The Void Within Discussion

[Siniri]

Chapter 2 has started! Right now, there is void essence collection (but in new places), new story (with another BG prize), and battling OR hospital work starting at 10am NST. Definitely sounds like we'll have to choose. Links to the blank countdowns are under the new chapter.

Must go to work, but I can edit in the rest of the info later once we have it, unless someone beats me to it.

Edit: void locations (I searched on my own and found them, so spoilers in case you want to do the same), with 602 points

found 4 in LD
3 in Faerie City (tricky!)
3 in Neopian Plaza (even trickier)

Still have to wait for the rest.

[Pickles]

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2024 9:57 am
Chapter 2 has indeed started.
Chapter 2 Part 1

The 1st page chapter 2 is up.
Click on the "Collect Prize." This will ONLY show up after you have moused over/clicked on every single panel of the fourth page of the comic.

Your dedication is admirable. Here is a gift for your efforts!

Brightvale Besieged Background
This item has been added to your inventory.

There's also this:

Take heed Neopians, the Battle for Brightvale I has begun. Join fellow reservists on the front lines, or donate your time at the Neopian Hospital volunteer effort!

Both have countdown timers until 10am NST. Since that's in a little over 3 hours, I guess we'll find out how things will work there, then. I will attempt to be back online around then to update. I expect wild confusion, serious site lag, and probably at least some people complaining about SOMETHING.

Essences are now on a rotational basis, but will be the same for everyone (see below). Today's are: 4 in Lost Desert, 3 in Faerie City, and 3 in The Neopian Plaza.
Brightvale has gone completely grey. Whatever Nyx tried obviously didn't work.

TNT_Dingo has posted some updates on the neoboards. Since I expect this will asplode with comments, here's the update. If you haven't read it, please do. Some interesting information here.

*meep*
I hope you all have been enjoying the plot so far!
I'm sure some of you may have noticed a few changes already, but I wanted to address them in an official capacity so that everyone is aware!
This is going to be a multi-part message (because even we have a character limit...) so I humbly ask that you please refrain from posting in this board until I have finished! ;w;
Upon reviewing user feedback, we have implemented the following changes:
1. The "From the Very Beginning" achievement has been updated to read "Joined in the First Week" and has been awarded to all users who participated in any plot content during the first 8 days of the plot, starting from June 17th thru June 24th. If you believe you participated during this time and still did not receive credit for this achievement, please submit a ticket to our support team, with the category 'The Void Within'!
2. When a new achievement is ready, there will now be a (!) notification on the Rewards tab in the nav menu of the Plot Hub. Upon navigating to the Rewards page, you will be able to see which achievement(s) were rewarded, denoted with a badge that says 'New!', there is no need to click or interact with anything!
We have also adjusted the styling of Complete achievements so that they are easier to tell apart from the incomplete ones!
3. The Void Essence Collection activity has been updated so that the spawn maps will now be randomized for each user! This was not originally planned, but we thought it might be a bit more interesting than visiting the same 3 links every day for each Act! (; (Sorry to anyone who found that convenient, but you will have to go searching from now on! :'D)
This is all for now!
There may be further enhancements coming in the future as we continue to receive feedback!
Firstly, we would like to address yesterday's Hub page dialogue - The 'Finish Chapter 1!' warning. This was set up via our dialogue system, but it was not intended to be something that required user participation or awarded points, and was meant to be removed prior to the end of Chapter 1. Clearly we failed to accomplish this in time, but I want to assure everyone that we will not be counting participation in this "page" of the story toward overall plot participation going forward!
We do not plan to dock the 1 point for viewing this dialogue from anyone who earned it, but we are going to be removing this message from the Story tab since it is not actually plot relevant!
We do plan to show more of these warning messages at the end of each chapter, but it will not be tied into the dialogue system from now on!
We apologize for this inconvenience and confusion!
We are also aware of a bug that is preventing users from earning Plot Points for collecting Essences. We are still looking into this issue and affected users will be awarded any missing points based on their total Essence collected! There is no need to write in a ticket for missing Plot Points, but if you believe that you are missing credit for collecting any Essence(s), please write in to our support team, with the category 'The Void Within', so we can investigate!
Okay, I am finally done! Here is that support link, one more time, because the tiny url link broke (':!
classic.support.neopets.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
We GREATLY appreciate your patience and all of the feedback you have offered thus far! We hope you enjoy all of the new updates coming today!! ^^
They'll be released later (when the rest of the team is actually awake...) I just wanted to get this update out of the way!
(Also, we added a countdown this time...)

Another subtle change is that the final trophy tier level has changed from just "60,000" to "60,000+". Interesting.

ETA: The new part is live. The battledome section appears to be EXTREMELY glitchy. I was only able to get 10 points before "maxing out" while others have gotten 50+. I have also not been able to get the opponent to change despite having fought the Voidling 10+ times. Highly recommend avoiding right now.

The Hospital side seems to be working? You select a pet to volunteer their time (do NOT choose your battle pet if you intend on battling) and a 6-hour countdown timer starts.

Hopefully the (honestly somewhat expected) glitches will be fixed soon. The prizes are all over the place (again). I have no idea what to really make of things.

[Blue]

Thanks Siniri & Pickles.

There is indeed serious site lag happening at the moment (~12:30pm NST)

Ironically, my battle pet contracted a disease spinning WoE today for QuestLog...

All of your Neopets gain three hit points. Sorry, that was the best I could do

ETA: Cured my pet with Herbal Scrambled Eggs from my SDB. Good to go. Battledome lag is awful.

Was the battledome updated, or just for this event? It is rather different, and no drops... "Sorry, you didn't win anything this battle. Try again!" But, this could be because it is a plot challenger.

ETA2: I wonder if we need to defeat 4,277 Voidlings before we get to the Void Prowlers? I hope not. I got booted from the battledome after one fight and cannot get back in...

ETA3: managed to get back to the battledome and fight a second time... this time, I did get a reward (607 Neopoints, Wapped Strawberry Candy, & Voidberry Pudding), but also got this: * You have reached the Plot Points limit for today! You can continue to fight, but no more Plot Points can be earned.

ETA4: Battled again and received rewards (607 Neopoints, Egg Salad and Cheese Sandwich, & Darkness Potion)
* You have reached the Plot Points limit for today! You can continue to fight, but no more Plot Points can be earned.

Further, my Voidling counter is not decreasing. It will take 11.7 years if it decreases by 1 each day...

ETA4: I tried to sign up a different pet to volunteer in the hospital and subequently got a message that (this specific pet) was in a battle. However, it did not remove the pet and the counter continues just fine. (Also started a new battle with my battle pet - for the drops)

[Pickles]

There are still issues with the battling, Blue. I've given up for now in the hopes that TNT gets it fixed and makes sure that the caps are correct. And that maybe the lag gets handled. Sometime.

[Siniri]

Just making sure .. can you do both battling and hospital, as long as you volunteer different pets? Or do you have to choose one?

Edit: went ahead and started a pet on volunteering, since that doesn't seem to be as glitched. I think I'll get dinner and see if the BD is a little less crazy.

And finish my dailies.

I already have a battle wound today. I got stung 2-3 times on my neck and one time on my finger in the pool, presumably by a wasp that got between my rashguard and my braid. He climbed on top of my head and tried to sting my scalp, but thank goodness my hair is too thick!

Edit: Sorry, the Battledome is down! But don't worry, it should be back up soon.

Hope I can battle soon, but I'd rather wait. Time to make sure my battle pet is healthy.

[Pickles]

It is back up and working properly now.
When you choose your difficulty level, you will face off against 3 Voidlings back to back (once you beat one it refreshes and you go straight into the next), then a Void Prowler. At the conclusion of these 4 battles, you'll receive 40 plot points, with a maximum of 200 per day.
This may or may not be a shared amount between battling and helping at the hospital. We should be able to confirm that soon.

I will try to update this in a bit with a little more detail.

[Siniri]

I was just about to post the same, Pickles! There are also hints on the battle page suggesting they'll come in waves, and not to use dark against the prowler. I really like the waves; it was a nice surprise once I figured out the "end battle" button not appearing after each victory wasn't a glitch.

I had actually done my daily battles in the regular BD since Blue had said he didn't get drops, and then I just got drops in the plot BD too. Guess I'll donate the 15 extra items.

I've done 2 battles, so I guess I've got 3 left. (Well, 3 sets, I guess.)

Edit: and done. The different voidlings have different weapon sets. I only noticed on my last round, so I couldn't determine whether the set is random or determined by wave position.

Not that they ever got to use their weapons against me, anyway.

And there are interesting notes about what they say (slightly different than what I saw in the BD). It just adds to the lore and ambiance. I wonder who betrayed the prowler...

[Chivewarrior]

Cursed Elixir is definitely in the battle prize pool! If that's frequent the price will probably go down, although it's possible I just got lucky. (This is the second time I have gotten a valuable battledome item I would never have thought to look for on my own-- the first being why I don't put wishlists on my Trading Post lots; sometimes people surprise you. I should probably consider actively seeking out weapons at some point instead of just stumbling into them by accident. especially if the waves are going to get stronger.)

I wonder if the battle dialogue is giving us a hint about where the story is going; they seem to not be thrilled about being in Neopia in the first place-- the Prowlers are going on about backstabbing and betrayal, which is definitely not anyone among the fighters. And we've got "No one will hurt us again" too. Which, again, WE didn't; I'm getting the sense there's going to be a "playing both ends against each other" element once we find out where these are coming from.

[Pickles]

It appears that there's an extra 15 items per day you can pick up from the battledome drops (so, 30 total), and the np limit appears to now be 50k. Hospital tasks are apparently not included in the plot point cap after all, and is 20 points per 6-hour time frame. This does not line up with the FAQ's...but...who knows at this point.

I understand trying to combat inflation to some degree....but this smarts as handouts of nearly every major battledome item there is. At this rate, I will not be surprised if at the end of this plot, everyone has access to basically everything with minimal effort, and then the site shuts down permanently. I have more of a rant I could go on...but I deleted it. TNT is going to have to do something majorly different to win back my confidence in them. I think this quote sums it all up: "And when everyone’s super… no one will be."

[Siniri]

The 20 points every six hours with no cap is annoying because they chose to start it in the middle of the work day. I hope they fix that. I could have gotten an extra session in had I known I needed to be there right at their arbitrary time (which they said we wouldn't need to do for this plot).

[Blue]

Glad I checked in tonight. Battledome definitely working differently than earlier today. 3 of the first challenger immediately back to back then the 2nd challenger. 5 drops:
Voidberry Pudding
Void Snowball
Smelly Dung Muffin
Zei Codestone
Twisted Dark Dagger
Cursed Elixir
5132 Neopoints

Going back for a few more battles.

ETA: After 4 battles earning 40 plot points, the 5th battles reserved 30 plot points.

You have reached the Plot Points limit for today! You can continue to fight, but no more Plot Points can be earned.

* You have reached the item limit for today! You can continue to fight, but no more items can be earned.

Did a couple more battles after that message and still earned 5k NP each time.

At the end of the day, I now have 802 total earned plot points.

ETA2: After 2 more battle sets, NP dropped to 3481, then nothing in the following set.

Note: Battles were all on Hard level, assuming the level affects the NP like it does normally.

ETA3: Cursed Elixir prices have plummeted. They dropped ~600k and are currently around 25k on the TP

[Siniri]

I was getting 705 NP/battle yesterday, Blue! I didn't want to do 70 battles to max out. I care more about the PP than NP, though.

Did you ever get PP for the hospital? I ended yesterday with 822, which JN said was the max at the time.

Today's void essence locations for me:
Neopia Central x4
Ice caves x3
Altador x3

[Blue]

I failed to "end" my pet's help at the Hospital and claimed the 20PP today

Looks like I will be 20 points behind going forward? Or, because the plot allows us to "catch up", I'll be current today? Probably not.

ETA; Still getting plenty of drops and 5,132 NP for the battles on Extreme (technically 4 battles in one)
Weak Bottled Fire Faerie
Voidberry Pudding
Robot Muffin
Voidberry Slushie
Orn Codestone
Voidberry Slushie
Strawberry Fondant Surprise
Amulet of Darkness
5132 Neopoints
You have also been rewarded 40 Plot Points

[Siniri]

I can't really tell, Blue. I think because I only collected one yesterday, I'll be 20 points behind. Right now, JN's guide says you can collect 40 points/day. I have started a third shift today and will see if I can get the points at midnight.

Ugh. I deliberately got up early to do the plot before work yesterday, but they didn't actually start it on time, and I couldn't get on when they did start it because it was work hours. They should allow 120 points over the first 3 days and then 40 points max per day to allow people in different time zones to catch up. There weren't 12 hours left by the time east coasters got off work to get two shifts in yesterday.

Edit: actually, I'm 40 PP behind what JN says is the current max, so I'm confused. I got everything from the BD yesterday, plus 20 from the hospital at midnight my time. And today, I collected 20 from the hospital at 6am and noon each my time, and if it were possible, I should have gotten 20 more at 6pm. Instead, I'm 40 behind the max possible, so I seem to have only gotten 20 each day. (I'm also ten behind because I haven't bought 15 random prizes yet, but I'm accounting for that.)

[Blue]

I guess I'll need to drop off a volunteer earlier in the day to get 2 total/day.

For the sake of research, I battled until I ran out of rewards and tallied the results:
Note: All battles on Extreme
[th]Battle[/th][th]NeoPoints[/th][th]Plot Points[/th][th]Items Dropped[/th][td]1[/td][td]5,132[/td][td]40[/td][td]8[/td][td]2[/td][td]5,132[/td][td]40[/td][td]9[/td][td]3[/td][td]5,132[/td][td]40[/td][td]11[/td][td]4[/td][td]5,132[/td][td]40[/td][td]2[/td][td]5[/td][td]5,132[/td][td]40[/td][td]-[/td][td]6[/td][td]5,132[/td][td]-[/td][td]-[/td][td]7[/td][td]5,132[/td][td]-[/td][td]-[/td][td]8[/td][td]5,132[/td][td]-[/td][td]-[/td][td]9[/td][td]5,132[/td][td]-[/td][td]-[/td][td]10[/td][td]3,812[/td][td]-[/td][td]-[/td][td]11[/td][td]-[/td][td]-[/td][td]-[/td][td]Total[/td][td]50,000[/td][td]200[/td][td]30[/td] To be sure, I watched my on-hand NPs and I did indeed get the totals listed above. However, it seems to award a portion after beating the 4th wave and then the rest when it refreshes to get into the next battle.