The Holiday Detective Mission

[Aribella Lafonte]

This is more feedback than a suggestion really, but unfortunately, we don't have a How Are We Doing section like we did on the old forums (this would be a suggestion) but .......


I just spent a good 25 minutes trying to complete this mission and the ONLY way I was able to do so was by looking at a walkthrough provided by players (THANK YOU!) I'm going to be quite frank;

This is absolutely the worst official mission for playability next to the Smallworlds Echoes & Beyond mission. While I appreciate the hard effort and my feedback has nothing to do with the storyline at all, which is wonderful, but the level of difficulty of an official mission such as this and the reward that we get at the end is not worth this much trouble. One of the worst things an official mission can have is making it a guessing game and adding proximity teleports into the mix. Official missions on SW were always quite simple and easy to play, mostly catering to first time users, but in all honesty, I don't think a majority of us here want to put so much time and effort into playing just to get a cupcake. Nobody wants to be frustrated with having to rotate and hunt down random items (no list provided) or fuss around with proximity teleports.

We shouldn't have to buy our way in to skip a task when an official mission should have "ease of play" and not leave your players frustrated in the end.

PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF DAN SMALLWORLDS AND THE LORD ALMIGHTY, PLEASE KEEP OFFICIAL MISSIONS SIMPLE!!!

[Penguin Disco]

I was doing some reflection on this... at the end of the day, I don't mind having a more difficult mission in the mix. Most missions from both the SV Team and other players are relatively easy. But it would've been nice to have a disclaimer so I knew what I was getting into ahead of time, and set my expectations accordingly. I got pretty frustrated too, but once I realized what kind of mission it was and let go of my usual expectations of an official mission, I had a better time.

THAT SAID... I had to cancel this mission and restart it because of a glitch that made it impossible for me to finish. At Dr. Halloween's house, the last torch directs you to walk towards the light. However, for some reason my avatar would not move close enough to the fire... it was always one step too far away for the teleportation to work. I retried the path multiple times, but for some reason the system just wouldn't let me move to the right spot. Like I said, I had to cancel the mission, try not to throw my laptop, and gave it another shot the next day. I did manage to finish the second time, and I suppose that issue doesn't really have anything to do with the difficulty, but it did add to my annoyance.

Anyways, the TLDR from me is I don't mind increased difficulty, but give us a heads up first... and don't make the proximity so sensitive that a glitch like that can make or break it.

[Ligeia Tepes]

Omg I ended up paying the gold to pass most of it rofl And I like longer missions and i do like a challenge but that was a whole ordeal lol

[Aribella Lafonte]

I’m just going to put this here since these are the guidelines that we mission makers have to refer to when creating our own missions. This mission did not prioritize enjoyment nor ensure a “positive experience” for what would probably be a majority of players. Considering that I have made what could be considered a challenging mission knowing full well it more than likely wouldn’t get many plays, even I know not to torture my mission players like this. My mission has the level of difficulty on the acceptance card, has 3 versions of imbedded optional hints and can be completed in approximately 10 minutes. And I don’t charge for the reward at the end if they wanted to skip it. You might as well have put the cupcake out for sale and call it good. Once again, very disappointed since this is starting to be a common theme. The carnival mission was another one where we had to search for random items, the Halloween mission also had proximity teleports, and then there was the Puzzleworth mission with bonus missions (the main issue for that one due to lack of proper direction). I do believe I was told after the Echo & Beyond mission (when I complained) that missions in the future going forward would keep that ease of play in mind. I think it was Warren. I’m not crazy about the super simple official missions with little storyline that can be done in 5 minutes, but there needs to be some sort of balance here. Not going from easy to challenging in 0.2 seconds.

Guideline Policy: Approved Mission Standards

1 – Average Time to Complete Mission:
Approved missions need to be above 4 minutes in length - long enough to provide a fun & engaging experience but not so long that players get frustrated or bored.

3 – Ease of Play:
Approved missions should prioritize player enjoyment and engagement. While challenging missions are welcome and can appeal to players who enjoy solving puzzles, missions listed in the Approved Missions category must be fun, creative, and ultimately achievable to ensure a positive experience for a broad audience.

[Jamie Bondason]

Definitely agree; a huge part of the problem, in my book, is that the panels that official SV missions use don't actually leave much space for content, therefore the tasks are often vague or broad. Also agree that these finding hidden items tasks are a bit over the top. I don't mind having to search for items but when the task effectively requires you to check almost every item in the space for a button, and even then some of the buttons are tricks, was extremely tedious! I appreciate the official missions giving away a free item but I've yet to see a single person say they found the new mission even remotely fun. There absolutely needs to be a balance between some challenge and some ease.