MHWiki:Current events/Archive/2010/November

Archive for updates taken place in November of 2010 in Reverse Chronological Order.
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Festive Disaster! - The Festive Comet is invaded!

29 November 2010

The Festive Comet is invaded!
The Great Winter Hunt of 2010
New mice will be available throughout December!
Lighting the Great Winter Tree and new Festive Gifts, restoring the spirit of the holidays.

Festive Disaster!

There was great celebration and jubilee from veterans and novices alike as an unprecedented number of hunters gathered together to witness the Great Winter Star Ceremony near the Festive Comet. Throngs of happy hunters surrounded the massive Holiday Tree, ringed with glittering lights and tinsel. Under the broad evergreen branches sat a mountain of sightly gifts brought by the King to show his appreciation for the hard work of the hunters.

But just as the Winter Star was being raised, a booming of steel drums drowned out the cheers! Our veteran hunter's supply of spoiled eggnog from last year's Winter Hunt burst open, disgorging an indescribable odor and a cloud of choking nog-smoke! Those stalwart hunters who held their breath witnessed a league of mice rush to the tree, stripping it bare of lights, pillaging the King's special gifts, and even claiming the Winter Star itself!

It seems the mice may well have stolen away both festive cheer and cheese, but all hope is not lost! A few of our bravest hunters were so formidable they managed to tough out the eggnog stench, capturing as many mice as they could manage. Bribing these captured mice with delicious Gingerbread Cheese, they learnt that there are 12 mouse types working for 1 mysterious boss! All we know of this festi-villain is that he leaves eggnoggey footprints in the snow...

They have also learnt that the mice have a schedule for their devious plot, and the bosses will only reveal themselves if the minions fail. The King, working together with the hunters, has released a Royal Calender to coordinate our efforts.

Now it is up to you, brave hunter, to enter the Great Festive Hunt of 2010, capture the 12 mice of winter, defeat their noggy master and restore our holiday!

Restoring Holiday Cheer

Over the course of December, we'll be releasing a new mouse to the Festive Comet on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Mice, once released, will stay in the area as long as the Winter Hunt is active. As you catch these mice, lights in your holiday strand will turn on as you recover the spirit of the Winter Hunt. After all 12 are released and caught, the mysterious boss will be revealed and become available to you. We're told he likes his cheese as cold as his heart...

On Tuesdays, new gifts will become available in the Festive Gift Shoppe.

On Thursdays, or 'Bonus Elf Day' as we call it in the office, twice as many Elf mice are released to the Festive Comet.

The Holiday Lights

This HUD element shows how close you are to defeating the 12 Mice of Winter.

Mice that are caught are shown with a glowing light.
Mice that are released, but not yet caught, are a grey bulb.
Mice that are not yet released are faded mysteriiiooous silhouettes of lights.

-- Mike Paterson

Festive Comet has Landed - The Great Winter Hunt has Begun!

24 November 2010

The Festive Comet has landed!
The Great Winter Hunt of 2010 has begun!
New festivities will be available throughout December!
Elf Hunting, lighting the Great Winter Tree and more!

The Festive Comet Has Landed!

Check your travel map hunters! The Festive Comet has landed in Gnawnia where there is much snowy hunting to be done! There are festively dressed mice to hunt as well as the always mischievous Elf mouse, which is carrying gifts of all shapes and sizes. If you catch an Elf mouse you'll find a gift specially wrapped depending on your Hunter's Title. Many of the gifts contain a little cheese to help you in your hunting, but occasionally you may just find something a little more special.

Blue Winter Hunt Gift Box
For hunters of ranks Novice to Grandmaster

Green Winter Hunt Gift Box
For hunters of ranks Legendary through Knight

Red Winter Hunt Gift Box
For hunters of rank Lord, Lady or higher

The Festive Gift Shoppe Has Returned!

The Festive Gift Shoppe has returned to Gnawnia where you can use your gold to send gifts to friends. There is no limit on how many gifts you can send from the Festive Gift Shoppe, as well as no limit on how many gifts you can claim that were sent from the Festive Gift Shoppe. If you're feeling generous and want to let someone know you're thinking of them this Great Winter Hunt, pick out something special and buy it for a friend!

There are festive collectible items that can be sent to friends, as well as Gingerbread Planks. Planks can be smashed with your Hunter's Hammer to produce 15 pieces of Gingerbread Cheese. This festive bait, along with SUPER|brie+, is a favourite of Elf mice. The Festive Gift Shoppe is expecting new items to arrive throughout December, so be sure to check back often!

New Festive Gift Baskets and Trap Skins

New festive gift baskets are available that contain SUPER|brie+ and the Lucky Golden Shield. There are also two new trap skins that give the RhinoBot and Clockapult of Time a fun, festive look.

Festive Gift Basket
125 SUPER|brie+
1 Month Lucky Golden Shield

Jumbo Festive Gift Basket
200 SUPER|brie+
1 Month Lucky Golden Shield

Icy RhinoBot Skin
Sub-zero mouse pummeler

Clockapult of Winter Past Skin
Time traveling mouse trap!

Great Winter Star Ceremony - November 29th

Just before the start of December is the Great Winter Star Ceremony. It's a celebration held by the King where the previous year's Winter Star is removed from the top of the tree and the new one is placed on top. Some mice truly despise the festivities, so there is sure to be some trouble. Mark November 29th on your calendars -- The King will need help making sure no unruly mice crash the party.

Where Do I Start?

Head over to the Festive Comet and hunt the Elf mice, which enjoy Gingerbread or SUPER|brie+ cheese. If you're feeling in the giving mood, check out the Festive Gift Shoppe and send some friends festive gifts.

Make sure to be at the Festive Comet on November 29th for the Great Winter Star Ceremony where the King will need you to be on the lookout for any suspicious mice. Good luck hunting Elf mice and happy holiday hunting!

-- Dave Vanderburg

King's Giveaway Wrap-up

17 November 2010

Hey MouseHunters,

The King's giveaway has come to an end. It had been a long time since a giveaway was held and this one was quite different than previous giveaways.

More than 160 Leprechauns were caught, worth cash prizes totaling $5,000. Congrats to Toby, our grand prize winner of $500. More than 1,500 Mobsters were caught worth a total of almost 150,000 SUPER|brie+. Finally, we had close to 150,000 winners of King's Credits totaling more than 2 million King's Credits.

Even though the King's Giveaway has ended, all of the prize mice can still be occasionally encountered. The King's Prize shoppe will remain open and your King's Credits can be cashed in at anytime. We plan on doing a few giveaways a year and will definitely be including the community before the launch of the next giveaway event.

If you've been playing for a while, you know how important your feedback is to us and how it helps shape future content and events. We've started a thread in the Ideas and Suggestions forum to collect feedback from players about the event. We've seen a lot of great ideas about how to improve King's Giveaways.

Based off the feedback we've been getting, we see how we could have done a better job of communicating the odds of winning, setting expectations about the rarity of prize mice and conveying what role prize power plays in attracting a prize mouse. We apologize if you were frustrated by this, and assure you we will do a better job of communicating for the next King's Giveaway.

We'll be taking the constructive feedback we've had during this event and making a few tweaks to the system to make it more fun. We plan on having another giveaway in the not too distant future with an improved and re-vamped system. Please visit the forums to leave your comments and feedback about the event to help make the next King's Giveaway something that everyone will enjoy.

-- Dave Vanderburg

King's Giveaway -- Prize Mice on the Loose!

11 November 2010

The King is holding an exciting giveaway for a limited time! $10,000 in SUPER|brie+, $5,000 in cash as well as exciting in-game items! Take part in catching special Prize Mice for your chance to win.

How is this Giveaway Different from Previous Giveaways?

We've added three new prize mice that are worth King's Credits which can be redeemed at a prize shop for in-game items! These new prize mice are significantly less rare than Mobsters and Leprechauns. We hope that these new prize mice will make the giveaway more fun for everyone, with the oppurtunity for more people to win someting. This is obviously brand new to everyone and we welcome your feedback and suggestions on the forums to improve the next giveaway event!

Prize Mice Available

There are a variety of Prize Mice available, each worth different types of prizes! You can increase your odds of encountering a prize mouse by boosting a new stat called Prize Power. Keep reading to learn more about these mice and how to increase your Prize Power!

Treasurer Mouse
Worth a few King's Credits

Snooty Mouse
Worth a bunch of King's Credits

High Roller Mouse
Worth tons of King's Credits! (JACKPOT!)

Mobster Mouse (Rare)
Worth SUPER|brie+

Leprechaun Mouse (Rare)
Worth cash!

How to Boost Your Prize Power

Prize Mice can be found in all locations except the Meadow. You can encounter a prize mouse by sounding your horn, or a friend sounding the horn and bringing you on a hunt. Boosting your Prize Power will increase your odds of encountering a prize mouse. You can boost your Prize Power by using any of four new special items that are available as gifts and loot. These items are: Lucky Coins, Lucky Horseshoes, Lucky Underwear and Beginner's Luck.

Lucky Coins
Found as loot dropped by any mouse. Visit a friend's profile and "toss" the coin into their Wishing Well and receive +3 Prize Power for both you and your friend. If your friend has less than five Prize Power, you'll both get +5 Prize Power. Alternatively, you can visit the "Special" section of your inventory and "rub" the coin to receive +1 Prize Power. You can hold a maximum of ten coins in your inventory, so make sure to check back often and use them up!

Lucky Horseshoes
Available as a gift of the day during the giveaway. Visit the "Special" section of your inventory to "toss" a horseshoe for a +3 Prize Power boost.

Lucky Underwear
Available as a "Gift of the Day" during the giveaway. Visit the "Special" section of your inventory to "wear" these amazing underpants for a +5 Prize Power boost.

Beginner's Luck
If a friend joins the hunt as a new recruit, you'll receive some of their Beginner's Luck when they sound their horn for their very first time! Visit the "Special" section of your inventory and open a vial for a +8 Prize Power boost.

How Prize Power and Catching Prize Mice Works

Prize Power increases your chances of encountering a prize mouse, as well as increases the chances of encountering the more valuable Prize Mice. Treasurer Mice can be encountered with very little prize power, while High Roller require more prize power.

Your Prize Power resets upon catching a prize mouse, as well as at the very end of the giveaway. As an added bonus, should you encounter a prize mouse and fail to capture it, you'll receive +1 Prize Power to help you encounter another!

Should you catch a prize mouse and win King's Credits, you will be unable to encounter that same type of prize mouse for 24 hours to both give other hunters a chance to win and increase your chances of encountering one of the other Prize Mice. Should you catch a Mobster or Leprechaun, you will be unable to encounter another one for 90 days.

Prizes To Win:

Catching a Mobster Mouse will win you varying amounts of SUPER|brie+. The cheese will be directly added to your inventory.

Catching a Leprechaun Mouse will win you varying amounts of cash! That's right, REAL MONEY! All cash prizes are paid via PayPal, or can be redeemed for SUPER|brie+.

Catching one of the other Prize Mice will earn you King's Credits. These sepcial coins can be exchanged at the King's Royal Prize Shoppe for a variety of in-game items including crafting ingredients, potions, SUPER|brie+, the Lucky Golden Shield and new trap skins! These same prizes will be available again during the next giveaway. None of the new, unique items are limited edition.

See something you don't have enough King's Credits for? Don't worry! You'll be able to save your King's Credits for the next King's Giveaway event!

What are the New Trap Skins?

Grungy DeathBot Fluffy DeathBot Ninja Ambush Trap

Brace yourself for ground-breaking style! Trap Skins change your trap's appearence -- not the stats. They make a great way to show some unique style while hunting! The skins are available as prizes in the Giveaway and the Daily Raffle. They are also tradable at the Marketplace with some also available to donators.

To apply a Trap Skin, first dismantle the respective trap with your Hunter's Hammer and craft the resulting parts with the skin.

Where do I Start?

Start hunting for Lucky Coins to "toss" into the Wishing Wells on your friends' profiles! You can use up to ten wells a day, as well as "rub" any extra coins you find to get even more Prize Power! Load up on Lucky Horseshoes and Lucky Underwear -- clicking the "wear all" for button Lucky Underwear not only gives you Prize Power, but makes a bold fashion statement as well ... stylin'! Remember: You need to visit the "Special" section of your inventory to activate these items and raise your Prize Power. Will you use them all at once? Or space out how often you use them? Plan out your strategy, Hunters!

Watch the news ticker at the top of the game for a few hints and tips. Good luck out there and happy hunting!

-- Dave Vanderburg

Halloween Event has Ended

2 November 2010

Hey Hunters!

Halloween Leaves Gnawnia

The Halloween event has come to an end. We hope everyone had spooky amounts of fun exploring the Haunted 'Terrortories' and hunting the sinister Gourdborg mouse!

If you were in the Haunted Terrortories at the time they were closed, you'll now find yourself in a vacant lot where there are no special mice, items or shops. The empty lot is to allow those who were at the event at the time it ended to safely travel away. The King's guards will escort out any stragglers in a few days.

We've been seeing a lot of great feedback on the forums about this event that will help plan future ones. If you have yet to visit the forums, please stop by to check out what your fellow hunters are saying and make your own voice heard!

Giveaway this November!

The King is planning a November Giveaway Event!!! Lots of Mobster and Leprechaun mice will be on the loose worth SUPER|brie+ and real cash prizes. We've taken feedback from past giveaways into account and are adding a few "mini" prize mice worth in-game items, new unique looking traps and more! We hope these new mice will provide something to win for everyone!

Hope you had a blast this October! Look forward to an exciting November!

Happy hunting!

-- Dave Vanderburg

New Gift Claim Page

1 November 2010

Hey hunters! A new section has been added to the gifts page where you can view any gifts you have received but have yet to claim. This new section should prove handy for times when you can no longer view the gift notification, or if you've reached the daily gift claim limit and want to claim a gift that you were sent a day or two ago.

Halloween has come and gone and the Haunted Terrortories are about to leave Gnawnia! Good luck if you're still chasing down the sinister Gourdborg Mouse. We hope everyone had fun during the event and encourage hunters to visit the forums and give us suggestions, opinions and feedback we can use when preparing future events.

Happy Hunting!

Also in this update:

• Fixed a problem causing an error page to sometimes be displayed when using the MH Toolbar to sound the horn.
• By popular demand, the chance of receiving Runes from a Mysterious Box has been slightly decreased.
• Fixed a problem where the horn would remain on screen after being clicked.
• Various typo corrections in item and title descriptions.

-- Dave Vanderburg