If I have 100 snow to enter I don't actually have to use it, like how people need an eof to enter Zakum. People who have 100 snow will never use it since then they can't enter again. If it were you need to add 100 snow to get a present that would be nice.
I see where you are coming from with this but the problem would arise that if someone were to put in 101 snow another person would only be able to put in 99 snow and not get their present This of course can be circumvented if it was made to where people couldn't put in more than 100 snow. So it would go like this: 100 snow to enter and be forced to pay it to the snow blower in order to summon
A way to prevent this would be that the machine would only be able to accept 100/200/300 all the way to 5000.
After experiencing the event for a significant amount of time after the server check, I believe there are some new problems that have arisen. Like I mentioned before, there are many campers in channels 1 & 2 taking up those 100 spots without contributing at all to the snowblower. Perhaps there should be a requirement that you have to donate snow at all to be eligible for a present, not just attack it. Secondly, after personally experiencing it, I do agree that the star of maplemas drops should be raised a bit higher because it's unrealistically difficult to farm them. I don't think it should be virtually impossible to farm because there are many people who are unable to take part in the snowman event due to computer issues, busy work schedules, unable to enter due to the limit, etc. I work a full time job, a part time job, and I was able to get a whopping 250-300 total stars on a day I didn't work. I can't imagine what I might have gotten on a day I did. I use myself as an example because I know many of us have the same issues. Maybe if I had 3-4 mules I could camp out in channel 1&2 it would be a different story, but I don't. Neither do I really want to take up that many spots when I know others are fighting for their first character, but I'm also forced into believing that this is the only way I'll get stars (hence everyone will continue to afk their mules in the map) Realistically, for many of us who won't be able to take part in the event, these prizes are just too far away. I still think it should be a challenge, but the way it is now, it's virtually impossible to get items for some of us. I think they should be farmable to some degree and then supplemented with the event, kind of like the Halloween event. Since there is a chance to receive higher amounts via the snowblower, the drop rate should be slightly lower than candies, but I still think it should be a viable option because there are people who can't join the events even if they want to. Editing with more suggestions: If possible, I really believe that synchronizing channels 1, 2, 3 would be a better idea for several reasons. First of all, it will promote healthy snow additions without the fear of losing a "spot" in the channel because there are more channels. In other words, less people will camp out a channel if they feel like they will be able to get a spot. Secondly, 3 channels still only means 300 people. At any given time we have 450-500 minimum people, sometimes up to 900+. It is still somewhat of a challenge to enter the event and I doubt that people will be getting extras. Regardless of if they do, people are getting 3-4 on a mule right now anyway, so I don't see why the chance to get extra presents is an issue; especially considering that the maplemsas star is so hard to come by.
right now smegas are disabled inside the map. i think we should be able to smega to tell people to head over to different channels, it would help a lot
honestly for me. this idea is really bad. why? first, if there's a requirement for 100 snows, people just need to get 100snows and start camping again. this will just repeat the current issue. later on, those which had 100 snows will keep their 100snows instead of contributing. trust me not everyone is that generous to 'contribute'. second, a timer wont do any good in this situation either. the moment u set a timer, the first thing you will see is more flame. imagine those who contributed the first 8000 snows will be dc-ing due to timer. from what i observe after the changes so far, 8000 to 9000 snows took like 15mins. if we follow your method on the 5 minute timer start after defeating snowman, it wont do any good either. the moment everyone knows that the snowman will clear the map, everyone will still kill the snowman in 5 mins and below. i mean, whats the difference? didnt we took less than 5 minutes currently? whats the point of the timer. its basically non existent. and lastly, on your revised idea, 'player cant put in more than 100 snow'? seriously... did u even bother to think further? you are basically asking 100 people to donate 100 snows. to reach 10k. this is gona took forever for the snow to reach 100%. if i farm like 2000snows and u only allow me to put 100, when does it even reach 10000? edit : sorry i misread on the 5 minutes timer. i didn't read carefully on 'after snowman is defeated'. so i will just continue on the 5 minute timer here. your idea on booting players out of the map after 5 minutes has a downside as well. after you boot them out, they would just join back. and in the end, whats the difference? its just a repeating situation.
One of my ideas are that it could be that as long as the capacity is under 80% the room will clear out people every 10 min. So the people that are active can simply just get back by clicking the button and all the AFKers will be outside. If you donate a lot of snow then that should be on you. Don't expect to get presents just because you donated a lot and decided to go AFK. This just prevents other people from coming in and contributing just like you.
i dont wanna turn a big round, so i'll just straight to the point. My 2 cents/feedbacks on this event. The event when it first started is the best in my opinion. Why? Its because basically 'everyone' has a fair chance to get a box. Lets say there's 100 boxes given out (you should just increase the amount of boxes dropped in the first place), and 700 players are in the event. All 700 players has a chance to get it. Because its luck dependent, and on how fast you react etc. not by afk and camping. You also wont have time to switch user/pc/multi accounts to loot. Because the moment the snowman explode, everyone will be spamming looting it. Also, players that get it or didn't get it, will equally contributes snows. Just because they all wanted to try their luck again on the next time. Its just like lottery, everyone still buys the ticket when only some wins. Yes its luck dependent but at an Equal Chance. The moment you set a limit on the amount of people who can join, it isn't equal to everyone anymore. Basically, only those who hog/camp inside will gets it. Ok and next, before the changes people are complaining about dc and crash and they need to 'GFX'. Isn't it still the same now? some of you still did the same thing after the changes. And in the first place, dc and crashing isn't the players problem to begin. Why avoid the problem which caused all these? (crash/gfx issue) solution? And, this. Feedback should not be entitled/limited only to few people suggestion before implementing it. There's like 700 players i assume, and if you only take 'several' suggestions (from what i observe based on the amount of threads regarding the event) from these players. Its basically bias. If the devs is planning to make a changes on a player feedback, there should be a Poll to vote and numbers of vote required for the poll to be approved. e.g. 1. revert back the changes of the event to how it is before. 2. Add an alternative to gain present box/stars. 3. Rewards are based on contribution by each player or a party. Could be a party quest completed to gain a box etc. 4. 1 box per player, 6hrs, etc etc. (above suggestions are just example) And let the players vote on the forum based on the given option in a poll. That way, people wouldn't complaining since they chose what they vote. And for those that didnt bother to vote and then complain they didnt agree to it, thats just better. (why didnt they object in the first place) Please take this into consideration thanks.
Personally and this is just me, I dont like the idea of booting players out of an event map. No matter what you do, you'll get people who camp - but even with the campers we have the snowman spawning several times and people spreading out between channels. I feel that it's a bit too farfetched and unfair to start kicking people from the map, or forcing them to have a certain amount of snow, etc just to be able to participate. The 100 limit cap is meant to be there to reduce the lag, because if a computer with 8 gigs of RAM and a 1 gb dedicated video card can't handle one client without dropping to 2 FPS, there's a problem. Maplestory isn't meant to be a resource intensive game (II used to play GMS on a desktop with 512 mb). My idea was to synchronize Ch1 to Ch3 along with the "You must attack to be able to loot within a certain amount of time frame". We're discussing possibilities, so we're not ignoring the problem - that's just my 2 cents on it.
I feel differently. The reason the problem exists is due to the growth of server population. This event worked just fine last year. Even if people spread out across channels it is going to take time to fill the snowblower and this gives time for the AFKers to relocate to the channel with most snow and camp until it starts not letting people enter. Sure the DC'ing isn't as frequent but new problems have arisen due to these precautions that were implemented. If the problem is people camping the place then why not find a way to prevent that? Of course you might not like this idea but I'm sure there are other ways to deal with them. But this might be a good temporary fix until a new and better idea arises.
The idea that Sila has is one that I mentioned yesterday before they even had a server check to fix the lag issues. http://royals.ms/forum/threads/christmas-snowman-event.46628/ For a TLDR;
The issue isn't so much with people camping as it is server growth like you said. With over 600 people online, assume half of them are trying to do the snowman event. 300 people in one map is a TON of lag even for decent computers - let alone anyone playing on a MAC or a slightly older machine. As I said earlier, Maplestory is not meant to be a resource intensive game. Trying to cram 300 people or more into a single map, especially when the snowman only drops 100-200 presents, is a nightmare. Even with 100 it's hard to see where you're at but at least it's doable. Instead of kicking players, there needs to be a way to open up more places for more players to come in. Because if you kick someone, one lucky person will get in while 200 more are still fighting to get in - and that solves nothing. Jeen's idea is one I suggested to the staff, and Matt is going to look into coding something today to see how it'll work out. Last year people couldn't even stay connected long enough to do the event, TBH. We lagged so hard every time the snowblower went to 80%, we had to turn off announcements, we had to move the tree NPC to turn in the presents in the frosty zone itself. So many changes were done and it was only minimally helpful. This year we're not facing server lag thankfully! But that's just to show that we can't predict everything, and we are constantly trying to find a way to improve stuff. We take everyone's suggestions in mind and we try to find a good balance.
@Sila that's why I said you can only get kicked out before 80% of the snow is charged so that once it's 80% you can no longer get kicked out to ensure people that saw the message rushes and takes your place. But that's just an idea I had. The cross channel snowblower idea might work but it depends on how it works out. I know you still can't be guaranteed a present but as long as you at least have somewhat of a decent chance to get one so that it could be called a fair competition for a spot then I'm all for it.
not sure how it would work out with kicking people after the snowman dies, but i like the idea of having to pitch in a minimum amount of snow (maybe 100) in order to be able to loot a present. but then people may be able to get more than one present by going back in because the snowman dropped excess ones that people who didn't pitch in can't loot. so maybe after the snowman dies, a cooldown could be implemented to avoid people from going back inside the map until the presents on the ground (that weren't picked up) expire or the present could just be added in your inventory without having to loot it
well according to logic, if you put a limit of 100 players per room, people are gonna try and reserve a spot. they afk in the extra frosty snow zone for hours, so that when they come back they may be lucky enough to grab a gift, but they actually ruin it for the rest of the players, by taking up spots in that map they prevent the entrance of other players that may be able to contribute their snow to the snowblower.(some even have multiple characters afking, to take even more gifts). this causes the waiting time of hours until the blower is full. what you can and should change is perhaps a requirement to enter that zone. this map isn't just a xmas map it's a map about the snowman, not about hanging out (there are xmas hangout maps that you can access through the snowmen npc's if I'm not mistaken)thus, it won't matter if not anyone could access it. what I'm thinking about is a requirement to enter, 200 snow(can't tell the actual name cuz all my snow is already in the blower) this way we won't get into a situation when the 100 people combined will have less than the required amount of snow to summon the snow boss (200*100>10k). thanks for reading, please consider. EDIT: i just now read the previous thread about it which I basically repeated here, sry.
omg guys i have the perfect solution penalize people in the extra frosty snow zone with 10% hp every 10 seconds that'll teach them to afk so only new players with 500hp can afk there with a chair but then everyone will just do the event on a mule we can't let that happen we'll just spawn a dozen of these good luck sitting down now bwahahaha but wait most people would be alright spamming potions for this then we have to seduce the whole map or better yet zombify or make it so everyone in there constantly loses exp, and instant death if they reach 0% best idea ever Seriously, though, Sila's channel sync method is the best. I also support the 5 minute timer when the boss is defeated, and directly adding the present to the inventory of participants, though with the latter, the timer may no longer be necessary. Our current situation could be alleviated somewhat if people didn't have to be in the Extra Frosty Snow Zone to donate snow, but I guess it does detract from the experience. Never mind, then. Go Sila!
Humble opinion from new player here. The current limit on the map also comes with new problems. Afkers stay inside while people with snow are outside. The other channels do provide a solution for this but most players are too hesitant to put in snow in other channels for now for the fear to lose all of it. You could say to just go all to channel 2 but afkers will probably be quick to get air of this habit and just cc to afk in ch2. Edit: Just thought of another problem with current system. Just now we decided to go to ch2 with a group. It was pretty successful we filled it up in ch2 but soon after the advertisement the channel quickly filled up to the limit. It's good and all that all the people who contributed got to enjoy the event but what if a contributor just DCed while snowman is active. He probably did not get in again because couple of dozen people were already clicking and Roodolph, pretty depressing. I'd like to propose a solution. Make the snow blower counter and snowman spawn world wide for all channels. Things this would fix: Everyone can enjoy the event without spamming Roodolph to get in maps with a lot of snow inside the blower (or with a current snowman). This will also drive players to just put in all the snow instead of hanging on it because they might miss the event due DC or saving up for a specific amount to trigger the event. It will also spread out the players more so DC are more unlikely and if you happen to DC during the event you can quickly get back in without fear of the map limit. It might be needed to increase the counter a bit tough but I am not sure. This however comes with a problem: People might be able to get multiple presents during one snowman. I have no clear solution for this problem because I am unaware of the technical possibilities but I think this might be solvable with some clever timers and map clearing. Thanks for reading, hopefully this will be helpful.
Yes but people might cc to the more odd channels to kill another (if the world wide snowman is implemented). The solution I was thinking of is to tie the tree to the event so you will not be able to put presents while the snowman is active, for like 15 minutes maybe? After that time clear all the channels from snowman and items and let people put presents under the tree. People wont be able to hoard presents this way but everyone gets to join the event. It's just sad to see people clicking away trying to get in channels while not being able to participate in the event. It also pains me that IF someone gets in while snowman is active someone must have DCed for it, pretty rough eh? It could be someone who just donated several hunderd snow just to DC for it. I hope a solution will come soon.
Anyone remember towards the end of last year's event when people spawned multiple snowmen at the same time and it still wasn't lagging? How come we can't go back to the same format as last year, did the server get worse or is it because we have more players now? Maybe a combination of both? Anyways last year there were a few things I really liked about the event and wish they'd come back: 1) The snowman didn't drop any presents, it'd just appear in your inventory if you did enough damage preventing people from looting multiple presents. 2) There was a christmas tree in the boss map itself, meaning people weren't entering and re-entering the map over and over just to hand in their presents. 3) No announcement when the snowblower was at 80%, instead there was a counter on the homepage.
