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Thursday 26 September 2013

Broken Nature

Ever since she found her new identity, Storm Crow has had a strong connection to the homestead, so when things start breaking around the stead and she falls ill at the same time we know things have gone wrong...

It's up to us to do our bit to heal the young Native American and solve the problems of the homestead in one go, and in return Storm Crow will help us out in return with another new skill she has learnt from the spirits.

So, for starters, it's a popup!


That will kick off a standard 5 mission thread, with a wrapper and a Monday wrapper (all details HERE) and a 4 step build, the Nature Shrine (all details HERE).

Now, we probably should go straight into the Nature Shrine and what it's going to do for us, because it's anything but useless.

The Nature Shrine can channel the spirits of the Homestead into items that will help us finish missions! When we activate the Shrine it gives us a 15 minute window and, during that time, every different item we direct request, we get one back, a la Spirit Tree.


It'll become active after the second mission then, the more missions you complete, the faster the gap between each use, dropping from 36 hours at first, then 26, 18 and finally 12 hours, so every time we can DR!

The Nature Shrine has a second job too, and that's to give us magical items to calm the angry homestead spirits in return for offerings.


When we give an offering to the shrine it'll give us a magic amulet. Those are then used (3 apiece) on Weather Disturbances, Animal Disturbances and Plant Disturbances. They in turn reveal the angry Weather, Animal and Plant spirits within who will be healed with 3 items of their own which are wall requested (Weather Wooer, Plant Pacifiers or Animal Appeasements.)

We have two offering choices, a simple offering that's made with drops from Peppermint and a Wall Post item and will give us one amulet...


Or we can add Horseshoes to make a Potent Offering and that'll give us one of each amulet.


We'll see two new free gifts, a new crop and the Plant Disturbance mentioned earlier.


Those will be in the market along with a bundle of other new items.


Finally we'll see a new collection with a great reward, an Eco Jacking and one of the Potent Offerings!



So, lets get working and get more goodies for our missions!


Thursday 19 September 2013

Not Easy Being Green

It seems a new plague has hit the Frontier, a jumping, croaking fly eating one! (Hmm, maybe not such a bad plague then, I wonder if they can catch Spider Wasps...)

This hoppy infestation has come from lord knows where and even Fanny is stumped!

So, time to get your exploring gear on and try and work out just where these amphibian invaders have come from!

As usual, the new feature will kick off with a popup...


This will start off a 4 mission thread with a wrapper and a Monday wrapper (all details HERE) and, of course, a build, the Frog Haven (all details HERE) although it is only 3 steps.

From there on out these will be a traditional set of Partner Missions, as we find various different frogs and grow them either on our own, or with a neighbour, for goodies!


There will be four different frog types...


And they will be fed with 34 Frog Parcels which are made with 2 Pond Pads (White Water Lily/White Orchids) and 3 Leftover Bugs (Wall Post)


We'll also see a healable Kissing Frog that can turn into a Prince! That takes Frog Kisses, which are crafted with 2 Hopping Hope (Mayfly Nests) and 3 Volunteer Lips (Wall Post)


As well as those in the market we'll see a new free gift crop...


...along with a few other goodies.


Finally, we have a collection!


So, time to play Frogger...


Thursday 12 September 2013

Insect-Inside

It's back to school time on the Frontier and Fanny has come up with a new project for the children this term, one that'll teach them all about some of the smallest inhabitants of the Frontier...

Fanny's decided the theme of this term is going to be Bug Collecting, and will be teaching all the children how to find and safely catch creepy crawlies.

Of course, there's something in it for us as well... as it seems there's some collectors willing to pay for some good Frontier bugs.

As usual, things will start off with a popup...


That'll start up a set of 8 missions, 2 wrappers and a Monday mission (all details HERE).

They're all accessible from a mission manager screen...


Each mission will reward us with Creepy Crawlers, which we'll be collecting for a total in the wrapper missions.

We're also going to see the Creepy Crawlers drop from a variety of new placeables and healables that will be integral to the mission.

That's the Rotting Log, Musty Shack, Bug Nest and Vibrant Meadow and they'll each take a different item to search, all details are in the mission posts.

Searching them will allow us to collect actual insects, spiders and bugs that are placeable items on the homestead and can be sold off for special rewards including coins, Gold Dust, even Horseshoes...

Oh, and even better, the Early Worm Boost will double all rewards!

We'll also get goodies by completing "Extra Credit" missions, those will be marked on the mission manager screen and act like the Hotspot missions in Fishing, hopefully minus the Letter!


In the market will be a bundle of new stuff including those items we'll search for bugs, the new Free Gift Crop and a coin tree... Which is a familiar one, the Spider Tree that was previously a reward.


We'll also see some new boosts coming Monday with some more of Doc's Experimentation, the Pheromone Boost and the Pollination Boost.

These boosts are for the greenhouse and will provide a time boost to any crops inside, the Pollination Boost will shorten all crops by one hour, the Pheromone Boost, a hefty 6 hours!


So.... let's go bug hunting!


Thursday 5 September 2013

Jack Gets Fiddled

There are many incomprehensible things about the homestead.

Where did the dragons and dinosaurs come from and why haven't they eaten anyone?

How do you move an entire building from one location to the other as easy as you move a sheep?

Jacques. Not Jacques anything, just... Jacques.

But by far and away the most intractable questions is... how did Jack last this long without us? He's an old man, he's obviously gone a goodly number of years without being eaten by chimpunks, drowning in soup or suddenly forgetting to breathe.... and yet he does tend to give the impression of a toddler needing constant supervision.

A popup launches the latest round of Jacksitting as we find him suddenly homeless with a fancy fiddle...


This heralds the arrival of a 12 mission thread with a wrapper to arrive on Monday (all details HERE)

The missions themselves are a set of repeatable map missions, think the Summer Camp missions, where we'll have a daily set of three missions and a wrapper arrive.


Just like the Camp the missions will each intertwine with each other and require completion of each other by the end.

We'll see one new free gift crop which will be instrumental in the missions...


...and a number of new market items, most are mission rewards, we'll cover anything that's mission needed in the missions posts HERE.



Finally, we'll see three new collections for the missions.

 
 

So, lets get Jack out of another mess...