I had to register here just to be able to comment, since something was bugging me in this thread.
Yes, we all had the dreaded Carnival Event with stacked reliance on luck (luck to obtain tickets, luck while spending them), which could result in very binary results, often to catastrophic effect.
However, the amount of complains for this event seem completely disproportionate to the actual odds, and outright unfair.
If not, let's see:
You may obtain by the end of the quest around 1350 Lanterns (Initial 40, plus 175 from specific checkpoints, plus 820 for the 62 quests, plus 10 daily, plus around 5/daily, average from trees). Probably actually more than this, with the bonus from the newsletter, and I may have rounded down the average daily lantern from trees.
If you use only the Gold Chest, you have a 20% chance for a 60 Lantern cost. That means, ON AVERAGE [I can't stress this enough, some people in my guild have gotten 5 pieces from 9 tries, so yes, some of you will be unlucky, but some will be terribly happy], you can try for 22,5 times, so 20% of that is 4,5 pieces. Let's be pessimistic and round it down to 4.
That means, on average, this event will give you 6 pieces (2 are guaranteed, 4 you get from chests). I don't know about you guys, but the chance to obtain that is just very nice to me. Moreover, you are also guaranteed a SoK, probably a Reno Kit as well.
Now, some of you might say "well, last year was better". I wasn't here for last year, but riddle me this: did you have Daily Challenges last year? Inno created DC, which is to me one of the largest sources of set pieces, FP and special units, without a drawback. From DC, I already had 3 cherry pieces, which made the spring event even easier. If you complain that the event should be independent of the DC, I strongly disagree. This quest and DC complement each other, and you should consider that in your playing experience. If you don't fully take advantage of DC, then honestly, that is just your fault, since I can almost effortlessly complete 95% of them.
I'm guessing that luckily, most players are happy with the event, with only a small but vocal minority filling the forum, but you guys must step back and look at the bigger picture, and realise that for the most part, Inno hit a sweep spot on this one. Yes, if you want to get a full LvL 2 from scratch you will most likely spend diamonds, but most of us will be able to get our set, more so if we were able to get just 1 piece from DC.
Personally, I already have the full Set with 1 upgrade, and a lot more quests to go, and It took me 10 (yes, 10) tries to get the Gong of Wisdom upgrade, which translate to half of the 20% in the Gold Chest Rewards - such is probability.
Finally, 2 notes for people that are likely about to furiously reply to me with how many flaws my post has (probably many, I am sure):
1 - Yes, I do agree that the alternatives to the set in the chests are horrendous, and that, more than anything else, should be tweaked, and imho is the only valid reason to hate on the event. To me, I had my eyes on the prize, so I barely registered what else was being won, but yes, most of the rewards are quite lame.
2 - If you dislike % based events, obviously you won't ever like any of these events. Personally, I dislike % events, but when the odds are actually ok and you can have a strategy, it does not bother me as much (prime example of that was the Bowl Event, where you could obtain the Pillar very easily if you chose the right booster).