What makes a good event?

[DeletedUser113125]

There have been a number of complaints on the discussion thread for the Soccer Event. The leagues and changes to the league rewards seem to be a area of grievance. Looking back through threads the Acheology Event was generally liked but there were a number of complaints about the Carnival Event. Every event seems to have mixed reviews. What do people think makes an event enjoyable for them?

The Summer Events seem to be liked: https://forum.en.forgeofempires.com/index.php?threads/most-favorite-and-most-hated-event.37154/

Personally, I enjoyed the Summer Events, with the spinning wheel, but maybe this is because the first event I did in full and the Palace set seemed amazing. That and the wheel in 2017 seemed that it could be rigged by starting it at certain points.

Is it leagues that annoy people? Inno needs to make money and it needs people to spend diamonds. I see the leagues as extras I otherwise wouldn’t get so don’t mind not getting gold or silver. Even in my diamond mining cities, where I don’t do quests, I pick up some free fps from the lower leagues usually. Are events less enjoyable because you can see the effect of others spending diamonds? What do those players who get into gold league think about leagues? Does it make the event more enjoyable?

There are complaints if the event building doesn’t do enough or is too over powered. Is it better that you can only get one of the event building such as with the historical events, or the option to get multiple buildings like Mills or Winter Spires?

I like having a break between events. Time to do tech, re-organise my city, without worrying about having enough blacksmiths or production buildings of my age to complete quests. In your opinion are long events lasting a month or the shorter ones better?

I was just wondering what people think; if you have a few minutes please let me know. There is overlap with the previous thread although the impact of leagues wasn’t discussed.
@Agent327 if you want to refer to your reply on that thread please do so.

 

[DeletedUser115876]

I started playing FoE just before the Genghis Khan quest-line, so I haven't done many of the events.

My favourite so far was the Archaeology event - I enjoyed the mini-game aspect of it and the lack of a league table so you could progress at your own pace.

The issue with league tables, in my opinion, is that unless you use diamonds then you can't realistically hope to get to the top rankings and that, I would imagine, serves as a dis-incentive to participate. Totally understand that Inno are a business and there will always be a split between the casual gamers and the more 'hardcore' for want of a better word.

I didn't enjoy the Carnival event, as the mini-games were ridiculously weighted in terms of the % success factor. I would like to see the historical quest-lines come back for the shorter events and more mini-games in future events like the Archaeology.

 

[Agent327]

The problem with events is that they aim to please everyone and that it shouild be possible for everyone to complete them. Because of that there is no real challenge in them. You just go through the motions and do the event. No real fun and just another task. What makes it interesting are the prizes, but when those are not that great that will reflect on the event. Just look at the current event. At best you can get two altars without using diamonds. Not really that interesting, but the Tholos upgrades make up for that. Problem with that is that it has a big influence on the leauges, which makes a four part league a bad decission.

The archeology event was good, cause it was something new. Because it was a new setup, players forgot to complain about the onme thing they always complain about. Missing out on the daily prizes, because of the random chance. It does not help either that there are so many events.

Historical questlines actually were better. They only lasted a week and had a nice prize for completing them. If you did not like that. You could just skip them. That is harder to do with an event that lasts for three weeks. You sort of get sucked in.

 

[DeletedUser113125]

I agree with you @Agent327. I liked the short historical quest lines too. I would accept quests that I could not complete if I was not very active but I think that would upset a lot of players. There ought to be a challenge so completing feels more rewarding.

 

[Emberguard]

Only way to make it more challenging (and still have everyone able to complete everything) is to have both a easy and a hard option for each quest type with the easy version giving less currency or rewards.

What we have now for split quests is the same reward so there’s no point in doing the harder of two options as it’s the same result

 

[DeletedUser6065]

I can remember fondly the Summer Event as it used to be. The roulette wheel would offer 4 chances to win each prize, not just 4 chances at inferior prized and 1 chance at 'the good stuff'. And good prizes there were too. All combat barracks, premium buildings and the 'special building' prize. Sadly, Inno Development crew has managed to yet again 'improve' on something with an astounding lack of results. Indeed, I personally have not participated in the Summer Event for - what? - the last 3 years? No barracks, no premiums and again, only 1 chance at the good prize until someone 'refreshes' the wheel. And why should they?? For more garbage (spare me the blueprints and watchfires).
Why not try returning it as it was, and let the newer players see if they like it?
. . . mk

 

[ntnete0]

To me enjoyable even is the one that when it finishes you are glad you did it. Inno did start a good practice of at least giving people a chance of getting one fully upgraded Special Building and it was really nice ... also League system as it was with one big was in my opinion much better as even people that don't spend money and diamonds had a chance of a better prize ... now only some people will enjoy that ...
Also one thing i never liked was this aspect of gambling in a game ... do we really need that ??
I think there is a better way of doing this .. and also it would never hurt if % of chance go slightly higher!!!

 

[Cleverly8286]

What makes a fun event?
An event where some strategizing or puzzle solving can make a difference to the results.

What makes a boring event?
An event that can be completed with both eyes closed.

 

[DeletedUser]

My experiences of Events commenced with my joining FoE on 26/11/2017, halfway through the Halloween Event. Since then I've participated in all but Cleo and Napoleon, the rewards for those two simply didn't interest me sufficiently to engage. There is no way to please all of the Player Base but I do believe that a reasonable balance has been arrived at, via the variety of set-ups.
I work for the rewards I want and disregard the rest, as stated. I haven't had any Blacksmiths since I was in The Bronze Age because I prefer to produce greater volumes of Supplies and have invested sufficient FPs to earn the Expansions needed for such. I play a somewhat "Old School" game; that of the Power Producer and find it works well enough for me in general and helps me to do quite well in the various Events. When I first started, I did so with the intent of creating a Military/Industrial Complex with a high Population Density of the sort employed in the Real World. It works for me and sees me through the Events with, I feel, a reasonable degree of success.
Some Events feel better than others, some are interesting, some laborious and of course, some of the rewards appealing and worth the effort of both winning and siting. The Event Buildings float my boat, whilst the Sets don't. We're all of us, playing in way that suits our own mentalities and the Devs try as they might, design Events to suit us all, at least some of the time. This cannot of course, be done all of the time and that's how it is, like it or not.
The variations are a good way of giving us a little taste of what pleases us all, if not all every time, but Hell; what does!

 

[DeletedUser111934]

While the Soccer Event would not be one of my favorites it has been ok. Disappointed I missed out on the Tholos upgrade both times it was offered. However when a better event building is offered with better rewards I will just replace it with the better building. My favorite was last year's summer event where I got the Royal Ship. Happy with any event building that gives more fp per tile than SoK.

 

[Dead-Eye]

A nice juicy plunderable event building would be nice foe a change.

 

[DeletedUser117595]

What makes a good event? good question... I have started playing only just before the Archeology event... very new player I enjoyed Archeo very much, I don't completely dislike Soccer event. Here is my shot at it:

- Involvement with the event: Archeo was much more involved as there a puzzle part (how to optimize digging to uncover most artifacts and open efficient passages to further the map. Didn't required a PhD, yet made it fun) and then you click on the artifact to collect and/or get the reward (concept of separating play from reward collection). Compared to Soccer where there was virtually no puzzle involved (mostly chose the reward I want... not so many so easy choice) and you get the play AND the reward in the same click.

- rewards: there are 3 types: the Main Big Reward (hereafter MBR), the Daily Special (DS), and the reward from the action/move/shot/etc (AR).

1. about AR: nothing special to say, some are really good, some really bad, luck based, overall fine. Like the "categories" approach (eg for military reward you can get a range of military unit, etc. One can chose the theme but not the reward itself)
2. about DS: again ranges from bad to good ,which is fine although can be frustrating not knowing what is going to come next but part of the game so no pb with that. The really annoying one though is that, with my legendary luck, I usually get the DS when I don't want it, and don't get it when I want it!! I adapt (ie don't play at all when I don't want DS and cross fingers when I want it) but things may be modified (pay 20 diamonds to refuse the DS and get one of the normal reward instead, and if you play for ex. 10 times (depends on the event dynamic) without getting the DS, you can pay 20 diamonds for the DS instead of the normal reward on the 11th go.
3. about MBR: that is the really big thing that makes or brakes an event. World Fair: like it very much, maybe because it was my first special, but mainly because it gives good stuff RELIABLY (I know I get 10 fps and 2 goods of each every day, hence can plan with it, no frustration about bad draw). Altar: like it very much because it is small hence quite efficient, reliable again, and provides a CHOICE at highest level, hence I can chose the altar best fitted to my game play. About Summer event MBR, I don't like it at all, too big, unreliable, and no choice to fit my gameplay.

- competition reward, aka league reward etc (didn't add it to previous section as it is not always present). As you'd have understood by now, I played 1 event without such competition and 1 event with the leagues (named WL for Weekly Leagues), none withe overall single league (SL). As I understand the mechanisms, I largely favour WL over SL, simply because the weekly league provides an additional fun/strategic aspect to the event. The result of SL is based only on how much you pay and how lucky you are with incident that can give event currency, hence no control, no strategy, you know the outcome before the start of the event.... boring. With WL, as a f2p player, there are some options to attempt sniping a higher league result on 1 week. Compound that with choice to make about DS and that results in something quite interesting about game theory!

- leads me to the big NO NO of the soccer event: change the rules during the event! Ironically not too far off from the penalty/VAR change of rule in the middle of the Soccer world cup... might have been done on purpose after all to reflect the real event as much as possible?? No need for further explanation, if you don't get it, you're done within 5 years anyways.

Overall a good event is one which is fun and interesting to play and provides an attractive MBR. The easy part is to provide a good MBR: simply make it good value for money footprint wise, make it reliable (least random outcome, best it is) and provides more custom development choices to fit as many gameplay as possible (eg instead of simply choice at last lvl, could have a 1st choice at lvl 5 and further choice at lvl 10, or even 3/6/10... in short favour a modular approach to building design to please more players). The hard part is to make it fun and interesting! as I am neither fun nor interesting, not sure I can help with that part, but broadly make it less random/more strategic.

Biggest pb though, Inno, is your use of expectation. Your approach looks very much last century, you should read eg Kahneman, would help a lot with human psychology. Quick crude ex. if one say: "you may get 3 stuff" and result is getting only "2 stuff" that is very different from saying "you may get 1 stuff" and result is getting "2 stuff". In one case you have someone with "2 stuff" feeling like a loser, in the other you have someone with "2 stuff" feeling like a winner... think human nature, not **** economicus!

 

[Thomas Covenent]

Good example of how Leagues *should* work = Fall 2018 event
Why?
Because you had to rub a couple brain cells together to work your way into the Silver/Gold leagues.

While the 'gold' league was still basically a 'use diamonds' entry barrier, in general, anyone could've made it into silver without spending a single penny!
How? Quite simple really;
- make sure to swipe your city twice a day for incidents to earn some extra ingredients
- pick-up your 'free' daily log in bonus every day
- finish the full quest line
And then, when it came to spending your ingredients, it was simply a matter of making sure to always keep the 5 different ingredients as equal as possible!
Instead of choosing based on the DS% and/or what the individual basic rewards were, simply look for what you need to spend to keep your totals of each ingredient equal to each other.

I made it into silver league very easily doing so, and by the end of the event, I had just 1 or 2 lone ingredients left over.
On the other hand, people who just blindly clicked away and only paid attention to what the individual rewards of each recipe were, and/or went purely for highest number of *'s per recipe, royally screwed themselves over so hard!lol.

I *much* prefer tactical/thinking leagues vs. the BS like this soccer event, (duh, spend drinks hur-dur!), or the clusterfeth that was the royal RNG-screwage that was the carnival event.

Thinking leagues & events like the Archeology mini-game that reward intelligent play are what Inno should be aiming for IMHO...
Big spenders will always spend.
But making things rely more on thinking vs. just click-click-clicking will help encourage more small spenders to use a few dias as well.

 

[DeletedUser]

If the Devs are truly interested in crafting Events which are "liked" by the majority then perhaps it would be in everyone's interests to take the more popular Events and, with a few tweaks here and there, run them again. Variations would of course prevent the formats becoming stale, with different Themes and graphics and Event Buildings and Sets having different combinations of attributes.
Decent advancements and good Event Buildings of course with interesting features and, most definitely, the ability to complete without excessive and prohibitive Diamond use.
Many Posters praise certain of the formats and deride many of the others, the Mods know this and communicate upstairs. Whether or not our compliments and criticisms are taken onboard is open to debate but I feel that we are to some extent listened to, at least some of the changes would indicate so.
Take what you, the Mods, have learned from the Forum and continue to submit such to Inno. They already have workable, playable and popular formats in their library, all they really need to do is utilise them to the benefit of all.
Happy Players will be more prone to engage and, if needs must, buy some Diamonds without being coerced into doing so to even compete in the Events, let alone perform to a reasonable standard.