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...but due to my missing most of the event due to poor design parameters, I have nothing to report on the event content past a certain point.
The event started out well. Essentially, it was a scavenger hunt, and wasn't too difficult for most of the items. The story was that the succubus had decided to sabotage a marriage by stealing the still-beating hearts of a groom and his 4 attendants. We had to get the five items, to give to her, to "get the keys of the boxes with the hearts). 5 of the keys were real, the rest were fakes, that were supposed to be keepable as souveneirs.
The first item was a bola ball. Easy enough - go kill orcs till you get one.
The second item was a daemon bone - any creature in doom has them.
The third item was a fragment of a map - a little harder, as one has to kill Priests of Mondain until you get one, but many of us still do the Minotaur quest for the reward boxes. Most people didn't make it past this one.
The fourth item was a power crystal - problem. Since golems aren't that useful anymore, and wrong was reset to the spawn it had before the Controller invasion, that meant Ilshenar, and there were limited places to get a crystal, if you didn't have one (and most people that DID have them at home before, traded them in for collection points last year).
I never found out what item #5 was (which leads to another issue).
Now, it turns out that getting the 5 items was NOT really the object. This is where the first issues with the event start.
Major Problem 1. It turns out, despite descriptions that led you to believe otherwise, and the fact that the quest would tell you each item after you turned in the previous, only ONE person actually had to complete the 5 items. This was not communicated to players, and most of us were still getting items 3 & 4 when the event ended. This was because, even if you were the 50th person to turn in item 1, instead of being told the quest was now on item 4, you'd be told to go get item 2.
Major Problem 2. the scavenger hunt was NOT for the keys, but to open a gate to a place where the creatures that had the keys as loot. This gate was LONG GONE (though a marker saying to "go through the gate" was left in the tower) by the time most of us got back with a map fragment or power crystal - as was the NPC Succubus we were supposed to drop the items on - this led to much confusion.
Once through the gate, there were creatures to kill for the keys. Here's where Problem 3 comes in.
Major Problem 3. There were only 50 creatures, and most of those who were present for the gate's short existance were ones that DIDN'T actually do the requested scavenger hunt - they just sat around, waited for the gate, and went through. The fight was over in seconds, and anyone who missed the gate's opening by even a few seconds was unlikely to make it back before the 50 creatures were dead and the gate gone. Plus, there was no indication what to do if the gate wasn't there - which it wasn't for the most of us.
After the creatures were dead, the people in the hunt area (again, I have no idea what was hunted, or where), went back to the councillor's guild. There, it was discovered that only 4 people had proper keys (someone either left, didn't loot a key, or there were people with multiple keys who won one of the prizes already, as it was 1 prize per account). So, the EM decided to ask a question to give out the 5th one.
Major Problem 4. The keys were mentioned as being something people could keep as a memento - this meant that people who had no intent of actually trying a box probably ran off with what they thought was a collectable - when you could probably make infinite copies of the ordinary keys.
Major Problem 5. The question asked to decide the winner of the 5th item was one that likely UNANSWERABLE by nearly all of those that actually PARTICIPATED in the full event - what the 5th item the succubus required was. Remember, most people were still getting the 3rd or 4th item when the gate opened, AND closed (and the NPC/EM PC disappeared). In other words, it was almost certain that the people who could answer the question, were those that had just sat and waited for the gate.
The event was an interesting idea, but had several weak points as described as above. It would have gone MUCH better, though, had things been handled differently.
First of all, at the last Valentine event, to be eligible for the prizes, one had to turn in all the requested items personally. While that event had its own flaws (the first contestants back were the winners), requiring the items from each person insured that only those actually attempting the initial quest/hunt would be eligible for the prize. Requiring this, then having a threshhold of number of completed hunts as the trigger for the gate, would have worked better. The fact that this did not occur, meant that the question for the awarding of the unclaimed prize was the WORST possible question to ask, to determine who got it.
Second, the NPC/EM PC needed to be static, to let those that arrive late turn in their item, and give the message that the hunt-part was over. Similarly, the gate needed to be permanent, or at least a helper there to change the message from "Go through the gate" to "you were too late; go on back to the meeting point".
Third, the message for HOW one would get the keys was misleading (people thought they would be from the ITEMS, not a hunt that opened a gate to the items), and the belief that the keys would be collectable (As opposed to being easily counterfeitable) led to key hoarders.
Fourth, the number of event monsters (whatever they were) was too low for the size of the crowd. This meant that a much smaller number of people would actually get majority of the keys. The keys THEMSELVES should have come from the completion of the scavenger hunt, but only being activated by participation in the creature hunt - insuring that a much greater number of people are potentially eligible to win, as opposed to a select few holding most of the keys. This also reduces the chance that someone would hold 2 or more winning keys.
I came to the event with no real intent to actually WIN anything; just participate, and write a description of what was going on, since our shard reporters were not present. I figured I'd at least get a key that I could lock down by the valentines bag from the previous year. Instead, most of us were left hanging (and I only got a key, after the event was over, from one of the people who got multiples).
I give the event a B+ for concept, a D- for execution, and an F for communication of how things were supposed to work.
The event started out well. Essentially, it was a scavenger hunt, and wasn't too difficult for most of the items. The story was that the succubus had decided to sabotage a marriage by stealing the still-beating hearts of a groom and his 4 attendants. We had to get the five items, to give to her, to "get the keys of the boxes with the hearts). 5 of the keys were real, the rest were fakes, that were supposed to be keepable as souveneirs.
The first item was a bola ball. Easy enough - go kill orcs till you get one.
The second item was a daemon bone - any creature in doom has them.
The third item was a fragment of a map - a little harder, as one has to kill Priests of Mondain until you get one, but many of us still do the Minotaur quest for the reward boxes. Most people didn't make it past this one.
The fourth item was a power crystal - problem. Since golems aren't that useful anymore, and wrong was reset to the spawn it had before the Controller invasion, that meant Ilshenar, and there were limited places to get a crystal, if you didn't have one (and most people that DID have them at home before, traded them in for collection points last year).
I never found out what item #5 was (which leads to another issue).
Now, it turns out that getting the 5 items was NOT really the object. This is where the first issues with the event start.
Major Problem 1. It turns out, despite descriptions that led you to believe otherwise, and the fact that the quest would tell you each item after you turned in the previous, only ONE person actually had to complete the 5 items. This was not communicated to players, and most of us were still getting items 3 & 4 when the event ended. This was because, even if you were the 50th person to turn in item 1, instead of being told the quest was now on item 4, you'd be told to go get item 2.
Major Problem 2. the scavenger hunt was NOT for the keys, but to open a gate to a place where the creatures that had the keys as loot. This gate was LONG GONE (though a marker saying to "go through the gate" was left in the tower) by the time most of us got back with a map fragment or power crystal - as was the NPC Succubus we were supposed to drop the items on - this led to much confusion.
Once through the gate, there were creatures to kill for the keys. Here's where Problem 3 comes in.
Major Problem 3. There were only 50 creatures, and most of those who were present for the gate's short existance were ones that DIDN'T actually do the requested scavenger hunt - they just sat around, waited for the gate, and went through. The fight was over in seconds, and anyone who missed the gate's opening by even a few seconds was unlikely to make it back before the 50 creatures were dead and the gate gone. Plus, there was no indication what to do if the gate wasn't there - which it wasn't for the most of us.
After the creatures were dead, the people in the hunt area (again, I have no idea what was hunted, or where), went back to the councillor's guild. There, it was discovered that only 4 people had proper keys (someone either left, didn't loot a key, or there were people with multiple keys who won one of the prizes already, as it was 1 prize per account). So, the EM decided to ask a question to give out the 5th one.
Major Problem 4. The keys were mentioned as being something people could keep as a memento - this meant that people who had no intent of actually trying a box probably ran off with what they thought was a collectable - when you could probably make infinite copies of the ordinary keys.
Major Problem 5. The question asked to decide the winner of the 5th item was one that likely UNANSWERABLE by nearly all of those that actually PARTICIPATED in the full event - what the 5th item the succubus required was. Remember, most people were still getting the 3rd or 4th item when the gate opened, AND closed (and the NPC/EM PC disappeared). In other words, it was almost certain that the people who could answer the question, were those that had just sat and waited for the gate.
The event was an interesting idea, but had several weak points as described as above. It would have gone MUCH better, though, had things been handled differently.
First of all, at the last Valentine event, to be eligible for the prizes, one had to turn in all the requested items personally. While that event had its own flaws (the first contestants back were the winners), requiring the items from each person insured that only those actually attempting the initial quest/hunt would be eligible for the prize. Requiring this, then having a threshhold of number of completed hunts as the trigger for the gate, would have worked better. The fact that this did not occur, meant that the question for the awarding of the unclaimed prize was the WORST possible question to ask, to determine who got it.
Second, the NPC/EM PC needed to be static, to let those that arrive late turn in their item, and give the message that the hunt-part was over. Similarly, the gate needed to be permanent, or at least a helper there to change the message from "Go through the gate" to "you were too late; go on back to the meeting point".
Third, the message for HOW one would get the keys was misleading (people thought they would be from the ITEMS, not a hunt that opened a gate to the items), and the belief that the keys would be collectable (As opposed to being easily counterfeitable) led to key hoarders.
Fourth, the number of event monsters (whatever they were) was too low for the size of the crowd. This meant that a much smaller number of people would actually get majority of the keys. The keys THEMSELVES should have come from the completion of the scavenger hunt, but only being activated by participation in the creature hunt - insuring that a much greater number of people are potentially eligible to win, as opposed to a select few holding most of the keys. This also reduces the chance that someone would hold 2 or more winning keys.
I came to the event with no real intent to actually WIN anything; just participate, and write a description of what was going on, since our shard reporters were not present. I figured I'd at least get a key that I could lock down by the valentines bag from the previous year. Instead, most of us were left hanging (and I only got a key, after the event was over, from one of the people who got multiples).
I give the event a B+ for concept, a D- for execution, and an F for communication of how things were supposed to work.
and I appreciate that they are here.