Phase 1 : Low Population Server issues

[Rymer]

So how's this standing? We're about done w phase 1, so are servers with low pop/participation still not meeting the goals?

I betcha there will be a fix of some sort, by which I mean: I betcha that, by June, people who were on low-pop servers during this event have will have had some way to try to earn these titles which didn't involve transferring.

Hmm... But 1) this is just for titles, not for artifacts. And 2) this was a policy choice, not a bug (e.g. with the guardian half birthday artifact).

And there's always next year. I would assume a similar (but revamped) celebration next year with another chance to get the same titles.

[the_real_seebs]

If the event happens again next year, that'd be a solution, at least if by then the event is tweaked in some way to make it possible for low-pop shards (or there aren't any then).

[Elrar]

Hey all,

This is something we have been keeping a very close eye on - for those who don't know the objective of this optional goal is to unlock a title that can be purchased by your faction on your shard.

If a shard/faction is not able to complete the challenge for this phase it will be available again next year for you to unlock (and very likely the year after that). The next five phases have similar challenges but should be impacted less by your shards population, that said though we'll keep a very close eye on it.

Our goal is to make sure everyone has an opportunity to unlock the titles, however, these are bonus achievements so don't expect to get them without any effort!

Definitely something we're going to continue to watch and learn from - appreciate the constructive feedback you've all continued to share, please continue to do so. Thanks

[MajorMelchett]

Our goal is to make sure everyone has an opportunity to unlock the titles, however, these are bonus achievements so don't expect to get them without any effort!

Definitely something we're going to continue to watch learn from - appreciate the constructive feedback you've all continued to share, please continue to do so. Thanks

The problem is the amount of effort changes based on the amount of players on your shard, so on an high population shard it's easier than on a low population shard.

As a someone that's on a shard that's finished it even i can see it's very unfair, and frankly the chance to get it again in a year really doesn't make up for the issue. So if someone happens to be on a low population shard they can at least try again in a year?, simply put, that's not right. I'm betting people on low population shards have put a heck of a lot more work into this quest than i have (because i'm on the highest EU shard) YET i get it and they don't?.

It's fair enough that your watching and learning and sure it may only be a title, but that doesn't change the fact that some people aren't going to get it simply because their shard has less people on it.

[the_real_seebs]

Hey all,

This is something we have been keeping a very close eye on - for those who don't know the objective of this optional goal is to unlock a title that can be purchased by your faction on your shard.

If a shard/faction is not able to complete the challenge for this phase it will be available again next year for you to unlock (and very likely the year after that).

Please also include the glass beads, the belief that I will be able to fill in gaps in my collections has made me LOVE world events. (I found them stressy before due to alt habit.)

Also, I would like to register a complaint, which is that you revealed a planned solution for this before I got anyone to take me up on the bet that Trion would think about this and find a way to give everyone a shot at titles. (I know, betting on whether Trion will do right by the players is sort of a sucker bet, but I keep finding suckers!)

[potis]

Hey all,

This is something we have been keeping a very close eye on - for those who don't know the objective of this optional goal is to unlock a title that can be purchased by your faction on your shard.

If a shard/faction is not able to complete the challenge for this phase it will be available again next year for you to unlock (and very likely the year after that). The next five phases have similar challenges but should be impacted less by your shards population, that said though we'll keep a very close eye on it.

Our goal is to make sure everyone has an opportunity to unlock the titles, however, these are bonus achievements so don't expect to get them without any effort!

Definitely something we're going to continue to watch and learn from - appreciate the constructive feedback you've all continued to share, please continue to do so. Thanks

Or lets be realistic and say that not every server can make it, and instead of making a stupid requirement, you could have made it obtainable or scaleable for every server.

Blightwelad Defiants are at 52k, no chance what so ever not to mention these values on PTS were on 10k, and on live 100k? What happened from 10k to 100k? Can only add zero's?

[Balur]

Are you kidding? Us on low pop servers need to put in more effort? We were constantly gathering materials for the floats but it didnt matter, we were averaging 5k a day even with some people grinding for hours!

Are we supposed to wave our hands and magic some people out of thin air to farm with us? Grind 24/7 to MAYBE lose out on 20k instead of 40k? Hire goldfarmers to farm the mats? Because let me tell you, no amount of dedication, hard work and perseverance will overcome a low population.

Try again next year? No, i wont.

[Fleamaster]

The response from Elrar is a smiley-coated "We hear you, we are just not listening to you or doing anything about it, but please keep posting so we can pretend to care". Álso the slightly condescending "dont expect to get them without any effort!" also does wonders to build trust with an adult player base.

It's broken, either you fix it, or just say that you can't fix it for this years event because of some reason that is at least valid and/or honest.

[the_real_seebs]

The response from Elrar is a smiley-coated "We hear you, we are just not listening to you or doing anything about it, but please keep posting so we can pretend to care". Álso the slightly condescending "dont expect to get them without any effort!" also does wonders to build trust with an adult player base.

It's broken, either you fix it, or just say that you can't fix it for this years event because of some reason that is at least valid and/or honest.

I consider "there will be another chance next year" to be pretty decent. It's pretty common for events to have some kind of problem that prevents people from getting some stuff during the event -- after all, none of these events have ever been run before! A solution of the form "there will be a future opportunity to get that title or achievement" is all I was looking for.

[zansidhe]

Honestly, Elrar, that sounds like a big write off to the low pop servers. It sounds like, well, maybe you should transfer your character to a higher pop server, nah, nah, nah. I spent multiple hours a day grinding the mats to try and get three turn ins a day per my guardian characters on Silkweb, but there just weren't enough people doing the same. Then to look on the AH and see all these mats for sale it was a slap in the face. Make the mats tradeable, sure, but don't let jerks sell them to prey on people desperate to participate in the event and finish.

I'm frustrated right now because over all my characters I turned in near a thousand pieces, spent a ridiculous amount of my time trying to help out, but basically am told I can try again in a year. Not cool. I don't know how much more of my time I should've wasted on this event, but I'm feeling a bit like I got slapped in the face. Thank you for telling me my participation wasn't worth it.

[MajorMelchett]

I consider "there will be another chance next year" to be pretty decent. It's pretty common for events to have some kind of problem that prevents people from getting some stuff during the event -- after all, none of these events have ever been run before! A solution of the form "there will be a future opportunity to get that title or achievement" is all I was looking for.

But preventing entire servers from getting something during the events?, that's what's going on here. It's not like it's a few people, it's entire low population servers that are loosing out on it.

I don't think it's decent at all to say "there will be another chance next year", everyone should have had an equal chance to get the titles this year. Anyone could have seen this coming, because having the same server wide target for different sized servers was never going to work.

I'm not trying to come of as rude (for the most part i really like the game), i just find the responce to be not good enough or fair at all.

[zansidhe]

Álso the slightly condescending "dont expect to get them without any effort!" also does wonders to build trust with an adult player base.

Further, it pretty much reads as the high pop servers didn't have to work, but you low pop servers sure have to.

[Fleamaster]

I consider "there will be another chance next year" to be pretty decent. It's pretty common for events to have some kind of problem that prevents people from getting some stuff during the event -- after all, none of these events have ever been run before! A solution of the form "there will be a future opportunity to get that title or achievement" is all I was looking for.

I think you will find that a majority of players on low population servers would disagree with you and rather feel this is incredibly disappointing, especially when they put a lot of hours trying to grind their server to completion before slowly realizing it's quite impossible.

[MajorMelchett]

Further, it pretty much reads as the high pop servers didn't have to work, but you low pop servers sure have to.

I'm gonna point out how bad it is, i turned in 1 quest ONCE (the butchering one) collecting a grand total of 40 hides throughout Phase 1, and i'm gonna get the title.

The title quest/quests should have been set personal goals IMO), something like collect 500 items for the event, this way everyone would have had a fair chance regardless of server population. Or the amount should have been based on the number of people on each server.

[Elrar]

Hey guys,

Let me be clear - we absolutely understand the difference between lighter population shards that have difficulty meeting the requirements vs. those who have the people but just aren't motivated to complete the challenge.

You are by no means in the same boat and it's the concern about the way in which these objectives scale that we are watching very closely.

This is our first time running a series of bonus challenges like this, rest assured we'll be learning from this experience and applying it to future development - your opinion and efforts in-game thus far absolutely matter to us here, and is 100% not falling on deaf ears.

Hope that clarifies my original response - Thanks guys!