Reagent Map Project

The big Jewel socketing/Dragonspyre fishing update is online! As it happens, this is a perfect opportunity to post something seemingly unrelated... I just made a reagent map of nearly every area in Dragonspyre.

Wait, what? ... Let me rewind a bit.

With my return visits to Kensington Park several summer ago, I ended up finding a lot of Scrap Iron, so I made a crude reagent map. As I went through that process, it actually seemed pretty fun. A reagent map of one dungeon wasn't just some dumb project I had relegated to myself. I found it informative, and hoped to pass that knowledge around in the community.

 So, over the last year, I've slowly been developing spawn locations for every map in Wizard101. Here is the culmination of the reagent maps I have worked on over that time -- not much more than a drop in the bucket, but progress nonetheless. But first, let me explain what I've set out to do.

What is a reagent map?

A reagent map starts off as a Wizard101 area map. The image of the map is then manipulated to reveal where certain reagents lie in that area. This happens through symbols or other little images (as I have done), clearly showing where a reagent can be found in that area. After that, a reagent map can be formed in any creative, desirable way.

The Process

I don't have any fancy programs -- all I've really used is Microsoft Paint. To start off, I rendered images of every reagent available for picking up in-game, and gave most of them a colored background to make each reagent noticeable. Then, I mark down each spot on the map a reagent may appear (a "spawn point"). In that process, I take note of how many reagents show up in that area and eventually include that information on the side of the map. For instance, Twin Giants in Azteca will yield 2 Ore and 3 Stone Block spawn points every time you go through the area -- provided no one else has swiped some up.

As it is, I'm still cementing down the process. Eventually, I plan to experiment with making certain maps black & white (as shown in the Basilica map) so there won't be a clash of hues. Many spawn points are also right next to each other, so I've just started giving the rendered reagents some different sizes.

This Emperor's Retreat map, which I made while hunting for the Silver Streak fish, is fully complete. There are no clashing colors and all the spawn points are identifiable. In the end, that's my goal -- for easily readable maps of every area in the Spiral.

Making a reagent map is not a revolutionary idea. After crafting was introduced in the early days of Wizard101 blogging, The Evil Theurgist created many maps, which I believe ran up to Mooshu. Unfortunately, most of that data has been lost. But the idea was not unique. Our own Friendly Necromancer contributed his share to a growing database. Wizard101 Central's guide, "The Crafter's Bible", filled in reagent maps for all of Wizard City. Over 5 years after the release of crafting, I just want to continue the work of others and finally establish a completed database. That will take a lot of time, no doubt, but crafting will likely never lose its practicality, so the information will remain important.

In the meantime, you can check out the maps I've done - including the majority of Dragonspyre - right here: http://twoheadedwizard.blogspot.com/p/wizard101-reagent-maps.html

I'll be updating this page with new maps as regularly as I can. In the meantime, many of those maps will come in handy while out fishing in the multiple lava pools of Dragonspyre! :)

Happy Crafting!

Kensington Park Revisited

If you're a very long time reader of this blog and have a great memory, you may be familiar with my all too frequent runs of Kensington Park back in the day - a.k.a early 2011 (wow, that was long ago). In fact, I wrote a long story for a school assignment once, detailing what would have happened if Stoker had succeeded in taking over the city. But that's another story - although KP really helped out my English grade. Anyways, I did Kensington Park with friends or by myself at least a hundred times, if not more, largely in pursuit of the Antique Cello furniture item. I never got it from Stoker, but thankfully I was sold one not too long after. I never even got a measly Spider Golem or Seraph to show for my efforts *sob*. I got quite a few Hydrants and Pews, at least.

Recently, I've gone back to Kensington to experience the change that was implemented in the April 2013 Update - "Kensington Park has been shortened". Okay - that limits the nostalgia a bit, but hey, it is shorter, right?! But just how short? Let's see...

Kensington Park is rarely noted as a prime reagent spot - but you can count on getting an Ore, Scrap Iron or Stone Block in many nooks and crannies. Spots with a nice mix of reagents usually reside behind one of the six bosses in this dungeon. In fact, I've got something related to this near the end of this post...

A couple more pieces to my assorted Hydrant and Pew collection.

Going through time and time again, I've memorized these lines, but Gyro's accent is still funny as ever.

Next up was the ramp to Stoker's. Also a perfect opportunity for an image recreation.

Now,

...and Then (December, 2010)

I haven't really changed besides wand and image quality, really. Level 60 was still the Level Cap then (50 just a couple months before!)

I've still got my "HOUSING ITEM OF THE DAY!" set up in my pleasant abode, too - including the Dog House and Potion Motion still inside.

Well, there's that, and my fabulous music box.

Moving on, though. I haven't played Potion Motion in years..

Now we get to the shortened part, as the update said - if memory recalls, there were 3-4 levels of golem and spider clockworks to beat between Stoker #1 and Stoker #2. Since April, those levels have been removed, thus shortening the dungeon (remind anyone of the Counterweights?). With that, Mr. Waggs above quote is technically incorrect. "Lots of help from other malfunctioning clockworks"? Yeah, right :P

My only qualm with the update is that the notorious (well, to me) Metal Head minion has gone extinct. It is no more - gone to meets it maker (Stoker?). This minion occupied a floor or two of the old Kensington Park, welcoming anyone who entered with the feared words...

                      "You like music? Well, come on and dance to some Heavy Metal, Wizard."

Metal Head, I'll miss messing up your programming features, over and over again.

But, away from the unnecessary nostalgic feelings, Stoker #2 follows immediately after Stoker #1 now! Yay!

I failed to take notice of my health several times (there aren't any health wisps, as always :P), but a very well-timed critical frog saved my bacon. Thank you, my gross, fat friend.

Nothing redemptive. Some things haven't changed.

You can always count on four pieces of scrap iron lying around beyond Stoker #2. As far as I know, that's the best place for Scrap Iron in the Spiral. It's lying at the end of a high-scale 6-boss dungeon, but hey, it's sort of worth it.

Now we come to the good part of the post - I didn't just do one run of KP!

I had an idea - what if I added up the average gold totals to gauge the average amount you could make per run?

I did 10-15 runs, but I miss-categorized or forgot to note my change in gold a few times (delta-gold total if you will).

So, I have five totals. I guess the sample is representative enough for Kensington Park.

Gold Totals per run (including Quest gold):

Run #1: (8,191) -> Snacks: 5 -> +1000

Run #2: (9,562) -> Snacks: 7 -> +1400

Run #3: (8,069) -> Snacks: 6 -> +1200

Run #4: (7,987) -> Snacks: 4 -> +800

Run #5: (6,939) -> Snacks: 1 -> +200

Average Gold Per Run:
~8150 (Snacks: ~5)

(I added the cheap Rank 4 snacks and their value - they aren't included in the original totals, as I personally don't sell snacks above Rank 3.)

Last but definitely not least, my proudest accomplishment of this post---
A good old-fashioned Reagent Map!

Yep. Good MS Paint work, if I do say so myself.

Also, yes, there is a set number of the reagents you will run into (if you look well enough) while doing a full run. That's 19 total reagents!

Welp, nice to visit old dungeons again. See you again some other year, Kensington.

---

To conclude this post, I'd like to continue the theme of nostalgia and give some of my memories of Ravenwood Radio, which went off the air in an 18 minute finale Thursday afternoon. Of course, they're not done podcasting, and it sounds like we're going to be in for a surprise next Wednesday at Pieces of Eight. Nonetheless, it is the conclusion to a 92-episode, fun-filled 4 years of the best show around. I was a big listener in 2010 and 2011, but the timing of the podcast + my IRL schedule didn't match up, and I haven't been to a live show in much too long. However, I'm planning to be at Pieces of Eight in 4 nights - who can resist the excitement?

Stephen and Leesha (who was succeeded by Fallon Storm, then IcyWiz) had a great run with RR, no question. My first big memory is Episode 19 - the Kingsisle Celestia interview. Desperate for news since the announcement of Celestia in March, wizards watched in awe as concept art of the future Trial of the Spheres bosses was shown. I then copy-pasted from Ravenwood Radio afterwards. Then, of course, there were the Nightside after-parties. Who can resist staying up late to mingle with the wizardly masses? My first after-party was after the big interview, as well. Ah, to be 2010 again, posting incessantly with cringe-y material.

I won't lie, though, I miss those days. Evident by the title on Ravenwood Radio, I suppose I shouldn't be dwelling on the past, but getting ready for the good times of the future. Wizards like Kevin Battleblood and Fallon Shadowblade/Diary Of A Wizard aren't around any more, but community leaders come and go - and

the Wizard101 community continues to go in such a cycle. Our community now has some great ideas and projects going around, as Swordroll spotlighted. I'm more of a relic of the past by now who only posts on occasion, but my point is - be a part of and contribute to the "good times" and enjoy them. One great chapter of Spiral podcasting has ended, but another chapter with even greater potential has opened.

That was a weird convolution of memories and thought, but I am personally looking forward to what Stephen and his crew have up their sleeves. Let the good times go on.

Happy Questing!

Kensington Retirement

Several days grounded, the usual being done ITS... yeah, 6 days without a post, but I'll stop with the apologies now, few of you likely care that much :P.

Alric's party. lol, I like the Minotaur view, don't you? (RHYME! xD) It was his IRL birthday, and it was quite a big party. Got in a match or 2, had a good time ;)

Posing with a KP run crew :) (welcome back Sloan, hi Panglou -french for something cool- and hi new up-and-coming community member, Jordan). I think I'm done with Kensington for now, although it IS in my favorite world and is an awesome place. But, it takes an hour for a very rare chance at something good, and I have MS Furniture farming and such to do. So, I'm waiting till Halloween Towers again... 6+ months, gah! Yeah, forget the Antique Cello and stuff for now :P

So, for now, I'm farming for a Crabling and Wild Bamboo. Have 2 Crablings, just need ONE more for House and Bamboo for MS House. Next up is Paper Lantern Stand (Tomugawa) or Red Leaf Tree (Crowns - Everburn) in the Ancient Burial Grounds. Then, I guess more Crimson Fields farming - need 1 Wildclaw (Crowns, Yakedo), 1 more Lion-thingy statue (Grum) and 1 Pagoda Brazier (Kagemoosha). *Goes to Central to look up threads of people with a Cello. Comes back jealous*

IRL has been fine the last week, went to a Used Book Sale, got 3 from the Humor section :P. Also, should you care about sports, VCU is in the Final Four! Thats my Grandmothers alma-matter :D. And Butler, KY & UConn as well. Hoping any one of them except UConn wins, especially VCU.. would be huge. I can't wait for the end of this week, the "something special" -should it NOT be April Fools- , plus I'll try to pull off my dollar-on-the-ground trick xD. And then the weekend and the Basketball finals. Basically it! SO...

Happy Farming!

Pickle Shmickle

Hey Gang, still doing a lot ITS! Mostly Kensington Park (KP), but still.

Just for the heck of it, I ported Alura in to see how she would fare against Lord Nightshade. A LvL 5 Myth, equipped w/an Ascendant Staff. <- Haha, look at her health at that point, she'd go on to heal and become victorious. Fun little battle.

I decided to try the Fickle Pickles, VERY needy but huge loot tables. I need some of those high-level reagents and such, and some of the trashy TCs they harvest are good selling material (Wildbolt-1100 gold!)

SEE?!? Yeah, yea, say "humph" because I'm taking good care of you.

I did Kensington Park on Tarlac to test how long that would take; took basically the same time as Arlen (1 hour, straight up), although Tarlac died at one point because he was distracted at Twitter and Satyr fizzled, xD. So yea, pretty funny line of Stoker that I had completely forgotten. "Come and feel the burn!" ^_^

I also managed to solo the Jotun Bros. once, but have died every other time, hehe. Doing some HoV (Hall of Valor) runs for a change of pace from KP and want another Death Troll, Yardbird furniture item & Zombie pet. Its pretty fun attempting to solo them. For some reason, Grendels let you go as close as under their armpit before they pull you in, rofl

Random, lol. No, I'm not planning on keeping that Carved Pew there, that view just looked pretty ;).

As you can see, VERY random rewards and a huge loot table. One more 1/2 page not shown either :P. Have high hopes for it!

There was a lot of Wintertusk theorycrafting on Twitter, which P.D. wrote a post on. Its really fun -and confusing- to think about it all. Ravenwood Radio was great last night, I actually managed to listen to the whole thing! Ditto and Icy with her banhammer in the chatroom did great. Lots of questions being thrown out there last night :). And, should whoever is reading this check the other blogs and/or Central, you've heard about the Egg & Nightmare pet! Nightmare is a very pretty black w/firey hair-tuffs which gives Meteor Strike. I'm personally going to try for an Egg -literally, an Egg with duck legs- and get it great stats hopefully (Spritely, Pain-Giver, Proof & Defy is my dream pet :)) since it gives the Tower Shield card, and, its, well, cute! Unicorn & Helephant is the Nightmare, and Egg is Collossus & Dragon for clarification. Yes, the newbie WC Dragon and Unicorn, cool, huh? Thank goodness I saved Andrew's (my retired Ice guy, if you've heard about him) Collossus! Thats basically it, have a happy St. Patricks day too, and do that last minute Lucky Leprechaun farming from the Jade Oni if you want! I'm not wearing green, hehe, sorry! *pinches self*

Happy Farming!

Sights of the Spiral - Kenisington Park

Hey Gang! First off, I'm SURE you've heard, but 8.9 earthquake/tsunami in Japan. Probably a seriously buffed rogue Myth wizards spell combined with Tempest :P but in all seriousness, prayers for you guys over there. Now we go to my usual hangout in Marleybone.

"Gadzooks" "H.G Waggs" - Another reason MB is awesome.

Its not TOO bad that MB is always nighttime. Check it out.

They work rather late, too..

The Pavilions.. probably where you remember fighting frogs for a stolen ruby ring.

Water Tower! Also usually a couple reagents behind that one. Remember that :)

Tuna..

Love that Gearhead in the back: "Spiders.. my programming does not like Spiders!"

I think its the peak of the Industrial Revolution. I'll take that Scrap Iron to remember it.

Talk about a huge factory, 5 floors! And, yet again, that big old hunk of Iron wouldn't drop anything good. The usual Kensington run-through :/. IRL, I have a big basketball tournament tomorrow and Michigan came back vs. Illinois :D and faces the Buckeyes tomorrow (BOO). Then 'Selection Sunday'. Me loves March Madness ;)

Happy Picture-taking!

Kensington Park soloing and...

Hi wizzies! First off, here's my garden so far, I just killed the Baby Carrots though (No, I am not part of the Mafia, they were innocent -and cute- but my Trumpet Vines needed them out of the way to grow faster). I'm Journeyman (Rank 6) as you see!













Sweetness :). I've finally figured Gardening all out, I'm sure. Oh, see the Dragon Skull? There's a story behind that, which comes at the end... In the meantime, tonight I did a run of Kensington Park. Simple? I went solo. With NO Potions. :D


I got this from the last boss before the 1st Stoker (too lazy to look up the name :P). Who knew Magus wands dropped here? But, its No Trade sadly, so into the Bazaar with you. Anyways, I had some scary moments at first, but it all calmed down, and it was actually...easy.

Why do I love Marleybone? Answer left. That factory is so beautiful it gives me goosebumps looking at it, literally. That's 1/2 hour into my supposed suicide mission :)

A half-hour later. Done. No problem-o! But, it wasn't all for naught (not counting bragging rights, hehe). Take a look. At the HOUSING ITEM OF THE DAY!

HOLY FURRY WATER MOLIES THATS HUGE!

Plus, I snagged a Potion Motion -my favorite game- from the Bazaar. My life is complete. Jessica came to YELL HOUSING ITEM OF THE DAY! for me. Those gals are ALMOST out of their Shugo Chara obsession. I think. Anyways, moving on (you can go inside it too! AWESOME-SAUCINESS! And look at the Dog House Alric sold me. Oh, we're moving on? OK...)

I crafted that and the mega-mongous CL Bookshelf too. HI AMBROSE! He's watching you. Just sayin'...

Now, we'll get down to the earlier mystery of the Dragon Skull. How does one obtain this awesome piece of furniture?

That guy has a greeting thats almost better than Talos, I must say. Now *british accent*, we go to the Ol' Haunted Toweh of Dragonspieh, wheh one is lucky to escape... alive..

Yes, its full of glitches. 90% of the battles I did with him I was standing in the middle of the ring.
Plus, you can go through... walls... SEE?

Prepare for this place. Or you will end up a skull on a shelf. You can go through IRON bars, hehe! Also, even though this is a tower, it isn't really a dungeon. You can mark your spot and even change realms at the Vault Protector! Very useful to farm! Where is this place? In the Grand Chasm. That's all I can say. Look it up, because I do not want souls of the damned after me *looks around nervously*. The Dragon Skull, which the Vault Protector drops (3 floors of minions stand in your way, k?) helps any kind of Flytrap, Snow-peas, and Desparagus. Super-useful way to harvest every 2 hours!

We're nearing the end, so I'll tell you how I soloed Kensington Park now.

Deck construction: 3 Gargantuan, 3 Frogs, 2 Mythblades, 1 Spiritblade, Moon Pendant (amulet) and 2 Treant Polymorphs.

Now, for each boss, try your best to kill the minions without doing so to the boss. Now, play a Mythblade, look for the Time of Legend on your Moon Pendant, put a Gargantuan on a Frog and fire away! This, most of the time kills the minions but not the boss. When 1 mob is still fighting (usually boss, although a minion had a Mythshield once so it was him) use the Treant Morph, use Spirit Armor so no damage under 400 is done to you so you lose no health, then heal yourself back to full health! Now, finish off the remaining mob and move on. Thats what I did for each one, and it took me 1 hour, exactly :D. Here's a little guide to Kensington, but it was made almost 2 years ago so don't follow his rules on fighting (follow mine and you shall live! LOL) even though I really admire his ability to go as far as the 1st Stoker as a LVL 46 back then. Just look at how the minions walk, so you do your best walking without getting into annoying extra-robot fights. If you do, don't feel like an idiot because I got into 2 :P. Whoops, here's the link! - - - http://www.wizard101central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5264 . Great job and applause to the creator of it! Anyways, if you are not a Myth, just follow the rules I put with your school blade, bubble and 4 pip AoE. For Death and Life, you may just have to hit 1 by 1 with 2 Blades and a Wraith/Centaur, and both may not have to use the Treant Morph, lol. If you don't have Gargantuan, then go without it, although it is really good. It may just take longer, and you may have a better chance at dying. If you don't have the Treant Morph...ouch. It will be almost impossible without the Treant unless you stock 3 potions and Satyrs, or even if you don't have THAT, then Pixies. Lots. Got the guide, the Dragon Skull and the awesome Housing Item of the Day? Great! Incidentally, me and Jessica had never heard of the Camping Tent so I may have to add a Reply to the creator of the MB Furniture Drop-list, because I didn't see it there when I looked then around a month or so ago. (I'm getting into Central, a little bet, heh). YES! I'M DONE! YOUR FREE TO DO WHATEVER YOU WANT NOW! . . . . . Happy Planting and Furniture-finding!