I think the addition of the Risian DOffs was probably the best part of this year's Summer Event - I'm not fond of races, have no desire to grind for ships and don't care for single-map-only swimwear - and I hope to see them not only return next summer, but bring along some friends (that is, more DOffs to buy) too.
That and the Tropical Bird Eggs - since they're gathered during the Horga'hn Hunt for Favors that are used to buy DOffs, they're easy to collect and the marks are a big help.
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross; but it's not for the timid." -- Q, TNG: "Q-Who?"
^Words that every player should keep in mind, especially whenever there's a problem with the game...
I think the addition of the Risian DOffs was probably the best part of this year's Summer Event - I'm not fond of races, have no desire to grind for ships and don't care for single-map-only swimwear - and I hope to see them not only return next summer, but bring along some friends (that is, more DOffs to buy) too.
That and the Tropical Bird Eggs - since they're gathered during the Horga'hn Hunt for Favors that are used to buy DOffs, they're easy to collect and the marks are a big help.
I dont think any of the doffs of Risa is worthy. 500 or 1000 favors for 1 pur doff??? lol. I rather prefer to waste EC in the exchange when i need a specific doff, than using favors to buy em. Instead, i will use favors to buy eggs (if i am sort of em) and use eggs to raise birds to trade for marks.
In fact thats the only thing im doing, basically collecting eggs and favors. All with the purpose of gathering a lot of marks. Doffs?? bleh.. lol.
Finishing the race is easy. CLAIMING the damned flag at the end is the problem.
There is no other video game in the WORLD that requires you to grab a flag to be considered finished in a race.
And no, I'm not calming down. I'm going to raise all hell until the POS is fixed. This is beyond lazy.
I feel with you. As I encountered the "grab the flag" stuff in the winter event, I thought "Okay, this is Q's idea, so I guess I'll have to deal with it." Cause kicking Q's butt has proven to be at least difficult.
But seeing this again on Risa... OMFG. :eek: I was actually thinking about yelling: "Come out, Q! I know you're here! There's no need to hide!"
Besides the fact that the race is labeled wrong. There is no kind of competition in this race.
In an actual competetive race, I would know why I didn't finish first - I made a mistake during the race and someone else didn't.
But this race is almost like playing Dabo... Except you don't have to place a bet. Luckily.
No matter how good your start has been, no matter how good you get around the corners, you'll never know if you get in first or not. Unless it's over and you have grabbed the "Finish Race" flag.
Other players fly past you as if you got a lower board than they have - even though the label on your board says "superior". And as far as I can tell, there aren't any better boards out there. Those random boosts aren't of help, either. You can't tell if you get one or not - if someone's near you, it's the others who usually recieve it. (Both boosts, the one from jumping as well as the other one, provided by these arrow-thingies...)
These issues are a fun-killer for me.
Is there a chance we get unique bridges for our risian ships?
I was quite disappointed to see that the cruiser also has a standard bridge.
And I have to agree with other voices here about the price tags for the swimsuits... If a swimsuit costs as much as a superior floater/powerboard, I'd expect to see GPL-applications on it. And maybe a built-in air mattress...
Would be nice if you could fix this for next year's summer event.
Even though I have some complaints, I still think the ideas you had for the new content are good. They just need a little tweaking.
"I came from a time long gone, saw many other times...
But I'm still a mere human."
Vice Admiral Chris Curtiss, Temporal Ambassador
I have REALLY enjoyed this year's summer event. Keep it up! THank you for keeping the Ornithologist as I got to "upgrade" some birds from last year's event.
I would suggest one thing: there seemed to be a great deal of "rubberbanding" when I competed in the surf race. I am not sure if that is my racing ability or something that the developers/programmers can fix.
Overall, I've enjoyed the Risa festival this year. Let's break it down into its components;
Powerboard race:
I've enjoyed the powerboard races. I just upgraded to superior boards, so most of my comments apply while racing with standard or enhanced boards.
Occasionally I'd place when I shouldn't. When I'm on an enhanced board, and 6 people are on superior boards, I shouldn't come in 2nd. Especially when I got hung up on a rock taking a turn. This happened more than once.
If I'm following a bunch of people on superior boards, I'd lose scenery. In bad cases, I'd just follow the people ahead of me, with no clue what was around me. Eventually, when they got far enough ahead of me, the scenery would come back.
If I was in a pack, who got boosts would be random.
The race gives both favors and monkey tags. It also occurs between events, attracting everyone on a shard. I have 2 characters with 40+ monkey tags, who still race for the favors. It'd be nice to have something else going on at the same time as the race, to attract the people who are mostly after favors. That'd give people who really want the tags a better chance to place.
The race was a lot more forgiving than the winter race. Thank you!
The only faction board that I really liked was the KDF one. Nice to see them getting the cool stuff for a change.
Even when I had a standard board, and no effective chance of winning, I still had fun.
Flying High:
Nicest grind I've experienced. I ran 3 characters through to 1,000 pearls just because. (I know about the sponsorships. I'm now really prepared for next year!)
Sandcastles: It's occasionally fun, but the rewards aren't worth it to do regularly. I usually use sandcastle time to do some doffing.
Dance Party: The instructors don't do some of the dances they call out.
Har(mumble) Hunt: I know that the odds of getting an egg haven't changed, but it feels like it. At the beginning, when I was on leave, and grinding Risa like mad, I'd be lucky to get an egg a day. Now 2 of my 3 characters have more than 5 eggs each. (One has 10.) The slacker only has 4 eggs in reserve.
Swimwear: I didn't buy any 1000 favor suits. I guess that I'm OK with the prices. There is an graphics issue with the bikini bottom, but it's not very noticeable. (Once it was brought to my attention, it was hard to unsee.) It would be nice to have a swimsuit be the default outfit or Risa, rather than have to switch back every time I return.
DOFFS: Woo! Cheap blue and purple doffs. I'm not sure that I'll actually put them on active duty.
Ornithologist/Monkey Trainer: Yay, more cheap marks!
Overall, I've enjoyed the event this year. There was plenty to do, and a ton of stuff to buy. A player would be hard pressed to buy everything without grinding insanely for favors.
Things that I'd change for next year:
No special time for sandcastles, and increase the reward to 10 per run. (That's a max of 40/char/hour.)
Double up the powerboard race with something else, maybe a hoverpack race.
What I liked most about the event was the account-wide discount for the ships if we already unlocked them on one chracter. I strongly support this to be the case for Winter and Anniversary events as well. Heck, anything to lessen the grind on alt characters is always appreciated.
Sadly, nothing else really kept me interested in the event. I did all the accolades and such last year, so there wasn't really much point in flying around the island. In generall, I think there's too little to do there in the long run...
I'm not a fan of time-gating events, especially since there's yet another grind involved in the form of collecting Favors. Only the Horgahn hunt is worth the time, while other activities just reward too little, especially considering you can't do them at your leisure.
Not to mention, the activities get boring really fast - especially the dancing "minigame".
Sand castles were a decent idea, but the rewards are laughable, and making a 15min "event" just for 3 bonus Favors is simply a waste of time.
What's more, the Pay/Grind-to-Win PvP race was a disaster. It would be a great minigame if it didn't involve paying for clearly better powerboards and having to catch the flag at the end. Once I realised I have to get a better (expensive) powerboard just to remain competitive I dropped the whole event alltogether and didn't even bother with the accolades.
So in the end once I got my ships I completely forgot about Risa. I could have stayed there if there were more activities available at all times. At current state I can't really be bothered to wait for a particular event to start. It would be better if they were an addition to some wider range of missions or dailies, but sadly that's not the case.
And Cryptic, we know you like money and you'd like to monetize people not willing to grind, but really, increase the Favor rewards next year. Personally I'd suggest adding unique Duty Officer Assignments to Risa, similarly to Winter Event.
1. Swimwear costs are just absolutely dumb. I'm actually glad I don't run a female character, as the completionist in me would want all the variants and it's insane to pay those prices for an outfit only useable one month out of the year.
2. Fix the Risian cruiser engine trails! No matter what glow color I select, no matter whether I pick 2 or 3 engines, red glow trails bleed in with half of the regular impulse trails. Nacelle trails seem to be unaffected. A custom bridge/interior would be super-lovely, perhaps one making use of the recreational area at the top of the ship where we could use our floaters and powerboards.
3. Sandcastle rewards are nigh-on meaningless, which is sad because it's a neat little activity. 2 favors off-bonus, 5 on is just not worth doing once the accolades are done.
4. I second the motion to add seasonal-themed doff assignments to Risa's resort like the winter event. It may sound silly but it's a nice little bit of immersion to send my minions off to a snowball fight while I deal with Q's whims.
5. Maybe give us a way to trade in lower-grade floaters/powerboards for some kind of credit towards the nicer/newer models? Like say, giving up a blue floater from last year as credit towards an orange one this year.
I have a level 13 KDF aligned Romulan. I can get to the Sirius sector block, but don't get the option to go to Risa. (I even have raiding party.) Any idea when this'll open up. (And how about having the Risan person in the command center give out accurate information.) When I try to enter Sirius space, I get the "You must advance further..." message.
I found out about this event too late and am not going to be able to get my Corvette
Here's to hope it gets a time extension at least until August :cool:
I would like to see the Risa to continue to be develop and grow in size and scope. I would be nice to just have a place that is available year round to have some fun in. I would like to see an area where we could use our new hover boards besides participating in the race. I like to see more games, like poker, blackjack as well. I would be nice also if you could have the NPCs in shops and those shops a wider range of stuff. Oh and the music, could be have a wider selection of music played there as well? When this years Risa Event is over, would please consider merging the regular map with this map?
I would like to see the Risa to continue to be develop and grow in size and scope. I would be nice to just have a place that is available year round to have some fun in. I would like to see an area where we could use our new hover boards besides participating in the race. I like to see more games, like poker, blackjack as well. I would be nice also if you could have the NPCs in shops and those shops a wider range of stuff. Oh and the music, could be have a wider selection of music played there as well? When this years Risa Event is over, would please consider merging the regular map with this map?
I just want to be able to get the actual reward for when I cross the line in the race :P
Fed up crossing the line - frantiacally pressing F but the guys behind get the reward:(
I just want to be able to get the actual reward for when I cross the line in the race :P
Fed up crossing the line - frantiacally pressing F but the guys behind get the reward:(
One of the reasons I stopped doing this race if they cannot do it for Risa please do it for the winter event it's a simple line of code that is less complex than it sounds The one you have is a more complex line of code
NO TO ARC
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Even with the latest Tribble patch, the Trill spots are not fixed. There is still a gap on the neck and the ankles have no spots on them at all. Why is this premium species not a priority to fix when the playable race has to be purchased from the Z-Store? :mad: It's things like this that keep me from wasting my time with NeverWinter and other PWE games. Such a lack of quality control on the things we pay for is a huge disappointment!
This is related to the summer event as the new costumes further make the Joined Trill models look like a disaster.
<
> <
> <
>
Looking for a new fleet? Drop by the in-game chat channel, "tenforwardforum", and say hi to the members of A Fleet Called Ten Forward (Fed) and The Orion Pirates (KDF). If you already have a fleet you are happy with, please feel free to drop by our chat channel if you are looking for a friendly bunch of helpful people to socialize with.
Even with the latest Tribble patch, the Trill spots are not fixed. There is still a gap on the neck and the ankles have no spots on them at all. Why is this premium species not a priority to fix when the playable race has to be purchased from the Z-Store? :mad: It's things like this that keep me from wasting my time with NeverWinter and other PWE games. Such a lack of quality control on the things we pay for is a huge disappointment!
This is related to the summer event as the new costumes further make the Joined Trill models look like a disaster.
A lot of things you buy from the Z store need fixing but PWE/Cryptic seem unwilling to do that. they just seem more interested in making grind content than fixing bugs
NO TO ARC
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I ground out a ship but by the time I had it I was sick of the event.
Why do these have to be grinds in the first place? And why cant there be more useful stuff to get? Like unique weapon drops and gadgets.
I ground out a ship but by the time I had it I was sick of the event.
Why do these have to be grinds in the first place? And why cant there be more useful stuff to get? Like unique weapon drops and gadgets.
I agree with you after I got one doff and the ship I was sick of the event and only went back to finish trading my birds and monkeys in for marks. I hope they do somethings different even some kind of mission that doesnt involve a grind so those who like the grind can do that and the ones who like missions can do the missions
NO TO ARC
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I ground out a ship but by the time I had it I was sick of the event.
Why do these have to be grinds in the first place? And why cant there be more useful stuff to get? Like unique weapon drops and gadgets.
It takes 5 minutes.
Once a day.
That is not a grind.
If you think it's a grind, I have some Korean MMOs I'd like to show you.
I know its too late for the Risa event and probably for the season 9.5 launch but for expansion #2 could you consider switching the pet raise timers to 20hours vs the current 24hrs. It gets really annoying, when doing alts and something in RL comes up that prevents you from logging in exactly 24hours since your last qued pet raise so it just keeps moving back and back until you finally have to skip a day to get it into a reasonable time again.
I would like to see the Risa to continue to be develop and grow in size and scope. I would be nice to just have a place that is available year round to have some fun in. I would like to see an area where we could use our new hover boards besides participating in the race. I like to see more games, like poker, blackjack as well. I would be nice also if you could have the NPCs in shops and those shops a wider range of stuff. Oh and the music, could be have a wider selection of music played there as well? When this years Risa Event is over, would please consider merging the regular map with this map?
All of this, yes
Plus, I'd like a shirtless option to go with the Beachcomber shorts in Off Duty, as it alludes to in the preview of the item before you buy it. Also, the Explorer shirt needs a sleeveless option.
I got bored of this event really quickly, yes you gave out some new stuff, but it was just more grinding. Your playerbase aren't replaying this stuff because they want to, but because they don't have anything else to do since you barely release new story content.
as far as the Summer Event, PWE and Cryptic have displayed a masterclass in missing the boat, so many opportunities that were overlooked or plain ignored because it "would have been too much work".
AS far as the new ship, the fact it has no unique interior is a huge black mark on it's value, Roleplayers would have killed for such a thing, a luxury cruiser interior would bring up so many opportunities its frankly insulting you didn't leap upon this chance when you should have. Hell, someone spent time modelling that pool at the top, you might as well have made it useful, maybe even tie it into the interior so that you're choice of what you put up there is reflected in the interior map.
The Swimwear problem is most definitely a mess, between people telling us to "think of the children" in a Teen game, which covers CGI bikinis, the fact that Orions wear skimpy gear all the time (don't give me the canon BS, it's canon for Trills to be naked at their weddings, but you try and put that past CBS), and the fact this Swimwear is so bleeding expensive for such little use, I'm amazed at the mishandling of this.
If you are so scared about bikinis on your screen, then here's what you do, restrict the Swimwear from Social hubs (ESD, DS9 etc.) and Adventure Zones (Nimbus, New Romulus etc.). Anywhere else you'll either know the person personally, or be too busy shooting to be paying attention. If you don't know someone well enough to fulfil these criteria you don't get the right to complain about their choice of clothing in a private space, it's none of your business. The time spent coding in this arbitrary restriction could have been spent on something else in the event.
The Powerboard races definitely need a rework. As it stands right now, if you don't have a superior Powerboard, a PC built like a tank, and a big dollop of luck, you can NEVER win this race. What you should have done is have different tracks for different Powerboard classes, meaning more people are on equal footing. And while we're at it, get rid of that ridiculous flag finish BS, just code it like you did the checkpoints, there's no good reason to have that.
Also please, stop with the annoying Voiceover announcements, I don't know what you do with your VO, but it is wooden and aggravating to listen to, especially when you're playing half asleep and that sand sculpture A-hole shouts in your ear because you forgot to turn the volume down.
These are my grievances with the Summer Event, overall I didn't find it to be all that good, certainly not as good as Cryptic hyped it.
Krovennan Darksabre: Commanding officer of the U.S.S. Blacksabre-E NX-973484-E
I earned my Vet rewards with commitment, not cash.
If you think it's a grind, I have some Korean MMOs I'd like to show you.
It is still a grind.
But i agree that the 5 minutes you waste for the pearls every day is not so bad. I even finished with one of my toons gathering more than 1000 pearls and i dont even plan to get the ships LOL. Im just saving em for the next year, just in case cryptic releases something worthy (i know, its a dream, but who knows).
The huge problem are all the other events lol. They are really stupid and badly rewarded. And the prices of everything are ridiculous. Really ridiculous, maybe the most ridiculous thing ive ever seen in a long time (showing again that they never think seriously on the things they release and a really lack of quality control of things).
Why the hell is this the most current news in the launcher?
Why is this back on the front page, 2 days before its over?
Why does it have a new date (July 15th) and a non-working link to the forums at the bottom (there is no thread for "Dev Blog #22")?
Is the QA department on a holiday? Do they even exist?
Well, with the end of the Risa event on the doorstep, some thoughts about it.
1. Please take this "grab the flag" from the competetive race. (Not only on Risa, also on the winter event.) It is quite frustrating if you reach the finish first but only get the reward for simply finishing the race because you weren't able to grab the flag fast enough. Especially as this flag changes position for second and third place...
I'm still wondering where this idea came from. I don't know any race in real life that has such a finish solution. (Just try to imagine NASCAR racing with such a solution... I sense mayhem... And a "big one" at the end of each race.)
If you want a "grab-the-flag"-competition, build some parallel slides where you have to grab the flag in the end to win.
2. Do something about this "boost" lottery in the competetive race. It contradicts the "competetive" idea the name of the race implies.
3. Perhaps it would be an idea if you'd split up the race into three, for each "class" of powerboards. So you have a chance to win the race even if you don't have the big board.
There should be enough time in between the other events to fit them in. The call for the next race could be coming when the other one just went off the box.
4. The pricing for the swimwear is way too high. It can't be that a swimsuit costs the same as one of the better floaters/powerboards. Cut a "0" off the price tag, and we have a deal for next year.
5. The sand castle building was kinda fun, though a bit limited regarding the amount of castles that could be built. And the rewards were a bit low, given the running and stress you gave us with this event.
6. The dancing contest could probably use some more instructors (aka voiceovers). And why do the instructors (as well as the dancers on the pillars) refuse to dance the "Running Man"?
7. Would be nice if the other events (horga'hn hunt, powerboard race) would get a voice call, too.
8. Will we ever get unique bridges/interiors for the risian ships? It was kinda disappointing to have these cool ships just to find a federation standard bridge in it.
9. The discount on the ships for once completing the reputation for it was a very good idea.
Overall, the event was fun. If you fix the points above, it will be even more fun.
I hope to see even more fun stuff next year. (And a hospital ship for our science officers. )
PS: I forgot... It would be very kind if you could reduce the completion time for the animal assignments. As others already stated, you can't control RL, and if it gets into the way when you usually do your assignments, you end up having to skip them towards a more appropriate time.
"I came from a time long gone, saw many other times...
But I'm still a mere human."
Vice Admiral Chris Curtiss, Temporal Ambassador
Well, summer is almost done, so here's my two cents.
I thoroughly enjoyed the summer event this year, much as I did last year.
There were a number of small issues, to be sure, but they did not materially impasct my enjoyment of the event.
Issues:
Poor rewards, a dearth of locations and some model issues with the sandcastle building.
Some of this was dealt with in patches though, so not a major issue at all.
Rewards could have been a little more generous though, double figure favours at least.
The board races were intrinsically fun, because the boards were intrinsically fun.
I'd often just board around the island for kicks, just as I'd use my floater to fly around for kicks.
However, the P2W aspect was a little disappointing as is the horrible grab-the-flag dynamic.
Lack of a unique bridge for the Risian ships. This disappointed me greatly, but I'd rather have the all-singing, all-dancing bridge we all dream of next year, than a simple bridge in a box this year.
Good Stuff:
There was one huge, ginormous good thing. The alt discount on event ships.
This one decision, all by itself, took the feeling of grind off me this year. I still spent as much time on risa as I would otherwise, but I spent that time enjoying myself rather than feeling it was work.
I sincerely hope this dynamic has been considered succesful by the devs and will be applied to the Winter event at least.
Generally, the environment. It's a fantastically well done map.
Even near the end of my second year wandering around it, I can find new vistas or angles on it.
Seriously, imo, one of the most impressive pieces of work that Cryptic have done.
Overall, this was a successful event for me.
Some minor issues aside, it did exactly what I wanted it to do for me.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
I am wondering if anyone knows if the bird lady is sticking around for a few days after the event like last year? Sorry if this has already been answered but I didn't want to look through 100 pages of stuff.
So, now that the event is over, I'll weigh in with my feedback. It's mostly positive news, and even the "negative" stuff I would consider constructive. I loved the event overall.
The Good:
-Alt discount on the ships made for a very relaxed pace, I was easily able to get both ships on all the characters I wanted it on, and had plenty of time to spare. This was amazing!
-The map is simply stunning. It feels large enough to be a resort island, and is beautiful as well as immersive. You can just walk around and find new stuff.
-Flying High was a fun way to get the pearls, much better than chasing Q around in a box.
-The powerboard race was "mostly" fun.
-The hourly hunt was also entertaining, basically everything involving the Floaters was well done.
-Love the "ambiance" stuff to get accolades, fireworks, finding the beach party, etc...
The Bad:
-No interior on the cruise liner. I understand the reasoning that it's an event ship that won't be used past the end of August - but if it had the interior to go with it, it may have been used past August. The RP crowd (for good and bad) would have killed to have this ship. I myself will be using this ship on my Ferengi trader once he's levelled up, and the interior would have been an extra layer of awesome. The ship itself has very decent stats, but the interior would have pushed it from a quirky looking freebie cruiser into "awesome civilian ship" land.
-Having to grab the flag at the end of the race. The race itself was FUN. This part, was beyond frustration. Even with a powerful board, with the flags moving around as you approach the finish, it was very difficult to place in the top 3. I second many of the comments that it would be silly to have race car drivers have to stop in the middle of the finishing area to grab a checkered flag before someone else did.
-Very poor communication about the END of the event. There were blogs detailing how things were going to work in the event leading up to it, but very little information on the close-out. Things like what to do with excess favors, can birds/monkeys be turned in after? A blog or announcement at T minus 1 week from close-out would have been really good.
What would make next year even better:
-Adjusting the race mechanic so that you don't have to pick up a flag.
-More events (water balloons have been suggested, open to other things). Something to do with the detailed pathways around the island would be good. Perhaps a "ferry" or something to the classic beach, and a simple event there (that lower level characters can participate in)?
-More than one event running at the same time. The races would often get crowded, it would be good to get a choice of WHICH event you wanted to run (ie Hunt twice and hour, dancing twice and hour, etc).
-Being able to trade excess pearls for favors would be nice too.
All in all - I had alot of fun with the Summer Event. It's a shame that Risa isn't open with something to do year round.
Comments
That and the Tropical Bird Eggs - since they're gathered during the Horga'hn Hunt for Favors that are used to buy DOffs, they're easy to collect and the marks are a big help.
^Words that every player should keep in mind, especially whenever there's a problem with the game...
I dont think any of the doffs of Risa is worthy. 500 or 1000 favors for 1 pur doff??? lol. I rather prefer to waste EC in the exchange when i need a specific doff, than using favors to buy em. Instead, i will use favors to buy eggs (if i am sort of em) and use eggs to raise birds to trade for marks.
In fact thats the only thing im doing, basically collecting eggs and favors. All with the purpose of gathering a lot of marks. Doffs?? bleh.. lol.
But seeing this again on Risa... OMFG. :eek:
I was actually thinking about yelling: "Come out, Q! I know you're here! There's no need to hide!"
Besides the fact that the race is labeled wrong. There is no kind of competition in this race.
In an actual competetive race, I would know why I didn't finish first - I made a mistake during the race and someone else didn't.
But this race is almost like playing Dabo... Except you don't have to place a bet. Luckily.
No matter how good your start has been, no matter how good you get around the corners, you'll never know if you get in first or not. Unless it's over and you have grabbed the "Finish Race" flag.
Other players fly past you as if you got a lower board than they have - even though the label on your board says "superior". And as far as I can tell, there aren't any better boards out there. Those random boosts aren't of help, either. You can't tell if you get one or not - if someone's near you, it's the others who usually recieve it. (Both boosts, the one from jumping as well as the other one, provided by these arrow-thingies...)
These issues are a fun-killer for me.
Is there a chance we get unique bridges for our risian ships?
I was quite disappointed to see that the cruiser also has a standard bridge.
And I have to agree with other voices here about the price tags for the swimsuits... If a swimsuit costs as much as a superior floater/powerboard, I'd expect to see GPL-applications on it. And maybe a built-in air mattress...
Would be nice if you could fix this for next year's summer event.
Even though I have some complaints, I still think the ideas you had for the new content are good. They just need a little tweaking.
But I'm still a mere human."
Vice Admiral Chris Curtiss, Temporal Ambassador
I would suggest one thing: there seemed to be a great deal of "rubberbanding" when I competed in the surf race. I am not sure if that is my racing ability or something that the developers/programmers can fix.
Otherwise, good job everyone.
Powerboard race:
I've enjoyed the powerboard races. I just upgraded to superior boards, so most of my comments apply while racing with standard or enhanced boards.
Occasionally I'd place when I shouldn't. When I'm on an enhanced board, and 6 people are on superior boards, I shouldn't come in 2nd. Especially when I got hung up on a rock taking a turn. This happened more than once.
If I'm following a bunch of people on superior boards, I'd lose scenery. In bad cases, I'd just follow the people ahead of me, with no clue what was around me. Eventually, when they got far enough ahead of me, the scenery would come back.
If I was in a pack, who got boosts would be random.
The race gives both favors and monkey tags. It also occurs between events, attracting everyone on a shard. I have 2 characters with 40+ monkey tags, who still race for the favors. It'd be nice to have something else going on at the same time as the race, to attract the people who are mostly after favors. That'd give people who really want the tags a better chance to place.
The race was a lot more forgiving than the winter race. Thank you!
The only faction board that I really liked was the KDF one. Nice to see them getting the cool stuff for a change.
Even when I had a standard board, and no effective chance of winning, I still had fun.
Flying High:
Nicest grind I've experienced. I ran 3 characters through to 1,000 pearls just because. (I know about the sponsorships. I'm now really prepared for next year!)
Sandcastles: It's occasionally fun, but the rewards aren't worth it to do regularly. I usually use sandcastle time to do some doffing.
Dance Party: The instructors don't do some of the dances they call out.
Har(mumble) Hunt: I know that the odds of getting an egg haven't changed, but it feels like it. At the beginning, when I was on leave, and grinding Risa like mad, I'd be lucky to get an egg a day. Now 2 of my 3 characters have more than 5 eggs each. (One has 10.) The slacker only has 4 eggs in reserve.
Swimwear: I didn't buy any 1000 favor suits. I guess that I'm OK with the prices. There is an graphics issue with the bikini bottom, but it's not very noticeable. (Once it was brought to my attention, it was hard to unsee.) It would be nice to have a swimsuit be the default outfit or Risa, rather than have to switch back every time I return.
DOFFS: Woo! Cheap blue and purple doffs. I'm not sure that I'll actually put them on active duty.
Ornithologist/Monkey Trainer: Yay, more cheap marks!
Overall, I've enjoyed the event this year. There was plenty to do, and a ton of stuff to buy. A player would be hard pressed to buy everything without grinding insanely for favors.
Things that I'd change for next year:
No special time for sandcastles, and increase the reward to 10 per run. (That's a max of 40/char/hour.)
Double up the powerboard race with something else, maybe a hoverpack race.
Sadly, nothing else really kept me interested in the event. I did all the accolades and such last year, so there wasn't really much point in flying around the island. In generall, I think there's too little to do there in the long run...
I'm not a fan of time-gating events, especially since there's yet another grind involved in the form of collecting Favors. Only the Horgahn hunt is worth the time, while other activities just reward too little, especially considering you can't do them at your leisure.
Not to mention, the activities get boring really fast - especially the dancing "minigame".
Sand castles were a decent idea, but the rewards are laughable, and making a 15min "event" just for 3 bonus Favors is simply a waste of time.
What's more, the Pay/Grind-to-Win PvP race was a disaster. It would be a great minigame if it didn't involve paying for clearly better powerboards and having to catch the flag at the end. Once I realised I have to get a better (expensive) powerboard just to remain competitive I dropped the whole event alltogether and didn't even bother with the accolades.
So in the end once I got my ships I completely forgot about Risa. I could have stayed there if there were more activities available at all times. At current state I can't really be bothered to wait for a particular event to start. It would be better if they were an addition to some wider range of missions or dailies, but sadly that's not the case.
And Cryptic, we know you like money and you'd like to monetize people not willing to grind, but really, increase the Favor rewards next year. Personally I'd suggest adding unique Duty Officer Assignments to Risa, similarly to Winter Event.
2. Fix the Risian cruiser engine trails! No matter what glow color I select, no matter whether I pick 2 or 3 engines, red glow trails bleed in with half of the regular impulse trails. Nacelle trails seem to be unaffected. A custom bridge/interior would be super-lovely, perhaps one making use of the recreational area at the top of the ship where we could use our floaters and powerboards.
3. Sandcastle rewards are nigh-on meaningless, which is sad because it's a neat little activity. 2 favors off-bonus, 5 on is just not worth doing once the accolades are done.
4. I second the motion to add seasonal-themed doff assignments to Risa's resort like the winter event. It may sound silly but it's a nice little bit of immersion to send my minions off to a snowball fight while I deal with Q's whims.
5. Maybe give us a way to trade in lower-grade floaters/powerboards for some kind of credit towards the nicer/newer models? Like say, giving up a blue floater from last year as credit towards an orange one this year.
Edit:
Looks like level 14's the magic level.
Here's to hope it gets a time extension at least until August :cool:
I just want to be able to get the actual reward for when I cross the line in the race :P
Fed up crossing the line - frantiacally pressing F but the guys behind get the reward:(
One of the reasons I stopped doing this race if they cannot do it for Risa please do it for the winter event it's a simple line of code that is less complex than it sounds The one you have is a more complex line of code
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
This is related to the summer event as the new costumes further make the Joined Trill models look like a disaster.
> <
> <
>
A lot of things you buy from the Z store need fixing but PWE/Cryptic seem unwilling to do that. they just seem more interested in making grind content than fixing bugs
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Why do these have to be grinds in the first place? And why cant there be more useful stuff to get? Like unique weapon drops and gadgets.
I agree with you after I got one doff and the ship I was sick of the event and only went back to finish trading my birds and monkeys in for marks. I hope they do somethings different even some kind of mission that doesnt involve a grind so those who like the grind can do that and the ones who like missions can do the missions
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
It takes 5 minutes.
Once a day.
That is not a grind.
If you think it's a grind, I have some Korean MMOs I'd like to show you.
Razira's Primus Database Page
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
I would consider it a great QOL improvement.
All of this, yes
Plus, I'd like a shirtless option to go with the Beachcomber shorts in Off Duty, as it alludes to in the preview of the item before you buy it. Also, the Explorer shirt needs a sleeveless option.
as far as the Summer Event, PWE and Cryptic have displayed a masterclass in missing the boat, so many opportunities that were overlooked or plain ignored because it "would have been too much work".
AS far as the new ship, the fact it has no unique interior is a huge black mark on it's value, Roleplayers would have killed for such a thing, a luxury cruiser interior would bring up so many opportunities its frankly insulting you didn't leap upon this chance when you should have. Hell, someone spent time modelling that pool at the top, you might as well have made it useful, maybe even tie it into the interior so that you're choice of what you put up there is reflected in the interior map.
The Swimwear problem is most definitely a mess, between people telling us to "think of the children" in a Teen game, which covers CGI bikinis, the fact that Orions wear skimpy gear all the time (don't give me the canon BS, it's canon for Trills to be naked at their weddings, but you try and put that past CBS), and the fact this Swimwear is so bleeding expensive for such little use, I'm amazed at the mishandling of this.
If you are so scared about bikinis on your screen, then here's what you do, restrict the Swimwear from Social hubs (ESD, DS9 etc.) and Adventure Zones (Nimbus, New Romulus etc.). Anywhere else you'll either know the person personally, or be too busy shooting to be paying attention. If you don't know someone well enough to fulfil these criteria you don't get the right to complain about their choice of clothing in a private space, it's none of your business. The time spent coding in this arbitrary restriction could have been spent on something else in the event.
The Powerboard races definitely need a rework. As it stands right now, if you don't have a superior Powerboard, a PC built like a tank, and a big dollop of luck, you can NEVER win this race. What you should have done is have different tracks for different Powerboard classes, meaning more people are on equal footing. And while we're at it, get rid of that ridiculous flag finish BS, just code it like you did the checkpoints, there's no good reason to have that.
Also please, stop with the annoying Voiceover announcements, I don't know what you do with your VO, but it is wooden and aggravating to listen to, especially when you're playing half asleep and that sand sculpture A-hole shouts in your ear because you forgot to turn the volume down.
These are my grievances with the Summer Event, overall I didn't find it to be all that good, certainly not as good as Cryptic hyped it.
I earned my Vet rewards with commitment, not cash.
It is still a grind.
But i agree that the 5 minutes you waste for the pearls every day is not so bad. I even finished with one of my toons gathering more than 1000 pearls and i dont even plan to get the ships LOL. Im just saving em for the next year, just in case cryptic releases something worthy (i know, its a dream, but who knows).
The huge problem are all the other events lol. They are really stupid and badly rewarded. And the prices of everything are ridiculous. Really ridiculous, maybe the most ridiculous thing ive ever seen in a long time (showing again that they never think seriously on the things they release and a really lack of quality control of things).
Why is this back on the front page, 2 days before its over?
Why does it have a new date (July 15th) and a non-working link to the forums at the bottom (there is no thread for "Dev Blog #22")?
Is the QA department on a holiday? Do they even exist?
1. Please take this "grab the flag" from the competetive race. (Not only on Risa, also on the winter event.) It is quite frustrating if you reach the finish first but only get the reward for simply finishing the race because you weren't able to grab the flag fast enough. Especially as this flag changes position for second and third place...
I'm still wondering where this idea came from. I don't know any race in real life that has such a finish solution. (Just try to imagine NASCAR racing with such a solution... I sense mayhem... And a "big one" at the end of each race.)
If you want a "grab-the-flag"-competition, build some parallel slides where you have to grab the flag in the end to win.
2. Do something about this "boost" lottery in the competetive race. It contradicts the "competetive" idea the name of the race implies.
3. Perhaps it would be an idea if you'd split up the race into three, for each "class" of powerboards. So you have a chance to win the race even if you don't have the big board.
There should be enough time in between the other events to fit them in. The call for the next race could be coming when the other one just went off the box.
4. The pricing for the swimwear is way too high. It can't be that a swimsuit costs the same as one of the better floaters/powerboards. Cut a "0" off the price tag, and we have a deal for next year.
5. The sand castle building was kinda fun, though a bit limited regarding the amount of castles that could be built. And the rewards were a bit low, given the running and stress you gave us with this event.
6. The dancing contest could probably use some more instructors (aka voiceovers). And why do the instructors (as well as the dancers on the pillars) refuse to dance the "Running Man"?
7. Would be nice if the other events (horga'hn hunt, powerboard race) would get a voice call, too.
8. Will we ever get unique bridges/interiors for the risian ships? It was kinda disappointing to have these cool ships just to find a federation standard bridge in it.
9. The discount on the ships for once completing the reputation for it was a very good idea.
Overall, the event was fun. If you fix the points above, it will be even more fun.
I hope to see even more fun stuff next year. (And a hospital ship for our science officers.
PS: I forgot... It would be very kind if you could reduce the completion time for the animal assignments. As others already stated, you can't control RL, and if it gets into the way when you usually do your assignments, you end up having to skip them towards a more appropriate time.
But I'm still a mere human."
Vice Admiral Chris Curtiss, Temporal Ambassador
I thoroughly enjoyed the summer event this year, much as I did last year.
There were a number of small issues, to be sure, but they did not materially impasct my enjoyment of the event.
Issues:
Poor rewards, a dearth of locations and some model issues with the sandcastle building.
Some of this was dealt with in patches though, so not a major issue at all.
Rewards could have been a little more generous though, double figure favours at least.
The board races were intrinsically fun, because the boards were intrinsically fun.
I'd often just board around the island for kicks, just as I'd use my floater to fly around for kicks.
However, the P2W aspect was a little disappointing as is the horrible grab-the-flag dynamic.
Lack of a unique bridge for the Risian ships. This disappointed me greatly, but I'd rather have the all-singing, all-dancing bridge we all dream of next year, than a simple bridge in a box this year.
Good Stuff:
There was one huge, ginormous good thing. The alt discount on event ships.
This one decision, all by itself, took the feeling of grind off me this year. I still spent as much time on risa as I would otherwise, but I spent that time enjoying myself rather than feeling it was work.
I sincerely hope this dynamic has been considered succesful by the devs and will be applied to the Winter event at least.
Generally, the environment. It's a fantastically well done map.
Even near the end of my second year wandering around it, I can find new vistas or angles on it.
Seriously, imo, one of the most impressive pieces of work that Cryptic have done.
Overall, this was a successful event for me.
Some minor issues aside, it did exactly what I wanted it to do for me.
Give me somewhere to just chill out for a while.
It does that spectaculary well, imo.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Yes, yes they are.
The Good:
-Alt discount on the ships made for a very relaxed pace, I was easily able to get both ships on all the characters I wanted it on, and had plenty of time to spare. This was amazing!
-The map is simply stunning. It feels large enough to be a resort island, and is beautiful as well as immersive. You can just walk around and find new stuff.
-Flying High was a fun way to get the pearls, much better than chasing Q around in a box.
-The powerboard race was "mostly" fun.
-The hourly hunt was also entertaining, basically everything involving the Floaters was well done.
-Love the "ambiance" stuff to get accolades, fireworks, finding the beach party, etc...
The Bad:
-No interior on the cruise liner. I understand the reasoning that it's an event ship that won't be used past the end of August - but if it had the interior to go with it, it may have been used past August. The RP crowd (for good and bad) would have killed to have this ship. I myself will be using this ship on my Ferengi trader once he's levelled up, and the interior would have been an extra layer of awesome. The ship itself has very decent stats, but the interior would have pushed it from a quirky looking freebie cruiser into "awesome civilian ship" land.
-Having to grab the flag at the end of the race. The race itself was FUN. This part, was beyond frustration. Even with a powerful board, with the flags moving around as you approach the finish, it was very difficult to place in the top 3. I second many of the comments that it would be silly to have race car drivers have to stop in the middle of the finishing area to grab a checkered flag before someone else did.
-Very poor communication about the END of the event. There were blogs detailing how things were going to work in the event leading up to it, but very little information on the close-out. Things like what to do with excess favors, can birds/monkeys be turned in after? A blog or announcement at T minus 1 week from close-out would have been really good.
What would make next year even better:
-Adjusting the race mechanic so that you don't have to pick up a flag.
-More events (water balloons have been suggested, open to other things). Something to do with the detailed pathways around the island would be good. Perhaps a "ferry" or something to the classic beach, and a simple event there (that lower level characters can participate in)?
-More than one event running at the same time. The races would often get crowded, it would be good to get a choice of WHICH event you wanted to run (ie Hunt twice and hour, dancing twice and hour, etc).
-Being able to trade excess pearls for favors would be nice too.
All in all - I had alot of fun with the Summer Event. It's a shame that Risa isn't open with something to do year round.