Competition Golden Week 2016

I had a ball thou was a fun event.

 

And they have a progress bar, which is new. Yes it's not the exact same thing, but I guesstimated they implemented the capabilities to use it in this context, too, like by just setting parameters and choosing a few switches.

 

Just looked at the forum posts for the Gold Rush, which finished on the 30th November....

11 days before the results were announced! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

 

Got 26k give or take average but im sure im gonna get the royal treatment and get screwed wich wont be the first time in the goldthemed events. Not expecting anything announced in a few days anyhow. Have patience is all i can say

 

only did it for the skill pills..... and the nookie.

 

I must have really got the shaft this year. 33.5 hours and my highest token was a measly 100 pointer (only 3). considering I was killing 256 mobs an hour in cat 2 was kinda expecting more.

 

I totally agree , and i gave up after i saw ppl looted 2x5k tokens ..

 

Eliminating top-value tokens would lead to the opposite of the intended result. It would reduce the element of luck which gives you a chance against players with superior skills, equipment and financial prowess. They still have the better statistical chance of looting these, too, but nothing is for sure until it's over.

 

The element of luck wouldn't change. Like I mentioned before, that high dps player will still have the same amount of tokens, since he finishes his runs and completes the event, the only difference would be his point total instead of having 3x5k token, 1x1k token and 5x500 points making a total of 18.5k points, he would have 3x200, 1x100 and 5x50, making the total amount 950 points.
For those with "inferior"(or low) skills, equipement and financial prowess in the first situation they would most likely give up. Why try and compete and try your luck? In the second situation chances of this player to maybe try his luck is much greater.
Obviously this concept is based upon the thought of having the catagories reflect somehow people's skill lvls, I failed to mention that in the original post which is my bad. Off course an event with the suggested pointsystem would be won by someone who can stroll in and 1 shot the creatures in the lowest catagory all day long. But that person will most likely win in ANY type of pointsystem based on looted tokens.

 

I did cat 4 but I didn't go in it for the remote chance at one of the prizes. I looted enough tokens to get 9 A10 5mg skill pills, while using 3 A10 5mg and 6 A1 1mg pills, and I killed enough breeders to complete the evade mission (I had some kills accumulated from Gold Rush). I went up a lvl in my top hit and damage professions as well as in Evader.

Goals met. \0/

 

Well, I'm sure the devs must be getting a deja-vu upon this discussion. There probably isn't a perfect answer. You either have a competition or a lottery. There is some moaning any which way they make it.

I suggested earlier to impose hp limits not only in category 1, but all except the highest (125 - 150 - 175 - open), because now the problem just got shifted to cat 2 which simply gets taken by players wielding 130 or more dps. Until they get relegated to their own league, this will not change. But other than that, I can't think of any way to make it better than it is. MM and others lack the side missions and often get accused of being pay-to-win events. Here we already have rewards which do not depend on luck or skill and equipment, only on effort. You walk away with something to show for regardless of what drops for you or what you own save for the minimum cut, unless you choose to quit. Greed can be a good servant, but is a terrible master.

 

Totally agree with you San

 

Eh, I don't know San. I agree with you in theory, but then you would have people chipping out to reduce their HP to qualify and chipping back in once they were put into a category (which is the same problem that MM had when there were level requirements). Personally I don't know why they ever removed the "no chipping" policy. Also, the numbers would have to be tweaked a bit - you get hp much much faster when you hit level 40/50, but those people wouldn't necessarily have the gear to kill the stage 4 mobs (I'm a lvl 57 hit, 55 dmg, and I have 175 HP, but I probably don't have the gear to kill the stage 4 mobs, considering they do twice the damage as the level 3 ones)
As an aside to the Ark team, could we get a complete breakdown of the damage on these going forward by chance? Since this time we weren't even allowed to go into a different instance without having the quest for it (and losing all points), I wasn't able to even find out if I could handle the level 4 mobs.

 

only solution would be a dps cap - if you go for HP cap you will still have the same situations, at least in the highest cat.. imagine player one with 175 HP .. player two with 350 hp - both in the same cat?!

 

I think it would be done if it was technically possible. HP is probably a workaround, for a parameter has to be accessible to work with. Instances can be made to exclude certain equipment from being carried in, but is it possible to limit your exact capabilities, given the multitude of combinations there are with weapons, attachments, buffs and whatnot? I doubt it and I trust the devs already apply the best solution heuristics can suggest. Anything is conceivable in software of course, but if the platform doesn't provide it already it's pretty hard to push for changes in the deep end.

Also chipping out for the sole purpose of getting into a lower category for one event is probably more trouble than it's worth. Maybe feasible if you're just a wee bit over the limit, but prolly not from a cat 4 classification down to a 2. HP can't be chipped directly (stamina? - if yes, very limited amount). Almost every skill goes into it. But no system is totally fool-proof. If someone wants to spend that much money for ESI's just for the heck of it rather than buying the thing he wants off the winner, then what can you do. Or works with an alt or does whatever crooked minds come up with.

 

What if there was an option for a group of avatars to register pre-event as a team with the devs. Then they still enter singly in the instances but their combined points total and hours completed counted as a single entry.

Then at the end the best scoring team could either win the main prize or there could be a separate "team award" for people who want to take on the challenge but don't have the resources or inclination to do the full hourly commitment. Might even be a fun thing for the various SOCs to be involved in?

That may "normalise" the luck factor to some degree, allow some players to skill up and complete a few missions and still allow single players to attempt the full event.

 

I mean, people already do and have always done stupid ridiculously crazy and expensive things to get into lower categories for a higher chance at a prize. Also, when I was reading your comment about almost every skill going into it, I thought of another issue - this would completely screw up people that have really high mining skills but might not have the hunting capabilities to hunt what category their inflated hp would put them in (personally I have at least 20 hp from my mining skills)

Tor