April fools chicken quest

[Sk0field]

Sadly, no. You will not on that character.

Sadly? You make it sound like there was nothing you could have done about it...

Why would you implement a new title (in this case April Observer) that is linked to an existing deed which, in the past, did not award a title? Why not simply create a new deed? Why would you punish characters that existed longer than others?

Clearly on oversight on your end which at least deserves an explanation, but really a correction for the years to come...

[Druidsfire]

It's heartening to see that the overall positive results of this event and Orion's comments about possibly tweaking it for next year. I personally had a blast with it, getting a total of 42 chickens across the finish line over the course of the two days.

However, I'd like to remark on a couple of sentiments expressed here, speaking as a primarily PVE player. The way I approach PVP-related content, when there's something I want out of it, is to first of all not take it too seriously. The other thing that's important in my eyes is that I should at no time expect the PVPers to settle back and let me do whatever in *their* house. If I voluntarily go into a PVP zone, I should expect that someone is going to attack me, and yes, kill my character (or chicken). That's how it works! It seems poor form to expect the rules to change just because PVE folks are hopping in to get something.

So, in my various chicken runs, I mostly ran during my server's prime time, although running at off-hours is also a strategy. I understand some servers would have a more active PVP presence than others making it trickier to for a chicken to get in (hi, Ark and Evernight!) But that's where the community comes in! If the creeps are camping the various spawn points, folks could hop into world chat or LFF to recruit freeps to help protect the chickens. On my server, I saw lots of cool fights by the camp outside GV. One time my session bugged and left me in the Moors, locked in place and unattackable, so I just sat there for 10 mins and watched the creeps and freeps go to town. As a chicken, I could still target players on either side and do things like /wave or /thank or whatnot, so that was fun.

Out of my runs, I got killed by creeps maybe 10 times. A few times, they just shadowed me or /danced, or whatever. This one warleader patted me on the head, lol. I imagine a couple of them were waiting until I got close to the goal and were getting ready to pounce, so I saved my speed boost and then hit the afterburners when I got close to GV. A couple of times, they got me after I'd already cleared the spot where the quest ticks over, so the joke's on them, I guess. Of course, the one spawn point in the warg camp was probably not the best location, but that's where I shrugged and simply loaded in again and waited to see where I spawned in the next time. I lost maybe a minute by restarting the session play, so it was no big deal.

I'm of two minds on the idea of adding rewards for number of kills/saves. Mostly, I kinda like it being this fluffy thing we had this year, something a bit silly for April Fool's. If there were rewards beyond, say, giving a creep a one-off title similar to Fool (maybe Fowl?) for having killed one chicken, then it would lose that whimsy, IMHO. YMMV. I do hope, however, they do fix it so that legacy chars that already had the deed completed who didn't get the letter triggering the quest can get it next time. My main is the only one who didn't get it, lol.

[Quenton_1]

Since the change to the way that the original version of the event was implemented has proven successful, we are already considering how it can be improved for the future. Most likely, it will be repeatable with a secondary run possible, rewards for defending the session players as they make their runs, and rewards on the monster side for chasing the chickens down.

For next year, can you move/remove the spawn thats surrounded by wargs as you load in? I never even had a chance to move before I finished loading and was dead.

[Halphast]

I should at no time expect the PVPers to settle back and let me do whatever in *their* house. If I voluntarily go into a PVP zone, I should expect that someone is going to attack me

I knew in advance what it was, but the quest itself doesn't tell you. So no, you're not voluntarily going into a PVP zone.

Though it was a frustrating disappointment for me, I was able to cancel the quest and now the event is over. But it makes me apprehensive that there might be future content that requires more PvP.

[Mirhaen]

I agree with Druidsfire. We get one title just for logging, and one if we survive in Moors. I get that Moors are not for everyone. You go there for excitement and fun. You go there knowing that you gonna die at least once! Thrill of danger
Creeps are our fellow players, and they also deserve to be a part of some event, especially when such thing (event that involves creeps) is once in a blue moon! So I think we should be more tolerant.

[Vilan]

Freeps get a couple titles for participating, so I think creeps should get something too. A title like "Plucker of Chickens" or "April Killjoy" or whatever for killing a chicken player. But just from killing one, then they can move on. No deeds for killing piles of chickens thank you.

[maartena]

I only did it on one character.....On Friday afternoon when hordes of creeps were out. I was ganked three times by a monster player. None of the three times was at the spawn point because those were random..... but there were most certainly creeps out there hungry for some chicken nuggets. The final time I managed to evade all monster players, although I did ran very close to a fight between several creeps/freeps who were focused on each other rather than the lone chicken passing through.....

It was fun. Got that "Fool" title, but wasn't about to do it on my 20+ other alts....

[Oghran]

I agree with Druidsfire. We get one title just for logging, and one if we survive in Moors. I get that Moors are not for everyone. You go there for excitement and fun. You go there knowing that you gonna die at least once! Thrill of danger
Creeps are our fellow players, and they also deserve to be a part of some event, especially when such thing (event that involves creeps) is once in a blue moon! So I think we should be more tolerant.

Agreed. Without creeps the thing would be pointless.

But camping on spawn points? Hm. One could argue the being a lowlife is role playing for creeps, but I still don't like it.

[egarthur]

Personally, I think there was a missed opportunity here.

Those who participated, and succeeded got their "Fool" title.

Those who did not succeed should have been given the "Nobody's Fool" title. Preferably account-wide.

Everyone would have been happy...

[Vilan]

For next year, can you move/remove the spawn thats surrounded by wargs as you load in? I never even had a chance to move before I finished loading and was dead.

Perhaps an optional "challenge mode" chicken run that forces you to spawn in that warg spot. It would first need to be cleared and held by freeps, no easy task with Gramsfoot so close. But perhaps all the creeps would fight for infamy there and you'd have few of them waiting to jump you at the finish line. Probably would be impossible to complete in off-hours though.

[elvenes]

Personally, I think there was a missed opportunity here.

Those who participated, and succeeded got their "Fool" title.

Those who did not succeed should have been given the "Nobody's Fool" title. Preferably account-wide.

Everyone would have been happy...

nah, you'd have people complaining that they did NOT get killed by a creep and couldn't get both titles XD

[DebbieBrown]

I got 11 characters through the run, total deaths were 6. I also had come creeps run with me, and other times had freeps. Most of the time I was able to avoid most people, and I believe that is what made the runs most fun. I only died within a few steps of spawning in twice, and that's due to the spawn location being an active travel area. Good event overall!

[ChildOfDreams]

If you got the April Observer deed in the past, but didn't do the chicken run then... will you still get the mail so you can do the chicken quest this time?
(I'd guess "no" by now, since I still haven't seen any mail)

You can send a ticket if you still want to do the quest.
I accidentally deleted the accompanying letter that started the quest on one of my hobbits and submitted a ticket explaining the situation, they mailed me a replacement letter just a few hours later.

[LabadalofDorlomin]

I knew in advance what it was, but the quest itself doesn't tell you. So no, you're not voluntarily going into a PVP zone.

Though it was a frustrating disappointment for me, I was able to cancel the quest and now the event is over. But it makes me apprehensive that there might be future content that requires more PvP.

Really?

You really think that a single event in 15 years in the EM is enough? And anything in the future makes you apprehensive. You do realise this is not mandatory don't you. And not all content is designed for you personally. If anyone knows that more in Lotro it is the PvP players.

We have been that strange cousin who everyone forgets their birthday and is happy they are in the corner and out of the way.

Thank you Devs for including us and I am super happy that all you dev folks seemed to enjoy.

I have no problem with incentivising Freeps to join for titles and such fluff but maybe they can session play with something with teeth next time?

[Arabani]

I absolutley dislike pvp in any form, so no I did not enjoy the event. Did not care about it either. I've tried it, though. The first two chickens spawned basically 200 meters away and got in without issues, the third appeared far away and was killed by a pack of wargs camping the entrance to the town, 5 times. I found out that it is better to die straight away if you spawned far and reload the chicken play hoping to get the nearest and the safest possible spawn point. Much faster then wasting time running all the way to be killed on the steps of GV.

All in all I managed to do it on 4 characters and got absolutely bored. You spawn, run 200 meters, done. If you appeared far, die, respawn, die, respawn, run 200 meters, done.

[Halphast]

not all content is designed for you personally. If anyone knows that more in Lotro it is the PvP players.

We have been that strange cousin who everyone forgets their birthday and is happy they are in the corner and out of the way.

All along it's been the policy and the understanding that the free peoples of middle earth don't go around killing each other for fun. For the players who insist on it, there's a special area just for them to play monsters- but it should only ever be a separate option for everyone else.

That's why I don't like this event- it feels like testing the waters. I've seen the forum posts asking to incentivize the moors, suggesting they lock some rewards behind pvmp... I've also seen the complaints about how people acted on Bombadil, and have seen some of the nasty arguments and insults in the PvMP forums, and how other games with more PVP have horrible communities. PVP doesn't seem to have a good influence on the game community. So maybe the "cousin in the corner" is there for a reason.

[elvenes]

you are not forced to participate in anything pvp related so this is a non issue. Plenty of other people had fun with this event from both sides, the only bad thing is the warg spawn point. also, pvp and pvpers have bad influence in the community? the pot called the kettle black. "me, me me!"

[Cordovan]

I ran this on a whole bunch of characters across several servers on Friday and didn't encounter more than one or two spawn camps, for the most part everything went smoothly. At least in my experience it was quite easy to get to the end by approaching it from the bottom left or right of the map.

[DavidmeetHal]

you are not forced to participate in anything pvp related so this is a non issue. Plenty of other people had fun with this event from both sides, the only bad thing is the warg spawn point. also, pvp and pvpers have bad influence in the community? the pot called the kettle black. "me, me me!"

Same, the only issue I had were the warg mobs that were right on top of me when I spawned, and that was something that could have happened in the regular server.

I dunno, I think people here are complaining a bit too much, it's not that big of a deal.

[Lambtron]

I ran this on a whole bunch of characters across several servers on Friday and didn't encounter more than one or two spawn camps, for the most part everything went smoothly. At least in my experience it was quite easy to get to the end by approaching it from the bottom left or right of the map.

And thus henceforth, every brave chicken goes along to certain doom following these routes

[vms4ever]

I ran this on a whole bunch of characters across several servers on Friday and didn't encounter more than one or two spawn camps, for the most part everything went smoothly. At least in my experience it was quite easy to get to the end by approaching it from the bottom left or right of the map.

That was my experience on landy. Trying to head directly to GV usually ended in a creep war party but heading to either left or right of GV and scraping the wall to GV worked quite well. A big shoutout to the freeps who were actively giving the creeps their just rewards.

Defending the chickens should definitely get a reward.

[Druidsfire]

That's why I don't like this event- it feels like testing the waters. I've seen the forum posts asking to incentivize the moors, suggesting they lock some rewards behind pvmp... I've also seen the complaints about how people acted on Bombadil, and have seen some of the nasty arguments and insults in the PvMP forums, and how other games with more PVP have horrible communities. PVP doesn't seem to have a good influence on the game community. So maybe the "cousin in the corner" is there for a reason.

'how people acted on Bombadil'

You mean the bit where players of both factions grouped up and took care to avoid AoEs while doing the Carn Dum instances and the Rift to ensure folks got their deeds completed for the rewards? Or the part where folks organized fights outside Esteldin to be out of the way but still accessible enough for people to join in if they wanted to? Those were my experiences on Bombadil. Sure there was the occasional gank, but with no actual rewards for PVP, it was far less than it could have been.

Here's the thing about PVP in LotRO. No one is forcing anyone to play it, and the players who love it? Their money is just as good as mine. Why shouldn't they get dev time and attention and yes, events and rewards just for them? If I want those rewards bad enough, I'll do what I gotta do to get them. I've done it before both here and in other games, and if I don't take it too seriously, then I have fun or at least get through enough of the content to earn the rewards I'm after. For me, I also try to think about how I would like it if the situation were reversed. Can't say I would like being treated like a neglected child like you're suggesting here, so I wouldn't want other people to be treated that way.

MMOs by their very nature have multiple gameplay loops for people to engage with. It's truly unfair to expect every single aspect of the game to cater specifically to me and my gameplay preferences, so I try to focus on the ones I like and not worry about what the other kids are getting, especially when it doesn't impact me or my daily life in the game. YMMV.

[Vilan]

All in all I managed to do it on 4 characters and got absolutely bored. You spawn, run 200 meters, done. If you appeared far, die, respawn, die, respawn, run 200 meters, done.

Well, yes... if you purposefully arrange your experience to have the least possible challenge, you're going to get bored.

While I understand the frustration in getting killed repeatedly at GV, it's a walk in the park compared to the Free Range quest. I know all too well the frustration at spending 3 hours running around Eriador and then getting ganked by an invisible warg in the Misties. Let's all take a deep breath and say "it's just a game".

[SSG_Orion]

I knew in advance what it was, but the quest itself doesn't tell you. So no, you're not voluntarily going into a PVP zone.

Though it was a frustrating disappointment for me, I was able to cancel the quest and now the event is over. But it makes me apprehensive that there might be future content that requires more PvP.

The session does say that you will need to get from the Steps of Gram to Glân Vraig. You could clearly have opted out at this point. There is a cancel button to leave the session window. Participation is optional, if it's not your thing to run out in the Ettenmoors, you do not need to participate. And now, this is not "testing the waters." It's a 15 year old event that was resurrected.

[TesalionLortus]

And now, this is not "testing the waters." It's a 15 year old event that was resurrected.

I know I'm going to be screamed at at the mere thought of this suggestion, but... could it ever be viable to release monster players into open world zones nowadays? Say, in present day, there are LOTS of these large zones with open borders on all sides - Cardolan, Swanfleet, Rohan, Dunland, Mordor, and the list goes on... It would need to be in its very own "layer" of course, so it's not like anyone is forced into it publicly, but if respawn points were random enough could have been interesting - or perhaps Freeps randomly respawn in rings of adjacent zones and it's up to them to decide how to cross the border and large borders such as Cardolan's, for example, there is no way for Creeps to efficiently detect and pick them off, like they do with chickens by camping some of the spawn points or objective routes