Background
So I recently decided to see what minigames yielded the best results when it comes to Event Tokens and also the current School Spirit. This was done by grinding an unhealthy amount of minigames trying to see if it made sense to try and master a specific gamemode and even the harder difficulties. After finding the META (Most Effective Tactic Available) for each of the different gamemodes I dedicated some time to crunch the value that one proficient at the gamemodes would be able to reap for themselves.
I allowed myself to practice them until I had a good grasp on it, so all the runs are done by me except for the parkour, which I've gotten numbers from government_h, Then I dedicated myself 1 hour to do Dropper, Elytra and Ice Skating, as well as 10 runs in the maze taking the average time and using it to see how many runs it would be in an hour, same procedure was instructed to gov to keep them consistent.
Minigames Selected as the META was:
Dropper: Down the Pit (Medium)
Elytra: Down the Waterfall (Medium)
Maze: Secrets of Castelomagia (Medium)
Parkour: Kitchen Quarters (Easy)
Ice Skating: Cherry Blossom Ice River (Medium)
The results came out as following:
Elytra being the best.
Dropper and Parkour tied for second, with more consistency percentage on the Dropper.
Maze taking the fourth placement.
And Ice Skating in dead last.
I've also gotten to the point of grinding instead of doing things I also wanted to do, just to stay competitive with a few others, this is mainly due to School Spirit being just as grindy as the Event Tokens.
The Issues I see myself
First issue that comes to my mind is that the minigames yield different rewards for the same time commitment, and your favorite can be left to be more than half as efficient as another gamemode.
Second is that the harder difficulties does reward more, typically no more than double a medium difficulty activity of the same category, but also requires more than double the time investment in most cases. Catelomagia could be speedran down to about a minute for 9 Event Tokens, while I've been told that the Magic Maze can take upwards of 10+ minutes if you know how to do it for 30 Event Tokens.
Lastly the grindy nature of getting School Points equal to your event tokens from minigames makes the competition tailored towards those who has more time to put into the minigames rather than the activities around the event hub as well as the wizarding world. I completely stopped on May the Fourth despite not being done, just to attempt to be somewhat competitive within my own school.
Suggestions going forward
Disclaimer that these are my suggestions going forward, and is my perspective on feedback that I wanna offer to the staff team to improve and evolve the server. It is ultimately up to the staff what goes through!
That said I'd like as many player views on this as possible, so pick your favorite and let's have a good discussion.
Solution 1 adresses the unhealthy grinds (like these 1 hour sessions I've made) doing the same activity over and over, and is mostly targeted at the competition (School Spirit) rather than the Event Tokens.
Activity Points: every hour you're awarded 1 Activity Point (Online or not) up to a maximum of 10. If you already have 10 you must spend 1 Activity Point in order for the 1 hour timer to start counting. Important to note that these are added passively, and does not require you to claim them manually! They can be accompanied by a timer that tells you when the next Activity Point is available while in minigames, but is certainly not necessary.
At the end of each minigame is a Reward NPC, which would give you 2 options:
- Get Event Tokens (Free)
- Get Event Tokens + School Spirit (Costs 1 Activity Point)
The solution allows you to choose the activities that grant you the most points personally and then spend the remaining time doing something else, e.g. the minigames you like, the remaining of the May the Fourth Event, take a break etc. and also allows you to spend the morning doing 10 minigames, log off and not have to worry that someone can grind at your spot for the next 10 hours, as by then you've gotten another 10 Activity Points to do 10 new minigames in the evening. This solution keeps the ability to grind Event Tokens while limiting the amount of School Spirit you can obtain to a certain point, still rewarding those who log in regularly.
Solution 2 adresses the balance at which you gain Event Tokens, making sure that the minigames keep up with the META.
Knowing the if the Castelomagia Maze can be run in 1 minute, and the Magic Maze can take 10+ minutes, the reward can be 10 fold, and even have a cooldown similar to what the Treasure Maze had, so that you're sure you can only claim the reward every 10 minutes. Knowing how long things takes on average is not an instant process and will take time, which is also why balancing the Event Tokens you can get on a more regular basis is an ongoing process that can take place inbetween events. This solution keeps the grindy nature, but tries to reward those who wanna challenge themselves with harder challenges while keeping easier options competetive with the hard ones, instead of feeling the rewards get worse.
For a clean overview of the numbers in my experiments, see the attachment.
Let me know which solution you prefer if any, and if you have a 3rd one perhaps? Even if you prefer to keep things the same I'd love to hear your opinion! I look forward to a good discussion among the players and staff alike who've tried their hand at the minigames and experinced the event. I would love to hear both from those who enjoy the grind but also those who don't have the time to grind more than perhaps 2 hours or less a day.
Let your magic show in the wide wide world!
-Athena Moonwish (Dismana)
So I recently decided to see what minigames yielded the best results when it comes to Event Tokens and also the current School Spirit. This was done by grinding an unhealthy amount of minigames trying to see if it made sense to try and master a specific gamemode and even the harder difficulties. After finding the META (Most Effective Tactic Available) for each of the different gamemodes I dedicated some time to crunch the value that one proficient at the gamemodes would be able to reap for themselves.
I allowed myself to practice them until I had a good grasp on it, so all the runs are done by me except for the parkour, which I've gotten numbers from government_h, Then I dedicated myself 1 hour to do Dropper, Elytra and Ice Skating, as well as 10 runs in the maze taking the average time and using it to see how many runs it would be in an hour, same procedure was instructed to gov to keep them consistent.
Minigames Selected as the META was:
Dropper: Down the Pit (Medium)
Elytra: Down the Waterfall (Medium)
Maze: Secrets of Castelomagia (Medium)
Parkour: Kitchen Quarters (Easy)
Ice Skating: Cherry Blossom Ice River (Medium)
The results came out as following:
Elytra being the best.
Dropper and Parkour tied for second, with more consistency percentage on the Dropper.
Maze taking the fourth placement.
And Ice Skating in dead last.
I've also gotten to the point of grinding instead of doing things I also wanted to do, just to stay competitive with a few others, this is mainly due to School Spirit being just as grindy as the Event Tokens.
The Issues I see myself
First issue that comes to my mind is that the minigames yield different rewards for the same time commitment, and your favorite can be left to be more than half as efficient as another gamemode.
Second is that the harder difficulties does reward more, typically no more than double a medium difficulty activity of the same category, but also requires more than double the time investment in most cases. Catelomagia could be speedran down to about a minute for 9 Event Tokens, while I've been told that the Magic Maze can take upwards of 10+ minutes if you know how to do it for 30 Event Tokens.
Lastly the grindy nature of getting School Points equal to your event tokens from minigames makes the competition tailored towards those who has more time to put into the minigames rather than the activities around the event hub as well as the wizarding world. I completely stopped on May the Fourth despite not being done, just to attempt to be somewhat competitive within my own school.
Suggestions going forward
Disclaimer that these are my suggestions going forward, and is my perspective on feedback that I wanna offer to the staff team to improve and evolve the server. It is ultimately up to the staff what goes through!
That said I'd like as many player views on this as possible, so pick your favorite and let's have a good discussion.
Solution 1 adresses the unhealthy grinds (like these 1 hour sessions I've made) doing the same activity over and over, and is mostly targeted at the competition (School Spirit) rather than the Event Tokens.
Activity Points: every hour you're awarded 1 Activity Point (Online or not) up to a maximum of 10. If you already have 10 you must spend 1 Activity Point in order for the 1 hour timer to start counting. Important to note that these are added passively, and does not require you to claim them manually! They can be accompanied by a timer that tells you when the next Activity Point is available while in minigames, but is certainly not necessary.
At the end of each minigame is a Reward NPC, which would give you 2 options:
- Get Event Tokens (Free)
- Get Event Tokens + School Spirit (Costs 1 Activity Point)
The solution allows you to choose the activities that grant you the most points personally and then spend the remaining time doing something else, e.g. the minigames you like, the remaining of the May the Fourth Event, take a break etc. and also allows you to spend the morning doing 10 minigames, log off and not have to worry that someone can grind at your spot for the next 10 hours, as by then you've gotten another 10 Activity Points to do 10 new minigames in the evening. This solution keeps the ability to grind Event Tokens while limiting the amount of School Spirit you can obtain to a certain point, still rewarding those who log in regularly.
Solution 2 adresses the balance at which you gain Event Tokens, making sure that the minigames keep up with the META.
Knowing the if the Castelomagia Maze can be run in 1 minute, and the Magic Maze can take 10+ minutes, the reward can be 10 fold, and even have a cooldown similar to what the Treasure Maze had, so that you're sure you can only claim the reward every 10 minutes. Knowing how long things takes on average is not an instant process and will take time, which is also why balancing the Event Tokens you can get on a more regular basis is an ongoing process that can take place inbetween events. This solution keeps the grindy nature, but tries to reward those who wanna challenge themselves with harder challenges while keeping easier options competetive with the hard ones, instead of feeling the rewards get worse.
For a clean overview of the numbers in my experiments, see the attachment.
Let me know which solution you prefer if any, and if you have a 3rd one perhaps? Even if you prefer to keep things the same I'd love to hear your opinion! I look forward to a good discussion among the players and staff alike who've tried their hand at the minigames and experinced the event. I would love to hear both from those who enjoy the grind but also those who don't have the time to grind more than perhaps 2 hours or less a day.
Let your magic show in the wide wide world!
-Athena Moonwish (Dismana)
