Winter Event 2012

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+Nyx
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Winter Event 2012

Post by +Nyx »

The Grinch has teamed up with Jack Frost, Oogie Boogie, and a den of thieves to wreak havoc upon Excelsior! They have created an army of evil minions to protect them in their lair, have stolen all of Santa's gifts, and destroyed his magic suit. Without these, there can be no Christmas!

There are 3 quest lines varying in difficulty from relatively easy to rather hard.

These quests will be available until February 1st, 2013.



The most difficult quest is the "Save Christmas" quest, outlined below.

To begin, speak with Kalare, Santa's Head Elf. She is located outside the Fel Ice dungeon. You will retrieve stolen items, gather enchanted items from the minion army, and defeat the holiday villains for a very special reward.

Important info:

YOU CAN FAIL THIS QUEST.

- You must fight the bosses (Jack Frost, Oogie Boogie, and The Grinch) alone. The items that grant you access to a boss' room are temporary and only last 30 minutes from the time you turn the quest in. Once you have entered the boss' room, you have 30 minutes to kill him or you will be ported out. NO second chances will be given if you do not complete the boss within the allotted time frame. We will not make exceptions for dropped connections (except in cases of server crash), death, or inability to do enough damage.
- Resists are incredibly important for this quest. If you do not have full or close to full resists, you may have a very, very difficult time completing it successfully.
- Since the bosses are fought alone, and the summoning item lasts only 30 minutes, it is a good idea to check the line for that boss before you turn in your quest book and receive the temporary summoning item! It is also a good idea to ensure that you have enough time to play without distraction before turning in the quest book to receive the boss tokens.
- Kalare's quest is difficult and cannot be grouped, nor can undergeared players be 'run through'. Items needed to complete the quest are not to be traded or sold. If we catch you trying to do any of these things, all participants will be barred from all winter quests and their rewards removed, no exceptions.
- If you delete your quest book at any time during this quest, you will not be issued another.
- The items that spawn on tables inside the dungeon are TEMPORARY. Please add them to your quest book IMMEDIATELY upon taking them, it is entirely possible that the item could decay moments after being picked up (depending on when it spawned), and you'd have to go get another one.
- This quest cannot be repeated. This includes alternate characters on your account.
- The reward for this quest is account bound and cannot be worn by any other character. Do not buy this item from a fellow player, you will not be able to wear it.
- There are ankhs and corpse stones inside each boss area.
- Exiting the dungeon has been modified to avoid exploiting. When you wish to exit the dungeon, step into the sparkles and wait. It will port you out in 10 seconds.
- Healing has been diminished in this dungeon and all cleric spells have been disabled. Hunt with caution, insta-healers :)
- Failing this quest has no effect on the other two quests.

To access the other two quests, step onto the green sparkle a few tiles to the North of the dungeon entrance.


The mid-difficulty quest is the "Santa's Magic Suit" quest.
Speak with Santa in his shack on top of the mountain. He needs you to gather various items using brute force as well as sneakiness.

Important info:
- Healing has been diminished for this area and all cleric spells have been disabled. Proceed with caution.
- This quest is not repeatable. This includes alternate characters on your account.
- This quest may be grouped, but it is not intended or allowed for players who cannot defend themselves to be 'run through' by tougher players. It is also not intended for the quest items to be traded or sold. If we catch you doing any of these things, all players involved will be barred from all winter events and their rewards removed, no exceptions.
- If you delete your quest book at any time during this quest, you will not be issued another.
- The reward for this quest is account bound and cannot be worn by any other character. Do not buy this item from a fellow player, you will not be able to wear it.


The easy-difficulty quest is the "Artistic Elf" quest.
Speak with Callidora in the cottage to the Northwest of Santa's shack. She needs help replenishing her art supplies. In return, you will receive a random deco piece.

Important info:
- There are 21 total deco items available. Some are more rare than others. The majority of the rewards for this quest are brand new.
- This quest can be repeated every 6 hours.
- Most everyone should be able to handle this quest, though it will likely present a respectable challenge for the low-level players.
- Healing has been diminished for this area and all cleric spells have been disabled.


Things to keep in mind with the quest system:
- Pets are disabled in all of these quest areas.
- Teleport, Recall, Mark, Gate, Sacred Journey, Personal World Teleporters, Bracelets of Binding, and various other spells have been disabled in all quest areas.
- Boats are NOT permitted to be used for any function regarding any of these quests. Don't even try to sail there.
- All spawn camping/sharing rules are in effect for all stages of these quests. This also goes for the items that you must collect from around the event areas.
- All mobs involved in these quests will drop very little gold, very few tokens, and have no weapon xp.
- Any attempts to manipulate, cheat, or exploit any portion of these quests will result in removal of rewards, being barred from the event areas, and jail time.
- You may do all 3 quests if you so choose.


TROUBLESHOOTING:
- If for some reason you believe your book is bugged or has an error:
DO NOT DELETE OR TRASH YOUR BOOK.
If you do this, you are completely out of luck. We will not issue you another. Instead, page and explain the issue. We will assist you as soon as possible.
- If more than one person is near the NPC, it may not trigger properly. Wait until all other players have left the area, then walk away and back to the NPC. It will trigger then.
- Do NOT run away from the NPC immediately after it triggers! It sometimes takes awhile for it to process your reward and deposit it into your pack. If you run away too soon, you will receive no reward and we will not replace it. PERIOD.


A note about the hard quest:
I know that being able to fail the hard quest may seem harsh on our generally care-bear server, but V and I feel that it is a necessary factor for fun gameplay. The hard quest isn't meant to be run by anyone with less than 3 relayers, and even someone with 3 will likely have a very hard time doing it (but it is possible, we tested it with a 3 relayered player with less than full resists). Thus, when they complete it their sense of accomplishment will be even greater :) We also feel that it will be good for the shard as a whole for us to be able to make more interesting, complicated quests and storylines; as well as even nicer rewards. The trade-off is that those items must be more difficult to acquire. Furthermore, it will encourage everyone attempting this quest to play smarter, be more careful and thoughtful with how they fight and what they do. Play strategy will be important, rather than running everything like it's on rails. Please, if you do not feel confident you can do this quest, don't start it. We don't want anyone to have hard feelings when we inevitably tell them no, they can't have a second chance. But this is our stance for this quest, and we're going to stick to it. Depending on how this works out, we may or may not add more quests with a chance of failure in the future.


Sorry it's so late guys.

<3
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+Nyx
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Re: Winter Event 2012

Post by +Nyx »

There is now a one-way portal to the event entrance in Moonglow on the West side of the bank.
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+Veritas
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Re: Winter Event 2012

Post by +Veritas »

...Also, I would like to inform everyone that the delay in the launch of the quest lines was all on me. I had little time to get the spawners set up and correctly running. So, hope you accept the late launch and enjoy yourselves.

Thanks,

+V
-{Excelsior Shard Administrator, and Death Event Extraordinaire}-

May the BODs be ever in your favor!
Nelapsi
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Re: Winter Event 2012

Post by Nelapsi »

Please don't take this as a complaint after all the hard work you have put into this... but perhaps the spawn rate is incredibly slow given you have everyone at each different level hunting for the same items and creatures.

Edit:
After doing the whole thing I kind of have to wonder if the spawn rate is fine after all. This in itself forces a delay so people are not waiting in long lines to get to one of the three boss mobs. It takes a few hours to do which is probably right on target.

Thanks for the nice event and all the work you put into it.
Last edited by Nelapsi on Sun Dec 30, 2012 1:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Deorum
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Re: Winter Event 2012

Post by Deorum »

Thanks Nel. Also - are the Petrified Treant Logs not supposed to be added to the quest book like immaculate snow? I have 4 sets of logs in my pack that will not add to the book like the snow. Thanks! Can't wait to see what the deco items are. (edit...and the logs I have collected are all poofing because of the timer). Quest is now finished except for the petrified treant logs that won't add to book and keep poofing from my inventory (collected 14).
Last edited by Deorum on Sun Dec 30, 2012 12:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Odin Hammersmith
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Re: Winter Event 2012

Post by Odin Hammersmith »

Thank you for a very impressive event... died a couple of times, but the ring was well worth the trouble and perseverance of just sticking at it.

Thank you to all involved for the planning and implementation of this event, thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Regards

Odin Hammersmith
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+Nyx
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Re: Winter Event 2012

Post by +Nyx »

Nelapsi wrote:Please don't take this as a complaint after all the hard work you have put into this... but perhaps the spawn rate is incredibly slow given you have everyone at each different level hunting for the same items and creatures.
Actually none of the spawns are shared between quests. The medium and easy quests don't have any overlap with the dungeon quest, or with each other. That said, we've increased the number of Ice Witches in the medium quest as well as their spawn rate. Any that get caught in the mountain will despawn in less than 30 minutes.

As for the dungeon, we will probably increase spawns by a few minutes and maybe add more mobs total, but we don't want it too fast since you're right, having that take awhile means there's less lines for the bosses. :)
Nelapsi
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Re: Winter Event 2012

Post by Nelapsi »

[quote="+Nyx"][quote="Nelapsi"]Please don't take this as a complaint after all the hard work you have put into this... but perhaps the spawn rate is incredibly slow given you have everyone at each different level hunting for the same items and creatures.
[/quote]

Actually none of the spawns are shared between quests. The medium and easy quests don't have any overlap with the dungeon quest, or with each other. That said, we've increased the number of Ice Witches in the medium quest as well as their spawn rate. Any that get caught in the mountain will despawn in less than 30 minutes.

As for the dungeon, we will probably increase spawns by a few minutes and maybe add more mobs total, but we don't want it too fast since you're right, having that take awhile means there's less lines for the bosses. :)[/quote]

By different levels I was meaning.. You need 10/10 Spirits and Hearts for each book in the Hard Quest. So you never really have people moving on to the next book, they are remaining and still hunting the same mobs as the previous books.
Mikey
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Re: Winter Event 2012

Post by Mikey »

Thank god. I thought it was supposed to be like that. I killed over 150 Ice witches last night and got 3 magic dust.



Edit:
The drop rate on the dust is much better. I was able to finish the quest pretty quickly. Thanks.
Last edited by Mikey on Mon Dec 31, 2012 10:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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+Nyx
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Re: Winter Event 2012

Post by +Nyx »

Ah. Well, either way, dungeon spawns have been doubled, but drop rate slightly decreased. This should help with there being enough mobs for folks to kill (and weeding out those who are not geared enough to be in the dungeon in the first place), but not making the quest much easier.

I increased the number of spawn for the easy quest as well, but it isn't quite doubled. We also disabled a few more 'easymode' spells. The quest book for the deco quest has been fixed for Treant logs. Deco quest can be repeated every 8 hours instead of 10.
Relysis
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Re: Winter Event 2012

Post by Relysis »

Thanks for the hard work in implementing the event and revamps in such a short period of time. Though I refuse to kill poor Max...
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Adrycks
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Re: Winter Event 2012

Post by Adrycks »

I keep reading you guys...i'm so anxious to try those event :) meanwhile happy new year!!!
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Locke
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Re: Winter Event 2012

Post by Locke »

wow, thx for this event, very good work!
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ModvsQvintvs
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Re: Winter Event 2012

Post by ModvsQvintvs »

Great and very fun Winter Event thanks !! :)
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Pie
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Re: Winter Event 2012

Post by Pie »

love the events tyty :) did the med one now attempting hard one :( gunna do deco one lots too making me hot key some stuf i dont usuly use :)
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