Mike Ventrella
Paragon
And give your reasons!
Grade the September event
- Thread starter Mike Ventrella
- Start date
I'm not going to give a grade, as I was NPCing. But, if we have such a strange spread of levels again (many low and many high), could we please tweak the monsters a bit. Instead of looking at the average level alone, let's through out a few higher toughs to target the big guys and keep them busy, so that more people can get involved. A good example of this is the snake-kin citadel fight down near and across the river. The front line troops (6 or so people) did 90% of the killing. Some people just couldn't do anything due to the fact that the NPC fell like wheat before a scythe to a few. Just a thought.
I loved the one night awesome insane death run of npcing that me and some of the others from Syracuse made friday night. It's too bad we couldn't stay for the entire event. As for your comment on monster tweaking... it works in theory but never quite works in the implementing of it. You end up somehow with the low-level targeted monsters fighting the highest levels in town while the giant monsters are fighting the lowbies. Unless you physically seperate the town into a high-level half and a low-level half and have appropriate monsters for each side its nearly impossible to completely work it out.
Duke Frost
Exemplar
The fight down by the creek was more a result of a limited frontage where not a lot of people could get at the monsters. In battles like that, the front lines almost always end up doing all the fighting. I've had battles like that as a very high level PC where I didn't do much fighting because I didn't feel like pushing in. It was certainly setup more than stats.
We did a lot of low and medium level monsters for the wave battles this past weekend, moreso than usual methinks. The snakeman battles were all just PC stats, the ogre battle were basic ogres, etc. Though of course the high level characters could take down the monsters faster, I don't think we really put anything very rough at all out this past weekend. I wouldn't mind seeing some PC feedback on this.
Scott
We did a lot of low and medium level monsters for the wave battles this past weekend, moreso than usual methinks. The snakeman battles were all just PC stats, the ogre battle were basic ogres, etc. Though of course the high level characters could take down the monsters faster, I don't think we really put anything very rough at all out this past weekend. I wouldn't mind seeing some PC feedback on this.
Scott
Sym of Moria
Specialist
Especially when it comes to wave battles with limited room for fighting..the front liners tend to see more action.... and usually the front liners tend to be the upper range of character levels. This weekend I built my construct but I felt that running around and tooling everything down would be less fun for everyone else. So I hung back and became support.
Scott has it right that when he said:
The fight down by the creek was more a result of a limited frontage where not a lot of people could get at the monsters. In battles like that, the front lines almost always end up doing all the fighting. I've had battles like that as a very high level PC where I didn't do much fighting because I didn't feel like pushing in. It was certainly setup more than stats.
even doing a 2 front wave battle is sometimes hard because of limited NPC's ..... and you runinto the same thing... out of the lower levels the higher level fighters will gravatate to the front of the line....
there were plenty of things to do roleplay and combat wise.... I can tell you from a PC perspective. We had options on going on mods or not.. some of the most experience players were direting some of the newer players to mods (which I thought was awsome of them).
my 2 cents Onitt
Scott has it right that when he said:
The fight down by the creek was more a result of a limited frontage where not a lot of people could get at the monsters. In battles like that, the front lines almost always end up doing all the fighting. I've had battles like that as a very high level PC where I didn't do much fighting because I didn't feel like pushing in. It was certainly setup more than stats.
even doing a 2 front wave battle is sometimes hard because of limited NPC's ..... and you runinto the same thing... out of the lower levels the higher level fighters will gravatate to the front of the line....
there were plenty of things to do roleplay and combat wise.... I can tell you from a PC perspective. We had options on going on mods or not.. some of the most experience players were direting some of the newer players to mods (which I thought was awsome of them).
my 2 cents Onitt
Sparticous
Novice
I gave the event the grade of B+
My fun factor increased as the event progressed along. After driving for 6 & 1/2 hours to get to the site I was totally burnt! It took me a little while to get into costume and gear, but once I put myself into game mode I started having fun right away. Reason for B+ and not an A was very simple, there was not a single time where I felt afraid, or thought that we would lose a battle. The other reason, I was expecting more role-play between Sparticous and 3 of the noble NPC's (maybe that's to come down the line)... Over all though very good event, very well written, and the fishbowls and fillers were great this event!
Dennis Berish
My fun factor increased as the event progressed along. After driving for 6 & 1/2 hours to get to the site I was totally burnt! It took me a little while to get into costume and gear, but once I put myself into game mode I started having fun right away. Reason for B+ and not an A was very simple, there was not a single time where I felt afraid, or thought that we would lose a battle. The other reason, I was expecting more role-play between Sparticous and 3 of the noble NPC's (maybe that's to come down the line)... Over all though very good event, very well written, and the fishbowls and fillers were great this event!
Dennis Berish
Redcloud
Adept
I thought it was a solid A, best event in a long time. Not much downtime at all.... always something to do. Random damage and fishbowls are the key to keeping things one continous event and not just a wave battle... wait... wave battle... wait... wave battle weekend. I also love the increase in "brains over/instead of Brawn" mods and battles.
Lanna Rose
Elite
I'm giving it a B because though the plot was amazing and the tournament was fun...there was ALOT of down time. On the other hand it ment some fun RP but alot of people just weren't feeling the RP and wanted something to do. Maybe it's just me.
Gunnar
Virtuous
I gave it an A-.
I thought the event was well planned (even if the execution only finished friday morning), and that for being a tournament event, had enough things for entertainment purposes. The reason it was an A minus and not an A, was after Friday night the wave battles for better or worse felt a little understatted, though I think another life or two would've fixed this. This is partially due to knowing the Slythe plotline, wherein some of his followers are actually a PC race, so I don't fault the plot team with staying true to that. The other thing that brought down the grade for me was while I do enjoy the craziness of the Fae realm, I was unsure how that fit into the plot, or why slythe would've hid a piece in the fae realm.
I thought the elf module was fantastic however, and would've liked to have seen a bit more Imladari based stuff in the weekend as well.
I felt that some of the twists on the tournament events were neat - specifically the way that champions had been run I would recommend for regular tournament events. However, I did not enjoy packet archery at all, and would like that to remain as actual bow archery.
my 2 cents,
Ali
I thought the event was well planned (even if the execution only finished friday morning), and that for being a tournament event, had enough things for entertainment purposes. The reason it was an A minus and not an A, was after Friday night the wave battles for better or worse felt a little understatted, though I think another life or two would've fixed this. This is partially due to knowing the Slythe plotline, wherein some of his followers are actually a PC race, so I don't fault the plot team with staying true to that. The other thing that brought down the grade for me was while I do enjoy the craziness of the Fae realm, I was unsure how that fit into the plot, or why slythe would've hid a piece in the fae realm.
I thought the elf module was fantastic however, and would've liked to have seen a bit more Imladari based stuff in the weekend as well.
I felt that some of the twists on the tournament events were neat - specifically the way that champions had been run I would recommend for regular tournament events. However, I did not enjoy packet archery at all, and would like that to remain as actual bow archery.
my 2 cents,
Ali
Laguna Hallik
Specialist
Goes to show how people can find such a large difference in the amount of downtime. Redcloud has very little DT, but Lanna has a ton?
Duke Frost
Exemplar
zehnyu said:
You should have seen the places two of the shards on the modules were. Basically the thought was that he would hide them in the most obscure, crazy places where no one would ever find them...except maybe ancient dragons. Only one of the items was actually with the Slythe. Having all five there would be too obvious.
Scott
Duke Frost
Exemplar
Laguna Hallik said:
I was thinking the exact same thing. A lot of time "down time" is just a matter of where you are when things go off. You really can't eliminate all down time for all players.
Scott
Gunnar
Virtuous
Duke Frost said:
Okay, that makes far more sense
. And I agree, they wouldn'tve all been with the slythe, but the Fae realm didn't really occur to me. The random plant guy place did though because it was some obscure place that people had to break in and take. It coming out of a barrel at random in the fae realm is what didn't make sense in my mind...but now that I think about it, some random person could've walked in and walked off with it -thus continuing the cycle..so that does indeed make sense 
Ezri
Virtuoso
I'm going to concur on the light-ish statting. Granted I'm on the higher end of the level curve as this character, but even high level scholars are usually 2-3 hit kills by something my own APL. I think I might have gone down once all weekend (not including the elf mod).
I can't really speak on the mod statting, as one mod I went on had no combat (not complaining - loved it) and the other was unscaled, but the PCs on it were three over lv 20 and three under level 10 and I know that's hard to scale for even if you HAD done an APL.
Reverse bell curve APL's are a PITA, and try though you might, you'll often end up with the big guys not feeling challenged and the little guys frustrated. Split wave battles are really the only answer to that, but they're not always doable within the storyline or with the resources available. And even when you CAN do a split wave, it's hard to make it feel organic in-game.
*shrug* What can ya do?
I can't really speak on the mod statting, as one mod I went on had no combat (not complaining - loved it) and the other was unscaled, but the PCs on it were three over lv 20 and three under level 10 and I know that's hard to scale for even if you HAD done an APL.
Reverse bell curve APL's are a PITA, and try though you might, you'll often end up with the big guys not feeling challenged and the little guys frustrated. Split wave battles are really the only answer to that, but they're not always doable within the storyline or with the resources available. And even when you CAN do a split wave, it's hard to make it feel organic in-game.
*shrug* What can ya do?
Duke Frost
Exemplar
I purposely left the battles for the weekend kind of lightly statted. It was supposed to be a run around and kill stuff and feel like a hero kind of weekend.
The terror and death were in the PC choices this weekend. There were things you could have done that would have brought on VERY scary wave battles and encounters this event and in the future. As Michelle mentioned, some of the items were VERY tempting to keep, but none were kept. There was also very real chances to not get the items, especially the mod items. In fact, Ivan Drake's group was very close to not getting theirs. Big props to Telokh for bailing out their asses. "Silence Thief!"
But a lot of this isn't really transparent to the PC. It was a game of actions and choices that led to a much easier weekend then it could have been.
Also, if things are too "life and death" or "world might end" in a tourney weekend, people kind of ignore the tourney or aren't in the mood. That was also taken into account when the weekend arc was designed. It was supposed to be a very "light" weekend as far as characters being pushed to their limits was concerned.
Except for Ithica and Gilthalion in the Champion's Battle. Both of them, I'm sure, felt the fights were well scaled and very challengin.
Scott
The terror and death were in the PC choices this weekend. There were things you could have done that would have brought on VERY scary wave battles and encounters this event and in the future. As Michelle mentioned, some of the items were VERY tempting to keep, but none were kept. There was also very real chances to not get the items, especially the mod items. In fact, Ivan Drake's group was very close to not getting theirs. Big props to Telokh for bailing out their asses. "Silence Thief!"
But a lot of this isn't really transparent to the PC. It was a game of actions and choices that led to a much easier weekend then it could have been.
Also, if things are too "life and death" or "world might end" in a tourney weekend, people kind of ignore the tourney or aren't in the mood. That was also taken into account when the weekend arc was designed. It was supposed to be a very "light" weekend as far as characters being pushed to their limits was concerned.
Except for Ithica and Gilthalion in the Champion's Battle. Both of them, I'm sure, felt the fights were well scaled and very challengin.
Scott
Anna_Rainwillow
Apprentice
I was one of those you undeaded. Poor Anna one minute she is on the top of the stairs next she is waking up down by the firepit goingwhat just happened.
Anna_Rainwillow said:
you were a funny undead. i'm like... crap, she has no weapons... ok... i command you to walk that way and moan alot!
the best part was, you were a great distraction. the other PCs were dealing with you and my other kobald friend while i snuck up to the tavern the back way and started throwing necro. good times.
I'd also like to add my voice to Scott's statements, as I personally statted most of the wave battles. Scaling was low, with many of the wave battle monsters being straight PC statted cards slightly below the APL (18). This was done deliberately as this was a tourney weekend and a "run for your wards" wave battle would have forced PCs to use their tagged skills and not have them available for the tourney events. The wave battle by the river had issues simply based on how the path is set up, it's hard to have a town fight down there simply because of the tight quarters. This event had a LOT more plot running than any previous tourney weekend I've seen since joining the HQ plot staff, which I think is a good thing. Is what I'm hearing that everyone wants tougher wave battles? I'm happy to comply, but this past event's scaling was as a result of plot being aware that people would want to use their eviscerates on other PCs. 
-toddo
-toddo