Kallisti Wharf ToT

[Display Name]

I've been to Kallisti Wharf only a few times during this seasonal event.  But there was literally no one doing ToT at the traditional location each and every time (this year.)  Someone suggested /whoall and each time I used it, it only showed two or three people in zone.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Ok, yeah.  Some/many are hidden.  But that doesn't change the fact that ToT wasn't happening at all at the traditional spot.  And not everyone knows how to hide from /whoall.

 

When Kallisti Wharf first opened as an alternative to Peregrine Island's "Murder Motel," people flocked there.  They all blamed the lag in PI which I considered a very valid objection.  But I personally didn't like KW.  In PI, you could just jump down into the parking lot if you were overwhelmed (which happened frequently with me because many of the toons I badged were completely un-Enh'd.)  The "healing area," which is not hard to find also contains many powerful toons that are, in fact, appreciative of the mobs that I led to them.

 

Side rant: PLEASE LEAD THE MOBS TO THE PARKING LOT AND STOP "BLOCKING" THE DOORS!  This isn't Ouro where it's, apparently, perfectly acceptable to crowd the exit portal and preventing players from using it to travel.

 

And in case you agree with my (petty?) rant, here's something I've discovered this year from some very clever players whom I don't remember the name of and would appreciate a shout-out so that they get credit for it:
 

This is a macro which will auto-click the lower level doors for you.  But you *have* to be within ten feet.  And it has an *epic* icon:
/macro_image "Brawling_ComboLevel1" "FLR1" "enterdoor 592 0 -2755 P$$enterdoor 569 0 -2733 P$$enterdoor 602 0 -2685 P$$enterdoor 654 0 -2647 P$$enterdoor 678 0 -2669 P"
 

This is a macro which will auto-click the upper level doors for you.  Same.

/macro_image "Brawling_ComboLevel2" "FLR2" "enterdoor 698 16 -2666 P$$enterdoor 678 16 -2648 P$$enterdoor 656 16 -2625 P$$enterdoor 600 16 -2663 P$$enterdoor 585 16 -2678 P$$enterdoor 546 16 -2733 P$$enterdoor 568 16 -2756 P$$enterdoor 590 16 -2778 P"

 

There's a whole thread already dedicated to these two macros.  They (apparently) aren't perfect and require practice to use.  But you won't be disappointed.

 

Anyway.  What happened to Kallisti Wharf?

[Lunar Ronin]

12 minutes ago, Display Name said:

Anyway.  What happened to Kallisti Wharf?

 

Blue side privilege happened.  People who played on live and never (or rarely) played red side trick-or-treated in Peregrine Island, so that's where they trick-or-treat now.

 

FWIW, I led two days of trick-or-treating on Indomitable in Kallisti Wharf, and it went well.

[Display Name]

I brought some newly created toons very far with ToT last year.  I have no problem with it.

 

Edit: on Excelsior.  And I would love to continue on KW so that my newly-created toons (this year) can prosper without the "full zone" problem.

Edited October 28 by Display Name

[Laucianna]

I still see people on Excelsior forming ToT in KW a lot of the time, I used to at the start but stopped as ToT to me is just so boring XD At least with the Mapserver event you had to move every 30 minutes or so and had a GM to fight who was a challenge 😄

[High_Beam]

Up until about a week ago, KW was still butt crowded, zero ToT league availability problems, but not as much as it had been the first few weeks.  And that right there is the issue statement; first few weeks.  Many players have done what they needed to do, got their badges, got their aether, got their super fast levels so now there are just less players looking to ToT, which is why you have seen the return in volume of people doing content.  So as fewer ToTers are occurring, more are gravitating toward PI.  I mean last night there were three of them due to ToT volume.

 

Now with regards to the traditional spot in KW where ToT was happening, yes there were a number of ToT League leaders who moved it to a different location that while having fewer doors, was a more dense dogpile of people and I saw no diminishment of XP.  Furthermore that tight grouping resulted in the afk/sitters who had autofires on contributing more due to less movement away form said autofires. 🙂

Edited October 28 by High_Beam
Fixed Spelling and Grammar. Sorry Miss Terhorst.

[Ukase]

I'm not sure how much analysis you want. 
Players are motivated by different things from ToT. 

1. Prismatics
2. Event badges
3. XP

4. Reward Merits
5. The team experience?

For folks like me who are primarily after 1,2 and 4, Once I get 1&2, I can get more RMs outside of ToT. Certainly more fun ways to get reward merits than waiting for an incan to a GM and then back to the doors. 

A lot of lower level players certainly don't mind the 1,2 and 4, but are really after the XP. Because the EBs give extra xp, all those badge and prismatic hounds are really helping the lower level players out! And, as you point out, the lower level players are helping to up the mobs that spawn from the doors. Win/win, sort of. 

But - when the group that's after the prismatics and the event badges get them, that leaves folks who might have dinged 50 and feel like they need to re-pay, or pay the favors forward with their new 50's to lead teams, or those few players who've been waiting for this lag people reference to die down. 
And the problem is, there's just not that many 50's willing to be a team lead when the only thing they get are slow vet levels and a few threads and shards. They already have the badges, they already have the prismatics. If they are stuck as an anchor to incan the league back to the doors, they don't even get the reward merits. Kind of thankless, really. 


I list "the team experience" because as a kid, I always went ToTing with friends. It was always somewhat interesting/fun to compare candy/loot after a house. Pro-tip: if you can make a friend with someone who has peanut allergies, you can trade the lame hard candy for the candy bars which are all made in a manufacturing facility that used peanuts. Sometimes, they just hand over all the candy because peanut allergies are no joke. But I digress. 

Some players log in and they don't care about loot, they don't care about lore. They just want some company. But, often ToT leaves them alone in a crowd. 


In short, if you want KW to get more people for ToT, then the rewards have to be increased or varied. Suppose defeating an EB 20 times resulted in an incarnate shard (not a thread). Something like that might change up the whole trite threads vs. shard debate. Or, let's say that debate is too trite, defeat the same Hallowe'en event EB 25 times and earn a costume toggle identical to the EB you just defeated. Or make it 50. That would keep the events a little more popular for the 50s. 

Until our HC devs tap into what motivates various players, I don't see the behaviors changing. 
 

[PyroBeetle]

I can say that the alternate location in KW was quite good, and while there may have been less doors, they were focused between two groups of people all of whom were clicking them. It was well organized and XP flew by. There were no AFK MMs when I was there, which is also probably the point, not to mention the fact that there was no lag on door clicking or power activation.

Edited October 28 by PyroBeetle
Typo

[Luminara]

It's the third year with the EBs.  They're not new any more, there's no quarantine, the influx from the licensing deal subsided and the rewards can only be acquired once.  Not surprising at all that interest has declined.

[Echo Night]

I don't know if I was the first to bring the macros to the masses on Ex, but I believe I was, and I'm glad I did, as they have made toting somewhat less frustrating. I came to the forums looking for an answer or some wizard's magic to help, and thankfully, I saw @yzdragel's post. I'll save one of the big bars I get this year for you.

 

I'm a very active toter but I grew tired of trying to click on the doors only to see my mouse arrow turn red and when I did click for the door, someone's MM or incarnate pet would show up in my target window instead. Often times those pets would be on the east side of MM while I was in another location. I'd have to scroll out, reangle the camera several times, or go to another door entirely. Very frustrating to have to deal with for years. I made sure that everyone knew that there was a post on Gen Disc about them and if they were sketchy about the macros, to check out the post. I noticed an uptick in mob spawns after that and league leaders even began encouraging their usage in hopes to curtail the afk/auto targeters. While the latter is still a problem, the XP did increase.

 

Again, thanks to @yzdragel for first asking if they are okay, and 2nd for posting the macros.

[Sanguinesun]

22 hours ago, Display Name said:

I've been to Kallisti Wharf only a few times during this seasonal event.  But there was literally no one doing ToT at the traditional location each and every time (this year.)  Someone suggested /whoall and each time I used it, it only showed two or three people in zone.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Ok, yeah.  Some/many are hidden.  But that doesn't change the fact that ToT wasn't happening at all at the traditional spot.  And not everyone knows how to hide from /whoall.

 

When Kallisti Wharf first opened as an alternative to Peregrine Island's "Murder Motel," people flocked there.  They all blamed the lag in PI which I considered a very valid objection.  But I personally didn't like KW.  In PI, you could just jump down into the parking lot if you were overwhelmed (which happened frequently with me because many of the toons I badged were completely un-Enh'd.)  The "healing area," which is not hard to find also contains many powerful toons that are, in fact, appreciative of the mobs that I led to them.

 

Side rant: PLEASE LEAD THE MOBS TO THE PARKING LOT AND STOP "BLOCKING" THE DOORS!  This isn't Ouro where it's, apparently, perfectly acceptable to crowd the exit portal and preventing players from using it to travel.

 

And in case you agree with my (petty?) rant, here's something I've discovered this year from some very clever players whom I don't remember the name of and would appreciate a shout-out so that they get credit for it:
 

This is a macro which will auto-click the lower level doors for you.  But you *have* to be within ten feet.  And it has an *epic* icon:
/macro_image "Brawling_ComboLevel1" "FLR1" "enterdoor 592 0 -2755 P$$enterdoor 569 0 -2733 P$$enterdoor 602 0 -2685 P$$enterdoor 654 0 -2647 P$$enterdoor 678 0 -2669 P"
 

This is a macro which will auto-click the upper level doors for you.  Same.

/macro_image "Brawling_ComboLevel2" "FLR2" "enterdoor 698 16 -2666 P$$enterdoor 678 16 -2648 P$$enterdoor 656 16 -2625 P$$enterdoor 600 16 -2663 P$$enterdoor 585 16 -2678 P$$enterdoor 546 16 -2733 P$$enterdoor 568 16 -2756 P$$enterdoor 590 16 -2778 P"

 

There's a whole thread already dedicated to these two macros.  They (apparently) aren't perfect and require practice to use.  But you won't be disappointed.

 

Anyway.  What happened to Kallisti Wharf?

 

 

Im gonna assume this is mainly about Excelsor so A few things:

 

1. Griefers happened.   One specific individual who also likes to do similar in PI started causing trouble for the leagues in the form we see every year and of which HC's Dev team says is otherwise ok.   Leagues started even incanning to other parts of the map with same/similar buildings(some even better actually) and this individual would simply fly around until they were found and the stalking continued.  Over the weekend for example one league moved 6 times in the span of an hour.

 

 

2. Lots of newer folks this year or returnees from live started favoring the traditional spots on PI thinking they're better(the motel nor PI itself actually isnt ideal but that's whole other discussion). People go where the crowds are reguardless.  

 

3. Some groups still run in KW, moving around but usually only at peak times or weekends peak times this month partly because.

 

4. People by this point have grown weary of the whole thing, especially when the PI groups aren't toting much and instead GM hunting most of the time.  There's actually started to be less folks as well.  Also because of all the different factors only a limited number of people are leading leagues(and its the same ones each day due to the burn out both in terms of above and just the length of the event of course.

 

5. With points 1 and 4, its become a streisand effect.  People complaining are actually motivating the worst folks to keep at it.

 

 

 

Edited October 28 by Sanguinesun