That Everquest magic recaptured

[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.