I see a lot of complaints about this event, and.....
Wow, where to start....
You say: "The mechanics of the event are well known to all veteran players"
Look at all the complaints, ALL the Veteran Player have been caught with our pants down, we have NEVER not gotten the Main Event Prize at the end of Quests, this time we've had 2 Quest lines, and without luck, you couldn't even complete the set, some even using squandering Diamonds, and if you look beyond YOUR luck, i think that you will realize THAT is the main cause for discontent.
You say: "or they have squandered their lanterns on other things but won´t admit to it"
YES: i did "squandered" my first 160 Lanterns on 2 attempts at getting a Hall of Fame on the very first day here on Beta, but then i realized that i would need them to get the last 2 buildings, and i hadn't had any luck, that was why i spent my last 2k diamonds to obtain the 2 buildings. The further i got in the 1st Quest line, the more i could gather that i would have to win the last 2 buildings. So now i didn't make the same mistake on Live servers, THAT'S why i am on Beta.
On Live servers i've had VERY different results, from getting the 2 remaining buildings in 3 attempts, all the way to: got the Pond yesterday on my last attempt, having 39 on one server and 70 lanterns remaining another, on both still missing the Entrance.
You say: "However, the introduction of buildings which works best when placed together is genius."
That we agree on, but why limit the set to unique, why not allow for personal preference, if i have to make it work.
You say: "If everybody was meant to get a full set, they should just hand it out after the first event-mission was completed."
That was what Veteran player were expecting, because that's the way it's always been, I guess we have learn't the hard way, that, that is no longer the case.. I guess we should be better at reading the Announcements here on forum. I will be studying the announcements in detail, to avoid going into the same trap once again.
You say: "There´s so many things mentioned by other players I really have to question. The deleting of an incomplete set. Why would you build 4 pieces of the set if you didn´t want them in your city without the 5th piece?"
Deleting the set was a very well considered choice, THIS is Beta, i do NOT have room for incomplete stuff, and i am NOT going to use 4 Store Building kits on them, having them popup right after packs in Stock, and i put them up in the first place, cos i was certain i would get a complete set, and wanted to see how it worked. Not working got me ticked off, every time my mouse passed over the Gong, and the +2 not being active was laughing at me, reminding me of this event, that feeling will never go away. Could have keep the Pond and Rock, to have good Happiness, but will do a couple Alcatraz levels, when i need it. Strategy. Same effect, no additional footprint.
You say: "Preparation for entering a new era? I have never heard that before. I can´t recall I ever had to prepare for entering a new era. Now we had to scout 2 Provinces if we wanted to complete all event-missions? So? If that´s to hard, you probably have fallen way behind on your research, so noone else to blame but yourself. If we have had to scout 3 Provinces I would still have completed all missions."
Are you serious? Do you not apply strategy when playing FoE? And can't you even imagine somebody having a different strategy than you? I stay back in time to build up Guild Stock and Era goods from GB's before moving on. Not having prepared for 2 Research a Tech's, having only 1 left, i halfway through had to decide if i would do the 2nd one or not, and decided to, as i had the Pond at that point. So i did the complete song and dance and had enough Lanterns gathered to get almost 2 more tries, if i needed i could do 40 lanterns i Diamonds and make it 2. I succeeded, and as a EPIC FAIL, the last two days i got to win a fragging GONG... Do you think THAT should be the building to be on the first page of MY STOCK? No way, it had to go.
Had i had the chance to get the last building i would have done 50 more provinces, but that didn't help me either.
So not only did they make me do something i wasn't ready for, i didn't get the prize, after having fragged up my Strategy. So now i am low on Current Age goods, and have to regroup and prepare to go to Next Age, way to fragging soon, as i had to reach a Tech that only left 4 in my age, needed Units for GE, and if the tendency to use 2 Research Tech pr event continues, i will have to change Age in about 2-3 months. On Live servers, i have found a solution to this problem, but that's because i am so far along. On Beta I've only been playing about a year. Racing along in the game is not my strategy, I'd rather enjoy the nice work the folks at Inno have done, but now they are starting to make me speed up, and wreck MY strategy. I can, and will now, react by critically opting to take part in coming events.
I've had apply some kind of strategy, with the amount of events over the last 2 years, and EVERY SINGLE ONE containing the Scout a Province, and Research a Tech. This time they took 2 of each, and i got nothing to show, and NO i do NOT consider 4/5 to be anything but junk, 4/5 of a GB gives no bonuses, i asked earlier if the building would return at a later date, no answer, so they had to join the place where junk go. I will survive, besides I hit the Eggs-ploit back last year, so i am not complaining about my general luck here on Beta. But I do feel I will be cheating myself out of the big work the do on the Events, and i guess it will be sad not to take part, and then again, you win some and you loose some.
But one thing you got ABSOLUTELY RIGHT:
IT IS ALL MY OWN FAULT, i didn't find out what i was doing, and how the "prize" really worked. I was the one playing the Event wrong, because the concept was completely new, as you no longer got the Main Event prize at the end. And that's my fault for not reading what the event was about, until i had "squandred" my first 160 Lanterns.
You can't win them all, so grats to the Lucky ones
and sorry for being a bit longwinded
