So i did an alert during peek hours. Vanu around 178 NC around 83 TR around 113 Rounding up the the nearest 5 in case someone got a pumpkin kill right when the alert ended we end up with 180+85+115=380 pumpkin kills for the alert. Lets say there is an alert every other hour. So 12 alerts per day. So here are the amounts of seeds eaned by the whole server. 1 seed per pumpkin (380 per alert) (4,560 per day) (136,800 for 30 days) 2 seeds per pumpkin(760 per alert) (9,120 per day) (273,600 for 30 days) 3 seeds per pumpkin(1,140 per alert) (13,680 per day) (410,400 for 30 days) 4 seeds per pumpkin(1,520 per alert) (18,240 per day) (547,200 for 30 days) So if all people bought were weapons for 600 seeds you could get 1 seed (136,800 for 30 days) 228 weapons unlocked for the month 2 seeds(273,600 for 30 days) 456 weapons unlocked for the month 3 seeds (410,400 for 30 days) 684 weapons unlocked for the month 4 seeds (547,200 for 30 days) 912 weapons unlocked for the month So in other words at 4 seeds per pumpkin kill and everyone stopped killing pumpkins once they hit 600 seeds (or 1 weapon) the entire server could only unlock 912 weapons. Now let me show you an extreme. 1000 pumpkin kills for an alert at 5 seeds per kill (5,000 seeds) 12 alerts per day (60,000 seeds daily) 30 day event (1,800,000 seeds for the whole month) 1,800,000/600=3,000 weapon unlocks So on the extreme, only 3,000 players per server could unlock 1 weapon. This is also saying that once players got 600 seeds they will stop killing pumpkins. If you take into account the many people that will get 1-50 seeds before giving up that will lower the amount of total weapon unlocks available. The forumla I used. A= seed amount per kill B=number of pumpkin kills per event A * B * (number of events per day) * (number of days the event will last) = Total amount of seeds for the whole server. Then divide that by the cost of the item (so 600 for weapons) to get the maximum amount of items available. Am I missing something, perhaps getting seeds for killing a player with a mask, or getting seeds for capping or defending a base during an event? If i am not missing anything then why even have an event? Is this event meant to be over multiple years? If i get 300 seeds this year will they carry over to next years event. If I'm not wrong then my guess is the second option. Pay for convenience(P4C). Most players wont try to do the math in their head. They will just get around 10 pumpkin seeds complain that to many people are hunting down pumpkins and choose to buy the weapons. Not realizing the weapons were never meant to be unlocked in the first place. Sorry in advance if i am missing a way to get lots of seeds, but from what i can tell so far its only from killing pumpkins.
Of course they had to make it an impossible grind so that they could get more people to pay for the stuff with station cash.
The rough math I did in my head was as follows. I spent 90 hard minutes today dedicated to looking for pumpkins. I now have 5 seeds. Assuming that will be my average at finding seeds for this event that translates to 120 hours to accrue enough seeds just to get the candy gun. THEN I get to start to work on the other parts of the directive. October has 744 hours in it. That is about 6 hours a day looking for pumpkins. That is pretty much every alert. So I have to use about every alert instead of playing the game to run about empty parts of the continent looking for pumpkins and occasionally having to fend off a random encounter of someone else looking for pumpkins.
Just came here to confirm that it is nearly impossible to do the directives. Thought there might be a flaw in my thinking, but nope. Fun part: Not only is the pumpkin chase nearly useless, it decides who gets the continent. Who came up with that? Do I have to link a YT channel on how to make good games to the professional developers of SoE?
Interesting perspective. The way I looked at it was from a pumpkins per player per alert.... using your numbers: 1500 players at primetime event (Connery @ 8pm PST) 380 pumpkins during event 380/1500= 0.2533 pumpkins per player per event. Its wack no matter how you look at it.
Gamers aren't all stupid. I played 2 alerts today and saw no pumpkins. The first alert was around prime time, and the second late night. My outfit squad searched for pumpkins for about 40 minutes of the alert. That's when I realized that I would rather be fighting people than running around parts of the map looking for pumpkins. While this holiday pumpkin hunt may have been intended to spread festiveness, it's quickly become apparent to me that to join in on the activities, you pretty much have to pay your way in. Otherwise, you can take the statistically improbably approach to 'earn' your way in. While I appreciate that PS2 needs money to keep running and support its developers and staff. I wonder why SoE does not try to align their interests with the players? I've kindly did the rough math the initial poster did, and came to the same conclusion, that this festivity will be more unnecessary stress. I would rather continue doing what I'm doing to enjoy the game. Than to hunt for pumpkins I'm not going to find, to get masks and slasher so I can actually participate in the rest of the festivities. I don't even want to unpack the other issue I have with not being able to use the masks once the event is over.. If you paid for it, or earned it... what's the problem? Would you disable the patriot flare guns after July? This whole situation just reeks of a gaming company desperate to bleed money off it's most loyal and devoted players. And I know how that smells like, I used to buy games from EA.
The alerts are more like all 3 hours. So not more than 8 alerts a day. It seems like people(all combined) get between 300 and 400 seeds per alert. The bulk of the seeds goes to pilots(which is a huge flaw in the system. How about placing pumpkins inside buildings???)...some A2A guys are having fun shooting down the noobs and getting their aircraft-directives tho.
What makes this situation hilarious is Higby's whole bit on Higby Pls about how they made the Candy Cannon a better weapon than the Flare Gun so that more people could effectively participate in the event and could get the directive without such a ridiculous grind.
and that math assumes that everyone gets a pumpkin wich in reality isnt possible...people arent going to share lol...even if they get what they need they will still farm it..
How is pumpkin-hunting any less useless than anything else, like, say, playing the game in the first place? What a dumb thing to say.
Why not do what they did last year for Christmas? They had the snowmen constantly spawning around Esamir not just during a specific alert.
First thing i did was work out roughly how long it would take me and decided to not waste any time whatsoever gathering them. If i get 5 per alert, i'm still going to have to do 100+ alerts just to afford one item, which is a total joke considering everyone is competing for the damned things, not just for the seeds themselves but to also win the alert. Candy gun is a little disappointing to be honest, can barely make out the candy and the animation dissipates so fast you barely see it. On the plus side it has 3 rounds instead of the 1 you get with the flare gun. I just purchased a mask and candy gun so i can forget about the seeds.
I got 23 seeds from one pumpkin. Of course I only got 3 each from the other two I found but it's good to know that some pumpkins are full of seeds!
Because I wanted pumpkins I would be playing Farming Simulator. I though I was playing a MMOFPS instead. Silly me. The time, energy and resources they spent in adding this useless things (oh but it's so CUTE, there are pumpinks! an flaming masks!!! and scary horns uuuuuhhhh) they could have spent in FIXING the game. (you know, random CTDs, mem leaks, FPS drops, hitching, invisible crossairs, all things nobody cares about right? But yeah, we have pumpkins!) /sarcasm Oh, and if you are so fond of pumpkins you should try it, http://www.farming-simulator.com/.
