UPDATED: Bag of candies working as intended
by Zach Yonzon 
Feb 13th 2009 at 2:00PM
Some people are crying foul over the apparently horrendous drop rate of the Bag of Candies, which produce the various candies needed to complete the Be Mine! Achievement. This, in turn, is required for the Fool for Love meta-Achievement. On average, players will need to get two of these bags of candies to produce all of the eight possible messages, as each bag has ten charges.
Many players haven't had much luck picking up the Achievement, including our own Liz Harper, who claims to have gotten one bag in two days of trying. One guildie swears that a specific NPC in Thunder Bluff hands it out, dismissing the fact that it is actually... completely random. This random drop rate has gotten some players up in arms. Blizzard poster Zarhym comes over to the forums to pronounce that the Bag of Candies drop rate is, in fact, working as intended.
Zarhym points out that many players think that they deserve a free mount simply for participating in the holiday events, but clarifies that Blizzard doesn't share the same stance. He says that the alternative is making major Gold sinks during these events or requiring the visit of 9,000 Elders -- something I believe nobody wants -- and explains that chance (or luck) needs to be a limiting factor. At the end of the thread, after much QQ, Zarhym concedes that "there is some consideration for increasing the drop rate," but that it will remain a lottery-type thing.
There are about three days left on the event, so don't get your hopes up about Blizzard changing the drop rate anytime soon. That said, those three days should be sufficient time to luck out on a couple of these bags, which should be enough to get all the right candies for the Achievement. My only beef is that you can't actually eat the darned things.
Love is in the Air and on WoW Insider. Check out our continuing coverage of the event and our guide to earning the achievement. And you better hurry; the holiday only lasts five days!Filed under: Events, Blizzard, Forums, Achievements
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
Zyniker Feb 13th 2009 2:04PM
It was working so well as intended that they implemented a hotfix to up the drop rate last night.
GG Blizz, GG
J. Feb 13th 2009 2:11PM
I noticed this as well. Got 3 bags on alts after the hotfix.
Knew they hotfixed it because Bracelets started stacking to 20 and Rockets stacked to 10. (Used to be 10 and 5, respectively.)
Tural Feb 13th 2009 2:11PM
Your comment is exactly what Zarhym was a problem. It was not bugged, it was working as intended. There was no fault that prevented players from getting it. He discussed players who don't understand the difference between a bug and a low drop rate. They added a change to increase the droprate because they wanted to help players, not because it was bugged or otherwise unobtainable. It was, in fact, working exactly as intended. The hotfix is not indicative of the opposite.
Netherscourge Feb 13th 2009 2:30PM
I think they did this on purpose to stifle the people WITH the Brew of the Month Club memberships.
Think about it - people who did Brewfest last year got an unfair jump on the new achievement system.
The best way to even things out is to make OTHER World Event achievements equally difficult to complete. This way, everyone is equally QQing about having to wait another year, not just people who missed out on Brewfest.
It helps keep everyone with the Brewfest Membership already done from automatically getting the Meta Achievement.
I expect more working as intended RNG issues in the coming months.
Richard Feb 13th 2009 2:30PM
Except, Tural, for the fact that the drop rate of the candies and the picnic basket were almost exactly swapped from where they were last year. The basket was intended to be a semi-rare item, like the dresses, the bag of candies was not. To all appearances, at least. :)
Yeng Feb 13th 2009 2:42PM
@Netherscourge - How is having the brewfest beer of the month club an 'unfair advantage'? Just because some of us enjoyed participating in the festivals before there was an achievement and mount associated with it? I don't see anything 'unfair' with this, it was open to everyone to participate in before the Achievements.
Deadly. Off. Topic. Feb 13th 2009 3:09PM
Yeah, I did notice that. The stuff was stupid that it would only stack small things and then suddenly, it was stacking more.
This event for the most part is a luck generated one and it's pretty damn easy. You can also TRADE stuff you find in the adoration boxes with other players so if you have friends, you can collect all the stuff you need from your alts, trade it to a friend's character and have them trade it to your main.
There's a few things that are soulbound, but this generally works for most things.
I liked it better when you were able to mail things to your alts.
lightning4 Feb 13th 2009 3:38PM
Working fine for me. It's just blizzard's "random" number generator at work. I got no less than four bags of candy yesterday, and I'm still getting them despite not having needed them for a while now.
Love fools, however...
Justin Feb 13th 2009 4:03PM
It's too bad I worked hard and got it the first day... Candies weren't even the problem I threw several bags away. It was rockets but those I just turned in for. I'm not trying to be rude but it really wasn't that difficult. Though I guess I could have been lucky.
Ben Feb 13th 2009 7:34PM
After over 30 turn ins, I had yet to get a back. While that may have been "intended" that does not make it fair. Hell, the two achievements they took off of the meta achievement were far easier to achieve. Three of my friends that were all doing the same thing I was had all gotten multiple black dresses and we all have got at least one truesilver arrow... but zero bags of candies.
Might as well have just taken the Be Mine achievement off the meta achievement and put the black dress one back on because it had a MUCH higher drop rate.
I don't think it was so much bending over to QQ as it was realizing a mistake. It was completely unreasonable and anyone who says otherwise is probably arguing that the mask achievement shouldnt have been removed from the Hallows End meta achievement. Keep that in mind as I don't think many people felt that was reasonable at all.
Deadly. Off. Topic. Feb 17th 2009 9:54AM
I must say sorry about the Candies though. I thought they were actually dropping, but it turned out to be a lie. I was wrong to assume it was dropping.
All my Horde alts got candy bags and some of my alliance did, but it was a struggle to get the BE MINE achievement on a main prot alliance pally who had done all other seasonal achievements.
It was the only achievement I was missing, I needed only one candy and the bags just would NOT drop. It took a total of 4 bags, one of which was a complete dud. Like a bad action movie, it litterally took the LAST hour of the night for a bag to dropped and I got my achievement... but I felt like crap the next day for 2 reasons. One: the people in the guild who were screwed for that lack of one candy as well and two: no sleep for half the night.
Sorry.
Jake Feb 13th 2009 2:05PM
Lots of people are having trouble with the Rockets too (myself included)
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=14990764221&sid=1
Dryftwood Feb 13th 2009 2:28PM
the difference there though is that you can go turn in a Alliance Gift Collection and get rose petals, arrows, OR Rockets. Anybody who is complaining about low rocket drop rates are nothing but lazy. It takes a dedicated 15-20 minutes and you can farm the necessary items to obtain them without a chance drop.
Candy Bags on the other hand....
Jake Feb 13th 2009 2:33PM
You didn't read the associated link. It's not the drop rate that's the problem, its when they are firing off 10 rockets in 20 seconds and they don't get the achievement.
Yeng Feb 13th 2009 2:39PM
There is no reason that you should have this problem, if you put together the Alliance Collection Gifts, rockets are one of the choices for a reward. And you can do this as many times as you want. The same for rockets and petals.
Jake Feb 13th 2009 2:43PM
/facepalm
Dryftwood Feb 13th 2009 2:44PM
I stand corrected Jake...:). That sucks. Hope it starts working out for folks.
Jamesisgreat Feb 13th 2009 3:09PM
I was having the same problem Jake - managed to make it work on the third attempt by porting to Moonglade (less lag) disabling all my addons, then mashing the rocket key and then clicking on the ground again and again as quick as possible.
ezmode Feb 13th 2009 3:11PM
yes, i have had this very problem, and when i mentioned it in /2 (big mistake) all i got was "ur 2 slo nub"
Patton Feb 13th 2009 2:05PM
I'm ok with hunting down a bunch of Elders because whether or not I accomplish the achievement is based on the effort that I put into it, not a random loot table.
I managed to get my second bag of candies, and the achievement, this morning, but I feel for my fellow achievement-whore brethren. This one stinks.