nailguard

don't worry, I know how to report appropriately. I learned a lot from keyquest, knowing what is allowed and what isnt (ie. publicly mentioning someones username as a rule breaker= harassment)

 

For this situation, I cannot tell whether the person is a troll/immature player. I do not know whether the player intentionally included the offensive word in their username or not, so I kind of feel bad about reporting them.

 

If I try to tell the player that their username has an inappropriate word, I might get:

-reported for harassment

-filtered and detected by tnt's programs detecting inappropriate messages, etc. From what I've read, the filters are pretty harsh, and tnt's inappropriate word detection/phrase detection can be extreme.

 

I wish I could give more details on this forum, but if I do that, I'll get closer to harassment, and I don't want to publicly mention/label someone as a rulebreaker :(

In my opinion, the company owning neopets business would attempt maximize their profits regardless of the situation, and will likely have no regrets ending neopets one day when their profits from neopets dwindles too much and they start taking big losses. Well, there is no telling whether Viacom would sell off the neopets operation to another company or just discontinue the operation, but for the most part, games may eventually reach the retiring age if they cannot keep up. With increased competition (more games), development in gaming systems and other forms of media/entertainment, neopets is becoming a smaller entertainment provider in the world. The neopets game has also been labelled as a child's game too, further discouraging players from publicly playing or mentioning that they still play neopets to their friends. I would suspect that younger players would likely be less inclined to play neopets even if its age appropriate because it has been often labelled childish socially.

 

From what I understand, neopets mainly generates profit by advertising throughout the site, in games (sponsored games), through occasional events (restricted by country), through nc, and through premium. Since there is a decent amount of development, computer programs and adblocking has become more prevalent, and as a result, I suspect that neopets would have to offer more advertising services with more benefits, exposure to get their contracts. I'm starting to understand why neopets also encourages players to play more games in comparison with the past (by having the games galore, altador cup, game challenges): they get to advertise more at the beginning of the game loading, and they have the potential of offering sponsored games. One day, neopets administrator might make the bold move of disallowing addon usage to block ads and various scripts. They might use the reasoning: "Please do not use 3rd party programs to gain an unfair advantage over others."

 

For now, I suspect that the corporation will attempt to make the users goals in neopet more achievable thus increasing incentives for players to continue playing, making them have fun accomplishing whatever goals they have. When neopets first started, 100k was a pretty decent sum of np, and the lab ray map pieces were difficult to obtain. However, 100k now is potentially a days worth of habi, and secret lab map pieces can not only be found in Random events, but also when redeeming keyquest keys, and at one point, the grundo warehouse. I've also noticed massive changes in the battledome market. Before, I would not be capable of achieving the HT battledome sets (long long past), but now, I have the option of considering big battledome equipment because my habitarium allows for 100k+/day. I've also noticed that restocking has gotten a lot easier, and before, the stores restocked less, and items would fly off the shelves really fast, even if they weren't really good deals.

 

What neopets might do to stay relatively popular at the time being:

-make goals achievable/average daily earnings greater

-offer slightly more nc opportunities

-add new games

-add new events/stories

-add new worlds/maps

-Offer a unique addons to the game (facebooks treasure keeper)

-Promote players to learn how to draw neopets, write literature for neopets

-Decrease training cost for battledomes, make battledome goals more achievable while maintaining that the very high end battledome equipment is quite difficult to obtain

-Create more collectibles

 

If neopets wants to stay alive

1) Neopets needs more multiplayer games, with unique interactive elements. Things like keyquest was interesting. However, if they want to keep up, they will have to continue releasing unique multiplayer components/elements. Maybe make a battledome involving real time strategy/teamwork or something unique?

 

2) Satisfy the user`s interest (removal of ads, faster response time). However...

 

Since Neopets is a business operation, some of the user's interest often conflict with the profit earning business model. If neopets took down their advertisement, many players would be happy. If Neopets responded quicker to tickets (by hiring more moderators, etc), players would be happy. However, some of these ideas are costly and would likely be disregarded

3) Making NC more readily available for Non nc users, satisfying another of the users` want.

 

Again, this would likely be disregarded as it devalues nc (less sales for nc cards). If NC is too readily available, players will consider nc close to np, where its rather expendable and not valuable.

 

4) More events on a regular basis: If tnt can release more unique events, with interesting concepts, a player would be less likely to grow out of the game, thus keeping it popular. However, this cannot be overused or events will become a normal and expected.

 

5) Sadly, the last goal I can think of is make more goals, having more achievable goals. The basic idea is: if a player can achieve their goals more easily, their success will become incentives to continue playing. When players can achieve their goals, they tend to enjoy the game more, enjoy the sense of accomplishment, and decide to accomplish other goals. If a neo player can only achieve 1 goal/year, you may see players simply giving up.

 

A lot of rich, long time players would not like this as current items for achieving goals become easier, thus devaluing their inventory.

 

Well, that is my opinion in detailed. I cannot say everything will be accurate though.

Recently, I encountered a player that had a username which was quite inappropriate and somewhat offensive, especially to the younger players. What should I report this type of abuse and where would I say this abuse occurred (The two things asked in the report form)? I found this user in a keyquest game, but really the abuse occurred when they created their account with the inappropriate username.

I wouldn`t get a cat to get rid of rat problems...

The cat might end up fighting the rat, and if and when the cat decides to fight the rat, the cat would likely contract potential disease(s) and may suffer other injuries. It wouldn`t be so fun especially after you`ll have to take the cat to a vet to examine whether the cat was seriously infected.

 

In general, avoid taming wild animals: they can be a host of diseases, bacteria and parasites. Like a zombie, 1 bite/scratch from a rat could be quite dangerous.

 

Having a domesticated mice is an option, but remember to do your research before hand.

A lot of things like success is in the eye of the beholder, and is often a comparison between player to player. If everyone's lookup was filled with trophies, avatars, and all sorts of signs of success, then players will continually declare that a successful account is something greater, something unique, and more difficult to obtain.

 

In economics, there is something called the fallacy of composition: "What is good for 1 person, may not be good for everyone". If everyone earned 100k/day, then a successful player would be someone capable of earning much more than 100k/day. Simply put, the player earning 100k/day would become the average player. If you could time travel into the past, and say you started an account on year 1 of neopets, 100k then is worth a lot more than 100k now. Because players are getting smarter/more efficient, and because there are different outlets of gaining np, the value of np continually diminishes.

 

What I'm trying to say is this: the definition of a successful player in society's eye is always changing, and is often valued by the perception of other players.

 

For myself, I don`t really have an old account, and there really isn`t much to say that I`m super successful. For myself, success is competing in keyquest and scoring high win ratios while having habi running :D .

You can also use this:

http://www.tdnforums.com/index.php?app=core&module=search&search_in=members

 

Basically, its the advanced search that allows you to search in the members` section. Sweetdang`s solution is better though, as it gives you more options to search for the user.

I think one of the major problems in neopet`s rule system is that a lot of rules are not fully presented/readily available for an average use but are nonetheless enforced. While tnt has their terms and conditions outlined, a lot of detailed rules, and special circumstances are found in the editorials of the neopian times. I mean, those editorials can be tedious to search through especially, if you want to see if an action is deemed to be illegal, it would be very troublesome to find the related articles. Without a good central location for their rules, its just difficult to find out what the exact rules are. And for the average player, they probably won't read the neopian times, and will not understand what is allowed and what isnt according to the times. While there are some petpage guides that outlines some rules, those are still considered secondary sources, and if the author hasn't worded their guides carefully, players may read a rule in the secondary source, misinterpret, and break a rule.

 

For the neomails, I find that the filters very annoying, especially when you compose long neomails. You might get an error from the filters, and after many reviews, you would still have trouble composing your message. I kinda wished that tnt would at least have their filters tell you what keywords, phrases are considered to be inappropriate.

I have 2 pets that could use some customization:

http://www.neopets.com/petlookup.phtml?pet=NailGuard

http://www.neopets.com/petlookup.phtml?pet=spirkle_boq_4

 

A split lenny and a grey jetsam. I dont have neocash, but I do have np. What are some good options for customizing a pet?

At first, I thought I had the google redirect virus when I changed firefox versions. Turns out: it was just an oversight; I didnt switch the homepage from yahoo to google, so whenever I did my searches, I was always wondering why I ended up with yahoo results. So, check to make sure you are using google as the homepage, and see if your results in redirects.

 

If I did encounter the virus, I would use some guides like this one found using google :D :

http://www.2-viruses.com/how-to-fix-google-results-hijacker-google-redirect-virus-problem

 

If you can get access to a computer that hasnt been infected by the virus, you can use the google search engines effectively, record the steps, and attempt to fix the problem.

Worst comes to worst, reformat or restoring from recovery disc is an option, but probably the least desirable one :(

rules are rules :( . For a guild avatar lending system to work, I'm assuming the volunteers would have to afford their own avatar items, and cannot take donations to help finance the items.

 

The major concern is likely this: what does the guild to if the person hosting the donation shop & avatar lending items decides to become dishonest? The incentive could have been: donate and we can afford avatar items, and once enough donations are taken, the person hosting the avatar lend could disappear with a large sum of np. Those who donated wouldn't feel so good :(

http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&week=239

http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&week=424

 

Item pooling is simply having someone collect np/resources from multiple players for the purpose of buying/obtaining avatar item(s) or the avatar. 2 editorials mentioned that it is not allowed, as item pooling can lead to players becoming dishonest, and allowing them to effectively steal from others.

I dont think you can put a p3 in the lookout tower. I think its just a standalone building that reduces the probability of one of your nfs raiding you successfully.

I try to buy my stocks at 15/per share. That way, it ensures lower risk, and more gains. I also take the stock market as a long term investment, and most of my np gains comes from habitarium. When a stock inflates to my desired goal, i would sell, and ensure a gain.

Soldiers often attack the pest closest to them at the time being. So, if the pest spawn all over the place, the soldiers might not prioritize well.

 

One idea, which you already attempted is to separate an area for the nests, and surround it with other buildings/decorations. This probably doesn't work all the time, but its worth a shot. For my habi layout, I chose to surround my nest with loads of storages, but that doesnt mean that eggs can still break, or eggs dont take any dmg.

 

Another idea: increase your soldier count by hatching more solider eggs, however this comes at an opportunity cost; more workers could be hatched in the place of soldiers (workers often generate more exp). I use 3 soldiers, 1-2 nesters, and the rest workers. I generally detest increasing soldier count

 

Other things to do:

Upgrade your p3s, all of them to the max. The upgrade is really cheap, and yields great returns. Upgrading p3s improves all p3s of that that particular profession. In general, a level 3 soldier would fight better than a lev 2 or 1 soldier.

as The Purple Monster said, shiny obsidian is one ingredient to to make moltara petpets at tangor's workshop. Apart from that, shiny obsidian is just another item, often sold for 1 np, or dumped around at money tree. I often use shiny obsidian to do trades, when I pay in pure.

it depends what kind of battling you do.

If its 1player, take out the Sroom Fruit Potion as it wont be scoring its maximum attack. For 2player, it can be effective against opponents with intelligence more than dull, and for that reason, some players decided to drain away their pet`s int to avoid int-based weapons.

 

Rainbow scroll does 3 wind, 3 light and 3 water icons

Ice Club does 3 water, 3 wind, 3 phys icons.

In terms of icon count, they are both the same. Though I think Ice club is more expensive, and in my opinion, the rainbow scroll has better icon types to pass through defences more easily.

Hanso Charisma Charm is a good equip, blocking all dark, and dealing 5 earth, and 5 light. For 1 player, this can help a bunch when battling opponents that deals dark icons, such as vira.

 

HCC might not be very useful in 2p, as its already too popular, and people may avoid using Heavy dark dealing weps. Also, the pirate captain hat and the new hubrid nox memorial shield would cripple the hcc quite badly. HCC is decent against a player who does burrow/sink as it lands 50% of the icons quite easily on both of those moves. Sometimes, its just hard to pierce someone's defence when they use sink/burrow

can you save the key and use it later on (like in 1 year, 2 years, etc)?

I know this isnt the guide to be really looking at, but from what I gathered, the things people look at in their criterion for a pet are:

Name

Colour

Species

Conversion status

Source: http://www.neopets.com/~for_the_swim_av , against pet trading but provided some info

Add: Battledome stats

 

Then, there's this guide prioritizing colour values:

http://www.neopets.com/~x__loveable

 

This short article mentions some stuff about valuing the name of the pet: http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=425841&week=364

 

This guide mentions colour values, stuff about unconverted, battledome & avatar pets: http://www.neopets.com/~flanquer

 

I`m not involved in pet trades so I can`t help much, but I was able to google these guides with relative ease.

remember, you have the option to morph your pet by buying morphing potions. You would have to compare prices in general, but some morphing potions are pretty cheap. I turned my main battle pet into a lenny by getting a split morphing potion, which costed around 38k when I bought it.

 

There are other species healers, and freezers that I didnt really mention, and they can be found in the battlepedia. Its best to compare your options, before making any purchase.

Of course, you also have to compare the healers with your healing needs. With a 70ish hp pet, greater healing scroll would fit your needs in general.

it depends what species weapons you are looking at.

In general though, a lot of the species only weapons are not very useful in today`s society. Example: In the past, when 7 icons wasnt easily available, lupes owners would often use iron lupe sword. However, the general minimum today is around 6 icon, dual duty or 9 icons offensive for a starting bd player, and can be often obtained quite cheaply.

 

However, species freezers and some species healers can be worth it as they are a lot cheaper than the all species freezer/healer in general. Lenny entangling lasso/lenny ray gun of freezing, the icy chia goggles are 2 freezers that are often cheaper than the all species freezers.

 

For lupes, there's the ancient lupe wand, and while it is somewhat fragile, it is still a 100% freezer at a low cost, and with a relatively low chance of pernamently breaking.

 

For healers: Kacheek life potion, elephante unguent, gelert healing remedy are pretty cheap in comparison with the bag of healing dust.

h4000 helmet is labelled as once per battle, so theres no worries that it will ever break (unless your opponent pulls out an eraser of the dark faerie). Once per battle: The item can be used once in the battle, and it then dissapears for that particular battle. In your next battle(s), the item would be available for use.

 

Fragile items might break on the first time its used. Its very likely that the item breaking is based off luck/chance.

 

And sweetdang, when you use sticky hands in general, it does go to the opponent if successful. 1p dont use the sticky hand, but in 2p, the opponent can choose to use the hand against you as well. For the heavy robe of thievery, its a once per battle, 100% stealer that doesn't go to the opponent.

if the h400 helmet gets stolen by the opponent, then your opponent can use it against you that particular battle. However, they do not get to keep the item after the battle is over. In the end, the equipment will stay on your pet. If you do buy the h400 helmet, try to put it in the 2nd to eighth slot, so that your opponent doesnt steal the 100% freezer. Or use it on the first turn, and so it wont ever get stolen.

 

Stealing can be done withwith 1 use items: if your opponent steals it and uses it, it will still return to your inventory at the end of the battle. People have some tendencies to exploit this piece of knowledge so that they can turn their pet into a kacheek of chia without the usage of morphing potions. By having kacheek flour or chia flour in their bd pet's first slot, they can have the opponent steal it, use it, and the item would not be lost. The pet would still change.

You should probably add more methods of training: kitchen quest (for random stat), scratchcards (for levels).

 

Anyways, I use the training school, the lab ray, and armoured neggs. I often use scratchcards when I need levels, but the success of those working dont seem to be very high. I used to use kitchen quest, but because my pets training plans aren't really flexible, I decided to stop using kq.

Players collect avatars for several reasons:

Its a hobby of mass collection usually (like collecting stamps, items)

It improves their image: represents achievements/accomplishments (the harder the avatar to get, the more they have, the better their image in societal views)

The avatars are visible when you communicate with others (neomails, guild messaging, posting on neo board). Players have different interpretations of what looks nice, or what represents themselves well, so more avatars = more options to represent oneself.

 

Where do you start?

 

As others mentioned, start by going for clickable avatars that are free & easy to collect.

If you have lots of np, you can buy the avatar items associated, or you could use the np as collateral to borrow avatar associated items

Games: some games comes with avatars for achieving something. Working on game avatars isnt all to easy. Some game avatars are easy to get: such as nqII weakling. ALl you have to do is lose on a really weak monster in the game (plains lupe).

So, did you use the spellbook finder (http://www.thedailyneopets.com/altador-plot/spellbook-finder/)?

 

By inputting your sleeper cordinates, I got 18,21 (x,y) . Make sure your sleeper coordinates are correct when you input them in.

 

Then use your unique url code and input the coordinates accordingly.