[2021] Springtide 2021 Feedback

Hey all! This year, Springtide returns along with the Pufflehop Rescue event. I provided my feedback from last year and so for 2021 Feedback I'll start by observing how this year's iteration worked out compared to last year's and then provide new feedback for this year.

Addressing Feedback From 2020

Things I liked:

• Refreshing Hunt Mode: The rules of the event mode have not changed. Oddly enough, this event is the closest we may ever get to what resembled pre-Reforged Dauntless because we still have to spend at least some bit of time searching for the pufflehop pen.
• Event Hunt Shop: Aside from the lantern and curiosities, nothing else was different about the shop
• Pufflehops: In 2021, these furry buddies did make an appearance all over Ramsgate which was pretty nice! Great work!
• All Hunts Contribute Carrot Chips: Same as last year
• Incentive for Public Hunts: This is still true but I wouldn't even waste my time with public hunts in the event (see 2021 Feedback below).
• Efficient HP EXP Grind: In the age of Reforged, I feel like I care more about Weapon EXP than Hunt Pass EXP...
• Quest Jumpstarts Grind: As I've gathered enough coins to buy all the items from last year, the initial bump on my way to finish the transmog didn't really do much but it was something I guess. Maybe it'd be better for the newer players.

Concerns and other things that I think need improvement:

• Time used for spawning?: I didn't get the sense that this was addressed all that much
• Poor Egg Visibility: This was addressed in this year's iteration. The eggs have a small blue highlight around them. Thank you for addressing this! For a slight improvement, it may be better to have
• Styxian Hitboxes: I'm not sure anything really changed regarding the hitboxes
• Styxian Respawn Rate: I don't think this was changed
• Bosun Markus = Pufflehop Enthusiast?: This was addressed through Honest Ozz being the new Event/Rumor NPC. Thanks for the addition!
• Plat items in event shop: Addressed in two cases 1) Plat items do not appear in the shop and 2) Plat items are indeed advertised on login. Thanks for addressing this!
• No Pufflehop Armor Transmog: No other armor besides the helm but we do get some repeaters Transmogs which is new!
• No use for excess chips: Addressed through curiosities but I'm not that interested in them
• Incredibly Fixed Experience: Nothing was changed to address this.
• Plat Carrot Chip Boosters: The Bunny Ears make a return. No changes addressed my prior feedback.
• Unnecessary Plat/Carrot Chip Division: I think the lantern was the only item that is available by either plat or Carrot Chips. Looking back at my previous feedback, maybe it isn't unnecessary to have the division there if you want to encourage people to hunt
• No excitement to grind: Aside from the Pufflehop repeaters and the lantern,
• No event webpage?: There was a webpage this year detailing the return and new rumor. Thanks for providing that!

New Feedback for 2021

Last year's iteration, you were only able to gain 50 Carrot chips by completing any other hunt which made the Event mission the most efficient path to collect the shop items. With this year's iteration in the age of Reforged, slayers can get carrot coins by breaking behemoth parts which brings to mind two criticisms of this year's event.

No Pufflehop Event rewards help progression: This also holds true for last year's event as well but this was something I realized when I look at the Frostfall event where the rewards were certainly generous (perhaps too generous). In the Frostfall event you were able to get consumables, bounty tokens, curiosities, patrol keys, etc by participating in any hunt. You'd think that for a special event that similar rewards were provided but none of the items I listed were obtainable from this event. In absence of a gift curiosity, I'd be happy with a Pufflehop Reward Core provided as a reward from completing the mission and also as a choice in the Event shop in a rarer quality. The Cores could contain Rams, Merits, aethersparks, patrol keys, or reagents/consumables as a start. I think a really nice item to consider as a reward would be a small amount of Weapon EXP (say 150-250) for a weapon of your choice.

Pufflehop Event Mission is not efficient for grinding Carrot Coins: Last year, as I mentioned the event was the most efficient way to collect Carrot Coins as you only gained a small flat amount through other hunts. This year with the amount of Carrot Coins you gain from targeting behemoth parts, I find it way more efficient to just grind 1-13 Escalations and farm parts that way than playing the Pufflehop event which really hurts the purpose of having the event mission in the first place.

I think for a quick an easy way to change this, I would start by doubling the Carrot Coin gain from the event mission in all phases. If I wanted to go even further and maybe provide a less fixed experience, I would have rare bonus eggs, pufflehops, or styxians that provide a larger carrot coin bonus to your final total.

Why the currency cap?: One other item that just popped into my mind was that there is a max limit of 10k carrot coins for each slayer to have at once. Is there any particular reason to place this limit during the event as opposed to after?

Those are my comments for this year's Pufflehop Rescue. Let me know your thoughts!

Thank you for your time and have a good one!

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