Activity Updates

We've made some major updates to our activities, including brand new guides on-site and new rules. 

You'll want to check out the guides to see all the new examples and get the full scope of the new info, but here are the highlights:

You may now submit up to 3 focus characters per prompt! This goes for all activities- aging quests, hunting/foraging, adventure, seasonals, and events. If you are the owner of all 3 characters, you can submit them all together in one submission (any EXP discrepancies will be adjusted manually). At this time, our coding to support focus characters from different owners in one submission is still in progress, so in these cases, each person with a focus character will need to make 1 submission per character- but they can all be depicted together, in one scene, on one background, and all will receive rewards!

Speaking of backgrounds: with the new rule of 3 focus characters per piece, we've decided to disallow split backgrounds (that is, one background with lines across it to make separate entries), since the new focus character rule functionally allows for the same thing without needing to carve the piece up! This means that each entry will need its own background, and cannot be a continuation or portion of another background that's been cut off.

Requirements have been updated! Aging quests and courtships now do not require shading. Hunting, foraging, and adventure quests will still require shading at this time, but is subject to change after the test period. Literature requirements have also been updated: activity quests now require 1,200 words, aging quests and courtships require 1,000 words, and seasonal quests require 800 words.

We've added a submission form for activities just to include some basic info! This will help us for the time being until we have more coding in place for a pre-made form and to note additional focus characters until we get the coding for 3 in one submission.

Check out the guides for the rest of the details!

These new standards are now active and are considered to be in a testing phase. We'd love to hear your feedback on this new system as you try it out! The new rules are subject to change, and we'll be adjusting things that don't end up working well.

Some loot tables were adjusted with this new system, but there were no major changes to drop rates, and the specific items/currency/etc. which drop from each prompt have not changed (besides some new boxes- see more on that below).

Minor Changes

The aging prompt Home Sweet Home has been updated to Homecoming. While similar, we've changed the wording on this prompt a bit to hopefully make it a little easier to follow the prompt! 

To work with the new multiple-focus-character system, we've updated all quest rewards to be granted to the focus character, including currency. You'll need to navigate to your import's bank in order to transfer relic bones and seasonal currency to yourself. This is an extra step that we're sure no one enjoys, but don't worry- we're already laying out plans for faster, mass transfers from characters to users, and will aim to have that coded in sooner rather than later!

As is the case with our other coding projects here- our navigation bar is pending an update to add direct links to the new quest guides! In the meantime, we've added links for the quest guide to each of the activity categories, so you can access them there if you need to check anything. 

Grace Period

Starting from today (Sep 14), there will be a 30-day grace period for pieces which follow the old standards, so if you have pieces in progress which are in compliance with the old standards, but maybe not the new ones, then you don't have to worry about changing them up. Entries with split backgrounds will still be allowed until Oct 15, as well as anything following the older rules. Please be aware that you cannot combine the old rules with the new ones; that is, you shouldn't have split background pieces with multiple focus characters, as they will not be accepted.

If you are submitting something that is following the old standards, please make sure you note it in the submission comments so staff can properly process it!

Treasure Hunt

What better way to test out the new standards than with a little exploration?

Items have washed up on Isla Kela, and the shopkeeper would like some help collecting them to restock his shop! Dinosaurs may discover some lost pieces of a map if they follow his directions. These map pieces may have many secrets to reveal. Each location will reward a certain type of box as loot as well as a piece of the map. Put together all the pieces to craft a new museum background- Time Immemorial!

You can explore each location 1 time (with 1 focus character), but you can join together with your friends if you'd like to have multiple focus characters and earn rewards together!

The new boxes dropped in each of these quests are guaranteed rewards for this treasure hunt- but you'll also be able to find them in regular hunting, foraging, and adventure quests! These boxes each contain one of our activity-exclusive backgrounds announced in the previous update as well as some additional goodies. The activity backgrounds will no longer drop on their own; instead, they'll be found inside these boxes, which you can transfer to your user inventory and open up!

The Treasure Hunt prompts are not included in the grace period and must follow the new quest standards.

TheTreasure Hunt prompts will be available for 30 days (until Oct 15 at 9:00 pm EST)!

We hope you enjoy these updates and have fun hunting for treasure!

As mentioned, we are totally open to suggestions on the new quest standards, and would love to hear your feedback. We've still got some work to do on the backend with coding in some features to help with this system, but this area is our current priority, and we hope to have this coming along soon!

And up next, once we've finished our testing phase and any adjustments with this system, we've got some exciting things in store...