ANSWERED:Suggestion for future events like the garden

[whitebaron]

This is in no way meant to be a critique on the current event, or on the decisions made by TJ that events will not be changed after they went life except for bugs - I think that's a rather good way to handle stuff.

 

But, what the current event shows, is that there are two or three things, that can be made better for the future. I want to collect them ideas just for TJ to look at, not to discuss my own or others - but feel free to do it differently to me.

 

So, these are the three ideas I got from the garden:

 

1) Let users always know right from the start, what they'll keep to show or look at afterwards. All it takes are two to three little sentences, and it will go a long way to avoid user confusion. Examples include:

• The Fort - Will we see it Damaged or not?
• The Garden - Will we be able to keep the garden
• The Garden - Will we be able to send flowers that mature after the event

2) User Interface. When there is massive availability, like on plants in the garden, it is very disheartening to have to send them all on their own. I know, I stopped sending from my phone, as it is a pain to select them, as well as a pain to send more than two or three at once. I'd really need a send random plant in random pot to random user function.

 

3) Unlimited Items and "the normal game". It would be nice to be able to turn seeds and the like off. I am basically done sending out flowers, as I'm out of ideas as well as having like 50 mature flowers in my garden which I just can't easily send to random people. But, every 5-10 minutes, a new seed pops up. In random places, as well. It would be great to tell the site, that I am finished with the event, and it should stop bothering me. I only collect easter eggs and Halloween treats due to the exact same problem - I get very disturbed by untidy pages. But when I have them all, they leave me be. So its a reward,even for me, even if i don't give a damn about the collecting parts of those events.

Edited February 19, 2014 by whitebaron

[Naruhina_94]

I would add one thing to the open post since this concerns the events:

If you have a nice event idea, something new that everybody could enjoi during the holiday period please send a private message to Thuban, the current moderator who ask me to target those who have good ideas for the next games!

 

Link to PM him

 

 

And, yes, I would like a lot to know these basics informations at the incipit of the game, they would be really usefull and there would be less drama.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Naruhina_94

[RainDear]

Two things that would have been nice:

 

1, A "sent to" a list of who you sent to. Could include what you sent, but not necessarily.

2. The ability to see the plant/pot combo we are sending prior to sending. We may think they will look nice together, but we never get to see them unless someone sends the same combo to us.

[angelicdragonpuppy]

Two things that would have been nice:

 

1, A "sent to" a list of who you sent to. Could include what you sent, but not necessarily.

2. The ability to see the plant/pot combo we are sending prior to sending. We may think they will look nice together, but we never get to see them unless someone sends the same combo to us.

A hearty second to both of these! I had so many cute puns I wanted to send to people but I was so scared I'd send the same message twice that I probably never sent them to some people at all thinking I already had ;;

[Jazeki]

Two things that would have been nice:

 

1, A "sent to" a list of who you sent to. Could include what you sent, but not necessarily.

2. The ability to see the plant/pot combo we are sending prior to sending. We may think they will look nice together, but we never get to see them unless someone sends the same combo to us.

I second this. I also would like longer interaction times for things to happen if we are required to log in to advance gameplay. I liked the story book raffle where I only had to log in once or the snow fort where I could just leave the event to do its thing, but I am not fond of forced interaction. Luckily, I have my phone so I can play on the go, but this may not always be the case. Festival of Eggs and trick or treating are done well though.

[TJ09]

2) User Interface. When there is massive availability, like on plants in the garden, it is very disheartening to have to send them all on their own. I know, I stopped sending from my phone, as it is a pain to select them, as well as a pain to send more than two or three at once. I'd really need a send random plant in random pot to random user function.

I'm not sure what you even mean by this. I've done all of my event participation--including sending flowers--from my phone. The only thing I found clunky is the pages that simply display a status message with a link back to the event. I already have plans to deal with those in the future, though.

[MysticTiger]

I think what they mean is, they would like an option to send multiple flowers in one go instead of having to send them one by one.

[whitebaron]

should have gone into more detail.

I have 3 problems on my mobile:

 

1) small clickareas. its very hard to click the proper flowers, often clicked the one next to it.

2) no default values, so if i just don't care who or what, i still have to tick off a box, choose a pot and hit enter afterwards.

3) no option to send more than one flower at once - as stated above. which means, since i cant open tabs easily on my device, that i'd have to navigate back to the garden very often.

[HeatherMarie]

1) Let users always know right from the start, what they'll keep to show or look at afterwards. All it takes are two to three little sentences, and it will go a long way to avoid user confusion. Examples include:

The Fort - Will we see it Damaged or not?

The Garden - Will we be able to keep the garden

The Garden - Will we be able to send flowers that mature after the event

Full-heartedly agree with this!

 

I don't presume to know what details TJ does and doesn't know when events first go live, but this kind of thing would be really nice to know. With the snow forts, you spend tons of time attack others to get max-level, spend tons of time making an awesome fort... With no idea if they fort will stay awesome. Users will attack it, duh, but for awhile there we had no idea if all our hard work would really pay off, because fifteen crushed ice sculptures/walls just isn't appealing if it freezes that way when the event locks.

 

With the garden, there are a LOT of people scrambling to acquire all the flowers from other users, now that we *know* our own garden will disappear when the event is done. I saw TJ's post in the suggestion to keep the garden, and I completely understand the reasoning, but it would've been nice to know that from the start.

[kerrikins]

I'm not sure what you even mean by this. I've done all of my event participation--including sending flowers--from my phone. The only thing I found clunky is the pages that simply display a status message with a link back to the event. I already have plans to deal with those in the future, though.

I know I found it a bit difficult on my iPhone, so it might be a matter of the OS that's being used.

 

I do agree with the suggestion that people be told right away what will stay around vs not, it might cut down on some of the questions and/or suggestion threads that crop up

 

 

[mirjana]

I know a couple folks who aren't really digging this one, and would rather have had an option to opt-out.

 

To see the site without the seeds distorting the UI all across the board. And while I personally have been enjoying the event, I have gotten a bit tired of seds messing up certain pages.

[CNR4806]

I know a couple folks who aren't really digging this one, and would rather have had an option to opt-out.

 

To see the site without the seeds distorting the UI all across the board. And while I personally have been enjoying the event, I have gotten a bit tired of seds messing up certain pages.

I second this.

 

The entire event isn't appealing to me at all, and even AdBlock is unable to un-screw-up the UI that's ruined by the seeds.

[diaveborn]

1) Let users always know right from the start, what they'll keep to show or look at afterwards. All it takes are two to three little sentences, and it will go a long way to avoid user confusion. Examples include:

 

The Fort - Will we see it Damaged or not?

 

The Garden - Will we be able to keep the garden

 

The Garden - Will we be able to send flowers that mature after the event

 

Yes, I would like this so much.

 

I did not send any flowers until the announcement that we would not be able to keep our gardens, because I just didn't know what was going on, and it seemed like I was far from the only one.

 

I also wonder about people who aren't looking at the forum, or maybe only looking at the news part of the forum, and didn't see the announcement, and wouldn't know that they needed to find people to send them flowers (and somewhat relatedly, I hope sending to "random user" is weighted to send more to people who haven't gotten any yet, because that would really help out people who aren't connecting to other people through the forums.)

 

And questions like this do change how we would play the event - like Marie19R said, people now rushing to complete their flower sets, or with the snow fort there was the question of if we'd have to be online right when the event ended so we could repair our forts right at the end so people couldn't further damage them. If it were just a question of curiosity it wouldn't be as important to know stuff like this as soon as possible.

Edited February 20, 2014 by diaveborn

[RainDear]

If only the flowers would all mature and seeds stop dropping 10 minutes before the end. Then we could empty our gardens before they poof!

[Fuzzbucket]

If only the flowers would all mature and seeds stop dropping 10 minutes before the end. Then we could empty our gardens before they poof!

I was hoping they would. I am still hoping.

 

OR that we could send any that we still have growing up after the seeds stop dropping. Like in the morning (I am half asleep.)

Edited February 21, 2014 by fuzzbucket

[Oasis]

If only the flowers would all mature and seeds stop dropping 10 minutes before the end. Then we could empty our gardens before they poof!

If only, I have like 10 flowers that are on the last stage before they grow up and I hate that they are going to be gone..

[rumor33]

Yeah, I was refreshing like mad at midnight...hoping I could get just a few more out lol.

[whitebaron]

Right... So add this:

on,events with ressources, it would be nice to have a slow fade out.

You could have collected seeds up till 23:59, and they-d go to waste. Its something that ticks people ofg.

 

Same with the snow forts, you got last minute snow you'd never use..

it would be better if events stopped giving out items on one day, and stops the gameplay one day or so later.

 

Same with fort attacks - would have been nice to stop them shortly before the end.

[RainDear]

So, in addition to a little more info at the beginning of the event, I would like to see:

 

1. A "sent to" list.

2. A chance to see the plant/pot combo before sending.

3. Dropping stops prior to event end.

4. Remaining items become sendable before event end.

[Bison]

Yes, I would like this so much.

 

I did not send any flowers until the announcement that we would not be able to keep our gardens, because I just didn't know what was going on, and it seemed like I was far from the only one.

 

I also wonder about people who aren't looking at the forum, or maybe only looking at the news part of the forum, and didn't see the announcement, and wouldn't know that they needed to find people to send them flowers.

Both myself and many friends on another site never saw any sort of info about not being able to keep our gardens, leaving us all upset and confused when the event ended. I check the News every so often but nowhere else on the forums. I don't understand why such an important detail was not posted in the News where more people would be likely to see it (or on the event page itself). In the future, I really think that needs to be done.

[TheGrox]

So, in addition to a little more info at the beginning of the event, I would like to see:

 

1. A "sent to" list.

2. A chance to see the plant/pot combo before sending.

3. Dropping stops prior to event end.

4. Remaining items become sendable before event end.

Basically, this is what I'd like to have seen. But these are only minor details, the event overall was still enjoyable.

[LevelsOfViolence]

I know a couple folks who aren't really digging this one, and would rather have had an option to opt-out.

 

To see the site without the seeds distorting the UI all across the board. And while I personally have been enjoying the event, I have gotten a bit tired of seds messing up certain pages.

Supporting this.

I had to use AdBlock because i just couldn't handle those seeds everywhere. And even then, interface was still messed up. + There will always be some people who finish collecting/sending flowers and wish to keep collecting eggs without being distracted.

 

[WraithZephyr]

I'm not sure what you even mean by this. I've done all of my event participation--including sending flowers--from my phone. The only thing I found clunky is the pages that simply display a status message with a link back to the event. I already have plans to deal with those in the future, though.

I think the request is to send flowers out to more than one person at one time... or multiple flowers to one person at one time.

 

So I think maybe a set up like this:

 

* Click on a button that says Send Flower

 

* Have the next screen show a list of all the mature flowers that are ready to go out.

 

* Next to each of the flowers is a drop down menu with pictures of all the pots so that one can be chosen (might be good to also have a "random pot" choice in the menu for people who want to be random).

 

* Next to the pot drop down menu is a radio button to select if you want to send to a random person and next to that is space to put the person's scroll name in if you want to send to someone specific.

 

so you go on your merry way down the list deciding what flowers/pots/people you want to send flowers to and then click Submit.

 

Any flowers that you did not put a person's name to (or did not select random person) obviously don't get sent out and will still be there for you to give away the next time you want to send out a batch of flowers.

[TJ09]

I don't think getting into specifics on how to chance an event that is already over is valuable--that ship has sailed.

 

The higher level points will be taken into consideration for future events. Beyond that, I don't think there's much to discuss here.