Update 37 - Forester Event

[LordOfTheSquids]

Update 37- Forester Event​

We have added our first Crafting Event to the game!

The event takes place at the Combe Lumber Camp and when active the Camp is decorated by flags, new hide stretchers, craft tables, wood piles, and bears for skinning.

If you are in Breeland, you will get an announcement alerting you that the event will being in 15 minutes. Contestants can make their way to the lumber camp and acquire the quest from Wilkin Thorne, Mason Thorne's son. As the event coordinator, Wilkin will bestow the quest to any forester, regardless of their proficiency.

This event works a little different than others.

Players get the quest and then register with the Judge, Aldith Bauman, Old Bauman's daughter. The first contestant to register with Aldith begins a hidden count that provides a failsafe for when there are not enough players around to normally kick off the contest. If three players register for the event, there is another announcement that alert all players that there are 2 minutes before the event begins.

Players then follow the quest, as normal, and complete the tasks to place, 1st, 2nd, and consolation in the event. All participants who complete the "race" portion of the event will get wither a 1st place, 2nd place, or participation award. All players who complete the quest receive a participation award and advance the competition based deeds!

Old Bauman has a new role in the camp as a barterer! you can see the list of the many, many, rewards available through the event by looking through his wares.

Known Issues:

• Icons for rewards are placeholder.
• Cosmetically applied effects are currently not translating when used to harvest wood nodes.
• There is an error in the titles that places Farmer before your name and the rest of the title, whoops.
• Items purchased through the barter system that should only be purchased once can currently be purchased multiple times.
• The output Axes from new recipes are erroneously set to bind when equipped, this should be bind when acquired.
• Whetstone rewards are not consumed.

Feedback Needed:
As this is an inaugural event and we are looking to add at least one event for each of the professions, available on a rotating basis the reward costs are high. We will need to be cautious about lowering them too far, but look forward to feedback on this, our first true Crafting Event.

Fridays at Four features a preview of the event with Orion, available here:

Update 37 - Beta#4 - (New notes in yellow)​

• Crafting Experience earned for the forester event has been increased.
• We continue to attempt to stop the hide stretchers from flying. This attempt will surely take. Right?
• We are experiencing floating issues with drinks and tables too. We are working to alleviate this issue.
• We made some changes to the event to ensure that you cannot cheat through it if it is on cooldown. You will now fail the quest if the event resets while you have not completed it. Please don't try to cheat. It's why we cannot have nice things.
• The bears are floating too? What on earth... Who is letting these things float around? Me? No, no, I snap them to the ground. Well, if it is me then I need to embed them into the ground a little. Let's see if that works.
• Wilkin now refers to himself as Wilkin. Clearly he had some issues.
• The quest event is a little bit of a departure from our normal quests and the events don't always clean up the inventory or display the inventory in the quest panel. It's an inconvenience. We'd like to leave it this way because we are trying to mitigate some issues we see with those who want to cause trouble in events.
• Players can no longer use speed altering skills or item skills while near the "I'm a lumberjack" event.
• The cosmetic appearances on the new forester axes are now behaving correctly for the variants that have axe, and hide stretchers.
• The caber skills now function correctly and no longer place a flag.
• The Cosmetic upgrade items for the Forester Event now correctly reference that they are Cosmetic Hatchet Designs.
  Ribbons for the Crafting Events should now have the proper iconography.
• Skills, Emotes, and Titles can no longer be purchased multiple times when doing the Forester Event.
• The final announcement when completing the Forester Event now displays the ribbon that you receive.
• You can no longer use movement altering skills of other skills that might disrupt the festival event.
• You can no longer "lose" the caber channeling effect by passing through the blue gate at the wrong time in the Combe Forester Event.
• When the forester event is active at the Combe lumberyard the immediate area where the event occurs will no longer allow mounts or war-steeds; speed altering effects will be suppressed and items that force players to emote are disabled.
• Targeting others with the new emotes from the Forester event, now properly displays the action done and to whom.
• There was an invisible bump in the world during the event at the very first set of markers that you need to pass through. This has been removed.
• There was an error in the quest structure that allowed players to see the wrong text on the portion of the event where you need to tan the hides.

 

[Laurelinarien]

Well, I was alone but the timers worked properly and the event kicked off as expected.
I think it's well done, not competitive in a way that will prevent people from performing their tasks entirely and I thought it was fun. Got the expected participation ribbon and winner ribbon.

 

[Orion]

Well, I was alone but the timers worked properly and the event kicked off as expected.
I think it's well done, not competitive in a way that will prevent people from performing their tasks entirely and I thought it was fun. Got the expected participation ribbon and winner ribbon.

See...

But seriously, the intent was to make it different from other events. And, just think, I had a ton of fixes in just this morning and yesterday that are not in this version of Bullroarer.

 

[Pharone]

I can't wait to go try it after work today!

 

[Peq]

I tried this once today. I would like to mention that class specific run speed buffs or any run speed buffs such as coffee provide a significant advantage over other players.
Also I did one event. I definitely didn't win. I got 1 participation ribbon and I have 1 winners ribbon. Is this working as intended?

 

[Orion]

I tried this once today. I would like to mention that class specific run speed buffs or any run speed buffs such as coffee provide a significant advantage over other players.
Also I did one event. I definitely didn't win. I got 1 participation ribbon and I have 1 winners ribbon. Is this working as intended?

Yes, we will have a solution for this in the next round.

 

[Peq]

Also..... One Winner ribbon equaling 100 3rd place (participation) ribbons seems a bit steep. I can see the winner getting 2x or 3x the prize that everyone else gets. But this is pretty steep.
I would suggest that rather than tuning up the participation rewards which is the one the likely establishes the "base" progression rate, instead tune down the 1st place ribbon.
It would look a lot nicer if it was like 2-3 participation ribbons = 1 runner up ribbon and 2-3 runner up ribbons = 1 winner ribbon
In order to make up for this you could simply make the barter items cost 10 winner ribbons 10 runner up ribbons and 50 participation ribbons.
This way the cost of the bartered items is the same. But you dont have such a strong queue towards the winner.
Giving the winner something better is a good thing for competition sake.
But when the reward is THIS much better than the other you are going to get people that log in at 4 in the morning or that go to another server just so they can do this event alone which completely undermines the spirit of the festival.

 

[Gildoriel]

I won - doing it alone :ROFLMAO: the other guys there didn't have Forester profession. It went quite well after I had got my bearings and realized where which part of the quest was located. Only the parcours was a bit exciting with still having the drunk effect and experiencing some network related lag, but I also made it. It got easier after the drunk effect wore off.
Though for the barter trade, the prices seems quite high. For a basic version of my racial axe I need 1 winner ribbon, 1 runner-up ribbon and 50 participation ribbons. Which means, if I don't finish 1st and 2nd at least once, I will have to do (1x100 for winner, 1x10 for runner-up, 50x1 for participation ribbons) = 160 participations (divided by 2) that means 80 times running the event. Didn't you (Orion) say that if your luck was worst you could finish in 20 days? Does that mean I must run the event 4 times per day? Else I guess I didn't understand your way of reasoning with this calculation.

 

[Orion]

I won - doing it alone :ROFLMAO: the other guys there didn't have Forester profession. It went quite well after I had got my bearings and realized where which part of the quest was located. Only the parcours was a bit exciting with still having the drunk effect and experiencing some network related lag, but I also made it. It got easier after the drunk effect wore off.
Though for the barter trade, the prices seems quite high. For a basic version of my racial axe I need 1 winner ribbon, 1 runner-up ribbon and 50 participation ribbons. Which means, if I don't finish 1st and 2nd at least once, I will have to do (1x100 for winner, 1x10 for runner-up, 50x1 for participation ribbons) = 160 participations (divided by 2) that means 80 times running the event. Didn't you (Orion) say that if your luck was worst you could finish in 20 days? Does that mean I must run the event 4 times per day? Else I guess I didn't understand your way of reasoning with this calculation.

There are still some things missing, like deed rewards. Which will be in the next build. Those will push you over.

Again, the reason that the costs are so high is because these are supposed to be events that will always have one available to you.

 

[Elmagor]

new emotes = old emotes with hatchet in hand. Doesn that mean what when we have scholar event, reward will be old emotes wit loop in hand?

 

[TesalionLortus]

Also..... One Winner ribbon equaling 100 3rd place (participation) ribbons seems a bit steep.

I don't have a forester, so not going there, but do I read this right - what you mean is that the winner guy (of a single quest, or contest?) doesn't need to do 100 quests / 100 contests like everyone else? Because if so... that's insanely steep.

 

[Peq]

I did the contest a second time.
I noticed a few things.
There is clearly some RNG I wasnt aware of the first time.
It took me longer than someone else to pick up my axe. That seems random on purpose.
I was also WAY more drunk and slow carrying around my caber than I was the first time.
So I can see that there is some RNG to provide "fairness" to the game. Which is good.
But yeah 1 winners ribbon being worth 100 participation ribbons is just way too much.

 

[Orion]

Remember that this is the first of what should end up as 10 events that will be in rotation, 4 days on and ~21 days off. This would mean that there would be at least one of these style of events with the same rewards running every day.

Reward are shared on your account so all your characters that participate contribute to the barter rewards.

The balance of the tokens needs to be against against the total number of professions and available events not just this single event. And yes, wins are meant to be that rewarding.

 

[RohirricHunter]

I've done this event only once, so bear that in mind.

Overall, it seems very fun. I'm excited to really be able to get into it and experiment with the rewards. Love the idea of cosmetic crafting tools.

If I understand correctly, the barter item rewards for all such events will be the same and account-shared, so if I'm unable to get a reward I want in the Forester event, I can take a different character to a Prospector event and use those reward tokens to get Forester rewards? That seems like a good system to me.

I appreciate that the event can still happen even if three players don't register for it. This will make it easier for people like me who often have schedules that demand I play during low-traffic hours.

I'm not sure if the regional notifications are quite necessary, since the event can only be run once a day. Also there are no nearby fast-travel points, the closest being the stable-master and milestone in Combe, which makes it rather difficult to get to the Combe lumber camp in under two minutes. I fast-traveled to Bree-town's West-gate to go check out the event, got the notification that it was about to start, ran to the lumber-camp as fast as I possibly could, and made it just in time to see the event actually kick off, without being able to join. It seems to me more likely that players will make their way there when they are ready, without needing to be notified. Regional notifications about it will probably just drive players to filter out said notifications when playing in the Bree region. Alternatively, adding a milestone to the Combe lumber camp or adding fast travel maps might eliminate the issue entirely.

It took me a long time to figure out how to gather logs for the first stage of the event. I feel like there should be a note in the quest bestowal dialogue that you need to click on the axe for this and not just click on the wood (like you would if you were actually out foresting in the game), as it took me a while to figure that out. I spent a long time clicking on the piles of wood expecting something to happen, and the only error message I got was "Already in use," which didn't clue me into what I was doing wrong. This is a minor issue, however, as it is a "first-time only" sort of problem. Now that I know how it works, I won't make the same mistake again.

I didn't look too hard at barter rewards or prices, since I didn't have enough to barter for anything, so no opinion on the prices at this time.

When I finished the event I got these messages in my chat window:

[07/19 02:27:15 PM] Markers passed
[07/19 02:27:17 PM] Markers passed
[07/19 02:27:23 PM] You carried the caber through the forester event - Participant Ribbon
[07/19 02:27:32 PM] Completed:
Combe: I'm a Lumberjack
[07/19 02:27:32 PM] <string table error; tableDID [0x25000006] token [0x0777B334]>
[07/19 02:27:32 PM] You've earned 20 silver pieces and 14 copper coins for quest completion.
[07/19 02:27:32 PM] You have acquired: [Participation Ribbon].
[07/19 02:27:32 PM] New Deed: The Competitive Forester - Tier I
[07/19 02:27:32 PM] Completed:
The Competitive Forester - Tier I
[07/19 02:27:32 PM] A new Title has been bestowed upon you, you may now be known as Farmer Leonys, Competitive Forester!

I assume the "Participant Ribbon" bit indicates that I came in third place and my rewards were only the Participation Ribbon rewards, and if I had come in first or second it would be different. Still, this could stand to be worded better.

The string table error seemed to be in place of some sort of reputation or deed reward. Perhaps the crafting experience reward? My Forestry XP is maxxed out on this character, so perhaps that's why it returned an error.

I think I saw somewhere that the odd title was a known issue so I won't belabor it.

In any event, it seems to be a fun event and I look forward to more!

 

[Orion]

I've done this event only once, so bear that in mind.

Overall, it seems very fun. I'm excited to really be able to get into it and experiment with the rewards. Love the idea of cosmetic crafting tools.

If I understand correctly, the barter item rewards for all such events will be the same and account-shared, so if I'm unable to get a reward I want in the Forester event, I can take a different character to a Prospector event and use those reward tokens to get Forester rewards? That seems like a good system to me.

I appreciate that the event can still happen even if three players don't register for it. This will make it easier for people like me who often have schedules that demand I play during low-traffic hours.

I'm not sure if the regional notifications are quite necessary, since the event can only be run once a day. Also there are no nearby fast-travel points, the closest being the stable-master and milestone in Combe, which makes it rather difficult to get to the Combe lumber camp in under two minutes. I fast-traveled to Bree-town's West-gate to go check out the event, got the notification that it was about to start, ran to the lumber-camp as fast as I possibly could, and made it just in time to see the event actually kick off, without being able to join. It seems to me more likely that players will make their way there when they are ready, without needing to be notified. Regional notifications about it will probably just drive players to filter out said notifications when playing in the Bree region. Alternatively, adding a milestone to the Combe lumber camp or adding fast travel maps might eliminate the issue entirely.

It took me a long time to figure out how to gather logs for the first stage of the event. I feel like there should be a note in the quest bestowal dialogue that you need to click on the axe for this and not just click on the wood (like you would if you were actually out foresting in the game), as it took me a while to figure that out. I spent a long time clicking on the piles of wood expecting something to happen, and the only error message I got was "Already in use," which didn't clue me into what I was doing wrong. This is a minor issue, however, as it is a "first-time only" sort of problem. Now that I know how it works, I won't make the same mistake again.

I didn't look too hard at barter rewards or prices, since I didn't have enough to barter for anything, so no opinion on the prices at this time.

When I finished the event I got these messages in my chat window:

[07/19 02:27:15 PM] Markers passed
[07/19 02:27:17 PM] Markers passed
[07/19 02:27:23 PM] You carried the caber through the forester event - Participant Ribbon
[07/19 02:27:32 PM] Completed:
Combe: I'm a Lumberjack
[07/19 02:27:32 PM] <string table error; tableDID [0x25000006] token [0x0777B334]>
[07/19 02:27:32 PM] You've earned 20 silver pieces and 14 copper coins for quest completion.
[07/19 02:27:32 PM] You have acquired: [Participation Ribbon].
[07/19 02:27:32 PM] New Deed: The Competitive Forester - Tier I
[07/19 02:27:32 PM] Completed:
The Competitive Forester - Tier I
[07/19 02:27:32 PM] A new Title has been bestowed upon you, you may now be known as Farmer Leonys, Competitive Forester!

I assume the "Participant Ribbon" bit indicates that I came in third place and my rewards were only the Participation Ribbon rewards, and if I had come in first or second it would be different. Still, this could stand to be worded better.

The string table error seemed to be in place of some sort of reputation or deed reward. Perhaps the crafting experience reward? My Forestry XP is maxxed out on this character, so perhaps that's why it returned an error.

I think I saw somewhere that the odd title was a known issue so I won't belabor it.

In any event, it seems to be a fun event and I look forward to more!

The string error is actually an issue with passing information from the end of the event into the judge. She announced the winner, runner-up, and all other participants!

I’m hoping I can’t get it passed through correctly before the next update.

 

[TesalionLortus]

Remember that this is the first of what should end up as 10 events that will be in rotation, 4 days on and ~21 days off. This would mean that there would be at least one of these style of events with the same rewards running every day.

Reward are shared on your account so all your characters that participate contribute to the barter rewards.

The balance of the tokens needs to be against against the total number of professions and available events not just this single event. And yes, wins are meant to be that rewarding.

How many rewards will be there in the pool once all of these events are out?

If more than 20, then definitely see no reason why someone has to run them THAT many times to get... a single reward. Even if that's a top notch one, the price could definitely be lower.

Let's say 50 tokens is roughly the middle price we're dealing with for a single reward (some below it, some 100 tokens). 40 rewards x 50 tokens ends up being 2000 runs for completionists and that's assuming there will be only 40 rewards. (Or 1000, given we can get at least two such tokens?). Given there is a lot of professions to cover, each with their own fluff etc, the pool might be bigger. 3000 runs? 4000 runs? Oh, bear in mind there are just 365 days a year... so not sure, based on what others said about the prices still sounds excessive, because for a casual who doesn't intend to run these every single day of their live... well, a terrible slog it seems, which might just ruin any of the fun you guys wanted it to be. I'm a bit casual on festivals lately and earning at slowpoke pace but sounds far more hardcore for the prices than a festival? Or am I reading this wrong?

 

[DoRonRon]

Go to use the pile but too far away after walk up to it, so figured to mount it and that worked.

I got wood (massively) but couldn't keep it up for more than 8 gates, did I leave area going through gate 8 or did I not notice the time out after the huge slow? Flags are unnecessarily high, my fault for being transfixed by the caber.
So you can fail it miserably? .

Could endlessly shape the wood 10/5.

I suspect my drink was spiked, all a bit unwholesome.

Tried to get it on two chars at the same time, logging out after acquiring. Both chars failed at the same stage so don't know if both could complete at a quiet time of day.

On a more serious note it seems bad that the quest axe can't be placed in our tool slot and then be used in each activity. Having to click on it for the wood piles then just need "USE" key for hides is inconsistent. Don't know If its a RNG effecting the outcome, maybe DDO is the game for this type of event? Can see it quickly becoming tedious on a busy server and many losses.

9:45 pm EST there were 17 non anons on BR. No lag to report. I better go look if any streamers have been on.

Second time in I changed up the strategy and completed fine. Winners have a huge advantage over losers, so not much different from the rest of the game. I really don't see a gathering tool to be ideal for investment over a production tool, with 100% crits from tasks is there any point though?

If bored with figuring out stat squish and spec upheavals maybe throwing everything at the event might seem less odious in comparison.

 

[Yewlin]

? Much happier thread!

 

[Peq]

Oh yeah. I forgot to say
I think it’s fun.

 

[Orion]

How many rewards will be there in the pool once all of these events are out?

The goal would be to match the number of rewards to what is available in this first event.

If more than 20, then definitely see no reason why someone has to run them THAT many times to get... a single reward. Even if that's a top notch one, the price could definitely be lower.

You really don't. Many of the rewards are much cheaper.

Let's say 50 tokens is roughly the middle price we're dealing with for a single reward (some below it, some 100 tokens). 40 rewards x 50 tokens ends up being 2000 runs for completionists and that's assuming there will be only 40 rewards. (Or 1000, given we can get at least two such tokens?). Given there is a lot of professions to cover, each with their own fluff etc, the pool might be bigger. 3000 runs? 4000 runs? Oh, bear in mind there are just 365 days a year... so not sure, based on what others said about the prices still sounds excessive, because for a casual who doesn't intend to run these every single day of their live... well, a terrible slog it seems, which might just ruin any of the fun you guys wanted it to be. I'm a bit casual on festivals lately and earning at slowpoke pace but sounds far more hardcore for the prices than a festival? Or am I reading this wrong?

Yes, the cost is high, on purpose, while we figure out exactly where these should end up. Given that there will be ways to augment the earning with deeds and the rewards that come from them, the more mundane rewards should be relatively easy for most players to acquire. Those who want to pursue the deeper rewards will have a longer road.