2009 Halloween Event Bugs and Feedback

• Are objectives clear when the Event is running? It took a bit to figure out how to make the banners vulnerable.
• Are rewards being handed out correctly? No, as a level 50 scrapper sked to 50 on a team I did not get any merits or temp powers from the second run of the event. The first time, also while on the same exact team, I got the badge and temp power just fine, but the second run I got nothing despite being one of the first people to attack the GM and being present throughout the assault.
• Are there any problems with the event occurring in any City Zone? (Note: The event will only be present In Paragon City or the Rogue Isles City Zones, and not in any PvP Zones, Hazard Zones, Trial Zones or Co-Op Zones) No problems that I saw except that the GM is probably a bit too dark to see clearly.
• Are there any graphical effect bugs? None
• Do banner icons appear correctly on the MiniMap when the event is running? Yes they did.
• Do waypoints correctly appear when the event is running? (Note: Navigation waypoints of active Missions orient players to the Halloween Event objectives when a player’s character is near one, and should disappear when they leave the area.) Yes
• Are enemy NPCs appearing at the appropriate level? (i.e. a Level 50 should be able to fight side-by-side with a Level 5 character). They all appeared to be using the GM code, so yes.
• Are all badges awarded correctly? I got the badges on the first run so those appear to being working right.

I paricipated in two of these zone events, both with Shadowninja1, my 50 Ninjas/Dark MM.

The first was in Mercy. I arrived late (due to the crash I had when trying to access the Halloween 2009 channel) and the the banners were already vulnerable, but I still managed to help dish out damage to two banners and the GM. I was not teamed, and I did not receive any badges. I received merit rewards and a Temp Power upon GM defeat, but no badges.

The second one was in Cap. I was teamed for this one. I headed the Monster Mayhem Banner. I was unsure what we were supposed to do at first, but figured it out quickly. We took it to the mobs, and eventually defeated the banner and got the badge for it. Then he rest of my team headed for the Terror Banner and took it down. I received the Terror badge, despite not dealing any damage to it myself. Then the Apsect spawned and no one could find it. We found Eochai (not the Aspect, the normal one) but the Aspect was nowhere to be found. I had to log abruptly due to a small emergency, so I don't know if the Aspect was found or not. If any of the people I was teamed with reads this, sorry for leaving without saying anything.

Overall, the new event was great, but a little frustrating. I also noticed that while attacking the banners, characters seemed to aim to the left or right of the banner instead of at it.

In between events, I ToTed in Grandeville while solo for a bit. All ToT spawns seemed good, except for Werewolves which seemed very scarce (I only found 1 Werewolf yet I found 5 Vampires, 3 Vampire Lords, 4 Spirits, and bunch of everything else). I also noticed that Halloween Salvage is now awarded for defeating mobs instead of clicking on doors, which is a great idea.

Positives - It's an active event that requires you to move around - makes a nice change from the Invasions where once you're at the gathering point you basically don't have to move from it at all.

Negatives - Judging from the difficulty one group of 6 or 8 50s I was part of had in taking down one banner, this event is going to be pretty hard for low-pop servers, especially off peak hours. At least if the Rikti attack Port Oakes and my level 9 stalker is the only villain in the zone I can score a few kills towards the Rikti Invasion badges - minions at least.

/shrug. It's very much a team event, and good fun for higher levels. I can't imagine my lowbies will be attempting much banner hunting though. Thankfully there's still ToTing and zombie invasions.

Renamed but otherwise recycled mobs are... eh... well it gives us something to fight I guess, but some of the groups seem a bit random, like an AE custom enemy group. A bad AE custom enemy group.

Observations on ToTing:

1) Trick to Treat ratio appears to be weighted very heavily in favor of trick. Feels like a 5-1 ratio.

2) Halloween salvage drops from an hour of ToTing:

• Back Ally Brawler Gloves: 4
• Lord Recluse Mask: 6
• Statesman Mask: 3
• Hamidon: 1

Let me get right to the point, I love the new Halloween event. However, for veterans who have plenty of level 50's and lowbies alike that already have the costume slot for the halloween salvage, I think it would be outstanding if there was a reward system through the same contact for the salvage. For example, [x] of halloween salvage can be exchanged for a certain rare recipe or rare recipe roll, etc. Another possibility could be exchanging [x] amount of halloween salvage for [x] amount of reward merits. In my personal opinion, this would give higher level characters more enthusiasm towards participating in the trick or treating durring the halloween event.

A couple of things, both are subjective feedback.

1. Upon entering the game, there is absolutely nothing that tells you what is going on. Will there be a contact that explains the event to people? Otherwise, the only way to find out what is going on is to ask on broadcast (and that got old seeing everyone asking everytime someone logged on). In addition, there is no Event channel announcement about what zone the event is occurring in. My feeling was that you need several already organozed teams in order to accomplish the goal. Some warning of where the event will show up would be nice.

2. When fighting the "Horrors" (in particular, the ones modeled on the Dev. Earth), When they are defeated, the rock ones (i.e. Sentries, etc.) break down as the normal DE do into "Rubble." This would be fine except they are still named "Rubble" and do not fit the mood of the event. Maybe "Mini-Horrors" would be better.

Posted in another thread, but this seems like a more appropriate place for it:

My observations of today:

1) The ToT seemed to work as well as before. Though I was also getting salvage and recipes off kills. So that will help to curb some of the knock-and-run tactics that people have been doing. I'm not sure how the level was working though. Our team had me (the leader) at +0/x1 and a mission holder at +2/x5 but we were consistently getting 53s. Another team was consistently getting 50s. Not sure what was going on with that.

2) The new zone event is pretty cool and I enjoyed it. But there was some lag and disconnects associated with it that I guess I get for just about any big event. The only downside is that once the "aspect" spawns, nobody knows where it is.

3) When everyone splits up to find the aspect, it's already dead by the time it's announced. I never got to fight one and I sat through three of the events. They may need more HP or something.

4) I fought Echoai three times, got six merits, and never a badge. Is he somehow different than the one that normally rewards a badge? Is there a bug? Or was my group simply not doing enough damage? Hard to believe since over half our team was Blasters. And will it be hard to get the Jack badge this year? I never got one last year, and I didn't see Jack on test at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

I really like that the event is split into multiple static points on the map, rather than the typical "congregation" code of other invasion events. That gives people an incentive to split up into groups, which reduces lag at the site, and gives people an opportunity to avoid it if they like.

The banner graphics are great, and I love that you utilize the UI. I really want you to do that more often.

RE: the clarity of objectives, I think they'd be clearer if the event UI appeared wherever you were in an event zone, not just next to the banners. The problem with it is if I enter a zone while the event's going on, I have no idea what's happening. If I see the UI, however, I can quickly figure it out. A text blurb for each phase would help, e.g. "Defeat the guardians!" and "Defeat the banners!"

The description in this post mentions a timer, but I didn't see one. Is there a visible timer for the event? If there isn't, I strongly think there should be.

The description here also says that the shields come down if you defeat enough guardians. It's not clear to me whether that means all shields come down at once, or if each shield is dropped individually as guardians of that type are defeated. I think the UI for this part of it could be clearer - this is a case where it seems like a hard number (e.g. 5/125 guardians defeated) rather than a progress bar makes sense, or both. If you need to defeat a certain number of each type of defender for all shields to drop at once, then I'd recommend putting numbers in the UI near the bottom of the banner icons. So you'd see (X/Y) at the bottom of each circle instead of the progress bar.

It would be nice if there were some fx for the shield - I get the text, and that's nice, but maybe put a colored PFF gfx around the banner while it's up, and a flash of light or something when it comes down.

I also feel strongly that the GM spawn should be integrated into the UI. If the zone manages to spawn the GM, then the four banner icons could switch to one monster icon, with a waypoint for where it spawned. Trying to search for it isn't fun, as there's no game involved in the finding, just time spent - so just tell us where it is.

It might be a nice touch for some NPC, maybe the aspect you have a chance of fighting, would shout on some chanell about what's going on. It would also help with lore. Something cheesy like, "I have arrived to see the destruction of this world! Prepare to die!" or whatever would be great. There would be four shouts: on event start, when the banners come down in time, when the banners don't come down in time, and when you defeat dudeski.

I also thought it was a shame that the new zombies weren't used at one of the banners. I think they'd be a good fit, although I'm not sure at which one. Is the regular zombie apocalypse event still in? I love those zombies. I'd also echo the sentiments of others here that a slight tweak to the recycled mobs would be great. I understand you can't create new art for the mobs, but I'm guessing you could tint them or give them a new aura of some sort. That would go a long way, especially for the Shivans and Hydra, which seem out of place when you know their stories.

All-in-all, this is a really cool event. I really hope to see you guys do more stuff like this in the future: a multi-staged event with static zone locations that changes the UI. I think the next step is to incorporate some activity besides whaling on hordes of angry dudes/ladies, e.g. the Steel Canyon fires, and take the stages up a notch. This is pretty much a public quest system, which I love.

Well done, guys.

Bugs & Feedback

• Temp powers are not awarding for people who are Sk'ed up, not sure about sk'ed down *these are on defeat of the GM*.
• .
• In both cases the GM died so fast with the huge group on test that I only got to hit it once in one instance and none on the second instance, yet if made tougher the gm won't be able to be killed by smaller groups on less populated servers.
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• Trick or Treated on a team of 4 in PI and got 2 purple and 3 red mobs that instantly kicked my ***. Not fun.
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• Personal Settings (-1 so i could, you know, survive more then one yellow spawning on my crappy low level defender) are doing nothing for ToT spawns. I'm still getting multiple yellows and higher when solo.
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• Halloween salvage that fills your "event" tab isn't dropping if your invention salvage is full. Why does my invention salvage have to be open for salvage that doesn't even go there? It should work like the salvage you get from the Midnighter mission.
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• Inspirations: I have yet to get anything but a small insp from ToT. That sucks. The larges long time ago were great, being reduced to meds was ok but they should ALL be mediums not smalls.
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• Halloween Salvage: I got ZERO pieces of halloween salvage from kills or door treats. I did run away from every boss and only killed the lts if they were solo or minions as my L23 defender can't handle anything more then that without taking 10 min for an iffy kill which isn't fun.

I have broken down my feedback into two parts, the first related to Trick or Treating, the second to the new Deadly Apocalypse. I did no testing related to the Zombie Apocalypse.


Trick Or Treating.

Merits:

• Familiar to players from previous years. Ya click the door ya take your chances.
• Good range of rewards available.
• Enemies seemed to be spawning at appropriate levels and in appropriate numbers while solo.

• I soloed some doors for Trick or Treating in Grandville. The Tricks seemed to outweigh the Treats by 8 to 1, could be a little more Treat-heavy.
• Familiar. Yes, this is both a Merit and a Problem. It’s a little dull for veteran players.

• Sky turning red is suitably atmospheric. An accompanying roll of thunder in the distance with suitable sound would complete the effect.
• The Banners have nice graphical effects, the circles around them look good.
• The Event UI has a nice design and graphics. It conveys information relatively well.
• The incoming enemy groups, zombies et al. are paced well and keep a team on their toes.
• Temporary Power rewards were a fun surprise. Some stated that theirs could not be awarded though.
• The event is atmospheric, challenging and significantly different from previous ones. With more background information available to players in game to increase understanding of mission objectives will be a real fun event.
• No text errors in Badges or Accolade noticed.

• Event needs more directions for unfamiliar players. Determining what the objectives were first time through was confusing. E.g. Defeat the Banner or attack the banner…oh, neither, attack the enemies until the Banner is vulnerable then attack it.
• Badges fell thick and fast, this cheapened them in my opinion, they were too easy to get.
• Low level characters or any without a travel power will have difficulty getting from Banner to Banner in time to participate in more than one Banner attack.
• Banner markers on mini-map should blink or in someway draw attention to themselves more as they are easily missed in a cluttered zone.
• Use of Shivan and Hydra models as enemy groups during Deadly Apocalypse seemed out of step with the ‘horror’ genre and more ‘sci-fi’. Both groups originally have sci-fi backgrounds, the Hydra created by dimension-invading Rikti and the Shivans although ectoplasmic goo stuck to human skeletons originated from space and landed via meteor strikes. New models would have seemed more appropriate.
• Destroying the Aspect of the Sigil GM was easier than taking down a Banner with our group. Some kind of rebalancing (HP increase on the GM or reduction on the Banners perhaps) to make the GM be more challenging than the Banners would be a good idea.
• There are some bottlenecks on the maps where the incoming mobs could be stopped easily, around the edge of shacks in Mercy Island for example.
• The Channel Members List window resets to Server from previously set channel (e.g. Halloween 2009) when using O-portal to travel from Cap Au Diable to Ouroboros or Grandville to Ouroboros. Doesn’t occur when zoning from Ouroboros to Grandville, Ouroboros to Cap Au Diable etc.
• Noted 2 cases of the ‘chat bug’.

Okay, it took forever, but we have confirmed that turning in Halloween costume salvage does indeed have a chance of triggering a Deadly Apocalypse if no other Deadly Apocalypses are currently taking place anywhere else.

Not sure if this is just an issue with so many flocking to test to see the halloween event or an actual bug but have been experiencing the following

When using Ouroboros portal on finishing zoning my character becomes stuck. I can not move, and typing /stuck /synch etc does nothing. I can see chat going on around me and others are moving around fine. I was able to get invite to a team but was unable to be tped by teammate the power activated but I didnt recieve prompt to accept.

After a few mintes I am booted from the server and have to verify files before logging in

I have been running around for the last 3 hours or so participating in 6 events.


Are objectives clear when the Event is running? Fairly clear, granted it took a run to get the gist of what was going on.

Are rewards being handed out correctly?If you are level 50 then yes. We noticed that those SKed up were not getting the temp powers.

Are there any problems with the event occurring in any City Zone? (Note: The event will only be present In Paragon City or the Rogue Isles City Zones, and not in any PvP Zones, Hazard Zones, Trial Zones or Co-Op Zones)
I was ToT'ing in RWZ. I would say thats a bug. I could not ToT in zones lower then my level which is good.

Are there any graphical effect bugs? Nothing that I saw

Do banner icons appear correctly on the MiniMap when the event is running? Yes

Do waypoints correctly appear when the event is running? Yes

Are enemy NPCs appearing at the appropriate level? (i.e. a Level 50 should be able to fight side-by-side with a Level 5 character). Yes

Are all badges awarded correctly? Yes



Now that thats out of the way some actual feedback.

The First Impression : Epic! The Lightening Crack and the intro music and everything going Dark Astoria was awesome. It felt like I just walked into a Graveyard.

After that I saw the markers on my map and proceeded to a banner. We were fighting enemies and I noticed the red bar slowly turning blue. I have done a few instanced events in other games and this seemed familiar to me. Once the bar was fully blue the banners are attackable. From that point we defeated the banners. Then the message to defeat the aspect came up. However unlike the banners there was no marker showing the location of the Aspect.

The concern about there being no marker for the aspect is with large amounts of people doing the event the Aspect is dead before you know it and for servers with small populations it may take a bit to find and then rally up enough to defeat it. The event is set, everything is marked except the last task.

The next concern is the Mobs. While I have no major issue with reusing existing critters in game I saw a fair amount of folks wondering why there are no new mobs. That the mobs for the Banners were reuses of existing characters. That the aspects were renamed GM's. Overall I like the feel of the mobs but something different would enhance the epic awesomeness of the event. Like when I saw the Zombie EB for the first time... that was awesome.

Trick or Treating - The door timer is faster this year which is great. However being solo and getting bosses may not be great for some. Personally I love it however I know others that will hate it. Having ToT work off the difficulty system would be very interesting.

Overall I enjoyed the event. Its fun and has replayability.


Ice