Spiral Knights - Community Scavenger Hunt Event

Community Scavenger Hunt Event

9 replies [Last post]

Tue, 05/05/2015 - 19:47

Deleted-Knight

Story
A somewhat eccentric stranger named Clepto needs the knights' help to collect some special items from the clockworks. He has a treasure chest next to him that shows an inventory of the items he needs and the items that have been collected so far.
Players must go into the clockworks, fetch items by killing monsters, and deposit them into the chest. The same chest is used for all servers.
Clepto is in a rush so he needs all of the items gathered in a week. If the quota isn't met, he gives everyone who contributed a consolation prize. If the quota is met, everyone who contributed will receive a prize that depends on the number of items they contributed.
The drop rate for special items are very low compared to that of normal mats, but increase with depth. Items expire when the event ends.

Example
Clepto needs:
1000 Luminous Wing (dropped by Silkwings)
1000 Shed Fur (dropped by Wolvers)
1000 Lifeless Finger (dropped by Zombies)
1000 Singed Cloth (dropped by Gremlin Menders)
1000 Wooden Chip (dropped by Lumbers)
1000 Mint Drop (dropped by Jellies)
1000 Rusty Pipe (dropped by Devilite Pit Bosses)
1000 Long Tongue (dropped by Chromalisks)
1000 Ghostly Litterbox (dropped by Kats)
1000 Rubber Hammer (dropped by Gremlin Thwackers)
1000 Peg Leg (dropped by Retrodes)
1000 Slimy Thorn (dropped by Lichens)

If the quota isn't met, everyone who contributed something gets 5 energy per item.

If the quota is met, the prizes are split into levels. Prizes are cumulative, so every prize level also includes the prizes for the levels below it.
Level 1 = At least 1 item => 1 common costume
Level 2 = At least 10 items => 1 variant ticket
Level 3 = At least 50 items => random uncommon accessory (shades, scarf, etc.)
Level 4 = At least 100 items => 2 variant ticket
Level 5 = At least 200 items => random prize box (includes forge)
Level 6 = At least 500 items => 3 variant ticket
Level 7 = At least 1000 items => random exclusive weapon (Mixmaster, Scissor Blade, etc.)

Note: You can't overfill the quota. For example, if you deposit 50 Peg Legs when only 10 is needed, you only get credit for 10, not 50.

Thu, 05/07/2015 - 13:51

Blandaxt

i'm all

i'm all for it, i don't mind seeing more event's that bring the community together. I like the idea.

Thu, 05/07/2015 - 13:28

Xteri

+over9000

Nice idea
how often would it happen?
also 5 energy is kinda a lot.
but it depends on how often the items drop.

Thu, 05/07/2015 - 14:11

Fangel

Cut down the rewards

I would say rewards shouldn't be too high, or be the premium currency at all.

I would say you get a Clepto token for every item you put in, and can trade these tokens for special/different rarities. You could buy fire crystals at 1 token per star level (you would get 5 0* crystals per token), and perhaps 5-10 tokens per star level for orbs. All items would be unbound and awarded via a mail at the end of the event. Tokens would expire after the event is over and mails are sent out.
Introduce a new rarity called an "energy crystal". Energy crystals can be used to open energy gates, power mecha knight kits, and generally anything in the clockworks that requires small bits of energy. These could be bought for 1 crystal per ticket and would appear to look like a blue shining fire crystal in your inventory... These are also given one per item submitted if the event is unsuccessful.

Additionally, these items should have a lower chance to appear if playing through a mission, and thus should be 30% more common in the arcade. 30%?! Yes, 30%... If the items are rare as is allow them to appear more frequently in a place that you can determine what the exact level is going to be.
If 30% is too unbalanced, say around 15%. Something reasonably noticeable to arcade runners, but still gives mission grinding a play in all this.

Thu, 05/07/2015 - 14:19

Xteri

+over10000

I like your input too fangel...
I really like the energy Crystal Idea.
It would also be fun if he needed like 100 of bossish items dropped in boss levels, but only in the arcade

Thu, 05/07/2015 - 20:43

Deleted-Knight

The main idea of this event is to have players encourage one another to go on runs. The quota should be high enough that people want others to join them in order to meet the quota and get larger rewards. (Also the 5 energy for unmet quota wasn't really thought out, just as an example).
People who collect a lot of items deserve to get large rewards because it means they invested a lot of time into the event. In the example, if someone collected 1000 items, they effectively collected 1/12 of the quota on their own. That is a lot considering it is supposed to be a group effort.

Fangel,
I understand your concern, but I purposely made the rewards very shiny so people would be motivated to participate. If the drop rate is kept low, very few people (if any at all) would get large rewards.
In my example, 1000 items/7 days = ~142 items per day = ~28 items per hour, if 5 hours are spent every day = ~an item every 2 minutes.
A person who pulls that off either has to be really really lucky or spends a lot more than 35 hours every week on Spiral Knights.

However, just the possibility of getting an exclusive item without paying a single dime is very motivating to the typical F2P knight.

The problem with your system is that it encourages farming. Look at Punking, Black Kat, etc. People repeatedly do profitable levels to accumulate tokens. Sometimes they leave the party immediately after getting tokens. If you make the drop rate low and seemingly random, players will be encouraged to complete a variety of levels instead of hopping around for profitable ones.
The arcade isn't really that much different than missions. If people like farming FSC, you would expect the quota for the zombie items to fill up quickly. This puts more demand on the other items, pushing people to do other levels.

The energy crystal is a neat idea. You should probably make a thread for it.

Sat, 05/09/2015 - 10:35

Fangel

Well yeah

I say give the arcade a more noticeable drop in the required items, but don't hurt those who only like to farm a single level. Hence, the whole 15%-30% higher drop chance in the arcade. If the drops are already rare enough that chance will make a huge difference to arcade runners (say it's a 1% drop chance normally... In the arcade it would be a 1.3% drop rate chance now. Still rare, but if you run arcade a whole lot then you're much more likely to find items over time).

The reason I added tokens to the event is so you could see progress going on and more or less select your rewards. You put a lot of effort in, and if the community does too, you'll get some bonus rarities. Everyone needs rarities.
However you only get these tokens for participating in the event. I would assume the materials would last past the event (but be bound to you) whereas the tokens expire.
Sure, players will farm this event. That's because it's designed to be a farming event. Most events are, in one way or another. This event it's just harder to farm since you're trying to kill a wide variety of specific monsters (not monster families). Seeing as you're farming for materials which require killing monsters instead of running past all of them until you find the one specific thing you're looking for (i.e., cake rooms, punkin king rooms, a black kat...). It's like a more widespread version of the tortodrone event where instead of hunting fiends, you're hunting many different enemies.

People are going to farm events... Any event that you make to circumvent farming isn't going to work if it requires X amounts of anything.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 14:35

Deleted-Knight

Farming a large variety of items if basically the point of the game unless OOO can make more content. The farming I'm talking about is when people repeatedly do the same levels instead of playing through every floor.
There's nothing wrong with targeted farming if people enjoy it. However, the reward system shouldn't encourage such behavior.

Sun, 05/10/2015 - 16:23

Blandaxt

i agree!

I agree with you deleted-knight. Too bad the game is more about farming then discovering.

Tue, 05/12/2015 - 07:09

Jackie-Kog

This sounds really fun!

An incredible idea, I even like how the NPC would be named "Clepto." This event would make exploration bigger, for at least a limited time and inspire working as a total community. I love ideas like this.

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