Awesome Thing #44 -- Toy Trains

I may be overblowing these toy trains a bit, but for some reason I love 'em!

The large one is crafted and the small one is farmed up from the Gurtok Barrier Demon, who stockpiles these things by the bajillions apparently. They make a sound when you're near them and have a small puff of steam coming out of the top of them.

I've dedicated a whole room to them in my player housing.

I guess in a way they remind me of my dad. He seemed to always want to get into toy trains. I think he liked them as a kid, and one Christmas he went a little crazy and bought this gigantic train set mounted on a huge sheet of wood, and this thing sat in our basement taking up precious realestate for YEARS.



Dang, the only old picture of the toy train I could find is mostly showing me in a bear blanket trying to scare our dog.

He had plans to decorate the whole sheet of wood with tiny trees and miniature landscape, but it never really worked out, and my cousin stepped on the train and broke it. I know this because of a page in my journal from the time.

It was kind of a big deal.

Anyway, eventually the toy train was scrapped for a pool table and life got an upgrade. Good times those are! And because they cue memories, spout steam, and make my death house sound a bit spooky and distant with their train sounds . . . they're awesome!

Happy Dueling

Awesome Thing #43 -- The Labyrinth (through the eyes of my tribute!)

I talked a bit about the lava flow gag in the Labyrinth a few awesome things ago, but really . . . I gotta give it up to this whole dungeon, and what better way to do that than give it, oh, 12 hours of my life learning the new foundry system in Neverwinter trying to recreate the dungeon as a parody/tribute?

Seriously, there is nothing that will make you appreciate good Designers more than trying it yourself -- I'm a farcry from a good designer. I always tend to make things more difficult than they need to be. (like my tribute to Wizard101 in Little Big Planet)

So,let's get started then . . .

If you play Neverwinter and want to give this Wizard101 Parody a shot, Search for the short code "NW-DTKOXE29P" or the term "Dragonspyre" (currently in the "For Review" tab and stop reading now, so I don't spoil anything. :)

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(Click on the pictures to make them larger if the text is too small to read)

The scene opens with a young wizard in distress, one Bailey Skystaff is rage quitting.

Watch out for those Confused Sentries near the entrance!

Ahh, Dmitri will guide us through!

Oh look! Bailey's treasure deck on the ground!

Gotta get that key to cross the lava bridge.

Did I say lava bridge?

I did!

And it's not as safe as the one in Wizard101's Dragonspyre (not-so-pro tip: swim back through the lava to the beginning . . . there's some stairs there)

Once at the end, Dmitri's asked you to deal with those three scandelous criminals that The Dean had freed.

Watch out for their vengenance after their defeat!

Free their souls that are bound to their prison doors (pro-tip, there's a short cut portal behind Andor's door so you don't have to swim through all that lava)

Behold, a side quest by that famous young wizard! (Pesky spells just keep jumping out of her spell book,don't they?)

Time to unlock the center pedestal

. . . and talk to the Dean.

Wait a second, it's not supposed to play out like this, Dean?!

Dmitri scoffs at letting The Dean free.

What could go wrong here with the Property Master?

1,2,3 . . . the banners have revealed secret doors and the cloak, staff, and crystal ball have been secured. Here you go, Dean!

Oh man, I should have listened to Dmitri . . . forgot the Dean was a Death Wizard . . . MEGA FINAL BATTLE THAT'S INSANE AND REQUIRES MULTIPLE POTIONS ENSUES! This time Dmitri joins in! WOOT!

Oh, it was all a test, whew . . . glad to be part of Dragonspyre Academy

LOOT!

This tribute/parody in Neverwinter takes about 10-20 minutes whereas the real Labyrinth takes around an hour or two. If I would have made you crawl through a bunch of streets and open a back gate to deal with the Gallium Paladin (still thinking of adding him in as a side quest:)), it would have taken longer -- but my family's patience was wearing thin with the amount of time it was taking to 1) learn the tools (which are pretty limited, but still awesome) and 2) just put the darn thing together. Whew!

I had a ton of fun doing this, and I will say out of all of Dragonspyre's dungeons . . . this is the one that has stuck with me the most. Because of its memorable nature and my newfound respect for how awesome this zone is . . .

it's awesome.

Happy Dueling

Awesome Thing #42 -- Teleport Stones

When Grizzleheim was released, along with that was a very interesting new feature that allowed Wizards to bamf from a central location out to the further reaches of the zone with a click. THUS, THE TELEPORT STONES WERE BORN! Soon after that it became the new hot sauce for KingsIsle, and teleport stones were put in all the worlds of the Spiral.

If you knew which stone went where, using them was a HUGE time savings. I think the people who benefited most from their use were those who farmed bosses near the teleport stone exits.

There was something awesome about being the guy who knew your way around quickly and could race people to a boss, then you'd send 'em a tell saying "Hey, you still running here? You could have just ported to me like an hour ago . . ."

Anything that's a time savings is a blessing in an MMO; therefore, teleport stones are awesome.

Happy Dueling!

Awesome Thing #41 -- Multistrike (AoE) Damage Spells

I've already given a head nod to Tempest, but I wanted to make sure I gave a shoutout to the spells that people really love. When new spells are released, it seems to be these types that create the most thunder, and when your class's shiny new damage spell isn't one of these types, you notice. :) They are that loved, and that awesome.

Specifically these bad boys come to mind:

By class:

Balance
Sandstorm
Ra
Power Nova

Fire
Meteor Strike
Scald
Fire Dragon
Rain of Fire
Sun Serpent

Ice
Blizzard
Frost Giant
Snow Angel

Storm
Tempest
Storm Lord
Sirens

Myth
Earthquake
Humongofrog

Death
Deer Knight
Scarecrow
Avenging Fossil

Life
Forest Lord

*I've probably missed a couple . . . I'm a bit rusty here, and I didn't add anything like the snowball pet's aoe spell, which is something to bring up another day :)*

They're all awesome!

Happy dueling

Awesome Thing #40 -- Katzenstein's Dance Floor

I had almost forgotten about this . . . so thanks to Amber Rosepetal for reminding me over Twitter yesterday!



The real magic happens on that old video of mine around the 3:04 second mark. :) After defeating Dr. Katzenstein, you pull some levers and *whabam!* Instant party dance floor! It's another great gag that's part of an old school dungeon in Marleybone.

Awesome.

Happy Dueling!

Awesome Thing #39 -- The Lava Bridge in The Labyrinth

I think one of the most memorable instances for me in Wizard101 is the Labyrinth in Dragonspyre. It's just one of those dungeons whose memory sticks on you and won't leave (especially given how many times we crashed through this dungeon) -- and that's a good thing for me. I like haunting levels that have some kind of gag to them, and the lava bridge in The Labyrinth is definitely one of those areas.

At first you come to what appears to be an impassable lake of lava . . . impressive in its own right.

Eventually you get a key that magically lowers the lava levels and creates a pathway for you to walk through to get to the other side, and standing there with a wall of lava on either side of you, is probably one of my most favorite locations in the game.

I spent some time last night trying to construct a kind of tribute to this dungeon in Neverwinter, and . . . wow that's a lot of work, but it was kind of fun.

Recreating the lava bridge gag would be pretty difficult to do with the limited tool set you're given in the Foundry system -- but if I ever get something even close to playable, I'll have to let you know.

I DIGRESS!

LISTEN . . . the Lava Bridge in The Labyrinth is awesome. XD

Happy Dueling

Awesome Thing #38 -- Memories of Farming the Ravens

There was a season (or two) where the prime farming spot for all the high level people (and their low level friends) was the final battle of Grizzleheim with the Ravens.

It was like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow . . . I guess both figuratively and literally in this instance. And everyone would flock there and grind the Ravens over and over and over. It wasn't so much the actual gold amount they dropped, but the number of bazaar/vendor sellable drops that you would get from them after defeating them.

The basic strategy was to blade the Storm Wizard up for a round and a half, use a convert spell on the storm boss, and hit that flock of vultures with a big ol' nasty tempest or stormlord spell.

And we'd make our decks super short and tight to ensure we got the spells we wanted and did that over and over and over . . . and over. Good times. We all started calling them the "Raven$$" and made out like wizzy bandits, which was awesome.

Happy Dueling