Increase time duration or decrease concurrent instances of Zombie Apocalypse and Supernatural Activity events

[Glacier Peak]

As title suggests, please increase the time duration of these two events. Forming a pick up group, then traveling to the zone where the event is taking place, and finally coordinating the strategies involved to "win" take a certain measure of logistical finesse in order to achieve the desired outcome (aka gain merits, salvage, badges, etc.) - but making the duration of these events so short is frustrating. I really enjoy the Halloween event overall, so I would like to see these two events in particular increase in duration. 

 

I don't know how long these events last exactly, but anecdotally, they felt anywhere between 10 to 15 minutes. Today, I had a pick up group formed by around six minutes in, everyone was in the zone and at their respective banner (for this example) by ten minutes, and we made the banner vulnerable by the fourteenth minute. We failed to reduce the banner's health in time, let alone the other three, in order to "win" the event. 

 

Alternatively, add bonus time after each banner is defeated to increase the duration of the event.

 

Edit: On my second attempt today for the Banner event, I managed to assemble 6 team members and we got much further, knocking out three of the four banners (and getting the final one to halfway) before the timer ran out. I know it can be done with a pick up group, and perhaps even more so with a dedicated group - but please consider my suggestion of either increasing the duration of both these events or at least adding time for each banner defeat.

 

Edit 2: I believe there is more support from the community to instead try decreasing the number of concurrent zones experiencing a particular event. I support this approach as well and it may be easier for the HC team to implement as well. 

Edited October 16, 2019 by Glacier Peak

[Razor Cure]

14 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

Today, I had a pick up group formed by around six minutes in, everyone was in the zone and at their respective banner (for this example) by ten minutes, and we made the banner vulnerable by the fourteenth minute. We failed to reduce the banner's health in time, let alone the other three, in order to "win" the event. 

 

That is a SLOW pick up group. Very very slow. I have formed my share of banner leagues, and no way should it take that long. Assuming you see the red text right away, it will take at most a minute to get to that Zone and start forming. The events start with 19 mins on teh clock (for supernatural events) and you can ONLY start killing teh mobs at 6 mins, giving at least 3 to form a team.

If you are failing to take down one banner in 14 mins..either your team is tiny or full of lowbies. And even then, I have done leagues in lowbie zones that succeeded.

Basically..if you know what you are doing (and like you said, half the challenge is getting idiots to pay attention), it is plenty of time.

 

Making the events last even longer is a BAD idea. There is already like 10? concurrent zombie/banner events happening at almost anytime, in different zones. If you need to know why longer events are bad..go and try a Numina TF during the halloween period.

[Glacier Peak]

33 minutes ago, Razor Cure said:

That is a SLOW pick up group. Very very slow. I have formed my share of banner leagues, and no way should it take that long. Assuming you see the red text right away, it will take at most a minute to get to that Zone and start forming. The events start with 19 mins on teh clock (for supernatural events) and you can ONLY start killing teh mobs at 6 mins, giving at least 3 to form a team.

If you are failing to take down one banner in 14 mins..either your team is tiny or full of lowbies. And even then, I have done leagues in lowbie zones that succeeded.

Basically..if you know what you are doing (and like you said, half the challenge is getting idiots to pay attention), it is plenty of time.

 

Making the events last even longer is a BAD idea. There is already like 10? concurrent zombie/banner events happening at almost anytime, in different zones. If you need to know why longer events are bad..go and try a Numina TF during the halloween period.

Razor Cure, I appreciate your perspective. I am glad you are able to find team mates so quickly and engage in the mechanics of the event without as much of an issue as I have. This is a great event that I did not get to do on live and I really enjoy it now. In my edit, I mentioned running a second subsequent banner team. For that example, I began searching immediately after the zone event message displayed, and had six pick up group team mates assembled by the time the banner count down had reached 15 minutes. We were able to destroy three banners in total and we Team Teleported from one banner to the next after defeating them, so I felt like had a pretty awesome team (DPS/Time ratio). In both instances of running the banner event, my team ranged from Level 25-50. I was not picky, I accepted anyone I could get both in zone broadcast and in "Looking for Group" chat. That being said, I am under the impression that zone events are meant to allow anyone (regardless of level or experience) to participate, and find success should all the necessary variables be met. I continued to request more team mates on both chats throughout the event, I even used my temporary pets (Shivan, Snowbeast, imps, etc) to increase DPS since we did not have a full team, and I was still unable to accomplish the goal of defeating all the Banners and the Giant Monster at the end. That is why I suggested increasing the duration of the zone events, both the Zombie Apocalypse (for similar reasons) and the Supernatural events. I may concede, hopefully, that my personal experience is the outlier and this won't be the norm for me when I try this event again in the future. I believe the answer to this problem is to just increase my team size - but if that is the case, I would need more time to find players in order to facilitate this. 

 

In response to your position about increasing the duration of the event, I am pretty certain there is a buffer time in between events from when one event finishes until the next time it activates. While I have seen both zombie and apocalypse events run concurrently and in different zone, I don't see the connection you are making between that and my suggestion to increase the duration of those events. Perhaps the compromise would be reducing the number of concurrent zones experiencing the event and increasing the duration of the singular event? I am open to other suggestions.

[Razor Cure]

I was just thinknig..and to lazy too check, but does the health of a Banner scale depending on teh zone/team size? I know teh Halloween GMs scale, with one in atlas park having about 23k hp, compared to 75k in PI. If banners scaled in a similar way, it would be much easier for small/lowbie teams to finish them in the time limit.

[Glacier Peak]

That's a great suggestion, and I should be able to check that with that the identify weakness power. I'll report back my findings. 

[Redlynne]

Counter-proposal.

 

The main problem with these Events is that on Homecoming the Devs have configured them to simultaneously happen in multiple zones.  This necessarily DIVIDES the population that wants to be doing these events across multiple zones in a way that reduces the opportunity to create the necessary concentration of PCs to take on the events in a SINGLE zone rather than (unhelpfully) spread across multiple zones.

 

Right now, whenever there is one of these events going on, I see the announcement channel simply SPAM the number of these events in the channel because it's basically happening everywhere at the same time.

 

If instead it happened sequentially in DIFFERENT ZONES ... one zone at a time ... then people who wanted to do the event would travel to that zone and be able to reach the necessary critical mass to take on that event, and then when they win they can move on to the next zone where the event happens next ... as a group.  You then basically wind up with a "tour group" of PCs doing the event who rotate through the zones chasing the event(s) with people joining and dropping out rather organically.

[Glacier Peak]

3 hours ago, Redlynne said:

Counter-proposal.

 

The main problem with these Events is that on Homecoming the Devs have configured them to simultaneously happen in multiple zones.  This necessarily DIVIDES the population that wants to be doing these events across multiple zones in a way that reduces the opportunity to create the necessary concentration of PCs to take on the events in a SINGLE zone rather than (unhelpfully) spread across multiple zones.

 

Right now, whenever there is one of these events going on, I see the announcement channel simply SPAM the number of these events in the channel because it's basically happening everywhere at the same time.

 

If instead it happened sequentially in DIFFERENT ZONES ... one zone at a time ... then people who wanted to do the event would travel to that zone and be able to reach the necessary critical mass to take on that event, and then when they win they can move on to the next zone where the event happens next ... as a group.  You then basically wind up with a "tour group" of PCs doing the event who rotate through the zones chasing the event(s) with people joining and dropping out rather organically.

Redlynne, great suggestion. And it addresses the concern that Razor Cure mentioned. I would be open to this alternatively.

[gypsyav]

5 hours ago, Redlynne said:

Counter-proposal.

 

The main problem with these Events is that on Homecoming the Devs have configured them to simultaneously happen in multiple zones.  This necessarily DIVIDES the population that wants to be doing these events across multiple zones in a way that reduces the opportunity to create the necessary concentration of PCs to take on the events in a SINGLE zone rather than (unhelpfully) spread across multiple zones.

 

Right now, whenever there is one of these events going on, I see the announcement channel simply SPAM the number of these events in the channel because it's basically happening everywhere at the same time.

 

If instead it happened sequentially in DIFFERENT ZONES ... one zone at a time ... then people who wanted to do the event would travel to that zone and be able to reach the necessary critical mass to take on that event, and then when they win they can move on to the next zone where the event happens next ... as a group.  You then basically wind up with a "tour group" of PCs doing the event who rotate through the zones chasing the event(s) with people joining and dropping out rather organically.

If I remember right, this is how it was done on live. The activity would only happen in one zone at a time. I understand the thinking with doing simultaneous in that it allows people of all levels to participate, but it does make it really hard to get enough people in each zone to take down the banners.

[Glacier Peak]

Totally agree with you gypsyav.

[Lost Ninja]

Prefer @Redlynne's solution.

 

Personally on reading the OP I was just going to say no. I hate these kind of events (especially the invasion one) as it messes with normal play. Leave a mission go afk and get killed by Zombies, or waiting for the rest of the team to arrive and not be able to get to the door without zombies arriving. I'd prefer the invasion one be shorter, and the whole event shorter, especially ToT. Perhaps run it more often or add an "Echo" zone so people can grab it out of season. A week/10 days either side of Oct 31st would IMO be better.  And I mean that in general for all "seasonal" holidays.

 

Yeah I doubt that'd be popular but I guess we each get something different from the game.

Edited October 16, 2019 by Lost Ninja

[Clave Dark 5]

17 hours ago, Redlynne said:

Counter-proposal. [snip]

I would suggest adding a smidge of time to them on top of that, but this is a great idea.

[Marine X]

22 hours ago, Redlynne said:

If instead it happened sequentially in DIFFERENT ZONES ... one zone at a time ...

Great Solution, it may also solve some others. The Zombie Apocalypse Boss and Elite Boss Badges are eluding me due to it running in Multiple Zones at the same time. It's making it hard to get the Huge Zombie Spawn necessary to get the Bosses and Elite Bosses to Spawn. I keep trying to get it going on Zombie Hill next to the Train Station on Talos Island, because that was always where I remember doing it on Live, and it's easy for almost anyone any level to get there. Just can't get it cranked up with it running in 8 zones at the same time, and I play at an odd time, between 4:00am GMT+5 ( EST ) to 6:00am daily before work. Want those badges dammit, have all the rest of them.

[Redlynne]

5 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

22 hours ago, Redlynne said:

Counter-proposal. [snip]

I would suggest adding a smidge of time to them on top of that, but this is a great idea.

We make every pretense of competency around here ... 😎

[Glacier Peak]

21 minutes ago, Marine X said:

Great Solution, it may also solve some others. The Zombie Apocalypse Boss and Elite Boss Badges are eluding me due to it running in Multiple Zones at the same time. It's making it hard to get the Huge Zombie Spawn necessary to get the Bosses and Elite Bosses to Spawn. I keep trying to get it going on Zombie Hill next to the Train Station on Talos Island, because that was always where I remember doing it on Live, and it's easy for almost anyone any level to get there. Just can't get it cranked up with it running in 8 zones at the same time, and I play at an odd time, between 4:00am GMT+5 ( EST ) to 6:00am daily before work. Want those badges dammit, have all the rest of them.

Same ones are eluding me!