Jackluyt
Well-Known Member
Post-Event Impressions
The Event is over in Beta World now, and only a few days to go in the Live Worlds.
Here is the feedback I have received from the EPL Facebook group - please feel free to add comments!
Timon says that they pay attention to ‘balancing’ the quests - so there are some that favor newcomers, and some that favor advanced players.
Nice in theory - but they did not succeed entirely this time!
1. What I particularly like is that some of the Quest awards offer useful materials: Goods, KP Supplies, and Coins - which will be invaluable to a ‘Newbie’!
Sadly this falls away later after quest 14.
2. Daily Feeding quests
It is difficult to fault these!
Perfect for a newcomer - the amounts of materials required are quite do-able, even for an entrance level player.
3. The Consecutive Quests
Sadly, there have been many complaints about these!
It would appear that the design team did not run a full simulation on how affordable these quests would be for all players. There are some that are virtually impossible for newcomers, and some that are equally undo-able for Advanced players - because the massive amounts of goods required quite simply are so expensive that many (most?) advanced players abandoned the Event, because they could use the materials better, elsewhere.
Here is a reply from Support to one of my players - and I don’t find it at all acceptable:
Issues and thoughts:
Lots and lots and lots of negative responses - and not one single positive!
Then I posted another asking if anyone had positive remarks:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10209759741450892&set=gm.1903449113243801&type=3&theater
There were a few interesting points...
A common response was:
Here is the EPL event guide on which these suggestions are based:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1650734901848558/files/
Elvenar Platinum Leaf is an independent player's group on Facebook, with 4000 members, and a large collection of more than three hundred videos and fact files.
You and your friends are most welcome to join us!
The Event is over in Beta World now, and only a few days to go in the Live Worlds.
Here is the feedback I have received from the EPL Facebook group - please feel free to add comments!
Timon says that they pay attention to ‘balancing’ the quests - so there are some that favor newcomers, and some that favor advanced players.
Nice in theory - but they did not succeed entirely this time!
1. What I particularly like is that some of the Quest awards offer useful materials: Goods, KP Supplies, and Coins - which will be invaluable to a ‘Newbie’!
Sadly this falls away later after quest 14.
2. Daily Feeding quests
It is difficult to fault these!
Perfect for a newcomer - the amounts of materials required are quite do-able, even for an entrance level player.
3. The Consecutive Quests
Sadly, there have been many complaints about these!
It would appear that the design team did not run a full simulation on how affordable these quests would be for all players. There are some that are virtually impossible for newcomers, and some that are equally undo-able for Advanced players - because the massive amounts of goods required quite simply are so expensive that many (most?) advanced players abandoned the Event, because they could use the materials better, elsewhere.
Here is a reply from Support to one of my players - and I don’t find it at all acceptable:
“Thank you for contacting Elvenar support. We are sorry to hear that you are experiencing difficulties with the game. Unfortunately, the events will not necessarily be able to be completed by everyone. It is just not possible to create an event that every player can complete. That is one of the reasons that there are multiple events per year, and why the quests within the events change as well.
“We will be happy to forward your feedback to the developers to take into consideration as they work on planning future events.
“Please let us know if you have any further questions, and have a lovely day!
“Kind regards...”
The highlighting is mine - and I do not agree with their statement at all!“We will be happy to forward your feedback to the developers to take into consideration as they work on planning future events.
“Please let us know if you have any further questions, and have a lovely day!
“Kind regards...”
Issues and thoughts:
- These event buildings are GREAT for ‘newbies’ - giving access to levels of Culture that you cannot buy in the shop. When you chapter up and outgrow the buildings, you sell them and buy replacements in the next Event.
They are NOT much use for advanced players, above Orcs & Goblins - where you need to fill your city with Culture buildings that also produce Mana.
- We are hoping for a Mana Event Building next time! Timon said in Q & A that this is planned for future Events.
- The special fighting abilities buildings that boost your troops’ strength are a good idea. One can collect a few and place them the week your fellowship goes for the Tenth Chest.
- The stand-alone Orc’s Nest Building which produces Orcs for players in Chapter VIII is a great idea! It allows you to perhaps delete an Armory - and its support buildings too: Residences, Culture and Workshops that you need to build it, and to keep it producing
- The stand-alone buildings that produce fighting units (Vallorian Guards, Orc Strategist) are very useful for beginners who do not have access to troops like this. The one that produces Orc Strategist is great for all Human players below Orcs chapter, who do not have a comparable unit. (Elves have Golem which is roughly similar).
- It is worth doing the Event just for the Knowledge Points!
You can throw the buildings away, if you don’t want or need them.
- Boring, repetitive and irrelevant Quests are not good!
- Timon wants us to trade more - so let’s have lots more trading Quests like ‘trade with someone on the map 10 times’; ‘trade with someone in your fellowship 20 times’; ‘place 10 trades for your first boosted material’, place 10 trades for your second Boosted material, etc etc.
Examples might be:
i. Use a Shortcut HotKey;
ii. Zoom your city in once and out again
iii. Change your City Name and your Avatar
iv. Upgrade 6 blocks of street (the reward window would tell the ‘newbie’ that he / she gained Culture, and so they should do all the rest!)
v. Sell a Culture building (Easy one! - one could build and sell a 1 x 1 Signpost. The reward window would tell the ‘newbie’ that he / she could gain Culture by selling & replacing obsolete buildings!)
vi. Whisper with a friend in the Chat window
vii. Collect Three Treasure Chests from Neighborhood visits
viii. Find and visit a player called ‘Mystery Jackpot’ (teaching the player search function) and polish his Mystery Building. This would be a city that belongs to the developers - and would have a Building that gives a random mystery prize, varying from a few supplies to something very special! They could leave this city open for the whole of the event...
ix. etc etc.
This list took me 5 minutes to dream up - there are obviously many, many more possibilities!
- Co-operation with Fellowships is part of Timon’s plan - so what about ‘visit fellowship members 24 times?” Which encourages us to have bigger fellowships!
- Forging trading- and visiting friendships on the Map is desirable - so how about ‘visit x number of people on the Map’?
- The Design Team want us to use the Magic Academy more - so how about ‘Cast 5 Spells’?
- Keep the Quests Event-related - like ‘Collect 20 Sugar Beet’? ‘Use 100 Candy’?
- The Designers obviously would like to encourage us to buy Diamonds. So how about giving us 50 Diamonds and telling us to spend them - repeated several times during the event!!
Sort-of getting us into the swing of using Diamonds, à la Pavlov!
- The ‘pay a good amount of xxxx’ quests.
This is a REALLY good idea - but there are issues with it:
a. It is poorly explained - I have had at least thirty people ask how the quest works!
People tried buying marble, spending marble, trading marble etc etc - and could not make it work.
The layout of the quest could be improved - to make it easier to understand.
b. The amounts of materials asked for are supposed to be calculated so everyone is asked for an easily affordable amount, appropriate for their current chapter level.
This was not the case, in practice!
i. Beginners who have not unlocked Tier 3 factories were expected to trade with fellowship for those goods. In practice, the amounts involved would require them to stop their regular city building for a week or so.
Many gave up on the event for that reason.
ii. In the new worlds Sinya Arda and Ceravyn (US server) and Felyndral (EN / International server) - it was commonly reported that very few players had advanced far enough to unlock Tier Three factories - and these goods were not available to trade.
Many gave up on the event for that reason.
iii. Advanced players were asked for amounts of the order 30 000 of each of the T3 goods. For many, myself included, it was simply not worth it to give away 100 000 Magical Goods, and vast amounts of Supplies and Coins too.
Many of us are committed to fellowship Tournament schedules - and losing that much material would make Tournament participation impossible.
Many of us gave up on the event for that reason.
- The Grand Prizes are not as good as previous Events.
Timon explained in the Q & A that a previous Event had over-valued the buildings and they had scaled this set down. I think that is poor business logic. Many people gave up on the event because the prizes were not good enough to justify the expenditure and effort.
- High drop-out rate.
Only the Design Team have access to the figures of how many people dropped out of the event - but my impression is that a much higher number of people simply gave up after a few weeks - for the reasons given above.
Players do not want to waste lots of their hard-earned materials on an Event quest.
I do not have enough fingers and toes to count the number of times I’ve heard someone call this the worst event ever...
- The quests are irrelevant, repetitive and boring!
Making Power of Provision Enchantments, and doing production runs of Tier One Goods and Workshops runs over and over takes all the novelty and fun out of the Event. See suggestions above.
Lots and lots and lots of negative responses - and not one single positive!
Then I posted another asking if anyone had positive remarks:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10209759741450892&set=gm.1903449113243801&type=3&theater
There were a few interesting points...
A common response was:
"It was not fun!"
Comments added:
- Why was it not fun?
My take on this is that the impression one gets is that the design team are inherently stingy!
They resent giving away anything at all - or so it would appear ..
What I would say to them is that if you want to have a wonderful party where everyone enjoys themselves - you need to have a big bowl of Punch at the door, and hand a free glass to each guest as they arrive.
Then you spend a few bucks to hire an Oompah band, and ask each of the guys to bring a bottle of schnapps, and the ladies to bring a plate of canapes... ... and voila!
PARTY TIME!
FUN!!
This is not the spirit of the Event that the players are picking up, this time around...
It seems that the developers resent giving away anything at all - and must extract their pound of flesh for each little trinket that they grudgingly shell out...
Why not give away some really big mystery prizes?
A couple of expansions, a blue print or two...
... most of us would not win them - but it would add the spice to the Event that is at present sadly lacking.....
- Overall consensus was that the ‘Pay xxx of yyy’ quests asked for ridiculously large amounts of materials - and players resented having to part with those, and see their city growth and Tournament play grind to a halt...
... the design team extracting their 'pound of flesh'!
Surely we can do better than this, Timon?
Here is the EPL event guide on which these suggestions are based:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1650734901848558/files/
Elvenar Platinum Leaf is an independent player's group on Facebook, with 4000 members, and a large collection of more than three hundred videos and fact files.
You and your friends are most welcome to join us!
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