11 May 2025
Frenetia: The Gobbler’s Third Banquet
Commencing First July 2025 and running for one year.
Featuring Player Determined Gobbler requests and skill use.
Player Determined Gobbler Requests
The Gobbler is a matter consuming entity. For the third Gobbler’s banquet the Gobbler has decided to allow the players to determine what it will consume and allocate Gobbler points for. It will taste what is offered. The item will be added to the repertoire of Gobbler requests after sufficient tasting has occurred.
There is no obligation to participate in tastings. However players may choose to make some tastings because this will influence the type of requests that appear in the list.
Player Determined Skill Use
Gobbler scoring depends on the both the amount and quality of the items offered. Now skill gain has been turned into more of a strategic advantage. Types of skill research will be influenced by the players’ preferences. Players will determine to what extent particular skills may be used by all players.
As displayed in the skills window, all skills start and may be used at one. To apply higher degree of skill requires both practice (shown in skills window) and opened research (shown on the Gobbler wand menu). Skills are seen to increase with practice. For example if a player does minimal black smithing activity their skill will be less compared to another player who does much more of this activity.
Donating to skill research is voluntary. Skills which have research opened will be enabled at higher amounts for all players, regardless of which players made donations. Each skill may be researched for use up to twenty, fifty, seventy, ninety and one hundred. Research items need to be of quality equal to or greater than the currently opened research.
Here is an example. Five players make sufficient blacksmithed items at quality 20 or higher to open the use of blacksmith 50 skill. In doing so their blacksmith skill as listed in the skills window may be showing growth to greater than 50. They will be able to use the skill to 50 in practice. The growth in the skill as read in the skills window will be preserved for if and when the next breakpoint in the research is reached. Other players may choose different skills to practice and would only be allowed to use their listed skill in blacksmithing, which may be considerably less than 50, but as for all skills grows with activity.
18 May 2025
Frenetia: The Gobbler’s Third Banquet
Description
The Gobbler’s Third Banquet will be held for twelve months. It will consist of three servers run consecutively, for four months each. They are called Entree, Main Course and Dessert starting July, November and March respectively. The players’ appearance, skills and Gobbler scores are transferred over to each of the following servers. Old items and buildings are not transferred over. Building an Arboretum gives the reward of a high quality stone chisel on each server.
On all servers players start with 90 ql pelt and a platinum Gobbler wand, Santa is near each start point. Each server will have different other starting items, reducing in quality and type reflecting the increasing starting difficulty of the later servers. Each server has a different map and terrain type.
The players have arrived at the starting point of “Entree” on an Ark. It is located at the highest point on the map where it washed up after the flood. At varying times during the fours months players may be able to find useful items by searching on the Ark. There are grass and trees nearby, the only trees on the map. The slopes are low and gentle, covered with dirt, gravel, steppe, clay, and sand. Reeds and kelp lie at the water’s edge. Players start with 99 ql gold statuettes, 99 ql platinum pickaxe and 80 ql steel shovel.
It is likely that server wide swamps contain easily seen viris which if touched will cause disease, making it almost impossible to use skills unless a cure is taken. Items such as tissues and soap will be included in the cure. Antibody starters are found in treasure chests. When built the antibody may be used to neutalise viris. Antibodys and cures may be packed on the Ark for use on the Main Course server. Other items may also be packed on the Ark to take on the Journey.
On the “Main Course” server there are no trees. The landscape is almost all grass. The slopes are gentle rolling hills with some exposed rockface hills. Clay reeds and kelp may only be found near water. There is no steppe terrain. Players start with 50 ql iron pickaxe and shovel. A gift of a high quality platinum pickaxe is given if players log in during the Christmas season.
Hospital beds may be packed on the Ark to take to the Dessert server in order to completely eradicate the viris. It will be particularly important to pack sufficient creature carriers on the Ark before leaving the Main Course server.
On the “Dessert” server there is no grass at all. Players may search the Ark to obtain breeding pairs of domestic creatures. The Ark has washed up at a high steep sand dune. In all directions all that may be found are steep sand dunes, strangely shaped, some with sheer edges. Altars will be on very steep sand dunes.
There are no iron veins on the Dessert server. Iron lumps may be found foraging from player planted grass, or searching rock faces after digging deeply to expose them. There are sparse sand and dirt beaches. Reeds and kelp grow under water. Clay is only located under water. Raising the ground by dropping sands will result in early clay use. A clay token may be won as a later Gobbler level reward. Players start with 1 ql tin shovel (fashioned from cans) and 5 piles of 3.2 kg thatch taken from the bedding in the Ark.
The players’ challenge in the Third Gobbler’s Banquet is to score as many gobbler points as they can given the constraints of the three different starting conditions.
Good Luck!
25 May 2025
Maps for the Gobbler’s Third Banquet
1 June 2025
Preparation of the Ark
The Ark is being readied for its journey on the first of July to the Entree Server of the Gobbler’s Third banquet. It is becoming a special vehicle which is larger in size. It has increased capacity to carry some the things and creatures needed by the players to adapt to the new lands and be better able to feed the Gobbler.
Players will be able to search the Ark each week for higher value useful items such as lamps, cheese drills and small magical chests. At the time a player makes a search any backdated items will be found, so nobody will miss out on these items. (A list of these items already packed is shown in the parentheses.
(* Weekly search items: cheese drill, lantern, brass hanging lamp, imperial lamp, saddle, spindle, small magical chest, beehive token)
Players will also be able to search the Ark each five minutes for useful items which range in value such as hides, sleep powders, nails and flowers. There is no limitaion on the amount of these searches which may be made. A list of the items already packed into the ark already is included in the parentheses.
(* List of items that can be loaded into the ark, and come out in the 5 minute searches in the next part of the journey: hides, lumps, cochineal, gems, nails, flowers, plantable crops, books, paper, ink, sprouts, plate, knife, fork, spoon, waterskin, pottery bowl, baking stone, mortar&pestle, log, herb casserole, gelatine, cauldron, frying pan, saucepan, sleep powder, mushrooms, salt, plank, shaft, handle, peg, blue common wool hat, backpack, compass, small sign, 4 ropes, small chest, 10 string of cloth, dirt, honey, wax)
Preparation for future Ark journies from the Entree server to Main Course, and then from the Main Course to Dessert servers will be undertaken by the players. The list of items which will be available to be searched for will be taken from the item types packed into the Ark. In theory it will work out that a slightly easier start in the new lands will be possible if items have been packed to assist the start. Players may choose to not search the Ark and experience the increasingly difficult starting conditions. Players may search the Ark regardless if they packed any items or not. If an item is really wanted it will be a good idea to pack some in case nobody else has packed any. Players may inspect the contents of the Ark. Donations may be removed from the Ark each day up to each 8 pm Australian Time. After that time the donations are not retrievable.
In order to ensure that technology and patterns are available to be used for future conditions some essential items have been packed. These are hospital beds, creature transporters and bee hives. This will allow health benefits and animal domesticity. As for other search items, these will need to be loaded by the players for future journeys.
There are a few items such as clay and other terrain tokens, and high value tools that the Ark will not accept. If you would like to see some other items packed during this Ark preparation please let us know in game or on the Wurm forum.
29 June 2025
All Aboard the Ark!
The Gobbler’s Third Banquet is commencing July 1 at 10 am UTC
Having been buffeted on the floods for some days the Ark is expected to make landfall at a high point located on the Entree Server on July 1 at 10 am UTC (8 pm Australian EST).
Players may join the the Ark landing by logging in to the “Frenetia: Third Banquet Entree – noncombat” server which will be listed on the Steam Wurm PVE server list. It opens on July 1 at 10 am UTC (8 pm Australian EST).
Before the flood some more work was done to make personal compartments in the Ark. These will allow players to load up the ark with useful items for the next part of the journey.
The preloaded health beds will give coverage so that there will be basic passive treatment for viris encountered. Novel viris unknown to us as yet which require new treatments, will have to be developed in the Ark’s laboratory facilities at a later date as knowlege of them grow.
6 July 2025
About Power Outage and some Bug Fixes.
We have been notified that there will be a power outage for up to 7 hours on 9 July 2025 commencing 22:30 UTC to conduct “Power system maintenance” (10 July 2025 8:30 to 15:30 AEST). Hopefully the whole 7 hours will not be required. We will back up the server just before that time and close it until the power is reconnected.
Any items made of platinum will now be refused by the Gobbler. Accidental loss of wands and pickaxes whilst donating should no longer occur.
The Gobbler now accepts and will request “meals”. A gastronomic feast is available because there are many forms of “meal” to choose, ranging from basic breakfasts eg corn to exotic dishes such as tuna and mayo baked potato. Exactly the same score will be given regardless if the offering is ever so humble or an amazing ingredient heavy culinary masterpiece.