Event: Lapras Hunting

[Orean]

Looking to collect some quick statistical and verbal feedback, while the event is ongoing — albeit, impending its end soon — and still fresh in much of your minds.

Poll question: How much time have you spent hunting for your first Lapras? If you have yet to encounter your first one, please vote for the increment of hours in which you've spent hunting for it so far—you'll be able to revote it later as time extends.

Furthermore (verbal feedback, more obviously), have you found ample time to hunt for the initial Lapras — the must-faint Lapras to obtain a Seashell for the mini-quest — and to hunt for additional Laprases to capture?

Feel free to discuss and impart feedback to the event in general, in this topic.

 

[DomT.]

xD I.miss the event,hope someone got S Lappy

 

[EcoWOLFrb]

As I've stated on twitter, we were given the expectation that the lapras would be in greater supply. We were told that it would be a large herd, and implied that it wouldn't be too difficult to find one lapras to faint, and at least one more to capture. This is not the case, and I'd like to suggest once more that the event go on until next weekend to give everyone ample time to fulfill the purpose of this event.

 

[Orean]

As I've stated on twitter, we were given the expectation that the lapras would be in greater supply. We were told that it would be a large herd, and implied that it wouldn't be too difficult to find one lapras to faint, and at least one more to capture. This is not the case, and I'd like to suggest once more that the event go on until next weekend to give everyone ample time to fulfill the purpose of this event.

As this is our inaugural weekend-round event, I'll admit that some of our expectations (including my own) were misguided and tentative in how many would be able to complete it, given the encounter rates—I've noticed many haven't completed it, despite investing a greatly above-average amount of hours into the event. However, I would be lying if I stated that we felt that a certain amount of incompletions is unacceptable for a weekend-round event.

To set the expectations more clearly for future weekend-round events: we don't expect all players to complete every one, depending on the degree of difficulty for them (which will vary from event-to-event). Yes, we want players to have a fair amount of opportunities to complete an event, and obtain a voucher, but we also believe it's reasonable for there to be a fair amount of challenge behind them; is it game-breaking if some players miss out on 1 voucher (the reward for this event), as much as it would be if everyone was able to obtain one relatively fast (in addition to the rarity-decreased Pokemon, such as Lapras in this event)?

We're hoping to have these types of events hosted on a frequent enough basis that there will be copious amounts of opportunities to obtain one down the road, but — to maintain an element of challenge — vouchers shouldn't be as guarantees for each weekend-round event; it is possible to invest a fair amount of time into one, and not walk away with a new voucher.

I believe much of the disdain and frustration with this event comes from the players' notion that this is a "rare chance" to obtain a voucher. Even if this event may have gotten off to a slow start, we are still hoping to evaluate it, based on feedback (including what's provided here), make the appropriate adjustments, then we'll be more well-situated to host these type of events more frequently.

 

[EcoWOLFrb]

If this is going to be as frequent as you're making it appear, I'm sure you'll need some story line ideas for the mini-quests. Might I suggest opening a topic for creative suggestions for these events? I'm sure there are many people who, like me, would relish the opportunity to make an apparent impact on the game, and share their own creativity with the community.

 

[Orean]

If this is going to be as frequent as you're making it appear, I'm sure you'll need some story line ideas for the mini-quests. Might I suggest opening a topic for creative suggestions for these events? I'm sure there are many people who, like me, would relish the opportunity to make an apparent impact on the game, and share their own creativity with the community.

We'll definitely want to collect user feedback, to ensure that our events are more congruent to the types of events players would like to see, but it should also be noted that we're not looking for highly intricate storylines behind these events — with how frequently we plan to host them, we don't believe it's practical for all players to stretch creativity thin with temporary, weekend-round events, compared to the degree of creativity we'd prefer to infuse into permanent content instead.

We believe these events can be hosted frequently because we intend to reuse templates for them, simply applying them to new settings and content. The hunt-and-fetch type of objective used for this event, hunting X item from Y Pokemon, is an example of an event template that may recur in future events.

A few other themes have been solidified among the staff, but collecting feedback from the community — regarding other recurring event themes they'd like to see — is definitely something I would like to formally raise up, as it'll give us a more distinct idea on what type of event archetypes the community would like to see.

 

[elkinJD]

Well, i dont know what to answer, ive spent like 10 or 12 hours and havent seen the first lapras....

I do like the fact that u guys are making these events but I think they shudnt be based only on luck...

 

[eromsk]

For me i kinda liked the event, as this was my first time participating in one since i'm just a new player it really made me feel that there is a community ongoing pwo. I guess i was kinda lucky to get one in around 2 hours, since the main goal was to only faint one, I did just that and after getting my shell I exchanged my voucher. After that I went on my own business in going to other gyms. Only problem i kept having was getting stuck in water while doing the hunt but one escape rope fixes it. I hope there's more event to come with more vouchers to give away. I was happy too since i just finished the bell tower quest and got my soothebell which gives me the opportunity to use it if I ever think of exchanging my precious voucher.

 

[Orean]

Well, i dont know what to answer, ive spent like 10 or 12 hours and havent seen the first lapras....

As mentioned in the OP, you can vote for the amount of hours spent hunting for a Lapras so far, even if you haven't encountered one yet, and revote it later if more hours are spent hunting for the Lapras.

 

[Nikola]

Funny fact, right after the event started I got one Lapras and caught it. After that I spent day and a half and still lapras is nowhere to be seen.я Probably just my luck. But the event itself is okay.

 

[iHugo]

I spent like 13 hours till i find the first (and the only one i wanted) lapras.
I do understand the concern of making the vouchers rares, but idk, seems a bit strange for me.
Lets say, i do want 4 prizes from tier 3: elek, toge and mag eggs, and a tm.
That means 28 vouchers... its kinda surreal, and a bit weird the difficult to have them all...
How long would it take? lets say we catch 2 events month, with 1 voucher each, if i grab a voucher in each event, will take 14 months, to grab 3 pokes and a tm...
idk, for me, it sounds too many staff/players time, for it :S

 

[Tendou]

Im here since the event started and didnt find any Lapras yet xc.

But im enjoying the event

 

[Future~Sight]

It took me 10-12 hours to fine mine, and i did find ample find to do so.
Also imo this spawn rate was just fine. Not everyone was supposed to have a voucher. Although, i would have loved a 'Part 2' of this event, where A Few people would be able to get 1-2 more vouchers by doing a small, hard task.

Im here since the event started and didn't find any Lapras yet xc.

Now that's just a bad lie.

 

[DarkCyrus]

didnt find any lapras in 3 days of hunt, the event its okay i just hate when is based on luck tho

 

[Julio~]

Well, the message ''julio2503 has come across a Lapras!' appeared to me twice, anyway I found no lapras. Yesterday I played 8-10 hours and nothing yet... Today I already played 2 more hours and I'm still hunting for the first one. >_>

 

[Merlino]

Around 12 hours to get it (today), unfortunately tomorrow i have an exam!
Got my first Lappy, I've stopped hunting

 

[Dovee]

I think that choosing Lapras as a pokemon for this was the first mistake. If you make it easy to catch all you do is just tank the value of a pokemon that should be rare. If you leave it hard to get but tell the community theres a herd of lapras swimming through then you might as well convince the everyone to go hunt in union cave for the weekend where lapras is already hard to get. All that happens is people expect it to be easier to find but its not so people just get pissed and annoyed.

The Skarmory event was much better because that is a rare pokemon that can be less rare for a bit and it will be okay without damaging the value of it too much.

If you are going to make a Weekend event where you want to use a valuable pokemon then you should do so but keep it valuable. I dont like the idea of using third gen pokemon but maybe one of the eevee's minus jolt would be a good idea. A way you could do that is simple. Dont say a herd but rather something like "A small pack of espeon have been spotted heading west from X, Pokemon Expert Freddie Mercury has identified by date Y they should arrive at Map Z"

When you do something like that people will identify a small pack as it will be hard to get, this wont kill value and this will keep people from getting angry. (People will still get angry but thats their own fault, people know HRs and hard VRs dont pop up instantly)

 

[pieoffury]

I liked the event, just not the choice of pokemon to find. It should either be a low-value pokemon and giving it the so called rare encounter rate, or a high value pokemon and retaining it's real encounter rate, the so called horribly rare. A good example of the former was skarmory in one of the old events. Good examples of the latter are gastly, snorlax, and lapras. Skarmory hardly has any value compared to the 3 mentioned but they were all fairly easy to find, thus hurting the value of the 3 after the event. My suggestion is to reconsider the choice of pokemon you use for events.

 

[dageki]

I spent about 5 hours hunting lapras without any luck, so being fair I put 10-12 above, though it could have taken 30+ hours like some others if I had of bothered hunting longer.

Fair to say also I did not enjoy it one bit. I've done the hours/days slogging away in Union Cave hunting lapras before and this didn't feel any different apart from the fun of hunting alongside a hundred others. And while that is fun it doesn't make up for the fact that it was a boring grind for most if not all and an exercise in futility for many. All it really does for those who can be bothered is focus your hunting hours into one big block, which is rarely practical and really not very healthy either.

I don't think every event has to be awesome or that they can be worth doing for everyone. CNY was awesome, and though it can't be compared to this one I'd give it 8.5 out of 10. This one I can barely be bothered to give it a score since it was just five hours of my time wasted.

Here's hoping the future events are different and better than this one was.

 

[Saric]

Honestly this event felt more like a chore than actually having fun..the hunting was painstaking with a low payoff. Also, Dovee's post hit the nail on the head.