Curse

Vilaptca · Feb 11, 2008, 06:32 AM // 06:32

Just a couple issues with this event, that I would've liked to have changed.

1. Mini-pig. I know. It's been stated many times...but this should have never been added to this event at all. They should have changed the model of all mini-pigs to celestial pigs to match the new celestial rat. The end. No collector.

2. Crate of Fireworks. Completely lame. If you are going to give us something to show that we were at this event, it should not be able to be consumed. Everlasting Crate of Fireworks. Still only usable in Guild Halls. Only 1 instead of 5. No reason to give out five of something that can't be used up.

3. Lion Mask. We've always received new ones every event. They've always said they'd never re-release a mask. Stop changing your stance on everything. Either you aren't going to re-release masks, or you need to do them all.

Operative 14 · Feb 11, 2008, 06:33 AM // 06:33

- Change the Mini pigs to a 3:1 trade instead of 5:1. Let's face it, a large group of people gave away, or threw away, their pigs in the last year. I think it was a neat idea, I just wish it were accessible to a larger group of people. I got two pigs on Thursday not knowing what they were even going to be traded for, and I was a bit flabbergasted when on Friday I saw I needed five of the little guys. I suppose I made a tidy 12k profit selling them I guess, but I'm still Celestial Pig-less. And darn my packrattyness and lack of fortitude when I gave away the three I was saving from last years festival for 'when they became more valuable later'

- A new hat. Even if it was just a reskin of the lion mask from last year, even if the changes were nearly imperceptible, they should have had a new hat. I guess as far as hats go they now have a "Absolutely NO chance to of anyone ever, EVER getting a hat from a past festival. Except for Dragon Fest 2007... and Wintersday 2007.... and..uh.. Canthan New Year 2007" stance.

:Edit:

- The Crate of Fireworks should work in both Towns and Guild Halls, and have upwards of 5 uses each.

Other than that I wouldn't change anything. Probably the only thing I might consider changing is to place less importance on so many different ingredients for the feast at the end, so it wasn't about farming and districts didn't need to be sponsored. However, that seemed to work out okay.

Seef II · Feb 11, 2008, 06:50 AM // 06:50

Pigs: 2 for 1, or so. Most people that QQ'ed seemed to have kept an average of 3 pigs (including myself), and if you wanted to keep one for yourself, trading 2 and keeping the third would have worked the best.

Rats: as advertised, though the droprate was rather uneven. No complaints here.

Mask: as advertised, let the QQing begin though.

Fireworks: nifty, but unless your guild is of the super-active type they're kind of useless.

zwei2stein · Feb 11, 2008, 06:59 AM // 06:59

* I would not touch minipig thing. If i had to i would make it demanding HM-grade quest which ends up changing 1 pig to 1 celestial pig. Possibly doable only once per account. Possibly consuming pig when group wipes to make it "minipet sink".

* Normal rat mini from end of festival in successful district. Celestial rat for person which donated more than 50% ingrediences in successful district.

* I would keep same hat from last year ... no point making new. If i was forced to makes new wearable i would instead create set of gloves to go with hat or something new in that style. I would still keep old hat in it and add chance to get it via quest.

* Add 1 quest to lions arch.

Numa Pompilius · Feb 11, 2008, 09:01 AM // 09:01

No minipig collector. For ANet to interve in the economy at the request of someone who's hoarded something but is disappointed it hasn't increased in value like he'd hoped, is very, very, very bad. The whole affair stinks of corruption.

Otherwise I felt the event was good. Possibly I'd have restricted the red bags to people who'd supplied ingredients, 1 ingredient = 2 red bag.

BodhiNightwind · Feb 11, 2008, 09:16 AM // 09:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by lyra_song

How would YOU have handled this event?

If you could improve it, what would you have done differently?

-Mini Celestial Pig. Collector takes 3 Mini pigs. Not 5. Why? It seems more reasonable. At the current rate pigs are at 20-30kish, making the celestial pig 100k+. 3 mini pig requirement would have lowered the demand slightly, increased supply slightly and perhaps brought the prices down to a reasonable amount for casual players. I think 30k for a celestial pig seems reasonable.

-Mini Celestial Rat. I like that we are told HOW to get a rat this year ahead of time.

-Mask. I would have modified last year's Nian mask slightly...just enough to make it different (like the two pumpkin helms). Doesnt have to be remade from scratch.

-Finale Event. I never liked how this finale required items from all over the place. The reward was never good. I think....they should ahve made it so...if you helped with at least 1 dish, you get the finale box of fireworks. Leechers would still get the mask, leechers would get the bags, but only people with ingredients would get the explosives. Meaning 1 complete ingredients set. I would have also removed Smoking Remains from the list. That sucks to farm.

-Beetle racing. We need a new map. We need better rules. We need to make it harder to cheat. I dont know what i would do though.

1. You should never have to turn in a mini-pet for anything, let alone turn in 5 for 1. Especially when it's the only way to get said mini-pet.

2. I got 1 rat after a lot of fortunes. Some people didn't get any. This isn't right. Some people came away from this even with no pet at all.

3. Mask could have and should have been different. Especially since they have said they would never reissue a mask. Also it's supposed to be a New Year after all. Same old mask as last year doesn't give me that New Year feeling.

4. Finale Event is only a good idea if you're one of the lucky ones who gets in a district with all ingredients. Then there's lots of nice happy warm fuzzy community spirit. But if you are banished to American District 517, don't expect to get any prizes. Leechers shouldn't get anything but the mask really.
Leechers on the rings shouldn't get anything.
You do get a token for turning in an item and I like that. I didn't have all the ingredients this year and if not for DVDF guild I may not have seen any crates of fireworks in my inventory. I think the finale should have offered Lunar Fortunes at least, or if not a pet. At least some real chance at getting a pet. The prizes for the finale were disappointing. For the amount of work put into farming the items the prizes were not equal to it.
I think there should be more rewards for people who at least try, and less rewards for leeching.

All that being said, I do like the idea of 10 minute long Guild Hall fireworks. I know I will enjoy them.

Jongo River · Feb 11, 2008, 09:54 AM // 09:54

The pig was the big /fail that brought down the event. Almost everything would have just been another holiday grumble if it hadn't been for that.

It just seemed like the ludicrous pig scheme created this snowballing sense of discontent - How many fortunes is the rat gonna take? Do I even want the rat, if I'll never have a complete celestial collection, without stumping up 100K for the pig? Will I ever find a district with anything but the soup finished? WTF do I do with Guild Hall Fireworks? *That* hat again?!

FWIW - If I was God of ANet HQ, I would have ordered the following decrees:

No new hats for 2008 onwards (I actually don't mind that, so long as they gradually re-use the ones I don't have).

Pets announced as prizes for the event in advance (so I don't have to waste time farming quests). Awarded as the previous year, with slight amendment:

1 Ordinary Rat for participating in a winning district and control numbers by only allowing 1 per character or even account. No celestials - they don't actually look very good.

Beetleracing - I'm not sure, since I've only really started playing, but it seems like there is a staggering advantage if half the team quits at the beginning. Perhaps scores should not be recorded, if more than 2 players leave? Obviously the score board needs some work, too - 1 entry per player.

Oh, and just to add - I actually think they broke the one thing that really, really needed fixing. Lots of districts failed last year, but it seemed to me that even more failed this year. I only managed to find one winner. I suspect players were too busy farming fortunes, to farm the ingredients. I know that was the case for me. Announcing the rat as the prize for a district win would have made things better than last year (when we didn't know the pig would be the prize until the first finale), since everyone would have known to farm for the pet. But they went the other way.

WinterSnowblind · Feb 11, 2008, 10:28 AM // 10:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by lyra_song

How would YOU have handled this event?

If you could improve it, what would you have done differently?

-Mini Celestial Pig. Collector takes 3 Mini pigs. Not 5. Why? It seems more reasonable. At the current rate pigs are at 20-30kish, making the celestial pig 100k+. 3 mini pig requirement would have lowered the demand slightly, increased supply slightly and perhaps brought the prices down to a reasonable amount for casual players. I think 30k for a celestial pig seems reasonable.

-Mini Celestial Rat. I like that we are told HOW to get a rat this year ahead of time.

-Mask. I would have modified last year's Nian mask slightly...just enough to make it different (like the two pumpkin helms). Doesnt have to be remade from scratch.

-Finale Event. I never liked how this finale required items from all over the place. The reward was never good. I think....they should ahve made it so...if you helped with at least 1 dish, you get the finale box of fireworks. Leechers would still get the mask, leechers would get the bags, but only people with ingredients would get the explosives. Meaning 1 complete ingredients set. I would have also removed Smoking Remains from the list. That sucks to farm.

-Beetle racing. We need a new map. We need better rules. We need to make it harder to cheat. I dont know what i would do though.

I agree with most of your points.. Although I do understand why they made it five pigs. If you attended most of the finale's last year, five, I think would have been the average amount you got. And this is basically a reward for those who bothered to keep them around, taking up all that space for so long. Just a few weeks ago, everyone wanted them to do something about the pigs, and when they make them rarer, everyone just complains about that.

And yes, re-using the hat seems like a terrible idea, it's one of my favourite hats and I'm actually glad more people could get it.. But I missed the 2005 events because I didn't know they were going on and I really want an original Yule Cap. If everyone else got the Lion Mask why shouldn't I be able to get a Yule Cap?

It's ruined the specialness of the hats, and it's a perfect excuse for wanting the rest of them to be mass distributed.

Godo th great · Feb 11, 2008, 11:16 AM // 11:16

1. Mini pig - Should be one undedicated mini pig for a mini celestial pig. Why you can trade in a dedicated mini is beyond me.

2. Ingredients should have been posted earlier. As far as why a lot of districts didn't have complete feasts...skip down 2 items.

3. Mini rat - Should have been the Finale prize along with gift bags. Who cares that they didn't come up in price over the year? The whiptail dipped down to this pricing area over time as well. I don't see a trader for them.

4. Firework Crate and Party title - Firework Crate is an utter let down for the finale. Why were most districts completing the feasts last year and not this year? Because the reward (mini pig) made it worth it. Enough said. I am a little disappointed that we have another 'look how much money' I have title.
How about an Experience or a Quest title? Something that is about more than In Game Cash.

5. Lion Mask - Thanks for the effort. When am I going to get a crack at a Dragon mask...And please don't reuse the bogus Demon mask this year.

6. Lunar Tokens/Fortunes and giftbags. The rat should have been in the bags. Lunar token droprate was unacceptable, it was horrendous. Lunar fortunes should not have had the rat in them just for the fact that then they could have been saved and used in PvE instead of the rat lottery.

Gli · Feb 11, 2008, 11:57 AM // 11:57

Things I'd done differently.

1) A general minipet 'refurbisher' instead of a mini pig collector. Trade any 5 minipets, dedicated or otherwise, for a giftbox delivering a random new minipet (birthday series only). This NPC could stay after the festival.

2) No butt-ugly celestial pigs/rats. The rat pet would've been a Jahai rat.

3) Better rewards for turning in ingredients. A token per ingredient is a good base, but there should be a bonus for every complete dish and a bigger bonus for 5 complete dishes. It doesn't have to be huge, but the effort to get all ingredients should at least award tokens comparable to just running all the festival quests in 20-30 minutes.

Linksys · Feb 11, 2008, 12:18 PM // 12:18

The special minipets like the ones you get from magazines and event minipets were fun for me. But now I've had a few and they're not so special to me. I mean to me they're not. Still I got a buttload of lunar fortunes instead of gift bags to see if I get one or more rats out of curiosity. Maybe I can sell it before the price goes down. But I don't really care to keep it. I guess that's why I'm not really upset for myself that all of a sudden, wow we should have kept our mini pigs from last year. But I did find myself a little upset for everyone else who was affected, like on their behalf, because of their own situations with having mini pigs and not having them anymore.

I'm sure this won't be a repeating pattern in the game. But still, I admit it may make me more paranoid about selling or giving away items. I'm even afraid to use my festival items because if I do, what if the following weekend will be a double party animal points event? So I may end up just saving them up on a mule character for a very long time. I mean just now I'm thinking about my mini Ceratadon and mini Destroyer thinking about selling them or giving them away. But now that thought is interrupted like a Savage Shot by that feeling, that thought that says hmm, maybe I better keep them afterall...

Pleikki · Feb 11, 2008, 12:23 PM // 12:23

mm Cant rly say alot to this same happened me what happened cristmas..
= Huge lag cause of mob and then my Pc heats and brokes FFs allways when some fun event to get lucky/unlucky and other titles..

Linksys · Feb 11, 2008, 12:25 PM // 12:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pleikki

mm Cant rly say alot to this same happened me what happened cristmas..
= Huge lag cause of mob and then my Pc heats and brokes FFs allways when some fun event to get lucky/unlucky and other titles..

I wonder if there's a way for Arenanet to rent out some extra server resources for events like this.

Longasc · Feb 11, 2008, 12:25 PM // 12:25

1.) 1:1 exchange of Pigs
2.) Normal Rat from Finale
3.) Increasing rewards for turning in ingredients for the dishes
4.) no more future "minipet exchanges" like that
5.) Masks at the beginning of the festival, not at the end. Do not need a hat after the party!! This is really dumb and true for all events.
6.) I would have removed several titles from the game instead of adding one more consumable/money title. Seriously.

I do not like the fact that AFKing people get the spoils and all others hope for DVDF to organize stuff. I donated some guardian moss to a friend who collected stuff, and wonder if he does not feel bad for so much effort and then everyone else gets the stuff for just afking there on the 9 rings???

And to make it even worse, the person in question did not get a single rat from the fortunes over the whole weekend, had to buy one, despite having contributed a full menu for the silly rat.

Linksys · Feb 11, 2008, 12:27 PM // 12:27

Content deleted

raven214 · Feb 11, 2008, 12:29 PM // 12:29

1. Mini celestial pig -- Should have been 1:1 or at most 2:1. 5 is rediculous.

2. Mini celestial rat -- Remove it as a (barely ever) possible fortune drop. Instead, add an npc that gives one per character for 100 tokens (or if you must, a full stack).

3. Mask -- A slightly altered mask (such as what's been done with pumpkin masks).

4. Fireworks crate -- Not sure, honestly. Maybe increase the Party points for use significantly.

5. Rollerbeatle racing. -- At least one new track. Remove >90 degree turns to help with the lag.

Harmless · Feb 11, 2008, 12:37 PM // 12:37

Changes:

1. Give the minipet out with the hats, that cuts down on the frustration of trying to obtain one. And let you know ahead of time how you will obtain it. Rationale: If you are nonstop token gathering in hopes of gaining a mini, you won't be participating in the other festival events. That causes more boredom, and less fun.

2. Let people know that the ingredient list will not change from year to year, or if there are changes, tell us well ahead of time.

3. As far as the pig trade goes, it was a nice addition to reward people who had kept a lot of minipigs. Unfortunately, many people had given away, sold, or trashed theirs, which led to disappointment in not being able to get one. However, that happens anytime they add a new use for an old item.

4. Everlasting fireworks crate for guildhalls. Would be great for parties!

seut · Feb 11, 2008, 12:58 PM // 12:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Longasc

I donated some guardian moss to a friend who collected stuff, and wonder if he does not feel bad for so much effort and then everyone else gets the stuff for just afking there on the 9 rings???

Tanks again for the moss, we had enough ingredients for completing the dishes during 6events. Hunting for the ingredients with friends was the most fun i had this weekend.
I did the same last year and didn't feel bad that everybody got a mini pig. This year i got no mini in 500+ lunar fortunes and stupid party items i'll never use, because i hate the consumable titles.
There should've been an extra shot for the celestial rat, if you provide all ingredients.

To answer the OP: How would i handle this event? (actually changing the whole direction the game is heading)
Remove KoabD r6, thus anybody can max the title through playing the game. (or add titles achievable through gameplay, not money burning)
Remove Drunkard, Sweet Tooth & Party Animal titles from KoabD count. Make them the fun titles.
Remove gamer title and rewards from the leech script infested Dragon Arena and the spike join Rollerbeetle Racing... you know.. play for fun?
Remove all non birthday gift minis..
Remove the Hall of Monuments!

...change the event (and the whole game) to what it should be about: FUN

pkodyssey · Feb 11, 2008, 01:04 PM // 13:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Navaros

They should have simply left the pigs alone, period.

Navaros hits it on the head. Nothing more to say than that.

BAD MOVE ANET.

I threw away 7 pigs because I couldn't give them away 2 months ago.

Everything else was fine.

Mork from Ork · Feb 11, 2008, 01:14 PM // 13:14

Adding to my suggestions - change the way the feast is handled

I restarted my characters so I could not farm for ingredients. But, since I had made 100k from the event I decided to buy an entire feast. I spent 20k and managed to get all except 4 items. Checked before event and all four were present in the district. Just before event began one person with one item went afk or moved to another district. In the end I got my crates in districts where I leeched and wound up providing most of the feast in a district that got nothing.

Maybe give some kind of incentive award to each character who completes a full dish even if the district does not complete the feast?