I've gone from disliking, to liking, to intensely disliking this event.

At first I thought 'this will be an awful grind'. Then I started using HMG and enjoyed the change of pace. But after a while it became an awful grind after all. I am sick of having to run HMGs every game if I want to taste a reasonable amount of the extra SP. (I don't like tower forging in pubs, and FG is not really going to get you many kills if you're on the ground.)

I know it's bonus SP, in addition to the usual SP payout. But CCP know and every player knows that SP is the main thing, or at least one of the main things, driving the game. People pay actual money for boosters, so of course they're going to go out of their way to get extra SP. The problem is, it is not fun, AT ALL, to run the same weapon (one I wouldn't usually use) every game. And we're only a few days into the event - how bored is everyone who's doing the event going to be in a week and a half?

I play the game most days, but I'm still only getting 500 kills per week, so about 1000 for the duration of the event. That's more than most of the playerbase. But with the 500SP per HMG/FG kill bonus and 750,000SP bonus cap, you need 1,500 kills. So even if I use HMG constantly, I'm not going to hit the cap.

The cap should have been set way lower. I thought 400,000 at first, but even that is too high. I think 200,000 or 300,000 would have been better.

400,000SP is 800 kills, so given I'm getting some kills with grenades, SMGs and OBs even when I carry HMG, even a 400,000SP cap would mean I had to carry HMG every game if I'm going to get all the bonus SP. So that's just as grindy as 750,000SP. But with 200,000 or 300,000, you 'only' need 400 or 600 kills. So a player who plays roughly as much as I do would get a little 'wriggle room', and wouldn't need to run HMG every game.

Please CCP, for future events, set the 'number of kills with specific weapons (HMG/FG in this case) to exhaust bonus SP' much lower. Setting it as high as 750,000, or even 400,000-500,000, just makes the event ubergrindy. At least with the vanilla trebled SP cap you could play how you wanted. I feel like this event turns players off from the game, by forcing them to choose between SP and enjoyment.

Finally, I should say that event stat tracking is also very much needed.

These are my numbers as of today and I am lucky that the College load is little and the wife doesn't mind. I am not the best player and of course I've had 20+ kills at some points before I started writing them down but 20+ kills with an HMG is not a regular thing unless you are using proto all the time and/or are extremely good. I am neither extremely good, nor am I using proto.



All in all the numbers I will show are that of the regular Merc who is neither in a squad with 5 other protostompers, neither a prodigy with an HMG or using proto all the time. This is the average Joe who plays for fun and is sometimes with a buddy or two, other times alone and just trying to grind through this event to get his SP. Papa needs some level 5's. I am using advanced gear with 2 complex damage mod for the added damage to my advanced Burst HMG. I have profi 5 but as I said I am not the best of players.

Key:
M= Match
T = Total
D = Daily total

HERE IS MY CHART


I also Have to say that I have had a lot of time to play; not many people do. Also, this is my second chart on my third day of the event, although the event has had 4 days to it If I am not mistaken.

will active sp boosters count against the 750k pool of points?

Boosters will not count against the SP bonus, so you can still earn extra SP with the booster.