This was one of my favorite Duskruins ever, if not my very favorite, so I wanted to shout out some appreciation!



1. Great fluff, some of which could easily have been at Mania but instead was much more attainable

Even as a whole, this Duskruin had so much great fluff I could almost swear it's not Duskruin--Buccaneer Skirts, Confection Creators, ice skates, and more--but the big three for me were definitely lesser moods, custom illusions, and custom Fatal Afflares.

Lesser moods in the HESS were a godsend. I've asked for them for ages and I apologize to Xynwen for having to add 13 from my pent-up demand. :D (That wasn't all of them, either!) That said, I hope future Duskruins will have an automated lesser mood NPC or something similar. Partly for GMs' sake, but also for players' items to not get a stamp; I did hold back on a piece of armor to avoid a surcharge and I could certainly see that coming up again.

The "just one thing" illusion prop alters were one of the best services ever offered at any event. I hope they return and I hope things similar to them return (how about "just one thing" alters of spell prep props at Rumor Woods? :D). As very minor constructive feedback, I think it would be good to do at least one or two rounds after books are no longer on sale, when we're winding down remaining runs instead of taking time away from racing to have scrip in time for Spin Night. Again, though, that's very minor. Setting aside that time was absolutely worth it, but just something to consider.

Custom Fatal Afflares... what can I say? I wouldn't have even imagined these going out in the HESS. It's been said over and over that custom things are hard to offer in the HESS due to QC requirements, yet here they were. And, frankly, I'm amazed they were so cheap since they could have sold for much more--and did during the automated reverse auction test. Incredible offering there!



2. Properties in abundance

Absolutely amazing to see so many of these go out. I love the add-on-to-playershops concept introduced here, even though people did raise some legitimate critiques of such, but mostly I just love seeing properties go out at all. Competition for them has always been fierce, but seeing a slew of them like this gives me renewed hope that one day there'll be one I'm really interested in and be able to buy. (That's if I even need to buy in the first place; I'm also shocked in a good way that a few, especially the Landing one, went out in the Trove!)

I hope the GMs who spent time to create these properties feel great about the high levels of interest and love they got!



3. Turnarounds and finding the right balance

HESS redemption turnaround time was amazing, but even more amazing to me were the turnarounds on Spin Night and Mania. The latter has already been beaten to death on Discord, so I won't say anything more about it except that I was infinitely relieved that it ended up being a normal Mania, even with acknowledgment that that wasn't the intent.

Spin Night, though... I think the new redemption-on-the-spot rules going forward are great and I was pleasantly surprised that an extra five of sold out items were added on the second night. I don't necessarily expect effective quantity limits of ten to happen again, but, honestly, it allowed almost everybody to get what they were after. It was fascinating to get a read on true demand levels, which have been obfuscated in the past by quantity limits (in the original first come, first serve model) or having alts and friends stand in to win (in the earlier Spin Night model).

In any case, hopefully there's less grumpiness over scalping and whatnot in the future. It's for sure not a perfect system, but I don't know if such a thing even exists and this should at least be a big step in the right direction.



4. Event boxes

Event boxes are one of the best silver drain ideas invented so far--not even just for actually draining silver, but being automated on top of that. I hope to see them at every pay event and, honestly, even some free events going forward. Not much else to say here!



5. Suggestions for the moderate end

One thing that really struck me was the number of Spin Night items like adding Energy/Parasite/Sprite that had no takers all while their OTS counterparts are beloved. Even Animalistic Spirit (weapons) only had three takers and Twin Weapons only one!

If it would be feasible, I'd like to see cheaper-but-more-restricted ways to add some of those scripts. Maybe have a second Spin Night that spins for "lesser" Animalistic/Energy/Parasite/Sprite/Twin adding (and hopefully Daybringer and Fighting Knife by August) that has variable cost. Throw in some hard restrictions if needed, like no xazkruvrixis/low steel/surita, but mostly just scale the pricing using similar calculations to the EG autoflarer, except in bloodscrip instead of seashells. The character running the show could give a price quote to winners and they could either accept or decline, like how WPS merchants and enchanting merchants work.

I'm pretty sure that would drive a lot of spending for bloodscrip that sits idle at the moment or ends up going to budget purchases.

And helm extention to greathelm size for neck coverage!

I pretty much agree with all of this. As a second Hess spin benefactor it really was nice to see how many alts show up for the first spin.

Agree, good run and well done by all. Only suggestion I'd make is for scrolls to be on sale for those of use who have sigil staff. I'd like to see these; 202,203,207,209,211,213,214,215,303,304,310,311,314,315,401,402,405,406,411,412,414,416,503,504,507,508,509,511,513,516,601,602,606,608,609,613,612,704,706,707,709,712,905,909,911,912,913,916,1102,1103,1104,1105,1106,1107,1111,1112,1113,1114. Also, maybe some nice scroll holding containers as well. Would be great if there was a feature in which you could fully charge the scrolls after purchase as well.

It's nice to see the staff asking for input and listening to players. Thank you.

I liked the new option that allowed me to get an extra 10 bloodscrip on a run instead of loot. I didn't think I'd like it initially but ended up probably using the option during half of my runs. The enhancive loot is just not as good as I remember it being when Duskruin first opened up.

My last 500+ (this # could be as high as 1000...I don't really keep track and I went through a lot of books) arena runs resulted in 0 orb/token/boh drops. Something felt broken although I guess it could just be bad luck.

I was happy to see a couple of items I really wanted in the auction but some starting prices were kooky (100m, then 75m for a cauldron!?) and quantities low. I could have sworn permanent gold rings were sold off the shelf back in the day.

I loved the lesser mood rings and the service time (it was pretty much immediate)!

I think the event boxes were a good thing but they did not appeal to me and I didn't end up buying any.

Regarding Duskruin inventory, I don't see much that interests me anymore. Mostly because I just don't like anything enough but also because some of it is just overpriced. I bought a 25k weightless bag, a 8x potion, and 2 lesser mood rings this go around.

I'm a big fan of the wps merchant and spent a lot of bs there.

>>Depends. There was one evening where things were just banging out in half hour from when you submit the 'whisper'...
>>...whereas I still have my Spellbook redemptions pending from opening night. (I walked in at like 9:05 that Friday and bought them. Still waiting.)

Only 1 GM does the spellbook redemptions, and, like all the redemptions, you need to be logged in with the item on you (if you already have one being upgraded), so that the GM can do them. It's okay to be logged in and afk somewhere quiet and safe (like a table), so that you can get those done quicker.

The character that has the spellbook redemptions hasn't been around a lot when I've checked the list, so I can imagine it's pretty hard for the GM to get them done! Most of the spellbook redemptions are complete, FYI, so your odds will be super increased if you just go hit rest mode somewhere for several hours!

--Xynwen--
World Team, MHO GM
>Emails for MHO business should go to GS4-MHO@PLAY.NET
"My real name is Mephistopheles, but you can call me baby"

The excellent:
1. Lesser Mood ring script add. This was a wonderful addition to HESS!!
2. In general Turn Around Times for redemptions!! Awesome work on improving this and the entire system really that allows us players to track and update some of the request is simply amazing.
3. SCONE MAKERS!
4. The system that allows for extra BS or experience made a big difference to me, love it.
5. Trove item quality, in general this was perfect. More on the Trove below.
6. HESS cert selection was amazing, lots to choose from.
7. Extra time to use two WPS windows. This really is worth it in my mind. As a customer that buys MANY books from the simucoin store, this drives my interest.

The not so excellent:
1. For the loot reward option for experience, it’d be nice if the experience boost was a bit more, I did not use it because it seemed subpar.
2. Trove token drops are horrendously too low. I purchased 5 $999 blocks of simucoin and dropped all of them onto voucher booklets. I run sewers exclusively and found only 5 tokens. When I complained about the drop rate, I was told it’s within RNG expectations. This drove me to NOT purchase additional simucoins. The Trove had been one of my highlights but having nearly ZERO chance to win anything I’ll likely sit out the next DR if this is not fixed.
3. As noted above turnaround on redemptions was swift and awesomely quick, however, for some of the specialty redemptions requiring specific GMs to redeem, it took nearly 2 weeks to get one redeemed. That needs to be fixed or maybe just not offer those items.
4. The Dig event was not necessarily bad per se, but all the fluff and micromanagement of junk that comes with these kinds of events really turns me off.

Thanks for all the focus on customer service and satisfaction in general. I really do appreciate all the hard work staff put into these events. Thanks so much.

Valdarrow