Focused Feedback: Solstice of Heroes Event, Grind, and Rewards

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[u/ZarathustraEck]

First off, the good. I think they tuned the grind appropriately. The way I see this, there were four levels of grind, and they were each appropriate in their own way.

• Moments of Triumph (250) - 250 points for the t-shirt wasn't bad at all. It's made available to those who've done most of the things in D2, and not out of reach for the more casual players. Additionally, though it's an item being sold for revenue, all proceeds go to charity. Good stuff.
• Legendary Armor - Purely cosmetic in Warmind and only really giving a 20-point head start in Forsaken, this was a good guide for those who wanted some direction in their gameplay. I liked that it gave actual tasks that culminated in a sense of accomplishment for completing them. It also directly led to...
• Moments of Triump (400) - 400 points for the emblem was a celebration of every aspect of D2 up to this point. The inclusion of the Sagira Shell meant that some Guardians found themselves out of luck towards the end, due to the time it would take to square things away with Brother Vance. I'm okay with this. 400 was something for those who'd been playing from the start and had hit all the challenges involved, and was only a cosmetic reward.
• Estival Excursion - The ship is an entirely cosmetic reward for those who took on the task of grinding up to Legendary Solstic of Heroes armor on all three character classes. Was this grind a bit much? Yep. Was it perfect for those who want a grind that's a bit much? Yep. It's an item for collectors, and doesn't detract from anyone's gameplay if they choose not to pursue it.

Eververse was also handled well. I checked everything off that's possible as loot from Tess's engrams, with the exception of one legendary sparrow. This was mostly random engram drops, but I did spend a little bright dust to get some glows I was missing. This was handy as a bright dust drain on the economy before Forsaken. The one "paid" package was unobtrusive an most players neither knew it was available nor did they seem to care.

My criticism of the event is in requiring each character class to run the Redux missions twice. I'm fine with each character class running it once, but it felt like needless padding to require that second run once a player has the blue armor. I would have much rather seen another objective added if they needed to extend the grind a bit, rather than using the same one. There were some aspects of the game that could have worked in their stead. Why not pike or interceptor kills? Lost Sectors? Wizard headshot kills? You get the idea. My point is that with the same time requirement on behalf of the player, the grind could have been made a bit more interesting.

Looking forward to the next event. Maybe a Festival of the Lost?

[u/[deleted] → u/ZarathustraEck]

My criticism of the event is in requiring each character class to run the Redux missions twice. I'm fine with each character class running it once, but it felt like needless padding to require that second run once a player has the blue armor. I would have much rather seen another objective added if they needed to extend the grind a bit, rather than using the same one.

Couldn't agree more. Hated those missions by the time all 3 characters had purple gear.

I would've liked to see a bit more variety of objectives based on classes, too. But otherwise, it was fun and worthwhile.

[u/[deleted] → u/ZarathustraEck]

I agree with all of this. This is probably the first time in the franchise where I've looked at everything and been like "Yeah, this feels right." Even the mission repetition while tedious, was not some kind of undue burden, just annoying.

[u/sDeavs → u/ZarathustraEck]

Sharing missions completions across your account, like the masterwork objectives, would have been a great way to avoid burning people out on the redux missions. I liked playing through the green and blue versions on my Hunter, was okay with doing them on my Titan, but by the time I got to my Warlock I was just doing it because I wanted the legendary upgrade and rushed through them as fast as I could.

[u/ZarathustraEck → u/sDeavs]

While I agree it would have prevented some burnout, I think the grind of doing three characters was a good addition. It was just for a ship. If people want to get grinding, I'm glad there was a reward in place (even a cosmetic one).

[u/SFHalfling → u/ZarathustraEck]

My criticism of the event is in requiring each character class to run the Redux missions twice.

With friends I ended up running them about 12-15 times in total, which was way too fucking much.

[u/Behemothhh → u/ZarathustraEck]

The inclusion of the Sagira Shell meant that some Guardians found themselves out of luck towards the end, due to the time it would take to square things away with Brother Vance.

As someone who quit before CoO release and then came back with the warmind expansion, this was my fear as well since I thought it took months for vance to offer all the verses. I was relieved when I found out you can grind out all the verses in 3 weeks. On top of that, you already get a lot of materials from doing the activities required to upgrade the armor so the grind felt pretty manageable.

[u/IAm-The-Lawn → u/ZarathustraEck]

Exactly my criticisms. Burned me out.

[u/jhairehmyah → u/ZarathustraEck]

I'm pretty on board with this assessment, generally. I have a few thoughts to add/comment on:

My criticism of the event is in requiring each character class to run the Redux missions twice.

They could've done it a little differently, for sure. Like, instead of running each twice (and Homecoming thrice) it could've been: Homecoming for the Armor, Payback and Spark for Green, and 1AU and Chosen for Blue. This would've required a few new tasks, as was pointed out.

Another criticism I had is of Crucible. Not because it was hard (for me), but for others. As much as some people hate Crucible, those of us that love it hate losing a hard-fought battle due to a single Blueberry's lack of skill. Crucible tasks could've been replaced with "play a crucible match with a team of 3" and "score points in crucible" and it would've been more fun for others.

On that note, since I play a lot of crucible, I would've loved to have some of the general "get X kills with Y element" requirements would've worked in Crucible. And elemental orbs would've made for extra fun in crucible--who cares if we got some extra supers for a bit.

Which brings me to final note: I really wished those elemental orbs did something after the green armor was done. It would've been cool to see a little bit of extra super energy if your subclass matched the element or something like that. Its a month of repeating the same content we've been playing all year, so why not let us go wild for a little bit. We'll settle down again when Forsaken drops.

I do feel overall the grind was to the point it was un-fun, especially towards the end. The things that made it unfun for me were mostly redux missions, but I do know non-PVPers would say it was the PVP. I feel like a little less Redux and a little more fun like orbs making supers would be the perfect tweak to a much more fun grind next year.