BUN: Underneath the Sheets of Forms

Hey all!

The past two weeks have been such a blast with many ups and downs, and I was busy, busy, busy; just in case you haven't kept up on Twitter:

Last Wednesday was my birthday, and I just want to personally thank everyone for the birthday gifts, whether they were vocal shoutouts, a blog birthday card (Heather Raven), in-game gifts (Isaac Mistheart, Paige Moonshade, Fallon Deathslinger, Heather Raven, Ronan Dawn), or a broadcasted song (Christina Icedreamer and Stormywiz).  You guys and girls all made that day for me!

On the same day, KingsIsle announced their cross-promotion with Selena Gomez's recording agency, and that there was going to be a small contest involving the Disney star.  All I could think of was the release of the Test Realm; with this, we'd have CROWNS, CROWNS, CROWNS!!  250,000 of them, all for our own personal disposal.

In Battleblood lingo, that's pretty much Petnome Project Heaven.  So, that's where I've been the past week;  I couldn't help but take advantage of speed leveling through Crowns.  With Mega Snacks donations coming in from friends and strangers, we've managed to complete at least EIGHT pets as of today:  Silverback Wildclaw, Pixie Queen, Pale Maiden, Blue Cyclops, Red Gobbler, Green Cat Thug, Myth Sprite, and Wood Golem.  This is a list of non-Petnome Team members who helped us out with some donations:

Aaron Stronghand

Scarlet Deathblood

Blake Legend

Courtney Emeralddust

Jonathan Storm

Allan Spiritrider

Matthew Skullrider

Austin Thunderheart

Cassandra Griffindreamer

Fallon Deathwiz

@AmberHartz

Alric Ravensinger

Cassandra Dragonheart

Leesha Darkheart

Scarlet Moonflower

Thanks a ton everyone!  We'll have you listed on the Petnome Page soon!

This week, our Test Crowns were reset, but there was also a good amount of patching going on.  Along with Fallon Deathslinger and Ronan Dawn, we trekked over to the Coven to test and see if prices did indeed halve due to the drop in Dye prices (thanks for the tip, Missy!).  Sadly, they are affected, in the Test Realm at least.      So, here is my tip regarding Live Realm while Test is still active:

Currently, with word from Missy that Coven Drop sell prices being halved on Test Realm, we should strive to farm and hatch as much as possible, without training our pets right away.  With "Crab Alley" being a temporary location made solely for Selena Gomez's promotion, I can only guess that there will be frequent spurts of the Test Realm in the near future, slowly introducing "paying" players into Celestia.

Thus, with a large family of hatched Baby pets to raise on Test after our research for the Petnome Project has been exhausted and we run out of new pets to study, we can then evaluate which pet would be best to invest resources and time in.  Instead of dumping around 125 + 250 + 500 + 1000 = 1875 XP of food onto a pet that we have no assurance in (regarding its usefulness), we should conserve that "energy" until we are certain that a pet will develop into something we want.  Pets that turn out to be "just expensive furniture" should not be composed of lost Snacks.

Let's see...lowered dye prices OT (on Test) means lowered sell values for equipment OT?  Proportionally, that means Hatching prices have indirectly raised.  I wonder if there will be compensation or some kind of tweak to either Hatchery fees or the way hatching/raising works.  For example, if mixing prices do not lower, perhaps KingsIsle will allow players to see what abilities a pet will have in just the Teen and Adult stages (not in Ancient and Epic, to at least conserve the mystery and "risk" factors of pet growth)?  Time will tell, but while that's passing, let's try to make our voices (and reasoning) heard--that is, if we're hurt by this economical transition.  In the mean time, let's stock up on some Krazy Fried Coven.

So, in short, build your army of pets up while gold is still high, and save up your snacks until another Test Realm hits (unless you don't have a super pet to use for the time being).

Have a good one guys!  Feel free to send in any questions here, I'd be happy to answer them!