That Everquest magic recaptured

[SamwiseRed]

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

It's like painting a Picasso, then showing it to someone for 3 seconds before pulling it away, depriving the viewer of it's intricacies.

drugs?

[Jazzy]

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

drugs?

lol, love spotting other red players droppin bombs on blue forums


how u doin sammy?

[Braknar]

This year, the event ran 7-8 hours, which I think was a great stretch and roughly what I had planned (last year I think it was 3 hours or so). The give and take here is with really good rewards, we want to only have it live for a smaller slice of time to mitigate some of the farming that has been mentioned. So if we did a longer lasting event, the rewards would of course have to be lessened dramatically.

On the note of getting some of the community to help with events, sadly, we really can't have that for much the same reason SOE/DBG can't use their community to come up with events. If we work with a player on something, there's always that chance they will tell their friends, or even innocently let some detail slip then giving an advantage to people. For this event I told no one anything. The ONLY staff that even knew anything about this was Sirken, Nilbog, Rogean and myself. Not even the guides knew much more about it other than what you all knew.

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the clues, it took me an absurd amount of time to just come up with the clues, mob locations, dialog, etc (and I still had some lore mistakes in there, sorry!). I put in a LOT more time this year than last and it looks like it was well worth the effort. Hell, I put in 1.5 weeks just in testing the thing. I started working on this event on Sept 1st.

I can't say when/if we'll have more events, only that this experience has definitely got me thinking more about what other events I could write up. Likely less massive/server wide affairs, but some smaller, special, level specific events.

[Expediency]

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

On the note of getting some of the community to help with events, sadly, we really can't have that for much the same reason SOE/DBG can't use their community to come up with events. If we work with a player on something, there's always that chance they will tell their friends, or even innocently let some detail slip then giving an advantage to people. For this event I told no one anything. The ONLY staff that even knew anything about this was Sirken, Nilbog, Rogean and myself. Not even the guides knew much more about it other than what you all knew.

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the clues, it took me an absurd amount of time to just come up with the clues, mob locations, dialog, etc (and I still had some lore mistakes in there, sorry!). I put in a LOT more time this year than last and it looks like it was well worth the effort. Hell, I put in 1.5 weeks just in testing the thing. I started working on this event on Sept 1st.

There's got to be a way to crowdsource at least some of this work in a way that doesnt lead to competitive advantages to save you some work. As I'm sure you are aware there is a small group of people who try to do events every few months, as well as some lone wolves who run their own events. (example: https://www.project1999.com/forums/s...d.php?t=255861 a very well done player quest with two quest lines )

Is there no way that players could somehow help you by sending in clues and/or dialog? If you had several submissions, by the time you put your own twists on them and/or used material from two or three sources, the advantage of cheaters would greatly diminish.

[Braknar]

I mean, we could do that but even in crowdsourcing clues some of the mystery of the event would be revealed ahead of time.

For instance, if I had asked people to give me clues/hints about scattered NPCs across Norrath, everyone would have started knowing this event was a NPC scavenger hunt. Sure I'm sure some already suspected as such from last year, but if I specifically asked for that, it would be known for sure.

I will try to see if I can come up with ways to obfuscate things or ways people could help but right now I can't really think of much.

[skarlorn]

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

Likely less massive/server wide affairs, but some smaller, special, level specific events.

I think this is a great idea, Brak. Smaller stuff takes so much less time on your end and casuals and lowbies would love it.

I hear what you're saying about the difficulties if you crowdsource writing. But, you could still do it, even if you were only to get people to help you out writing characters and dialogue. Furthermore, I'm sure there are at least a couple of people who would do it under the premise of non-disclosure to preserve the integrity of the events. If you ever do something like this, I'd apply :-)

[Lhancelot]

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

I think this is a great idea, Brak. Smaller stuff takes so much less time on your end and casuals and lowbies would love it.

I hear what you're saying about the difficulties if you crowdsource writing. But, you could still do it, even if you were only to get people to help you out writing characters and dialogue. Furthermore, I'm sure there are at least a couple of people who would do it under the premise of non-disclosure to preserve the integrity of the events. If you ever do something like this, I'd apply :-)

I had both you and MM in mind when I mentioned people in the community helping with some of the writing etc. Sneaksy would be good too, forgot about Sneaksy. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Braknar]

I mean, the event was not 100% me. Nilbog wrote the boss script, Sirken helped with loot tables and some boss encounter adds speach, Rogean patched it all in and was on-hand for any issues during the event itself, and contributed (last year) to the code that allowed illusions to preserve on zone.

[Lhancelot]

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

I mean, the event was not 100% me. Nilbog wrote the boss script, Sirken helped with loot tables and some boss encounter adds speach, Rogean patched it all in and was on-hand for any issues during the event itself, and contributed (last year) to the code that allowed illusions to preserve on zone.

Didn't mean to leave anyone out, just didn't know who all contributed etc. It was a success and hope you guys do another one someday. Smaller events would be cool too, no doubt. Just saying. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[dbouya]

two subtle changes I suggest for next year.

1) If a player repeats old quest sentences make sure not to reset their progress, you broadcast that this was a bug I think halfway through the event? Anyone who fell victim to it was probably pretty sad. Quests in everquest are finnicky I know.

2) I think it was not clear from the text that partial completion was possible. I think more low level players would've tried for partial completion if they knew it was possible right away. Hearing about having to travel to a dangerous far away high level zone is disheartening to a level 5 character I imagine. However if they knew they could skip a couple of the hardest clues they might've been more likely to try and enjoy themselves? I myself might've skipped the journey to velious if I had known it wasn't required to get a reward. (lvl47).