Progress update
Hello everyone,
Another month has passed. I can gladly say I am back in the full swing of things (as far as real life allows).
Auction House Sales
During the first weeks of February, I sold off my very last Wildclaw scrolls, which caused a nice high revenue for this month, but I think will only show the contrast next month and the months to follow, when such high numbers are lacking. Luckily the Hibernal Den Quest items seem to be in quite high demand, and I hope to be able to profit off of that for a few more weeks to come.
Apart from Wildclaw Scrolls and HDQ items, I've decided to take a bit of risk, by sniping items of the treasure MP and selling them for gems on the AH. So far, there isn't much profit to speak off, but I guess you could say I am exchanging my treasure for gems at a favourable rate.
Coliseum spotlight
This month I tried to balance renewed energy to farm with not getting too burned out in anticipation of next month's SpringSwarm mini-fest. That being said, I did a lot of fodder leveling, and generic farming thanks to the Hibernal Den, but sadly don't have too flashy a loot*.
(*It is that my notes tell me I got two eggs to drop this month; I don't remember it.)
Other activities
The Hibernal Den gave me (and I think many other players) renewed energy and purpose. I've been unlocking the item slots at a steady pace (100 item slots left), and filling them up with either cheap babyfodder or level 10 adult fodder. The pre-levelled fodder I am planning on using whenever Earth has a conquest or when two other flights are battling it out and the prices rise. The babyfodder is more short term; Thanks to the Hibernal Den the price of hatchlings is already incredibly high (luckily adult fodder prices; not so much). I expect both hatchling and adult prices to rise even further when Springswarm comes around and boosts the coliseum experience earned. Because I don't want to pay those high prices for fodder during SpringSwarm, I'm using my Hibernal Den to stock up on fodder that I won't have to feed. Win-win!
After deliberating for a long time, I have decided to re-open my sales and services shop that I have run since 2014. At some point it became too much to keep the thread up to date, as I had listed every single familiar and apparel piece I had. I ditched a large majority of the stock, that made it such a pain to keep track off, added some new things (such as Hibernal Den Quest items) and voilà:
Gaia's Plentiful Market reborn!
Updated totals
On-hand currency: 74.8% (+ 4.2%)
Hoard value: 9.3% (+ 0.2%)
Investments: 0.0.% (- 3.0%)*
Total: 84.1% (+ 1.4%)
*Because I often snipe before I think, it is too much of a hassle to keep track of all the small investments I make. Especially considering that the marketplace does not have a purchase history. Additionally, the turnover is relatively quick; while this month posed an initial investment, I expect sales and new investments next month, which should balance each other out. Therefore I will remove the 'investments' ledger in the overview, until such a time Wildclaw Scrolls return
from the war or other opportunities arise that require heavy long-term investments.
Plans for next month
Next month, I will mostly be focusing on the Springswarm mini-holiday and Mistral Jamboree. I tallied up and I will have between 20 and 25 dragons to train to level 25 while the exp bonus lasts. I also have about 120 fodder (hopefully 150 by that time) to level for some additional profit.
Another thing that I am/will be doing that will most definitely impact the progress of this quest is Dappervolk. For those of you who don't know; Dappervolk is a pet and avatar site, with some have RPG elements. It is currently under closed development, but last year it had opened up the site for beta testing. While it isn't by any means perfect, I really enjoy it, and can't wait for the site to re-open the doors for official launch.
But I am a completionist, and while I was trying hard not to focus on it for this game, I can't stop myself from wanting to complete the pet collection. Sadly, though, I couldn't back the Kickstarter because of my financial means, and I didn't know about the game when it was in it's alpha phase. There were both alpha tester gifts and an alpha phase support bundle. All of these contained exclusive pets (8 in total). That I must collect.
So after a lot of deliberating, I have decided, with a heavy heart, that I will be using the funds I've gathered so far to try and by those pets while they are still around and affordable-ish. While I hope it won't, I think chances are fairly certain this side-quest will use up most, if not all of my current funds.
It'll be a huge set-back, because it took me 1.5 years (plus 4 years of building up a nice hoard) to get this far, and it'll be hard having to start up from scratch again, having no initial funds to, for example, invest in WC scrolls, should they cycle in again. But considering that I haven't used any of my saved up limited items (such as Light Sprite and Sunchaser Jewelry) and still managed to get this far in my savings, I am positive I will be able to do it again. It'll just prolong the quest by a year or two.
(That being said, I do hope WC scrolls cycle in like tomorrow, so that I can still do one quick last investment and at least get a 10% ROI to fatten my purse a little.)
Question of the month
Hibernal Den! Now that it is here, and we've been able to play around with it for a few weeks, how do you feel it about?
I am surprised at my own positive stance. I was quite averse to having slots being purchasable with gems (as if the gem to treasure ratio isn't high enough already), but 100 slots times 50 gems per slot, only amounts to 5000 gems. I might end up buying them myself! And it really helps that there's 300 slots that can be unlocked with anything but gems! I like that there's a wide variety of items needed, from coliseum, to gathering*, to Swipp and Baldwin, to the marketplace.
As mentioned above I've already started using the Hibernal Den to make more profit. Before the Hibernal Den (oh the nostalgia) I already used my large lair to stock up on fodder (both pre-leveled and baby). But being able to do so with a (potential) total of 405 more spaces and without having to feed them; there's a lot of potential for increased profit margins.
*Sadly, these gathering quests make it very painfully clear how broken the Gathering system is. Especially for older players who have reached higher levels in the different gathering professions.
How can it be that being level 40 in Insect Catching, spending 17 gathering turns a day consecutively for over two weeks, doesn't result in 15 measly Hardshells? I was lucky that I hadn't hoardsold anything in half a decade and had a couple laying around. But even after 5 years of varied gathering, I only had 40 or so to my name. That's not a lot. Especially considering they're a two-star rarity item that has been around since the very beginning of the game!
I really hope a revamp for the Gathering system is coming soon, and that it'll be good! Getting more common drops with higher food points isn't all that beneficial if you consider I don't need food points for these quests, for Baldwin or for Swipp. I need specific items and those specific items aren't dropping, because the pool of possible items is too large, and the amount of items I get each turn too small. *sigh* Okay - rant over!
So what about you? Have you already unlocked a couple of Hibernal Den slots? And do you see yourself using it a lot in the future?
That's it for now. Thank you all for your continued interest and support. <3
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