Event Fatigue

Quite some time ago, I posted that I felt like special events had become too common. At the time, I was talking about the Rikti invasion event, but also mentioned the fact that it was quite possible to have 4 Death Surges up, or multiple Luscas.

Some changes have been made to the game since, such as making it impossible for there to be more than one Lusca up at a time, but it's still a bit of a problem.

This Halloween highlights this issue as it applies to the (relatively) newer Halloween events. I've been playing on Victory this year, and despite the fact that the server seems VERY active, in part due to issue 19 and its related expansion, there is almost NO interest in the Zombie Apocalypse or Deadly Apocalypse (Banner) events.

The Banner event is... well... not bad, but it's not the best event in City of Heroes. It's certainly not something you can just hop in and enjoy. It's an impromptu trial, really, that requires coordination, leadership, and a certain critical mass of players to get going. Likewise, too many players can swamp the event, but if you DO have too many players, it's relatively easy to simply do multiple events in order to get the badges associated.

And, like the Rikti and Zombie invasions, it can happen pretty frequently, due to being tied to in-game taskforces. Despite really looking, I've only seen one group get together for it. Everyone else is more interested in the 'hop in and go' Trick-or-Treating and the new tip mission.

The Zombie invasion, while more popular than the Banner event, is still subject to the same disinterest. IT doesn't require a lot in the way of coordination, but players are more likely to simply take off than stay and fight, especially if they perceive that there's no 'critical mass' necessary to allow one or more groups to stand their ground against the invasion. It, too, is tied to taskforces, making it something that's more of an annoyance than a real threat or special treat.

Frankly, these events are so painfully common that the 'critical mass' necessary to enjoy them is uninterested.

They, and the Rikti Invasion, need to be much more rare.

My suggestions are to significantly decrease the number of times the event occurs outside the holiday events-- maybe by as much as 80 percent. The task forces that trigger the event should only do so maybe 1 in 5 times.

Second, the Banner event in particular should be limited to a much lower number of zones, both during and outside of the holiday events. I suggest Atlas, Talos, Peregrine Island, Port Oakes, Cap au Diable, Grandville, and Nova Praetoria. Not only does this concentrate players and make it more likely to have a 'Critical Mass', but it also removes the severe difficulty players have in reaching the more distant objectives in zones like Independence Port.

It's worth noting that the events people are most interested in doing are not necessarily the newest. Along with the new tip missions, groups have been Trick or Treating and dropping the Halloween versions of Jack and Eochai like anything. The real difference is that these activities are NOT available the rest of the year.

I could see the argument for making some of these things a bit more rare to make them seem a bit more special. I think the Devs could keep things simple and just cut how often these things happen down by 1/2. That should be enough to accomplish most of what you're talking about.

I'm pretty sure the off-season Zombie and Deadly Apocalypse events are tied to turning in costume salvage, but I agree that both of them need to not be. Save the apocalypses for Halloween and leave the rest of the year out of it.

The Rikti invasion kinda makes sense, but if the Lady Grey Task Force is run frequently enough, I can see how it can become saturated. Maybe make it a vote at the end of the Task Force as to whether the entire group receives Reward Merits, or no Merits at all and instead trigger an invasion. (-:

To be clear, we (players) Asked for the upcoming Rikti invasion.

I personally don't feel there's too much in the way of events, just too many crowded together in this part of the year.

Removing any off calendar methods of getting badges or costume parts is not a good solution, unless they come up with some kind of alternative.

Maybe they could consider some kind of Invasion Weekend system, where one weekend a month they drop an invasion of a specific type on a rotating schedule. Zombies and/or Banners without ToT, or Rikti.

Eh.

I agree with the banner event. There's not much interest in it *now,* and I think I've only seen interest in it twice during the year. (Honestly, something soloable would be nice, too - yeah, I can park some of my characters at *A* banner and stay there, but it doesn't accomplish anything.)

Disagree with the Rikti. I haven't seen that triggered much of late. And it's not a difficult event, or one you really need a team for.

See my Guides and Tutorials

There's no way everyone is going to be pleased. Scale them back and people miss them, leave them very frequent and people get tired of them.

Personally I do think they are a bit much at the moment and could be scaled back a little without any major loss to enjoyment.

Couple of points that makes me say that:
* These Events can be down right painful on lowbies - especially the Rikti lazer of insta-death
* The Zombies cheat - I hadn't even manged to zone out of Oro yesterday and I'd been hit by one of them and don't get me started about being hit at the BM while standing behind the Vendor under the canopy
* Trying to Mission TP out of the rear end of IP with constant interruptions - I had to resort to a jetpack to hover above the Zombies (As a side really need to fix it so team mates zoning don't interrupt base/mission/ww/bm tps)
* Interrupting normal playing - Last night someone suggested a Numina TF which I need for TFC. Given the events I thought "nah". Hunts aren't fun at the best of times and combined with the Events it is just painful as the TF comes to a halt until the Event is over. Yesterday morning I was in the Hollows with the Troll hunt mission but no Trolls. I must have been too low to even open doors so I couldn't ToT. My friend hit a few doors but we'd rather get on with the Troll hunting.

It is great to see that ToT is zone-level-appropriate. Although the old "I'm hitting as many doors as possible and not dealing with my aggro" groups are in full force this year. I'd love to see the door aggro focus solely on the door opener no matter how far they run or even zone.

Don't get me wrong, on balance I like the Events but it's easy to get tired. I didn't try for one present last xmas because I was sick of it the previous year.

But while there are people who have been in game five years, some have never seen this Event. It is a shame if old-timers are so tired of it that the new guys don't get a chance to experience the Banner teams/badges etc because there isn't the numbers to take part.

I'm sure there will be a "Event Booster" pack available soon so all can have their costume/badge bits at the low price $9.99...now if we could just get a Carnie pack it would break my booster buying drought...maybe!

I say that the Deadly Apocalypses should be related to the Halloween Event. The Zombie Apocalypse, however is too awesome to have be so rare. Basically, the Banners can be only for Halloween. The Zombies for Halloween OR turning in Halloween salvage.

the only event that i personally dont like very much is the banners event, everything is fine because its more optional and easier to do with more varied team sizes


something i would possibly like to see though is for them to put a candy keeper in PD by the ski chalet door so we can use candy canes the other 50 weeks of the year lol

To the OP:

Welcome to "Me 2 Years Ago."

Actually, I think the Zombie and Rikti Raid are fine as is.

I think the Banner event should be limited to the Halloween Event however, just so it gets more interrest during the Halloween event.

I've tried quite a few times to get in on Banner teams during the rest of the year, and it's not easy. So my thinking is, people might enjoy it more, and try for it more, if it was limited to a once a year event.

the season events have 'offseason' triggers so badgers don't freak out.
I seem to recall the periodic Rikti invasions being inspired by forum complaining.

If you think they happen "too often" just ignore 'em.
I periodically log in or exit a mission and think "hey why are my colors all jacked?" then either join the fun or carry on with whatever I was doing.

I've gotten blind invites to event teams on freedom, virtue, triumph and guardian so far. I'm not much of a badge chaser, but the events are fun excuses to team up with a bunch of strangers and punch stuff so I accept and join the fun.

*shrug*

Don't see a problem with the way things are.

I didnt mind these invasions so much, until xp got nerfed to hell and back again - this seems particularly bad re zombies - and thats when I started ignoring them unless I was on a team already when the event hit.

Zombie invasions are a serious nuisance when ToTing solo, and when they start I just leave the zone or find a mission. I know its going to be what feels like 15 minutes until the stupid thing is over, so I just make myself scarce.