Apparently Tinkerfest is going a lot like real life this year. Because of needing a jumper for BoL, I've been taking my numerous characters through the two shiny quests to get the platinum coin. Most of the time it is enjoyable, but sadly that isn't always the case. I just finished up with the third or fourth character that had to harvest over 50 shiny nodes to complete the second quest. Two toons had to harvest over 70 nodes each. That is not acceptable in my view. Festivals should always been carefree events. Yes, they should have a little challenge, but spending over an hour, harvesting shinies, is hard on the eyes, hands, and nerves and takes all the fun out of the festival. If these two characters were my only ones, I doubt I'd ever participate in the festival again. But I've done these quests many times so I know it isn't always mind-numbingly boring. There are other ways to get the platinum coins. That doesn't matter much to the new player doing the shiny quests for the first time. Their opinion of the game could well be changed by a negative experience harvesting the shinies. So I would like to suggest that you make it so that a player never needs to harvest more than x-number of nodes to complete the set. I would also like to suggest that you let a player know when they have harvested all the items needed from Gnomeland Security Headquarters or from Freeport or Qeynos. For those who need the information, the items from GSH are: mechnovariable screwdriver hypemetal sander magnetized clamp overclocked drill vortex pliers and from either Freeport or Qeynos: dizzwangle grease antiarcanum awl flipwnger hamm electro wrench
https://eq2.fandom.com/wiki/Tinkerfest https://eq2.fandom.com/wiki/Platinum_Tinkerfest_Cog also says where shinies are and theres a quest to get a plat cog as well besides collection.
I've done A Clockwork Snafu and it is easy enough, but time consuming if you don't have fast travel and a way to fly. The PQ is a bear, and I've done it many times, but lots of players don't know how to do the PQ which drags it out to where it is no fun anymore. That's the problem with complicated scripting where one, or more, players can foul up the quest. The main point, of my post however, is that for players who love hunting shinies, the second Tinkerfest quest can be a real pain. For example, there were four characters in Gnomeland Security and only one quest shiny was dropping at a time. A character I ran through, after my post, had to go around 26 times to get the overclocked drill which seems to be the rare. And that was for just one shiny. Add to that all the other times going around, getting to only needing that one shiny, and the quest loses its charm real fast. These games are supposed to be for fun and relaxation. A little challenge is good but monotony drives players away.
I ran about a dozen more characters through the quest, after my last post, and it seems the problem is limited to characters who had previously worked on the quest, in past years, and are trying to finish the quest. My characters, who started the quest this year had little problems gathering the required shinies. Perhaps there are new rules for how the shinies are distributed this year which makes the quest much more enjoyable. But based on how hard it was to complete the quest, with toons that started the quest 3 years ago, I can see why they didn't complete it. So, apparently the quest has already been updated and is working well for characters just starting the second quest. Thanks DP.
