Winter Event: Where is the Snowball Fight! REMOVED?

starcruiser

I hope to be wrong on this but was looking forward to the annual Snowball Fight in the lake! It was always a riot trying to take down the Snowman Overlord and its snow minions.

Is it GONE? and why?
Wouldn't it be better to have it transferred to a PvE queue like the Gingerbread village "Winter Invasion". Why just remove it completely with no notes. I mean the Klingon fishing is allright but nothing says a good old fashioned Winter event like throwing snow to the Overlord? Who heard about fishing being a winter tradition?

I dont mind if you put the fishing or the Snowball fight in alternate maps but why remove it? Just sad to see it deleted while other "less" attended events like the "Tide of ice" or "Cones of conduct" still remain. Usually, not many circulate in the "Cones of conduct" and has been dead since last years event. Why not delete that map instead of the most populated "Snowball Fight" Just a sad decision IMO.


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baddmoonrizin

Snow Overlord now fights alongside the Snowconian in the Gingerbread Village.

starcruiser

baddmoonrizin wrote: »

Snow Overlord now fights alongside the Snowconian in the Gingerbread Village.

It has always been like that. The overlord also goes there. However, as I was saying before not that many people circulate there and that event has been dead since last years. A shame no more "lake" Overlord.​​

warpangel

There is no map conflict with fishing. As long as they don't run at the same time, all they needed to check was that the overlord's spawnpoint isn't under the "fish bowl."

All I can guess is it didn't fit into the 1-hour schedule. Which is BS IMO. They could've just used a longer schedule instead.

Kinda the same removing the sandcastle event on Risa...although at least there you could still build the sandcastles without the bonus reward.

pappy02u

I was kinda disappoint at this too, but the Ice fishing is fun and a nice change. Moving those two events to a queue would be nice too. But if Cryptic wants to keep these as an open map pve may I suggest adjusting the time table? I mean the pvp races have too much time. Each race takes less than a minute give that event maybe 5 minutes each for 10 minutes total. The fishing could have been a one and done, like the snowball fight was, give that 10 minutes. Then they could have put the snowball fight in for 10 minutes. Then Cones of Conduct adjust the speed so it takes 10 minute, then the same for Tides of Ice. Basically make every event 10 minutes long instead of 15. Ideally this would give the opportunity to add as many as 6 events an hour or give 5 with 2 minutes to move to the next event.

Maybe they will see this post and make that change for next year, probably not.

storules

A PvE map would have been much better than just remove it. It was a fun and classical event.​​

davefenestrator

It was always fun to hear the danger music and see the human-sized snow goons appear

anyonka

I am having fun with the Winter event but I do miss the snowball fight. Is there any possibility to bring it back? Even if its on a different map.

questerius

Given the choice i would rather have the snowball fight and have the village removed. I don't think the later ever took off.

syrilian

Personally I think the fishing might have been a better replacement for tides of ice since the I still see ppl in chat saying they aren't getting any rewards(at least until it is fixed). Or even better as a replacement/alternative to the pvp race as the boxes seem a decent way of getting epohh tags.

Whilst I like the concept of the lake fishing imo the overlord was better in that time slot and I can see the fishing going the way of cones once the novelty wears off.

autumnturning

The downside to the Snowball Fight culminating in the Snowverlord was that it turned the entire zone hostile, meaning you couldn't leave Q's gazebo without being engaged by snowballs. This was particularly annoying if the snowmen started attacking people doing the Fastest Game On Ice daily, since it could prompt you to fail due to poor guard railing of the track.

Agreed that the Snowconian village battle is both tediuous, boring and frustrating to engage, which is why basically nobody does it more often than they HAVE to.

xyquarze

I like the fishing event, and it is a nice change of pace. The "all-in" snowball fight was a lot of fun, too, however (only a bit annoying when you wanted to do something else - that the reason it went?). Since I also like the PvP races (I just wish they would change it so the Elachi ability doesn't work and the bunny-hop technique neither. Not complaining about "exploits" or similar, but the first is just taking the "everybody on the same level" aspect away, while the latter looks and feels ridiculous to me. As long as they're in, everybody's fine to use it in my book) there's "Tides of Ice" and the Cone Village event. I find them to be the most similar of the bunch (also the queue is similar-ish), so I'd think one of them would have been a better "goner". Only problem: the map exists (and the village is a nice map part).

But I remember two years ago, when there were only three "main events" - Tides of Ice, Snowball Fight, Fast & Flurrious - that there was a rota of three hours what would happen in the vacant time slot. Maybe use that system again: odd hours it's fishing, even hours it's snowball fight at that slot. (Other permutations with other events are an idea, too). Same for the summer: change Sandcastles and Artifact Retrieval or others every so often. (Since I think that there will be a new event next summer which will definitely "always" be there, other combos would have to come, too. Probably Horgahn Hunt-Dance Party would be the best combo, though I think removing the Horgahn hunt as a regular and the best way to earn favors would give an outcry)

ikonn

Ice fishing in North Dakota and Minnesota. In the winter up there, it is a BIG thing.

Maybe the Fishing event is a test-bed, just to see how popular it is. Perhaps they might do a side by side comparison next winter just to see how it holds up against a competitor "event"?

I have to admit, at least for me, that the fishing event was more fun than the Snowverlord snowball fight. However, I did catch myself wanting to give the Snowverlord a smack down last night, but did still enjoy the new event. It would be nice to have both.

rattler2

autumnturning wrote: »

The downside to the Snowball Fight culminating in the Snowverlord was that it turned the entire zone hostile, meaning you couldn't leave Q's gazebo without being engaged by snowballs. This was particularly annoying if the snowmen started attacking people doing the Fastest Game On Ice daily, since it could prompt you to fail due to poor guard railing of the track.

Agreed that the Snowconian village battle is both tediuous, boring and frustrating to engage, which is why basically nobody does it more often than they HAVE to.

I think there are at least two reason the Snowman Invasion was pulled.

• The full hostile zone as mentioned already. Try to do anything during the Invasion other than fight and you will fail. Its pretty much a mandatory event, due to how widespread the snowmen were.
• Instance Hopping by players to maximize their rewards by switching to a less populated instance to help with that Invasion fight after their instance is done.

While do miss blasting snowzilla, the Ice Fishing isn't too bad, and solved the problem of Instance Hopping by having us blast more than one serpent. I kinda wish we got a second, larger lake for it though.

bobbydazlers

you've got gingerbread invasion, you've got Cones of Conduct and you've got Tide of Ice how many snowball fight based events do we really need, the schedule for the events is pretty full as it is and with the introduction of Klingon ice fishing something had to go, so they have dropped the lake snowball fight big deal.
it was a darn nuisance when you were running the fastest game on ice race anyway, even after they tried to fix it I still got frozen sometimes and the snowmen and other players often got in the way also, I am glad to see the back of it from the main map though I would not object if they offered it as a queued mission like gingerbread invasion on a different map.

bergins

I feel like I ran the race a lot during the snowball fight over the years, and I don't feel like it was a big enough problem to just remove it. In fact, after they put in a fix to protect the runners, I kinda missed being shot at, and would sometimes fire off snowballs at snowmen as I passed by in hopes they might come for me.

lordsteve1

The snowball fight would be preferable to the gingerbread village attack.
That event is just a pita as nobody follows the guidelines and the snoconian just gets nuked as nobody powers it up. Its not just a case of shooting the overlord (which actually does barely any damage).
Plus the constant need to pick up loot makes it a real pain, if it dropped the pickups like the Voth battlezone powerups from supply runners it would be better.

The snowball fight was much more fun, it was zone wide as well, not hidden off to one side like the village.

Even tides of ice has lost the numbers in terms of people playing.

where2r1

Awwww...they removed the living Snowmen on WW?

I liked that part...running through the woods to hunt down those things. Especially liked aggravating that group of 40-50 that is way back behind that hill... LOL!

sheldonlcooper

yeah it is a loss for sure. It was very satisfying to mortar or avalanche the 2 big groups of snowmen. also the snowblower was great on them. the complaints about the race and the snowmen made it easy for them to cut it instead of trying to fit it in. i will miss it.

bejaymac

I don't miss it, lost count of the number of times I hunted the snowmen last year and got no rewards, to many lazy turds spawn camping the lake waiting on others to kill the snowmen, if you weren't fast enough at getting back to the lake you got nothing for your efforts.

saurializard

Well, in a way, it still lives on in Tides of Ice, Cones of Conduct (for the many waves of angry snowmen), the Winter Invasion queue (for the Snow Overlord and the angry snowmen), and Klingon fishing (for fighting a boss without NPC assistance).

The devs just decided it became redundant with these around.
The only thing missing is the "Winds blow and waters freeze, we will bring you to your knees" line and the related accolade.

bobbydazlers

saurializard wrote: »

Well, in a way, it still lives on in Tides of Ice, Cones of Conduct (for the many waves of angry snowmen), the Winter Invasion queue (for the Snow Overlord and the angry snowmen), and Klingon fishing (for fighting a boss without NPC assistance).

The devs just decided it became redundant with these around.
The only thing missing is the "Winds blow and waters freeze, we will bring you to your knees" line and the related accolade.

as I said theres no reason not to include it as a queued event with its own map just like the gingerbread invasion.
maybe it will return next year in this form.

echatty

You can still build sand castles during the Summer Event, and the reward is actually better than when it was a FE. You just need to go see the Archaeologist to do it.

And I like the Fishing game better than the Snowball fight. Like was said, if you didn't want to get pelted with snowballs, you had to stand around in the gazebo until it was over. And if you were doing Fastest Game on Ice, you weren't always 'safe' from snowballs.

I'll agree with those saying to make it a queued event. That way most people would be happy.

anodynes

bejaymac wrote: »

I don't miss it, lost count of the number of times I hunted the snowmen last year and got no rewards, to many lazy turds spawn camping the lake waiting on others to kill the snowmen, if you weren't fast enough at getting back to the lake you got nothing for your efforts.

That's odd, since your prize was actually determined by how much you did over the whole event. I tested this very thoroughly over the last couple of years and killing a significant percentage of the snowmen that it took to spawn the Overlord was the main factor in what your prize was, to the point where, if you took out about half of them on your own, yet missed the Overlord fight entirely, you'd get the same amount as you would have for doing the same and being present for the whole Overlord fight.

Meanwhile, the inverse was true for instance-hopping. Just participating in the Overlord fight, without helping at all during the snowman hunt phase, got you something like 2 commodities.

lordsteve1

anodynes wrote: »

bejaymac wrote: »

I don't miss it, lost count of the number of times I hunted the snowmen last year and got no rewards, to many lazy turds spawn camping the lake waiting on others to kill the snowmen, if you weren't fast enough at getting back to the lake you got nothing for your efforts.

That's odd, since your prize was actually determined by how much you did over the whole event. I tested this very thoroughly over the last couple of years and killing a significant percentage of the snowmen that it took to spawn the Overlord was the main factor in what your prize was, to the point where, if you took out about half of them on your own, yet missed the Overlord fight entirely, you'd get the same amount as you would have for doing the same and being present for the whole Overlord fight.

Meanwhile, the inverse was true for instance-hopping. Just participating in the Overlord fight, without helping at all during the snowman hunt phase, got you something like 2 commodities.

Yes instance hopping rarely helped get more prizes. It only helped if the lower pop instances were struggling and needed assistance.
Best way to guarantee more prizes was a quiet instance and do more work yourself to get the overlord to spawn.

sheldonlcooper

anodynes wrote: »

bejaymac wrote: »

I don't miss it, lost count of the number of times I hunted the snowmen last year and got no rewards, to many lazy turds spawn camping the lake waiting on others to kill the snowmen, if you weren't fast enough at getting back to the lake you got nothing for your efforts.

That's odd, since your prize was actually determined by how much you did over the whole event. I tested this very thoroughly over the last couple of years and killing a significant percentage of the snowmen that it took to spawn the Overlord was the main factor in what your prize was, to the point where, if you took out about half of them on your own, yet missed the Overlord fight entirely, you'd get the same amount as you would have for doing the same and being present for the whole Overlord fight.

Meanwhile, the inverse was true for instance-hopping. Just participating in the Overlord fight, without helping at all during the snowman hunt phase, got you something like 2 commodities.

this is correct. by hitting the armies in the back area you will get the most prize by far.

groomofweird

I too deeply miss the snowball fight...
It does not feel the same looking at all the snowmen and knowing they will be an army in a few mins.
Hunting down the snowman fields off the beaten track and mowing them down. Standing side by side with my fellow revellers against the snowman overlord.
Dont get me wrong I still enjoy the winter event, but it does feel like something is missing, and that something is snowball fight shaped.

ssbn655

starcruiser#3423 wrote: »

I hope to be wrong on this but was looking forward to the annual Snowball Fight in the lake! It was always a riot trying to take down the Snowman Overlord and its snow minions.

Is it GONE? and why?
Wouldn't it be better to have it transferred to a PvE queue like the Gingerbread village "Winter Invasion". Why just remove it completely with no notes. I mean the Klingon fishing is allright but nothing says a good old fashioned Winter event like throwing snow to the Overlord? Who heard about fishing being a winter tradition?

I dont mind if you put the fishing or the Snowball fight in alternate maps but why remove it? Just sad to see it deleted while other "less" attended events like the "Tide of ice" or "Cones of conduct" still remain. Usually, not many circulate in the "Cones of conduct" and has been dead since last years event. Why not delete that map instead of the most populated "Snowball Fight" Just a sad decision IMO.


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Eh love the fishing it's way more fun then the snowball fight. So hey great change and thank you Devs!

daveyny

I miss the snowman battle as well, but I really wish that They would do away with the event timer.

Just run all the events every 15 minutes and perhaps the PvP race every 10.

Stop trying to control what we can do and let us decide which event we want to do at what time.

Having to stand around more than five minutes waiting for something to start is a game killer as far as I'm concerned.

Especially if one is unlikely to engage in the PvP contests.

<shrug>

bobbydazlers

daveyny wrote: »

I miss the snowman battle as well, but I really wish that They would do away with the event timer.

Just run all the events every 15 minutes and perhaps the PvP race every 10.

Stop trying to control what we can do and let us decide which event we want to do at what time.

Having to stand around more than five minutes waiting for something to start is a game killer as far as I'm concerned.

Especially if one is unlikely to engage in the PvP contests.

<shrug>

the only realistic way to do away with the event timer is to make every activity bar the pie eating contest a queued mission and that would mean they would all take place in a separate map with a set number of players and that would be no fun at all.
without the event timer there is no other way to launch any of the activities just when a player feels like doing it.

claudiusdk

The open area giant snowman fight have been replaced with the jelly Kos'karii fight.
If you ask me, I am glad the entire zone isn't getting attacked by small snowmen anymore. Was kinda annoying to stand around talking with friends and then suddenly get attacked all the time.
Also, you still got “Cones of Conduct” and “Tide of Ice” if you miss fighting small and giant snowmen. They are both really active.
Plus, the new fishing event is tons of fun.

Just a shame the lake now got less space to iceskate around on.