Avacyn's Madness

shteev

Y'all waiting for me to star this topic are you? Fine...

This was a bad event. Expectations were high for something new, the last patch was a good step in the right direction for the game and graphics of event screens whetted people's appetite for Avacyn destruction.

The reailty was very different. Once again we got little to no information about what we were doing as we launched into the event, which caused a lot of bad feeling as people speculated about how we might have to spend all of our time in the next week playing the game instead of eating and sleeping. Yes, we, the player base, really do think that little of you that we thought that was a possibility.

Did we only have to get the objectives once? When the nodes respawned it seemed like that was the case, as the objectives we had in the last game were already ticked off. This brilliantly lulled some people into a false sense of security, thinking that they only had to clear out each level one time over the course of the next week, so they could get on with having a job, or looking after their children. Little did these poor saps know that the checkmarks over the objectives were a cunning decoy... they could all be scored again for extra points! Psyche!!

While their guard was down, players like me with no lives struck a merciless blow, grinding out all of our games as quickly as possible and ending the event before anyone realised what was going on. Avacyn died (because obviously her hitpoints were shared between coalitions. Why would anyone think otherwise?), and the grinders were rewarded with an outlandish number of ribbons for their coalitions. I've shot up to #2 from about #10 in my coalition because the points for the event were skewed so high. Shouldn't all events carry at least a similar amount of weight to each other?

Nothing innovative was going on here. It was just a standard PvE even with a timer on it that nobody knew the workings of.

Secondary objectives are even more hateful in PvE than they are in PvP, since once you've played against a deck once you know everything it can do. You're reduced to just sitting around with a hand of spells full of mana just counting to 4, or 5, or 8, or whatever. Killing your own creatures because you can't rely on the AI to do it for you and then cursing the name of each level designer individually when the AI wakes up and starts killing your creatures off after all when you just want to FINISH THE DAMN LEVEL NOW. I COULD HAVE WON 10 MINUTES AGO.

Also lockups and freezes. Still. Bleh.

How did YOU feel about Avacyn's Madness?

majincob

At least it wasn't the 7 day grind-fest it briefly looked like. I considered putting the game down for a week or so to see if I wouldn't be happier without it.

Gideon

Harsh shteev. I thought it was a good first step in coalition play.

bgqtony

I was a little disappointed by it as well. I must have gone into the rules section three times to figure out how it was all supposed to work. I thought I had a week to work on it slowly (good because I have a job, life, etc...). I was pretty surprised this morning when it abruptly ended. I had only gotten about halfway through the progression rewards.

jimilinho_

majincob wrote:

At least it wasn't the 7 day grind-fest it briefly looked like. I considered putting the game down for a week or so to see if I wouldn't be happier without it.

That's how I felt too.

Was frustrating as I think most of us would've stopped once we'd picked up all the individual rewards. If they do an event like this again It's probably best not to have coalitions competing against each other, doesn't really seem a need for it.

I don't want to be too critical as most of the recent changes have been great for the game, It was a good idea for an event and something a bit different, just not executed as well as it could've been.

Plastic

It's weird how just a little communication about the rules of the event could prevent so much frustration. Why even post that there will be a new event and not include the details that you KNOW we're going to ask for? It's half-assed, lazy ****.

I've been trying to be patient when it comes to the poor communication you have with the community, but after being disappointed so many times I think I'd rather invest my time in other games. Games with clear cut rules and definitions.

Rootbreaker

I think it would have been fine if they had explained how it worked in detail, but all we got were screenshots, the in-game UI, and a list of secondary objectives that turned out to be visible before we had to choose anything.

Some things that should have been made clear before the event started

-The event will end when Avacyn's HP gets to 0%
-Each of the five nodes works like a Nodes of Power node, in that it starts with 3 attempts, and the attempts start recharging after you've used your first one in each node. They're different in that the planeswalker you choose is not locked in. You can use any planeswalker you want.
-Each enemy has repeatable objectives that you can get every time you fight them.
-After you beat an enemy, you can fight the next one in that node (assuming you have attempts left) and beating the third enemy brings you back to the first one.

The UI checking off the objectives makes me think that maybe the 3rd point is a bug, but if not, it's definitely a terrible, misleading UI choice.

babar3355

I agree with much of what Shteev has said, mainly that I incorrectly was productive at work and took care of my child when I should have been grinding. But let me throw some suggestions out that could have made the event much more fun.

1. Have each Coalition fighting their own version of Avacyn... This seems really obvious to me.
2. Make it a race to who can take down Avacyn the quickest. (This is how coalitions are ranked)
3. Make Avacyn challenging but feasible by most guilds over time, and add an exclusive card as the prize (ie Westvale Abbey, Avacyn, or Startled Awake)... probably the Abbey as I doubt you want everyone having the mythics.
4. Don't make repeatable goals for each battle that are mutually exclusive. It's fine to make them non-repeatable and mutually exclusive.
5. Explain the event in at least some detail before the event starts.

I appreciate you guys trying, but this was a pretty big letdown. Did the community just shock you with their vigor, or did you mean for the event to take 21 hours?

Rootbreaker

babar3355 wrote:

I agree with much of what Shteev has said, mainly that I incorrectly was productive at work and took care of my child when I should have been grinding. But let me throw some suggestions out that could have made the event much more fun.

1. Have each Coalition fighting their own version of Avacyn... This seems really obvious to me.
2. Make it a race to who can take down Avacyn the quickest. (This is how coalitions are ranked)
3. Make Avacyn challenging but feasible by most guilds over time, and add an exclusive card as the prize (ie Westvale Abbey, Avacyn, or Startled Awake)... probably the Abbey as I doubt you want everyone having the mythics.
4. Don't make repeatable goals for each battle that are mutually exclusive. It's fine to make them non-repeatable and mutually exclusive.
5. Explain the event in at least some detail before the event starts.

I appreciate you guys trying, but this was a pretty big letdown. Did the community just shock you with their vigor, or did you mean for the event to take 21 hours?

I don't mind #4. It lets you fail taking a small amount of damage and to go for taking a large amount of damage as a fallback.

shteev

Rootbreaker wrote:

babar3355 wrote:

4. Don't make repeatable goals for each battle that are mutually exclusive. It's fine to make them non-repeatable and mutually exclusive.

I don't mind #4. It lets you fail taking a small amount of damage and to go for taking a large amount of damage as a fallback.

Agreed. Less objectives = less tedium.

Pqmtg-

I felt it was OK.

Things I didn't like about it :

-Bugs/freezing
-No clear indication that everyone was fighting the same boss
-Very misleading event duration timer


Things I liked :

-curved to allow new players to contribute to the coalition.
-objectives were shown before people had to commit to a planewalker


Shteev specific points to address :

-who cares about internal coalition rankings? Do people actually care?
-don't do the secondary objectives if you don't want to. Complaining you know what the AI is capable of, then being surprised at them killing your creatures is double dipping in the complaint box. Most secondary events were easy in any case and didn't require your exaggerated workarounds to fulfil.


I always knew the event would end for my coalition at least when the boss died. I was just upset the event would last a whole week and no new events might spawn. Did anyone really think they would have to fight the event after the boss hp went to 0?

shteev

Pqmtg- wrote:

Shteev specific points to address :

-who cares about internal coalition rankings? Do people actually care?
-don't do the secondary objectives if you don't want to. Complaining you know what the AI is capable of, then being surprised at them killing your creatures is double dipping in the complaint box. Most secondary events were easy in any case and didn't require your exaggerated workarounds to fulfil.

I thought I was a troll and everything I said didn't matter?

Internal coalition rankings, added up, make your external coalition ranking.

Yes, I am complaing about those two things.

Pestilence

It was fun while it lasted.
I really think it would be better for the vast majority of people if these events didn't start so early. Why start midday in the middle of the week? The timing on qb is great why not stick with that schedule?
I Don't get how a supposed 6 day battle went less than 24hr. I think it would have been much better if each coalition had their own boss to kill and win conditions be the first, second, third, etc. too take her down.

shteev

Pestilence wrote:

It was fun while it lasted.
I really think it would be better for the vast majority of people if these events didn't start so early. Why start midday in the middle of the week? The timing on qb is great why not stick with that schedule?

It's not great for me, they finish at 3am!

What I would say about the start of events is, why do the nodes have to start full? Why not start them half full, and give everyone 12 hours before they start losing potential games, rather than 4?

mouser

Anyone figure out what the total health on Avacyn was? I'm curious for coalitions that finished what % of their members hit the top progression reward.

Cragger

WHY. IS. IT. OVER?

Steeme

There have been several posts and suggestions about their current mechanic for event start times and node refreshes.

This event just highlights the glaring issue at hand.

The start time of the event was my bedtime. By the time I could sit down and start exhausting all my banked matches, it was already 14 hours after the event start time. I can't remember the exact number but Avacyn only had around 20% health remaining.

When I saw that, I had a feeling the event would be over when she reached 0%, but I was just looking for the progression rewards. I think I got 260 ribbons or so.

What a complete buzzkill that the event just ends like that. I mean I was only able to exhaust the initial matches banked. Not to mention, the only reason I was able to do that is because I don't have to work overtime right now. If I was working O/T I might have been able to get in a few matches here and there but get no reward for it.

Whatever. I consider the event a flop. I got something out of it but I don't even remember the experience. These kinds of events are supposed to be exciting and involving, and you're supposed to finish the event with some sense of accomplishment. I actually don't even feel like I participated.

JJMeadows3

It ended because the boss was killed.

The contest was fun and a nice change from their normal events. However, I really feel they made the boss too easy to defeat. The tournament was set to last for up to 6 days and Avacyn gets killed in one?

I only lost one battle and played the tournament the whole way but was unable to reach the full progression award (I fell about 4 points short) because I started at the easier battles and progressed upward (because I wanted to see what the easier battles were and to read the story text - and I like the challenge of trying to achieve all the objectives). It is a little frustrating that the event didn't last long enough for people to actually enjoy the campaigns and try to achieve objectives without running out of time to reach point goals.

The boss needs to be given more life next time so the challenge can last long enough for people to actually enjoy it!

Pacone

First things first this was a great update imo, bugs were fixed, cards balanced, and new coalition pve event was released. Excitement build up and we all went to merrily smack Avacyn over the head.

All those things made us bear with crashes, new bugs and lack of info. We are (sadly) used to that.

Problem? **** hp is shared by all coalitions???

If it was intended, why stablish six days duration? I am inclined to think it was not intended, no "team up with your fellow coalitioners against a big monster" feeling.

Then if it wasn't intended...zero testing was done. I am inclined to think this was the case (Seasons past infinite loop, anyone?).

Anyway my global experience with the event is positive, just spawn one Avacyn per coalition and we are set, just explain the rules more in detail next time and before release, please

ZW2007-

I feel like the biggest issue people have with it is that the event ended when the boss died. I think the best solution would be to keep the event active so people can continue trying to get the progression rewards but lock in coalition rankings and give rewards for that as soon as the boss dies. This way the competitive people can still grind it out early to keep their coalition in the top ranks and the more casual players will still have a chance at earning all the progression rewards. Plus it seems like a very easy change to make.

James13

No locking out progress rewards seems good to me. The fact everyone got locked out of progression rewards as soon as power players ran the event into the ground leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I only barely got my last reward before the event ended.

The event structure managed to actively punish casual players by locking them out for not playing fast enough (after presenting a supposed 6 day run time).

I understand there are always some bumps. I'm happy that the team is experimenting with different things here. I hope they read this feedback in the positive light it's intended.