Finned Day 2011

Finned Day 2011 on March 2nd-3rd was the first Slashbot event to occur on the site. The event was requested by Mrs. Morris and allowed users to collect Sand Dollars from the East and West River Explore areas. These sand dollars were later traded for Fin-themed pets in the Seasonal Shop.

Reception

The variety and quality of the Fin Day pets was met with great approval, particularly the number of rarely offered Hybrid species. Acquiring the currency to obtain the pets proved much more contentious. The initial drop-rate on the Sand Dollars was extremely low, approximately one per hour of Explore time. Many players reported being unable to find a single Sand Dollar despite hours of searching. The consensus was that the great number of R10 items that can be dropped/offered by merchants was responsible - though the R10 monsters that dropped the dollars Fire Pellot and Warm Cthyu were themselves fairly common, they could produce any one of dozens of possible item drops, only one of which was the Sand Dollar everyone was looking for. This scarcity caused the street price of the Sand Dollar to fluctuate between 300k to 600k during March 2nd. Some players resorted to using Claw Cloners to make more Sand Dollars, and the lag factor for Explore skyrocketed as many users scrambled to find the elusive item. While Sand Dollars were available through Cooking, Monster drops, Throwing Bones and most Dailies, the most consistent source of them were Merchants. Without an Invisible Item Seer getting the Sand Dollars from the merchants was a pricy proposition.

Event Extension Early on the morning of March 3rd, slash extended the Fin Day events and altered the Explore drop tables & rates for the East and West Rivers. The Seasonal Shop remained open during the whole day of March 3rd, and Sand Dollars became much easier to find, one every ten minutes or less was not uncommon. The odds of a Monster actually dropping an item was increased to approximately 50%, and the variety of items dropped was reduced. For example, the Warm Cthyu's now only had three possible item drops - Carrotfish, Shellcumber, or Sand Dollar. All monsters for these areas were affected; as a side effect, there was a great influx of Random Eggs, Batwings, and Apple Coconuts, amongst others. A new item, Edible Coral, was added for the Brown Seakors since it lacked a drop under the original revised item drops. The price of Sand Dollars fell dramatically, stabilizing around 50-75k each. The Finned Day pets finally retired on March 15th, when the Seasonal Shop, Metalsmithing Shop, and Annoying Item Bazaar were unavailable to coding errors.