Music Video Contest

Hey everyone. That's right. It's time to put out all those details about my contest.

As many of you know, I'm going to be creating a Wizard101 music video to celebrate the release of Celestia. You have decided we will use the song "Saltwater Room" by Owl City. I will be using the 'Ocean Eyes' version.

"Blaze, how do I enter?"

Simple, Inquiring Reader ,


How Do I Enter:

All you have to do is post a comment on this post (or any of my posts in the future up until the contest is closed.) with your name and some way for me to contact you if you are chosen to be in the video. (Wizard101 Central Username, e-mail, diary of a wizard, etc)


I will be using Random.Org to choose the winners, so there is no controversy about if it's bias or not. If there is a smaller number of people that enter, I might do small auditions.


Requirements:
My only requirement is that you know the words to the song. YOU DO NOT NEED ACCESS TO CELESTIA TO BE IN THE VIDEO. This way anyone can be in the video.


Parts:
Male Singer
Female Singer
10 Dancers (5 of each if possible.)

Ok, that's pretty much everything. Here's the song, so you guys can practice some more. ;) 





The lyrics to the song are in the video description.


Thanks guys. Please pass this post on to your friends if you think they'd like to enter.


Happy Gaming

Merry Christmas, Gardening, and [Music Video] Preview (CONTEST PART 1)

Hey guys. Sorry I haven't been blogging for a long time. I wasn't allowed to use my computer.

Anyway. I'm here to let you all know that I missed you very much and to get all my blogging needs out of my system after being bottled up for about two weeks. :)

While I was gone, the gardening feature went live. Now, before I give you all the info on how to garden and whatnot, I just want to rant a little.

One of the many reasons I like love Wizard101 is because it's not one of those games that you have to go one every single day  and get your stupid daily bonuses or what have you. Putting this feature into the game is just going to turn Wizard101 into just another 'Webkinz.' (Not that Webkinz wasn't a ton of fun for about a year in 4th grade. It just got really old really fast.) I just don't want that to happen to Wizard101. It doesn't deserve to go in the Gaming Graveyard and be put in the same category as.... x shudder x Neopets.

I understand that you don't HAVE to have a garden, but I mean it's cool and another way to interact with our housing.

"But, Blaze. How could we make gardening a better feature and not have Wizard101 be a 'Boring Everday' kind of game?"

Well, my Inquiring Reader, simple. Just create an option so that the timer for your plants' needs only runs while you are logged onto the game. That way, our plants don't die while we sleep, or have to go to school, do homework, etc.


So, after that, here's your newsletter on the 'Feature Which Shall Not Be Named.'

Hello everyone! Professor Moolinda Wu here and I'm excited to tell you all about a new feature in the Spiral: Gardening! To get started on your path to a greener thumb, come visit me in my classroom in Ravenwood if you are level 12 or higher.

Students at Ravenwood can plant and grow amazing plants in their Dorms and Castles! Wizards of all schools can garden, so my hope is that every student will learn the joy of shepherding new life!

A plant's journey of life begins as a seed. There are many types of seeds, each with a different destiny. With enough energy, you can prepare soil of your choice in your Castle (if you have one) or a planter in your dorm. Then you can place the seed into the readied soil. After a time, it will begin to grow. You can shepherd its growth through spells and other means of caring for it, creating an environment for it to thrive.

After you've planted your seed, it starts to grow, from seed to seedling, young plant, mature plant to elder. You can use a number of helpful spells to usher it along as it grows, keeping it healthy and happy. Once you have planted a seedling, either in a plot or in a pot, it cannot be moved.

  This is a seedling, the youngest phase of life for a plant. You will need Energy to plant a seed in a planter or the ground. After a seed is planted, you can use plant growth spells on it to help it flourish. Plants require some things to thrive and survive: water, sunshine, pollination, magic and even music.

  This is a young plant, in its next stage of life after seedling. You can observe your plant's growth visually and you can move your cursor over your plant to Inspect it. This provides you with information about your plant's health and needs. You can also affect your plant by using some simple spells: The Plow spell allows you to remove a plant or dirt pile, if you wish to do so. The Revive spell allows you to transform a dead plant into a new seedling, ready to grow once more.
  This is a mature plant, in the fullness of its growth. When a plant becomes mature, it can be harvested. You can harvest a plant by interacting with it. Each type of plant yields a different harvest: reagents, pet snacks, gold, treasure cards, or more seeds! You can harvest from a plant as long as it's in its mature stage of life. When a plant is in its mature stage that doesn’t mean that you can harvest it right away or that it’s continually harvestable. It means that once every day or so it will be harvestable so long as it’s in that mature state.

  This is an elder plant, the final stage of a plant's life cycle. Many plants won't reach this stage! An elder plant can be harvested one final time, with much greater possible rewards. Once an elder plant is harvested, it disappears and cannot be revived.


I'm sad to say that gardening isn't all nurturing and happiness. Plants can be endangered by some very real threats.

  This plant is wilting. It will die before too long if it is not taken care of. Plants can die if their needs are not met, if they are in surrounded by things they dislike, or if they are killed by pests. Plants have likes and dislikes, things that encourage or discourage their growth. A plant's likes are things it enjoyes being near. These can include other types of plants or gardening items. A plant will flourish if it is near things that it likes, while things it dislikes will cause it to become unhealthy. An important part of gardening is learning how to arrange your plants, and create a healthy garden for them.

  This plant is dead. Now all that can be done is to plow it over, or to revive it. The greatest threat to plants are pests. Pests can infest a plant and hinder its growth. If pests are not eliminated, eventually the plant will begin to wilt and die. When a plant is infested by pests, it cannot be harvested. To eliminate pests, you must use pest fighting spells. To eliminate a pest, the spell must be of high enough rank. You can purchase pest fighting spells from vendors throughout the Spiral, or even win them as treasures. It's a sorry state to see plants doing so poorly, but it's important to know what risks there are when gardening.

"But, Blaze. How do I garden?"


Let's find out.

Where do I get Seeds?
You can get seeds from gardening vendors throughout the Spiral. Farley is the gardening vendor in Wizard City's Golem Court, look for his cousins Marley, Charley and Harley in other worlds. You can also earn seeds as rewards through defeating enemies in magic duels, or get them in other ways.

---

How do I Plant?
  To prepare an area for planting outdoors in your Castle, you must cast a soil preparation spell. Soil preparation spells cost Energy. To garden in your dorm room or an indoor space in your Castle, you must buy a planter from the gardening vendor. There are different sizes and types of plants, but some types of plants cannot be planted indoors.

When you're ready to plant a seed in prepared soil or a planter, you must select the seed from your Gardening panel then select the location. This places the chosen seed into the soil or planter, where it can begin to grow.

Plants require attention to grow in the form of plant growing spells. All plants have needs that must be met, and plant growing spells fulfill those needs for a period of time. Plants needs include water, sunlight, pollination, music and magic. Plant growing spells cost Energy to cast, and are cast through the garden interface in your home.

  Plants have likes & dislikes, conditions that can help them grow or hinder their development. A plant will grow faster if it is surrouned by things it likes, and it will grow slower if it is surrounded by things it dislikes.  You can learn what a plant likes or dislikes by using the Inspect spell on it.

 

Plants go through several stages as they grow, from seed to seedling to young plant to mature plant to elder plant. Once a plant is mature, you can harvest it by interacting with it. A plant can be harvested repeatedly until it reaches the elder stage. Harvesting yields rewards such as reagents, pet snacks, gold, treasure cards or other seeds. When a plant reaches the elder stage, it can be harvested only one more time. This harvest will yield the greatest rewards. After this, the elder plant will disappear.

Gardening Tools
  Utility spells are useful for many aspects of gardening. The plow spell removes a targeted plant or dirt pile. The Inspect spell lets you look at a targeted plant's characteristics and progress. The Revive spell lets you turn a plant that has died into a young plant of the same type. 

  Pests
Plants can sometimes suffer from pests. Pests are annoying critters that will cause it to wilt and die if they are not dealt with. To get rid of pests, you will need to cast the appropriate pest fighting spell. Different types of pests require different types of spells. Pests are ranked and require spells equal to or greater than their rank.
  If you have a high enough gardening rank, you can cast pest prevention spells to keep pests away from your garden. You can buy pest fighting and pest prevention spells from certain trainers throughout the Spiral, you can buy them at the Crown shop or you can earn them through treasure rewards.  Each plant differs by how easy they are to garden, how long they take to grow and mature and how long they live.

As you continue to garden you will earn gardening experience through successfully harvesting plants. There are 10 ranks of gardening:

1. Novice
2. Neophyte
3. Apprentice
4. Initiate
5. Intermediate
6. Journeyman
7. Expert
8. Adept
9. Master
10. Grandmaster

The types of seeds you can plant may be restricted, requiring a minimum gardening rank. Additionally, some kinds of gardening equipment and spells require minimum gardening rank to use.\

"Is that all that's been added to Wizard101, Blaze?"

No, my friends! there's more!

Celestian Furniture
Yes you read that correctly! Celestian Furniture has come to the Spiral, as well as recipes for furniture from our newest underwater world!

Keyboard Shortcuts
The Keyboard Shortcut to enable/disable the Quest Tracker has changed from T to CTRL-T. This should prevent many young Wizards from accidentally disabling their Quest Tracker when attempting to chat.

Menu Chat
New phrases have been added to Menu Chat, including a quick 'You're Welcome' for our very polite Wizards!

No Trade Items
No Trade and No Auction stats have been removed from many Celestia items.

Pets
Zombie pets will no longer be stuck swimming.
The Myth Imp pet spell is now properly casting to dispel both Life and Death spells.
The Seraph pet's card will no longer show damage to all enemies.
Pets with 'May Cast Trap' will no longer be casting those traps on their owners!

Energy
Since your Energy is shared by both Pets and Gardening, Max Energy has been increased. Energy now begins at 40 at level 1, and increases by 1 at each even-numbered level.
References to Pet Energy are now just "Energy".

Quests
The Final Countdown quest can now be completed by a solo player. There is no longer a timer to activate the power crystals and there is also no longer a timer for the two set of creatures that trigger the doors to be opened that are right before Malistaire's room.

Crowns Shop
When an item is on sale in the Crowns Shop, you will now see both the full price with a strikethrough and the sale price, so you can see how much you are saving.

Polymorphs
Players should no longer see their names change when they use a Polymorph spell.

Treasure Cards
Polymorph Treasure Cards now have level requirements and will not be received as rewards for duels.

Spells
Mildred Farseer has something interesting for you!
Helping Hands will now heal on the first round, and resurrect fallen players.

Travel
Mounts can now be used in the Spiral Chambers of Marleybone and MooShu.

Recipes
Equipment, furniture, pet snack, treasure card and transmute recipes have been added to Celestia!

Furniture
Heavy Dining Table can be placed in more locations now.

Reagents
Sandstone and Sunstone can now be found on bosses in The Solar District and the Trial of the Spheres.  

The one of those that excites me most is the 'Helping Hand' spell change. As all my fellow sorcerers out there know, when you cast the spell, it would heal the next round, not on the round casted. Also, you were able to cast on fallen players, but since it healed the next round, it would disappear before then and do nothing. But, now with this update, I'll finally be able to heal a significant amount without treasures or amulets. (I do have an amulet with a Seraph and Satyr on it. Just can't equip it yet. It's level 56, and I'm like 52.) So that's really cool.

Polymorphs. We won't get to see Arlen as [Can't remember. Need to check picture] anymore.

[PICTURE HERE!]

Celestian furniture! Huge deal with that! So pumped! I can make the main room of my house a sick Celestian room now! I love it. 

Level requirements for polymorphs! So awesome! Now we don't have to deal with those crazy kids running around PvP with 9 billion health. (I've never actually seen that happen, I'm just assuming it did.)

'The Final Countdown' can now be solo-ed. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I mean, a huge part of the "Malistaire's Lair" event of the game was getting together with your friends and banning together to fight this huge powerful wizard boss. But, now that it's not required. I don't know if that takes away some of the significance of that battle. I mean, sure, it will be a huge challenge to solo and I'm sure some players were itching for that to be possible, but I'm not sure. Let me know what you guys think.

Oh, before I forget. I can't post any pictures yet, so just be patient. I got a new computer for Christmas and all my files haven't been transferred over yet, so I can't really post any of the pictures that I have locked up in the Picture Vault, just yet.

And by one vote. The song choice for my Wizard101 Celestia music video will be:

[Drumroll Troll]

The Saltwater Room by Owl City.

Great choice, everyone.

Here's the runners up and the song:


Under The Sea - The Little Mermaid - 2 votes
Umbrella Beach - Owl City - 2 votes
Everything Is Not What It Seems - Selena Gomez - 1 vote
Magical - Selena Gomez - 1 vote
Magic Carpet Ride - KSM - 1 vote
Magic - Selena Gomez - 1 vote


The following songs received no votes:


Part of Your World (Little Mermaid) - Miley Cyrus
Part of Your World (Little Mermaid) - Jessica Simpson
Part of Your World (Little Mermaid) - Skye Sweetnam
Bottom of The Ocean - Miley Cyrus
Magic - Honor Society
Magic - Meaghan Martin
Strange Magic - Steve Rushton
Disappear - Selena Gomez
You Can Do Magic - Drew Seeley
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic - Mitchell Musso
Some Call It Magic - Raven Symoné






I will be using the 'Ocean Eyes' version, just because that's the one that I have. (If you guys would rather me use the 'Maybe I'm Dreaming' version, just let me know, and I can do that instead.)

I will be needing two singers for the video. (And a few dancers. About 5.) I'll get 3 understudies for dancing / singing because as we all know, time gets in the way 99% of the time.

So. If you want to enter in the contest. Just post a comment in this post. and the next post I will make which will be all about the video. Thanks. :)

(As always, click to make the pictures bigger.)

Happy Gaming

Celestia. For Real This Time.

I can't believe it either. We've known about Celestia for 6 worlds now.


x Dramatic Montage x

Awww! Look at me in my Krokotopia rope, with my Pinapple Wand (as some kid I was friends with for a while called it,) and my Cowl of Comparison. I wore that hat all the way through Lvl 45. I loved that hat. I couldn't bring myself to sell it due to all the good memories stored within it's orange and blue stitches. I have it in my Bank. 


Now, I know what you're probably wondering. "Blaze, why did you wear that Lvl 5 hat to such a high Lvl? Well Inquiring Reader, I could never find a hat with good stats that I liked the look of. (Looks are important to me in the world of Wizard101 clothing. ;D)


Anyway. We're now at the point where our dreams and fan fictions and theorycrafting comes to the game.


Celestia is going live.


When? Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 27th, 2010.


A huge day in Wizard History. The day Headmaster Merle Ambrose repairs the key we recovered so long ago from Estrakir Gloomthorn (grumble grumble,) and allows us access into the underwater utopia that is Celestia.


Let's just do a re-cap shall we?


Here's our new storyline:


Long ago, the Astral Wizards of Celestia created powerful magic using the energy of the Stars, the Moon, and the Sun. The sorceress, Morganthe, the Queen of the Shadow Web, wanted the secrets of the Celestian magic at... all costs. The Celestians refused her, so she raised a dark army and sent it against Celestia. After decades of battle, the Astral Wizards realized their world would fall. They summoned the Storm Titan to defeat Morganthe’s legions and to take their world to a place of safety. 

The Storm Titan betrayed the Celestians by sinking their world beneath the waves along with Morganthe’s invading forces. Realizing they were doomed, the Celestians raised mighty domes to protect some of their treasured city from the waves, though it was too late! They perished along with Morganthe's invading army. Celestia was lost to the Spiral, its Spiral Door closed forever. 

Centuries later, a team of brave explorers from the Spiral Geographic Society, led by Sir Thurston Plunkett, re-discovered Celestia. They landed with an air-ship, and built exploratory undersea domes to explore Celestia’s ruins. Plunkett and his fellow explorers soon realized that Celestia was now inhabited by a strange new culture... the Crustacean Empire. Unfortunately, the explorers did not come alone to Celestia. Morganthe’s followers, the Shadow Weavers, stand ready to take Celestia’s magic for their Queen. 

After receiving the Spiral Geographic Society’s distress call, Headmaster Merle Ambrose, of the Ravenwood School for Magic, seeks any young Wizards brave enough to journey to the undersea world of Celestia, and discover the secrets of it's lost magic. 

What will they find there?


Crazy, I know. I can't wait!

And after many reveals (14 in fact,) we have this.

We've learned our new Lvl 58 spells (Efreet, Snow Angel, Leviathan, Medusa, Forest Lord, Skeletal 
Dragon, and Ra.)


We've even gotten new items and mounts and pets. The Crabling, the Gobbler, the Shark Mount, 
The Celestian Trident and Sword, and even Arlen Dawneye's Wayfinder Gear.


And coming November 1st. We will get an insane new gift card.

This EPIC $39 gift card will include:

• 1 Month Subscription OR 5,000 Crowns
• Fantasy Palace Castle
• Additional Castle Space Elixir
• Minigame Kiosk Housing Item
• Gryphon Mount
• Ancient Spear of Power
• Epic Clothing Set
• Mystery Dueling Pet

I know. Amazing. But what exactly is a Fantasy Palace Castle? Let me show you.

That's a nice walkthrough of it by Friendly.


As requested by Autumnal Dusk from Homework in a Graveyard, we now have our:

Nice job, Autumn!


I'm personally psyched for this castle. It's SO huge! And with all those secret passageways and space, I could just spend my entire life decorating and hanging out there.


And a Minigame kiosk too? You'll never have to leave your house!

There's Friendly next to the Kiosk on his Gryphon mount. (Yes it still gives +40% Speed boost, unlike the white and black striped cat for charity that only gave +20% at the same price. [Someone remind me of it's name.])


"But, Blaze, what's an Epic Clothing gear?"


Well, it's a clothing set that comes with amazing cards. But, you can CHOOSE what level the gear is (this will also change what cards and stats come with it.) What's cool about it, is that it looks like Warlord gear. What is kind of sucky about it is that you can't change what level it is after you've selected it the first time. (In other words, just get the Lvl 50.)

That's the Mystery Dueling pet that Friendly got. We're not sure of the specifics of the pets just yet.


But what about the Ancient Spear of Power?


Best. Wand. Ever.


It gives a 110 wand hit card FROM EACH SCHOOL!

It really seems like an amazing gift card. It's going to be sold ONLY AT GAMESTOP. So be sure to make your Christmas lists early because they will go off the shelves FAST!


Also, I made a Halloween video, but I haven't quite finished putting it together yet, so next post I can put that up for you.


Also, you may have noticed my new Voki on the sidebar. Should be to your left right about now. I'm going to use that to make quick little updates. Check it out right now. (Click the little play button in the bottom left corner of it.)


Anyway, Celestia is coming out tomorrow and I'm pretty psyched. ;D

The bosses will now cheat. They will start with Power Pips. They have enormous amounts of health. The bosses and enemies here are far more powerful than we can ever imagine. The journey ahead is a long one, but we, the Wizards of Ravenwood School of Magical Arts, can handle whatever swims our way.


Happy Gaming

Celestia Reveal *Spoiler Alert*

Note: Remember guys, you can now click on pictures to make them bigger. To go back to the post, just click the back button.

I apologize for the long wait for me to get this post out. But I think the images you're about to see will make up for it like a Power Pip or two. Let's begin.

Recently Leesha Darkheart (over at Ravenwood Radio) went on a trip to Austin, Texas.

"Hey, Blaze, isn't that where KingsIsle studios is located."

Yes, inquiring reader, it IS.

Leesha made a stop over there and was able to get some information on Celestia, and of course, some concept art for all of us back home.

Let me start off with a brief synopsis of the history of Celestia.

Long ago, the Astral Wizards of Celestia created powerful magic using the energy of the Stars, the Moon, and the Sun. The sorceress, Morganthe, the Queen of the Shadow Web, wanted the secrets of the Celestian magic at... all costs. The Celestians refused her, so she raised a dark army and sent it against Celestia. After decades of battle, the Astral Wizards realized their world would fall. They summoned the Storm Titan to defeat Morganthe’s legions and to take their world to a place of safety.



The Storm Titan betrayed the Celestians by sinking their world beneath the waves along with Morganthe’s invading forces. Realizing they were doomed, the Celestians raised mighty domes to protect some of their treasured city from the waves, though it was too late! They perished along with Morganthe's invading army. Celestia was lost to the Spiral, its Spiral Door closed forever.


Centuries later, a team of brave explorers from the Spiral Geographic Society, led by Sir Thurston Plunkett, re-discovered Celestia. They landed with an air-ship, and built exploratory undersea domes to explore Celestia’s ruins. Plunkett and his fellow explorers soon realized that Celestia was now inhabited by a strange new culture... the Crustacean Empire. Unfortunately, the explorers did not come alone to Celestia. Morganthe’s followers, the Shadow Weavers, stand ready to take Celestia’s magic for their Queen.


After receiving the Spiral Geographic Society’s distress call, Headmaster Merle Ambrose, of the Ravenwood School for Magic, seeks any young Wizards brave enough to journey to the undersea world of Celestia, and discover the secrets of it's lost magic.


What will they find there?

Cool huh? Well, let's take a look at what the teachers of the Astral schools might look like.

Now, I'm not sure if these are going to be the teachers, but they look pretty wise. (Although not smarter than Alhazred, right sorcerers?) I was curious why there didn't seem to be a picture of a Star school teacher. Which also makes me think that these might not be teachers. When I got these pictures from Leesha, they were saved as Sun Boss and Moon Boss. So I'm not sure. You can theorycraft on your own time. Let's get back to the spoilers.

I also got a picture of what the Crustaceans will look like. (Granted we knew from the wallpaper reveals.)

Pretty cool! You can definitely see the Roman-esque look to him. I also got a picture of one of the bosses. I don't know the name, but he is an Angler Fish. (I'm sure once these pictures get around to Autumn, she'll give you some cool info on those.)

He has symbols of all three astral schools, which brings me to a good point. What schools will the bosses / enemies be?  I mean, we can't be getting attacks from the astral schools. Like Friendly, I think it will be a new type of spell if not some type of charm kind of thing. Hmm. Well, that's theory crafting for another day / post. Next picture.

I know, you're all asking yourselves, what the heckhound? Am I right? I'm right. The name of this picture was Platypus Leader. And he looks like a chief of some sort of tribe. That leads me to believe that there won't just be Crustaceans. He seems very friendly, so I'm assuming the platypuses, platypi, platypeople, will be allies of the Crustacean Empire. (Sort of like the goats and the cows in Mooshu.) Either way, he's a platypus, and that's cool enough for me. Moving on.

My second favorite picture from Leesha is this next one. Looks to me like the Unicorn isn't going to be our only new mount this summer.

Yeah, it'll kinda weird me out having squids running around Krokotopia too. Which is why I think this will be a Celestia Only mount. I don't know if that's possible, but it can't be good for squids to be out of water for long. Then again these are magical squids, so who knows.

The next two pictures are of Shadow Weavers. Yeah it's the full versions of the pictures from Becketts.

Regular Shadow Weaver henchman-bug-thing.

And there's your head Shadow Weaver, second in command.

Of course, we can't forget about the all important architecture. ("Right, Blaze, definitely...") Here's one of the areas in Celestia.

Now, for the final picture from Leesha, everyone's favorite drumming troll is going to start us off. Take it away, bud!

x drumroll x

Here it is.

Yup, that's our new villainess, Morganthe, Queen of the Shadow Web. You can see her creepy little Shadow Weaver babies behind her. She's got her big, bad, Staff of No Return. Loving it. I really like the purple magic power in her hand. That really adds to the spookiness of her. Same with the big web and spider legs on the back of her dress. Wait, maybe she's part spider. Even better! I can see it now, Morganthe BATTLE FORM! I'm liking it. She gets down on spider legs and x shudder x death everywhere. If you were wondering what to get Leesha for her birthday, it's definitely that dress. (It is Death Overlord-esque!) She just loves it. And frankly I think every little necromancess will too!

I hope you all enjoyed this little spoiler, and will post your comments with your thoughts on all these pieces of awesomesauce.

Btw, if you caught my Phineas and Ferb referance earlier, you get +15 Brownie Points. ;D

Also, I got these out before Friendly. I feel special.

Happy Gaming