Some guy called Nudd
Scoring the Lost Shores Event (long)
Some guy called Nudd
As for the story in the launch event, I am sad to say that it didn’t live up to the hype. So I mention it last. Phase 1 I will score a “C” because although it did have cutscenes to mark the beginning and ending, which was good so that players know what was going on, the middle piece (not talking about the lag) was kinda lame. Players just zerged one event of mobs on the south side of LA and then the event was over. You hyped the event as “Defend Lion’s Arch” and “Retake Lion’s Arch” so, though I am not saying you directly indicated that Lion’s Arch would be overrun with Karka for a day… it should have been. That would have been fun, in my view. Then phase 2 could have been really retaking LA from the Karka. I think an opportunity as something awesome was missed there, so that is why I score phase 1 as a “C”. Also, the light house being destroyed was not, emotionally, a big enough change to LA to make me remotely care that the Karka invaded. You should have destroyed the bridge and the Asura gates as well. That would have gotten my attention. Could have temporarily moved the gate system to those unbuilt gates that they are working on.
Phase 2 gets a “D” unfortunately. It was extremely confusing, the start of the event. We should have had a cutscene showing the boat enter the harbor. The building of the Trebuchet took entirely too long. I started on my server wondering when it would start and then suddenly we had a repeat of the karka invasion. It was very brief. I guess a testament to the new acid that we coated our weapons with, but in less than 15 minutes the whole thing was over and the Ancient Karka was gone. One of my guildies was on an overflow telling me the invasion hadn’t started there so I went there and was able to see the boat coming into the harbor and watch them build the Treb… but again… that was very long and drawn out and then on the overflow… the invasion event never happened. Eventually we just went to Southsun Cove and didn’t care anymore. Now following the events on Southsun as the Lionsguard moved across the island setting up outposts and stuff… that was pretty cool. I like the trees being chopped down.. that was neat. So it wasn’t a total failure, phase 2. Credit for that.
Finally phase 3 I will give a “B+”. It was really long but action packed so that was appreciated. The loot at the end was also very nice and I felt like the effort had payed off. But again, we had people reporting problems with lag and disconnects. I had a client crash and though I started on my server I ended the event on an overflow. But I did end the event, some other unfortunates didn’t get that. And I know you are working on a fix for that so kudos. The cutscene at the end was cool. Especially the “horror” movie ending where the bad guy seems to come back for one last stab. Had a laugh on that one. The only other negative thing I have to say is that there is a problem with how you render mobs and players together in these large events. The common problem I dealt with as we went through the different phases of the event were that mobs weren’t showing up on my screen. They were there cause a) people were shooting at something and b) I was dying for no apparent reason, but I just wasn’t seeing them. I have a high end ATI card, and I tried different quality graphics levels but mostly it made no difference. Rendering mobs needs to be the priority over other players. I know it is a social game but in a big zerg group like that, it really doesn’t matter if you don’t see your other people AS MUCH as seeing the mob that is killing you. I’d say on a priority rendering scale, it should be group members first, NPCs, mobs, downed or dead players, other players. Yea it might look like only 4 other people are fighting the mobs with you, but that is preferrable to not seeing the dangers around you in my view.
So overall, the event gets a C+ from me and the new content gets an A. Just wanted to shared my humble opinion on the Lost Shores weekend to help improve future events. Hope you appreciate and recieve this in the spirit in which it was given. Thanks.
Some guy called Nudd