Location: Mysteria, in the park area at Blackbird Keep streetsign. To Participate: If you would like to add a gift box for yourself or a friend, contact Xrossfire Bugseye and your gift box will be set up in the park with add contents set to public. All players can participate. Players do not have to be a resident of Mysteria to participate. Players do not have to donate gifts to participate. Anyone who wants a gift will get one. To Donate: If you want to donate to a specific player you can locate the players gift box in the keep and add your gift to that player's gift box. Gift boxes will be roughly sorted alphabetically around the tree. 3 Donations chests will be placed for players that want to donate to random players. Donations can be made up to midnight NBT on the 24th. Donations made to these chests are distributed randomly. Due to the time it takes to distribute gifts, I will begin distribution prior to the 25th for items with a sufficient number of items of equal value that everyone gets a gift, and complete the random distribution on the 25th. Players do not have to have a gift box set up for themselves if they wish to donate gifts to other players. Players notes for the devs: If you wish to post a yuletide or thank you note to the devs, a gift box for the devs is available next to the donation boxes with a backpack containing blank paper is beside the dev gift box for those that come unprepared. Gift Pickup: A gift opening event with dancing and fireworks will be arranged for Dec 26th, time to be announced later. Gifts will be made available for pickup on Dec 26th or later, at your convenience. Scheduling pickup on the 25th is difficult due to family events for me and other players. If possible, I may have the gifts available for pickup on Dec 25th depending on when I complete the distribution of gifts and when I'm free from real life family stuff. A banker will be available close to the keep entrance if needed for players who become over encumbered with gifts. Common Questions Q: Do I place gifts in my own gift box? A: You can, but generally no. Items in your own gift box are the gifts for you. Donations you are making for other players should go into either the specific players gift box or to 1 of the 3 donation chests that are in the keep. Q: I want to donate to everyone but how many gifts should I donate? A: In the past we've had roughly 70 participants each year with 98 last year. By no means is it necessary to donate enough items for everyone. You can donate to as few players or as many players as you like. Q: I want to participate but I don't feel I know what to give or don't have anything of value to give as gifts. What can I give as gifts? A: Plenty of options. Crafted items that include the "crafted by" tag are always nice. Consumables like food, potions, scrolls, bait, are also a useful item, even to high level players. Publish a book or music in the game is a cheaper alternative with a personal touch. Raw resources or crafting materials are useful. Decorative items and dyes. Basically anything... Q: I placed an item in a gift box or donation box by mistake and can't get it out, what do I do? A: This happens from time to time but can be tricky as the logs only show items were added by a player and not what those items were. Please be especially careful with higher value items. I do try and keep a general idea of what items are in boxes so I have an idea of what items were recently added but I can't always determine what you specifically added. Please notify me (Xrossfire Bugseye in game, or Jakkal on this sota forum) as soon as possible so I can try to identify the item before more donations are added and complicate the issue. I will try and return the item to you but this may not always be the case if I'm uncertain that you added what you stated you added. It's not that I don't trust players, but to be fair to the donators I can't under these circumstances. Q: I want to add a gift to a players box, where can I find it? A: All gift boxes are under the large yule tree in the keep located in Mysteria at Blackbird Keep streetsign. Gifts are roughly arranged alphabetically by player name from left to right around the tree. If the gift box is full; let me know and I'll add a 2nd gift box for that player. Q: Why not mail the items? A: The gift boxes tend to have a very large number of items, so the mailing fees add up to several hundred thousand gold. I'd rather put that gold and all donations into getting more gifts for everyone, than spending it on mail delivery. Plus it makes the gift a little more special to give the gift box in person. Q: Can I request a gift for a friend? A: Yes, definitely. Q: What happens if I bring a friend to the gift pickup event who didn't participate? A: Every year this happens. I create 3 extra gift boxes to give out to any players that show up late or request gifts at the last moment. If any of these 3 extra gift boxes are left over after the event, I distribute them to new players over the next few days. If I run out of extra gifts and need more, you will see me run around like mad to create any extra gifts needed for these extra players. In this case the gift box won't have as many items as I cannot replicate every gift donation but I try to make sure the gift is still nice. Q: I left gifts in the donation boxes but they aren't there anymore? A: The donation boxes can get overloaded so from time to time I will move gifts to another storage location nearby. These donations are distributed among the gift boxes along with all the items in the donation boxes. Q: How does the random distribution work? A: This process takes several days. Some items are easy. For example if 2400 scrolls are donated, they are split evenly between all gift boxes. For other items, I separate the donation items into groups based on roughly equivalent value and randomly distribute them to the gift boxes. In most cases where enough items don't exist to distribute evenly I will make up the difference by either crafting or buying whatever is needed to make up the difference. A few cases this isn't possible, like the gifting of deeds, where its just random luck who gets them. Q: Can we watch the random distribution? A: Unfortunately my pc barely handles the game and won't handle streaming of the distribution process. Q: Why do some players have more items in their gift boxes? A: 2 reasons, firstly players do not have to give donations just to the 3 donation boxes, they can add items to specific players boxes. Secondly, since the items are grouped based on roughly equivalent value prior to the random distribution their will be some minor differences. Q: How do I know who the gifts are from? A: I may not know. In some cases players who donate will rename containers or add a note with the items gifted. In other cases I may remember or have an idea who gifted items, but the event has a lot of donations and the log doesn't say what players donated what, so its impossible to know all of them. If you have any other questions please contact Xrossfire Bugseye in game, or Jakkal on this forum. Ho Ho Ho Merry Xmas
Cici has donated 5,000 coto's towards the event for coto matching. Thanks Cici, and all who donate towards the event. update: Cici's coto match donation is complete. Thanks to all who donated.
I am starting a new coto match for the next 7,500 cotos. Thanks to all who donate. update Dec 6th: cotos have been matched. Thanks all for the donations.
Yup I do that periodically. Just added 5k from my matching. Some were added pre-match. Doing really well for coto donations this year. Haven't beat last years yet though. haha
Greetings I have put some donations in the chest. I hope it is not too much for you to be able to distribute. I still need to look at my mats and see what I have to donate. Will do that in a couple of days. Thanks for the Mask. Look forward to putting the museum back up and getting them on the wall. As time and energy permits. If you need something for a grand giveaway let me know.
Greetings Jakkal Thank you for our kind words. I am just waiting for my energy to return so I can play for more than 20 minutes. I am sure your event will be as great as it is ever year.
Looking forward to this event. If you have not requested a gift box (or if you wanna donate gifts), see the initial post in this thread. Happy Holidays !
We have an anonymous 30k coto donation for coto matching... Just a few days left to donate. Thanks for all the donations everyone has made.
Gift Pickup party is on the 26th at noon NBT. Anyone who can't attend the party can get their gifts anytime I'm online. Thanks to all the amazing people who donated gifts. The donations were truly representative of how great this community is. Xrossfire Bugseye
