Camps and Badges

It's Summer on the frontier and the kids are getting restless again... so what better way to keep them entertained than to take them out on a Summer Camp to Horseshoe Lake and teach them some life skills!

With Doc and Hank in tow it's time to get wild...

By taking them out into the wild we'll let them earn some merit badges and get us some new special items including the ability to store something lots have asked about for a long time!

It all starts as normal with a popup...

That then kicks off three four-mission threads and a wrapper (all details HERE) but no build! Instead we'll see a new map arrive with the daily sets on (think the Scavenger missions).

Each column will be a set of three missions that are (optionally!) repeatable and a wrapper that will need items from the missions, including these three new animals...

Now, onto the special storage, because I know that's what you want to know about! Well, once you complete the Wrapper you're going to be able to store 25 Stuffed Bear Statues into your Cave Bear along with the chance to collect the bonus from them!

So, what else new is arriving?

Well, one new free gift...

...which will go in the market along with some new bits.

Finally we'll see three new collections which will give mission items for the wrappers (again, think Scavenger).

So, lets get our kids wild-ready!

New Animals Animated

How awesome are these new guys, you gotta love the PT art department...

These are the Cave Bear, Prince Stag and White Wolf!

Gifted Vision...

It's time for Little Crow to grow up and find her future, and in doing that she is going to find a trick that may well make her one of our favourite homestead residents.

To become an adult in her tribe Little Crow has to take part in an ages old ritual of a vision quest, travelling deep into a dying forest to connect with the spirits and find her vocation in life.

Of course, it's up to us to help her... and trust me, she will repay us in a big way.

As usual we'll see a popup...

...which will herald the arrival of a 5 mission thread, along with a three mission set of wrappers on Monday (all details HERE).

The biggest change will be on the left hand side of our homestead however, where the third anniversary sideboard will be replaced by the Dying Forest which will come to life as Little Crow (with your help) brings it back from the dark (all details HERE).

Now, lets just put the mission and the build aside to talk about what you really want to talk about... just what it is Little Crow is going to do to help us... and trust me, it's a doozy.

Repeat after me... Extra Wall Post Items.

I'll just let that sink in for a second... smiling? Good, lets explain how it's going to work.

We activate the Boost by clicking Little Crow or the Spirit Tree decoration. A 15 minute timer will then begin to count down and we run off and get posting!

While the timer runs down the game will keep track of everything we post for in that 15 minutes and each time we post a little parcel doober will pop out showing that our total has gone up by one!

To begin with we'll be able to reload the boost once every 24 hours, but as we complete the missions we'll get shorter and shorter windows until we can reload and get our extra post items multiple times a day.

So, that excitement aside, what else are we going to be picking up with today's feature?

Well, one new Free Gift crop...

...and one new COIN crop, which will be in the market along with a few other mission related goodies.

The Lost Spirit Critter there is a new healable that will come into it's own on Monday when the wrappers arrive. It takes 10 Mini Totems to heal which are made from 2 Plant Spirits (Spirit Cactus, the new coin crop) and two inert totems (Wall Post).

They then become one of three styles.

Healing these will drop items from the new collection...

...and we'll need one of the collection for each mission on Monday.

Those missions will then get us special Spirit Animals for our homestead! We can pick one per mission...

So, let's help Little Crow find herself and her new job and name...

She Does... Or Not...

There's nothing like a wedding... or is there?

With Ted and Bess now gainfully engaged it's time to start planning for some Frontier Nuptials, with a new building a little more suited to a Ted and Bess wedding and all the excitement that comes before and after.

Of course, nothing on the homestead is ever that simple, as we'll soon find out as we work our way through the missions...

It's going to come down to us to decide something that could change the lives for two Frontier folk.

As usual, we'll see a popup to start.

That will kick off a set of 7 missions, 4 standard ones, a single wrapper and a paired set for Monday (all Details HERE). It'll also launch a truncated 3 step build, the Ceremony Ranch (all details HERE)

From there we'll do all manner of wedding related things, just what you'd expect... right up until we don't.

You see, there's a twist in this tale, and it's a twist that we, the PT Community, get to pick. If you've surfed around the net long enough you'll have come across "shippers", people who are emotionally invested in characters from TV, movies or books and decide the best relationship for them, sometimes creating one from scratch.

The most famous of these is probably Team Jacob vs Team Edward from Twilight... but if deciding which undead creature gets it on with a teenage girl doesn't get your creativity flowing, we now have our own version, Team Ted and Team Horse.

You see Bess, being the feisty young thing she is, is now having cold feet (yes, after she pestered us into a nightmarishly long set of repeatable missions to find her a date... women's perogative and all that) and isn't sure if she's ready to be tied down yet, or if she'd rather stay free, single and, apparently, horse riding instead.

So this is where we come in. Throughout the missions we'll be recieving "Good Advice" as a reward (legal note: advice may not be good, terms and conditions apply) as well as being able to earn extras by completing  Blossom Barrels, a mini-build that's bought from the market. (build details are with the building ones HERE)

We can then "spend" the Good Advice by telling Bess what WE think she should do, either Make Ted the happiest man alive... or marry him.

The votes will be tallied up on a bar inside the Ceremony Ranch and let us know how the commuity is voting, Man, or Horse.

After what is currently an unspecified amount of time the die will be cast... and the storyline will go the way the community have decided, either Bess and Ted will walk up the aisle, or she'll run off free and happy and Ted will remain in a weeping heap on the floor, probably swearing off women in general.

So which way will you vote? For more babysitting missions, or for another set of missions trying to get Bess a date she'll forget about in a month? The choice is YOURS! (Well, ours...)

(Quick note for anyone who remembers the Kissing Tree missions and the "but X and Y are still kissing under mine" that followed. Unlike that one this is 100% down to US... there are two plotlines from here on out and what we decide is which one gets used for EVERYONE, whether you voted that way or not.)

As per usual we'll see the variety of new mission goodies, from a free gift crop and tree...

...which requires water to grow (the tree, not the crop)...

...to a marketful of fresh new items...

...and a collection...

...which gives away a new little boost which will be something special for anyone who's a bit of a levelling fantaic, six hours of triple XP!

So, get your wedding planner hat on,... and your busybody breeches, and lets get this wedding all set up... and then either played out or burnt to the ground!

One Man's Trash...

...is another man's treasure!

So, it's time to trade some of our trash in return for some gold rush pioneers treasure!

As folks pile in to the Wikiwah River in the hope of panning for some of the shiny stuff, they're going to need to have some pretty long lists of supplies, so that sounds like the perfect time to let those entrepreneurial brothers, Bart and Bert, to roll with their latest idea, the Supply Depot.

As usual, it's popup time!

That will kick off a five mission, one wrapper thread (all details HERE) and a four step build, the Supply Depot (all details HERE).

The trick of the Supply Depot will then be revealed, it's ability to take items (some of which you may have got an abundance of in your inventory) and trade them for goodies!

First up we check inside to see what folks are after and are given various lists by Bart and Bert. The items can be either request items (of either type) or just homestead drops from old missions!

There are 30 different possibilities and, while some are from this mission thread and newer items, some are request items from old missions and abudant homestead drops. (See the full list HERE)

This one, for example, is the pans from this thread, the Chisels from the Survey Office/Flag Crafting and Ripe Pumpkins that have been dropping from Pumpkins since Thanksgiving 2011.

As you can see, fulfilling each request gives a set payment of Gold Dust and then finishing an entire list gives extras! But now comes the question... what will Gold Dust do?

Well, it's a brand new currency that will be used in the new Gold Dust Market where we can trade our Gold Dust in for boosts, Free Gift Crops, normally premium goodies and... oh yes, you saw it right, the elusive Royal Sceptre from the Jack's Gold missions!

The contents of the market will change around regularly so it's a chance we may see more hard to get items! (We'll be collecting ideas from folks to pass on...)

There will also be two new freebies...

...a few new things in the market...

...including a new tree that will need 2 caffeinated water... (We only need one)

...and, from Monday, a new healable, the Exhausted Llama, which is fed 10 AlpaCoffees which is made from 1 Pot O' Joe (Coffee Trees) and 2 Watering Tubes (Wall Post)

...and will then take one of three varieties...

They drop the Java Llama Collection...

So, lets get dumping some of our rubbish off on other people for cash!