I admit it, I was logging in at work and hunting a stalker every hour, on Air, with no triggers. I think Saran was doing that too, and I suspect a few others as well. So Hartstone probably finished a lot faster than we actually should have.
From what I can guess based on the percentages Estarra has posted, depending on the reasons for the differences in progress Aeros with the average they've had would probably finish in just under a week, blacktalon in just over, with the pyros being closer to two weeks, while the geos are hard to tell.
With the average for the last five days the final results look like they'd only really change where the geomancers are positioned if the end date changed.
The problem with that is that you appear to be going on the "once a RL day" thing, in which case there are definitely options to make it feel less grindy (as you suggest, and I implied with the QuestEvent portion of my post). Unfortunately, trying to run a contest where people can only add a point once per RL day just isn't going to work.
The moment you have it down to an hourly "continue to check in every single hour," no matter what you're asking them to do, just the mere fact that you're setting a timer to head over and do "the quest" again is going to be the grind.
Make it depend on your rank in some other fashion. Right now, it only lets GR3+ even participate, leaving newbies somewhat... useless? in the event. Instead, you could've made it so that a GR1 can put one essence in, a GR3 can put three essence in, a GR10 can put ten essence in, etc. That way, no one is really useless, but they're not of as great a use as leaders are.
I admit it, I was logging in at work and hunting a stalker every hour, on Air, with no triggers. I think Saran was doing that too, and I suspect a few others as well. So Hartstone probably finished a lot faster than we actually should have.
Yeah, I was pretty much in nexus with curing on, while trying to hide the fact that I was doing so while on calls. I was also a bit lucky that I had off call work to do so it was a bit easier, sometimes I logged on and there was essence at the door, other times I logged in and got it delivered, people tried to keep the critters in etherwilde which was really easy and quick for such things, and as a last resort sometimes I had to go to Air.
I honestly put a ton more essence into that door on the days when I was absorbed in gathering up shards for the Wheel, because I already had a good reason to pay attention to what time it was. THAT was a fun hourly grind. You find a thing, and get an instant reward! Super shiny vision! (PLEASE DO MORE THINGS LIKE THIS they are bad for my sleep schedule and mental health but amazing for my love of this game.) However the door is kinda like...you put another piece of essence in the door. The end. Wasn't that fun? The only rewarding part of this door thing so far has been winning the yearly power contest (I got cake!) which is nice and all but not exactly from the quest itself, heh. Even a message that would switch to saying "ooh, you're a little closer now!" after certain total amounts were reached would've made it feel less...hopeless. But as it stands, I just want it to be done with.
Aquas and Hartstone probably had a good deal of fun with their numbers and rp.
I don't know about the other guilds, but I knew that the Aquamancers had a lot of external pressure to be first, specifically from controlled mobs. From my perspective, I'm a bit mystified as to how anyone wouldn't have seen it as a "race", because that is how it was directed to us as. I didn't like how the doors were unceremoniously dropped on us and how we didn't speculate on them at all, and were jostled into trying to make sure we opened ours first.
What was worse was that we were told that it wasn't precisely a day between one bit of essence added and the next - there was some variability. I wouldn't have minded the door as much if I could have set an hour timer and known exactly when I had to be there, instead of constantly returning and fretting over the thing.
If I were asked if I would want to repeat this style of "event" again, I would say no. I had a lot more fun trying to gather shards for the Wheel and am sad that the Wheel was restricted to such a small time frame compared to the door.
Further, this isn't a 'grind' insofar as we purposefuly didn't make it a relentless task that you did non stop but rather a casual once-an-hour quest.
I missed this earlier, but I hope my prior post illustrates that this was not the case. It did feel like a task that needed to be pursued relentlessly, in spite of its restrictions in set up, and I feel like it should have been fixed to be once-an-hour as soon as it was noticed instead of re-emphasized to the players in order to egg us on to move faster.
Further, this isn't a 'grind' insofar as we purposefuly didn't make it a relentless task that you did non stop but rather a casual once-an-hour quest.
I missed this earlier, but I hope my prior post illustrates that this was not the case. It did feel like a task that needed to be pursued relentlessly, in spite of its restrictions in set up, and I feel like it should have been fixed to be once-an-hour as soon as it was noticed instead of re-emphasized to the players in order to egg us on to move faster.
It was once an hour - the point that was made (only after speculation by Aquas, when they noticed it wasn't one hour from last essence in) was that once an hour wasn't one hour from the last essence in, but that ten minutes before midnight and ten minutes after midnight is still once a day.
In other words, the hour MIGHT be independent of when you put essence in. But still, if you put it in every hour on the hour, you'll still hit the maximum essence you can put in (which was likewise commented on).
It was once an hour - the point that was made (only after speculation by Aquas, when they noticed it wasn't one hour from last essence in) was that once an hour wasn't one hour from the last essence in, but that ten minutes before midnight and ten minutes after midnight is still once a day.
In other words, the hour MIGHT be independent of when you put essence in. But still, if you put it in every hour on the hour, you'll still hit the maximum essence you can put in (which was likewise commented on).
Don't blame poor, eager Manchal!
Midnight had nothing to with it. Telperion encouraged me to try to put it in directly after midnight (since that is the day change), and it did not work in such instances. It seemed that there was some sort of timer active that prevented you from adding more between 40 and 60 minutes from the last, but after paying close attention to the time of day and keeping careful track of it, it became apparent that is was just weird and random. Or maybe it was bugged, and no one bugged it because we had support to believe that this was how it should be, and the exact nature of the not-a-whole-day was never fully articulated.
In retrospect, I think the door would have been a lot more fun if the visions were delivered every time we put in essence, instead of having the visions be a separate thing via the Wheel. I can understand why the Wheel was done instead, since it would allow more people to be directly involved, but the consequence is that the door is much less interesting until it finally opens, as Phoebus indicated earlier.
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Cyndarinused Flamethrower! It was super effective.
I think the general idea is that the essence in the door thing was fine. It was not overly grindy, it fostered a reasonably healthy competition, no one actually loses anything, it's something that can be done somewhat casually.
They just don't want to have to keep track of it for a whole additional month.
Naturally some people will harp on it crushing their morale under the immense population of the aquas or something, but I never thought that argument had much merit. I think the only fault in it is that there was no reward beyond "not last." Which is as much of a reward as not getting kicked in face. Sure, you're glad it didn't happen and you'll go out of your way to make it happen, but you are more relieved rather than excited or happy.
It was once an hour - the point that was made (only after speculation by Aquas, when they noticed it wasn't one hour from last essence in) was that once an hour wasn't one hour from the last essence in, but that ten minutes before midnight and ten minutes after midnight is still once a day.
In other words, the hour MIGHT be independent of when you put essence in. But still, if you put it in every hour on the hour, you'll still hit the maximum essence you can put in (which was likewise commented on).
Don't blame poor, eager Manchal!
Midnight had nothing to with it. Telperion encouraged me to try to put it in directly after midnight (since that is the day change), and it did not work in such instances. It seemed that there was some sort of timer active that prevented you from adding more between 40 and 60 minutes from the last, but after paying close attention to the time of day and keeping careful track of it, it became apparent that is was just weird and random. Or maybe it was bugged, and no one bugged it because we had support to believe that this was how it should be, and the exact nature of the not-a-whole-day was never fully articulated.
In retrospect, I think the door would have been a lot more fun if the visions were delivered every time we put in essence, instead of having the visions be a separate thing via the Wheel. I can understand why the Wheel was done instead, since it would allow more people to be directly involved, but the consequence is that the door is much less interesting until it finally opens, as Phoebus indicated earlier.
The bit about midnight was a metaphor. I'll spell it really simply this time, heh.
Once an hour the door clears the list of people who put essence in. So you can't put more than one in an hour period, however said hour period is relative to the door's timer, and nothing else. Ten minutes before it clears and ten minutes after are both within the "one an hour" window.
I would love to end this early -- just because I have other things to worry about in game than to put essence in for another month ;_;
The BT only has four people putting essence in regularly, with the sporadic alt popping in once a day. And admittedly, I just don't get the time to do it during the week as I'm at work.
Anyway, while it has been a bit of a grind, overall the event was done well. It invoked a whole tonne of drama, which is always nice and makes things interesting. I loved that it was -hard- to deal with. Some things are particularly difficult to explain away ICly... but I think I've got there, now. So, woo.
The BT lost two awesome players to the event (and were I not CL and really OOCly opposed to leaving Glom, they would have lost me too), and there's no IC motivation to open that door. Really, from an IC standpoint, I wanted to say "No, we're not opening this door. I will disfavour anyone who tries", but because the announcement was made on an OOC board and we're told to race... well... eh, I guess? I had to make a flimsy "I don't want temporal things in my guildhall, so shove essence into it to overwhelm it" post, and here we are.
So, anyway, I like Ssaliss' idea of GR weight allowing us to put in more essence. Or an event to close it off. Sucks to come last when it was out of our control, though
I wasn't there for it, but I was so kindly sent a log. I'm surprised the door opening isn't on the forums though, and as I strongly believe that these things should be shared, here it is!
The floating city of Hallifax hums with power as its generators come to life while concentric rings of elemental energy pour in from the surrounding sky.
Ripples of elemental currents draw themselves about a door frozen in time, its knob quivering violently as the muted colours within slow.
Time slows about you, crawling to a near stand-still as the skies around Hallifax quiver and warp, reality folding and twisting violently as colour is slowly drained from the sky.
Bit by bit the muted colours within the doorway turn to an empty, black nothingness, an infinite eternity of vacancy held within its four edges.
Rings of energy collapse into the city, brilliant patterns bursting against the muted grey of the sky around Hallifax.
A door frozen in time quivers violently as it slowly creaks open, the darkness within it becoming littered with sparkling fractals. A violent surge of power sends the fractals spinning, building into a whirling maelstrom of white light.
Time begins to speed up rapidly once more as the skies around the city shift and become pitch black, the clouds freezing in place as the sky roils. Beams of intense light shoot skyward from the spires of the city as the image of the Matrix imposes itself upon the blackness surrounding the city, its form superimposed over the floating platforms.
An awe-inspiring sound of tearing and rending erupts from Centre for Aeromantic Engineering in Hallifax, temporal energies racing outwards in a concussive explosion. The image of the Matrix contracts inward to meet the temporal outburst, swirling in elemental currents and waves throughout the city, rippling against the the crystal platforms and spires. Slowly the flickering fractals fade away, the humming of the generators subsiding as the skies return to normal.
A door frozen in time crackles with super-charged ionic fields as elemental vibrations flood into the room from every direction. Slowly the door opens, the temporal energies within receding inwards to reveal a muted chamber.
A cold, monotone voice speaks from your surroundings: The Code Black anomaly has resolved.
No, I meant, it would just be cool to have more steampunk around outside of the stuff from the Puddle Jumper. I know Mag has it, it just doesn't seem obvious enough to me. I've seen the Key to the Machine a few times, but that's about it. If the geos really go steampunk-cyborg, I think that would be cool. (Though evil. Evil, evil city technology. :P )
Cyberpunk is evil. It's all about corporations and rich people being augmented and leaving bums with no money on the streets. The corporations wage war among one another and use those beneath them as pawns in the grand scheme of the Chess wars held by them.
So, a tuesday night on Magnagora.
Hallifax is already amazingly Arcano-tech with their pew-pews and their shiney stuff. Only the non-Institute Guilds need to Catch up in tech.
haha, I know. Just like someone is a little excited at the possibility of being a light/waterbender. And the engineer stuff that the Aeros found. Or even the pyro looking stuff that the pyros have.
Cyberpunk is evil. It's all about corporations and rich people being augmented and leaving bums with no money on the streets. The corporations wage war among one another and use those beneath them as pawns in the grand scheme of the Chess wars held by them.
Cyberpunk is evil. It's all about corporations and rich people being augmented and leaving bums with no money on the streets. The corporations wage war among one another and use those beneath them as pawns in the grand scheme of the Chess wars held by them.
Comments
The moment you have it down to an hourly "continue to check in every single hour," no matter what you're asking them to do, just the mere fact that you're setting a timer to head over and do "the quest" again is going to be the grind.
Make it depend on your rank in some other fashion. Right now, it only lets GR3+ even participate, leaving newbies somewhat... useless? in the event. Instead, you could've made it so that a GR1 can put one essence in, a GR3 can put three essence in, a GR10 can put ten essence in, etc. That way, no one is really useless, but they're not of as great a use as leaders are.
Just a thought.
What was worse was that we were told that it wasn't precisely a day between one bit of essence added and the next - there was some variability. I wouldn't have minded the door as much if I could have set an hour timer and known exactly when I had to be there, instead of constantly returning and fretting over the thing.
If I were asked if I would want to repeat this style of "event" again, I would say no. I had a lot more fun trying to gather shards for the Wheel and am sad that the Wheel was restricted to such a small time frame compared to the door.
It was once an hour - the point that was made (only after speculation by Aquas, when they noticed it wasn't one hour from last essence in) was that once an hour wasn't one hour from the last essence in, but that ten minutes before midnight and ten minutes after midnight is still once a day.
In other words, the hour MIGHT be independent of when you put essence in. But still, if you put it in every hour on the hour, you'll still hit the maximum essence you can put in (which was likewise commented on).
Don't blame poor, eager Manchal!
In retrospect, I think the door would have been a lot more fun if the visions were delivered every time we put in essence, instead of having the visions be a separate thing via the Wheel. I can understand why the Wheel was done instead, since it would allow more people to be directly involved, but the consequence is that the door is much less interesting until it finally opens, as Phoebus indicated earlier.
I think the general idea is that the essence in the door thing was fine. It was not overly grindy, it fostered a reasonably healthy competition, no one actually loses anything, it's something that can be done somewhat casually.
They just don't want to have to keep track of it for a whole additional month.
Naturally some people will harp on it crushing their morale under the immense population of the aquas or something, but I never thought that argument had much merit. I think the only fault in it is that there was no reward beyond "not last." Which is as much of a reward as not getting kicked in face. Sure, you're glad it didn't happen and you'll go out of your way to make it happen, but you are more relieved rather than excited or happy.
In retrospect, I think the door would have been a lot more fun if the visions were delivered every time we put in essence, instead of having the visions be a separate thing via the Wheel. I can understand why the Wheel was done instead, since it would allow more people to be directly involved, but the consequence is that the door is much less interesting until it finally opens, as Phoebus indicated earlier.
The bit about midnight was a metaphor. I'll spell it really simply this time, heh.
Once an hour the door clears the list of people who put essence in. So you can't put more than one in an hour period, however said hour period is relative to the door's timer, and nothing else. Ten minutes before it clears and ten minutes after are both within the "one an hour" window.
Arcano-tech will suddenly and slowly start appearing and a lot of the game looks will change!
So, a tuesday night on Magnagora.
Hallifax is already amazingly Arcano-tech with their pew-pews and their shiney stuff. Only the non-Institute Guilds need to Catch up in tech.
Is it like Post-Punk?