Suggestions

I don't really see how it is a shadow festival? Sure the Shadowbinder introduces it, which could be remedied by simply replacing her with some Nocturnes.

However, that is the ONLY influence Shadow has that I can see. You can get the chests by gathering in ANY location, the elemental mimics you have to fight are neutral and completely 'new' (some may have returned from last year, but they aren't the usual monsters). There really isn't a 'preferred' venue where Shadow is more heavily seen.

There aren't any shadow themed items except the Nocturnes themselves, but that is simply because they are a Shadow breed. The festival favors isn't open accepting Shadow Currency, the Market place isn't flooded with Shadow themed skins, nor apparel, in fact, except for the chest apparel, the other could easily be seen as 'other flight' themed. Let me see, the Green could be nature, blue could be water, the Gem would be Ice, the Brewable ones probably plague. Yes the chest items are purplish, and thus could be Shadow, but personally instead of complaining that Shadow has their items drop from the Chest, I would be complaining that Ice's was gem marketplace(I am not really complaining, would like to get a set for my sister, but don't have enough gems OR treasure to do so. I was just saying that out of all those apparel sets, the Ice ones are the gem ones.)

So, I REALLY can't see how any Night of the Nocturnes can be seen as a 'Shadow' Festival. Even the Familiars themselves aren't 'Shadow' Themed. The bears that drop, drop from ALL holidays, not just shadow, the mimics of the bears aren't Shadow themed.

So again, sorry, no support. Especially for shade, because as I said, it wouldn't make much sense with what shade is to have it a reoccurring festival, which NotN is. I would support a Night of the Mimics type thing with shifting the focus off the nocturnes themselves and placing it more on mimics of popular apparel and familiars.

Reading Wittykitsune's reply below, I was reminded that also, even though Nocturnes are a shadow breed, the eggs you can collect during the event do not all hatch into shadow dragons, but dragons of all flights. So yet another strike in the 'this is just a second Shadow Festival' list.

Glad to see you all giving no support over a single part of the whole idea. The idea is about a Shade Event, that is the heart of it. I made an observation about it being similar to giving Shadow an extra holiday, it wasn't stated as fact. And that is certainly not the only problem I have with NotN, so I would appreciate it if everyone stopped tunnel-visioning onto that.

I cannot reply to every single post but I'll make some counter points to the best of my ability:

Taking away the Nocturne theme of these two weeks doesn't disregard Nocturne lore or make it so they disappear. They could still come out, we could still find Nocturne eggs and scrolls. The event would just not be focused on them.

I love Nocturnes, I love the breed to death, but this is one of the biggest events on FR. It simply seems better to me to make the biggest event of the year about a significant (yet under-represented) part of the site lore, and not about a single breed out of a dozen.

If you don't agree with calling NotN "redundant" because of "new players," I'm sorry, but that is silly. New players to any website, especially ones involving stories/events, are going to have missed past events or "things." That doesn't mean they won't enjoy the new events. And there are some here saying a Shade event should be a one-time thing-- well, wouldn't that be unfair to new players too?

The reason NotN seems redundant to me overall is because most of the things we are trying to get are already in circulation. Yes, it is great for another chance at them, but that is the focus of this event. Getting eggs, which you can buy, getting scrolls, which you can buy, getting festival familiars that many people probably already have from the actual festivals. By making it a Shade Event, we can still have all of these things. Nocturne eggs, scrolls, second chances, cool apparel, etc. It just makes it more fun because there is a storyline to it and a purpose to it other than "Hey these are out and about so go get them!"

It can be an event that is no longer a drawn out fetch-quest, but an event with a backbone and an exciting connection to FR's storyline. I apologize that I did not make this crystal clear in the original suggestion post.

I don't know much about Shade lore, the staff isn't exactly forthcoming with it, but the reason I (personally, as my own opinion) would replace NotN with a Shade Event is mainly because it is the darkest weeks of the year-- yes, perhaps it secretly happens at this time because it is over the holidays, but the event lore is literally stated to happen because these are the darkest weeks. Not because of the holidays-- because of the day length. And it seems likely that given the darkness, the Shade would grow stronger, or be more prominent, or something along those lines. If I were able to implement a Shade Event, these weeks would be my ideal pick. If the staff already cornered themselves by putting up a different event at this time, and people love NotN so much that there would be some revolution were it taken away, it would be up to the admins to work around that. And it would be up to someone else to suggest a Shade Event at a different time. But I've stated my reasons for making this suggestion specifically about replacing NotN.

If people support a Shade Event but do not support replacing NotN, I understand completely. If anyone wants to make their own suggestion thread of a Shade Event, I would wholeheartedly support it. I think stating that a Shade Event should be a huge one-time thing is actually pretty sound, though there could easily be ways to make it recurring (I mean, the Shade in-lore did a lot of damage but is still around, no? Clearly it's a tough thing to get rid of, so not completely decimating it in a single event so that it can return the next year seems reasonable to me.)

Anyway, I appreciate all the comments, support or no support aside. I hope everyone keeps enjoying the rest of NotN!

[quote name="Emyliine" date=2015-12-29 15:46:21] Snipped for length.[/quote] Good points about that the (northern hemisphere) winter solstice is a good time for a Shade event, and that a Shade event would be interesting in general.

I'd support making it a Shade Event, or at least shifting the focus away from Nocturnes and making it just about Mimics, with some new Nocturn NPC making announcements instead of the Shadowbinder, because it does feel like another Shadow event. It's celebrating a creation of the Shadow Flight. It may lack currency but it's the celebration of a flight that makes a festival what it is.

I get that no one would want l lose a celebration of their flight, but it really is unfair to have two events based on the Shadow Flight's lore while every other flight gets one event a year.

The heavy emphasis on the Coliseum would make sense if we were fighting the shade, and our mimicked familiars would be Shade-Infested rather than just mimics that popped into existence with no rhyme or reason

No Support.
NotN is fine. I'm sorry if you don't really enjoy it or find it exciting any more. A lot of people do though. And a lot of newbies are having a blast with it.
Too bad if the other flights feel left out. They shouldn't feel left out, but if they do then oh well I guess? It's not an event about shadow flight. Sure, it's a shadow breed. But it doesn't mean it's a shadow event. There is no reason why any one should feel left out.
Should the other flights be up in arms about how Imperials, a light flight breed, is a KS dragon? The other flights don't get a KS dragon. The other flights don't get a dragon that has a scroll that's worth thousands upon thousands of gems. That's not fair. Where is ours?

I'm sure in the future, there will be other breeds that pop up for other flights as well that are limited like the Nocture and Imperial. They will have their own interesting means to obtain them. The Nocturne just happened to be the one that has the (first?) event way of obtaining. Who knows, there might end up being more that are obtained through events!

Eggs are not in over-circulation. You can buy them, but only from other users. No where else aside from getting the nocturne ones from strange chests. But they still have to come from the strange chests anyways. The only nocturne scrolls you can buy is...yup! From other people! And those people get it from the event. Same with the familiars.
If we were to use this "there's too many you can just buy them anyways" logic, then let us just remove all eggs. You can buy them, right? From other people of course.. But there are a ton of them!

All this is really no different than any other item/event/currency. Players obtain them, players sell them and players buy them. There may be a lot of them because there are tons of people online farming them, but that doesn't mean those things that are being farmed should be changed because "there are too many in circulation".

On the same over circulation subject.. What about the REAL festivals? We can farm up the skins/accents in chests, but we can also just buy them. Not only from other players though. We can buy them in the marketplace with an unlimited supply! This gives EVERYONE a chance to get the skins/accents they want! But... doesn't that mean we don't need the other way? We dont need to farm the chests? We could just get rid of/change either the chests or the marketplace then, because now they're in "over circulation"?


Now let me make this perfectly clear. I understand you're not saying to really 'get rid' of these things rather than you are suggesting to change it to rewards given for fighting the Shade. But this change is still in a way deleting the original means.
The main thing that is being destroyed here is Nocturnes and their Limited status on the breeding ladder. They are limited because they are hatched/scrolled only through the means of this event. If you get rid of that event, then what are they? A uncommon? A rare? Plentiful? RETIRED? Retired wouldn't be any fun for anyone.
Again though. I understand you aren't saying to just straight up get rid of scrolls/eggs/familiars.

Now, if this were to be a separate event, as others have mentioned.. That would be interesting. Something that comes out of nowhere. Not something that we can expect at a certain time of the year. Something that just pops up and mass chaos when no one expects it! The shade has returned and everyone has to do their part before it's too late. They have to chase it back.. But it's never truly gone for good, which would allow it to return at random again.

[quote name="Bowno" date=2015-12-29 16:24:48] Now, if this were to be a separate event, as others have mentioned.. That would be interesting. Something that comes out of nowhere. Not something that we can expect at a certain time of the year. Something that just pops up and mass chaos when no one expects it! The shade has returned and everyone has to do their part before it's too late. They have to chase it back.. But it's never truly gone for good, which would allow it to return at random again. [/quote] That would be so fun and interesting, haha! [s]Make a suggestion thread I would support so hard.[/s] As to your other points, I kind of see where you're coming from. But I don't see why changing the theme would change the status of Nocturnes. There isn't some asterik after Limited that says "these are only limited because they have their own event." They're limited because you can only get scrolls at a certain time and they don't rotate through the marketplace. That would remain. And I think NotN is fine, too. I'm not going to be devastedly disappointed if we have NotN again next year, I think it is a fun event and I am glad people, especially those who missed out last year, are having fun. But they could have fun with a Shade event, too, and get all the exact same things as they would in NotN. To me, changing the theme would be an improvement, not a cancellation. And everyone should be all for improving things where they can be improved. (Of course, if you don't think it is an improvement, that is another story. But I would like a reason other than "people are having fun with what they have now." I had fun with my flip phone, doesn't mean I hate my smart phone, for a silly analogy on that matter.)

I personally Support turning the December Event into a Shade Specific Event.
As much as I love nocturnes, after their initial introduction having a whole event center around ONE species can be pretty off putting.
The Shade is a big part of the Site's Lore and even for some Clan lore and I would love to see it be incorporated into a site wide event with its own special prizes and even familiars!

Also a shade event could probably help kick off/ introduce new mechanics or new lore instead of repeating the same one over and over again each year.

@Emyliine
Please do not take my reply as an attack on you or anything. It is not meant to be as such. I just wanted to post on the subject of Limited breeds. NotN would fall under special events I think o.o