146075-shades-eve-feedback-thread

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I did a quick search to see if there was anything similar, but unless I am blind, no large feedback thread seems to exist for this event. Given that I have a lot to say about it myself, I figured I'd start one. Feel free to post your own thoughts on all things Shade's Eve, unless one of the Carbine guys comes in and says otherwise!
 
Shade's Eve Feedback Summary
This was a terrific example of a Halloween event. The story being told, while a little cliche, it was very nicely done. You guys went ALL OUT with decorating the cities, too. I remember logging in the first time with such a surprised face seeing all of the work put in to make Thayd and Illium extra spooky. (Exiles got it way better, by the way. Thayd was stunning!) No surprise here, the Shade's Eve music tracks did not disappoint. Like most of this game's soundtrack, they set the mood perfectly. I loved them, and I was only disappointed when I did not see them available in the Housing Remodel options.
 
All in all, you guys did a great job - I'm already looking forward to next year's event, the Winter one, and whatever happens along the way. That being said, there were quite a few things that didn't quite sit well with me.
 
Shade's Eve Spooky Costumes
I don't think I have any major complaints here. Both of the costumes are very well designed - and my initial reaction to the Angel's set lacking certain slots was invalid once I remembered you can completely hide any piece of equipment you want. (The Holo-Wardrobe system is great!) I saw a lot of requests to see the Plaguebringer outfit be made available, but I also remember a post that most of the pieces were simply recolors of existing models. I didn't pay enough attention to say one way or another. I think some more Halloween themed costumes could have been nice - perhaps a pumpkin head?
 
Haunted House FABKit
I made a thread not long after the event began with my thoughts. Since then, the FABKit became a permanent unlock for that character. Although this added a lot of value to the item, I am a person who plays many characters and ultimately I could not quite justify spending $20 on a one-character unlock, the same reason why I have not bought any of the mounts. Put my name down as someone who's willing and eager to spend more money on this game, but character-specific cosmetic unlocks don't do it for me
For reference, here is the Haunted House thread I made.
https://forums.wildstar-online.com/forums/index.php?/topic/144248-haunted-house-fabkit/
 
Shade's Eve Decor
There's a few things I'd like to tackle here.
 
First with the good - I was extremely surprised to see the sheer number of different decor options that were added to the shop and vendor during the event. Many of the pieces looked great and captured the spooky theme well. A few objects looked a bit... unfinished, but overall nicely done. I bought duplicates of all of them, on all of my characters. I am going to have to spend a lot of time gathering all the plat back I spent! Moving on to the bad.
 
To make it clear, I have expressed many times on these forums my opinion about store options. I'm all for the store, I have and probably will spent money on this game since F2P. However, I was not overly thrilled to see shop-exclusive decor in addition to the mount and FABKit. One great thing about the initial F2P launch was that all decor pieces you could buy were also obtainable in-game. This was the case with most, but not all during Shade's Eve. I would prefer that trend continuing even through events. The main reason for that is, once again, the problem of account-wide versus character-specific. I purchased (with Omnibits - I was not going to spend NCoin on them out of principle) several packs of Shade's Eve decor - but they still remain unclaimed in my Account Inventory. I have no idea which character will get the most use out of them, and until I am completely certain of it, they'll probably sit there for a long time. This connects with my next point.
 
Limited Edition decor is problematic to altoholics and collectors. I'm a builder with a lot of ideas, but I'm extremely cautious about how I use what I have because I feel like I'm signing a mini-contract every time I bind an item to my character. This is absolutely a self-induced problem, but it usually results in me hoarding things for days, weeks, or months until I know I can make the most out of it. I strongly believe that Holiday decor, especially that which comes from the Cash Shop, should unlock the ability to purchase duplicates on a whim from the housing vendor. The TFBTF posters clearly demonstrate that you can unlock individual pieces. Adjust the prices (in both money and Shade Silver) to compensate as permanent unlocks. Even if they were character-specific unlocks, knowing that I only need one would go a long way in encouraging me to participate (and, yes, spend money) more. I've crated a very small amount of decor I've received during the event, and I spent several thousand SS on decor. Honestly I suspect it will be a long time before I reach a point where I will comfortably use them without feeling like I may be wasting it. Who wants to take bets on how long my eyes/grimgourds remain unclaimed in my Account Inventory?
 
(Maybe we just need a way to send crated items between alts at least.)
 
Lastly, I feel like anything added into the Housing Vendor needs to be...
1. Clearly marked or able to be filtered. Even just ensuring that something like "(SE)" prefixes every exclusive item would go a long way. Note: This applies to Remodel options too. I panic-purchased quite a few different options since I was unsure whether or not they were Shade's Eve exclusives.
2. Available year-round, if you purchased one during the event. This goes into my last 2 points. Unlocking holiday decor items would be great, especially if it's in the Housing vendor already. Those aren't even gated by participation, those are already "how many are you willing to buy over the next 2 weeks". They might as well just become permanent unlocks. Some items in particular, such as the Gothic fencing and Dark Rowsdower Statue, have a wide range of uses as they are so far detached from the Shade's Eve theme.
 
Shade's Eve Quests
On paper, these quests were pretty good! They fit the concept of the event very well and none of them were particularly demanding. I absolutely loved the idea of the Trick or Treating quest - while near the end it just became a task of going from place to place from a provided list, there were a few days I took the time to look around people's plots. It was a very great way to integrate a housing/social experience into the quests. Good thinking! That quest specifically could do with a proper objective list, rather than a blanket 0/100%.
 
However, there were a few trends I noticed for almost every other quest.
- Spawn rates sucked. I'm sorry, but it's true. Doing laps around the Arborian Gardens for the effigies became a chore.
- Competing with everyone else, while expected, was frustrating with how easy it was to snipe the objectives. Fortunately for me (unfortunately for everyone else), I'm quick and make good use of hotkeys. I sniped many objectives (often unintentionally, as I didn't see someone there until after I swooped by and did my thing). It happened to me a few times, but I was usually bickering about finding the damn things I needed to interact with.
- Just required way too many. I believe the effigy quest was somewhere around 20? That's just excessive. The haunted location quest was a pretty good number, but poor spawn rates and high competition easily made that the worst one of the bunch for me.
 
Quiet Downs
Ooooh boy, Quiet Downs. Where to begin.
 
I will start off by saying I loved the concept of the dark thicket and having to navigate your way through it. I seem to be a minority there, but I thought it was very clever - especially considering that you are separated from your pals and have to group up again. The route became obvious only a few ways in, and it was very easy to "cheat" the experience by adjusting your gamma and opening your map. The ability to see your location, even on a blank space, was all you needed. The town is directly East; locating your cursor on the map told you everything you needed to know.
 
That, and it was very easy to jump over many walls and skip a ton of obstacles. Despite how easy it was to gimmick the entire forest, it became the only part of the expedition that remained relatively interesting by my 30th+ run.
 
Beyond that, it felt like a very festive expedition. Nothing spectacular, but I still enjoyed running it. There was an awful lot of downtime due to constant RP, which is fine the first few runs... but not so much when you're running it over and over again for Shade Silver. For being the most lucrative (and essentially, only way to earn a reasonable amount of Shade Silver, it was sorely lacking in replayability. I also found myself getting unlucky and getting consumable rewards almost every run. Do you have any how idea how upsetting that is? It's like getting coal for Christmas. If I get a Gold medal, give me something useful. Guarantee me decor/costume/mount/toy/SOMETHING that isn't a stupid consumable I can't even vendor for more than a couple copper. I'd rather just get a couple more Shade Silver and no box than get a booby prize for acing the expedition. PLEASE take useless consumables off of the loot table. Nobody wants them. They're not worth the 25 SS to buy a few, and they're not worth the time to take to a vendor for 5c. They should cost 1 SS for 5, and not drop unless they're in addition to proper loot. The expectation of getting them did a wonderful job at demotivating me from running it further.
 
End-of-expedition reward aside, actually running it felt very unrewarding. Nothing gave experience/Elder Gem points except a small chunk at certain checkpoints. I was hoping to kill two birds with one stone and make some alt leveling progress alongside farming, but between poor scaling and a serious lack of rewards, yeah, that wasn't happening. I didn't expect efficient, but I was hoping for more than a microscopic sliver of experience every 15 minutes - especially when low levels feel so seriously gimped.
 
I quickly discovered that the plague scientist spawns were fairly randomized throughout the labs, which might have kept that section mildly more interesting if a few potential spawns were not prone to evade-bugging, and like every other game it seems, one evade bugged mob that resets itself triggers the entire pull to do so as well. I got very frustrated almost dying a handful of times because I tried to pull but, but one mob in particular just refused to step over a loose cord on the floor. Killing the same group of 5 several times over because they refuse to die is not fun. The usual workaround of "stand in their melee range!" didn't seem to work for me. I ended up popping every CD and killing it before it reset.
 
The absolute worst part of the whole expedition was the scaling. Holy mother of cupcakes, whatever scaling algorithm you used needs to be ripped out of your code and hung on the wall of shame. I stopped bothering to run it on low levels, even geared ones, because without any form of healing I got destroyed. I never died, but waiting 2 minutes between each pull (that also lasts 2 minutes), was just awful. Meanwhile on my Level 50, who has reasonable pre-Vet Dungeon gear, did shred through the expedition like it was nothing.
...If I did it alone. See, I usually duo a lot of content with my good friend. He pulls substantially more DPS than I do, but 2-manning it made it take way longer than if I was soloing it. We tried 3 people once - never again. That took ages. I don't understand why everyone was looking for groups for that expedition, scaling was miles off and I think they were making it way harder on themselves than if they solo'd or duo'd it. Maybe I'm just absolutely terrible at this game and don't realize it, but I found it extremely bizarre that adding more people who are more geared and better than I am made it take significantly longer. Obviously it scales up because there's more people, but it didn't feel like natural scaling - it felt like upping a difficulty slider. I'm talking adding minutes to the total clear time despite shaving off seconds with all of the "interact with X and Y" objectives in the town.
 
While I enjoyed the expedition, it needed some serious tweaks. Better scaling, less RP, and more appropriate rewards. Those systems wouldn't require much of a redesign of the instance, and would still make it feel satisfying to run despite how repetitive it can get. It probably would have been more enjoyable if there were other lucrative, repeatable ways to earn Shade Silver. I felt forced to run it until my eyes bleed if I wanted to get an even remotely decent amount of SS during the event. Despite the huge wall of text pointing out what I believe to be the flaws of the event, I did have a lot of fun. I'm eagerly awaiting what comes next... but admittedly, it's a bit of a relief not to feel obligated to run Quiet Downs for another year. For your first holiday event, you did a great job, Carbine. :D	
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I really liked Shades Eve there are a couple of issue's I had with the event that could have made life a little easier but nothing major that put me off doing it.  I also liked the fact that the quests rotated so it never felt as tedious having to do the same collection quests every single day.  
 
Candy Bowls could have been made easier to firstly know what ones you have collected and secondly when first finding them to know who actually had candy bowls on there plots. Luckily plot owners started dumping there candy bowls at the beam in point to make it easier and the other issue's I got around by making a note of the plots owner and what candy type they had.
 
For the collection quests I think they could have peppered a little more of the items around, it got to the stage that people who were on the soldier path were using those transform guns on other people just to beat them to the collection.
 
Shades Eve instance I really enjoyed and was the main standout for me. It was challenging because as im relatively new to the game and im still slowly leveling my toon as I like to take in everything especially on my first character. When the event started my highest level character was lvl 16 and as a lvl 16 Stalker it wasn't exactly easy doing the run I had to tweak my build around a good few times before I got to a place where I could comfortably run the instance.  I liked the level of difficulty because it meant I had to watch what I was doing especially near the green globs so I never ended up with extra mobs on me. The only downside of the instance and nothing that you can really help is RNGesus did not smile on me and gave me nothing but junk but its not as if I went away empty handed because I got alot of stuff with the shades silver I earned.
 
Hopefully we will get to see more events and I cant wait to see what they are. 
			
				
	Edited November 2, 2015 by Scarran	
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I also liked the Stygian Thicket part of the expedition. I did the expedition somewhere in the 40 - 50's, and it was basically the part that remained the most interesting to me. 
I reaaaally hope there will be other alternatives to farming Shade's Silver next year. I'll be extremely disappointed if it's going to be the same stuff year after year. As I suggested in another thread, I'd love to see some kind of fun PvP mode where you're Shadelings vs Humans, and humans has to survive for as long as possible. 
 
Other than that it was a really good event. It's definitely among some of the better Halloween events in MMO's. I still miss something of the caliber of Clocktower from GW2, but it's a hard one to beat. 	
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Since this is the thread for it, I'll post some thoughts on the holiday event. 
 
First off, over all, it was great! Good job all involved. It had some problems but taken as a whole it was a lot of fun. 
 
That said, there are some things I didn't like that much. 
 
One, the instance didn't tune well. Lots of people said "Oh, just solo it. It scales." When I'd point out that I was on an alt 20 or under then it was "Oh, yeah, don't solo it." If it was meant to be soloed, it was way overpowered for the lowbie set. My lowest attempt was, I think, 14? And I was pretty much two-shotted by the first hostile mob in the place. If it's not meant to be soloed by low level characters, say so, or don't let them in without a group. 
 
The maze is almost no fun. I get what you were going for, but it always went on too long, there were too many roadblocks, traps, shadelings, etc. I was never in a group that managed to get though the maze before the Angel started sending lights to guide us. Even then it took people forever to get though. It's fun and spooky the first go, but it gets old super fast. Maybe reduce the number of traps or something. I don't really know how to improve the replay value of this bit. 
 
The mounts aren't account-wide. See the many, many posts and unhappy players about this whole single-character only path you're on. 
 
The fabKit was fixed, partly. Still not account-wide. 
 
Some of the dailies could do with a reduction in number of targets, especially the burning effigies and the hooligans (Dom side more than Exiles on this one).
 
I really wish more items could have been bought with shade silver. There were all sorts of special Shade's Eve housing options that cost gold or renown. Maybe next year you could figure out how to make housing vendor and remodel items cost shade silver instead of gold or renown, or leave these items as renown and gold items, but also put them on the Shade's Eve vendor for shade silver. Not a big deal, but it puts the items in reach of all players who participate in the holiday instead of, in some cases, just those players who are more well off. For example, one tree is 25g. I believe the Pumpkin Spice wallpaper is also. A bit steep for a new player. Not saying everything should be cheap, but why not let a player spend a few hundred shade silver on these items if they can't afford the gold or renown? After all there are items like this this year. We can buy them for shade silver or right out of the housing vendor for gold. 
 
The Ghostbusters event should give some sort of warning so players can get there before it starts. Or at least have an NPC give a breadcrumb quest to find the place and explain what happens there. Case in point, when I mentioned the event in chat a huge number of people had never even heard of it or seen it. I don't even know where it happens on Dominion side. None of my alts ever happened across it. 
 
While I didn't get shafted as much as other players, I only bought two on one alt, maybe make it clear that each housing plot gets only one type of candy. I saw a lot of players buy all the different jack-o-lanterns thinking each color was a different type of candy. 
 
So, yeah, no huge problems. But, there's some room for improvement. Over all though, great holiday. 	
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I still miss something of the caliber of Clocktower from GW2, but it's a hard one to beat. 
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...
 
Shades Eve instance I really enjoyed and was the main standout for me. It was challenging because as im relatively new to the game and im still slowly leveling my toon as I like to take in everything especially on my first character. When the event started my highest level character was lvl 16 and as a lvl 16 Stalker it wasn't exactly easy doing the run I had to tweak my build around a good few times before I got to a place where I could comfortably run the instance.  I liked the level of difficulty because it meant I had to watch what I was doing especially near the green globs so I never ended up with extra mobs on me. The only downside of the instance and nothing that you can really help is RNGesus did not smile on me and gave me nothing but junk but its not as if I went away empty handed because I got alot of stuff with the shades silver I earned.
 
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I think I'm in the minority here, but I hated the dungeon.
 
It wasn't really all the dungeon but rather the Thicket.
 
To me, the Thicket was the single most frustrating thing I've ever done in any game I've ever played.  The idea behind it -- lost and trying to find your friends -- was good.  The execution, however, was a fail so epic it defies description.  The sheer number of handcuffs (no lighting, no map, limited "ammo", one shot by mobs, hidden traps, reduced movement speed, having to run around and often backtrack to "rez") is mind-boggling.
 
If the people who designed this and those that ultimately green-lighted its way into the game weren't beaten with a bag full of oranges, I'd be shocked.  To put in an event with so many roadblocks during what's supposed to be a fun event is a total dick move, IMO.
 
 
Edit:
All that said, I enjoyed the other events.
			
				
	Edited November 3, 2015 by Tsark	
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I think I'm in the minority here, but I hated the dungeon.
 
It wasn't really all the dungeon but rather the Thicket.
 
To me, the Thicket was the single most frustrating thing I've ever done in any game I've ever played.  The idea behind it -- lost and trying to find your friends -- was good.  The execution, however, was a fail so epic it defies description.  The sheer number of handcuffs (no lighting, no map, limited "ammo", one shot by mobs, hidden traps, reduced movement speed, having to run around and often backtrack to "rez") is mind-boggling.
 
If the people who designed this and those that ultimately green-lighted its way into the game weren't beaten with a bag full of oranges, I'd be shocked.  To put in an event with so many roadblocks during what's supposed to be a fun event is a total dick move, IMO.
 
 
Edit:
All that said, I enjoyed the other events.
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The one really, really, really missing costume piece was this tentacle thingy on Seraphine's back.
 
Carbine should have made it available for the shoulder slot.
 
 :( :( :( :(	
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The one really, really, really missing costume piece was this tentacle thingy on Seraphine's back.
 
Carbine should have made it available for the shoulder slot.
 
 :( :( :( :(
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I do agree that the challenge made the expedition interesting, however my problem with that difficulty was that it was very inconsistent and simply badly tuned. Whatever scaling formula they used was horribly off. It was excessively difficult for lower levels (particularly those without any healing abilities), and way too easy on a high level with barely any gear. Throwing people into the mix rarely solved the problem - though you probably had a better shot at success, for some reason it just made the mobs have way too much health.
 
That said, I don't agree that this expedition should be overly challenging, because the rewards are already, in my opinion, on the low side. The low experience gain, low Shade SIlver amount, and the reward box that can often contain completely useless junk; while simultaneously being the only effective way to farm the currency... I would have gotten sick of that expedition long before I did if I had to actually worry about failing. Clearing it just wasn't satisfying, it was a relief.
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I enjoyed the entire event, for the most part.
 
The instance was a wonderful diversion and I was still enjoying myself 30 runs later. Of note, I only attempted this is a group one time, with the guild. While it was fun because we were all together, I found it too restricting to my play-style and thus, did every other run solo.
 
I had no problems with the Thicket, and when I got frustrated, it was a frustration of my own making (trying to skip parts and ultimately getting killed by the shadelings.)
 
The bridge between Thicket and Bunker was fast and painless. Eventually I just resorted to always choosing to Help the Villagers because it was faster, but both forks were fine. I was hoping there would be some kind of Achievement tied to picking the "right" Host or maybe once you'd picked all the Hosts in different runs. After I'd done through the list twice, I just started sacrificing the stupid Aurin. Shame he kept running away.
 
The Bunker was perfect to me. I loved having multiple goals. The mob density was a *little* thick in spots - and while an experienced player had no problems, I quickly saw where less experienced players could find themselves in a mess, quick like. The Boss Fight was about par for the course, a short multi-stage affair with sporadic voice overs giving some lore and background. I always like fights that do that, so win.
 
Rewards were good and satisfying. The two costumes were now a permanent part of my Holo-Wardrobe and Kaine Manor will soon be hosting the Gothic Gate as an entry way. My little Shadeling is a bundle of cuteness and the Bat-Hoverboard is a perfect fit for my Huntress costume. (Didn't care for the punkin front or cauldron back so I didn't bother grinding them out. Maybe next year!)
 
Speaking of rewards, please ... Crabine ... friends ... please. Stop calling Cash Shop Items "Rewards" in your advertising. Please. Pretty please. It's not right and you don't have to be skeevy like that.
 
The Effigy Event wasn't great. Not terrible, but not nearly amazing. Now, the GRAPHICS were amazing. Loved that it kept burning for the days after it was lit. Would rather have gotten like ... 100 Punkins or something than the buff, but that's me.
 
The Dailies were frustrating at first, until I figured out all the less-traveled spots and started doing them very early or very late in the day. Too many folks vying for too few, too slow spawns in too small an area made me slightly cranky at my fellow players ... and that's never a good feeling.
 
All in all, I give it a 9.5/10.	
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The quests sucked, the prizes were "meh", the decor in the main cities is laggy and ugly, and Halloween is over. Please get rid of Shade's Eve soon. (like now would be good.)
 
Suggestions for next year: keep event duration to a week or maybe even just one weekend, and kill the quest that made people constantly spam in housing chat for candy...having people pop into my plot and then leave seconds later along with the chat spam was the real deal breaker for me.
			
				
	Edited November 3, 2015 by Pygar Jetrunner	
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			Just wanted to pop in and say thanks for the feedback! We're reading every word, and we already have a solid list of improvements for next year. :)	
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			I LOVED the Quiet Downs instance - ESPECIALLY the stygian thicket part. I really hope y'all don't change that, because it was so great and unique. I've never seen an MMO play with lighting the way y'all do, and I think it's fantastic.	
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Just wanted to pop in and say thanks for the feedback! We're reading every word, and we already have a solid list of improvements for next year. :)
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The quests sucked, the prizes were "meh", the decor in the main cities is laggy and ugly, and Halloween is over. Please get rid of Shade's Eve soon. (like now would be good.)
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Very fun event! 10/10 would celebrate again.
 
Make the rewards account bound, though, please?	
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Don't listen to this guy. Thanks!
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Hey, you liked the event a lot...we get it, and you are certainly entitled to your opinion.
 
I really didn't dig it that much- not enough for it to drag on for weeks and weeks...and my opinion should be heard as well.
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Something I'd like Carbine to try out is... making the event money account bound and making dailies just repeatable quests, with adjustments to eliminate quest interactable competition. Maybe turning quests into more fun minigames that people would like to repeat several times.
 
Account bound event money means that you don't have to do the quests on several characters to maximize things like costume acquisition or whatever, and making dailies just repeatable quests fixes the more alts = more event money problem (and the "obligation" to do the quests on several characters). I really liked that you could run the event dungeon again and again, so repeatable quests instead of dailies wouldn't really make people DROWN in event money more than they currently could. They'd just have an alternate way of getting as much as they wanted daily apart from the dungeon.
 
This way players would be free to do event things with whatever character they feel like playing at that moment (no more "do quests, change character, do quests, change character", etc), and they can rest for a couple of days without "losing" on "daily" event money.	
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Going to mostly echo Tex's post regarding my thoughts on the event. Except the Aurin sacrifice part. Mean Tex.
 
I'd just like to add that I absolutely loved the instance. Fantastically set up. I hadn't seen the final fellow anywhere yet before I met him in there. I literally wowed. Even after running it an odd 20 or so times I have to conclude it's not that bad to farm either. Thicket is always fun to get through. Bit too much dialogue and pauses in the combat near the end but worth it for the story the initial times you go there so I wouldn't change it. I just hope there's other ways to farm silver next year as well to shake the quest for currency up a little. Can't say much about the scaling. I tended to solo or duo run it with level 50s. Frankly found it to be faster the fewer people we were though. Would perhaps be nice if one or two new achievements get added next year, so there's something new to collect for those who completed it all this time around. Rewards at the end well... bit of a disappointment when you get putrid potions yet again, or a soulbound toy you already have. Would be cool if you could turn those in for a tiny amount of shade silver or some such so it it at least feels like you got something, even if it's little. Nice though that everything that wouldn't drop could be bought with shade silver instead. Very happy I was able to collect all I wanted from the event. Also the voice over at the end. The line with "...it will kill EVERYONE this time..." sounds wonky. Emphasis should be on the word "will". But I'm guessing you noticed that yourself by now.
 
Quests were all right frankly. Just a bit crowded. Trick and treat is somewhat of a chore though I like the concept behind it. Length of the event is nice as well. Always disliked that events tend to be so short in MMOs. At least now I had proper time to get the items I wanted without having to farm like crazy and on top of that I could miss a couple of days as well. Thayd decorations and music are brilliant. The place looks and sounds amazing. Also like there were things for the different paths to mess about with, though I didn't see anything for explorers.
 
All I can think of right now. Very good job on your first holiday event I'd say. Looking forward to the other events. I despise FtP and the cash shop, but seeing how you guys put your heart and soul into stuff like this stops me from going all jaded and allows me to still enjoy Wildstar. Even if the department that manages the FtP aspects is doing it's very best to stop me from doing so.	
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Lastly, I feel like anything added into the Housing Vendor needs to be...
1. Clearly marked or able to be filtered. Even just ensuring that something like "(SE)" prefixes every exclusive item would go a long way. Note: This applies to Remodel options too. I panic-purchased quite a few different options since I was unsure whether or not they were Shade's Eve exclusives.
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OP has a good outline, I think I'll follow it too:
 
Summary: This was great. The lore is awesome, the best part of the holiday. There are a tiny handful of things I would change before next year, though. And even so, all things considered, I'm glad it's (almost) over. This is already a game with a lot to do, which means that two weeks ending on Day of the Dead is about as much distraction from the rest of the game as I can stand.
 
Costumes: No complaints here, other than that I wish there was a version of the Angel's chestpiece that included those creepy tentacles. There's probably a really good reason why we can't have them, though. And I have to say: whoever designed the jacket and pants for the Jack Shade costume must truly and thoroughly hate cosplayers, that thing is gorgeous but completely unsewable.
 
FABkits: Honestly, all FABkits need to be one-time unlocks, like the ctrl-F2 remodel options. And speaking of remodel, interior remodeling on Haunted House FABkit is bugged all to heck and gone. Changing the music also changes the music in the first room of the main house. Changing anything else only changes it in the first room of the main house. At the very least, I wish you would fix the lighting, this badly needs its own lighting zone. As for the Shade's Pyre FABkit, I know I initially said during beta that the timer on this was too short, but this turns out to be just like Shardspire Canyon FABkit: once you learn the trick to it, it's easy. But it needs some kind of safe-fall option like Shardspire.
 
Shade's Eve Decor: I have a bunch of nitpicks here.
I found myself really really surprised that the player version of the Smiling Pumpkin Lantern doesn't glow. Also, why is this called Pumpkin and not Gourd or Grimgourd? There are no pumpkins on Nexus.
I think the attachment point for the wreath is bugged, every time I tried to place one I then had to manually tweak it because the back half of the wreath was embedded in the wall.
The gourds from the gourd assortment and the glowing eyes from the eye assortment need to be in the Shade's Silver store.
The textures on the bone altar are just plain wrong. The ones you use have bone-colored skulls, white wax candles, and actual candle flames. The ones you sold us to decorate with are metallic silver all over and don't burn, looking much much cheaper.
I also noticed that you made heavy use of the various spiderwebs when decorating Thayd and Illium. And who wouldn't? But we mostly can't, because those are incredibly rare loot drops. Please add at least one, maybe two shapes of spider web to the Shade's Silver store next year?
Decor that's sold by the in-housing vendor needs to be messaged better, especially since it's limited-time availability. There needs to be a Holiday category, or the holiday decor needs to go in Special.
I would dearly love to have the Shade's Eve houligans from the rotten-egg mission as rare drops from the Quiet Downs quest, so I can put NPC trick-or-treaters on my plot. And maybe even as super-expensive items in the Shade's Silver store. I might even pay NCoin or omnibits for them, if the price wasn't entirely unreasonable.
There needs to be some way to turn the green glow from the masks-on-sticks off and keep it off. Same problem with the effigy.
Speaking of the effigy, there needs to be some way to get the bound-together straw bundles that the effigies are stuck into in Thayd and Illium.
Shade's Eve Quests: Loved all of these, but again I have nitpicks about a couple of them.
For trick or treating, there needs to be some way, in the quest log, to see which candies you still need.
The rotten-eggs quest requires too many throws, and the respawn rate isn't great. The time-to-complete for the other missions is a lot more reasonable.
Once the effigy is complete, they need to stop giving wood. It just clogs up inventory. Also, the effigy's buff isn't very impressive.
The every two hours public event needs better messaging. I only saw it twice in the whole two weeks, and one of those times was because someone kindly mentioned it in /zone.
But the biggest problem I had with these is that the randomizer did a lousy job of picking which three to offer. I have at least one character that wasn't able to complete the achievement because I never did see the scare-people quest on days that I had him logged in. The angel's pilgrimage quest, in particular, needs to spawn more often, especially earlier in the event, to immerse people in the lore. I think you need to manually schedule these and/or offer more than three per day.
 
Quiet Downs: I loved it, especially once the settler bug got fixed. Gorgeous art direction, mostly-fun gameplay, great story. But dear god ...
The thicket is incredibly group-hostile. If we enter as a group, we need to spawn as a group. If you need to scale up the number of shadelings to make that fair, then do so, but having to wait forever for the last person to get un-lost and losing your gold-level to that person? That's the #1 reason why, by the end of the first week, people were gaming their way around the thicket, either by turning the gamma all the way to 0.5, by sending one person in to do the thicket and then joining on them after it was done, or both.
Speaking of the thicket? I hated it a lot less once another player pointed out to me that the town is on the east side of the map. The angel should probably hint that to people.
It's nice to have choices, but did anybody pick Investigate the Town more than maybe twice? Same reward, two or three times as long. I'd feel less forced to Help with the Ritual if the time/reward ratio was better balanced.
Mob scaling isn't nearly as bad as it was during beta, but it's still not great. Trash mobs shouldn't be harder than the end boss. My suggestion would be to "level band" the trash mobs, so that they don't spam their huge AoEs more often than people can reasonably expect to interrupt. Especially since, in half of the lab, if you dodge-roll you run the risk of spawning another shadeling.
The drop rate on the consumables was way too high, especially since hardly anybody wants them. Certainly not that many of them.	
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I LOVED the Quiet Downs instance - ESPECIALLY the stygian thicket part. I really hope y'all don't change that, because it was so great and unique. I've never seen an MMO play with lighting the way y'all do, and I think it's fantastic.
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+ Great visuals and atmosphere. Love how Thayd and Ilium were transformed.
+ Quiet Downs instance was a lot of fun and generally well designed (scaling issues for lower levels aside).
+ Costumes, mounts, decor all pretty good for the most part.
+ It felt like a holiday event, at least in the two main cities.
 
- The lag. Awful. Unplayable at peak times. Not sure how much of this was down to the art assets and how much due to player honey potting. Perhaps both. 
- Unimaginative daily quests with too much emphasis on players competing for clickables rather than co-operating with each other. Generally repetitive and not much fun.
- Effigy 'event' was a complete non event. All that for a short cutscene and a pathetic buff. Missed opportunity to pull the community together for a celebratory event. 
- Rewards need to be account bound. The content wasn't engaging enough to warrant repeating it across multiple alts.	
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kill the quest that made people constantly spam in housing chat for candy...having people pop into my plot and then leave seconds later along with the chat spam was the real deal breaker for me.
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I didn't even bother with the Trick or Treating. I am basically a lazy person on a schedule - and the schedule does not generally include going from plot to plot.
 
I am glad some people enjoyed it, but the minute I realized I was going to need a list of names or spam chat for candy, I decided against bothering.
 
Ain't nobody got time for that.	
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Also wanted to add that I found trick or treating to be a lot of fun. I liked having people come by my place. I liked seeing lots of different houses and what players have done with them. I like helping people out who needed candy for the quest. I kept a list of places that had each type of candy on both factions and anytime someone was stuck on the quest I could point them to a house with what they needed. And on days when I didn't want to spend the time going to new houses I could use my list to get the quest done in like a minute, minute and a half. One of my alts joined a candy circle on like day two with ranks being the candy they had at their house. Super easy. 
 
Please don't change trick or treating too much next year, if at all. A heads up to new players that there's only one candy per lot no matter how many jack o lanterns they buy is about all that needs to be added. 	
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Two things annoying about this feedback. First, you could have made your house private for the duration and no one would have been able to visit (you could have shut off chat as well, but that's a more extreme option that seems to bother some people). Secondly, this is not a binary. There are more options than having it in a form you (and a vanishingly small minorit from what I've seen) hate, and getting rid of it.
 
In my opinion, the idea behind the Trick or Treat was the best part of the event, and the community embraced it in the intent it was meant, making it even better. I had great fun going to see houses and meeting new people. The social aspect of this was awesome and something not seen often in modern games, and we need to embrace it and make it more common here.
 
There were a couple minor execution flaws that could have made it better, which I'm sure have been mentioned before but bear repeating:
 
Candy Flags- either in the random visit window, or next to people's names in chat, it would be cool to see icons for people showing what kind of candy they have, if their house is Open to the public. This could cut down on the repetitive chatter and make completing the quest easier.
 
Better quest listing- Using the completion% bar was a failure in this quest. We need to know which types of candy we've gotten, and what we have left.
 
For what it's worth, this event has actually prompted me to start work on an addon I have been thinking about for a while. I find the UI for Visiting others to be a pain, and when it comes to ToT, or harvest circles, or just visiting random people, it bothers me. So my plan is to make an addon that will let you program a playlist/timer that will cycle you through a list of houses (or randomly from house to house) for short intervals (set by the user). Think of it like the Timer device from the old show Sliders (only not broken so you're stuck unable to get home). I'll be learning as I go so this is going to take a while but I hope to have it done long before the next Shade's Eve. 
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I agree that the tuning was off and depending on what level you were it was easier or more difficult but I disagree that it wasn't rewarding enough.  Everyone had a chance to get anything that was on the vendor at the end of the dungeon from opening the box, I know some people who got the hoverboard so it was just down to luck.  But bypassing the luck factor you got at least 40 shades silver for completing the instance add onto that the amount you get for handing in the dungeon quest and more if you managed to get the optional stuff done but generally I got 50 shades silver from the dungeon which is around double for doing the normal dailies and the instance was repeatable.
 
So you could farm it as many times as you like and build up those shade silver tokens. If anything it was probably too rewarding as I imagine there are those that were sitting on a large stack of shade silver tokens just by farming the instance.  What other rewards where you expecting from the instance if you don't mind me asking? 
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Also the voice over at the end. The line with "...it will kill EVERYONE this time..." sounds wonky. Emphasis should be on the word "will". But I'm guessing you noticed that yourself by now.
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Love the decked up capital city. I wish the music could be bought for housing too.
 
Trick-or-Treating was the most fun thing ever. It was great making new neighbors!
Easy way to do it was joining a candy circle. No need to spam chat and no need to fill up your neighbor spot but still fun.
 
Love the decoration and costumes.
Grinding for silver took some time but rewarding. Going through the thicket was fun the first few times but soon became minor nuisance.
I wish the shoulder armor drops from the loot bag weren't BoP though, because I kept getting so many of them. lol
 
I agree that the effigy 'event' reward could've been better. It looked awesome but that's all it did really.	
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The every two hours public event needs better messaging. I only saw it twice in the whole two weeks, and one of those times was because someone kindly mentioned it in /zone.
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What public event?!?
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Oh, I forgot to mention one other nitpick:
 
During beta, I was one of the people who complained that Thayd and Illium were too dark, that I was having to turn down my gamma just to find my way around? Well, I think you swung the pendulum just a little too far the other way. To my taste, the cities could have stood to have been just a little darker.	
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I hated the thicket part of the instance so so so much 
I actually stopped doing the instance because of it.
 
The rest of shades eve was fantastic. had no problems with the dailies, a lot of people tended to try and do the dailies in one concentrated spot when you could complete them over a larger area. perhaps that needed to made clearer. the ghosts for example, most players stayed in crooked corner trying to get the quest done when you could zip up to the black hoods area and collect them all in peace, have the quest done in 10 seconds
 
thicket can die in a fire
rest of shades eve was great	
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			Surprisingly, players managed to build an effigy on Jabbit - 2. Considering 4 days back we were slightly above 27K it is almost miracle. But how do I get the buff exactly? I was thinking about dancing in front of it... not helping.	
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I enjoyed the Shade's Eve event greatly, and will mirror most that have posted with the good and bad parts. Overall, a very well done event.
 
My only quibble is that it would have been nice to see what housing vendor items there were much earlier and in a better organized way. I spent way too much plat only to find out afterwards that the item could have been bought at the vendor during the event instead, and saved many of the rewards to use (or sell if I didn't need them) after the event instead.
 
Adding the music to the housing vendor would have been appreciated too.
 
I personally loved the thicket after I learned how to go through it, despite the frustration it still occasionally caused me.
 
More quests and increased value from the quests would have been nice too. It was far more efficient time wise for me to run through QD for the return value than the small reward from all daily quests combined.
 
Atmosphere, artwork, design... all great. Since my entire Halloween experience was in-game this year, it was a really nice party.	
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The issue I had with it was the difficulty (for low levels) versus the reward. My max level was far too easy, my low level was far too difficult - and there was almost no XP reward for actually killing thing and doing the expedition. You got a couple small chunks of experience at 2 or 3 checkpoints along the way, all for 15+ minutes of time. That wouldn't be so bad if the instance was not something you were going to farm many, many times. When 15 minutes turns to many hours over the course of a couple weeks, I'd like to feel like I'm making some progress toward my levels (or Elder Gems), even if it does not compete with proper leveling techniques such as questing or PvP.
 
And the worst part of the reward was the loot crate. For me, due to horrible RNG, I got consumables a lot. I got a couple costume items, one hoverboard piece (on an alt, sadly), and only a couple decor pieces. Usually, I got a useless consumable, which made me feel like my time in there was even less worthwhile.. I ended up dumping a lot of alt SS and plat into the costume pieces so that I can pool my Shade Silver into decor. Since, as I mentioned above, the limited quantity of the decor you can obtain makes builders like me feel obligated to power through the seasonal content to get as many duplicates as possible.
 
Honestly all they would have to do to the rewards of the instance is bump up the XP a tiny amount, and take the consumables off the loot table and I wouldn't complain.
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			My feedback: Please don't murder me for having a controversial opinion here.  I get that people LIKE seasonal, limited events. But every time I see one I also see dev time that could have been spent on things that are BADLY needed in the game. Things which have been put off since beta and early launch.  I also see limited events as dev time that could have been spent on adding permanent features to the game.    Shade's Eve could easily have been a new permanent Expedition. The Hoverboard event should also be permanent.   Seasonal costumes and animations and monsters...that's all time the art and animation team could have spent on finishing all race and class combos.     Things like that. And this is not even to mention issues like current problems such as costumes and dyes disappearing, and the horrendous state of PVP.    I don't know. I see the current  state of the game, and while I appreciate the quality level of the event, I still get angry and the horrible waste of it all. Here's an event filled with stuff that could potentially be used ONCE ever.  For all we know Wildstar might not even survive until next year for the event to make a return appearance.   That bothers me on a very deep level, and I'm honestly disturbed that more people aren't concerned about it.   
			
				
	Edited November 4, 2015 by Elite Seraph	
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I am concerned, but remember the events were put off last year for that very reason. For that I'm thankful for having shade's eve and the upcoming winterfest, it's something I desperately wanted to happen last year and was so disappointed but understanding when it didn't happen.
 
I think deep down I'm always going to be worried that my favourite game will be buried soon, but right now I'm just trying to focus on the enjoyment I get from it right now.	
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			Seasonal events provide an important level of variety. It would lose its luster rather quickly if it was a permanent addition to the game and certainly wouldn't be able to carry the same thematic flavors.	
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My feedback: Please don't murder me for having a controversial opinion here.  
 
 
 
 
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I'm not going to murder you for a controversial opinion. (I might murder you for using twee-colored text.)
 
But frankly, you're wrong. Nothing kills an online game faster than staleness. Something needs to change, to keep it fresh, at least every couple of months. Bug fixes don't do that. Limited-time events do.	
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Oh boy, its been almost a year since i logged in to write something. Here i go!The event was amazing, and i'll point out what i liked and what i didnt, and what i think it was missing and blablabla.(Be warned, my english is kinda meh)The surprise factor
When my game kicked me out (whatever, dont mind) and then logged in back to find myself surrounded by Shade's eve decor was O__O, running around Thayd watching everything and all the new Props and stuff was really, reeally good. 5 stars for that decoration on both Thayd and Dominion. 
 
The Hub in both factions
Since i play on both factions because of reasons, i noticed that both hubs for Shade's eve quests were not that ecual when we talk about space. The npc's in Thayd had way more space than the npcs in the Dominion hub, and i mean from a player perspective, in the Thayd hub we had alot of space to move around, Meanwhile in the Dominion, it felt like too concentrated in a small place. I was wondering why you didnt used the SouthWest area from the Spaceport, that place with the tanks (like, just move them, 'cmon!)
 
What i liked
-Its already been stated many times, The housing quest was great for the social point of view, and i got to see amazing plots! -Music was great (Oh god the Shadelings music <3) -The dark forest of the dungeon (WHAAAAAT!?) yep i liked it, and again, as people said before, in 2-3 runs you get the idea of the direction and the exit. Head to the East, find the cementery, south exit between 2 tombs, then left left left and Done.-The town part was kinda cliche, but in a good way!, i mean, has anyone remember watching Goosebumps? It felt like i was playing an episode of that show, script wise. It was great. -The inside of the dungeon, the Lab part, i liked it. Im not sure but i dont think i've seen medic foes before? Good good.-The new decors, while im not a fan of green, i bought the hell out of them. -I found kind of dissapointing that some Decors (like the blinking eyes) were shop-only-The costumes were good, i saw some NPC's with hats and stuff that got me all like"... that hat... can i have one?" 
 
What i didnt liked
-As stated before by other folks, the consumables, while they're cool for a joke with friends, they are not that cool to deserve a slot in the drop rate at the end of the instance. -If i spammed doublejump in the thicket, the shadelings wont touch me, ever. :(-The scale in the dungeon for sure.-The final fight with Goodthorpe. What part? As overall, its good, and hard if you're not ilv40+, But i think i was expecting a fight in another eviroment? Dunno, maybe you inhale a bit of the poison in the area and alucinated a bit? that'd be a good excuse to put yourself in some epic-shade's eve zone, instead of that room, just saying.(Maybe thats asking too much, but the location itself wasnt that Epic for me, running away was cool tho!)-And, totally personal, i got tired of visiting the same people for the same candy, everytime i asked for candy in zonechat i got thrown a list of X name for X candy. I wanna see new houses dammit! 
What i think was missing
Some kind of game between players, some people had already said some "Human vs Shadelings" mini game sort of thing. The thicket was SO for this kind of thing... nnnnggggghhhh!!!11
Look at it this way:a- Housing community : Trick or threat quest was amazing for them! Bring a new/cooler version for Xmas! Also, tons of new Decor, beautiful. Keep them coming!b- PvE content : The dungeon/expedition worked, not for everyone but it was there. and it was good!c- PvP activity : None d- Jumping puzzle? : None :( There was the racing event, but it wasnt a Shade's eve thing itself.
EDIT: Forgot about the FABkit, its great!! but i dont count it because its not there by default, it required SS and a Plug to "unlock" that activity (and it doesnt help for farming SS. I hope you get the idea why i think it doesnt count as an activity itself. Its a great FABkit tho, really challenging)(im totally thinking on the events they do in GW2, they cover these types of gameplay!)We totally need more ways to farm SS. Hopefully to cover all types of plays!And thats it!Love <3 
			
				
	Edited November 5, 2015 by Yermoh	
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			There actually was a jumping puzzle. Shade's Pyre. It was a housing plug. It was a tough one until you figured out the trick to it.	
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I'm not going to murder you for a controversial opinion. (I might murder you for using twee-colored text.)
 
But frankly, you're wrong. Nothing kills an online game faster than staleness. Something needs to change, to keep it fresh, at least every couple of months. Bug fixes don't do that. Limited-time events do.
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There actually was a jumping puzzle. Shade's Pyre. It was a housing plug. It was a tough one until you figured out the trick to it.
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Shade's Eve Review
 
The Good:
Decorations/Housing~
 
What I loved about this event can be split into different categories. First I would love to start with the decorations. The town was gorgeously spooky, I loved the feel and the sky changing with fall leaves added even more to the ambiance. It wasn't just one area decorated, it was the whole city! Pumpkins galore, and tombstones everywhere was what I wanted from a Halloween event. The decorations for he Housing plots were perfect as well, I dont have much to say on them as I found it satisfying, especially the trees and pumpkin options. The supernatural sky is also pretty, I love the bright orange that it adds to your plot. Something I was sad to not see in the Housing Plot was the Halloween music. I assumed that the song "Things that go bump in the dark" was the Halloween song, but when I played it, its playlist was similar to ancient lands. I didn't bother with the new housing plot decoration as paying 20$ for a one character only never sits right with me, especially if the game wants to promote people leveling other ALT's. I think the spooky housing fabkit is the only real complaint I have with the overall housing decorations.
 
Music~
As mentioned before i absolutely loved the Halloween music in town, just wished it was available in the housing plot. ( Read my housing review section, as I think the Halloween song is selectable but is bugged to play a new song )
 
Storyline~
What can I say, I am a sucker for a dark storyline. It didn't have the grittiness I prefer with a Halloween story but hey, wildstar is a cartoony game so I expect light heartedness. I love the personification for the Shades and the girl known as Angel. It adds depth to how people coped with the concept of their people being wiped out by a plague. I would have loved however to see how other races had viewed Shade's Eve. 
 
Costumes~
Love the costumes! They looked very nice, especially for something that is completely free! I have nothing much else to say on this matter, as anything that is free and looks good I cant really complain about that!
 
The Bad
Story Dungeon~
Running the dungeon for the first time was fun, but after running it for the 5th time it got boring. The initial part of the dungeon itself was fun! I love running around in a dark forest, and trying to escape from creepy plague creatures. The forest itself was spooky and I loved the ambience of it, I hope theres more places that get added into the game like that one. Another downside is that this is literally the only thing you do this entire event! Sure there is daily quests you can do. But those get repetitive as well. What I was hoping was for other holiday game modes. For instances you could do a PvP game that rewards people with shade silver if they win, and a Ghastly decor item. For instance you could do Shades Tag, which is a PvP type game that takes place in the Stygian Thicket, one person starts out as a Shade Creature while others have to hide in the thicket with no access to weapons other than stuff they find within the Thicket to survive the time limit. When the Shadeling kills someone they become a shadeling too. Something along the lines of this, where its repeatable, its fun, its PvP ( Sorta ), and we get rewarded for having fun! 
 
Daily Quests~
As someone who comes from GW2 I am use to not really doing quests, however, I have played other games with daily quests that involved a little more than what was offered. The trick or treating quest was fun, I loved going to other people's houses! However this was the only quest I even wanted to complete. The other ones just seemed like typical quests we pick up in the game anyways. SOmething I'd change is perhaps add a spooky jumping puzzle and make the quest that you have to complete it. Or make a daily quest for a new PvP type game you added, or add a world mob like a Giant Shadeling spawn and have people track it down and kill it for special items and Shade Silver. I just feel like there should be a lot more than just quests for a Holiday event. 
 
 
Final Thoughts
 
Overall I loved the event, it was pretty seeing Thayd all spookified, and the items you got from it were well put together too! However I just wish there was more to do to these events. Read what I suggested above in the story dungeon section about adding a PvP type game you can queue into. I hope they continue to expand on their holiday events, because I believe those type of events really do attract more people to get on, especially if they are able to do a lot more than what they currently do now. 	
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So I got over 1300 Shade silver over today and yesterday. thanks to prolonged period of this event I managed to get mount, all mount fashion, all costumes, toys and all decor I wanted.
 
Also managed to get the Shade Eve instance done under 20 minutes whne I got grasp of it, finishing dark thicket everybody hates usualy under the minute - It is possible!
 
Daily quests and dungeon may have been repetitive after some time, but over and over this event was fun. I had motivation doing it as I wanted the rewards.
 
So thanks for nice event!
 	
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I really like Shade's Eve. I'm a little bummed out, however, then when the event ended, the currency and vendor also disappeared immediately. I logged in several day specifically to do he Shade's Eve dailies, which took quite a bit of time overall. I was saving up my currency to deicide in the end what I would want to purchase, but unfortunately I wasn't able to log in the last couple days of the event, and all the time I spent doing the Shade's Eve quests were all for not. I think it would have been great it the vendor and currency stuck around (although the quests and everything else went away) for maybe up to a week after the event ended.
 
But as a whole, I loved everything else about Shade's Eve.
			
				
	Edited November 5, 2015 by SoidSloth	
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EDIT:  BTW, this color contrasts well with the background, and makes it easy to read 
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