Feedback Winter Event - Bugs and Suggestions!
By
13th_Stranger,
Posted on: 2008-12-19 15:24 in Developers' Corner
Subjective:
The repetition does get annoying with the same Baby New Year grinding as well as the present opening.
I would like to suggest, for the future Winter Events: a Winter Task/Strike Force; open to all heroes and villains (even a level restriction would be okay, as long as there were different versions of the TF/SF that is level specific).
10-15 missions, even throwing in the "Rescue Baby New Year" mission as the first mission, then expanding the story and running the full year via Ouroboros Time Travel. This way you can do different missions revolving around Baby New Year that run "through the year" that ends with choosing the next Baby New Year.
Award Candy Canes in place of Merits (say 140 for TF/SF completion; enough to buy the Winter's Gift IO set) and you've got something that can be nailed with the "WIN" stamp. :P
P.S.: Even add a "Master of the Winter Lord's Task Force" badge for completing with zero deaths and no temp powers 
pohsyb: so of all people you must be most excited about the veats
Arachnos Commander: actually, I am
pohsyb: I mean you kinda were one already anyways ^_^
Arachnos Commander:
More mish options next year please
Infinity and Victory mostly
dUmb, etc.
lolz PvP anymore, Market PvP for fun and profit
At the very least you could have Winter Invasions in the same way you have Rikti and Zombie invasions.
Just like the Rikti Invasuions, the Winter Beasts would always con at least White to everyone. This would prevent High Level characters from zipping along opening present after present and leaving the spawns behind.
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At the very least you could have Winter Invasions in the same way you have Rikti and Zombie invasions.
Just like the Rikti Invasuions, the Winter Beasts would always con at least White to everyone. This would prevent High Level characters from zipping along opening present after present and leaving the spawns behind.
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I have seen this suggested more than once, and I am struggling with the question of "How so?"
I can zip thru and leave white conning Snowbeasts in the event as it is currently structured, if I want to. There is nothing to "force" me to stay and kill them, other than normal xp & inf/prestige rewards. I don't necessarily see that changing the event to have all Snowbeasts con white will change behavior.
Having them drop Candy Canes, OTOH, probably would change the behavior of clicking and leaving.
Altoholic - but a Blaster at Heart!
Originally Posted by SpyralPegacyon
"You gave us a world where we could fly. I can't thank you enough for that."
I've been 'rescuing' BNY from Snaptooth for three years now.
PLEASE change this up for next year. The Steal/Recover Presents missions during the first Winter Event were awesome. Why not bring those back?
Also, candy cane drops are much too meager. Winter Lord spawns aren't worth fighting if they don't drop winter event 'stuff', so too much incentive to just bail and let someone else clean up.
Making the Winter Lord monster de-spawn if the 'gift' that spawned him comes back... uh... wait! that's the ultimate rip off (especially in zones like Mercy where the giant snowman jumps up onto buildings out of range of lowbie attacks anyhow). FIX that please.
All in all, about the only thing I liked about this years Winter Event was the bobsled run. And all I got for the effort were badges. Don't I get a candy cane for getting a medal?
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
Face it folks, We won't get any new missions because Positron is now in charge. You have to understand that making a new Christmas missions now requires his approval. But due to the 2004 Winterlord Holocaust, Every time a he hears someone mention "Winter Event", Posi clutches his teddy bear, curls up into a ball and can be heard to mumble...
"Oh the humanity... Like a horde of rabid squamous Piranha... Hundreds swarming over their prey... Their horrid croaking mating calls 'LV7 LFWLPL'... Frostlings left orphaned to wander the streets searching in vain for their mother... The horror, THE HORROR!!!"
This sadly is the real reason that the Winter Event has not been updated, and probably never will be.
Seriously though, a New mission for next year would be MUCH appreciated.
HP Lovecat
Objective: I tried to get some BNY badges I missed from last year on one of my tanks. It wouldn't give me the two missing defeat rewards but it gave me Toothbreaker. Also I only got one chance for 5 candy canes others said they got more. So two missions felt "wasted".
Subjective: I only go for Toy Collector on one or two characters at a time because it's a grind. The reason people snap a present and leave the snowmen is that they become useless once you have the defeat badge - giving candy canes as random salvage would get people fighting them instead of leaving them. Using the Rikti/Zombie code - as someone suggested - may be a good idea if it's possible.
This was the second Winter Event for me. Soloing and teaming BNY with new characters was fun but the reward bugs meant 'veteran' characters were less so.
The biggest problem with BNY is that it quickly becomes very repetitious as friends want the badges. Even one new mission from Father Time or the DJ would be a nice change.
One of the mission doors could lead to a skating rink of some sort. As others have said gliding on the lakes is fun!
Subjective Feedback: May have already been mentioned, but I'd like a way to reset the ski timer if you know you messed up and want to start over without waiting for the clock.
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I don't believe halos should be auras at all. They either belong under hats (assuming you can fix the hair issue) or under Head Detail 1. Why should I get screwed out of using a regular aura when I finally do hit 30? I had my angel's 'heavenly aura' already picked out in my head and now I'll have to decide between that and a halo. Not fair. Put em under Head Detail 1 and you solve all the problems people seem to have with them.
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Same thing with the ear muffs. Why are they under Detail 1 and not hats? Having to choose one or the other I can't keep my ears warm and protect my eyes from the blinding snow at the same time. This is poor design IMO.
[/ QUOTE ]Or under Ears. Granted, the pointy eared folks would then be unable to use them, but considering it is intended to cover ears, folks with large pointy ears wouldn't really benefit quite as much from the covering that these things would provide.
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Objective: King's Row and Galaxy City still appear to have had their level ranges swapped for the spawns from presents. Specifically, KR presents spawn under 5s, GC spawns level 9s. I bugged this last year, too. I don't understand why this hasn't been fixed.
[/ QUOTE ]I actually came in to point this out as well. I petitioned it same as last year, at least, I believe I petitioned it last year too.
But, you got here before me and pointed this out already. But, I think it wouldn't hurt to type it out again.
Galaxy City-- Winter horde spawning at levels 6-9 (May go up to 10, but I only opened a handful of them before deciding that my new lowbie wasn't going to be able to run away fast enough.)
Kings Row-- Winter horde spawning at levels 2-5(possibly 6, did not personally check enough to be certain)
Why can't my lvl 8 scrapper cash in her candy canes for a recipe? It says inventory full but I don't have anything on my toon.
Also, add a mission or make the costs of the Candy Keeper's items less candy canes. Running the same mish over and over is dull, redundant and boring. Unfortunatley, repetitiveness is the major problem with this game overall. I hope they address this now that they have a larger staff.
Totally Subjective: Many here seem to be concerned about the 'difficulty' of getting the ski badges. IMO, and I don't wish to demean or disrespect the folks with their concerns, but there SHOULD be badges and achievements in-game that are more difficult to get. Making every badge, every achievement, every accolade obtainable with little to no effort by every single player on any type of toon demeans the value of having them in the first place. That is not something I want to see.
If we follow through on the logic of badges that can be bought somehow, rather than earned, why not allow my blaster to 'buy' all the healing badges, including empath? Seriously, it would be difficult & time consuming for him to get them, so why not?? Surely, you can see how the above completely devalues the accomplishment of those who earned the badges by actually completing the required tasks.
Heck, let's make the MoSTF badge buyable too while we're at it...
Subjective: I am of the opinion that the Present-Opening mechanic needs to be redesigned in some manner. Right now since having a team of 5 or more characters formed to do presents causes too great a chance of a Winter Lord spawning, there is a GREAT deal of solo present opening.
This means that for characters with low survivability or who are just inconsiterate of others, they click and run, leaving their Naughty Spawn behind for the next present hunter to deal with or avoid.
This APPEARS to cause the presents to take longer to respawn. It APPEARS that by cleaning up after oneself, the present will respawn for other players (and yourself if you are doing a circuit farming presents) quicker.
With the advent of the event-only Universal Travel set and it's much desired SLOW resistance recipie, there are a LOT more people interested in getting candy canes. So click-and-run present opening is much more of a problem than it was last year.
Basicly, during this event my regular supergroup gatherings have been chaos because there is no group-benifit to opening presents, only punishment in the form of a Giant Monster spawn that has no real ability to be taken out by the group that spawned it. ESPECIALLY at the lower levels.
Suggestion 1: Make it so ALL the members of the team, not just the person that clicks, gets candy cane's if it's a 'nice' present.
This will make grouping for present-opening MUCH more likely, despite the risk of getting a Winter Lord.
Suggestion 2: Change the presents to only open to people level-appropriate to the zone the present is in.
This will stop the issue of Level 50's going to the early zones of the game and present-grinding for candy canes, as any frostlines are just a Area Effect power away from defeat.
As far as the issue of this causing PI getting overcrowded for present hunting and rife for griefing behaviour... that leads to...
Suggestion 3: Please add some other missions that can be done for candy canes. I bet Baby New Year could use some supplies he's going to need for the new year. And I wouldn't be surprises if Lord Recluse might not want to delay the new year for some purpose? Or maybe Mender Silos has something up his sleave that needs changing/correcting so the new year will go the way He needs it to in order to further/prevent the coming storm.
There should be an endless number of things that could take advantage of the situation with Baby New Year. And what about where all those presents come from in the first place? And the Winter Lord, and the frostlings.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Midnighters would want to get involved. Maybe a Winter Event Task Force invloving a lot of things. Why be so locked into this one event that has been happening again and again in the same way for 3 winters now (with very slight varience in reward systems).
For that matter... will we be able to make Event Based content with the Mission Architect??! If you guys can't come up with more content for the Winter Event, then let US do so!
Oh, where'd this soapbox come from I am standing on... sorry, I will get off of it now. I'm rambling again.
Too Many Characters... not enough player
Member of Alts-R-Us.
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Subjective: I only go for Toy Collector on one or two characters at a time because it's a grind. The reason people snap a present and leave the snowmen is that they become useless once you have the defeat badge - giving candy canes as random salvage would get people fighting them instead of leaving them. Using the Rikti/Zombie code - as someone suggested - may be a good idea if it's possible.
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This. I understand and respect the idea of "cleaning up after
yourself", especially in areas where the spawns are likely lethal
to lower levels. But it becomes such a pointless timesink, that
I wind up going like this:
At first: all present spawns are killed.
After awhile: Well...noone's likely to run into this one, I'll leave it.
Awhile longer: I don't have time for this. People can just watch
where they're running, and I'll clean up this and that one that
are almost guaranteed to cause trouble.
With more motivation to bother after the defeat badge, I
wouldn't sacrifice cleanliness and safety for expedition.
Is it possible that the ski mountain in Pocket D can remain open in some capacity beyond the holidays? Frankly, it's too cool to close up for the rest of the year. 
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IMO, and I don't wish to demean or disrespect the folks with their concerns, but there SHOULD be badges and achievements in-game that are more difficult to get.
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I don't have a problem with badges being difficult to get. There are a lot of badges that are difficult to get. However, with perseverance and dedication and a lot of time spent, you can get those badges.
That's very different from the ski badges which some people will be unable to get no matter how dedicated they are or how much time they spend. Whether it's a case of a laggy computer or middle-aged reflexes, these badges are going to be impossible for some people to earn, and that's just not fair and not at all in the spirit of the game IMHO.
Ski Badges - If you achieve the gold level without getting the other two first, wouldn't it make sense to award them all at the same time? I mean, if you can do it at the gold level, you can obviously do it at the other two.
@Arwen Darkblade
Proud Member of Hammer of the Gods and Sanguine Syndicate
Arc ID #86194 "Cry Havoc"
Arc ID #103934 "Dr. Thomas' First Day"
[URL="http://tobyfife.blogspot.com/"]Hero Girl[/URL] - my geek culture blog
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I don't believe halos should be auras at all. They either belong under hats (assuming you can fix the hair issue) or under Head Detail 1. Why should I get screwed out of using a regular aura when I finally do hit 30? I had my angel's 'heavenly aura' already picked out in my head and now I'll have to decide between that and a halo. Not fair. Put em under Head Detail 1 and you solve all the problems people seem to have with them.
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Same thing with the ear muffs. Why are they under Detail 1 and not hats? Having to choose one or the other I can't keep my ears warm and protect my eyes from the blinding snow at the same time. This is poor design IMO.
[/ QUOTE ]Or under Ears. Granted, the pointy eared folks would then be unable to use them, but considering it is intended to cover ears, folks with large pointy ears wouldn't really benefit quite as much from the covering that these things would provide.
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The problem with Ears is that many of the ears are not in a place which would be physically covered by the earmuffs. Rat ears for example. Now it's possible that players who have rat ears on a toon wouldn't want to use earmuffs which cover an area of the head which supposedly boasts no ears, but who's to say?
I'd like to interact more directly with the Gamester, as well as see the lakes frozen over like the first winter event...
Got a two part suggestion;
[*] First, how about changing the Naughty spawns from the Winter Horde to like giant killer toys, then have a random chance that opening a present sends you to an instanced mission where you deal with the Gamester himself.
[*] Next, how about make the Winter Horde into a world event like the Zombies, where the lakes freeze over, the sky turns grey and the Winter Horde comes in force.
* When Winter Horde spawn from opening Presents, it should use the same code as does the Zombie Apocolypse and Rikti Attack waves do so that the spawned Winter Horde is equal to all players and not random excessively high or low, but on equal footing.
* All spawned Winter Horde should have a chance to drop Candy Cane salvage, and not regular invention salvage. This gives player a reason to fight the Winter Horde and not simply just run away to open the next present, especially those who have already obtained the Defeat X Winter Horde badges.
*Ski rentals at the Ski Lodge (maybe pay by Candy Canes) as a temp power that grant Super Jump and Super speed status when activate. Make the Ski Temp powers in two flavors: Regular Skis and Rocket Skis
*Add an Ice Rink to the Winter zone. Maybe even a speed skate race, and a speed skate obstacle course. Make Ice Skates available at the ski rental.
*Add a new winter event missions, like: Repel the snowman horde in a challenging 10 wave onslaught! OR: Instanced mission: Snow Patrol, remove all snowmen from the Pocket D Ski Lodge, or just something original, fun, and/or interesting to improve the Winter Event mission list to more than 1.
*Winter Horde Invasion waves!
I'd like to see the Winter Event present opening be more like the Halloween trick or treating, only certain levels could open presents in certain zones. Also an incentive to eliminate a naughty present instead of leaving them would be good.
Love the ski runs!
Has the Galaxy and Kings Row levels being flip flopped on levels that spawned been mentioned?
Or the fact the level 30 part of a zone can spawn 38s and the 38-39 part of the zone can spawn 30s?
Just saying.
Also, as much as I agree with all 3 badges if you get Gold... just go two more times lol. It's fun enough to do over and over.
Next year: More Candy Cane earning options (perhaps let mobs give a random chance for Canes ... 10 percent?) and less cane costs for auras/badges. We have a good too many toons now lol.
And I'll throw my hat in with the "Where's the frozen water?" crowd.
Thank you, City of Heroes, for giving me a superhero social network combined with amazingly smooth game play. Petitions signed with realistic expectations.
How about Rewards that actually let us Customize our characters the way we imagine them to be?
This ciould go alot further using existing Temp powers. Add Inherant Powers as Rewards for collecting 50 Candy Canes :
Iron Sword
Crey Freeze Ray (Increased Recharge)
Revolver
Bow and Arrow
Golden Rings
Divining Rod
Hurl Boulder
Bean Bag Gun
Electro-Magnetic Grenades
Holy Shotgun Shells
If the Devs think this is too powerful, then let it be as a replacement power for the Vet Reward powers. Whatever it takes that lets US determind how our Characters look and Play.
Currently, trying to find a Winter lord team is very difficult. It takes 5 or more to summon a Winter Lord and even more to defeat one. It can be very fustrating when attempts to form a team or get a big enuf team is met with apathy.
The fact that you get a Reward Merit for defeating a Winter Lord is a great step in the right direction but still the Winter Lord is met mostly by yawns and apathy. People would rather be mindlessly farming since the rewards are greater.
Sort of related: Although repetitive, it has been nice been able to do missions, sort of, in a very small zone for xp. If you have a great deal of patience, doing this for xp over and over is worthwhile. The lack of traveltime and Elite Boss bonus makes it so. I do not consider this an exploit because you are earning every bit of the reward and taking all associated risk.
I have used this opportunity to solo my brute from 14 to 22 to get her to Stamina (and then beyond) and in the meanwhile get all the Holiday goodies I wanted, including a complete Winter's Gift set. (Yes, she was 'late' purchasing Stamina, I wanted a solid attack chain and secondary toggles first.)
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