NIGHTMARE on Helephant Street

Ok, so besides people freaking out about Wintertusk, yesterday was a two-for-one bundle of freak out!

Thank you to Seth Hunter for forwarding along a couple of pictures to me of the pet and its pedigree. Check these out:




Aww! He's super close to a death unicorn! It's the firey my little pony of death! I shall name you pet of the day, and I MUST have one.

From what Seth told me and from what I'm reading on Central, this fella is the result of a Helephant and Unicorn hatch. I can't wait to try it out!

Also of news yesterday was the "pet egg" pet. The thread to follow for information is right here. From what the rumors are saying, this comes from a Helephant and Dragon hatch. That seems to be unconfirmed at this point.

**UPDATE** It's now been found that the pet egg comes from a Collossus and Dragon mix! Thanks readers! **UPDATE**

The pet egg is interesting. I remember standing around with a group of KI people at GDC and they mentioned that at one time they thought about letting people equip their unhatched eggs and let them bounce around behind them, but that idea was scrapped.

Let me know if you find any more strange hatches! It definitely looks like KI has put a couple into the game . . . maybe more?

Happy Dueling!

Wintertusk Will Be the Newest World on the Spiral

If you search the term "Wintertusk Wizard101" early this morning while I type this blog post, you're going to find nothing. After eight o'clock eastern time, however, the information embargo gloves are off from KingsIsle, and you'll start to find that Google search becoming a little more populated as the news from PAX East filters in . . . because that *is* the news from PAX as far as KingsIsle is concerned.

Central and Twitter are going to explode today. It's going to be fun to watch. :)

Check out this awesome concept art!


HAHA! I just knew Grandmother Raven would make an appearance someday soon in the spiral. YES! Do you guys remember my podcast interview with J Todd Coleman and Josef Hall? When I brought up Grandmother Raven they said she'd definitely be making an appearance. Here it is. We finally get to meet her in the world of Wintertusk. Awesome.

I think it may be time to revisit Grizzleheim my friends because Wintertusk is a continuation of that story in the spiral with some surprises thrown in. Similiar to Grizzleheim (we don't know how similar yet), Wintertusk is going to offer new areas for both high-level and lower-level students of Ravenwood, but it really feels like the level 50+ crew is getting more storyline and the lower crowd is getting more of a continuation of where Crab Alley left off. As KingsIsle put it, "A revamped underwater introduction zone for lower level characters. This area will continue the story of the Crab King."

We're also getting new spells and level 58 class pets! SQUEE! Care to place any guesses to what those class pets will be? No one knows yet, but information will definitely be forthcoming over "the coming weeks." (So, no, we aren't busting into the new content just yet . . . we have "weeks" ahead of us still.)

KingsIsle isn't giving away all their surprises! They're going to slowly let us find out "the best details" of this new expansion over time.

As always, as I find out more information, you will find out more information!

Happy Dueling!

Ditto at PAX 2011 (interview with Fred Howard)

I've just been watching Ditto's Interview with Fred Howard and a few of the other videos from Ditto as he heads to and arrives at PAX East. These videos from Ditto at PAX are just too good not to cross post-and share.

If you like these videos, be sure to drop by Ditto's blog and leave him some good comments. Also, follow his twitter and his YouTube channel.












LOL Fred almost said the "P" word. HAHAHA! Tsk tsk. Fred, it's "Fabricated American!" :)

Here's just a couple of quotes from the Fred Howard interview that you all might find interesting to discuss.

When asked about what the future holds for Wizard101, Fred responded:

". . . There's certainly new worlds on the horizon . . ."

and

". . . As our community continues to grow and give us such positive feedback we can continue to invest in expanding the Wizard101 world . . ."

When asked about what advice would you give a new blogger or someone who wanted to start a new website about Wizard101, Fred answered:

"There are a lot of neat and innovative ways to get involved with that [Wizard101 blogging and fan] community. It's a friendly community. Part of it is just going with your passion. I think part of it is working within the community to be helpful. Part of it is to do outreach to understand how a new blogger can help people, and really I think it's to have fun! One of our core tenants at KingsIsle is we have fun. we have fun building and making the games and we have fun with the community. I think if a new blogger keeps that concept of just having a good time and going with their passion, there's a lot of opportunities."

Awesome interview with Fred, Ditto! Thanks so much for posting these. It certainly feels like we're right there with you. Well done!

Happy Dueling!

Myth School Pointers?

Question here from Nathan:

Dear friendly

I have recently made a myth character and was wondering if you had any experience with myth fighting. I am not the best fighter and wondered id you could give me a couple of pointers

P.s. What does p.s. mean?

Thanks for the question, Nathan! I've actually answered this question a long time ago, but it was aimed at tips for soloing with a Myth character. Uber wife and I leveled our Myth characters up and those still seem like pretty solid tips.

The next place I'm going to send you is over to Ravenwood Radio to listen to Mythspent Youth and Steve and Leesha as they host the Myth School Study Hall. Fast forward to about this area of the podcast.


The third place I'm going to send you is over to Central to read BWildheart's Guide to the Myth School. This pretty much covers everything. Be sure to look at his links at the bottom of the post because it'll link you to other Myth School items of interest over at Central.

For the fourth place . . . just look to your instincts. Every person is different and will play a myth wizard slightly differently than the next, and that's cool. The best way to learn most times is by getting out and doing it yourself . . . all tips aside!

Happy Dueling!

p.s. . . . p.s. means post script! It's an afterthought after you've written your message!

p.p.s. . . . p.p.s. means post post script! It's an afterthought after you've written your post script!

p.p.p.s. . . . oh you get the idea. :-) Thanks for the questions.

Five ????? from Fallon Ravenshade

Five questions from Fallon Ravenshade:

okay i love love love your blog and i have been reading it since advanced pets and when i entered on your gobbler giveaway. i read all your posts and now i have a couple questions for you ( sorry if they might be personal )

1. how come its daylight in a lot of places on the game but we never see the sun?

2. KI has the ability to make it rain such as in the tutorial but why dont they make it rain in other areas of the game?

3. do you prefer moving with the mouse or arrow keys?

4. did you ever get a stormbat pet?

5. do you know any future plans for wizard101? ( new worlds, crowns items, pets, features, ect.)

Thanks for the questions, Fallon.

1&2 - Let's see, I'm going to lump questions one and two together since they're both talking about environmental effects in a game. You're right, there's areas of darkness and there's areas of sunlight. And, yes, even a cut-scene with rain.


The question really is why can't we have an area with all three like in other MMOs . . . I mean, even Everquest has a night, day, and rain. There's even a druid spell in Everquest to turn off the rain called "Wake of Karana."

And it's that Wake of Karana spell that brings it all back for me. Computers were far less powerful back in the early 2000's. Once it started to rain, you'd hear the voices shouting in the out of character and shout chat channel, "Please any druids, can you stop the rain?! I'm lagging!"

And that's the only reason I see why something like that might have been avoided. KingsIsle tends to pat themselves on the back for making a game that can even run on junk computers. So, I'm going to blame it on the processing speed it takes to run a game when you add environmental effects.

I agree with you though. I love little things that make you feel more immersed in a game. The eternal night of Marleybone is a little sad actually. It would be kind of cool to see those streets in daylight once in a while.

~~~~~~

3- I use both the mouse and WASD to move my character. For a long time I used the mouse and the arrow keys as I talk about in this thread, but I switched to WASD because it's available in most games and tends to centralize my hands on the keyboard.

Funny, when I went back to play Everquest classic a few weeks ago, and WASD wasn't available . . . I had to go back to arrow keys and mouse.

Uber wife uses the mouse . . . and especially when she's playing that Maze game. My word, uber wife is so stinking good at the maze game.

I'm more of a dance game person. arrow arrow arrow arrow!

~~~~~~

4- No! Not on Thomas. But now that you mention it, I have access to at least two different storm bats through Amber and Bailey. I think Kyle might have even got one. I may just mix one of my pets with their storm bats and try to get one that way. My pet collection is now pretty much out of hand. When I get a pet now I'm thinking . . . well, where can I hide this thing? Remote corner of a house I don't use any more? Ok!

~~~~~~

5- haha! Well if I did, I can guarantee you I'd be under embargo to not say anything. Once you've gained KI's trust, you don't want to lose it.

BUT, let's take a quick look back at all the updates from the past.

● 2011 Feb-Celestia Housing
● 2010 Dec-Gardening
● 2010 Oct-Celestia, New Schools, Level 60
● 2010 Sep-Celebrity Guest in the Spiral
● 2010 Jul-Celestia Preview
● 2010 May-Advanced Pets
● 2009 Dec-School Housing
● 2009 Oct-Mounts, Crowns Shop
● 2009 Jul-Grizzleheim, Bazaar, Crafting
● 2009 May-Castles & Lands, Voiceovers
● 2009 Apr-Quest Help, New Spells, PvP
● 2009 Mar-Voiceovers, Shared Bank
● 2009 Feb-True Friends, Booster Packs
● 2009 Jan-Dragonspyre Opens
● 2008 Oct-Access Passes

That comes straight from the top of the page of the latest update notes.

With each of those updates there have been a lot of little tweaks and modifications to Wizard101, and I have to say that I'm impressed that updates have been steadily rolling in for us. It will never be fast enough for avid gamers, but you have to admit it's kind of cool to see that update after update, they've been making this a better game.

Historically we've seen that major world updates take a long time. It took us about 15 months to get to Celestia from Grizzleheim, right? But in between we had housing and advanced pets and Selena. So far we've had gardening and Celestia housing between Celestia and whatever comes next.

As much as I'd like them to hurry up and put out the next world, I think we have a wait in front of us, and I would LOVE to be wrong on that. I'd love for them to surprise me.

Who knows, maybe we'll see what Autumn was all excited about yesterday come to fruition before we see the next Wizard101 world? I'm not sure . . . Maybe Wizard101 will leak some information at PAX East next week? Again, I'm not sure, but it would be a good opportunity to bring something new to the table.

Thanks for the question!

Happy Dueling!

Myrna gets Snow Angel!

Yes! At long last, Myrna has secured her Snow Angel spell.


That's a cool tanking spell there, isn't it? Too bad it takes eight pips to get there, but no matter! It's a cool spell regardless. I love how it works a bit like Fire Dragon for fire wizards only with an additional taunt component.

I'd love to hear some recommendations on using that spell from the ice wizards in the house!

The battle to get Snow Angel was not as bad as some I've completed, but it was still a nice long fight with some hairy moments, and by hairy I mean furry!


Awww, get over here Volkir and give us a hug!


Andrew Dragonshade had some wisdom to add before the fight, and it was a good strategy. Use minions. AND use minions I did! I think by the end of the fight I had used three of them to be exact.

I'd add to that strategy that, once again, I'm totally amazed at the power of the Treant polymorph. Best reason to polymorph!

Soon after the fight it was just a hop skip and a teleport (since Myrna never completed Grizzleheim) over to the ledge here in Ravenscar, and the flying table napkin had arrived to say hello.


Thank you table napkin head! You never cease to creep me out.


As you can see we even invited Alric to the party. hehe.

The Boom Kids are now on the Science Center and are ready to rock it out. We're getting close to finishing up Celestia again and reaching legendary with three more wizards.

Happy Dueling!

Did Black Pearl Replace Golden Pearl?

Question from Rachel:

Hey Friendly, my name is Rachel IceHeart and I have a question about pearls in the Grotto. I was farming for reagents after the update when I came across a black pearl hiding among some normal white pearls. I was wondering if they are replacing golden pearls, or if they're just another rare thing to find with pearls. Thanks!

Heya Rachel,

No, you've probably already realized this since it's almost been a week since you've asked this question, but black pearl hasn't replaced golden pearls as the rare drop from pearl nodes in Celestia.

Now when you harvest a pearl in Celestia, you have a chance to get all three types of pearls: white, black, and golden!

Same thing happened to Uber Wife back on February 6th (according to the date on the screenshot). She was out goofing off on the test realm and noticed that black pearl harvested from a pearl node.


She's all whoa! And she's all NO WAI! And she's all I wonder if Golden Pearl has been replaced with Black Pearl?!?!

So uber wife went farming, and farmed and farmed and farmed until . . .


Whew.

:)

Happy Dueling!