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Events A New Kind of Event

Are you in favor of this idea?


  • Total voters
    28
  • Poll closed .

Ashrem

Well-Known Member
Event Buildings as Both Pace-Control and Non-Random Grand Prize.

Summary
Modify underlying Event mechanics to have elements of a guest race as both a pace control, and non-random grand prize feature.

Description
One of the common complaints about event quests are how tedious the quests can be. I think this is because of the development teams efforts to make quests that can’t be rushed through, with the quests designed to control speed of progress through the event. In the end, the quests really only control speed for those not willing to devote large amounts of their land to many workshops and manufactories. Other complaints surround the random delivery of prizes, and the lack of any visible indicator of participation.

With that in mind, I’m suggesting a slightly different flavor to events to generate a little variety in the effort, provide a slightly better mechanism for controlling progress, and remove part of the random factor.

One of the core things this suggestion changes is turning the event coin (nuts, keys, etc) into an actual raw material for progression through the event, as well as it still being a currency for winning daily prizes, so that part of the roulette element is removed for one large prize. The roulette would still be there for the majority of the results, but a new path is created toward at least one of the prizes that doesn’t rely on random events.

In addition to new quests, making events more like a mini-guest-race by building them around a specific building that ends up being one of the grand prizes, but is constructed during the event, instead of being won in the slots. The special event building also can be used to be both a pace control for progress through the event and as a prize. Players would gain some control over that final prize, instead of it being entirely random. The other three prizes would still exist in much the same way they are handled now.

Because the building upgrades serve as a closer-to-absolute control over pace, unlike anything we have at the moment (if someone is willing to build a hundred workshops and a 50 manufactories, they can be done in a day [depending on scout times and requirements]) It's no longer necessary to use long production times as a control. If the event building needs to be at a certain level to proceed, and needs to be at that level to produce the specific goods that are needed to upgrade it further, all of the control is finite saving diamonds. Since (in the example below) nobody can get past quest 15 (have your event building at level four) until they've had the designated time to upgrade, everyone can move forward at about the same pace, regardless of how much space they give to the event (the exception being diamonds to speed up the upgrades) For that reason, none of the other quests need to be anything that takes longer than a few hours. It doesn't matter if you can make 100 beverages in five minutes of five hours, because you need to have your event building at level 8 to get past quest #30, which is going to take three or four days. If you can't make lunar brew until it is level four (like orcs in the breeding grounds at level 20), and you can't upgrade to level eight without lunar brew, then the production can be kept short. The greatest majority of pacing is controlled by the event building, and (diamonds aside) virtually everyone will move at closer to the same rate. There is still some room for people to get ahead who are willing to get up at 3:00am to start their next upgrade or run the brew they need for the next one.

Plan:
The event kicks off with a quest to construct a special event building: Starts at 2x2, takes xx hours (either flat across all levels, or escalating from minutes for the first level to a day or two for the end product) to construct, and at each stage takes a set number of hours to upgrade, can be upgraded to (as an example) level 28, which is a 5x5 building. After the event ends, it can no longer be upgraded, but becomes a permanent culture/tools/goods/mana/seeds prize building and a marker of how far you got in the event. You don’t have to finish the other steps to upgrade it, so it allows people to participate who can’t do the rest of the event. At each stage, the building takes on a different mix of culture, population, supplies, mana, KP etc. (Alternative: the initial building is a “0 level” grand prize, that you can get my cashing in your first 50 event coin, then becomes upgradable after that.) This diverts some of the gathered event-coin from the random feature to a fixed prize over which the player has some control. Perhaps 10% or 20% of the total coin gathered could be dedicated to upgrading the event building to its maximum level. At each break point (1-3, 4-7, 8-11 etc) the building effectively becomes a new building, so that the system for calculating what the building provides after the game is done doesn’t need to track the exact level. (i.e, all level 1-3 would have the same value in each chapter, with the next value change coming at level 4 when it turns into the new building)

One theoretical pacing example:
  • Quest 15 - Have event building at level 4 2x2
  • Quest 30 - Have event building at level 8 2x3
  • Quest 45 - Have event building at level 12 3x3
  • Quest 60 - Have event building at level 16 4x3
  • Quest 75 - Have event building at level 20 4x4
  • Quest 90 - Have event building at level 24 4x5
  • Quest 105 - Have event building at level 28 5x5
(by requiring leveling of the event building at a fixed rate, no matter how hard someone pushes the event, they can’t finish for at at least a couple of weeks, while most will take closer to three weeks to finish (unless they use diamonds or instants to speed the upgrades))

Some Examples (for a theoretical Stonehenge/Solstice themed event) Event coin = “Woad Flowers” Chest = “Bucket of Blue paint”

Day 1: event building/portal becomes available (Wooden henge (Post ring: 2x2)) prize for completing the building is an instant for double Paint buckets (either one per click or it lasts for an hour or two depending on ease of programming)
(Building is used to make things from the Woad Flowers)

Quest 15 : Have the Henge at level 4 (At level 4, Wood Henge art changes to Standing Stones: 2x2 Granite post ring)
Quest 30: Have your henge upgraded to level 8 (2x3 Blue henge - Granite horse shoe)
Quest 45 Have your henge upgraded to level 12 (3x3 Blue Stone Henge- ring of standing stones)
Quest 60 Have your henge upgraded to level 16 (3x4 Sarsen Henge - adds a heel-stone and returns to horseshoe)
Quest 75 Have your henge upgraded to level 20 (4x4 Sarsen Stone Henge - Ring with Standing stone in middle)
Quest 90 Have your henge upgraded to level 24 (4x5 Marble Henge - U shaped standing stones with lintels on top)
Quest 105 Have your henge upgraded to level 28 (5x5 Crystal Henge - Full ring henge, with animated sun burning over the center stone)

Possible Event related quests:
1) Brew Lunar mead from Woad flowers in the henge
2) First Lunar Libation: Brew xx bottles of Moon Mead
3) Distill Solar ambrosia from Lunar Mead
4) Bake Moonbread from Moonflowers
5) Prepare Solstice Feast: xx Moonbread, xx Ambrosia, and xx Mead

Additional quests that could be added that are more productive and less stressful, as well as being less dependent on having the time available when you do, vs having to be back in a set time to start the next “batch”: Not a replacement for all existing quests, but a supplement to expand on and replace some of them.
  • Help xx neighbors
  • List (or accept) xx three star trades
  • List (or accept) xx two star trades
  • List trades totalling XXXX goods (the list trades are only slightly different from the current “obtain xx goods” but make things a little easier for people not in Fellowships who happen to be in quiet areas, where thy might not be able to obtain a bunch of a specific non-boosted easily. Also, in the last event, one of the obtain goods daily quests overlapped the last day of a tournament where it was a primary, leaving players scrambling to find items when everyone was at their lowest point. Removing specific acquisitions makes trades easier, since everyone can offer what they have, in exchange for something they need, without straining each other.)
  • Use x Power of provision spells (right before one of the “gain xxxxx supplies quests)
  • Collect X [event coins] in the wilderness around your city
Additional variation:

Replace double-days with instants. Allows people to get at least some of their double-event-chests on days where the prize is meaningful to them, but only have one or two available per city (I.e., the instant could be the reward for the first event, and maybe for the 50th?) Could also be an event spell - “Double event-chests” (can only be found in helper chests at low probability, or is only received once or twice as the reward for some of the event steps, or is the daily prize one day, or have more of them, but each use is only good for one “roll,” allowing you to choose when you get some double-chests)

Bonus complexity: Put a mini-version of the Fellowship adventures into the middle of the event. Make steps 30-40 be a single iteration solo-play version of the FS. Reduce the number of badges required to something reasonably obtainable by one person, and have getting to the top of the map by one path or another be part of the quest. Adds content without much new programming or art, while giving solo players a taste of how the FA runs.

Motivation
More variation and therefore more appealing events. Replace long/tedious quest steps with meaningful quests that have a visible affect on Event progress. Reduce some of the random nature of the event-prize acquisition. Reduce ability of planning ahead to affect the over-all pace of the event.

Possible downsides
  • Might require a lot of resources to adapt guest race mechanics to an event.
  • Players are already complaining about the amount of events. (Though, really, this is intended to replace the standard event mechanic, not supplement it)
 
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DeletedUser332

Guest
A novel concept, but I'm not sure about the part which talks about this event building being a 'production' building during the duration of the event. Since everyone only has one, wouldn't that cause a lot of headache when it comes to your proposed tasks requiring the building's productions? For example, imagine if guest race portals functioned this way, and you had to juggle upgrading them with using them to produce mushrooms and raid goods (since you can't run productions while buildings are upgrading). It saves a lot of space when everything's condensed into one building, but that also means it's very one-dimensional and either too frantic or too mundane depending on how the pacing is laid out.

All that being said, the idea of having a singular event building that you receive via quests seems pretty nice. I imagine event participation wants to be encouraged though, so I'd suggest that rather than having the building be upgraded normally, that specific quests during the event ask you to delete your building in exchange for a better version of it (culminating in the final upgrade being received with the final quest).
 

Ashrem

Well-Known Member
I wasn't envisioning that the production would be a constant thing in the building, just an occasional thing to give a little variety to the quests. If the level 3 event building makes the materials that are needed to take it to level 4, that can be a short production cycle (3 hours, or even less) while injecting a little variation into the workshop and manufacturing jobs. The majority of the quests would still be similar to the existing ones. I can't think of anything comparable to a delete-and-replace, so I'm not sure what advantages that offers over upgrades?

(Edit: and the production in the event building, using the event-coin, is what moves some of the event-coin from random to fixed. It consumes 10%, or 20% (or whatever works) from random to fixed reward.
 

Loki Blue

Well-Known Member
2) First Lunar Libation: Brew xx bottles of Moon Mead

Oh, yes, I can see it now...I'll drink them all and have to brew more. And I'll probably drink those too, so there's me, passed out with an empty carafe of Moon Mead beside me and a half-eaten loaf of Moonbread in my hand. And there's Balder giving all of my Solar Ambrosia to the Elves. :confused:

I love this idea so much that when it hit Live I would start a brand new city and build the city up around the henge. :D

Seriously though, I like the level of involvement. I like that you have to actually work for the prize rather than just mindlessly "collect x for x" and maybe spend a few $ to speed you along. Another thing I like about this is the evolution of the henge. If something happens during the Event and a player can't finish it, they still have a reward. I personally would be happy with any one of these

Quest 15 : Have the Henge at level 4 (At level 4, Wood Henge art changes to Standing Stones: 2x2 Granite post ring)
Quest 30: Have your henge upgraded to level 8 (2x3 Blue henge - Granite horse shoe)
Quest 45 Have your henge upgraded to level 12 (3x3 Blue Stone Henge- ring of standing stones)
Quest 60 Have your henge upgraded to level 16 (3x4 Sarsen Henge - adds a heel-stone and returns to horseshoe)
Quest 75 Have your henge upgraded to level 20 (4x4 Sarsen Stone Henge - Ring with Standing stone in middle)
Quest 90 Have your henge upgraded to level 24 (4x5 Marble Henge - U shaped standing stones with lintels on top)
Quest 105 Have your henge upgraded to level 28 (5x5 Crystal Henge - Full ring henge, with animated sun burning over the center stone)

but I know me, and I'd bust my icy blue tuchas to make it to the final henge.


So, anyway, my vote for this idea is +1.
 

Ashrem

Well-Known Member
This Had mostly universal acceptance on the live forums, so I hope it's been well proofed, but does anyone see any holes in it? @qaccy , did you feel like my response answered your concerns, or do you still feel like using it for productions is a weakness?
 

Loki Blue

Well-Known Member
I know! I just saw! WOOHOO! :D:D:D

And there's Balder giving all of my Solar Ambrosia to the Elves. :confused:

I got to wondering where I could stash my Solar Ambrosia, and I was thinking I could hide it somewhere in the old monastery on the mountainside. "Mister Shiny" would never go in there...but then this morning, a wolf told me that this Elf may be Balder's contact.

Balder's Contact.jpg


Of course...one of Freyr's Wardens.

I think I may be in trouble. :p
 
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