EM Events discussion thread
EM Events are such huge part of UO (regardless of your opinion otherwise) – and yet, we almost never see open discussions of the content at all levels, such as improvement and issues. Aren't you curious why. So, here it is:
Topic category:
- Scheduling
- Event handling
- Boss fight & Rewards
- Cheating
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Here's my input:
- Scheduling:
Currently there are 3 places where schedules can be found: UO webpage, in-game towncryer, and shard EM's blogs. Previously I thought Mesanna made it clear that UO webpage is the main place that should at least be updated. BUT, in the past several months, Asian shard events sometimes dont get updated here at all. How about just yesterday (4/30 Hokuto, not on UO page), and this has happened a couple times at least on a monthly basis for Japan shards. Maybe because there are new EMs?? Anyway, please fix it.
- Event handling:
Lets take 4/27 Mizuho as a most recent example of what disaster can look like. It was sea related, and so EM put a boat and expected everyone to just jump on it. For the next 10 minutes, the crowd was trying to find way to board the ship: HOW? Do you click somewhere? (ropes by now are blocked by 50 players/pets) Finally a gate is opened. Then, everyone got shipped to a SMALL island to fight some scalis. Great. No place to run. Many players got killed and res-killed. Then we got shipped to the main land...by this time the event already took 60 minute and no one knows what's going on. Everyone is PISSED. It seemed the EM wanted everyone to board ship to the sea where he would summon the boss. But he made no effort to communicate in English as well. So, finally he summoned the boss next to the shore to get it over with.
After the boss fight and we got back to the EM hall, you bet everyone gave very "direct" feedback to his face, if you take my meaning. It seems after many years of eventing, EMs dont learn from their experiences and mistakes. Anything thats to do with boats is general a bad idea. Same thing with fighting in a tiny area.
Another thing thats usually seen with Japan events is the EMs "intention" to lose crowds: EM would tell players to go to some places (in Japanese ONLY) and you see the local players recall off right away and leave non-jpn speakers all confused. Japan EMs would finally tell you where IF there were enough players yell help in chats. But man, their intention to lose extra crowds is so obvious that they simply dont care about user experience. THIS NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED: Anytime you ask the crowd to meet at the next spot, EMs must also use English. But I guess they innocently didn't know.
- Boss Fight
In the past I've seen bosses spawned with very high resist and high regen, and this made the boss un-killable because the crowd spent an hour to just take down half its HP, and the EM had to abort. This was rare but happened a couple times in the past 2 years.
Also, no boss should be killed in one or two minute or five. By now, shouldn't EM's already know how to design a proper boss stat that last at least 10 minutes? Currently, if you die once and get res'd, you might just miss the kill, not to mention sometimes there are no fking HEALERS.
4/27 Formosa boss also spawned half-life. EM was not sure why.
And lets take a moment to talk about "grabbing HP bar" thing. Some players still prefer using CC, and giving players a chance to grab the boss HP bar is really important. Some EMs are decent to know this and would always allow a countdown, while some EMs simply dont care. Even in EC, necro critters can show as "murderer" and this can add to our confusion. AND at times I've seen bosses with other HP color bar. (For events, I only show "murderer" or red HP bar, but occasionally we still see grey event critters) This is annoying.
Let me stop here. As you see, we have a lot to talk about.
Comments
Legends EM Erebus. Always spawns a healer off to the side of wherever we are.
He is also good about posting his schedule, for the month so we can plan accordingly and not have to rush to catch one that seems to have been setup spur of the moment.
He is also good about opening gates to where we are going, and leaving them up for the occasional straggler to wander into, so latecomers aren't left out in the cold.
Often times his boss appears on a mountain, top of building, wherever, right before it's time to kill him. Gives us a chance to grab a bar.
WE were lucky, we got another good one
Ooops, guess that's more than two items...back to math class for me!
Drachenfels - Deutsch gesprochen (German)
Europa - Numerous European languages including English
Asuka
Hokuto
Izumo
Mizuho All of these are Japanese speaking shards.
Mugen (Siege Ruleset)
Sakura
Wakoku
Yamato
Arirang
Balhae These are Korean shards and Korean is spoken.
Formosa This is a Taiwanese shard and the language spoken is Mandarin
Now please stop embarrassing everyone here in the US and stop acting like "an ugly American".
Thank You
You also! Houston is the MOST diverse city in the US. Mexican is not a Language.
The invaders made all of the Native Americans speak their language.
BTW America is the Continent name. You probably write American (or Merican) when asked what country you are a citizen of.
We have a great EM on LS. http://lakesuperior.uoem.net/
Sometimes RL takes priority over a game.
I've heard it referred to as "Tejano". Its weird. I learned my Spanish from my Mexican-Americans friends growing up in Texas. I heard a linguist say that while being primarily Spanish, there are strong elements of French and Indigenous languages. Long story short nobody knows what the heck it is...LOL
I do not know the intent for all the servers. If they were made for a specific geographic region then I would say they should be able to communicate with that region.
Some EMs drop symbols that take you to an area or make gates to lead the party around. So, if you are just there to kill stuff and get a drop chance then the Lore does not matter.
Please make the Grizzled Mare a 5 slot mount, it's incredibly rare and deserves it. Some of us have been waiting a long time for this simple addition.
Our EM makes some bosses that need adjustment. We give helpful feedback during the fights if the mob is a wrong fit for the group size or templates.
The EM made a Pet Eater for this event:
How easy is it to set the power of the Boss when you don't know how many players are going to show up?
OK two points isn't the EM position a volunteer rather than a full time employee?
The only constant is that someone at the end will be bitching about something. Even me *blush* Sorry bout that Erebus.
We have been blessed with a few good EMs, try to support them. If there is a language barrier, well so be it. It should be expected when on foreign soil, so to speak.
What's the quest? "We're going to go to a place, kill some stuff then a bigger stuff, hand out participation trophies then go home."
I much prefer the confusing meat grinders. The example of the Luna demon was perfect. Something to actually be afraid of and think about. There not really any content experienced players look at and think they're in peril if they go up against it. Peerless to shadowguard, mightiest in the land, farmed like vegetables. Funny how the scariest and biggest obstacle left in the game is a creature with 150 HP.
- would frustrate the gathered players immensely
- would last for more than a day (multi-day-bosses are rare, but gives a reason to go back again and again for the gathering of death shrouds)
- loot drop that would equate the level of frustration for this "uber-boss" (and i'm not talking about just a rarity or a shard-bound, more like items and gold and such)
Luna players begged other players to come and help kill the thing - "... for the sake of the Luna Mall!" was a battle cry for a bit. The community came together to thwart a common foe, THAT is what I enjoyed about events... COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT - not just players running amok to kill a spawn and get loots and drops.Of what I can recall, I had more fun healing/ressing/gathering during this event and periodically screaming out loud as I ran willy-nilly through blocking body parts whenever the immortal daemon would come near. I'd get a few hits in, but the two-hit-kill-move that monster had (Ba'al was its name if I remember) was more than enough to make me reconsider my tactics. Even Tal'keesh was a wimp in comparison.
THAT was an event! Yes, if a player remembers it, then it was a good event.
An EM from the early days once said, "The event IS the reward!"
Aediwulf.... (salute), your words are so true - if it is a well planned and executed event.
Most of what happens now are show up, blah blah, battle, loot, complain fests which I avoid now. I've not been interested in any events for some time as they are boring, repetitive, and frankly do nothing to pique my interest by way of story line, involvement, or even booty.
I have more fun dancing a tango with PKers in Fel than I do with an EM event. Sorry but that is the brutal truth.
((final edit, promise))
I want to add, what helps make a memorable event.
Get everyone involved. Not everyone plays a tamer; they might have a tamer on their account(s), but is that their main toon? Does everyone diversify their playtime and schedule this day tamer, this day crafter, this day mage, this day melee? No - we all have our faves and the toons we play the most because we enjoy it. Figure out how to cater to the "favored toons" of the players.
A sort of multi-stage event where all sorts of characters/toons could get involved. Not just those with certain skill sets (typically tamers with uber-pet or some other tweaked template), but how about crafters? Or maybe an event for mages based in Wind?
Also, a story line which involves the community of the shard (uh oh.. treading that path again) as it acknowledges the uniqueness of the shard, the efforts of the players on that shard, and the community that gathers on that shard. I believe EMs are not allowed to play on the shard they manage, but it wouldn't be hard to be around and learn the people upon a shard. That, I think, is the biggest fault of the EM program. Not knowing their assigned shard(s) communities. Some of the longer-run EMs do, but a newbie-EM.... highly doubtful.
Yes, an EM must be impartial (do they sign a non-disclosure? If not, then its a shame) but without knowledge of the local community, I think it would be hard for an EM to cater to the players. Overall story arcs for the worldset is only part of the job - getting into the details and knowing their community should be another. Without know if an EM is full- or part-time on the job and other such what not business things, all I can say is if there is to be improvement, bring back the RP. Make the content of an EM event relevant to the shard, and get to know the community of a shard (not just the governors and their special interests).
kirthag.blogspot.com
EM events in Felucca should have a temporary Trammel rule set around the area the event is taking place at so PKer's can not show up and ruin the event by killing other players. They can still show up and participate in the event but they can not kill other players.
The memorable Fel event I attended, that might be the one Luc is speaking of, was wild.
!O! ran in and wiped out everyone and everything but the EM lol. Wherever it was, it was a no recall zone, and the only way out was down a short tunnel to his gate. !O! had a good time I reckon.
At that time, we had several PvP/spawn raider groups on the shard. I always thought it woulda been cool, and fun, had he hired one of them to protect the event from just such happenings. Then we would have had the event, it would have included everyone, and wouolda been a good show .