November 2020: Events Report

AltarielValice

HPWU Community Feedback for November 2020 Event summary.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x9K1Im8eeUaYumzjSyibr4dok7QdLbkMND2EfJCG7Po/edit?usp=drivesdk

^^(All graphs in the document)

Evening  @hpwulola @HPWUrobert @HPWUblue . 

Here's a November Event summary report based on all the community feedback that was received during the month. (I've been doing these every month)

The following is collected feedback from a variety of social media sources: (Google forms,  Facebook posts, TG and WA groups, Discord servers and channels). I've attached a spreadsheet with a variety of graphs collected throughout the month on all the events for your convenience. 

I hope this summary may help you improve gameplay and provide insight on future events to better understand our continuously growing, uniquely dynamic HPWU Community.💜

Community Day: Chess Chamber 

Community Day had been hugely improved since the previous back to back CD events in October.With the intense events that had been held previously, this was certainly a huge difference that was needed.

• The gameplay was a lot more relaxed, the majority of players had been able to complete it and only a handful of very minor bugs/glitches occurred. 
• A lot of players stated that Community day was more enjoyable but the content on the tasks and styling remained repetitive. 

I certainly think that the repetitiveness can be improved by putting less emphasis on the tasks, or rather changing the tasks in a way it's more community based.

Here are a few examples:

• Knight bus activities are extremely popular, as well as battling in a chamber with friends. 
• Sending gifts to friends is also popular among the community, as this helps players in rural areas/low spawn areas  who do not have easy access to inns and greenhouses. 
• Have users interact more. Having tasks for players to add friends or take an AR photo as a task that players could share on their social media would also attract the community into socializing together.

Wizarding Weekend 

The November Wizarding Weekend brought a lot of excitement with the more rare COMC traces. 

It was great to see both Hagrid and Grawp both boosted. (YAY FOR SIBLINGS!).. As well as the Norwegian Ridgeback and Buckbeak. 

• While a majority of players enjoyed this event, there had been a number of users who experienced unusually high departure rates. 
• The event itself was enjoyable as seeing the more rare kind of spawns did keep players engaged. 
• The majority of players still feel that this kind of gameplay is repetitive and the style needs to be better improved. Wizarding Weekend feels almost Similar to a Community Day, that's just a few days longer.
• It's also worth noting that Hagrid had been the most enjoyed foundable to collect and Buckbeak is the least. There had been mentions that Buckbeak, Gawrp and the Ridgeback had been difficult spawns to find and Disney spawn as often. 

Brilliant Events- Dumbledore's Army. 

Part 1 and 2

The Brilliant Events in general are still no different to how they have always been. However, the storyline is picking up which has been very entertaining. 

Firstly thank you WB/ Niantic for removing the 'Walk 5 portkey tasks' during the ongoing December Event

There have been many complaints that this task has been problematic as many players still aren't able to move around freely. We're glad to see that our feedback has been taken into consideration, and that positive changes have been made. 

• Thank you for including the portkey fragments into Decembers BE as opposed to Novembers part 1 and 2.
• Thank you for also moving the placement of fragments task into the bonus during the December Event as opposed to November's BE.

 A large majority of players had found this setting a lot more appropriate and it reduced the frustration of having to grind fragments and over

• The difficulty of both part 1 and part 2 have been better than past BEs. However the 'Use of 10 Exstimulos in Wizarding Challenges ' is still a daunting task as most players prefer to use their potions on foundables instead of Wizarding Challenges 
• A handful of players complained that their trace tonic barely produced the correct Brilliant event foundables.
• A large number of players stated that there were more Brilliant Dueling dummies spawning than Luna Lovegood.
• There's one thing we are immensely happy about is that the gain Brilliant family xp tasks have been removed. (Please dont ever bring it back)
• There are alot of L60 players that state there's nothing much to do in the game. Consider changing the style of how the Brilliant events are conducted as this will attract more players into wanting to experience something different. 
• The overall glitches and bugs are at a minimum and the gameplay has been tremendously improved. sure, there are bugs, but compared to the disastrous login loops and KB errors, this was a huge improvement. 

Surprise Spotlight Events 

Trace for Tonic Detection Event 

Firstly, THANK YOU WB/NIANTIC/HPWU TEAM FOR EXPERIMENTING ON NEW KINDS OF GAMEPLAY! 

WE'RE SO EXCITED FOR NEW THINGS TO COME! HOORAY!!

Secondly, it's understandable that these events had been an experiment- almost every player who had provided feedback complained about the time it was hosted. 

Working hours are certainly not the best choice to play nor does it give everyone an equal opportunity to participate alongside their friends.

• From the choices given, the best decided time had been after working hours preferably from 6PM- to midnight.
• The Omnioculars had been the hardest of foundables to find. 
• Apart from the timing, the majority of players enjoyed the event and there were barely any problematic bugs/glitches.

Knight Bus Event 

• Like the TTD event the timing wasn't the most favorable, and players preferred after hours on weekdays to best have such events.
• There had been a few problematic bugs/glitches. Players complained that they hadn't been receiving the event fragments from fortresses.

Conclusions

The Spotlight events were a blast. With the right timing,  these would be very enjoyable events.

The Brilliant Events are still as repetitive as the previous ones before. The good thing is, that the narrative from the Brilliant Events have become better and more engaging. This is really a positive step in the right direction. 

The rewards are still lacking. But on the good side, the December event shows a lot of problematic tasks removed. 

The overall event was very laid back and easy- something I personally think we all needed compared to the harder events months before. 

With December's Festivities now in full swing, there's so.much personal life the player base needs to balance.

• Consider rotating events, perhaps this can take away the repetitiveness of the Brilliant Events. 
• Wizarding Weekend and Community Day are very similar kinds of events. Perhaps, change the rewards or the task style so players would be more engaging.

In light of all of the above, I just want to give a very big Thank You to WB/NIANTIC employees and the HPWU Team for listening to the community's voice.

We are so much happier with the improvements that's being made with every event that passes by.

Putting aside HPWU for a moment, I want to send a message to all the employees at WB/Niantic :

I sincerely hope and wish that December brings you closer to your loved ones and the month is a restful one. This year may have not been the best; but we -The HPWU player base are thankful that you have connected us closer to each other from all over the world. I hope that you all have a beautiful end to the last month of the year and enjoy the festive month to its fullest. 

Kind Regards💜💜💜

Sigyn (AltarielValice)

Morganza

"However the 'Use of 10 Exstimulos in Wizarding Challenges ' is still a daunting task as most players prefer to use their potions on foundables instead of Wizarding Challenges"

There's a workaround, especially helpful for players who have a hard time with energy:

1. Study Professor until you have maxxed Deterioration Hex and initial focus. (This is cheap, I don't think you need RSB for this.)
2. Fight a solo Knight Bus battle in Ruins I or II; DetHex each foe and let them knock themselves out with Protego. (This can also be done as a team with one Prof and one or more Aurors to pass focus and Bat-Bogey. MZ: It's very cheap to become enough of an Auror to help.)
3. During your battle with the last foe, use an Exstimulo and continue doing nothing but Protego.
4. Go back to the map; after spending one Runestone and zero energy, you now have credit for using the potion in the Fortress and have all the charges available for Foundables.

Drakonite

I certainly think that the repetitiveness can be improved by putting less emphasis on the tasks, or rather changing the tasks in a way it's more community based.

yeah if they would just add the same or higher number of dada/rsbs to a monthly free gift in D.A. I/we'd not even have to do the tasks at all, just fill up the page and move on

Firstly, THANK YOU WB/NIANTIC/HPWU TEAM FOR EXPERIMENTING ON NEW KINDS OF GAMEPLAY! 

WE'RE SO EXCITED FOR NEW THINGS TO COME! HOORAY!!

what, exactly, was new or experimental?, we did forts for guaranteed frags and played trace tonics, and with how poorly the spotlight 'events' were implemented anyone who was not either here (forums) or in discord got no in-game notification and had no idea they were even on, then also the hrs were ****, 11-18 local? lol like everyone is not in school/ jobs then.... and they (spotlight) gave no dada/rsb rewards, no point in doing them if you didnt need any of the given frags.

Drakonite

@Morganza you do need RSBs to max out det hex for prof, and you need some more for stamina and to max the starting focus, granted its cheap-er than doing the full build, but you need some, probs in the area of 20-40 (RSBs) overall.