I did my first race this morning. Using the regular 50 board. I thought the course was fun and not too hard to do. I did get dismounted for going around a corner not right and ended up on the beach. But I did finish the race and not in last either. At that time I didn't care to win much as I was doing it for fun. Will I do it again, of course. That is what it matters to have more fun.
I agree with classes as you should be in placed which on you bought. However this is what also usually fails at any PVP event. Your always out classed to some degree. Even on another game, I first hit the PVP field. And was nothing but cannon fodder to the ones who all full PVP gear. I wasn't in a group that was my current gear level.
To me its more of having fun. With the powerboard races, I'm there for fun.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
anyways, you can always see Pavyl, whether you have the quest or not.
It was about the Arches but i found out why i didn't work. I didn't realize i had to go chat with Pavyl during the day after each time i found him at night. All taken care of now so as far as i know i have no more accolades left , yay
Less traction/more momentum/more potential loss of inertia on the boards would probably be the best and simplest short term change. That would also make the faster boards more challenging to use than the slower ones. I feel bad for the designer of the medium boards, because nobody is ever going to see those in action as things stand now. You get the fastest board or you get 2 tags, whether it's the 2nd fastest board or the rental.
I love the board balancing animation and wonder if there were plans for an actual balancing mechanic in the gameplay that couldn't be implemented in a timely manner. Having to lean side-to-side to turn the board instead of just pointing the board in the direction you want definitely would have been better. Maybe next year?
I hate the flag-grabbing mechanic, but I assume that's a workaround to get the competitive races to work fairly for all racers within the limitations of the game engine. There must be some problem with having 4 overlapping arrival zones that work like in the single player races. On the chance though that it's not done for competitiveness/cheat-prevention reasons but rather to streamline putting reward items in the players hands, I'd much rather have arrival zones instead of flags even if I have to go to a npc to collect my prize afterward.
I'm really enjoying the races. I don't have one of the superior boards, and have no real desire to get one (I like the enhanced board I already have, even if it isn't the fastest); I still have fun even if I don't have a prayer against the better boards.
I agree that the track isn't terribly impressive, and that class races would be a good idea. I like to imagine that what we have now is just a fun little prototype.
I haven't completed the races you really need to purchase a powerboard and have it ready so you can get into the race instead of renting one. I enjoy the powerboard a lot more than jet flyer. I'll end up getting both and keep them handy. I do agree there should be different levels of races so those with the super duper powerboards don't out run the rental, $50 or $500 powerboards. They need also to make the flag pick-up a bit wider so you don't miss it and the end of the race.
I lost count how many winter and summer event races I've lost because of either missing the flag after legitimately crossing the finish line 1st, or losing 2nd or 3rd place because of flag trolls that wait for you to get close, then snatch away what you earned with skill and time investment.
Cryptic, I'm sorry, but you have no excuses. Your former co-worker, Gozer, proved you guys can do things with invisible trigger lines in this archaic game engine back when he co-developed the ground Borg STF missions, Infected Ground especially. These lines can come into play when these races are activated.
Make. It. Happen. Please.
Thanks hylanvahr aka Del, I new you would agree with me and bust out some facts to back it up
One thing about the race the boggels my mind is that they actually have the ability to use cross the line to win, just look at the winter race to get pics of Q. Granted, that is a single player race, but if they can do that for single players, why not for a group of players?
The race itself is a good idea, and fun to do, but the grab a flag for the "podium" finish is poorly implemented... Just imagine how that would work in say Formula 1 racing, would kinda defeat the purpose of the entire race, no?
Other than the race finish mechanic, and the sandcastle thingymajig giving out nearly non existant rewards, the rest is ok.
I really like the new pearl mechanics too, only need one char to grind the 1000 pearls, and then 40 for the rest. Stroke of genius there Cryptic...
A minor thing that really should have been spotted before the event went live is the timer on the horgh'ha hunt being out by like a minute at least.
Not a huge problem as ou just -1 min from the timer, but why have one in the first place if you can't set it to work properly!
One thing about the race the boggels my mind is that they actually have the ability to use cross the line to win, just look at the winter race to get pics of Q. Granted, that is a single player race, but if they can do that for single players, why not for a group of players?
It's not that they can't, it's that they don't.
One limitation of the engine is that, if two players are actually tied, each of them will see himself as coming in first. Thus if the game actually used "proper" finish lines, people would complain because they thought they were ahead, when they really weren't.
Risa has a big beautiful beach and lots of nice fishing spots all around the island but, you don't see anyone in the water with a beach ball or people fishing. Whats up with that. That would be the first thing I would expect to see.
On the other side of the island would be a great spot for a fishing tournment. There could also be pvp vollyball games. Winners get 50 flavors for the high score during a 5 minute game. Good lord Cryptic!!!!!!! Grilled blasphemus jesus cheese !!!!!!!!! You guys could have made risa the disney land of MMO games. Man did you guys miss a oportunity.
Risa has a big beautiful beach and lots of nice fishing spots all around the island but, you don't see anyone in the water with a beach ball or people fishing. Man did you guys miss a oportunity.
I agree...but this game is an exercise in missed opportunities.
My Old Blog about things that could and should have been added when I wrote it. Not sure what I want to do with it now. I'll just keep it available now that most of it is outdated.
They could always place the 2nd/3rd/and remainder finish lines alittle further back from each other to help prevent close overlap issues. They got the tech in the game already, they just got to refine it and implement.
We seriously need an adjustment to Favor to Time ratio. Not everyone can grind 10 hours a day for all the 11 swimsuits, the 3 DOFFs, and the 2 powerboards--especially if you have multiple characters.
Didn't do the event last year so I can't really speak to how the favor rewards compare. I think passable now, though it would be nice if the events were more frequent. I know some would overlap, but that would be fine the winter race often overlapped with the snowman fight. Wouldn't punish people who play in short intense bursts. I often find my self waiting for the next thing to happen.
The race is pretty fun would like to know what's up with those speed boosts though. Is it like the Race Breen at the winter event, where the second player always got to go first the second person on the ramp gets the boost?
The biggest thing that's go me down right now is the egg drop rate from the hunt. I did 8 or 9 consecutive runs and came up empty. I mean, thats 8 or 9 hours. Wasn't playing the whole time but really, that's pretty terrible. Must have done over 30 runs and have only come up with 3.
To my eternal shame, I had to buy an egg from the vendor to keep them going. I've always felt the items you can acquire through other means were only in the store for the rich or the lazy, not those who are working their tails off and have somehow inadvertently pissed off whatever deity controls the random numbers.
Yeah, I know it's random, a friend of mine has gotten 7 in half as many runs. Would be nice if the rate was adjusted somehow, or if we could do the hunt more often think that would be a more ideal solution anyway.
- I'd be cool if we could choose replay the obstacle course after getting our daily pearls, before the 20 hour cooldown is up. Just for fun.
Again, loving the event -- much, much better than I was expecting. Lots of little improvements could be made, though.
-edit-
j0hn41, I'm sorry to hear about your egg misfortune. Were they not character bound, I'd happily give you one of my abundant extras I'll likely just delete when the event's over... and throw in a load of monkey tags too.
Please reconsider the binding on these items, devs.
The stupid thing about the egg drop rate (in addition to the whole bird system being nerfed by only half as many events... god forbid people prefer to casually fly around vs a timer rather than play the buggy, p2w, poorly implemented flag-click-bait "race"...) is that using the eggs is time gated anyway! You literally cant use more than one every 24 hours! So why make them so rare? Especially since you can only hunt them once an hour now! And yes, the drop rate does seem down this year. At least unbind them!
Side note... there are plenty of online multiplayer racing games that work just fine with a finish line, so I'm not sure how much water the excuse of lag showing incorrect winners really holds. And, personally, I'd rather deal with the server picking the objective winner based on its data (even if it looks different than what I experience... and lets be specific, it's not going to be off by more than half a second in the worst case) than deal with the clusterfrak that is the flag grabbing at the end of these races, with special people going out of their way to deprive the actual winners from their rightful rewards.
j0hn41, I'm sorry to hear about your egg misfortune. Were they not character bound, I'd happily give you one of my abundant extras I'll likely just delete when the event's over... and throw in a load of monkey tags too.
Please reconsider the binding on these items, devs.
I would like to see these become unbound as well. The first day I got not a single egg. The second day I got 1. The next day, I got 1. Today already I've gotten 2 or 3, and the day is still young. If I wind up with more than I can have hatched before the event is over, what is the point? I save them till next year? And then get more again? I would be delighted to be able to pass out extras to my fleetmates.
As for the monkey tags, I don't have any interest in them myself (even if the monkeys can be turned in for marks), but the boards are fun (and assuming that you guys ever give us a proper Romulan 1500 Lohlunat board, I'll buy one of those), and I might like to compete if I didn't get stuck with something I don't want but could instead give out to my fleetmates who do want them, or sell them for EC.
Well...I'll start off with a positive.
The Winter Event is so much better and worth the time.
The Summer Event leaves me longing for the return of frigid temperatures.
The Powerboard Race is a great addition...if it ran on the Winter Event's Fast and the Flurrious schedule.
Also, there is such a performance gap between the boards that I am left to wonder...why?
There were Ice Boots that we could get during the WE but they weren't OP like the 1000LF boards are now.
The Tags reward...just increase it to 12/8/6/4 OR hold the race 4 times an hour.
The Floaters can be alot more fun than just using it for running 1 daily with it.
Same with the holographic gates.
Can't they be used for extra LF's or something?
Maybe use the Floaters to tag the little simians running around Risa's forest?
"Tag the Mini-Sasquatch" or something.
Unless the changes are made, Summer Event 2014 is a big disappointment AND I HOPE THEY DON'T NERF THE WINTER EVENT LIKE THEY DID THE SUMMER EVENT.
EDIT: DEVS...LEAVE THE WINTER EVENT ALONE.
NO to ARC RIP KDF and PvP 2014-07-17 Season 9.5 - Death by Dev
Check Risa zone chat after each race to see - what people think about flag grab? I'll eat my shorts if you'll see a single "I like it" sentence.
I am good racer, I like races, I like Risian hoverboards - but no way I'll waste my time grinding for one because I don't like the mechanics and have to overcome myself each time I need to get 2 "you've lost the race" tickets for monkeys (even though I often finish in top-3). Combination of server lag and client issues make it nearly impossible to jump off in time to grab the "right" flag.
Dear devs, please, don't re-use this mechanics.
p.s. I've skipped winter races due to this mechanics. It's bull TRIBBLE.
I like the race, but agree with you, the flags are a pest, but served me a few times cause I could steal the first or second place sometimes, my only problem is with the races, 2 days ago I was racing against a miniature RUNNING not using a board way faster than me or my fleet mates, and we were using the superior boards and grabbing all the spped boosts at the ramps, by second flag, that miniature was already 2/3 ahead of us to the third flag
I'll eat my shorts if you'll see a single "I like it" sentence.
Completely agree.
I've the impression that it's the same with any of the more current events. Weather it's the board race, the winter race, the new mirror or CE events...not one person have I met that enjoyed any of those events. Every one of them (including me) seemed to be glad they got the reward at the end, but didn't enjoy 99% of the time getting there.
It's due to an engine limitation, and it's one I hope they take the time to fix between now and next Summer (or this Winter).
It can't be "fixed", it's a fundamental defect in the network coding. To fix this, they'd have to completely rewrite the code...you know, to use the same solution Netrek used to prevent this kind of thing...back in 1989...25 years ago. Yes, people 25 years ago could write functioning network code that could display a consistent agreement on where players were, and be used in real-time combat. People today are so incompetent they cannot even copy-paste that code, as it's open source.
Floater courses for pearls: I like this. You can do it even with the rental floater with plenty of time to spare. As someone with 10 characters (LTS since closed beta) finally being able to get the reward ship without grinding it out on EVERY character is the greatest thing ever. Thank you SO MUCH for this!!
Powerboard Races: The course is fun, yes, but like everyone else has said, it's grind to win. The odds of you winning the race on anything but a superior are small, and it's dependent on who else is running and how many there are.
Horga'hn Hunt: I like it, however I'm really disappointed in it being only once an hour now, since it's the only real way to get favors. Plus the bug that the time limit on the hunt ends 1 minute early that still hasn't been addressed. I've sent in six tickets now and haven't even received the courtesy of a reply. This bug needs to be fixed, pronto.
Sandcastles: I really like the idea, but there are far too few spots to build on. There needs to be at least 15 spots, and completed castles need to disappear within 30 seconds of being completed unless you specifically interact with it to maintain it for an extra 30 seconds, as well as having the option to immediately remove it so others can build theirs. It also needs to give WAY more favors.
Swimsuits: FINALLY SWIMSUITS!!! I like the variety, although the edges need cleaned up for clipping. What bothers me, having 10 female characters, is how expensive everything is. I have to shell out 500-1000 favors per suit per character. Coupled with the reduction in favor drops this year, it's going to be an immense grind
Dance Party: This is more of a downtime activity. Frankly, I find it rather boring. But it's a way to earn favors while chatting or reading a magazine :P
Accolades: There are SO MANY ACCOLADES to get now. It's become a chore to get them all.
Bird Eggs: While I like the fact that you can find them while hunting, I really wish they were account bound and not character bound. I always end up with too many on one and not enough on another.
All in all, yes there's more to do, but it's not necessarily a good thing. There are far too few earning opportunities for favors in relation to the vast amount of items to buy, and it's caused a ridiculous racket on the exchange for favors. I particularly dislike the hunt being reduced to hourly.
Here's my suggestions:
Hunt should be at :00 and :30
Races should be at :15 and :45
Sandcastles should be a persistent event with a 15 minute cooldown, with favor reward increased and tiered based on level of difficulty
Dance should also be a persistent event with a 30 minute cooldown.
With as much as there is to buy, particularly when the board races are the only way to get monkey tags and getting it is dependent on the amount of favors, increasing the favor earning is absolutely necessary.
Particularly for people who don't have time to grind all day!
If they insist on having players grab a flag at the end of the powerboard race, then why not extend the range you can grab the flag from to include that entire partially fenced-off area just past the finish line?
Or just make that area itself the interactable you have to use to claim your rewards.
1. Sand Castle - Agree, not enough favors to make it worth doing except for fun. But I do find it somewhat enjoyable just by itself. The big problem is that there aren't enough sites during the event.
2. Powerboard Race - Unlike the floater courses, you really need to have an enhanced or superior board. My standard board is good enough to get me to the finish line and occasionally eke out a freak win because people forget to click the flags, but that's about it. Thing is, at 500 and 1000 favors each, I'm not going to hit that goal till the end of the event assuming I don't buy any swimwear.
3. Horghann Hunt - I still like doing this, but at once an hour it's easy to miss. I'm not sure what other people are experiencing, but it seems like this isn't dropping as many eggs this year? I've gotten one drop so far.
4. Dance Party - Ugh. I disliked it on Nimbus and don't care to try it here. Just because I could map out the emotes to keybinds doesn't mean I want to. I'll pass on the favors, don't care how much the event is worth. I get in enough dancing in between events when people drop Party Amps.
5. Swimwear - No opinion, because I don't have enough favors yet to buy one outfit, let alone everything I might want. I will say that a Zen pack with a limited selection of swimwear would have been a no-brainer.
6. Risa Summer Resort in general is gorgeous scenery and I love my yearly visits. I like exploring and finding new things just for the heck of it and Risa does not disappoint.
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
...Bird Eggs: While I like the fact that you can find them while hunting, I really wish they were account bound and not character bound. I always end up with too many on one and not enough on another...
Oh, so much +1 THIS!!
One of my characters has 9 eggs, and the others have 0-2 (most with zero), and these toons have all done the Hunts!
Please make Eggs (and Tags!) account bound!
Thanks.
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
Dance Party. Boring last year and still boring now, but it's one of only two reliable ways to get lots of favors. I'd advocate dropping the twenty move section of it, but for the loss of favors.
Horga'hn Hunt. I enjoy this and it's the other reliable way to get lots of favors. I wish this had been opened up more this year with more variety not reduced to once an hour. It's probably the best thing about Risa.
Sand Castle. It's okay and a nice change of pace. The reward is just pathetic though. Make it any time on a 15 minute cool down and reward 10 favors. You could only get 40 an hour that way.
Powerboard Race. Very cool, but being gimped because you got the 50 favor board not the 1,000 favor one isn't fun. Neither is the whole grab the flag thing even when I've benefited from it. Like the Horga'hn Hunt and floaters generally, I'd love to see this opened up more.
Swimwear. It's always nice to get new costume options, especially for my KDF alts. The bikinis are great, if a little expensive. It would be nice if you could combine them with the other Risa beachwear like the shorts. It would be really nice if there were places besides Risa to wear it.
Bird eggs do seem to have weird drop rates now. K'ymara has so many she's stuck them in her cargo bay and swims in them like Scrooge McDuck does in money. My other alts have no where near the same drop rate and some haven't gotten any. It would be nice if they were account bound.
My alt army: K'ymara, Orion Engineer. Caedera of Borg, Liberated Borg Tactical, Elyza Vix, Joined Trill Scientist. Christina Bellona, Augmented Human Tactical. T'Lana, Vulcan Scientist. Arbol, Martian Tactical. Ayzer Bryn, Joined Trill Engineer. Hawke, Betazoid Scientist. Karna Valkras, Klingon Engineer. Beth Parker, Human Tactical Sarel, Romulan Engineer (Federation). Yazuri, Reman Scientist (KDF)
Dance Party. Boring last year and still boring now, but it's one of only two reliable ways to get lots of favors. I'd advocate dropping the twenty move section of it, but for the loss of favors.
Reliable? 15 minutes of dance torture for 50 favors, right? I can easy-run 4 toons in 15 (well, 14) minute Hunt for ~200.
Dance should be 5 minutes for max reward. At least then, I could run 2-3 toons in the 15 minute timeslot.
Cryptic needs to do a realistic reward per minute analysis.
Sometimes I think I play STO just to have something to complain about on the forums.
- Floater course for pearls can be done in a rental with almost no effort -- no compelling reason to get a better floater to be honest, since we can just site-to-site between locations.
A fleetmate talked me into getting a superior floater, and I have to say it really is a nice improvement over the standard. I would love to see the courses opened up as a repeatable event after you get your pearls. Maybe even have more advanced courses that require the faster speed/maneuverability?
- More swimwear options for males would've been appreciated. As it is, this comes off as kind of sexist...nothing wrong with having lots of female styles, yet it seems like there is since there are so few male styles. Even the same basic shorts with different patterns would've been nice...
Thinking about it some more, why not extend the pattern idea to the female options as well? I hadn't even considered this when I typed up my reply since I've always thought solid color swimwear looks best, but it seems like an easy way to add a bunch more styles (for next year, maybe?). Still want to see more male options, though, my male chars definitely feel left out.
Also I've noticed the NPCs get some accessories/swimsuits that we don't have access to. Some of them are repurposed assets (there's an Andorian NPC in the Orion metal bikini armor... :rolleyes: ), but some are unique. I'd really like to see the unique ones added as purchasable options, maybe as an accessory box containing multiple pieces?
- The swimwear palette could use some grays and blacks. But don't get me wrong, I love how many subtle shade variations this palette has, I was able to get my outfits' colors perfect!
Comments
I agree with classes as you should be in placed which on you bought. However this is what also usually fails at any PVP event. Your always out classed to some degree. Even on another game, I first hit the PVP field. And was nothing but cannon fodder to the ones who all full PVP gear. I wasn't in a group that was my current gear level.
To me its more of having fun. With the powerboard races, I'm there for fun.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
It was about the Arches but i found out why i didn't work. I didn't realize i had to go chat with Pavyl during the day after each time i found him at night. All taken care of now so as far as i know i have no more accolades left , yay
I love the board balancing animation and wonder if there were plans for an actual balancing mechanic in the gameplay that couldn't be implemented in a timely manner. Having to lean side-to-side to turn the board instead of just pointing the board in the direction you want definitely would have been better. Maybe next year?
I hate the flag-grabbing mechanic, but I assume that's a workaround to get the competitive races to work fairly for all racers within the limitations of the game engine. There must be some problem with having 4 overlapping arrival zones that work like in the single player races. On the chance though that it's not done for competitiveness/cheat-prevention reasons but rather to streamline putting reward items in the players hands, I'd much rather have arrival zones instead of flags even if I have to go to a npc to collect my prize afterward.
I agree that the track isn't terribly impressive, and that class races would be a good idea. I like to imagine that what we have now is just a fun little prototype.
Time will only tell!
Thanks hylanvahr aka Del, I new you would agree with me and bust out some facts to back it up
Fleet Admiral GRIZZ
U.S.S. Chicago NCC 1833-C
Sector 31 ANTKB
ANTKB Gaming Community
The race itself is a good idea, and fun to do, but the grab a flag for the "podium" finish is poorly implemented... Just imagine how that would work in say Formula 1 racing, would kinda defeat the purpose of the entire race, no?
Other than the race finish mechanic, and the sandcastle thingymajig giving out nearly non existant rewards, the rest is ok.
I really like the new pearl mechanics too, only need one char to grind the 1000 pearls, and then 40 for the rest. Stroke of genius there Cryptic...
Not a huge problem as ou just -1 min from the timer, but why have one in the first place if you can't set it to work properly!
One limitation of the engine is that, if two players are actually tied, each of them will see himself as coming in first. Thus if the game actually used "proper" finish lines, people would complain because they thought they were ahead, when they really weren't.
My character Tsin'xing
On the other side of the island would be a great spot for a fishing tournment. There could also be pvp vollyball games. Winners get 50 flavors for the high score during a 5 minute game. Good lord Cryptic!!!!!!! Grilled blasphemus jesus cheese !!!!!!!!! You guys could have made risa the disney land of MMO games. Man did you guys miss a oportunity.
I agree...but this game is an exercise in missed opportunities.
Didn't do the event last year so I can't really speak to how the favor rewards compare. I think passable now, though it would be nice if the events were more frequent. I know some would overlap, but that would be fine the winter race often overlapped with the snowman fight. Wouldn't punish people who play in short intense bursts. I often find my self waiting for the next thing to happen.
The race is pretty fun would like to know what's up with those speed boosts though. Is it like the Race Breen at the winter event, where the second player always got to go first the second person on the ramp gets the boost?
The biggest thing that's go me down right now is the egg drop rate from the hunt. I did 8 or 9 consecutive runs and came up empty. I mean, thats 8 or 9 hours. Wasn't playing the whole time but really, that's pretty terrible. Must have done over 30 runs and have only come up with 3.
To my eternal shame, I had to buy an egg from the vendor to keep them going. I've always felt the items you can acquire through other means were only in the store for the rich or the lazy, not those who are working their tails off and have somehow inadvertently pissed off whatever deity controls the random numbers.
Yeah, I know it's random, a friend of mine has gotten 7 in half as many runs. Would be nice if the rate was adjusted somehow, or if we could do the hunt more often think that would be a more ideal solution anyway.
- I'd be cool if we could choose replay the obstacle course after getting our daily pearls, before the 20 hour cooldown is up. Just for fun.
Again, loving the event -- much, much better than I was expecting. Lots of little improvements could be made, though.
-edit-
j0hn41, I'm sorry to hear about your egg misfortune. Were they not character bound, I'd happily give you one of my abundant extras I'll likely just delete when the event's over... and throw in a load of monkey tags too.
Please reconsider the binding on these items, devs.
Side note... there are plenty of online multiplayer racing games that work just fine with a finish line, so I'm not sure how much water the excuse of lag showing incorrect winners really holds. And, personally, I'd rather deal with the server picking the objective winner based on its data (even if it looks different than what I experience... and lets be specific, it's not going to be off by more than half a second in the worst case) than deal with the clusterfrak that is the flag grabbing at the end of these races, with special people going out of their way to deprive the actual winners from their rightful rewards.
The doors, Mister Scott!
I would like to see these become unbound as well. The first day I got not a single egg. The second day I got 1. The next day, I got 1. Today already I've gotten 2 or 3, and the day is still young. If I wind up with more than I can have hatched before the event is over, what is the point? I save them till next year? And then get more again? I would be delighted to be able to pass out extras to my fleetmates.
As for the monkey tags, I don't have any interest in them myself (even if the monkeys can be turned in for marks), but the boards are fun (and assuming that you guys ever give us a proper Romulan 1500 Lohlunat board, I'll buy one of those), and I might like to compete if I didn't get stuck with something I don't want but could instead give out to my fleetmates who do want them, or sell them for EC.
The Winter Event is so much better and worth the time.
The Summer Event leaves me longing for the return of frigid temperatures.
The Powerboard Race is a great addition...if it ran on the Winter Event's Fast and the Flurrious schedule.
Also, there is such a performance gap between the boards that I am left to wonder...why?
There were Ice Boots that we could get during the WE but they weren't OP like the 1000LF boards are now.
[LONG rant regarding 110 Favors/hour/toon deleted]
The Tags reward...just increase it to 12/8/6/4 OR hold the race 4 times an hour.
The Floaters can be alot more fun than just using it for running 1 daily with it.
Same with the holographic gates.
Can't they be used for extra LF's or something?
Maybe use the Floaters to tag the little simians running around Risa's forest?
"Tag the Mini-Sasquatch" or something.
Unless the changes are made, Summer Event 2014 is a big disappointment AND I HOPE THEY DON'T NERF THE WINTER EVENT LIKE THEY DID THE SUMMER EVENT.
EDIT: DEVS...LEAVE THE WINTER EVENT ALONE.
RIP KDF and PvP 2014-07-17 Season 9.5 - Death by Dev
I am good racer, I like races, I like Risian hoverboards - but no way I'll waste my time grinding for one because I don't like the mechanics and have to overcome myself each time I need to get 2 "you've lost the race" tickets for monkeys (even though I often finish in top-3). Combination of server lag and client issues make it nearly impossible to jump off in time to grab the "right" flag.
Dear devs, please, don't re-use this mechanics.
p.s. I've skipped winter races due to this mechanics. It's bull TRIBBLE.
Completely agree.
I've the impression that it's the same with any of the more current events. Weather it's the board race, the winter race, the new mirror or CE events...not one person have I met that enjoyed any of those events. Every one of them (including me) seemed to be glad they got the reward at the end, but didn't enjoy 99% of the time getting there.
Powerboard Races: The course is fun, yes, but like everyone else has said, it's grind to win. The odds of you winning the race on anything but a superior are small, and it's dependent on who else is running and how many there are.
Horga'hn Hunt: I like it, however I'm really disappointed in it being only once an hour now, since it's the only real way to get favors. Plus the bug that the time limit on the hunt ends 1 minute early that still hasn't been addressed. I've sent in six tickets now and haven't even received the courtesy of a reply. This bug needs to be fixed, pronto.
Sandcastles: I really like the idea, but there are far too few spots to build on. There needs to be at least 15 spots, and completed castles need to disappear within 30 seconds of being completed unless you specifically interact with it to maintain it for an extra 30 seconds, as well as having the option to immediately remove it so others can build theirs. It also needs to give WAY more favors.
Swimsuits: FINALLY SWIMSUITS!!! I like the variety, although the edges need cleaned up for clipping. What bothers me, having 10 female characters, is how expensive everything is. I have to shell out 500-1000 favors per suit per character. Coupled with the reduction in favor drops this year, it's going to be an immense grind
Dance Party: This is more of a downtime activity. Frankly, I find it rather boring. But it's a way to earn favors while chatting or reading a magazine :P
Accolades: There are SO MANY ACCOLADES to get now. It's become a chore to get them all.
Bird Eggs: While I like the fact that you can find them while hunting, I really wish they were account bound and not character bound. I always end up with too many on one and not enough on another.
All in all, yes there's more to do, but it's not necessarily a good thing. There are far too few earning opportunities for favors in relation to the vast amount of items to buy, and it's caused a ridiculous racket on the exchange for favors. I particularly dislike the hunt being reduced to hourly.
Here's my suggestions:
Hunt should be at :00 and :30
Races should be at :15 and :45
Sandcastles should be a persistent event with a 15 minute cooldown, with favor reward increased and tiered based on level of difficulty
Dance should also be a persistent event with a 30 minute cooldown.
With as much as there is to buy, particularly when the board races are the only way to get monkey tags and getting it is dependent on the amount of favors, increasing the favor earning is absolutely necessary.
Particularly for people who don't have time to grind all day!
Or just make that area itself the interactable you have to use to claim your rewards.
1. Sand Castle - Agree, not enough favors to make it worth doing except for fun. But I do find it somewhat enjoyable just by itself. The big problem is that there aren't enough sites during the event.
2. Powerboard Race - Unlike the floater courses, you really need to have an enhanced or superior board. My standard board is good enough to get me to the finish line and occasionally eke out a freak win because people forget to click the flags, but that's about it. Thing is, at 500 and 1000 favors each, I'm not going to hit that goal till the end of the event assuming I don't buy any swimwear.
3. Horghann Hunt - I still like doing this, but at once an hour it's easy to miss. I'm not sure what other people are experiencing, but it seems like this isn't dropping as many eggs this year? I've gotten one drop so far.
4. Dance Party - Ugh. I disliked it on Nimbus and don't care to try it here. Just because I could map out the emotes to keybinds doesn't mean I want to. I'll pass on the favors, don't care how much the event is worth. I get in enough dancing in between events when people drop Party Amps.
5. Swimwear - No opinion, because I don't have enough favors yet to buy one outfit, let alone everything I might want. I will say that a Zen pack with a limited selection of swimwear would have been a no-brainer.
6. Risa Summer Resort in general is gorgeous scenery and I love my yearly visits. I like exploring and finding new things just for the heck of it and Risa does not disappoint.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
One of my characters has 9 eggs, and the others have 0-2 (most with zero), and these toons have all done the Hunts!
Please make Eggs (and Tags!) account bound!
Thanks.
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
Horga'hn Hunt. I enjoy this and it's the other reliable way to get lots of favors. I wish this had been opened up more this year with more variety not reduced to once an hour. It's probably the best thing about Risa.
Sand Castle. It's okay and a nice change of pace. The reward is just pathetic though. Make it any time on a 15 minute cool down and reward 10 favors. You could only get 40 an hour that way.
Powerboard Race. Very cool, but being gimped because you got the 50 favor board not the 1,000 favor one isn't fun. Neither is the whole grab the flag thing even when I've benefited from it. Like the Horga'hn Hunt and floaters generally, I'd love to see this opened up more.
Swimwear. It's always nice to get new costume options, especially for my KDF alts. The bikinis are great, if a little expensive. It would be nice if you could combine them with the other Risa beachwear like the shorts. It would be really nice if there were places besides Risa to wear it.
Bird eggs do seem to have weird drop rates now. K'ymara has so many she's stuck them in her cargo bay and swims in them like Scrooge McDuck does in money. My other alts have no where near the same drop rate and some haven't gotten any. It would be nice if they were account bound.
K'ymara, Orion Engineer. Caedera of Borg, Liberated Borg Tactical, Elyza Vix, Joined Trill Scientist. Christina Bellona, Augmented Human Tactical.
T'Lana, Vulcan Scientist. Arbol, Martian Tactical. Ayzer Bryn, Joined Trill Engineer. Hawke, Betazoid Scientist. Karna Valkras, Klingon Engineer. Beth Parker, Human Tactical
Sarel, Romulan Engineer (Federation). Yazuri, Reman Scientist (KDF)
Reliable? 15 minutes of dance torture for 50 favors, right? I can easy-run 4 toons in 15 (well, 14) minute Hunt for ~200.
Dance should be 5 minutes for max reward. At least then, I could run 2-3 toons in the 15 minute timeslot.
Cryptic needs to do a realistic reward per minute analysis.
Going back to my points after a few days:
A fleetmate talked me into getting a superior floater, and I have to say it really is a nice improvement over the standard. I would love to see the courses opened up as a repeatable event after you get your pearls. Maybe even have more advanced courses that require the faster speed/maneuverability?
Thinking about it some more, why not extend the pattern idea to the female options as well? I hadn't even considered this when I typed up my reply since I've always thought solid color swimwear looks best, but it seems like an easy way to add a bunch more styles (for next year, maybe?). Still want to see more male options, though, my male chars definitely feel left out.
Also I've noticed the NPCs get some accessories/swimsuits that we don't have access to. Some of them are repurposed assets (there's an Andorian NPC in the Orion metal bikini armor... :rolleyes: ), but some are unique. I'd really like to see the unique ones added as purchasable options, maybe as an accessory box containing multiple pieces?
-insert Ron Paul gif here-