Reintroduction of Strange Sights 5* essential node midway through event

[Bullroarer]

**First, I’m going to acknowledge that for those who play casually, some of what I’m about to say might sound silly.

And, in a way, it is. MPQ is a game, not real life. Those who know me will know that “Real life comes first” is something I’m fond of saying.

Having said that, MPQ is a game that many of us effectively pay to play, and the game’s existence is dependent on it being a game that delivers a positive player experience to those that are willing to pay to play it.

The MPQ player experience has, on the whole, deteriorated in the last 12 months, and this issue is an example of that. Allow me to explain…**

I think by now almost everybody who reads this forum will be aware that the current PVE event, Strange Sights, started with the 5* essential node missing.

This was, of course, initially confusing, but word of it quickly spread here and elsewhere and it didn’t require much player adaptation to not play a node that wasn’t there.

True, it made getting full progression rewards marginally harder for some players but many of them would be able to adapt, and there was an obvious and a fair way of dealing with the issue: by issuing some player compensation.

It wasn’t an ideal situation but it was the same situation for everybody: the playing field was a little smaller but it was still a level playing field for everyone.

For some strange reason (no pun intended) someone in the dev team decided that the best way to resolve things was to reintroduce the 5E node, and to reintroduce it in the current active sub-event.

Words cannot adequately express how foolish that was.

It might have been well intended but this move has taken what was a fair event and turned it into an unfair one, because those who noticed that the 5* essential node was back and acted on it now have a massive advantage over those who haven’t noticed it at all.

And the sooner someone noticed and acted on it, the more of an advantage they had.

Someone who was on course to finish top in the event might now not even finish in the top 50 or even the top 100, purely because this node was introduced at a random point.

And it’s not just individuals that this effects, it also effects alliances. An alliance made of players who play the later slices now has a significant advantage over an alliance made of players who play the earlier slices.

There are multiple ways that this missing node could have been “fixed”. Here are just some that I can think of:

1. Leaving things as they are; giving some player compensation later.

2. Reintroducing the node for the final sub-event only, which hasn’t started yet, and leaving its points value as normal.

3. Reintroducing the node for the final sub-event only, which hasn’t started yet, and (for this one time only) increasing its points value.

4. Reintroducing the node at a random point during the current sub-event.

(Those are four possible approaches that I thought of in just 30 seconds; you can probably think of others.)

Of those four approaches, three are fair to everybody and keep the event a level playing field.

One isn’t fair, and distorts the entire event.

Why the devs chose that one unfair approach is a mystery to me.

I hope that such an issue never occurs again but if it does I hope that the devs think about the consequences of their “fix” — and perhaps even discuss it with us — before they “fix” it.

**Apologies if this all sounds like a rant but I care about the long-term health of this game, and I see players, some of whom I consider friends, drifting away from this game and this community because of mistakes like this one, and that concerns me.

If you care about this game then it should concern you as well.**

PS, this missing node shouldn’t even have happened. It was missing from Strange Sights was last run for players on Steam who were already playing with the new Unity engine and for Unity beta testers on other platforms. It was reported as an issue then; it should’ve been addressed before Strange Sights was run again.

Edited at 14:22 PST / 22:22 BST to correct “disadvantage” to “advantage”. Mea culpa.

[Bullroarer]

PPS, I have no idea why Markdown won’t properly work in my post but it’s not detracting from my point so I’m not going to waste more time thinking about it right now.

[Bullroarer]

TL:DR version:

If something is broken then breaking it further isn’t going to fix it.

[Zarqa]

It’s like they don’t play their own game

[Tpsimoes]

@Bullroarer

First, I’m going to acknowledge that for those who play casually, some of what I’m about to say might sound silly.
And, in a way, it is. MPQ is a game, not real life. Those who know me will know that “Real life comes first” is something I’m fond of saying.
Having said that, MPQ is a game that many of us effectively pay to play, and the game’s existence is dependent on it being a game that delivers a positive player experience to those that are willing to pay to play it.
The MPQ player experience has, on the whole, deteriorated in the last 12 months, and this issue is an example of that. Allow me to explain…
I think by now almost everybody who reads this forum will be aware that the current PVE event, Strange Sights, started with the 5* essential node missing.
This was, of course, initially confusing, but word of it quickly spread here and elsewhere and it didn’t require much player adaptation to not play a node that wasn’t there.
True, it made getting full progression rewards marginally harder for some players but many of them would be able to adapt, and there was an obvious and a fair way of dealing with the issue: by issuing some player compensation.
It wasn’t an ideal situation but it was the same situation for everybody: the playing field was a little smaller but it was still a level playing field for everyone.
For some strange reason (no pun intended) someone in the dev team decided that the best way to resolve things was to reintroduce the 5E node, and to reintroduce it in the current active sub-event.
Words cannot adequately express how foolish that was.
It might have been well intended but this move has taken what was a fair event and turned it into an unfair one, because those who noticed that the 5* essential node was back and acted on it now have a massive advantage over those who haven’t noticed it at all.
And the sooner someone noticed and acted on it, the more of an advantage they had.
Someone who was on course to finish top in the event might now not even finish in the top 50 or even the top 100, purely because this node was introduced at a random point.
And it’s not just individuals that this effects, it also effects alliances. An alliance made of players who play the later slices now has a significant disadvantage over an alliance made of players who play the earlier slices.
There are multiple ways that this missing node could have been “fixed”. Here are just some that I can think of:

1. Leaving things as they are; giving some player compensation later.
2. Reintroducing the node for the final sub-event only, which hasn’t started yet, and leaving its points value as normal.
3. Reintroducing the node for the final sub-event only, which hasn’t started yet, and (for this one time only) increasing its points value.
4. Reintroducing the node at a random point during the current sub-event.
   (Those are four possible approaches that I thought of in just 30 seconds; you can probably think of others.)
   Of those four approaches, three are fair to everybody and keep the event a level playing field.
   One isn’t fair, and distorts the entire event.
   Why the devs chose that one unfair approach is a mystery to me.
   I hope that such an issue never occurs again but if it does I hope that the devs think about the consequences of their “fix” — and perhaps even discuss it with us — before they “fix” it.
   Apologies if this all sounds like a rant but I care about the long-term health of this game, and I see players, some of whom I consider friends, drifting away from this game and this community because of mistakes like this one, and that concerns me.
   If you care about this game then it should concern you as well.
   PS, this missing node shouldn’t even have happened. It was missing from Strange Sights was last run for players on Steam who were already playing with the new Unity engine and for Unity beta testers on other platforms. It was reported as an issue then; it should’ve been addressed before Strange Sights was run again.

Thanks for the heads up on this

[kuntilanak]

I’ve said it and I’ll say it again: the dev don’t give a flying boar about our experiences. Just doing enough (by their standards) to keep us hooked and hopefully fork out some $$ in the process.

[DAZ0273]

Has there been official confirmation that the Devs manually did this or could it just be that only a couple of time slices were bugged?

Sort of seems a bizarre solution otherwise.

[Bullroarer]

@DAZ0273

Has there been official confirmation that the Devs manually did this or could it just be that only a couple of time slices were bugged?
Sort of seems a bizarre solution otherwise.

At the start of the event, there was no 5* essential node for anybody in any slice.

It appeared about half an hour before sub-event 1 was about to end for those playing the final slice, for everybody playing every slice, and in both active sub-events.

The timing meant that it appeared in sub-event 1 for those playing the final slice but only in sub-event 2 for those playing any of the four earlier slices.

The chances of that being a bug rather than a “fix” made by one of the devs is slim to none.

[trenchdigger]

Have to agree. It is a moronic decision to add back the node part way through the event.
@Zarqa is spot on, they don’t understand how their own game works.

[ArchusMonk]

@Bullroarer

First, I’m going to acknowledge that for those who play casually, some of what I’m about to say might sound silly.
And, in a way, it is. MPQ is a game, not real life. Those who know me will know that “Real life comes first” is something I’m fond of saying.
Having said that, MPQ is a game that many of us effectively pay to play, and the game’s existence is dependent on it being a game that delivers a positive player experience to those that are willing to pay to play it.
The MPQ player experience has, on the whole, deteriorated in the last 12 months, and this issue is an example of that. Allow me to explain…
I think by now almost everybody who reads this forum will be aware that the current PVE event, Strange Sights, started with the 5* essential node missing.
This was, of course, initially confusing, but word of it quickly spread here and elsewhere and it didn’t require much player adaptation to not play a node that wasn’t there.
True, it made getting full progression rewards marginally harder for some players but many of them would be able to adapt, and there was an obvious and a fair way of dealing with the issue: by issuing some player compensation.
It wasn’t an ideal situation but it was the same situation for everybody: the playing field was a little smaller but it was still a level playing field for everyone.
For some strange reason (no pun intended) someone in the dev team decided that the best way to resolve things was to reintroduce the 5E node, and to reintroduce it in the current active sub-event.
Words cannot adequately express how foolish that was.
It might have been well intended but this move has taken what was a fair event and turned it into an unfair one, because those who noticed that the 5* essential node was back and acted on it now have a massive advantage over those who haven’t noticed it at all.
And the sooner someone noticed and acted on it, the more of an advantage they had.
Someone who was on course to finish top in the event might now not even finish in the top 50 or even the top 100, purely because this node was introduced at a random point.
And it’s not just individuals that this effects, it also effects alliances. An alliance made of players who play the later slices now has a significant disadvantage over an alliance made of players who play the earlier slices.
There are multiple ways that this missing node could have been “fixed”. Here are just some that I can think of:

1. Leaving things as they are; giving some player compensation later.
2. Reintroducing the node for the final sub-event only, which hasn’t started yet, and leaving its points value as normal.
3. Reintroducing the node for the final sub-event only, which hasn’t started yet, and (for this one time only) increasing its points value.
4. Reintroducing the node at a random point during the current sub-event.
   (Those are four possible approaches that I thought of in just 30 seconds; you can probably think of others.)
   Of those four approaches, three are fair to everybody and keep the event a level playing field.
   One isn’t fair, and distorts the entire event.
   Why the devs chose that one unfair approach is a mystery to me.
   I hope that such an issue never occurs again but if it does I hope that the devs think about the consequences of their “fix” — and perhaps even discuss it with us — before they “fix” it.
   Apologies if this all sounds like a rant but I care about the long-term health of this game, and I see players, some of whom I consider friends, drifting away from this game and this community because of mistakes like this one, and that concerns me.
   If you care about this game then it should concern you as well.
   PS, this missing node shouldn’t even have happened. It was missing from Strange Sights was last run for players on Steam who were already playing with the new Unity engine and for Unity beta testers on other platforms. It was reported as an issue then; it should’ve been addressed before Strange Sights was run again.

Thanks for posting this, so that I didn’t have to. I’ve been t5 the last several events, and now I sit 40th through no fault of my own other than not realizing that I should have been more aware of this possibility based on the poor choices the devs have made in the last several months. I know EB likes to say this game is player against player NOT player vs devs, but when something like this happens, I definitely feel I’m playing against the devs. I guess this is just another nudge towards the door.

[entrailbucket]

@ArchusMonk said:

@Bullroarer said:
**First, I’m going to acknowledge that for those who play casually, some of what I’m about to say might sound silly.

And, in a way, it is. MPQ is a game, not real life. Those who know me will know that “Real life comes first” is something I’m fond of saying.

Having said that, MPQ is a game that many of us effectively pay to play, and the game’s existence is dependent on it being a game that delivers a positive player experience to those that are willing to pay to play it.

The MPQ player experience has, on the whole, deteriorated in the last 12 months, and this issue is an example of that. Allow me to explain…**

I think by now almost everybody who reads this forum will be aware that the current PVE event, Strange Sights, started with the 5* essential node missing.

This was, of course, initially confusing, but word of it quickly spread here and elsewhere and it didn’t require much player adaptation to not play a node that wasn’t there.

True, it made getting full progression rewards marginally harder for some players but many of them would be able to adapt, and there was an obvious and a fair way of dealing with the issue: by issuing some player compensation.

It wasn’t an ideal situation but it was the same situation for everybody: the playing field was a little smaller but it was still a level playing field for everyone.

For some strange reason (no pun intended) someone in the dev team decided that the best way to resolve things was to reintroduce the 5E node, and to reintroduce it in the current active sub-event.

Words cannot adequately express how foolish that was.

It might have been well intended but this move has taken what was a fair event and turned it into an unfair one, because those who noticed that the 5* essential node was back and acted on it now have a massive advantage over those who haven’t noticed it at all.

And the sooner someone noticed and acted on it, the more of an advantage they had.

Someone who was on course to finish top in the event might now not even finish in the top 50 or even the top 100, purely because this node was introduced at a random point.

And it’s not just individuals that this effects, it also effects alliances. An alliance made of players who play the later slices now has a significant disadvantage over an alliance made of players who play the earlier slices.

There are multiple ways that this missing node could have been “fixed”. Here are just some that I can think of:

1. Leaving things as they are; giving some player compensation later.

2. Reintroducing the node for the final sub-event only, which hasn’t started yet, and leaving its points value as normal.

3. Reintroducing the node for the final sub-event only, which hasn’t started yet, and (for this one time only) increasing its points value.

4. Reintroducing the node at a random point during the current sub-event.

(Those are four possible approaches that I thought of in just 30 seconds; you can probably think of others.)

Of those four approaches, three are fair to everybody and keep the event a level playing field.

One isn’t fair, and distorts the entire event.

Why the devs chose that one unfair approach is a mystery to me.

I hope that such an issue never occurs again but if it does I hope that the devs think about the consequences of their “fix” — and perhaps even discuss it with us — before they “fix” it.

**Apologies if this all sounds like a rant but I care about the long-term health of this game, and I see players, some of whom I consider friends, drifting away from this game and this community because of mistakes like this one, and that concerns me.

If you care about this game then it should concern you as well.**

PS, this missing node shouldn’t even have happened. It was missing from Strange Sights was last run for players on Steam who were already playing with the new Unity engine and for Unity beta testers on other platforms. It was reported as an issue then; it should’ve been addressed before Strange Sights was run again.

Thanks for posting this, so that I didn’t have to. I’ve been t5 the last several events, and now I sit 40th through no fault of my own other than not realizing that I should have been more aware of this possibility based on the poor choices the devs have made in the last several months. I know EB likes to say this game is player against player NOT player vs devs, but when something like this happens, I definitely feel I’m playing against the devs. I guess this is just another nudge towards the door.

When they screw around with the competition that’s something different. I said in the post about this that they shouldn’t fix it midstream because it’d be unfair (I definitely didn’t expect them to because they never fix anything that fast).

You’re still not playing against the developers, but they’re changing the rules to advantage one group of players over another.

[bluewolf]

My gut feeling is that fixing the 5E mid event allows them to just skate past any discussion about compensation for the missing rewards from playing the node (the CP and the event token) by saying “hey, we fixed it as soon as we came back into the office”.

And they apparently don’t want to issue any compensation for anything other than the two mass ones they did despite many many bugs persisting.

Last time this ran, Unity players had to be sent free stuff because the 5E was missing for the whole event. And yeah, it’s more than a little annoying that they didn’t fix it then, and then didn’t do anything about it in the months in between runs, since it was apparently so simple to do.

[Timemachinego]

I’ll be bugging CS for my t5 finish compensation, these devs just can’t get out of their own way.

[BriMan2222]

Hey Bob, are you going to fix that Strange sights bug with the missing 5E node?

Bob: Oh yeah, yeah. Should be a real simple fix, I’m not gonna worry about it right now, there are more pressing issues. I’ve got months to take care of it, I’ll get on it eventually.

Months later:

Hey Bob, did you remember to fix that Strange Sights bug? It looks like players are complaining about it happening again.

Bob:

[Bullroarer]

@bluewolf

My gut feeling is that fixing the 5E mid event allows them to just skate past any discussion about compensation for the missing rewards from playing the node (the CP and the event token) by saying “hey, we fixed it as soon as we came back into the office”.
And they apparently don’t want to issue any compensation for anything other than the two mass ones they did despite many many bugs persisting.
Last time this ran, Unity players had to be sent free stuff because the 5E was missing for the whole event. And yeah, it’s more than a little annoying that they didn’t fix it then, and then didn’t do anything about it in the months in between runs, since it was apparently so simple to do.

If they could fix it within a day or two then they certainly could have fixed it in the nine weeks or so since Strange Sights was last run…

[Codex]

@bluewolf

My gut feeling is that fixing the 5E mid event allows them to just skate past any discussion about compensation for the missing rewards from playing the node (the CP and the event token) by saying “hey, we fixed it as soon as we came back into the office”.

Nah. My gut feeling is, their coder learned how to fix the issue in their most recent night school class or youtube short and wanted to show how valuable they can be to the company. So here is the end result of it.

[Zarqa]

@DAZ0273

Has there been official confirmation that the Devs manually did this or could it just be that only a couple of time slices were bugged?
Sort of seems a bizarre solution otherwise.

Yes, this was an active decision:

This post was followed by multiple people on Discord suggesting/telling/begging them to NOT update mid event. No response though…

[LavaManLee]

@Zarqa said:

@DAZ0273 said:
Has there been official confirmation that the Devs manually did this or could it just be that only a couple of time slices were bugged?

Sort of seems a bizarre solution otherwise.

Yes, this was an active decision:

This post was followed by multiple people on Discord suggesting/telling/begging them to NOT update mid event. No response though…

I have said it for years. This proves they don’t understand how to play their own game competitively. Why on earth would you think patching it mid-game is acceptable? Just leave it alone so everyone is on the same playing field.

[revskip]

Thank you @Bullroarer for this post.

I’m sure the cheaters are everywhere crowd will find a way to blame the folks who cleared that node once it was added instead of blaming the folks who haphazardly dropped the ball on the bug that they’ve known about for months.

@LavaManLee said:

@Zarqa said:

@DAZ0273 said:
Has there been official confirmation that the Devs manually did this or could it just be that only a couple of time slices were bugged?

Sort of seems a bizarre solution otherwise.

Yes, this was an active decision:

This post was followed by multiple people on Discord suggesting/telling/begging them to NOT update mid event. No response though…

I have said it for years. This proves they don’t understand how to play their own game competitively. Why on earth would you think patching it mid-game is acceptable? Just leave it alone so everyone is on the same playing field.

I’m having a hard time understanding how the folks running this game are managing to Keystone Kops their way through every single part of the Unity process.

They seem to compound every single mistake with an even bigger mistake. Release untested mess of a opening rollout on Steam? Let’s double down by “accidently” forcing Amazon users to have that mess too. Realize that things are horribly broken? Definitely a good idea to force everyone on to the horribly broken build. Instead of communicating about how we are going to fix things lets put out an angry post talking about exploits but not do anything about the underlying bugs for a few days so that now not only is the exploit happening but people are pissed off.

Even with the awful transition they could have have salvaged most of it with good communication and some openhanded compensation to folks. But instead they go radio silent for weeks at a time. It’s like this company is being run by dropouts from a community college at every level of the operation.

[entrailbucket]

@LavaManLee said:

@Zarqa said:

@DAZ0273 said:
Has there been official confirmation that the Devs manually did this or could it just be that only a couple of time slices were bugged?

Sort of seems a bizarre solution otherwise.

Yes, this was an active decision:

This post was followed by multiple people on Discord suggesting/telling/begging them to NOT update mid event. No response though…

I have said it for years. This proves they don’t understand how to play their own game competitively. Why on earth would you think patching it mid-game is acceptable? Just leave it alone so everyone is on the same playing field.

You don’t have to guess, they’ve openly admitted that they don’t understand the competitive game!