I want to start this thread by saying a massive, massive thank you. In the last ~48hrs I've received literally hundreds of messages on Torn and Discord from players all over the game, as well as dozens of very sweet people sending gifts and messages in my events. As you can imagine it's quite overwhelming and impossible to reply to even nearly everyone. I promise I will respond to everything anyone sent me - but in case that takes a while: It meant a lot, thank you.
Secondly, another thank you to CR. Knowing that I was going for a Summoning, and that a lot of griefing was coming my way from Monarch, without question all of my friends here willingly sacrificed doing a 100k chain this year - even those without the merit - so that I could get Early Discharge for a couple of days. I could not and would not have wanted to do this without them.
Thirdly, shoutout to Heasley4Hemp. Thanks for being my friend, and inspiring me in this great race over the last 5 years. Good luck next year with your Summoning.
Many of the messages I received asked my thoughts on the event, as well as a selection of questions that popped up again and again, so here lie my general thoughts on Halloween and Summoning, structured erratically.
Overall
Absolutely positive. Halloween is still Ched's greatest triumph, and that is honestly not in any way to diminish the rest of the game - it's just that great. It's an event where there is literally something for everyone, while also being engaging and active (instead of fairly passive, like the Easter Egg hunt for example). I hope that he continues to build upon the experience, with our help. And I hope that he enjoys it as much as we do, and understands our collective appreciation.
The Good Stuff
The true NPC boss fights were amazing. I think, given how the current NPCs go with Loot Rangers, it was quite an achievement to create a boss fight that took the entire community almost a day to complete. And I think we got very nicely fortunate that I was able to Summon just before Halloween, so the fight could end on Halloween itself. Serendipity :) The concept of "minions" and all the special abilities all of the NPCs had were fantastic. Regardless of loot, and whatever else, personally I had fun being involved in the huge fight when possible, and I do think many would agree. And having to organise in a big discord, it felt as exciting as the first year of Elimination.
The concept of travelling to complete this huge mission, also a very nice one actually - I'm glad the shorter locations were chosen. I think this could have gone either way; if minions/M'aol spawned in South Africa I genuinely think the whole event would have been incredibly tedious - I hope the locations are kept the same, maybe in a random order. It's also possible this event goes well with whatever is eventually in store for Travel 2.0, so we'll see (yeah, remember Travel 2.0?). Anyway, we'll come back to travelling.
The shiny purple "Apocalyptic" basket is awesome, and ticks off one of my hopes - an ultra rare (currently 1/1) item that is ultimately untradable and has no function. But, this is a personal feeling, and we'll come back to that. The immunity to M'aol was a nice touch - I very much hope this is a permanent ability for a Summoner. It feels an appropriate reward for both the grind and the flavour of the event. Ultimately it didn't help me gain any loot, but would technically give someone a slight edge. Seems well balanced.
As of yet, I have no reason to believe the basket provides an additional treat collection bonus, based on my (fairly low) statistics:
Keeping the treats is a nice touch and this at a minimum feels "fair", honestly. We'll come back to that.
The Relics that M'aol and his minions drop are awesome. I think they're great items that are a little OP, and in no-way game-breaking (yes, I'm using those terms with different definitions, sue me). They're never going to break the game. They're going to be mostly distributed to much smaller players, like Slots Jackpots, and if a top-end person randomly gets one - well, guess what, they're pretty much untouchable and have infinite energy as it is. But, we'll also come back to this.
Streaming to 2000 people was absolutely insane for me, to be honest. I never expected to have so many people interested in my little slice of the game, it was quite amazing. Yes, that's right, I am British! Thank you all for being there.
The Not So Good
For me, my biggest gripe is that this event highlighted how stupid the flight delay mechanic is, and more broadly how bad game balance is in some areas. OK, so you spend 5 years developing an event that will utilise travelling in a very strong way. And you in no way offer a defense against a cheap, purchasable job special that can delay flights by 2 hours each way, turning 8 minute trips into 2hr 8 minute trips. And when you spent money on a BCT, the flight lengths become effectively the same as if you hadn't spent any money...again with no defense. Free, easy griefing that ultimately can ruin what is supposed to be a community event for everyone. One flight delay (there and back) can cost you all 5 of the Minion NPCs - especially if the whole event starts as an unknown like this year (sure, next year I can fly to what we expect the 3rd location to be, or whatever). But that's 83% of the event gone for me, after 5 years of anticipation and grinding, for what cost someone who doesn't like me $12m. I think it's a shame; as much as the NPCs were great, only M'aol lasted long enough to survive a single flight delay.
In the end, as a Summoner, you really do sacrifice 5 years for basically nothing. There's no enticement to make this event happen unless you like shiny useless objects like I do. I think grindy routes should be aspired to and rewarded in "forever games" like this one - it makes them worth playing! It's a bit of a pity to have almost nothing to show for it (even an honour bar, damn). In combination with it being super easy to grief someone out of most of the event, I don't think I would have bothered Summoning if I'd known this stuff ahead of time. And, I've mentioned it a few times, but while I did keep my treats - I would have made like 30% more had I not bothered with the grind!
I think repeating the comments about "well we said it was bad" are nonsense. Many many resources were spent over many years of anticipation for this event. People grinding for the Summoning generated so much hype and awareness of torn that we celebrated our most active day of all time. The one thing that was absolutely hoped for, was that people would bother putting in the work to do this grind. You built upon our efforts. Payoff/reward for the grind or not, it's a little insulting to act like no one should have gone for it.
I won't spend much time mentioning the lag over a couple of periods, but damn it if I don't understand how after all this time we can still be hearing the word "unexpected".
The NPCs were great, but the weaponry felt a little damp-squib. Everyone got one, and in the end they were basically useless anyway. The mechanic could have been built in a way to ensure they were necessary, and honestly it would have been nice if the event was built in a way that the Summoner was necessary. The weapons were ultimately a let-down mechanic.
I'm sure there are reasons for one Summoning a year - I'm not sure I understand them though. If people grind, why not let them do it? We take down NPCs multiple times in every periodic event (Scrooge, Easter Bunny etc). I'm sure some flavour text could be thought of to make it make sense. Why make it so there will eventually be a queue? Or why, instead of preventing the queue, suggest we'll be able to trade in as many treats as we want? That sounds great to me, sitting on 8.5k treats - but that is over powered.
Finally - the Relics. They're amazing, and the powers are a nice addition to the game imo. But where are the drawbacks? These are superpowers from a spooky halloween monster. You get to re-read books infinitely with a special eye? Awesome - but now you're half blind, so you miss 50% of hits regardless of your stats. You get doubled regenerating bars (energy, nerve, life, happy)? Great - but the tentacle makes you feel sick and hyperactive if any of them ever become full, causing hospital times, reduced stats, reduced crime success rates etc.
Finally..FAQs.
What does your basket look like?
Like this! I have the first fully upgraded Halloween basket.
Did you get anything special for being the Summoner?
I think being a Summoner in general makes you immune to M'aol's harm. I hope it's a gained ability and not a one-off, or that's extra disappointing. Aside from that, nope. The basket appears to be the same as Nightmarish.
But you got to keep the treats? Will you exchange them?
Yes I did! And yes I will, once I make it back to 9999 I'll do one big exchange and post the log somewhere next year.
Is it possible to go beyond 9999 treats?
Nope! When I was at 9999 treats, I did not get Mortal Coil or Inflation. When I made an attack, I did not get a treat. And when Heasley4Hemp reached 9991, on the hour he received 8 treats from Inflation (instead of 9 or 10).
Will you Summon Him again?
I can't, you can only Summon once. And if I could, I probably wouldn't go for it again (assuming I had to grind up again).
Thanks all! Happy Halloween.
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