The Labyrinth, Revisited

Nobody likes the Labyrinth. At first. You have to go back for the obsidian chest and, for some, a level 48 spell. It's like the catchy song you don't want to hear at first, but end up listening to on repeat. 

Just snake (snake snake snake snake) it off.

In all seriousness, the Labyrinth used to be hard. I rated it #5 on my list of hardest dungeons before Celestia. It is still rather long, though. Imagine 7 bosses in a row in Khrysalis. By level 150, that dungeon would be a breeze, albeit a lengthy one.

Though no one's really going out to farm for level 45 gear, the Labyrinth is still a surprisingly nice place for loot. Love pets? Vladimir Darkflame drops three of them. Two of them are crowns pets: the Death Leprechaun and Pale Maiden, the latter being retired from the Crowns Shop. 

Rare statue? Yep.

New jewels? Got them.

It's a pretty neat place to fish, too, although there's only one unique species.

Bottomless cliff fishing. What could go wrong... right?

There's also plenty of weird phenomena going on in this otherwise calm area where criminals walk the streets. Kind of sounds like Gotham City, really. It's when you get behind the gates that the Labyrinth becomes a little bit of a freak show. 

It has...

Boss clones. ✔

Mobs invading your personal space. ✔

Like, really invasive mobs. I can't fish and kill you at the same time.

Lastly, I felt like Lord Spike - my old Orthrus who still holds a place in my heart and blog banner -  needed some closure. I paid a visit to the old owner of his dog collar.

Ranulf, the red-faced... whatever the heck you are.

You could even say his face glows after being hit with cartoonish vomit.

I then observed another weird phenomenon when I logged off and came back.

Yep, the dungeon restarted. And I was still behind the gate.

Locked in with the personal space invading monsters?!? This was too much. I had to log off.

Curiously, I couldn't seem to replicate the glitch. I guess it only happens after you beat all 3 floors of Ranulf's tower (and you can only be a Myth wizard to do that). Perhaps it's for the best though. Imagine being roommates with those discolored trolls and minotaurs.

Last but not least, I had to take this opportunity to do the Labyrinth's reagent map. I wasn't exactly looking forward to it, but I did get that Wyrmkin statue and neat jewelry from all the repeated battles.

Voila. Red-faced Ranulf approves, I guess.

Happy Crafting!

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!

Celestia's Effect - More Hype = Awesom-er World?

Happy 2nd birthday, Celestia!

Back in 2010, the community waited anxiously from March 24th-October 27th, 7 perilous months all building up to the biggest world release yet, Celestia.

Now, a wizard today might ask - what took so long? After all, the time between worlds being released today is faster than that announcement/wait for one world.

Of course, Kingsisle had less staff then, but the prolonged wait wasn't all bad. The Advanced Pets update acted as a sort of distraction, maybe creating less of those I'll-Come-Back-When-Celestia-Comes-Out players. But when Celestia finally arrived, long-awaited "SQUEEs" of excitement arose from everywhere. I mean, look at my blog post on October 8th, 2010. Okay, I was a little less mature back then, but you get the point ;P. The fact that we were finally going to Celestia was huge. Ravenwood Radio held one of their after-parties the night before the live release, and a few of us stayed until the "maintenance" clock struck, happy to witness the final minutes of pre-Celestia Wizard101.

Celestia isn't my absolute favorite world, but it was definitely the most exciting. Wintertusk came out next Spring, a two month wait after Ditto's announcement, once again pretty exciting. Ever since, though, the worlds have come out of nowhere - Zafaria came out in the Test Realm about a week after it was announced (though there was a picture of elephants leaked that summer). We got a puzzle for Avalon, but, besides the long Test Realm, that wasn't a long wait either. I was surprised myself, as shown from my April 11th post -

"Really though, I'm surprised they've released one so soon after the puzzle.. wasn't ZF released just 5 months ago too?" 

Now it's been 6 months since Avalon, which isn't too bad. But now, where's the hype for Azteca? It was announced just hours before it hit the Test Realm. Is 7 months (Celestia), 7 days (Zafaria) or 7 hours (Azteca) more appealing? We'll have to go in-between for the majority opinion: 7 months is too long and 7 days too short.

In my opinion, Wintertusk's release was quite exciting, and would have been even more if it were a main world. So, 2 months wait is a suitable amount of time, but I'd advocate an even longer wait time - not 7 months though, as some element of impatience outdoes the wonderful effect of the world finally being released.

So, that narrows it down to 2-7 months. There is one more waiting period wizards faced, albeit the first - Dragonspyre. 4 months after Wizard101 opened, DS opened it's doors to conclude the Malistaire saga (or maybe not?!?). Besides the obvious "Malistaire stole the Dragonspyre key!" clue to the next world, DS didn't seem to have any announcement (I could be wrong) until the Test Realm opened its doors in January, 2009. 3-5 months seems to be an optimal amount of time between announcement and release without starting to alienate the now-millions of players. We may live in an increasingly hyper-attentive society, but the prospect of a new world does not leave the minds of players between the announcement and release.

I don't have any way to prove that 3-5 months is an optimal amount of time, but it's the best bet - especially if it's been at least 8-10 months since the last world. It probably won't happen, but this timetable would be a smart move for Kingsisle. I mean, Azteca looks awesome-with-Mooshu-bbq-sauce, but it's hard to get really excited over a world that goes from announcement to Test Realm in only a few hours.

So, let's celebrate Celestia with the ironic timing of Azteca - Alura, Arlen's little sister (not really, just a roleplay :P) , just got to level 48 (I'll supply the beginning of WT with Mycin/Orthrus pics next post), so Celestia is open for my 10th wizard!

Ah, welcoming words.

Even more welcoming words after the first battles of Celestia.

First cast of Orthrus! However, it was futile - my first two boss battles each took three attempts before emerging victorious. Tough being a level 48 Conjurer in Celestia.

FINALLY, DIE!

...

*ahem*

Well, this has been a nice post. Only X more days till Azteca......................................................................................................................................... :D

Happy Questing!

Questing With A Vengeance

My old hiatus record was around a month, correct?
Well, triple that and I suppose I'm back. I have cookies.. I mean, excuses.
Semi-internet-less for a whole summer can get boring, and then there was the problem of me having my mom's e-mail to sign in for this blog, which I just fixed. Last but not least, there's high school. Woooo. But, I will get my own laptop soon.

On that note, not blogging doesn't mean not playing! (Though I know most of you are off doing P101 ;P)

Sophia demonstrates the capabilities of her arrow

Fun with anagrams! ;) 

Picture Godzilla at sunset. In a zoo.

Alura, Arlen's little sister, has been making a lot of progress as well.

Soloing Youkai for fun - with a little help from my monsters (Lady Gaga puns, really?)

And more help from.. that field with flowers in the center

Fun fact: Imps are terrible swimmers (plus their violins aren't waterproof)

My deck for the battle (with a little treasure card help on the Satyr)

Just the first of many double digit situations I would face in Dragonspyre. Keep in mind that without doing side quests, she's not even level 40 at this point. However, she isn't Angus Unicornpants, so that's a measly excuse :P

Yet another encounter of the beasts - and low health.

I know mandrakes are supposed to resemble humans, but this is ridiculous.

Okay, just a simple random shot. Who says Wizard101 isn't pretty?

This was interesting - I got into a battle with fire elephants while transformed into an elephant. Naturally, one of them used helephant. Didn't get the shot at the right time, but interesting photo op. 

Stopping for some munchies along the way.

Out of the Labyrinth, thanks to a little help from Mycin. I forgot the Stone rose, though. That's like remembering you forgot one important item from the store. Cursed roses.

A little more boss drama - this time won with help from a puppet minion (yeesh, only more level till level 45 gear)

And of course, the old tradition of confronting the apple tub. I wonder if bobbing counts as an assault charge?

On that note, Alura is now at Malistaire's Lair. I have to admit, I'm really looking forward to doing CL again for some reason. I suppose it's the nostalgia from two years ago. Only 10 days till the two year anniversary!

Hope everyone is progressing well in Pirate101. Don't forget Wizard101, though ;)

Happy Questing!

Don't Fear The Reaper.. again.

Happy last day of Shamrock Shakes for another year!

The Death duo has:
-Gotten to Vestrilund (2 WT areas!)
-Beaten DS (Couldn't get to CL because of level 48 requirement)

-Achieved level 48 and didn't really work on any houses

Not bad.










Could of just used this to break open the egg instead of fighting 10 Juggernauts who over-use death shields..












The spell is useful in a bit of cases, but I wish they'd lessen the consequences. Balanceblade is 5% less, but is 0 pips and doesn't require a 'sacrifice'. I'm okay with some sacrifice, but either making Dark Pact 0 pips or making the damage 100 or 200 would help. But hey, glad I have the spell :P









Pirate > Raven












JUXTAPOSITION! (Good word for English class)












And so, the duo finished the Forum. Always a good photo opportunity with Father Drake, especially with the matching red ;)








I feel awesome killing Malistaire with one of his past servants.




*eyeroll* Clever..









How is a bird related to Bartleby?








In the well.. this would be a good nuclear fallout shelter (creepy thought, I know)









I love summoning dead things.










Even better, fluffy things! :3 Sadie is scared, though.




Aaand it's time for the Scarecrow quest. ". . . terrible nightmares for a year . . . insane with terror." Creeeepy.









lol, backwards






Music scroll find :)












Quest name fail (same quest name in a GH quest :P) good song though!















1) I love it when random people watch.
2) Sadie's sinking o_o..

Poor "King" Sadie is going in the backpack soon..

So, let's set some goals for the beginning of April:

• Get to Nastrond
• Beat Survey Camp-Grotto
• Finish DS crafting quest on Cheryl, start CL crafting quest (Chase is a Master Artisan!)

Running out of time, so I'll wrap it up there. Time to finish Vestrilund, start Celestia and watch some college basketball. Have a good week(s)!

Happy Questing!