(June 23/24) Hardcore Ladder Race

The prizes were increased last week. Stay alive and get a prize. Give a little finger and loose your hand :(

However I do agree, there are many variations that would make things a lot more interesting. Like - all start with a level 30 character in Cruel or .................your imagination can go wild with this. The scope is limitless.

Regarding the HC aspect - I genuinely prefer the races in HC.

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FaceLicker wrote:

Event objectives are getting dull. Why not prizes for unique monster kills? First person to kill oozeback, first to kill kuduku, first to kill chatters, etc. Or perhaps things like person with the most kills, person who identifies the most items, or picks up the most blue items. Something, anything to break up the monotony.

Even variations on existing objectives. Award prizes for first to kill each bandit, first to aid each bandit. First to complete the weavers quest or any of the other act 2 quests instead of the same act 1 quests. Full clears for areas other than the usual 3.

Make them random though. Having the same objectives each race just makes the pros that much more prepared. If the objectives vary, then everyone is on a more level playing field. Hell, surprise people an hour before the race with the event objectives.

While I agree with what your saying about changing up the Event Objectives many of your suggestions would not really make that much of a difference. Since they would end up being won by the same folks that consistently win the current event objectives. I do like the change up of everyone that stays alive wins a prize, heck I died 5 times last week and still was able to claim 2 of the prizes levels now if I only hadn't deleted my prize character before I collect the orbs lol.

A couple of new event objectives I would like to see is:
prize for the most full cleared zones
prize for the most containers opened/broken
prize for the most items looted

Those objectives I feel would not be won by the current few that currently win all of the event objectives since their more focused on rushing xp and inherently skip a lot these suggested objectives since they are counter intuitive to reaching for first in class.

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velrac wrote:

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FaceLicker wrote:

Event objectives are getting dull. Why not prizes for unique monster kills? First person to kill oozeback, first to kill kuduku, first to kill chatters, etc. Or perhaps things like person with the most kills, person who identifies the most items, or picks up the most blue items. Something, anything to break up the monotony.

Even variations on existing objectives. Award prizes for first to kill each bandit, first to aid each bandit. First to complete the weavers quest or any of the other act 2 quests instead of the same act 1 quests. Full clears for areas other than the usual 3.

Make them random though. Having the same objectives each race just makes the pros that much more prepared. If the objectives vary, then everyone is on a more level playing field. Hell, surprise people an hour before the race with the event objectives.

While I agree with what your saying about changing up the Event Objectives many of your suggestions would not really make that much of a difference. Since they would end up being won by the same folks that consistently win the current event objectives. I do like the change up of everyone that stays alive wins a prize, heck I died 5 times last week and still was able to claim 2 of the prizes levels now if I only hadn't deleted my prize character before I collect the orbs lol.

A couple of new event objectives I would like to see is:
prize for the most full cleared zones
prize for the most containers opened/broken
prize for the most items looted

Those objectives I feel would not be won by the current few that currently win all of the event objectives since their more focused on rushing xp and inherently skip a lot these suggested objectives since they are counter intuitive to reaching for first in class.

i like the idea of objectives that more casual players have a chance at, like breaking objects, looting things, maybe looting the most of a certain item or something a bit more random and interesting? i'm sure there's lots of potential. i haven't played the game a ton yet because i'm waiting for closed beta to end before i really delve into it. but this kind of content sounds really cool so far. i really have little to no interest in being #1 and power gaming, because i know a lot of people are super serious and have studied the game to an extreme.

i like how there's a few goals i could shoot for, like getting to X level and remaining alive.

hope to see these kind of contests in open beta / final release too!

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FaceLicker wrote:

Event objectives are getting dull. Why not prizes for unique monster kills? First person to kill oozeback, first to kill kuduku, first to kill chatters, etc. Or perhaps things like person with the most kills, person who identifies the most items, or picks up the most blue items. Something, anything to break up the monotony.

Nice ideas! Could force players (trying) to kill what they mostly skip ;)

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FaceLicker wrote:

Even variations on existing objectives. Award prizes for first to kill each bandit, first to aid each bandit. First to complete the weavers quest or any of the other act 2 quests instead of the same act 1 quests. Full clears for areas other than the usual 3.

The latest changes with the rewards imply they actually focus on getting more players into the races(not that easy, since a lot of european players may have trouble with the racetime - late, on weekend, concurring with other interests; and a lot players outside EU report lag issues...): by offering relatively 'easy' targets....
those tasks may be addressed with a bigger player base; example: how many people (from the actual race's base) even reach the weavers chamber?

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FaceLicker wrote:

Make them random though. Having the same objectives each race just makes the pros that much more prepared. If the objectives vary, then everyone is on a more level playing field. Hell, surprise people an hour before the race with the event objectives.

Of course its a thing to be improved, but maybe over some time. I hope we get more people into races once GGG manage to serve races for different time zones.

To attract people who stay away from hardcore, maybe its possible to split the race on deathes (char can only created in HC, but went to default race when killed - of course with some penalty and different prices)

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FaceLicker wrote:

Event objectives are getting dull. Why not prizes for unique monster kills? First person to kill oozeback, first to kill kuduku, first to kill chatters, etc. Or perhaps things like person with the most kills, person who identifies the most items, or picks up the most blue items. Something, anything to break up the monotony.

Even variations on existing objectives. Award prizes for first to kill each bandit, first to aid each bandit. First to complete the weavers quest or any of the other act 2 quests instead of the same act 1 quests. Full clears for areas other than the usual 3.

Make them random though. Having the same objectives each race just makes the pros that much more prepared. If the objectives vary, then everyone is on a more level playing field. Hell, surprise people an hour before the race with the event objectives.

This would be great if they finally include the global announcements to appear in your chat box even if you have global chat turned off and then don't even list the event objectives at all. This way you would get the global message "FaceLicker has completed 3 quests" that would give all players a hint that one of the event objectives for the race is based on how many quests you complete.

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unsmith wrote:

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FaceLicker wrote:

Event objectives are getting dull. Why not prizes for unique monster kills? First person to kill oozeback, first to kill kuduku, first to kill chatters, etc. Or perhaps things like person with the most kills, person who identifies the most items, or picks up the most blue items. Something, anything to break up the monotony.

This is pretty much why I've stopped participating. Most of the awards are of the "first to rush X" variety, which means the more practiced rushers have an inherent advantage and well tweaked rushing builds. It's simply not fun to blast your way through things at lightning speed hoping you don't get pipped by a few seconds.

Weekend ladder races are basically a way for a small subset of the community to get richer.

Subset of the community get richer in 'beta'. That is all.

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unsmith wrote:

...the more practiced rushers have an inherent advantage and well tweaked rushing builds. It's simply not fun to blast your way through things at lightning speed hoping you don't get pipped by a few seconds.

Yes the Pro's are hard to beat, BUT they can be beaten. I'm an old-man with a "shaky finger" when I get in tight spots, yet! I was able to come away with a first place in last weeks event. Make no doubt, if I can do it then the kids certainly can too.

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unsmith wrote:

Weekend ladder races are basically a way for a small subset of the community to get richer.

That's just plain jealousy - besides the way the prizes are structured now, anyone can walk away with decent rewards, for the time put in.

As for me, the races are just plain fun and a huge diversion from the everyday grinding.

Figuring out other players strategies etc. is half of the fun.

For example:
1. After you create your character he lies waiting in the surf. If you log out, then log back on again. Your character will start the race standing up. Effectively gaining you 3 seconds at the start.
2. In my last 2 races I started with 2 characters. I rush Hillock, get my gem reward then stash everything. My second character gets the stashed gear, buys 2x iron rings giving him a nice starting DPS which allows him to kill faster and make up the lost time in very short order.
3. You'll need your 2x iron rings later to Roll Sapphire Rings before you face Merveil. Sell an Iron ring with a blue skill gem to an NPC gets you a Sapphire Ring.
4. My primary goal is to get to Fellshrine by level 14/15 - stopping to smell the flowers won't do.

The point is - Think of a strategy and make it work. If it fails, fine tune it next week.

Urggg - now I'm not even going to make the top 20 :(

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velrac wrote:

While I agree with what your saying about changing up the Event Objectives many of your suggestions would not really make that much of a difference. Since they would end up being won by the same folks that consistently win the current event objectives.

Oh, I agree, but that's not really my gripe. My problem is that we're doing the same exact things every time, I want something different. At the very least some variation on what we're already doing. I'd much rather see completely new objectives, though. But, this is beta so it's not super important imo and as someone else said who knows if GGG is testing something specifically.

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DysleXic wrote:

Subset of the community get richer in 'beta'. That is all.

For the most part, yes. But the Demigod's Presences carry over into open beta and beyond. There's potentially a bit of wealth there but moreso a coolness factor/bragging rights.

This event sounds like everyone should roll range/caster classes so they can rush faster, melee classes dps aren't as strong but they have survivability.

If you just look at the population of people using bow/wands in these events, it will be clear that range/caster > melee.

elemental damage > physical

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DysleXic wrote:

Subset of the community get richer in 'beta'. That is all.

If you don't think this will carry over into OB and release, then you're kidding yourself.