Feedback Four Flares: Firefly Festival

Like woody, my first thoughts, I did comment previously about the number of white cows required. However, once they appeared on the market and being a long-time player well into the 90s levels, I had enough to purchase them without causing too much pain. Fair enough, thought I, another post admitting perhaps my initial thoughts were too hasty and I'd done BP wrong - except that my initial 'ire' was aimed at the wrong issue (which wasn't apparent until a couple of days into the game), though my comments regarding the white cows still stands.

It is the scarves that is the biggest bugbear of this event; even though I also collected the scarves whenever they appear, but didn't actually start planting until yesterday as the number of crops isn't that high (and can easily be planted and harvested in the remaining time - though eight hours is a bit of a stretch), I am not sure I will have enough scarves to both donate the specific amount and also use the 100 required to make the 50 packs to donate.

Though the FAQ states 'regularly' seem more erratic and irregular. I'm not sure if they are every fifteen minutes, or just as and when - and like woody, I found them extremely difficult to harvest, until by dint of logical experiment, I discovered that they are only captured when clicking on the tip of the top right corner, however, even when you know where it is, it takes several seconds to actually catch the minuscule point (might have been a nice thought to mention that in the FAQ).

Also, like woody, I cannot sit watching a computer screen on the off chance that one or more might pop up. I am a teacher and though being a university lecturer means I am not always in class, and can switch screens to catch the scarves, whilst marking, reading and research etc or during my breaks and lunch time (which is when I took the time to write this).

As all but one of the 'special prizes' required the packs, and thus, if sufficient numbers don't spawn, you cannot complete the remaining nine, without spending quite a bit on purchasing the scarves; one has to weigh up whether the rewards sufficient compensation for the outlay? Especially, as some recent events, which are getting more frequent - have also been quite heavily dependent on BB or real money purchases to ensure completion, for prizes which probably would cost less just to buy when yet another of the 'mini-events are held.

So, the biggest drawbacks and those which did cut the enjoyment factor to almost zero are, in the order they affect me personally (others may feel differently)

a) The spawned scarves which took too long to appear and did not appear with the regularity claimed in the FAQ - in the 45 or so minutes it took to write this comment, between grabbing coffee and a sandwich, dealing with two queries and anurgent email - one scarf has appeared.

b) The design of the 'special combinations' which meant that only one didn't need a Firefly pack

c) The frustration generated in finding the harvest point for the scarves

d) The eight hours required to grow event crops, for players who haven't built up much of a cash reserve, water and manure to reduce the time might mean they struggle.

e) The number of white cows

Some final points:

This may be touted as medium difficulty, but like other events which rely totally on the system-generated random factor for an essential item, it is not skill of the player, but the programmers' and developers who decide the outcome. Yes, I realise BP has a living to make, and for that it needs player and advertisers' cash - however, this is supposed to be a farming game with events to make it a more attractive proposition - not an events' game with an incidental farm to supply the resources.

Also, it is true we don't need to do the events, but again why would we not want to join in what is supposed to be part of the fun. No, I don't think I should have rely on my neighbours and plead in the forums for sufficient 'spawned or drop' items, just because the developers didn't put enough thought into how the players (who don't have the luxury of unlimited resources) could get these items - beyond, 'well they can buy them in the packs or individually'.

Yes, this is a different and challenging event and the rewards are reasonable - though, aimed mainly at those players who've reached the upper 30s levels. However, should the challenges be so great that they can only be overcome by spending a fair amount of cash on the event to the detriment of the farm, because like many others I have a limited budget to spend on things which aren't necessary living expenses? I didn't particularly want to spend money on events instead of the things which actually benefit my farm - so was pleasantly surprised to find enough cows back in the market. Not so much when I discovered the scarf requirements.

Like other long-time players, who've reached the mid-90s, I don't have urge to chase EP / CC (I like just playing my farm for its own sake) and have an inventory bursting with unused trees (specials and normal), workshops and stables (specials and normal) and decorations both basic and up to and including several pink and XXL, which even when not eventing, I cannot put out through lack of space. If I want to join in the 'fun' of an event, mostly these have to be uprooted and put into storage for the duration of the ever-lengthy and almost back to back or overlapping events. Which brings me neatly back to my point that BP seems to think this is a event-driven game, which needs a farm.


Now I have to go back to explaining to a student the difference between 'rear-end facing' and 'backward looking'.


As a corollary to the above - I have spawned four scarves in the last 3.5 hours.

 

The rewards are great. Hence I see no objection in the requirements. I see only one draw back - the collection & appearance/timing of the spawning item. The requirements for spawning drops are large. To make us keep on logging ever few hours to collect it is somewhat stressful. I go to work. I cannot be expected to keep logging in few hours once to collect the spawning drops. It could have been made to spawn in 2 fields or their number could have been increased. Something like that. In all other aspect I enjoyed the event very much.

I started playing this game because I liked gardening. I play this game for recreation & entertainment. These aspects should always be maintained in any event is my sincere opinion.

 

Well stated HoppalongCassidy. I would point out that almost all the special prizes also required the 20 White Cows. If you couldn't come up with them, you were out of luck on the majority of the "bingo" patterns. I have been trying to give helpful information to one of my neighbors about how to complete that portion of the event. It hasn't been easy.

 

I sucked it up and made the white cows earlier in the week, used about 160 since I had 3 to begin with.
Now that I'm finished the event it's okay. I got quite a haul of coins, ep, and baha ep. I just set out the baha trees to 'hatch' ..don't know what I'm going to do with that crow.
I'll wait on the armadillo since I'm in the middle of a 'tree growing binge' (okay, I'm hoarding/stockpiling)
Happy to report that the extra ep has pushed me very close to levelling up.
This was a good event. It just took some planning around rl work. My poor Scented tree is working overtime to recover.

 

A fun game. Loved the new mechanism. The requirements were not out of line in my eyes.
Nice of the BP team to throw a BBD in but we could have used a PF sale.
Thanks for gift of the 12 Scarves that helped me finish with 60 or so hours ahead of the finish.
Lots of Nice Prizes... Thank you

 

Loved it !

Very nice prizes, and very achievable.

It's always nice to have new mechanism in the game

The background looks cool too

 

I loved all the prizes. It was a fun event knowing there were so many great rewards in the end.
Liked the 8 hr event plant......this time. Normally don't like it so long but had many things going on so appreciated this. I really didn't mind the scarfs but if you have a long growth time for the plant then the grazing time to capture the scarfs maybe should have been matched with not so many of them so one can time the growth of plant with capture of scarfs.

The graphics are always great and it is such a shame that so much talent gets wasted in the cloud row where one rarely gets a chance to admire the giver items. Even in the parks they get overlooked.

I like these events so much better than a new tree or animal event. I don't mind a new tree or animal once in a while but it seems like we are getting so many of them lately and no place to put them. Please slow the inclusion of new trees/animals down. I like getting to use crops and animals from my storage to complete events.

 

I think the game is fun but it should be considered "Hard" in difficulty. I'm finding myself short of scarves and flags and don't want to put a lot of real cash into finishing. I will only be able to fill all the spaces once, so can't get anything but the last prize before time runs out. I really wanted the Achacha Fruit tree and the Event sticker but alas, I can't spend any more cash. Too bad!

 

Really enjoyed this event (apart from the scarves!), made a change to have a different type of event. Great prizes thank you!

 

Supplysally, if you complete all the lanterns you will get all the bingo prizes too.

 

Thoroughly enjoyable. The prizes are great. Fun to do.

The scarves did not seem to be as forthcoming on my other farm as this one, despite both farms being open consecutively and my going between them on a regular basis - the difference was about 15 scarves. Not a big deal in the great scheme of things and it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the event.

 

When I was at the PC collecting scarves as often as I could I would always go elsewhere on the map (like over to the market), I'd keep track of the time (I actually used a kitchen timer, lol) then every 15 mins I would click back on the main field to collect my scarf. A new scarf was always there each time, but it did take longer if I just sat in the main field waiting for the scarf to spawn.

Lucky for me, I read here on the forum ahead of time what was required for this event and then purchased or grew the crops and products that I'd need. So all I had to worry about was growing the event crops and collecting the flags and scarves. As for the White Cows, well... I had a decent stock of regular cows in my barn already so I was lucky there, and with the power feed I had won from several recently finished FSQs I was able to breed enough cows (with a quite a few decent skips, even without a BBD because of the ruin) prior to the event to get the 20 White cows I needed for the event, plus I made about $14million on selling all the extra Whites and Browns in the market (all before the event started). Cha-ching!

This was a fun event, and I loved the prizes... but I was one of the lucky ones that was able to spend extra time at the PC. I do understand how frustrating it was/is for others who did not have the freedom to do so, or get their farms and barns prepared ahead of time. There were still some nice prizes for those who did not have all the resources needed tho.

All in all I enjoyed the event. Thanks BP.

 

I loved this event, it was really well constructed and beautifully designed. I am astonished that my new farm, which had no expectation of being able to complete this event, is only 75 flags away from finishing. If a brand new farm with minimal resources can acquire the 20 White Cows, then I think it was a reasonable requirement and the medium difficulty was spot on. I prefer longer event crops, so thank you for choosing the 8 hour glowberries. I also like that this was a long event, so that I can plan around my work schedule. At first I was very skeptical of such a high bar for collecting scarves, but both of my farms are finishing with plenty to spare. Thank you for creating another challenging and fun event!

 

I would like to second everything that has been said. For once I was really glad to have the extra time, as I was unable to spend a lot of time at the computer, and so I was afraid the scarves would be a stretch. I am still collecting them on Sunday afternoon but I don't think I'll have a problem, and there's a reason we were given all this time. the BBD to go with the white cows was lovely. I don't think level two animals is too much of a stretch for most players, I got all my white cows from breeding plain cows. I am happy to see the new mechanisms with recent events, and the prizes are soooo much more fun.

 

I am please to say that I really enjoyed this event, I believe the rewards were good and fare. BP can anytime repeat the mechanism of this event but with some fine adjustments regarding the spawning time. Thanks for the extra flags, it sure helped!

 

I enjoyed the game mechanism, very nice change! Most of the donation requirements were reasonable, but I think 20 white cows was a bit much for one donation. Should have spread out breeding animal donations - maybe 5 or 10 breeding animals in separate donations - to help players without full barns or plenty of PF to burn. Prizes were nice and helpful to all players; well worth trying to complete to game to obtain. Greatly appreciated the extra scarves sent to players!

 

I Enjoyed This Event as it was something Different and New, Loved The Graphics and Great Prizes.....It was a Pain getting those scarfs is my only dislike to this Event ....It did help me make loads of CC which is Huge Help as least my hoarding of Rosemary and Peppermints gave me loads of CC as i was surprise how much they roses in the Markets

I only had 5 White Cows so i had to use some Power Feeds to some white cows and using CC too it was a Great Event

 

well event is over i have 409 flags 90 scarfs n 4 packs left cos they fell all over me when i finished the event lol

 

Great Job BP . Really enjoy the event . Had no white cows to start with but managed to breed them
not a big deal with rune that helped to get a few skips. All the gifts were worth the effort I had to but
into. I think if you did a little planning most people should have been able to complete it. Thanks again.
happpcallie.

 

I agree with what most of the other people are saying, except:

1. The 20 white cows, I thought were way out of line considering we had just completed 2 events which required breeding. If a player couldn't afford to use real money to buy PF they were pretty much out of luck and, as has already been pointed out, all except 3 of the patterns for the special rewards required the 20 white cows. The only way I was able to complete the 20 white cows step was to constantly mill PF and fortunately I had enough stars saved up to open a couple of breeding runes. Even so, I had to spend most of what I won buying white cows so I ended up financially about where I started, except for what I made by selling crops.

2. There are just too many events! We are constantly having an event. True, I don't have to participate in every one, but it's hard not to when all your friends are doing them. Give us some time to catch our breath between events, please!

3. It seems that every event, except MM and breeding events require drops. Which means you have to tear your whole farm up and put in all 1x1's to get enough drops to complete the event. For those of us who can't afford to machine farm this is extremely difficult. I'm almost out of FSQs and coupons that give me the ability to have machines to help me farm and I can't afford to use real money to play this game. If you also add in the fact that the movie theater has been inoperable for a month leaving me with very limited ways to earn BBs, it becomes even more frustrating. It's to the point now where I hesitate to recommend this game to others. I dearly enjoy the game and associating with all the other wonderful players, but it is really getting frustrating and becoming more work than fun. More rewards of harvest helpers, or fewer drop, driven events would help solve this.

Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed this event. The rewards were excellent, the time span was good, and the requirements, except for the white cows, was very reasonable.
Thank you.