(11-04-2021, 12:11 PM)St.Denis Wrote: What I seem to get from my observations and the feedback is:
a) Profits not enough, even though a 20 minute round trip on the first leg netted about 82.5 million profit per hour.
b) Some people were using scouts........not sure how that is bad (maybe the Traders should just throw themselves at the Pirates instead).
c) Not enough people played the 'bad guys'. Even the main Molly Leader spent possibly 15-20+ hours doing the Trade runs. I think I saw a total of 3 people playing Mollys. I believe more was done by non-Molly 'bad guys'.
d) An OF of the main Groups involved did a sum total of 2 runs (Leeds-Honshu). No RP was seen between them and Bretonia asking for escorts. Potential was possibly lost here for more activity?
e) Yes, an extra Faction was being asked to be added to the Event (RH) with an extended ZOI and added Bounty. Every time an Event comes out, people want to know why x,y or z can't be added. Why can't people people just play the Factions that the Event is designed for? If you don't want to use those Factions, wait for an Event that your Faction can be involved in.
f) As usual with most Trade Events, it was the Indies that did most of the Activity. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
g) If everyone used a 5ker for the Event, then 189 trips were done on the first leg and 120 trips on the second leg.
Oh I'll explain why - lot of faction diplomacy has slowed down with these unplayed factions. The OP ITSELF offered that with RP there will be Zoi extensions and IDs added. You would generate forum activity, people would fly together and then take it back to their regions after the event and people would get used to logging together. The Forum contacts wouldn't be lost, favours could be repaid in future events.
We were told by admins that this would happen, encouraged to do the RP, did the RP and then were completely ignored sadly, and event was over.
Why I hauled
I explained above. The kill line was actually bad for Mollys, a paradox. On a tagged ship I pirated a couple times when people were with ore as usual, but then we just got avoided or ganked. There was no fence sell point either to just e.g. take 1/3 of cargo .
The event run took under an hour if you went for H-3 => Lot of waiting around, lot to lose when you get shot as trader. You know first hand that I don't enjoy killing traders in the first place, it was just ugh, confusing and not at all surprising other IDs pirated, succesfully.
Suggestions
1) The RP into extension Idea was good, please just get more manpower for events that can carry them out and make fast changes. It was dispiriting to say the least to do what the OP asked us to do and then get completely ignored. Event feedback takes too long and often comes too close to events, and then there is slow reaction during events to things. There are volunteers that want to help, having one contact for events that focuses on them primarily would go a long way.
2) Hauling distances shorter and profits higher will attract more traders and pirates. If you have just the O-3 to Leeds run, bump up the profit to 110/hr . . .more traders, much less waiting time. We will test this with New Paris to Metz this weekend ( I hope, I am waiting for admin contact to confirm specifics), especially with these short term events that are on contested routes I really wouldn't be afraid to bump up profits. The times have changed, 85 mill per hour on an advertised contested route is very low, people lose money hauling in opportunity cost as they get more with ores and don't need to dock and log off as often when they see a Molly login the game. Hell the Permanent mission grapes etc. route has same profit, and Event had no extra rewards after for traders.
3) Kill plugin on piracy vs transports might be a thing of the past. Bombers are too overpowered against transports and rewarding transport kills just makes people avoid you as opposed to a threat of a reasonable piracy amount or a chance to fend off a bomber if you are close enough to a base with any sort of fight. Working with Fence with very high rewards would be an option I suppose.
Quote:2) Hauling distances shorter and profits higher will attract more pirates. If you have just the O-3 to Leeds run, bump up the profit to 110/hr . . .more traders, much less waiting time. We will test this with New Paris to Metz this weekend ( I hope, I am waiting for admin contact to confirm specifics), especially with these short term events that are on contested routes I really wouldn't be afraid to bump up profits. The times have changed, 85 mill per hour on an advertised contested route is very low, people lose money hauling in opportunity cost as they get more with ores and don't need to dock and log off as often when they see a Molly login the game. Hell the Permanent mission grapes etc. route has same profit, and Event had no extra rewards after for traders.
No extra rewards? About 8.5 billion was made by the Traders who delivered the goods, not including any extra profits made going back to the start point (not bad for a short Event). if you are referring to 'fancy' titles or SD/Equipment etc, then I have left that to the Originator of the Event to decide if he wants to give out any of the above (I just published the results). Are they really needed?
As for bumping up the profits even more, is it necessary?
Do we only get involved in the Events because we see the potential $ signs?
I don't see how people 'lose' money doing these Events. Not everyone hauls ores. Just go out and actually look at what Traders haul every day.
'I would like to be half as clever as some people like to believe they are' Life is full of disappointments, it is how we handle them that helps to define us, as a person
Rewards should not be the main focus. More talk should be focused on putting people on doing the main activity, rather than How much can the first or the second guy who can dish out the most hours can cash in.
Well I am just saying, sad reality is that vast majority of people attracted to these trade events are powertraders. And their presence means more pirates etc.
It's just the nature of the game right now - the people logging any specific faction outside of Liberty for the story are few, and you want actual intensely large numbers to at least temporarily revive the region and give attention to it. Many factions I play now were because I got attracted to them through events and rewards, the connections you make in them.
What's wrong with attracting both the local players that would play anyways, but also pure action and profit seeking players for a couple days to a week? Events to me are the times when you get to meet people from all ends of the game you wouldn't meet otherwise as they converge in a single region for a short period of time, not just some flair for people that play the factions anyways - you don't really need plugin events for that in the first place.
Bump up the profits, no way, considering you can make a ton anyway with PvE zones, getting a billion is very easy nowadays.
Second, profits shouldn't be the focus. Third, bombers overpowered against transports, bombers are made to kill caps, a single lightly armored transport should not be able to tank a bomber and win outright. If
your concerned your transport might be attacked by a bomber find escorts or just find a path around the pirate.
Or a radical concept but hear me out......you PAY THE PIRATE.
As a known power trader, these are the reasons why I did not participate.
1. Current contracts and in-house work to be done. I have 2 POBs that are constantly hungry and contracts needing worked.
2. Wasn't profitable enough... only because my contracts pay me more. Otherwise the event is generous to those who don't have contracts or indies.
3. Events usually draw in the worst. I actually enjoy browsing through mercs for escorts, dealing with pirates (and paying them... I even tip for good RP and not the vanilla gib money). But I've been part of too many events in the past where I get pirated in every system along the way or even told to drop all of my cargo in the finishing system. I've placed reports with nothing happening, so I just avoid the headache.
4. Real life. Yup, that thing we do besides flying fake space ships in fake space. Holidays are coming up with events happening every weekend. yolo
Overall I thought the event made good role play sense and I enjoyed reading about stages of the trade route, not just a pickup and delivery. I would have felt a sense of accomplishment by making the runs. Unfortunately, until this community sees more effectiveness in our server staff in curbing rule breakers, I and many others choose to not participate.
I hope that either all of us or none of us are judged by the actions of our weakest moments. But rather, by the strength we show when, and if, we're ever given a second chance.
The main problem of this event is that it failed to attract both sides equally. There were plenty of powertraders but very little actual Mollys.
Next time I would suggest (along with the stuff I already said)
a) making the event result have a small effect on story, even if it's just fluff about a corp project being delayed / abandoned
b) as Lemon said, remove straight out kill line on transports, it leads to bad experience for traders
c) reduce the penalty for being shot down a bit. 20 million investment for a run is too much and leads to more people hiding instead of giving in to RP demands
d) add incentives in forum titles and maybe equipment for the unlawfuls / best escorts
Otherwise, cool idea with bulk cargo and turning it into mostly a 5ker event.
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