because the 'challenge' was to find other people available to do content with. Challenge is fine if the challenge comes from game design itself. We have 100 people in our guild. About 50 people are inactive. That leaves 50 active people to do content with - cut that in half since about half of the players are European playing on US servers. Then out of that 25 remaining you have people from levels 30 to 75. So to get 4 other people to chain run a coop adventure when you want to run it, is more of a nuisance than a 'challenge'.
I really hate the buffing others in this game taking such an importance as well. It would be fine if we didn't have so much lag, but when it is hard to even buff yourself at times, visiting others to buff them becomes a real pita. Are the servers all still based in Europe and that is what causes the amount of lag ?
I was going to leave feedback for the event, but then I realized this was the dev blog, not the dev diary.
I did feel Christmas was a nice and easy event, and I like the change of pace from the ridiculous grind most events have become lately.
The reduced explorer loot is a slap in the face. Hopefully it is not a trend to be seen in future events because we have a ridiculous amount of explorers (and clicking clicking clicking) after a year focused on releasing multiple explorers every month for growing event resource and gem costs.
That said, how's teamwork going to help me make up for the decrease in explorer searches? Without some sort of multi-person explorer search, I'm relying on farms, which have had their output cut by an almost identical 43% as explorers (the +200% buff is nice, though). Granted, it will take a lot of adventuring to fill up 35 minute farms let alone 20 minute farms, but there are plenty of people willing to do the work and thus increase overall market supply.
The event resource costs this year are 7 times higher than last (9 counting building upgrades). Even doubling what I did last year would barely make a dent.
I always play solo, so I basically will barely do this event like last year. I do like the calendar though.
I agree with the other comments.. essentially its a co-operative event... however, while i'm in a guild, i now solo buff, i Mostly solo adv.. as timing doesnt work when i'm avail vs others in the guild. I also work (i know bb thinks we are all retired or something).. so i use the long and prolonged searches.. i cant be here every 2-3 hrs to resend explorers.. those things alone make me fail at events like this that 'force socialization'. I didn't like it in school for valentines day.. and certainly don't like it when a game insists on it.
To be honest, I dislike the reduction of flowers off of explorer searches mainly because the reduction of flowers anywhere is not good for us. Where do you plan on increasing the "getting" of flowers to make up for this reduction? Is there some other mechanism that you are adding other than the buff increase? Will the flower bed output be increased, or is that decreasing too? You said that the Christmas Event is not intended for grinding out adventures. However, this last one a lot of players were grinding out adventures for the 3x XP. You are implying that we are grinding out adventures for Valentines for flowers but we really aren't. We are grinding out adventures for refills for the flowerbeds, not flowers. There is a finite amount of flowers that can be produced by the beds so basically you are only allowing us a certain amount of flowers. The only option would be for us to gem them or maybe find some in Trade. Since this is a blog post and is just an explanation of your ideas, it would be nice to actually have concrete details regarding the event. Not sure feedback on this is really necessary, but here is my blog response.
100% agree with this. My work schedule is anything but stable and we have 3 active players in my guild. I would be surprised if I could manage to get one or two explorers from this event.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ciara_Belle
Also decreasing, which is why this explanation doesn't cut it because they're axing one method but not replacing it with another, while increasing prices of existing loot and total amount of available potential requirements by 104k (half of that is the typical population building filler, and a quarter is building upgrades like the Christmas market/bakery). The production time has been increased from 20 minutes to 35 minutes. It was originally 45 minutes and with a 100% buff, so at least some progress has been made. Not that there isn't some good stuff on offer. You just have to figure out how the heck to get any of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Qiana
Feedback...? On what? That has to be the second least informative/useful post since the form letter I got from Support that basically said, "Yes we know there are issues. Too bad. Hope you keep playing!".
The people 'working' on the game are so far out of touch with the people playing it it's a wonder they even bother pretending anymore. Running around in God Mode is not playing. Dealing with the limitations of running missions that require other players and building an island with the same resources as everyone else is playing.
What is becoming more and more clear is that BB is far more interested in getting us to spend money on Gems than building a game that keeps players.
Requiring partners to play co-op missions crammed into such a short timeframe around work and school when many of us aren't playing the same missions because of levels is idiotic. Making it a requirement of the Event will cause either people to skip the event...or sometimes leave TSO altogether.
Last Easter should have been warning enough of that. We lost dozens of players and only a few came back.
Christmas was an example of how 'all' events should be run, not a 'gift' that BB gives us out of the goodness of their hearts. At L65 I could get most of what I wanted, but not all. I could help lower level Guiders, and generally everyone did okay, but no one got 'everything' without spending a few Gems. That's how a balanced Event should be.
Now you're saying the rest of the Events will be grinds so we 'appreciate' the 'gifts' come Christmas? O.o
I foresee a continued drop off in the number of active players over the course of 2020.
The inaccessibility of teammates to work with. Some day's it is just straight up impossible to run tow whirlwind in day. Nobody is in trade chat. Nobody is anywhere. Gone.
I have witnessed hours of total chat blackout, many times over.
September was not that long ago. And what was our biggest complaint?
Holy crap, where are the active low levels?
It's one thing if you want me to log 6 hours a day. Heck I have no life, take it. But if I have to WAIT to progress because of others activity, now you are just throwing a wrench in the system.
I cannot control the presence or absence of team mates. That is just luck, not skill. If you want to challenge my skill, let's do this.
I do not think there is valid reason to complain about the turned down scout rewards. You have more scouts now right? So you have more loot rolls, equals out. You will get about the same as before, potentially even more due to bewitching skill. You have scouts that return with X3 loot X4 loot!
Back in my day. I walked to school in ten feet of snow, uphill both ways. And all I had were savage scouts, and lucky scouts.
The reality is, cranking up difficulty is necessary. And I do appreciate keeping a unique feel to events.
There is a need for what I think BB is doing with "less is more". Recognizing a need to reward players who commit less time by cranking up rewards for completing a challenge or quest. Great!
Looking at christmas, you are not missing out on rewards by to committing time to adventures. You have to struggle in TO with the rest of us.
The reward for those who can put in more, comes in the form of a generous XP boost and a nice bump to levels.
Let's not lose that.
Yes, give us more for less time. Cool. But do not neglect those who can and will put in more.
Apparently BB doesn't read feedback much or they would know that refills have practically killed the events. I haven't really enjoyed any event except Christmas for the last 2 years. And having success depend on hours of play and coordinating it with others may work well for those without families, jobs or real life, but there are many for whom this does not work. CoOp advs? Ugh. Sorry, not looking forward to this event at all.
I don't mind the refills. Something different. Now with PFB and love tree, I think they could work out quite well. Granted, they could just give straight up resources and more people would probably prefer that.
I have no interest in CoOp or loot spots, but there are plenty of muti-player adventures that can be run solo. As long as I have that option, I'm good, but it's nice for those also who wish to run in groups.
I'm disappointed to read that I will be getting less from my returning treasure seekers, and especially disheartened I have to seek out buffers from the trade tab, as well as constantly go on co-ops. I have just lowered my expectations for rewards. The exchange of buffs is an anxious/not fun aspect. That would be my least favorite aspect.
One thing I do wish to plea for--two years ago there was a heart buff, then last year it was made exorbitantly expensive. I would like to see it easier/much less expensive to attain the hearts for buff effects--called Celebration of Love (versus fireworks or the default light sparkle flumes). Thank you for listening.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Perwyn
Your math is wrong, the minimum now is 1 flower for short search, so 95 for all, etc. With more explorers you will get at least 30% less.
Since I didn't post any math regarding short searches, how exactly can my math regarding short searches be wrong??Quote:
Originally Posted by ebybaby
But while we're talking about math and whether or not we'll be getting less, more or about the same amount of flowers from searches…..
Let's go one bit further than my previous post and factor in the low and high returns for medium, long and very long searches. Also, let's assume that all scouts have 3 tomes in Sturdy Shovel, giving them one extra flower on high returns. Let's use the Eurowiki split of 70% low – 30% high on search results.
2019 Med Search = 36 Explorers with 42 slots. 42 x 30% = 12.6, round up to 13. 13 x 7 = 91. 13 from 42 leaves 29 x 3 = 87. 91 + 87 = 178.
2020 Med Search = 52 Explorers with 87 slots. 87 x 30% = 26.1, round down to 26. 26 x 4 = 104. 26 from 87 = 61 x 2 = 122. 122 + 104 = 226.
2019 Long Search = 36 Explorers with 42 slots. 42 x 30% = 12.6, round up to 13. 13 x 11 = 143. 13 from 42 leaves 29 x 5 = 145. 143 + 145 = 288.
2020 Long Search = 50 Explorers with 75 slots. 2 Humbles will continue medium searches and continue to have 12 slots. 75 x 30% = 22.5, round up to 23. 23 x 7 = 161. 23 from 75 = 52 x 3 = 156. 161 + 156 = 317.
Humbles = 12 X 30% = 3.6 round down to 3. 3 x 4 = 12. 3 from 12 = 9 x 2 = 18. 18 + 12 + 317 = 347.
2019 Very Long Search = 36 Explorers with 42 slots. 42 x 30% = 12.6, round up to 13. 13 x 17 = 221. 13 from 42 leaves 29 x 11 = 319. 221 + 319 = 540.
2020 Very Long Search = 50 Explorers with 75 slots. 2 Humbles will continue medium searches and continue to have 12 slots. 75 x 30% = 22.5, round up to 23. 23 x 11 = 253. 23 from 75 = 52 x 5 = 260. 253 + 260 = 513.
Humbles = 12 X 30% = 3.6 round down to 3. 3 x 4 = 12. 3 from 12 = 9 x 2 = 18. 18 + 12 + 513 = 543.
Isn't math fun? Looking at the trend Prolonged Searches will bring in less this year, even with more Explorers. How many people do Prolonged Searches during an event? I don't know.
And no, I don't do Short Searches. If you want to insist my math is wrong because I don't do Short Searches, knock yourself out.
The new content looks amazing, and somehow I like the rationale. It increases the need to cooperate and we are forced to make decisions to organize our island.
With explorers, it's easy but in the end, it's only about clicking and we are not doing anything.
I agree that cooperation should play a bigger part in the game. That's what makes MMO games fun. The problem is that the Coop mechanics is a disaster (and not talking about PvP, LOL). Maybe in the future we could have adventures for which the loot is proportional to XP's or completion time, or multiplayers epic campaigns requiring tens of thousands of troops.
I think the refill mechanics is fine, but the problem is that we are limited to 3 farms. If a player wants to grind in order to refill more farms, why is it a problem? At some point there will be a natural limit (only 24 hours in a day) and the extra farms will simply run out. And because refills are tradable, individual trade and loot spot market sounds better that the cooperation route.
If teamwork is key, then perhaps BB can team up with the players and offer a 3x gem sale.
Not just 'the' problem, but *THE BIGGEST* problem with any Event/Challenge/etc that requires Co-op adventures, especially ones with a shortened timeframe. PvP and Co-op are two of the worst aspects of this game and one that many players simply avoid. Until that issue is fixed, making Co-op a requirement for success is forcing players to beat their heads against their keyboards when they should be able to enjoy their gaming time.Quote:
Originally Posted by kzar
Not all of us sit in front of our computers all day gaming. Not all of us can find people willing to run Advs at our level in our time online.
Sure, give a bonus for Co-ops, but make it so players can still see a similar level of success with multi-player Advs if they're willing to run enough of them.
I guess 44% more clicking for 27% more resources is not too bad if you look at it that way, ignoring that the double/triple/sextuple results should be producing far more. One silver lining is that medium is now the best option, and there is zero excuse to do short unless you really need a quick search. I refused to do that last year anyway because it's just too much.
Lakeside Treasure is a fast & easy 2 person co-op with a small map and low losses. If you can arrange to run some with a reliable and fast partner the payout's among the highest available. (I avoid Whirlwind like the plague.)
Believe me, I wish the drop rates were still the same as last year. With all these new explorers I could get everything I want plus another half dozen things I don't really need in about 8 days and be done with this event. Unfortunately, BB is not gonna let me do that. That Proof of Love Bundle was the first thing on my list. Till I realized the drop rate got nerfed. Probably won't be getting it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gwalben
Every event so far it started out looking grim, but turned out that I still got everything I wanted. This might be the first time I don't even come close, or it might not. Like I said in an earlier post, gonna reserve judgement until after the event.
When I really stop to think about it, I hardly use iron anymore so don't need an Endless Iron Mine and I can't remember ever thinking to myself “Dang, I wish I had a 2nd Anselm”, so there's no sense in me spending from now till the end of the event in a permanent state of heartburn because I probably can't get something for free that I don't even really want anyway. If I did really want the bundle, then I'd have to choose between it and I don't know, 7 Water Mansions? Do I really need those either?……
Depends on your goals. I think I probably want a minimum of 40-50k, ignoring any population buildings, non-explorer specialists, and buildings that aren't new. Farms produce about 1k per day max, without getting into what potential the love tree may hold, which I don't think I'll realize until late in the event, if at all. I'm not sure how the math on explorers works out over the course of a full day, but even even with last year's explorer returns, I couldn't get everything in a week.
Wondering about the Love Tree, for those who have checked it out on Test. Is it essentially a Christmas Market with a 1000% top-tier buff, or is there some other way to describe it? Thanks to anyone who can provide some feedback. -EG
Yes, it's kind of like the Christmas Market, but unlike the Christmas Market, the cooldown is long and the buff is short. Also, unlike the Chritmas Market it's a 1x1 footprint, like a deco or a Storage Tower, so can sneak it into tight spaces.
The buffs are 600% for 4 hours. 800% for 5 hours & 1000% for 6 hours. The cooldown with one tree is 5 days. Two trees is 2-1/2 days. Three trees is 1 day & 16 hours cooldown. The cost for three trees including upgrades to one of them is a little over 9,000 flowers. Limit on test is 3, Wiki says limit 1, will likely be limit 3 during the event.
I had been expecting the Valentine's event just to be a small event, not like Easter, Halloween and Christmas. I've really enjoyed the Lovely Explorer, and the Charming Geologist, and had really just hoped I might be able to pick up one more of each.
And then you guys introduce what looks like a game-changing Chocolatier which finally lets players produce effective buffs for provision houses and bookbinders. It strikes me as being an imperative to have, but looking at the numbers, I feel like I'll be lucky to get that item and nothing else. I can't even seem to trade for event resources in the trade office anymore because of the increasing gap between high level players and mid to low level players. Going through great efforts only to accomplish hardly anything just makes the whole game feel hopeless and depressing. I didn't used to get this depressed playing this game.
Thanks so much for the detailed information, Perwyn!
A few things that bother me about this 'explanation':
1. You say that you feel that the new buildings are powerful and as such are meant to feel unique and rare hence why the costs make them difficult to obtain. However, I can't help but feel that you guys are, immediately after the event, going to turn around and sell them for gems in infinite quantity. This makes them neither rare nor unique and as such that reasoning becomes rather hard to believe.
2. "Teamwork". Now I get this is Valentine's and so you want people to work together to succeed, however almost NO event currency whatsoever comes from working with other players. We get flowers from explorers and our farms and both of those do not depend on others. The only thing we get from working with other people is refills from adventures, and regardless how many refills we get our farms will never produce more flowers than normal. We could theoretically avoid others entirely by playing multiplayer adventures and just finishing them alone to get the refills and keep our farms going that way till the end, and would get exactly the same number of flowers as if had we played with others. Telling me that you reduced the explorer return to enhance cooperative spirit is preposterous.
If you guys really wanted to have us work together then I would suggest removing the farms entirely and just give the event currency from the selected adventures (similar to Easter). This way we could get some from grinding on my own but the more lootspots we take/trade or co-ops we do, the more flowers we would get. Plus I guarantee the players would vastly prefer that setup to the refills. Another suggestion to this effect would be awarding flowers for buffing your friends buildings (up to say 100 max flowers a day or something).
I appreciate the work you guys do and am looking forward to getting what I can out the event, but please keep in mind that making it more challenging does not necessarily mean making it better.
Do you really think the servers can handle this? All that visiting others seems to make the game more laggy than normal.Quote:
Another suggestion to this effect would be awarding flowers for buffing your friends buildings (up to say 100 max flowers a day or something).
Well said Trialgame.
exactly -- the farms are self limiting.. and so you are stuck with the max they can put out... but release a HUGE list of Expensive items .. that we have no hope of getting because - the farms are limited. which implies to me - the stuff we couldn't get is gonna be showing up for gems afterwards.Quote:
Originally Posted by Trialgame