Feedback on Achievements for Event

[petros]

Would love to hear event participant feedback on the achievement badges. Sound off here!

[Manglor]

Would love to hear event participant feedback on the achievement badges. Sound off here!

I like it! One thing I really wanted was a way to learn more about the badges you are aware of. One liner. Like, "Hubba My Hammie" <badges Hubba My Hammie> tells you "Collect a ham or chips in Sparkle."

That way achievement hunters could know just what it takes to...achieve the badge. Or is that too easy?

[Irk]

How to get bracelet? If i dont have bracelet, will i get achievements?

I took new stone for phase 2, but without bracelet and i have too many hams to discard stone and take new one.... what to do?

[petros]

How to get bracelet? If i dont have bracelet, will i get achievements?

I took new stone for phase 2, but without bracelet and i have too many hams to discard stone and take new one.... what to do?

You need bracelet for achievements. It comes with the stone you get for phase two. If I see you on, I can clone another for you.

[Irk]

I am on all the time

[Manglor]

I am on all the time

Literally

[Kiara]

Would love to hear event participant feedback on the achievement badges. Sound off here!

I like it! One thing I really wanted was a way to learn more about the badges you are aware of. One liner. Like, "Hubba My Hammie" <badges Hubba My Hammie> tells you "Collect a ham or chips in Sparkle."

That way achievement hunters could know just what it takes to...achieve the badge. Or is that too easy?

I kinda like its not completely obvious what to do. Probably promotes a little interaction if its not 100% obvious? Maybe you'd need to ask around if you cant figure it out yourself? I think thats good. I think. First I felt like Manglor though, but... yeah... I a not completely decided, but I think its better not to tell in detail exactly what to do?

As for the system I think it seems very promising. I like it. When implemented in the "real" game I think the challenge will be to make it thematically acceptable, and logical. For events I personally at least accept more or less anything, since it's part of the whole thing to compete doing silly things... But the game achievements I think need to fit in some clever way, not just "added on top". I dont think anyone want to see Genesis become Farmville...

I would also be very careful with implementing too much "single player" achievements. Like achievements for herbing, smithing and grinding etc... I think the game needs interaction, and giving people even more reasons to spend their time alone without interaction I dont think is going to be good long term. At least not if its interaction we want? I'd like to see more interaction at least. But I am sure there can be many achievements that promote interaction too.

If you want feedback for this event, it feels like the majority of achievements are simply too easy to finish. The ones regarding amount are probably challenging, and finding arches too. But just finding ONE for each domain and ONE of each kind is something almost everyone who spends a few hours doing the event will compete very easily I think.

For next time (or if you want to add more now??) I would suggest achievements for:

More goals for each type, maybe something like:

25, 100, 250 hampshire/apple
10, 50, 100 berkshire,maple
5, 25, 50, mangalitsa/hickory

More goals for each domain, maybe:

10, 25, 50 hams/chips (of any kinds) for each domain

With the current achievements most of us will, without much effort, only have the total amount achievements, and the arch hams, to aim for. Which actually is the same as phase 1. Get all arches and collect as much as you can. I'd think it would be more interesting if you could choose what to go for. Now once you've gotten one of each kind, and one from each domain (which is done very quickly), you have no other choices. Just collect as much as you can, as usual. And eventually you'll reach a new achievement. You dont have to have a strategy, you dont have to make an active choice. So in reality, even with achievements, phase 2 currently is really the same as phase 1. Once you get the easy achievements (domains+types), its actually exactly the same as phase 1.

With more different and more challenging achievements we all would have to choose what to do, and also adjust our collecting depending on our focus, or maybe adjust our plan depending on what we find. Either way, itll be more choices and more strategy involved. Maybe I will focus on getting a lot of mangalitsa hams to get those rewards, while Hrolg decides to try to get everything he can from Calia mainly, and Starla had some luck getting maple chips early on, so she decided to try to get 100. But none of us will be able to get all achievements, so we'll have to chose.

Some "first to collect" achievements would have been nice too. Not the easy ones though, then it will just be like the necro event, when happening to be around when the event started meant you basically won tons of those "first" rewards, mostly thanks to pure luck. (Or having inside information). And I dont think that was a very good way of doing it. (Sorry, but it wasnt very fair, and no fair is no fun!) Anyway, "first to 500" or "first to 50 in X domain" or something, might have been fun. And of course, the start time needs to be announced some time before the event actually starts, so everyone gets a chance of being there. These latest two events have just started without any real warning. Just very diffuse warnings. (A tent showing up that nobody really understood for necros, and for pigs some hint from Petros on forums, that not everyone reads).

Yeah... I sound pretty negative? Nah, I think achievements seem very promising. A little tweaking and it'll be perfect.

On the other hand, maybe you're not doing us a favour at all by making this more addictive than it already is?:P

[petros]

Thanks for the very thoughtful feedback so far! Frankly, the achievements were intended to be a lot more interesting for the event, but we ran out of time "before Christmas"

We'll be discussing how to integrate achievements into the game better. I have most of the "events" from prior posts coded up. Just need to actually create the badges and make them live in the game. We also have a lot of work to do in terms of displaying them properly. We do want some of it to be a mystery in terms of how to get it. As players get them, they are free to share and show them off to others. Discussing how to achieve badges can be a fun topic in of itself that can drive some collaboration amongst players (hopefully!).