Grand Acquistions Race Vs Rakghoul Plague

[ChazDoit]

Event VERSUS Event

 

Star Wars: The Old Republic has seen two massive events so far, one on Tatooine and one on Nar Shaddaa. Zombie Apocalypse versus Galactic Scavenger Hunt, but which one is the best so far?

 

Suprise Factor: The Rakghoul Plague came out of nowhere, a sunday morning players woke up and found an emergency transmission on the fleet and traveled to Tatooine to find the event. In the past it was mentioned briefly in an interview that Bioware was planning to do events, but nobody imagined they were going to be released so soon. For many of us, the rakghoul plague was one of the most pleasant and memorable surprises in the history of TOR. The Surprise Factor goes to the Rakghoul Plague

 

Story: The Grand Acquisitions Race has a more personal storyline with voiceover and cutscenes where you are contacted by an Imperial/SIS agent to investigate the Chevin Conglomerate ulterior motives and discover an alien fleet that will be coming to this sector of the galaxy, a more direct contanct with the story made you feel more involved than just slaying rakghouls or infecting/curing Sand People on Tatooine. The Best Story goes to The Grand Acquisitions Race.

 

Event Difficulty: If anyone remembers, some of the quests during the Rakghoul Plague were nigh impossible to complete without a GUIDE, the biggest example would be the quest Tracking the Origins, which is a shame because it was the one that gave you a cool pet. While the Acquisitions Race is not an easy event, there were Breadcrumbs and Clues all near the Nar Shaddaa and Capital World spaceports that would point you in the right direction, clues such as broken droids or a bunch of bounty hunters having a holo conference, with these clues it was possible to complete the event without having to go to a third party site. The Right Ammount of Difficulty goes to The Grand Acquisitions Race

 

Event Design: One of the Rakghoul plague biggest flaws, was that the most effective way to get DNA was to Stand Around on the Fleet Doing Nothing, actually you were doing something, exploding and infecting people, but it kinda sucked that for many people the event was beign AFK on the fleet. The Grand Acquisitions race quests may have many FLAWS, and bugs that could get you stuck, but the best way to earn rewards was to play the event itself and the quests, you could even get up to 40 tokens by completing one of the questlines. The Best Design goes to The Grand Acquisitions Race

 

Rewards: The rewards for the Rakghoul Plague were Great, and the Crystals and the pet were appealing to everyone. On the other hand the Bowcasters Can only be used by 3 out of the 16 advanced classes in the game, the recolored sand people gear is neat and the speeder looks cool, but it's only a rank one speeder. Force Wielders and pretty much every other class except Agents and Vanguards felt left out of the last event rewards. The Best Rewards belonged to The Rakghoul Plague.

 

TLDR: The Grand Acquisitions Race wins 3-2

 

So, while both events were amazing the Grand Acquisitions Race was less obscure, able to be completed without a guide, and encouraged people to actually play the event instead of beign AFK on the fleet. In the last event there was a lot of chaos, a lot of frustration and ANGER with the way that some of the quests were designed, but there was also a lot cooperation and positive interaction within the community, and for me it was well worth it!

Edited August 22, 2012 by ChazDoit

[iamthehoyden]

Personally I liked the rak plague much much better, but ymmv.

[ChazDoit]

Well that was fun, putting this together...

[Rafaman]

I enjoyed both quite a bit. I thought the Race was streamed line a bit better with regard to discoveries leading to other "leads". And, as I didn't use the walkthrough (with one minor exception) I found the quests to be fun and exciting.

 

However, despite the Race improvements as the second event, I have to give Rak the win here. Two major reasons, really.

 

1. If I'm going to hunt for items, I would prefer a nice open area planet.

 

2. The plague. Infecting others and blowing up was just great fun. lol!

[Vitas]

I didn't get why the Lead missions were time locked. Was there a valid reason as to why they wouldn't let you complete them till days later? Edited August 22, 2012 by Vitas

[ChazDoit]

 

2. The plague. Infecting others and blowing up was just great fun. lol!

 

Yeah, but I saw that as something negative because people exploited it to stay on the fleet and not even play the event

[TheRealCandyMan]

I liked the Rakghoul plague so much more.

[TheRealCandyMan]

Yeah, but I saw that as something negative because people exploited it to stay on the fleet and not even play the event

 

But that was hilarious! After getting all the items I wanted I kept the plague alive for weeks after the event ended.

[Darth_Victus]

Yeah, but I saw that as something negative because people exploited it to stay on the fleet and not even play the event

 

This is true.

 

But for those of us that actually properly partook in the event, Rakghoul Outbreak wins hands down over this last event. The Race was fun, but the rewards were a bit one sided, while at least the rakghoul at least had something every class could use.

 

Personally and in my own opinion, Rakghoul Outbreak was a far better world event then the Grand Acquisitions Race.

[Soluss]

I didn't get why the Lead missions were time locked. Was there a valid reason as to why they wouldn't let you complete them till days later?

 

To artificially stretch the event out to last the entire week.

[Rafaman]

Yeah, but I saw that as something negative because people exploited it to stay on the fleet and not even play the event

 

You make a good point. I know a few peeps that literally sat around for hours infecting and getting reinfected that way. It got so bad for some, they literally became immune to the plague. Apparently there was a timer set on how often you could get infected. Meh... to each his own I guess.

 

Speaking of which... One more thing that Rak had that should have been included in the Race was a World Boss. That giant Bantha was a great. Why didn't we see a giant Chevin? lol!

Edited August 22, 2012 by Rafaman

[Leweegibo]

Good write up.

I like them both, in different ways, which was good. At least they were actually different.

 

Only gripe was yeah, the weapons but oh well

[Draekos]

Nice write up. I know alot of people loved the rakghoul event, but it didn't hook me, i did a couple of quests and went back to my normal gaming. The race I completed on 5 characters.

[Karkais]

I agree with the topic post completely. I also liked grand acquisitions race better. And I hated being infected in the fleet/pvp long after the event was done!

 

The surprise factor of the rakghoul plague was unique though. I doubt it will feel like it again.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Karkais

[RikHar]

Latest event is a terrible flop.

 

Unfortunately, there are players who have been bored for so long with nothing new to do that any new content no matter how bad seems heaven-sent.

 

Last event (Rak) wasn't all that either. But was better then running from planet to planet and back again over and over and over which seems a whole lot better then this lousy event.

Edited August 22, 2012 by RikHar

[ChazDoit]

Nice write up. I know alot of people loved the rakghoul event, but it didn't hook me, i did a couple of quests and went back to my normal gaming. The race I completed on 5 characters.

 

You know it took me a while to put this post together, specially finding some of the Pictures.

 

Would you belive that nobody took pictures about the Breadcrubms and Clues? It looks like everyone totally missed them. Not even the guides that are suposed to help you say "you know there are clues all over the place you might wanna check them out"

[VulcanLogic]

I liked the Rakghoul event more, even though I got more gear out of the more recent event. We need more of these. They're small projects comparatively but create a lot of buzz.

[Jackobite]

Great post OP,

 

A few factors for me tho, the time line, The plague event ran for about 10 days? I was able to run my main and a few alts thru most of it, in fact it was very helpful to a character I was lvling as I did daily missions for very nice xp. The race event was bizarrely short.

 

Also the surprise element of the plague beats almost any event iv did online, it had everyone in guild talking and fleet was buzzing with "whats going on"

 

so for me the plague event wins hands down.

[Chaac]

Overall I felt the the Rakghoul Plague had a much better story. There was very little about the race event story that really intrigued me, not to mention my characters not speaking even once which just completely de-personalized the story for me.

[Goretzu]

The Rak Event got a good 90% to 95% on my "event scale", it was genuinely fun, innovative and fresh.

 

 

The Chase Event if you ignore the bugs and the click war pile ups (i.e. only played it on Sunday or Monday when most were fixed and it was quiet) gets maybe a 70%. It was decent and fun, but nothing really new or surprising.

 

If you factor in the bugs and the click war piles from the first 3-4 days frankly the score gets as low as 30%.

 

Whomever thought that finding randomly spawning boxes on a long respawn timer to give a RNG 1 in 6 chance of the item you need whilst the entire server is also tryingn to do it was a sadist frankly.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Goretzu

[Caelcorvalo]

Personally, I feel the Rakghoul Plague was leagues beyond the Grand Acquisitions Race.

 

When the Rakghoul event hit the servers the immersion absolutely sucked you into the game. When I logged on at the fleet the first thing I heard was the galactic news feed warning travelers to stay away from Tatooine, quickly followed by the discovery of news terminals with crowds of people standing around them. It felt close to real life, the way a sudden and terrible catastrophe makes time stand still--where everyday concerns vanish and news of the event and the actions taking place draw attention with irresistible ease. Suddenly the game was fresh and new and gripping again, and I dropped everything to see what the fuss was all about.

 

When I arrived on Tatooine the rakghouls were already out, barely contained by the specially geared officers surrounding downed pods with corpses still warm on the sand. A few of them were already infected, and as I drifted in for a closer look I was attacked straight off. Thus started the quest log for the special pet, but I was already hooked by then. Where did the pods come from? What the hell was going on?

 

Then I found the clean up crew beside the speeders, and the story began to unfold beautifully. A plague engineered by a madman, an infected stowaway, the heartbreaking destruction of a working man's family as the crew mutinied and descended into madness. The wreckage spilled across the planet, devastating the ecosystem, infecting all manner of creatures and throwing the entire land into upheaval. Two new world bosses emerging from the sands, another corrupted by plague. And when it was all over... the wreckage of that doomed ship remained. The event actually CHANGED the physical area of the game, words can't express the satisfaction of being part of something that has had a persistent impact on the future of that world. Every time I'm on Tatooine and I see that crashed ship I remember the event, and sometimes I even look up to the sand dune beyond it, hoping to see that greedy Jawa with the awesome crystals.

 

By comparison the Grand Acquisitions Race felt flat. While I imagine the news feed was meant to showcase a reptilian crime tycoon hacking the galactic network and spawning a "gold rush" with a darker, ulterior motive... it ended up feeling like just another NPC dishing out a quest. The story "pay off" upon discovering that the procured items were meant to buy the goodwill of a long lost Gree fleet felt distant and shallow. I never found myself caring who ended up with the artifacts, there was no feeling of the event having a weighty impact on the galaxy. It was just as they said, an "opportunity for personal enrichment". The event didn't fill me with a sense of belonging, didn't impress upon me the urgency of procuring the items, didn't fill me with intrigue or unease at what the items were and what their histories might be (codex entries for each would have been a great way to evolve the story, just a few bread crumbs to inspire a whirlwind of speculation as to what having all those items might mean), and most of all using only two planets per faction meant the entire event felt "on rails" despite the exploratory atmosphere hinted at by the broadcast.

 

As far as the difficulty is concerned, I can honestly say I preferred the challenge of the Rakghoul Plague as compared to the Grand Acquisitions Race. When the race went live I grouped with 2 other people and we spent a couple hours finding all the items, figuring out the simple puzzles on some of the crates and for the first hour or so I enjoyed it immensely. The subtle clues in the space ports were exactly the kind of bait to get me interested--small changes to the area that could be easily overlooked if you were in the habit of speeding through them as fast as possible to get to the explorable areas. But pretty soon it became clear that there was going to be an item for every class-based story area on each planet and the scavenger hunt came down to looking in the most obvious places. The mini-boss fights added a welcomed twist, but ultimately the greatest difficulty of the event wasn't the challenges of the quests but in clicking on the crates faster than everyone else. The final quest was the only one that challenged me, but only because I attempted to run a lvl 17 Sentinel through an area filled with mobs that could one-shot me off the dilapidated speeder. It would prove impossible without someone "clearing a path" to the final checkpoint.

 

By comparison the Rakghoul Plague had three worldbosses affected by the event, a significant increase of difficulty made all the more challenging by the fact that both factions had limited opportunity to down the epic beasts. One quest had you scouring the entire shared area of Tatooine for wreckage on a timer, something that practically demanded a guide to complete before the buff wore off. But anyone with a ship could complete the event; all the kills required were scaled to the character's level, mobs were spaced out enough to permit careful manouevering of a speeder, many quests would be completed with a bare minimum of combat when handled by a skilled player. This event didn't hold your hand, you really had to invest time and effort if you wanted to discover it all on your own. That the event vendor only offered colored crystals, a pet, and a random companion customization box meant that you couldn't cheat the event buy buying tokens to vendor for all the items whilst skipping all the quests. If you wanted the unique orange gear (the best adaptive gear in the game, barring the dancer's outfits), you HAD to finish the quests. The "plague-bursters" weren't AFK'ing the event, they were simply farming a small selection of the items available during the event. Not at all like those camping the smugger crates, who could skip all the quests and still come away with every item the event had to offer. Or worse still, those who simply paid for tokens and got everything with one trip to the Promenade.

 

In conclusion, I have to give the Rakghoul Event the decision. The story possessed greater depth, the storytelling was more immersive, the quest rewards were better, the difficulty made obtaining the rewards feel like an actual achievement, the community feeling was more cohesive and compelling,; and, to put it bluntly, it simply had more content.

[Drudenfusz]

Nice work OP, but there is one additional point to be made for the rakghoul event. the open world PvP was better there. Maybe it was because both factions had to do all the stuff at the same locations or maybe it was because of the world bosses... that feeling just wasn't there during the acquisitions race.

 

I liked the acquisitions race, because I enjoyed the quests more, but I would have liked to repeat the quests at least once to have the option to gain both titles... otherwise I was fine with the rewards (and that with a Jedi as my main).

Edited August 22, 2012 by Drudenfusz

[ChazDoit]

Great post OP,

 

A few factors for me tho, the time line, The plague event ran for about 10 days? I was able to run my main and a few alts thru most of it, in fact it was very helpful to a character I was lvling as I did daily missions for very nice xp. The race event was bizarrely short.

 

I'm not sure if the Rakghoul Plague was longer, but it makes sense, since the event was not announced they let it run a few more days to let people catch up, in any case, I think I would critisize both events for beign too short, specially in the case of the Acquisitions Race. It was a good opportunity to bring people back into the game but by the time many found it, the event was almost over, I think it was a missed opportunity since some poeple would have resubed to play the event.

 

By comparison the Rakghoul Plague had three worldbosses affected by the event, a significant increase of difficulty made all the more challenging by the fact that both factions had limited opportunity to down the epic beasts.

 

I know some people love raid bosses, they are more MMOish, but not everyone likes to raid, and let's be honest here, people were getting PISSED because they had to wait 2 extra minutes to complete some of quests in The Grand Acquisitions Race, and that is much much shorter than a worldboss respawn timer, and if you missed the opportunity you were locked out of one of th best rewards, a unique title.

 

I guess I also gravitate towards the Acquisitions Race because it's a bit more single player RPG oriented, I also think that in the case of the plague, we were so grateful to get this surprise content that nobody critisized it, because there were no expectations, no hype was built up before the event. In the case of the Race, we were already aware that there was gonna be another event and we kept asking "when is the event coming?" there was a lot more anticipation for this one.

Edited August 22, 2012 by ChazDoit

[iamthehoyden]

Personally, I feel the Rakghoul Plague was leagues beyond the Grand Acquisitions Race.

<snip>

Thank you for this post, it was a great memory walkthrough of the rak plague and why I loved it.

I will say I liked a couple things better in this one:

- being able to start it on any day and still finish it by the last day

- the event vendor being around for a week after

 

On the okay side of things:

- the bowcasters are pretty cool, just a pity only 3/16 ACs can use them

- the speeder's pretty cool, pity it's going to sit in the garage

- finding the boxes in hidden spots was fun

 

The clicking races because someone designed a world event with items only one person/group could use at a time were asinine. The reward itemization needs a serious reworking. And where is the Gree fleet??? All this build up and the event ends and blah, nothing. If they're going bring in something like that then the event should have been extended until it actually comes.

This event wasn't bad. I appreciated having something different to do, my van has a nice new bowcaster, and the gear is going to be BOL so that's pretty cool. In comparison though? Looooved the rakghoul event, loved it loved it loved it.

[Nastynas]

Is this a joke thread?

 

Even Stevie Wonder can see which is better.