Halloween Discussion Thread
 

I know the majority of the community was disappointed with last years Halloween event, so use this thread to make suggestions(or request they bring features from previous Halloweens) as to what you might like for the upcoming Halloween. Also, post whatever you didn't like from previous Halloweens. Halloween is almost 2 months away, so they might listen to certain things.

I will start by making some suggestions:

1. Halloween themed skins for the bow
2. 1 Daily Halloween map with a special treat(500-1000 to decipher)
3. A candy collection competition directed towards guilds (players would have to wear their tag to earn collections for their guild).


Note: I don't know how far in advance they start working on future events or if they have already decided what they are going to do, but I'm hoping there's still enough time.

Apparently Rufus is running around ol west with his assless chaps, so classic needs our help.

I really like the idea of a guild collection competition instead of a player one. I really really like it. Though I suppose noob recruiting could kind of interfere with that, unless it worked where the guild leader had to sign up a certain set of people prior to the event and those people would be the ones to do the collecting for the guild, similar to how the GST works.

You need to be a bit a lot more specific than that. Anyone can say "make Halloween event for guilds".

Agree. That's what I wanted to say originally, but being so close to Halloween I figured I would keep it as simple as possible in order for it to have a reasonable chance of being done.

They could use this as a test run to see if players actually cared about it and then maybe improve it for next year.



Just a simple candy collection competition like 2 years ago. Only difference is that the candies collected would go towards the guilds total.

What came to my mind is something akin to what the egg hunt Easter event was a couple years ago, where eggs would spawn all over the place and the first one to touch it got the egg. Most eggs=victory. There were usually certain spots where lots of people would prefer to catch the eggs, and if this kind of event became guild-wide, the members would be forced to spread out to all different areas to collect the most eggs. I'll try to think of more possible ideas but that was the first one that came to my mind upon seeing that.

I really like the ideas already suggested :) I would like to see the giant pumpkin (boss/blob) again.Maybe bring back spiders?Maybe just random ghost spawn around the world (No candy in them)? I'm not very great at ideas but those are some I miss/want to see again.

1. Haloween quest
2. Haloween bow and bomb skins
3. cool items with a witch theme
4. Costume contest
5. creepy pasta contest
6. Ghost busting
: You get a vacume and you need to get as many ghosts as you can, if you manage to get a ghost you get a random haloween item(could be a item or a trick)
If you get a trick then a baddy will spawn and you will need to kill it or they do randomlook on you or you get warped away.

8. haloween music thats cool like the unholy nations one
9. Sardolanterns (my head with a light in it)

pumpkin boss was cool

For once I dont feel it should be a guild thing

I like the themed skins and the halloween map idea although 500-1000 to decipher is a bit too much unless you'll still be including loot as one of the special treats. The candy collection for guilds is a neat idea but theres so many problems along with it, the noob recruiting, the difficulty of players actually finding a guild, etc. I sort of prefer the legit old halloween style when it comes to actually collecting candy by stalking the ghosts because it was truly competitive, fun, and kept you active.

You have to be more specific when you say halloween quest like, whats it involving, the challenges, the tasks, and the reward.
The bomb skins are a must and the bow skins will be a new addition which would be awesome to have.
The costume contest I definetely agree with, it should be held every two days till the end of halloween and basically make players choose to do the contest or continue getting candy.
Creepy pasta, idk how that would work unless you mean we add a 7 wonders of Graal Classic like the moving statue in sards stuff like that.

I just don't see what was so bad about the ghost candy hunting...

Guild Event? Idk, maybe it could be a seperate thing, instead of forcing players to use teamwork and have to find a guild (not everyone is in an active one).

Instead of having the ghosts be around the map, it could be better if it was in an event house (since less lag/less generated mobs), and you could do maybe:

Single Entry - 10 candies (5 minutes)
Party Entry (up to 4 people) - 40 candies (5 minutes)

Like aguzo said

Gosth candy hunt was fun but it was a lot of work for the gfx team as i heard (i wasnt there)

Im not for a guild event since its up to player to play solo or teamwork

A custom event would be great, but it wouldnt be a weekly event like the usual one on graal so there should be another event in the same time (candy hunt or gosth hunt or something new)
Something i think would be disturbing for the custom event would be :
Only gfx player could win (even if there is alot of great gfx in this community, some are from the graphics team sooo)
It would be better if player could pick winners but the only way i see is the same one from the old system where player could give some idkanymorethename points but like before, some people would just afk at balamb and as for the new players to give them out some pts
(well maybe we could only allow the +100hrs ppl to do it)
If i think in another way, we could make this Halloween fashion show like the one coco made from St Valentin but it was her who chosed winners
We could have some judge
Ughhh I'm thinking too much
There is probabily others way to host this Halloween fashion show if it will be hosted i just wanted to more specific

bring back the 2013 event, catching candy from ghosts with nets

I agree with the vacume and everything else it will be fun c:

Who are you going to call

the copyright claims

I think it be best to not include the requirement of using our bug net because the lag will make lots of people mad.

Maybe somehow use shovels instead? You know just going around town and digging to find something surprising. And instead of ghost you look for graves and dig on them. Since, its stationary, IMO it will cause less anger since there's no chance of missing. And ofcourse it gives you random prizes.

As for the guilds, I disagree with this because anyone can be in multiple guilds so its kind of pointless. I really wish that they could have an option for people not to be able to join other guilds, but idk...


Also, can someone remind me what the events were last year?

I think that the idea that they had last year where you could trade in your candy for different goodie bags was a good idea but people are always going to find some aspect of it to criticize which is why there was such a big drama about it last year. -_-

I think that the idea of having a pumpkin blob boss for Halloween instead of the normal green blob would be pretty cool. :D

Or maybe a Halloween quest where you have to solve a murder mystery or something along the lines of that?

Who said this halloween would even be different from last year?

It sucked, many agree isnt that enough to change jt back to the way it was rather than this new stupid, non competitive way.

No shovels no shovels

Bring the old skeleton quest back but with a different reward

I didn't enjoy the trick aspect, because I didn't have a lot of time to play during the week leading up to Halloween, and so when I traded my candies in and the vast majority were tricks, it was very frustrating. I think candy should win, just the high quality items are ofc rarer.

Ikr shovel is worst that bug net but still GOSTH CANDY HUNT WAS REALY FUN and i dont remember we had that much lag but rn we are almost like +2k ppl now

I disliked catching candy from ghosts, as did a lot of people - "not enough ghosts, always get stolen from, too hard."

Which is exactly why a new idea was brought to light. And now that it has been experienced, people want to latch back onto the old event. This happens with everything, there's never any middle ground. Just remember, if you ask for something different, expect something different. Complaining about what you asked for is really ironic.

To be honest, the ghost catching was the easiest thing if you didnt stay in one spot hoping to catch one from a bunch of noobs. If I and a few friend can achieve over 300 pieces of candy, win a trophy to brag about it, it wasnt too hard. Unless you had no time, or got frustrated really easily in which case having a guild to help is useful since I led Wing members and about 4 of them won the trophy alongside me.
I agree this always happens but the new option was terrible, they even made the candy turn in's extremely expensive so all the candy you earned was basically nothing so no one really got a hat, or anything cool unless they were in the 9-10 thousands.

I never partook in Graaloween last year so I haven't got any opinion on last year's event. However, I did 2 years ago and I do know that the NPC's you gave candy to were rather stingy as well. I don't recall the exact number of candies I cashed in (was enough to be annoyed with my results that's for sure), but with all that I did give, I only got 1 hat.

My point here is, they both in turn, had similar rewarding standards. I personally liked going about and giving my candy to the NPCs (livened them up for sure), but really it's no different than cashing your candies in for a bag.

Last year's event (even though I didn't participate), was much more symbolic to Halloween. Trick or treating at player's houses and such (that was part of it, yes?).

Maybe we should try and improve the new Halloween system?

try domething new, surprise us

See thats the problem you had, you had a rough time with the NPC's and thought "this is annoying, lets change it" and I don't blame you I do the same thing. But the challenge was the point of the whole event, and if you had lots of candy you would have gotten more hats, because I had about 600-400 pieces of candy, and I have every hat from the last ghost halloween. I think you just had bad luck in this situation. If you didnt participate in last halloween then ofcourse its hard for you to understand, imagine 500 pieces of candy you earned from all that collecting turned into one prize and that one prize might be gralats, thats how it worked so everyones candy was drained and the least hats I got was 2 and a couple pieces of furniture and when I say couple I say literally 2 furniture.
Sure its an event that makes more sense for halloween, but the ghost catching was fair, fun, and competitive.

I don't understand how shoveling is worst than bug net. Mind explaining?

Shoveling would be like an easier version of bug net while still keeping the competition feeling since you still have to fight for the spot to dig.

last year's was insanely boring, hoping this year's incorporates some element of actual gameplay rather than a popularity/gralat pack contest
99% chance I won't participate either way because I'll be busy, but would still be nice to see something interactive

I'm actually sort of surpirsed they still do events and stuff for halloween. So if they do something, whatever it may be, will be a treat. I didn't participate in the event 2 years ago but I can already tell by what it was that I wouldn't have liked it. They way they went last year was good move because everyone was a winner because anyone could collect candy with ease. I like all the ideas being suggested here so far!

I'm not sure how well this would work, but a house decoration contest could be neat. Players nominate other players who they think have the best looking Halloween-themed house. The ones that were voted for them most would be the ones competing in the event. Once the nominees are chosen then players can vote on the one they want to win. The winner would get a big prize. Some sort of voting house with their statues would be useful so players can enter their houses one after another to compare.

Its a cool idea, but itll be in the favor of those gralat pack buying credit card spending kids that think their cool. Itll be an unfair advantage, this is why the ghost hunting was fair, fun, and competitive.

Many graalians will be at a disadvantage since many aren't focused on furniture like others do especially newer players. And voting could also just become a popularity status vote.

I was very happy with last year's Halloween event. I thought it was extremely well designed. I (and many of my friends/guildies) had a lot of fun. There were a few problems, but that was to be expected, since it was a whole new system. And they did their best to tweak things that needed tweaking as the event was rolling out. It should run much more smoothly this year, given that they have a better idea of how it should work.

The only thing I would like to see is.. more! More stuff added. More fun. There were lots of treats last year, but so many "tricks". I'd like to see some things expanded upon. I honestly loved it. All I want is more.

One thing in particular I'd like to see; Deadwood needs some love. It's been reduced to nothing but a tower. What better time than Halloween to re-expand deadwood?

Oh there's one more thing. BRING BACK SPIDERS!

I was thinking they open a grotto in deadwood near the graveyard
You can dig the spot that has an X on it
you will fall in a dungeon


Their will be haloween tokens which are a special currency used to buy stuff from the special haloween shop
their will also be shards which will need to be collected to make a haloween token. 5 shards=1 haloween token

In the dungeon you will have multiple ways to get haloween tokens
(dungeon is singleplayer only fwI)

baddy slaying
Spar ( warps a random player who is in the dungeon into your lvl)
You will need to spar the player for haloween tokens.

Is that the only reason?

I still feel shoveling could work for a replacement even if it takes a second longer than a bug net.

Last year's event was too boring, mindlessly entering people's houses over and over. Then you enter the same house twice not realizing it and it's just a waste of your time. Not to mention you have to pay to hand out candy past the first bowl. I rather enjoyed the ghost event, and would like to see that brought back.

I enjoyed both of those events :shock:

lol I agree with the mindlessly entering part. I was like crazily searching random players and clicking each one. Wasn't really fun after a while.

Maybe if they do decide to do the house again, they should change the whole idea. Maybe place bowls with candy around graal instead of players houses, maybe in the houses of NPCs. This would be great way to spread graalians since everyone would be going around the map. It was the part that I liked for the event 2 years ago for trick and treat, where we had to interact with npcs (Hated the timer though).
It was really expensive to buy the bowls so it would be cool to be able to find bowls instead (Ehem through shovels), but still have the option to buy for those that liked it.

They should do what they did two years ago when you go to different houses around the map. The NPCs had a basket and you could get items or something.

I would say to use the house-to-house idea, but make it so you need a costume to get the items.

The costumes could only be won by helping the Onnet witch with getting her ingredients.

We really do need to include that Witch in Onnet every Halloween. We can't just let her confuse graalians in going through that forest with no prize at the end.

What we did 2 years ago needs to be done, you catch candy from ghosts with your net, you take it to NPC's around the map who ALL can visibly seen on EVERY Halloween event to DATE and those hats should have a 50% chance of dropping.

Except not include the time limit for trying for a trick or treat. Or atleast reduce it to 5mins.
But there's probably going to be a huge lag if we use nets. So we need to figure out an alternative for getting candy that won't cause lots of lag (or atleast not get many people complaining that lag is causing problem for an event).
But do please keep the way the prizes was handled last 2 years ago, it was really fun to go around talking to npcs, or finding ones you liked. This will also cause less lag than it did last year where there was only one place to get candies and prizes.

How about an event that is not boring repetitive garbage. I'm sorry but no one enjoys wandering around trying to grab candy from ghosts. Sorry, if you find this enjoyable (lol liar)

Ah I forgot how much last years event was just a farm fest. Obviously stupid exploiters using candy in there house in manners inconsiderate and disgusting.

The entire trick or treating idea was good with npcs, but other than that please come up with new ideas for the love of Graal.

ok do it

Not gonna lie here but there are people that find catching candy from ghosts enjoyable. It's just that lag that many people will complain from, just look at how bugs are (you see many people fighting for one bug). It also includes some competition that is equal for everyone which was one of the reason that many liked it, I believe.

I liked last year's trick-or-treating because it's the traditional, real-life way to trick or treat. You go to someone's house to get candy. I also liked catching ghosts because it's more competitive. Maybe both could happen? Forgive me while I ramble.

There could be two ways to get the same prizes. Last year's way would stay the same; collect candy from houses and use the candy to get goodie bags. However, instead of ghosts dropping candy they could drop some sort of other NPC-tradeable item (let's just say coins for now). This way you won't be able to use candy to get prizes from NPCs, and you won't be able to use coins to get goodie bags. It's obviously easier to get candy from houses than it is to catch ghosts, so goodie bags would be more expensive than trading coins to NPCs. Both ways would offer the same prizes, and hopefully since they require different methods to obtain said prizes it would be somewhat balanced.

Building upon my previous paragraph, perhaps instead of coins the ghosts could drop halloween-related items, such as bats, spiders, pumpkins, bones, etc. With these items you would have to find the NPCs who are looking for these specific items in order to receive your prize. Since you would be searching for the NPC that wants your item, this could be an alternative to the cooldown on candy trading as we have seen in previous years.

TL;DR: Do both, but tweak it a little to make it balanced.

How about this?

We can keep the "traditional" way of getting candy from houses.
But, those can be candies that are for "Regular Prizes".

There could be some sort of competitive way to obtain candy for "Rare Prizes".

"Normal Candy Box" can be bought with normal candy from house collecting.

And "Rare Candy Box" can be bought with rare candy, which you get from some sort of event.

I'll try to think of something that could be fun and unique this week.

An interesting idea would be instead of using player's homes we could have the bowls of candies in NPC houses? It would bring traffic to those desolate, mostly useless homes of NPC's and such.

Zone did this, and it led to players moving around the map a lot more rather than idling at start. This way it appeals to the actual holiday, and anyone can do it. There would be no hogging of ghosts for candy, and there'd be no searching for random homes of players. It would make the NPCs around the map much more lively too, they could dress up and talk to you when they give you candy.

I think this is a great in-between, and could be expanded upon as well.