[PS-NA] Solstice & Stirk Fellowship Camp Daily Quest NPCs Have Despawned

BretonMage · November 24

At first I was upset that I could not get all the shards needed for the Caltrops style, but now that the only way to get the bone shards is by buying the Solstice chapter, I see what ZOS is trying to do, and no, I'm not playing that FOMO game. I'll get the style next year or maybe never. Eh.

spartaxoxo · November 24

BretonMage wrote: »

At first I was upset that I could not get all the shards needed for the Caltrops style, but now that the only way to get the bone shards is by buying the Solstice chapter, I see what ZOS is trying to do, and no, I'm not playing that FOMO game. I'll get the style next year or maybe never. Eh.

The chapter events have always served as advertisement for the chapters. They come at the same time as a large discount on the chapter. However, in the past, these events largely excluded people who didn't buy the chapter. The best prizes were bound and locked behind a paywall that required owning the chapter to obtain. This year all but a single title was available to everyone at no additional real money cost.

The shards are not bound and can be purchased from other players for coins. No real money needed.

BretonMage · November 24

spartaxoxo wrote: »

BretonMage wrote: »

At first I was upset that I could not get all the shards needed for the Caltrops style, but now that the only way to get the bone shards is by buying the Solstice chapter, I see what ZOS is trying to do, and no, I'm not playing that FOMO game. I'll get the style next year or maybe never. Eh.

The chapter events have always served as advertisement for the chapters. They come at the same time as a large discount on the chapter. However, in the past, these events largely excluded people who didn't buy the chapter. The best prizes were bound and locked behind a paywall that required owning the chapter to obtain. This year all but a single title was available to everyone at no additional real money cost.

The shards are not bound and can be purchased from other players for coins. No real money needed.

Yes, it's true that in the past the events were exclusive to those who bought the chapter. This year, with the wider population being able to participate in the Stirk dailies, I was caught off guard because I had expected to get the skill style the way I got the Writhing pet. I had not anticipated the drop rates to be kept low for the shards, and it was massively disappointing when nearing the end of the event, to realise that ZOS had not planned for non-chapter owners to complete the style with normal event participation.

Market prices for the shards are insane, I'm not paying almost 1M to complete my Caltrops style. I mean, I could if I really wanted to, but I haven't enjoyed this event, and I'd rather not invest any more in it, even with game money.

katanagirl1 · November 24

BretonMage wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

BretonMage wrote: »

At first I was upset that I could not get all the shards needed for the Caltrops style, but now that the only way to get the bone shards is by buying the Solstice chapter, I see what ZOS is trying to do, and no, I'm not playing that FOMO game. I'll get the style next year or maybe never. Eh.

The chapter events have always served as advertisement for the chapters. They come at the same time as a large discount on the chapter. However, in the past, these events largely excluded people who didn't buy the chapter. The best prizes were bound and locked behind a paywall that required owning the chapter to obtain. This year all but a single title was available to everyone at no additional real money cost.

The shards are not bound and can be purchased from other players for coins. No real money needed.

Yes, it's true that in the past the events were exclusive to those who bought the chapter. This year, with the wider population being able to participate in the Stirk dailies, I was caught off guard because I had expected to get the skill style the way I got the Writhing pet. I had not anticipated the drop rates to be kept low for the shards, and it was massively disappointing when nearing the end of the event, to realise that ZOS had not planned for non-chapter owners to complete the style with normal event participation.

Market prices for the shards are insane, I'm not paying almost 1M to complete my Caltrops style. I mean, I could if I really wanted to, but I haven't enjoyed this event, and I'd rather not invest any more in it, even with game money.

I’m a chapter owner and I wasn’t able to complete the skill style on my own either. I was fortunate to find the last five fragments I needed in a guild trader at a reasonable price. I’m so glad I did before the end of the event, I just had this bad feeling I wouldn’t be able to later.

This is my big complaint about events and other drops, especially in light of the not-so-friendly competition this particular event has caused. Compete for drops to complete quests, compete with extremely low RNG, etc instead of it being fun. Some players made millions off event goodies at the expense of those who had bad luck. That’s not the way to run an event.

ZOS_Kevin · November 24

Hi all, following up here on the original concern posted about the Golden Pursuit. Golden Pursuits are built to provide rewards with specific activities in mind. This has always been the case. In this case, since the Golden Pursuit is tied with the no longer active Writhing Wall event, the pursuit can no longer be completed.

Since the Writhing Wall event was based on player participation in completing phases, we did not know when the event would end, but we anticipated the latest end date would be Nov.26. However, we have been clear in messaging that the Golden Pursuit was directly connected to the event.

We will note, while we understand some of the confusion here due to the date usage, the Golden Pursuit has also been available for almost a month and a half now, providing ample time to engage with the event and complete the Golden Pursuit. We will take some of the feedback here back to the team as part of our retrospective on the Writhing Wall Event.

davidtk · November 24

Gabriel_H wrote: »

Blame the players who complained it was taking too long. The NPCs disappeared 7 days after the wall came down - there was a timer in game showing the countdown.

Blame ZoS for super annoying and boring buggy event.

Anyway...
If it were more interesting than a super boring grind, so many people wouldn't complain. The drops of more valuable items were terrible, and the repetitive tasks started to get boring halfway through phase 1. And then ppl started to camplain. If only it were more interesting, like the special events that always accompanied the release of a new chapter, with at least some motivation, but no. Just Coldharbour Sureal Estate house. Well, at least another furniture warehouse. Then came the equally boring and annoying second phase, where you could really see how annoyed people were getting. Add to that the bugs and faux pas with the other half of Solstice. Really? When you modified the progress of the event twice, you could have left the second half for phase 3, and there would have been no problem with someone getting behind that stupid wall.
Fortress was the only interesting one, but I only played it once, and honestly, with all those bugs, I'm glad I finished it the first time around.
So, I am glad that I completed super long Golden Pursuits in few days, because there were at least some rewards here.

wose · November 24

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

We will note, while we understand some of the confusion here due to the date usage, the Golden Pursuit has also been available for almost a month and a half now, providing ample time to engage with the event and complete the Golden Pursuit.

Players are real people, with real lives and commitments. A lot of the objectives were quite repetitive, and overall it was time consuming. If there is a projected end date, it is the player's choice to spread them out.

I don't take issue with the fact that the NPCs despawned prematurely, even if I wanted to continue working on the objectives myself.

The above remark about "ample time" however is insulting and disrespectful of people's time & obligations.

AlienatedGoat · 2:49AM

wose wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

We will note, while we understand some of the confusion here due to the date usage, the Golden Pursuit has also been available for almost a month and a half now, providing ample time to engage with the event and complete the Golden Pursuit.

Players are real people, with real lives and commitments. A lot of the objectives were quite repetitive, and overall it was time consuming. If there is a projected end date, it is the player's choice to spread them out.

I don't take issue with the fact that the NPCs despawned prematurely, even if I wanted to continue working on the objectives myself.

The above remark about "ample time" however is insulting and disrespectful of people's time & obligations.

6 weeks *is* ample time. I don't see a problem here.

spartaxoxo · 3:16AM

I hope the takeaway here isn't to make it so Golden Pursuits end the same time as events. The extra time to finish up non-event tasks when your focus is on the event is actually a good thing and has never caused an issue before.

The reason that it caused issues this time is because it wasn't easy to tell the end times of the events since there were no event tickets. The event tickets having a sell timer that matches the end of the event makes it very easy to see in-game when an event will end. So, people can easily see the pursuit and event don't end the same time.

We had the golden pursuit timer, the Solstice map timer (the real timer that many people were unaware of because it's not the typical place this information is found), and the website. All three had different end times stated. The pursuit was accurate for only itself as always. But with it being so closely tied to event and there being no easily spotted in-game alternative timer, some people thought that meant they ended at the same time.

This is not an issue with how long the pursuit lasted, which is great. Or the pursuit giving a little extra time to finish it, which is also great.

It's an issue with the way timers were communicated.

Myself and other PlayStation players actually asked multiple times when the event ended because we knew it wasn't the pursuit timer but couldn't figure when it ended because of that. But we were not answered ahead of time so couldn't help spread that needed information. I was actually only alerted to the Solstice timer near the events end by another player.

So, it doesn't surprise me to hear that some players were mistakenly using the pursuit as their timer.

BretonMage · 3:23AM

AlienatedGoat wrote: »

wose wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

We will note, while we understand some of the confusion here due to the date usage, the Golden Pursuit has also been available for almost a month and a half now, providing ample time to engage with the event and complete the Golden Pursuit.

Players are real people, with real lives and commitments. A lot of the objectives were quite repetitive, and overall it was time consuming. If there is a projected end date, it is the player's choice to spread them out.

I don't take issue with the fact that the NPCs despawned prematurely, even if I wanted to continue working on the objectives myself.

The above remark about "ample time" however is insulting and disrespectful of people's time & obligations.

6 weeks *is* ample time. I don't see a problem here.

The problem is the GP had a clear and visible timer, while the WW event itself did not. People may have looked at the GP timer and thought they'd be able to finish it off in the last few days. Ample time or not, you can't assume everyone plans their activities in the same way, some may have paced themselves.

spartaxoxo · 3:51AM

Also for those curious, here is where another player showed me where to find the event timer.

DenverRalphy wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

ZOS_JessicaFolsom wrote: »

Hello! We've posted an update here for everyone, and wanted to note it here as well in our consolidated messaging thread. Thanks!

Since you'll be unable to extend the event (for now), can you please confirm the end date/time for each server since they're all different? Does the time that we got the message about how the wall would start in 19 hours count against our 7 days or is it 7 days from when it started?

It's supposed to be 7 days from the moment it was completed for the first time.

As well, there's an in game timer. You can see it when viewing solstice on the map..

Again, I suspect that information wasn't more widely shared through word of mouth because this timer differed from the website and players weren't sure which was accurate. There were 3 timers related to the event with 3 different times. The Golden Pursuit timer was it's own thing and accurate. The Solstice Map timer was accurate. The website was not accurate.

StormBlade512 wrote: »

It says on the website that the Writhing Fortress is ending on the PlayStation servers on the 20th, but right now in-game at midnight on the 19th it says it's closing in 2 days 19 hours which means it would be closing at 7pm on the 21st. So which is it

code65536 · 5:36AM

Huh, is that map timer a gamepad-only thing? On keyboard, I don't ever recall seeing a timer for the event's end on the map. Instead, we had to open the Writing Wall UI (the access for which was next to endeavors/pursuits).

I do agree that the ending time was not that well telegraphed because event end times have traditionally been shown on character select, so not everyone knew that they had to open the separate Writhing Wall status UI for this particular event.

spartaxoxo · 5:40AM

code65536 wrote: »

Huh, is that map timer a gamepad-only thing? On keyboard, I don't ever recall seeing a timer for the event's end on the map. Instead, we had to open the Writing Wall UI (the access for which was next to endeavors/pursuits).

I do agree that the ending time was not that well telegraphed because event end times have traditionally been shown on character select, so not everyone knew that they had to open the separate Writhing Wall status UI for this particular event..

IDK if that was a gamepad only thing. You could open the writhing wall ui?