MTGPQ Sneak Peek: February 2019 Edition *Updated (2/20/19)

2

Comments

  • Brigby
    Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
    In the past, players have requested less of the The Return of the God-Pharaoh event, because it was so frequently scheduled; at one point, it was every other weekend! In this case though, the last time this event was run was back at the end of December; specifically the weekend of the 21st.

    This question should probably be its own thread, but for the sake of addressing this topic in a swift manner, are there any other variables as to why players aren't interested in playing this event?
  • ArielSira
    ArielSira Posts: 489 Mover and Shaker
    For me it's because it runs from Friday till Monday. If it ended on Sunday it would be a lot better already. I've heard others complain about having to continue quite a while beyond personal rewards so that's basically the same thing; the extra day isn't needed but drags it on.

    This is on top of the usual "Monday is a workday so can't play final charge"-issues people might have.
  • Wafflesauce
    Wafflesauce Posts: 49 Just Dropped In
    edited February 2019
    @Brigby

    The biggest 'variables' of RotGP that leaves a sour taste in my mouth is the variable end time of the event.

    Variable end times are very destructive towards highly competitive coalitions when paired up with the current refresh system.

    The refresh system of this game already strongly penalizes those of us who don't work and sleep according to the "Normal North American circadian rhythm." Events with an HP amount make this even worse by applying those effects to your entire player base, as well as potentially invalidating the efforts of hours upon hours of gameplay due to the event ending an hour after a refresh, and another group just happened to have more players active at that time. If the boss doesn't die, then you have it going into the standard work week on Monday, again disrupting many players that normally aren't disrupted.

    It has happened before. It will happen again if you don't eliminate boss HP events /or/ you could implement a better refresh system/give all charges up front. Last time it happened, it was the straw that broke me for stopping competitive play for some time.

    Do the smart thing. Don't run an event that disrupts and frustrates your most loyal customers (competitive players).

    Also, please consider changing the refresh system, as I have advocated and written into detail several times previously.
  • Opperstamper
    Opperstamper Posts: 142 Tile Toppler
    Roughly 6 months ago, in the july+august answers thread, we've gotten this answer address event end times:

    Is there any way to give us more time at the end of events to complete a final refresh? 6 hours (or less) is not too player friendly across the world.
    We are currently looking at this and other options, in order to allow players in different regions the chance to participate equally in events.

    Brigby, has this been on the agenda since then? Any follow up information? RotGP falls in the "or less" part of the question. 
  • boopers
    boopers Posts: 175 Tile Toppler
    I'll second the frustration that is the refresh system.  It does nothing for the player community to help us enjoy the game and coalition events.  Building your free time around a game just isn't possible for many, and as wafflesauce points out, impossible for many that live in time zones differing from the Americas.  Heck, some events are even difficult for west cost US players to play every charge.

    I can't think of a compelling reason to not give players all charges at the beginning of the event.
  • IM_CARLOS
    IM_CARLOS Posts: 640 Critical Contributor
    Where I can find the Tour de Ravnica rewards? Is there a thread anywhere in event section, or will be? 
  • Feden
    Feden Posts: 79 Match Maker

    As someone with a "Normal North American circadian rhythm," I have to chime in on a couple things here.

    First, we get screwed in plenty of events too, so I don't think pitting time zones against each other solves anything.  (EC and other events often require me to play between 11pm and 5am if I want to finish and plenty of boss coalition events have ended at awful times here as well.)

    Mostly though, the quoted "solution" worries me.  It reads to me as if they'd actually consider it a success if they scatter event times so it's equally bad for everyone.  The focus needs to be on extending the time for the last charge, which includes sufficient time for all to finish after a boss is defeated.

  • sjechua
    sjechua Posts: 173 Tile Toppler
    IM_CARLOS said:
    Where I can find the Tour de Ravnica rewards? Is there a thread anywhere in event section, or will be? 
    Here you go @IM_CARLOS
    https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/77407/tour-de-ravnica-tiered-rewards

    @Brigby
  • IM_CARLOS
    IM_CARLOS Posts: 640 Critical Contributor
    sjechua said:
    IM_CARLOS said:
    Where I can find the Tour de Ravnica rewards? Is there a thread anywhere in event section, or will be? 
    Here you go @IM_CARLOS
    https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/77407/tour-de-ravnica-tiered-rewards

    @Brigby
    Thx!
  • Wafflesauce
    Wafflesauce Posts: 49 Just Dropped In
    Feden said:

    As someone with a "Normal North American circadian rhythm," I have to chime in on a couple things here.

    First, we get screwed in plenty of events too, so I don't think pitting time zones against each other solves anything.  (EC and other events often require me to play between 11pm and 5am if I want to finish and plenty of boss coalition events have ended at awful times here as well.)

    Mostly though, the quoted "solution" worries me.  It reads to me as if they'd actually consider it a success if they scatter event times so it's equally bad for everyone.  The focus needs to be on extending the time for the last charge, which includes sufficient time for all to finish after a boss is defeated.

    I totally understand. I live in the Midwest, but my shift and sleep schedule is constantly changing, due to being a "fixer" of a 24/7 pharmaceutical plant, giving me an insightful to international players. The refresh system definitely does affect everyone,  but competitive coalition events are consistently biased towards "the average American."

    I definitely do not think that the event timings should be shifted around so that different groups should be disparagingly rotated.

    Anyone who wants to see the past discussions can check out my relatively short post history, but there are 2 primary viable solutions proposed:
    1) Increase the amount of time between the last charge and event end to 10 hours or more. 

    2) Give players all charges up front and let them complete the competitive event at their own pace. 
  • Laeuftbeidir
    Laeuftbeidir Posts: 1,841 Chairperson of the Boards
    Brigby said:
    In the past, players have requested less of the The Return of the God-Pharaoh event, because it was so frequently scheduled; at one point, it was every other weekend! In this case though, the last time this event was run was back at the end of December; specifically the weekend of the 21st.

    This question should probably be its own thread, but for the sake of addressing this topic in a swift manner, are there any other variables as to why players aren't interested in playing this event?


    The problem with all the HOU events is firstly that we're oversaturated. We have seen HoR + RotGP + HoD over 60 times overall. They're followed by the amk events that we haven't seen in ages, but still surpass all Oktagon events in times played. Nothing you've got on your list has the chance to feel fresh since there's nothing new. Scheduling this event every two months is still too much after 25 runs.. But I agree that you need to throw out in the mix since it's working and you don't want us to feel the same about the new events.Personally,  my top reason.. I'm tired of an event that was not really enjoyable a year ago and find it annoying /lazy to not develop new events or at least to recycle other existing events.

    Also, the thing with the random event ending time.. Just schedule the timer for Sunday and give it 40mio health or follow any of the communities ideas to make it more interesting.

    A perfect schedule for me would follow a three week plan. The first week would have a pvp or a pve coalition event from the latest set, followed by an event from any standard set (switching regularly) followed by an old legacy event every third week. 

  • Feden
    Feden Posts: 79 Match Maker

    Anyone who wants to see the past discussions can check out my relatively short post history, but there are 2 primary viable solutions proposed:
    1) Increase the amount of time between the last charge and event end to 10 hours or more. 

    2) Give players all charges up front and let them complete the competitive event at their own pace. 

    Completely agree/sorry for some of my wording.  I really see them botching a solution, so that's where my negativity was supposed to be directed.  I'm amazed it's stayed this way for my 1 year, let alone all 3 or however many.

    Though I do play well and nearly every meaningful charge, I am still trying to stay casual, so most events are about as important for me.  However, I definitely get others focus on coalition event timing and missed that many (most?) do benefit me.

  • GrizzoMtGPQ
    GrizzoMtGPQ Posts: 776 Critical Contributor
    @Brigby any update here on switching out the HATED ROTGP for something else like TDW? Could we see the March schedule? Any chance we could get a couple mid-week coalition events in March?
  • UweTellkampf
    UweTellkampf Posts: 376 Mover and Shaker
    oh dear god please no rotgp
  • BATMAN1
    BATMAN1 Posts: 146 Tile Toppler
    Let’s take a different approach instead of you asking the player base why it hates this event, which happens almost every time it’s scheduled. You tell us why it’s being scheduled? Why ROGTP over the other 20 plus events you have in your back pocket?

    Because the player base will always tell you how we feel, but I think it would be more impactful to hear what the devs or scheduler thought process was for putting ROGTP on deck again. 
  • Brigby
    Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
    BATMAN1 said:
    Let’s take a different approach instead of you asking the player base why it hates this event, which happens almost every time it’s scheduled. You tell us why it’s being scheduled? Why ROGTP over the other 20 plus events you have in your back pocket?

    Because the player base will always tell you how we feel, but I think it would be more impactful to hear what the devs or scheduler thought process was for putting ROGTP on deck again. 
    Sure! Keep in mind I'm no developer, but I do have limited access to some information that might help explain the scheduling decision.

    The first point of data I'd like to reference is player sentiment. It's clear that players on the forum aren't exactly excited about another run of the event. Based on our 2018 survey results though, RotGP is actually the second most favorite PvE event among overall players. The number 1 answer was The Journey Through History events.

    The second point of data I'd like to reference is the past event schedule. By going through the event schedule all the way back until the last time RotGP was run (12/21/18), we find that this was the order in which we ran the major events (not counting daily events, like Training Grounds):
    1. Return of the God-Pharaoh
    2. Holiday Showdown
    3. Trial of Ambition
    4. The Long Cold Darkness
    5. The Phyrexian Compleation
    6. A World Reborn
    7. Holiday Showdown
    8. Nodes of Power
    9. A Nightmare of War
    10. The Space-Time Catastrophe
    11. Hour of Devastation
    12. Holiday Showdown
    13. Emrakul's Corruption
    14. Oath of the Gatewatch: Pt 1
    15. Across Ixalan
    16. Oath of the Gatewatch: Pt 2
    17. The Dragon War
    18. Fate is Rarely Fair
    19. Fateful Showdown
    20. Race to Orazca
    21. Zendikar Vs Eldrazi
    22. Nodes of Power
    23. Across Ixalan
    24. Avacyn's Madness
    25. Tour de Ravnica
    26. Terrors in the Shadows
    27. The Long Cold Darkness
    28. The Phyrexian Compleation
    29. The Dragon War
    30. Emrakul's Corruption
    31. A Nightmare of War
    32. The Space-Time Catastrophe
    33. Across Ixalan
    34. Battle of Four Tribes: Pt 1
    35. Trial of Ambition
    36. Revolt Against the Consulate
    37. Angel's Embrace
    38. Nodes of Power
    39. Battle of Four Tribes: Pt 2
    40. Emrakul's Corruption
    41. Fateful Showdown
    42. Tour de Ravnica
    43. Hour of Revelation
    44. Terrors in the Shadows
    45. Oath of the Gatewatch: Pt 1
    46. Oath of the  Gatewatch: Pt 2
    47. Return of the God-Pharaoh
    Here are the number of times every event was played in between the two occurrences of Return of the God Pharaoh:

    3 Times
    • Holiday Showdown
    • Nodes of Power
    • Emrakul's Corruption
    • Across Ixalan
    2 Times
    • Trial of Ambition
    • The Long Cold Darkness
    • The Phyrexian Compleation
    • A Nightmare of War
    • The Space-Time Catastrophe
    • Oath of the Gatewatch: Pt 1
    • Oath of the Gatewatch: Pt 2
    • The Dragon War
    • Fateful Showdown
    • Tour de Ravnica
    • Terrors in the Shadows
    1 Time
    • A World Reborn
    • Hour of Devastation
    • Fate is Rarely Fair
    • Race to Orazca
    • Zendikar vs Eldrazi
    • Avacyn's Madness
    • Battle of Four Tribes: Pt 1
    • Revolt Against the Consulate
    • Angel's Embrace: 1x
    • Battle of Four Tribes: Pt 2
    • Hour of Revelation
    Based on this information, it would appear that the team had ran 26 other unique events before re-running Return of the God-Pharaoh.
  • BATMAN1
    BATMAN1 Posts: 146 Tile Toppler
    Yea. although that seems like a wide breadth of events @sjechua points to the truth only the coalition events really matter here which would be HOR, BOFT 1&2, AM, RTO, HOD, TDW. Most of them have only been run once so I believe there was other events that could have been booted up. What ever happened to trial of zeal?