A late feedback for the Risia & Midwinter games

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

Hello,

since Cordovan announced in a reply that there is a new winter event planned, I thought it would be a good idea to give a feedback for the current Risia & Midwinter event.

Early next year we will be debuting a new winter event! This will be your last chance to take part in the Risia Ice Games and Midwinter Festival, called the DDO Winter Games. These events could return in some capacity in the future, but this will be your final opportunity to play them as part of a regular seasonal event. The rewards from these festivals will also be brought into the new winter event, minus the current recipes and related crafting ingredients, which will no longer be used. We'll have more to say in the future, but we want to make sure that you get one last chance to run Risia and Midwinter.

The one I like most first :

I really LOVED Festivult !
Why ? Because it was so easy to get nice stuff, and it didn't require any skill at all !
The only drawback was that the Jester of Festivult was indeed a JESTER : Meaning that no-one really knew whether the cookies would have the same abilities in the next year !

I really LOVED the Midwinter ice racing !
Why ? It was just fun, and not difficult at all !
It was so easy to get a huge number of Motes Of Winter, there was not much real skill needed, and ... it was just fun !


On the other hand, the Risia Ice Games were something I never really enjoyed.
Why ? Because it was so difficult. For example, I never understood the Bogwater Tavern half-pipe. I'm really not a skater, and I'm really not that great with twiddling in the keyboard, and it had mechanics I outright never understood in the first place.

I liked the Harbour jumping much more, but not the whole passage, just the jumping. That point from high above.
But I LOVED the snarky comments of that commenting NPC, what was his name ? Goosebump ?



What I didn't like of the Risia Ice Games was - compared to the Midwinter race - the possibility to get purple coins.
It was SO MUCH easier to get them in the Midwinter race than in the Risia race !

It seemed to me a bit like ...

- Risia was made for RL skaters.
- Midwinter was made for people with so much less skill.
- Looking at their difficulties, Risia and Midwinter should have been swapped : The Midwinter race should have been for complete Newbies of DDO, meanwhile the Risia Ice Games should have been for Veterans only, so to say.


So, my suggestions are these :

- Give the lumps of coal a morale damaging ability. Like ... a charisma damage. ("Apparently you were very naughty.")
- Give the Festival Twig morale damage capabilities as well. Charisma would be fitting here as well.
- Create a kind of snowball that returns.

More serious suggestions :

- Keep the Midwinter racing course ! It is so much fun ! Just change the rewards, but the Midwintzer Racing as such could be kept. It is just sad that this low-skill thing was not placed into the beginner's area (what about Borderlands ? The Borderlands are not public, though ... Or Korthos ?)
- Replace the Risia Ice Games course with one that requires much, much LESS skill !
- Make purple coins as easily to get like in the Midwinter racing course !

- And most of all : Keep the winter athmosphere at all ! During fitting months, of course.
- What about a winter event for those who live in australia ? Wouldn't it be nice for them to have something winterly during their RL winter as well ?


All in all I think that Festivult + Risia Ice Games + Midwinter Racing are not that bad. It's only that the Risia courses are so overly difficult. If they'd be easier, they'd attract much more people !

So, all in all I guess that it would be really okay if these events returned as a series of "Legacy Events",
together with the Easter egg hunt, which I greatly enjoyed, but it has one big flaw : It's "Signs of the Traveller" were ONLY available through the DDO shop ! That was imho a mistake ! But it's one that can imho easily be repaired by making that NPC named Taj into a giver of free tokens like the Midwinter event NPC does.

All in all I enjoyed Festivult trade-in, Midwinter racing plus jumping, commented by snarky remarks, most of everything.

But that's just my personal feedback, and since people are different, I'm sure that there are different opinions on these three combined events, too.


Alrik

[C-Dog]

One change this year I was very disappointed with was how groups "shared" Coins. If Player A grabbed a coin, it might end up in Player B's bag, and vice versa - seriously???

Used to be that a Player got all the coins they grabbed, and there was a small % for any other player(s) in the group to get a copy - that made sense.

I suppose this system promotes true "group friendliness" - a socialist attitude toward sharing the rewards regardless of contribution - but that's not something that is a popular "feature" for most players.

For my money, please do not repeat this mechanic. Ever. :/

[NemesisAlien]

One change this year I was very disappointed with was how groups "shared" Coins. If Player A grabbed a coin, it might end up in Player B's bag, and vice versa - seriously???

Used to be that a Player got all the coins they grabbed, and there was a small % for any other player(s) in the group to get a copy - that made sense.

I suppose this system promotes true "group friendliness" - a socialist attitude toward sharing the rewards regardless of contribution - but that's not something that is a popular "feature" for most players.

For my money, please do not repeat this mechanic. Ever. :/

To be fair CC and mabar... ok night revels now also got something like this, for cc you can have 12 players, sometimes someone else kills you get something also, the main quest in mabar also, kills can go to someone else who is not killing, example your alt.

[Cordovan]

We have been discussing Risia and Midwinter recently, and while these events will not be returning on a regular basis we may bring them back as a special event in the future, with no set cadence to announce. So, you may want to hang onto those Risia Ice Skates, even if they are not useful in the new upcoming winter event.

[Arnhelm]

We have been discussing Risia and Midwinter recently, and while these events will not be returning on a regular basis we may bring them back as a special event in the future, with no set cadence to announce. So, you may want to hang onto those Risia Ice Skates, even if they are not useful in the new upcoming winter event.

So we should probably keep the recipes and motes around, too? More space needed on mules, it seems. :/

[cdbd3rd]

So we should probably keep the recipes and motes around, too? More space needed on mules, it seems. :/

Hearing that the ice skates (that are bought with DPs) may not be used is bad enough.

The word on the materials/recipes was pretty clear that they would not be used in the future. Going back on that statement after a LOT of us dumped our leftovers would .... not be good either.

[Krelar]

Hearing that the ice skates (that are bought with DPs) may not be used is bad enough.

The word on the materials/recipes was pretty clear that they would not be used in the future. Going back on that statement after a LOT of us dumped our leftovers would .... not be good either.

After last Mabar I figure that just standard procedure now. The ingredients are useless, feel free to get rid of them and save some space! Unless we change our mind and decide for them not be...

[Mindos]

Hearing that the ice skates (that are bought with DPs) may not be used is bad enough.

The word on the materials/recipes was pretty clear that they would not be used in the future. Going back on that statement after a LOT of us dumped our leftovers would .... not be good either.

I want a refund on my ice skates. All of them. Store bought item obsoleeted. obsoyeeted. whatever. It doesn't look right. But you know what I mean.

[Arnhelm]

Hearing that the ice skates (that are bought with DPs) may not be used is bad enough.

The word on the materials/recipes was pretty clear that they would not be used in the future. Going back on that statement after a LOT of us dumped our leftovers would .... not be good either.

While I agree, I've seen this happen before, such as with augments.

There was a statement by Cordovan I read somewhere about the Risia and Midwinter events possibly recurring even after the new event is unveiled. Now I've got a mule holding recipes, motes, coal, and twigs in case they are needed again some day. I was thoroughly disappointed when augments got redone after I'd given up and trashed some, and I'm hoping this will be a lesson learned from that occurrence.

[cdbd3rd]

... Store bought item obsoleeted. obsoyeeted. whatever. It doesn't look right. But you know what I mean.

"...rendered into Obsolescence."

That sounds all proper hoity-toity.

[NemesisAlien]

While I agree, I've seen this happen before, such as with augments.

There was a statement by Cordovan I read somewhere about the Risia and Midwinter events possibly recurring even after the new event is unveiled. Now I've got a mule holding recipes, motes, coal, and twigs in case they are needed again some day. I was thoroughly disappointed when augments got redone after I'd given up and trashed some, and I'm hoping this will be a lesson learned from that occurrence.

Recipes and motes can dump in the green bag, coal can buy from repair guy, only problem is the twigs, eyesores.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

We have been discussing Risia and Midwinter recently, and while these events will not be returning on a regular basis we may bring them back as a special event in the future, with no set cadence to announce. So, you may want to hang onto those Risia Ice Skates, even if they are not useful in the new upcoming winter event.

I could imagine the ice skates as regular armor pieces with an immunity to slippery surfaces.
Okay, skating on grease sounds weird , but you get my idea.
Having said this, I begin to wonder why there aren't slippery surfaces in quests anyway ? I mean, that's be a good way to do balance checks !"
("Please, don't give them any ideas !!!")

Recipes and motes can dump in the green bag, coal can buy from repair guy, only problem is the twigs, eyesores.

Indeed ! The twigs just don't stack !

Please, make them at least stackable !

I want a refund on my ice skates. All of them.

Why "all of them" ?

I only bought 1 pair, and placed them in my shared bank ...

[C-Dog]

... Risia and Midwinter ... we may bring them back as a special event in the future ... So, you may want to hang onto those Risia Ice Skates...

That's a great idea; just like some other events, those who like it can chase it, those who don't can simply ignore it, done. There is a lot of good coding that's gone into it, it'd be a shame to see it all (and with it all the past effort from players) just cast into the dustbin.


If(?!) it's easily done, I would like to see the a way to get recipes a bit more reliably from the ice race. The random factor makes it a bit more grindy than it needs to be. For the lowest, which are mandatory to get any item started, it's very frustrating to keep getting the wrong recipe when you know you're in the lowest bracket. And on the other end, getting into the highest bracket takes not only a specialized build but also a LOT of luck on the course - just the right boosts at just the right places, AND the skill to put them all together to get 1,000+ points - that's setting the bar pretty high imo.

A "10 for 1" barter trade in would solve that, 10 unwanted recipes of the same "type" (either Resist or Glaciation) for the 1 you desire. (Or 20:1 if any recipe.)

Just a thought - I was shaking my head at the stacks of 3/5/7 resist recipes and the few 7-resist items I had made, without the 1's to start another or the 10's to finish what I'd started. :/

[Cordovan]

So we should probably keep the recipes and motes around, too? More space needed on mules, it seems. :/

We have been discussing this as well, and the current thinking is that we could in theory make a new list of the old stuff minus the ingredients, and use a more simple bartering system. However, no actual work has been done yet, so we'll see what happens. We too do not want all of those old Risia and Midwinter recipe ingredients to need to stick around, which is why we said what we did in December.

[Baahb3]

We have been discussing this as well, and the current thinking is that we could in theory make a new list of the old stuff minus the ingredients, and use a more simple bartering system. However, no actual work has been done yet, so we'll see what happens. We too do not want all of those old Risia and Midwinter recipe ingredients to need to stick around, which is why we said what we did in December.

Why don't you just make a trade system to transfer the old ingredients/recipes into the new ones? You did it for Cannith crafting and have been doing it in Lotro for years. Seems like the easiest way to do this.

[Cordovan]

Why don't you just make a trade system to transfer the old ingredients/recipes into the new ones? You did it for Cannith crafting and have been doing it in Lotro for years. Seems like the easiest way to do this.

This is possible, but it would likely be a far longer task.

[cdbd3rd]

...

<ice skates>

Why "all of them" ?

I only bought 1 pair, and placed them in my shared bank ...

One pair per server, for some of us not-yet-reformed altoholics.

I'll not demand a refund in any event, but would hope there will still be a use for them somehow.

[John3000]

We have been discussing Risia and Midwinter recently, ... we may bring them back as a special event in the future, ....

+1 vote

I hope so. It's a fun event and a shame to have spent money on those skates for no reason.

cheers

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

One pair per server, for some of us not-yet-reformed altoholics.

+1 to you. I'm an altoholic as well, but all of my toons are on 1 server.

[droid327]

This is possible, but it would likely be a far longer task.

Also that'd basically mean no one would actually need to play the new event, because of a decade of saved-up Risia/Midwinter mats

Same argument as for the poofing Mabar mats.