Castle Magic Experiments

 I've already used some Castle Magic in my houses, but I'm embarking on a more intensive project for my Pyromancer that will involve moving parts. So I decided I would describe some of my findings here. Parts of this will be written as if you don't know anything about Castle Magic. Forgive me if it reads like I'm dumbing things down.

The last time I used it, I had some uneven results. I got things to work eventually, but I didn't understand why the counters weren't working like they should. I will still need to investigate the use of Counters and Computers.

My house will be a sort of Twilight Zone affair with clocks moving about all over the place and doing freaky things. I plan on having them spin, grow and shrink, rise and fall, move about, and fade in and out.

If this is your first time figuring out what to do with Castle Magic, you purchase the items from Babbage Basset in Regent's Square of Marleybone (near the museum). In one section of his "shop", you buy the items that you place in your house. These are house decorations and count toward your house item limit. In another section of his shop, you buy what are essentially treasure cards that are the "spells" that you insert into your Castle Magic items to make them work. These count toward your treasure card limit. The average cost of the items is about 2000 gold, and the average cost of the spells is 1000 gold.

Spinning Clock Tower

I started with the easiest thing - making a clock tower spin. When you want something to occur only once, you can use certain kinds of trigger items, like pressure plates or switches, or items that detect players getting close. I tend to use a Magic Start Detector that triggers when the player first arrives to the house. But for spinning, I want the magic to be continuous. So I use a Magic Timer.

Once you buy your items and spells from Babbage Basset, you port to your house and then open up your house inventory so you can place your Castle Magic decorations (such as the Magic Timer item). Technically, they can be anywhere around the house as long as in same house zone as the items you want to activate (outside Castle Magic affects outside zone and items only), but it's a good idea to keep your Castle Magic items near the objects you wish to affect. A quick way to figure out which items any particular Castle Magic decoration affects is to left click on the item itself and watch the yellow arrows flowing away from the decoration to those items being affected.

Here you can see a blue box and an orange ball, joined together, as well as my house inventory open, since I'm placing Castle Magic items into my house. If that menu isn't open, you won't see any of your Castle Magic decorations. You can move these Castle Magic items into other objects, but that doesn't have any affect on their behavior. People tend to move Castle Magic items into each other to make it visually apparent which items are affecting each other. You click on the Castle Magic item to show a menu where you can move the item, pick it up, but also enter that item's specific Castle Magic menu (a symbol at the top).

Here's the Magic Timer. I wanted continuous spin, so I used that instead of the Magic Start Detector. The first tab at top is for what spells you are using, and what items they are affecting. The Magic Timer usually goes through an intermediary Castle Magic item to start spells that affect your environment, the Magic Reflector, which can perform multiple simultaneous actions. And that's what I've done here. I cast to Activate Reflector (by putting the treasure card in that top area), and then pointed the spell to the item I wanted activated, the Magic Reflector. If you click that little circle containing stars, you can then click on the card or object you wish to affect, and that fills in the spell or item.

The second tab (if there is one) controls the behavior of the Castle Magic item, and in the case of the timer, you have the power to adjust how long before the spells are cast, whether the spells cast only once or whether they repeat, whether the timer starts on its own when the house is visited, and if you visually show the timer to visitors (including you). I keep that timer display turned off unless I want to see if it's actually working. Usually people want the timer set to one second for the On setting and zero seconds for the Off setting, because the majority of Magic Timer uses are for growing objects or making them trigger immediately upon visiting their house.

Here is the Magic Reflector's menu (the one that I linked the Magic Timer to). You'll notice at the very top, it says "When Activated Do #2 Cast Spell". This is the second spell I'm casting. You can toggle between up to eight different spells using the scroll arrows at top. There are three different turn spells for each direction, left or right: 15 degrees, 45 degrees, and 90 degrees.

Here is the part of the experimentation that might be new information to some experienced Castle Magic users. If you put only one spell in for turning an object, it will start and stop instead of turning smoothly. You may want that affect, like the way a clock's second hand moves around the face. But I wanted a smooth spin. I had to look around on the web to find videos on how others did it. I found a video that used multiples of the same spell, four Turn Right 90 Degrees spells. But how many are are required? By the math, I needed to achieve at least 135 degrees of turning between the spells I used at the settings I had (one second timer On, zero seconds Off). That means you could use two Turn Right 90 Degrees spells, or one Turn Right 90 and one Turn Right 45 Degrees spell, or three Turn Right 45 Degrees spells. 

If you want to achieve a smoothly continuous spinning object, you will need a Magic Timer set to one second On and zero seconds Off, with Repeat checked, and point it to a Magic Reflector that casts a pair of Turn Right (or Turn Left) 90 Degrees spells to affect your intended target. You can use other triggers to turn on and off your spinning object by turning on and off that Magic Timer, or you can just have the Magic Timer checked to be turned on at the start.

Automated Up and Down Magic

Most Castle Magic that uses elevator type effects utilizes a Jump trigger to raise or lower a platform. I wanted instead a Clock Tower that would smoothly float up and down continuously. This required more Castle Magic items to make work, and some adjustments to the timers to make them flow smoothly.

First, here's my setup:

I start the whole thing with a Start Magic Detector item. This will start the whole magic chain as soon as someone visits the house, which by now you can see is the Red Barn Farm. The Start Magic Detector will cast the spell Start Timer on the Magic Timer I'm pointing at with the yellow arrow. That will be my timer that controls the upward motion of the Clock Tower. I did not check the box to have the Magic Timer automatically start, not for this timer or the other one that will control the down motion.

The orange balls you see in the above picture are all Magic Reflectors that are affected by the timers and counters they are attached to. It's probably a good habit to attach them to avoid confusion of which item is affecting what; but it's important to know you can have multiple items affecting the same reflector!

Magic Timer #1 was set to repeat at two seconds On and zero seconds Off, pointing to the Magic Reflector #1. Magic Reflector #1 had the spells Move Up 250 and Add Counter. So what are the spells for the Magic Counters for? The Counters will add up to a certain point, and when they reach that point, they will shut off the magic from one timer, and start the other. Thus the Magic Counters control when to float the object up and when to float the object down. They say, "I'm full; go the other way."

The Add Counter spell from Magic Reflector #1 was pointed at Magic Counter #1. I set that counter to 5 (see below).

Also, I didn't want to display the counter's value on the screen. There are reasons to do that, like if you want to set up some sort of scavenger hunt game in your house, or if you're trying to make sure things are working, but I didn't want counter numbers showing up for visitors. With a value set to 5, it meant my timer/reflector combo would raise my Clock Tower five times before the Magic Counter would reach it's limit to cast the new spell. Magic Counter #1 has the switch to the reflector I've labeled Counter Reflector #1 once it reaches it's set value (5).

Magic Reflector #1 does the following spells: Stop Timer (pointing to Magic Timer #1, Reset Counter (pointing to Magic Counter #2), and Start Timer (pointing to Magic Timer #2). Now the new timer/reflector combo goes through its job of lowering the Clock Tower using Move Down 250 while adding counters to Magic Counter #2.

After some experimentation, I noticed a problem. My set up is good, except for the timer values set with the Move Up 250 spells. Every 100 units takes about a second to complete. If you set your timer to 2 seconds On, and use Move Up 100 or Move Down 100, you will get a second of pause after each movement. So a jerky motion instead of a smooth motion. If you set it as I did for 2 seconds On, but are using a Move Up 250 or Move Down 250, the motion will be smooth, but you are getting excess time added on to the process, and that messes up the timer on it's way down. You don't get the object arriving back to it's starting position before it starts back up the upward movement path, and probably vice versa. I changed my numbers to match each other.

My timers are set for casting spell with 1 second On, and zero seconds Off, and I use the Move Up 100 and Moved Down 100 spells. This ensures my floating object moves smoothly, and arrives to the same top and bottom points every time. If you were to use this, you can adjust the height using the Magic Counter's value... a lower number for a smaller rise. Just make sure your Magic Counter values match!

Conclusion

That's a lot of words for only two Castle Magic effects. I learned that you can make your house decorations move smoothly, but there are some number values you need to know to make that work. Spinning requires more than one rotation spell, and that value of the combined spells in degrees must be at least 135 (it can be more, and the spell still works fine). If you are moving items up or down, they move at a rate of one second for every 100 units. That probably applies to other directions, too; but I have yet to run those experiments.

Balance Deckathalon: Making Progress

 Let's get this out of the way right at the top. Here's Ferricord's youtube video on strategy and advice for completing this Deckathalon. Also, he says it's the hardest one, and I had been stuck on stage 5, so I believe him.

I had been stuck on stage 5, and just today, trying to get through it, I got hit with four Mana Burns while trying to build up for a Scarecrow hit. Well, that was trash. And my equipped pet is quad may-cast heal pet, with a side of may-cast Sanctuary. I was seriously frustrated. I had NOT seen this video yet, and I'm currently contemplating his advice; but I DID get through the level, and this is how I did it.

The first fight isn't hard, though the likelihood of a Mana Burn is high, and yes I got hit with it on the second turn. I trapped twice, bladed once, and hit with either Vampire or Wraith if I magically got my pips high enough.

And then that second fight. The run killer. I was using the death drain strategy as I think that's the most pip efficient one. However, as I had already seen, I would never be able to do a Scarecrow. I built my deck to get past this one stage only, which is a huge deviation for counting and planning which cards would be used on which stage and fight for longer runs. You just can't do that for the Balance Deckathalon. I instead relied on getting a minion out (Storm Elemental!), using both Tower and Elemental Shields, Fortify if I had the luxury, and spamming low drain hits. I would keep loading traps and blades where I could, making sure to have shields up as well, and then hitting with either Ghoul or Vampire opportunistically.

It was somewhat similar to Ferricord's strategy, in that he was dumping his pips down when one of the enemies showed 5 or more pips at the start of a turn. I wasn't trying to avoid damage - I was simply using any attack I had, expecting that I would lose those pips.

This wound up being a LONG fight, with my pet healing making a major difference. I used up all but 2 of my Tower Shields, all of my Elemental Shields, and nearly all of my Ghouls. It was VERY frustrating, as I would only do around 150 damage with an unbuffed Ghoul, because I was carpeted with Weakness. And I fizzled a few times because of Black Mantle. The shields were mandatory, and the minion gave me the breathing room to isolate one of the the mobs to grind down and kill. And it still came down to pet healing luck.

After reviewing his video, I am very afraid to start stage 6.

Things I Like to Do in Wizard101

When you first start playing Wizard101, there's the excitement of creating a young wizard and training up while exploring magical new worlds. It's exhilerating and wonderful. Then, after awhile, for new players anyway, you get stuck. You're somewhere maybe in Mooshu or Dragonspyre, not knowing the maps intimately, so you're lost going in circles trying to find something the map arrow won't work for. Or just a bit tired of the level grind, and that magic feeling slips away.

Maybe you take a break for a bit because of that. Maybe you cast about looking for a leveling partner. Or maybe you start exploring the game for something different. What else is there in the game besides training to be the most powerful spellcaster the Spiral has ever seen?

Well, for many, they start to look at PvP (player vs. player to the uninitiated). The Arena offers endless opportunities to battle in ways that an AI opponent could never offer. This is where you can truly test your mettle, and your wizard level doesn't matter. That's not to say gear, pets, or treasure cards are unimportant. Quite the opposite actually. Good PvP players spend a great deal of time preparing their setups to dominate the rankings. And outside the game, you can find videos on social media like certain youtube channels where players offer streaming clips of their battles, including tips, commentary, and one-upmanship. There's also the Pet Derby, a sort of PvP for pets! 

Neither of those are my thing.

I like Castle decoration.

I'm not necessarily good at it, mind you; but theres a ton of stuff that goes into decorating, and many hours of grinding for hard to find house pieces. Not to mention Castle Magic, which offers so much more variety to make your virtual homes pop.

This post won't go in-depth into all of Castle Magic, but I will touch on the various aspects of Wiz101 houses, and how I interact with them.

Castle Tours

You can visit player houses and rank them. I find this to be fun; and there's also a reward for doing it, too. After visiting and rating enough houses, you get badges; and those unlock a shop from Myrella Windspar, which offers new pieces and recipes like new skins for your player bank, invisible furniture pieces like stairs and platforms, a personal Castle Magic vendor to place in your house, a separate world gate, and an entire apartment.

What your own personal tastes for rating will vary, but I have my own internal system to be as fair and responsible as I can. I tend to rate houses in the Decorated category, but you might enjoy Collections or Magical categories. Things I look for:

• Creativity (designer finds interesting uses for space and furniture, including using imaginative merges and Caste Magic)
• Originality (there are loads of Christmas houses and hotels, but far fewer zoos and battle stations)
• Theme (how strict does the designer stick to a theme rather than just throwing in a mix of different pieces from different worlds)
• Good color coordination (elegant vs. eye-sore)
• Wow factor (it's really hard to have a wow factor, but it's nice when I see it)
• Clean and sharp (there's a difference between an absence of clutter and basically bare, and a Castle can have a high item count with things still looking orderly)
• Easy to navigate (getting hung up or stuck on furniture really kills the mood, and sometimes my slow and laggy computer ports me into a castle where the expanding castle-magicked tree roots me to the spot)
• Utility (Castles that provide item-granting furniture, crafting tables, kiosks, gauntlets, mini-games, monstrology tomes, and ports to other castles are all nice bonuses)

I will rate lower houses that look like no effort was put into it. Empty rooms, no music playing, all the pets dumped on the front lawn just to get the item count up, those bug me. It's really not hard to make a basic effort to make your Castle presentable, even if its just to have it up for friends to use your gauntlet. In fifteen minutes, you can wallpaper your entire house, hang up some clocks and put couches, chairs, carpets, and tables throughout. If you have 70k gold, you can buy a set of three world furnishing packs from the Crown Shop and make your place look decent.

I use two rating systems, generally, that depend upon my mood.

System 1 (easy system)

• 1 point: no decoration, items dumped in one spot to make minimum item count
• 2 points: reallly basic, unfurnished rooms, no thought to any kind of design
• 3 points: effort put into house (I say house and castle interchangeably). House can look otherwise cookie cutter basic, or really really good
• 4 points: solid effort put into house and house also shows something with Wow factor, or is super original, or is so dang elegant I want to live in it

System 2 (stricter system)

• 1 point: no decoration or is sloppy and under-furnished
• 2 points: average house, and effort not enough, but a 2 here isn't bad. A pretty good job
• 3 points: house has to look good, have good design and consistent theme
• 4 points: house has to not just look good, but must include something big and distinguishing

I think there are arguments to be made for either system, but I think that decorating purists would push to have a stricter system.

So what else do I like to do in Wizard101?

Collect Things

1. There are a lot of things to collect in the game.
2. Gear for stitching. This can be an endless grind, depending.
3. Fish. Gotta catch them all!
4. Monstrology. Gotta catch all these too!
5. Max shared bank with reagents. Maybe I have a problem...
6. Play Grub Guardian for rare furniture pieces. Ya, I got a problem.

A lot of the above activities feed back into Castle improvements. You can utilize Monstrology for house guests. Reagent farming can be critical for crafting unique furniture pieces, or even a new castle recipe, and you can add Fish for decorations and Castle collection pieces.

Collect Things Using Item-Granting Furniture

Every day I run a castle tour circuit of favorited houses on all my wizards. These houses include Blacksmith's Fjord, Nomad Camp, Castaway's Bungalow, and Everafter Village for amber reagents, Aero Village, Briny Deep Retreat, Heavenly Palace, and Polarian Shipwreck for unique furniture pieces, and Darkmoor Manor during clothing drop days. Also, I have a Castle favorited that has Iron Sultan, since he can drop amber as well. The amber collecting is slow going, though with the addition of the Blacksmith's Fjord on my circuit, that has increased. I think between all my wizards, doing this daily tour routine, I get around 5 amber a week, though some weeks I get pretty lucky. Although I have my reasons to run this circuit, there are other item-granting furniture and house pieces besides these, and as you tour the Castles, you can mark any houses you find them as "favorite" using the little heart icon at the top of the castle tours controls. Then you can always return to the house to use that item (like the Fantastic Fish Bowl, or the Magic Treehouse) once a day. Unfortunately, some items can only be used if you are friends with the Castle's owner, just like how it is with gauntlets, but do look for those on your friends' castles. If you are running low level wizards, doing your own daily house circuit can be a good way to build up your character, receiving bunches of snacks, seeds, some gold, treasure cards, reagents, and sometimes even some pets. What you can't use, you can sell at the bazaar, and this will add up.

Castle Magic

I'll end this post with a bit about Castle Magic, and hope to talk more about it later. I was late to start learning this, and there are parts I still find difficult, but I've put more effort to learning Castle Magic, and I'm starting to get the hang of some things. It is definitely worth using to make your castle shine. Most people use the spell to make their furniture pieces larger, but if you want to make your castle interactive, Castle Magic is a necessity.  Puzzles, sliding doors, and the visual spell effects all can be used with it.

Pet. Bread. Crumbs! I guess not technically Castle Magic, but I decided to use them in conjunction with it for a summoning effect. I learned two new things this week. First, pet bread crumbs have facings, and you can assign your Monstrology house guests to single bread crumbs, and you position their facing via the bread crumb. This was significant for my summoning circle so that the house guests all faced the center of the circle, instead of all facing the same direction west. Second, you can use a bread crumb as point to cast your spell effects on instead of a physical furniture piece. Bread crumbs are cheap and very useful for making your castle more dynamic!