Caradog

I think that a big &, ostensibly, overlooked factor which is handing players such as myself an advantage in this event is that in the lower & middling level brackets committed players are grouped with casual players who clearly don't make much of an effort to compete whereas, from what i can tell, there are few, if any, casual players in the highest level brackets -- so, in effect, I was competing against fewer players than those in the highest level brackets. Looking at the final scores in my group it would appear that all of the players who finished below 25th failed to finish all of the Daily Missions & use all of their free League fights (or, if they did, the League they are in is too high & they lost the majority of their fights). I doubt - perhaps incorrectly? - that would've been the case in the top level brackets. FWIW I'm not a fan of this format either. It's great that i have just won a 5 star girl for ~180 Kobans (the price of a partial League-fights refill) but I am not at all comfortable with the fact that my winning the event girl will have come at another player's expense.

My group (lvl. 240 - 280) is yet to go crazy. Zero Kobans spent &, as things stand, I'm well placed to snipe a top 4 finish. Judging by the posts in this thread it would appear that this event is turning the usual status quo of established players easily obtaining the event girls(s) while newer players struggle on its head.

My Test Server account is less than a month old & a lowly level 172 so I'm probably in a much lower level bracket. I went all out in yesterday's contest as I wanted to find out if the separated groups/special brackets would be segregated into level groups &, FWIW, mine clearly is -- hence, i suspect, my enormous pool (given the relatively low number of players on the Test Server, I doubt there are that many level 160-200 accounts who, having obtained the girl on day 1, have been split off from the main group). The fact that @LanceHardwood's 62 player pool isn't a result of his having already obtained Solaria & Umbria is, for me at least, a tad worrying.

Did you obtain Solaria & Umbria in the first contest? If you did then, as per Lola's original post, you will have/we have been removed from the main pool of players & placed into our own special brackets (my pool has 72 players in it) &, as such, the number of players in our pools will have no bearing on other, as yet unsuccessful, players' chances of obtaining the girl(s)/shards. FWIW, the fact that the Test Server has far fewer players & the percentage of those players who will have both secured the girl(s) on day one & fall into our respective level-brackets for contests will be very low may well have brought about a situation where the overall number of players separated from the main pool of players in each-level bracket is insufficient to be divided into multiple groups of ~50, hence the unexpectedly high numbers. If this is the case then the much larger player-base in the main game should ameliorate the issue, as should the intake of fresh players into the separated group following the conclusion of each of the coming contests.

Ah! Yes I am -- I am in a club with maxed out boosts. Thank you, George.

Last week i noticed that the stats boost from the Legendary Ginseng Root booster was, in spite of the fact that my base stats had just about reached the point where this should no longer be the case, lower than that given by the Epic Ginseng Root booster so today (as it's the first day of the the Leagues &, as such, an underpowered boost would be less of an issue) I decided to double check & it is not giving the full 6% boost advertised -- it is giving just shy of 5.5%. screenshots attached.

Very much this. I'm pleased that there will be a 5 star girl on offer &, though I'm not a high-level player (I'm level 266), i have plenty of resources & can buy more if those run out so I'm very confident I will get the event girl but my big reservation about this event is the fact that my win will necessarily deprive another player of their chance of obtaining the (only) event girl.

Just to reiterate what others have already said: the main issue isn't aesthetic -- it's the inability to turn the notifications off.

Pleased to find that it will be a 5 star Legendary girl -- my inner pessimist had been expecting a 3 star girl.

Question re: the scheduling of this event: according to Lola's post this will be a 4 day event yet it is scheduled to commence on 25/06 -- which, according to the calendar, is when a 5 day event is scheduled to begin. Should i now disregard the calendar & assume that the next event will be a 5 day event? & does anyone know if we should still expect a PoA event this month?

Re: the new Legendary Contests that are being trialed on the Public Test Server: I have seen 3 different formats so far: the first format I saw, & which i posted a screenshot of on this thread a few days ago, was one which awarded points for XP gained & Area fights won. This one may be hard on those who cannot dedicate much time to the game but one cannot reasonably argue that it is a format which the big spenders will automatically win. FWIW, I comfortably won this event & secured Bella on the first day. The second format is the one @Karyia posted a screenshot of yesterday. This is clearly one which will favor the whales -- esp. as the points are heavily skewed in favor of Epic Pachinko (thank goodness i have 22 EP x1 orbs stashed on my main!). The third is the format i have today (screenshot below). It's a bog-standard Villain fight contest though, oddly, all of the Villains yield the same number of points (I wouldn't be surprised to learn that this is a bug which is fixed by the time the event reaches the main game).

Gah! It's Saturday night &, consequently, in spite of lock down, I'm drunk (a better than expected 2015 Querciabella Chianti Classico + a disappointing '09 Clos des Papes + whisky). As far as I can tell it's a new event format, not a new contest format (why on earth would Kinkoid start giving away girls in contests?!) but I may well be wrong. Having said that I'm drunk -- you should ignore me.

New event format being trialed on the Public Test Server? Edit: the annoying new Contests banner may well have just offered a clue as to how & where this new format may fit into the calendar -- Legendary Contests sounds, to me at least, like a new 4-day-event format which could become an alternative to Legendary Days & Epic Days.

My first thoughts: personally, I prefer the aesthetics of the redesign but I think the colouration of the daily missions' bars in the old design is slightly more user-friendly than the colouration of the daily missions' lettering in the new design.

I'm also in favor of the general format &, like you, thought that this time the 2nd/bonus pathway was indubitably worth the 7200 Kobans. Having said that, I had two major gripes with the last POA event, both of which are linked to the 'Do [X} Champions performances tasks':- First: the ticket requirement for the second Champions task was so high that it, in effect, constituted a 'road block' to many/most low & mid-level players who had not paid the 7200 Kobans to open the 2nd/bonus pathway. Secondly: very new players who had not yet reached the stage where they were able compete against the Champions (10 girls & completing the 5th quest at the Ninja Village) were not blocked from paying 7200 Kobans for a 2nd/bonus pathway in an event which the devs either knew, or at the very least should have known, they would, in all probability, be unable to obtain a single girl from. The first of these two gripes annoyed me but, as it didn't end up negatively affecting me, I can live with it (I realise that this is a selfish take); the second, however, has seriously angered me. I've few objections to the inequalities between paying & free-to-play &/or new & established players - the former is the reality of freemium gaming & the latter is just gaming in general - but knowingly allowing very new &, consequently, naive players to waste their money on events which they will be unable to progress in is downright unethical.

I was disappointed to find that today's survey re: the (2nd) Path of Attraction event did not include a general feedback/further comments section as I would have liked to have commented on the ethics of allowing very new players to pay 7200 Kobans (which, as very new players, they would almost certainly have bought via an in-game-purchase) for a second/bonus pathway in an event which you either knew, or at the very least should have known, that they would not only be unable to complete but, due to the time needed to complete the 'do [X] champions performances' tasks, may even struggle to gain a single girl/haremette from. You were, once the issue had been raised (& I know full well that one of the forum moderators had very promptly raised the issue with you), at best displaying a contemptuous attitude towards these new players - whose money you had, ostensibly, taken - & at worst you were deliberately exploiting their naivety in order to swindle them.

This new feature has been annoying me on my Test Server account for the last few days. I can see how it might benefit very new players but the devs really should've included an option to disable it. For the avoidance of doubt: I voted for option 3.

Event complete, all 4 girls secured. Though it has left me with barely a Koban to my name I managed to scrape together enough to open up the 2nd/bonus pathway & from there on it was plain sailing. I've no issue with the pricing of the 2nd/bonus pathway - given the rewards, it was indubitably worth the kobans - but the decision to deploy the 'do 80 Champions performances' task as a, for want of a better term, 'road block' for users* who either chose not to, or were unable to, pay the 7200 Kobans to open up the 2nd/bonus pathway & new users who did but found that, due to their not having opened up all or most of the Champions, they were/will be unable to complete the task in the time allotted absolutely stinks! I can't speak for others but for me this feels like a watershed moment: I was previously well disposed to the Devs & perfectly happy to make frequent in-game purchases but the use of such cheap tactics has not just destroyed the good will - a perennially undervalued commodity - they had built up, it has engendered a feeling of hostility which will doubtless have a knock-on effect on my willingness to spend. Even if there was no malice in the initial decision the Devs have had plenty of time to address the issue &, given the way the issue is affecting new players in particular (many of whom are paying players), their ongoing refusal to do so suggests a contemptuous view of the very players who help to keep the game in business & the Devs in employment. *excepting the ostensibly small number of players who have cleared all of the Champions and subsequently decided not to use all or most of the tickets they have since accrued.

Plugging my way through the event &, thanks to a bundle offering 20 tickets, I suspect i will complete the 1st pathway (I will have 63 tickets once i complete the 60 PVP fights with plenty of days left in hand). I had gone all out for a top 4 finish in D1 in order to obtain enough Kobans to open up the 2nd/bonus pathway but with 1(ish) day left to go it looks like 5th or 6th is the best i can hope for (tbf, as the 3rd lowest level player in my league, this would still be a pretty good placing) so that's not going to happen. Still not at all happy with the way this event has been structured (the 80 Champions performances requirement will be an insurmountable obstacle to many, if not most, players who have not paid, or were unable to pay, the 7200 Kobans to open up the 2nd/bonus pathway) but, selfishly, I am relieved that I will at least, in all probability, be able to achieve what i had expected* in this event. one final note: it was my grandfather's funeral today so i would prefer it if whatever i post here doesn't lead to some sort of disagreement -- I am not in the mood. *I was well aware that using up most of my Koban stash in Legendary Days would leave me unable to open up the 2nd/bonus pathway however I was not expecting an inability to open up the 2nd/bonus pathway to leave many, if not most, players unable to complete the 1st/free pathway.

I'm a paying player - I have a platinum monthly card & I have bought more or less every single bundle the game has offered over the last couple of months - and I prepared for the event (I had 25 tickets; ~80 junk items; and several million Yhem stashed in anticipation of this event) &, barring a miracle, I will still be unable to complete the 'do 80 Champions performances' task. Structuring the event in such a way that even middling, paying players will be unable to complete the first/free pathway without paying the 7200 kobans for the second pathway* feels utterly contemptuous & if it is representative of Kinkoid's attitude towards those players who, as you rightly point out, keep the game in business then I shall have to reassess my previously favorable attitude towards making in-game purchases. *I am discounting using Kobans to make up the tickets &, to a lesser extent, combativity shortfall as the amount required would be broadly similar to the amount needed to unlock the 2nd/bonus pathway.

While I agree that this is, ostensibly, Kinkoid's objective I suspect they have misjudged the tickets requirement. I'm currently a paying player but I'm so pissed off re: the 120 tickets requirement that I am actively considering becoming free-to-play &/or simply finding another game & I doubt I am the only middling, paying player who feels this way either. I don't expect to be on a similar level to those players who've spent years playing this game but I do expect something more in return for the money spent - effectively locking players such as myself out of the 2nd, let alone 3rd & 4th, event girls feels contemptuous.

FWIW, though I'm not a free-to-play player I draw the line at buying Kobans full price &, as I used most of my Koban stash in the last event - entirely my decision & I knew it would have repercussions in the next event(s) - I doubt I will be able to accumulate the perquisite 7200 Kobans for the second/bonus pathway before the end of the event which leaves me in a spot of bother re: the increased ticket requirement, so it's not just the very new players & free-to-play players who will be left both annoyed & dismayed at 120 ticket requirement.

Thank you George -- I missed that <facepalm> FWIW, though my Leaderboard rankings have carried over on my Test Server account, those on my main account - &, it would appear, everyone else's - have now reset without having paid-out for the previous week.

Apologies if this is something to do with the hour change but Tower of fame has not refreshed or paid-out. Screenshot attached -- same situation on my Test Server account too.

My first 100 shard drop. I would comment further but I am drunk -- very drunk!