I have played the winter festival since the begining and i'm enjoying it so far:
- i'm always first at fishing
- i'm always first at racing
- i'm often silver with my cleric during the kill contest, and always first with my CW.
What annoys me is that as soon as there's something to kill, DCs have a lot of trouble to compete. All of our aoes require manual placement, have long CDs, we have no control over crits like TRs or CWs, thus even a 14k GS cleric with a full fabled set and 7k power (=my cleric) is struggling to get barely 200-220 points. With my CW i can get 500-600 points effortlessly.
I understand this game is mostly about killing stuff, but then i'd have preferred something like a mini gauntlgrym system, two balanced teams competing for kills on a specific map, because, currently, monsters on ice isn't fun as a DC. If it's PvEvP then you better make balanced teams because not all classes are equal.
So far, the event i enjoy the most is racing, but you have to be there from the start, and i don't do it too often because you need to stay absolutely focused for 12 minutes and that's 12 stressful minutes.
I like the Winter Festival so far. I feel that it's a lot better than the lackluster show from Halloween for the Liar's Masquerade -- and I understand that holiday content is hard to build up.
I think that the event could benefit hugely from an instanced dungeon run involving the lore of Twilight Tor or even the astrological elements.
The "Monsters on Ice" event is a little bit underwhelming. While fun -- killing waves of stuff skating around -- I think that perhaps it could be made better by having a different target on the ice for players to go after than the giants. Such as falling stars that need to be captured (by standing around them and fighting off waves of monsters) that fall (spawn) through the event and make players choose to skate around the region.
So far. I'm fairly pleased with the event, but I'm hoping to see it expand somewhat next year to encompass other game modes that are native to Neverwinter already.
I have played the winter festival since the begining and i'm enjoying it so far:
- i'm always first at fishing
- i'm always first at racing
- i'm often silver with my cleric during the kill contest, and always first with my CW.
What annoys me is that as soon as there's something to kill, DCs have a lot of trouble to compete. All of our aoes require manual placement, have long CDs, we have no control over crits like TRs or CWs, thus even a 14k GS cleric with a full fabled set and 7k power (=my cleric) is struggling to get barely 200-220 points. With my CW i can get 500-600 points effortlessly.
This is what I've been running on my DC for Monsters on Ice:
Flamestrike + Divine Armor
Break the Spirit + Healing word + Chains of Blazing Light
Lance of Faith + Brand of the Sun
Since our AoEs are ineffective here (except Chains since you can set it as a trap), the trick is to DoT everything to death instead. You just spam BotS on everything, hit stuff with Break the Spirit every time it comes off cooldown, and use Chains to snare enemies so you can smack them with Flamestrike (Divine Armor is for OHCRAP moments when all the critters respawn on top of you at once). When I play my DC I smash enemies and heal everyone around me with Healing Word, and I still don't place lower than 4th -- most of the time it's 1st or 2nd. My DC is a hybrid crit/divinity build which helps, as well as her Lantern of Revelation which I use liberally. Still, though, you might be able to adapt something like this to your playstyle and see if you have a better time that way.
With regard to actual feedback: I finally realized that I've had a headache for most of the past nine days because I've been ignoring the fact that I get eyestrain pretty bad if I play NW for more than an hour or so at a time. So I've been playing 2-3 hours a day doing dailies for all six characters and trying to farm lights for my DC to get a fawn (other five are all getting pet mimics). I would really appreciate a doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling of light rewards during the zenith so I don't have to kill myself just to get a single fawn on a single character. I've already given up on getting the horse for my HR even though she wants it because I can't keep playing at this pace.
The summer festival felt less like grinding to me. Also I really think they missed the mark on the sled. They should have made the sled able to slot a mount and then had that mount pulling the sled. The magic sled is kind of boring on its own, but imagine how many people would use it if they could have it being pulled by a wild boar, stag, unicorn, etc. Shouldn't be that hard to code, just a thought.
Considering the monotony of fishing (I was doing sudoku on my phone the other day whilst pushing F at the audio cues), variety would be a good thing IMO.
Unfortunately, this DOES sum up the Winter Festival.... monotonous! It just astounds me how much thought was put into something so thoughtless. I can't speak about the Halloween event, since the Midsummer Festival made me take some time away and reconsider why I play this game in the first place. I came back after Module 2 was released, and here we are the very same nonsense, different season. If you ask me, the Midsummer Festival was a bit easier to stomach, since the rewards were somewhat attainable (while not being centered around a holiday, too).
The Winter Festival falls incredibly short of what I expect from anybody who created this game. It's monotonous. It's thoughtless - there is more thought that went into the environment than the actual events, story (what story? exactly), etc. The rewards are mundane at best and grossly overpriced -- and this comes during a time when most people try to spend time with their families, travel for the holidays, etc. This "Festival" is the antithesis of what this time of year is celebrating (I'm taking care not to mention the holidays overtly, since there are no references to Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, etc). Instead of offering something that everyone (even casual players *gasp*) can enjoy, we now have yet another event where we're expected to forsake our friends, families, and guildmates in order to get any benefit from it. Let's face it, the Winter Festival is NOT enjoyable, it's all about the rewards (which are weak, in and of themselves).
What about those with families? What about those that travel? What about those with JOBS? What about those with otherwise limited time to play? It's apparent that the target audience are school-age kids who have nothing better to do with their lives than sit in their parents' basement for 3 weeks pressing the "f" key every 10 seconds. Drop everything and do the same three tasks for 3 weeks straight.... that is not fun.
I did mention the rewards, so let me elaborate on those. 2 new companions, 2 new mounts, and a handful of hideous fashion items and transmutables. A lot more thought could have went into this, for sure. For instance:
Fashion: Winter Attire. Puffy Columbia jackets, hoods, ushankas, snowpants, snowshoes, a winter hat, boots, gloves, Ice Queen outfita snowman costume, a Santa Claus outfit, or maybe even cultural references (which is what Festivals are supposed to be about, anyways). And that's just the obviously stereotypical... you could certainly add cold weather items without being stereotypical and cheesy. How about craftable fur fashion that requires the players to hunt for appropriate animals which are found randomly throughout the game? Deer skin clothing? Furs? Artic Fox (those are soooo soft), and so forth. Instead, we get a boring scarf x4. How about something like this, or this?
Mounts: Skis, snowboards, ice skates that prevent the sliding (I'm sure melee chars would love this for monsters on ice), Clydesdales, polar bears, woolly mammoths, blue draonlings,
Companions: Polar bears, bobcats, wolves, penguins, snowy owls, snow bunnies (best companion ever), woolly mammoth (which must be liberated from the ice of Icespire Peak), huskies, malamutes, old english sheepdogs,
Events: PvP snowball fight, anyone? Hunting (throughout the different areas of the game), ice sculpting, pvp hocky, ski jump competitions, curling, figure skating where you have "temporary skills" for various moves -- the better the routine, the higher the score. Sure beats sitting there hitting the "f" key until the cows come home. For those that just love pressing the "f" key all day and not doing anything fun, you could have snowshovelling! Yay!
Crafting: Snow cones, hot chocolate, soups, snowmen, mystic snowflakes which cause temporary blizzards when thrown, presents which have to be given (can't be mailed, can't be opened by the crafter, bound on pickup and not on creation), tree ornaments,
Ambiance: Jukkasjarvi Icehotel, saunas, arctic hot springs, portable igloos (like the Hero Feasts).
That's enough examples off the top of my head.
The point is, these events need to be fun, and they are not. They need to be applicable to all characters, yes, but also applicable to casual players as well as those who spend every waking moment in game. Spread these events throughout the game. You can have lower level rewards, and higher level rewards that require travelling to and events in higher level areas. "Epic" rewards could require the completion of a series of novel events throughout the festival, which involve travelling, questing, and an honest to goodness storyline (gasp, I know, that's crazy talk there). Putting the entire playerbase in a tiny area to complete the same three events on a 10 minute rotation for 3 weeks is not fun and it's not innovative. It's thoughtless, boring, and an obvious time sink instead of actual content.
You wanted my opinion. There it is. I know that the majority of people will respond hatefully with utter incomprehension as to how anybody could not love doing the same three events every 10 minutes for 3 weeks, so I doubt I will check back on this thread. That's the Winter Festival as I see it.
khimera906Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 898Arc User
edited December 2013
After 10 days I am still having fun messing around with this event.
There's one thing that bugs me though. Why wasn't the Sled obtainable since day one? The Sled has a purpose only during the even and for the first 10 days you cant even get one. Even after those first 10 days 90% of players are not gonna buy it because everyone wants the Mimic, and for good reason. This ruins the whole Sled idea.
In my opinion, there should have been a 20 day temporary Sled that you got for free at the beginning of the event. If for some reason you wanted a permanent Sled, you could have gotten the one for 10 stars.
I hate dancing with Lady Luck. She always steps on my toes.
. . . . . Indeed, the mobs scale to individual player level, not their gear. If you run in on a poorly geared character, expect to have a rough time. Always wear gear near one's level when fighting scaling mobs. You can buy green (and at level 10 you can buy blue one time, after that it's green again) gear at various levels from the NPC vendors in the Seven Suns Coster Market in Protector's Enclave. I always outfit my lowbies in NPC gear as close to their level as I can before taking them out to fight anything.
Most of my gear is green to purple for my level, so it's really not an issue for me; however, just because mobs scale doesn't mean that Monsters on the Ice can't be difficult for ppl who are accustomed to playing turn-based MMOs instead of action (or real time) MMOs. While I know that "you can't please everyone," I am going to stand by my suggestion of the different lakes. Since the mobs scale to a player's level, I'm going to suggest that the quantity and respawn time of the mobs at the "easy" lake are significantly lower than the quantity and respawn time of the mobs at the "difficult" lake simply because it's apparent that not everyone is so "pro" at this game that they can handle 3-4 mobs at one time; which happens when you have people running away from mobs and those mobs aggro you, and when mobs respawn before you can kill the mob that you intended to kill plus the mob that someone led to you.
Vets in the event would benefit merely because there are more mobs in their immediate vicinity and the mobs respawn faster, more mobs generally means more mobs killed and greater rewards. Beginners and casual players could play in the event without rage quitting because the mobs are a bit more manageable. After all, the more beginners and casual players that keep playing means more supporters of the game in the future.
You wanted my opinion. There it is. I know that the majority of people will respond hatefully with utter incomprehension as to how anybody could not love doing the same three events every 10 minutes for 3 weeks, so I doubt I will check back on this thread. That's the Winter Festival as I see it.
I totally agree with you , I spammed the fishing for 3 days to get the Fawn and now the only reason I go near the map is to log on and get the stars for the mimic on my alts then do the same on my main and I'm out of there , the whole Seismic shock gfx bug just causes me such terrible latency even when I'm nowhere near MoI .
A decent example I'd use for a fun Christmas event was Guild wars 1 Snowball fight , yes it was pvp but you got placed onto a map with a preset set of event only skills on a basic event themed toon and both sides had to fight it out on an even playing field , I cannot for the life of me figure out why Neverwinter couldn't have done something similar .
A decent example I'd use for a fun Christmas event was Guild wars 1 Snowball fight , yes it was pvp but you got placed onto a map with a preset set of event only skills on a basic event themed toon and both sides had to fight it out on an even playing field , I cannot for the life of me figure out why Neverwinter couldn't have done something similar .
That would have been fun, too. Maybe make it so that the scoring depended purely on how many snowball hits you got in on other players and no "dying" or respawning. I hate PvP but even I would have been all over something like that. Heck, it's not too late -- they could add a fourth, mass snowball-fight event at the zenith if they can code it in time.
Monsters on Ice: When running/sliding to a group of enemies, jump. when you land you stop, then attack.
Will go with the Mimic. Although the sleds are funny to watch, I'll go with the mimic, as mounts are just that, mounts. Even if I never roll with it, 100 def is nice.
It is a nice little village, well designed and pretty and its a nice escape from the grind.
I don't know how the scoring system works in Monsters on Ice but seems like CWs will ALWAYS get a huge benefit no matter what the situation is. They have an advantage in attacking monsters from range and from scoring as well. I did 2 tests, one where I scored the same amount to get first place while behind, and one where I retained lead and another character was trying to score to get first place.
Here's the situation: In one game, 2 mins left, my score was 50, top player's score was 84 and he stopped fighting for the rest of the event. I scored enough to hit 84 and time ran out. What happened? I got first place and the other player with 84 got second place. I didn't ask if he got 25 or 45 simril, but he got silver and that's second place.
In another game, i was top player with 100 points. I stopped fighting and asked one of my friends to join in and fight until he got 100 points. When event ended both of us got 100 points but i got 1st place while my friend got 2nd place.
So what's the deal? Biased scoring system. Coincidentally both "other" characters were melee characters.
I don't know how the scoring system works in Monsters on Ice but seems like CWs will ALWAYS get a huge benefit no matter what the situation is. They have an advantage in attacking monsters from range and from scoring as well. I did 2 tests, one where I scored the same amount to get first place while behind, and one where I retained lead and another character was trying to score to get first place.
Here's the situation: In one game, 2 mins left, my score was 50, top player's score was 84 and he stopped fighting for the rest of the event. I scored enough to hit 84 and time ran out. What happened? I got first place and the other player with 84 got second place. I didn't ask if he got 25 or 45 simril, but he got silver and that's second place.
In another game, i was top player with 100 points. I stopped fighting and asked one of my friends to join in and fight until he got 100 points. When event ended both of us got 100 points but i got 1st place while my friend got 2nd place.
So what's the deal? Biased scoring system. Coincidentally both "other" characters were melee characters.
Could be a time thing, the character that won could have gotten 100 pts while spending only 1000 secs in combat while the 2cnd place had to spend 1500 secs in combat.
I noticed that you need to be in the event area to get gold, even if you have the top score. I actually have placed silver, more then once, in the twilight run. Despite having top score, simply because I left the winners platform.
I expect monsters on the ice works the same way. You will only get gold if you are inside the gates.
I noticed that you need to be in the event area to get gold, even if you have the top score. I actually have placed silver, more then once, in the twilight run. Despite having top score, simply because I left the winners platform.
I expect monsters on the ice works the same way. You will only get gold if you are inside the gates.
I haven't experienced that at all. Can get the gold even if not in the area in all three. I have, however, experienced getting silver because I missed by "that much" because I left or because the other guy was racing when I was getting back into position to get back in the race or whatever.
Really hoping at this point that they change around the Lights of Simril a little bit to 1) recycle the extra tokens that I'm never going to use let alone use fast enough (those gray things, the light motes, the shields, and the globes, for example, that are just piling up and up, especially the BoP ones) and 2) because I'm getting a major case of carpal tunnel from farming just to get my wife a fawn after I already got myself a fawn and still wouldn't mind two more fawns for my tanks. (My boy can farm his own fawn, he plays games so much lately.) I mean I have to wonder what the take would have been had we been given the choice between the sled and the fawn instead of the sled and the mimic. Would everyone still be saving up for the fawn? Personally, I think so.
The fawn represents a, relative to the demand, underrepresented area of companions, the healer. Many, like myself, are running around with their original clerics because they don't have the money, Zen, or Diamonds for upgrades to that cleric or to purchase or gamble on getting another healer. So seeing the fawn gave me a huge boost towards working hard to find time to get the fawn.
However farming it with what little time in the day I have has not been very good for either health or state of mind. Fishing is boring, yet is, as many have said, the most efficient way to get Lights of Simril. So it's F, F, F, F, F all the way. There is an irony in that statement that I won't even bother to say.
On top of that, because fishing is the most efficient method, I've been sending those blasted motes from one character to another in stacks of 999 to the point that between my wife's characters, my characters, and my boy's characters, half of them are full up with full stacks of 999 and only two have really been hard-core fishing. And in the end there is only so much a person can do with them. Make lures? I'm getting a lot of those lure fish as well, so I don't need to make any. Fireworks? Big deal since I can make my own with the Founder's Pack item. Make them for the auction house? And how many others will be doing the same driving prices so far down it's not even worth posting the items?
So please, consider all of these things when you finally revamp things on Thursday for the "double points" everyone is expecting.
Ive had it happen twice, and we arnt talking small margins. One run was pretty much a solo run. All the others did one lap and left. I was several thousand points over the next highest. With 2 minutes left on the clock, I figured id wait rather then doing one more run. I got silver.
Another time, finished with 500 or 600 points over the next leader. Ended the race with 10 seconds to go. I hoped off the platform, mostly out of habit, for a return run. And ended up between the platform and the course. Got silver. No one else scored in those 10 seconds.
In both cases no one was shown as getting gold. Ive only ever gotten gold when i'm either on the course or on the winners platform.
double points? meaning double stars or double lights? Extra stars being made from lights or something would be nice because I missed a few days due to Family Christmas activitys and may not be able to get the companion. derp!:eek:
Ive had it happen twice, and we arnt talking small margins. One run was pretty much a solo run. All the others did one lap and left. I was several thousand points over the next highest. With 2 minutes left on the clock, I figured id wait rather then doing one more run. I got silver.
Another time, finished with 500 or 600 points over the next leader. Ended the race with 10 seconds to go. I hoped off the platform, mostly out of habit, for a return run. And ended up between the platform and the course. Got silver. No one else scored in those 10 seconds.
In both cases no one was shown as getting gold. Ive only ever gotten gold when i'm either on the course or on the winners platform.
I haven't had the presence of mind to check my inventory before and after the events to verify the rewards, but I've always chalked this up to being just a display error.
I noticed that you need to be in the event area to get gold, even if you have the top score. I actually have placed silver, more then once, in the twilight run. Despite having top score, simply because I left the winners platform.
I expect monsters on the ice works the same way. You will only get gold if you are inside the gates.
I think that's an interface/display issue. Your leaderboard stops updating if you leave the event. The scores even carry over from event to event, by that I mean if I get 400 points in fishing and the twilight run starts, the leaderboard will show me with 400 points in twilight run until I actually start the twilight run, only then it will reset and start to update.
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anteonMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 140Bounty Hunter
edited December 2013
i think for a daily quest 1 to 2 lights is more than just a bit tight most of us who come late to the event / just started playing 3200 lights for that fawn is not possible for us at least i was intime for the mimic i hope but i would have like to get the fawn on my hunter
sorry for grammar spelling punctuation but i am dyslexic i do my best sorry if it offends you
Although the map itself is designed very well I find this kind of events lately very boring. It is even worse than the Summer festival - there at least more than 1 petal at a time dropped. Halloween, too, was similar: Running in circles all day long in PE.
Most people want the fawn, but this means grinding hours for lights, mainly in the fishing area because this is the most effective way. But for my taste a seasonal event should not end up in a mindless grind. Especially not at times, where people mostly spend times with their families anyway. It is ok when you want people to log in daily and spend time in the game, but there are hundreds of different ways a seasonal event can be set up to achieve this rather than always adding boring repetitive tasks. Seriously, why gear up a char to a GS of 14+ when your "endgame" is fishing for hours, picking flowers for hours or speaking to ppl in PE for hours?
A seasonal event should be for everyone, even those that don't have lots of time. It just favors botters again. Or those that can spend 8 hours fishing a day and then sell the companions for ridiculous high amounts on the AH. Why not add some nice quests that one can do every day, different ones not just looking through a telescope and watch the same stars every other day. Also a seasonal event should feature a dungeon, that a party can run in 30 minutes with some unique loot. At least this would be different. There are enough mobs that would fit in a winter dungeon, also - like in Swordcoast Adventures - a unique boss could be at the end.
There should be also some interesting crafting. At the moment the only useful stuff to make is a purple rod and blue lures. You end up with hundres of crafting junk in your bags for which you have no use. Instead of a separate profession every profession should have 3-5 new seasonal tasks. A tailor could make scarfs, an alchemist some fluff buffs like snowballs etc.
Please for future events: As nice as they are - no more stupid tasks to grind thousands of items to turn in for mounts or companions. Hours wasted for absolutely no fun tasks should not be the main focus of events. Check other games how they do events, there are some nice ideas out there that are much more fun.
I think the event should include more activities which would give some lights outside the contest slots too. And the crafting this time is incredibly tedious, non-stop retaking short tasks to get so small results with no "high bundle" tasks available at all. Also, I think bags from fishing should have some chance to contain lights too. I'm still hoping as well those winterkill emblems and rings of light will get some use before the event expires, getting two bag slots cluttered with unsellable and undiscardable useless junk is annoying.
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jksgsakfsodshgMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited December 2013
I will NEVER!!!! fish again in this game, finaly got my fawn :cool:
That mindnumbing BS grinding...
I work in retail so doing this daily isnt easy, between my own holiday stuff and coming home late and passing out i have missed 6 days of the event and wont be able to get the mimic... They should be a little more forgiving in this kind of event, especially during the holidays. Oh well, if anyone sells it on the AH i'll have to snag one there...
Good effort overall for the event Cryptic. Some feedback:
1. Monsters on Ice: Terrible lag at times due to HR's Seismic Shot visual bug
2. Fishing: The event set prices (lights) so high and award very few lights for dailies, this suggest the Devs want us to grind for the good stuff. But they make fishing a PITA to grind with the constant de-spawning of holes and skeletons popping up, which kind of defeat the purpose of allowing players to grind efficiently. I understand it is to counter botters, but it turns away other players too.
3. Have some daily events outside the area for light rewards that are less grindy then the 3 available.
4. Events so far, including the current winter event are very alt unfriendly. You are not encouraging players to spend more money having alts with these grind-focused events.
I am just so glad I have my fawn now, I do not have to do more then the dailies to be able to get the mimic.
I would love to have more but I would not even want to try and do it with a melee character. I see the difference in scores , not even trying hard my little level 43 hunter has usually at least 3 times as much as melee. And now the lag is back again, what is the matter with these guys? Fix that deal with the green flames. Just a few days from reset and it is already back. If it is seismic shot I wonder who does it cause I never see it done while I am out there and I don't do it.
Fishing gees, it is boring and clumsy, chasing from hole to hole and dumb people sliding in and getting in the way. I am just as guilty of it . I hate that f interacts with everything, I think they should have one key to interact with player characters and one with quest and mission things. I hate that either you can't use the lures with out opening inventory or I do not know the way.
I like the race but I would like to know why my horse slows down on it's own, I have tried to figure out if there is a mechanic I don't know about or just a glitch.
Just glad I got my fawn....none of my friends are even checking out the event. So now back to leveling yay. Honestly grinding like this takes the fun out of it for me. I know some people just go gaga over grinding, the people that had a fawn in 3 days. But I guess those people are the bread and butter of these games.
Comments
- i'm always first at fishing
- i'm always first at racing
- i'm often silver with my cleric during the kill contest, and always first with my CW.
What annoys me is that as soon as there's something to kill, DCs have a lot of trouble to compete. All of our aoes require manual placement, have long CDs, we have no control over crits like TRs or CWs, thus even a 14k GS cleric with a full fabled set and 7k power (=my cleric) is struggling to get barely 200-220 points. With my CW i can get 500-600 points effortlessly.
I understand this game is mostly about killing stuff, but then i'd have preferred something like a mini gauntlgrym system, two balanced teams competing for kills on a specific map, because, currently, monsters on ice isn't fun as a DC. If it's PvEvP then you better make balanced teams because not all classes are equal.
So far, the event i enjoy the most is racing, but you have to be there from the start, and i don't do it too often because you need to stay absolutely focused for 12 minutes and that's 12 stressful minutes.
I think that the event could benefit hugely from an instanced dungeon run involving the lore of Twilight Tor or even the astrological elements.
The "Monsters on Ice" event is a little bit underwhelming. While fun -- killing waves of stuff skating around -- I think that perhaps it could be made better by having a different target on the ice for players to go after than the giants. Such as falling stars that need to be captured (by standing around them and fighting off waves of monsters) that fall (spawn) through the event and make players choose to skate around the region.
So far. I'm fairly pleased with the event, but I'm hoping to see it expand somewhat next year to encompass other game modes that are native to Neverwinter already.
This is what I've been running on my DC for Monsters on Ice:
Flamestrike + Divine Armor
Break the Spirit + Healing word + Chains of Blazing Light
Lance of Faith + Brand of the Sun
Since our AoEs are ineffective here (except Chains since you can set it as a trap), the trick is to DoT everything to death instead. You just spam BotS on everything, hit stuff with Break the Spirit every time it comes off cooldown, and use Chains to snare enemies so you can smack them with Flamestrike (Divine Armor is for OHCRAP moments when all the critters respawn on top of you at once). When I play my DC I smash enemies and heal everyone around me with Healing Word, and I still don't place lower than 4th -- most of the time it's 1st or 2nd. My DC is a hybrid crit/divinity build which helps, as well as her Lantern of Revelation which I use liberally. Still, though, you might be able to adapt something like this to your playstyle and see if you have a better time that way.
With regard to actual feedback: I finally realized that I've had a headache for most of the past nine days because I've been ignoring the fact that I get eyestrain pretty bad if I play NW for more than an hour or so at a time. So I've been playing 2-3 hours a day doing dailies for all six characters and trying to farm lights for my DC to get a fawn (other five are all getting pet mimics). I would really appreciate a doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling of light rewards during the zenith so I don't have to kill myself just to get a single fawn on a single character. I've already given up on getting the horse for my HR even though she wants it because I can't keep playing at this pace.
Kaylee Krankenwagen, level 60 GF | Tavandruil Wayfinder, level 49 GWF | Aldith Langley, level 51 HR
Unfortunately, this DOES sum up the Winter Festival.... monotonous! It just astounds me how much thought was put into something so thoughtless. I can't speak about the Halloween event, since the Midsummer Festival made me take some time away and reconsider why I play this game in the first place. I came back after Module 2 was released, and here we are the very same nonsense, different season. If you ask me, the Midsummer Festival was a bit easier to stomach, since the rewards were somewhat attainable (while not being centered around a holiday, too).
The Winter Festival falls incredibly short of what I expect from anybody who created this game. It's monotonous. It's thoughtless - there is more thought that went into the environment than the actual events, story (what story? exactly), etc. The rewards are mundane at best and grossly overpriced -- and this comes during a time when most people try to spend time with their families, travel for the holidays, etc. This "Festival" is the antithesis of what this time of year is celebrating (I'm taking care not to mention the holidays overtly, since there are no references to Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, etc). Instead of offering something that everyone (even casual players *gasp*) can enjoy, we now have yet another event where we're expected to forsake our friends, families, and guildmates in order to get any benefit from it. Let's face it, the Winter Festival is NOT enjoyable, it's all about the rewards (which are weak, in and of themselves).
What about those with families? What about those that travel? What about those with JOBS? What about those with otherwise limited time to play? It's apparent that the target audience are school-age kids who have nothing better to do with their lives than sit in their parents' basement for 3 weeks pressing the "f" key every 10 seconds. Drop everything and do the same three tasks for 3 weeks straight.... that is not fun.
I did mention the rewards, so let me elaborate on those. 2 new companions, 2 new mounts, and a handful of hideous fashion items and transmutables. A lot more thought could have went into this, for sure. For instance:
Fashion: Winter Attire. Puffy Columbia jackets, hoods, ushankas, snowpants, snowshoes, a winter hat, boots, gloves, Ice Queen outfita snowman costume, a Santa Claus outfit, or maybe even cultural references (which is what Festivals are supposed to be about, anyways). And that's just the obviously stereotypical... you could certainly add cold weather items without being stereotypical and cheesy. How about craftable fur fashion that requires the players to hunt for appropriate animals which are found randomly throughout the game? Deer skin clothing? Furs? Artic Fox (those are soooo soft), and so forth. Instead, we get a boring scarf x4. How about something like this, or this?
Mounts: Skis, snowboards, ice skates that prevent the sliding (I'm sure melee chars would love this for monsters on ice), Clydesdales, polar bears, woolly mammoths, blue draonlings,
Companions: Polar bears, bobcats, wolves, penguins, snowy owls, snow bunnies (best companion ever), woolly mammoth (which must be liberated from the ice of Icespire Peak), huskies, malamutes, old english sheepdogs,
Events: PvP snowball fight, anyone? Hunting (throughout the different areas of the game), ice sculpting, pvp hocky, ski jump competitions, curling, figure skating where you have "temporary skills" for various moves -- the better the routine, the higher the score. Sure beats sitting there hitting the "f" key until the cows come home. For those that just love pressing the "f" key all day and not doing anything fun, you could have snowshovelling! Yay!
Crafting: Snow cones, hot chocolate, soups, snowmen, mystic snowflakes which cause temporary blizzards when thrown, presents which have to be given (can't be mailed, can't be opened by the crafter, bound on pickup and not on creation), tree ornaments,
Ambiance: Jukkasjarvi Icehotel, saunas, arctic hot springs, portable igloos (like the Hero Feasts).
That's enough examples off the top of my head.
The point is, these events need to be fun, and they are not. They need to be applicable to all characters, yes, but also applicable to casual players as well as those who spend every waking moment in game. Spread these events throughout the game. You can have lower level rewards, and higher level rewards that require travelling to and events in higher level areas. "Epic" rewards could require the completion of a series of novel events throughout the festival, which involve travelling, questing, and an honest to goodness storyline (gasp, I know, that's crazy talk there). Putting the entire playerbase in a tiny area to complete the same three events on a 10 minute rotation for 3 weeks is not fun and it's not innovative. It's thoughtless, boring, and an obvious time sink instead of actual content.
You wanted my opinion. There it is. I know that the majority of people will respond hatefully with utter incomprehension as to how anybody could not love doing the same three events every 10 minutes for 3 weeks, so I doubt I will check back on this thread. That's the Winter Festival as I see it.
There's one thing that bugs me though. Why wasn't the Sled obtainable since day one? The Sled has a purpose only during the even and for the first 10 days you cant even get one. Even after those first 10 days 90% of players are not gonna buy it because everyone wants the Mimic, and for good reason. This ruins the whole Sled idea.
In my opinion, there should have been a 20 day temporary Sled that you got for free at the beginning of the event. If for some reason you wanted a permanent Sled, you could have gotten the one for 10 stars.
Most of my gear is green to purple for my level, so it's really not an issue for me; however, just because mobs scale doesn't mean that Monsters on the Ice can't be difficult for ppl who are accustomed to playing turn-based MMOs instead of action (or real time) MMOs. While I know that "you can't please everyone," I am going to stand by my suggestion of the different lakes. Since the mobs scale to a player's level, I'm going to suggest that the quantity and respawn time of the mobs at the "easy" lake are significantly lower than the quantity and respawn time of the mobs at the "difficult" lake simply because it's apparent that not everyone is so "pro" at this game that they can handle 3-4 mobs at one time; which happens when you have people running away from mobs and those mobs aggro you, and when mobs respawn before you can kill the mob that you intended to kill plus the mob that someone led to you.
Vets in the event would benefit merely because there are more mobs in their immediate vicinity and the mobs respawn faster, more mobs generally means more mobs killed and greater rewards. Beginners and casual players could play in the event without rage quitting because the mobs are a bit more manageable. After all, the more beginners and casual players that keep playing means more supporters of the game in the future.
I totally agree with you , I spammed the fishing for 3 days to get the Fawn and now the only reason I go near the map is to log on and get the stars for the mimic on my alts then do the same on my main and I'm out of there , the whole Seismic shock gfx bug just causes me such terrible latency even when I'm nowhere near MoI .
A decent example I'd use for a fun Christmas event was Guild wars 1 Snowball fight , yes it was pvp but you got placed onto a map with a preset set of event only skills on a basic event themed toon and both sides had to fight it out on an even playing field , I cannot for the life of me figure out why Neverwinter couldn't have done something similar .
That would have been fun, too. Maybe make it so that the scoring depended purely on how many snowball hits you got in on other players and no "dying" or respawning. I hate PvP but even I would have been all over something like that. Heck, it's not too late -- they could add a fourth, mass snowball-fight event at the zenith if they can code it in time.
Kaylee Krankenwagen, level 60 GF | Tavandruil Wayfinder, level 49 GWF | Aldith Langley, level 51 HR
I was enjoying very much the summer one, I'm enjoying in full the winter and I can only thing about a springtime one
Very nice job and a big thanks for designing it !
Problem : 20 > (15+10) .. what will it be ? mount or companion ? decisions ... decisions ...
Will go with the Mimic. Although the sleds are funny to watch, I'll go with the mimic, as mounts are just that, mounts. Even if I never roll with it, 100 def is nice.
It is a nice little village, well designed and pretty and its a nice escape from the grind.
Here's the situation: In one game, 2 mins left, my score was 50, top player's score was 84 and he stopped fighting for the rest of the event. I scored enough to hit 84 and time ran out. What happened? I got first place and the other player with 84 got second place. I didn't ask if he got 25 or 45 simril, but he got silver and that's second place.
In another game, i was top player with 100 points. I stopped fighting and asked one of my friends to join in and fight until he got 100 points. When event ended both of us got 100 points but i got 1st place while my friend got 2nd place.
So what's the deal? Biased scoring system. Coincidentally both "other" characters were melee characters.
(totally made up time numbers)
I expect monsters on the ice works the same way. You will only get gold if you are inside the gates.
I haven't experienced that at all. Can get the gold even if not in the area in all three. I have, however, experienced getting silver because I missed by "that much" because I left or because the other guy was racing when I was getting back into position to get back in the race or whatever.
The fawn represents a, relative to the demand, underrepresented area of companions, the healer. Many, like myself, are running around with their original clerics because they don't have the money, Zen, or Diamonds for upgrades to that cleric or to purchase or gamble on getting another healer. So seeing the fawn gave me a huge boost towards working hard to find time to get the fawn.
However farming it with what little time in the day I have has not been very good for either health or state of mind. Fishing is boring, yet is, as many have said, the most efficient way to get Lights of Simril. So it's F, F, F, F, F all the way. There is an irony in that statement that I won't even bother to say.
On top of that, because fishing is the most efficient method, I've been sending those blasted motes from one character to another in stacks of 999 to the point that between my wife's characters, my characters, and my boy's characters, half of them are full up with full stacks of 999 and only two have really been hard-core fishing. And in the end there is only so much a person can do with them. Make lures? I'm getting a lot of those lure fish as well, so I don't need to make any. Fireworks? Big deal since I can make my own with the Founder's Pack item. Make them for the auction house? And how many others will be doing the same driving prices so far down it's not even worth posting the items?
So please, consider all of these things when you finally revamp things on Thursday for the "double points" everyone is expecting.
Another time, finished with 500 or 600 points over the next leader. Ended the race with 10 seconds to go. I hoped off the platform, mostly out of habit, for a return run. And ended up between the platform and the course. Got silver. No one else scored in those 10 seconds.
In both cases no one was shown as getting gold. Ive only ever gotten gold when i'm either on the course or on the winners platform.
I haven't had the presence of mind to check my inventory before and after the events to verify the rewards, but I've always chalked this up to being just a display error.
Kaylee Krankenwagen, level 60 GF | Tavandruil Wayfinder, level 49 GWF | Aldith Langley, level 51 HR
..........and snowballs!!!
Neverwinter Wonderland
Neverwinter Wet & Wild
Neverwinter 2nd Anniversary Montage
Neverwinter Anniversary Montage
Protector's Jubilee Speech
Oh the Carnage
Most people want the fawn, but this means grinding hours for lights, mainly in the fishing area because this is the most effective way. But for my taste a seasonal event should not end up in a mindless grind. Especially not at times, where people mostly spend times with their families anyway. It is ok when you want people to log in daily and spend time in the game, but there are hundreds of different ways a seasonal event can be set up to achieve this rather than always adding boring repetitive tasks. Seriously, why gear up a char to a GS of 14+ when your "endgame" is fishing for hours, picking flowers for hours or speaking to ppl in PE for hours?
A seasonal event should be for everyone, even those that don't have lots of time. It just favors botters again. Or those that can spend 8 hours fishing a day and then sell the companions for ridiculous high amounts on the AH. Why not add some nice quests that one can do every day, different ones not just looking through a telescope and watch the same stars every other day. Also a seasonal event should feature a dungeon, that a party can run in 30 minutes with some unique loot. At least this would be different. There are enough mobs that would fit in a winter dungeon, also - like in Swordcoast Adventures - a unique boss could be at the end.
There should be also some interesting crafting. At the moment the only useful stuff to make is a purple rod and blue lures. You end up with hundres of crafting junk in your bags for which you have no use. Instead of a separate profession every profession should have 3-5 new seasonal tasks. A tailor could make scarfs, an alchemist some fluff buffs like snowballs etc.
Please for future events: As nice as they are - no more stupid tasks to grind thousands of items to turn in for mounts or companions. Hours wasted for absolutely no fun tasks should not be the main focus of events. Check other games how they do events, there are some nice ideas out there that are much more fun.
That mindnumbing BS grinding...
1. Monsters on Ice: Terrible lag at times due to HR's Seismic Shot visual bug
2. Fishing: The event set prices (lights) so high and award very few lights for dailies, this suggest the Devs want us to grind for the good stuff. But they make fishing a PITA to grind with the constant de-spawning of holes and skeletons popping up, which kind of defeat the purpose of allowing players to grind efficiently. I understand it is to counter botters, but it turns away other players too.
3. Have some daily events outside the area for light rewards that are less grindy then the 3 available.
4. Events so far, including the current winter event are very alt unfriendly. You are not encouraging players to spend more money having alts with these grind-focused events.
I would love to have more but I would not even want to try and do it with a melee character. I see the difference in scores , not even trying hard my little level 43 hunter has usually at least 3 times as much as melee. And now the lag is back again, what is the matter with these guys? Fix that deal with the green flames. Just a few days from reset and it is already back. If it is seismic shot I wonder who does it cause I never see it done while I am out there and I don't do it.
Fishing gees, it is boring and clumsy, chasing from hole to hole and dumb people sliding in and getting in the way. I am just as guilty of it . I hate that f interacts with everything, I think they should have one key to interact with player characters and one with quest and mission things. I hate that either you can't use the lures with out opening inventory or I do not know the way.
I like the race but I would like to know why my horse slows down on it's own, I have tried to figure out if there is a mechanic I don't know about or just a glitch.
Just glad I got my fawn....none of my friends are even checking out the event. So now back to leveling yay. Honestly grinding like this takes the fun out of it for me. I know some people just go gaga over grinding, the people that had a fawn in 3 days. But I guess those people are the bread and butter of these games.