Labyrinth / Maze Event. - Xanadu - January 9 at 4:00PM UTC

spellcast · December 4, 2015

OK, time and date set.

The event will be run on January the 9th at 4PM UTC.

I will open the teleports about 15 minutes before then to give players a chance to congregate.

Copied from the weekly news: (yeah, I forgot to put in a timer, apologies, it's been a long couple of weeks)

I have added a timeout to all of the door missions, so anyone who did not clear them will have them fail when approaching them for the first time... The sign to clear them will be re-located and a warning message added as you arrive to notify players to examine it to reset the door missions. If you do not use it, you will not get any advantage because if you approach a door that you have the mission for already it will just time out and you will have to begin again on it anyhow.

The main labyrinth mission will also be reset at the same time so players will need to examine the start sign again to enter the first gate.

The maze will probably cause a fair bit of FPS drop, so I strongly suggest tweaking your settings just a bit. The fog probably does not help, but is needed in order to prevent players on the bridges from getting a better look at the general layout of the maze itself.

Hope to see you all there.

Busy holiday week for me.. Have not had time to look at rescheduling this. I think I am going to hold off until the weekend of the 9th because my work schedule is hectic this coming week as well. (I am a manager at a grocery store and we are doing whole store inventory for the end of the year)

I will be making some minor adjustments to the labyrinth in order to ensure everyone begins with a level playing field.

Details on anything I do that will affect what you need to do will be added to this post as necessary.

Just thought i would poke this thread and let everyone know I haven't forgotten about it.

OK, figured out why it was letting people fall through the floor and the fix seems to be holding up (if you want to know what went wrong, I posted what was happening on page 2 of this thread), we will use some other test characters tomorrow (supplied by other GM's) but.. as of now:

It looks like everything is working again and characters are remaining on the correct floor during a logout...

-HOWEVER- We will most likely hold off running it until early january at this point for the following reasons:

I want to give at least 2 days of warning, but running it during the week is hard on a lot of people, and the week of christmas probably even worse.

We avoided next weekend because many people will have holiday travel plans for the weekend after christmas.

I am unsure about the first weekend in January, but if enough people seem interested the 2nd or 3rd might be an option, We will have to see, otherwise the 9th of january might win by default.

Moved some of the older parts of this post to the second post in this thread.

Sigh. The event has been cancelled and teleports to the site have been turned off. Under stress testing some things broke that worked fine with only 1 or 2 testers at a time, and repairing it is not a simple task.

anyone who logged out inside the maze area itself and is stuck, please put in a support ticket to be returned to the maze entry area. I placed a sign with consolation prizes that those inside the event area can examine to claim something from the mess.

Using the "Give up" sign on the north wall will clear all of the door missions from your list, but not the main hunt mission itself, in the hopes that i can get something working and we can try again in the future.

My apologies for it not going as planned.

Again, the teleports TO the event site are turned off, but it is still possible to return from the site to the town you came from.

Timer removed as irrelevant

OK. We have about 10 hours until this event begins, I thought i would post a few last minute notes about the what, and the how.

The teleport missions are in place (but not yet turned on).

Somewhere in each start town, and near the impalong, there is a 1x3 building with the imaginative name of Dec Hunt Teleport. The buildings have marble Brazier Pillars next to them to help you find them if it is night. On top of the buildings there is a GM sign with the name of the location.

Examining the signs will allow you to teleport to the event location. Horses and carts will be left behind when teleporting, so please make sure you have stored them safely before using the teleports.

I will turn on the teleport missions ~10-15 minutes before the event start time, so there will be a bit of time to get to the event site itself, get pictures, chat with friends, organize into groups etc...

The only thing you need is to be there. You could run this maze on an account with absolutely nothing in inventory if you wanted. (you would be VERY VERY thirsty by the time you finished, but you could do it.)

Once the maze itself has been opened, players will be able to search it, if you grow tired or just want to leave, you can return to the entrance and teleport home. I would strongly recommend against using a farwalker twig, stone, meditation teleport, or other method to escape the maze, as it will prevent you from being able to use the teleports at the start towns to return to the event site.

Progress in the maze will not be reset simply by leaving the event area, so if you need to go do something else, want to go use a bed, or need to go replenish your water supplies it is possible to do so and then return via the teleports.

There are several missions tied to this event, and I have located a sign inside the event start area so that you can clear them all out when you finish the maze or decide to give up.

Caution: Using the sign that clears the missions will permanently lock you out of the maze on that character. You should only do so if you have no plans to return to the maze area.

spellcast · December 4, 2015

Older Updates

Enki and I have made good progress on this one, with some help from several other GM's, Not going to release many details other than the following:

- No tools will be needed. I do strongly suggest you bring a lot of water and some food, I fully anticipate you guys being lost in this one for a month or two.

- Examine will be the only action needed to solve the clues/puzzles.

- There will be some little side things to find, nothing that will affect the hunt itself, and probably nothing of really high value, but little unique things to encourage extra exploration.

- There will not be any mobs inside the event itself, tho after you teleport to the event site and are waiting for the doors to open there is a good chance that some GM's will be there entertaining ~~ourselves~~ players by spawning a few mobs.

The final Prizes.

~~When~~ IF you get to the end; There will be 30 chests ( i think), each with a prize set. I am not doing the smaller chance prizes for this event, tho there will still be an element of chance involved in the bigger grand prize.

The prize sets will be a rare tool, something useful, a bit of coin, and maybe something else. TWO of the chests will also contain grand prizes, in the form of one of the challenge masks. (there will be two different masks, 1 per chest) The grand prize chests will be randomly mixed in, and include the set as well. the first 30 (i think) people to finish ALL get a prize set. 2 will be lucky enough to get masks as well.

Everyone who finishes gets a participation award, and an achievement that is new and specific for this event only. (I made the word achievement bold because people keep mistaking it for a title. I can't give out titles, just achievements)

One of the reasons for the boosted prize pool is that this event marks a full year of managing to create these things and get them run. It's an accomplishment and we are celebrating a bit.

Another reason is that we anticipate a much larger draw for this event with the new ability to plot a course at server borders. This makes getting to events much simpler and reduces the frustration of sailing for days to get to an event. When coupled with the teleports from all 8 of the start towns and the impalong, we really do hope to see a lot of you there.

Finally: I will probably need to take a break from setting these up for at least a few months. Some issues have cropped up in real life that will make my spending 40+ hours a month on these very very difficult, and until I can deal with that annoying RL I have to devote my energy there.

OK, as mentioned in a couple of other threads, we are pushing hard to get the december event run earlier in the month than normal to allow players time for the holidays and to interfere as little as possible with real life travel plans and festivities.

This event will be a maze style event, with all the activity restricted to a single location. Players will enter a maze, and have to explore it. Along the way they will encounter obstacles that will require them to solve a puzzle or clue and then search other areas of the maze to find the item or object referenced by the clue in order to progress.

Access to the event will be by teleport from all of the xanadu start towns AND the xanadu impalong. http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/132069-nw-xan-impalong/ (since I was unable to schedule the event before the impalong, I spoke to the organizers, and there will be a teleport option for those at the impalong to also be able to attend the hunt.

When you finish with the maze (or give up and crawl back to the entrance) you will be able to teleport back to the location you began at. Horses will not be able to come to the maze itself, and you will not be able to get to the event by any method except teleporting.

As we get closer to the event (and I get more stuff finished) I will post some more specific details about what you can expect within the maze itself. (there will NOT be any combat in the maze itself, tho I may entertain ~~myself~~ ahem... i mean... you wonderful players.... by spawning mobs as you all are waiting for me to open the entrance gate.)

whykillme · December 4, 2015

Yay another maze to get lost!

Jaz · December 4, 2015

Really lovely idea! Including the all stat towns and the impalong teleports! (next time please put down a teleport machne next to my bed as well please )

I'll definitely want to be there and I hope I'll be able to make it - the last maze hunt was frustrating on the first day and enormous fun on the second day when I restarted it...

Xalorum · December 4, 2015

Looking forward to trying it.

Maybe you can convince the coders to keep those portals up when it's over and have them connect to each other!

spellcast · December 4, 2015

3 hours ago, Jaz said:

Really lovely idea! Including the all stat towns and the impalong teleports! (next time please put down a teleport machne next to my bed as well please )

I'll definitely want to be there and I hope I'll be able to make it - the last maze hunt was frustrating on the first day and enormous fun on the second day when I restarted it...

Maybe I can just move your bed to one of the start towns... would that work? (it won't be inside... so you won't be able to use it... but the bed will be there)

3 hours ago, Xalorum said:

Looking forward to trying it.

Maybe you can convince the coders to keep those portals up when it's over and have them connect to each other!

The teleports are for the event only, and definitely won't be connected to each other. They are a convenience to allow players to attend the event, not a form of fast travel around the server. =D

Pingpong · December 4, 2015

So how about a teleport from the other servers hmmmmm? Looking forward to it!

JakeRivers · December 4, 2015

No love for Exo

No way in hell am I sailing to xanadooze

Jaz · December 4, 2015

8 hours ago, spellcast said:

Maybe I can just move your bed to one of the start towns... would that work? (it won't be inside... so you won't be able to use it... but the bed will be there)

Errr. I should have know better. I've been playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons back in million years 8 days a week 36 hours a day - if a Wish was not worded with utmost care the GM always bended it over..

Jaz · December 4, 2015

6 hours ago, Pingpong said:

So how about a teleport from the other servers hmmmmm? Looking forward to it!

Might be that Newspring island will have a lot of fancy ships parking on the weekend?

Ostentatio · December 5, 2015

Will we need any equipment in the maze, or would showing up naked and with an empty inventory be fine?

spellcast · December 5, 2015

11 minutes ago, Ostentatio said:

Will we need any equipment in the maze, or would showing up naked and with an empty inventory be fine?

well, you might want to bring some water and a snack.... but there shouldn't be any tools required for participation. My intent is to have everything use examine as a trigger to make it as accessible as possible to anyone and everyone.

griper · December 7, 2015

Is this a "hunt event" without combat?

Pingpong · December 7, 2015

I happen to find this in the logs, I doubt it'll be bloodbath free >.>

[2015-11-29] [12:04:54] You get a corpse of old champion get pingpong.

Aeryck · December 7, 2015

Any rules against using the teleport as an opportunity to do business? I have a non-mailable item I would like to sell and this would be an easy way to pass it to potential buyers. Also cant wait for the hunt

spellcast · December 13, 2015

On 12/7/2015 at 3:12 PM, Aeryck said:

Any rules against using the teleport as an opportunity to do business? I have a non-mailable item I would like to sell and this would be an easy way to pass it to potential buyers. Also cant wait for the hunt

No rules against it, since only players will be able to use the teleports (no carts, wagons, or mounts), it should make bulk sales fairly impossible, so if you want to do a bit of business while waiting for the gates to open I don't see an issue with that.

Enki and I have made good progress on this one, with some help from several other GM's, Not going to release many details other than the following:

- No tools will be needed. I do strongly suggest you bring a lot of water and some food, I fully anticipate you guys being lost in this one for a month or two.

- Examine will be the only action needed to solve the clues/puzzles.

- There will be some little side things to find, nothing that will affect the hunt itself, and probably nothing of really high value, but little unique things to encourage extra exploration.

- There will not be any mobs inside the event itself, tho after you teleport to the event site and are waiting for the doors to open there is a good chance that some GM's will be there entertaining ~~ourselves~~ players by spawning a few mobs.

The final Prizes.

~~When~~ IF you get to the end; There will be 30 chests ( i think), each with a prize set. I am not doing the smaller chance prizes for this event, tho there will still be an element of chance involved in the bigger grand prize.

The prize sets will be a rare tool, something useful, a bit of coin, and maybe something else. TWO of the chests will also contain grand prizes, in the form of one of the challenge masks. (there will be two different masks, 1 per chest) The grand prize chests will be randomly mixed in, and include the set as well. the first 30 (i think) people to finish ALL get a prize set. 2 will be lucky enough to get masks as well.

Everyone who finishes gets a participation award, and an achievement that is new and specific for this event only. (I made the word achievement bold because people keep mistaking it for a title. I can't give out titles, just achievements)

One of the reasons for the boosted prize pool is that this event marks a full year of managing to create these things and get them run. It's an accomplishment and we are celebrating a bit.

Another reason is that we anticipate a much larger draw for this event with the new ability to plot a course at server borders. This makes getting to events much simpler and reduces the frustration of sailing for days to get to an event. When coupled with the teleports from all 8 of the start towns and the impalong, we really do hope to see a lot of you there.

Finally: I will probably need to take a break from setting these up for at least a few months. Some issues have cropped up in real life that will make my spending 40+ hours a month on these very very difficult, and until I can deal with that annoying RL I have to devote my energy there.

Heartland · December 13, 2015

Yay! Can't wait

zigozag · December 15, 2015

So, at what time (GMT) will this glorious event start?

spellcast · December 15, 2015

Exact time will be posted probably tomorrow. Still sorting out my real life schedule, but it should be late afternoon / early evening UTC (probably either 4 or 5 pm)

spellcast · December 17, 2015

OK, Hunt time finalized to 4PM UTC.

as always, someone PLEASE double check my math on the timer. lol.

zigozag · December 18, 2015

The math is correct Can we use alts in this event?

spellcast · December 18, 2015

You can only claim one prize per character... with that said..

If you complete it, and want to subject yourself to it on a second character, you might be a masochist.

I really wasn't kidding when i said i expected you guys to be lost in this one for a month or two. lol.

Seriously, Please don't go back in with another account just to get another prize chest... If you want to bring a second account and use it to explore paths you didn't take, I don't mind. But one prize per player please.

Even once you complete the journey and gain a prize.... There will be areas you may not have reached due to the way it has been organized. It will be possible to remain in the maze to continue to explore if you like. There are secondary prizes scattered about that everyone can get (as well as some that only the first person to search there can claim)

spellcast · December 19, 2015