New SHH - Portal Activation Centre

[Siniri]

I was going to post that I got my first RE, but I see I've been beaten to it. So far, just a piece of the petpet lab map. I wonder if today would be a good time to try for the Lever of Doom...

ETA: Some kind people gave me the last cheopple and shoyru glider that I needed, and then I saw a whalein float past the window as my RE. So glad I didn't actually spend NP on it...

ETA: Got to do a second attempt -- and this time I had all the items.

A portal appears in midair, and you see Hanso and Brynn arguing. Behind them, an artefact glows brightly and then explodes, raining hot dogs everywhere.

Well, this is an exciting new daily... [/sarcasm]

[Chivewarrior]

*shrug* It gave Melisandale quite a few points of defense, but I've only done a couple of them so I have no idea what the frequency of that is. If there's a certain frequency it's worth doing, if there's another frequency, not so much.

[Daze]

Only been online for 5 minutes and I get:

Bank error in your favour. Collect 452 NP.

I am glad I am getting the random SHH regularly because it will be a long time before I can afford to use the RE Machine.

[Pickles]

Of relevance from today's editorial (which is most of the editorial, but still):

Oh, TNT... I love you dearly, but I must severely protest the giving away of retired and rare avatars as part of the new daily. I understand that you want to help new players, but it shouldn't come at the cost of alienating your older players. They worked hard for these avatars, spending years of their time, effort, and Neopoints trying to obtain them, only for someone to get one by trading in a few junk items. That isn't fair at all, and I know I'm not the only one absolutely furious about the whole thing. The only thing I can ask is, why? ~username removed
AND

I am an old time Neopian who is really frustrated by the boards being clogged up with complaints. I AGREE with avatars being released in the new daily if they are RARE. I applaud you. It would be hard for you guys to attract new players if everything were impossible to achieve because of it being retired or out of reach due to false inflation by the rich old timers on the site. You need to keep newcomers interested in the site by making it achievable in some way. Please don't throw this away due to a few complainers. ~username removed
The Random Event machine was supposed to give out avatars rarely, but something didn't go quite right and it was giving them out far more frequently than intended, including some that it shouldn't have been granting at all. It's been taken down for now while we work on it.

Regarding your concerns, as you can see, there are two sides to the issue and we can sympathise with both. There are players who have worked extraordinarily hard to earn their avatars, and then there are others who come to the site and realise that (even with a huge amount of effort) some goals are impossible, which may discourage them from even trying to join the fun here in Neopia. We'd love to find a perfect balance between honouring our old players and welcoming new ones, but there's no perfect solution.

That said, you've sent us plenty of feedback, which we are still reviewing and compiling for discussion. We'll keep your thoughts in mind while we look into the avatar Random Event and attempt to do our best on figuring out a balance.

Since the Random Events have changed, is buying Lutari beads from other users the only way to get them? Please remove my username. ~username removed
The Random Event that grants Lutari beads is currently unavailable for now.

Greetings. Now that a lucky few have obtained the unreleased Godori avatar from The Coincidence, could the avatar be officially released? ~daemonschile
Inactive avatars cannot be used, so it's not exactly released in the traditional sense. Whether the avatar will be "officially" released in the future is still unknown.

Wow, TNT! Doubtless you have noticed many people are not happy with this new daily, but I for one love it! I am curious, though: will Random Events continue to pop up throughout the site, or are they only available from the machine now? Does this mean that we are safe from Boochi / other color-changing events? What will happen to Faerie Quests? ~apr312
Random Events will still happen randomly. (Otherwise they wouldn't be Random Events, now would they?) Jacko will still be handing out paint brushes and the Pant Devil will continue to try to steal your pants and other items.

I remember way, way, way back when you had the Hannah and the Ice Caves plot / war. You also had the Guildmaster's puzzle, which was canceled. I do, however, remember there being a handful of unreleased avatars for it that you COULD use for the Coincidence avatar event. It would basically be a win win: you release unreleased stuff and it's a happy medium for the event. Also, MOAR AVATARS. Would this be possible? ~pigfish99
This isn't something we were considering doing. We can toss the idea into the discussion, but we feel it is unlikely.

Hello, TNT! *gives TNT a Weewoo* Anyway, in last week's Editorial, you said that players who were buying up everything by themselves to inflate the prices were, in fact, playing by the rules -- or, at least, that's what I understood. Is that correct? ~hereicomenow
Correct. Sometimes players may do things that irritate or downright enrage you (like charging a ton for quest items or converting UCs), but they are not breaking any rules. Only when someone is attempting to maliciously trick you does it become scamming and therefore punishable.

TNT, would you do everyone a GINORMOUS favor and please make a refuse button for the Coincidence quests? It could take us back to the timer and we can't try again until the next day, but I don't want to be stuck with quest items that are at least 20k each (and I literally can't afford to buy all of them). You would make a ton of people happy if you did this. Please remove my username. ~username removed
YES. Plenty of our staff members requested this, too! We are currently working on implementing a cancel option that we hope to release next week.

In other news, I got my third useless event today from the generator, and paid 27k for it. Sigh.

The Ghost Lupe appears, looks around, and growls, 'This is not Mystery Island!'

[Siniri]

This one made me giggle (just a RE):

A speckled Xweetok runs up to you and says, "Xandra was right! Spread the word!" and runs off.

And the picture:

[Pickles]

Day 4. More nothing.

You hear the Turmaculus roaring over the ship's comm system. Scintilly trembles in fear.

[Daze]

The Black Pteri sits on a nearby fence post howling doom and misery for all to hear…

Meanwhile...

A new challenger appears! The Black Pteri will be waiting for you in the BATTLEDOME.


~~~~

Very ironic, I was actually refreshing a few places to get battledome challengers and I lucked upon the Black Pteri. I managed to beat him on my first go and get the avatar.

At least I am having good luck with the random events.

ETA:Ok....now it is just getting weird! Twice within 20 minutes:

The Black Pteri sits on a nearby fence post howling doom and misery for all to hear…

[Pickles]

Meh. Lost 4250 (all I had out) with a SHH.

And day 5 in a row of a useless one from the daily:

A parade of dozens of Lutaris marches through the spaceship. They get to the end of their song, then look around, confused. 'Eh, how do we get to Shenkuu?' one asks you.

ETA: Make that 6 days in a row of useless nothing from the daily:

A portal appears in midair, and you see Hanso and Brynn arguing. Behind them, an artefact glows brightly and then explodes, raining hot dogs everywhere.

On the plus side, JN has a guide up for the new random events. Apparently you can get 50NC off of one of the RE's?!
Apparently you can also now lose a level or a HP. And gain levels or strength (though the levels was possible before).

[Siniri]

I've been sitting on my third quest for days, waiting for the reset button to kick in. And profiting off the people willing to pay the exorbitant prices (which makes up for the wonky Food Club results this week -- yesterday there were long-shot upsets in all the positive arenas -- the probability for that combo was probably less than 1 in a million).

There's a funny thread on the Neoboards about how to make a stagnant puddle of water. Some of my favorite highlights:

I don't like the Moquot they attract

I'm going to be rich! Sell those Moquots the puddle attracts too while I'm at it. Dream Stealthy PB here I come!

I have a doubt, how can I sell them to another user without sell my garden too? I've tried to put the puddle in bottles but, when I do that the puddle change into a simple stagnant water

Why damage your Neogarden when you can simply stagnate your water in a bucket?
After your water becomes stagnant, pour the water on the floor to get a puddle.
Repeat several time to get a few puddles.
Remember guys, don't be stingy with your water or it'll become a stagnant drop of water instead!

The instructions are so complicated, I've ended up digging down to Moltara. Help?

But... but... I don't want to touch stagnant water.
Can you imagine how unhygienic it would be?
They should just ask for 'bottles of stagnant water'.

You collect Rainbow Dung.
I think you'll be okay.

Eh, gardening? Blah! Too much work

I just called upon my friend Matt... he surfs past puddles of stagnant water all day every day lol

http://www.neopets.com/games/sewage/index.phtml

I know this is Neopets, but this is the weirdest frickin' thing I've ever seen here....

"How do I keep my neighbor's annoying petpets from digging in the hole while I'm trying to make the puddle?"
You should go to Meridell and dig your holes near Turmaculus, then the petpets won't bother you.

[Pickles]

Day 7...another bust. Paid 18k for it. Ugh.

Day 8. ANOTHER bust. Seriously, does this thing work? At least I only paid 150nps for that one, but still! Did the odds of actually getting a useful RE just like, plummet?

[Daze]

I'm still sitting on my day 2 quest. I am with Siniri....I am waiting for the cancel button as I am not paying 20K each for 2 of the items I need.

I have sold off any of the items that seem to be needed but most of mine are only worth a couple of hundred nps.

[domo_hello_kitty]

I don't feel like this daily is worth it. There are a lot of outcomes that are neutral, some bad, and a few good ones, but the good ones may pay well. Regardless, this inflation, in my opinion, doesn't make buying the items needed to activate the machine worth the chance of getting those rare items.

[Pickles]

FINALLY something decent...for about 235nps
Quest 9:

An electric current seems to fill the room. When everything has settled, you see that there is something different about *battlepet's name here*. It looks like their level has gone up by 1!

I think I've spent around 50k so far (total between all 9 quests), and seeing as my training sessions usually cost much more than that, I guess it was worth it. I'll keep gambling on these, I guess.

[Jacob]

Despite the grumbling, I actually like what the The Coincidence has done. Otherwise worthless items no longer fill up the stockroom of a shop, and have a purpose for being collected and even sold. That some have gone into ridiculous prices because of it is a consequence I can accept. There is now an actual economy for Dailies. Now the market just needs to figure out the value of everything. Expect this madness to continue for a few months.

[Pickles]

I don't mind things being worth something again, that's for sure - I'm no longer discarding all my random daily "junk" like I used to.
However...
Paid about 20 nps...

An electric current starts to fill the room, but quickly leads to smoke. When everything has settled, you see that there is something different about *battle pet's name*. Oh, no... It looks like their hit points have gone down by 2!

That's like, 200k in training down the drain there. Sigh.