Whispers from the Crypt – A Project 1999 Event

[Ekco]

rewards are faction based from turn ins i think i saw right? just pick up where you left off next year.

[Expediency]

Trip report:

I got zero body part drops, but did the ring/necklace/beads turn in twice, resulting in two body parts.

Turned them in just now at hammer hill and the first one got me turned into an imp. After taking pictures for posterity I turned in the second one and got a black sapphire.

I really like the special events they do. Body part drop rate was low, otherwise event was 10/10, would quest again

[DesterWindall]

Originally Posted by WarpathEQ [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

would be cool, although probably a technical challenge to have the illusions delivered as consumables instead of being instantly cast on you, especially since people often turn in multiple parts back to back meaning some of the illusion outcomes are wasted immediately (either did not take hold or overrode a different one). Not gonna lie I did enjoy a good 20 minutes of flying around Overthere as an IMP before it was time to leave the zone and head back to more farming. Would have been way cooler to farm as an IMP when I got back to my spot.

I think the rare drop rates were intentional as the potential prizes were beefed up quite a bit from last year (actual gear is available, and in some rare cases stuff that people will use long term i.e. +20sv all monk ring)

Yes - in addition to what you mentioned, the illusions also present potential gameplay issues. Changing your race in the game via the illusions can cause unintended consequences, such as being killed by guards for being that race.

We also did beef up the rewards a bit. Not giving away specifics, but there were over 75 items added into the randomness. Last year's prizes were the glowing scroll, which you then had to petition and ask a GM for a pre-hate item. Lots of feedback on that and from a CSR standpoint, it was difficult to get those rewards passed out and the rarity was very high on those.

But noted on the suggestions - we are always trying to improve for the next. If you noticed, our event chat was all in yellow this time instead of in shout/ooc, so we do learn!

[DesterWindall]

Originally Posted by Naxuda [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Please consider extending the event for another week. With some of the rewards being absolutely insane and a majority of the rewards being extremely weak - we simply need more time to be able to farm the event since the drop rate on body parts is so very low and the pool of rewards is massive. I've spent so many hours farming and have nothing to show for it and I know that there are so many people in the same boat as me. Thank you for the event!

With the items added, I would make a safe assumption that it wont be the absolute last time that they will be available. It's not as fun if everyone gets it - nothing to play for the next event!

[DesterWindall]

Originally Posted by Sirquestalot [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

+1 on a bit of disappointment over the scarcity of corrupted body parts, since I don't play a swarmkiting bard. But I do really appreciate the amount of thought and effort put into this event.

Just a thought, not sure how feasible it might be to code in, but in the spirit of the "museum piece" concept of the project, how about reviving this event, not yearly on the Earth calendar, but yearly as per the Norrathian calendar? Like the event would pop up for the October 31 - November 1 every Norrath year. Talk about the player base doing some insane math to determine when that's going to land and plan to play for those 2 hours and change, hoping for a drop and reward.

Not saying never, but that would take a lot of work, lol. We dont even have seasons in game =P

[Naxuda]

Originally Posted by DesterWindall [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

With the items added, I would make a safe assumption that it wont be the absolute last time that they will be available. It's not as fun if everyone gets it - nothing to play for the next event!

I didn't say hand it to me! I said I wanna farm the event more because the drop rates -- especially for people who've done the event legit instead of farming on level 1s-5s. We're talking I have 29 turn ins with many many hours of farming on a level 60 vs people who have multiple characters with many dozens of turn ins farming on a low level and swapping to loot.

Either way, thanks

[mcg3]

Thoroughly enjoyed this event. Probably my favorite P99 event to date - went super hard, and wound up with over 200 part turn ins across several toons - and spent a lot of time engaging with the content and speculating how the event worked.

A few bits of (hopefully) constructive feedback

• Consider level restrictions on global loot drops - In the last couple of events, it's generally been the optimal path to roll a level 1 toon and twink it out to maximize drops (swapping to loot on another toon).
  
  Moving to something like a level 40 minimum, or even a level 51 minimum (to encourage group play and include summoning mobs to discourage swarming) could prevent this - though you'd probably want to bump to drop rate to compensate.
  
  I understand this needs to be balanced with the desire to be inclusive of newer or lower level players, so maybe alternating styles between events could work.

• Reward Variance - Seeing 70 new items added to this server was an incredible treasure hunt - really appreciated all the work curating these. Some of the pieces (notably the monk ring and to a lesser extent the bard sword) caused people to really grind the event. I think chase rewards are an important component towards getting the hardcore players involved in event content - so kudos for adding these.
  
  I think what frustrated some players is the sheer RNG of the rewards and the feeling of getting no closer to getting a chase prize. Many lootbox based reward structures approach addressing this feeling with a "pity" system where you eventually build up enough "pity" to get a good prize on your next pull.
  
  Understanding implementing something like this is well out of scope for current development priorities - I do wonder if reusing the faction system could approximate it.
  
  Having two sets of reward tables for the quest - one for low faction (say less than 25) and one for higher faction (with better odds at items) could help more people walk away feeling satisfied with the event - unsure if this is achievable with the current tech
  

• Quest NPC Location - During the first phase, having an additional chronicler (specifically one near HH) would have helped nerf the innate advantage porter characters have in participating in the event. Having the sole chronicler be right next to a penitent cryptkeeper also meant there wasn't a meaningful choice in which side to take if you were grinding optimally.

• Phase 2 Mini Spawn Rate - Discovering where the minis were spawning, how they spawned and what they dropped was incredibly fun. Having the highest end of these minis become competitive is what made the event feel truly like a p99 event.
  
  What was a bit of a let down is overtime - a single tracker could and would lock down a zone for whisperers/nameds, which kind of let the air out of the tires a bit. As an alternative spawning mechanic to explore - having a mini spawn as a rare spawn upon killing any mob would be pretty exciting. Kill a level 40 froglok, a 1% chance a level 40 mini spawns from its corpse - though I imagine it might get some people killed.
  
  Alternatively, just boosting the spawn rates in phase 2 so more players could engage with the content simultaneously would have been good.

• Phase 2 Quest Letdown - Getting the parts to drop in phase 2 were really exciting and they are/were still very difficult to source. Having the reward be 2 body parts was a bit of a let down. Given the difficulty in getting these parts (and remoteness of the turn in location) - having either a unique one time ALL/ALL prize or just more body parts would have felt a bit better

Thanks again for all the thought and effort that went into this event - I continue to consider P99 events "must play" and will put on pause whatever else I happened to be working on in game to engage

[Medris]

The Halloween 2025 Event has now concluded across all P99 servers. We hope everyone had an incredible time! Check back later this evening when we will announce the winners of our raffle for a temporary title for characters who have turned in at least 10 Corrupted Body Parts to a given faction!

[Fingurs]

I had a great time -- Phase 1 of course was my favorite, and will forever be a fan. Accessible, clean, and grindy -- and you never know what you were gonna get!

That being said, I like stats so here are mine:

49 Bodyparts, across 6 characters.
3,411 kills.

16 Bodyparts were via 8 sets of Jewelry.

All of my killing was in Velketor's Labyrinth (great soundtrack!) on level 60 characters. I never did the swarming -- although obviously that was by far the most efficient/last painful, but I didnt care. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Look forward to the next event. This was the best one by far.

Kudos.

[Awweshux]

My 2cp:

I was interested an engaged for the most part. The first day was way fun coordinating with guildmates. The second day nerf was annoying. After that, and when it became clear that the body parts drop rate was so much less, I tried to puzzle out some hints in the text and that's what had me try Erud's Crossing - there was somethig about an Erudite at a place with fallen stones. Having farmed some thin bone wands in the past, I thought to go there. It panned out. It was very exciting to kill a named greenie there and get both fragments. It was entirely deflating to do the turn in and receive only a note and two body parts.
I spent the rest of the time farming in Erud's Crossing. Anyone need a thinbonewand lmk, heh. Got two more rounds of both fragments and both turn ins returned only body parts and lore note. Disappointing. I still wonder if fragments from higher level mobs would provide better rewards. Anyone know?
Finally, I feel like the event was fun but the text ultimately made no real sense (that i could figure out) and those folks who thought it sounded like AI blather, well, I guess I agree. Too bad. I'd love to see a debrief to let us know what we missed - I'm hoping there was loads more to know. It feels incomplete somehow, lore wise. <3 Eschew