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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsUPDATED: 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 5 of 8)
Thundrcrackr Feb 13th 2009 3:18PM
The problem that Blizzard doesn't seem to be addressing, is that this event is LESS THAN HALF AS LONG as the last event!! We had a legitimate chance at getting all the last festival's achievements done because we had plenty of time. Not so this time. WTF Blizzard.
On a side not, this is by FAR the LEAST FUN of any of the holiday events....nothing but running around the main cities talking to NPCs, hoping to get random drops FROM RANDOM DROPS. I haven't left the cities IN THREE DAYS, WTF. And i STILL haven't got the candy bag.
Irshalthra Feb 13th 2009 3:27PM
You have hit the nail on the head here. I do not mind that an achievement is based on a RNG - but I do care that I have to SIT in a city for 4 days just so I can log in once an hour.
This is NOT work, this is NOT fun, this is annoying. Give me the 900 elders or give me a RNG that is a ONE chance an you are out.
I,m sure this whole thing is on purpose. They are keeping us in the cities, knowing there is no time to raid or grind. This is basically pausing the game and keeps us occupied for 4 days. Four more days of revenue for Blizz!
It is annnooooooyyyyinnnnnnng!!
Lockeheed Feb 13th 2009 3:28PM
I'm finished with this event, but I'm worried about Children's Week.
Warlocks *suck* at PVP. There's two PVP achievements. I've NEVER captured an EOTS flag or an AV tower, despite those being my two favorite battlegrounds.
Additionally, the "Daily Chores" achievement is a seasonal version of "A Daily Re-Quest." "A Daily Re-Quest" has been horribly bugged since they first added achievements and STILL isn't fixed. The bug causes it to reset under many circumstances, one of which is "entering a PVP battleground."
That means you have *one* day to do the PVP achievements, which are things I've never managed to do for as long as I've played WoW and will now be competing with *everyone on my server* to do, and even if I DO manage that I'll still have to pray that the daily quest count doesn't buggily reset on me.
thundrcrackr Feb 13th 2009 3:47PM
Totally agree. Mixing PvP requirements into otherwise PvE achievements just doesn't make any sense. So far, the PvP requirements haven't been that difficult, but like you said, the new one's for children's week, esp while competing with everyone else on the server for them, are going to be damn near impossible.
MasterAsh Feb 14th 2009 2:38AM
Singing my tune there. . .
I did manage to cap a flag in WSG recently thanks to our circle, so I'm hoping given the right circumstance that 40-yard port will take care of EotS. But the tower cap in AV. . .I've NEVER managed to take a tower before anyone else. Just can't get to them fast enough. Only times I seem like I'm about to get one, a rogue or feral druid shows me why I even got that far. . .
But, if I can't even get a single bag of candy, I suppose I won't care so much if I can't do School of Hard Knocks, either.
Brannon Feb 13th 2009 3:44PM
Achievements should be based on actually achieving something in the game, not being lucky enough to get a drop (and in this case, lucky enough to get the right procs from that drop). This goes doubly for events that happen once a YEAR. To do otherwise seems awfully counterproductive to the aims of the achievement system, which, among other things, is to encourage people to play. If someone who has every other widget for achievements up until now, how demoralizing and frustrating is it going to be when they just never managed to get that one random drop that gave them the achievement, but had everything else.
This isn't the same as loot drops, for example, since those bosses are always there. Sure, you can have bad luck, but you can try every week. You miss out on this one, you're out of luck until early 2010.
Erogroth Feb 13th 2009 3:36PM
I feel bad. I guess I had just got real lucky cause I had got 2 bags withing 2 days and got all my candies. I haven't logged in yet today but I really want my Peddlefoot pet. I got the meta done plus the black dress already so now its just pet farming.
AJ Feb 13th 2009 3:42PM
Three attempts since alleged hotfix. Still no candy bags for the entire event.
Come on already?!!!
I've received more than 30 of those gifts of A.
Been logging in every hour, even on laptop from work over cruddy cell wifi lol. I finished all the requirements 'cept candy yesterday and that's all I have done since then.
Set timer, try to get lucky with RNG.
Guess in 56 minutes I'll try again.
Blizz makin me act like a fool cause I sure ain't feeling the love.
Furydeath Feb 13th 2009 3:47PM
I don't think people should get a mount for it, but if it had stay having it needed when getting the bag was a 3% chance and then you had get 8 out of 10 or what ever you need.
Enderwig Feb 13th 2009 3:56PM
Has anyone figured out what the heart says in the icon used for the achievement? It looks like an Asian language, but I'm not sure which one or what it says...
DigitalMonitor Feb 14th 2009 10:48AM
It says "I rarely drop".
D Feb 13th 2009 5:49PM
But.... but... what about Peddlefeet??? /sob
2 day of trying and no luck!
Gongslinger Feb 13th 2009 4:02PM
You ever stop to think that Blizzard did not WANT you to complete this in 1 year? How long has world events been active? Not sure of the specifics but quite a few. Would it have been nice if they actually tracked it from years past? yes but Oh well So your not lucky. try again and if you fail this time there is always next time. Its supposed to be fun and challenging but with Blizzard bending to the QQ its just Blah now
Unlucky in Love ... of Candy Feb 13th 2009 4:02PM
I've got several complaints here, really.
1) Random is fine, in some places. Random chance of success on a 5 day event that comes once a year is a bit silly. Allow me to elaborate:
"Shoot, my Wand of Infinte Uber didn't drop this Nax run. Ah well, better luck next week."
"Shoot, I logged on every hour for 5 days straight and because of a RNG 'working as intended' I have to wait until Feb 2010 to try again"
2) Free mount? FREE? Between the Elders for the Lunar Festival and the Inkeepers of Hallow's eve, I feel I've earned this mount. Stack up everything you need to do to get that proto drake and tell me that's free. I will weggie you so hard...
3) Putting events on holidays kind of makes sense. Many people get time off, and it's nice to have something different to do in the game.
But nobody gets extra time off for Valentine's day. In fact, many of us have *cough* /obligations/ *cough* outside of the game.
Would it really kill them to extend this event a week, and give folks who would like to celebrate the holiday outside of WoW a better chance to get the achievement?
4) ANYTHING with a 1 hour timer makes me want to strangle someone. Especially if your only chance of success is to really get in every hour you can.
MINIMUM 20 Hour timer. Period. End of Discussion. NOTHING SHORTER.
If your design requires someone to log in every hour for five days, you fail at your job as a game designer.
And you smell.
5) Is anyone in the developers department making sure that this stuff is actually fun?
If I want a blue answer on anything it's that...
Who writes some of these achievement quests and why do they hate me? :P
Is it because I said they smell?
Chaelura Feb 14th 2009 4:51AM
Well stated. This is not fun at all. 1 hour timer ftl. 5 dresses, 3 picnic baskets, 0 candy. I've really had it with this. And I too have obligations tomorrow so anyone who has any loved ones at all gets how many fewer chances, 16 or so? Yeah, that's a fair and balanced way to do this.
MechChefq Feb 13th 2009 4:05PM
I don't feel I am entitled to a drake. Hell, I didn't get the complete achievement for Brewfest (mount) and Hallow's end (pet) so I'll have to keep trying. If my work (time investment, playing skill, etc) was rewarded, then that would be fine. Instead, I'm rolling against a machine
Why don't we just do this: Just dispense with all the achievements, and do a /roll for the entire server. If your roll is high enough, you get a drake. because that's what this is really boiling down to anyway. If they want to make the measure of my drakeworthyness random, go right ahead. Just cut the BS about it.
AyaJulia Feb 13th 2009 4:08PM
"It seems that Blizzard bent over to much QQ (again?)"
WI, can you not alienate the people in your reader base that actually think these sorts of things are a problem? Thanks.
Jamesisgreat Feb 14th 2009 11:40AM
Yeah - I guess Zach got his candies first time huh?
Bluvox Feb 13th 2009 4:24PM
The droprates on these are total borked anyway, because of the state of random chance.
So far through Halloween and this event I have yet to see either in-game pet, but boy howdy I have more candy than I'd possibly use. I didn't get any of the silver arrows until I had spent half the day farming the stuff for the repeatable quest, then I got them for 3 hours straight.
The easiest thing they can do is make it so the items are more tradeable, or have a way to trade in huge stacks of one item for another from a vendor. The fact I spent 10 days attempting to get the pet to never see it even drop from the horsemen, while others had 5 or 6 clogging up their bags is kinda crazy.
Chirri Feb 13th 2009 4:37PM
This year, I've gotten 2 Picnic Baskets, 1 Lovely Black Dress, 4 boxes of chocolate candies, and a metric ton of Love Rockets.
No candy hearts at all, whatsoever.
On a slightly related note, I got Lovely Black Dresses on 2 alts, as well.
So it feels like they upped the Black Dress drop rate significantly, and removed it from the Meta, and lowered the candy heart bag drop rate. The Perma Peddle achievement doesn't even require you to pull it out of a box THIS YEAR to get the Achievement - people who've gotten him in previous years got it as well (unless it's randomly letting previous owners get the achievement... I haven't gotten any perma peddles this year, but have one from previous events, and it gave me the achievement).