Please don't change the way to get the Frostfell Fanatic achievement. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the scavenger hunt, as it requires you to go through three instances plus a little running around. The change to the NoTD achievement was completely unnecessary. I'm quite sure there are more pressing issues that require the dev's attention than fixing something that isn't broken.
I really dislike the change to the NOTD one personally. Especially since the Scarecrow King part can get so broken and the zombie one takes so long.
I understand that you are unaware of this, but actually, the previous Frostfell Fanatic quest had to be updated and changed every year. This was also true of the NotD Devotee quest. Making them utilize the achievement system removes this timely upkeep every year. That said, the Frostfell Fanatic quest is indeed being changed. I'm glad that you've enjoyed it for the past three years! ~ Kaitheel
What was there to update and change? The clickable item for the scavenger hunt was now part of the zone. Oo. Nothing changed, that we could see; the appearance of the clickable item didn't change, its placement in the zone itself didn't change, etc., etc., etc. The Bauble of Holidays Past is very cool because we only had to "participate" in the holiday events to get it, we were not REQUIRED to do every single quest in them, and a number of the fairly cool, specific holiday achievement rewards only ask that we make some select items or do one or two quests to get those. The more quests that get added to the holidays in later years (especially if any of those new ones are in latest-expansion-only zones), the more pain in the--neck hoops we'll have to jump through, just for a fluff title that shouldn't require this kind of headache. :-/ I can only hope the Frostfell quests aren't as broken as the Heroic Raid level ones that we apparently had to slog through for NotD. :-( Uwk who didn't even bother with NotD, other than the Haunted House, Haunted Mansion, and Hedge Maze (did "Survive the Night" just long enough to get the Zombie Note, then bugged out); the grand majority of his alts already got the title when it was obtainable, and only the four newbs he made this year had to do without :-/
I can easily picture several things that had to be maintained annually, because I remember the bugs we had the second year. Baubles from the first year not giving the quest, but being unable to get the new bauble because they were lore - they had to go in and remove all the old baubles. I had issues on a couple characters where they hadn't finished the previous year's quest and weren't able to get the current one. And the reward changed every year as well. And new quests added (which most holidays get most years) means a new item to place and another change to the quest script. But it seems like I'm the only one who prefers the new system overall. Alt-aholism and a tendency to want to complete everything on every character make for a terrible mix most holidays. I could never bring myself to just go in far enough to get the item, but not complete the quest for the zone. And because the reward changed every year I *had* to get it for as many characters as possible! Personal issue, I know. Still, changing the Devotee quests to achievements means once I get it on a character, I never have to worry about it again for that character. And if this year I can't complete something because a character isn't powerful enough or I just don't have time, I can wait for next year and know I'm not actually missing out on anything.
Hmm...I don't remember any different rewards from the Nights of the Dead scavenger hunt; you found the gal at Nektulos Docks (where you'd be going anyway for the Hedge Maze) to get the quest, you found the six items required in the cities (Qeynos or Freeport), in the Haunted House, the Haunted Mansion, the Hedge Maze, the Charnel Hollow, and the farmlands of Antonica (I don't think there was a Commonlands equivalent of the "spider eggs" item you had to find; I seem to remember my Evils going there too), you reported back to the gal, and boom, you got Nights of the Dead Devotee. Wasn't difficult, once you knew where to find 'em, and I did it for at least 2-3 years, for my old crew and any newbs I'd made since, but before this year. No worries. ;-> Uwk
Prizes for NotD Devotee were the Grave Grabber Candy Dish (2010), the Rattlin' Bones Candy Dish (2011), and the Dedicated Jack-o-Lantern fluff pet (2012). The Grave Grabber dish is now the achievement reward; the Rattlin' Bones was added to the NotD merchant, but I don't remember if the fluff pet was as well. Frostfell has had Santa Glug's Sleigh (2010, 2012) and the Combustible Sledabout (2011), which looked like Santa Glug hired some gnomes to upgrade his sleigh. My guess is it exploded during 2011 deliveries, which is why we were back to the classic one in 2012.
Waahhh! 2011 was the only FF I didn't really participate in, and I LOVED the look of that Sledabout (didn't really find out about it until too late)! I just wish we had the choice between the two for 2012... And yeah, the pet was on the NotD merchant as well, for 50 Candies...kind of ironic since the only ones that didn't have it already were my newbs, and they needed every Candy piece they could get their hands on for crafting. :-/ Uwk
I was very VERY upset at the change to the NOTD devotee. Losing the token quests and having the achievement thingie put in its place was a total downer to me and my husband. IF THIS CHANGE IS MADE TO FROSTFELL AS WELL, SOE WILL BE LOSING 2 VERY LONG STANDING PLAYERS. I have put up with a lot of stuff from SOE and let it slide. But not Frostfell. If they destroy Frostfell the way they did NOTD, we are history. I am sorry, but one must put one's foot down at some point. I don't give a rat's patooie about achievement. Leave the quests alone.
At least, with the changes to NotD and making it an Achievement (what ARE those points for, anyway...?), we still got to keep: getting the title, at least one of the fluff items, etc. (with the rest still being available on the Merchants); with the Achievement earned for Heroes' Festival, all we get are some points that seem, well, pointless...not even a title. :-/ Uwk who thinks that if they bring back the Gnomish Santa Glug sleigh, it might be worth it to see what sort of heavy-duty, time-eating, raid-group-requiring steps might be necessary for it... :-/
We received a title a reward and an achievement for both the NoTD crafting challenges. And the Tinkerfest crafting challenges. And when I finished the Hero Fest quests achievement this weekend I received everything but the title because I already had it. I'm not seeing a problem here.
umm, if all that eq means to you is a holiday quest, which is not even the main reason to play this game, then maybe you should review your priorities. Personally, the holiday quests are icing on the cake and while i look forward to them and enjoy them, they aren't the reason i play eq2. i play it because overall it is the best game out there, i have friends in my guild i enjoy talking to, and i love the game. yeah it gets changed a lot but that's life. surely you realize that when the 60's came along the innocence and softness of the 50's went out the window with reality checks. it is the same in a game. to revamp this system would be a tremendous headache for all concerned so the devs have to make adjustments where they can and sometimes that changes stuff. it's part of the evolution of the game. there are software updates and new programs to make the game easier to work on so they have to change a few things to accommodate the change. I would no more want to go back to an outdated system just to keep things status quo than i would want to retrograde time itself- well, maybe a visit back to the 50's would be nice and help my memories, but there is no actual going back.
So...what exactly changed other than the scavenger hunt being made into an achievement to get the candy dish instead of the old way? I can't think of anything that is completely gone. As I said before I really don't like that but that is mostly because the plants vs zombie quest takes so long (and I have a massive number of alts) and the Pumpkin King quest is annoying because people WILL steal the pumpkin king rather than group up for it. Nothing at all was actually removed, just some additional requirements added to get that old candy dish. I don't like it, but it's certainly not THAT big of a deal, and wouldn't be an issue at all if the Pumpkin King thing were fixed (public quest him!) Frostfell's always changed over the years. Sometimes we got new stuff, sometimes old stuff got changed up a little bit. One time we even lost some older recipes (I was sad about that one). I'm personally really looking forward to the new zone myself. It's been a long time since we got a new one.
how about nto having to do the quest to get the reward. to get the spider eggs from antonica You did not have to do 'The Troubling Truth" or the "Survive the Night" quests now you do.
Yes, I know that. I asked what changed OTHER than the scavenger hunt being made into an achievement. I did most of the NOTD stuff (except the achievement on most characters) and didn't see anything else horribly altered. They added new rewards, made some old rewards available again (which was great IMO). I was still able to do all the quests I would have bothered doing in previous years with no issues. I've already stated several times (in this thread) that I also don't care for the change to an achievement, but I'm trying to find out what else changed that the Rosie was referring to or if she is talking about something else I missed when she speaks of losing the token quests.
I too was bummed out over losing the old recipes; I was very fond of a number of them, and am just glad that Uwk here made his when he could, as well as some of my oldest alts. With our new, "oh-no-we-can't-make-the-Frostfell-bags-larger!" larger Frostfell bags, we could reintroduce some of those and still have room for all the ingredients necessary. ;-> I am, however, looking askance at the new zone; it looks entirely too much like that PitA zone for "The Grump that Hated Frostfell" that was always way too huge to really finish anything in (especially when one was forced to swap out, say, a Plate Helm for the stupid cloth elf hat that kept you from freezing to death, but didn't protect at all against the mobs in there, but I digress), and full of natural hindrances, like trees, undergrowth, rock formations, etc. that will slow down materials gathering even more...I dunno, I liked being able to spot the "presents" from a mile away, over expanses of nothing but ice and snow... :-/ On the other hand, if we can get to the purple glowies for the collection (those are back, yes? Say "yes," o devs; I've got yet more alts that need that) without having to worry about psychotic skating NPCs we can't even target (o, the temptation...and if we can target our own cities' guards, even inadvertently, without being on a Betrayal quest, why couldn't we stain the snow red with those infuriating twits? I swear that wench AIMED for me...), that might be well worth the price of admission to the new place. ;-> Uwk
What's up with this? Will we not click on presents anymore for our crafting supplies? I hope this is not made more difficult, as sometimes it was already difficult enough trying to get a specific ingredient for a given recipe.
I haven't heard of anything re: changing the appearance of the materials nodes; I think they'll still be the "presents" we've had in the past, but looking at the pics of the new zone (at least from older notices about it; I don't actually know what they'll wind up using), it's just gonna be harder to find them in any length of time. :-/ Uwk who still really, really hopes that the rumors re: year-round crafting will be true...and accessible for everyone, not just the raiders who can finish every FF quest available :-/
