News

Posted on: Mon Oct 10, 2016 9:51pm

@DrunkConquistador (#64472) ~ Woops failed at pinging.

Posted on: Mon Oct 10, 2016 9:52pm

DrunkConquistador (#64472) ~ Ok does this ping work .-. (eesh I'm fuzzy headed and tired from being sick and horridly fail at pinging apparently)

Posted on: Mon Oct 10, 2016 10:49pm

🍬Catching up 🎃 (#489) "if you don't like, don't play" doesn't apply when hard-earned currency is involved.

If you had been open with how much of a gamble it was from the start, heck yeah that would apply, and even be a nice BP sink, but you didn't. Going "tee hee hee, it's a mystery~~" only works when players aren't risking time and effort and money. Players trusted the staff that the solution could be something like "do good karma and you'll be able to not lose all your work", which works as a great way to get BP out of the system! However this is more of a "HA HA SUCKERS, THE TRICK IS ON YOU"

Which nah, I'm gonna be salty about that. Sorry not sorry.

Posted on: Mon Oct 10, 2016 11:31pm

dang i'm impressed with ya'll who stuck through it. i just shriveled up after losing over 500ish candies. :3c <#

Posted on: Mon Oct 10, 2016 11:37pm

I'm sorry you feel that way, but the event was intended to be a brain-scratcher from the start. We thought users would catch on to there being something more going on than appears, and would group together to solve it. We didn't expect it to take so long for people to do this, or we would have been more explicit with the hints. I reiterate that I am very proud of the people that did group together and figure it out, and hope that in the future people won't expect an event or feature to be simple clicking - exactly as we've been asked to do for years.

Posted on: Tue Oct 11, 2016 12:13am

That's the thing though, in the end after the mystery is solved... it's still simple clicking. It's clicking to get the candy, and then clicking more if your karma gets flipped to offset the balance. but now instead of clicking 20 times, you're clicking 40 (or the all at once button), and because of random chance all that effort could be wasted right after you clear the last deficit out, or even in the middle.

the idea of "have good karma and everything will be fine" still has risk from the npcs who'll snatch a bit here and there (which as is can add up. I've been hit by them three times in a row once and got wiped out... just AFTER the friggin faminepony swiped what i had the first time). if you want this level of risk without warning, you should have had it that if the number the npc wiped out was great enough, you'd at least get an item that matched the hard work you'd put in until that point, or even that there were npcs who gave stuff appear at a higher frequency until the karma went into the positive.

"but that defeats the idea of karma!" well, so does the npc that switches things without warning, or even an indicator saying what level of karma you're at. this one mechanic invalidates another mechanic.

Look, trying something new is commendable, but there's a couple of things it boils down to here. The first is that- guess what, people are going to talk about the thing the news post is addressing in the news post, even if it's not positive. It may hurt that your project is getting crit, but we wouldn't improve without feedback and that feedback is going to be a bit skewed towards the flaws when you take peoples' work and the "answer" is that they can't really do much about it.

Secondly, take a look at game design- i mean in the sense of look how other games that aren't casino-style handle player compensation over time and difficulty in curve/risk. there'd be a lot less upset if players got something for their trouble when their scores get wiped out, and if that item was in proportion to how many points were snatched. also even with a mystery, clues are important, as well as what information you get after the puzzle has been solved. a karma indicator would have worked nicely for both.

Lastly, in the end you can blame the playerbase for not embracing the "fun puzzle aspect" of the game and go back to simple all-clicking adventures, or you could use it as an opportunity to see what worked, what didn't, and use that info to make better, more polished events in the future. that's always going to be a choice you and staff will have facing any community response.

Posted on: Tue Oct 11, 2016 2:13am

Ah, good to know, because I lost roughly 150 candy to him-er her, in 48 hrs >~>
~CKat

Posted on: Tue Oct 11, 2016 2:14am

Unpopular opinions aside, Prince and myself have really enjoyed Trick or Treating this year. It's been so refreshing to see that the staff have made such a big effort to spice things up this year. The fact they've tied so many things together and put in so much "stuff" to do... That's an impressive feat on its own. In the four plus years that Prince and myself have been on this site, we haven't had this much fun since the Apocalypse Hounds event. So for that, Kaiyo, Rudy, Yasu, Hiiro and whomever else put in their time to do this, well done. You've done such a good job, despite what is said. Take comfort in the fact that you've made something interesting out of an idea which is recycled yearly.

To address the ever delightful incoming stream of hate that's directed at the staff, first of all, can you calm down and think rationally for a moment? To address you specifically Conium, you've missed an integral point. I agree with a lot of what you have said (I personally thought Aktech was a bit too punishing, but that's something that can be worked on), but Aywas itself boils down to a statement that you have said: "it's still simple clicking."
There's a fine line between giving constructive criticism and allowing your anger to overshadow what you're saying, just keep that in mind.

I get it, you're all disappointed that it's not something wild and amazing, but you need to look at the big picture. First, there's only so much that a few staff can do within a set period of time. Secondly, you now have the Apocalypse Unus event, aside from just trick or treating alone. You have options. Thirdly, we were given hints daily. I believe the popular saying is "Too many cooks spoil the broth"? We overthought it, it's as simple as that. That's not the staff's fault.

What do you expect the staff to do with a game which is based upon grinding and mindless clicking? Frankly, they've done a good job. You can all be disappointed and that's all well and good, but can you at least congratulate the people that took their time and get this, NON-PHYSICAL money, to work out what the trick was so that you guys can go and get your candy with some peace of mind.

So congratulations to the staff, and I hope you guys take whatever feedback you have with grace. I'm sure you'll tweak things to make everything better for the events to come.

- TJ

Posted on: Tue Oct 11, 2016 3:09am

I think most people are deceived because the whole mystery and the thread title are in fact a trick: Aketch's not the problem, and you can't repel the real problem, Greta. So in the end, no matter how good or bad you play, you can get robbed of anything you've worked hard for in a flash.

The idea of ToT is great - I really liked it once I've made up my mind knocking on unknown people's doors - but since we don't even know what the prizes may be, working that hard (and taking time for it) without having a clear goal may seems too much for many of us. If you're gonna use the carrot and stick approach on us, please think of using the carrot a bit more next time... ;)

Posted on: Tue Oct 11, 2016 3:51am

Thank you, Kaiyo <3

I can't speak for everyone in that thread, but boy, I had a blast figuring it out. And you were right, now I'm sitting here, being like... it's so easy, why did we make it so complicated? xD

I personally don't get all the angry comments. Now everyone is safe to ToT without ever running into Aketch and people are still complaining. :(
If you don't know where you are right now with your karma, go treat 21 people at your door. If you were at max bad karma (-20), that puts you to +1. now knock, best one at a time, so you can react fast when you see Greta. If you meet her, she swaps your karma, so you are now at -1. Go treat 2 or more people and you are back in the positive.

The only thing you might need is a pen and a piece of paper to write down where you currently are and when you meet Greta. My piece of paper looks like this:

Treated 23 people +23
Met Greta -23
Treated 31 people +8

and so on. Pretty easy to keep track, once you set yourself at max bad or good karma. Remember max is 20 and 0 counts as negative! :) Have fun!