Thunder wrote:So, I'm honestly a bit stumped when people they say they want more war events but didn't even participate in an event close to the one you suggested here. Are users' expectations different from what the staff perceive them to want? Did the staff not advertise the Special Missions well enough? Do users want "bigger" prizes that aren't BP, even though the BP will be redeemed for prizes at the war's end just like last time? I ask these questions not out of frustration, but because I'm confused as a fellow user and unsure of what to do as a staff member.
Thunder, I can only answer these questions from my own point of view, but maybe it helps you?
I decided to not participate in the Special Missions for several reasons:
- The main reason was the very bad experiences I had made through various RPs (of the event kind, in tournament and war battles as well as in regular RPs in the war areas) where I found that my partner(s) just didn't reply fast. People got disqualified in tournaments for not posting. I didn't get the amount of points I had hoped I would get in Easter events because of slow replies from my partner. Same with people ditching me in "regular" roleplays in the war areas. So yes, I absolutely didn't want that experience again: To have to rely on someone else for my reward. Sure, there was the fact that people forfeit their reward if not replying after a week, but I have learned the hard way in tournaments that this doesn't seem to bother most people much and that I find the endless wait aggravating. The main reason I tend to do self RPs is because people here reply slowly. So an event where I have to rely on someone else is something I tend to avoid unless there's no way around it (like a tourney. However, BP can be gained in many ways and I didn't need the Special Missions).
- Another reason is the fact that the pets I would have liked to RP with are the ones I felt inspired to RP...but those were signed up in the barracks for war. And I didn't want to risk a pet dying in battle while also having it in a RP. That was, by the way, before the never-coming shrine revamp was... never-coming. If I had known that I would stop battling alltogether because of the stupid shrine revamp which never happened, I of course wouldn't have considered this a problem.
- I also found the advertisement of the Special Missions lacking. I would have liked to see what such missions would be like. After all, if I'm already going to be stuck in an area I might or might not have any inspiration for (I'm personally not doing well with writing in the Slums, for example. Just not my cup of tea), I would have at least liked to see some example of how the RP would have to be structured. Like... would it have been more of a "find object X before the enemy does" so that it would be more like my partner and me racing for an object and less interacting, each of us more doing our own story? Or would it have been more of a "guard object X" thing where my partner and me would have been interacting more (and where them not dropping out would have been more crucial)?
I guess...I was overall not being able to imagine how the RP would look like, I had no partner in mind and the downside of having to risk failing the mission because of my pet dying if a bounty had been posted or something was just too big. But yes, the biggest downside was that no self-RP was allowed, really. I had a very problematic battle going on at the time which was full of me sending endless PMs to my partner about continuing, please, and in the end there were long discussions and the mods had to meddle and it was just such a horrible experience that I basically dropped the whole war then for a bit (and never took it up again because no shrine revamp happened).
However...I think Nyxia's idea is
AMAZING, in that I LOVE her idea of a reward.
the members who have followed to the end of the event earn the right to take part in a special mission which gets a single war related custom non-breedable pet, a badge marking that user/pet as part of this unit for their fraction, and a set amount of mixed Ks & BP as rewards.
Not the custom (that might be too much work for the mods) but if I understood her correctly, then her idea is to earn the right to add an extra pet to the barracks. Like unlocking an extra slot for the pet which participates in the mission here. And that sounds, to me, amazing since it solves a lot of problems:
- You enter with a pet which is not in the war yet, so there's no interference for all who are doing war battles, as this pet can't die in battle yet (since it's not in the barracks). No trouble there.
- You can gain something that cannot be gotten elsewhere: The extra slot in the barracks. BP can be gotten through normal war RPs. So can KS. Customs can be won through the raffle. But the slot is unique to the event, so a special prize, and it doesn't cost the mods much time to award it. It would just be "Yeah, post your pet in the barracks; you can't switch that one out anymore since it has a special place, just put a link below it to the mission RP and the post where it says it gets the slot".
- Nyxia's event sounds like it allows solo RPs. So it's up to everyone if they post quickly to get the prize faster or slower because of RL being busy or whatever. No pressure if you don't want pressure. That's always good for everyone.
- I'm admittedly a biiiiit wary of the style since her plan sounds like it's up to the user who pitched the idea if the people RPing end up successful or not or get send to a different location where they have to make a ton of posts again. I think it should be decided upfront how many posts are needed until success happens and the set reward is reached, but the participants don't need to know that upfront or whatever. But it should be fair to everyone. Not that RP plot A needs 100 posts and RP plot B needs 250 and everyone gets a set 100 KS, 100 BP and the slot at the end. That wouldn't be good and people might complain.
Did... that make sense?