After almost 6 long weeks of supernatural scares and out of this world experiences, it’s all over, and hey, we all survived didn’t we. Victory was ours!!!
Now that my jangling nerves have settled I thought I’d share my thoughts on what I liked about The Hauntening, what scared the hell out of me and of course what I’m still trying to make sense of. And yes I’ll probably ramble on about a few other things. So with that in mind I guess I’d best get on with things before you pass out from hunger, exhaustion, or maybe both, whilst you wait for me to get to the point.
Let’s start at the very beginning when we were teased and toyed with as we waited for the Halloween event to hit, and when it did finally make an appearance it certainly wasn’t what we’d been expecting. TinyCo really know how to put the trick into trick or treating, but you know what it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the event in any way, shape or ghostly form.
In fact when I saw we were getting Rocky Point, I was literally bouncing off the ceiling, and that was before I gorged on any Halloween candy. Why was I bouncing, well quite apart from fact I’m a Tigger, it was immediately obvious The Hauntening was going to be based around one of my favourite episodes, And Then There Were Fewer.
I love this episode for quite a few reasons, firstly it’s based on one of the best mysteries ever written, Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. This novel in turn led to one of my favourite childhood games, the quintessential English board game, Cluedo (known as Clue in the U.S.and other countries).
So The Hauntening concept was always onto a winner with me as it took me on a little trip down memory lane to my childhood when the film adaptation of And Then There Was None was a regular Christmas occurrence on TV and to the fun I had with family & friends playing Cluedo. Although I should tell you my love affair with the game ended abruptly after a younger brother hit me over the head with a candle stick and put me in hospital. That attack on my brain cells has long been forgiven but believe me it will never be forgotten. Lol.
Anyway where was I, oh yes, I’d just been hit over the head not once but twice actually, once many years ago by my brother and then again last month by TinyCo with the news The Hauntening would follow a new format involving timed cases. This new way of setting out an event was being trialed as a result of feedback from players who were falling behind and weren’t getting to the final phases of events.
Looking at Cases as a solution to this seemed at first sight a great idea, a similar format has worked over at the other game I play for a long time, but would it be an easy transition to bring it to the more complex gameplay of FGQFS. The answer to that became apparent during The Hauntening, no, it’s not going to be that easy.
In a way it did what it was intended to do in that it helped those players who wanted to see every phase of an event, but in granting these players their wish it left players who play at a slightly slower pace but who did arrive at the last phase, albeit a day or two late. Suddenly they were going to forced to up their pace as finishing a case a day or two behind wouldn’t be possible, as the content would have been removed from the game. The new format also upset players who were happy just to unlock what they could early on and didn’t care if they made it to the final phases. Now these players who were happy with their long-established way of playing had this snatched from their grasp and felt the pressure of not only the end of event timer, but also the new case timers. So in order to please one type of player, two other types of player were impacted. So it’s starting to look like one of those damned if they do, damned if they don’t scenarios for TinyCo with regards to keeping us all happy.
Now I personally managed to complete each case within the allotted time but I play a lot due to chronic insomnia which allows me to do tasks day and night. But I know that kind of play is not possible for everyone, and neither would I ever recommend anyone give up a minute of sleep for a mobile game. I also should point out that I also didn’t spend a ton of clams, I only bought Area 51 and Ash Williams. But even although I completed the cases I don’t know if they are the way forward unless TinyCo makes some changes. And the changes I feel are necessary if cases are to be successful would be releasing all the content at the start of the case or reducing the amount of content released per case, and having always drops on crucial materials. Releasing new content halfway through a case combined with a game of chance with drops doesn’t work well with the short cases where a timer is ticking down.
The other issue that haunted players was any failure to get a character in one case could impact the next case, for example failure to unlock Exorcist Mort in Case 2 saw many freemium players without Meg in Case 3 as she was possessed with no way of exorcising her. This impacted on their ability to use her on tasks and complete any Questline tasks she was needed for. Another example was the Frankenstein Boss, if you didn’t bring him into your game in Case 2 you faced not having him in Case 3, where he was essential for unlocking Egon Spengler. This is something that needs addressed if this format is going to be used in future.
I’m not saying make the game easy, I like the challenge, but knowing exactly what I need to do at the start of a case lets me strategize my gameplay. I hope going forward TinyCo will choose one format or the other, Cases/Acts or Weekly Phases, not the hybrid of both they trialled in The Hauntening. And for me cases could be the way forward if TinyCo make the changes above, as it was lovely to read comments from players delighted they were not only seeing but playing through the final week of an event, some for the very first time. But we can’t ignore the fact for every comment like that there were many more from those disappointed they had been unable to complete cases, especially the content heavy Case 1 where the chance to unlock Carl, a much desired character was lost.
But I like the fact that TinyCo are showing with actions what they’ve been saying recently, that they want to re-engage with the Community and keep improving the game. If they didn’t care they wouldn’t have bothered to even try out the case format, so I applaud them for that. And it shows that when we ask for your thoughts and feedback that TinyCo is open to what you’re saying. I’m not saying they can take every suggestion and make it happen, but in this event I saw them respond to the following requests I’ve seen made by players.
FORMAT:
As a result of feedback regarding players not getting to or seeing the final weeks content in events they tore up their usual way of doing things in an attempt to fix this. Yes it still needs a few more tweaks but they at least they’re trying.
CONTENT:
More Family Guy TV show linked content. Well The Hauntening has fulfilled that with the release of Rocky Point, Carl, James Woods, Peter James Woods, Condom Chris, Exorcist Mort. All have appeared in the TV show so plenty of Family Guy content to keep us happy.
BOSS BATTLES:
Also in the past their has been complaints the big Boss we need to battle is impossible to defeat at the higher levels, well Frankenstein certainly wasn’t. Not only could you reach 3X or 4X within 24 hours, his drops were extremely generous.
EXCHANGES:
In the first few weeks there was plenty of feedback regarding the previous week’s materials not having an exchange, well TinyCo listened and in Case 3 there was a very wide range of exchange options that did not require that weeks Blood Bags. Yes they weren’t as high as the Blood Bag exchanges but they were there. Again it shows TinyCo is listening and delivering.
CLAM GENERATION:
Another clam generating building was released in this event in Area 51. We asked for them to appear in every major event and TinyCo seem to be making it happen. The only thing I’d like is maybe an extra clam added to every collection so 15 clams every 24 hours rather than 14 and have the building stop dropping when the event ends. That way we can plan our collections knowing exactly when the clam drops will end.
SUPPORT:
There has been definite improvements in this area, yes more work needs done, but for a small company they are trying hard to have a good system in place. I mean compare it to the other game I play, they are a massive company but it’s taken over 3 years for them to even add an in-game contact option. TinyCo has had this from the start.
Now before you accuse me of being too nice to TinyCo there are a few problem areas that still seem raise their ugly heads event after event.
DROPS:
Many come about due to the Uncommon drop in my opinion. TinyCo please look at this, there is something very wrong when Super Rare items drop more frequently than Uncommon. Too many times progress is stalled by one item not dropping.
But it’s not always the uncommon to blame sometimes it becomes obvious there is just an issue with a particular item, in this event I’m talking about Spacemen, Alien Bobbleheads, Latin for Dummies, Mutton Chops. If timed cases or similar are going be used in future, we really need see a quicker reaction from TinyCo when it becomes apparent players are falling behind due to a drop misbehaving.
MYSTERY BOXES:
Still too expensive with the low chance of winning the coveted prize. My personal thoughts bring the cost down to 75 clams and remove the materials and replace them with returning characters only. If you want to include non-repeatable materials make the boxes 50 clams per try. Players like to feel they are getting value for money.
So fellow addicts, that’s some of my thoughts on The Hauntening, but before I ask for your thoughts I want to say one last thing about the event and that’s how fantastic the animation has been, really top work from the guys at TinyCo. The buildings etc being released in the other game I play don’t even come close to what these animators are delivering and I’d imagine on a tiny portion of the budget available elsewhere.
Anyway that’s my ramblings, now I want you to tell me your thoughts. But please don’t turn this into a What the Deuce post as Bunny will lock me in her basement if you do. Please give us your feedback and thoughts in a nice shimmery and glittery manner. Tell us what you like, don’t like? What you’d like to see more of, what you’d like to see less off. What your thoughts on Cases are? Share with us everything and anything you think would improve FGQFS, as TinyCo do read this blog and of course Bunny also takes your feedback to TinyCo. And if you can please take a minute to complete the end of event poll at the end of this event I’d be very grateful.
Now before I go there’s another couple of things I’ve got to say. Hey did I just hear you snore? No, okay then, well firstly here’s the results of my favourite holiday event poll.
Halloween WON, Halloween WON. La dee da, la dee dee. But it was close:
WHICH HOLIDAY EVENT DO YOU LOOK FORWARD TO MOST? |
||
|---|---|---|
| Holiday | Votes | Percentage |
| Halloween | 99 | 52% |
| Christmas | 89 | 46% |
| Valentine | 4 | 2% |
| Easter | 0 | 0 |
Poor Easter didn’t get a single vote, I dread think how Bunny’s going to react to that. Oh no wait, it’s ok she’s the Halloween Bunny, not the Easter Bunny. phew!!!
You can read the full post on Halloween here: Halloween
And last but not least don’t forget the most recent Showoff – there’s still a few days to send us your spooky screenshots to familyguyaddicts@gmail.com
Full details here: Showoff
And just incase you can’t see the poll, here’s the direct link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScFbEZYy748jSt-BtOg3oj9TPxqY-sT15CXCLmJlcFb24rp_A/viewform
~ Russian Tigger
Family Guy Addicts 
This wasn’t a bad event. Got further than I thought I would. Mystery Box is kind of my gripe. Would loved to have had Roger and FBI Lois but no way was I going to take the chance of gambling a ton of real money and not getting them straight up.
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Noticed something odd about your poll. Every time I tapped on a choice the site bounced deep into the comments. Every time. In order to complete the poll it was necessary to scroll up to it after every selection.
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Strange, not heard of that happening before. I should tested it myself as I hadn’t completed it myself yet, and no issues. Sorry about that and thanks for still completiting the poll with that happening.
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It does that to me, if I try to complete the polls directly on the FGAddicts site, using Safari browser on iPhone. But if I use the link to open the poll on Google site, I don’t have a problem.
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Thanks for giving a solution. I will add that advice into my next poll if you don’t mind.
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Of course I don’t mind. This site is all about helping others, right? 😊
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😀
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Happened on my iPhone 6 as well. Last poll was like that too. but a minor inconvenience compared to potential benefits for mining this data. Thanks Russian Tigger!!!!
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I’m a freemium player (but I did buy the clam building) and this was the first time I made it all the way through an event. I didn’t get the hard prizes with keys on any cases except Meg but I’m ok with that. Other than the Investigation Failed on the Aliens, my drop rates were pretty on point. The Aliens were super frustrating. I liked that I could easily breeze through everything in an event finally. I rarely spend my event currency because I don’t need more decos. I wish that TC would have a mystery box at the end of the event that you could spend event currency on (I think I remember them doing that for one event a while back)
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Here are my thoughts. I agree on some point made by you, guys.
FORMAT: I definitively dislike it (not to say hate it). I’m one of those players who always misses the last stage, but I don’t really mind. I’m a slow player and I accept it 😛 I prefer playing slowly and getting everything in 4 out of 5 phases. With this system I only got haalf the characters/outfits when I usually get most (clams options excluded because those depend on my interest, of course). Adding more deadlines doesn’t help slow players but on the contrary it makes it much worse. If they want to keep the cases format they should consider the extra time limits issue. Maybe they could launch the next phase to everyone and those who want to focus on old ones do that, and the ones who want to move on, move on.
It’s also true that failing in one case kind of doomed you for the next one. Those things should be revised.
CONTENT: It was ok. Maybe it wasn’t so halloween related, but I don’t mind that. At least it was more show-related. The context of the event and its ‘plot’ can solve the HW-relation issue 🙂
DROP RATES: I agree with Russian Tiger. Uncommom items are terrible drops for me. They have exchanged place with rare items in my game. I used to panic when I saw ’15 rare items’. Now I don’t worry and panic when I see ‘8 uncommon items’ 😛
BOSS BATTLES: It was ok. I was a bit unluck with gasoline can drops during the last phase (and the reason why I couldn’t get Egon, only 6 items short 😦 ), but it was in fact easier than the other boss battles. So I think there was improvement.
EXCHANGES: In the first cases they were bad. Each phase made you get stuck if you didn’t have the latest currency (Phae 2 was by far the worst with the aliens issue). But Phase 5 was much better since you could use anything you had. I collected keys like crazy and I was even able to unlock possessed Meg. They should apply the system in Case 3 to all of the eventws with this format. That was definitively an improvement.
One thing to say about the exchange materials, though. They should have secure sources. In halloween 2015, for example, there were always nuns. Yes, you depended on getting balloons, but that’s where the challenge is. Here we depended on salt/EMF’s whatever/sage/etc and then on aliens/ghosts/vampires/etc
MYSTERY BOXES: Of course I won’t complain if they become cheaper. All discounts welcome 😛 Anyway, it would be a good idea to have different mystery boxes: one for characters/outfits one for buildings/deco, and one for materials. Considering that these cost real money we should have a saying in what we want to buy. I don’t mind the randomness, there’s the ‘mystery’ part, but it is a huge letdown to spend 175 clams hoping to get a character and get a tree.
I missed the other type of mystery box, the one we get at the end of the event with event currency leftovers. Those are fun even though they only contain deco.
Well, that’s all (I’ve written an essay rather than a comment, so of course it is 😛 ) BTW, Halloween 2015 keeps being my favourite event ever since I started playing. Let’s see if Chritmas beats it 🙂
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This event was a fairly lackluster compared to previous Halloween events.
Characters – Ash Williams was the only classic horror character, the Ghostbusters were redundant since the first Halloween event had a Ghostbusters theme, and James Woods (and Carl) could have been dropped in anytime – not particularly Halloween-y.
Format – It was a good idea to allow everyone access to the new material when it dropped, it was a bad idea to take away content from those of us who were still working on stuff. A better idea would be to make each new phase accessible to everyone, but not removing the previous phase – please let us finish what we start.
Drop Rates – As always, a constant source of frustration. Instead of the old “common/rare/uncommon/extra rare” system, it might be better to have an “always” drop at 4-hour/8-hour/16-hour/24-hour task durations…
Mystery Boxes – When a person uses real money for a chance to get a payout, it is called gambling. They can sugarcoat it by calling it a “mystery”, but it is still gambling with real money (via Clams). I, for one, would be more inclined to “spend” my money on a sure thing (for example, a premium character) than to toss it in the toilet for a chance at X amount of ‘Event Sub-Currency B’. These have become shadier over time, and I do not trust them at all whenever repeating materials are in them.
Exchanges – If we absolutely must do the “earn this to trade for that to exchange for this to trade for this other thing” process, would it be so horrible for them to be consistent? It makes no sense for the required quantities to keep changing with every trade-in (just imagine if your local grocery store did that). It would be so much better to set the exchange rate once and just leave it be.
Overall Content – Meh. 98% of everything I earned in this event has gone straight to inventory. TinyCo has done so much better in the past Halloween events, and I feel like they just phoned this one in. I understand that the leaked X-Files content did not happen for whatever reason, but that would have been the only way to tie all the elements together. Instead, we had Vampires, Aliens, Ghosts, and the Boogeyman inexplicably hanging out at James Woods’ place – and the concept fell apart. Which gives the appearance that TinyCo is relying too heavily on 3rd party properties to anchor their events.
Summary – TinyCo seems to be trying to renovate their house, but the foundation is cracked – and every time they fix something, it reveals another flaw elsewhere. They really need to get back to basics, and focus on what made this game fun in the first place.
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Spot-on analysis.
I did not enjoy this event as much as I thought. You were right that if we had not unlocked certain characters, we were be stuck in the next case, like Exorcist Mort. Another complaint is that there’s always an extra character added towards the end of each case, e.g. Carl with only about ~4 days to unlock I think. The past format was better as it gives us the whole event or more time to unlock. My third and biggest complaint is, as you said, the crappy Mystery Box. One of my motivations of playing FGTQFS is because I saw that Roger was available to play. I missed the American Dad event as I started late so when I saw the chance to have Roger, I jumped at it given my 400 clams, which did not come by easy for a freemium. In the end, the prizes were terrible for 130 clams at each try. Out of 4 tries, I got 2 ectoplasm which did not even significantly improve me game. So, I agreed totally with your suggestion for the Mystery Box to be much cheaper up to 75 clams with either characters or costumes. Nothing else, to give us more value for clams. I am feeling very sore due to the bad prizes and now I have to start all over again to accumulate clams.
That said, one of the event and format which I enjoyed and found to be more pleasant is the Superheroes.
.
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I liked the new event format but the drops rates made things near impossible. The variety of exchange options was good as well. I didn’t get to unlock Carl and I really wanted him. Once again characters like Mort and Peter had to be taken out of there costumes to earn items. I imagine it’s so that people who don’t have the costumes can still earn things but surely tinyco can make the plain character and the costume earn the same things. At the moment the costumes are pointless as the characters are rarely in them.
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That reminds me of something annoying. I wanted characters who looked kind of halloweeny or who had relevant costumes to be walking around Quahog and Rocky Point for the event. But the bilocating characters like Stewie and Brian and Peter kept losing their costumes whenever they switched between Rocky Point and Quahog or whenever I quit the game. So I couldn’t keep Stewie the Vampire Duck and Batman Brian and Exorcist Mort wandering around in costume.
Another big disappointment was when the lava cracks disappeared from the store. I had been diligently keeping minor characters on the magnifying glass tasks just so I could get a big stash of lava cracks. But when ready to buy – they were nowhere to be found. I didn’t want the other stuff. So I’m still working through my grief from losing both Carl and my beloved fiery lava cracks….. Both so beautiful and out of reach. Sigh.
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The Haunting event was the worst event ever!!! These events timing issues needs to improve. Why have a 6 hour wait time for a rare item??? Why have a 6-8 hour wait time at all??!! I started to lose interest in the game because getting items took too long.
The investigations was a joke. Too many failed investigations.
The funny part of this event was tiny Co trying to tell me the uncommon drop rate was correct. Hahahha
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I loved this event and think it was the most doable one for a long time. I went on holiday for a week and was still able to complete with just logging in and collecting/setting up for a few minutes a day! The only fail was week five challenge and that’s something I think was my fault as I blew loads of sage just randomly searching and not realising that there was another challenge, but to be fair I’m not overly bothered. Only quibble was the early push on case two which slightly ruined my collection of the keys but that’s not a biggie and I liked the extra exchange options which meant you were not reliant on current case items. All in all a good show from tiny co!
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Russian Tigger, you flippin crack me up!
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Let me guess, it was the candlestick wasn’t it, lol.
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I was only 19 keys short of possessed Meg, so that was pretty disappointing. I think I could have gotten her with only a few more hours 😦 I wish that they didn’t force you to trade in for everything at the concierge the way they do, it’s frustrating to spend event currency on decks or buildings that you do want and that don’t help you progress, and to then not be able to afford the things you do want. I also would love to see them being back event currency mystery boxes instead of only the clam ones. However overall, while this event needs its tweaks like you said, I feel like it was a step in the right direction.
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There was an event currency box, it used the magnifying glasses.
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They didn’t have an events materials mystery box in this event, they just released items into the store.
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Best. Game. Ever. And The Hauntening was fun but I didn’t love the format. It was anxiety-inducing, which I enjoy in moderation, but not to this degree. I have a freemium friend, my sis occasionally spends clams and I always buy a character and the clam-dropping building (thanks RT, great tip!). Even I didn’t get the Wk 5 prize (saved salt and chains but not sage, darn it… my fault). The Cases format was very discouraging for my freemie but us clamspenders made it to the last case. Everyone was disappointed by the lack of mystery boxes to splurge keys on… Even my freemie said he’d try a solely character/skin box for 100 clams, maybe 125. And he’s incredibly frugal about his hard-earned clams. Sis would go up to 200… I’m new and need Tan Line residents, so I’d pay 300, especially for a character-heavy box. Loved the show content… I have James Woods! Now if only they’d bring back Nathan Fillion… I would agree that it would be nice to see Cleveland do something useful – i.e. make him one of the mob of five people who could get seed packets… not essential, but helpful. All in all, the game is great (and hilarious!), the events are fun and exciting… nothing is perfect, but it’s obvious this game is made with lots of love. I zoom in and obsessively pour over every pixel, so I pick up a lot of fine details that my friends miss (until I point them out). The first time I picked Brian up repeatedly and he growled I knew I’d found my next addiction. Swapping the billiards room out at Rocky Point (sometimes mounted deer heads, sometimes window) was just one of a thousand touches that make this game great. The hard work and humor are appreciated.
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To say I hated this event would be an understatement. It was terribly handled on all fronts. Common drops acting like extra rares, then if/when you were lucky enough to get a drop, you get slapped in the face with an “INVESTIGATION FAILED!” – this NEVER, NEVER, NEVER (!!) should have been part of the game and whoever put it in should be fired. These 2 things alone made me rage quit, because it literally became impossible to move on thanks to these 2 massive problems.
I also hated the constant going back and forth between the town and the manor, as I usually leave my game zoomed out, I had to constantly reset my zoom level every time I warped, not to mention it made it even harder to keep an eye on the buildings and what was going on in the manor, plus certain characters were in the town, certain characters were at the manor. I really hope TinyCo does NOT do that again.
I’d also suggest people save their money from here on out when it comes to buying characters to help you advance, when you see things like “always drops X item!!” – sure it does, with an 8-12 hour task! Not money well spent. I didn’t buy FBI Lois, Condom Chris, and a bunch of other dangling carrots in this event and I’m glad, too.
I agree with what was said earlier about needing multiple attempts to find the aliens, and the 5-6 hour wait times for a vampire to (no) show, then only getting 1, maybe 2 if you’re lucky. Again, Investigation Failed should never have been a thing in this event. Ever.
The decorations you could buy with magnifying glasses seemed too expensive too, usually at the end of an event I have a pile of leftover “currency” and can buy up a bunch of cool decos, not this time, I’m well short and could only buy a few. More mismanagement on TinyCo’s part.
The Frankenstein battles seem to be one small positive of this event, with the exception of the aforementioned bad drop rate, only needing one item to throw at him and only needing up to 5 for the max level seemed fair compared to previous “boss” battles.
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I never saw FBI lois
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She way a mystery box prize
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Area 51 started to pay coins, 30 minutes before the theme was meant to end. Now, ninety minutes after the hauntening ends, it reverts back to paying clams and somehow the timer reset itself! that sucks!!
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Its that or NO clams. I will take whatever free clams I can get. 🙂
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So happy to see the boogie man in the store, he’s so, so cute! I did not expect him to walk around, and picking his nose!! Love him! Thanks Tinyco, thanks addicts. 🌞
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Regarding the poll: You might want to explain what “Cluedo” means because some people might not know because it’s not called that in the US version of the game, unless they changed it recently.
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I mentioned it was called Clue in U.S. and other countries in the post.
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It is just called “Clue” in USA 😉
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I’m just not a fan of mystery boxes at all, well, that is..unless they are for left over event currency or coins! I wish they offered various characters and costumes in the store for a specific amount of clams, even limited time sales would work. I would have bought Roger, mad scientist Hartman, Death, deaths dog, etc., if available for purchase without the gamble of a mystery box. Thanks for your continued work on these posts, the info is always helpful.
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I unlocked themes wood and the peter skin and that’s it. The mort and Joe skins I almost got but because of game issues i couldn’t log in for like 5 days. Really pissed at that as I almost had them.
The cases after that were confusing to me as I skipped quite alot of things because of the game issue. In the end I bought a few items with my detective glasses but couldn’t get some extra items with my keys because I offer on too later today.
Not really happy with this event. Especially because tinyco screwed up my game. They shouldve given those with the account issue a small boost because I lost alot of progress and couldn’t get any other skins and characters.
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Message them about it all if you have not already.
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And I have.
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I agree. Same thing happened to me.
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Biggest disappointment was not finishing the 5th weekly challenge. Safe drop was only 50% and it was impossible to get the 85 demons within the time limit. (I completed the first 4 weeks challenges).
I decided not to buy any mystery boxes as they use up too many clams on useless content.
Otherwise it wasn’t too bad. 😃
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I think there should be character mystery boxes and costume mystery boxes with different costs, the costume being no more than 50 clams and the character could go up to 100 for me to be more willing to buy it.
I say this because costumes require a character and are always event specific so once the event is over it offers nothing more that a different list of tasks which quite frankly, who cares unless it’s a hilarious one we can view.
I love the new boss battles with the joker and frankenstein!!!
The new cases in this event weren’t bad but there was either too much stuff to get or the drops weren’t good enough. I missed Carl altogether and was one item away from franken bonnie because although i was doing well my item did not drop at all for the 3 days i had the building!
What I did like was that i could go back and get what i missed at the concierge if i wanted and that is how i got myself a little green man, i was able to choose between meg’s costume or a full character so i choose the later and am very happy with my decision.
I did find that content released in the previous case did not help much, james woods was almost useless for example, i had just gotten him before my case ended and he dropped something i no longer needed as much.
One thing I do not like that happens for every event, the possession of meg, or whatever version of that they use.. the characters get taken long before you can do anything about it, they are rendered unusable too early unless you spend a fortune on clams to get something you don’t want.
Overall I really enjoyed my event, i was able to cut back on my play time and still succeed a great deal, thanks tiny co!
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I’m a fremium .and this was my most successful event ever.
Characters : I got ALL the free characters and skins except the Green Alien . I didn’t know you could skip the page and get back to it later .. i had 200+ keys in the end that i could’ve used to buy him 😦
Carl costed me 40 clams to buy the last bobbleheads before he expired.
All the other characters were relatively easy to unlock.
Challenges : I finished 4 of the 5 challenges .. i couldn’t complete the last one with 65/85 demons … so i missed the prize and the grand prize.
Main Quests : I finished them all except for Possessed Meg’s 24hr task because I was sending her on Sage missions. so I missed the final dialogue.
Side Quests : finished them all in time.
Magnifying Glass Items : I got all the items I really wanted except for the Billiards Room (I needed about 20 more magnifying glasses.)
🙂
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You could only do that if you don’t unlock the 2nd last building on the page, as otherwise it triggers the timer for the last item. Unfortunately, they often included exclusive drop buildings so you basically had to unlock it or face not unlocking characters. I much preferred the pirate-themed event, as you could buy buildings in any order and still come back at the end of the event and pick up whatever you skipped. Like you, I had 300+ keys which I could’ve used to unlock some of those “frickin hard” items that I didn’t bother with at the time as it would’ve put me too far behind
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yeah it all honesty, i think part of the game’s atmosphere always had the “damned if i do,damned if i don’t” touch to it of course lmao it’s jus getting more and more apparent lmao!! and yes i think we ALL were like that at some point or another playing the game tehehe😂😂😂😂
✨💫
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I liked the format of this event however I would still have preferred an open concierge list to buy the buildings I wanted first. This would help with unlocking characters because some of the items I got from tasks yet I still had to buy the building that generated the same items.
I would have liked FBI Lois and Mad Scientist Hartman but I wasn’t risking my clams just for a chance to get them. I also didn’t get Carl as I didn’t get to him to near the end of case 1 and ran out of time.
Also, I do like the idea of making the mystery boxes contain missed characters if they aren’t going to return in future events.
Overall, I enjoyed this event as I felt I made good progress and was able to just gather keys at the end to get the alien and possessed Meg.
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Totally agree the keys should’ve been a currency for end event items, instead of the magnifying glasses. Or rather, in addition to even. We should’ve been able to use them for sOmething. Overall best event structure in a while. Interesting my uncommon items were always the last to finish dropping. But decent event overall
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My timer for Carl ended earlier than the time frame by about 12 hours, and due to the sucky green alien drops I did not get him. Other than some of the drops taking forever I only used 55 clams throughout the event. I thought it was good to great overall
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The easiest and most fun event for a while. My only complaint? Very frustratingly the countdown clock was not synched with the actual event end, so after spending quite a few clams speeding up the process of spawning demons in order to complete the last 48 hour challenge, I logged in with what should have been 30 minutes to spare in order to collect the last 10, only to find the event had ended. Thanks Tinyco… you owe me about 70 clams.
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Would’ve liked to see a keys (theme “currency”)/coin/clam/Stewie bucks-type exchane; purchase items w/ keys in addition to coins, clams or magnify glasses. Had over 600 keys at the end! Maybe an option to purchase a character needed – I got Death’s dog in the Mystery Box, but can’t complete his task/quest (thing on the left side of game) without Death 😦 Overall, I get bored after 3+ weeks – prefer easier 2-3 week themes. Would really love more easily obtainable stuff/characters/costumes for us Freemium players.
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I think I found a mistake in the polls. You asked which OF the five challenges did you complete. That’s a little weird. Instead, the question should’ve been “Which weekly challenges did you manage to complete, select all that apply.” that allows the poll voter to manage more of a reasonable detailed look at where each person is. For me, the last week, week 5 challenge was absurdly hard. Compared to the other weeks, this one had the sky rocket random boost of challenge.
As for this event, I was mixed about it. Compared to last year, this is by far an extreme improvement. Certainly not like the failure as Death at the Drive In was. However, this doesn’t make this event a saint itself.
Yes, I do agree that with each event, it should be challenging. But with that, the challenges cannot be rigged and they cannot be too impossible. They need to be worthy of being able to allow the player to have the chance of getting everything by the skin of the teeth last moment of that phase before the next one. Not ‘spend fifty dollars and hope you make it half way through this week!’ kind of act. Which to be honest, this game has done before. Specifically notable during their Football event with Touch Down Jesus. It took me a TON of clams and even one of the staff members of TinyCo who felt sympathy and bless his heart, for giving me 100 clams; still didn’t do a thing to help progress.
With that, this even was not as simple as it should’ve been. Instead we were greeted to a bunch of jumbled of time messes. We are used to one week that is exactly one phase. Instead, we are greeted to three cases broken upon five weeks, each with a week split in half. So practically it’s a week’s worth of a phase within a weeks worth of a phase inside of an event. Like a box inside of a box inside of a cabinet. Why do we need to have things that can easily be simplistic, be so complicated? Now this isn’t a rant, this a genuine critique of how I viewed this. I can understand that people do fall behind, that can be or cannot be their fault. It depends on how much they play. For me, I play constantly for fun. My personal desire. If someone who spends that kind of time during leisure time, and cannot finish a week, then there’s something at fault with the event.
That’s how I felt with some things during this event. There are some things that are needed for some things but those things cannot be achieved because you need that other thing for another thing. If that is confusing, that’s the point. I’m not the expert in creating an event nor am I at any sort of programming, but I do feel that there are some things that can be easily noticed.
The mystery boxes is another thing. Those things are practically a wallet kamikaze. This is my last time for ever doing those again. At least with clams. It hit me hard in reality when I brought $25 the other day of Google Play cash. Within less than ten minutes of trying to get Billy the Puppet, I just realized how quick I was in the snap of a finger to waste money. That needs to stop. Right now, and for anyone else who’s reading this. Not because I’m trying to discourage people of fun, but how unfair that as a result, you get constant repetitive items that should be only a ‘one and done’ with a reasonable amount of a rewards. Spending 175 clams for 8 whatevers is not logically a fair trade. That’s like if I asked for your video game console, and if I feel like it, I’ll give you a pack of 5 gum just for being a sport. Instead, I feel those things should be a reasonable exchange like 50 whatevers or 60 whatevers. At least that stands up to being somewhat of a fair trade. Let characters and skins remain as things you buy separately. I’d rather pay 250 for a character than a 175 bet of not even getting a desired item. That’s what ruined this event for me.
Look, it’s not bad to try something new as a test result. But with the previous event such as Peter’s Pirate Booty Haul and Peterpalooza, those were decent events with the catalogs already all unlocked for the player to casually choose desired items of that week and still keep them open throughout the event. The only difference is, is that the ‘big’ items of the catalog, the ‘freakin hard’ item, didn’t have a timer in the Booty Haul. That was what made that event enjoyable.
I found it frustrating with that 6 hour time wait for a chance of 0, 1, or 2 vampires, which at max, could drop you only six blood bags. Which is pretty much an unfair trade yet again. The aliens barely spawned and took at least a ratio of 1 alien per 10-15 PKE meters. The ghosts and the poltergeists were fine. The bug aliens were fine. The demons were fine, and Boogeymen.
One thing that I also miss, is how costumes drop the event currency. That used to be a thing. The last time we’ve gotten that was the Star Trek valentines day event. We haven’t seen that since and the only way to do get the currency was to go along with the quests. But the flaw with that is, you need to focus on the main quest before you can get around to the subquests. Because if you focus on the subquests before the main quest, then by the next week, you’re backed up, you’re all bumbled together with other things going on, some characters missing and you end up in a mess. That’s my personal experience.
I found myself not liking this event, yet not completely hating it. I found myself at the usual “Oh well, guess I won’t be getting that character/item again, as usual, like every other event.” That’s not a good sign, anyone else who thinks it is, I’m not going to judge. But I feel the same every event which I’ve made clear to both Tiny Co and here that it seems like with every moment that I skip and have a flaw, and I fall behind, I never recover and never get to succeed with the next week/phase, and this idea of ‘cases’ and ‘breaking up the breaking up part of of the event week’ is not the solution it needs. Rather a bit more of a reasonable opportunity for everyone to get to where they are.
I can conclude by saying that I’ve been playing and observing how this game works since the first event I’ve started out with since Valentines day 2015. I study it a bit. This event is not that bad compared to The Mafia event, Halloween 2015, and especially that Nightmare on Christmas 2015 event. But it’s not exactly one of Tiny Co’s most favorable events either. While they did gain a bit of my respect back for adding two of the four Ghostbusters, I found myself just getting slightly upset with not getting desired items and doing my best to get what I needed like every event.
As a recap:
No more characters/costumes in mystery boxes in exchange for cool building skins/buildings with hefty good pay of items.
These cases need to go tremendously, and return back to how these events usually work between either getting a certain ‘meter’ filled up by a certain day or reaching the end of each weeks main quest.
Make this game challenging, but doable. Not something where a freemium feels like giving up and having to open their wallets in hopes of getting two steps ahead from the original area they were in.
Bring back event currency on tasks for characters.
If you’re going to have a character unlockable as a freemium, at least make them have some purpose of payment… I’m looking at you Egon.
Don’t try to be something fancy if there’s no need. If someone asks for a ham and cheese on white bread, don’t try to season the bread with herbs and spices, saute the ham in marinated brown sugar and find the world most richest milk to craft a heavy duty bold cheese. Some things are more enjoyable with being what it is. In other words, events are good and fun. It’s okay to be creative. Nothing’s wrong with that. But don’t make a jumbled mess that ends up being something that’s not sitting too well with whomever’s being it’s being presented to.
I think that ends my review.
Please note I’m not trying to ridicule anyone who worked on this event or whatever. But rather showing my concerns where I feel things felt awkward or not working with desire to help and give some sort of help to what can be done about it.
We better see some characters show up as a freemium for a best of 2016 event like we did in 2015 Not mostly everything being premium.
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Thanks for the feedback Matt. I’m not sure why it’s not letting you check multiple boxes for the weekly challenge, I will have a look now.
And your thoughts on the event are appreciated. Thanks for taking the time and effort to comment, hopefully TinyCo appreciate it as much.
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You’re welcome! I can’t wait to get started with this new event tho!!
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Usually, I complete all the weekly challenges and get the grand prize. I finished the first 4 challenges and couldn’t finish the 5th. This time there was no way to clear 80+ demons with the search rates I was getting. I was so disappointed.
I really liked that Case 3 and Case 4 had buildings or decorations you didn’t need to unlock for characters right before the 24-hour timed hard-to-get prize. When I had extra keys left over I was able to go to Case 3 and purchase the last two items. I would’ve really liked to get the Alien, but I’m really glad I got Possessed Meg.
I really liked the boss battles with Frankenstein. It was manageable! Getting all the lightning bolts from him allowed me to complete Case 3.
I don’t think each phase should have a hard end date like Cases expiring. It should just be that each phase release doesn’t rely on finishing the previous one, but of course, it makes it much easier. So you can still get characters from the beginning like normal events.
TinyCo is great with feedback. I hope your feedback and the comments reach them. Thank you!
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Thanks for the feedback, always good to have comments like this to direct TinyCo to.
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Well, it looks like a big royal !@#$%%@ in the end
Was 3 goggles short for egon with 45 minutes left on the timer.
I rushed the building to drop, it succeeded and only 1 left. Went to the haunted area and….. no more egon. The task to earn him was still there and the building said it was still able to drop the item, but no egon to unlock.
Worked really hard and rushed to get him, but looks like tinyco decide to mess with my calm state of mind.
Also, area51 was supposed to drop till the 4th right?
Looks like it stopped dropping already.
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If Egon disappeared before end of the event please message TinyCo through your in game support.
I’ve asked Bunny to bring Area 51 to their attention as it should still be dropping clams.
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I send a message right away. Got some auto response that they couldn’t answer on time and that they couldn’t credit item specific items.
Send a reply back that I either want egon or my clams back if egon is not possible.
Hope some human will answer this time.
Area 51 is indeed dropping clams again.
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The auto response system does need more work but always follow it up as you did if no answer. Then give them bit of time to reply.
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My biggest issue was not being able to get Carl… I feel as though characters that come from the show should be easier to get, personally… Maybe the stuff needed to get could have been a bit easier? I prefer characters to costumes…
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Lot of players disappointed over Carl, I’m hoping players get another shot at him.
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Nice synopsis! This event for me, meh, at best. Loved the characters and ties into the show, but I never really got past Case 1. Didn’t earn another character after that. Trading items were too hard to get after not getting all the characters and costumes from Case 1. would have loved a chance to get James Woods and Carl, but I never progressed far enough in the game to even get a close chance at either. Another event that lost my interest after the first few days due to poor drop rates and too much “trade this to get that to trade that to earn that to maybe get a chance of getting that…” in a nutshell too complicated and too much grinding for the two or three times a day player.
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