Hello, I don't know if the devs will reply to this post (since they already didn't on another issue I addressed a month ago: http://forum.codenameentertainment.com/?thread_id=10862 ), but I'm still going to point some things out:

- The event started fun with the different objectives and unlockable characters, but it all lasted 3-4 days at best. After this, the tedious part has been going on for about ten days, with nothing but having to do free play over and over and over for a single event chest, and no way to vary how much tickets we could get since they were time-based (we could get more with warp, but that's not exactly a strategy, just something based on how many warps we can find by luck);

- Speaking of chests, when it comes to being able to get all items for both characters, and more importantly to earn a decent amount of enchants for them (since this is what makes them worth staying in our formations in the long run, especially when there's several dozens difference in the amount of enchants between let's say Kaine and Mister the Monkey), you made this event heavily pay to win by giving people the faculty to buy as many event jewelled chests as they want with money, and only a single silver chest (seldom upgraded to jewelled) for each 3000 tickets earned. This could be fine if we were able to find items for Mister and Pete all year long, but if in the end you will decide to let us get those items for free only in a year from now when the Carnival event will be back, these two characters will become incredibly weak in a few weeks especially for those who didn't buy many jewelled chests.

- The '45 minutes rush' achievement looks like was put there just to serve as an annoying challenge, rather than a fun one. Why annoying? Because of its many restrictions. We have to make sure we have 3k tickets at hand to try it, we have to keep an at least minimal amount of chests and warps available (since it becomes impossible to get Nate to 150 otherwise, unless one has already way more than just 1k-1.5k idols). And now, the fact that those who use the new speed buff have their attempt immediately considered as failed.
This is what happened with a friend of mine, who tried three times to get the achievement in her little spare time from work, and while the first two failures involved an incorrect strategy from her she still managed to round up some warps in the last couple days for one last attempt in the final day of event. She had no idea the new speed buffs wouldn't be allowed in order to get the achievement (neither did I, as I thought the restriction only concerned the "80 minutes rush" objective and that it was coded so that we had physically no access to those buffs), so she managed to complete her speed run with 7-8 minutes left by using most of her warps again and some of those speed buff. Moral of the story? She failed because of that restriction she wasn't aware of, has now barely 1k tickets, not enough warps and no time left for one more attempt. Which means farewell to her chances to earn that achievement. I wish speed buffs could just be physically unable to be used from the buffs list, so that this incident would not have happened in the first place.

All in all this event could have been tweaked here and there, but I hope you will listen to feedback and the next events will not have this kind of incidents.

I love your other games (especially BW2, one of the best games on the net), and I also enjoy the original concept of this idle game, which adops many different solution from other idle games, which is why I was so sad to see the event go this way. But I also trust your competence and your love for your games and the efforts you have always put to keep them at top quality, so I trust the next events will see definite improvements.

Sorry for my harsh words, it's just that my disappointment on the issues listed above made me feel bitter about them.

I enjoyed the event. Sure, just doing freeplay was a bit repetitive, but the whole game is repetitive. It was still more interesting than just redoing regular freeplay over and over for idols, which is what I would have been doing without the event. Would I have liked more challenges? Sure, but there's only so much they can do without taking a month or two between updates. Especially for their first event. Maybe next time this event comes around it will have a little more.

As for the 45 minute achievement, I think you have a good point about the disqualifying. Spending 3000 tickets and getting disqualified for clicking a boost would suck. At least your friend didn't miss out on much. The achievement only gives a 1% DPS boost.

Perhaps a warning screen would be in order. Something like:

"WARNING! Using this speed boost will disqualify this run for the achievement! Are you sure you want to use it? YES NO"

@KeySer87
...or I might also not get those items at all, not even common: see the screenshot I just took below, and notice how I'm out of tickets with just about 3 hours left and few warps available (which at this point I'm not going to waste for yet another enchant on the monkey or an additional shoe for my clown (got 4 of those, all common).

http://i.imgur.com/P14c8um.png


Also, you take for granted that one would mouseover the achievements description several days after the event has started, when both I and my friend did that on the first few days of event on our first attempt to do that speedrun, when those new buffs hadn't yet been implemented.

At this point I am also wondering what even was the point of adding these speed buffs in the last days of event: either add them right from the first day or wait 2-3 more days (when the event is over) and then release them. This was simply a terrible timing.

The new buffs were released independent of the event because the game is in /beta/ and thus they are trying to change things as they get time to do so. It's regrettable that using the new speed buff disables the Speedy Show achievement, but again, this is beta and the achievement is only a +1% DPS. They are actively working at making things better and more clear.

The 'tedious' period of time for free plays was both to allow chance to give you the items for both characters without having to pay for chests and so people who were just starting midway through would be able to at least unlock the two characters. That you complain about it being too long but not long enough to get those items is not helping you sound reasonable... random chance means exactly that. You could buy a dozen chests and still not be assured of finding a single chicken for Pete-and even if it did, this is ONE item for ONE character who will not, ever, be essential. People who didn't start playing Crusaders until the event had already been running for three or four days have reported finishing all the objectives other than Speedy Show. I'm sorry for your personal bad luck, but it does not justify using loaded terms like pay to win over a minor event in an idle game.

one does not HAVE to use the monkey or the clown, so one does not need to have those win their equipment. if you win something in this random game then that's nice. that is not a guaranty. don't enjoy the gmae then don't play, nobody is forcing you to play the game, or to have to have everything that can be had.

@Raymond
I don't agree to that logic, because by the same logic one doesn't have to play events at all and the whole event could have been unlocked only by those who spent a fixed amount of real money, while those who didn't would not be able to enter the event at all. Those two new characters are very useful in all formations (even old formations like triangle), and if a player who doesn't spend money cannot benefit from the core aspect of the game (the characters and their average strength once they have three items) it's a huge handicap compared to those who can get them fully equipped easily by paying money.

Thank you Erika, and I apologize again for the way I phrased my observations, I didn't mean to sound rude and you CNE devs always did a great job with your games, so you didn't deserve to receive those harsh words (no matter whether the event had flaws or not). I'm looking forward to play the next events.