ToA Update

Jeremy Saunders

We have bitten off more then we can chew with the ToA. We planned several new things which is all themed around a historical event. Work is taking much longer then expected, as always.

Because we switched to working on it, our big event in March did not roll out either.

What I am thinking now is this:

1. Do our March event.

2. Slow down and finish coding the ToA event so it is extra good and not rushed. It will have lots of credit give aways and prizes. 

3. Do several arena events this month with some bigger prizes to make up for our slow ToA. I am thinking arena events and a 4v4 Tournament.

I was thinking about doing a normal ToA, but people were not very excited about it last year, so I would rather save all the awards for an event that should be a bit more fun.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions?

Dicene

I would think that a few credit-rewarding small events would be enough to tide people over until you're ready to roll out whatever it is you've got planned. I'd also say that something special would be worth waiting a while longer for. I could be in the minority on those two opinions though.

Krysaliss

I think the plan you laid out is a good one. 

Give people a little something but keep focused on producing something polished and well-planned rather than rushed or half-donkied. 

Khizan

Jeremy said:

I was thinking about doing a normal ToA, but people were not very excited about it last year, so I would rather save all the awards for an event that should be a bit more fun.

One thing you really should take into account when you do this is the current circle balance status. Magick is essentially a non-factor right now and any actual circle-based competitions are basically between AM and Demonic. In a rare twist, Demonic currently has the numbers and AM has the frontline of artifact whales, which makes for some interesting fights between them. 

If the larger emphasis on RP and history ends up making it a largely circle-based event it's going to suck pretty hard for Magick. Heavily circle-based events with credit prizes generally serve to make the strong stronger and increase the gap between them. With that in mind, I think it would be pretty cool if third place in circle events still got a fairly substantial prize, so that the event feels worthwhile even if you take a vicious beating.

Jeremy Saunders

@Khizan Yes. I am probably moving away from the circle based awards and mainly focused on the individual awards for participation.

Khizan

Circle awards are a good thing to have, though. It's a good way for the lowbies/littles to get involved without getting trounced by players with vastly more experience/investment.

Mercer

unless its bashing based

then Magick will be there*


*If I can be pried away from New Vegas

Iniar

Can the ToA be after 6th of May?

Krysaliss

The reason I ended up sticking with Imperian -and- the reason for my very first credit purchase was winning/placing in like two or three events in the first ToA when I was a lowbie. Up to that point, I'd been perfectly content with the little slice of the world that was accessible to me with my no-credit having self. I ended up with a substantial amount of credits from a koi fish costume design and something else, I think a gem hunt and a prize bag? 

Never underestimate the power of an unexpected prize on someone. Especially if they can be distributed more broadly than they usually are. 

Celestine

Iniar said:

Can the ToA be after 6th of May?

This would be the second year that I miss the ToA due to being on vacation. I PURPOSELY scheduled my vaca in May to avoid this!

Ifreann

I think there's no tiers for arena events for last 2-3 years in ToA? Not sure, may be more. I believe there should be tiers again for participants.

To be honest mercs were just disappointing for me.  I don't know what others think about mercs but it seems no one cares about them atm (me too).  I believe that ToA can be a good opportunity for improvement of Mercs in the game. It will be a good idea to add a Merc tournament to ToA.

Rasca

I'm super psyched for this, but have a bad feeling it's going to land while I'm traveling. Oh well. Take your time and make it great, I'm sure it'll be a blast.

Luthyr

Regarding "ANNOUNCE NEWS #3031" and the PK/Bashing events, will these be done in Tiers based or artifacts/skills/level or is this is going to be something where if you haven't spent thousands of dollars on your character you should not bother showing up for?  As it stands, I think most people get 1-3 shot by Septus for an example.

Khizan

Tiers went away in PvP events because the tiers don't really accomplish anything. Typically, the low-tier events of the past have been dominated by alts of experienced PvPers. In the last ToA with tiers, Ashel and I paired up with lowbie alts on the tiered events instead of using our mains, and we crushed the snot out of all the competition so that he could start a new character with a crapload of free credits on it. This is pretty much how every event like this works out. 

Luthyr

Personally, I'd rather have a chance at going skill vs skill than debit card vs debit card for mains.  As it stands, it will just be feed the people with tons of artifacts more credits than any actual competition.

Kryss

Tiers are silly, not just because of what Khizan already mentioned but because there simply isn't enough tiers to fairly place people into. You get into Tier 1 and there's just no more limits on artifacts and the like. You might have one artifact and still be fighting people with fifty. So really, there's no point in the tiers even being there. Just go in, have fun and see what happens. Besides, these events are generally team affairs with all sorts of mayhem, it's really nothing to worry about.

Sarrius

It is a throw away event anyways - the 'real ToA' comes later. While a rich get richer scenario is pretty shitty, you are truly kidding yourself if you believe yearly victors (Risca, for instance..) are all charity cases or something.

Khizan

Yeah, the tiers in the past were basically "newbie, lowbie, tri-trans" or thereabouts. It's just too hard to set reasonable tiers without making a ridiculous amount of tiers. Here's an example.

Let's say you've got somebody who has.... trans all the fighting relevant skills, a surcoat, a L1 weapon/collar, and health bracelets. Where do you put them? This is a significant gain over tri-trans, but it's not nearly enough to throw them in the deep end with me and Septus and Eldreth. Do they get a tier? What if you add a diadem and a stat artifact?

Kryss

And then there's classes themselves. The fact of the matter is, some matchups are just better/worse than others which is just the nature of the game.

Iniar

I'd love Avatar Combat everyone gets decked out.

Siath

One of the things I've thought about during the ToA's is the amount of events that is favoured by gaming the event or "block" others from winning. Now, if the event itself is pro-teamwork that's all fine. Its very frustrating to run a scavanger hunt i.e and find lots and lots of stuff locked away or killed (obviously everyone does it because that's how the game is designed). But I think that the events should take a more clear line on individual events and teamevents. So that everyone gets a decent chance to participate even if they are "new" to the game.  

This is also the hardest thing to work around and in some sense it shouldn't be capped to badly because that would also make it boring, I suppose the fine line is exactly that, fine. 

All in all it shouldn't be "I need to join this train to even win anything or try myself and win hardly anything.". 

Also, there should be a tumbleraze in this mini ToA, its kinda awesome and frustrating at the same time. Mostly frustrating though

Mathiaus

It'd be nice if there were a FFA for everyone that disabled all artifacts and made the combatants rely on their abilities alone.

#pipedreams

Rasca

That would be pretty cool.

Eldreth

Said the Diabolist and the Monk

Rasca

Khizan

*sigh*

Does this HAVE to be another horrifyingly long poopsocking bashing event? Can't we do the mini-events again or something?

Selthis

So, my personal suggestions for the bashing event.

-Call spirits to make it fair.

- Let double xp and call spirits work for both days of the event full time.

- Reward credits for 1-2hour chunks  at regular intervals

- More prizes, bit lower rewards but make it so everyone can compete.

Basically, call spirits is about the best thing about these events and I want to take advantage of lazybashing even moreso than I would normally. Let me use call spirits and have double xp all weekend.  You lose basically nothing after Cairnae. 

Jules

I sure do hope they bring back something Cairnae-like at some point - at the very least for people trying to get to aspect.  At the time, I decided against power-levelling my little guys I have waiting in the wings, but someday, when AM is rolling deep and one or both of the other circles are low on people - and I'm actually ready to try to learn another class/circle, I'd probably spend lots of money outfitting them (maybe not quite as much as Jules, but quite a bit), and a Cairnae mechanic would be a huge incentive to do that.  The thought of grinding second and third chars to aspect is pretty daunting unless you're a bit crazy and have almost unlimited free time.  

Selthis

For the record, depending on how they do the double events i'd be willing  to powerlevel demonic alts of people if they want. I have  no problem with you sitting there and leeching while i hit stuff.  Or flinging healing tarot cards at me or whatever. 

Eoghan

Selthis said:

For the record, depending on how they do the double events i'd be willing  to powerlevel demonic alts of people if they want. I have  no problem with you sitting there and leeching while i hit stuff.  Or flinging healing tarot cards at me or whatever. 

A polite reminder that if you do this, all people present must be at their computer, whether they are attacking or not. Gaining xp through ring bashing experience while AFK is not allowed.

Jules

I am horribly low-tech (read, my bashing is incredibly manual in comparison to many people's), which is probably part of why this seems so much more daunting to me, and yes, if I ever tag along with someone (which I actually turned down repeatedly on Jules because I didn't want to level up before I had some idea of what was going on) I promise not to be a zombie  And hopefully others wouldn't either.