Hydra’s Lair Bingo Patch Notes
First off, thank you all for filling out the bingo feedback form. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to share their thoughts so we can provide a better bingo experience going forward. I’d like to address some of the points brought up here just so people know what to expect going forward. And yes, there will be a TL;DR at the bottom. Let’s dive in!
What has gone well?
A lot of people really enjoy the videos, pre-draft activity, the draft itself, the tile balance, and the clarity provided by the website. I won’t go on for too long about what went well because there isn’t a lot to fix there, but just wanted to thank everyone for the kind words and appreciation for the effort that goes into these events.
What didn’t work well?
There was a lot of great feedback for what didn’t work well in the two bingos I ran. I am going to address some of the issues that seemed very common or had a lot of merit to share my thoughts as we go forward with another bingo coming up very soon. (sign up if you haven’t yet btw it is going to be a banger)
Start Times
The start time for the past bingo was not great, and that’s because of an oversight by me. In my head, I figured the bingo was going to last until later on Saturday with potential for it go into Sunday. If that was the case, a start more around 9am EST Saturday would have worked a bit better.
Clarity
Overall, there were a lot of comments that all came back to one core principle: clarity. Whether that was in the form of drops that count for tiles, rules of the game, or how powerups work, there was a lot of issues in the past bingo that revolved around clarity. Going forward, and especially for this next bingo, I plan to write up a full rulebook that covers most scenarios I can think of so there is no confusion around rules, expectations, or punishments for breaking rules. Additionally, I plan to detail what drops count for every tile, so there is no confusion around what to boss to kill or what minigame to play. There will be a concrete list of items, drops, or anything else that count for the tile, and the list on the website is the final word. No exceptions, no arguments, no negotiations.
Unfun Tiles
As mentioned earlier, there was a lot of feedback that the tile balance was good and most tiles were great. However, there were definitely callouts about the minority of tiles that were not fun. The three main pieces of content that were not fun were Skotizo, Sailing, and Lucky Implings. Skotizo falls more into the category of “pre-stacking” in my opinion, which I will be diving into next. The Lucky Impling tile encouraged gameplay that was not actively progressing toward experience, loot, or an increase in overall skill at the game. The tile ended up playing out as a world hopping simulator, and that is just not fun. The tile was poorly designed, and it won’t be coming back. Going forward for tiles that a bit more “creative”, gameplay loop to complete the tile will be taken more into consideration. Sailing tiles were included to encourage people to go explore some new content or potentially progress their account in a way they haven’t had a chance to yet. This unfortunately did not play out as planned, and those tiles turned into chores for people who could already do the content. The content was also viewed as a chore rather than something to actively progress toward in a fun way, which is just an unfortunate characteristic of the skill as a whole currently. Going forward, for at least the next bingo, there will be NO sailing related tiles. The skill is not in an overall great spot, and especially sailing combat is total dogwater. This content is better left to do at one’s own pace and willingness, and not forced upon someone to progress a bingo.
Honorable mention to Golden Tench for unfun tile. I personally don’t think there’s a fundamental problem with the tile itself but maybe it has just been beat to death at this point.
Pre-stacking
For this bingo, there was a hard rule to not pre-stack anything at all. I was more strict than in past bingos (in my opinion at least), even excluding pre-stacked CG chests, barrows chests, and moons chests. This got a bit dicey around the boss Skotizo. From the get-go, Skotizo should have been declared as a boss people are not allowed to do for the entirety of bingo. It was a mistake by me to allow it to be done for a jar tile, and it negatively impacted morale, gameplay, and people’s totem stacks. That is on me, and I apologize. Going forward, I am going to continue the ban on pre-stacking. This will all be clearly explained in the rules page I am going to distribute before next bingo. This is going to include a blanket ban on Skotizo. There’s just no reason to do the boss during bingo, and should just be avoided for the time someone is playing in a bingo. Also, there will be less tiles that could even encourage a pre-stack of any form. Lastly, there will continue to be an enforced start time with a general meeting point (likely the GE), so we can all log off for Wise Old Man as bingo starts, and then start progressing!
Suggestions
There were a lot of great suggestions I want to go over, but I will leaving out any suggestions specifically related to a battleship bingo since there will likely not be another one of those for a while.
Don’t reward one team by punishing another
I don’t believe the past two bingos have had mechanics that punish the other team (outside of punishments for breaking rules), and I agree that removing progress from one team can seem unfun, so I will not be implementing any mechanics like that for at least the next bingo.
Increase the number of teams
Great news, there will likely be 3 teams for the next bingo!
Have clear punishments for rule breaking
I agree with this, and this will be included in the rule book I am going to make. There will be no confusion going forward that will take time away from progressing toward tiles.
Don’t allow multiple accounts
I personally do not have an issue with someone playing multiple accounts at once during bingo as long as there is only one account progressing toward bingo. Progressing an afk grind on the side while actively playing an account in bingo is very normal and not something I am willing to take away from people. Going forward, there will be clear, defined rules around multi-logging, and a bit more restriction placed on what accounts can be used in bingo based on the sign up.
Things where GIMs have an advantage (GWD, Corp) should be banned
I agree with you on Corp. That will not be brought back. However, multiple people in a GIM going to Godwars is technically wasting much more time than they are gaining due to respawn times. 3 people all killing a GWD boss solo will kill more total bosses per hour than 3 people all killing the same GWD boss in the room together. For those reasons, GWD will remain as available content to put on tiles.
The game master should have final say, stop asking for opinions and just make a ruling
While harsh, I agree. Going forward, I am going to listen to both sides of any issues that may pop up, think about what the outcome should be, and state that outcome clearly with no room for negotiation. Hopefully we do not have any issues though :)
Have a separate draft for ironmen and mains
I actually do really like this idea. I am going to work to determine if someone is going to mostly be playing an iron account or a main account based on sign ups for next bingo, and we will likely have a draft for ironmen and a draft for main. There should be no situation where someone takes a “worse” player because they can buy something off the GE if they need it. All ironmen will be draft, then we will start over and all mains will be drafted.
Make the content harder and longer
Just wait until you see the next bingo board….
TL;DR - Thank you all for the kind words, start times could be better, unfun tiles wont be returning, I will be making sure everything is crystal clear going forward regarding tiles, rules, pre-stacking, etc. There will be a separate draft for ironmen and mains, and the next bingo will have more teams and have a lot more end game and raids content.
And just in case that potentially puts you off to signing up, I would encourage you to go for it and sign up anyway. There will still be a ton of content to do on the board for all 16 days the bingo runs, and learner raids will be plentiful over the next few weeks to make sure everyone can participate and have fun.
Thanks for reading!
-Ry
Sign up for March Bingo here: