BUN: Small Catching Up

Hey all,

It's been awhile since I've written anything technical (let alone, at all), but my activity level has shifted back in-game, the Petnome Project, on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook (it's seldom there, though).  I'm either farming up a "bottom"-load over at Halfang and devising a number of Zerging deck builds for each school for first-turn kills, keeping track of Gardening drops, or pet training with a "Recycler" wizard in the Spiral (these items will be future topics!), keeping up to date on Petnome submissions, uploading Perfect Catch videos along with Vlogs, or Tweeting the latest thoughts or adventures.  Also, Ravenwood Radio had their 50th and 51st episodes recently -- those were a LOT of fun.

A lot of new content has also kept us pretty busy, such as Halloweenfest, Hallowe'en, the Nightmare packs, and this mysterious world that's coming up...  Based on Stephen Spiritcaller's interview with Fred Howard, I'm thinking we can expect to learn more about this around December...maybe the world will be released by then, but that's my wishful thinking!  Massively gave us a small sneak peek, and there are some symbols on the picture below that were deciphered by myself and Miss Katherine Light:

We caught onto a small mistake, as noted in the image, so here is the newly revised picture, hehe:

I've also been dealing with some University items -- I've been accepted!  My state's budget problems aren't improving, so the acceptance is an extremely big deal for me, especially when it's during the a very selective Spring semester.

And, last but not least, I've ended up treating my blog like more of a scientific journal than a personal one.  It's starting to become just a bit awkward -- out of style, in other words (for me) -- to be writing things here when I habitually post them on the spot on Twitter.  Usually, it's the "guides" or "tips" or "really chunky stuff" that I can write pages and pages on, that goes on The Chillanthropologist.  What can I say?  I like the "article" style of writing, where there's an overall subject, a dissection of its elements or parts, a weaving of facts/experiments/results, and a blend of insight/commentary.

But, I'll give this "true blogging" thing a try.  Sometimes a personality just needs to shine through from the layers of logic or rational thinking...

BUN: LampNome, Petnome, Ravenwood Ball, and Latest Happenings (or lackthereof)

Hey, all!

It's been a long, long time since I've sat down and ticked the keys away into this digital journal.  Thanks to my new job and the beginning of summer school (get this, I'm taking a "truncated" class, so not only is a regular class condensed to a summer schedule, but this Political Science course is even shorter than the regular summer classes; think "honors"), I've been crowded with obligations and responsibilities and duties all around, inside AND outside the Spiral.

But, I'm still staying creative and active...  Hexy and I just come up with the nerdiest ideas, eh?  We became curious after doing a lot of lamp runs, noticing some patterns between our various characters.  Her young Level 1 Thaumaturge kept getting gold only, usually under 5.  So, we decided to test out a theory:  the higher level you are, the wider your window for different prizes of various quantities and qualities; the lower level you are, the smaller your opportunity becomes.  However, being Legendary doesn't mean you'll be exempt from receiving "Level 1 loot."  

And thus, the Lampnome Project (not to be taken as professionally as Petnome) was created.  Hopefully through this project, we'll be able to grasp an idea of what certain trends we'll see in all wishes granted by the Genie.



Speaking of the Petnome Project, check this out:

Hey!  

The Petnome Project's BIRTHDAY is coming up,  on Tuesday, July 19th!  

We're gonna celebrate with some AWESOME contests, giving out prizes. courtesy of KingsIsle Entertainment!  We'd like to give the Community some time to prepare for some of these events, so here's what you'll need to do:

1.  Follow @petnome over on Twitter; some events have time-sensitive objectives!

2.  Set your email inbox to ALLOW messages from petnome [at] hotmail.com.

Be sure to check out Diary of a Wizard for an exciting event coming up!

Between the Petnome Staff and some close friends, we're creating some "Epic" contests to held within July.  Just for my blog audience, I'll leak a little info...

Think...Olympics...for the mind, body, and spirit...of you...and your pets.

Derby?  Yes.  Puzzles?  Yes.  Lucky drawings?  Absolutely.

Heck, if you've ever made a submission into the Petnome database (before the ability is revealed on our page) and have your name listed on the Pet Page, you've got a chance to win an awesome Promo Pet!  All submissions up to the day of that special drawing will be counted...but remember, we double-check entries vigilantly!  False entries may be subject to disqualification for the entire month!

Because we're still drafting out the rules and dates for these series of events, we aren't making it an entire public announcement, yet.  But, @Petnome will announce more over time, so keep an eye on that feed!

 

Last, but not least:  Ravenwood Ball.  This Saturday...I can't wait!  Hope to see you there ~ bring your kicking outfit -- Hexy and I have a neat theme going on, so be sure to find us every 10 minutes!

Heading out to catch up on some sleep~  See you in the Spiral!

Audio Log (ALog) #2: Battleblood Updates and News (BUN) (6/8/11)

Discussing about what I've been up to lately, in-game and off: projects, life, work, surprises, and guest-speaking later tonight on Ravenwood Radio! Plus, some game updates to look out for!

Vlog #14: Summer Battleblood Updates and News (5/23/11)

Topics: Blogging/Vlogging, PVP Videos/Commentary, secret projects, self-improvement, and a future "offer" from TPC.

Vlog #4: Sacrifice Minion Mechanics

Topics: Battleblood Updates and News (BUN), a little more sneak-peeking into Battleblood Castle, Perfect Catch Update (PCU) with Fallon and Cassandra, and answering a blog question about Sacrifice Minion!

Vlog #3: Arena Circle Floating

Topics: Battleblood Updates and News (BUN), sneak peek into the March edition of Battleblood Castle, Shadow Floating bug, and tutorial on keeping wizards out of the center of your residential battle circle!

**Sorry about the scratchy sounds...I'll try to get a clearer mic check before recording next time**

Vlog #2

Topics: Battleblood Updates and News (BUN), school recap, "PvP Plants," Winterthorn commentary.

Vlog #1

Trying out something different...

Topics: Battleblood Updates and News (BUN), Petnome news, small mention of the upcoming Smash 'n' Bash, and my best route for Black Lotus.

(captions provided in near future)

BUN: Responding to Friendly's "After Legendary" Post

(in response to Friendly's post):

Each day, without a new update to explore around in the Live Realm, the game does seem like a personal sandbox.  Actually, KingsIsle does a great job with providing enough patches and features to continually spark interest and create new adventures.  Though, after attaining optimal gear and pets, killing thousands of monsters for badges, and mastering features like PVP, Gardening, and Advanced Pets, room for more personal accomplishments runs dry.  Thankfully, such a world like Celestia and dungeons like Briskbreeze and the Warehouse were released.  Players are encouraged to step out of the realm of individuality and into the uniform shoes of teamwork, adding a new dimension to RPG gameplay:  social interaction, and success by cooperation.  In group play, each player is given the chance to contribute to a team goal, and the incentive given is the larger rewards and -- sometimes -- bragging rights.  It feels exhilarating to help others, partly due to the fact that a playerbase has grown by means of increasing someone's interest in the game.  That feeling broadens even further, as you mentioned, when one starts contributing to a community.  The truth is: I realize that there's only so much that can be contributed.

Your blog -- which is miraculous to me (probably because my writing style is too skewed towards formality that I become more serious than fun, and forget to loosen up) since there's at least a blog post a day -- inspires creativity, both in the game and outside.  You not only share achievements and news to hundreds of people, but also provoke creative thought via mind-opening ideas and suspicions.  As readers' minds roll, there come the birth of many blogs detailing their own writer's adventures and ideas.  The more that players can relate with one another, the more exciting that new players' goals seem.  "Oh, I want what they have!"  "I also want to achieve that!"  Passion for the game is developed furthermore.

As you know, I happen to be one of those inspired readers, and I take those passions and dissect it a bit further, into information, tips, and explorations of detail.  YouTube is the visual presentation of my thoughts; Blogger, a textual one.  Petnome is the "physical, virtual" embodiment of a specific passion in pets, while Mistblood is the embodiment of my creativity in an alternative lore.   Modding the Ravenwood Radio chatroom is an extension of the depth of commitment to the game and community, and transcribing is another active way of expanding that extension to another branch of our Wizard101 population.  And finally, there are the PVP parties, along with writing and discussing about it, aimed to redeem the image of a widely notorious activity.

I admit, it's a lot, and I wouldn't be surprised if people looked at me and thought I was crazy or lost.  Maybe "too addicted?"  Perhaps.  But, I think of these projects as more of a "higher plane" of what can be done in Wizard101.  For example, in Guild Wars, I grew tired of the Post-Searing environment, and decided to create another character.  Given how long it takes to complete that game, I decided on another route: get to max level before changing from Pre-Searing to Post-Searing.  Perhaps this would bring some long lost entertainment.  It did, but I ended up staying there forever, due to its peacefulness.  Eventually, I began to give away free items and gold in exchange for correctly answered trivia questions, and that sparked more login activity as people participated in the quizzes and games.  We all had an escape from the expected route of questing and bartering.

Overall, Wizard101 became very exciting to me, not just because of its content, but also because of the opportunities this game provides.  I could wake up, head to work or school, and come back (due to a minimal budgeting plan, props to tuition fees and the college lifestyle) to any of the above mentioned projects, these "spiderwebs" of interest.  They give me something to do after hitting Legendary, Warlord, Grandmaster Artisan and Gardener, etc.

Want to know the ironic twist?  Even these projects can lose their effect overtime, not due to decreasing interest, but admittedly due to the small, overwhelming feeling.  I used to blog every other day at least, and now it's around every other week.  Sometimes I'll have something to write about, but I hesitate because I feel like working on something else.  Mistblood has been neglected.  YouTube projects are still pending and halfway complete and scattered all over my desktop in the elements of music files, pictures, movie clips, and movie project shortcuts.  I'm still very active in moderating the chatroom, hosting and broadcasting the PVP parties, transcribing as soon as an iTunes episode is released, and updating the Petnome Project with the team.  Basically, the environment of my projects have shifted from long-term to short-term; the projects mentioned in the previous sentence are usually done "on the spot," dependent on some other element other than my creativity.  In other words, I've become more reactive than proactive, in terms of contributions.

Along with this interesting twist, I've been spending more time in-game.  It's like I've boomeranged from questing, leveling, and accomplishing to contributing in an overdose, then returned to questing, leveling, and accomplishing.  Nowadays, I've become more passionate in participating in the gaming itself, rather than expressing my excitement for it.  It's as if the "sandbox" effect switched over sides of the fence.

So, my point -- based on personal reflection -- is to pursue deeply in contributing to the community, or finding a niche or project that can prolong one's interest to a specific aspect of the game.  Indulge in that enjoyment, and try to keep a balance between gaming and maintaining something related to it.  If there isn't a balance, perhaps someone will fall into the same pattern as I have, which, ultimately, recreates the excitement all around.

To Chase Skullmask:  Based on the above "essay," dive into something that hasn't been done before, and try to carry it out to its fullest extent, with the attitude of a winner ("winners never quit").  Stephen Spiritcaller had many of us #twizards hooked on his fictional narrative "Courting Yeva."  Looking back on those days, I now feel like hunting her down for the infamous hat.  Cassandra Griffindreamer's Diapermancer comics (fictional, visual stories about Friendly's baby's surroundings) inspired me to create Mistblood.  She is also expanding into a wider variety of stories, each of which I suspect to have some influence from the style of Anime.  Alric Ravensinger created Fame at a Price, a story with reality -- for a well-known player and community member, Thomas Lionblood -- in a nutshell, mixed with a ficitional plot.  I hear he's creating another "issue" very soon.  Sometimes, relighting interest in the game requires thinking outside of the box, or looking at the game differently.  Once you've got an idea, approach it.  Take it head on, and I guarantee it'll be a new Spiral everyday.

BUN: Connections and Commentaries

While starting yet another semester at college this week, I've already begun some deep enlightenment in a few classes.  One thought is that the people we look up to in artistic professions (Shakespeare, Mozart, Beethoven, Van Gogh, etc.) are really just ordinary people like you and me.  "If Shakespeare were alive today," my professor ponders, "he would be just a television writer.  People would find it difficult putting up with [the arrogance of] Beethoven; he was anti-social, and some people felt he was 'riding' them."  When these names come across our mind, "...we shouldn't put them on a pedestal, and distance ourselves from them.  We are them."  It's true; we tend to exaggerate the amount of credit we give to the sources of our inspirations, in terms of talent or creativity.  When this happens, we create this invisible scale...an invisible ruler, if you will...in our minds.  We end up measuring ourselves against our heroes while we set them high up on the meter.  Self-esteem then becomes impacted, partially due to the imaginary bar that we (ourselves) create, and we make the mistake of comparing our work of inexperience to the works that were (actually) deemed inexperienced in their debut, such as Van Gogh's "Potato Eaters."  Understand that while a lot of the classical artists are praised in this era, most of them were looked down upon in their lifetime, simply because they did not fashion their creations after what was called "popular" or "mainstream."

So what exactly am I trying to say?  Though you may look up to someone, don't set standards too high for yourself that you fall out of your own style and stumble upon something unfamiliar and uncomfortable.  Your personality is yours; the same goes for your vision, your style, and your interpretation.  This thought reminded me of Mackenzie Lifebreeze, a new Blogger who's also an active Diary of a Wizard member, and her active search in finding an interest in a Wizard101 project, such as house decorating, blogging, etc.  She is especially impressed with Paige Moonshade's creations--which are just incredible, I must say--but she was having trouble finding motivation to carry on decorating her own house.  So, I suggested she try every aspect of Wizard101 out, then look into writing about her endeavors, and see what she liked doing best.  That's probably the most important key to have to an environment that can sprout up a wide variety of projects: finding something you can do on your own, whether or not other people like it, as long as no one is harmed, of course.  Once you manage to grasp onto a hobby that you can become lost in for hours on end, you've found your calling.  At that time, comparing your work to others' is more of an educational experience than a competition; everyone has a different style, remember?  Paige's recreation of "Pandora" from Avatar cannot be ranked against a setting from Harry Potter or SpongeBob Squarepants.  True, you can compare talents in terms of how well a player understands the floating bug and decorating tricks, but this type of experience can be gained by anyone.  And thus, anyone can become just as talented as their inspirations, assuming there is passion, dedication, and an open mind.

With that said, I present my current Massive Fantasy Palace in video form, below this paragraph.  Keep in mind that a lot of it was based on accidents and instantaneous brainstorming.  In other words, the decorating came first, and then the stories behind it.

And here is yet another hobby, one that I really enjoy a lot:  PVP Commentaries, done at Fallon Deathslinger's Wizaversary and last night's "Last Minute PVP Party":

*you can click "Watch Ad Now" a couple of times to stack uninterrupted viewing time; otherwise the ads come every 15 minutes*

Fallon Deathslinger's Wizaversary

Last Minute PVP Party (1/22/11)

And last but not least, two more transcripts completed last weekend for Ravenwood Radio:

Episode 1:  Introductions and Mounts

Episode 2:  News and Seamstress Info

BUN: Ringing in the New Year

I know, it’s been a long, long while since I’ve sat down and shared some updates or tips.  I have to admit, Twitter’s been serving as an activity recorder, but there’s only so much that can be expressed within 140 characters.  Procrastination, taking advantage of my new real-life situation, and projects have been factors with priority that dominate over “The Chillanthropologist,” and I’m unsure of what should be introduced first.

One thing I’ve been meaning to write about is a personal New Year’s resolution.  This isn’t exactly the typical vow that gets lost halfway through the year, because it’s something we all could use and work on annually, if not daily, weekly, or monthly:  communication.  The more we open our minds to expand beyond dichotomy (which is the system in which there is only two possibilities, such as “black” or “white”, without any possibilities of “grey”), the more productive we can become, on many different levels.  This is a topic that will continue on a future post, in some more detail, but with this exercise as a resolution, there are sure to be many more exciting outcomes over time.

Today, I managed to complete two main tasks:  reveal the winners of the first Petnome Project Contest (PPC1), and complete a transcription of Ravenwood Radio’s last episode.

The PPC1 was definitely an exciting contest to hold.  About 91 people registered, but only 48 sent in their entries, which was in a way, a blessing, because setting up and locking in the 29 stories that followed the rules took at least half a day.  There were so many great stories that had to be dropped due to an infraction, and there were some mediocre ones that made it to the final stage.  But, I’m wholeheartedly glad that every featured author (Rowan Lifewhisper, Sierra Dragonbright, Isaac Mistheart, Natalie Jade, SorceressMiklai, Kane Mooncaster, “Jack,” Scarlet Moonblood, and last but not least, Sean Lightheart) rightfully earned their spot, opposed to someone “defaulting” into a winner slot.  If you’ve yet to see the Special Notes below each story, check them out by clicking on the authors’ names.  These are brief analyses on why these 9 stories were chosen over the others.  My personal favorites were those by Rowan Lifewhisper and Natalie Jade, due to the depth that their stories stretched to.  Rowan’s “Death-Giver the Leech” received just as many nominations (and nomination points) as Natalie’s “First Flight” for different reasons: 

• Rowan’s execution was unique in that she used 101 pet abilities to create her story (see the screenshot below; I used Excel to ensure no abilities were used more than once, and found that cool Easter Egg), but it was not a collection of pet powers randomly aligned within her text.  She demonstrated strong vocabulary skills: the adjectives, when compounded to a subject, were synonymous and relative to the topic.  It was certainly a risky approach to splice so many abilities within the assignment of a short story, but the plot was explained clearly and creatively.
  
  
• Natalie’s was certainly one that stood out from the rest by a long shot, with very descriptive imagery and textual illustration.  Many judges (whom are to remain anonymous; I would be happy to have them all help out again!) left comments within their score sheet pointing her story-telling skills.  I truly felt that I was taken along for the flight that the two characters indulged in. 

I had the honor to meet both of them in-game today to pass along their prizes: the Sea Dragon to Rowan, and a Phosphorescent Maul and two King Parsleys to Natalie along with her 2500 Crowns.  Many thanks go out to KingsIsle (Professor Greyrose!) for sponsoring the contest via the supply of prizes and website announcement, to Petnome contributors for helping us develop the overall project, and to our contest volunteers! 

~

As for the transcription, I received a nice message over Facebook from Kelsey Fireheart who asked if Ravenwood Radio had any way to provide text for the show, for those whose hearing are impaired.  This was probably the first message that struck and stuck to me, as I realized that “hey, there are some fans of the show who aren’t getting the full experience, only abridged or shortened summaries from friends who could hear.”  So what if there was a way to allow them to enjoy the show the way that I did and do?  Sure, there are some programs out there that can “listen” and write out text, but it just doesn’t capture the personalities of Leesha or Stephen…let alone, misspell some words that are only recognized by those of us from the Spiral.  So, I decided to give the manual way a shot for the live portion of the show, and this is what it turned into:

Ravenwood Radio 32 – 2010 in Review – Transcript.

I downloaded the episode to my iTunes so I could have free range and control over the file; the stream made it tedious having to rewind back a few seconds if I missed or misheard a word.  But, it was managed, and I had some fun with interpreting tones and emotions into text form so that other Wizards could receive at least some of the experience that those of us without restrictions have.  For example, down on Page 13, the “drumroll” that Leesha asks for when announcing a contest winner can’t genuinely be replicated by a speech-to-text program, and doesn’t help provide imagery when needed.  So, with that, I’m wondering if there are any Wizards out there, who can type at least 80 words per minute (I’m an average 98, and drafting this live portion [lasting just a little over 30 minutes] took about 4-6 uninterrupted hours alone) who are interested in volunteering some time to help out with transcribing older episodes with me.  We could break it into “parts,” where, if we have enough helpers, we could take 5-minute portions of the show and type it out, and then splice them into a full document.  Or, if you aren’t a speedy typist, you can help pass along the word, or maybe even give it a shot if you’re up for it!  Feel free to let me know if you’re interested in the Comments below.

~

In addition to “The Arena” series, the team and I have been randomly holding evening PVP parties for anyone to fool around in, or take an effort to pick up on some interesting playstyles for the real deal, as a way to spark interest in dueling.  Generally, these parties happen around Friday or Saturday evening, with start times ranging from 4 PM PST to end times as late as 10 PM PST.  Whether you have no experience or are a Warlord yourself, you’re all welcome!  The general idea is to create an environment where players do not feel judged based on their playstyles, and are actually encouraged to practice or ask questions if they have them.

As for personal training, I’ve been sparring a bit with Kayla Emeraldheart (Fallon Deathslinger’s “munchkin”) and Jasmine Stormblood to help amp their game.  There’s also a third (who is actually my first trainee) player whose identity will be private for the time being, just as a surprise, who is indirectly helping me structure what I want to write next for the series.  All of them have been improving greatly, and I can’t wait until they’re playing at super-advanced levels!

~

I’ve been taking up some other games at the same time as Wizard101.  Sometimes you just have to escape from a sigil and kill a zombie, up close and personal, with combos, like my Riftstalker Battleblood in RIFT.  To sum up what that is, it’s a rogue that’s a tank.  A beefy ninja.  No, not like a Samoorai.  Someone who can bend time and space so they don’t get hit as much, while striking out of nowhere themselves.  And then there’s Atlantica Online, where I wield a guitar and expose my opponents’ weaknesses with riffs and melodies.  If you happen to play AO as well, let me know; I’ve established a guild named “Wizard101” out of pride for this one ;).

~

And last but not least…I’ve been doing some crazy things with my Massive Fantasy Palace:

 

Cheers, thanks for reading!

BUN: Thanksgiving Week

What’s up Readers?  If you haven’t heard from Twitter or Missy yet, I’ve been out of the Spiral for a few days so far, due to a hardware problem.  I play on a laptop, so I’m either going to have to buy a new laptop (graphics card is part of the motherboard, so replacing it is out of the question, sigh…) or try out this innovation called an “external graphics card.”  Some companies have mentioned a few times in the past, around 2007, that this technology would be available…however, I think all of them have backtracked due to the risk of losing new notebook sales.  What contributes to laptop sales is how quickly laptops become “obsolete” due to the difficulty of upgrading its parts.  If I want the best graphics or sound or other hardware, I can’t easily pop open the case, remove a few gadgets, and install new components, since these computers are built for portability, and therefore most hardware are soldered or built into the motherboard.  Anyway, in short, it’s going to be a kick to my wallet if I want to return to the Spiral without using someone else’s computer.

So, I’m pretty useless in terms of researching the new Gardening system that has arrived to a new release of the Test Realm.  Oh, and blast it all, I can’t research for the Petnome Project either!  [insert epic sad face with teardrop.]

Missy’s been real generous to accompany me into another game, Adventure Quest Worlds.  If KingsIsle Entertainment is to family-friendly fun, then Artix Entertainment is to comedy and RPG parody.  Check it out if you haven’t, and here’s a random picture of my character, FurryIceCream:

The character actually didn’t come looking like that…some awesome gear and costumes dropped for my human Mage (currently Level 10), and I “stitched” that on him.  Contrarily, he’s of the “good” alignment.  RawR!

Also on my table is another “The Arena” post, about 65% complete, which I’ve been writing on and off.  There is just so much to cover in this next topic that I’ve been wondering if I should break it into two posts, or if I should stick to my style and write everything out so you get the complete picture in one read.  I have some motivation to do the latter, but here are some hints on what it’s on: psychology, competition, mental preparation.  That’s all for now!

This Thanksgiving is going to be suh-weet!  I’m heading down to arguably the most boring city in my state, but I know I’m going to have mountains of fun.  I’ll meet my youngest baby cousin for the first time (hi Lexi!), and catch up with the rest of the family and kids.  Mashed potatoes are a delicacy to me, and those of you who know me personally can understand why (this means those of you on Skype).  For those of you that celebrate this holiday, remember not to eat too much…I hear there are some awesome Black Friday sales that you won’t want to miss out on via sleeping in.  Speaking of which…I should see if they have some decent machines down there…

Happy GOBBLING week!

[insert Colossus Blvd resident chewing on turducken]

The Petnome Project is Now Official!

Hello readers!

After many grueling hours of working on my research paper (and finally finishing), I re-enabled my Twitter notifications around midnight my time last night, running into Paige Moonshade's Tweet.  So, naturally, I dash over to the fan site listings on Wizard101's official site, and there we are!

Yes, I'm aware the site is listed as a "blog" instead of a "fansite," but  I'm too ecstatic to worry about it :-)

And Isaac Mistheart is also a new addition too!  Congrats, Mistheart!

Tons of people to notably credit for the Project's existence:

The first of many "Thank you's!" goes out to Miguel Wildthorn, the very first person to recognize that first generation Petnomes matched across the same pets.  Without his early discovery, we would have been in the dark for a few extra weeks (if not months) on the way pets and their hidden abilities behaved.  Also, while we were developing visuals for the Petnome pages, Miguel's persistence helped provide the display of the Pedigree number after the Pet name, thus helping us understand that different versions of Level 48 pets existed.

Next, the Friendly Necromancer himself for being a major influence that sparked a group collaboration, expanding on Miguel's findings.  His support extends from sending his own data submissions into the project, holding a contest to sponsor us, and writing a few posts mentioning us here and there...heck, we're also listed in his "Handy Wizard101 Links" section.

Another important sponsor of ours is Ravenwood Radio, where, on a couple of their episodes, the Petnome Project was mentioned in detail.  Leesha even went as far as to include us in one of her interview questions with Joseph Hall and J. Todd Coleman!  She and Stephen were kind enough to hold a series of contests to bring attention to our work, and between the "Father of Wizard101 Blogs" and our beloved DJ's, many hundreds of entries poured in to help us completely map 41 pets as of this date!

What's a "project" to be without its researchers?  Many kudos go out to Heather Raven, Sierra Starsong, and Kestrel Shadowthistle for their very first contributions...I remember these ladies had at least 30 each on the first night of the form's release!  Heather Emeraldflame generously supplied us with a majority of the blank Petnomes and pet portraits, and hundreds of Pet entries.  And, our newest team member, Missy aka Scarlet Deathblood, has been helping me out a lot for the past few weeks with updating the site as regularly as I do.  Go team!

And of course, last but not least, KingsIsle, pet enthusiasts, loyal contributors, Blogleagues (colleague Bloggers), Twizards (Wizards on Twitter), and site users have all played very significant roles in encouraging and supporting our work.  From the end of May until now, we've gone a long way because of you all, and are very grateful for every ounce of help and effort.  We proudly look forward to continually providing the community with the latest Petnome information and updates.

Once again, thank you everyone!

--Kevin Battleblood and the Petnome Team

(Honorable mentions go out to Diary of a Wizard's Fallon Shadowblade, who initially offered to host for us, and Wolf Gazer (Sierra's husband) for assisting us with technical web issues.)

BUN: Adventures in Celestia (Tales and Tips)

The past few days have been such a blast with all the new spells, equipment, monsters, quests, income rate, challenges, pets, and strategies that have flooded into the Spiral on the Live Realm.  As with our characters, we were submerged into a whole new world called Celestia, and my PVP team "Perfect Catch" and I were ready and anticipated surprises or twists along the way.  True, some of us were able to touch on the new features in Test Realm (TR), but a few changes, such as the removal of the spells Simplify and Elucidate and the adjustments made to Level 55 weapons, meant our experience was going to be much different.  Similar to how we explored the new world in TR, we split up and played "individually" instead of as a group.  Different schedules called for varying progression rates.

Normally, I am a solo-type gamer, meaning I usually dislike playing with others.  However, the aspects of Wizard101 have undeniably shown that this game was developed with a lot of hindsight to the negative factors of multiplayer interaction.  Instead of a "Greed or Need" system, everyone has the same chance for the same loot, regardless of party size or damage dealt.  Without competition amongst companions, more focus can be placed on similar (if not the same) goals.  If one of the ingredients is a great friendship, then you've got a recipe for success as a team.  With the amazing people I often play with, there was not an excuse for me to jump back into being a hermit.  So, I took on Celestia with mainly Missy, and tripled up with Ronan Dawn towards the end.

Armed with some experience from the TR, Missy and I set straight off to picking up some core, utility spells:  Conviction (Star) for PVP which increases the chance to avoid Critical Hits and Stuns, Fortify (Star) for increased resistance, and Strong (Sun) for increased damage on applicable cards.  I took on the Damage Tier of Sun School since I could rely on a Pet for Accuracy if necessary.  +100 damage to a Blizzard is adding nearly half its minimum value to the spell.  At the highest rank, Gargantuan does +225, which is a 90% boost to my Rank 4 AOE's minimum.  I think farming as a group in Kensington by killing on the first turn is more than possible now!  Seraph, here I come!

On my first day and first fight against Cuthalla in the Grotto, this dropped for me:

I still haven't trained it, surprisingly, but it's most likely because I'm currently working on a new PVP/PVE-based pet.  Surprise, surprise.

I love the new Spritely animation, by the way.  It's somewhat comical, because I don't think any of the other healing spells create this visual:

Looks like a cool effect to use for a new Mistblood logo, huh?  Hmmm...anyway...

What was notably different about the Base Camp Astral trainers on the Live realm was that some spells were relocated to "secret trainers," while others were discontinued/removed.  (On TR, you could see the entire "Tier" or "skill tree" of the Sun enchantments, all of the "basic" Polymorphs, and all Star auras that weren't PVP-based.  Empowerment, Vengeance, and accuracy/damage boosts above Keen Eyes/Strong were viewable in Celestia's "Commons" trainers.)  Also, the Pip Reduction spells of the Sun School (Simplify and Elucidate) were removed.

Thus, my Astral build changed slightly, leaving me with 3 free Training Points after picking up all the new spells that I needed.  I've maxed out on Sun School's Damage tier (Gargantuan), picked up the Fortify and Empowerment auras from Star, and naturally adopted the Gobbler Polymorph from Moon.  Through these combined powers, I became Captain Tank-It!  With Empowerment, I'm getting a faster Pip generation; whenever a Rank 4 (or above) spell is casted on me, be it damage or a heal, I get 1 Pip!  The only catch to this spell is that X-based cards do not trigger the special effect; if Judge, Dryad, Heckhound, or some Boss's natural attack that uses all of its pips is targeted at me, my aura does nothing.  Neat balance!

Before I forget, if you're wondering where you can find additional Astral spells, keep in mind that two trainers are inside their respective instances:  Stellarium from the District of Stars has the Star Trainer, while Lunarium (entered from "Using the Moon Portal") has the Moon Trainer.  There are multiple posts in each of these instances to pick up the spells from; you just need to do a little exploration!  As for the Sun Trainer, you have to go outside for a little tan on the beach to find that kind of magic.  What better place to do that at than the Floating Island?  Just walk up the ramp next to Pierce and past the Teleporter posts to find it.

Speaking of the Floating Island and Pierce...

Mmm, I love Kelp!

With a higher rank in Crafting, I managed to keep my promise of obtaining this:

With the Iceblade Vial, I can stack two Rank 0 blades for +40% and +45%, more than doubling my damage!  Adding Gargantuan onto that, and I'm more effective than a chill pill.  

On the subject of Amulets, Jewel of the Feint dropped for me after fighting Ptolemos, the Moon Boss of the Trial of Spheres.  I think there are some other places where it drops, too (Solar instance, according to new friend Lauren Ironbane), so keep an eye out and cross your fingers!

So, with the mention of making it to the Trial of Spheres and doing every side quest along the way, Ronan, Missy, and I became Spiral Geographers and Legendary Sorcerer, Diviner, and Thaumaturge together, on Friday.  In my next post, I'll elaborate on our reasons for advancing through the world so quickly, but keep in mind, we're not yet through with this new world!  The content is still fresh and fascinating; beating Celestia once or twice or seven times still would not be enough to quench my curiosity on every story on the game (well done, KingsIsle!)  It may be purely coincidence, but I still can't get over the similarities between the nature of Astral Magic and the general nature of magic in my fan fiction comic Mistblood:

"Mind, body, and soul" used in Astral Magic and Mistblood

But that will be another post for another day...

Before we part from this transaction of communication, here are a few helpful Tweets I've made that just can't be elaborated on further:

Star Auras

Every Turn Counts

New Snacks Are Better

In Regards to the Crafting Quest

Critical on a Hydra/Orthrus vs. Block *confirmed*

Repetition is Sometimes Good

False Experience Displayed

Why Celestian Fashion Fails

How to Gain Training Points (part 1) *must read*

How to Gain Training Points (part 2) *must read*

New Endgame Badge *unconfirmed*

Two Sets of Level 58 Armor

Post a comment if you have any questions or thoughts....thanks for reading!

BUN: Media Items

Second Petnome Project segment just below.  It was meant to be on Ravenwood Radio Episode 27, but I was late on editing...but here it is anyway:

Alric Ravensinger drew this AWESOME doodle for me:

...which I colored:

I may have to ask him to do a banner-sized one for me...and for Petnome...maybe bribe him with some Mega Snacks....then request for glossies....

Then here's my personally rejected Petnome Project logo...Alpha stage...but it looks psychadelic!  

My chessboard at my Watchtower Hall, completed!  Life-based pets vs. Myth-based pets.

Myth:

Pawns - Silverback Wildclaw - Too easy and common to find when farming Coven as much as I did

Rooks - Guardian Dragon - "Tower" Shields; natural role here

Knights - Minotaur - Hooves, can't get any closer than that

Bishops - White Rat Magician - Noble and dignified

Queen - Myth Sprite - Only female-depicted Myth pet I could find/remember at the time

King - Red Gobbler - Because he "can't wait to be King"

Life:

Pawns - Imp - Found very cheap from Pet Pavilion's Pet Store

Rooks - Defender Pig - Tower "defense"...best protection you'll ever get

Knights - Unicorn - Self-explanatory

Bishops - Life Banshee - I had two, so...

Queen - Pixie Queen - That should be self-explanatory too...

King - Green Cat Thug - He's buffer than the Treant...

Yep, fun stuff here!  See you in the Spiral!

Test Realm: The Magic of Celestia, Weekend 1

Now that my speech class presentation is over and done with, time to catch up on blogging!

I'm sitting at work on Friday, occasionally checking my cell phone after it vibrates, keeping up with a few Twizards (Wizards who are active on Twitter) and following the gaming convention hype vicariously through Friendly and Leesha.  As soon as word drops from Tom that the Test Realm is out and Celestia is featured, my concentration levels drop, my body becomes jittery, and my eyes dart towards the computer clock profusely.  "How much longer until I'm getting out of here!!?!"  

Nothing could have ruined my day though, as soon as I was out of there.  No, not even the long line I had to wait in at the end of the day to renew my parking pass, and especially not the clerk who refused to validate my entrance pass.  Heck, I just had to talk to Maureen the ticket window lady about my issue, and she took real great care of me, and signed me out at my own fee rate.  And certainly, not even Lady Gaga's annoying "Telephone" song, played simultaneously on two of my favorite radio stations, could annoy me; I drove down that highway with it blasting, windows rolled down, and possibly drawing looks of disapproval and rolled eyes from those I passed.  Celestia was out for rolling around in, and that was all that mattered.

During my ticket pass re-registration, Fallon Deathslinger was more than generous enough to relay to me the Update Notes over the phone.  So, my mind was constantly reeling over what "Critical Hits/Blocks" were, and I tried to imagine the Astral magic spells based on what I learned from Deathywiz.  That kept me so busy that I didn't notice I was already off the highway and back in my residential area (and luckily not in a ditch).  

After finishing the Test Realm patches, I hopped into the Spiral, and was instantly greeted by notifications from Merle Ambrose and Dueling Diego while in the Bazaar.  Ronan Dawn began relaying to me through chat  his observations and amazement at the new content.  

Me being me, I took the odd, slow road, and instead of blasting through the door into the Headmaster's office, I began scanning around my current surroundings, and talked to the Master Merchant for any new items.

First, I want to point out how amazed I was when I saw how my Test Realm screenshots turned out.  Currently on the Live Realm and previously in past Test Realms, taking in-game pictures included a portion of my desktop because I play in windowed mode.  Thus, I was always finding myself manually cropping the image down to just the game window before displaying them.  But, this picture is unmodified!  I wonder why this user-friendly update wasn't included in the notes?

Anyway, as you can see here, a new column was added in the Treasure Card category: Astral treasures!  However, at the time of this snapshot, there weren't any cards for sale.  Oh well!

I later made my way over to Dueling Diego to see what news he had for me.  Neela Mythslinger, aka Miguel Wildthorn, teleported to me to also check out the information on Critical Hits and Blocks.  While we didn't find out in detail how the values were determined based on the boosts on armor, we got a neat Spartan helmet giving us some Critical Rating.  From just some observations of Criticals in battle, it looks like players are given a chance to double their damage, after Charm and Wards have been calculated.  I'll definitely be testing further into this over this next coming weekend.

I zoomed and hovered over to Ambrose, who gave me a new mission: check out a new world called Celestia.  I went above and beyond that task.

Whenever new content of anything is presented to me, I will dissect and explore as much of it as I can; I love and yearn for the aspects of "how" and "why", not just "what."  As soon as I entered the underwater realm, I hugged the wall from left to right to check out NPCs and vendors to get a better understanding of each character's role.  Through this, it allows me to establish a primitive mental map, so I'm not as lost as someone diving straight into quests without direction or a point of reference.  

As soon as I saw the Pet Vendor, I went straight into "work mode" for the Petnome Project.  Yeah, that's me being me, again, I know, I know.  

Check these two cards out:  

The Jewel of the Feint is sold directly from the Amulet Vendor.  The Test Realm happened to copy my character after he bought back Training Points around two weeks ago, so including this wonderful trap to my deck as an equipment card made me very happy, since I didn't have to spend 7 TPs!  You can see that this will stack up with the regular, Bartleby, and crafted Feints!  (I'll put up a post on another day to show how you can eventually stack up to five).

The Iceblade Vial is actually a crafted item, but is way too useful to pass up the Grandmaster Crafter badge; this spell will stack with the Iceblade given from Ice Bird and the one from my own school!  That's Ice damage amplified by 2.744 times from those three buffs.  While Feint may give me a whopping boost of 70%, that's only on one monster.  As Ice, I would want to pack in some some decent damage to either knock out the smaller minions in a boss fight, or gain their attention while my Storm and Fire allies lock and load with their blades and traps.

Speaking of which, here's my planned Astral build, which I'll write more about in another post:

I've noticed a lot of people exclaiming their concern about replenishing their mana and how they're lost on where to do so.  I don't recall seeing any mana wisps in Celestia; I've mainly resorted to teleporting back to the Celestian Base Camp (CL's "Commons") to play the minigames available there.

As  you can see, the sigils are hidden just by Prospector Zeke; a little frustrating to find for those who like to speed through ;)

I'll end with my favorite boss to fight:

DAGROLOTH; I was in Gobbler Polymorph (notice my health orb)

"Purple Hulk" was initially frustrating to fight against, given that he had 5,000 hitpoints, uses a Satyr that heals for five thousand, and towers every time a Charm (negative or positive) or Ward (negative or positive) was used by a Wizard.  He does drop some really cool Double Power Pip weapons, though....yep, Double Power Pip...meaning you can start out with 5 or 6 equivalent Pips.  We do have to wait until Level 55 before using them, but it's worth it!  I'll create yet another separate post on how to beat this gargantuan.

He's located in the Grotto, in the dead middle of the map where my shining green arrow is:

Oh yeah, make sure you have a Tank in the Sun Spot, because he has a chance to do this on the very first turn:

Holy mackerel, and I had 26-30% Universal Resist!

Thanks for reading!