Fire and Ice - A great event!

[hawkeye_pike]

We enjoyed ourselves very much. I think the most exciting thing is the unexpected. That's how any dungeon expedition should be...
Too bad it was over so soon!

 

[sablestorm]

I went to visit Baja's Event myself, though my home shard's event is today (Pacific). I've got a slew of new/returning players who have joined my guild within the last week. They aren't all that established, but I hoped to show them how EA has enacted events these days. I wanted to make sure I didn't lead them into the mouth of the dragon so to speak. So yesterday I got to enjoy the uncertainty of it all. Today, I get to play shepherd.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

So since you liked it....Can you please post what happened?

No one seems to know. There's another thread where people asked what happened, but the closest thing there to a summary is from someone who didn't like the event and wants to make fun of it.

Now that's all well and good....But it's like getting your news from Jon Stewart. Sure you could do it, and you might get a handle on what actually, literally happened...Might.

But it's not the same as someone straight-forward-ly saying "this is what went on, to the best of my recollection."

-Galen's player

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

nvm, saw you posted a link on the other thread.

-Galen's player

 

[Jhym]

I was pleased, on Chesapeake I got there a bit late and there were gates up to go to everywhere. I got a bit confused at the crypts, not realizing there was a second gate at first, but once I got to the dungeon it was pretty straight forward.

I was killed several times and didn't actually get to fight. Then in the crystal room Casca attempted several times to destroy it (which was getting a little comical with him *brandishing staff* and *hits crystal with staff*.)

Then we got the crystals appearing... which immediately disappeared. I tried using object handles but all I could see is crystals popping into people's packs, so I finally just gave up like usual. Then while Casca bombasted about his "saving" us, the dorks trying to hawk crystals were shouting constantly. Finally we went back to the abbey, where Casca again told us how lucky we were to have him.

The Crimson appeared and told us we were puny as Casca ran off. The other Platinum oddly kept insisting we humans should go away, that it was dangerous... then just shapechanged and scolded the Crimson.

Then they left.

Overall it was handled as well as could be expected, my only beef is that the Platinum and Crimson should have, well, honestly, killed everyone there with some explosions and earthquakes and THEN left. At least I would have felt like they really meant what they said.

I at least was hoping for some pyrotechnics with pretty shields and lots of *glaring at the opponent*.

I did move over to the Platinum and say I stood with her, but obviously we humans weren't important to the battle lol.

 

[Viper09]

Amen! Twas a great event indeed.
I was impressed with the dungeon run. Ours went on for a while which made it awesome

I only wish it ended with a bit more of a conclusion feeling other than
*poof, bye bye Crimson*
*Platinum leaves*

Still good though

 

[Farsight]

Aye, overall a great event, even though it was a bit anticlimactic.

And that I spent the entire "fight" portion of the event spamming noble sacrifice. There were too many dead to res them one at a time.

I loved that part though. At least it wasn't easy.

 

[CatLord]

Oh Mighty Bahamut!!!

 

[the 4th man]

These events need to be limited to characters on that shard along with age restriction per character......too many instant characters all of a sudden.

I went early, found a spot, and logged to feed the family, but, I took note of two guys.....popped their paperdolls open, both had newbie clothes and spellbooks with 12 spells..............

I got me a crystal, but feel bad for those who didn't, cause of lag, or new characters to Atlantic......I know some will argue, "I couldn't attend the one on my shard".......that's your choice to make the effort, and secondly, how good can you do with a newbie character??

later

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

0n Atlantic, the lag was fierce and there was good player turn out. Casca himself showed up, and ran away like a coward. I confronted him on this, and he told me that I 'have no respect for authority'. As if.

He did at least speak to me. I couldn't manage to grab one of the crystals thanks to the lag and crowd, but all and all, my feelings about Casca aside, I enjoyed the event.

 

[Manticore]

Those Shadow Fiends are definetly a must for events. They only showed up on some shards and when they did, so did the increase in death toll. It was fun watching endless waves of EVs, Dragons, Doggies getting their life sucked out of them while brave warriors comit comicazi's and by standers having no idea why they died.

I also recommend you do not have simultaneous events as it will create more unecessary lag. Space them out a hour between each other.

By far the 5 highest attended shards were Atlantic, cheesypeak, Catskils, Pacific, and Great Lakes. The level of difficulites were adequate for all except for Great Lakes and Catskils. On those 2 shards, players went through the mosters like a sharpened Kantana on butter. Don't forget we players are all decked out with the best armors and weapons and simple lich lords, balrons, and blood elementals just won't do it anymore. Try paragoning all the monsters, or introduce some peerless or champs in the mix. Nothing like a fake Harrower to spice up the events

 

[gunneroforgin]

We enjoyed ourselves very much. I think the most exciting thing is the unexpected. That's how any dungeon expedition should be...
Too bad it was over so soon!

I liked that the event was short and didn't take all day. I was a bit disapointed by the ending. It seems to me that Momma came to collect the errant offspring and appoligized for it bothering the the poor humans. I was also put off by people spaming the crystals for sale and improper respect being shown to the king. I spent the last couple of minutes of the event dead and got a rez just in time to grab a single red crystal. I should have taken time to loot some of the monsters I killed coming into the big room but, didn't and by the time the event ended, it was too late to go back as all the bodies had decayed.

 

[Harb]

Hawkeye, I can't recall ever disagreeing with you, and as opinions on this one are relative to one's own experience, suppose I'm not really "disagreeing" now. I have to say however, that for the wife and I, on Chesapeake, this was a miserable experience - at best. Our expectations may have been too high. What we participated in had a lot of spamming, cross shard players whom we’ve never seen on our shard, inability to observe text from the EM, somewhere between limited and no control by said EM, what seemed quite “disjointed” based on inability to follow along, horrendous lag, no congruity of the battle, and mementos that were dropped on the floor and subject to script looting. We’ve participated in numerous events before, this one, at least for us, sits solidly at the bottom in terms of enjoyment and satisfaction.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

I was also put off by people spaming the crystals for sale and improper respect being shown to the king.

Agreed about the spamming.

Disagreed about the respect for the "king". Casca is not the king, no matter what he, or his so-called Royal Council may say.

 

[Cerwin Vega]

It was a good event, alittle short but good. I did think the crim and plat drag fight at the end was lame... If that crim drag was the leader and most powerful one then it should have been a epic battle.

 

[Prince Caspian]

I think one dude on Sonoma summed it up perfectly after the Platinum Dragon left....

"Um, what the hell just happenend?"
Some dude: "With the dragons?"
"With ANY of this."

I must say the event was interesting but certainly not anything to write home about. Too short and pretty pointless, and largely non-interactive. In fact I hate to say it, but so many of these events feel like they are gonna unfold the precise same way no matter what we do. Maybe that's just MMORPGs. It would be refreshing if the servers could have their own destinies instead of everybody's chapters ending exactly the same way (eventually).

Again, I'm happy to have the event, but I don't see why everyone is raving about it. Maybe its the utter dearth of meaningful scenarios put forth in 2009 so far. Reminds me of the Eddie Murphy bit: "If a man is starving, and you throw him a cracker, he's gonna think that's the best cracker he ever ate!"

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

It would be refreshing if the servers could have their own destinies instead of everybody's chapters ending exactly the same way (eventually).

We've had those events. People complain about those too.

Case in point was the end of the Juka/Meer event.

If the players "won" the event, Yew was a swamp, but was a workable town. (Escort missions would recognize it; guard zone; no monster spawn; functioning NPCs.)

If the players "lost" the event, Yew was a swamp that was NOT a workable town. (Escort missions wouldn't recognize it; no guard zone; plague monsters spawned; no functioning NPCs.)

The town's fate was different on each shard. And this outcome lasted for YEARS, until Mondain's Legacy.

The result: Confusion and resentment, particularly on Europa where the players lost the event largely because the climax was scheduled during what in Europe was very inconvenient hours, and thus few players were on. Also the smaller shards had a lot of difficulty getting together enough materials.

Another case in point was the Magincia Invasions. Siege lost the event on purpose, because they didn't want the town to have a guard zone. They forgot, however, to ask Draconi if the teleporter from Trinsic would work (it didn't), then there was an issue of what I've read was some location critical to Factions (I forget what location it was exactly), was veritably blocked off.

Also, I've been told that different shards have different levels of destruction in Magincia. (I haven't visited the other shards myself to verify this, however.)

Yet another case in point would be the varying levels of EM items available on the different shards. This certainly caused resentment.

So yeah....The shards are not going to be drastically different. They just aren't. In case it isn't obvious I would guess that the reason why is that it would be a pain in the ass for EA if each shard constituted substantially different environments.

Not to mention that, fictionally, though there may be differences between the shards, at the end of the day we're all kind of supposed to have the same march of history.

But yeah....The differences that DO exist between shards have been the source of complaints as well as complements.

Personally I'm pretty happy with the level of shard uniqueness we currently have. I worry the nerfing of EM event items will cause too little uniqueness, even as I worry that the handling of the remainder of the Warriors of Destiny event cycle may cause too much uniqueness.

-Galen's player

 

[Dragonchilde]

I attended the Chesapeake event, and had a grand time. I collected a number of death robes, lost my own corpse in the pile of bodies, and was able to read the EM's words. Why? Because I arrived early, and started ignoring players as soon as they started causing problems. As soon as they started running around spamming, I ignored them. As a result, I didn't have nearly as many problems as there I could have.

When the crowd was pushed back, my quick reflexes (not good connection... I lagged fiercely the whole time, and have a really poor-performing computer) made me one of the first to the crystals, and I got one. I'm thrilled with my acquisition, and I will not be selling it. It's locked down proudly in my house!

http://i43.***********/2mexrmq.jpg

I missed the platinum dragon though... it was so fast! That part I didn't like. the dragon confrontation was too short. I enjoyed talking badly about Casca for his cowardice and for his taking credit for OUR hard work, though he wasn't even present, and I hung around for quite some time afterwards. Not the best event I've ever attended, but definitely not the worst, either!

 

[MalagAste]

Oh I agree the event was AWESOME.... especially loved seeing that platinum dragon! What a sight to behold!... The only downfall I had was GL is a larger server with a decent sized population ..... there had to be a good 20 GD's in attendance and another 40 people at least.... I almost never fired my bow... by the time I figured out what was going on most everything was dead.... I could almost not see Casca.... I think he needs to dress in brighter colors or something.... I don't know... and when the Crystal was destroyed I pretty much couldn't move..... My lag was so bad... I was glad that other members of my guild weren't as afflicted as I was and someone did pick me up a shard so I could put it in our guild display... I somewhat agreed with another guild mate in that the event would have been better if we had to destroy one crystal Per "city" effected.... thereby giving more people a chance at the crystals and making the event last a bit longer... I could have seen going to 4 or 5 different "secret" locations and rinse and repeating.... this would have also given others who arrived a wee bit later a chance to catch up perhaps... but the whole show was start to finish over in less than 30 min... if you don't including going back to Britain for Q&A..... Which I thought was nice....

I think they are learning.... However I did notice that there is still a spamming problem but I just wound up putting certain people on my ignores list... I prefer not to have to do that ... as a role-player it kinda goes against my ways to have to resort to Ignore... but sometimes it's a necessary evil.. I just would prefer if the EM's had a bit more sway or if a GM could be available in stealth at these things to jail those that attempt to destroy a good thing...

 

[Littleblue]

I attended this event on Chesapeake. All things considered, I had a good time.

It was mass chaos in the dungeon portion, with numerous ghosties running out of the fray. I stayed in the back, healing and rezzing those that needed help. I noticed quite a few pet ghosts too, so I tried to rez up all the pets, beetles and regular horses too.

I've found playing a more support-oriented role tends to work out the best for me, and it held true for this event too.

The Platinum Dragon was totally awesome. I wish he/she had stayed around a bit longer, as it was hard to make out all the neat details. I got a couple of screenshots of the crowd waiting for the event to start and one of the Platinum attacking the Crimson...will post these a bit later.

Although I was not quite fast enough to grab any Broken Crystals, a very kind player gave me one after the event was over...was quite a gesture of kindness...something I will always remember and display proudly! Thank you, Morgan!

Screenshots will be up soon.

 

[Dragonchilde]

Blue, you rezzed my poor, abused little beetle at the end, and thank you. I also enjoyed chatting with you after the crowd dispersed!

 

[Prince Caspian]

Another case in point was the Magincia Invasions. Siege lost the event on purpose, because they didn't want the town to have a guard zone. They forgot, however, to ask Draconi if the teleporter from Trinsic would work (it didn't), then there was an issue of what I've read was some location critical to Factions (I forget what location it was exactly), was veritably blocked off.

Also, I've been told that different shards have different levels of destruction in Magincia. (I haven't visited the other shards myself to verify this, however.)

Maginica did meet its demise at different rates, depending on the participation of any given shard.

But again, that's why I said the same fate (eventually). No matter what, we ended up at the same square. It was impossible to win, Maginica was going to fall no matter what we did.

 

[Littleblue]

Here are the pictures!

Waiting for the Event to begin...

Casca speaks...

After the Battle...

Platinum defeats Crimson...

Broken Crystals...

To Dragonchilde ~ It was my pleasure rezzing your little beetle! Figured I could contribute more doing little things like that, with so many already fighting.

 

[Prince Caspian]

Good post, Littleblue. The screens capture the whole feel of the event to a T.

And isn't it a sign of what this game has become that some dipstick in the corner is trying to get offers for his pixelcrack crystal fragments not even FIVE MINUTES after the fact??

 

[Littleblue]

Yes, there were a handful of those types spamming away.

It was certainly annoying.

I try to just ignore those things though and keep in the intended spirit of UO. I met a new friend at the event as well. You can see Baron Albertof keeping me company while we waited for the Event to start in the first picture. We just chatted it up with others and kept things fun and lighthearted, and I found myself keeping that same feeling throughout the Event.

I guess it is what you make of it, although I do wish some players had a bit more finesse when it comes to trading, heh.

 

[AesSedai]

- Overall I considered it a quite good event

... some dipstick in the corner is trying to get offers for his pixelcrack crystal fragments not even FIVE MINUTES after the fact??

- That was annoying, yet I used it to my benefit and got a first hand (trade window) look at the broken crystals.

Once we cleared the dungeon area I ran around looking for action, for a few minutes, & then foolishly took a chance on a blue moongate (since that was what the Team was using for transport), assuming that was the next 'planeshifting' location & I didn't want to miss what I thought might be the next level of the event/story/dungeon (because it was so nicely placed, at the apex where we first entered, heh). I ended up back at Empath Abbey. Therefore I missed the destruction of the blood crystal -thing. Yet, I did socialize & question others that did the same, & stick around long enough to witness the denouement when Casca ran away and Ice met Fire.

Good event.

(I began to voice my opinion Saturday night, but then thought I should wait until the event is over, on all shards, before I offer any more constructive critiques, heh)
I would enjoy the addition of:
A ~10-tile radius of squelching of text & spells that surround the key players. Perhaps even a 'no-player-character-entry'-force field. Togglable by EMs/GMs/DevMs/& such... sure it will likely mean more coding; but it would make things so much easier to understand & further the success of these Live events, imho.
I would also suggest warnings & even bannings to the purposeful disruptors of events.. they are not contributing to UO.
& I would also love to see a different colored moongate (perhaps green) for official event moongates.

 

[Jhym]

ooooo I was caught in two pictures!!! I will have to try to hide more.

(the only person wearing a polar bear hat

 

[hawkeye_pike]

Hawkeye, I can't recall ever disagreeing with you, and as opinions on this one are relative to one's own experience, suppose I'm not really "disagreeing" now. I have to say however, that for the wife and I, on Chesapeake, this was a miserable experience - at best. Our expectations may have been too high. What we participated in had a lot of spamming, cross shard players whom we’ve never seen on our shard, inability to observe text from the EM, somewhere between limited and no control by said EM, what seemed quite “disjointed” based on inability to follow along, horrendous lag, no congruity of the battle, and mementos that were dropped on the floor and subject to script looting. We’ve participated in numerous events before, this one, at least for us, sits solidly at the bottom in terms of enjoyment and satisfaction.

The experience seems to have been quite different on other shards...