Thanks Wyrom, and the rest of the GM's for a great event.

I didn't win the pure, but I got the Impure and as a Bard, I am perfectly fine with impure. (What bard has all their mana available for call wind?)

Ledirth exclaims, "Alright, Jarvan wins for sure by virtue of wanting it and being awake to talk to me!"

That shocked me, I swore I was going to have to duke it out with at least 3 other people for one.

Yeah, I wish I had gotten padding, but it was going for way to much, and 22 people gunning for 7 spots.

Got a friends armor enchanted to 10x. Epic deepened a <1lb cloak. And got acuity flares to 5x on a 7x returning runestaff.

All in all, a great weekend.

So if you see Jarvan dying at all the next few weeks, he is dying with a grin on his face!

Kudos to a good fest, we may have done some bitching, but all and all very solid. Thanks for the hard work and thanks so much for the schedule and sticking to it. It was so nice not to have to pull insane hours (from a players side) this weekend. Ohh and my wife thanks you for that too.

On to the next one......

Well, I am exhausted and to be honest I am coasting through work today. I have matchsticks holding up the matchsticks that are holding up my eyelids. These are my comments regarding this event.

1: Pre - Planning
There was a wealth of information prior to this event that allowed me to undertake some considerable pre-planning. The hardest part was converting EST to GMT to ensure I didn't miss anything; Taking the annoying daylight savings changes into account for both the US and UK; Then copying the posted schedule onto my ipad for ease of reference. The wealth of information provided in the Officials and in PC allowed me to make informed decisions about what services to opt for. I took the time to read comments from GM's and Players alike, both of which I found incredibly informative.

2: Ticketing
I think the ticketing was handled extremely well, from the first raft of tickets to the stray ticket that landed in the pot. I for one would advocate this approach again for big events like this - irrespective of who the event is aimed at. I came out of the ticketing process with a sense of: "that was pretty fair". I hope I'd have felt the same if I hadn't got a ticket...in fact I know I would have.

3: Opening
Gah! Despite all my planning I came into the event one hour late. No idea how that happened. Think i'd worked out a 5 hour time difference but miscalculated the UK/US daylight saving changes. Just goes to show that it's true what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men...

4: Services
One of the hardest decisions during the whole of this event related to passing up some brilliant services in the hope of getting the ones you really want. I'm not the greatest gambler but that was a major gamble for me. Bypass self mana creation to get undead bane? Let me tell you, my nails were chewed down to the quick and my heart was pounding like a kettle drum. That kinda' added to the excitement of the event. I'd like to say thanks for some excellent services received. It is strange how excited a person...well ok...how excited I can get when I hand over an item to a merchant, knowing I am about to receive something I really wanted.

5: Communication
Communication before and during this event has been second to none. I'll be frank. I tend to have very little technical knowledge about many many MANY aspects of the game. Sure Bremerial knows about hunting and drinking ale, but ask her about spells or enchanting - or bourbon apparently (private joke)- and you may see her frown intently and scratch her head. I tend to just wander aimlessly and hope for the best! GM's, Merchants and Players were all willing to answer questions that I asked and sometimes re-asked, with no ridicule in their responses, and with a good bit of humor. That gave me the confidence to keep asking without being afraid to look like a total twit. Thanks everyone for that!

6: Roleplay and social interaction
There are so many players that I only get to see at events like this. So it was wonderful to interact with so many of you. And thanks to the merchants for their roleplay whilst merchanting (is merchant a verb? * shrug *)

7: Closing of Event
I did try to stay awake to get involved with the closing sections of the event but to be honest, I was totally knackered. I must have had about 10 hours sleep over the three days..which may seem like a lot to some of you young whipper snappers, but not to this old chicken! If anyone has a summary of the closing stages of this event, i'd love to read it.

8: Summary
I thoroughly enjoyed this event from first to last. Communication was first class; Organisation left nothing to be desired; And the quality of the work produced was first class. That leaves just one question:

When's The Next One???

:D

-
Bremerial - The Ale Specialist


_____________________________

View 47 warrrior interviews from 2009 to 2012 - http://www.assessrisk.com/personal/gs4_30.htm

AIM: warriorbremerial

Have to agree this was a really well run event. At first I was getting frustated with my horrible luck with the services I had dreamed about but my luck turned around for the better. I give you guys props for trying an event like this and appreciate the chance to participate. Simu has done alot of great things lately and may have convinced me to keep my premie sub too!

Thanks to Scrimge too!

In no particular order, credits go to...

Raffle Distribution
GMs Wyrom and Onsite

Lead Coordinator
GM Wyrom

Schedule and Services
GMs Tamuz and Wyrom

Merchants
GMs Tamuz, Valyrka, Liia, Jainna, Qortaz, Scrimge, Vanah, Haliste, Kynlee, Galene, and Wyrom

Storyline
GM Wyrom

Approvals
PM Solomon, APM Sirina, GMs Mestys, Coase, Sleken, Wyrom, Reidyn, Kaikala, Tamuz, and Reidyn

Entrance Mechanics
GM Sleken

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~Wyrom, SGM
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Likely the best group of GM's we've had in a long long long time.

Gratitude.

Thanks for all the great work, GMs!

I also wanted to post a summary review of my impressions. Obviously I had a blast, and my goal here is giving helpful criticism for the future.

Ticketing

This was basically perfect. It was premium only, but FWI is kind of the only easy way to do an in-game raffle, and accounts could be upgraded to premium to get the tickets, and the upgrade cost is much smaller than the ticket price. Also the account validation was smart. Do it this way forever!

Scheduling

This was great with all the information. I referenced the official calendar on the homepage a lot during the festival. DST always annoys me around this time of year converting to time in Japan, but I had no hitches (besides that I'm now at work at 3am on a Tuesday).

I think in hindsight the order of a few things might have been different, but this definitely depends on who finally attends the event. I was surprised in the original schedule that self-knowledge and rune tattoos were such late offerings, but they were also my personal favorites so it might just be a coincidence how it turned out.

Selection of services

Slightly weighted towards weapon swingers I think, but not overly so. I have a pure and a semi, and in the end almost all my work was for my semi, but that's fine by me (he had almost no cool gear).

I still think general enchanting should have worked for DB items. The DB creation would have been scooped up then I think. Given the ridiculous nature of the items getting enchanted, I don't think this is unreasonable at all.

Release of services

For services with mixed release (auction and spin/raffle), the methodology was inconsistent. Some cases we had the merchant asking how many people would want a service before anything began and other times not. Mostly auctions were before spinners which I think everyone hates. However, I respect that there are not only different GMs but also different merchant characters, and for both cases they should be able to run things their own way.

The skill checks were kind of moot and a lot of people used fixskill. Honestly if there's going to be a skill check, you cannot tell people in advance, and the skills should check against the skills upon first entry to the festival grounds to further prevent fixskill. The latter is probably impossible to implement, however, and for all I know Simu made tons of extra cash this way and doesn't care.

Last Chance

I think the GMs went well beyond the call of duty here. I was worried after Wyrom's first post, but the jerk tax was surprisingly low. Tiers where there wasn't even a choice in service were given back to people, which definitely shocked me. I think this could be done more conservatively in the future. Although very difficult perhaps, I think a good compromise, particularly for T1 where there is such a huge array of different services (some of which are quite particular), is to have a few more services available than attendees. This helps smooth over issues like the impure coraesine or hidden bracer, which might easily have all gone out at their first offering if the tickets had gone to a slightly different group of attendees. This is not inherently meant to be coupled with a Last Chance, but a possible independent solution.

Possible Confusion

I asked about the "other" category for epic deepening here on the forums well before the event which wasn't answered; there was some confusion at the service which could have been avoided (but I still got something really neat I'm happy with). The first offer of the T5 flaring service had many mistakes on the sign before the service began. DB last year was added to existing items, but this year was not, and I can't recall seeing anything posted to alert people to the change in the offering (but maybe it was changed mid-way through RtCF, or I simply didn't notice the announcement). I'm still wondering how T4 Voln's BESEECH could interfere with Divine Intervention (1635), and the GM ignored my question even after I won the slot (once my paladin learns 1635, I'll do testing). All things considered for an event this size with such a vast array of offerings, this is a very small number of points, and I think the GMs did a fantastic job.

Highlight

You'll now find that in my signature.

---

daid (player of the temporally-challenged Harvest-Moon clan)

>Out of no where, a ki-lin gallops in.

I thought there was plenty of communication before during and after, and everything went pretty smoothly. Right down to Last Chance, it went very well.

I have one error I'm still trying to iron out, but I'm confident it will get fixed before long. I also now look forward to the year of RP with the Cross Into Shadows story line. The citizens of Wehnimer's Landing and their allies are ready for battle with whatever Taladorian forces would be foolish enough to assault our gates. I recommend that they humbly request a field to camp out in before moving marching back home.

Kerl

Couldn't agree with this line from TK more:

"I looked on the forums the last few days and I've not seen a single thing worked on or made at the festival up for sale yet. That says a lot. :)"

Hahahaha. You had me going there for a good 30 seconds Velvette!

-- Robert

>>I still want to whisper Hoy's locker though. Seriously! LOLOL

I think Hoy will get the last laugh, he doesn't believe in the established institutions! Hoards all his loot in weightless bags and hides in coins in that hand of his. Heck he doesn't even take public transportation to travel between cities!

Lochiven

Pft... I want his quiver.