I feel like the difficulty obtaining the red canes helps include the players who don’t want the twinklies… it gives them a reason to participate by giving them a valuable resource to sell 
3 Likes
Yep when Paka is complaining you know it’s bad, lol.
I too usually have to keep myself out of the complaint threads as they wind me up but im going to agree the meteor rewards vs the crafting costs is insane and I have been soloing successfully as well as participating in a 15ish person group hunt. The group hunt was a blast, lots of fun… but 4 hours of it for 150ish canes, enough for 25 twinkles… seems very very steep and unrewarding.
Solo I did up to lvl 3 meteors but an hour or 2 of this I ended up with maybe 80 canes and I was using the most optimal spec I could come up with. Maximum dexterity, mega speed brews and speed buff bombs while dual wielding snowballs made fairly short work of even elites… but there were a lot of them on a lvl 3 haha.
Oh well, again I did have fun and I have stacks and stacks of new coloured ice from it!
8 Likes
Let me try again to better clarify and hopefully not offend.
I do not think a brand new player out the gate should be able to complete a snowball meteor solo. Nor would I expect them to be able to complete a regular lvl 1 meteor solo.
The event is not unattainable for new players as they can still hunt the creatures to get green candy canes… there are recipes that they can craft with the green candy canes. This is solely my own opinion based on what I find enjoyable and rewarding.
Will a new player be able to collect enough red canes to complete a 255 piece collection. NO. Nor should they. I, in no way mean this to be elitist, but there needs to be some element to keep those who love the grind and want to work for it. And to be honest, most players will not have the time or desire to complete the collection… even seasoned players.
I DO believe drop rates of red candy should be more on line with the Oort drops on regular meteors (which I agreed in my first response) I also think the recipe could be a little less grindy so that players who do want a complete collection can obtain it with effort on their part. But if it takes 10 red canes to make a twinkle… at 4 let’s say per… you only need to complete a few and you have twinkles.
Personally, I love a game that kicks my ■■■■. I love the feeling of accomplishment. Some of my favorite gaming moments EVER have been getting my low level butt kicked by a Giant outside of Whitewood in Skyrim, and my first meeting with a Wildstock in Boundless.
Edited to add… I grinder the summer event on NW on 10 toons and then spent two entire days playing Saha Ball. I won a legendary mount. Worth the hours upon hours of grind. #flailsnail #neverforget
5 Likes
Exactly… people who aren’t in to the collection… new players and seasoned alike can really take advantage of events like this. $$$
2 Likes
Idk i’d argue that even a regular hunt would be more profitable than this event. If you factor in consistent oort drops selling 250 each, trophies, bones and other monster drops you would come out better on a regular hunt. This event is lose lose with these drop rates.
Unless people are willing to hike the price up above 600 each candy cane. Even the fact that they’re selling at 600 shows how bad supply/demand is. I’m going to get the full oorty collection one way or another, but I feel bad for people who actually have to work over the holidays and take care of family, whether they’re new or veteran players. My job shuts down after today for the holidays and I have no kids atm but everyone isn’t in the same boat.
2 Likes
Thank you for taking the time to post again and clarify. I know my first response to you was a bit strong but I really felt that me saying that I respected your view was enough to make it clear that I was not targeting you or anything. I apologize if you felt that way or a few inferred the wrong meaning in my direct communication style.
I admit I do come off strong at times and sometimes cut to the chase in my views a bit too fast, but I strongly do want good relationships with the community as well. Sometimes I feel people are too critical of me and are not willing to post an apology back to me or even acknowledge that they were strong worded as well. This is what makes me most frustrated and feeling that I am treated unfairly by some especially when I am able to publicly post acknowledgements like this!
In regards to the rest of your post…
I don’t know what a brand new player means to you. For me it means probably more like level 10 at least and not brand new. I agree a fully new person should stay away from that stuff but by level 8 or so events should be available to them.
I am mixed on what recipes in an event should be obtainable or not. One side says everything, another says maybe not. I do agree these 255 collectors need to be dedicated people or that it should take a decent amount of work for that. I agree less on that statement for Gleam because I just fundamentally am starting to disagree with “block rarity” models.
I am all for a game that is hard and makes you work based on the type of game or the context of that. I fully get the do X a lot and get a special toy type things. I want more of that in Boundless for sure. But, events I feel are for everyone but that doesn’t mean they could have tiers to the event. If that is what they are trying to do here then they need to be more clear in the presentation. This way we know clearly what is beginner and not.
Some are fine with the buy the stuff part of the events. I am not because casual and beginner just cannot effort the extreme costs. We get this 1 time a year - just make it fun for all with the very limited time it is. Leave the regular economy and game play to other parts of this game
4 Likes
Wasn’t going to bother posting, but @Xaldafax’s OP pretty much matches my experience from last year. I definitely think some tweaks could be made.
3 Likes
Thank you for posting. In these type of things where it is a limited event and it could be causing people to not participate I feel it is important to provide feedback in all contexts so the Devs can make a decision. We had some people that didn’t like the first event of this type but nothing changed and a year later when some tweaks could have happened especially if the views are still the same.
1 Like
Solo play - faster and less frustrating to engage and then abandon meteor and take the dormant reward - no muss no fuss.
Other Problem not noted - when you are hit by a spitter - there is no mitigation occurring - its automatically incrementing the embarrassment debuff - regardless of what skills i have. While at the same time about half the snowballs I score hits with are mitigated (element resist) by spitters for no damage. really an unfair advantage to the spitters imo.
1 Like
I am not trying to tell you how to talk, I really don’t mind, you are allowed to do as you wish. I am simply stating a reason why there can be some possible unexpected reactions by other people.
Getting 0-3 candy canes from a lvl3+ meteor kinda stinks. It takes awhile to take down a meteor…I get more cc per hour from dormants/livestock.
2 Likes
I definitely agree. The green canes are great to get. I would much rather run around looking for Santa hat mobs than fight through those meteors.
2 Likes
Got zero cc from one meteor, 5 from one, and 1-3 from the rest. The haul from one earlier in the day was so disappointing, we switched to wildstock & dorms lol
4 Likes
U may be right about this. It takes a while to down a meteor only to get 1 candy cane. I lost my first meteor earlier and got 2 canes from the dormant. I’m gonna just lose on purpose and see if i get candy canes any faster.
It’s not that the event is hard, just feels unrewarding for no reason
Update after 3 meteors: still better to complete it unless you get one of those level 1 meteors with all elites/might spitters
1 Like
I get the reasoning and respect the honesty in admitting this. I do confess that this really makes me sad that people are selecting this option. I think it really shows the issue at hand in the balance problem with the event.
4 Likes
Lol just soloed two more meteors and got 1 and 2 candy canes. Seems like the logical choice at this point if losing gives the same amount
Update: 2 from a death
5 Likes
If the meteors weren’t meant to be completed by even the newest players, they wouldn’t fall on the Starter planets. Just like regular meteors don’t start until Tier 3.
They are soloable, but it does take time to figure out how, and the embarrassment mechanic. Without visible “damage” you don’t realize you are going to lose until it happens. I didn’t even notice the icon.
I currently have 31 red candy canes out of 7 beaten meteors, and several donmant or completed that I’ve passed. 2-4 per meteor with 2 being T-2 and the rest T-1.
(I have fewer green canes as I haven’t seen many of the festive mobs, but since I’m not playing much… )
Was curious about this so I went and triggered 10 meteors and intentionally died on each to lose the fight. For the 10 “lost” meteors I ended up with 14 red candy canes and it took a bit of time to trigger 10 of them. Earlier I completed 5 of them and got a total of 19 red canes in a similar amount of total time, and got several good mega brews / pies to go with them. So at least for me, completing them is the route I am taking.
3 Likes
That’s really good information to know. Thank you for sharing 
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who feels like this. Balance is waaaaaay off. Reward just doesn’t match effort, waaaaaay too difficult, and then you get 2 or 3 canes when you need 10 to make one set of lights. So that’s 3-5 meteors at a good 10 - 15 mins for each one, if you don’t die, which in itself is unlikely given the difficulty. Gleam bow balance was off, with timers getting shorter and now the oortmas event is more or less impossible to do solo. Got to say my first few experiences of special events haven’t been great, which is a real shame because I love this game and respect the Dev team but you really need to make these events more balanced and easier for casual players, especially given events are usually what bring a lot of casual players back to the game, only to be faced with an event that again just doesn’t feel like the rewards are worth the effort.
2 Likes