I strongly dislike the whole "use event currency to have a chance at getting the actual event currency" system we've got going on this year. The battles aren't fun and I feel very frustrated. Echoing a lot of previous sentiments, I think the old July storyline could have been tweaked and rewritten.

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At this point I'm ignoring 80% of the enemies and only fighting the ones I know are weak to the "claw" attack. I seem to be losing slightly less often. Slightly.

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Cas (#67347)

but even then you have to pay 5 MS per step.. it's so frustrating D:

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I know /: I'm not sure which is worse. Flushing the shards down the toilet ignoring the enemies or flushing the shards down the toilet being stunlocked to death, or getting three shorted by an enemy that's supposedly much less powerful than me.

Me >>>>> Enemy

LIES.

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You worded it perfectly in your post OP.

I'm only pushing myself to get Axion Cores because of lionesses (and to give this event credit - I really think it's better when the claiming costs 5AC instead of 50 MS). But the only way to get new currency (aside form ocasional celestial explore drop) is to battle unbalanced overpowered NPCs that don't even give you EXP (seriously only 100+ EXP from celestial battle? General explore battle gives me 300+! and it's WAY easier) which is extremely frustrating and disheartening.

Like you said we have to gatter one currency from random explore drops first to be able to participate in the event and it seems overly complicated to me. It sucks that we no longer even have general explore ecounters that give you out extra MS.

The art is really beautiful and I'm looking foward to see a storyline next year, but at this point the event mechanics is a hardly playable, unbalanced mess.

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okay so its not only me having issues and,, getting tired/stressed because of this event. i was disheartened when they said they were removing the old event but figured they'd replace it with an event that was equal to or better than the old one. i was disappointed about the pay to play type explore it incorporated, and missed having an actual storyline past 'space dragons'.

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I 100% agree with everything said here. This event might be good soon but as it stands it feels like a diet June event on LSD. It hurts that we won't ever be able to see the original July NPC characters anymore, I get the original storyline had some problematic elements but I feel the story could have been recycled. It could have been changed and maybe we could have gotten some kind of sequel or even a prequel.

I'm so disappointed that the Tefnut storyline never happened. I just miss my favourite event. I miss the characters I and many others grew so attached to. It's like the community wasn't even given a chance to make a statement. I miss the old July. I miss that feeling of magic and excitement collecting whispers and fireflies.

I wanted to like this event but I don't. I really don't. I hate how repetitive and grindy it is. I hate how I feel like I have to grind to get enough currency to grind for another currency. I hate how it feels like Wolvden and I paid for early access. It just sucks, it feels lifeless. It feels like I'm playing another game, trying to find reminants of what was once there from the real July event.

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I know I've posted here a few times by now but I really tried to like this event. But as Eiflekat so eloquently put it, it DOES feel like a diet June event on LSD. That is the perfect description. I honestly haven't even bothered doing anything in a few days because the only thing I was really interested in was the raffle and the apps. And I can enter the raffles with minimal effort.

Imo it would be pretty neato if we could get tangible goods from the portal sometimes. Like, "You lead [Lion] to the portal, and as they step into it, a Space Rock [or something] floats through from the other side. You decide to take it with you to remember [Lion] by."

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I'm gonna do the same as the person above (completely agree with everything you said btw, getting goods from the portal would be pretty cool lol. So, love your idea!!) because;
1. it gives me an excuse to rant cause this event has just really disappointed me lol.
2. The 3rd stage has unlocked and... my opinion hasn't really changed.

I also really tried to hype myself up for this event but it's honestly fallen so flat for me that it's just really bummed me out and tbh I'm actually looking forwards to the end of this event and starting August's which looks hella interesting to me(I'm not a year in yet so to anyone wondering why I'm so hype for August, that's why lol). The only thing that's keeping me in this event in the Celestial Raffle & the Portal which is still pretty useful to me.

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With this being my first July event. I kinda feel like I missed out on whatever the event was about last year. I don't mind the use of the event currency to take steps in the explore, probably because I also play Wolvden a lot, but the fighting is so unfair sometimes. Even when I am way stronger then the NPC, they will stun me like 4 times and at that point I just flee. Or I will somehow miss 7 times in a row. I guess the journey thing isn't too bad, I am enjoying how the story is playing out. But I wish I could've seen what it was last year.

Edit: Also, can somebody tell me what the portal even does? I don't really get anything from it, which is disappointing cause you have to sacrifice a lioness for it.

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The portal gives you one random of: 1) 30SB, 2) 3% impression, 3) LevelX20 Exp, or 4) 30% Energy.

Pretty nice bonuses to throw NCLs in for. Especially the Energy one since you can then go right back out and get more NCLs (plus MS and other encounters).

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Yeah the portals good but it's no different than the murder stone from the old July event

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Oooh. Thanks, I do have a lot of Newly Claimed Lioness so I can just send em all in the portal lmao.

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Back again to lament that at this point, this event is just exhausting and vapid.
Since the only thing there is to do is to fight unbalanced battles, it keeps coming back around to that issue; I am doing my best to just muscle through the month and earn what I can, because I happen to have enough MS to do so, but I feel really bad for all of the folks who work hard just to get 20-30MS, only to waste it after getting nuked by a recurrent theme of unfair RNG/balance.

At the very least, LD staff, do something about the NPC stats/attack rollouts, it's ridiculous for people to be wasting so much time earning one currency just to participate, only to lose all of that currency to earn little to nothing of the actual currency needed because of skewed fights

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The math sucks too!

Usually, during an Event, you quickly get an idea of how much currency you earn a day, so a rough idea of how many days it takes to get X Y Z items quickly forms. Say, in Feb, I can remember users getting 60-120HS a day, so 1-2 Buffs worth. Not bad, right?

1 energy bar, so far, has given roundabouts 10-25 MS. It takes two hours and a half to regen a full energy bar, and that's a pretty decent output... right?

10-25 MS is 2-5 steps in Celestial Explore. Best case scenario, it's all Axion Core drops, fights you win and one boss fight you win. At the *absolutel most*, one energy bar gets you 7 Axion Cores. That's best case scenario: between encounters that are duds and lost fights, I'd say getting 5/5 AC per step is generous, let alone actually defeating a boss. 3 AC per 5 steps seems a little more in line with my experience

2 and a half hours = 10-25 MS = at most 7 Axion Cores, most likely 3

With 7 Axion Cores, you can get a small sparkly decor, which is actually pretty good for an energy bar... but that's the unlikely perfect scenario. 1-3 AC seems far more likely an outcome, and with that you can get... *nothing*!

With the News update coming out as I was writing this, let's do more math:

The marking applicators are 80 AC

At best, 80 AC = 400 MS* = 16 hours of energy regen
_{* didn't include boss battles for simplicity, just doing 25 MS = 5 AC flat}

Best case scenario, assuming 25 MS per energy bar, and every step results in one AC gained... taking my more conservative estimates:
80 AC = ~666 MS* = 26.64 hours of energy regen
_{* didn't include boss battles for simplicity, and going with 25 MS = 3 AC, assuming dead encounters/lost fights}

At least it's a goal to work towards, which I appreciate. I've seen popular apps with far more intense energy bar investments, and having a number to gun for can be fun! ... right?

That potential for motivating goals and/or regular Decor gains is offset by the Celestial Raffle.

It costs 5 AC to enter, which is - at best - an energy bar's worth of currency. Probably two - that's *five hours* of waiting on energy regen, plus actually winning a good handful of the Celestial Explore raffles. Five hours to enter, with the most likely result being that you get nothing.

Before, the Firefly cost to entering the exact same mechanic was minimal - off the top of my head, you could earn the needed Fireflies after one-two visits to the Cloud Forest, so an hour tops with the timer. You were still likely to not get anything, but at least it wouldn't cost you a Decor's worth of currency, potentially five hours worth of currency, to do so.

Once people start realizing this, entries for the Celestial raffle will dry out more than they already have - I wouldn't be surprised if Stratosphere marks struggle just because of the timing of their introduction. Why waste 5 AC on an old base who only has Stratosphere Vit when I could put that towards Decor, or a Dawn base gal? With Fireflies being a dime a dozen, entering every raffle was a given; now, juggling the currency might hit the demand and interest in a new BO marks, and that's sad.

Now, I don’t have currency per energy bar info for other events off of the top of my head. But let's look at October. Another battle heavy event, but one that’s really enjoyed despite it all!

I'd hazard a few guesses at what October does right:

- All encounters are in the same zone, but game time influences spawns. Users looking to fight the undead/that fucking spider/etc can fight at night to boost their chances

- Many individual battles give enough currency to buy a decor. ONE battle can net you a decor, holy cow!

- Many encounters have alternative resolutions: get the Guilt Trip amusement item from the undead wildebeest, Karma Luck the demon to try for rare decor drops. On top of a host of other encounters that drop decor or currency without triggering a fight!

- Most enemies aren't ridiculously hard. Claw most Rabid things, most angels/demons go down easily (barring a few, fuck you Talos) and the non-storyline enemies that are hard usually give rewards of according value.

- Secondary currencies (the scales and feathers) can be earned alongside the Blood Beetle grind. (I'd argue Shards of Evil are almost a fourth currency, and they're also found in Explore/via a few bosses)

- There’s an abundance of choice in how to pinpoint your grind to aim for what you need: fight at night and fight monsters for pure BB; fight in the day to avoid them and get rabid, easy to kill fleshy critters in the day; fight your faction's adversary to get Angel/Demon shop items.

- AND, here's the kicker, with the Demonic Whip and Angelic Wings, unlocked 10 days into the event, allow you to keep grinding (and completing quests) without fighting.

I think comparing/contrasting October and July (or March/June, if you want to be more fair in terms of content) is very useful in illustrating what makes for a fun battle event... and what doesn't.

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