Thick and Cold

Oh boy, snow has hit the homestead and it's thicker than it's ever been!

Even Jack doesn't remember things being this bad with folks lost in the forest, the Town Centre buried and all we can see of some houses are their rooftops... So what can we do? Well, we can re-use some of those skills we learnt during last year's avalanche, make up a a Rescue HQ and get our best snow rescue kit on!

So, snow shoes on, brandy barrels around necks and a nice thick scarf to protect us from the chill...

As usual, a popup starts things off...

This will launch a set of 12 missions with a wrapper, a traditional map series (all details HERE). As is expected with this kind of thread there is no buildable to be had, just a single placeable decoration, the Rescue HQ...

This then contains access to the eponymous map itself, a wintery artistic masterpiece..

From there we can access the 9 basic missions or even repeat them if we want to, however repeats are OPTIONAL and not required for any mission steps.

As for new items to be seen, we will of course get a new free gift crop, the Fire Spinner...

...and three healable animals which will each have 3 variations, the Town Centre, Roof Tips and Stranded Folks...

We'll also see three new mission reward animals tended in missions.

Finally, from rewards we have a quite unique (and slightly cumbersome) costume...

...and a quite brilliant new "rideable", a giant snowball that obviously catches us up in it's rolling way down the hill!

Last, but not least, we'll also see the Snowed In collection which will drop a mission item, and a Fire Spinner... (WARNING: This is the Jack-in-his-Underwear Klaxon, this is not a drill...)

So, there's people out there going blue, time to work!

In a Pickle

Ahh, the Christmas Tree... a beautiful pine, standing majestically and covered in all the usual staples, tinsel, stars, an angel, some preserved vegetables... what, what was that last one?

Yes, Jack has decided to gather all the children around him and tell them all about the legend of the Christmas Pickle with it's international legends and beginnings...

Of course, if Jack wants to bring it to the Homestead, who are we to argue?

As usual, a popup will launch the proceedings...

This will kick off a standard 5 mission thread, with a wrapper and a Monday Mission (all details HERE). It'll also bring a four step build, the Pickled Christmas Tree itself... (all details HERE).

We're going to see a new free gift crop, the Pickle Bush Cucumber.

We'll also see three items to heal, the Pickle Barrel, Ornament Box and Chilled Critter...

The first of those will be fed with Pickling Salt, the other two with Portable Stoves. We can either feed them the basic feed we craft ourselves or send to neighbours to get special boosted feed that will count for 4 tends...

That in turn will help us get our hands on a cluster of rewards like Gallery Storage, another Battered Bacon Ferris Wheel and some pickle based goodies!

Finally we'll see something brand new coming Monday, a special premium decoration specially for charity as proceeds from all sales of this item will be given directly to international charity Save the Children! It looks pretty and acts as a special Varmint Blocker!

So, let's get pickling...

It's a Wonderful Jack

Frontierville Productions presents, It's a Wonderful Jack...

It's the story of one old man who's had a tumultuous year full of ups and downs and now finds himself bereft of the one thing he held dear, he's lost the Key to the Homestead.

This has sent him into a sad spiral and he's starting to wish he'd never been born, so it's time for a good soul to step and and show Jack just what the world would be like without him... Which means it's time to dust off that halo!

Now, where's that black and white filter... roll cameras!

As usual, lets welcome a popup to start...

That will indicate the arrival of an 8 mission, 2 wrapper, 1 Monday mission thread (all details HERE). As ever though with this kind of thread we won't have a connected building, but we will have some placeable decorations, the Leadership Scene, Family Scene and Education Scene...

Those will have a fishing mechanic for mission items and other sellable goodies, but also access to the wonderfully drawn map screen...

In a very cute design feature this map will feature icons that show just how well Jack is feeling about the homestead and his place in it, if he's not around the well loved characters we know are either missing (Jack and Fanny) or unhappy (rioting homesteaders and even a single-mom Bess!)

 
 Don't worry though, things go back to normal when we complete them...

The missions themselves are everything we'd normally expect, including a very angelic new injured "animal"...

Helping heal that will be a new crop, Angel Wings...

...which will also come from the new Collection, Jack's Influence Collection.

So, lets see if we can get the new Decoration with a Bonus, Wonderful Jack...

...and, something that will resonate with people who know a certain film, if we manage to save Jack and make him happy with his life, an angel gets its wings... Literally!

So, lets get cheering the old geezer up.

Re-Eddy-mption...

Sometimes it takes someone else's actions to make you rethink your own, and Eddy's had some sleepless nights ever since he got Ned, Fred and Goldie released and then saw his father try and run off with Tess.

He's decided to try and kick not only his lawyering, but also his bad ways to the kerb and try out some actual homesteading on the Frontier, like everyone else.

Of course, if he's going to try something this new... he'll need help.

We'll see the usual popup to start.

That will kick off a traditional 5 mission, one wrapper, one Monday release set (all details HERE) with a standard four step build, Eddy's Farmhouse (all details HERE).

The Farmhouse kicks off this thread's main mechanic with a fishing option, named as "Do Chores". As well as dropping a number of goodies this can drop one of three types of Chore for Eddy to do, Crop, Animal or Land.

These Chores, when healed, will then become one of three items with LIMITED randomness, yes, the most we can have of any of the variations is 2 before the game makes us get a different one.

Now, what you will know when we get limited randomness is it means combining, so we'll then put those variations together, first into sets of three, and then into one final decoration with a bonus, Eddy's Achievement.

We'll also see a new Free Gift Crop, the Cauliflower...

So, lets see if we can do for Eddy what we did for the Gratchetts and get him redeemed!