Greetings, Adventurers!

Fantasy Excursions is once again engaging excited explorers who wish to visit the island of Taisidon for a few fun days of exotic exploration, hunting, shopping, and games during their upcoming deluxe tour packages! The tropical island is teeming with terrific treasures just waiting to be found or yanked from the clinging clutches of crafty creatures!

Recent rumors relay that at least two NEW merchants are likely to sign contracts to set up their shops for the coming tourists! Regrettably, some artisans have opted not to return after the mega tour package offered in recent years, but many of the old favorites will be there! A handful have hinted that they may refresh their wares from past appearances, but at this stage we only have rumors to work with!

Are games of grabbing or guessing more to your tastes? Fear not! Spencer intends to bring his catfish back and has also informed us that he's seeking his other game-running friends to return as well, with a new selection of prizes all around! The diabolical darkbox will destroy limbs fast as ever.

Those greedy goblins, treacherous trolls and beady-eyed bandits are still harassing the villagers of Teil-Minavsel, stashing stolen goods in their spacious sacks of loot. Should you encounter these vile villains, the villagers will happily allow you to take your pick of treasure! And don't forget the "special" foods from Toys from Sand!

With the timely turning of seasons fast approaching, Taisidon's special flowers will be bursting into bloom, and the curious gemstones will be prevalent as well!

What are you waiting for? Rush on over to the Fantasy Excursions office and reserve your ticket for the Taisidon Safari today!

Plat: We have a run scheduled for you, as well! We'll happily add more if you want other times!

--The Fantasy Excursions Team

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OOC: Taisidon Safari is coming back, and it's bringing familiar merchants, games and activities with it! We're scheduling three deluxe runs in August; choose the ones that fit your schedule best! Grab your tickets while you can, because it may be a while before it comes back!

Each deluxe run allows your account to pick up an alterer's scroll for an alteration! Be sure to grab it while you're there, because we won't offer them afterwards! Likewise, the special squids will be returning as well! We're working on a few other updates, but it's too soon to share!

For first time visitors, Safari isn't like other "quests" where you're pulled to a particular area and have set objectives to do in a short time-frame on a single character. Instead, it's an island filled with hunting, shopping, a raffle (or multiple!), games and more that all characters on your account can access. The deluxe runs last for roughly 48 hours, and you can come and go as you please! Moongates will provide access at the normal portal locations -- see NEWS 4 1 for a list!

We hope to see you there!

For more information and to get your tickets, head on over to the box office here: http://www.play.net/dr/quests/info/taisidonexcursion.asp

SGM Zadraes
Premium Lead
Trader Guild Advocate

Very soon! They should be up, but the website is having a hiccup and being difficult. Working with onsite now to make them visible!

SGM Zadraes
Premium Lead
Trader Guild Advocate

So are the three excursions posted right now deluxe or standard? they just say Safari.

Great thank you - I can safely buy my ticket then. :)

The deluxe runs last 48 hours. Usually they're on the weekends and open up on Friday evening and close up on Sunday evenings. We know some folks like runs during the week, so we put one starting on a Wednesday as well (will close on that Friday). We can absolutely add other runs in the future on other days if there's interest! I'd like to see us get through these three first; each run gives an alteration (via scroll), and those can take a lot of time for us to work through.

The Mega Safari event we ran last summer was a week + the weekends on either side, 9 days total. We have no current plans to do another Mega Safari anytime soon.

SGM Zadraes
Premium Lead
Trader Guild Advocate

Does each participant get one alteration? Is that guaranteed?

Also, is there a bestiary for this? Would love to know which critters one can hunt on these excursions.

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"Technically correct" is the worst kind of correct.

>>From the OP.

>>Each deluxe run allows your account to pick up an alterer's scroll for an alteration!

D'oh!

In the posting, it says something about Goblins, but looking at the entry in Elanthipedia (https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Taisidon_Safari_412_Map) I don't see any goblins listed. Would be great to see a bestiary for this along with approximate levels for hunting.

__
"Technically correct" is the worst kind of correct.

>>The goblins are "treasure goblins" not exactly sure how they are set up, but pretty sure anyone can hit them with anything. I had a novice character there fresh out of the CM and he was able to land plenty of attacks on a few of them.

Oh, that's interesting. Where do they appear? Just all over the place? Specific areas?

__
"Technically correct" is the worst kind of correct.

Is there any advantage or disadvantage to signing up for a slot that is more full than another?

If there are raffles, doesn't that affect the raffle odds?

And I'm a bit unclear, is there also a chance of other alterers showing up on the island during this particular run, or is the alteration scroll it?

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Thayet
Follow @thayelf on Twitter for absolutely nothing of any value whatsoever!

The safari is, as always, pretty fun. I had forgotten how much stuff there is to do!

Would it be possible to have an announcement when the beetle game opens up, similar to how there's one for the treasure creatures? Since that game isn't out all the time now, it'd be nice to know when to go looking for it...:)

Thanks!

~*~ Kythryn ~*~
"When he (Columbus) started out he didn't know where he was going, when he got there he didn't know where he was, and when he got back he didn't know where he had been." - anonymous

So, I'm going to break this up into sections for the things that most folks consider to be important points. It will also make it easier for me to organize my thoughts and present a more complete review of this lastest edition of the Deluxe Taisidon Safari held in 417. While I expect some folks not to agree with my review, or to have their own opinions on the matter, this is just how I viewed things from my perspective.

Hunting:
I think the hunting here is beyond ideal. Even in the standard game environment it's rough to have all the critters you need in such a small area, and Taisidon is the exception to that. I really beleive there is something here for everyone of all skill levels. The only trouble is that for the real novices, you only have rats and in order to get to them you must go through lots of other creatures that are well above that mark. Other than that minor issue, it's really top notch. Many, if not all, creatures have the chance to drop some of the rare gems only available on the island so it's actually worthwhile to get out there and do some hunting.

Shops:
I counted a total of five updated shops and one brand-new one on the island for this round. Now, that may not sound like a whole lot, but trust me it's actually pretty significant. The updated shops all have some great items in them and I was impressed with what exactly was offered. My favorite was probably Mahchoe's for obvious reasons (mostly the layered vest + shirt clothing) or Island Interiors (because ship's bell, how cool!) but others might have found something different they liked most. The new shop (Tropicats) wasn't really what I was hoping for, but in the end it didn't really matter too much because the updated shops were awesome and I ended up spending most of my money in them.

Treasure Creatures:
For many folks this is the biggest deal of going on a Taisidon Safari, simply put the items they have are amazing. Granted, you wont always get a super cool item from one of them, but they are frequent enough that you'll get plenty of chances at it. The only problem I had with these is one of opinion between people, I'm not a big fan of waiting around and twiddling my thumbs for a straggler to find their way there when they've already been given notice of the oppertunity and location where to sieze it. Others don't seem to agree with this, but to each their own. I've always found the best policy to be "I don't tell you how to play, you don't tell me how to play" and have that be it.

Games:
I only caught two games myself (ring toss and beetles) I was thinking there would be more variety and more frequency, and others were thinking this too. On the positive note, the beetle game was fantastic and even though I didn't really play; I did have fun watching the person running the crone and freaking out about people willingly shoving their face into a container full of beetles.

For those wondering what that looked like, here ya go:
>>Kintalia plunges her head into a vat of beetles! After a moment, she pulls her head from the swarm with a sickly green beetle on her face!

Raffles:
The Trading Post raffle is always a neat little perk, however, I do wish Jisi was utilized more than she was. Would have provided a nice break between the hunting, treasure creatures, and games. Overall I wasn't disappointed, just not really as happy as I could have been concerning this facet of the Safari.

Invasions:
I cannot stress how much I enjoyed fighting the S'Kra Kor every time they invaded. In my opinion, they are just a really neat creature/race and due to being exlusive to Taisidon (for the most part) they are just not seen nearly enough. It was neat to tell people about them and correct a few people concerning how much they may be considered "kin" to a S'Kra Mur. Also, seeing them this time around allowed me to put in some more work with their creature pages on Elanthipedia.

Overall:
It was a solid trip, as someone who had been on prior runs I found that quite a few folks were coming to me with questions and asking how to do things. It was neat and I really enjoyed helping others have more fun. I did have to guide a few people to where they might find the "hidden" shop, which generally ended with them thanking me a bunch since for some folks it's not in an easy spot to locate. Also, I spent some time giving folks hints on how to barter with the paguur in order to get their stuff back from them. This not only makes me laugh, but also allows interaction with an incredibly unique system in the game that I don't think any other creature has (correct me if I'm wrong here) which is just cool. My only request would be to have more of the island lore put out there for us, either through NPCs or items or whatever, just something for us to know more about the place and its history.

Anyways, thats my .02 on the subect. If you're reading this and still on the fence if you want to go or not, I'd suggest checking the following links:

>https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Fantasy_Excursions:_Taisidon_Safari
>https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Taisidon_Safari_417_Map
>https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Taisidon

If all that sounds awesome to you, head on over to the box office and grab a ticket. Maybe you'll see Kasto there with you.

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You say to Tathalus, "Have you ever tried to clean a troll den? The smell sticks around for years to come."
Liev says, "That is my cue to leave."

> is there any chance the clothing in Mahchoe's could be changed to not be male-only?

+1 from me. Designing items with men in mind: yes, wonderful, can be more difficult than for women, highly appreciated. Designing items restricted to only men: nooo.

If we're already assuming a Tog and a Gnome can buy the same thing and wear it, restricting by gender is needlessly punitive. And restrictive to roleplay in general.

Does the gender restriction show up in an item's appraisal? Tough on resale if no.

>The only trouble is that for the real novices, you only have rats and in order to get to them you must go through lots of other creatures that are well above that mark.

Can novice characters make it up the cliff?

>Many, if not all, creatures have the chance to drop some of the rare gems only available on the island so it's actually worthwhile to get out there and do some hunting.

Second tier of animated tools seemed to have a pretty horrendous drop rate until nearly the end. Mimics, likewise, seemed to have a low rate of rare gems.

While I don't expect a rare gem to be found on every critter..those, at least, have no other loot.

All things considered, though, I had a great time.

>Can novice characters make it up the cliff

I really don't think so. Maybe with a little rope help, but I wouldn't know being that I've never tried.

>Second tier of animated tools seemed to have a pretty horrendous drop rate until nearly the end.

Yeah, I think the % on drops differs from creature to creature so some will be better than others for sure.

>Mimics, likewise, seemed to have a low rate of rare gems.

I'm pretty sure they're set lower because they also have a % to drop the xenomite. But I could totally be wrong on that. I have no idea what the numbers are.

>IMO just making some basement with rats in town would help.

Totally agree here. I would love to see some sort of basement area in any of the major buildings (Trading Post, Safari Club) or to see one of the locked/unused buildings converted into a novice area. Keeping the novices as close to the village or within the village is probably the best step since there are some nasty things roaming around beyond the gates.

As a side note, I really need to update the Taisidon and Teil-Minavsel pages to hold lots more information about the place. Some nice things that could be included would be things like safe zones and landmarks. I'll probably focus on that when I go back this weekend for round two.

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You say to Tathalus, "Have you ever tried to clean a troll den? The smell sticks around for years to come."
Liev says, "That is my cue to leave."

>My only real complaint is about the invasions, they just seemed kind of pointless?

It's a lore thing if I remember correctly. The S'Kra Kor feel they own the island (or maybe just want to) and that the village + tourists/visitors are encroaching on their turf. They've been around since the very first Taisidon quest and have appeared in any of the following visits, including Return to Taisidon and all Taisidon Safaris.

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You say to Tathalus, "Have you ever tried to clean a troll den? The smell sticks around for years to come."
Liev says, "That is my cue to leave."

>I felt like it was a missed oppertounity to spawn a boss creature that was actually kind of dangerous with some better than average rewards

I really can't argue with that at all.

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You say to Tathalus, "Have you ever tried to clean a troll den? The smell sticks around for years to come."
Liev says, "That is my cue to leave."

<<Some clarification here, please, these are actual sentient s'kra, not some goblin creature thing?

They're like goblins and/or orcs are to humans and/or elves except to S'kra Mur. I.e. a lesser, more barbaric anthropomorphic lizard race. Long snouts, lesser mental capacity, etc.

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Elanthipedia - https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page
Epedia Admins - https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Elanthipedia:Administrators

>Some clarification here, please, these are actual sentient s'kra, not some goblin creature thing?

https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/S%27Kra_Kor

Basically, what I take that to mean is that the S'Kra Kor are considered to be of a "lesser" standing in the sense that they are too primitive/barbaric/animalistic/whatever to be considered as part of society as a whole.

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You say to Tathalus, "Have you ever tried to clean a troll den? The smell sticks around for years to come."
Liev says, "That is my cue to leave."

>>Some clarification here, please, these are actual sentient s'kra, not some goblin creature thing?

>Goblins are people too.

Yeah, they only talk, use equipment, have culture... let's go into their homes and murder them all for being lesser. I'm glad we're the ones who get to define "lesser" and "sentient" and not the goblins!