J-Pax's Event Summary

[J-Pax]

In the event that anybody missed the event I'm going to write a short summary of this "week long" event and then write conclusions about the satisfaction from the community I have been able to draw.

 

 

 

    The Arid Fear event was an event that was advertised for 7 days in game. Upon announcement of the event, rewards appeared to only be a badge icon (displayed on your warframe's left shoulder, much like clan emblems on the right) and clan dojo statues. The event consisted of running two different alert missions that regularly triggered for two specific components. After obtaining these components players had to buy a Corpus Void key blueprint from the market for 2000 credits. Crafting the key cost 1500 credits, took 1 minute's time and could be rushed for 0 platinum.

 

    Upon crafting the key, players could launch a void instance and invite 3 other players to join them. This mission consisted of a standard Corpus Ship tileset with standard Corpus enemies. The objective was a Corpus Scout, a new enemy that acted like a Captive mission target, but could attack the player. The Scout would attempt to run to the nearest airlock, seal the door and escape the mission.

 

     After the first day the event reached 100%, at which point DE revealed further stages to the event where enemies became higher levelled and "Elite Crewmen" who used the Flux rifle were introduced. The Corpus Scouts also gained additional abilities, including invisibility. Upon clearing the first stage, DE also announced that 3 mod rewards would be available for achieving certain target scores:

 

    Shred @ 20 points: +5% fire rate + 0.2 puncture per level (Rifle)

    Vigor @ 50 points: +20% shield and health per level (Warframe)

    Lethal Torrent @ 100 points: +10% multishot + 10% fire rate (Pistol)

 

 

Players could earn one point per solo run, and up to 5 points in a full 4 man co-op run.

 

 

The event lasted through 3 stages, with the final stage being completed Monday evening (GMT). The event ended soon after this point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Player Reception:

 

     At the start of the event it was greeted with mixed reactions. Most players were happy to play and compete against each other, especially if they were clan based, for high scores. A smaller portion of the community was disinterested for no real personal rewards aside from the shoulder badge. As soon as the event reached it's 2nd tier, the rewards were announced and the more mercenary players become more invested in the event. However, some players having seen no real benefit besides bragging rights had made plans for the weekend in real life (not including people who already had plans besides). Upon the event finishing early players were further upset for the event not living up to it's lifetime. Players had been more relaxed about accumulating points or had assumed the event would continue in a grace period once the targets had been met. This left a fair few players who had intended to participate within the 7 days with a bitter taste in their mouth for essentially being denied the opportunity to enjoy the event like others.

 

 

 

Personal Conclusion:

     Although I count myself amongst the mercenary crowd that only became interested in the event once goals and rewards had been announced, I still found the event lackluster. DE was clearly experimenting with this style of event, and the event itself was perfectly fine in design, aside from NAT issues and private only groups for the Corpus Void missions which made matchmaking that much more difficult. In my opinion if you're going to have an event, then announce the rewards at the start. You have a broad community here and if you don't wish to appear to be "all stick and no carrot" you'd be better off communicating with your player/customer base. More over, if you're going to have an event that's advertised as 7 days long, allow players to play it within those 7 days. If you want to set a time limit on the leaderboards for the event, that's acceptable. Everyone's playing by those rules. But at least let players play the Corpus Void missions post scoring in order to at least reach the 100 point reward score if they didn't have a chance to play the event from Friday onwards, at least until the 7 days are up. The more accommodating you are with your customers without skirting the ridiculous, the more they're willing to invest in your business.

   In addition to the note about accommodating your customers, don't practically enforce co-op play on your player base if they wish to achieve the reward levels. The scoring system implemented in this event was worse than the Fomorian Ship event for solo players, as players had to do 300 missions in order to reach 100 points solo, and as little as 27 missions in a dedicated 4 man group to reach 100 points in co-op. That breaks down to a dedicated co-op team taking 9% of the time a solo player would take. This means that a solo focused player would likely never achieve the 100 goal mark in the time this event was actually active for. This is outright punishment for playing solo, and although you may plan for your game to be co-op you should not neglect your solo player base. They're just as likely (if not more so) to invest in your platinum market as co-op focused players, and bludgeoning them into co-op will distance them from you.

 

Personal Note: I get that the mission was in the void, but the garish lighting effect that blurred the screen with purpol every 20 seconds was not necessary. Players reported motion sickness and headaches from the effect.

Edited August 13, 2013 by J-Pax

[Lord_zasca]

well done mr well done

[Rykazz]

J-Pax, I find that I agree with almost entirely.  I am one of the solo/duo players (my wife plays only for me).  I only disagreement with your post is:  I say let the mercenaries have there fun to.  DE should have broken up the event into 3 parts with the first two being a set two days and the third being three days.  Never end an event early!  It will leave a bad taste in a majority of the players mouth.  The leader boards should have been also broken into four parts: one for each phase and an overall.  I also feel that DE could have given the reward out in a loop up until about 500 points.  get 101 points = all three and the first a second time.  get 500 points = all three five times.  No, I didn't even make my goal of 100 (9 shy).  This way the solo/ casual players get 7 days and the mercenaries get 7 days to make the leader boards and compete.

 

Anyways,  I feel that if DE does not stop this kind of treatment to it's solo(duo)/ casual players they will have less than a year of a release game (non beta).

 

Regards,

Rykazz

[J-Pax]

J-Pax, I find that I agree with almost entirely.  I am one of the solo/duo players (my wife plays only for me).  I only disagreement with your post is:  I say let the mercenaries have there fun to.  DE should have broken up the event into 3 parts with the first two being a set two days and the third being three days.  Never end an event early!  It will leave a bad taste in a majority of the players mouth.  The leader boards should have been also broken into four parts: one for each phase and an overall.  I also feel that DE could have given the reward out in a loop up until about 500 points.  get 101 points = all three and the first a second time.  get 500 points = all three five times.  No, I didn't even make my goal of 100 (9 shy).  This way the solo/ casual players get 7 days and the mercenaries get 7 days to make the leader boards and compete.

 

Anyways,  I feel that if DE does not stop this kind of treatment to it's solo(duo)/ casual players they will have less than a year of a release game (non beta).

 

Regards,

Rykazz

 

I apologise for any confusion, what I meant by mercenary is players only looking for rewards for themselves, i.e. when the mod rewards were announced player participation shot up, the more mercenary players became interested.