October 9, 2024
The October 2024 AMA took place at 5pm NST on Wednesday, October 9, 2024.
The AMA was first announced on September 30, about nine days in advance.
This AMA was dubbed "The Faerie Edition" (yes, the same as last month's) and featured Neopets CEO Dom Law as usual. It also included discussion with Rebecca Mix and Erinn Pascal, author and editor respectively of the upcoming graphic novel Neopets: The Omelette Faerie. TNT Luna returned as host for a fifth consecutive month.
Questions could be submitted in advance through a StrawPoll shared on Neopets social media. You could submit your own question, as well as vote for as many questions submitted by others as you wish.
How to Watch
The AMA was simulcasted on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter/X, Twitch, and Instagram. It remains available for viewing on the first three of these platforms:
Rare Item Code
TNT announced in advance that "ALL live viewers will receive an AWESOME prize, redeemable at Grundo's Warehouse." The code was revealed as SPOOKYSCARY near the end of the livestream, redeemable at Grundo Warehouse until October 11th at 5pm NST.
October 2024 Live AMA Code Item
Recap
Questions for Rebecca Mix and Erinn Pascal
Luna started by bringing out Rebecca Mix and Erinn Pascal, author and editor respectively of the upcoming graphic novel Neopets: The Omelette Faerie.
Read JN's Review of Neopets: The Omelette Faerie »
Rebecca, tell us about yourself and your journey with Neopets?
- Author of The Ones We Burn, I Killed the King, and Neopets: The Omelette Faerie!
- "Grew up on Neopets" and have been playing for over 20 years.
- Neopets is why she became a writer after getting involved in roleplaying boards!
Erinn, tell us about yourself and your journey with Neopets?
- Used to play Neopets with her older sister. The account was made around 2000 and has since been purged.
- Got her own account in 2001 and has played ever since!
- Senior Editor at Neopets merch partner Andrews McMeel, and past experience at other publishers like Scholastic.
Rebecca, what is Luna's "omelette horoscope"?
- Rebecca said that Luna is an Apple and Brie Omelette.
- If anyone is interested in getting their own omelette horoscope, Rebecca has promised to write it in for anyone who orders directly through her local indie bookstore!
Erinn, if you could make an omelette on site what would it be?
- Erinn is vegan, so suggested a "Just Omelette" to reference Just Egg.
- Erinn has also seen lots of suggestions for a crab rangoon omelette!
Erinn, what other work have you done with Neopets?
- Erinn's first Neopets live, though was previously on Nosy Neopians.
- Working with Neopets publishing for over three years now.
- Did the official cookbook last year, and now the graphic novel coming out on the 22nd!
Rebecca, tell us about Neopets: The Omelette Faerie for people who aren't familiar? What is the premise?
- Sabre-X wakes up one day to find the Giant Omelette is gone and Neopets are getting sick with Ugga Ugga.
- A mysterious fire faerie shows up to offer help.
- The pair goes on a journey to return the Omelette!
Rebecca, who are the familiar characters in the novel in addition to Sabre-X? And new characters?
- There is "another established Faerie" that is "an important part of the book."
- It is a "sapphic story." The Omelette Faerie has a girlfriend!
- Erinn adds that Kyruggi is also an important character.
- Erinn also points out that even some background characters are nice to look at. She cites a Faerie Scorchio and its Baby Scorchio in particular.
Erinn, how long has this project taken?
- Erinn has been working on the project for three years. It was part of the same contract as the cookbook!
- The longer time to release had to do with the extra art required.
- Erinn reached out to Rebecca in early 2021.
Erinn, what is the target age range for the novel?
- Erinn says "the story is totally appropriate for kids" but the target is the "age range for the website." This means "mostly millennials."
- Andrews McMeel has labelled it as Young Adult for ages 13+ but they feel it has broad appeal across ages.
Rebecca, were there any favourite moments from the process of making the novel?
- "Truly the whole process stands out." It was a dream come true!
- Rebecca does cite a "dramatic scene where someone is dangling off a cliff Lion King style" as a favourite. She apologizes to the artist!
Erinn, were there any favourite moments from the process of making the novel?
- A herd of Tonus appearing after the Omelette disappears, a reference to the early days of the site where Tonus would become available for adoption whenever the Omelette disappeared!
- Erinn also shares that the original pitch had two Faerie main characters, but had to change it to not be too similar to The Void Within!
Becca, the listing page says Neopets: The Omelette Faerie is just the first installation in a series. Can you tell us more about what to expect?
- There is a second graphic novel already in the works!
- Wanted to lean into the idea of novels centered around different dailies. The first one focused on the Giant Omelette, while the next one will focus on TDMBGPOP.
- Some details were shared at LACC this past weekend. Check out Jellyneo's summary here!
Erinn, when will the novel be available? Where can we get it?
- A limited early release will be at the Neopets booth at RetroGameCon this coming weekend.
- You can also get it wherever books are sold on October 22nd. (Erinn notes that there is nothing different about the RGC early books; don't overpay online!)
- Internationally available through a local bookstore without having to pay for international shipping!
Official Listing for Neopets: The Omelette Faerie »
Rebecca, how to get a signed copy?
- Books from her local indie book shop will be personally signed!
Questions for TNT Fae
Luna then brought out TNT Fae to discuss Halloween Pet Styles! Fae kept their camera off because they are currently sick :(
Introduction?
- Been with Neopets for a little over two years now and playing for over 20.
- Claims credit for the surge in Faellie-related items lately!
Why "Fae"?
- It is inspired by the Faellie.
- Similarly-named TNT Fallie has a different name inspiration.
What are some of your favourite things you've worked on at Neopets?
How do you approach creating new content?
- "Mostly in charge" of putting together the new wearable releases.
- Fae notes that they have received all the feedback on Prismatic pet styles and will be incorporating it for future releases!
What have the most popular Pet Styles been?
- Fae says the previously unreleased ones have been the most popular, citing Faerie Hissi, Faerie Eyrie, and Grey Draik specifically.
- Faerie Skeith and Faerie Mynci were "surprisingly" popular.
What can you share about what you're planning for Halloween?
- "We're cooking something spooky and fun."
- Halloween Pet Styles will be more "spooky" and "mischievous" rather than using original poses.
- Halloween Pet Styles have been worked on by a new TNT member, TNT Meow.
Some example Halloween Pet Styles (above) compared to their actual pre-customisation poses (below)
In Neopets: The Omelette Faerie, there is a Baby version of Sabre-X. Would you make similar crosspaint pet styles, e.g. "Baby Faerie" Pet Styles?
- Absolutely something that is on Fae's mind and that they are excited about.
- Luna and Fae invite the live chat to comment what crosspaints they'd most like to see!
Questions for TNT Fallie
Luna then brought out TNT Fallie to discuss upcoming mobile game Faerie Fragments.
Can you tell us about your shirt?
- It's a piece of upcoming merch!
- Fallie also shares some other pictures of upcoming tees.
What is the story of Faerie Fragments?
- Will follow the same storyline of Faerie's Hope, featuring Luxinia.
- A follow-up from 2010 plot The Faeries' Ruin.
- The player will help Luxinia restore her memories.
How does the gameplay and visuals tie into the story?
- Puzzle tiles have been replaced with Baby Neopets.
- Other tiles are more Faerie-themed to match the story.
- The match-3 gameplay will represent work for rebuilding Faerieland.
Will there be perks for NeoPass users?
- Yes, though you do not need it to play the game.
- However, you do need it to get on-site rewards.
- An example reward is a Luxinia outfit!
More about NeoPass »
What can you share about future content or events on the app?
- Sorry that people were upset about Faerie's Hope going down for rework!
- It will have about 800 levels on release. (Faerie's Hope had around the same between main and side missions.)
- Future releases will have more levels, new events, and special challenges. They intend these to occur on a regular basis!
What's the benefit of pre-registering?
- Fallie encourages people to do it now so you don't forget later!
- She also shares an image summarizing the rewards:
Pre-Register on iOS »
Pre-Register on Android »
If you could create a new Faerie, what would it be?
- Originally thought of a Technology Faerie.
- But then thought of an Underworld Faerie with "grim reaper vibes."
AMA with TNT Dom
Luna then transitioned to AMA questions for TNT Dom.
Do you have a favourite Neopets omelette?
- Dom did not eat omelettes as a kid, and he thought all the weird omelettes on Neopets were actually normal.
- Dom likes a chorizo omelette in real life, so he would like to see it on Neopets.
Dr. Landelbrot's Voidworks was announced to be updated. What is its current status?
- A fixed version has already gone live 2 days ago, on October 7th!
- It resets with a 24-hour cooldown rather than at midnight, and TNT are going to consider changing that.
Voidworks Guide »
With how often Rainbow Fountain dips are being granted, is this a permanent change?
- No, it's just for the Faerie Festival.
Rainbow Fountain Guide »
Faerie Festival 2024 Guide »
Can you address the shadowbans in the 2024 Altador Cup and what caused them?
- Shadowbans are in place to "ensure fair play" and "maintain integrity of the competition."
- Applied to "around 100 users" in 2024.
- Based on activity that appeared to violate the terms.
- As a compromise, they were allowed to continue engaging in the games, but not influencing the fairness of the team results. Dom considers this a "win-win" situation.
Altador Cup 2024 Coverage »
Please fix the Trading Post glitch.
- A fix has been identified but is not live yet.
- "Should be fixed momentarily."
For those confused by the vagueness of this question, this refers to a rare glitch where items on an accepted trade offer simply disappear instead of being sent to the player.
Will there be new pet species or colours introduced soon?
- "Always talking about it internally."
- Maybe in the future, and they enjoy seeing ideas and suggestions in the meantime, but don't currently have plans.
- Luna encourages people to share pet colour ideas on TNT Adler's monthly suggestions post on the Site Events Neoboard.
Find the Monthly Suggestions Post »
Will more daily freebies like Trudy's Surprise be added in the future?
- Instead of having new dailies, they want to focus on revamping prize pools of current dailies.
- Will have more prize opportunities specifically related to the 25th birthday next month.
When can we expect a Battledome update or new features to be introduced?
- Focused currently on "fixing the bugs and improving the overall user experience."
- A bigger overhaul will take a significant amount of work that they may not have time for until sometime next year.
- Eager to hear thoughts and suggestions from players on what to do with it!
The site is slow and often lags? Are there any improvements planned for site performance?
- TNT have been doing "quite a lot" on the backend to improve site performance.
- Average load time across the site is ~2.6 seconds, which is on par with similar websites but still has "room to improve."
- Certain pages are worse on average. Dom cites the Inventory as an example of this. Such pages have to be individually optimized rather than rely on site-wide changes.
- Currently need to manually autoscale and autobalance servers. Want to have this automated.
- Have migrated their payment processor to a new one that is much faster and more reliable.
- Working to purge database tables with excess data to lead to faster queries and load times.
Will there be more customisation options for pets, like new clothing and accessories?
- Yes!
- In particular, interested in more items that are wearable by a wider variety of pets or in a wider variety of ways.
Can you explain the recent price changes for NC Mall items and paintbrushes?
- One of the strategies for Neopets is to embrace creativity and insource artwork that previously relied on outsourced vendors.
- TNT has added many artists from the US and Canada in the last year.
- The hope is that these changes will lead to an overall improvement in art quality.
- But this also means needing to change their "support" for in-house artists, and the tiered pricing change is meant to reflect the amount of effort spent by TNT artists on certain items and cover the increased cost from insourced artists.
- When Dom took over, about 80% of artwork was outsourced, and now it is ~30-40%!
- TNT is still hiring more artists from the community. Keep your eyes on the Neopets LinkedIn for opportunities.
More about Tiered/"Deluxe" Backgrounds »
This page was written by Kenny and last updated on October 9, 2024.
