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Post by Stephanie (swordlilly) on Jul 13, 2024 0:54:11 GMT -5
Interesting discovery: The coding for the hospital shifts seems to borrow from Neolodge coding because the pets come back fed. xD I've been a bad, neglectful owner lately, sigh. I threw my dying pets into unpaid work shifts and they went and ate the hospital food. At least they look happy now
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Post by Breakingchains on Jul 13, 2024 12:55:45 GMT -5
Holy. CRAP I have been wanting a leaded elemental vial for over a decade.
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Post by Fraze on Jul 13, 2024 14:35:44 GMT -5
Interesting discovery: The coding for the hospital shifts seems to borrow from Neolodge coding because the pets come back fed. xD I've been a bad, neglectful owner lately, sigh. I threw my dying pets into unpaid work shifts and they went and ate the hospital food. At least they look happy now Well, that explains why my one pet who I don't keep in the Neolodge for daily quest feeding purposes suddenly wasn't hungry anymore.
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Post by Duke Pikachu on Jul 13, 2024 22:59:16 GMT -5
I gotta stop making my posts super long. Okay, going to try something new: just summarizing my thoughts: STORY SO FAR(Covering Chapter 2, Pages 1-3)
So turns out Baelia and Tavi are late to the party as Brightvale is already under siege (in retrospect, Meridell seemed to have gotten off easy). And we get our first glimpse of this Plot's Frozen Skeletons/Tainted/Wraiths: the Shades. We've only seen two so far though they look interesting, familiar animals forms/parts but made of some interdimensional energy (aka they're purple with space patterns and magenta wisps forming additional limbs or tendrils). Leading them is Vira (who looked to have upgraded her blade to have a chain she can use to spin it, very stylish and hopefully make for an interesting fight scene) and the Grey Yurble we kept seeing on the graffitied posters, and turns out it's the identity of the wielder of the Greying Brush (which I'm surprised no one ever suggested, at least from what I've seen).
Oh, and look, dialogue in the comics! Anyway turns out Vira and the Grey Yurble decided their part in this is finished and skedaddle. Tavi, bless her heart, tries stopping them but Vira sends Shades to attack her (to be fair, for all we know Tavi is a competant fighter ala Gilly, but until proof of that this does feel above an average Neopian's head). Baelia can only watch as Tavi is attacked (wonder if it's notable no Shades are attacking her or its just that Vira specifically ordered the attack on Tavi), and then a sudden energy blast engulfs Tavi and the Shades attacking her. But Tavi is alright, if a bit dazed, as her and Baelia look up to see who helped them: Nyx who has finally come through the dimension tear, and looks like her corrupted hand can shoot energy blasts (with friendly fire turned off); and her floating there is really giving off Captain Marvel vibes.
Little background details I like is we see Roberta fighting back using a scroll on Page 1 (a neat reference to her being the Scrollery Shopkeeper (odd as that is), though it also makes me wonder where her wand is as I think that would be more powerful than the scrolls). Hope this isn't the last we see of Roberta, being she was only a few meters away from Baelia and Tavi I would think she's also now seeing the floating Aisha with an energy hand who came from a portal; might have some questions. Page 3 we also see Brightvale Castle fully getting Greyed, giving some ominous undertones to Nyx's arrival.
I wonder why Meridell was a stealth operation while Brightvale was a full invasion. Even if everyone's guard was up, with how Meridell was so swiftly Greyed it's odd the same wasn't done with Brightvale (and any other world for that matter). Maybe, since everyone was being more on watch, Vira and the Grey Yurble was caught in the act and this was plan B.
BATTLING & VOLUNTEERING:SO after much wonkiness and emergency fixing (which I'll put aside), the Battle & Volunteer steps have begun. And these steps are certainly a shot in the arm the Plot needed, not only to have more participation but also have the plot points really start coming in (among some other welcome changes). Also good news is that you can do both Battling & Volunteering, with the only caveat is that as of right now you need at least 2 Neopets to get the maximum amount of points. Battling:Starting with Battling, reason for all the wonkiness is because TNT is trying to do something honestly interesting. Instead of a single battles you have to manually restart (if you win), the battles with the Shades are a unique instance where you fight a few of them in a row (or waves). Once you beat one, instead of loading the end results the page autoloads the next wave opponent. Then after you beat the entire wave you get the end results which include a handful of items, a lot of NP, and plot points. In addition to this some changes have been made: the NP max for the BD is now 50k (and while normal opponents are still locked at giving small amounts, Plot opponents give out several thousand NP after each wave); while number of item rewards for non-Plot opponents is still 15, for Plot opponents this has been increased to 30 (though if you gotten any items from normal battles that counts towards it); and finally you can only get a max of 200 plot points each day. So yeah, a lot, but I honestly like all of it now that it's fully functioning and I can see the full picture. Now that you're fighting waves of opponents with no breaks (and I assume no healing between), it does feel more like you're a midst of a massive brawl. I'm interested to not only see how this further develops in this Plot but how it could be used in other future Events/Plots (now they just need to figure out a way to battle multiple opponents at once...). The 50k increase is a really nice update as now there's more reason to battle after collecting your 15 items (and outside of Skirmishes); hopefully after the plot they have stronger BD challengers give out more NP too. Finally the increase item cap for Plot opponents only I feel is a nice compromise. Let's be honest, we still want to battle the Koi Warrior or Giant Spectral Mutant Walein for all the Codestones (and to lesser extent Dubloons) they give, but you also want the interesting prizes from the Plot opponents (even if most aren't worth that much). So giving us the option to either have our 15 normal battles + 15 Plot battle items or to forego some/all normal battles to get more Plot battle items is a great idea. Volunteering:So previously I raised concerns (item quests) and possibilities (a diagnosis mini-game) with what Volunteering can do. And the result... relieves the concern but is also disappointing. Volunteering is just a timer. You select a Neopet for a volunteering job, wait 6 hours to come back, click "complete for a prize and 20 plot points, and then volunteer them again to start the process over again. Void Essence collecting is more thrilling. On top of that, a Neopet that is Volunteering cannot Battle the Waves nor participate in multiple Volunteering tasks. So you better get your battles in before Volunteering. Also, as of right now, it looks like there will only ever be two Volunteering slots per Act (which there are 3 of), so you won't need more than 2 Neopets it seems (which I don't think should be a problem for most; though still for those who only have one Neopet they may feel like they have to now adopt a filler Neopet for the next 9 months to get all the plot points they can). But hey, in addition to the plot points some of the prizes are quite nice like Yellow Healthshrooms (and other medicine) and some lucky few may even get a Leaded Elemental Vial (aka one of the best once per battle full healers)! Oh, and they also released an Avatar for doing a certain number of shifts. As you can tell from my tone, this is a "miss" for me. Like, I'm glad it's not an item quest so we don't have to worry about the requested items being inflated, but having it just be a timer makes it a very inferior experience compared to the amount of thought and effort they put into the battling section (not to mention not wasting our time). Well, we're technically not wasting our time, we just start the timer, leave to do whatever else, and come come back IDEALLY 6 hours later; but it's not a highlight of the Plot nor is it equivalent to the battling which they made it sound like it was going to be. Also, while it was confirmed Volunteering is also capped at 200 points, at the current moment even if you were one time with your ending/starting another shift, the realistic per day max amount you can get is 120. And that's the ideal, because it's very easy to slip up and forget to end the shift on the dot (and that can push the end times to inconvenient hours like when you're asleep or have plans to go out to do errands). While most days you should be able to get the 3 pair of shifts in, there's probably also going to be one day when you may only be able to do 2 pairs (and I can see scenarios where you may only get 1 pair). But I do like that the mass release of medical items, especially Yellow Healthshrooms; not only nice to have a stock of them but also brings down the price. Some More Thoughts On Plot Points:Eitherway, with these two the Plot Points are now really coming in. To put it in comparison, the "Rift Rewarder" Fearless Deed is now available to get. To get it you need to purchase 15 unique prizes from the Prize Shop. If you were to buy the 15 cheapest items from the shop, it'll cost 872 points. When we were just collecting essences, that was 50 points a day so would have taken us 18 days to get enough points. But now with the Battling & Volunteering? That's an additional min 240 points a day, for a total of 290 a day, so now just takes 3 days! In term of Trophies, by now I think everyone is either a week or two away from unlocking the 5k Trophy (assuming they keep the battle & volunteer portion open for that long). Though, it's also making it clearer by each day they're not going to change the costs of the prizes. Because, if you had not spent your points to get the Rift Rewarder Fearless Deed, by now you should have enough points to buy Thunder Sticks, the best freezer (though I'm not that upset about that as it was an Altador Cup prize, relatively affordable one, infact I do think it needs a nerf, but point is if you played enough games in the AC it was available in you could have easily gotten it). I guess there's still time for them to increase the cost of at least Wand of the Dark Faerie and Grapes of Wrath, but I'm not holding my breath as people should have enough points for one of them in a week or two. Finally, a while ago I mentioned that I wished JN's point counter had a way for you to enter in your own personal points. And that's what they did! Which is great, as Volunteering has really made points vary and I wonder how long will it be until the Max Point counter represents anyone. People still like it though, and I guess it would be interesting to see if one could hypothetically get all possible points how much that would be (and compare it to how much you got).
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on Jul 16, 2024 4:44:19 GMT -5
With the Altador Cup sign ups now opened, this is the 1st opportunity to get the 'Not My Problem' Fearless Deed (join a seasonal event)
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Post by PFA on Jul 16, 2024 12:37:55 GMT -5
It's so funny to me that the achievements are called "Fearless Deeds." So fearless, ignoring the conflict altogether and playing sportsball.
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Post by Gelquie on Jul 16, 2024 13:43:23 GMT -5
It's so funny to me that the achievements are called "Fearless Deeds." So fearless, ignoring the conflict altogether and playing sportsball. We fearlessly disregard our own and the world's safety. The teams have trained all year and there is a competition to win! (I sure hope no team member goes grey!! (Because I'm not confident that'll be adequately coded in the game.))
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Post by Blueysicle on Jul 16, 2024 16:13:04 GMT -5
On a separate note: Ugh, dunno if I really want to come out of my Altador Cup retirement just for a measly few plot points or let my inner completionist suffer by leaving a blank spot in my achievements list. And I'd feel bad just joining up long enough to get the achievement and not put in an honest effort into helping my team, so that's not an option either. =_=
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Post by June Scarlet on Jul 16, 2024 16:24:14 GMT -5
On a separate note: Ugh, dunno if I really want to come out of my Altador Cup retirement just for a measly few plot points or let my inner completionist suffer by leaving a blank spot in my achievements list. And I'd feel bad just joining up long enough to get the achievement and not put in an honest effort into helping my team, so that's not an option either. =_= It's possible that other seasonal events will mark that achievement as complete. It doesn't specify the Altador Cup, that just so happens to be the first seasonal event that has come up. If you're willing to take that chance maybe that's an option too?
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Post by Blueysicle on Jul 16, 2024 16:39:39 GMT -5
On a separate note: Ugh, dunno if I really want to come out of my Altador Cup retirement just for a measly few plot points or let my inner completionist suffer by leaving a blank spot in my achievements list. And I'd feel bad just joining up long enough to get the achievement and not put in an honest effort into helping my team, so that's not an option either. =_= It's possible that other seasonal events will mark that achievement as complete. It doesn't specify the Altador Cup, that just so happens to be the first seasonal event that has come up. If you're willing to take that chance maybe that's an option too? At first, and when I made my last post, I was under the impression that you could only claim Act I achievements while Act I is ongoing, but -looking at Jellyneo's guide- TNT already stated that was only for the first task. So if that's the case, I think I will be more inclined to just wait and cross my fingers that there will be a less stress-inducing seasonal event that will check that achievement off. I still have two weeks to decide one way or another too, I guess.
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Post by Duke Pikachu on Jul 16, 2024 18:48:22 GMT -5
It's possible that other seasonal events will mark that achievement as complete. It doesn't specify the Altador Cup, that just so happens to be the first seasonal event that has come up. If you're willing to take that chance maybe that's an option too? At first, and when I made my last post, I was under the impression that you could only claim Act I achievements while Act I is ongoing, but -looking at Jellyneo's guide- TNT already stated that was only for the first task. So if that's the case, I think I will be more inclined to just wait and cross my fingers that there will be a less stress-inducing seasonal event that will check that achievement off. I still have two weeks to decide one way or another too, I guess. Just signing up for the Altador Cup checks off the Fearless Deed. You don't need to play at all, just join a team and ignore the AC.
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Post by Carolyn on Jul 16, 2024 19:34:58 GMT -5
At least for this act. No idea what the second act's fearless deeds shall be.
I'm thankful we don't have to do the 15 plot prizes achievement right now
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on Jul 17, 2024 4:30:30 GMT -5
1st community void essence has been reached. For that, an additional 100 points (and item) will be added to your overall points
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Post by downrightdude on Jul 18, 2024 16:11:03 GMT -5
Seems like now you get notified if your pets complete their volunteer shifts.
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Post by Ian Wolf-Park on Jul 18, 2024 19:03:40 GMT -5
Seems like now you get notified if your pets complete their volunteer shifts. Looks like it's a recent addition, which certainly helps if you forgot when you send in your pets.
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