KI Live Rundown 10/31/24

[STATE OF THE GAMES]
**Wizard101** – They're still working on Test Realm. They're gonna be focusing on a couple things rather than asking for general testing. They've extended Test Realm by a few days compared to their original plans since they want a bit more time.
**Pirate101** – Ratbeard plushie is "almost" funded.
- The Harvest Lord t-shirt has been a real hit.
- They have some limited-time Selenopolis items on the KingsIsle store. They'll still be out once Live Realm hits. There will be new Selenopolis items in the future, but not the same. They also have Holiday items coming soon.
- What Archmastery school pip is most used in Live Realm? Balance's is Ice. Life's is Ice. Fire's is Life. Storm's is Life. Myth's is Fire. Death's is Ice. Ice's is Myth. Ice is the most used Archmastery school pip.
- There are 25 permanent mounts that have been obtained only once through Grub Guardian and redeemed to a Wizard101 character. Among these are the Ball n' Chain, the Ancient Koi, and the Life Ghulture.
- If you could make any Wizard NPC into a Pirate Companion, who and why?
__OKIDENSHI:__ Dyvim, or any of the burrowers in Bastion. Or the Mantises.
__HALEY:__ Gamma would have some really good spells.
- [P101] If levels are expanded, will we see the ability to choose specific Powers to draw? Andrew says they're in the process of evaluating this, but when they expand levels, they'll do it in the way that's best for Pirate. Ratbeard says he does not know what that answer means, but it seems most wise.
- [P101] Wizard has an exceptionally good front funnel, they're looking into mimicking that in Pirate. Examples and ideas are always welcome.
- [P101] Can we see more enemy pirate boss fights like the Nefarious Five in Arc 2? Those fights are one of the last things Ratbeard did, he loved those fights. They tried to do something very different. Stormbringer tends to do most of the fights. He was inspired by those fights, so you should expect him to keep pushing the boundaries. It's a way to get cool mechanics into the fights without stretching art, so Ratbeard hopes there's more.
- [P101] Will we ever see level locking? Andrew says it'd be interesting to see, but they'd have to investigate it. They could apply it to various things and it could be cool.
- [P101] Any idea on if we'll get level 70 gear updates with old bundles? Joel will see if he can steal Dom in 2025 to update the old bundles.
- [P101] Will we have Companion reworks, maybe pack action? Yes, this will happen early next year. There will be revamps to Companions in older packs, as well as other Comps throughout it. Dom is slotted for that, but to do more will take more time.
- [P101] Can we get Armada gear? Joel will bring it up to the team. They've done a lot with the Armada, he'd like to see what else they can do in other areas.
- They are aware of several things needing to be resolved and fixed related to UI on Test Realm. Please don't tell them it is broken, they know it's broken. They'll put out a Discord notice with more details of how they'd like you to focus on Test Realm. They really would like you to focus on Spell Fusion features. Please focus on Fusion and give them your feedback on Discord.
- [EU] Will we ever be able to get skipped Beastmoon pets due to the update jump? The way the events work means there's certain ones that got skipped in EU. They need to figure out how to fix that and would like to fix it in 2025.
- Will Terror Hoard Pack be coming back? Yes, but not yet. Joel wants to improve it first, he thinks that will have to wait until next year.
- [P101] They made Ratbeard nerf the original Moo Manchu Tower, what he built was "meaner."
- What's the current word count of Wizard NA, EU, and Pirate? NA is a little over 1.5 million words, EU is just about 1.5 million words, and Pirate is a little over half a million words. Not small.
- What's your favorite part of working on this update?
__RATBEARD:__ We did something different in our dev process that we haven't done before, I don't want to spoil it but I want to see if players can tell what's different by playing through it. If players get the vibe we were going for, we'll see if they can do it again.
__CAM:__ One of the highlights for me was getting to hook up new art, especially the different color versions of spells and seeing them for the first time.
__CALAMITY:__ Mine is related to what Ratbeard said, but it was fun and we had new tech from the Raid to play with, which worked really well with what I had been thinking for the content.
- Classic mode doesn't currently revert KT graphics, any plans for that? Ratbeard thinks he knows the answer, which is no, they don't have plans to support Classic Mode for Krokotopia. It relates to how few people were actually using Classic Mode. From the art side, Karl found trying to support Classic Mode made creative art harder.
- Fire Scorpion surprised Cam the most, it looked really cool and was the first one he hooked up. He thinks Mia made it. Calamity liked the Balance Storm Lord since she didn't know what to expect, but the lightning into a dust storm and color shift was really interesting.
- Are there going to be more spell Fusions over time? This is all the Fusions for this update. They plan to add more each year with the next update to Weaving, but they might add more before that just using existing spells. There's a lot they can do, it's very exciting.
- There's a unique spell for each combination, the Fire-Death spell is different than the Death-Fire spell. You get one that's unique.
- Will we ever see more Deck space? They were talking about it recently. Devs are okay with the idea, it just requires new tech to make the UI work. It shouldn't be too difficult, but they'd have to prioritize it against other stuff. They don't think most casual players need it, so it feels like it's just for Advanced Mode or even just PvP. Usually players say they want more for Fusions, but if you're clever, you're actually getting extra spells just by using Fusions. They realize that the components are an extra burden on Deck space and are open to expanding it, but think cleverly in the meantime.
- What happens to socketed Weaving jewels when switching your Weave? You won't be able to socket it unless you are that Weaving school. But if you switch after socketing it, right now, nothing happens. But you're still limited in what you can do with that. It's a programming issue they've been struggling with for a while, popping out jewels or dynamically updating stuff like that. They'll fix it in the future, but right now hopefully it's not a problem.
- Were there any old iterations of the new Trees? They usually start with concept art, but in this case since they knew what they wanted to do, it was almost just a verbal discussion that came together pretty early on as to what the look and feel should be. Ratbeard isn't sure about the personality process, but he knows they wanted to do something different compared to Ravenwood Trees.
- No new specifics on Bazaar values, but Ratbeard says "don't worry."
- When will Monstrology see another update? Soon.
- There is actually Dual School gear throughout Arc 1. If you get gear from a world that has Pin slots, you can add the Pins of your choice that will help you with Dual Schooling. They have spots in DS and KR right now.
- Haley has been trying to get the store to ship to Canada for so long. There's one step left, but they have to wait for their manufacturer to change their website. It's soon. For EU, they're looking to expand to France and Germany first, which requires legal inspection and is a long process. It is the top priority for the store.
- Will the Marleybone elegant gear that was available in 2008/2009 for Crowns come back? They'll redo it so it looks better. It looks subpar. Sometime in the middle of next year, they'll slot it in with the artist they have on the product team and make it look amazing.
- Joel has next year's Loyalty store set planned already.
- They'll be bringing Test Realm back up next Monday.
__CODE:__ SUPERSCARY1024
    P101 - Pack - KI Live Snack Pack
    W101 - Pack - KI Live Snack Pack
    W101 - Pack - Super Terror's Hoard
    P101 - Pack - Super Pirate Nightmare