Post Mortem - Halloween Event

[THyRoID99]

One of the best things we did at my last studio was a post mortem of any recently completed game project. We would discuss what worked, what didn't, and what we could do to improve future projects.

I think this would be a great platform for players to express their experiences, both positive and negative, to the Dev's. I know there's many threads about the Halloween event but they usually focus (negatively) on one aspect. A concise review contained in a single thread from players detailing both positive and negative aspects about the event would most likely be beneficial to the devs.

There are no right or wrong answers since these are your own opinions. You can discuss anything related to the Halloween event but try to leave general issues out of your review unless they impact the event. And please, don't attack anyone because you don't agree with them.

1. What worked for you?

2. What didn't work?

3. Where can there be improvement?

4. What's your overall impression?

 

[Prince Caspian]

Event's not over yet, but I guess we have seen it all, I suppose.

The trick or treating was a mixed bag. First of all, this years treats were the best and most well-designed (as well as the most plentiful), and the new GM Beggar items were nice, but the Semi-Rares was the same old crap. The Semi-Rares is what most of us can hope for, since not a lot of us have GM Beggars. Overall, thumbs up but it could have been so much better.

The Jack O Lanterns were nice this year, its neat now that they actually look cool and not just like a regular item. Thumbs up here.

The special drops was a nice touch (ie to put them on all monsters) but the Cat dropped far, far too often and the others did not drop enough. Thumbs up, but with reservations.

The Quest was excellent, story-wise. Nice and creepy. The Costumes were a fantastic idea, and I particularly loved the balance -- you could lone wolf it (Blue Crystals) or work with a group for the Halloween Foozle Bash (Yellow Crystals), and there were the Red Crystals for the casual players who didnt have time to do it all. Thumbs up here as well.

Overall, it's a home run, I'd say.

The only thing that was REALLY stupid was how they made the Blue Crystal drops. It's far too easy to steal someone else's hard work, and they should have stacked them or instanced the count.

 

[LordDrago]

1. What worked for you?

I participated in all aspects of the Holloween events except for begging. There was no aspect that did not work.

2. What didn't work?

See above.

3. Where can there be improvement?

As said above, the low end of trick or treating was wonderfully done. The event also was fun, even though it did become somewhat repetitious, but that is saying more about my willingness to keep doing the quest to keep trying for the elusive Shadow Wyrm Costume.

However, also as stated above, the mid range treats could also use a revamping.

Red Sparklies int eh dungeons. Too many getting stuck in inaccesible locations. Although it would be nice to have none of them get stuck, this might perhaps be making the resolution too difficult. A simple timer on the sparklies for them to despawn and respawn would, I believe, be sufficient to resolve this issue.

4. What's your overall impression?

Overall, I think this is the most fun I have had on a holloween event (or any holiday event that I can think of off hand).

Keep up the good work (I hope it continues )

 

[Endrik]

1. The Good
- New Art instead of lame relabeling! The jacko-lanterns are beautiful! The new drops on the monsters were also great! Its soooooo nice to have real new items instead of old items that have been recolored or re-labeled. This is a HUGE thing in my opinion. GREAT JOB!!!!
- The drop rate on the monster items was PERFECT!!! Everybody has been asking for a black cat statue, and they gave it to us! Ya, I have about 50 of them, but thats GOOD. Not everything has to be rare. This way people who dont have time to play all day are still able to get a new item and get as many as they would like. The other 2 drops are more rare so that those who want something more special have to work for them, but still common enough that its not impossible to get at all. GREAT JOB!!!
-The Costumes are awesome! A fun idea and again, its great to see new items in game that we dd not have to pay extra for. It really goes a long way towards making me feel like the devs care about us as players and not has utters full of money that they are trying to milk dry.
-The Quest was fun. Sure it was a bit of a grind, but seeing as how it was originally intended to be only 12 robes per shard, I am MUCH more happy doing a grind and being able to get a robe. These are items that can be used on just about ANY template! Still hard enough and takes enough time that they will hold value, but possible for anybody who wants to put in the time and effort.
- The Harbringer! Now this was a BEAUTIFUL idea. A really tough monster that you can spawn just about anywhere. This has a TON of potential. And even though it was not intended... I think it was GREAT that people could summon them to help fight stuff in the Abyss. Sure it kills them fast, but they also have to share the loot with anybody else there. So its great for people on low populated shards or those who can only play strange hours and dont have a guild to help them kill it. This should have been left in. If people want to take the easy road, then they have to share the loot with the public... great balance. For the others who have been keeping their yellow crystals they will have them to use later down the road at a number of activities... I cant wait.
- New Trick or Treating candy. Again, way to go with FINALLY giving us new art. I love not dying, and its nice that they kept the rewards for GM Beggers (Even though i still don't have one yet) I like that they made the webs that were rare last year drop as a semi rare this year... and I think that's a pattern that should be followed every year.

2. The Bad
- The blue crystal turn in. After reading Sakarahs explanation on what was originally intended I can see where they were going... but in general I dont think its a good practice to ever implement a design where player A can do 99% of the work, and then player B can jump in and take all the reward. Nothing makes you want to quite a game more then working hard for something then seeing someone else do almost nothing and run off with the reward you worked so hard for.

3. What can be improved?
- Even though it was unintentional, the quest worked out better then any one that has been intended in the past. The reward was great, everybody who wants to work for one can get one, and they will still hold value for those that want to make a profit. The yellow crystals can be saved for a strategic time in the future, hunted in a large group for a guild event, or shot in 2 minutes with the risk of other passerbys sharing in the loot. This is the PERFECT balance, and what can be improved is MORE content like this in the future. Give the groups what they want, the soloers what they want, and the power gamers what they want... all with trade offs and balance.
- I would like to see a quest that makes me happy to see other players. With this one I would get mad when I see other people running around the dungeon scooping up red sparkles while I was trying to get enough to turn in. What would be nice is an event where you were rewarded for playing with others. Like if you're the only person in a dungeon then there would only be 2 red sparkles... but if there are 2 of you then there would be 4... if there were 10 of you then there would be 30, and if there were 50 of you there would be 250. That way I would be happy to see more people and I would want to play with others instead of getting frustrated even when I see people in my own guild. This game really needs a system where you are rewarded for playing with others... not punished for playing alone. There is a difference.

4. Overall impression...
- Hands Down this has been the BEST Halloween content I have ever seen. Probably the best Holiday content I have ever seen. New art, new items, great rewards, and allowing everybody to get as much as they are willing to work for all combine to make this the best Holloween so far. GREAT JOB DEVS!

 

[G.v.P]

Every event item in this game should pop like an artifact, otherwise, less total monsters and more boss monsters (for local EM events especially). Yeah, I know there will be people who willl worry about scripters, but if scripters are such a concern just make it so you have to move every five minutes or maybe kill a new creature type, *shrugs.* Besides, if one thing can be scripted im sure the loot from corpse can be too.

For the Halloween content, absolutely no complaints. What's reward without risk (blue crystals), plus the artwork is amazing.

 

[Lore Master]

I enjoyed this Halloween event a lot.

1. Trick or treating was ok would be nice if more of the special treats became stackable. the spider web was nice same as last year. the two new rare treats are ok maybe next year they can give us coffins and grave stones.
2. The cats where nice but I have too many would be nice if they some how where stackable The ruined tapestry is cool and I love the pumpkin scare crow would be nice if the scare crow came in two versions one with a scare crow face and another with a pumpkin face.
3. The quest is fun I really like the Halloween costumes especially the dream Wraith and the Shadow wyrn I cant decide which i like better. could have added a Werewolf, a mummy, zombie ,vampire , frankenstein and a wicked witch/warlock costume so if a girl wears it she becomes a wicked witch if a guy wears it he becomes a warlock I really like the new costumes but would be nice if some or all of these where added anyway I cant complain.

I do have two complaints about this event.

1. The Harbringer is very tough ok if your in a guild with trusted guild mates or have a few friends you can trust with discord but anyone can loot it I feel only the user of the gold essence should get the robe and it should pop in his or her back pack instead of in the corpse should there be a robe. and anyone who helps should get a minor artifact.
2. Healing the gypsy requires that you are the last person to heal it what I feel should have been done is if you start healing it no one else can heal it until it turns to a monster again that way no one gets ripped off by not getting a robe. if someone plays games and just gives it one crystal so no one can get a robe the gypsy should reset in 3 to 5 minutes that way no one can prevent players from healing the gypsy constantly.

I almost forgot to mention the pumpkins and jack O-lanterns the pumpkins are kind of boring I don't even collect them anymore I know some do to collect all the Dev names however the jack o-lanterns are so cool this year so much better then the black ones from years past. anyway I think its a great event but I feel it can sure use a few fixes and maybe a few additions.

 

[Lore Master]

I just wanted to add Id also like a ghost costume too.

 

[Tina Small]

1. What worked for you?

I've enjoyed having a bit of an excuse to hunt in the old dungeons. It has been a nice change from hunting in the Abyss. Was able to get the pumpkin scarecrow a couple of times with a brand new swords character. I just wish though that some of the cats had been 10th anniversary items. Could have finished a suit by now if half the cats had been virtue armor pieces.

2. What didn't work?

I haven't bothered with the quest yet and don't expect that I will before things end. Don't want or need costumes. Wouldn't mind one of the cloaks, with or without luck, but I have absolutely no interest in wasting the bit of time I do get to play gathering crystals just to benefit someone else. I don't play the lottery in real life or in games either. I also tried but gave up looking for any of the fancy pumpkins. Too many times what I encountered was someone clearing all the fields with a horde minion. Guess I'm just not ambitious enough to try to outfox someone like that or waste my time on a chance at finding something I'll rarely look at.

3. Where can there be improvement?

Like many, I'm not terribly pleased with the rationale behind curing the gypsies. I'm SICK of things being added to the game that seem to be designed (intentionally or not) to cater to griefers and/or people who have made UO a business instead of something you do for fun. I don't mind hunting and hoping for a drop, because I can always use the gold acquired during hunting. However, I don't enjoy and won't participate in activities that have a high probability of ending with nothing to show for the time spent on the activity. I don't particularly care whether the end result of an activity is something I acquire, something that is erected or posted for the shard as a whole (e.g., the statues in Britain from the invasion a few years ago), or even pictures or statistics posted on a forum. I guess I kind of like the illusion that the time I spent on UO was "productive" in some weird sense. When it instead feels like it was truly a waste of time and leaves me feeling frustrated and/or mad at someone, it leaves me questioning even more why bother paying for UO.

4. What's your overall impression?

It's nice to see the new artwork. I also think the developers that put together the Halloween publish put a lot of thought and time into it. I don't want to knock their efforts. I'll just chalk up my less than enthusiastic participation in this year's event to not having much time to play and being pretty darned burned out on UO lately.

 

[Tandek]

Can't comment much on the Harbringer or Trick-or-Treating yet, as I haven't had much time to do them, but otherwise:

1. What worked for you?
- The special halloween monster drops are very nice additions.
- Costumes are enjoyable. I like how we will get to continue to use them after the event.
- The quest is well written and fun to follow along.
- The concept of essence gathering was very well done.
- Allowing the first red crystal to give a costume was a great idea to allow casual players and those who don't live on UO a chance to quickly and easily get a costume.

2. What didn't work?
- Didn't have interest in fighting the Harbringer, knowing the "cool rare drop" can be gotten somewhere else in the game, especially when it was better the other way.
- Pumpkin picking got very boring very quickly, and aggravating when you have someone else hanging out on the same field.
- Way too many black cats, although it is easy enough to not loot them or loot them and drop them beside the corpse for others.

3. Where can there be improvement?
- Give the Harbringer a unique item to reward those who fight it. Don't water it down by giving the same item out somewhere else, especially when it is better.
- Add more to the pumpkin picking. Perhaps have a scarecrow pop-up from time to time that you need to interact with, but not nessacarily fight. Perhaps you need to give them candy corn or something before they disappear, leaving behind an halloween "something", including the new jack-o-lanterns. Just something, anything, to break up the wait.
- All the costumes should have been more directly linked to either the quest (Gypsy Costume, Monsterous Gypsy creature types) or more "Halloweenish" (Ghosts, Spiders, Black Cats). That giant slug-thing (bloodworm) just looks silly, IMHO, and the gazer certainly doesn't scream out "Halloween". Only the Dream Wraith and Skeleton belong.
- Reset the red sparkles periodically or have them despawn over time. Way too many stuck in places.
- The "last blue crystal gets the reward" concept was outright terrible. It turns a cool event and a very long grind into one last, *UNANOUNCED*, PvP-style battle. Especially when one person may have no idea that this is really PvP. Terrible design, and terrible communication as to how it was implemented.

4. What's your overall impression?
Generally, the parts of the event that I have had the chance to take part in have been great fun. For a while, it was fun trying to see exactly how many cats I could collect. However, every time I got a blue crystal it reminded me of how badly implemented the reward was for them. When about 1 in 3 crystals are blue, it really cast a big shadow over that aspect of the event.

 

[MalagAste]

I've now done pretty much all of the Halloween content so I'll give my thoughts on this one:

1. What worked for you?

Well.... I tell you what, I'm extremely happy to have NEW items, not the same ole recollored rehashed stuff as years past. The new Trick or Treating is good... but I guess I'm alone in missing getting blown to bits... And I very much miss getting turned into different things... I used to keep screenies of the different things I'd get turned into... so I miss that... Having a GM beggar this year I've loved it... and it's nice to move last years and the previous years to the "special" treats anyone can get. That's a nice touch.

The Quest is awesome... I enjoy the quest... Wish that the moongrass had a better time on it... but that's alright. I guess I feel I have to have quite a bit of time to do the quest set aside though because everything is on a timer until you get to the end and get the crystals ... kinda takes the casual play time out of it...

EM Event.... I do love EM events... I can say that I loved it for the most part. Though I do have a few complaints. First off... with a BIG shard where we get some 20 or more to an event it can be extremely laggy and with the flash things going on my friends who use the Enhanced Client ended up getting client errors and crashing.... not cool.... I love the flash graphic and all but it seriously lags things in places where we have large numbers of people.

The random spawning items from killing the monsters were EXCEPTIONAL! Very awesome! Love the art! Keep that artist please! Over the top awesome!

As for the pumpkins.... I prefer getting ones with my own name... but perhaps alternating every other year would be good... adding new "faces" to the pumpkins would be good year after year. Would keep things "fresh".

2. What didn't work?

Hate the stuck sparkles... How many times I came upon sparkles that could not be reached by any means was too great. On a populated shard it makes a TON of difference.... at least having them cleaned off at server up would help some.... putting a timer on them would help too. If they don't get picked up in 30 min let them respawn...

The pie on the EM Event was nice... pumpkin is good.... but you could have at least renamed it!

The costumes were great but.... can't trade the crystals.... so your stuck with them and getting 19 skeletons in a row is a tad annoying... What am I to do with that??? Never got a single shadow wyrm or dream wrath... about 6 of the blood wyrm and 19 skeletons in a row.... that's rough... The RNG stinks. I would have prefered if we could have say given him 5 for a skeleton, 10 for a bloodwyrm... 25 for a dream wraith and 50 for a shadow wyrm... I would have saved my crystals up for the shadow wyrm and been much happier.

Getting teleported away randomly while trick or treating got EXTREMELY annoying after awhile. Having GM begging I think should also count for getting "Tricked" ... if your a GM beggar I think you shouldn't get tricked as much. Maybe that's a use for forensics or something???

3. Where can there be improvement?

See above and then:
Next year can I get a witches broom??? How about a "conjurers hat?" More like a witch/wizard hat? I liked the trinket before could we get another type of that? Perhaps a different slayer? At least with that a gargoyle can use a trinket.... they can't use hats though.. so that wouldn't be fair... Now that we have gargoyles I think it's too easy for them to get left out... Perhaps if you add things like hats... they need to be able to be "altered" into a gargish earring or something.

4. What's your overall impression?

Great job DEV's! Keep up the good work.... and thank you very much for my kitty statue!

 

[XLaCeDX]

1. What worked for me:

a. Having to go to old dungeons to gather red sparklies was great. Now I know what Shame looks like on the inside and omg I think I can even find the entrance on foot now, I just realized it looks the same as the cave opening I found while mining in Fel west Brit but was too scared to go inside and see what was in there.

b. The new art is good.

c. I liked the quest after the talking part was over. Love the timers on everything.


2. What didn't work:

a. Red sparklies stuck in inaccessible areas. If there must be areas that are inaccessible to players, there should be some way to prevent items that players need to access from spawning in them, maybe invent some No Spawn tiles and stack them high in those areas.

b. The robes should have been reversed as to where they were obtained. The harbringer should have dropped the better robe with the additional mod of 140 luck.

c. LESS teleporting Tricks please! It was a bit overdone.


3. Where can there be improvement?

See above.


4. My overall impression is I have to get the heck off Stratics and go get some moongrass and get myself to a dungeon and get another conjurer's garb (2 so far), then go do some Trick or Treating!





The Devs should know that when player's are kept happily busy there's more playing of the game and less posting on the boards.

 

[soze]

1. What worked for you?
Liked the new trick or treating adds, and the new drops (cat, banner and scarecrow) and the new art work for these items. And the new Jack O laterns had a very cool design.
The idea of the quest was good, however, it became too much of a grind.

2. What didn't work?
The "Crystal Grind" and the the stuck sparklers...not well thought out well in my opinion.
Also, the NPCs (gypsies that needed healing) not keeping track of an individual's blue crystal count.

3. Where can there be improvement?
As I had mentioned before on an earlier post, if I wanted to grind something in UO, I would be training animal taming. I like the events to be a break from normal UO activity, and though the quest was in spirit, the application of it was not.
Also, if something is going to be required for a quest, please make sure we can get it (red sparklers)....

4. What's your overall impression?
Overall, a good event with some great newly designed items with some great creativity behind them.
Again, the quest was idea was cool, but too much of a repeat of the same thing to get the items.

 

[Kirthag]

Returning Vet Opinion begin...

1. What worked for you?
--New art! YAY! I wasn't looking forward to collecting black pumpkins again. Actually didn't start running around the fields until Saturday night...
--QUALITY NEW ART! Now I am getting excieted!
--Great story arc for the quest, and getting people to visit all of the dungeons. Hmm... maybe spark some interest in hunting trips again?
--Timing & frequency of lootable drops (cat, tapestry, etc.) really good!
--The uber ToT items reserved for beggars - nice way to bring interest to an otherwise "dead" skill!
--I think the timers on various objects were awesome! Great way to keep people from hoarding more pixel crack and overloading the DB.
--Candy induced turrets in the middle of story telling events is hysterical! LMAO!
--Spawn rates for mobs seemed to have been increased in various areas so it was relatively "easy" to get the required crystaline stuffs for the monster change.
--and THAT was in itself a challenge finding out what monsters to kill to get different morphs! Awesome!
--I must repeat.. ARTWORK 100%!!!


2. What didn't work?
--I will repeat - stuck sparklies. That was SO BAD! Sparklies spawning in areas no way to reach for ANY class! IE: Despise "elevated swamp" near the earth eles in the 2nd level. Absolutely NO WAY to get to the 10+ sparklies in there just teasing you! And no other sparklies spawning in that level because of the orgy in the elevated swamp area.
--Uhm... maybe I missed something in my long (almost 2 year) absence... but when could people mark in dungeons? Is it just me that has all my marks outside? I saw people popping up right on top of sparklies... made me frustrated.
--Looting rights changed?
--There was a griefer @ the container who would stand over the container pickup spot. Many people got pretty upset and I told them to use the CTRL+Shift to see the handles. Maybe some other way for accessing an item without griefers getting silly.

3. Where can there be improvement?
--As mentioned earlier, adjust span/despawn timers on the sparklies
--Moongrass in ALL the cemetaries!
--I'd figure on Halloween of all dates the undead would be seriously prolific in certain cemetaries, when they didn't seem to change at all (Cove Cemetary, Vesper Cemetary, Yew Cemetary). I'd half expect the dead to rise in Brit Castle itself! More undead spawn in more places to give a real haunting to the night!


4. What's your overall impression?
Makes me glad I came back to UO. Usually I would just ignore the holiday events for the prizes just didn't seem to be worth my time (recolored or renamed old art). I love the artwork and its seriously tickling my pack-rat instincts.

I also love the idea that we could sell "extra" crystals if we didn't want them anymore. Personally, I only got one robe.. then started to sell all blue and yellow crystals as all I want is the Shadow Wyrm costume. Made me a millionaire in less than 3 hours! Now.. I put most of my weekend into the quest... so... there are some pretty happy players out there who keep buying my blue crystals. ^.^ The is inheret value in the rewards this time around was just superb - and I for am am REALLY happy for returning now.


Makes me wonder what is going to be done for Xmas.... historically in UO the best goodie-holiday of the year. ^.^

 

[Gheed]

1. What worked for you?

The cloak quest was brilliant! Sak has her head screwed on straight and is very well focused. There were multiple desirable rewards and it was not too difficult to complete. I interacted with many people trading items for this or that. A very positive experience.

Oh ya the new art was wonderful!

2. What didn't work?

Nothing really... I didn't get a Sak or Draconi lantern... yet.

3. Where can there be improvement?

If I had to be a critic, I thought the naughty twin went too easy on us. I missed the body parts all over Luna. I would like to see the evil twin return when trick or treating in city limits and use the naughty twin outside of city limits.

4. What's your overall impression?

Very well done. Favorite event next to the Magencia invasion. But this was a holiday event so it is ok that it wasn't as involved as the mag event.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Reader Alert : I am not a pom-pom waiver. If you cannot handle an honest review of the Halloween content, or feel the need to shield the Dev Team from all criticism - SKIP THIS POST - take a valium and proceed to the Yew moongate in Felucca. :gun:

You have been warned.

---

What could have been the best holiday event ever is going to go out with a bug ridden whimper. It started well, the new art is great, but the quest was not completely thought-out and implemented poorly.

Having it stated that there were only supposed to be 12 robes a shard was a WTF? realization that TPTB just don't get the player base - at all.

Poor lingering essence spawn... Was a despawn timer to much to code? Next time add a logic query to their spawning - Am I spawning on an impassable tile (stalagmites, etc)? Yes - No spawn. Am I spawning in a tile that is blocked on 4 sides by impassable decor? Yes - No spawn. Am I spawning at a teleportation point (dungeon level portals, teleporters, etc..), or within 4 tiles of one? Yes - No spawn. Am I within 4 tiles of the TRUE dungeon 'wall'? Yes - No spawn. A NO to all of those and the essence spawns happily accessible. It then despawns an hour later if not collected. Rinse. Repeat. Enjoy.

Gypsyies. Sigh. Sorry, but this was just boneheaded design. I would have thought the Dev Team learned to use SHORT timers after the Shadowlord Manifestation issues. Seriously, real people with actual lives play UO - please remember this. 6 hour timers are unacceptable. Hell, 2 hour timers are unacceptable for casual game play. Respawn once an hour is long enough. Please learn and remember this for next time.

Blue crystals. Quintuple sigh. Non-instanced curing? Seriously? If you introduce something that can be griefed, it WILL be griefed. Griefing is bad, m'kay? The toymaker knows how many crystals he’s been handed - so should the gypsies. Allowing someone to use their hard earned crystals on the monster form just to get screwed by someone using only a few and nabbing the robe (or whatever reward) is *extremely* poor design. Again this is a game, people play it casually - getting screwed is not making anyone enjoy their playtime more. Next time make these kinds of things personal to the player. (50 crystals is a LOT of time spent running around the essence poor dungeons, especially during primetime.)

Costumes. Oh how I loathe the broken RNG. (Draconi has admitted its broken and why. Please stop coding systems that use a fundamentally broken string of code until it is fixed..) I love the costumes, but I don't like the fact that I have enough skeleton ones to outfit Great Lakes for reenactment of the Evil Dead movies. How about a turn in program to upgrade a dozen or so of the lesser costumes for one of the rarer two?

Monster loot drops. Only qualm is that its decidedly cat-heavy. Love the statues, but I don't need 50. I'm willing to bet there was an equal chance to get any of the 3 drops, but the broken streak-prone RNG hurt things.

An aside on the ruined tapestry.. Did anyone bother to QA the thing in the Enhanced Client? It floats in front of the wall you place it on because its centered in the tile not on the western edge. (In 2D it sits normally on the wall.) Please fix.

Jack O'Lanterns are great... Wish the spawn rate was a tad higher as everyone wanted them and the artificially low spawn was more of an annoyance. Also, please make these turnable.

Harbinger. Eh. Personally I would have left out the acid pools as they do far too much durability damage with each tick. Coupled with the pull ability = near one hit kills. One hit kills = cheap and do not add to enjoyment. The discord/silence was annoying but manageable. Throwing every ability into one mob doesn't make it 'fun'...albeit the Harbinger IS fun - but mainly due to the ease of summoning and the fact it gives RPers and event crafters the ability to have a 'big bad' they can use (nearly) anywhere.


Final Grades:

Art: A- (unturnable pumpkins, tapestry issue in the EC)
Creativity: A
Implementation: C+ (mainly due to unresolved issues with the quest [essences, gypsies])

 

[Aurelius]

Too many times what I encountered was someone clearing all the fields with a horde minion. Guess I'm just not ambitious enough to try to outfox someone like that or waste my time on a chance at finding something I'll rarely look at.

You may be seriously misunderstanding something here... usually I'll scan a field for the lanterns, then use a horde minion to clear the 'normal' pumpkins so there's a hopefully faster respawn, or at least clearer visibility for those that spawn, afterwards. Then move to another field, and do the same. Increases my chances of finding things, also happens to increase everyone else's chance too, but that's just how things work.. It's absolutely NOT some sort of 'grab the whole field for myself' scheme!

 

[Mapper]

You may be seriously misunderstanding something here... usually I'll scan a field for the lanterns, then use a horde minion to clear the 'normal' pumpkins so there's a hopefully faster respawn

*nods* As I was told you need to remove the pumpkins from the sub server for more to spawn. So either pick them up manually and recall away to bin them. Or use a horde minion, fill it up, then release it to delete the pumpkins.

 

[Salya Sin]

What worked?

I loved it all.. although I did notice the semi-rare begging items seemed to get stuck RNG wise on one or two items and I was unable (still am) to get any of the others.

What didn't work?

Can't say there was anything that I didn't like...

Where can there be improvement?

Drop ratios on some of the items... ok... just one. THe elusive shadow wyrm costume. I played and played... still playing and playing... I have triple the gazer costumes... double the skeletons and a couple of each of the others... and still no Shadow Wyrm. WAAAHHHH! I didn't have a problem getting the gypsy cure drop though... I just saved all my blues until I had 50... then went and hit the gypsy over and over and over... I did this twice and got the robe both times. I'm sorry to everyone who did not...

Overall impression?

AWESOME! Great job DEVS! I'm sure I'll get to buy the costume I wanted and I had sooo much fun doing all the other stuff... I can't wait until next year!