I must be in the minority that am not too annoyed by this event. I ran it on 2 characters last night when the servers were briefly up, and only took 10 minutes or so to do both (to be fair, both were already standing in ESD from the night before, so I didn't have to travel back to talk to Q).
Like an idiot, I didn't even realize I could chase Q if he ran away - I'm so used to academy event collapsed particles, that I just shrugged and moved on to try to find the next shell game. I found it pretty easy to keep track of which box he was in...
The Fastest Game on Ice on the other hand...that made me grrr the first few times I ran it.
Now, ask me again after having run this 28 times, I may have a different answer.
Also the location of this event makes me pretty sure that the Academy Event is either just gone, or at least won't be a weekend during the run of the Anniversary. Although, I'm probably in the minority in liking that too (to be fair, found it convenient to do and run the doff recruitment grinder, and get the lore question all at once if it was running).
I did Party Patrol just to say that I did it. I'm still debating whether or not I think the reward is worth it.
Not sure what everyone else's experience was, but I found it fairly easy to catch the runners when I got them. They tended to get slowed up in the scenery, giving me time to catch up and punch the button.
The shell game is still as big a pain as I remember it. You have no choice but to stand and wait until the boxes stop moving, the scenery can block your view and make it difficult, and it can be easy to fail even if you're watching closely.
And, as predicted, getting to an available party-goer before someone else does can be an exercise in frustration. That said, I'm not sure but I think they seem to be re-spawning faster than the last time they did this.
Unfortunately, I got more shell game than runner and as I said the shell game takes a set amount of time to complete. That means that particular party-goer won't re-spawn as fast as an easily-caught runner and I suspect that the average completion time is worse than chasing a runner. And so, the more shell games you end up having to do the worse your completion time will get. I hope Cryptic runs the numbers on that.
I'm guessing that the odds are supposed to be 50/50 as to which version you get. I'm thinking this needs to be more like 25/75 in favor of getting a runner.
I decided to run the mini game with all 10 of my characters just to see how it would go and it was just painful, painful, Painful for me.
It's bad enough that there were griefers in some spots that just seemed to want to Q Block you by just activating the Mini Q and then do nothing.
The NPC that walk around are always in the way and blocking your line of sight on the mini Q in the boxes.
Sometimes the Q would bolt and get stuck on objects and not be catchable.
At times the boxes would move in such a way that no matter what you tried the Q could not be seen and you would have to guess which box it was under.
With 10 Characters it took me just under 2 hours to complete the daily.
I'm going to try to run the daily will all 10 of my Characters today but If I cannot find a way to get the daily done with all of them in one hour or less, I'm done with it.
This is just too much of a Grind and the fact that you have to deal with others running the event just makes it that much worse.
It really pisses me off that with all the negative feedback, and all the frustration some players are feeling here, that the community devs are simply going to ignore it.
I can tell you exactly what's going to happen. Branflakes claims they're "listening", but they're not going to do anything about it. They just don't care. They're not going to even give us the courtesy of saying what they thought of our feedback, because they don't really care about our feedback. Then, towards the end of the Anniversary Event, they're going to come and say "The anniversary event is ending, so we're locking this thread" and that's ALL we're going to get. The community devs just aren't that into doing their jobs when they have to deal with unhappy people; they want to pretend like unhappy players don't exist. So they ignore us.
It really pisses me off that with all the negative feedback, and all the frustration some players are feeling here, that the community devs are simply going to ignore it.
I can tell you exactly what's going to happen. Branflakes claims they're "listening", but they're not going to do anything about it. They just don't care. They're not going to even give us the courtesy of saying what they thought of our feedback, because they don't really care about our feedback. Then, towards the end of the Anniversary Event, they're going to come and say "The anniversary event is ending, so we're locking this thread" and that's ALL we're going to get. The community devs just aren't that into doing their jobs when they have to deal with unhappy people; they want to pretend like unhappy players don't exist. So they ignore us.
For shame Cryptic, for shame.
I think you hit the nail on the head.
Beta, LTA, CE, Multiple preorder Versions, all Addon Packs except AoY, nearly all KDF/Rom and ~50% of all Fedships, over 25 LockboxShips, Endurer of Atari's "Year of Hell", but...
I have an idea. Allow running the Tuvok quest to award 1000 qmendations. But keep the daily in, so the people that erm, "enjoy" doing that daily can just run that for 35 days instead.
I think the reality is that there's not much they can do to change the event at this point.
Maybe they could tweak some of the numerics, like awarding more Qmendations or letting you run it more often, or extending the time limit.
But they aren't going to make any drastic changes unless there's a bug or their metrics tell them there's a problem... and they haven't had time to gather the metrics yet.
In all likelihood, every scrap of feedback and information will feed into the next Anniversary event and have zero impact on this one.
That's just a guess on my part. Remember, I don't have any insider knowledge.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
the crosshaires will show u where the little TRIBBLE is (after he stopped changing ^^)
press "b" again (out of shootermodus not necessary but ok)
and u have the solution :P
Cool!
Although now that you've said it, I half expect the Devs to try to figure out how to stop it.
I can think of one possible solution right off the top of my head.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
I think the reality is that there's not much they can do to change the event at this point.
Maybe they could tweak some of the numerics, like awarding more Qmendations or letting you run it more often, or extending the time limit.
But they aren't going to make any drastic changes unless there's a bug or their metrics tell them there's a problem... and they haven't had time to gather the metrics yet.
In all likelihood, every scrap of feedback and information will feed into the next Anniversary event and have zero impact on this one.
That's just a guess on my part. Remember, I don't have any insider knowledge.
Yeah I understand what you're saying. This thread even started too late for them to change anything anyways. Perhaps that's one of the reasons they like to play everything close to the vest until it's happening. (Though there are plenty of other good reasons)
Either way, I think the issue is that they're not going to address the feedback we did give. It's like our feedback doesn't matter to them. If they're even really listening to our feedback, and we just have to guess that they are, do we really have to just wait a year and hope they remember?
There's a dozen things they could say:
We understand people don't like the grind, so we're going to find ways to make it feel less tedious next year
We heard the feedback but we're happy with the way it works now
We've taken the feedback into consideration and will see if we can't come up with a better compromise on grind vs. reward in the future
We understand your frustration and welcome suggestions on how this could have been handled better.
It's ridiculous that they won't even acknowledge that our feedback is mostly negative, even if they're not going to do anything about it. It feels like they're ignoring our feedback, despite claims to the contrary.
In my opinion, someone simply isn't doing their job.
Oh, they acknowledge it! They say it means nothing and doesn't represent the real feelings and opinions of players. Despite some 600+ posts almost all negative, to them it is something to be ignored. However, ONE person says they like it and gets a personal thanks from the Dev.
Double standards, detachment from reality, sadistic gameplay designed to milk money from people for what should be a free "thank you" reward?
Don't post much, but I have a question I really want the devs to answer.
At any point during creation and testing did someone play The Party Patrol shell game and think it was fun? (even slightly enjoyable?)
I personally play games for enjoyment, and I assume the devs intend an enjoyable experience.
(yes I know, blah blah, not being forced to do it... your comment isn't necessary)
Did they consider the possibility of a grindable daily with an enjoyable minigame? I personally think its possible.
Wouldn't have had any problems with shooting them with the winter weapons.
Catching a runaway or "box fun" is just plain annoying.
Wait, instead of shooting them, let us slice and dice them with extra gore.
Now THAT would make it a mildly satisfying experience/grind.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
It's the fact it takes near a minute for the boxes to stop shuffling.
This is, I agree, a major drawback of the shell game.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
This is, I agree, a major drawback of the shell game.
So if you do your 5 Qs, and they each are a shell game, you tie up 5ish minutes doing the click portion of the Event. If you do the chase Qs you tie up 3ish minutes doing the click portion of the Event. So we are really doing all this arguing over 2 extra minutes at the Event?
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
I'm definitely trying that. If it works--it eliminates any complaints (other than length of time)--it makes it easier than the runaways.
At least there's only 5 per day to have to nail down. Wack-A-Q would definitely be a good addition (or replacement).
Replacement for sure. It's the same game that's been in for...2 years maybe? I definitely remember it being the game used last year and I remember there being a ton of griping about it back then.
I'd say it's just as likely that it will have zero impact on the next one, too.
I freely admit that is one possible outcome of all this.
If a majority of players run the event the way they intend it to be run, the event model will be declared a success no matter what the forum has to say about it.
But it doesn't mean they won't change anything, either.
The new Dyson Reputation model is a direct result of player feedback about the Reputation system and comments I see here on the forums are generally positive in regard to the change. I want 'em to redo all of the other Reps just like that one.
They do change stuff. But rarely do they ever change anything quickly, unless it's a bug or an exploit.
Their silence speaks as loudly as anything they could actually say. It shrieks "Suck it up- and keep those treadmills going!"
No, that does not necessarily compute.
The event has been live less than a day. You could even say that yesterday probably doesn't count.
Silence could mean they're thinking about it. Or recovering from a very long launch day. Or they need time to collect data about it. All kinds of reasons, including "W.A.D., but we're not dumb enough to admit it publicly."
If they don't have an official response to the feedback yet, what would you expect Brandon to say?
Cryptic's had plenty of bad PR experiences with staff saying things in public that they probably shouldn't have said. He's not going to make any promises he can't keep.
I'd be more worried if they were in here making empty promises just to shut up the naysayers. Or telling the Moderators to squash the negativity. Which, I promise you, has not happened.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
So if you do your 5 Qs, and they each are a shell game, you tie up 5ish minutes doing the click portion of the Event. If you do the chase Qs you tie up 3ish minutes doing the click portion of the Event. So we are really doing all this arguing over 2 extra minutes at the Event?
Yep. Appears so.
Except the 5-ish minutes is more like 5-plus-ish. Probably more if you've never done it before.
I'm not telling anyone "don't do it!"
I'm truthfully saying "I personally don't want to do it ever again, and I'm considering skipping the ship."
In fact, I'm strongly considering running the FE on all of my alts and then stopping. And they'll all be 400 Qmendations ahead for the next event. I can wait a year to see if they crank out a ship I'll be happier with.
And that's my feedback. I haven't made a final decision yet to skip or not to skip, so my metrics are still up in the air.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
He's in the club, dancing with everyone else. When you come out of the transporter room go left.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
He isn't where he was last time, you have to go to that disco dance floor on earth space dock. He's pretty far out of your way if you don't know where he is.
Im really pissed of because i really wont a new kdf sci ship ive been waiting for 2 years and there locked it behind grind n a new mission that i cant do. Because the new mission just blacks out when i step though the door in the EVA suit. Ive spent money on this game on shp bundles single ships costumes buged costume slots and as my title says i supported LOR n payed before i could even test/use the Rommy stuff. I don't feel appreciated for supporting STO since the 2nd week it went F2p . I wont be able to grind the new Qmarks from the 40 a day mission because ive a child that i have at week ends.
welll.you CAN use lobi crystals, but at an average of four crystals per lock boz tha5ts fourty crystals for every ten dollars spent on keys, SO, for a hundred bucks you too can get 400 lobi crystals and get a little ship, IF you run the FE.. otherwise it'll be 200 bucks..
I'm glad so many others hav 200 bucks to spend like that.. I dont..
I'm doing it on my 6 science officers and that's it. I think its pretty easy, KDF side even easier. If you don't like doing the gifts just walk away to another Q until you can chase the Q but it may end up taking more time. Takes me about 1/2 hr to do all 6 not bad at all.
The FE replays that's another story but have plenty of time to do it.
Gold Sub since March 2010
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
So if you do your 5 Qs, and they each are a shell game, you tie up 5ish minutes doing the click portion of the Event. If you do the chase Qs you tie up 3ish minutes doing the click portion of the Event. So we are really doing all this arguing over 2 extra minutes at the Event?
I feel the need to reiterate that it shouldn't even be neccessary for the Event. But that's just my opinion.
I should also say it's not 5 minutes or 3 minutes. It only takes that long if you're in a practically empty zone (which, given the need to do this stupid thing, are non-existent right now). Now factor in how long you have to spend running around trying to find a Q that someone hasn't already tagged.
You're just a machine. And machines can be broken.
Comments
Like an idiot, I didn't even realize I could chase Q if he ran away - I'm so used to academy event collapsed particles, that I just shrugged and moved on to try to find the next shell game. I found it pretty easy to keep track of which box he was in...
The Fastest Game on Ice on the other hand...that made me grrr the first few times I ran it.
Now, ask me again after having run this 28 times, I may have a different answer.
Also the location of this event makes me pretty sure that the Academy Event is either just gone, or at least won't be a weekend during the run of the Anniversary.
I decided to run the mini game with all 10 of my characters just to see how it would go and it was just painful, painful, Painful for me.
It's bad enough that there were griefers in some spots that just seemed to want to Q Block you by just activating the Mini Q and then do nothing.
The NPC that walk around are always in the way and blocking your line of sight on the mini Q in the boxes.
Sometimes the Q would bolt and get stuck on objects and not be catchable.
At times the boxes would move in such a way that no matter what you tried the Q could not be seen and you would have to guess which box it was under.
With 10 Characters it took me just under 2 hours to complete the daily.
I'm going to try to run the daily will all 10 of my Characters today but If I cannot find a way to get the daily done with all of them in one hour or less, I'm done with it.
This is just too much of a Grind and the fact that you have to deal with others running the event just makes it that much worse.
I can tell you exactly what's going to happen. Branflakes claims they're "listening", but they're not going to do anything about it. They just don't care. They're not going to even give us the courtesy of saying what they thought of our feedback, because they don't really care about our feedback. Then, towards the end of the Anniversary Event, they're going to come and say "The anniversary event is ending, so we're locking this thread" and that's ALL we're going to get. The community devs just aren't that into doing their jobs when they have to deal with unhappy people; they want to pretend like unhappy players don't exist. So they ignore us.
For shame Cryptic, for shame.
I think you hit the nail on the head.
Seconded.
I am only logging in to run an alt through the dyson daily, other than that I am out for a couple of weeks. Not even going to bother with the episode.
Maybe they could tweak some of the numerics, like awarding more Qmendations or letting you run it more often, or extending the time limit.
But they aren't going to make any drastic changes unless there's a bug or their metrics tell them there's a problem... and they haven't had time to gather the metrics yet.
In all likelihood, every scrap of feedback and information will feed into the next Anniversary event and have zero impact on this one.
That's just a guess on my part. Remember, I don't have any insider knowledge.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
Cool!
Although now that you've said it, I half expect the Devs to try to figure out how to stop it.
I can think of one possible solution right off the top of my head.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
Yeah I understand what you're saying. This thread even started too late for them to change anything anyways. Perhaps that's one of the reasons they like to play everything close to the vest until it's happening. (Though there are plenty of other good reasons)
Either way, I think the issue is that they're not going to address the feedback we did give. It's like our feedback doesn't matter to them. If they're even really listening to our feedback, and we just have to guess that they are, do we really have to just wait a year and hope they remember?
There's a dozen things they could say:
It's ridiculous that they won't even acknowledge that our feedback is mostly negative, even if they're not going to do anything about it. It feels like they're ignoring our feedback, despite claims to the contrary.
In my opinion, someone simply isn't doing their job.
Double standards, detachment from reality, sadistic gameplay designed to milk money from people for what should be a free "thank you" reward?
They've lost it.
I'd say it's just as likely that it will have zero impact on the next one, too.
Their silence speaks as loudly as anything they could actually say. It shrieks "Suck it up- and keep those treadmills going!"
Wouldn't have had any problems with shooting them with the winter weapons.
Catching a runaway or "box fun" is just plain annoying.
Wait, instead of shooting them, let us slice and dice them with extra gore.
Now THAT would make it a mildly satisfying experience/grind.
I'm doing this anymore.
It's not that the game can lag and the Q could move without you seeing it, nor the fact it's contrived as hell...
It's the fact it takes near a minute for the boxes to stop shuffling.
This is, I agree, a major drawback of the shell game.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
I'm definitely trying that. If it works--it eliminates any complaints (other than length of time)--it makes it easier than the runaways.
At least there's only 5 per day to have to nail down. Wack-A-Q would definitely be a good addition (or replacement).
Replacement for sure. It's the same game that's been in for...2 years maybe? I definitely remember it being the game used last year and I remember there being a ton of griping about it back then.
I have no clue why it wasn't binned to be honest!
I freely admit that is one possible outcome of all this.
If a majority of players run the event the way they intend it to be run, the event model will be declared a success no matter what the forum has to say about it.
But it doesn't mean they won't change anything, either.
The new Dyson Reputation model is a direct result of player feedback about the Reputation system and comments I see here on the forums are generally positive in regard to the change. I want 'em to redo all of the other Reps just like that one.
They do change stuff. But rarely do they ever change anything quickly, unless it's a bug or an exploit.
No, that does not necessarily compute.
The event has been live less than a day. You could even say that yesterday probably doesn't count.
Silence could mean they're thinking about it. Or recovering from a very long launch day. Or they need time to collect data about it. All kinds of reasons, including "W.A.D., but we're not dumb enough to admit it publicly."
If they don't have an official response to the feedback yet, what would you expect Brandon to say?
Cryptic's had plenty of bad PR experiences with staff saying things in public that they probably shouldn't have said. He's not going to make any promises he can't keep.
I'd be more worried if they were in here making empty promises just to shut up the naysayers. Or telling the Moderators to squash the negativity. Which, I promise you, has not happened.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
Yep. Appears so.
Except the 5-ish minutes is more like 5-plus-ish. Probably more if you've never done it before.
I'm not telling anyone "don't do it!"
I'm truthfully saying "I personally don't want to do it ever again, and I'm considering skipping the ship."
In fact, I'm strongly considering running the FE on all of my alts and then stopping. And they'll all be 400 Qmendations ahead for the next event. I can wait a year to see if they crank out a ship I'll be happier with.
And that's my feedback. I haven't made a final decision yet to skip or not to skip, so my metrics are still up in the air.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
I'm glad so many others hav 200 bucks to spend like that.. I dont..
The FE replays that's another story but have plenty of time to do it.
Lifetime Sub since June 2010
EXACTLY WHAT A Q WOULD DO.
-Leonard Nimoy, RIP
I feel the need to reiterate that it shouldn't even be neccessary for the Event. But that's just my opinion.
I should also say it's not 5 minutes or 3 minutes. It only takes that long if you're in a practically empty zone (which, given the need to do this stupid thing, are non-existent right now). Now factor in how long you have to spend running around trying to find a Q that someone hasn't already tagged.
lol. That's funny. However, I find it fun.