I was actually pretty ****** the way the nector was dropping. In order to get the good periods, i had to stay up much later then i should have been lol. It seems like i was one of the lucky ones on drops this time around though, so it made the time i spent worth it.
I think i understand why the nector dropped like it did, but since every individual person has there own peak times of play, i dont think it was fair to most people.
This kind of event though is much more worth while and fun, as opposed to the gimic events for fireworks or whatever else.
I loved this event. Howver, I have to agree with the masses who said the prime time dropping boost was a bit unfair for many. A 4-8 hour block of time hits many people yes, however there are many people who play at "odd" hours and essentially got 1-3 pollen an hour. Perhaps certain times of the day in shorter 1-2 hour blocks would have been more fair.
Overall, the event was a good one. But it once again fell far short of what it needed to.
1)Drop rates for pollen were far too low given the short duration of the event.
2)Drop rates were far to variable. The feast or famine model of pollen drops was frustrating to say the least.
3)The duration was indeed to short. An event like this should at least last a full 7 days. (There is some merit to having an event like this lasting more than one week also, but that is more because the previous events were so poor than because this event needed to be longer.)
4)The rewards were definately on the low side. It can be argued that there were too many D grade enchants, but the lack of higher grade armor enchants was particularily noticable. (B and higher.) I would expect the higher level weapon enchants to be more rare...but there is no real reason the armor enchants had to be that rare also. Same for High level SA crystals.
In the end without any idea exactly how much control youu have over the creation/implementation of events it's hard to suggest changes to make these event better. Overall though, this type of event is much more enjoyable to me because participation is fair for all players and can't be monopolized by those with more time to spend in game.
I didn't vote on the story one... cause I read the story, and it didn't make me more intrested, cause it was just hacked from the pumpkin story.... so saying the story made me more intrested would have been false.
In other words, your poll lacked options. :)
Also you had, "more more intrerested." and that just confused me.
I played everyday of the event during these times and picked up lots of pollen. This is the EXACT same time it has been for every event. To those that disagree, I must wonder how often they actually play this game.
I played everyday of the event during these times and picked up lots of pollen. This is the EXACT same time it has been for every event. To those that disagree, I must wonder how often they actually play this game.
I guess I disagree and I play almost every day (haven't played the last 2 days). I got far more pollen early in the day and almost none at night.
alitle bummed about the time the event lasted and what time it actually droped Pollen..
but i have to say its a very good event and i did like it ....
So now i think its time for a event that has more a War theme... orcs invading from a far and all have to band toghter and defend our home.. sry got carried away :eek:
Good and solid event like to see it again.
Evidently I'm in the minority.
I wasn't able to play at the beginning.
I was leveling alts during the event and the pollens fell like rain for me.
I opened 6 little squash on my own and 4 big ones with clan mates. They were about an equal distribution of 'low level' and 'high level'.
In 3 days I got:
4 A-crystals
6 Rapid Healing Potions
14 Greater Haste
'a few' Greater Attack (can't recall)
A stage 10 Blue soul crystal
An EW-B
4 EA-D's
I think that's pretty darned good! I got most pollens in Wastelands and outside of Gludio (where lizards and king Arachnid guys are) and quite a few in neutral zone leveling new elf scout.
Maybe it just seemed good to me because I was playing toons that were able to grind up green mobs like water so the pollens fell really well.
I had enough to do 6 squash (36), buy 2 chrono's (20), contribute (43) to clan's efforts, and still sold (5) unused ones for 10k each at end of event. So it looks like I collected 104 pollens in two evenings of play--about 6 hours.
Oh drakko, you aren't the minority. Most people here assume that each event should give them roughly 10-25 squashes and multiple warehouses stocked with goods and if it is less than that the anger starts.
The event was ok... as the masses have stated, the drop rate/ time was a downfall. One thing that NC needs to take into consideration, is the lack of origanality of the events. This was pretty much the same thing as the pumpkin event. One thing I think would be a big plus, would be a variation in the drops/rewards. Why do they always have to be potions, crystals and enchants? It seems that a majority of these events flood the market with the same items every time. Why not change it up a little? Make it random... how bout the chance at getting key materials to A and S grade stuff? Soulshots or Spirit Shots? Pet collars or items? Why not go out on a limb and have the chance of whole armor and weapon drops? On some servers, this might relieve some stress on the select few massively overpriced items... Putting in the high level soul crystals was a good idea. A grade helms/materials anyone? Im not saying that people should get a weapon everytime, but maybe make it a bit more interessting and random. Who wouldnt want to be one of the luckly few who got something that was really valuable.
First of all I'd like to say it was a fun event, I had a good time with it. The timing of it was excellent, as people were more than ready for an event with real rewards after the series of recent lackluster events. The squash had some great dialogue, and forcing people to get together to smash the big ones was fun for everyone. The rewards were nice, mostly consumables that couldn't damage the economy, and a few rares were also present (or at least rumored to be).
Now onto the important part, what to improve.
1: The drop rate. The most obvious problem is that the drop rate is spread unevenly depending on the time of day. Some people get left out completely while others receive an unfair advantage. This was multiplied by the fact that the drop rate was relatively low, thus playing in the off hours meant the event pretty much didn't exist. You could hunt for several hours without finding a single pollen while you could put together several large squash in the same amount of time during peak hours.
2: The event was a bit too short notice. I figure this was in part due to it following the fireworks event so quickly, but people basically only had a few days to clear up their schedules to play the event. With the drop rate being selectively timed, this was even more important as if people didn't prepare they could miss any chance of drops.
3. Length of the event could be a bit longer. I'm of the belief that the longer an event is the more fun it is, but I think rather than 5 days an event should last 7 at least. When they're too short you could leave for a weekend and return to find the event practically over.
Overall I'd give the event a C+, or a B if the above issues were addressed.
In any case, keep up the good work NC and I hope to see even better events in the near future.
I got the pollens etc etc..
But in the end I got too frustrated about the drop rate. I am a euro player so I missed out on the prime drop times. To give you guys some idea how frustrated I got about the drops:
I lvled my artisan into a warsmith instead.
I really dislike 2nd class jobs... The dwarf 2nd class job being the most disliked version there is.
(I even took some days off to make sure I could partake in this event for the better part.)
Wish I had a better review for you guys at NCNA but I am just frank about it. Still I hope to see more events in the future.
Horribly off topic Thinkabout...but serious grats on WS. It's a HORRIBLE and expensive and pretty darned complicated class change.
My hats off to everyone who completes it!
(I still think we should be able to kill Toma just for the pure satisfaction it would offer)
This was the second time of any event where I didn't get enough of the necessary items to get a reward. Part of that was due to the length of the event. Way too short. Part of that was due to the fact that it didn't seem like any pollen was dropping at the times that I played. I actually went two levels on one my toons and earned less than 10 pollens. It shouldn't be possible, yet it happened. I'll let you figure out why and how to fix this for the next time.
Overall I liked the event. The rewards for events is still bothering me. I still dont understand having rewards that cannot be obtained except for maybe 1 or 2 lucky people on a server. For all the people I know on my server that pop dozens of squash not a single person got a Soul Crystal above lvl 8. Most didn't even get 1. It's just frustrating having good loot on an event but making it almost impossible to get just like a hole drop on a mob is a bit crasy.
But I still like the event and will participate the next time an event comes up.
The basic idea behind the event is great, collect event items, turn them in to get pumpkins, then clobber them and get drops which CAN be great (EWA, soul crystals).
But, seriously:
The pollen drop rate was FAR FAR FAR FAR FAR too low except for prime time. And I (and my whole clan) do not play during server prime time. So I got JUST enough pollen for one large pumpkin, and the drops sucked. Many of my clannies did get maybe 30 pollen during the whole event, even though they played for several hours each day. This was simply ridiculous.
Good event idea, do it again, just:
- longer
- better pollen drop rate, or at least do NOT do that "only during prime time" crap again. It is unfair to a large part of your player base.
Indeed. Great event idea BUT (oh how I wish there were no BUTs) not nearly...
Not nearly long enough.
Not nearly enough Pollen drops.
Not nearly fair spread of those drops.
Not nearly good enough rewards (or maybe I was just extremely unlucky).
I though I am not getting much Pollen, but comparing with some others it seems I didn't have it that bad (I tried to play only during the peak hours and ended with ~ 130 Pollen). But the rewards were rather horrible inmy case (ok, I kinda liked this 1 EAB I got). Overall seriously, the rewards I got were not even worth enough to cover the consumables I have used (I burned my whole stash of 7 Empower scrolls I had left from last RB event, some Acumen scrolls and pots and a lot of BSps) and got 1 EAB, 1 EAC, 2 EAD, about 12 A crystals and several pots... But as I said maybe I was just unlucky.
Definately my biggest complaint though is the uneven distribution of Pollen drops. It was simply extremely unfair.
Overall I liked the event. The rewards for events is still bothering me. I still dont understand having rewards that cannot be obtained except for maybe 1 or 2 lucky people on a server. For all the people I know on my server that pop dozens of squash not a single person got a Soul Crystal above lvl 8. Most didn't even get 1. It's just frustrating having good loot on an event but making it almost impossible to get just like a hole drop on a mob is a bit crasy.
But I still like the event and will participate the next time an event comes up.
Really? Huh, that is pretty suprising sorry to hear that. From the main consensus anyone who broke around 15-20 with clannies or by themselves ended up with at least one level 9/10.
A fun event, kind of spoilt by the fact that I played for around 20 hours and got enough pollen for 4 small squash.
Well it's extra free things I guess, it is just a little dissapointing that many others got a lot more from the event without playing so much.
Also it would be nice if there was a way to make it worth hunting in groups for event items, maybe upped drop rates for multi-hp mobs. It always seems more profitable for people to jump onto alts and solo at a decent speed than form groups to hunt for them.
I like this event a lot but I agree it should be longer. 2 Weeks would be perfect :) It was said on another thread that Korea got 2 weeks of this one.
I do think it should be suggested to Korea to spread the drop rates out evenly over the time of the event (since other threads seem to conclue that drop rates are a Korean issue and can't or won't be changed for NA only. It wouldn't hurt Korean players at all and as far as the idea that it helps deter bots, it doesnt :( and why should we suffer because of bots anyway if it did :confused:
Drops of Stage 11-12-13 crystals is great, we didnt get any but I love the idea and hope the next event will include even more of them to help bring the outrageous prices down :)
Good job overall tho, I want this one again in the fall lol bring on the pumpkins again for that one :p
Looking forward to another medal event too, with stage 11-12-13 soul crystals :D
I hunted a lot, no soloing though it was all in parties and managed to make 4 large squash. The drop rate was terrible, and getting tons of enchant armor d and enchant weapon d for my level 77 character made me mad I spend the time breaking the **** thing open.
I hunted a lot, no soloing though it was all in parties and managed to make 4 large squash. The drop rate was terrible, and getting tons of enchant armor d and enchant weapon d for my level 77 character made me mad I spend the time breaking the **** thing open.
Suddenly I feel better about not get enough pollen for a large squash.
You would think that they would design high, medium and low grade squash based on level ranges. Low grade = 40 and below; medium grade = 41 - 60; high grade 61 and up. Here the grade would correspond to the possible drops and not the difficulty necessarily of breaking open the squash. A low grade squash would give you C and D grade items and soul crystals up to level 6; medium would give C and B grade items and soul crystals up to level 10; high grade would give A and S grade items and soul crystals up to level 13.
If that wasn't good enough, they could still further divide the prize drops based on "high quality" vs. "low quality" squash.
But I guess that would have taken too much to implement?
I love this type of events. Unfortunately as a Europe based player I had to stay up all night for getting some nectar.
As for the rewards, lots of EA/EW D. Oh well it was fun OE D grade stuff. At least now I have plenty D Cry's :D
I opened one large, got a high quality, and it dropped 9 GMHP. Give me a break, thats just lame. 55 pollen for 9 GMHP? seriuos reworking needs to be done.
I cannot believe there was a primetime for pollen drops. That is hugely unfair to players in Europe. Luckily I have a warlord (Pole FTW) and got some pollen. I've been on pretty much 12 hours a day as I had the week off work and I got about 300 pollen.
Could this be the reason there are shops in Giran selling something like 8k pollen for 40k adena? or perhaps something more sinister? :eek:
Here is analysis of 36 pumpkins/squash that I did. 25% rate for high quality (9/36). It would have been helpful if the rates for higher grade b/a/s were higher and D a little lower (the +16 brig set is nice and all...). Alternatively, if the pumpkins could drop stacks of mats like CBP, Varnish, Ori ore and similar it would be nice. I would hope you guys keep track of the market on the server, if not poke in and talk to some people and take a look. These prices reflect Sieghardt prices, and may vary depending on your server.
I hunted a lot, no soloing though it was all in parties and managed to make 4 large squash. The drop rate was terrible, and getting tons of enchant armor d and enchant weapon d for my level 77 character made me mad I spend the time breaking the **** thing open.
Suddenly I feel better about not get enough pollen for a large squash.
You would think that they would design high, medium and low grade squash based on level ranges. Low grade = 40 and below; medium grade = 41 - 60; high grade 61 and up. Here the grade would correspond to the possible drops and not the difficulty necessarily of breaking open the squash. A low grade squash would give you C and D grade items and soul crystals up to level 6; medium would give C and B grade items and soul crystals up to level 10; high grade would give A and S grade items and soul crystals up to level 13.
If that wasn't good enough, they could still further divide the prize drops based on "high quality" vs. "low quality" squash.
But I guess that would have taken too much to implement?
Quite possibly one of the best ideas I have heard about events.
Events like this one are good, same as the medal event. It gives players the opportunity to receive items basically for free while doing what they normally do, which is xp. But being honest as others have pointed getting mass ead and eac mixed in with a few ewd and ewc don't really do much for "me", but lower lvl players could benefit greatly from those. Sure you can sell them off, or use them on alts, festival alts whatever.
The idea of having different grade pumpkins or squash is the better way to go imho. Something just does not seem right to fight 77+ mobs and get pollen, gather enough for one large and then break it open and receive ead's out the wazoo. I am not complaining, free stuff is free stuff but, just like the medal event had gold, silver and bronze medals, make the pollen event drop high, medium and low quality pollen. The higher the mobs lvl, the higher chance you have of getting a high quality pollen drop, and thus for lower lvl mobs the chance would be very, very low. Still have it so you need 50 units of pollen to get a large seed, but have 3 different quality's as a choice.
I think this would be fantastic. Everyone would still get pollen drops, it would just be based on what mobs they were fighting and thus the rewards would be different too for each of the low medium and high quality pumpkin/squash.
low = d and cgrade
medium = b and low a
high = top a and s
Anyways, just my suggestion from the person who originally thought of something similiar, I just put my own twist on it. As far as this event went, my thoughts...
Way too short. An event like this should be at least one week in length, starting on a monday and ending the following monday. Make a steady drop rate to benefit all who play. Potions, scrolls, ew's ea's and crystals are all good, but as others said maybe throw in the occasional rare recipe here and there, or bulk crafting items or key mats, hell, even more pollen would be good lol. I disagree that any full item should EVER be dropped from an event like this. But blades, edges, patterns etc could be good.
I cannot believe there was a primetime for pollen drops. That is hugely unfair to players in Europe. Luckily I have a warlord (Pole FTW) and got some pollen. I've been on pretty much 12 hours a day as I had the week off work and I got about 300 pollen.
Could this be the reason there are shops in Giran selling something like 8k pollen for 40k adena? or perhaps something more sinister? :eek:
It's not just unfair to Euro players. Some of us in the US also have restricted schedules. I personally had to work the entire weekend, which meant that I got to play during peak times for a grand total of two hours. I got a nice amount of pollen during that time, but during the little time I had that wasn't during peak hours I think I got a grand total of 10 pollens, compared to 50 or so during peak times.
This type of thing greatly reduces the average player's ability to gain the event items, while allowing pro-farmers to utilize their bot programs to the best extent, ie. leveling during peak hours nonstop.
This is just a suggestion, however, as I seem to have no say whatsoever in NC's decision making process. I'm just here to make people laugh.
well everyone knows a certain drop site and if you look up pumpkins there it gives you the rate on hundreds averaged...they come out to about the same as your odds.
I'm one of those who feel a bit cheated by the drop rates. During the entire event I got less than enough for a full large squash and had to buy 12 pollen to make my first one. All while talking to people who effectively farmed the stuff and made several large ones a day.
It's not that I didn't play. I levelled an alt from 1 to 18 in one day (he got 5 pollen), did aoe parties and duos where in one case we got 3 pollen to share among the 7 of us.
Hehe, the poll cracked me up. Majority said it wasn't worth it, but they will participate in the future in similar events.
Gluttons for punishments?
I loved it. A bunch of us gathered together and spend some time just having fun and smacking gourds. And I love the potions and enchant scrolls - nice bonus!
I didn't get many pollen since I'm a euro player I went to bed just before peak time. But I got enough for about 10 small pumpkins. One of the first ones (low quality) dropped a lvl 11 green crystal so I'm happy.
Once again a great event ruined. Dont think I need to mention the drop rate on pollen, its been said enough, hopefully you will listen.
The item drops were not worth the time to beat down the pumpkins.... D grade for level 60 an 70 toons...come on I kno you can do better than that.
Events are suppose to be fun, they should be usefull to ALL, and they should not frustrate the life out of the player base (most of whom are NOT in D grade any more).
You have managed some good events in the past, but you are taking those events and destroying them. Take he good events and keep them the same, take the bad events and fix them or trash them and maybe come up with even better events.... If nothing else, ask the people who play to come up with events
Would events that dropped only b and a grade enchants as well as 11-13 stage crystals be more to your taste? Give me a break, most people have alts they play and can always find a way to sell or use any drop given. Besides some arguments with the pollen I dont see how people can have a problem with the items from the pumpkin. The goal is to keep the economy going but giving some worthwhile drops not supply everyones need for high grade items for free...that would be disgraceful.
Would events that dropped only b and a grade enchants as well as 11-13 stage crystals be more to your taste? Give me a break, most people have alts they play and can always find a way to sell or use any drop given. Besides some arguments with the pollen I dont see how people can have a problem with the items from the pumpkin. The goal is to keep the economy going but giving some worthwhile drops not supply everyones need for high grade items for free...that would be disgraceful.
Slapping 500 EWA and 300 Stage 11 12 and 13 crystals wouldent keep the economy going how? It's only going to help out, because atleast I don't like paying 10m each for EW:A and EW:B back to 2.5m. I'm not suggesting that that happen, but come on, even on the PTS you start with a lvl 75 toon because the game is basically high end content from now on. Having 40 EAD with no WH room and taking 2 or 3 days to sell them is far from what anybody wants, the 10% of the players here that actively play alts in D grade or mains in D grade still don't need anywhere close to the ammount of them given, especially when there was no shortage in the first place.
Would events that dropped only b and a grade enchants as well as 11-13 stage crystals be more to your taste? Give me a break, most people have alts they play and can always find a way to sell or use any drop given. Besides some arguments with the pollen I dont see how people can have a problem with the items from the pumpkin. The goal is to keep the economy going but giving some worthwhile drops not supply everyones need for high grade items for free...that would be disgraceful.
Slapping 500 EWA and 300 Stage 11 12 and 13 crystals wouldent keep the economy going how? It's only going to help out, because atleast I don't like paying 10m each for EW:A and EW:B back to 2.5m. I'm not suggesting that that happen, but come on, even on the PTS you start with a lvl 75 toon because the game is basically high end content from now on. Having 40 EAD with no WH room and taking 2 or 3 days to sell them is far from what anybody wants, the 10% of the players here that actively play alts in D grade or mains in D grade still don't need anywhere close to the ammount of them given, especially when there was no shortage in the first place.
They did have a fair amount of EWA's. I got one out of 20 squash's and many have reported them as well. Also, Stage 11-13 soul crystals arent just about the economy its about the work and teamwork necessary to get one and it isnt fair to others who got them through hard work and team work for them to just drop randomly at an event. My point wasnt 500 ewa my point was only ewc ewb and ewa's and eaa eab that would ruin the manor for a good amount of time until it was a good profit to make them at castles again.
UK resident - It took me and my missus the entire period to harvest enough pollen to get a large squash, hammer thing, and 5 pollen for food. After all that time, i ended up selling the whole thing as a kit on 'bulk sale' cos we couldnt find anyone else to help us smash it; they'd all long finished and dumped their excess items. :(