Clearly there is enormous variability across devices and players in terms of probability of Masterful! traces. Fortunately, as there is relatively little on the line in terms of rewards, it doesn't matter much this time. Hopefully Niantic will be cognizant of this in the future, however.
I'm curious about this Adventure Sync issue. I am on Android platform and am fortunately not experiencing it, although did notice it once, but was able to fix it by closing game, reopening, reenabling adventure sync and then restarting app again.
My question though is, what did those of you do before adventure sync? You don't need it to open portkeys as long as the app is open. I use the Android game dock and set the app to remain active. Then I can lock the screen with the game open and it records all my steps prior to adventure sync. This should still work.
The rewards for completing the event are pitiful, considering the outlay. 200 XP? 2 DADA books? Seriously? I get the the rewards are based around the number 2 (second Christmas of Wizards Unite), but come on, you can be a bit more generous than that!
Also, can I point out that having 'place images in registry' tasks disadvantages higher level players who've prestiged a lot of pages? Surely the amount of time needed to be spent and foundables to be caught shouldn't punish those who've progressed in the game?
edited December 2020#7131 December, 2020, 03:06 am.
I actually just posted a couple of days ago about the fact that Unicorn Hairs have been very rare lately. I no longer get them in Exstimulo gifts from other people, and rarely get them in Portkeys, even Brilliant Portkeys which frequently contained them up until a few weeks ago. It seems rather suspicious to me that it became nearly impossible to acquire Unicorn Hairs right before an event which asks you to use 11 Potent Exstimulo Potions. If they didn't cost 30 coins apiece, it wouldn't be so bad but having to buy quite a few of them in order to brew enough Potents is a lot of coins. It just seems to be a little bit off that the timing is so unfortunate. Or maybe it's just me... 🤷
Oh, and also, the single silver key as a reward for the use of 11 Potents is a slap in the face.
After a rough start, was able to finish the event with ease and star a lot of foundables in the process - thanks for the event! Now I'll focus on challenges over the next week while the fortresses give out spell energy.
@SmokyBandit contact in-game support, they should be able to investigate. Just say you're missing an item (your progress in this case) and you should be able to get through to a person.
@hpwulola I was at a point where I was getting Masterful casts the majority of the time. Then I got a larger iPhone. I hadn't really noticed because it has gotten so much easier to return foundables, so I wasn't really paying much attention to the type of cast I was getting, but since I read @Papasequoia 's comment about screen size affecting the strength of your cast, I realized that I never get better than a Great cast now. My old phone was an iPhone 6S and my new one is a iPhone 12 Pro Max, so the screen is much bigger on my new phone. I tried several more times on my new phone, paying close attentiion to how my spells looked and what their strength was, and realized that I wasn't getting even one Masterful cast even though they were fast and accurate. So, I got my old iPhone charged up and connected to Wifi and used a TTD and got my two Masterfuls, one each on two different foundables, immediately. I switched back to my newer phone, to test it out, and again could not get better than a Great cast.
Apparently, according to my experience at least, whatever coding is used to determine the strength of the spell cast is not compatible with a larger phone, at least with iPhone. This is going to make it very difficult for anyone who has upgraded to a larger iPhone and did not keep their old one around to get the two Masterful casts required to complete that task. I'm not exactly sure what, if anything, you can do about the task in this event, but it seems as if it should either be awarded as completed or adjusted to require a lower strength cast, such as Great, at the very least.
In addition, something should be done to fix this problem, or at least test the issue out to see if it's true. It is, of course, entirely possible that I am mistaken but, if I am not, it's a pretty major issue as many types of phones will presumably continue to be made with bigger screens over time.
Just for informational purposes, has anyone else noticed this or tested it out as I did? Thanks!
@hpwulola The theory that I have is that the diagram you have to trace with your finger/wand is larger on the screen with a bigger phone. So, just as it takes longer to run the outer edge of a track than the inner because of the greater distance, it takes longer to trace the spell if the diagram is larger. So, even if you do it very quickly, and assuming the accuracy is the same, it will still take just a tiny bit longer than it would on a smaller screen, making it a Great cast instead of Masterful. Make sense?
@CeruleanGirl can you use the old/new phone comparison (perhaps if possible somehow make a video of similar casts on each for more obvious comparison) to see whether the difference is mainly/only in the speed or if the accuracy part is also affected. Having a longer path would make logical sense but a higher resolution or more sensitive screen could perhaps also throw a spanner in the works.
I’ve been pretty pleased with this event so far. Got the masterfuls with some luck and the 11 potions. Who would have thought the dancing trolls would be the thing giving me trouble! (Anyone else?) Hoping to catch them over the next few days. Good Luck everyone!
With all the work and potions the games wants to complete the 12 tasks the rewards seem really miserly. Brew and burn off 11 potent exstimulo potions for 1 silver port key? Not worth the time and effort.
This is a game. I play the game. I never failed to finish any task regardless of any reward. After all this is a game, if not to play, why download the game?
@NOT4U13 Before Adventure Sync, I was leaving my house to go to work every day, so I'd get my steps/distance in while in the car or just walking around. Now I work at home and rarely go anywhere. Before it broke, I was able to walk laps around my house to get the daily task done and open portkeys. It actually kept me more active than I would have been otherwise. So it's doubly frustrating that it's not working for me any more.
@XPANDERFX I don't see that anyone answered you... the Boy Who Lived fragments are Young Harry Potter from the Legends of Hogwarts Potions Classroom page and Quidditch Captain Harry Potter from the Magical Games Triwizard Maze page. I think those are the only 2.
@SwampRatUK Thank you for the suggestion but I don't think a video would be any more informative than my own observation. I am not sure you could judge any difference in resolution or sensitivity that way, but it is a possibility that those things could be a factor.
I assume the accuracy is the same. It feels the same and looks the same to me. I would think that there is a set amount of time you are allowed in order to get each level - as in Fair, Good, Great, Masterful - and assuming your accuracy is good enough, if you complete your spell cast in that time, you should get that level. If it takes even a little bit more, due to the diagram on the screen just being bigger, then you could go over that set time and not achieve that level, even if your accuracy and apparent speed are fine. I have since managed to get two Masterfuls on my new phone, both on the Finite spell, which is one of the quickest and easiest in my opinion. These are just my own observations, of course, but I am hoping that they will help.
I have been reviewing the “possible rewards” in different fortress chambers using various legends of Hogwarts runestones. I am not seeing the Yule ball invitation at all. Does that mean I cannot get one as a reward right now? I only need one to be able to prestige to the page before placing any images. I have been battling in fortresses for quite awhile and haven’t gotten any invitations.
ETA: read on reddit that the invitations come from the special portkeys just in case anyone else is looking for them.
@XPANDERFX In addition to the answer above, "The Boy Who Lived" is the title of the first chapter of the first book in the series, and wizarding lore is full of mentions, in hushed tones, of "Harry Potter... The Boy Who Lived (through an attack by He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named)".
The task can be completed with any of the Harry Potter Foundables, though not "Harry and Parvati".
I've all but finished the event. Tbh, it's rather uninspired.
And for the love of God... Get rid of those "highest chamber" quests or rework the knight bus.
The bus is empty most of the time. And if you manage to get a group... You end up with Tom, Richard and Harry who, in most cases, got their broom carried all the way up to dark 5 and have zero clue on how to play or what is going on. And then you're lucky you don't have Steve. Steve decided that it cost too much resources and effort to play, so he expects you to do his part as well when he kicks back.
Those quests are a pretty poor band-aid for a broken mechanic. Please get rid of them.
Comments
stuck in a restart loop. Cannot access the game. Help
@LaDameMcQueen Hi, I've attempted a fix on your account. Could you restart the app and try again?
11 potent is ridiculous. Unicorn hair is too rare and no hope of getting out of portkeys with adventure sync being broken.
Clearly there is enormous variability across devices and players in terms of probability of Masterful! traces. Fortunately, as there is relatively little on the line in terms of rewards, it doesn't matter much this time. Hopefully Niantic will be cognizant of this in the future, however.
I'm curious about this Adventure Sync issue. I am on Android platform and am fortunately not experiencing it, although did notice it once, but was able to fix it by closing game, reopening, reenabling adventure sync and then restarting app again.
My question though is, what did those of you do before adventure sync? You don't need it to open portkeys as long as the app is open. I use the Android game dock and set the app to remain active. Then I can lock the screen with the game open and it records all my steps prior to adventure sync. This should still work.
Finished event AND reached level 60 during the process. Now to wait for those elusive dark marks to appear...
Well the achievements aren't showing up on my event page. 3 masterful spells in a row and none are counted.
The rewards for completing the event are pitiful, considering the outlay. 200 XP? 2 DADA books? Seriously? I get the the rewards are based around the number 2 (second Christmas of Wizards Unite), but come on, you can be a bit more generous than that!
Also, can I point out that having 'place images in registry' tasks disadvantages higher level players who've prestiged a lot of pages? Surely the amount of time needed to be spent and foundables to be caught shouldn't punish those who've progressed in the game?
Just about done with all the tasks, the 11 potent was painful as it drained a big portion of my stock...
Not one golden snitch though... everything else, pretty good. TfTD haven't spawned one either, same with trace charm.
I actually just posted a couple of days ago about the fact that Unicorn Hairs have been very rare lately. I no longer get them in Exstimulo gifts from other people, and rarely get them in Portkeys, even Brilliant Portkeys which frequently contained them up until a few weeks ago. It seems rather suspicious to me that it became nearly impossible to acquire Unicorn Hairs right before an event which asks you to use 11 Potent Exstimulo Potions. If they didn't cost 30 coins apiece, it wouldn't be so bad but having to buy quite a few of them in order to brew enough Potents is a lot of coins. It just seems to be a little bit off that the timing is so unfortunate. Or maybe it's just me... 🤷
Oh, and also, the single silver key as a reward for the use of 11 Potents is a slap in the face.
After a rough start, was able to finish the event with ease and star a lot of foundables in the process - thanks for the event! Now I'll focus on challenges over the next week while the fortresses give out spell energy.
@SmokyBandit contact in-game support, they should be able to investigate. Just say you're missing an item (your progress in this case) and you should be able to get through to a person.
Agreed. 2 masterful spells in a row is
“dirty pool”. Once you get one, it registers.
miss the second one and “poof”, you’re back to zero. Bad!
Plus, only receiving 1 key from placing
4 Yule Ball images is weak! Should give us 4 keys for that achievement.
Developers, adjust your algorithms to allow for the 2 back to back masterful spell casts!
@hpwulola I was at a point where I was getting Masterful casts the majority of the time. Then I got a larger iPhone. I hadn't really noticed because it has gotten so much easier to return foundables, so I wasn't really paying much attention to the type of cast I was getting, but since I read @Papasequoia 's comment about screen size affecting the strength of your cast, I realized that I never get better than a Great cast now. My old phone was an iPhone 6S and my new one is a iPhone 12 Pro Max, so the screen is much bigger on my new phone. I tried several more times on my new phone, paying close attentiion to how my spells looked and what their strength was, and realized that I wasn't getting even one Masterful cast even though they were fast and accurate. So, I got my old iPhone charged up and connected to Wifi and used a TTD and got my two Masterfuls, one each on two different foundables, immediately. I switched back to my newer phone, to test it out, and again could not get better than a Great cast.
Apparently, according to my experience at least, whatever coding is used to determine the strength of the spell cast is not compatible with a larger phone, at least with iPhone. This is going to make it very difficult for anyone who has upgraded to a larger iPhone and did not keep their old one around to get the two Masterful casts required to complete that task. I'm not exactly sure what, if anything, you can do about the task in this event, but it seems as if it should either be awarded as completed or adjusted to require a lower strength cast, such as Great, at the very least.
In addition, something should be done to fix this problem, or at least test the issue out to see if it's true. It is, of course, entirely possible that I am mistaken but, if I am not, it's a pretty major issue as many types of phones will presumably continue to be made with bigger screens over time.
Just for informational purposes, has anyone else noticed this or tested it out as I did? Thanks!
My husband an I both use recent Pixels. I'd be interested to hear if any of the "Masterful is easy" proponents are on a Pixel 4 or similar.
@hpwulola The theory that I have is that the diagram you have to trace with your finger/wand is larger on the screen with a bigger phone. So, just as it takes longer to run the outer edge of a track than the inner because of the greater distance, it takes longer to trace the spell if the diagram is larger. So, even if you do it very quickly, and assuming the accuracy is the same, it will still take just a tiny bit longer than it would on a smaller screen, making it a Great cast instead of Masterful. Make sense?
@CeruleanGirl can you use the old/new phone comparison (perhaps if possible somehow make a video of similar casts on each for more obvious comparison) to see whether the difference is mainly/only in the speed or if the accuracy part is also affected. Having a longer path would make logical sense but a higher resolution or more sensitive screen could perhaps also throw a spanner in the works.
I’ve been pretty pleased with this event so far. Got the masterfuls with some luck and the 11 potions. Who would have thought the dancing trolls would be the thing giving me trouble! (Anyone else?) Hoping to catch them over the next few days. Good Luck everyone!
With all the work and potions the games wants to complete the 12 tasks the rewards seem really miserly. Brew and burn off 11 potent exstimulo potions for 1 silver port key? Not worth the time and effort.
I’ve got everything except the two masterful casts 😭. I rarely get them anymore. And spell energy has become rare the last few weeks.
Also I didn’t get to pick up any port keys yet this event!
I’m not giving up yet, just very frustrated.
Why is there no badge as a reward this time? I love my Hedwig bade from last year. That might actually make spending 11 potents worth the rewards!
This is a game. I play the game. I never failed to finish any task regardless of any reward. After all this is a game, if not to play, why download the game?
@NOT4U13 Before Adventure Sync, I was leaving my house to go to work every day, so I'd get my steps/distance in while in the car or just walking around. Now I work at home and rarely go anywhere. Before it broke, I was able to walk laps around my house to get the daily task done and open portkeys. It actually kept me more active than I would have been otherwise. So it's doubly frustrating that it's not working for me any more.
@XPANDERFX I don't see that anyone answered you... the Boy Who Lived fragments are Young Harry Potter from the Legends of Hogwarts Potions Classroom page and Quidditch Captain Harry Potter from the Magical Games Triwizard Maze page. I think those are the only 2.
@SwampRatUK Thank you for the suggestion but I don't think a video would be any more informative than my own observation. I am not sure you could judge any difference in resolution or sensitivity that way, but it is a possibility that those things could be a factor.
I assume the accuracy is the same. It feels the same and looks the same to me. I would think that there is a set amount of time you are allowed in order to get each level - as in Fair, Good, Great, Masterful - and assuming your accuracy is good enough, if you complete your spell cast in that time, you should get that level. If it takes even a little bit more, due to the diagram on the screen just being bigger, then you could go over that set time and not achieve that level, even if your accuracy and apparent speed are fine. I have since managed to get two Masterfuls on my new phone, both on the Finite spell, which is one of the quickest and easiest in my opinion. These are just my own observations, of course, but I am hoping that they will help.
I have been reviewing the “possible rewards” in different fortress chambers using various legends of Hogwarts runestones. I am not seeing the Yule ball invitation at all. Does that mean I cannot get one as a reward right now? I only need one to be able to prestige to the page before placing any images. I have been battling in fortresses for quite awhile and haven’t gotten any invitations.
ETA: read on reddit that the invitations come from the special portkeys just in case anyone else is looking for them.
When are Niantic going to fix the issues reported before Christmas so that we can participate in the events they keep issuing?
@hpwulola &@HPWUTeam
Hope y'all had a Happy Christmas &
Happy New Year!
Thank you for this event. It was fun to play.
Clever set up for the tasks. 7 foundables a swimming was my favorite! Surprise lots of Pickets.
11 potent exstimulos went to good use on adversaries. I got Fenrir's page to silver
I loved collecting and giving XP gifts to all my wizarding friends under level 60.
Looking forward to safe and fun filled Wizarding 2021.
@XPANDERFX In addition to the answer above, "The Boy Who Lived" is the title of the first chapter of the first book in the series, and wizarding lore is full of mentions, in hushed tones, of "Harry Potter... The Boy Who Lived (through an attack by He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named)".
The task can be completed with any of the Harry Potter Foundables, though not "Harry and Parvati".
My #3 task reads “Complete” (not defeat) 3 wizarding challenges in my highest chamber. I didn’t get credit for being defeated.
I've all but finished the event. Tbh, it's rather uninspired.
And for the love of God... Get rid of those "highest chamber" quests or rework the knight bus.
The bus is empty most of the time. And if you manage to get a group... You end up with Tom, Richard and Harry who, in most cases, got their broom carried all the way up to dark 5 and have zero clue on how to play or what is going on. And then you're lucky you don't have Steve. Steve decided that it cost too much resources and effort to play, so he expects you to do his part as well when he kicks back.
Those quests are a pretty poor band-aid for a broken mechanic. Please get rid of them.