Regular Rare quests, INCLUDING challenge event weeks

[BobTheSnark]

Rare quests (Shrikewood, Farholme, etc for 4* ascension materials) occur mostly regularly more-or-less on Mondays.

The official line is that this is “random” , but this seems… unlikely given that Rare Quest timing so often “just happens” to slip most immediately preceding a Challenge Event, and official policy is apparently

@Petri

Challenge Events block Rare Quests from generating (a condition implemented in 2017 following player feedback).

We.
Don’t.
Need.
This.
Condition.

Firstly, it would be easy enough to schedule Rare Quests so that they (A) don’t overlap Challenge Events at all or (B) overlap so minimally that it would not pose a problem for any player interested in both quests.

Secondly, it is disingenuous that having a Rare and a Challenge event at the same time is a problem. Maybe—maybe—back in 2017, with fewer events total (and fewer heroes to chase and ascend) it was, but more recently we get quest pileups like

and these are not the only instances, or even necessarily those with the biggest number of simultaneous quests.

Contrast, say, today (a Tuesday of a week during which there still hasn’t yet been a Rare quest, and all that’s running else is Valhalla Rising, which is… arguably not the most interesting of events nor critical for world-energy needs)

Not a whole lot to do here — and frankly it seems unlikely that this is purely random, given the above screenshot comes from a week immediately preceding a Challenge Event.

It’s time for this to stop.

Look:

• Rare quests are a source of ascension materials that pretty much all players look forward to and need, as the only guaranteed earnable-in-game source of such materials

• There is no reason that Rare quests couldn’t just spawn on an actually-regular schedule, regardless of other events (given that this is mostly what happens anyway)

• The “restriction” against Rare quests vs Challenge quests is outmoded, unnecessary, and should be entirely dropped

(And finally, while I am aware there have been other, older threads calling for regular Rare quests [1] they are quite old but also [2] this request also specifically includes scrapping the ~6-year-old “no Rare quest if there’s a Challenge” excuse.)

[Ruskin505]

I was surprised more players opposed this than I originally guessed.

Poll: Should Rare Quests spawn during Challenge Events?

Should Rare Quests spawn during Challenge Events? poll Is this restriction still relevant? The current strategy means we don’t have to worry about wasting flags during challenge events on rare quests. I could see value in letting the rare quests spawn whenever. We would get more total rare quests since they won’t ever get pushed back (it would be a minimal gain). Nowadays there are so many places to use flags that rare quests aren’t that much different than other quests and POV challenges…

I was also surprised Petri was the first person to respond to the thread.
And I was surprised that a fixed date for rare quests (such as Tuesday) was a common request.

[Elioty33]

@Petri

a condition implemented in 2017 following player feedback

@Petri, we were wrong and since it was players’ feedback and you let us sort of decide on this matter back then, would it be possible to AT LEAST drop this condition?! (make sure to remove that condition for Mirage of Omega if it was implemented for that quest too)

As @BobTheSnark said, it would be great for the rare quests (and let me also include the Mirage of Omega quests again) to be “regularly scheduled” (to use you own words) but I also understand that the spice of randomness in it is your design decision and it would be harder to convince you to reconsider it but at least let us fix the feedback we gave wrongly, pretty please

Please consider the poll made by @Ruskin505 last year that even you were curious about. It would actually be a great example and a good sign of you listening to your playerbase after the recent and current debacles.

[JGE]

@Petri
I have to agree with the above …
Given that this “restriction” was implemented back in 2017 (admittedly following player feedback) can we now review the situation…
A lot has changed in the game over the last six years and it would also be good to consider the results of @Ruskin505 poll …
My vote for what it counts is for having the rare quests etc regularly scheduled…
Just my two pennies worth

[BobTheSnark]

Giving this a bump to note that this week is now a Challenge event week, and there could very easily be a Rare quest on right now in lieu of, say, the “Gain Experience” quest and I think very few if any players would be sad about the chance to get checks calendar a Tome of Tactics this week even if it meant the Rare being on at the same time as the Tavern of “Legends.”

Even with a current Rare quest, it would still be a thinner quest load than the screenshots upthread.

Please, let’s make the Rare quest genuinely regular. It’s a popular feature, helps practically everyone, can hardly be hurting sales that much (given the totals needed to actually ascend 5*), and it just feels arbitrarily punitive to let a six-year-old “precedent” stand without revision when, hm, everything else (including now mass numbers of heroes, ex post facto) seems subject to revision.

[BobTheSnark]

First, a thank you to SG for listening and/or allowing a Rare this week, even though Mighty Pets is scheduled for later this week:

I would argue that this quest appearing now does nigh-nothing to restrict players from completing or competing in the upcoming Challenge, and I hope that this week is an acknowledgment that prior “no Rare on Challenge week” policy can be reasonably discarded.

I don’t know what would be the easiest way to implement this request going forward, whether it’s simply allowing Rare quests to spawn as-is even during Challenge weeks, tweaking the Rare spawning to explicitly always fall early in a week, or fully decoupling Rare quests from other quests so that Rares can spawn at a predetermined time (as, e.g., Super Elemental quests do).

But whatever works, I do and would appreciate just making these vital Rare quests more reliable for all!