Oktoberfest?

Well said shepherdgirl we all have our many different lives we try to manage from day. Totally enjoyed the read. Will anyone be posting a list of tasks after to at least try to prep for next one,today I had a catch lobster one for 360 a first for me. The rest are a blur lol but after some sleep some more will come to me. 😂 after such a confusing event here has been the fun and understanding and information.

I agree that whenever a new function is introduced things can go wrong.
But because of this every function should be tested before introducing. 
Every good software developer does this. 
So big mistakes, big issues, things you haven't thought about should be realised in the test. 

Little things can go wrong. Yes. You can never delete all little issues. Some things just appear by playing (using) it. 

But for me: As ducktown said, this was not a new event. 
And I looked like they haven't thought what it means if they attach a daily limit. 
Tasks that take over 24h were still there. And all the other issues we collected here looked like they haven't well thought. 

But not only this. 
If we say things can go wrong, the other side is how to manage this problems. 

I think the way SC did, wasn't the right way. 
There was no information during the event. To many of us it was confusing. 

Why haven't they excused once and explained the new rules?

Now at the end SC was able to bring a popup in the game to inform us the event is now extended. 
For the extra tasks there was nothing. 
Mostly I realized it by reading from others they have more tasks. 
This is not beneficial if you have to organize your time. 

Little extra thoughts on this: 
I sometimes watch Ricky Burnett /R3DKNIGHT. 
He said they told them about the points early, they told them about the prizes early (why is there a map piece) 
He mentioned we don't get enough points. 

So I can't understand why SC didn't listen to the Content Creators. 
They mentioned all the things which were so frustrating to us. 
SC knew about these facts. And decided to ignore it. 

In my opinion this is not the way a new event should be introduced. 

I can only speak for myself and a bunch of players and many ex-players, it is hard to see any aspect that would render this event new. Exactly the same structure that applies to the previous events. Even if it would be a new event, the obvious problem about this event is the complete lack of information and great confusion that has been created by SC on the players, which I think many players can agree with it (see reddit). In the first days, among others, the info in the game and the info on the social media were conflicting, no one knew what would happen if a task would be trashed and as such. Later, out of the blue, the number of tasks was increased to 15, and now I learn that it has been increased to 20.

This is simple bad management, which has nothing to do with the game being a possibly complex, huge etc. game. How can it be that difficult to convey the accurate information to the players about the event? So, it seems quite natural to me that players who wanted to get all the gifts but did not know to which rules the game was subject spent diamonds. Had the proper and accurate information been given to the players, and had SC had the sense of responsibility towards the players to make the math properly, at least some players would not have spent diamonds for the tasks. Will SC give a form of compensation as an apologise? Of course, not. 

This event is only one example. They cannot even "announce" the events in a coming week correctly. When the number of such instances which show carelessness reaches to a significant degree, it does start to take attention (when I make a mistake, all is fine - I and the colleagues try to rectify. However, if I happen to make the same mistake three or four times, I am sure someone will lift a finger, which also applies to SC as a professional providing an economic activity in the relevant sector). 

Like many, I am also playing another game - professional developer that takes responsibility when something goes wrong. The developer apologises, players are compensated and as such. As I wrote in another post, partly it is because of the objective and fair moderators on that game forum that do not hesitate to criticise the developer when something goes wrong, instead of trying to justify an error or a problem. As the representatives of the developer are also in that forum, proper communication is assured, and all runs smoothly. 

As regards the problems related to the content (may be called content updates (?)), I am not a game developer so I do not know. However, Hayday is not biggest game (if I am correct), there are hard-core complex and huge games where the content update problems are negligible. Just like I am paid to do my job properly (not poorly and half-hearted unless I aim to be fired), I would expect the Hayday team or SC to do their job properly and with care. Also, I would expect from a developer which is not a rookie to be able balance the demands of different players' groups. This game has been running for years, if they cannot balance different demands, it also indicates a problem. 

Again, mistake (errors) happen. What counts is the frequency of the errors and how they are handled, which SC does fail in my and players (that I know) opinion. So, I do not think that many players I know quitted is a coincidence. 

Happy that you and some/many players still enjoy the game. Happy playing. 

Now with a bigger chance for players to be able to complete the path, let's see what went wrong this event.

1/ Change of format with unadapted task
The change from Birthday event format (300 task for the whole duration) to 10 /15/20 daily task per day without adapting the task. Most of the task cannot be completed within the allocated time unless the farm is well equipped. That is the case forjam production, jelly bean production. Feeding or waking up Sanctuary animals is the worst. If players don't have enough sanctuary animals to feed all 5 or wake all 5 at once then the task that only have 1h to complete will expire. It also happens to me to take a feed pet task (1h only) before realising that all my pets bowls are already filled and won't be ready for a few hour. Task expired.
When there was no daily limit with a lot more task to use, these task aren't an issue because they can be skipped. But with not only limited time to complete (daily) and limited task to use, the task is simply not adapted, in my opinion.

2/ Task only depends on XP level
After months and months pushing for XP (xp event, farm pass...), I wouldn't be surprised that there are some player base with farms that are very unbalanced. By that, I mean they don't have enough coins to afford machine their level unlocks, let alone to have enough barn space/ silo space to hold enough ingredient to be able to produce whatever required for oktoberfest tasks. Some of them might not even have enough sanctuary animals for the related task. Tasks seem to be only level dependent, regardless whether the farm has the capacity to complete it or not. For these farms, the type of task they can complete is even more limited.
While this prevnet player to "engineer" their farm to gain advantage, it also punish farms that are not balanced coin/space/ xp wise. It has never been an issue in Hay Day before because there was literally no strong reason to keep a farm balanced.
I do think gaining XP too fast is not the best way to develop a farm and Hay Day has its part of responsibility by pushing for "xp collecting" via XP events and farm pass. Now it hits back.


3/ Bingo derby in the same week
Bingo derby is like trashing event for me. It also monopolize some machine or animals waiting for the right task. It only adds difficulties to the ongoing oktoberfest event.


4/ Incoherence communication
For those who aren't aware, I'm pretty sure that Hay Day, after early experiences, now goes with "Start hard, ease up later" strategy. I count on LynnK to find again the video of a game conference where Hay Day team explained that in the past. So, it's no surprise to me they "improve" the event after watching player stats and reading feedback from different paltform.
But that doesn't explain why their Official Support page and Facebook page gives contradictory information. And why they can't foresee the difficulties that come with daily quota during the conception phase. Once they was told by early feedback from their NDA member, it maybe already too late to change right before an update (or would delay the update unnecessary). Releasing the update via Appstore is not instant, it takes some days for the app to be reviewed.
Anyway, due to lack of clear information, causing unnecessary confusion in the early days, some players have taken decisions when they are not fully aware of the rules (that keeps changing). Had they known about the increased daily quota or the extended period, should they have decided differently.
In a few weeks, player might forget how many time they spent or how many diamonds they spent, but it would be hard to forget how they feel about the event, and how they were "tricked", unintentionally or not. But again, without communication, we never know.



Anything good in this type of event?
There is, indeed. Players seem to like the deco.
No fraud. Task have to be performed on that same farm from scratch, no transferable result, no possibility to manipulate task randomisation. To be able to enjoy this type of event without much stress, in my opinion, the more developed farm, the better. Level is not relevant here, but rather how the barn space is configured to allow production for different tasks.


That's all, I hope Hay Day team could improve their future events and stop repeating the same mistakes time after time.

No kidding, they move quickly! At least I had the warning with a photo of the balloons from here in the forum, so I knew to try and tap them. Unfortunately, I was using my phone rather than my iPad at the time, so my window of opportunity was miniscule. I did get some! 🎈

During my time in the official Supercell forums and here in JHD, I posted links to in-person presentations given by Supercell developers to their fellow peers. Sadly, I don't recall watching a video explaining Supercell's "Start hard, ease up later" strategy.

They go round in a continuous loop!

you can go back on the event task completion screen (by clicking on the picture of the bench with the green tick) and then click on the ones that escaped you the first time in as many tries of their floating loop as needed 😁

Totally gorgeous Dibley Fields. I love the look at the autumn set up in my friends farms Ours are not like that here and it’s spring, summer here. I call it that because weather gets hot fast it’s like it’s mashed together. Bauldersgate would love to see your tiles funny story been walking pass a guy that has been doing small tile work on his front veranda , hoping to see it finished this arvo when I walk into Perth to pick up hubby. Unless I get really good tasks and they add more I’m not going to make the final table. I’m okay with that the disappointment left a couple of days ago. Will happy admire others. Totally loving everyone’s input. The ready has be so interesting. Well said totally agree and can see all points.

It’s actually a very smart general strategy.👍  It’s better to ease up and appear generous, than tighten up and appear mean.  However, I’m not sure how it worked in this instance. If looking at Oktoberfest 2023 alone, it might appear to be the case.  But one could argue - and one does 😏 - that Big Picture, SC started easy (the “give away” Birthday and Colours events) then got hard (this Oktoberfest event).

Also allow me to say here - rather than starting a new post - that in her previous post, Cowslips did put the word “new” in inverted commas.  I therefore read that as her reference to the new rules of this Oktoberfest given its similarity to the Birthday and Colours events. In that context I think her point was well made. 

And (housekeeping) I think you’re right that it was during the December 2022 gift box event that SC extended the time.  I knew it was relatively recent but I just couldn’t bring it to mind.  Thanks. 

SC would have caught me well and good with Guitar Pig and/or Drum Pig.🫣  But I suppose…Oktoberfest.  Can't have it all.🤷‍♀️😊

🤣Sorry man.🤣

I wish that worked for me!... no re-do on my farm. 

I managed to finish in the end with the additional tasks and day, I wouldn’t have otherwise. It was very challenging and not as enjoyable as the last time. I hope the Christmas event is more fun as last years was great.

My smaller farms finished with the extension, but my baby farm only just squeaked in, I had only 3 tasks left. That was the one that hardly got any large point tasks, & kept getting really long time tasks (like 3 lollipops for 80 points) for minor points.