Haunted Woods Plot General Discussion (Split #34)

[Daze]

As for the last bit, I mean that replacing old opponents with new ones means you cannot fight to the limit of your capabilities. Even without the lag, if you happen not to be able to stay up for three or four days straight, you miss out on fighting those opponents.

Yes, this part is different, but why shouldn't it be? This isn't a war, just battles to keep the plotline moving on.

I am a little miffed that I couldn't get the score I would have liked against the Stones, but if this is how it is going to be, then we make the best of it.

Even in a normal plot situation, if you snooze, you lose - if you aren't online at the crucial time you miss out.

TNT can never please everyone - it would be impossible. I for one think this has a good side-effect (or possible TNT's deliberate action) that only the dedicated 'plotters' get the rewards. The same thing as the LDP when we got to fight Razul - those willing to do all the plot, got the rewards.

I see the same here - at each update, you can gain more points by battling, but if you miss out, you can't go back and try and make up points.


To me this plot has it all - puzzle, battle and a fairness. The only downside has been the huge lag in the battledome,, and the impossibility of the Grave Marking due to the overwhelming number of people doing it.

[PTP]

The grave marking made me mad as I was at school and when I came home I was only able to get 4 graves which is a bit sad in my book.

I consider myself one of those diligent plotters as in I try to keep up-to-date as much as I can. But real life does tend to butt its head in every once and a while.

[Underdogpuff]

I still think that even with the lag in the battledome it's still a lot less painful then the LDP's Tomb x.x;

I actually think the lag is actually evening up the battlefield.

[Huggles]

But you can't go back. That's the entire point. You miss out, you're done fighting those opponents. Eventually, if they keep increasing in strength, you won't be able to beat any of the new ones. Even in the plot events that had fighting and limited opponents, those earlier waves would still be there. If you're comparing it to graverobbing, block and savd moving, then yes. You snooze, you lose. But since you know, it's battling and not dirt moving, it's not quite the same. Plus, even if you miss out on those things you still have time to move forward with the plot as a whole. Like I said, it's not a big deal if we're going to get more wars or whatever TNT wants to call them in the future, but this is not okay if this is what special event battling is going to be like from now on. Unless you're secretly working for TNT's plot development department, I obviously don't expect you to know what they're planning, but a little reassurance from someone who can would be appreciated.

Last edited by Huggles on Sat Nov 04, 2006 7:50 am, edited 2 times in total.

[PTP]

Nah the tomb really wasnt all that bad once you mapped it out, although the whole mapping business was a downright pain in the buttocks.

I don't like the fact that the stones aren't there still because its basically like going, "See this is why you should earn NP and train your pets, so you can keep battling and earn morepoints."

But then you have plots like HatIC where if your a high level or even close to a high level, you get super hard opponents you can't beat anyways.

[Daze]

But you can't go back. That's the entire point. You miss out, you're done fighting those opponents. Eventually, if they keep increasing in strength, you won't be able to beat any of the new ones. Even in the plot events that had fighting and limited opponents, those earlier waves would still be there. If you're comparing it to graverobbing, block and savd moving, then yes. You snooze, you lose. But since you know, it's battling and not dirt moving, it's not quite the same. Plus, even if you miss out on those things you still have time to move forward with the plot as a whole.

That was my entire point!! This plot is different. This is only 1 step in a whole plot, why should the 'bonus' rounds be left up for anyone to grab easy points.

In a war there is a set structure - we all fight against an ememy - ie, Sloth or we join a side. We fight as a team (army) to win points for our side as well as for ourselves. The side with the most points wins.

This is a puzzle plot - within the story we are fighting individually to gain points for ourselves.

How fair would it be if a 'battler' only done the battle part, won heaps of points, but didn't do any other part of the plot and his points equalled those of someone who did all the plot but couldn't battle very well?


I can foresee a future plot, where you can get to pick either puzzle or war - just as in you could pick Warrior or Supporter in a previous war.

That should keep everyone happy (maybe).

[Huggles]

Ahh, but wasn't the entire point of the editorial was to push us not to see plot events within those restrictions? What I'm trying to get at is just how much each contributes to the whole. 50/50? 60/40? 90/10? From the sound of the editorial to me, I'd go with 85% of your points/award will be for the puzzles and minigames, and 15% for the battling. Maybe less. So, since it's not technically a war, we can't really argue about the battling in the same way if it were. Which brings me back to wondering if this is how it's going to be from now on, or are we going to have plots that are mostly wars with some puzzling thrown in too?

[Daze]

Ahh, but wasn't the entire point of the editorial was to push us not to see plot events within those restrictions? What I'm trying to get at is just how much each contributes to the whole. 50/50? 60/40? 90/10? From the sound of the editorial to me, I'd go with 85% of your points/award will be for the puzzles and minigames, and 15% for the battling. Maybe less. So, since it's not technically a war, we can't really argue about the battling in the same way if it were. Which brings me back to wondering if this is how it's going to be from now on, or are we going to have plots that are mostly wars with some puzzling thrown in?

I don't think TNT meant it that way at all. I think TNT are just sick of everyone coming up with conspiracies for every single thing that goes on in a plot.

My interpretation was that The Tale of Woe is a plot so just enjoy the plot as a whole and don't pick it apart and worry about every part - just accept that this plot is different and just enjoy it.


As to the points system, TNT has never forewarned us what points would be awarded (except LDP where they said time would matter in certain parts).

There is no such thing as "only a puzzle" or "only a war" just because that's what they may have been in the past, so there is no clear definition of a war.

TNT are clearly saying, just because we have had only wars or only puzzles, that doesn't define what plots are.

A plot can be anything and we should enjoy each unique plot and not worry so much about semantics.

[Huggles]

I don't think you're still quite getting me. I want a WAR. Just like we've had before, minus all the bad things. War. I'd like to know for sure that we'll have one again, regardless of what they want to call it, or if this is it from now on. I don't care if they mix battling or basketweaving into future puzzle plots, whatever, as long as I know that eventually we'll have a war. I.E. I don't want to only be stuck doing puzzle plots with battling as an aside from now until the end of time. That's what's got me confused about the way they chose to answer that question.

[Cranberry]

The answer wasn't worded as well as it could have been, but I read it as "don't call this a war, because it's a new thing; it's different from all the plots and wars that have come before." I don't know where you're getting the impression that there will never be a war again, because the answer doesn't say that. It just says that every single plot/war we've had has been different, so you can't expect this plot (or future ones) to fit into some template. Maybe the next plot will be a "real war," but with a new twist (just like we had side-switching, limited opponents, ranks, poisoning, etc. in past wars, which made each one different). Maybe it'll be a straight-up puzzle plot, or maybe it'll be puzzling/battling like this one. Basically, the answer says to just go with the flow and not worry about categorizing the plot (and it is mainly about this plot, not future ones). I think you're reading too much into it.

[Huggles]

Maybe, I hope so. I tried not to let myself get too exicited about finally being able to fight. Then we did, I got all happy, and the next thing you know the opponents *poofed* away. I'd used a sad smilie face here, but I'm not quite there yet. It just seems quite plausible to me that they might as well decide to opt out of wars altogether if puzzles make a larger percentage of players happy.

[Cranberry]

I don't know if puzzles really make more people happy... seems like everyone complains no matter what's going on.

I'm kind of conflicted when it comes to this plot, because yeah, I think it's annoying that none of us got to max out on stones, but it's also great that they're gone because if they were still available, the lag would be never-ending (even total newbies could fight tons of those before maxing out, while they'll max out much more quickly on the trees and then hopefully vacate the battledome). I also really like this idea of a puzzle plot combined with war-like waves of enemies, but this lag is killer -- it makes me wish we'd been asked to choose between puzzling and battling, because then lag might not be so awful. I guess I mostly just hope TNT will learn from any complaints, as they seem to have done in the past, and make the next site-wide event even better. (But honestly, all they really need to do to make me happy is dedicate more servers to the BD and get rid of this lag!)

[Casi]

I have a question. I tried to fight a tree in the lag. It kept saying this page could not be displayed. I hit my back button and tried again a few times. Then I got an error saying the opponet did not exist. It gave me an arrow saying back. It took me back to where I choose what weapons to use. What should I do now? Did I kill the tree while getting the errors? How do I get back to main screen?

Nevermind. I got the win.

[Arka]

I finally got too discouraged last night. Mid-battle I got one of the usual error messages and couldn't get out of it, so I started over. But this time my pet had injuries, so I used potions to restore hit points. But then the lag messed up the battle again, and my pet was down to almost 0 hit points again. So since I wasn't progressing in battle wins, only using up tons of potions, I decided to let it go.

I blame my dial up for not getting to mark any graves even though I tried many times, but I don't think dial up is responsible for the problems with battles.

[Drake-Dark]

Personaly, I like the war element. Granted, I didn't get to max out on the stones, and my poor lab pet only bearly got through the Savage Elm, but then thats why I constantly zap it. If I ever get to a point where its a pet or color I like, then I'll stop.

The only thing I'd like to do is earn enough points to get something good, if there is anything good once the plot is done.