Guys In Black – Review & How Did You Do Poll

Hey there readers, I’d like to welcome you to the path of peace on earth, where today I’m going to be talking, not fighting space creatures, about the event that just was, Guys In Black. After 4 weeks and endless invasions to fight off it’s all over but for the poll, and that’s where we will find out if this event saw you feeling out of this world with giddy excitement or if it’s made you feel like you’d fallen back to earth with a bump.

 

The event certainly started with all the pressure on TinyCo, as this summer’s events had not gone well as they crippled by problems and glitches galore. TinyCo really had to pull a successful event out of the bag with this but did they? I think they did just that with Guys In Black. I thoroughly enjoyed myself over the 4 phases of the event, just a shame a few glitches rearing their head in Phase 3 spoiled some players fun.

I was glad to see this was a 4 week event, I couldn’t have faced anything longer, I personally prefer 3 week events but I can handle 4 weeks if the event draws me in, and this one did.

This event, from the start looked like it old be fun, and I hoped that would continue as we started to play through the 4 phases. And it did, I immediately saw improvements in the event that kept the fun factor going, drops were good even on the dreaded timed characters. If TinyCo insist on having timers on characters at least make them achievable like they were here. It will be interesting to see the unlock figures for the timed characters once the polls done and dusted, I’m hoping if the comments during the event are anything to go by we’ll see improvements on player numbers unlocking the timed characters than in the previous events.

So it really wasn’t long before I was happily fighting off galactic invaders, and enjoying the event immensely. From the start as I said it was obvious TinyCo had based this on 2 other popular events, Kung Pow Quahog and Truth & Justice The Quahog Way.  This was an event that was a little kinder to freemium players. I hoped this would be an easier event and an improvement on its predecessors where putting in the time would count for something,  as I’m lucky my work commitments never see me separated from my mobile and I’m a member of insomniacs anonymous so I can drop in and out my game during the day & night, this means I play more than most, and it’s good to see that putting in this time is once again as successful as putting in your dime in an event. For a while there pay or play, had become pay or pay!


But I am delighted that TinyCo are showing, at times, they hear what we’re saying,  the results of our recent polls and comments made it clear to them they were facing a continuing player exodus if something didn’t change. This event shows that although they are often slow to respond that they are listening. We saw  a 4 week event, full of popular new characters and costumes. And we also saw the return of an old character, as well as a chance to get the premium characters from the event at a discount near the end of the game through a mystery box. This is something a few players have suggested previously.

FORMAT:
A 4 week event with no major gridlock in the earliest phases, this allowed players to move along, now I’m not saying everyone moved at the same pace, some were slower to get through the 3rd phase, which was probably the toughest and time hungry. It also had to be the phase where the Android glitch struck, hampering many players progress further that week. But outwith this for once progress was mostly down to the amount time you could put in. Yes Arrest Warrants and healing times delayed play a little but it didn’t derail the entire event.

CONTENT:
Mainly film/TV franchise characters but popular ones. We saw some animations from previous events being recycled, such as the Giant Beetles. The buildings and decorations weren’t quite as high a standard as we are used to but they mostly end up in storage anyway. It’s a real shame the work these guys put out is sometimes lost into our inventories due to space and memory issues.

CHARACTER DROPS:
With regards to gameplay it was good to see less characters have multiple tasks for different drop items,  there was little crossover and drop times for characters used in Battles tended to reflect their healing times. I really think TinyCo got the balance fine in this event, the only early concern was over Arrest Warrants drops, when Phase progress threatened to slow down due to a lack of these, but TinyCo responded in the phases that followed by adding more options to get these, including an exchange option. Other items essential to fighting in the big baddie arena were always drops, so all that work to get them always paid off.

CHARACTERS AND COSTUMES:
What did I like, well we got a mix of characters and costumes as freemium unlocks. Yes some were timed, but if you were looking for an event to increase your character count this was it. Including the returning Little Green Man character there was an opportunity to add up to 5 freemium characters to your Tan Lines, oops, I mean game.

Special mention to the characters of the event for me, The Worms, they are a fantastic and funny addition to the event and were well worth the hard work to unlock.

Also any premium characters and costumes purchased were very useful during the event, more so if you were chasing the Leaderboard, so for those willing to spend clans at least you were getting a bit better value, something you’ve all been asking for.

STRUCTURE:
For the most everything you needed to do in each phase was spelt out early by simply moving through the first few parts of the main Questline but there was an issue in placing the timed characters as a task early in a couple of the Questlines. Players feel this forces them to move at TinyCo’s pace rather than their own. The final week was a bit content heavy especially for those impacted by the Android glitch. Also the Jeeb’s Pawn Shop Exchanges were set up better than in previous events, old items could still be used in conjunction with the new phases material, meaning you needed less of it to get exchanges going once moving from one phase to another.

GAMEPLAY:
They seem to be taking on board issues that derailed previous events, and mixing it up a bit. Yes we’ve seen the fighting in 2 previous events but it was made easier this time round, it’s obvious TinyCo had tweaked a few things.  And for me characters that were needed for fighting were for the most part kept off any essential drop duties, only the odd crossover there, which let the event flow well.


Now before you accuse me of having had my mind scrubbed and being too nice to TinyCo there are a few problem areas that still seem raise their ugly heads event after event.

SUPPORT:
There has been a real downturn in this area, the meltdown in the previous events seemed to see the obvious cracks in the support surface again, I’m not sure when or if we will see a recovery. The guys and gals are replying to our support tickets but their hands seem tied to sort our issues most of the time. It makes for a very frustrating situation, and I’m sure this is as equally frustrating for both players and the support staff alike. The over reliance on sending standard responses to players when there is a high volume support issue causes anger, and I wish they would utilise their social media and our site more to get info out to players on mass during these kind of meltdowns. It’s this lack of communication and information that causes a lot of the frustration we see in the comments, and players to walk away from the game.

MYSTERY BOXES:
It’s no mystery what my feelings on Mystery Boxes are, I continue to despair at the way TinyCo implements premium Mystery Boxes in events. Yes, I know we don’t need to buy them but any player whose a fan of Stewie is fed up seeing most of his costumes appear in Mystery Boxes. Yes I’m talking about me here. Also ongoing we see  useless materials not only as prize but as repeatable prizes, not good either. And finally 3 mystery boxes in a 4 week event is over kill, yes the final box was full of good content but the clam price was hiked to 180 clams and the Clam Generator was put in this. I don’t like this at all, I really think it would be a real kick in the teeth to players if this was to become the norm, the clam generators are very popular, it would be a step too far by TinyCo to see them regularly used as mystery box bait. Please rethink this TinyCo.

QUESTLINES:
Now the dialogue and tasks were fantastic, no issues at all there, but what I do find troublesome is a character with a timer being essential to completing an early part of a phases Main Questline.

Apart from that my main gripe in this event was the amount of side Questlines that built up due to Bruce and Jerome being needed for most of them, yet she was uber busy collecting Arrest Warrants.

Also please bring in a reward for completing the final Phase Questline, 10 clams or so, an incentive to finish it. We keep asking for it, it’s not a big amount, so make the gesture TinyCo.

WEEKLY CHALLENGES:
The weekly challenges were missing, thank the Intergalactuc Gids for that.

LEADERBOARDS:
We don’t like them, TinyCo don’t care. Enough said!!!


So fellow addicts, that’s some of my thoughts, I think you can see I personally think in this event TinyCo got a lot right but I want to stress they are just my thoughts, they in no way reflect what Bunny or Lotty felt about the event.

Anyway that’s my ramblings, now I want you to tell me your thoughts. Cause I honestly love to hear them.  But please don’t turn this into a What the Deuce post by releasing your fists of fury in the comments as Bunny will explode my head if you do and I can’t regenerate like Jack Jeebs can. Please have mercy on us in your feedback and thoughts.. 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 this 4 week event? 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 post I’d be very grateful. Please note for those that experience the jump glitch when answering poll questions, there’s a direct link at the bottom of the page that will help you avoid this problem, just keep scrolling to the bottom.


And just incase you can’t see the poll or find it jumps about when you’re trying answer, here’s the direct link:

https://goo.gl/forms/FSQTR3DWzNOBl8ZA2

~ Russian Tigger

31 responses to “Guys In Black – Review & How Did You Do Poll

  1. Best event in a LONG time. I was able to complete characters before they ran out without spending clams. All too often I feel as though TinyCo just wants to make a buck and deliberately makes them just that little bit too hard so we have to spend money. This time, however, there were plenty of purchasable characters and costumes for that and they made earnable characters achievable. I can finally say ‘Well done to TinyCo’.

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  2. Strangely enough I got all the free characters… for free. So, good deal. Missed the last ‘joke’ cause no way I was killing the plant monster a second time with a day left.

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  3. I was thrilled with the pace. This was the first time that I was able to achieve the “freemium” characters with any confidence. I did have to use some clans to complete some of the tasks/characters but it was manageable to earn completely free. It was nice to have the choice. In the past I’ve felt that the way the tasks were set up made it impossible to actually complete the tasks in time without coins. I’ve missed several (like in the James Woods event) because the drop rate made it impossible to finish before the timer ended without coins. My account is set up to block in app purchases completely to prevent overspending so if I haven’t earned the clams to bridge the gap all of my hard work was wasted. I was pleased with the tasks being achievable this go round. I usually got mine in the last day but the work was progressing.

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  4. I really enjoyed this event. I was able to get all costumes and characters freemium. I was able to defeat Serleena for the second time in the last 30 minutes (whew!). I focused on what I wanted rather than trying to complete all the new character questlines. I hoarded all of my slime until the end which paid off as I was able to buy a whole lot of mystery boxes. Actually, all of them which gave me the Stewie and Brian statues as well as the buildings. I felt this was a reasonable event as it took effort and planning but was doable freemium. That’s the kind of event that might tempt me to spend my clams. I do wish there were more space to place things (acknowledged by Gameshow Peter in the new event). I also wish there were a break between events to be able to finish some questlines.

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  5. Since I’ve been playing (Peter’s Booty Haul) I think this has been the best event for me so far. Maybe TinyCo is finally listening. The event wasn’t easy or impossible either….it was “achievable.” Which I think that is what everyone has been asking for. Still had to log in regularly and do the work, but I was actually either a day ahead or right on time for the next week. Where I’m usually a day or 2 behind!!

    Loved the mystery box prizes in week 4 which used the slime and also tried my luck at the 180 clam mystery box as I had some clams saved up and the “double clam offer” helped too. Plus the “unlimited clam TV glitch” (which unfortunately I didn’t take as much advantage as some it appears) helped out too.

    Also, got the little green man with 50 Neuralyzers (Great option, TinyCo!)

    Anything else I’m forgetting is all compliments on this event. I didn’t really have much to complain about it. Except………I’m noticing that I’ve been pushing thru the 4 week on major events…I think 3 weeks might be the sweet spot for me.

    As always, thanks to the ladies for all the info!

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  6. really enjoyed this event. prob the best for a long time – since 1st star trek maybe. the theme was good, the items needed were actually dropping when they were supposed to.
    the only annoying thing for me was the battles – lois and peter missed far too often and i dont ever recall them getting a super hit during the battle. in fact, it was only when i paired Lois with a 2nd person that she actually hit anything. wasted loads of MIB pass things because of it.

    Well happy I unlocked Ming with a few hrs to spare!

    Good job TinyCo and big thanks to the Addicts for all the helpful posts along the way 🙂

    Now, onto the next event…..

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  7. I tried all three of the mystery boxes (haven’t done that in a while, so that’s an indication of the fun I was having plus I liked the content. The poll doesn’t allow for that, btw.

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    • It should allow you tick the boxes you tried, with their being 3 there was few combinations of trying more than one, so I just left it at choosing which boxes you tried. Sorry about that.

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  8. Stayed in week one. It was ok from what I was able to play. Wish I had more time to commit to the game like before. Missed out on the worms, really bummed. HAD to get Frank the Pug so I splurged & bought clams.

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  9. What about clam glitch i want to know about clam glitch

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  10. I really enjoyed the event. It actually felt fair for the first time this year. It was very balanced, even though I missed out on 3 buildings – but I didn’t mind as most of the event buildings are in storage now. I suppose if I hadn’t bought the alien guy I could’ve got them, but I don’t regret it at all. I do regret buying Zed as he could only battle Week 1 aliens and only collected nets (I had hundreds of them!). Overall, a good event – I hope TinyCo have learnt their lesson from the Camp Wars nightmare event

    The Daily Task issue was the only annoying thing… but only for one day as fortunately the work-around was posted here pretty quickly. It was a non-issue for those willing to put in 5 minutes work (install FB GameRoom, clear the tasks, done!) instead of complaining about it for days. I’ve never had crashing or glitching issues either, so I’m not sure why there’s always complaints here. I think crappy hardware is mostly to blame, but that’s easily fixable by installing an Android emulator or FB GameRoom.

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  11. This was a really good event. Unlocked all the non premium characters/costumes without having to spend tons of clams of affect my day to day life. I had to start phase 4 late so did have to speed up a few tasks to get ming, but I was ok with that since I didn’t think I’d even get close to unlocking him! Way to go tinyco!

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  12. Great event. Managed to unlock all the freemium characters with ease and came very close to finishing the questline for week four. Week four seemed like it was going to be a challenge, and though it was the most challenging week it was still very doable. My only complaint is that I have no time to finish the character quests due to the mini event having already been started. I mean at LEAST one day would’ve been a huge help.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. When do we get our prizes?

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  14. event was ok only got to week 3 and unlocked flash and the alien before the event end… i was hindered by the daily quest glitch that put 3 of my event characters stuck in a building for about a week

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  15. It has been a long time since I actually enjoyed an event. I unlocked all freemium characters and skins, most of the buildings and decorations (missed out on 3 of each), and even managed to place in the 3rd tier on the leaderboard.

    I focused only on the main questline and kept everybody on material collections non-stop until I had unlocked everything. Then I went back and knocked out the individual questlines over the last two days.

    Perhaps it was the content that increased my enthusiasm (all of the 2017 events had been a real snore-fest in my opinion), but it was nice to feel motivated for a change…

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Oops, fell asleep missing out on the final couple of hours, so didn’t get to spend any of my thousands of event-deco-currency or use spare neuralizers on the previous weeks unclaimed prize ladder items, but nevermind at least I completed the whole event for once and even defeated Serleena a second time just for fun!

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  17. How many of y players bought coins 2 complete your quest. I played 4 weeks and did not complete some missions. And I check my game at least 3 times a day.

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  18. I did pretty well, but I didn’t get that Stewie skin and I really wanted it. 😦

    When do you think the next event will start?

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  19. I thought this was a huge improvement. Better characters and much fairer, even for freemium players. Not so many painfully bad timers/drop rates.
    Well done on this one, I’d say.

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  20. After I unlocked Flash Gordon I pretty much gave up. Used the time to complete the new character quest lines.

    I didn’t enjoy the multiple characters required for combat that could only be used against specific creatures and then useless against others. Lois also missed more times than I would have liked.

    Still not a fan of the ‘currency of the week’ system. If TinyCo want to use a new currency so all players start equal then I would prefer once currency throughout. By this I mean the different currency for neurolysers (or whatever the flashy things were called).

    I wouldn’t object to a 3 week event with a one week rest. You could use the break to finish up character questlines or take a break so game fatigue doesn’t set in.

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  21. Probably the most laid back event in a really long time. I never once felt stressed to get everything. Now I will say it did lack creativity. The inclusion of Flash Gordon was odd too. Honestly I would have preferred a Flash themed event with a splash of MIB rather than the other way around.

    Overall it was fun enough. A-

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  22. Great event in my book. Very fair and everything was attainable for free with a little effort. I liked the battle interface and the fact that higher level buildings could drop warrants and revive potions. I also liked that you could trade in neuralyzers for another character (little green man)! Buildings are useless but characters are always good.

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  23. I’m not even sure I got out of week 1, to be honest. I found this event was the buggiest in recent memory.

    One of the buildings to help get Lois’s costume disappeared until last Sunday (when I discovered it in my inventory – which is where it definitely wasn’t when I looked there after it disappeared – which I checked on multiple occasions).

    More often than not, it took longer to load the game than the amount of time I actually got to play it before it crashed. A character (I think it’s Ron Griffin) was – as of the last time I checked – stuck in the Clam. I completed the 3 tasks but the game crashed every time I clicked to him let him out. And the daily task for that day never expired. And the other 2 characters in that daily event wouldn’t indicate their tasks were complete – no matter how many times i sent them off to do them. After a while, I didn’t even bother to try playing. My policy became, if it crashed, I’ve got more important things to do with my time.

    The game seemed to crash when I did other things too. Once when I was watching an ad for a clam. Another when I tried battling a bug using Agent Pee.

    I’ve long since given up expecting this game to be fun…but with it’s flakey behaviour, it’s becoming less of an addiction with every crash too.

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  24. I had a different experience and didn’t enjoy the event at all. Felt like a reskinned event again and the glitches hindered advancement. I had two characters needed for arrest warrants stuck in buildings for days so I only got to the last phase two hours before the event ended.

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  25. I just wanted to comment that the GIB event was the first one in the last couple of YEARS where I managed to complete ALL of the questlines before the event ended. Sort of reminded me of the game’s first year.
    Ironically, with Futurama, which is still in its first year, I was unable to complete that event in time.

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  26. i bought two of the mystery boxes they released today and just got 2 decos 😦 was hoping for the Brian and Stewie status 😦 but unfortunately i didn’t have anymore plasma 😦

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