Events are my favorite part of Eve, and I actually re-arrange a bit of my real-life schedule to account for this.
Unlike most activities in Eve, Events are very time-limited, and not always available. I keep checking the advertising / notification channels (Eve updates, upcoming changes, dev blogs, etc.) almost every day - but I have been caught by surprise a couple of times when they appear almost out of nowhere.
For example - I was guessing (and hoping) there would be another Easter event, but I see nothing mentioned in any of the typical locations for announcements.
Would someone from the CSM mind inquiring about this? I don’t know if it ruins any element of surprise that the designers are trying to achieve, but boy it would sure be helpful - even to know a few days out that an Event is starting up. (Plus, I can log into SiSi and help test.)
Just check hoboleaks regularly and you have enough of knowledge in advance. I guess there is a major rethinking taking place in the event team right now, after the disaster of the last event.
Expect a Guristas event for Easter. It will likely be announced a couple of weeks in advance and may show up on Singularity a week or so before it goes live. The developers are doing a lot of experimenting with events recently - I guess they’re a good way to playtest new ideas in a 2 week format. We’ve seen some hits and some misses.
You can count on a Blood Raiders event around Halloween and an Angel Cartel event around Valentines Day, others are less dependable.
I did my best to offer some abstract thinking models to the design / dev team. I have no idea how their workflow or design process is implemented, so it may all have been for moot. (i.e. my advice may not have been helpful because it does not apply / cannot be applied.)
But they were willing to at least read it, and that means the world to me. It’s why I keep playing this game - I know they’re always listening.
They should have enough data now, what worked and what not, but they have to look at it, and take things seriously. Events are not the playground for risky ideas. Why not use the Abyss for testing? Wasn’t it created to give developers some freedom outside the sandbox?
From the looks of it, that may not be happening anymore. Which in a way is both a good and bad thing having testing done before hand, as well as no longer doing testing. Good and bad on both ends.