Curse

Imaginos · Oct 30, 2006, 03:52 PM // 15:52

As everyone knows the Mad King will be appearing on the 31st in both LA and Kamadan every three (3) hours to give out the Mysterious Gifts to people in attendance (probably in the green circle as done last year).

If the Mad King grants these instantly and then dissapears like the Emperor did for Tengu/Dragon masks then how will the casual player or the alt-aholoic get the special items on all their characters?

Gaile and Froggy mentioned in the last chat that there will be a different item for LA and Kamadan. This compounds the difficulty. At once every three hours there will only be 8 visits, 9 if you count showing up instantly and then once again just as the event ends.

9 visits with needing to be in 2 places at once per character means you'll only be able to get a set of these items on 4 characters max if you play for 24 hours straight! (Log in character A, go to LA, get item, go to kamadan wait 3 hours get item, total time 6 hours, rinse repeat 3 more times).

Anet Please make the Mad King stay around for 10 or 15 minutes per visit and "Bestow" the gifts every few minutes (gift give every 3 minutes or so).

At 3 minute pulses of gift giving over 15 min would be 5 pulses. This would allow someone to get there a bit late, still get a gift then hit kamadan and get one too and log in another character to do the same thing. This should give everyone enough time to get these on all their characters, even for the alt-aholic.

Example Scenario without this change:

Joe Average owns all 3 campagins and thus has 9 character slots. He's left 1 open for PvP and has one Mule he doesn't play. That's 7 characters that he wants to get items for. Joe Average works for a living as most of us do and can only log on to play for 2-3 hours a night. Joe will only be able to get 1 gift for any of his characters at all! Joe is now an angry person which is not good for his forming ulcer

Anet please help Joe's ulcer and make the Mad King stick around as outlined above.

Thank you

Mysterial · Oct 30, 2006, 04:27 PM // 16:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imaginos

Joe Average owns all 3 campagins and thus has 9 character slots. He's left 1 open for PvP and has one Mule he doesn't play. That's 7 characters that he wants to get items for. Joe Average works for a living as most of us do and can only log on to play for 2-3 hours a night. Joe will only be able to get 1 gift for any of his characters at all! Joe is now an angry person which is not good for his forming ulcer

I can guarantee you that Joe Average doesn't have 7 characters and even if he did it's highly unlikely he really cares to have the items on all of them. Even hardcore gamers like me don't care to get them on more than one character; unless they give headgear/weapons/whatever standard PvP values they'll spend more time burning inventory slots then they will on my character.

Prospero · Oct 30, 2006, 04:27 PM // 16:27

If the player is 'casual' then they probably don't care so much about hats for ALL thier characters. I agree with you though that anyone out of town or who has an ISP issue is out of luck on the gifts.

Imaginos · Oct 30, 2006, 04:33 PM // 16:33

You'd be suprised at how many casual players care about their looks in game and enjoy collecting things like this. Either way the fact remains that Joe is going to get one item only. This is not a good thing.

Funk ee Monk ee · Oct 30, 2006, 04:39 PM // 16:39

Pretty well have to be there, no real way around that. But if you do have several characters that want the item there is a way to get more than 1 per visit (at least there was with the Dragon Mask, also worked with the Yule Cap and Horns of Grenth last year.). It appears that the event starts in one district at a time starting with D1. Here's how it worked with the Dragon Fest:
1) Get into a low district, the lower the better.
2) When the item is given out in your district, switch toons and log back into a higher district. The event may still be going on and the item yet to be handed out.
3) Lather, Rinse, Repeat. I was able to get 3 dragon masks in 1 emperor visit by camping dist 1, 50-something, and 100-something.
Good Luck

JAGeAkurei · Oct 30, 2006, 04:42 PM // 16:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Imaginos

You'd be suprised at how many casual players care about their looks in game and enjoy collecting things like this. Either way the fact remains that Joe is going to get one item only. This is not a good thing.

If everyone had everything special in the game....what purpose would there be to having the special items at all.....

Clone · Oct 30, 2006, 04:43 PM // 16:43

Factions did it right with the dragon mask collector around for a week after the event for the people who had other plans.

Eugaet · Oct 30, 2006, 04:45 PM // 16:45

I read in another post that, per Gaile/Froggie, the difference was in the ITEMS (Transmogrifier Tonic) and not the headgear, but I have yet to find any Gaile/Froggie chat screenshots to back this up.

If there is different headgear per continent, you can try to map to the other location and find a district that hasn't had them handed out yet. This is how I was able to get both the antlers and santa hat for my characters last Wintersday during one scheduled visit. At least this time, you won't have to keep switching until you find a district supporting the other god. Also, if you're quick, you can log out and back in with a different character to get them both taken care of without waiting 3 hours between.

I take way too long to edit my posts, Funk ee Monk ee...

Imaginos · Oct 30, 2006, 04:46 PM // 16:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by JAGeAkurei

If everyone had everything special in the game....what purpose would there be to having the special items at all.....

You STILL have to be there, Just like people who didn't have orbs and didn't get the Dragon Masks. I was not able to be here last year for Halloween and didn't get the pumpkin head mask as an example. So not everyone is going to have everything special. Really.

Sir Skullcrasher · Oct 30, 2006, 04:47 PM // 16:47

Here what A-Net should do, put in a collector after the event for those who missed out to get the special gift. I totally agree with you, there isn't enough time to get a special gift from Mad King if you have more than one character or account. I just hope i can get at 2 or 3 gift on my characters before the event end.

XvArchonvX · Oct 30, 2006, 04:52 PM // 16:52

/agreed 100%

Mr_eX · Oct 30, 2006, 04:52 PM // 16:52

They got the Dragon Festival just right. I hope that something similar will be going on with the Halloween special item.

Sir Skullcrasher · Oct 30, 2006, 05:00 PM // 17:00

Any news on if there will be a collector for that special gift from Mad King?

Clone · Oct 30, 2006, 05:15 PM // 17:15

One thing that might help, in the past events like this have been slightly staggered between districts, with higher districts running a few minutes behind lower ones. That way, one could get a gift with one character in a low district, quickly log off, log back on with another character and go to a high district. I'm not sure if it will work this time around, but it has in the past. Good luck

Kelsey Cain · Oct 30, 2006, 05:17 PM // 17:17

I 100% agree also - gifts like this started out in Ultima Online many years ago and although events are fun to participate in, tying someone down to log in at a specific time and place for multiple characters is a real bind.

The UO solution was every character had an item placed in their backpack on a specific day (or days). An alternative solution for guild wars would be, for any character who logs in during the day, to get a gift(s).

The other added bonus of this approach is that the people who want to log in and have fun can do so without the hundreds of impatient idiots shouting obscenities to get their gift.

Cygnus_Zero · Oct 30, 2006, 05:26 PM // 17:26

I really can't stand how they handle giving out the items. It should happen every hour. And here's why I think that. I need to work all day tomorrow, and will not be home until 7pm ET. That means I only have 2 opportunities to get the item. Add in the fact that there is 2 items, and that means this situation just stinks.

Every 3 hours? I just don't get that. They are purposely making things very frustrating for some people.

lyra_song · Oct 30, 2006, 05:40 PM // 17:40

Well heres the thing.

Halloween/Wintersday Style - Just show up.

Dragon's Festival/Day of Tengu - Gather Quest Items.

I think both have pros and cons.

The "show up" style requires WAY less work. Just sit your character in LA. Voila, you'll get one. The problem is...i have 10 characters. 10! He only shows up 9 times. Now..for me....im trying to have at least 1 fun hat per character, and my mesmer will have all (except Grenth's Horns...didnt like that).

The "quest item" ones require you to...well....do the quest and farm to get enough of the quest item. I think its more highly possible for me to gather the quest item 10 times and just go to the collector, but this requires a LOT of time spent, but a higher chance of getting one per character.

Which one is better for the casual gamer? How many hats would a casual gamer want?

Im working all day too. Ill probably leave my mesmer idle in LA to get a hat.

I think Mesmers are the only ones who should be wearing masks like these anyway

They are dressed for balls.....

Hand of Shiva · Oct 30, 2006, 05:47 PM // 17:47

Hmm even hardcore gamers don't care about having special items on every character? I guess that must mean I'm in a class above hardcore because I have 12 characters and 11 of them have the dragon mask. Funny because I try to have a social life and cut the chain from the computer to my leg every so often.

Anyway I agree that ANet should find some way for people who can't be there every three hours to get a holiday gift. Perhaps it isn't this way for the rest of the world but for alot of Americans Halloween is spent with the kids or with friends. I can't exactly be with my little cousin and making sure he's safe tricker treating while I'm getting my character roasted at the Mad King Party. Not to mention its a weekday, so people will have to head to work come home get their kids ready and then take them out or prepare for other special events. I know that not all the Devs at ANet are single or without family or some child in their life, why don't they ever think about the gamer who has a family they have to be a part of?

Come on ANet give the big brothers and sisters out here a hand would you and let us enjoy the holiday too.

bebe · Oct 30, 2006, 05:47 PM // 17:47

Or just have it like the emperor visit where you have to collect such-and-so items and sit there when hes blabbing and he'll exchange. and after the event dragon masks were still available thru a collecter in shing jea.

Sounds the most reasonable.

Imaginos · Oct 30, 2006, 06:20 PM // 18:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cygnus_Zero

I really can't stand how they handle giving out the items. It should happen every hour. And here's why I think that. I need to work all day tomorrow, and will not be home until 7pm ET. That means I only have 2 opportunities to get the item. Add in the fact that there is 2 items, and that means this situation just stinks.

Every 3 hours? I just don't get that. They are purposely making things very frustrating for some people.

You illustrate my point completely. I hope you are able to get more then 1 set on a character.