Nar Nightlife Event Updates 2024

[Toraak]

14 hours ago, absolutetristan said:

Wasting the tokens I get from drops.

Getting a Kingpin Rancor from an Emperor slot is kinda a waste of my Emperor token when I can buy the Rancor.

could the Rancor be won from the Emperor slot (or any slot, I’d imagine maybe the Kingpin slots) before or is that new? 

A lot of Vendor items drop as Jackpots from that machine. I don't consider anything from a vendor to be a jackpot personally. Just a waste.

[AlacrityFitzhugh]

I used to like the Nightlife event. Now I don't.

[doin_it]

This event is garbage since the changes !!!!

Edited July 26 by doin_it

[KyraMalakai]

C'mon guys the devs were completely successful on the objectives for the event like

On 7/8/2024 at 10:40 PM, JoeStramaglia said:

Our goal with the below changes is to improve the Nar Nightlife experience by reducing the amount of time it takes to play

the casinos are ghost towns you want a bigger proof than that on the success of their goal.
Now on the other points,

On 7/8/2024 at 10:40 PM, JoeStramaglia said:

Previously Lucky and Good Karma were awarded alongside winning some Chips, however they will now be rewarded sometimes with what was originally considered a loss. This will make the buffs a little bit rarer.

even after loss after loss I still don't get one, so they did great.

On 7/8/2024 at 10:40 PM, JoeStramaglia said:

Any Win or Jackpot on Kingpin’s Bounty or Emperor’s Grace will remove Lucky and Good Karma.

of course this one works like a charm

On 7/8/2024 at 10:40 PM, JoeStramaglia said:

Lucky and Good Karma will increase your odds of winning on Kingpin’s Bounty. Good Karma will increase your odds even further than Lucky.

this might be true if the other point didn't almost make it impossible to get one

On 7/8/2024 at 10:40 PM, JoeStramaglia said:

Lucky and Good Karma can stack on Emperor’s Grace Slot Machines to increase the chance of winning all the way to 100%.

now this one is a half truth, it only works if you get them both from the slot machines, if you get them from other means that were provided by the game, no dice

On 7/8/2024 at 10:40 PM, JoeStramaglia said:

It’s now possible to lose on the Emperor’s Grace machine, however the Max Bet cannot lose. Max Bet instead increases the chance of a Jackpot win (any non-certificate drop) with the buffs.

this one is true, of course

On 7/8/2024 at 10:40 PM, JoeStramaglia said:

Kingpin’s Bounty and Smuggler’s Luck Max Bet machines have much lower loss rates than previous years, the Emperor’s Grace Max Bet still has no chance of losing, and all machines are less likely to reward more chips.

now this one is the comedy act of the year, I have never had such a big loss rate on smuggler and kingpin as this year buff or no buff, and because they reward less chips they also run out faster

On 7/8/2024 at 10:40 PM, JoeStramaglia said:

Lucky will increase your odds of winning on Smuggler’s Luck machines like normal.

That's not true, the red light I keep seeing on the slot machine over and over again even with the buff says otherwise

On 7/8/2024 at 10:40 PM, JoeStramaglia said:

Some other broad changes we’ve made to the event:

• We’ve added some Conquest objectives related to the event.
• New Achievements have been added to previously released item drops.
• The Shady Gambler and Double Agent dyes have been added to the Golden Certificate vendor. These were originally Cartel Market dyes that had previously been retired.

I believe you on this

On 7/8/2024 at 10:40 PM, JoeStramaglia said:

Thank you for taking the time to read these changes, we have a lot of future plans for this event in the longer term future so stay tuned for updates.

Please don't, I shudder to think what you are going to come up with next, and by the way, don't do the same to any other events, we actually like to have fun.

[Kronox]

Subscribed since beta. I rarely visit the forums (and post even less). I came here to say add my voice the discontent with these changes. I used to spend hour gambling and feel rewarded. Now I try it for a few minutes and quit because the RNG and buff percentages are TERRIBLE. 

Like many, I have hundreds of golden certs, own everything you can buy with them (many to max #), and don't need more. Adding dyes that are BOP doesn't excite me either. 

Whoever decided to make these changes obviously didn't test them and doesn't understand the player base.

[absolutetristan]

I’m still not sure why changes for a yearly event.

i could maybe understand and see tweaks, updates, changes, “fixes”, etc, for monthly (whatever the rotation schedule is) for the constant/regularly reoccurring events…maybe even seasons

already dreading what may be cooked up for the feast and life day events 

Edited July 27 by absolutetristan

[MishaCantu]

Went to the casino once, on a weekend day. Only 1 other player there. Ran through the Emperor chips I'd received from just killing mobs, and won't be going back again.

Heaven knows what they've come up with for the Feast and Lifeday events. New and improved isn't always better. Some classics should be left alone. 

[Stansman]

After missing out on free character transfers to the new pacific server because of a technicality and now having my favorite event ruined, my loyalty to this game is being severely tested..

[Dyhanna]

I too rarely visit the forums and post even less. I too once adored and looked forward with great enthusiasm to the Nightlife Event. This is my second post on this topic in about as many weeks. So it should be clear that I feel as strongly as my disenchanted brethren. 

Since there have been no updates, comments or replies from Broadsword to our nearly unanimous discontent, I suspect that we won't see any reversion to the old system. Right now, they're probably trying to figure out how to "fix it" without looking like we were right, and they were wrong. Admitting you messed up, and owning it, requires a high degree of humility, courage, and self-confidence. 

Edited July 30 by Dyhanna

[absolutetristan]

On 7/25/2024 at 6:14 AM, absolutetristan said:

Wasting the tokens I get from drops.

Getting a Kingpin Rancor from an Emperor slot is kinda a waste of my Emperor token when I can buy the Rancor.

could the Rancor be won from the Emperor slot (or any slot, I’d imagine maybe the Kingpin slots) before or is that new? 

I’ve won more items I can get from the vendors than any other year.

i used to hate the cargo hold of wraith’s from nightlifes’ past. Now it’s the magnus. Mind you, haven’t really won anything from Smugglers or Kingpin’s slots, so outside of the one cub pet, getting those vendor items from the Emperor slots is still a waste.

I’m glad I didn’t invest credits and just used drops from playing story. I started a new knight and consular story. By the end of Tython, one had 7 emperor chips, one had 4/5, these were standard enemies/mobs. I never experienced the drops from gold/silver enemies like most players say. 

I think they should supplement ruining the event with adding the items to collections. 

Edited July 31 by absolutetristan

[eabevella]

On 7/30/2024 at 1:53 AM, MishaCantu said:

Went to the casino once, on a weekend day. Only 1 other player there. Ran through the Emperor chips I'd received from just killing mobs, and won't be going back again.

Heaven knows what they've come up with for the Feast and Lifeday events. New and improved isn't always better. Some classics should be left alone. 

The rewards become "tips" from the customers and it's "randomized" so that we can experience "our waiters survive on your tipping kindness" in a Hutt-run restaurant

[Geoproxy]

If you wanted a good credit sink; then perhaps you can let players buy multiple copies of decorations they've already unlocked, (just like they can for guild strongholds) instead of attempting to create a credit sink by modifying an existing event that people enjoyed. I say enjoyed, because no one enjoys it now.

I might suggest crowd sourcing ideas from the community, and not necessarily the forums, before you implement something that is going to trigger everyone. Change should occur progressively, not instantly...

[Gimpeline]

No updates, no rollback. Soon we will get a post. "Thanks for all the feeback. We have made a few tweeks to next time" instead of reversing this garbage.

I really hope you haven't done any "improvment" to feast that is comming up next

If something works, don't fix it. Use your time to fix bugs and things like that instead

Edited July 31 by Gimpeline

[Cindron]

My partner and I would spend hours most evenings on the slots during this event.  We would relax and chat with people in general and say.  A quick dash to purchase more smuggler's chips and ya keep playing.  People would shout out what they won and others would congratulate them.

We have not spent 20 minutes at the event this year and that is so disheartening.   The absolute lack of care by the developers is shocking.  This thread, with hundreds of posts stating how much we all dislike the changes is completely ignored. 

I suspect they went over stats/metrics after a week and determined it was working as intended.  Despite the lower population playing,  more credits from game are being siphoned off than ever before.  What we feel is completely irrelevant.  I thought when the game shuffled over to Broadsword, the remaining devs were the ones passionate about the game.  While we would see fewer expansions, we would see countless bugs addressed, quality of life improvements and relevant expansions.  I was wrong.  My partner has all but quit and I continue to struggle to find a reason to play as well.

Working as intended.

Edited July 31 by Cindron

[Monterone]

On 7/17/2024 at 7:29 PM, ThotterTosser said:

This is easily the WORST update from this game I have ever seen, actually in any game I have ever seen in YEARS.

Why did we nerf drop rates in the first place? We no longer get Kingpin chips from Emperor Slot Machines, we no longer get Emperor Chips from Smuggler Slot Machines. Feeling Lucky is harder to get, and over all drop rate of certificates both GOLDEN and CARTEL along with the rest of the rewards are reduced. 

This is the first year of Nightlife I have ever had to spend actual credits for chips. I already dropped 200 MILLION credits on Kingpin Chips when in the past as I was able to get them back for FREE from the Emperor slot machines.

That is why I only spent what I had in chips on my characters already, and when I ran out, the event ended for me.

It's not a fun event for me if I have to buy rewards. Especially if they are the same rewards we've had for years, only now I have to spend millions to get them.

No thanks.

[WaffleQwop]

I just came here to say that I got basically every reward on just one character, in one sitting, from the emperor tokens that I had collected from mobs/raid bosses over the course of like a week. What rewards I didn't get I just bought with the golden certificates because they're given out like candy. Very disappointed with the event this year.. the Smuggler machine is completely worthless and a hassle. Kingpin might even be worse. Overall just disappointed lol.

I want to make a point that I barely ever even used the Kingpin machine because it was so hard to come by tokens for it, and of the several dozen tokens I used on it I think I got 1 pet. After that I never touched Kingpin again. Then doing the Smugglers machine just ticked me off bad, it's utterly useless. Only wasted my time with the Emperor machine, had decent success, but I am not impressed at all with any of this event. Not the rewards, not the nerfs to the machines, nothing.. 

Major L here devs! At this point in the games life, just make these events as fun as possible, as inclusive as possible, and stop trying to "balance" them (or whatever the hell you want to call changes to a gambling event).

[DeannaVoyager]

I'm only doing the daily wins for a conquest points. You can do it with just Smuggler chips, but I have tons of Kingpin so I'm using those. The other day I also did the 20x Emperor spin, and without having any buffs I won more stuff I don't need than with the buffs before. I'm guessing the buffs are just as irrelevant like they were with the fishing event. 

[WaffleQwop]

5 hours ago, DeannaVoyager said:

I'm only doing the daily wins for a conquest points. You can do it with just Smuggler chips, but I have tons of Kingpin so I'm using those. The other day I also did the 20x Emperor spin, and without having any buffs I won more stuff I don't need than with the buffs before. I'm guessing the buffs are just as irrelevant like they were with the fishing event. 

No joke I think the buffs are fake. They legitimately did nothing, or at least it certainly felt that way. All for "gambling immersion".

[Meiran]

On 7/31/2024 at 3:18 PM, Geoproxy said:

If you wanted a good credit sink; then perhaps you can let players buy multiple copies of decorations they've already unlocked, (just like they can for guild strongholds) instead of attempting to create a credit sink by modifying an existing event that people enjoyed. I say enjoyed, because no one enjoys it now.

I might suggest crowd sourcing ideas from the community, and not necessarily the forums, before you implement something that is going to trigger everyone. Change should occur progressively, not instantly...

This. Credits would go flying out of the game if this was the case.

[Strathkin]

On 8/1/2024 at 6:26 AM, WaffleQwop said:

No joke I think the buffs are fake. They legitimately did nothing, or at least it certainly felt that way. All for "gambling immersion".

I'd agree, also based on my experience. 

I have found on Emperor's token's I seem to do just as well without any buff's, while I do loose more often sure!  Still I hit jackpot just as often without buff's, similar to what the person above claims. 

• My biggest upset, is really around the Kingpin Slot's, those seem far worst than they had been.
• As it is right now, Casino's are ghost towns, I'd rather have far closer to how it was!

@JoeStramaglia

I'd accept a blend 55% - 75% closer to old method, & we'd see more people at Casino's for event...  

1. All most want for Event's is introducing more regular new prizes each year.  Yet when they do rarely add one, it's usually just Seasonal... ...people like 3+ Rewards of different qualities, that keeps interest Highest.

2. Re-occuring events: Rakghoul, Bounty Hunter's, Gree, or Swoop Bike haven't added Rewards in years!

3. Be nice if Bounty Hunter's had small Operation added, &/or [Daily] Heroic similar to Rakghoul & Gree; a few other events would greatly benefit as well.  It also encourage more Subscribers as well...

UPDATE: (posted to another thread)  

On 8/11/2024 at 1:14 PM, Strathkin said:

While they could consider a new 5-6 Boss Operation those take far more time, so initially it might be easier to first focus those 1 Boss Event Operations like Rakghoul &/or Gree to a few other Events:    

• Bounty Hunter event lacks both a short Operation, as well as a [Daily] Heroic, and even Life Day, Feast, and others could gain increased interest! 
• Imagine a Giant Wampa (Abominable Snow Wampa) throws snow, knocks ice to those taunting him; while a beast tamer dressed him in an usual outfit.  
• You try to lure by throwing snow items, or other objects like Pie, Fruits like in Chiss FP to distract Cat; while chilling some area's or heating others? 
• Challenge is most Events haven't added Rewards, in many years; though new Event was a surprise! 

Kind of reminds me of tricking him into a Polar Bear swim, just for the Wampa...  ...yet maybe we might also fall in too?  But back to the theme...

 Given events have been running 12+ years, biggest way to draw interest is more new Rewards! 

  -- Nice retired rewards to consider are like: Star Wars: The Old Republic | News Articles (swtor.com) ++

Edited August 12 by Strathkin
Grammar

[Lyriel]

I was talking this over with guildmates, and they were also less than thrilled with the changes (this is a charitable characterization of what some of them said). But they also pointed out that I should try it for myself at least once rather than take their word for it - put my credits where my mouth is, as it were. It was a fair point. So I did.

I did manage to accumulate 77 Emperor's Grace chips while mindlessly, endlessly slaughtering hapless pixels in the hunt for blueprint fragments. What a rotten slog that was (and yes, I had the buff on always). Anyway, I had literally hundreds of Kingpin chips left from last year (good thing, because none dropped for me during the event this year at all), and maybe 50 Smuggler's chips.

I decided to try it under the optimum conditions as posted by @JoeStramaglia - that is, no EG spins without both buffs, obtained only by the machines (since apparently it is impossible to code the same buff to actually work the same way regardless of how it is obtained).

This was a most unenjoyable experience.

• I found myself actively annoyed when I would 'win' at either Kingpin or Smugger machines. That is the most counterintuitive thing I have ever felt in a casino, real or imaginary.
• I wasted the entire 10 minutes of a Good Karma buff trying to get the Feeling Lucky buff. 
• I had to buy more Smuggler's chips because I ran out seeking the Feeling Lucky buff while having Good Karma.
• My entire haul for 21 EG chips, with both buffs:
  • A number of Cartel and Gold certs (I already have literally hundreds)
  • One Vectron Magnus (already have several)
  • One pair of High Roller Shades (ditto)
  • Two Fiery Grefha chick pets (ditto)
  • One Proud Pritarr cub (ditto)
  • One lost EG chip, no prize

I realize that this is a small sample size, but it is consistent with what my guildmates reported and the feedback here. It was somehow worse than I had expected, in terms of user experience. I mean, really - how is it enjoyable to be actively annoyed by 'winning' in a casino?!? 'Winning' is in quotes because getting one chip back is not actually winning - it is breaking even. I did get the occasional Kingpin chip from Smuggler's machines, and I think one certificate from a Kingpin machine. I suppose that is technically winning...

If this kind of user experience (both the changes to this event and the excrescence of the blue print grind in the past GS) is what I can expect from Broadsword going forward, I can't say I will be around much longer.

Games are supposed to be fun. I've had fun before. This isn't it.

[Setta]

On 7/9/2024 at 6:39 PM, JoeStramaglia said:

We’ll be monitoring this change especially since it could reduce engagement with the machines. The intent behind the change was to increase reward output and decrease time spent. If we find over time that it does not remain engaging, then we’ll certainly adjust in the future.

So I'm curious, you folks have 9 full pages of feedback.  From what I can see virtually all negative feedback. Like 95% negative or more. People who don't even normally post here have been showing up here to give their 2c on this issue, because it's that bad. I legitimately haven't seen one positive post here in regards to the changes, but will give you the benefit of the doubt, that somewhere in here there might be 1 or 2 praises, no matter how skeptical I am of that statement. When exactly did you all plan on making these "future adjustments"?  Because if the answer is next year, I think we all know how that's going to go, with further disappointment.  The event will soon be over, and we haven't heard a peep out of you guys regarding this issue. 

Has the feedback been heard?  Will the changes be reverted? Is there any discussion actually going on?  Or are you guys just going to continue to ignore the player base till you all break some other thing, and divert our attention to that instead?  I'm legit curious because my sub expires in like 3 or 4 days, and I've been debating on the bundle (as it is a good deal if there was actually any reason to stay).  If there's no light at the end of the tunnel though, and you all are going to keep breaking stuff, ignoring player feedback, while drip feeding us content then guess I can begin to move on to something else, anything else at this point. 

[PlasmaJohn]

11 hours ago, Lyriel said:

I decided to try it under the optimum conditions as posted by @JoeStramaglia - that is, no EG spins without both buffs, obtained only by the machines (since apparently it is impossible to code the same buff to actually work the same way regardless of how it is obtained).

I near about did a spit-take with my coffee.  In a reasonably coded system you need to go out of your way to make multiple effects that work similarly.  This smells like a bug that should have been hot patched.  Alas that never happens unless the store breaks in the players' favor.

8 hours ago, Setta said:

I legitimately haven't seen one positive post here in regards to the changes, but will give you the benefit of the doubt, that somewhere in here there might be 1 or 2 praises, no matter how skeptical I am of that statement.

I don't have enough direct experience with how the event worked in prior years so I can't claim it's a worse experience.  It seems to work about as well as it did from 7-8 years ago which was try it once and never return.

There are some positives but they're completely secondary.  They give great XP for leveling alts.  The <Graced By the Emperor> (82k weekly) and Spin To Win (13k daily) conquest objectives help quite a bit with my stable of CQ alts.

At this point I've burned through maybe 50 Emperor's chips across alts with and without the quest chain buff from NS.  I've definitely had better results with it than without but none of my alts have had more than 18 Emperor's chips.  I did get the new helmet once but not the shades I was interested in. 

8 hours ago, Setta said:

If there's no light at the end of the tunnel though, and you all are going to keep breaking stuff, ignoring player feedback, while drip feeding us content then guess I can begin to move on to something else, anything else at this point. 

They're not going to come out and say that.  Subscription and CM revenue would fall off a cliff.  While "Past performance is no guarantee of future results" is true in general the drip feed has been a problem since RotHC and has only gotten worse.

Obviously there are new things coming what you need to do is decide for yourself if what they revealed in the livestream is "enough".

[Samcuu]

My two cents: 

I've been playing this event on and off depending on the rewards since it started. When it first came out it was a massive time sink. By introducing the emperor and max bet emperor machine it reduced the time at a large credit cost, which I felt is reasonable.

When the high roller shades were introduced I decided to spend about 2b credits on what I think must have been 15/20 max bet emperor chips iirc? Just playing that machine I got pretty much every weapon that dropped, plus 2 or 3 pairs of the high roller shades. Probably an over spend but I wasn't too unhappy with my haul. It made sense that if you really wanted the rewards just spend a ton of credits and use the machine where you couldn't lose.

Fast forward to this event. The helmet is cool but as it's the only new reward I felt like I didn't really need to spend billions to get it. I've only used the emperor tokens this year I didn't spring for the max bet so I have no info on if that machine still rewards you with a good yield. However while spinning on the emperor (only while i have the two buffs) I did get a full armor set, 2 or 3 weapons, a couple pairs of the shades, and that skiff mount (from last years event?) Which I didn't have, plus maybe 50 gold certs and 50 of the cartel certs. I think I did end up spending like 200m or so on emperors tokens as that's probably the amount I'd buy the helmet for. 

Last years event was in a much better place imo because if you didn't have the credits to spend you could still get the rewards if you just spent enough time playing. If you really wanted the rewards and had the credits you could get them much faster if you just bought them for all intents and purposes (even tho I didn't get the blaster but I was able to trade a lightsaber for someone who had multiple blasters). This year it feels like the rewards are still available if you just buy the chips but for the ppl who don't have an abundance of credits, you can't really win much without spending because you lose your tokens at a much faster rate, and the rewards you are getting are most likely things you already have. So definite downgrade. 

 

 

Edited August 3 by Samcuu

[Setta]

7 hours ago, PlasmaJohn said:

They're not going to come out and say that. 

Depends on what you expect to hear.  I think a statement like :  Yes we've read through the feedback, and unfortunately the changes did not go the way we expected them, so we'll be reverting the event to it's past iteration" would go a long way for most people.  Instead of the dead silence as they continue to ignore player feedback despite constantly claiming they want player feedback.