Halloween Event and the New Loot Locking

[ShieldBreaker]

The new loot locking system came in March 25 this year, so this will be the first Halloween that it is in effect for the event. If the event is similar to previous ones, how is this going to work? Is it going to be tweaked for the event or what? What is your opinion on what will happen? Do you see this working out?

[Tagamogi]

Well, if you really just want random uninformed speculation: I don't think there will be many changes to the Halloween event this year since Citan's been busy with the new UI. I'll assume we'll keep the random key drops from assorted world mobs but I've no idea if the main event will remain or how it can be community fun with the new loot lock system... I can't really think of an easy tweak that will work with the loot lock. Maybe it will just stay the way it was and the first player to tag will win the loot?

I don't know, I sort of hated the loot frenzy of the last event, so I figure anything this year will be better. ;) My problem with the event before was that whenever I logged in, literally the best use of my time would be to wait around for the next event mob to show up and die, so I could loot it, and that got boring pretty fast. I hung around long enough to get all the available notoriety on 3 characters and get bat-diseased on my main, and then I pretty much avoided logging in during the rest of the event. I opened a few chests, but I think I still got 25 universal event keys sitting around somewhere... It just seemed like way more loot than was actually fun to me.

[ShieldBreaker]

I'm all for random uninformed speculation, it is fun speculating. I worried about the event, maybe it will actually be better with loot locks, but it won't be the same as before. And doesn't more loot always equal more fun? :)

[Tagamogi]

I'm all for random uninformed speculation, it is fun speculating. I worried about the event, maybe it will actually be better with loot locks, but it won't be the same as before. And doesn't more loot always equal more fun? :)

Sorry, more loot = more stuff in my inventory = more stuff I have to make decisions about = an overwhelming problem. ;) Oh well, tastes differ.

Of course, Citan could also use the Halloween event to test a new open loot system he's been thinking about for the druid events. (Just making up stuff out of thin air here.) Or maybe there will a giant bat NPC hanging out permanently in the middle of Serbule, who will send you on near-impossible Halloween-themed quests. Or maybe you can go trick or treating with the bat every few hours, and if it likes your current costume, you'll get a treat and if it doesn't like your outfit, it'll bite you and turn you into a bat...

Ok, how's that for random speculation? ;)

[ShieldBreaker]

Yes, very good wild speculation, top notch. Testing an new event loot system would be a cool outcome. The other ideas are good, maybe they will be jotted down, and used in future years.

[Crissa]

I kinda liked it. I was nearly all red with Legacy gear last Halloween so the keys were like mana from heaven.

[Khaylara]

I am hoping we get a new type of event...or at least that the summoning bosses part is removed if there's no time to create a new event. It was kinda understandable last year because of the legacy situation but -regardless of the loot system - I hope it's removed this year.
Some pumpkin seeds added to mobs and maybe some white "costume" pieces of gear would be nice (like a witch hat). And a recipe for pumpkin spice latte

[Crissa]

I hope that event mobs don't suffer the same problem that the druid mobs do with tag and slack.

[Tagamogi]

Some pumpkin seeds added to mobs and maybe some white "costume" pieces of gear would be nice (like a witch hat). And a recipe for pumpkin spice latte

That would be fun (well, minus the disgusting coffee part ;) But fine, as long as you don't wave your nasty-smelling cup under my nose, you can have your pumpkin-spice latte. ) Oh, hm, we do already have a candy apple recipe in game now, so we can make our own Halloween treats.

I assume costume pieces are pretty far down the dev priority list, but I'd love to have some. Witch hats are great, and I'm very fond of giant pumpkin head hats too. Now, those pumpkin hats could be non-white items with great base stats, so players would have to decide whether having the best available gear is worth looking like a pumpkin head for the next few months. Or maybe that would be too mean. :p

[Khaylara]

I had a squid hat lol...for almost a year. Also never had a pumpkin spice latte , Starbucks doesn't have it in my country so I want one;)

[Crissa]

Latte doesn't actually have coffee in it? It means 'milk'. It's a style of coffee, but if you just order latte without any shots of espresso, you get a cup of steamed milk. Of course, most places default to one shot, but literally it's just hot milk with something else in it.

Milk tea doesn't use the 'latte' word because it's from Asia, not Italy; not because a Matcha Latte wouldn't make sense (it would).

...And apologies for being waaay to geeky about coffee house drinks... x-x One of the first bots I wrote was an espresso stand. And well, I grew up outside of Seattle before Starbucks had edited the legs from their siren logo.

[Tagamogi]

I had a squid hat lol...for almost a year.

Oooh now that may be even more epic than a pumpkin hat. Where did you get it? Is it still in the game?

Crissa - thanks for the explanation. I assumed it would be coffee, but if it's just milk, I'll stop feeling sorry for the poor pumpkin spice then. :) I find the smell of coffee usually rather nauseating, so I tend to walk the opposite direction whenever I spot a Starbucks or just someone holding what looks like a coffee cup and I'm not particularly up to date on what's involved in all these drinks.

[Khaylara]

It's called Empusa's mask (Empusa was a Halloween boss). It's a squid face:(

[ShieldBreaker]

It's called Empusa's mask (Empusa was a Halloween boss). It's a squid face:(

Isn't that similar to the look of the Pask Helm?

[Crissa]

Most people like the smell of coffee, but fewer people like the taste.

If you don't like the scent, avoid 'cold brew' or 'nitrous/nitro brew' coffee, then. It's a method of brewing coffee using cold water and pressurizing the vessel with nitrous oxide; it extracts the oils without taking as much of the alkaloids so it's not as bitter - and tastes like it smells. Well, if it's done right. And it's pretty high in caffeine, as a low pressure version of this is how they make decaffeinated beans! Caffeine is super water soluble, but the coffee flavor is actually not, hence needing hot water (or pressure) to make it.

...Uhh... You know I don't actually drink the stuff either?

[Khaylara]

It's similar yup, might be identical idk:) I only wore a Pask helm with the whole lobster outfit which makes it look slightly different.

[drivendawn]

Yeah, I hope the halloween event is different this year but at the same time hope the rewards are similar. As for the squid hat I believe it was the same as the general's maybe just different color.

[Citan]

I think it was generally agreed that last years' event was WAY too much of a good thing. Just way too much loot -- some players ended up with literally hundreds of pieces of high-tier gear. And the Halloween event we had years prior was a bit too cruel to newbies: "town invasions" where Serbule was overrun by monsters. Some players liked it, but others were very frustrated by it.

So I've taken a couple days off of the UI polishing to cook up something new this year. It's not going to be super huge, obviously, but we have some new tech since last year, and some fun little things laying around which I haven't found a use for in the past. I'm actually working on it right now, hoping to get it live on Monday.

Hopefully it'll be a fun new direction for seasonal events. And if it doesn't work out, well... it's alpha, the time for experiments, and we'll try something else next time!

[ShieldBreaker]

Can't wait to see what you've got cooked up. :D

[drivendawn]

Nice, really looking forward to it. :)