I want to start by appologizing if this post comes across as overly negative. I mentioned in another thread that I've been feeling really jaded about Subeta's shortcomings since the 10th anniversary, so I'm sorry if that's coming through a little too strongly here. I'm not trying to complain or attack anyone. I just really think that Subeta struggles to see where it can improve and some of these issues come up again and again, so I'm trying to be as contructive as I can with my criticism.

I was really disappointed with how short most of the plot steps were. I understand that some people may struggle with some of the steps (like the one where you're chased by ghosts), but the rest of us are done in under a minute and then have nothing to do for the next two days.

That's something that I think Neopets has always done well, and Subeta can stand to learn from them. A format they use again and again is that they'll have a procedurally-generated puzzle, and it'll need to be solved some number of times (5 million or something crazy) before it's completed. If you struggle with it or you're a more casual player, you only have to do it once to qualify and get plot points. On the other hand, more dedicated players can work through several of the puzzles and continue to get NP or item rewards until the next step is released.

Meanwhile, Subeta has a game where you click on 20 floating ghosts and it's explicitly designed to take under 30 seconds. Or you play through one level of Breakout. I understand wanting to keep the plot steps on the shorter side, but replayability can add a lot to the experience, and I think it's a really good idea to try to cater to both casual and dedicated players.

Another notable example is the Battle of the Bands game, and this is kind of the opposite extreme. The difficulty ramped up really quickly, but then leveled off pretty early on in the game. Some people struggled to get 30 points, and they could finish for the day in a matter of minutes. Others -- like myself -- who could handle the harder difficulty were able to play a single game literally for hours and rack up thousands of points. Once you get the rhythm down, there's no end to the game. In this case, that wasn't a really good thing.

Subeta still hasn't found that balance between extremes, and I think that's something the staff really needs to focus on in the future.

Another issue I had was with the maps on the point-and-click parts of the plot. The images were very pretty pictures, but some of them (especially the upstairs hallway and the almost-hidden doorway in the basement) had links that were just way too small. I think just tweaking the angles and composition a little could have gone a long way toward making the mansion more navigable.

Some of the rooms should have been turned, too. Like the upstairs hallway: I saw a lot of people get hung up here and they couldn't figure out how to get back downstairs. Part of that was that the staircase link was too small, but another part of it was that the room was backwards. You walk up the stairs by clicking a link in the upper right corner, so it would have been more intuitive to get back down by clicking a link in the lower left so that you're actually backtracking. Instead you had to track down a tiny doorway-looking thing on the opposite side of the hallway, which didn't make a lot of sense.

The maps also get cut off if your browser window is too small, and I know staff keep telling us that they don't support smaller resolutions but I think that's a mistake. Just looking at some of the Pet Spotlight entries you can see that a lot of players use a smaller resolution. It's also a common issue on the forums -- people (myself included) had this problem during Peka-boo, too, with the food truck menus. Have you considered running a poll, or is there a way to collect this data automatically? I'd be curious what the results are.

This has been a problem since the Councilors' Cruise. The maps are beautiful, but they really suck for navigation in a lot of cases. Links are too small (vending machines, the Ziara City link in Pina Park, half the buildings in Centropolis); or they're too close to the edges and get cut off (zappers in Darkside, the Crypts in Shadowglen); or the image is too busy and the clickable spots aren't immediately obvious (Adopt-R-Us, the Healer, vending machines and Centropolis buildings again).

Navigation really needs to be the concern when designing these maps (because really, that's the whole point), even if it means the composition is a little less pleasant.

tl;dr: Plot steps need balancing, and Subeta's nav maps suck (even though they're really pretty).

But really, a tl;dr doesn't do this justice so please read it. :)

The plot steps were short because, well, Morostide is a really busy season for people. There was plenty of Morostide things to do. Getting on track with the pumpkin collection, and ToTing/Patch

Considering how many people said they didn't enough time to go and get things from the patch, from Trick-or-Treating as well, I think a miniplot is far more appropriate than a giant plot with hours of work by step (THE FUCKING SEWERS IN LAST YEAR'S MASQUERADE PLOT)

And, I wouldn't have taken part in the plot if the steps were long. Having really short plot steps was better for me, because hell no, I'm not doing a 30 minutes plot step with all of the holiday lag. I'm really, really, not interested in unscrambling giant puzzles for hours. At all.

It was a cute plot to me. Not the MOST MEMORABLE PLOT EVER. But it was an amazing short and sweet miniplot.

- I'm not saying the plot steps have to be long, just that there should have been an option to do more. Like we could have had the opportunity to replay the games for a small sP payout or a random pumpkin patch item. You'd only have to do it once to progress in the plot, and only the first time would count for final plot prizes, but it would give people something more to do if they have the free time. That's the sort of thing I mean by replayability.

I probably spent a total of 10 minutes on the plot, so I was personally fairly underwhelmed by the whole thing.

I think the plot was fine because it was just a mini one. Not every plot needs to be a full-blown, massive site-wide thing that takes hours to complete. I'd definitely like to see more plots like that but I also don't mind the mini plots (which I think Subeta actually does quite well usually and I liked Morostide's plot a lot).

I liked the fact that the plot activities weren't too involved because I'm always in a lot of pain due to arthritis. Even so, I couldn't get past the colliding ghosts game. Anything more complicated in the earlier stages and I wouldn't have been able to do anything at all.

I agree. I wish the plot was more involving.

I do wish it wasnt tied to Morostide, though in this case with Jaxon it was inevitable. Too much going on, and with that people dont have enough time.

I want a long involving, story driven plot that has a multiple parts of participation. Like pirates vs islanders meets epicon meets this.

I think this plot has been my favourite in my time on subeta. I love that it was short and didn't take too long as Halloween is a pretty busy time for me and it was nice to be able to fit the plot around that. Im not a battler, so I always hate that in plots we have to battle a monster etc at the end, as my poor pets are pretty weak, but we at least got prizes for doing damage this time, even though my pet could only do 10 damage at a time lol I really enjoyed it and hope to see more like it in the future!

Hm, I'm not reading this as "wanting every plot to be full blown" (clearly very tough in Morostide, if not impossible) but as "allowing extra tasks for little bonuses that would be the prizes in themselves" (no extra plot points, that'd have to be clear from the very beggining too). Extra tasks could be playing the games more times or idk, doesn't have to be super complicated. Sounds fair for me, would cater more to those players who have time on their hands and would still allow equal opportunities for those who can't / don't want to spend forever on a plot!

With the lag and downtime we've got, I'm actually not looking forward a full blown plot, as much as I'm 110% sure I'd enjoy it a lot. I'd rather keep the mini plots and world lore efforts up until, you know, the site really can spare the resources for such a thing...

This was still a super cute miniplot so there's no questioning about that c:

I totally found the upstairs map a bit strange too, first we were quite far from the stairs we'd just climbed up and second... well yes, the bottom left corner would've felt more intuitive and all that, even if it's probably not how it would look like in a real house.

imo it was a nice mini plot :) but I do agree with some puzzles being pretty short...

I have to agree that some of the plot steps were a little short. I would've liked the option of replaying some of the games. But on the other hand, I'm always ridiculously busy around Morostide so I appreciated that it wasn't too huge. Personally, I think this was one of the best mini-plots I've experienced on the site. I only had about an hour a day to spend on Subeta so it was nice that I was still able to follow along :3 and also, considering that there are so many activities to do during Morostide, I think the size of the plot was fitting.

With the greater need of gathering ToT and doing all the other stuff, overall I'm fine with how the plot unraveled. I suppose if I had to nitpick one thing then it would've been maybe a step more or less time between steps. But really, I think it worked out great and a lot of people were able to accomplish and participate in every aspect. If people wanted more stuff to do outside of each step than okay, but I wouldn't have had time to do much more with the other stuff that I needed to do (not to mention RL stuff, too). Also, taking into consideration the average time a user is online and what not, I think it worked out perfectly.

I also didn't have any issues navigating the mansion except maybe getting turned around a couple times because no matter what, I'm directionally challenged.

I enjoyed the mini games and glad there weren't limited lives and all that. They were pretty straight forward. The challenges for each step were great and flowed very well. I didn't have any issues during each step technical wise and was able to figure each step out without the help of the guides floating around. This is probably the first plot that I really participated in and didn't just click links that were given by guides.

Overall, I give Morostide an A :)

Perhaps subeta is trying to make the plots and mini plots more user friendly for those of us who are over a certain age, didn't grow up with video games and have found some of the previous games (flash type video games using arrow keys) especially frustrating. Another user mentioned that she was glad it was easy because of arthritis. I am also in a LOT of pain and I'm 59. I am very very happy to have a simple, fun and easy plot. I was so busy with ToT and pumpkin patch and everything else there is to do here that I never run out of things to do: games, quests, organizing galleries, shopping etc.

As for the tiny images and very difficult to find links (to the staircase) I guess I'm just not in the 21st century because I've never had a cell phone or any small device for accessing the internet. I have a 22 inch monitor which is great for my old eyes and I have to scroll up and down to see most of the entire pages, but that's OK with me. Most of the time my page is blown up much larger than others.

One other thought, and I certainly don't mean to start anything controversial. I don't have any facts to back this up, but it's been my experience that the younger players (those who are fast at the games, and perhaps get bored when there's not more to do) don't really have much cash to spend here. I know that the ppl I know who are in HS or University are struggling financially and usually don't have money to spend in the cash shop.

Most ppl I know here who are over 40 are disabled (as am I) and are slower, and more tired, and yet we don't have expensive lives, we don't do much so we have cash to spend, at least I do, even on a fixed income. People in their late 20's to early 40's: many have families and children to support. So what is my point? Well I think that the majority of the ppl who have a lot of cash (50 or more per month) to spend are older players such as myself...people over 40, I'd guess (not ALL, but most)

So subeta has made it abundantly clear that they truly need our financial support. I think that by simplifying things to make it easier for some of us who are older, slower and have health issues is a way of giving back to the ppl who are probably primarily supporting the site with cash buys. This is not to say that nobody under the age of 40 spends money here. I simply think that the average teen or 20 something doesn't have much money to spend and those ppl are usually the most fast and are wanting more to do because they can zip through things.

I think that Keith is trying to have something for everyone by making certain things easier. I know that I am not at all into many of the achievements and they've added SO many more for ppl to work on. They keep adding games, and it seems that every time I turn around there are new items to try to acquire for hoarders, readers and gourmand chasers, and for the battlers there is a lot of activity. I truly think that this site has been working hard to balance things out so that everyone can have fun. I know that I've been very frustrated with plots that were more involved in the past, so try to remember that those of us who never held a mouse in our hand til we were in our 30's or 40's are never going to be as fast at anything that ppl who grew up with computers are. I believe that Keith knows that there are ppl of all ages here and I think that he's "dancing as fast as he can" to make this a fun place for all of us. (off the soapbox I go, lol)

I too feel that the plot could have been a bit more... involved. I'm by no means expecting a mega-plot bonanza every time, but something extra or more varied than clicking through dialogue and playing a short game once for most of the steps would have been nice. Some scavenger hunts or puzzles to diversify it a bit more would have made it more fun, but also make me feel like I was doing something. They wouldn't even have to be particularly time consuming - the locked room puzzle was a pretty good example. I had a great time and generally enjoyed it all, but I'm astonished at the amount of prizes we were awarded from this (although I'm extremely grateful and totally not complaining in the slightest about that), considering I had to do slightly more than just show up.

I agree with the OP. The plot steps leading up tot he final battle were far too easy to do, which I wouldn't have minded nearly as much if it had not lead up to a 24+ hour long boss battle.

As I stated on another thread, it would be really nice if plots like this included more activities so those players that are either unable to battle, or do not enjoy battling can still enjoy the 'grand finale'

I think it was perfect the way it was personally; I love that it was fairly simple and easy to follow, as we did have trick or treating and whatnot to keep us occupied too. Besides, it didn't feel like a full-blown plot (Morostide only lasts for two weeks afterall)- it just seemed like a nice little surprise. We were told multiple times that there wouldn't be anything extra for Morostide, so I wasn't expecting it at all and I really enjoyed it. The highlight for me was exploring the mansion, and the little games were fun too.

Also I didn't really bother to participate in the final boss battle (wasn't feeling well on the day) and I still got tons of nice prizes so yeah, I'm really pleased. ^-^d

I liked the event, I think it was handled pretty well for what it was. I enjoyed the dialogue, I think the staff hit that on the head for the first time in... a long time. With bigger events, though, I've always felt let down by the lack of big, involved puzzles here. There's a lack of scale. I understand that the site has a pretty broad appeal of ages and abilities, but I'd love something you really had to think about or get involved with. This is something Neo (used to do) does well, I appreciated how engaging some of the bigger events were.

I'm not sure how I feel about these suggestions, tbh. It could just be my extreme hesitation to the mention of neopets doing anything right, when it's a site users quite literally have to cheat on to have anything nice.

Like, I find the idea of appealing to both casual and power users awesome and all but that's such a hard thing for any site to successfully accomplish. It sounds good in theory, but in practice it sounds like it would work exactly like the tiresome/daunting/why bother 24 hour boss battle which is quite a terrible idea that needs to be redone. Like, what is the benefit of me playing a game 500 times verses 1 time? SP? There's a metric ton of that in the system that staff can't get out fast enough already, so that won't work. Items? They'd be so deflated it wouldn't be worth it (look at the saheric diggables, or the crash wreckage). It can't be plot points because that's punishing people who don't play the game a zillion times and wouldn't help to make casual users any more interested, if anything it'd make it worse (can't deal much damage to the boss? Can't play a game a zillion times? Hahaha sucks to be you loser!)

I hate the mention of BotB because there's literally nothing that event did right, so I won't even touch that outside of saying everything about thst is stuff to never do again (extreme amount of prizes for a group of people, only one way to make points, nothing for dedicated "losers" until after shit hit the fan, etc).

I do agree though, that typically unless a plot has battling/users are battlers, there's typically not a lot to do inbetween steps. Perhaps that's why I liked this plot/the pylot pandemic/saheric plots so much because hey no step is no problem because I have face to beat anyways. That isn't appealing, though, to casual battlers who tap out after a few challengers or anyone who just flat out doesn't battle.

I feel like relevant floaters helps (like trash or fairies), or idle things to do like digging and picking up wreckage. Just something extra that may or may not matter. When it makes sense, like the last reading drive or the omen wars, I do like the idea if different means if obtaining points (restocking or battling or games or questing vs. just one option). That wouldn't have made much sense here, though.

Honestly my biggest issue with subeta verses plots is the complete and utter lack of consistency. Like sometimes things appear to be a plot (Tempest) and upon wrapping up we're called self-entitled for expecting things. Then some things don't seem like a plot (Summer in Centropolis, or the cleanup project), abd HAHA SUCKA they were have fun buying that 50m book x2 for something you thought was just a cute sidething to vesnali/wearable!week. Then sometimes battling counts towards plot points (saheric, omen wars, crazy fairy and co) and sometimes the loot is the reward and the only battling that matters is the battling you have to do (this plot, the pylot pandemic, the cruise I believe). I always feel like I HAVE to do everything and make time for every single loving thing that happens on subeta because I have no idea what's a plot and what might have prizes and what counts or doesn't count and crap like that is what makes Subeta's plots stressful and annoying.

honestly, my biggest beef with this plot was that it was a morostide plot. morostide has historically always been one of the busiest site holidays with more and more things to do every year, which is especially compounded if you haven't been around for years to get those "repeat this menial task 1000 times" achievements under your belt. so already, you have a lot to do on the site itself, which can be hard enough to sort through on base level if you've got a lot of things going on irl.

from that perspective, i can only speak for myself. my school does two rounds of midterms in october- one at the beginning and one at the end. every year. without fail. so my schedule's a bit busy when morostide comes around, to say the least. then to have a plot with battle elements and a site-wide boss released on a thursday (???) is a tough pill to swallow. for overachieving battlers like myself, the notion of "well don't participate" is a laughable one, because that's just shorthand for "give up the possibility of you winning a highly exclusive, high tier weapon. if you want it, you can just shell out upwards of 9 figures to get it" which, no. i'm not going to do that if i can help it, and history tells me i absolutely can if i carve out the availability.

i have a lot of grief to give about the 24 hour boss plan as it currently exists, but if it absolutely has to be done, i think the site needs to take a page from the last hydragellos. that was released over a long weekend and that was a really great move. the jaxon boss? on a thursday. thursday the 30th. who benefits from that? who benefits from the 100% guaranteed battle-induced site lag on one of the last days of morostide? aka the day(s) people are going to be busting out their autorefreshers because they haven't ToT'd enough? is this sort of thing even planned for?

i would have absolutely loved to have a plot with bonus battling elements on a holiday not traditionally known for battling. masq, vesnali, and luminaire are all great examples. those holidays all executed quite nicely (imo) extra battling in their respective plots. masq did it twice, actually. but for morostide, we just go another full year before we see the traditional opponents again. and don't get me wrong, i loved the ones we got, but you can't deny that it was at the cost of not getting to see the other ones. i don't like having to make that choice, or having it made for me.

my critiques only focus on battling because that's what i do, and morostide to me is THE battling holiday on subeta, plot or no, thus the focus of my complaints. but from a general perspective, i kind of feel like my point still stands. why did this happen on a holiday when there's already so much to do, in a time of year that people tend not have a lot of expendable time to sit down and do it? i'd infinitely prefer a well thought, highly involved plot at a time of year where not much else is going on (site-wise), as opposed to the site figuring that as long as i'm doing so much, why not pack on a little bit more.

i dunno. it was a decent enough plot and clearly a lot of effort went into making it happen, but just... any other time of year, guys.

I loved the plot, the short steps and the whole thing in general. The one thing I do agree with the OP, is I would have loved a chance to play the games a bit more. Not that I would like us to HAVE to play them - but it would have been fun to be able to, just for fun and not for rewards. I really enjoyed some of the games and with only being able to play one game, I could barely figure out the game mechanics before we were moving on to the next thing.

Of course, Morostide is a very busy time and I likely wouldn't have been able to play too many extra games even if they had been available. So, overall, it really is a minor thing.

As for the screen resolution issue and graphics, this is a problem for me and I find Subeta's attitude about it problematic. Certainly you want to show off your pretty graphics in the best way possible, but things really need to be functional for everyone, whether they have vision limitations or device limitations. Technology should be about providing more options, not limiting them.

Let me put out a disclaimer first. I LOVED the plot, the battling, etc. Its just that things be done better. I know there will always be people unhappy with plots/event yada yada. But the choices the staff makes baffles me at times.

Case 1: During the summer, there was Peka Boo/BoTB. While it had lovely art/items, there wasnt anything to do. I feel during the summer is when most people have free time, and people can make time especially if its announced in advance (eg Epicon or Pekaboo).

Case 2: Twisted Jaxon on a Thursday. Strong smack in the face. Strong timing. Strong pre-planning for lag. Strong decision to change blessings/attack/def mid battle. Strong everything.

I love global bosses, and i got lucky with an easy day at work, but cmon now. Why not release it over the weekend? ffs, the mansion was still open til monday and everyone was just dicking around waiting for prizes anyway.

Case 3: Editing the global bosses' attack/def/blessing mid way through. Cmon now. Just leave it. If its dying too fast, heal it/make it self heal more. At least that way, you're not putting those who started battling late at a disadvantage.

the list is endless.

I know no one is perfect and can pre plan for anything/everything, but i feel like we are going through the same rollercoaster every time. We need some sort of user council lol or some shit like that. , usually have very good things to say.