Lots of threads, no time to read them all? Here is today's MouseHunt news, highlights, and gossip! Read on:
Trevor swung by the HitGrab Studios (actually, I think it was his basement and a recorded feed...) to bring us only the most important items from today's episode of Feedback Friday:
Feedback Friday Review – As usual, the important things.
General Points, Miscellany, and Memorabiliae:
1) The devs have decided to change the Magic Essence recipe for Vanilla Stilton to require 5 Vanilla Beans, thus making it so that super-brie users will get 3x as many cheese than non super-brie users, rather than 15x. In doing so, this cheese recipe will be in line with other common cheese recipes in the game, such as radioactive blue potions (if you use superbrie to convert RB, you get on the order of 3x as many RB). 15 was indeed, an unprecedented separation. They do plan on letting us know when this will happen a day or two in advance, so superbrie users, don’t worry. In the meantime, you have this week to use a LE cheese-recipe for extra VS.
What we do not know, is why the devs decided to drop the super-brie recipe by 5x instead of upping the non-super-brie recipe by 5x (making it require 3 beans for 15 cheese with no magic essence, the same exact ratio, super-brie users getting 3x the cheese). Perhaps they felt 1 & 3 didn’t do justice to the Pigmy Swarms.
2) As the users have stated, we like catching things. So the devs have decided that with future updates, they’ll use an existing area and require some mouse to be caught again to move on (feel free to catch it in the meantime all you want). Interestingly enough, they didn’t do this in the JOD (we’re all new to Pigmy mice), but you did need Inferno Havarti (Come ON, who DIDN’T see that one coming? That seriously couldn’t have been a surprise to anyone). Anyway, they plan on continuing to do this, and are considering drop options for Balack himself. Trap upgrade, anyone?
3) Yes, Vengeful Vanilla Stilton attracts more Liches. So get yourself a stack and try to last as long as you can.
4) Yes, the Liches have all the same attraction rate, and they’re pretty close on the power values (obviously not exactly the same – see your Profile listing). Yes, they’ll average out, over a really really really really long time (see a certain record holder for Dojo Students).
5) Dragon ember drops were the only modification to the Dracano area. Dragons always drop them. Wardens are like 50/50. Whelpings drop them occasionally.
That's it! Yep, it was a short and sweet session. For a different slant on the FBF that was, check out Ben's coverage one step to the right.
A Hot Reminder
Once you've grabbed your fill of Dragon Embers in Dracano, you can always go back for more! Just use your Hunter's Hammer and *SMASH* all the ones you don't need for your lantern. Presto! You've got bonus fire salts.
A debate that's anything but 'Vanilla'
It would appear that the dev's announcement of a tweak to the Vanilla Stilton recipes has certainly pressed a few hot buttons. Without wading in too deeply (We're here to report, not to editorialize... Except all those times where we editorialize. Come to think of it, we editorialize so much, it's a wonder we're ever even called 'news'!) we will say that many a Hunter seems to think their decision to tweak the recipe is a terrible idea, and many that think it's excellent. Oh, and many along the spectrum between those two poles.
Probably the most sobering take-home notes from the debate, to me, comes from Michael Gourley:
Before Ballack's release the Devs polled FBF and asked if they would like to see Ballack released ASAP and then have tweaks made to re-balance based on player feedback. The answer was overwhelmingly yes. This is what they are doing, based on the feedback they have received.And given that we don't know precisely what the changes will be... (After all, Dave stated in the Feedback Friday that he was "looking for opinions" on their proposed change... Psst! Dave, you got a bunch of opinions now!) Perhaps we'll leave the flaming stakes locked up (oh, and doused) for a few more day yet, huh?
Want to opine yourself about the Vanilla Stilton recipe? Click this link.
Thread of the Day
The post of the day goes to Dane Koster, since he was the only one that posted ANY link in yesterday's Nibbler thread. Though, technically, it's cheating since it's not a thread, nor a post, but a video.
Oh well. Here's your video, because the points still don't matter.
Pac your bags
This news will already have made it to most of you, but that's okay. For those of you who visited Google's home page today, you got an extra-special treat: a functioning Pac-Man game, complete with all the sounds! It was in commemoration of the arcade classic's 30th birthday. Sounds like a good way to pass the the time between horns, doesn't it?
Oh, and if it's not available, you can always find it on the archives.
Quote of the Day
Kavita Sutrave
You don't want to know where the Pigmys keep vanilla beans.In this conspiratorial thread.
So far, so good, and don't forget to sound the horn!
Your name: Earl Anthony Waga
Your rank: Hero 85%
1. If you were a mouse, what type would you be and what would you do to escape the traps set out for you?
-Imma be a MOJO. I'll ground and pound the 2010 droid before he detonates the bombs, Use my 1 hit K.O. strikes for droids in Ambush, and use my bling bling against HVMT. ^__^
2. How much cheese do you eat in a day? Which MH cheese are you most likely to eat in real life? Would you ever consider crafting cheese at home?
-I dont eat cheese everyday. MH cheese?.. that would be shell, seafoods are great! And I won't consider crafting a cheese at home.
3. Have you skipped anything important just to sound the horn (ie school, work, sleep)? Did you enjoy it?
-I did! i skipped school, exercise, sleep, and TV shows. Yosh! I enjoyed it.
4. Which mouse would you most like to meet? (Assuming the mice could talk, of course.) What questions would you ask that mouse in an interview?
-Without a doubt it would be the Dojo Sensei. I'll ask about his experience, philosophy, and ask him to teach me Martial Arts.
5. When was the last time you caught a mouse in real life?
-I don't remember when was it but I know it is a brown mouse. Caught it with tacky glue trap for mosquito.
6. What is your favorite trap in the game and why?
-That would be CCT. It's my first LE trap. (from Master to Hero)
7. Do you think you could beat an Aged Mouse at chess?
-NO! I don't play chess.
8. What was the last occasion where you caught a rare or difficult mouse with a ridiculously low amount of cheese?
-ridiculously large amount of cheese, since the great winter hunt '09 ended.
9. What has been the worst decision of your MouseHunt career, in hindsight?
-Did not or FTC a Scrooge Mouse during the Great winter Hunt.
10. If the Ornament Mouse, Bottled Mouse, and Lambent Crystal Mouse were having a fight, who would win and why?
-Lambent Crystal Mouse is a fossil, Bottled Mouse has no sense of direction and can't move to where he want to be, and Ornament Mouse can roll and has a ball wherever it goes. So Ornament Mouse rolls directly to Bottled Mouse and hits it hard, thus breaking the bottle. Ornament Mouse wins!
*Ahem* I'd like to get up on my Soapbox, please...
On "What's wrong with the boards"
I started playing this game in July 2008, when the game was about 4 months old. And at that time, there were people posting on the boards about how "the boards just weren't the same anymore." I felt left out, I thought I'd come too late, that I'd missed the best of the best. (And maybe I did, but that's neither here nor there.)
In my nearly two years here, I've seen so many people cycle through and the cycle is always the same. We come, we play, we work our way through Novice. We save up enough gold for the Mary O'Nette, and we think she's pretty sweet. We find the discussion boards and we participate in competitions and giveaways. We win, and that makes our day... or we don't win, and that makes us try again with the next competition. Eventually, we fall in love with the boards and the people we meet here. We chat, we drink, we either help beggars or flame them, and often we flame the people who help the beggars. We find innuendo and plenty of it. We laugh until we pee in our pants, we become so enthralled in the community that we forget to eat and decide not to sleep. We form teams and tribes and secret groups. We suffer through Pink Box Fever and we live to tell the tale. We think this game is the most awesome thing ever, and we are right about that.
Gradually we transition from hoarding gold to sharing gold, and we graduate from participating in competitions to sponsoring our own competitions. We make posts meant as jokes and then find ourselves running virtual newspapers. We make groups to help newer players and we write Wiki articles so people will always have a place to find information as the discussion boards swell. We have meetups and we make lifelong friends. We make this community what it is in our own way, and it makes the game better and more fun.
And time goes by. Real Life (PSA - delete that app as soon as you can) keeps calling, our children claim to be "hungry" and our spouses feel "neglected." We realize that hosting competitions is hard work, and greatly unappreciated. Ultimately we rail in frustration because we can't grow as people if we don't keep moving, and we know we can't keep doing these things forever. Some of us end up in therapy, which costs us real money and a lot of it. Many of us get banned from the forums because we just Can't. Stop. Poking. People. Others of us fade into the background, chuckling softly as we watch the next generation going through the same cycle, only this time we have more patience for their process. We see the new players as the next generation, and we help them because this game is a legacy that we want to pass on.
Eventually we step outside and remember that there are other sources of joy, that life does not revolve around one FTA or one missed trapcheck, and gradually we drift away. Granted, some of us leave in fits and storms, with diatribes about how the Devs don't give a hoot about us, and how we've devoted so much of our time and money and life to this game, but mostly we just drift away as we recall the pleasures of Real Life (I TOLD you to delete that, but you didn't listen).
In this way many of us leave, while many of us stay. It's true that the boards are different every day... there will always be the tide of newer players, beating against the rocks of the first generations. What matters isn't "what we remember" as much as it's how the game influences us today. And we should find joy in that process, and welcome the changes to come. Because you have to admit, without change life is terribly boring.
-Jessica Carson Shelley
The Soapbox is a semi-regular feature where hunters just like you get the opportunity to vent about an item that they are passionate about. Something might irk you just so, or maybe there's something great that you think has gone unrecognized. Is that the case? Then get up on the Soapbox.
To submit something for the Soapbox, please send a private message to Dane Koster (http://www.facebook.com/dane.koster). Unless you specify that you wish to remain anonymous, our preference will be to publish your name under your vent. Please note that we do NOT guarantee that your vent will be published, and also note that it will be screened for inappropriate content as well as poor speeling or grammar.....
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