Celestia Artwork Part 4

Hey everyone, we've been given a new piece of the puzzle once again. Here it is:

Shark Kid has been revealed! He looks pretty beast. According to Friendly, he will be a: Oh, wait. Friendly did his wallpaper examination before Robot Boy and Shark Kid were added. Hmm... I'll just theorycraft about what he'll be. I'm guessing he's going to be a boss later in the world. (Maybe the final boss. Unless the guy to our left of him is.)

There is also another new addition to the wallpaper. There is a code under the Celestia logo. It seems to be written in what I'm going to assume is Celestian writing. We can therefore guess that the Celestians have been around before wizards. O: USING ASTRAL MAGIC?!?!?! Oh yeah. Definitely. (If you agree with me, you get +10 Brownie Points ;D)

Friendly was awesomesauce and was able to translate this for us to: Beneath the waves, the stars still shine.

He gave us a walkthrough on how he was able to do this. (Hopefully that will help us solve the mystery of the chalkboard. [A very special post of Friendly's])

I know I'm like 2 days behind with this post, but at least I'm infroming more wizards of the current news. ;D

Btw, I updated the "Enchanted Trading R.I.P." post with the quote from J. Todd Coleman.

Happy Gaming

Monthly Poll 3

Hey everyone. It's that time of month again. No, not that Taylor! (Woah there sailor!) The Monthly Poll!

Ok, last month's question was: "What is / Was the scariest area in game for you? (as a noob / or not.) (Environment or bosses / enemies found there.)"

The results are in.

Drumroll Troll, do you're thing!

x Drumroll x

1. Kensington Park (33% - 3 votes)
2. I'm not scared of anything ... except PvP (22% - 2 votes)

And tied for third are:

• Sunken City (11% - 1 vote)
• The Djesrit / Ahnic Tombs (11% - 1 vote)
• Malistaire's Lair (11% - 1 vote)
• All of Dragonspyre (11% - 1 vote)

And in last place, with no votes are:

• Nightside
• Krokatopia Grand Arena
• Big Ben
• The Tree of Life
• The Necropolis
• The Labyrinth

Yeah, I don't know why the Djesrit / Ahnic Tombs didn't win by a landslide, either. ;D

I mean, I was terrified to go in them without a friend. I didn't want my back to any empty space, only walls. I mean, look at it:

Ok, now for the surprise that you've all been patiently waiting for.

Drumroll Troll, one more time please.

x Drumroll x

Thank you ;D

Ok, so yesterday, I made a purchase in the Crown Shop. (Bad Blaze? No way!) I bought something that I wanted since it came out.

The Balance House. I'm not quite finished moving my stuff in yet. (I'm leaving the famous Stairs in the Villa, along with a few other sentimental items. I think I'm actually going to make a maze outside and inside also. That'd be pretty cool, huh? Let me know what you think in the comments. Yes, it would be sort of like Friendly's.)

Once I move all the items in, I'll find some way to make a video of The Grand Tour. (I wish I made one of the Villa before construction... :,( Oh well...) I'll upload it to YouTube (Yes I have a channel. I won't tell you the name of it because it's not W101-ified yet. But, if you're a Blaze-Maniac, then you'll be able to figure out my username.)

So, yesterday after I bought this great home, and I had Alyssa port in. (To have fun, and to help me port back and forth between the Villa and the ... the Balance House?) We had a great time getting all my items (Yeah, I've kept almost every item that I ever recieved from a boss/enemy drop [except for the few that I don't really care for.] Oh, Blaze, such a pack-rat-magician. Hehe)

Yes, I trapped Alyssa. (Originally I trapped her and Emily's little sister, Rebecca, but she wouldn't pose for the picture because we were being "mean." Oh little children. So Alyssa wanted to do it instead. [Not like that. Let's keep it G-Rated here. ;D ])

I then taught Alyssa all about "the lady in the ground."

"O: Not just any Lady, Alyssa."

"..?"

"That's Our Lady Judgement."

And the conversation went from there.

Alyssa now worships her, as I do.

So until I can give you a tour of the new house. I'll give you a parting awesomesauce screenshot.

Yes, I found a way to stand on the chair, without placing it over me. (Actually Alyssa did. I was putting items in my new room, and I looked over and she was on the chair, claiming to be the Queen of the Balance house. I then told her that she was mistaken. She is the Princess of the Balance House. Emily is the Queen. "But Blaze, Emily is storm." Well, Idc!)

Happy Gaming

"Blaze, you're forgetting something!"

Oh, right. This month's poll. Ok, "What should my new post-starter (opening line: ie. Hey, Yo Yo, What up, etc.) be?

Happy Gaming (Once again. ;D)

New E-mail

Yes, everyone. I finally set up an e-mail address for this blog. I hope you all will use it at some point. Feel free (PLEASE) to send me questions about anything Wizard101, fan mail, or even questions about me, and I will do my best to answer each and every one of your questions on a post here. (Just like Friendly does!)

"Ok ok, Blaze, I get it, just give us the e-mail already. I wanna send you some fan mail!" Woah there sailor, hold your horses. (All I can think of now, is that Krabby Patty Training Video episode of Spongebob...) "Woah there Eager McBeaver! Ahahahahaha."

Sigh. I can't find it on YouTube (at least one that hasn't been edited.) WRONG! hehe.

Ok. So the e-mail is blazesilverfist@gmail.com. (That link will create a new message in your e-mail program.) You will also be able to find this link in the "Contact Me" page in the tabs^.

I also have a surprise for you guys tomorrow.

Also, Emily, if you're reading this (or Alyssa, then get Emily.) please send me an e-mail, so I can do an interview with you.

Thanks guys. I hope you enjoy my new feature.

Happy Gaming

New Crown Shop Items

Yeah, I went to the crowns store today and saw plenty of new pets. (And a few items.) I'm playing right now, so I can get some pics for you.

I got a new "shipment" of crowns late last night. (The sale ends tonight at midnight central time. So be sure to hurry. It's a great deal.) My Mommy is so nice :D (If you're reading this: I ♥ U Mommy!)

Ok, so I held myself back because I have no idea how many crowns Celestia will cost, and only bought one item: The coolest item, the newest item (Friendly hasn't even mentioned it yet.)

THE CELESTIAN TRIDENT!

It's so epic, huh, with it's zappy lightningy coolness. It gives one power pip, and 5 cards of Mega Nova which does 110 Ice damage. (Always good to have more elemental damage.) I love the look of it too!

There was also a new pair of wings, Swiftshadow Wings. They're basically black seraph wings. (Pretty much for all the guys that would rather Seraph Wings than Bat Wings, but didn't want to look too girly.

Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for. Drumroll please.

x drumroll x

Thank you Drumroll Troll!

THE NEW PETS!

There is a Pale Maiden:

A Green Cat Thug, complete with card:

A Diseased Wildclaw:

And of course, the red gobbler:

x grumble grumble x

I entered all the GGG (Great Gobbler Giveaway) Contests, and didn't win once. But, if I had been given the option from KI to give one of the contests, I would only give away 4 (Each contest holder was given 5 codes to give away.) x wink x

Happy Gaming

Enchanted Trading R.I.P.

Hey, as amost of you know, I wasn't able to make it to the Ravenwood Ball last night. I had a great time with Philly, etc yesterday though. (I'm going over David's to chill with just him and Philly tonight.) But that's not what I'm here to talk about today.

I want to discuss the loss of our ability to trade enchanted cards. I'm sure many of you are very dissapointed in this collosus-sized event in the history of the Spiral. But is it really such a bad thing?

Let me start with a quote from via Friendly's blog:

"The trading of enchanted cards was never intended; it was an error on our part that players were able to use this system to gain access to spells they were never suppose to receive. Yes, this has been an issue in PvP, but that's really a minor part of the overall problem (as PvP is a relatively minor part of the overall W101 experience.)

Please understand that we went to great lengths to craft and balance the difficulty and "fun factor" of our game. We spent thousands of hours pouring over spreadsheets, implementing, testing, and then repeating that process until we got it right. We planned for players to have "easy" fights and "hard" fights. We planned on solo areas, and areas where we wanted them to ask other players for assistance, fostering social connections. As part of this process -- and to make each class feel special -- we created a handful of custom, unique spell that were restricted to each class. We wanted each player to feel like they could do something that other players could not. Each class was engineered to have areas of strength and weakness, so that the style of game play (and strategy) would different from one player to the next. We wanted to foster a sense of identity, to make the game interesting (and different) based on the path that the player chose to follow, and (of course) to make the game balanced across 300+ hours of gameplay.

After all that effort, we made a mistake, one which allowed player to use 50 gold enchantment cards to circumvent these class restriction. Oops! I wish this mistake had never been made in the first place; had the class restrictions been properly enforced from the beginning, players would have thought "well, that makes sense" and not given it another thought.

The problem is, this may seem like a minor issue, but it is not. This one oversight fundamentally dilutes the unique nature of each class. Replicating these spells creates a huge imbalance in our system, not just in PvP, but in the overall play cycle and in the experience of the game we spent so much time and energy crafting. If everyone can cast everything, what's the point of having classes at all? To borrow a phrase from The Incredibles, "When everyone's Super, then no one is." In my eyes, being able to mass produce a collection of class-restricted, high level spells for a trivial amount of gold falls pretty clearly into the category of stuff we should fix. And so, we are fixing it.

I certainly realize that you may not agree with this decision. Much
like a parent sometimes the "right" decision is not necessarily the most popular one. In this case, I recognize that some people will be unhappy with this fix. But as the director of the game, I have to look out for the health of the game as a whole. It's my call to make, and I stand by my decision. You may not agree, but I do hope you will understand."

~J. Todd Coleman

Ok, let me try and sum up what you just read: They didn't originally intend for us to be able to trade crafted cards because they wanted some spells to be school only spells. Thats why there are cards that don't drop from enemies. KI wanted there to be something special about each school, but if everyone can cast every spell, then what's the point in the different schools?

That's right, Syndrome. When everyone is super, no one is.

The special spells that were meant to be school-specific were really cool ones, like the lvl48's, Judgement, Satyr, Earthquake, Wildbolt (<--PvP will be better now), all the buffs, etc. PvP will be much better now, because only diviners will cast wild bolt, (we won't be beaten by n00bs with orthrus anymore ;D) and only life will be able to heal.

And once again, Balance will be brought back into the Spiral.

Because of this huge part of the update, about a week before it went live, I gave Emily some cards:

• 1 Cyclops
• 1 Humungofrog
• 1 Orthrus
• 1 Death Trap
• 1 Ghoul
• 1 Vampire
• 4 Skeletal Pirate
• 2 Wraith
• 1 Scarecrow
• 1 Strom Trap
• 4 Wild Bolt
• 1 Kraken
• 4 Stormzilla
• 9 Triton
• 7 Storm Lord
• 10 Judgement
• 6 Krokotillian
• 1 Locust Swarm
• 8 Hydra
• 25 Power Nova

Now, you're alll probably wondering, "Blaze, what the heckhound were you thinking, giving away all those cool cards?" Well, one of my very first posts was about how much I care about Emily, and how important our friendship is to me. Now, I'm almost a grandmaster (I dinged 49 the other day. I'll post some screenshots later.) I'm very confident in my casting abilities, I don't need any of those cards. My dad won't give me money for them in the bazaar. (He says it's against the rules. Otherwise he would take them, but Professor Drake would be very angry I:) So, why not give them to someone that can use them.

Now, I know Emily isn't a n00b (she knows a lot about the game) but she is at a low level still. I'm positive these cards will be of use to her, and I'm sure she'll save a Judgement as a sentimental thing. My last gift to her, you know? (I remember when I gifted her that bandit suit. And I'll be sure to gift her more items that she'd like, once I get more crowns.)

Again, I apologize for making such a lengthy post, but oh well.

I'm going to head over to the Spiral (I finished my science project finally.) until I have to head over to my 2nd house. ;D

Happy Gaming

Pool Party

Hey everyone, the month is almost over so make sure you've voted on the poll! I'm heading over to Emily, Erica, Aunt Debbie, and Uncle Mike's house with David and Philly. We're having a BBQ and pool party. Most likely James and Jillian will be there too, so the whole crew will be there. ;D

No, I haven't set up an e-mail for TAS (The Awesome Sauce-erer) yet. But, I promise the next time that I post, I will tell you about the gift that I gave Emily, before the trading ability left (well enchanted cards anyway.)

In other news, Friendly made a list of all his pets and their talents today. So I'll be posting that link in the post where I talked about all his pets (as soon as I find it.) Kevin Battleblood (The Chillanthropologist) has set up a wonderful website where we can enter our pets talents. This will eventually be turned into a guide (like Ironhawk's guides over at the central) So, his blog is in my blogroll, be sure to check out the site and please enter the talent information of all your pets. Make sure you're accurate about the info (so our guide is 100% perfect.)

Thanks guys

Happy Gaming

Pets Go Live

Hey guys, the pets update has finally reached the live realm so we can all participate in this great new feature. I'm downloading the patch right now. All the new features are listed on the update history page. So be sure to check that out.

I was asked if I was good at writing. Well, I don't think I am, but a lot of people say that I am just fantastic at it. I absolutely despise writing assignments at school, so I don't really like writing too much. But when it's something that I enjoy to talk about, like Wizard101, then it's really fun for me. (Even more fun on the computer because I'm so fast at typing, (as many of you know from experience with trying to keep up with me in game) and can keep up with my thought process, whereas when I'm writing, it's harder to do that. (I write kinda slow, well slower than I think about stuff.)

I'm planning on doing a special feature on my best friend in the whole world, Emily! So, as soon as I set up an e-mail address for Blaze (which should be sometime very soon.) I'll let all of you know, so you can ask me questions about the game (or personal questions too) like Friendly does. The first thing I'll do when I get one set up, is have an interview with Emily. (Maybe there will be two Emily Griffinrider days a year...) Also one with Alyssa (she's Emily's sister [also a follower of this blog] in case you didn't know.) she's pretty awesomesauce too.

Yes, Emily, if Dakota had any way of contacting me, (other than Facebook, which he's NEVER on.) I would set up an interview with him also.

Well, I have to go test out these sick features. I hope you like them too.

Happy Gaming

My Storm Spell Idea

Hey, guess who left a comment on thsi very blog? BAILEY SKYSTAFF! (Mrs. Friendly Necromancer. :D) It's over on the "Level 48 Pet Combinations" post. (My most recent post.) She mentioned that her and Amber (The one, the only, Boogiewoman.) have been waiting anxiously for my storm spell idea. I'd like to deeply apologize to all the diviners out there that I've kept waiting.

My idea isn't very good, so I suppose that's mostly why I forgot to update the post, and tell you guys about it.

It's really nothing compared to the spells that storm students already know, but here it is anyway.

Hmm... now I have two ideas.

1) Vicious Storm - Clouds start to form over the battlefield. CRACK! A huge blot of lightning pierces the layer of clouds. Then another blot hits, closer to the targeted enemy. More bolts hit, quicker in succession, slower going from the player to the enemy. Then all is still...BAM! It hits the enemy dealing 800 damage for 8 pips. (I was saying 8 pips right?)

2) Lightning Rod - A stormy ocean appers on the battlefield. You see a small island in the distance. The camera slowly zooms in on it. It's the same island that the storm house is on, but there is only the tower. We see Triton jump out of the water and ZAP! sends a lightning bolt straight at the tower. (I have no idea why, just to look cool I guess.) The electricity is absorbed into the lightning rod. It crackles as the camera zooms in on it, so it is all that is on the battlefield, the tip of the tower and the rod. It then harnesses all the energy from the zap, the rod starts glowing and shaking. BOOM! It fires a bolt at all enemies dealing 600 damage for 8 pips.

Not very good right? Let me know what you think and:

Happy Gaming

Level 48 Pet Combinations

It's seriously killing me now that I can't join in the fun on the test realm. Check this out! I mean, how much do you want these pets! I really want to see what Hydra and Seraph will create. Will it finally be the Our Lady Judgement pet that this sorcerer has always wanted? I sure hope so. Btw, if it IS, then it will be my trademark pet. (Yes, just like Lady Dexter and ALL Friendly's other pets. [I couldn't find the video he made showing all of his pets. I:])

Let me know if you guys find any cool info about pet combos that might interest me or Friendly (I'll pass it on to him if you want me to.)

Thanks guys!

Happy Gaming

Wizard Olympics 2010

Hey everyone, I was surfin' the net as usual, when I came across this event on My Diary of A Wizard. Looks like there is going to be a Wizard Olympics. Sounds pretty fun, eh? I'm definitely going to be participating, and I hope all of you will too!

There are the following events:

• Dueling: "Dueling will be 1v1 (tournament style) and the good old no wild bolts, no treasure cards, and a new one that may disappoint some myth students is no cyclops minions. Also you may only use a Rank 7 Spell 5 Times. If team is watching you fight there shall be no coaching from the team. I also ask of being a good sport too."

• Crafting: "We will be crafting an item that only master artisans can craft. I will decide which item we will do. This will probably be a very long event so please don't enter in this one if you know you can only play for like 30 min. You will be crafting at your house and craft 3 of the object and return to me and I will be in the commons with them. If you take longer then 3 hours and 15 minutes you are out. Again it will be tournament style with different items each time."

• Racing: "You may enter this even with or with out a mount but I will not give handicaps to ones without mounts. You may not mark X before the race and teleport there and you will automatically be out. This isn't all about racing there is strategy in it too. Also you may not have someone with a mount and look exactly like you run and get really close to the end and then you teleport to him. Basically no teleporting. If you run into a monster then you fight it and keep going. The finish line is obvious because it is a dead end. This event will not be tournament style it will just be 1st 2nd and 3rd."

• Speed Battling: "It is pretty much the same thing as dueling only though you cant beat it before the race set a X and teleport to it. This also will be 1st 2nd 3rd style."
  

and of course,

• Wizard101 Trivia: "Nothing really to it its just like a trivia game show thing and this will again be 1st 2nd 3rd style"

Some futher info: There will be seven teams. (One for each school.) You can only participate in 4 of the 5 events. (I'm choosing to skip crafting.) The crafting seems pretty difficult. I'd probably end up running out of time trying to find the reagents. I'm excited for the reacing even though it always seems like you're winning on you're own screen, which will make it seem kinda weird. So I hope they will have more than one judge. (Hint hint!) The race will be held on Colossus Boulevard, so you'll clearly know where the finish line is. (I don't know where the start is. It better not be in the shopping district, because loading time would be a variable. (<- and not a good one.) You can use mounts, but there will be no handicap if you don't have one. (Of course I'll use Chester, ;D)

"Hey, Blaze, how did you get a picture of just Chester?" I used the invisible glitch, (I'll go into detail on that some other day. [You'll have to remind me though.]) while riding Chester.

I also have a secret weapon up my sleeve. (No, not a "Mark Spot." Something better! [And not against the rules.])

The speed dueling will be against in the Plaza of Conquests in Dragonspyre. (Yes, you can port there. Just make sure you have crowns if you're not subbed.) You'll be in you're teams of four and the 3 schools that finish first win.

The first event will be the dueling event. It will be on July 24, from 7:30 - 9:00 pm (Central Time I believe. I'll update this post when I find out.) In the arena on Unicorn Way obviously.

Here's a schedule I made. I'll make a widgit on the homepage with it. ;D (It's on the bottom of the sidebar.)

-------------------------------------

Event Schedule

Dueling: July 24th, 7:30 - 9:00 pm

Speed Battling: UNCONFIRMED

Racing: UNCONFIRMED

Crafting: UNCONFIRMED

Trivia: UNCONFIRMED

-----------------------------------

I hope you all decide to join me.

Happy Gaming