Thread:CirnoX9/@comment-25174240-20161129033035

Hi, you asked about AL/MI and what was hard about it.

In short, it was the first event to implement (1) ship locking, and (2) combined fleet.

Next, keep in mind there was no debuff or difficulty selection mechanics back then. Final boss in E-6 had 2 battleship princesses (BB hime) right from the first chipping run. E-6 pre-boss node had aircraft carrier princess (CV hime). Since you couldn't select difficulty or debuff - whether you're a new or veteran player. You needed to deal with it.

Also, although combined fleet was used in the event, you needed to clear the final map using a single fleet. The combined fleet and compulsory ship locking from E1 to E5 meant that a lot of ships were locked out of E6. Imagine this, even if you're new player - ship locks, princesses at multiple nodes are forced on you.

Also, LOS requirements were only implemented in spring 2014. We didn't have the elos formula then, all we knew was that it was important to have lots of, in order not to go to deadend nodes. Players spent a few runs each map equipping and de-equipping los stuff to find the minimum equipment they needed to bring. Some players didn't have high level ships and had to bring 2 DDs with nothing but radars as part of their combined fleet (and you better prayed that you crafted radars or had enough recon planes) Why? Simple, there was no difficulty selection. LOS requirement was the same for all players, whether you were newbie or veteran.

These days if you say, "there are 2 BB hime at the boss node, please help." One suggestion you would get is to reduce the difficulty. That's why AL/MI is often regarded as even harder than Summer 2015 event, though not as bad as IBS (Fall 2013 event). It brought about another phase of players leaving the game after the event. I'm fairly certain summer 2015 E7 did make players leave too, but probably less than IBS and AL/MI. 