Whispers from the Crypt – A Project 1999 Event

[Ekco]

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

but it barely felt like there was an event going on

can fix that by making it rain blood like in fear for the entire event or something, i remember seeing a GM turn that on in gfay for a event once

that's how i'd do an event, make it night in all the zones and raining blood while inny/ct shitpost in global for a week

2 spooky.

[htabdoolb]

I adventured in Lower Guk during the event, not really changing my routine much, and found that the Corrupted Body Parts only ever dropped off of named mobs or their PHs. The quest jewelry seemed to drop off anything and at a much higher rate than the parts, green con mobs or not, but only during a short period at the beginning.

I just turned in seven parts, all I have looted/quested during the event, and was illusioned twice, received two antiweight potions, a potion of unlife awareness, and got two Polished Fine Steel Mantles for my efforts.

The one mantle I got to keep, because the other poofed due to lore, was a MAGIC LORE NO DROP shoulder slot item for all races but only paladins. It gave +5 strength, +4 stamina, +20 hit points, and had 17 AC.. all for 1 weight on a item size SMALL. The icon was the standard leather shoulderpads. I would add it to the wiki, but apparently creating new items is a big pain in the ass, so I'll let Loramin do it if he wants.

Though it isn't quite over, I'd rate the event as a whole as a solid "meh" so far. The parts were a pain the ass to get, even after grinding for hours on high green/low blue named mobs. The one saving grace that would have allowed the average player to collect more of them, via the jewelry turn in quest, was disabled half way through for some reason. Supposedly new mobs are spawning related to the event, but I've only seen one so far when I was traveling through outdoor zones with my mid level ranger(via track), and someone else was already killing it when I got to it. None seemed to be spawning down in Lguk when I was playing, though.

The Polished Fine Steel Mantle I received was nice, and even a bit of an upgrade, but I honestly don't like event gear all that much as a concept. That brings a bit too much FOMO to EQ, as far as I'm concerned (play a whole bunch during the event, or miss out forever!).. and fuck that modern game skinner box exploitation crap with a rusty pipe. It's already bad enough that Rubicite and Manastones stopped dropping and that the Sleeper is dead forever. Please don't bring even more artificial scarcity to my old man video game museum experience.

[Blancah]

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

I adventured in Lower Guk during the event, not really changing my routine much, and found that the Corrupted Body Parts only ever dropped off of named mobs or their PHs. The quest jewelry seemed to drop off anything and at a much higher rate than the parts, green con mobs or not, but only during a short period at the beginning.

I just turned in seven parts, all I have looted/quested during the event, and was illusioned twice, received two antiweight potions, a potion of unlife awareness, and got two Polished Fine Steel Mantles for my efforts.

The one mantle I got to keep, because the other poofed due to lore, was a MAGIC LORE NO DROP shoulder slot item for all races but only paladins. It gave +5 strength, +4 stamina, +20 hit points, and had 17 AC.. all for 1 weight on a item size SMALL. The icon was the standard leather shoulderpads. I would add it to the wiki, but apparently creating new items is a big pain in the ass, so I'll let Loramin do it if he wants.

Though it isn't quite over, I'd rate the event as a whole as a solid "meh" so far. The parts were a pain the ass to get, even after grinding for hours on high green/low blue named mobs. The one saving grace that would have allowed the average player to collect more of them, via the jewelry turn in quest, was disabled half way through for some reason. Supposedly new mobs are spawning related to the event, but I've only seen one so far when I was traveling through outdoor zones with my mid level ranger(via track), and someone else was already killing it when I got to it. None seemed to be spawning down in Lguk when I was playing, though.

The Polished Fine Steel Mantle I received was nice, and even a bit of an upgrade, but I honestly don't like event gear all that much as a concept. That brings a bit too much FOMO to EQ, as far as I'm concerned (play a whole bunch during the event, or miss out forever!).. and fuck that modern game skinner box exploitation crap with a rusty pipe. It's already bad enough that Rubicite and Manastones stopped dropping and that the Sleeper is dead forever. Please don't bring even more artificial scarcity to my old man video game museum experience.

Please, if you or anyone else see an item that didn't make it onto the wiki from the event or otherwise, feel free to reach out to me as well. I try to update when/where I can.

I pulled a lot of the armor drops from the event from someone that collected a group image of the drops. I didn't have anything to go on for paladin, sk, or rangers and then only one rogue drop.

[1asdfasdf1]

I'm always happy to see GM events.

Suggestions for next time:

1. Higher drop rates. I'm guessing the intention was to provide better rewards for higher faction, but the drop rates didn't match that desire. I love XP grinding and put in probably 40 hours of it, and got maybe 5 corrupted body parts.

2. More desirable rewards. Getting an imp or skeleton reward is kind of cute, but it goes away as soon as you zone, and there were no turn-in NPCs in real XP zones (dungeons, WL, etc). A clarity or regen potion would be valuable.

[WarpathEQ]

Originally Posted by 1asdfasdf1 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm always happy to see GM events.

Suggestions for next time:

1. Higher drop rates. I'm guessing the intention was to provide better rewards for higher faction, but the drop rates didn't match that desire. I love XP grinding and put in probably 40 hours of it, and got maybe 5 corrupted body parts.

2. More desirable rewards. Getting an imp or skeleton reward is kind of cute, but it goes away as soon as you zone, and there were no turn-in NPCs in real XP zones (dungeons, WL, etc). A clarity or regen potion would be valuable.

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)

[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!

[Naxuda]

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!

[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!

[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