Dev Diary: Easter Event 2017

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The upcoming Easter 2017 Event: New buildings, new decorations, new specialist and more

Dear Egg Hunters,

The most Eggsquisite Event is coming to our islands yet again, bringing along a lot of improvements based on your feedback from 2016! First things first: A new specialist will be made available. Maybe you remember The Courageous Explorer from our March 8th puzzle? Additionally, a new Easter Achievement building will be rewarded upon completion of an Easter quest: The Settlers University. However, this is not the only new building of this event: the Improved Mill will also be accessible via the in-game merchant.

You will also notice Floating Residences available for purchase; this change was entirely based on the feedback provided by the community in 2016. Do you think the Easter event has always focused too much on adventures? Say no more: this year you will find a new quest chain granting Stripy Eggs. Another significant change is represented by the way the achievement points are gathered for the achievement building. Read all about it in this Dev Diary!

New aspects & changes are highlighted in blue color.

EVENT SCHEDULE

Event Start: 28th of March, 02:01 CEST
Start of removal phase: 18th of April, 02:01 CEST
Complete deactivation: 25th of April, 02:01 CEST
Level requirement: 17+

Players below level 17 will receive a quest asking them to reach level 17.

QUICK LINKS TO FEATURE TOPICS

• Stripy Eggs
• Party Crashers
• Achievements
• Event Shop
• Deactivation steps

Are you eggcited about all of this?
Leave your feedback in the dedicated discussion thread.

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Stripy Easter Eggs are the Easter Event currency.

During the Event, all players have the chance to gather Stripy Eggs.
Stripy Eggs can be traded. There are several ways to get them:

• Explorers:
  The explorers will be able to find Stripy Eggs on all regular treasure searches.

• Event Quest Chain:
  Every 5 days, you will get one Easter Quest Chain (with several sub-quests), that will offer Stripy Eggs as a reward.

• Quests & Easter adventures:
  The Event Quest Chains will offer quests for 2 adventures in which hidden Easter Eggs have to be found.
  There are 8 adventures in total, with a maximum of 9 hidden eggs in each.

• Guild Quest:
  Every day during the event, guilds will get one random guild quest from a total of five.
  Completing this quest at an individual level will grant a small amount of Stripy Eggs.
  The more guild members that complete their individual quest, the bigger the grand guild reward is at the end of the day.

• Adventures:
  All standard adventures have a chance of providing Stripy Eggs as loot. No scenario, except Storm Recovery, will reward Stripy Eggs. Ventures will not reward Stripy Eggs either.

• Expeditions:
  All Expeditions will provide Stripy Eggs as loot.
  There will be no islands with Stripy Eggs as colony yield.

• Collectibles:
  Stripy Eggs will spawn on the home island and can be collected.

• Party Crashers:
  Every time the Party Crashers' camp is defeated, the corresponding quest will give a small amount of Stripy Eggs. You can defeat the camp with your own generals or with the help of your friends, who can use special buffs to defeat them.

• Merchant:
  There will be packages with Stripy Eggs available for purchase in the in-game merchant.

• Achievements:
  Some achievements will grant Stripy Eggs as a reward.

• Event story:
  A special quest chain consisting of several mini-quests that grant Stripy Eggs as a reward.

Based on your feedback, we are introducing a new quest chain, granting Stripy Eggs upon completion: Mr. Croix Sant's new delight.
In order to complete it, a special buff will be needed:

Mr Croix Sant's ultimate treat
A buff that will be necessary to be created for the "Mr. Croix Sant" quest chain. It can be produced in either the Provision house or the Rarity provision house. The buff cannot be traded or gifted, and it can be redeemed for its original cost once the event is completely deactivated.

The Black Knights were one of the most played adventures in the past event due to its well-balanced design. However, this year we decided to increase the usefulness of other adventures to satisfy your feedback requests. As such, we are introducing seasonal adventures: a selection of the adventures that were least played during the last event. The resources rewarded upon completion of either of these adventures will be tripled. This applies only to resources, and not to the XP obtained, nor to the buffs or buildings.

The list of seasonal adventures for Easter 2017 are:

• Whirlwind
• Pirate Life
• Raiding the Raiders
• Buccaneer Roundup
• Lakeside Treasure
• Wild Mary
• Gunpowder
• Motherly Love
• Victor the Vicious
• Horseback

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Once again, The Party Crashers are lurking about to spoil everyone's fun. Their camp, located on the "Event Island" in the center of the map, is connected to the main island by a bridge which allows your generals to cross it. This bridge, as well as the "Event Island", can only be accessed by your generals. It cannot be built upon (buildings, decorations or roads) and collectibles will not spawn on it. You can defeat the Party Crashers with your very own generals, or by asking your friends for help to bribe them off your island.

Two ways of defeating The Party Crashers

• Take Up Arms
  If you're into military campaigns, you can simply send your generals to confront the Party Crashers in person. Initiate the attack to the Party Crashers' camp located in the center of the map; your general will cross the bridge over the lake and will start attacking.

• Talk It Out
  Why not go for a diplomatic victory? Ask your friends to create buffs in any of their provision houses to help you with the Party Crashers. The buffs themselves will not change any units in the camp, but it will cause the "Peace" quest to progress. It is important to note as well that this will only happen if the quest is active, so using a buff on a friend's island whose Party crashers camp is destroyed, will be wasted. The production time in the Rarity Provision Houses should match the production time of a Provision House with a Level 5 upgrade. In both provision houses, the production cost will be identical.
  
  When using buffs on a friend's island to clear the Party Crashers' camp, a new interface will appear, allowing you to apply multiple buffs, similar to defeating a Golem for the Halloween event.
  
  The production cost for some of the buffs in the last stages of the event has been lowered, based on your feedback.

Once the camp is destroyed, smoking ruins will be left in its place and you will receive Stripy Eggs as reward from the corresponding quest. The camp will begin reconstruction for the next 23 hours.

The "Party Crashers" feature is available until the Removal phase.

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Achievements

There will be unique achievements related to the event, now including Stripy Eggs rewards. Moreover, compared to past Easter events, there will be no achievement granting 0 points anymore and it will not be required to have 100% of achievements to reach the final level of the achievement building.


The new achievements deal with many aspects of the event:

• Finding eggs during Explorer searches
• Collecting eggs from adventure loots
• Completing Easter quests
• Helping friends with buffs
• Collecting eggs from your home island

If you played past Easter events, you might remember the Easter Residence or the Spacious Warehouse. These buildings reflected your progress in the event, as they were linked to the Easter achievement points. For this year's event, we would like to introduce a brand new building: The Settlers University, with a functionality of producing population three time faster than the Village school. It can only be upgraded when you reach a certain number of achievement points accumulated during the event.

It will no longer be required to have 100% of the achievements completed in order to fully upgrade the building. This way you can choose which achievements you would like to complete in order to reach the maximum upgrade level.

• Acquiring the building
  The building will be available as a quest reward from the quest chain "For my most loyal egg hiders". The building will be available in the Star Menu and can be placed on a free spot. It will be available after the Easter 2017 event, independent of any achievements completed.

• Production function:
  The building serves as a production building for population, as it produces population three time faster than the Village school.
  

  → Level 1
  
  

  

  
  
  → Level 2: Easter Event 2017 achievement points needed: 50
  
  

  

  
  
  → Level 3: Easter Event 2017 achievement points needed: 200
  
  

  

  
  
  → Level 4: Easter Event 2017 achievement points needed: 375
  
  

  

  
  
  → Level 5: Easter Event 2017 achievement points needed: 560
  
  

  

  
  
  → Level 6: Easter Event 2017 achievement points needed: 800
  
  

  

• Upgrade conditions:
  To upgrade the building's level, Easter 2017 achievement points have to be gathered.
  Every time enough points are earned, an icon will indicate that the building can be upgraded.
  The upgrade can be done without any additional costs.

• Indestructible:
  The building is indestructible. When destroyed, it will go back to your Star Menu.
  It can be rebuilt and upgraded to the original level again without additional cost.

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Easter 2017 event Shop

This year's shop will bring a new specialist to our islands: The Courageous Explorer, an ambitious treasure hunter, who will stop at nothing to uncover all the secrets the world has to offer. She is twice as fast when running treasure searches and adventure searches; even better, when sent on a treasure search, she will roll the loottable twice, making her a specialist that excels in treasure searches.

Name: Courageous Explorer (Limit: 1*)
Description: Explorer that rolls the loot table for treasures twice on every treasure search.
Travels twice as fast as regular explorers.
Price: 1,495 Stripy Eggs

Name: Intrepid Explorer (Limit: 1*)
Description: Explorer that rolls on the loot table for adventures twice with every adventure search.
Travels twice as fast as regular explorers.
Price: 995 Stripy Eggs

Name: Master of Martial Arts (Limit: 1*)
Description: A special attack General. Recovers and travels to an adventure island twice as fast as a Tavern General.
Leads 220 units, has 1st strike, splash damage, attacks weakest target first.
Price: 4,595 Stripy Eggs

Name: Master of Defense (Limit: 1*)
Description: Special General. Recovers and travels to an adventure island twice as fast as a Tavern General. He deals a decent amount of damage.
He has a very high amount of Hit Points and leads up to 200 units. Splash damage, attacks weakest target first.
Price: 3,450 Stripy Eggs

Name: Veteran General (Limit: 1*)
Description: A Special attack General. Recovers and travels to an adventure island twice as fast as a Tavern General.
Leads up to 250 units.
Price: 3,280 Stripy Eggs

Improved Mill

Click on the thumbnails to view the full image

Name: Improved Mill (Limit 3*)
Type: Building (Not giftable, tradable)
Description: A building that produces flour three times as fast as a regular mill.
Price: 625 Stripy Eggs

Name: Floating Residence (Limit 2*)
Type: Building (Not giftable, not tradable)
Description: Residence to be built on water, provides space for at least 40 Settlers (level 1).
Price: 165 Stripy Eggs

Name: Improved Butcher (Limit 2*)
Type: Building (Not giftable, tradable)
Description: Places a building that produces sausages three times as fast as a regular butcher.
Price: 625 Stripy Eggs

Name: Improved Silo (Limit 2*)
Type: Building (Not giftable, tradable)
Description: Refills fields three times as fast as the regular silo.
Price: 1,325 Stripy Eggs

Name: Watermill (Limit 3*)
Type: Building (Not giftable, tradable)
Description: Produces water without consuming resources.
Price: 535 Stripy Eggs

Name: Rabbits Wheat Field
Type: Building (Not giftable, tradable)
Description: Holds 6,000 wheat
Price: 145 Stripy Eggs

Name: Raving Rabbid Statue
Type: Building (Giftable, tradable)
Description: Decoration building with sound
Price: 425 Stripy Eggs

Name: Easter Bunny Topiary
Type: Building (Giftable, tradable)
Description: Decoration building
Price: 145 Stripy Eggs

Name: Decorative Tree Pack
Type: Building (Giftable, tradable)
Description: A decorative Elm, a decorative Maple and a decorative Beech
Price: 75 Stripy Eggs

Click on the thumbnails to view the full image

Name: "Where do Easter eggs come from?"
Type: Buff Adventure
Description: Special Easter buff adventures only available during the event
Price: 99 Stripy Eggs

Name: Arctic Explosion
Type: Mini Adventure (Level 36)
Description: A Mini Adventure for one player
Price: 35 Stripy Eggs

Name: Bastille Island
Type: Mini Adventure (Level 42)
Description: A Mini Adventure for one player
Price: 35 Stripy Eggs

Name: Garrun the Trapper
Type: Adventure (Level 26+)
Description: Garrun the Trapper has decided to take it upon himself to sabotage Easter. Help free all the bunnies!
Price: 95 Gems

Name: Mr. Croix Sant
Type: Buff
Effect: Use on a bakery to increase its productivity x3 for 24 hours.
Price: 30 Stripy Eggs

Name: A celebrity comes to town
Type: Buff
Effect: Use on the Mayor's house to increase growth to 400% for 12 hours.
Price: 50 Stripy Eggs

Name: Chocolate Pralines
Type: Buff
Effect: Speeds up the Provision House's production times up to 300% for 12 hours.
Price: 120 Stripy Eggs

Name: Chocolate Rabbit
Type: Buff
Effect: Halves the production time of the Provision House for 12 hours
Price: 85 Stripy Eggs

Name: Rabbit Lucky Charm
Type: Buff
Effect: Increases the effectiveness of a workyard up to 300% for 48 hours
Price: 280 Stripy Eggs

Name: Inspirational Speech
Type: Buff
Effect: Increases the effectiveness of all nearby workyards (3 squares radius buff) up to 300% for 12 hours
Price: 455 Stripy Eggs

Name: Iron Ore Extractor
Type: Buff
Effect: Increases the production of Iron mines up to 400% for 24 hours
Price: 259 Stripy Eggs

Name: 200 Grout
Type: Resource
Description: Resource needed to upgrade buildings to level 6
Price: 130 Stripy Eggs

Name: Mineral Rabbit
Type: Refiller
Description: Adds 6,000 coal to a coal deposit
Price: 145 Stripy Eggs

Name: Buff Surprise
Type: Mystery / Surprise Box
Description: Provides a randomly chosen buff (amongst others: coal/iron/gold refiller, Rabbit Lucky Charm, Cookies, etc.).
Price: 89 Gems

Name: Omniseed
Type: Refiller
Effect: Adds 250 to a deposit of your choice
Price: 30 Stripy Eggs

Name: Small Easter Egg Basket
Type: Resource
Description: Contains 65 Stripy Easter eggs.
Price: 99 Gems

Name: Big Easter Egg Basket
Type: Resource
Description: Contains 260 Stripy Easter eggs.
Price: 395 Gems

*: Important information about the item limits:
Limited to the given amount per player for this year's event. If you already own the item (regardless of the amount) from a previous event, you can obtain the listed amount of the item again this year.

Easter Bunny Topiary - click to enlarge

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WHAT HAPPENS AT THE START OF THE REMOVAL PHASE?
(18th of April 02:01 CEST)

• Easter quests will be deactivated, except Easter guild quests. As soon as a new Guild Quest was received, no new event guild quests will be received. Regular guild quests will reappear instead.

• Achievements will no longer be obtainable, and the final score of the obtained Easter 2017 achievements will be the one that determines the level of the event building.

• The achievement category will disappear for players who didn't gain achievement points during the event.

• The first spawn of collectibles after the Removal phase won't provide Stripy Eggs anymore.

• Explorers won't find Stripy Eggs anymore:
  In very rare cases, when returning shortly after Removal phase, Stripy Eggs will still be found.

• Adventure and Expedition loot won't include Stripy Eggs anymore if completed during Removal phase, regardless of when they were started.

• The Easter design will be removed from the loading screen.

• The Event window will be deactivated.

• The Event shop will still be available.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE EVENT DEACTIVATION?
(25th of April 02:01 CEST)

• The Event Shop category will be deactivated.

• New trades containing Stripy Eggs cannot be posted anymore.
  Existing trade offers containing Stripy Eggs will be invisible until they expire.

• Stripy Eggs will be removed from the game and exchanged for Gold Coins.
  The exchange will be conducted with the next game update, see "Stripy Egg exchange"-info below for details.

With the next game update. The exact date and time will be announced in time.

All Stripy Eggs will be removed from the game and converted to Coins (1 Stripy Egg = 1 Coin).
Please keep an eye on the Game Update news for details.

• Every player will receive a message in the game.

• If there were Stripy Eggs in the Mayor's House, they get exchanged to Coins.

• These Coins will be attached to the message.

• In case there were no Stripy Eggs left to exchange, the mail includes no Coins.

• Stripy Eggs in the Mayor's House will be automatically exchanged to Coins and sent via in-game mail.

• Stripy Eggs in the Star Menu will be exchanged to Coins and appear as Coin buffs in the Star menu.

• All running trade offers and requests will be removed from the trade.

• The invested resources will be sent back attached to an in-game message
  including Coins instead of Stripy Eggs.

• Stripy Eggs as message attachment (e.g. from adventures or Explorer searches)
  will be exchanged to Gold coins. The mail will remain unchanged but contain Gold Coins instead of Stripy Eggs.