Forum Thread
The Giratina Quest - Time for a fix.
Forum-Index → Suggestions → Implemented → The Giratina Quest - Time for a fix.As it stands now, you input a Griseous Orb, then spend any random amount of time traveling between pages in order to "trigger" the minigame. Clear the minigame, and the next trigger goes to the next level until you clear 4 of them. There are two problems to this formula, and after 5 years, I feel it's time to finally get them taken care of.
Issue 1: The time it takes between triggers is far too random. Sometimes you can get two triggers within 3 page loads, other times you spend well over 15 minutes loading pages just for a single trigger. From inputting an orb to obtaining a map, the full "run" time can vary anywhere from 3 minutes to nearly an hour in the worst luck cases.
Issue 2: Giratina can continuously spawn outside of a normal viewing range, REQUIRING you to use Page Zoom in order to stand a reasonable chance at clearing it. This image is based on a 1920x1080 resolution monitor.
That white box in the upper left simulates your average viewing area at 100% page zoom. That yellow box following simulates your expanded view running at 50% page zoom. The entire image is shown at 25% page zoom. This should not be a requirement, but alas, it is...because the more "normal" your page zoom is, the higher the chances of a Giratina deciding to remain off-screen long enough for you to entirely fail that trigger, thus wasting more of your time.
I've done well over 100 total Griseous Orb conversions. I can't count how many times I've gotten down to one Giratina at 15-20 seconds remaining, only for that minigame to fail (or get extremely close to failing) because said Giratina decides to remain completely out of view for the entire duration (or sometimes deciding to pop up in view for 0.1 seconds before disappearing again).
As such, I propose the following solutions in order to make this quest more consistent and bearable:
Solution 1A: Implement a link on the Giratina Quest page that's only clickable while a Griseous Orb is active, which will trigger a Giratina Minigame when clicked. This will remove the time gamble and make converting Griseous Orbs into Spooky Manor Maps more consistent.
Solution 1B: Increase the chances of a Giratina Trigger happening on page load. You'll still have some unlucky streaks here and there, but this should (in theory) prevent one from having to spend too much time trying for a single minigame trigger.
Solution 2A: Reduce the "spawning field" of Giratina and make it more in-line with today's most common display resolutions, thus reducing the likelihood of a single Giratina spending over 20 seconds outside of your field of view when not using Page Zoom. Note that I'm saying "monitor resolutions" and not "browser resolution" because basing it on browser resolution would be far too easy to abuse.
Solution 2B: Implement a "failsafe", preventing the minigame from having no less than 1 Giratina visible at all times, thus eliminating the chances of one failing a minigame due to a Giratina hiding out of view for extended periods of time. In this instance, one could still have half of the Giratina "out of view", but you will never be spending 10-20 seconds staring at a blank, flickering screen, hoping that those last few Giratina decide to pop into view before you run out of time.
I feel the novelty of this quest has run its course. It's time for a change for the better.
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Chain #77, June 27th, 04:21AM
Chain #52, July 23rd, 01:56AM
Chain #144, September 22nd, 06:26AM
Chain #52, July 23rd, 01:56AM
Chain #144, September 22nd, 06:26AM
The other part of your frustration, the random trigger, however, feels very natural to me. It is a scary event, so it is meant to creap up on you unexpected. I realise that this is frustrating if you have to go through it over and over again, but I think this is how it has to be for new users. They should be surprised, like a 'jumpscare'.
So I completely agree with your solution 2a, but I have to disagree with solution 1a. Solution 1b and 2b could provide a little help.
I can only get it to work on a tablet of all things (kind of).
On my phone, in a minute ill be lucky to see 1 or 2 Giratinas at all. I've gotten to the point of refreshing the page and ignoring it.
Even on some browsers when its better, it'll give me like 9/10 Giratinas in the first 1/4 of the time and spend the rest of the time flashing with nothing showing up. Its virtually impossible.
The quest seriously needs to get fixed.
I disagree with changing the minigame-trigger to being a definite link you click on as in my opinion that removes a lot of the "spooky" from a Halloween-themed questline that is supposed to be startling, plus makes it <i>too</i> quick to complete. I'm neutral on changing the spawn odds as a whole, since the gap between minigames has always felt fine to me but I've never gone through dedicatingly converting several in a row, so I can't really comment.
I'm afraid issue #1 cannot be "fixed" though. The Giratina miniquest is supposed to "surprise" you when you expect it the least. Suddenly having to click like a maniac is part of the experience, you shouldn't be prepared for it. The randomness is "not a bug, it's a feature".