Pink Poogle Toy Forum

Well, the game should never actually give you a number where a+b < 400 because it wouldn't make any sense (the triangle inequality says that the sum of two sides must be longer than the third side for any possible triangle; one of the sides is known to be length 400, so the sum of the other two sides = a+b > 400). If you put in a case where a+b<400, there really isn't a place that the third dot can be, and any answer would be wrong. Personally, I think it's better to signal an error (so the person might be able to fix the numbers before time runs out) than give a wrong answer.

I am really not liking the pacing of this plot at all. For so long we had nothing to do, and now with this huge step on top of Daily Dare if feels like too much to do at once. Also it seems the comics don't mesh well with the steps. Up to the mods it was alright, then everything seemed to go off kilter. In TOW it really felt like we were following along with the characters. Now it seems like we are doing something ... vaguely similar to the characters, but not the same thing or at the same time.

Still, I'm having a lot of fun testing, and I plan to keep on testing as long as I can. I just wish I could do at least one acid, I still can't do those.

(edit: fixed typo)

can someone please help me with my 3 mods?
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j52/cr8_28/Untitled-2-1.gif

MayEdit: I've moved your post from the token-testing thread to the regular plot thread. Also, please keep all images less than 500 pixels wide. I've changed your image to a link.

I'm disappointed by how quickly the token was found - i didnt have time during the week to do stuff on this step, so was going to do it on the weekend, but by then the token had been found.

Regarding it being the same time as a daily dare i think that tnt might be planning on making the daily dare an annual thing during every march, so avoiding having a plot at the same time as it might cause problems as the plots tend to go on for multiple months. I dont see how it's a problem having them at the same time anyway - i'm just enjoying going and playing a game each day, it's not stopping me from joining in with the plot too...

What I actually find to be amusing is the lack of... attachment... to the plot by the players. At first, these forums were going crazy with discussion of the actual storyline. Now, more often than not, we see disgruntled players who are annoyed/confused by the plot steps themselves. I don't know if it is because of too much to focus on happening throughout the site... or people just tuning out because they're turned off to this plot. It interests me to see if TNT have noticed this as well, and plan on remedying it, or if we're just going to go status quo and keep the bizarre ratio of comics to steps.

What is there to discuss about the story tho? I think that's the big issue. We as players are asked to 'help' find the amulet BUT we have no attachment in the story. I mean it wasn't like the main charaters went into the testing facility and said "oh no how do we find the fake?!" And then we where introduced to the step and then the next comic didnt start out with them leaving the room and "wow that was tough!" And Did anyone even report of really finding the correct room and correct amulet or did TNT just throw up that comic with the 'oh looky we found it'

I really WANT to be interest in this story but the comics are not flowing like they should. Our steps are no longer making since with what the story is doing. The comics are not released regularly nor are the steps. If I could say count on a comic monday and Wednesdays and a step following either wednesdays comic or starting on Thursday I'd be a lil more thrilled.

I want to be excited about this plot. I mean this is the long lost Sloth plot! but where is the background? Where is ANYTHING when it comes to this story. It's Sloth for heck sakes! We should have been in on his evil plans. We should have gotten to understand why he was kidnapping people! We should have been in his evil mind and we should have seen more of the resistance there are so many characters that you see whom have done nothing!

this plot just leave me disappointed so far plain and simple.

I quite like the puzzles so far. I like that the steps variate. The mods were really challenging, then we had to fight and now we have to work together as a team. So it's a good mix IMO.
But I have to agree with Ruby on some points. I would have liked there to be a bit more correlation between the story and the puzzles and it would have been nice to get a bit more background info. What exactly are Sloths plans etc.
But the plot isn't over yet, so who know what will happen. I think it's a bit too early to say it's a 'bad' plot. I'm just going to wait and see.

A) I agree with whomever complained about the comic text bubbles. I'm just waiting for the one where it's so big that I can't fit the frame (that you have to hold the mouse over) and the bottom of the bubble on screen.. which'd make it impossible to read.

B) I don't know if this was mentioned but with the Gravity testing phase according to the guides you put your first number in A1 (in Excel) and the second number in B1 and then in C1 you put:

And in D1:


For a while I couldn't get it to work and I figured it had to to with the rounding so in the end a good solution was to use these instead:
C1:

And D1:


Just thought it might help someone. Ta!

I think the problem was that TNT was caught between the people who wanted a really hard plot, and the people who wanted a fun plot, and the people who wanted a lot of stuff to do so they wouldn't miss the steps. They tried to please too many people, and wound up turning a lot of them off. The 3-mod codes(and outlawing of the calculator and freezing of people who admitted to using it) drove a lot of people out, and the sporadic updates with monotonous steps drove out still more. That's in addition to a general lack of plot in the plot. It's no Tale of Woe, that's for sure.
Oh well. We can only hope Neopets will learn from this plot, and make a few adjustments for the next plot.

When TNT makes a plot, they try and take what failed from the last plot and fix it, and what was good about the last plot and make it better. The old plots would be exceptionally hard hunts through source code and obscure item collection and doing some truly bizarre things to get the final answer; the last plot like this, I believe, was the Volcano Plot.

Other plots would be exclusively war-based; the last one was, technically, Maraqua. I wasn't around the source-code-digging confusion fests that were such things as Coltzan's Crown and Neopets 2.0, but I was around for all of the wars from Meridell onward (first plot I participated in, actually). Since those are the plots I remember (having participated in them) their progression was as follows:

1. Meridell-Darigan war. Straight-out war with point collecting and unlimited enemies. Enemies would remain available throughout the entire war.
2. Meridell war, part two. In an attempt to capitalize on the first Meridell war, the story was expanded to include some of the remnants of Darigan's prior insanity by introducing a Hitler-esque Eyrie as an enemy in the form of General Kass. The story was fairly interesting, and I'm still wondering if TNT will ever go back to The Three, but the war was an attempt to merge the prior war with the old wars that were fought by releasing limited waves of enemies. The idea fell through. It has been scrapped.
3. Hannah and the Ice Caves. Straight-our war, once again going to unlimited enemies. However, the first enemies introduced the concept of poisoning pets, forcing players to buy expensive healing items or else retreat to the Healing Springs until they got lucky. No challenger since has had illness-inducing weapons. That idea was scrapped.
4. Maraqua. Introduced tiered combat system for different 'levels' of fighters, as well as the option to participate as a supporter, playing item fetch quests and playing games. The system was atrociously broken, however, and was scrapped and never looked at ever again, for good reason.

Since then, and I say this somewhat sadly, TNT has never released a purely war-oriented plot. I know they aren't nice to people who don't play the Battledome extensively (and I admit that I don't exactly sink a lot of money into the Battledome, so I'm not exactly up there), but there's something about being able to watch your score rise in real-time on your profile, and see your shield upgrade, and such silly little things that make me really enjoy the war-based plots. Of course, I like puzzle plots, too.

Which brings up the plot that Neopets released afterward; Lost Desert. A puzzle-intensive plot with a minor combat mechanic that didn't really count as a combat mechanic. The plot required extensive mapping of a tomb, which I admit that I simply never had time for, and other rather difficult steps that I'm not in touch with due to the fact that I... well, I never really had time for the plot. I'm sure it was a lot of fun for the people who could carry on with the plot, but sadly, I was trapped away and couldn't appreciate it. Got a Sand Mite trophy, though.

This was technically followed by the Altador free-plot, which I quite enjoy; a good mix of puzzles, it can get rather difficult (and quite up to chance), and I really, honestly can't complain a whole lot about it. They used a basic concept of having concentrated puzzles in one area, as with the Lost Desert, and it works.

They struck gold with Tale of Woe, apparently; a balanced mix of puzzles, with combat toward the end, as well as the introduction of the first multi-player step. I, sadly, wasn't playing Neopets during this time, and kick myself whenever I happen to think about doing so for having missed this great opportunity. Tale of Woe, from what I understand, really worked-- it clicked. It was well executed, the puzzles worked with the comics, and it... it worked. It flat-out worked.

I think Cyodrake's Gaze was after this, but again, I wasn't playing, and this was more a guessing game than a plot, in line with the Gadgadsbogen game that they had several years back.

Then came the Lost Island mini-plot, which attempted to mine the Tale of Woe for ideas but, sadly, failed due to the sheer simplicity of the plot. Tale of Woe was a good marriage of simplicity and difficulty; they toned it down far too much for it to be more than simple distraction.

And now we have the Sloth Plot, which is also attempting to use the Tale of Woe formula -- I suppose because TNT thinks it their most successful, and having played the Altador Plot, I know that something similar to it works, at least for me. I'm happy with the concept. Their execution, however, has been a bit wobbly, and their timing has been a bit off-- although I can't fault them for having wishy-washy puzzles this time. I do wish that the puzzles had more correlation to the comic, though. That's the only real complaint that I actually have.

I don't understand the complaints about the Daily Dare, honestly; then again, I'm not an avid Flash game player, so I usually just settle for beating Abigail's score (which isn't difficult by any stretch of the imagination) and then move on. I did beat AAA once, though. Hooray for me. Too bad I don't customize my pets very much or that background might have actually proved useful. >.<

Anyway, point is, TNT is constantly working on ways to improve their plots or iron out the kinks. Sometimes lightning strikes -- Meridell 1, Lost Desert, Tale of Woe -- and other times it's a flop -- Maraqua, Lost Island. I can't say that Return of Sloth has flawless execution, because they have muddled a few things, but I must say that I am definitely enjoying myself. Although the testing is extraordinarily tedious when I'm in a room of people on the Gravitics test and it's apparent that I'm the only one who has any idea what's going on...

Yes, I am really enjoying myself with this plot. Especially this cooperative step. My only real complaint is like we've all said, the steps and the comic don't fit quite right together. I don't feel as connected to the characters and engaged as I did in TOW.

I do like having DD, something else to do in between steps. The only problem is that with a big step to do right now, I'm having to decide if I want to spend my time playing the DD game over and over to try to beat AAA, or doing lots of testing to (presumably/hopefully) get plot points. I don't like having to sacrifice one for the other.

Is anyone else extrordinarily annoyed that the singularity task (black holes) had a pretty good chance of sending you to visit the "mysterious abandoned blue grundo plushie of prosperity", which should by all rights have something to do with the Sloth plot but never has or will ever serve a purpose?

Irks me just as much as that stupid underwater statue of the darkest faerie that never had anything to do with the Altador plot. Sheeesh.

This has probably been asked before... but what's with that "What are you doing here, you're in the wrong place." and then it refreshes message!? It's SO annoying.

i gave up on the testing. every time i manage to get past the 1st part i get stuck in the room while my team moves on. if i happen to stumble into the 2nd part i get 1 or 2 trys and when it refreshes i find myself in a heat test room getting the annoying what are you doing here message. i have however found a bunch of the baby black holes and managed to make a couple of rods. this plot has been a dissapointment to me, ive been around since tyrania was found and have been part of every plot except nv2 and cyodrake ( i missed that one due to playing puzzle pirates)
the mods werent too bad, only took me a couple of hours to get through, but i got lucky and got message on 1st try. i agree the comics dont mesh too well this time and there are too many gaps in the story. i like the dd though, give me something to do while i am waiting for my 3min to be up between black hole hunting.

Storywise, I'd have to say this is the best plot so far. That was something I'd always thought TNT was really weak on when it came to plots, even the fantastic Lost Desert one. There were holes in the storylines that were wide enough to drive a mad truck through, and it always bugged me.

So far on this plot, I think the actual parts that we the players do have been pretty solid as well. Yes, the mod puzzles were hard - well, not really difficult so much as extremely tedious - but still rewarding, and it looks to me like TNT's been trying to balance out the puzzles so that they're challenging, but not so out of reach that only the older and/or smarter players can do them. And while we haven't had our all-out war yet, there's been plenty of battling, with opponents in a good range of difficulties. It's been great for me to see how far my lab rat/battle pet Drilax has come since his first plot, the second Meridell one. Back then, he could barely beat 5 of the easiest opponents; but now, in this one, he's beat over 200 of the easiest ones and a significant number of the harder ones. That's-a my boy! (Disregard what it says on his user lookup. The only reason it says Female is because I can't battle the Lab Ray Scientist right now. Stupid ray.)

I've only got two gripes about this plot so far. First, I think the angry Yurble joke has been done to death now. Don't get me wrong, I loved/hated him when he first showed up in the LDP, and thought it was funny when he came back as a janitor in the Altador plot, and thought it was cool that he got his own game. I like the guy, I think he's quite possibly one of the best and most unique characters to come out of Neopets. But...do we really need an angry Yurble in every plot we do from now on? I don't want to get sick of him. =\

Secondly, I have to agree with the statements made earlier in this thread about not feeling as engaged in this storyline and characters as I had with previous ones. It feels very much like we're doing our own thing, and the comic's doing another. While the two might be going on simultaneously and I can even see how the two things relate, I still feel distanced from it. I mean...you know how in the Tale of Woe, the gypsies actually talked to your active pet? I thought that was cool. In the Altador Plot, the characters talked to you and acknowledged your help in solving it. There hasn't really been anything like that in this plot yet. Though, it's still early yet...