Breakfast Topic: Farewell for now, Darkmoon Island
by Alex Ziebart 
Dec 10th 2011 at 8:00AM
Personally, I loved it. When my characters weren't in one of the new dungeons or in Dragon Soul via the Raid Finder, I was on Darkmoon Island playing games or fishing -- yeah, I'm one of those people ... I like fishing. My primary issues with the Faire are temporary ones. It simply wasn't realistic to get all of the Darkmoon Artifacts from the Adventurer's Guide over the course of one week unless you dumped a hefty amount of gold on the Auction House. However, since you can get those items even while the Faire isn't active as long as you have the guide with you, that won't be a problem going forward.
I'd also like to see more tickets coming from the actual games of the Faire, but I understand why Blizzard might not like that. Too much emphasis on the daily games and you start retreading the same issues we ran into with daily dungeon runs for valor points and why those became weekly in the first place. The punishment for not logging in every day of the week would be too extreme. De-emphasizing the daily nature of things is much more player friendly in the long run.
What's your take? Did you have a good time?
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Moomoo Dec 10th 2011 8:12AM
I just wish there'd been more to do, honestly. I know with all of the under construction tents and empty woodland space, there will be more added "soon" but...damnit, I want more now!
RedMosquito Dec 10th 2011 8:29AM
I am a raging altoholic, and I just had to do the profession quests on all of them.
As for focusing on getting lots of tickets, I picked a character (a leveling shaman) and went nuts with him only. Two days ago I was able to buy the "The Five Thunders" helm for his transmog set, but now I'm sad that I'll only be able to score one piece of that set per month...
Ianmis Dec 10th 2011 4:18PM
You do realize that the replica sets are BoE? You could use alts to purchase the gear and send it to your main. Unlike the pets and mounts. If your trying to get all those, you are stuck to a 7 month wait. Don't max out in tickets one week with the DDJ, now it's 8 months. Uh oh, wasn't able to max again, now we're up to 9 months. There is no wiggle room with the pets and mounts but at least, if you really want the replicas you can use other toons to help you gather for one.
RedMosquito Dec 10th 2011 9:07PM
I had not realized that the replicas were BOE. Thank you very much for the info!
taokore Dec 10th 2011 8:32AM
I only wish there were either more games to play, or that the games offered more tickets each time. Maybe two per game, or scale them with difficulty via how many tokens they usually take. The tonks usually takes 3 tries, occasionally 2, sometimes more. The ring toss always takes 1. And the rest always take 2. This would be a good scale for ticket dispersion, yes?
That said, I loved it. I loved the music. And I loved my Sea Pony, hundreds of casts later. My 3 year old daughter cheered me on for the Sea Pony for hours!
dj.clayden Dec 10th 2011 8:50AM
You can do all of them in one ticket each I think ^^
Tonks: I did 29/30 in first go today, quite doable
Shooting: Done
Whack-a-gnoll: Done
Cannon: Never managed it but doable for obvious reasons
Ring Toss: Done
Noyou Dec 10th 2011 9:24AM
Cannon- only doable on one go if you get the bullseye- that awards 5 points.
Ringtoss- very doable for one token.
Target shooting- 2 tokens.
Whack a gnoll- doable for one, but RNG plays a factor- you need lots of big gnolls to pop up (3 points)
Tonk- 2 tokens. Usually around 16-20 on one go. If you get really lucky and no other players are trying to shoot you, can do on one. (this one usually eats 2-3 tokens for me)
Jasonthedce Dec 10th 2011 9:30AM
I did the cannon in one try on my first trip into the faire with my main. I got an achievement and everything and was like, "That's odd. That wasn't very hard. Why was there an achievement?"
Then I came back on my other alts and had to use the cannon 2-3 times each. And then some more for good measure to get that easy achievement. Also the day after. Then I thought, "Oh. That's why there's an achievement!"
Thundrcrackr Dec 10th 2011 10:45AM
Agreed. It would make more sense to me if the daily quests awarded tickets equal to the number of tokens the average person had to spend to complete them.
So I 'd say:
Cannon - 3. It can be done in 1, but usually takes 2, and lag can play more of a factor in this one making it occasionally take 3.
Target Shooting - 2. I don't think this one is physically possible to complete in 1.
Tonk, Whack-a-gnoll - 2. I've been close to completing them in 1, but never actually done it.
Ring Toss - 1.
clundgren Dec 10th 2011 5:42PM
Why not scale the rewards based on how well you play the game? That would make them a lot more fun and exciting.
For example, get a bullseye first shot in the cannon? Three tickets! Finish in two, two tickets. Three or more tries, and you get one ticket.
It would be easy to figure out a similar scale for each event, and suddenly they would be a lot more like real carnival games, where everybody gets something for trying, but skill is rewarded with a bigger prize.
Rajah Dec 11th 2011 5:08PM
Awarding prize tickets based on skill is a nice idea, the problem with it is that most of these games are not dependent primarily on skill. I did all of these games every day of the week on 7 characters. While skill plays a role in each, I don't think it's usually the main one.
Whack a Gnoll: I have done this on one token about 10% of the times I tried the game. This is very heavily dependent on getting enough Hogger gnolls to pop up, otherwise it's impossible. I've had runs with zero Hoggers and even performing perfectly hitting the smaller gnolls, you can't swing the hammer enough times before getting kicked out. When I didn't get lucky with the RNG, I finished on the second run with plenty of time to spare. So I went out of the game area onto the fairway and swung my hammer at other players until time was up. Gnomes, gnolls, what's the difference?
Cannon: By the end of the week I had gotten good enough that I could hit the bullseye maybe 20% of my attempts. There were many other times where it appeared to me that my character landed dead center but was not credited with a bullseye. Yes, lag can play a big part, but there still seems to be some kind of luck factor in getting the 5 points in one shot. When I did not get the bullseye on the first try, I always (by the end of the week) finished with the second try.
Shooting: I never completed this on one token, my best was around 28/30. It seems to me that the only way to do it in one try is to get lots of Quick Shots, which award an extra target hit to the counter. My reaction times are decent, and the only way I could get Quick Shot is if I was already pointed at the target that would be randomly selected before the marker popped up. This happens about one-third of the time. I can see if you did better than average with the target selection RNG, you could get maybe 6 Quick Shots in and hit 30 in a single try. This one always took me two tries and I never had to hit more than 10 on the second try. That was my cue to turn around and fire recklessly into the crowd until time expired.
Tonk Commander: I never finished this in one attempt, usually in two. It's highly dependent on the availability of targets (how many other players are shooting them at the same time), how many times you have to dodge the enemy tonks, and things like whether or not you're going to be one-shot by the zeppelin that spawned right behind you the moment you clicked Ready. Usually I had enough time on the second attempt to go around and take out some tanks (and that darned zeppelin!) to help other players. I think skill may play a greater role in this game than in the others, but there's still a fair RNG factor.
Ring Toss: This was the only game where I could reliably finish on the first attempt every time. Even so, there is still a bit of luck involved. You can place the target perfectly and still not hit the turtle, even if he doesn't move. There's a RNG calculation that drops the ring some distance from the target center a certain fraction of the time.
I think they should increase the prize tickets for each game daily quest from 1 to 3. The monthly profession quests should go from 4 to 5 and the secondary skill quests from 3 to 4. On the PTR, the dailies gave 5 prize tickets each, that was probably too much. Oh, and the dailies should award XP to characters below max level as an added incentive, bringing these dailies in line with others.
Mortenebra Dec 10th 2011 8:47AM
The thing I love the *most* (for there are many thing I love about the new DMF) is the music. The music cracks me up. It's not often ambient music like that really strikes a chord with me; it's usually the heart-pounding battle hymn types of music with drums and strident progressions that make my ears go, "Ooh!" But it's just... whimsical and silly, yet so completely fitting for the setting. I started humming along with the music-- much like I do with the new goblin themes-- and my husband looks at me, going, "Well, I'm glad *someone* likes the music."
Morbid Dec 10th 2011 11:24AM
I love the music, and I actually find it very reminiscent of Danny Elfman's work, especially in Tim Burton movies. The carnival theme has a touch of it, but it really comes out once that part tones down and moves into the ambient music. I love it!
HoustonDragon Dec 10th 2011 8:50AM
I enjoyed everything save the ridiculous drop rate for the Treatise on Strategy. The fact that it only drops from the original Cata heroics makes this a painful and irritating grind
Noyou Dec 10th 2011 9:27AM
I am so glad it's only around for one week, not because I don't like it, but because I have lots of alts and would spend lots of time there.
Al Dec 10th 2011 1:32PM
Agreed. I checked all week, Treatise was the only one I never see reach the AH. The others ranged from 100g to a few thousand, but you couldn't get this one for love, money or grinding it seems.
Sinderion Dec 10th 2011 8:54AM
I think it's a great addition to the game. At the same time, i'm really glad it's only available 1/4 of the time. I've found fishing the island for it's debris piles to be rather profitable, especially since I can't bring myself to farm elementium anymore right now haha. Gotten quite a few choice gems from prospecting what comes up in the crates, this has been unusually profitable with red gem prices through the roof. Either way, I wouldnt want to do it more than one week month. Fun overall though. I do kinda wish the dungeoneering guilde or w/e it's called had come out a few weeks before though.
I managed to get almost everything (hopefully everything by end of today) this week, still hoping for 'A Treatise on Strategy' Haven't even seen it drop in 8 or 9 'old' heroics. None on the AH. will be spamming trade today i guess. 130 tickets due to being unable to find that one thing despite all efforts I can think of will be slightly annoying. Also am one of the bugged who couldnt get the breadcrumb quest so I guess i'll get those tickets another month.
Due to all the grinding on four alts I was doing anyways, got plenty of the artifacts to sell this one time they're at inflated prices. As usual, did my trademark messing up the market and selling them relatively cheap, but still got a nice profit for them.
I guess allowing grouping in the deathmatch is necessary so some classes/specs dont get stomped and others have huge advantage, but on my server at least, this seems to only mean nobody but a few pre formed 3s or 5s teams or top pvp players from well known guilds will even dare set foot inside in any but the most off time hours.
Something about wittling a guys health down only to have it go back to full from a healer that wasnt even there at the beginning that takes the 'free for all' feeling out of the deathmatch combat...
Oh ya, and the games were good stuff, tonk battle being far and away my favorite :D
killer_tunes Dec 10th 2011 9:01AM
Still haven't gone there yet. I'll get around to it some time.
Hairfish Dec 10th 2011 9:30AM
I love the concept of the Darkmoon Faire as it is now. I enjoyed the games and quests, but also exploring the island and finding a few very surprising and eerie...things. I sure hope their presence is explained somewhere along the line, through quests or exposition.
The only thing I was disappointed about was that we weren't able to convert the old DMF tickets into the new ticket currency. According to some !^#* on the forum, we were supposed to know about the change in tickets months ago. Well...not all of us got the memo. Anyone want a dozen stacks of Small Furry Paws?
LynMars Dec 10th 2011 9:51AM
Yeah, I saw it mentioned -once-, in some blue post several weeks ago, but it was very easy to miss for most people. :\