Cones of Conduct. Why I think it sucked.

badgerpants999

As the winter festival went on I noticed more often than not, when I was there, the Ginger Bread Village would be destroyed by the Snowmen. No one seemed interested in helping the Ginger Bread People in securing the village. I would like to put forth a few theories as to why that happened. And since I have access to this forum I'm going to do just that.

First lets look at the cause of the conflict. The Snowmen say the land was stolen, the Ginger Bread People say a fair price was paid. Only Q knows the truth of it. The situation is very similar to many real life instances of land theft from indigenous peoples so I had no real inclination to assist the Ginger Bread People in the fight. The whole situation left a bad taste in my mouth to be honest.

Secondly lets look at the defenders, that's just the PC's, the Ginger Bread People raise not one sugared finger in defense of their homes, they leave ALL the work to the PC's. The most that is done by the Ginger Bread People is to complain that their village is being destroyed. They just can't be bothered to get off their baked little butts to help out. Then there is the "Sno-conian" What a wimp! I mean really, even when built to full power before the Snoverlord arrives he's quickly defeated and then the PC's get to run around fighting the Snowman army to gather components to heal him and watch him get clobbered again! It feels like your efforts are worthless especially as you have no way to effectively damage the Snoverlord yourself. You're relying on a marshmallow to stop a brick, not fun at all!

Thirdly the enemies, I've touched on this in the above paragraph but I feel the need to explain it again. The Snoverlord is WAY to powerful to make the encounter fun, He wipes out the Sno-conian far to easily, Even a good team who build the Sno-conian to full power will watch in frustration as he drops down for the count like a boxer with a glass jaw. You then spend several frustrating minutes fighting your way through the Snoverlords attendant army trying to collect components for the Sno-conian, only to watch the Sno-conian fall like the wimp he is.

Finaly the rewards. What a joke. I can understand that you don't want to give out the Christmas ornaments too easily but fighting hard for 10 minutes and getting a reward of maybe half a dozen ornaments. Are you kidding me? Seriously I can understand the rewards from the Snorg event being low, at least there you feel like you're contributing to the defense, but 10 minutes of frustration for a handful of baubles? PASS!

So, there you have it. The reasons why I just said "TRIBBLE it, let the place burn!". (And yes, I know the snowmen are trying to freeze the Ginger Bread Village, you get the point.) The encounter has potential to be fun but for the reasons stated above I just can't enjoy it. Please consider what I've written when organizing the event for next year. Please?

bobbydazlers

first off the snowmen are just out to make trouble, they pick on the gingerbread men in the winter invasion for no reason, they pick on the players in the snowball fight for no reason and now they are picking on the gingerbread men again in the new village on some trumped up excuse that is completely unproven.
I am sure if the snowmen had a valid case the gingerbread men would be only too happy to relocate to an area that would be agreeable to both parties.

as for the game itself I found the Snoverlord very quick and easy to beat and the end rewards very worthwhile for the amount of time it took to run the mission.
with all of the weapons and such we have at our disposal for use in QWW there is really no need for the gingerbread folk from the village to get involved as they are obviously unarmed and untrained, the aid you get from the Sno-conian is more then enough to win if you have a good team.

the only gripes I have with the mission is it is very easy for players to get a reward for doing nothing either intentionally or unintentionally and secondly you could do with something to indicate how ice and syrup you have collected.

fovrel

First. The story behind this, well, I don't care much. I am just here to pew pew pew at snowmen. We have three snow fights and basically it is just shooting at snowmen followed up by a boss mob. That is just the pattern of all content only here we have special weapons and special mobs. It does not differ very much from any other ground combat. As an alternative I can do a Voth battle zone or Kobali. Those give fairly good rewards, have the same kind of experience and enjoyment. So why should I bother with the snow fights? The rewards? I get those from doffing and plenty of it.

My suggestion is to let us exchange the snow fight rewards for marks, dilithium or spec points.

peetapipmac

I don't even bother with cones of conduct anymore, I just use the time to run the winter invasion queue.

welcome2earf

A very entertaining read, OP. Thank you. And yes, I agree. Just do the doff missions there - they pay out better and are less hassle.

anodynes

The rewards are fine when there are a lot of you there doing it. 35 Winter Commodities for keeping the village at 60% or so, I think it was. The problem is that most people have more than enough of those rewards, and this activity requires others to get decent rewards. If you have a few of the Winter devices, all of the other events can be completed solo for basically the same rewards that you'd get with a large group, and sometimes even better than with a large group. You may not stop every Snow Borg in Tide of Ice alone, but if you remain active for the whole thing, you can easily get around 25 Winter Commodities for it.
If you show up to Cones of Conduct alone, or with just a couple of others, you will not defeat the Snow Overlord, and will end up with the consolation prize, and that's not fun or even worth your time.

bobbydazlers

fovrel wrote: »

First. The story behind this, well, I don't care much. I am just here to pew pew pew at snowmen. We have three snow fights and basically it is just shooting at snowmen followed up by a boss mob. That is just the pattern of all content only here we have special weapons and special mobs. It does not differ very much from any other ground combat. As an alternative I can do a Voth battle zone or Kobali. Those give fairly good rewards, have the same kind of experience and enjoyment. So why should I bother with the snow fights? The rewards? I get those from doffing and plenty of it.

My suggestion is to let us exchange the snow fight rewards for marks, dilithium or spec points.

I would agree with that, though you can exchange winter items for GPL as we all know this is basically a dead currency as all you can buy with it is trash so marks, dilithium or spec points would be awesome.

I still have tons of GPL from last years event unspent, pity you cant use winter items for winter tags even at least then it would be kind of useful.

kitsunesnout

I don't play any of the events now because it's much more sensible to buy the winter currency items off the exchange in bulk and be done with it, there is just such a saturation of the items it's pointless to play the events in terms of time vs cost efficiency. Unless they start making the winter currency items useless to stockpile the events just won't be meaningful to play anymore.

tarran61

I find it all rewarding myself, except the race “The Fast and the Flurrious”, people steal the flag, the 3rd and last place rewards are low. I stopped running it a while back. And when you trade in the little mut you only get 200 marks for days of work. It takes me a few times to get enough of the winter tags for most of the time I'm last.

Over all its fun still. I thank the devs for the hard works it takes to make and put this in place.

vegeta50024

kitsunesnout wrote: »

I don't play any of the events now because it's much more sensible to buy the winter currency items off the exchange in bulk and be done with it, there is just such a saturation of the items it's pointless to play the events in terms of time vs cost efficiency. Unless they start making the winter currency items useless to stockpile the events just won't be meaningful to play anymore.

For most, it's not cost effective to buy the winter items because they are running around 3K for just the commons.

davefenestrator

We already did this "gingers are evil" thread at least twice during the event, in this subforum.

tessaravejgan

I couldn't care less for their background as for rewards, I never found them to be too little. It all depends on how well the people participating do. That being said I gave up on the winter event after a week and just did the race for the ship. Bought the currencies of the exchange for the items.

storules

peetapipmac wrote: »

I don't even bother with cones of conduct anymore, I just use the time to run the winter invasion queue.

Nobody did after the first couple of weeks. It was a complete "disaster" event for Cryptic. Devs can learn from SWTOR...there people get something similar to ornaments for just throwing snowballs to players and nothing else. Then you can trade those for goodies. The more you throw snowballs to other players the more goodies you can get...as easy as that.

Why make it so elaborated and specially spent that much time in a PvE with not much rewards. I agree they need to BUFF up those rewards from this event desperately for next year...if the server is still running ​​

daveyny

I stopped doing the Gingerbread Village after my third try on day two...
I spent more time Frozen in place than actually being able to do anything, THAT was boring as hell.
They should make the Snow Tribble either able to completely block the freezing effect or at the very least, able to bring one out of the effect when clicked on.

sheldonlcooper

I thought it was ok. Maybe a little cartoony/modern for my taste. I like the village. I say B.

vegeta50024

storules wrote: »

peetapipmac wrote: »

I don't even bother with cones of conduct anymore, I just use the time to run the winter invasion queue.

Nobody did after the first couple of weeks. It was a complete "disaster" event for Cryptic. Devs can learn from SWTOR...there people get something similar to ornaments for just throwing snowballs to players and nothing else. Then you can trade those for goodies. The more you throw snowballs to other players the more goodies you can get...as easy as that.

Why make it so elaborated and specially spent that much time in a PvE with not much rewards. I agree they need to BUFF up those rewards from this event desperately for next year...if the server is still running ​​

The Ornaments are just that, rewards. They want you to earn them for playing that game. throwing snowballs at other players isn't really much.

and FYI, what makes you think this game won't be around next year?

warpangel

Having your success depend on other people's performance rather than your own just doesn't work in an open map environment where you won't even know if the players present are going to participate at all. It would be better as a queue mission.

lordsteve1

I think for me it was just too much hassle in the mission for it to be fun.

Kill snowmen.
Collect loot drops
Mine syrup for loot drops
Drop loot into collector tanks

All of the above whilst being shot to pieces by hordes of snowmen.

It was just too many things going on that needed clicking this and clicking that, the fun was gone after the first try. Avoiding hordes of snowmen is one thing without having to worry about clicking prompts every few seconds.

If the drops had a mechanic like the command tokens in the Voth Battlezone it would work far better I think.

Then the Snow Overlord turns up and we cannot actually harm it, we need the Snowconian who most times last mere seconds before getting whacked.

Conversely, Tide of Ice is just a real hoot to play even when you're not chasing baubles. It's just fun and little thinking is needed, exactly what is required for a seasonal event.

ltminns

The Winter Invasion is very borked this year. The Snow Overlord goes down is less than thirty seconds even by just the Gingerbread people.

minababe

azrael605 wrote: »

I have never stopped running Cones of Conduct so I dunno where your getting this incorrect idea that nobody does it.

Neither have I. It's my most favorite (and most played) Winter Event. Tides of Ice, on the other hand...was fun for awhile and then I lost interest.

neomodious

I think the number of snowmen spawning needs to be tied to players in the "quest" area, rather than in the zone... That's been ridiculous...​​

centaurianalpha

It's apparent that the Gingerbread Village defense is really a 10-player STF; any less than 10 results in players being overpowered by the large number of snowmen spawning. I've only managed a few rounds where the Overlord was defeated, and rewards were indeed lacking for the effort expended. Late in the event, so few players are even joining, that the consolation prize is all that can be expected.

themadrigogs

The Cones of Conduct mission can't possibly be working as intended. Making the Sno-conian more powerful would be a good start, and they should use the ice solely to heal and and the syrup to increase attack power so player choices have a greater impact on the mission progress. Also slightly faster syrup mining animation would be appreciated (or longer with dilithium style (or even better Romulan-style) waveform matching to increase the amount received.

lianthelia

bobbydazlers wrote: »

first off the snowmen are just out to make trouble, they pick on the gingerbread men in the winter invasion for no reason, they pick on the players in the snowball fight for no reason and now they are picking on the gingerbread men again in the new village on some trumped up excuse that is completely unproven.
I am sure if the snowmen had a valid case the gingerbread men would be only too happy to relocate to an area that would be agreeable to both parties.

as for the game itself I found the Snoverlord very quick and easy to beat and the end rewards very worthwhile for the amount of time it took to run the mission.
with all of the weapons and such we have at our disposal for use in QWW there is really no need for the gingerbread folk from the village to get involved as they are obviously unarmed and untrained, the aid you get from the Sno-conian is more then enough to win if you have a good team.

the only gripes I have with the mission is it is very easy for players to get a reward for doing nothing either intentionally or unintentionally and secondly you could do with something to indicate how ice and syrup you have collected.

^ This...

Plus it's just a silly event for fun and winter tokens...OP you're taking it for to seriously.

orion0029

I actually liked Cones of Conduct, it's one of the few missions that actually make you think and doesn't require the mindless 'pew pew pew FTW' that many other missions do.

It's a refreshing break from the norm, and moderately challenging as well.

I will agree though, it is far too easy to get participation credit for doing little-to-nothing. If that were addressed I'd be much happier with the mission.

I think people's main issue with it is that it IS different from the 'pew pew pew FTW' missions and people don't immediately realize that continually hammering away at the boss does next to nothing to progress the mission lol.

Edit: Also, it's Gingerbread men vs. snowmen! Haha, a cool festive break from Borg, Vaadwaur, and Iconians!

minababe

centaurianalpha wrote: »

It's apparent that the Gingerbread Village defense is really a 10-player STF; any less than 10 results in players being overpowered by the large number of snowmen spawning.

No way. I've seen instances where as few as four players were able to defeat the Overlord at 55%, and others where there were 8-10 players who completely failed to save the village at 0%. It all comes down to strategy, teamwork and weapons. You can have 10 players do Cones of Conduct, but if 6 of them are just mindlessly pewpewing at the Overload while ignoring the syrup/shaved ice, one of them shows up with nothing but snowballs--and nobody lays down any ground devices--then yes, it'll go poorly.

echatty

minababe wrote: »

centaurianalpha wrote: »

It's apparent that the Gingerbread Village defense is really a 10-player STF; any less than 10 results in players being overpowered by the large number of snowmen spawning.

No way. I've seen instances where as few as four players were able to defeat the Overlord at 55%, and others where there were 8-10 players who completely failed to save the village at 0%. It all comes down to strategy, teamwork and weapons. You can have 10 players do Cones of Conduct, but if 6 of them are just mindlessly pewpewing at the Overload while ignoring the syrup/shaved ice, one of them shows up with nothing but snowballs--and nobody lays down any ground devices--then yes, it'll go poorly.

This. Too many people were pew-pewing the Snoverlord and ignoring the Snowconian, despite the fact that their pew-pews were doing only one-five damage. They didn't understand that this is not like the Snowball Fight or the Winter Invasion, the Snowconian needed to be kept healthy with the ice/syrup and then the players were supposed to attack the minions.

Four people can do it, with ground turrets/weapons/mortars. Two could keep the minions killed off while two others go for syrup/ice to replenish Snowconian.

storules

minababe wrote: »

azrael605 wrote: »

I have never stopped running Cones of Conduct so I dunno where your getting this incorrect idea that nobody does it.

Neither have I. It's my most favorite (and most played) Winter Event. Tides of Ice, on the other hand...was fun for awhile and then I lost interest.

Its the most wonderful event EVER and players LOVE it!!!>>>sarcasm ​​

kodachikuno

storules wrote: »

Its the most wonderful event EVER and players LOVE it!!!>>>sarcasm ​​

someone had to do it