Feedback Update: Events

[Arctic]

Posted on Behalf of the NCWest Aion Game Team

Hi everyone, we hope you’ve enjoyed the recent Anniversary events! A few weeks ago, we asked for your feedback around events. Since then, we’ve reviewed that feedback, put our heads together, and organized some changes that we’re eager to share today. These aren’t drastic changes, but hopefully are welcomed and in the correct direction. We will be curious to see what you think of them as the next few months of events play out.

First however, we wanted to address something: why did we post a dedicated events thread? We saw questions on this, and while it is true we had received feedback about events before, only a small fraction of users spoke on this. It was important for us to ensure we’re not merely serving a “vocal minority”, so this thread was to ensure all users had the opportunity to speak on events before we moved forward. We were grateful to see so much discussion on the topic, and have some changes in mind for the weeks and months ahead.

An Immediate Change

First and foremost, on Wednesday we will be introducing the Harvest Festival Event, which features a special Legendary Transformation Contract as a low-barrier reward. We noted that many users felt valuable rewards have been difficult to obtain due to the many areas of the game which leverage chance-mechanics. While we aren’t looking to eradicate this, we do want to help make valued items easier to obtain, especially for newer players. We have made changes in this event to make the final reward significantly more accessible, and will mirror this in future events. Our hope is that, with sufficient dedication, even newer players should be able to fully complete the event’s contents.

Types of Events

We’ve seen a lot of feedback requesting more events like Smoldering Fire Temple, Daeva Dash, Shugo Emperor’s Vault, Hungry Hatchlings, and more. Hopefully, our coincidental revision to Shugo Emperor's Vault (Daeva Rangers) has been a lot of fun. We’ll look to revisit some of these other appreciated events, since we are now acutely aware of how much you enjoyed them.

Engagement Events - Timing and Activity Levels

On a similar note, we recently began attempting to pair engagement-based activities with purchase-driven ones, to ensure there is something for everyone. These events are not always synched perfectly, but we can make sure they are close to one another. However, something we’ve realized thanks to your input is the importance of having more active events; ones that get you out of town and into instances, new zones, or other areas that can provide a more rewarding experience. Thanks to your feedback, we will be working to shift things more in that direction going forward. Please look for these changes and let us know what you think.

PvE Buffs

Finally, we saw several comments noting the lack of impact which certain anniversary buffs provided. We also saw an interesting perspective: that that these buffs could be treated as unique windows for players to attempt to stretch their limits. This sounded appealing, and in the near future, we would like to experiment with some more substantial buffs - which would allow players to reach for content which they would not have otherwise considered. While these buffs would be a part of events, we may also make them more widely available if there is interest. It’s an idea we’re still working on, but we think there is potential for making it beneficial to the overall game experience.

None of these changes are individually game-changing, but we hope that together they can have a meaningful impact on your experience around events. Some time later, we’d like to follow-up and see how the experience is going. Events, after all, are a critical part of the Aion experience.

Thanks again for all your passionate feedback, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts!

[Arhangelos]

OK, at least it means you are listening.

Is it the Harvest Revel Festival for Halloween?

Because the last 2~3 years we are getting another festival for Halloween:

https://www.aiononline.com/news/pumpkin-kings-haunt-2019

[Yuweh-KT]

The anniversary is very bad and not interesting enough to do it . i was whole day active doing the tiles and seen there are fewer and fewer players doing the shugo event and tiles . I will live my rewards before it ends so watch out. I've open 50 of 11 tokens last anniversary with 150% drop rate and got nothing . i'am still doing the event cause it seems i dont have a choice. I guess on the end of event i can open a hundred or more to see if its really bad watch it on my facebook live. ill open maybe on the 10th of October.

As this for this post with new events i hope it is really good if it is .. thank you finally some new players have a higher chance of gaining something and making something out of it . For most of players who is doing the events during this period alot of them are new return players. I hope it can also be fun for some old stocked players who cant move forward like me 2years and more so far without ultimate xform my sorc cast slower than the average . Last time i pop a pots i got in this event it was a huge huge gap and i went back to my rampage state. Oh i miss tormenting asmos like i used to do

I will be your honest critic for awhile i guess you need one to boost your performance in making good decisions . Just dont get buthurt again when i went Bad. For somehow i dont treat people equally i treat them on how they treat things i like. 

 

-We all agree that Aion is dead , but why you all act like its okey to be more dead . We celebrated this 11th anniversary because we all wanna reminded of the fun that we have before not because of we wanna have fun in the future. 

[Yuweh-KT]

Proof that you have a bad decision is when you start working under NCSOFT hahahahahahaha. Jk but seriously 

[Vantheria-DN]

9 hours ago, Kibbelz said:

which features a special Legendary Transformation Contract as a low-barrier reward. [...] We have made changes in this event to make the final reward significantly more accessible, and will mirror this in future events.

Very good. This is what is needed for new/returning players (and we desperately need those).

 

9 hours ago, Kibbelz said:

We’ll look to revisit some of these other appreciated events

 

9 hours ago, Kibbelz said:

we recently began attempting to pair engagement-based activities with purchase-driven ones, to ensure there is something for everyone.

 

9 hours ago, Kibbelz said:

we would like to experiment with some more substantial buffs - which would allow players to reach for content which they would not have otherwise considered.

These are all things we have been begging/requesting, so thank you for making plans about them.

[Drugged-KT]

Everything is great, I think you and your team are trying to do good things for the community (we just need to see how it goes) but one more thing, please add extendable weapons in the rewards, since we can no longer get this in the game and for some classes is game changing

[Rag-DN]

10 hours ago, Kibbelz said:

 

Engagement Events - Timing and Activity Levels

On a similar note, we recently began attempting to pair engagement-based activities with purchase-driven ones, to ensure there is something for everyone. These events are not always synched perfectly, but we can make sure they are close to one another. However, something we’ve realized thanks to your input is the importance of having more active events; ones that get you out of town and into instances, new zones, or other areas that can provide a more rewarding experience. Thanks to your feedback, we will be working to shift things more in that direction going forward. Please look for these changes and let us know what you think.

PvE Buffs

Finally, we saw several comments noting the lack of impact which certain anniversary buffs provided. We also saw an interesting perspective: that that these buffs could be treated as unique windows for players to attempt to stretch their limits. This sounded appealing, and in the near future, we would like to experiment with some more substantial buffs - which would allow players to reach for content which they would not have otherwise considered.

I hope this means you will do events that also push the community to work and play together. As it was made very clear in the letter from the developers that NCsoft doesn't want to push the game to solo play, it also was made very loud and clear in several forum posts that the players also don't want to continue to have super Solo-play mechanics in the game. Please do not misinterpret this as a "make something that takes a league to complete to just reward one or two players at a time event."  We want more incentive to group up and play together as a team and ALL be rewarded for doing so. 

As for the PVE buffs... that's a great idea!

One final note....can we PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE have some sort of PVP driven event every now and then? I know some players will exploit duel-clienting with accounts of both factions but still, I always found it sad that we have little to no incentive to PVP anymore. There are hardly any quests or rewards for doing it. Remember the kill officer quests for Godstones back in the day? Those were insanely fun and motivating to complete that pushed players to work together to hunt down the opposite faction. 

[Drugged-KT]

3 minutes ago, Rag-DN said:

I hope this means you will do events that also push the community to work and play together. As it was made very clear in the letter from the developers that NCsoft doesn't want to push the game to solo play, it also was made very loud and clear in several forum posts that the players also don't want to continue to have super Solo-play mechanics in the game. Please do not misinterpret this as a "make something that takes a league to complete to just reward one or two players at a time event."  We want more incentive to group up and play together as a team and ALL be rewarded for doing so. 

As for the PVE buffs... that's a great idea!

One final note....can we PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE have some sort of PVP driven event every now and then? I know some players will exploit duel-clienting with accounts of both factions but still, I always found it sad that we have little to no incentive to PVP anymore. There are hardly any quests or rewards for doing it. Remember the kill officer quests for Godstones back in the day? Those were insanely fun and motivating to complete that pushed players to work together to hunt down the opposite faction. 

Agree so much with you, I dont care if some players abuse from it, I just want to have fun doing pvp, since 90% of the server just do pve content

[Ele-DN]

Can we keep the 1 kinah retuning npc for 7.7? so those new stuff doesn't cost 500m+ to get the stats we need? 

[Arctic]

@Arhangelos-KT - yes, there will be a separate event for Halloween

To the discussions about collaboration among players - it's a major talking point internally right now. There was really solid feedback around how the game is often pushing towards solo play atm; that's not what we want. We're breaking ground on it.

As to PvP Events - I will throw the idea to the team and we can see what they think!

[Gallium-DN]

@Kibbelz I would like to make a suggestion concerning Events. In the future, when we have Events that are directly connected to World Bosses, could we please have Auto-Alliance active like the [Daily/Union] Enraged Asmodian/Elyos Guardian Deity General quest? Its very disheartening when your own faction excludes others from participating in World Boss hunts, especially when an Event is on the line.

Also I just want to echo what @Rag-DN said in that we really need incentive to work together in events and to encourage players not to AFK during group activities that rely on one-another.

Oh, one other thing. Because it is insanely hard to get an Ultimate Transformation (and you might as well just lay down on the ground if you come up against an enemy player with one)... I think it was great that Ultimate Potions were a possible reward in this current event and I would like to request that they continue to be included as Event rewards.

[Voltric-DN]

2 hours ago, Rag-DN said:

Please do not misinterpret this as a "make something that takes a league to complete to just reward one or two players at a time event."  We want more incentive to group up and play together as a team and ALL be rewarded for doing so....

100% agreed! I absolutely love being with my legionmates, and helping out new players is also really rewarding. What ISN'T rewarding is grouping up with others for an instance or World Boss and not getting a single thing for your trouble!

As far as the idea of PVP-centered events, I think that would be a fun change of pace, as long as you offer an alternative for the part of the community that does not want to PVP. There's no point in excluding players from events because they are simply not geared or do not wish to get steamrolled by the opposing faction. On that note, I think group PVP is much more exciting, so make sure there are event quests that can be completed solo OR in a group so players have a choice. When it comes to rewards, I would jump at the chance to earn Ultimate Enchantment Stones!!!

[Rag-DN]

11 minutes ago, Voltric-DN said:

As far as the idea of PVP-centered events, I think that would be a fun change of pace, as long as you offer an alternative for the part of the community that does not want to PVP. There's no point in excluding players from events because they are simply not geared or do not wish to get steamrolled by the opposing faction. On that note, I think group PVP is much more exciting, so make sure there are event quests that can be completed solo OR in a group so players have a choice. When it comes to rewards, I would jump at the chance to earn Ultimate Enchantment Stones!!!

There's an easy solution to this...bring back temporary rentable PVP gear. Just something that would be a little worse then endgame gear so it motivates players to keep working on getting their perma gear, but good enough to actually stand a fighting chance against those that are fully geared. As Gal said, keep giving us ways to earn Ultimate Xform potions too, that def helps! (Be better if they weren't strippable by SM's but nothings perfect) 

[Drugged-KT]

Like an open instance where you go in and everyone has cap stats, i dont know if its hard to make

[Gvirus-KT]

The problem with this event is what we all hate, the "RNG", no matter how much one does the event with all its characters. a person who hopefully makes 1 character and gets the  transformation ultimate. I know that elyos and asmodians equally strive for and dedicate their time to make the event in order to get the transformation ultimate or something interesting, and boom !, Grade S Minium ...
You end up annoyed and end up not wanting to play anymore

[Zeyra-KT]

16 hours ago, Kibbelz said:

Types of Events

We’ve seen a lot of feedback requesting more events like Smoldering Fire Temple, Daeva Dash, Shugo Emperor’s Vault, Hungry Hatchlings, and more. Hopefully, our coincidental revision to Shugo Emperor's Vault (Daeva Rangers) has been a lot of fun. We’ll look to revisit some of these other appreciated events, since we are now acutely aware of how much you enjoyed them.

If you guys are going to ruin them like this current event(Daeva Rangers), in my opinion, don't bring them back. Too hard to pug, which discloses the lie about NC wanting us to help others... Too unrewarding to even bother...

Just yesterday I was talking to my legionmates and we all agree that not having a reward at the end of the run gives a unrewardling-like feeling. We are just not doing it.

In my case, items in the npc are just not interesting enough, over having a purchase limit they can't be saved for the future as some of them disapear in 7 days... Getting a legendary enchantment stone (7 days) from the 11th anniversary's vending machine, in my fully geared/super old char is a bad joke, at the very least you could make it tradeable through account warehouse so I may use it in a char that actually needs it.

I would love not being forced to afk to get exp... please add it in some other way!

And Kibblez, if you guys really want everyone's opinion, don't look for them here in forum, tons of ppl don't read it. Make old ingame surveys.

Thx for letting us QQ btw

[Arhangelos]

4 hours ago, Gallium-DN said:

I would like to make a suggestion concerning Events. In the future, when we have Events that are directly connected to World Bosses,

World boss events are not real events, only the big legions do them. Lets never have world boss events again. Events should be doable either solo, or group and if it is open world alliance. Massive player event in open world act negative on the least populated side.

The same way the tiles thing in dream land is awful because the over populated side keeps winning it every hour. We are not even bothering with it as Asmodians KT anymore. Those never bring players together, only frustration and LFG fights.

Massive player events = bad idea.

[Shainygirl-DN]

Maybe it's silly. I go for my tastes. Tiamaranta's Eye introduced me to Aion's PvP. It was fantastic to play the massive battles in that event and it didn't take much equipment.

Regarding awards and since there are no professions, something to expand inventories and / or inventory furniture for homes (all of them).

Mounts would be interesting.

Basically cosmetic of things other than the usual.

Please something that is not random.

Finally, do something in Oriel, that place is a visual delight, you must see that it is good to get away from the voragine of the game and enjoy it in another way.

Thank you.

[Marianni-DN]

22 hours ago, Kibbelz said:

Types of Events

We’ve seen a lot of feedback requesting more events like Smoldering Fire Temple, Daeva Dash, Shugo Emperor’s Vault, Hungry Hatchlings, and more. Hopefully, our coincidental revision to Shugo Emperor's Vault (Daeva Rangers) has been a lot of fun. We’ll look to revisit some of these other appreciated events, since we are now acutely aware of how much you enjoyed them.

Dear @Kibbelz

If possible, please don't forget to add the popular and community loved famous Special Alchemy Event (updated daily opening box rewards) 

 

We would also need to fix this current bug error on clicking in the quest reward, preventing players from claiming the item: 

[Squid]

20 hours ago, Marianni-DN said:

Dear @Kibbelz

If possible, please don't forget to add the popular and community loved famous Special Alchemy Event (updated daily opening box rewards) 

Are you aware they changed it a few years back? To get the best rewards there is an un-tradeable/unstorable in w/h token. Meaning all the best rewards will require you to get a heap of coins.

[Jessika-DN]

@Kibbelz

a) weekly camps quest should also give normal xp points besides reputation points from now on.

b) runestones & gemstones fragments drops should be at least 03 or 04 minimum, not only weekly 01 (one) single item fragment drop from now on.

[OopsyBear-KT]

@Kibbelz

I appreciate the making of legendary transformations more available for new and returning players is going on, I even appreciate the Ultimate Xform Potions. They are something the community has requested for a long time, and I'm still not sure why people are so angry about getting them after having their feedback finally heard on this. I am enjoying the Daev Skill Boxes; but the long log in times required to get them instead of acquiring them via gameplay was frustrating from the get go.

I LOVE the ideas regarding PvP events, and I truly deeply from the bottom of my heart hope you were serious when you said you will bring that to your team. That would be an awesome gift to the community of a game that claims to revolve around PvP. People brought up concerns with gearing being an issue in a PvP based event, the simplest solution is a zone with equalized gear for the event. Then people who may have been afraid to partake in PvP can give it a go and see how enjoyable it can be, gain experience, and be rewarded for branching out and learning more about the game. Give players the incentive to get out on the field and fight for good rewards. Please!!

****The original feedback I wanted to give was simple though; remove the "Keys" for 1 time event purchases from the BCM shop and simply make it clear on the event merchant that this item is limited to 1 purchase per account. I am getting tired of everyone asking me how to use their key to get their "free" item and having to explain; it is not free, it just involves some work via the event. "Why is there a key then?" Most ask. "I DO NOT KNOW!" I answer. It's just an unnecessary extra step that confuses a lot of players, or eats up precious inventory space for those who jump the gun and get it too early in the cash shop. Get rid of the keys, or heck just go nuts and make a key for every item on the event.... The free Key in the Cash Shop is nonsensical to me and by the number of times in the past events I've been asked on a nearly daily basis what they are and what am I supposed to do with it, let's just say it's confusing as all get out for many people. Many of us understand already how they work but for new and returning players I end up explaining it over and over when it's just a pointless extra step to obtain a reward that is already on a vendor. You can code limits to purchases already, just get rid of these silly keys. It creates disappointment for the players who do not understand this super weird 'free key' system, and it is just a needless extra step to get something you've already earned. It creates frustration for myself because I am being asked nearly every day about them and have to keep explaining it over and over and over and over, and always being asked why are they making me obtain my reward this way? I mean I'm no idiot and I get it, it makes them open up the Cash Shop, but come on.****

That said, the Anniversary Event is basically just a log in reward event. Long time and avid players have barely anything to gain from their daily visits to the creepily weird and boring Dream World zone, the reward items being non transferrable via account warehouse is frustrating for many. Events that encourage more than half the people on your friends list to just be afk all day (and fight to not get disconnected) certainly makes for far more solo time and a bad gameplay experience overall. If I want to get the Daev skills for a character in progress, I end up afk'ing for hours on my alt and not actually being able to play the game itself. Is that a choice I've made? Sure, but you guys kind of made the choice for me. Everyone has already said enough about the issues with the free xform bug with the missing Harvest Festival merchant and glitched rewards, so I won't touch much on that, but psst - find a way to make it right. The fact that only groups of top geared players are able to farm the materials needed for the event; and in short time windows in select places really ruins the opportunity for new and returning players or players working on new characters to get anything out of the event. This has been beaten to death as well but I have to speak up on this. Events should be fun, not smash your face into the keyboard aggravating. I don't know how many people have already told me they've given up on this event because groups of fully geared people are KS'ing event mobs from them all day. Fun for a few, sure, but not the majority.

Honestly just taking out the silly Keys would improve my days, though. If you guys throw a PvP event I will be so gosh darn proud of you.

[Kreatus-KT]

@Kibbelz just wondering what is the chance of getting ultimate transformation on Autumn Harvest Superior Transformation Pouch thank you

[MetaBlack-KT]

I don't know how the event is called where we buy stuff from Baron Baroca for Event Coins, I wonder till which date will this event last??

In the Summer, my favourite event Ice Hot was skipped, I wonder why, please don't skip it the next year or sell us  the scintillating drinks from it! 

[Yuweh-KT]

On 9/29/2020 at 0:33 PM, Kibbelz said:

Posted on Behalf of the NCWest Aion Game Team

Hi everyone, we hope you’ve enjoyed the recent Anniversary events! A few weeks ago, we asked for your feedback around events. Since then, we’ve reviewed that feedback, put our heads together, and organized some changes that we’re eager to share today. These aren’t drastic changes, but hopefully are welcomed and in the correct direction. We will be curious to see what you think of them as the next few months of events play out.

First however, we wanted to address something: why did we post a dedicated events thread? We saw questions on this, and while it is true we had received feedback about events before, only a small fraction of users spoke on this. It was important for us to ensure we’re not merely serving a “vocal minority”, so this thread was to ensure all users had the opportunity to speak on events before we moved forward. We were grateful to see so much discussion on the topic, and have some changes in mind for the weeks and months ahead.

An Immediate Change

First and foremost, on Wednesday we will be introducing the Harvest Festival Event, which features a special Legendary Transformation Contract as a low-barrier reward. We noted that many users felt valuable rewards have been difficult to obtain due to the many areas of the game which leverage chance-mechanics. While we aren’t looking to eradicate this, we do want to help make valued items easier to obtain, especially for newer players. We have made changes in this event to make the final reward significantly more accessible, and will mirror this in future events. Our hope is that, with sufficient dedication, even newer players should be able to fully complete the event’s contents.

Types of Events

We’ve seen a lot of feedback requesting more events like Smoldering Fire Temple, Daeva Dash, Shugo Emperor’s Vault, Hungry Hatchlings, and more. Hopefully, our coincidental revision to Shugo Emperor's Vault (Daeva Rangers) has been a lot of fun. We’ll look to revisit some of these other appreciated events, since we are now acutely aware of how much you enjoyed them.

Engagement Events - Timing and Activity Levels

On a similar note, we recently began attempting to pair engagement-based activities with purchase-driven ones, to ensure there is something for everyone. These events are not always synched perfectly, but we can make sure they are close to one another. However, something we’ve realized thanks to your input is the importance of having more active events; ones that get you out of town and into instances, new zones, or other areas that can provide a more rewarding experience. Thanks to your feedback, we will be working to shift things more in that direction going forward. Please look for these changes and let us know what you think.

PvE Buffs

Finally, we saw several comments noting the lack of impact which certain anniversary buffs provided. We also saw an interesting perspective: that that these buffs could be treated as unique windows for players to attempt to stretch their limits. This sounded appealing, and in the near future, we would like to experiment with some more substantial buffs - which would allow players to reach for content which they would not have otherwise considered. While these buffs would be a part of events, we may also make them more widely available if there is interest. It’s an idea we’re still working on, but we think there is potential for making it beneficial to the overall game experience.

None of these changes are individually game-changing, but we hope that together they can have a meaningful impact on your experience around events. Some time later, we’d like to follow-up and see how the experience is going. Events, after all, are a critical part of the Aion experience.

Thanks again for all your passionate feedback, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Anniversary event : NO we didnt enjoy it !! no one did for sure i saw alot of mad people bashing you about it.
I hope the low barrier reward dont hold us back again with 1 key per account !! cause it sucks.
Shugo Emperors Vault : Saw few people doing this .. I saw alot at 1st but fewer in the after days due to the rush maintenance to nerf the coin rewards.
New event ? No we lost hope that you will make one with that tiny copy paste brain of yours .
I felt like we will be still disappointed in every event you planing to put like always . 
Try to play it as a new player and see how hard it is to play without paying then see what really needed to put into the event. I bet seeing the huge cap to be able to a normal player in a dying game is hard you just quit away and think its not worth it.