Roller Beatle MINI PET!!! YES

namkey

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

I took 5 minutes out of my 36 hours and got myself a pig. There was a little next to the resord keeper that said she was going to give prizes to the top 100.

Martin Alvito

Martin Alvito

Older Than God (1)

Join Date: Aug 2006

Clan Dethryche [dth]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hell Raiser
(even though spending hours trying to find out when/where/how to activate the powerups sounds a bit like... no life )
Actually, I just put everything else on hold for the weekend. Currently in graduate school, so I can do that (although the next three days are going to be rough as I catch back up).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hell Raiser
but it is a FACT that people were spike joining. Don't even try to argue there, I got hit with something of the sort but I thought nothing of it, we passed the first checkoint and I (among others) went to the right up the hill, we get to the box and I grab it, but wth some guy is camping it, and he is spamming KD's ( I thought it was just someone trying to get Echo+super beetle), luckily while he was KD'ing me I was right at the box, too, and got a super beetle.

You may not have cheated, but several people did.
My point is this: so what? They were NOT helping themselves succeed if they were spike joining. Spike joins would have meant many fewer matches; proper play in the early part provided far more opportunities for the combo than spike joins ever would have.

Look at it this way: if someone cheats at poker, but consistently cheats out worse cards than the deck would have given them randomly (and other players get cards normally)...does it matter? Personally, I'd prefer that my opponents cheat subpar cards into their own hands.

While in the match in question this may have hurt you, the /resign command was a powerful way of dealing with early knockdowns. Focusing on controlling what you could control and not getting overly bent out of shape over what you could not (such as box lotto and banding) was critical to success in this thing. Sure, I spent LOTS of time using foul language over this weekend...but so long as I could put the irritants behind me and focus on the next match, silly stuff like what you describe didn't matter.

atkafighter

atkafighter

Academy Page

Join Date: Oct 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by namkey
I took 5 minutes out of my 36 hours and got myself a pig.
Good for you.

I was opening stupid fortunes all weekend, and didn't get a single one. Then I broke down to buy one, and found out a few hours later that they are free.

namkey

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

Unfortunate for you. next time, wait till the end of a weekend before buying something. Happens every event that people pay stupid amounts for something they shouldnt have.

Martin Alvito

Martin Alvito

Older Than God (1)

Join Date: Aug 2006

Clan Dethryche [dth]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackest Rose
It turns out that for the chefs materials rewards were given out in the thousands....rollerbeetle to only 100.
True enough; had Anet had some OTHER minipet or some other significant prize (even a ton of gift bags) available for people that actually completed the collection efforts, this would have been preferable in my opinion. However, how rare could it have been given all the pve-focused players in the game, as compared to something only given to the top 100 scorers in a 3-day special event?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackest Rose
It wasn't until Sunday that we found out that pigs weren't actually rare and that was it. By then it's late in the day to refocus on rollerbeetle.
Have to disagree with you there, just from opening up fortunes on the first day of rollerbeetle and seeing all the pig sale spam in LA/Kamadan AD1. If you were paying attention to the price of pigs in the trade/local spam, it should have been painfully obvious that pigs were going to be worthless within about six hours after the event started. I sold all of the ones I got in the first few hours for 20-25k (while they were still semirare) knowing that everyone and his aunt would have them by the time all was said and done. Never even bothered to unload them after they dropped to 10.

Still, I wasn't looking at this event as an opportunity to profit. I know many people do (guild leader made something like 1.2 million plat farming gargoyle skulls during Christmas this year...too boring for my taste). However, I simply saw rollerbeetle as a fun minigame to be deciphered right from the start. I figured the prize would probably be a mini beetle, but I was more focused on posting a top time than the outcome.

Martin Alvito

Martin Alvito

Older Than God (1)

Join Date: Aug 2006

Clan Dethryche [dth]

Quote:
Originally Posted by atkafighter
I think to make it fair anyone who completed a roller beetle race should get a mini bettle with no flames (solid color), and top 100s get the snazzy flames beetle. Satisfies both parties IMHO.
Probably obvious that I'll take the differing tack here - the thing that makes the beetle cool isn't the looks so much as the scarcity. I'd be pretty upset with Anet if they were to implement something like this. Particularly after an event was completed.

It'd be almost as bad as the first trader reset (the one that held up, not the one that was rolled back) IMO. Changing the rules of the game/economy after the situation is established isn't appropriate.

dronex

dronex

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Dec 2005

Mo/

compared to this the pig sucks ;/ must have oneeee

Lyonette

Lyonette

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2006

Australia

[PiG]

E/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Alvito
It does not. I was hoping it would use the Dash animation and sound when it got far enough away, but no such luck.
awww, thats kinda sucky. T_T

half the reason i love the rollerbeetles is because of the sound they make.

i guess the devs didnt intend on restoring the pets sounds :3

Riceboi

Riceboi

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by beetlebomb
This topic was enough to get me to register an account...

I would like to say a personal and heartfelt thank you to anet.

Thank you anet...you have given 100 players a license to print money. If this sort of activity doesn't encourage more people to violate the EULA and buy ingame money I don't know what will. I agree with all the people before me who thought this event brought out the greediest most selfish nature of the playerbase. I really hope someone from anet reads through all this and more importantly see the corruption a luck and lag based minigame wrought on otherwise somewhat rule abiding playerbase.
Want a tissue baby? Go Home!

Hell Raiser

Hell Raiser

Forge Runner

Join Date: Dec 2005

[PHNX]

Mo/

The "no life" thing was a joke

I'm not saying that my entire weekend was ruined by such things as spike joining, in fact I was not even rollerbeetle racing all weekend. Like I said in a previous post, I KNEW I would not get into the top 100, this was simply because thousands (I guessed) would attend this event and only 100 (was 50 at first O.o ) would be placed on the scoreboard.

I have far too much to deal with in real life to be able to put everything aside and master beetle racing. I have obligations during the week (although they allow me to play alot during the day I still get called away every few min.) and my weekends are usually spent with friends/family. Although I was able to attend a few of the celestial pig visits (I <3 the lion mask) and run a few races (best time was 450k, sad right?), I'm not a "hardcore" player.

I see how you could be angry with people for just pointing fingers and saying "Cheater", but you should not be angry at them, instead maybe try to see their point of view and maybe be angry at spike joiners? If you earned your place, great, if you have time to do such things, awsome! However many of us are racing in this GAME for FUN and not highscore.

PyrAnkh

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2006

Lowbird Academy [LoW]

W/

Well im cuz i was in top100 for a while......spike entering was predictable IMO though.

Martin Alvito

Martin Alvito

Older Than God (1)

Join Date: Aug 2006

Clan Dethryche [dth]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hell Raiser
The "no life" thing was a joke
*laughs* Defensive probably because there's some truth to it. At least this weekend anyway. Wife not happy with husband.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hell Raiser
I see how you could be angry with people for just pointing fingers and saying "Cheater", but you should not be angry at them, instead maybe try to see their point of view and maybe be angry at spike joiners? If you earned your place, great, if you have time to do such things, awsome! However many of us are racing in this GAME for FUN and not highscore.
Angry's not so much the word as sad and frustrated. I just want to grab them, shake them, and say:

"Quit pointing fingers at others! Stop casting blame! You are capable of controlling your own destiny! So shut up, quit whining, and go make it happen!"

Probably an aftereffect of spending five years in sales and sales management before going back to graduate school. I've seen this sort of finger-pointing behavior (and worse, managed it) too many times from too many potentially talented people.

Spike joiners = something I can't do something about = something I'm not going to worry about. If it became a real problem in this game (such that I couldn't enjoy PvP at all) I'd quit playing, because that's something that I can do. Otherwise, no sense doing anything except accept it. Especially since they were just hurting themselves in any case, so you get the added bonus of getting to laugh at them for harming themselves by attempting to "cheat", which doesn't happen all that often. Unintentional comedy ftw!

Hell Raiser

Hell Raiser

Forge Runner

Join Date: Dec 2005

[PHNX]

Mo/

I find the fact that they even felt the need to cheat more entertaining than it actually biting them in the ass. Cheaters have and most likely always will be a problem in games, even if they don't use codes there are ways of cheating (Such as spike joining, exploiting, or ebaying). Usually people cheat because they have never or refuse to work for anything (in this case the beetle), you just have to keep yourself in line and remember that it is just a GAME.

Finger pointing is always a part of life, people who can't take responsibility generally like to have a scape goat (classic situation, "The dog ate my homework..."). In this case, however, people should not (and, in some situations, are not) be blaming someone else for not allowing them to complete something (ZOMG if he didn't knock me down at the start I would have gotten #1 score!!!!), if they are it is simply jealousy and trying to make people believe they would have won if these guys weren't spike joining. The event was great, it is just too bad so many people complain over a little animated bug

Stixxx

Stixxx

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

Belgium

waw those look cool! Thats gonna be the only mini pet i actually want
But meh...cba to throw away so much money on a bug

Asrial

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2005

Centurion Guard

Mo/E

I find playing Rollerbeetle Racing alot more fun than playing Get The Top Spot.

Hengis

Hengis

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2006

London

Better Than Life (BTL)

R/

There are several good ideas coming out of this thread in between the allegations and counter allegations of cheating etc.

Having two separate games on the same track, one where you race solo to try and achieve the best time, and the other where you race against other players to score gamer points sounds pretty good to me.

I also think that having only the top 100 scores being rewarded may have caused some of the shall we say less than ethical tactics.

If it had been the top 1000 for instance, there would have been less absolute pressure to win by any means.

I don't know how many active accounts there are on Guild War, then but if it is around one million then even 1000 winners would only represent 1/1000th of the player base. This would still have made the prize extremely rare, but not so rare as to be selling for prices that are quite simply insane.

garethporlest18

garethporlest18

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

[HiDe]

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hengis Stone
There are several good ideas coming out of this thread in between the allegations and counter allegations of cheating etc.

Having two separate games on the same track, one where you race solo to try and achieve the best time, and the other where you race against other players to score gamer points sounds pretty good to me.

I also think that having only the top 100 scores being rewarded may have caused some of the shall we say less than ethical tactics.

If it had been the top 1000 for instance, there would have been less absolute pressure to win by any means.

I don't know how many active accounts there are on Guild War, then but if it is around one million then even 1000 winners would only represent 1/1000th of the player base. This would still have made the prize extremely rare, but not so rare as to be selling for prices that are quite simply insane.
I think if Anet added that mini to 2nd birthday presents, or brought this little racing game back with another top 100 (all winners not allowed to be same as last time would make it better, at least a little bit. Just as much as the solo time trials and PvP style racing such as we had with a 10-20 gamer point win instead of 7. I'd be happy with that at least.

Draikin

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

I would like to see beetle racing return but with a few changes like Super Rollerbeetle lasting only 5 seconds and some kind of solution against box camping. The way it was now echo + super roller beetle was too good, you could easily afford to boxcamp for 5-15 seconds and still beat the competition.

garethporlest18

garethporlest18

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2006

[HiDe]

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Draikin
I would like to see beetle racing return but with a few changes like Super Rollerbeetle lasting only 5 seconds and some kind of solution against box camping. The way it was now echo + super roller beetle was too good, you could easily afford to boxcamp for 5-15 seconds and still beat the competition.
Yeah but you don't get much more for beating the competition..2 more gamer points and I just realized why it was so low. So that kind of stuff didn't really make it worth it, compared to trying to get top 100. Couldn't really camp for long (1-2 seconds if that) to get in to top 100.

Queenie

Queenie

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2005

That really sucks ;-; Enter as a team and then ganging up on other contestants :/ I'd really love to get a Rock Beetle mini pet aswell...but...bleh ._.

Ouchie

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jan 2007

[Leet]

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackest Rose
The discrepancy between event rewards are massive.

Anyone afk in a lucky district got a pig - people had to really work to win at rollerbeetle.
Oh and I believe I did congratulate the winners in my post but I do feel that Anet did a really bad job in explaining what was happening and the prizes for each.

They labeled the pig a special reward - it was not.
I made the decision not to focus on racing based on information given by Anet...
It turns out that for the chefs materials rewards were given out in the thousands....rollerbeetle to only 100.
It wasn't until Sunday that we found out that pigs weren't actually rare and that was it. By then it's late in the day to refocus on rollerbeetle.

Personally in 20/20 hindsight - I'd have rather concentrated on racing and vied for a beetle rather than waste time on the PVE Chef stuff. I'm guessing many also would.

IMHO

The Mini Pig should have been limited in numbers to be rare as well or the lunar fortunes should have contained some mini beetles too.

Legeon

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2005

Here's a better shot.



Oh and I never cheated to get ranked. I got him fair-and-square. I played normally by going into the american districts and happened to get a lucky combo. I never "spike entered" if anyone was wondering.

I don't think the majority of the ladder were cheaters. It doesn't make sense to organize 6 people to spike enter go in and /resign, then wait for all of them and go in again. It's much faster to just do it yourself. That's what I did anyway...

Xunlai Agent Smith

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Feb 2007

Berlin

Angel Sharks [DVDF] / Three Fame [Run]

I think there was a lot of spike entering but I can't see what Anet should do about it. In future solo time trials would work because it was either luck or cheating to get one which is really a pity

lyra_song

lyra_song

Hell's Protector

Join Date: Oct 2005

R/Mo

I like that time trials idea. no random power ups please.

Chewbacca Defense

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Aug 2006

667 Neighbour of the Beast

Ttgr

Congratulations to all the whiners... I mean winners!

I'm glad they made the rollerbeetles unique. Regardless whether people sync'ed or not, it's a matter of knowing the limits and boundaries of the game and utilizing the aspects to maximize your performance. Kudo's to those with the creativity to gain the top 100.

To those that didn't win the rollerbeetle, just wait a couple of months, ANet will release another game with a super uber ultra rare mini-pet. Then you'll have another chance to win one.

Remember "He who hesitates is at a lost." Next time an awesome event comes up with a unknown reward, be ready to pounce at it... if you want a super uber ultra rare prize.

glountz

glountz

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Nov 2005

W/Mo

Lyra, please stop this e-drama on the left under your avatar .


Anyway... Again, a badly thought out move from A-Net. Don't put ANY reward excepted fun items in future events, please. That will prevent messing up the whole event for many people.

Clarification: a fun item is an item that can't be sold (like mask), or can't be sold a high price, or cannot count for any title. Sparkles are an example of fun item, any alcohol/sugar food is not one. Something counting for a title will be sold, and thus, farmed and thus, grinded.

Rare minipets DON'T enter this category as well, as they will be grinded as well and be sold for high prices.

EDIT: The statement by Beetlebomb is quite right. And it applies also for the minipig to some extent. Next one is in, well... 12 years? So fun....

seut

seut

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2005

Europa

to all legitimate mini beetle winners: congratulations and welcome to the world of legitimate FoW armor owners

to Anet: creating a rare item for a tiny fraction of a percent of the player base will always result in greed (cheating) and envy (name calling) and will destroy the spirit of such events

Sarevok Thordin

Sarevok Thordin

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2006

Scotland

W/N

Sure the cheating is nasty, but there ARE greater achievements you can work for. Don't let this stuff annoy you so much.

They'll only make money if people BUY them, wink wink.

lyra_song

lyra_song

Hell's Protector

Join Date: Oct 2005

R/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by glountz
Lyra, please stop this e-drama on the left under your avatar .
My friend was very hurt and now very depressed thanks to her old guild.

All because some peoples decided that in game gold is more important the friendship and trust.

I take that very personally.

To quote the simpsons. "I dont get mad, i get stabby"

Draikin

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

Now that I look back at the event, most of the top 100 players probably got their score without cheating. After reading what Martin Alvito said, I realize they just put more thought into finding ways of using all the available skills while I was too busy trying to get lucky by getting an early echo+SRB combo. For example I completely overlooked the fact that there was a different combo I could have used at gate 5 which would have probably earned me a top 100 score. I'll just have to try again next time

To beetlebomb, the top 100 players only got one beetle per account. The only problem is that apparently they didn't give a beetle to the ones that would have made the top 100 based on unique accounts but that's Anet's fault.

Cador

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Dec 2005

Relax Its Just A [GAME]

R/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by beetlebomb
This topic was enough to get me to register an account...

I would like to say a personal and heartfelt thank you to anet.

Thank you anet...you have given 100 players a license to print money. If this sort of activity doesn't encourage more people to violate the EULA and buy ingame money I don't know what will. I agree with all the people before me who thought this event brought out the greediest most selfish nature of the playerbase. I really hope someone from anet reads through all this and more importantly see the corruption a luck and lag based minigame wrought on otherwise somewhat rule abiding playerbase.

Honestly it seems like you are acting the part of the sore loser. It just happens that some people won and some lost its life and the winners get cool prizes the losers don't so RE to your post grow up, suck it up and move on its a game lets play it have fun and when next rollerbeatle race comes around then you can try to win it.

Lamont Shadow

Academy Page

Join Date: Oct 2006

Actually, I think awarding miniatures is fine

True - I had pretty much zero chance of getting one and will never be able to afford it even though I would love one.

But you have to have some kind of ultra rare commodity that everyone wants and only a few have to keep many people interested - many will play for the game's sake but just as many will strive for prestige. That's just the way it is and if ANet wants to keep selling games they have to make sure both fun game play and ways of bragging are available.

My only problem is that by not giving rollerbeetle a thorough testing to see if it would work properly and to try and detect possible cheating, they dumped it into the celebration basically untried, allowing a number of people to exploit it.

So many cheaters got rewarded for bad behavior and the wins of those who were honest were tainted - people will always wonder if they were among those who cheated.

ANET - you do a great job. But next time - THINK AHEAD - do a lot of testing and trying things out before releasing an ultra rare prize!

Legeon

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2005

Well I for one will never sell my beetle for any price. Fill the trade window with stacks of ecto and I still wouldn't do it. Know why? There's plenty of money out there. People get more of it everyday. Theres only 75 or so beetle minis (only 1 per account I believe so you can knock off duplicate names) and that's it. Now which one do you think is worth more?

And on a side note, I reaffirmed something I already believed in from playing this minigame. And that is never to give up. My first ranked score was 472,000 (or something like that) and I was ranked 30. I could have stopped there but for some reason I decided to keep trying (I was sure I was going to get a pet with that score at the time). I kept playing all day until I got my best score (only other one I got ranked with) which was 474,250 by the end of the event, that was the only one I had left. So if I stopped playing back when I first got ranked I wouldn't have a beetle right now.

So the next time an event like this comes with prizes and you REALLY want one, just keep trying and do your best. Look on the forums, see what the tricks are (not the spike entering thing of course) and get better. That's what I did.

Blackest Rose

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lamont Shadow
ANET - you do a great job. But next time - THINK AHEAD - do a lot of testing and trying things out before releasing an ultra rare prize!
QFT!
There should have been stages....

1. Anyone in dist got a mask when the pig arrived.
2. Those who personally complete a dish (or more) should have gotten a special prize (PVE side)
3. Those who did really well at rollerbeetle got a special prize (PVP side)

This would have been much better in my opinion - it would mean that people who afk still got a mask but had to work for special prize, while keeping special prize for racing.

I'm afraid that I have to agree that Anet didn't think the prizes out at all well on this otherwise very fun weekend.
It's created a very big divide.

Sarevok Thordin

Sarevok Thordin

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2006

Scotland

W/N

To anyone saying PvE got screwed.

You get the biggest rewards for the biggest challenges (ie. Other people)

Solveig Ikram

Solveig Ikram

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Oct 2006

none

N/

Seeing as lots of ppl are complaining about ppl cheating and gaining unfair advantages, i'd just like to say that maybe the biggest disadvantage the losers had was a much higher ping.

For example: I played with between 600 and 800 latency during the entire event. Trying to gain a place I would knockdown the guy in front of me after he used his regular speed boosts. Then i would proceed to gain ground on him, use ram (for speed boost, not kd) and almost immediately my regular speed boost. So I'm thinking "sayanora sucker", go around a bend and then "bam!" I'm right back at the same distance behind him than I was before i hit my speed boosts.

Also Echoed Superbeetle couldn't gain on a guy 2 agro bubbles ahead of me (box-camping to get it).

My point is that I do not think it is fair that a reward should be given where an elect few gets any sort of advantage.

IMO cheating did not get those high scores, cause on a lucky I run got away from everyone, experienced no 'bend bouncing', used normal boosts (not Ram though *nooby*) and avoided all chests (*ubernooby*). Final score 440000+-.

So if anyone can prove or disprove my 'Ping' theory please do so.

Blackest Rose

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sarevok Thordin
To anyone saying PvE got screwed.

You get the biggest rewards for the biggest challenges (ie. Other people)
Typical PVP elitist attitude - FTL.

To get all the ingredients for all the 5 meals by any single person takes at least a day minimum.

Did you read my post? - I'm not complaining that people got a cool mini-pet for racing - but that there was absolutely no-where near any equivalent kind of rarity pet for PVE and getting all ingredients.

I don't even have any problem with rollerbeetle having the rarest pets.
But there's a huge difference between a pig mini-pet which everyone has and a mini-beetle.

Yes PVE got screwed by not having any way to distingush the individual player whereas PVP did through racing.

Badly thought out IMO.

Hengis

Hengis

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2006

London

Better Than Life (BTL)

R/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Solveig Ikram
My point is that I do not think it is fair that a reward should be given where an elect few gets any sort of advantage.

IMO cheating did not get those high scores, cause i had on a lucky run got away from everyone, experienced no 'bend bouncing', used normal boosts (not Ram though *nooby*) and avoided all chests (*ubernooby*). Final score 440000+-.

So if anyone can prove or disprove my 'Ping' theory please do so.
Although I am sure having a good ping was a contributary factor, it was certainly not all of it.

I have an exceptionally good 10mbps connection, with an average ping often under 100ms and never more that 200ms.

I don't think I played particularly badly (1400 gamer points earned), spent around 14 hours racing, regularly achieved >460K scores, but even on my best run where I was convinced that I did everything perfectly, my best score ended up at 469K.

I probably missed some of the "tricks" as I played almost entirely my own game, working out the routes and when to use skills myself (with one exception of taking a piece of advice from Namkeys guide on when to use one specific skill). Other than that, as the song goes "I did it my way".

I suppose that if I had directly copied Namkeys method, I may have got a better, and possibly top 100 score, but I will never know now.

BTW - Namkey still has my deepest respect and sympathy. He helped others achieve a top 100 score. Didn't keep the "secrets" to himself, and deserves some kind of special award IMO.

Riceboi

Riceboi

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by beetlebomb
Riceboi, don't you have an import you should be out tuning?
You know what? You're right I do have two outside. Laters.

Gli

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

I'd have liked a mini-beetle. Unfortunately I was bored out of my mind after 5 races and never went back.