Make Forest Wave trigger through NPC dialogue

Choi

I think I've seen twice where people have failed the Winter Event because someone accidentally triggers the Forest Wave by walking to the forest, without actually having the intent to trigger it.

I would like to recommend that in order to trigger the Forest Wave, someone has to talk to the NPC and click "Trigger the Forest Wave." That way they have to actually intend to trigger it rather than just walk inside of the forest.

Or we could make it so that it only triggers if 3-5 people are in the forest, rather than just 1 person.

Of course, we could say that the players should just not enter the forest, but we've seen the event triggered by people who don't know the mechanics; this will just remove a lot of user error at no cost of the mechanics/communication necessary for the event.

aewuu

The NPC is triggered by someone who had won previously in the event. Newcomers cannot trigger it. When triggering forest, there is no "accidents" anymore, its intentional.

I do like the 3-5.

Dovezin

aewuu

Not at all. Even people who had won can accidently trigger it by not knowing that only going there will be triggered. It already happen.

aewuu

To trigger the wave, you literally have to go deep into the forest as the NPC is quite far from gate and where the forest actually begins.

Just to be clear, I am not opposed to the suggestion. But if there is anything to be tweaked, it is much preferred if the wave could trigger not from just one, but several people in the vicinity of the NPC.

Muh

So what is someone doing in the forest after wave 3 spawned? It was 100% intentional to trigger just by walking though.

Choi

Muh I understand that it was 100% intentional, but just letting them trigger by walking through has caused players to accidentally start forest mode even though it wasn't intentional. I think there should be a way to make sure that the players have to show their intention to start the forest wave.

The last two occurrences I saw the players stated:

"I literally just went to check west and it started"
"I summoned it then by mistake, guys. I had no intention. I just thought the wave would appear in the forest the ninth time... that's why I ran there."

Having it start by npc dialogue or by requiring 3-5 players won't change the event at all and just makes it so that mistakes like these won't be made.

Kokomium

Muh

The problem is due to the lack of information and documentation provided inside the game, there's still this misconception left in the community that Special Wave is triggered automatically if the previous defense is successful. You can literally see proof of this by scrolling through the logs to see how even the 'community leaders' still believed this was the case at the time, but shots already been called, misinformation's already been spread.

So what happens when they think Special Wave triggers automatically? They rush into the forest to prepare in advance. You see a lonely NPC in the distance, you rush in to defend them obviously, and now you've just unknowingly triggered the special wave for everyone.

As a game designer, you have to accept that players won't always play your game the way you envisioned. A robust game design accommodates this unpredictability, and Choi's suggestion is exactly that.

CongaLyne

ngl, when I first entered the xmas instance I thought "huh this forest looks cool" and remember walking straight into it

I can 100% see someone triggering it accidentally out of curiosity but it hasn't been a problem so far in the runs I've done so far at least

Muh

I did not say no to the suggestion, but I want to make clear - everything you describe is exactly working as it was designed. (accidents, curiosity)
The event warns you to avoid the forest - everything else was for the players to figure out and to communicate.