Oh man, the floodgate on questions has been opened . . . help?

OKIES, WE'VE GOT MORE QUESTIONS!

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Peter asks this:

Hey there Friendly,
Um, I tried farming for the crabling pet 100 times (literally) and I still haven't even gotten it. So Is there a Pet drop ratio something like that? When I was farming for the Myth sprite I got two of them.(For the third time and the fourth time) Also when I was farming for the banshee pet, on my first try I got it. Lets see if you can answer this.

Well, loot tables are funny things. Places like wikia attempt to gather as much data as they can about what certain bosses drop. When there's a lot of data, they can even do their best to tie percentages to the drops (you can see here that they have percentages tied to the Kraken's loot). Most loot tables in MMORPGs are based on varying percentages that certain items will drop . . . and most people will never know the true percentage of the drop because it would take farming the same thing 1,000's of times, not just 100 times.

Think of it like this . . . here's The Crazed Forest Spirit's loot table:

Cowl of Soul-Searching
Cowl of Rhyming
Crazed Forest Spirit's Hat
Cloak of Deliberation
Garments of Unrest
Warbled Cloak
Footwraps of Generations
Shoes of Deliberation
Slippers of the Lotus
Dagger of Detachment
Spirit's Ring of Deep Thought
Band of Sandcastles
Crazed Deck of Realization
Flower Petals
Potted Purple Pansy
Wild Bamboo
Woodwalker Treasure Card

and finally what you want: the Crabling

That's 18 items. Now imagine that each time you kill the Crazed Forest Spirit you randomly roll between 1-100.


In other words, out of 100 tries, you just haven't rolled your 100 yet. It could take you many more than 100 rolls to roll a 100. Does that make sense? Go try it now over at Random.org. Pick a number between 1 and 100 and count how many times it takes until you get your number by pressing the Generate button. (It took me 220 tries until I got the number I was thinking of over at Random.org . . . yes, I pressed that button 220 times . . . ).

Now this isn't exactly how our loot tables work, and those numbers above are just an example (Since I have no idea what Kingsisle's real loot tables look like), but hopefully that helps you realize why it might not have dropped for you yet.

Best of luck! And I truly mean it!

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Here's a question from Blaze Duskblade:

eh friendly mon i have another question for you what is the coolest thing that has ever happened to you on wizards101 on any of your wizards any of yo accounts just wondering mon

Coolest thing, eh? Well, let's see. There's been a lot of great moments. At first I was going to say making my big hit on Malistaire, but my wife reminded me of the night we tailed Jordan Skybane around. That was probably one of my favorite moments, but as far as "cool" hmm. I guess that earning the Pet Warlord badge was pretty cool. Meeting Samantha was pretty cool. Deathbreeze was cool. Being in Beckett's was hot.

OH, you know, I have to say that I was in Walmart the other day and I walked past the current copy of Beckett's, and I just smiled to myself knowing that a picture of my character was in that magazine right there on the shelf. So, I guess my coolest moment was out of game in the real world just a couple days ago. Hopefully there'll be many more to come. :-)

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NEXT, question from Chater:

Hey Friendly,
I am a long time play like you. I remember when there were no mounts and the old crown gears (The Best). I also remember when they didn't have pay to go paln or the PvP system we have now. So here is my question (A lot of my real life friends ask). Should I buy Pet Elixir when the Pet Energy is at zero? and In your interview section, did Professor Greyrose say anything more about Candy Land or any hint if it is a world? I would love it if you could answer my questions. I am a big fan!

Pet Elixir - is it worth it . . . interesting. For a lot of these pets, we don't know right now if it's worth it or not. So I guess my question back to you would be, what pet are you leveling and what traits have they already manifested? If you're leveling a pet that has traits that you're not interested in growing or if your pet will only manifest junk traits that you don't want then, no, don't waste your money. But if you have a pet you love that has awesome traits and you have a good chance at getting even more awesome traits, then why not? Keep the fun going!

The real question is, which is more bang for your buck: 10 pet elixirs or 1 mega-snack pack? At that point I think it boils down to 1) how much time do you have vs. how much money do you have, 2) if you're leveling a baby pet vs. if you're leveling an ancient pet, and 3) if you've maxed your stats vs. if you still have stats to improve. Yeah, that question is totally not as easy as it seems.

uh

Happy Dueling?

And now to the part of your question that involves Candyland--Here's a cut and paste from the interview in case people don't know what you're talking about:

"As for Lydia Greyrose, she is actually from Candy World, a land of cookie roads, chocolate rivers and candy cane trees. She is one of three sisters (the youngest of the three, she is actually only a half sister to them, which is why she has faerie wings and they do not). The other two sisters are evil -- they live in gingerbread houses, and have cooked up a legion of gingerbread minions to continue the long, proud tradition of children-cooking evilness. It is probably her half-faery blood that made her "the good one." She learned ice magic as a way of putting out the fires underneath the cook pot, so that she could help the children get away."

Kiersen is so awesome.

Well, one thing I can tell you for sure. They have not begun production on Candyland whatsoever. So for now, it just exists as an idea. Will it ever exist? I'm not sure outside of this awesome boardgame:


:-)

I'm sure Kingsisle has LOTS of ideas. Who knows how many and which ideas will ever become a reality? No one. They probably don't even know what's next, but I can tell you they are listening to their fans. So if you all want a candyland, then promote it like crazy. Just look what this thread on pets did.

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NEXT, It's Travis Emeraldspear with a question:

hey friendly, this is travis emeraldspear, i would like to tell you why i cant log on my grand chars, it just exits the game when i go to the commons, is this a bug or something? and do you have an idea when it will fix?

I asked Greyrose, and she said she'd ask about it, but it sounded isolated at this point. She did add this though, "The best thing people can do is actually fill out the crash report when they see it." wise words my friends. If you fill out the crash report dialog box when it pops up, you'll start the process to working out the bug.

It may be a computer issue too, Travis. It's a good idea to ensure all your drivers on your computer are up to date. Make sure you check those out. You know, I once had a friend who would crash out if he ever entered Triton Avenue. He had to get another friend of his to move his character out of the zone. Now, this is against the rules mind you. I would never promote password sharing. Ever. All I'm saying is, that's what he did to get his character unlocked from an unfriendly zone. Perhaps Kingsisle Customer Support would work with you to get your character out of the non-cooperating zone? Worth a shot!

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NEXT! Question from "P":

Hi, Friendly, I don't know how you post a question and I would like to know, so I guess that is my question.

Well, seems like leaving me a comment somewhere within the near 1,000 posts on this blog is working pretty good lately. I used to have a little box off to the side with my e-mail address, but I took it down because I wanted to take a break from answering questions. LOL. So much for that. I might put up a link again here soon.

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NEXT! Dakota Silverbane has una questiona:

i also have a question that is kind of weird, why would a forest spirit give crabs? isn't that kind of weird? and did uber wife have to mix two pets to get the storm cats, or are they farmed by herkir?

yeah, I guess that is weird. /shrug.

Nope, no mixing involved on those storm cats. She just got them from hirkir. Lucky, eh?

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NEXT! William has two questions:

1. I was wondering on the new update coming at the end of the month, if the new schools would take training points, or free. Example: Sun is related to fire, and life. Would these be free?

2. On the pet update, i am a ancient now and maxed almost every skill, i will not have enough to complete 1000 xp, but i was wondering if you maxed every skill, you would turn epic

1- Ok, first, that new update at the end of the month . . . you know, I wouldn't expect there to be anything more than just maybe an intro quest and a new tower. /shrug . . . that's all I'm expecting and I think some people are going to be disappointed, thinking that all of Celestia is going to be released here in June. From what I understood at the beginning of this whole process, they made it sound like it would be more like August or September for the full update to be released.

I like your idea about how astral magic would be free . . . that's some cool thinking, but what about Balance wizards? That's the only class that it wouldn't work with, right?

Death, Storm, and Moon
Ice, Myth, and Stars
Fire, Life, and Sun

Balance?

Not sure, but good thinking nonetheless.

2- Ok, I'm pretty sure KI is working on some kind of fix for the current system, but as it is now, when you max your pets stats, all you can do is play mini-games for experience, and all you get is one point of experience for each mini-game you play when your stats are maxed. So, it'll take forever to get to epic. My impression is that you should stay tuned for some kind of a fix. /shrug That's just way too many mini-games.

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NEXT, Travis is asking another question:

hey friendly, its me travis emeraldspear, i would like to ask you if all pets have combinations? thanks

As far as I know, Trav, I think the only crazy hybrids we get are from mixing level 48 pets with each other and from mixing unique pets together. That's it.

And even then it's just a *chance* that you'll get one. It's not a sure thing. As evidenced by what I mention in the question below . . .

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NEXT! Queenofsparks has a question:

what 2 level 48 pets did you hatch?

I attempted to hatch kyle's Stormzilla with Thomas's Wraith!

I failed to get a cool hybrid, but both of my pets' potentials improved a bit . . . and I'm 98,000 gold poorer on both Thomas and Kyle. (man that was a lot of Raven$$ farming . . . I have a feeling I'm going to end up with a lot of Shiverback Wildclaw pets by the end of this whole thing.)

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AND FINALLY THE LAST QUESTION OF THE NIGHT COMES FROM LAIL DEATHSPEAR:

have seen people post questions here, so I figured I could too.
A year ago, December 20 2009, you had a question asking if on one of the commercials there was a Grizzleheim house. You asked Professor Greyrose and she said, ' I can confirm that the house shown in the commercial is a house from Grizzleheim, but you'll have to wait until the new year for details.'
I've been wondering if you have gotten any updates on the Grizzleheim house(s).

Ok, so I don't have a direct quote from Kingsisle about this for you, but I can tell you this: the Grizzleheim houses have not been forgotten. From those that I've talked to about the Grizzleheim houses, they are well aware that the Grizzleheim houses were never released, and they are still thinking about them.

How's that for cryptic? It's all I got.

If I can get you an official quote from Greyrose herself, I will. For now, that'll have to suffice. Sorry!

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And that's that.

whew.

You guys are trying to kill me with questions. Well guess what? I'M STILL ALIVE!! MUHAHAHAHAHA! NICE TRY!

But seriously, that was a lot of questions, yo. I think I'm going to pass out now.

Happy Dueling!