Faerie Friends February Livestream
On February 15th 2024, Neopets held a special Friendship-themed livestream. It is hosted by Kevin and features several TNT staffers and two Neopian community members. You can view a recording of this livestream on YouTube. This page is a summary recap of this livestream.
Livestream Timecodes
For your convenience, here's the various guests in the recorded live stream and their respective time codes- Introduction [4:44]
- Interview with Kelly (Retired from Danpo) & Kat (hilary_duff_fan_16) [6:20]
- Interview with TNT Goldfish in Bowl (Content Designer) [16:15]
- Interview with TNT Lune (Community Coordinator “Slorg Stylist” for Neopets) [21:00]
- Q&A with TNT Dom [33:00]
- What is the current status on the ‘NeoPass’? [33:50]
- Is there a chance of getting more pet slots soon? [36:40]
- With the release of UCs, is there any chance we could get a few fixes for the Battledome? [38:15]
- Why are players getting frozen for using a VPN? [40:50]
- How can the community trust you with NeoPass when a hacker has been leaking your user data on Reddit for several years now? [44:20]
- When will the Daily Quest prizes be rotated? [46:30]
- Most players still prefer buying NC prepaid cards from resellers rather than buying NC on the website. What are your thoughts and will this change in the future? [49:10]
- A lot of people have had issues with the payment processing on the website redeeming NC. Is this going to be addressed any time soon?? [51:50]
- How well did the re-introduction of NC Pet Styles do? [53:50]
- Final thoughts: Relaunch of Island Builders [54:50]
tl;dr & tl;dw
- TNT Goldfish in Bowl, mainly focuses on Neocash items (wearables, capsules, grams) and sometimes works on Neopian Times; gains a lot of feedback from the community
- TNT Lune: The Tarot Deck (physical merch) is available for preorder, will ship February 27th, available anywhere books are sold.
- You can ask a local bookstore to order it for you (if you're international)
- 5 decks were given away during the live stream
- NeoPass:
- Requires new infrastructure for entire Neopets ecosystem
- A soft launch in the works, around 500 players testing; target March 2024.
- Launches alongist Island Builders
- A purge will be coming soon, more pet slots MIGHT be available after this purge and the NeoPass release.
- TNT tracking list of battledome issues, working on some small fixes but TNT's working on improving QOL for Battledome
- TNT doesn't ban or discourage using a VPN, but that VPN might've been used for malicious purposes, you might've been banned because that IP was flagged -- please contact support for help, it'll be manually reviewed!
- TNT is seeking security auditing and certifications to improve security and privacy.
- Working on patching major security issues for months
- TNT is trying to combat inflation, and continues to monitor (in regards to Daily Quests)
- TNT prefers NC bought through the site, because there could be issues from 3rd party. The system will be updated in the future because it's outdated. Best way to support Neopets is buying directly on site.
- NC UC launch was very successful for Neopets.
- Island Builders being relaunched, renamed as "Tales of Dacardia" full launch in April 2024
Interview with Kelly (Retired from Danpo) & Kat (hilary_duff_fan_16)
- Two friends who met through Neopets guild in 2020
- Connected together at SDCC (San Diego Comic Con) and joined the afterparty and met TNT Ivy
- Discussed several memories of their friendship through Neopets
Interview with TNT Goldfish in Bowl (Content Designer):
- Mainly focus on the NC portion of Neopets – wearable items, capsules, grams-- anything released in the NC mall. Recently released the Valentine NC grams.
- Also works on the Neopian Times and sees editorial questions, which helps guide creation of new NC items.
- Giant Huggable Warf process -- reference sketch, artist sketch and then a final vectorized version. TNT Goldfish in Bowl gets it ready for the site.
- Q: How do you approach the aesthetic and approach?
- A: You want to fit everyone’s aesthetic and style. A lot of inspiration comes from users from the NeoBoards and through the editorial questions in the Neopian Times.
Interview with TNT Lune (Community Coordinator “Slorg Stylist” for Neopets):
- Showcase of new Faerie Friends edition of the Tarot deck (physical merch)
- Available for preorder, will ship Feb 27th
- Available anywhere books are sold (ie: Barnes and Noble, Amazon)
- International shipping is available by asking a local bookstore to order it for you.
- 5 decks will be given away during the livestream (share memorable story related to Neopets or NeoFriends), mods picked them at the end of the stream from the live stream’s chat.
- Process for bringing deck to life:
- Faerie Friends edition was greenlit back in 2022 when they were working on the cookbook (released 2023) and upcoming graphic novels (coming 2024)
- Same team that worked on the Geekify Oracle deck (original print edition)
- Geekify Oracle deck vs new Faerie Friends deck - Faerie Friends deck partnered with larger publisher so it will be more widely available
- The Geekify Oracle deck version has golden edges, comes in a magnetic box and velvet bag, cards are slightly larger, and has different cover art.
- Both sets share the same card artwork.
- NeoPass - had early access, Dom discusses it more indepth later:
- Allows you to log in to your main or side accounts,
- select the account you will log in as (dropdown), can switch between accounts super easily.
- There will be more capabilities added in the future.
Q&A with TNT Dom
1. What is the current status on the ‘NeoPass’? [33:50]
- New infrastructure layer to connect the whole Neopets ecosystem
- Connect across Neopets games, not just Neopets website but also things like Island Builders
- In soft launch stage, 500 players testing early access
- Over 10,000 people wanted to join early access
- Soft launch target in March 2024
- Will be launching NeoPass alongside Island Builders
- More future updates tied to NeoPass also planned, including features regarding the payment system
- Especially with the release of UC pets, the team understands that the users are asking for more pet slots, and they are keeping that in mind.
- Hoping that NeoPass tying accounts together and making it easier to manage side accounts will help users more easily manage pets across main/side accounts
- Purge coming soon - releasing pet names into the system (from old inactive accounts)
- Pet slots will probably not come until after the NeoPass release and purge
- Community Ambassadors have gathered a lot of comments and we have a very detailed list recorded to know what to fix.
- We are working on small fixes, but we are also trying to focus to improve the quality of life for Battledome.
- Currently tracking a list of bugs & issues with the battledome
- This is a long term fix as we know it needs a lot more love and will take some time to make sure that the server intricate and economy are all tied together to make it a cohesive project, in order to combat inflation.
- No promises on features like Defenders of Neopia returning as part of this initiative
- There’s a lot of misinformation about using VPN, TNT allows players to use a VPN. There are not mass freezings because of an IP address.
- Some players, however, appear to be on the same IP as some IPs have been flagged which causes the legitimate player to be frozen (in error.)
- When you use a VPN, it is possible that it increases a chance to use an IP that belongs to a botter/cheater.
- If your account does get frozen by mistake, definitely send in an appeal ticket and they (customer support) will rectify it and manually review your ticket.
- New infrastructure layer to connect the whole Neopets ecosystem
- NeoPass is being released for this reason - it is to improve the overall site security.
- The new NeoPass login process is up to current industry security standards.
- This will be a huge improvement for security.
- ISO-27001 & SOC Type 2 Complication & Certification
- SunnyNeo’s Note: The SOC Type 2 standard ensures privacy and confidentiality of customer data. ISO-27001 requires management (TNT) to continuously monitor for threats and security risks, taking action, designing various security controls to avoid risks. These standards are usually certified for an organization (Neopets) by an accredited organization, upon completing the audit.
- Spent the past few months on a security audit and have identified loopholes/gaps. Working on closing those methods of entry for malicious users.
- There are still leaks where hackers have access to certain information, but the team has stopped some of them during this process.
- They are optimistic about the future of site security.
- Team has been monitoring the impact of the current prize pool to guide how to release more items in the future.
- At the end of the day, they are trying to combat inflation.
- Goal is to make Neopets a lot more enjoyable to a lot more users, but there are a few factors that make it tricky to balance:
- People should not need to spend years and years to get one of their dream items.
- However, giving away items continuously will affect some of the most loyal users who have previously collected those items.
- Tackling inflation is also important.
- Make it more enjoyable for long-term players to keep enjoying collecting items.
- TNT prefers that NC is bought through their site as there is a chance of getting bugs from buying through a 3rd party.
- They are looking to update the system in the near future as it is outdated.
- At the end of the day, if you want to support Neopets, buying on the website is the place to go.
- Purchasing directly on the site gives you the best sales and experience in the future
- They are aware of the situation and it is the team’s highest priority.
- The payment processor went down in late January when UC pet styles were released, and it caused some NC payments to be delayed.
- The NCUC pet sale was extended because of these issues.
- Many of the payment issues including the Paypal error message that appeared even if the purchase was successful have already been fixed.
- There is a backlog of a lot of tickets with the payment processor that the team is still working through.
- January 2024 has been the best month since the ownership change, and even in the past 5 years overall for the site.
- Team has been working hard on the redesign.
- New name: Tales of Dacardia (name is reference to unreleased MMO Tales of Neopia)
- Soft launch in March 2024, full launch in April 2024
- Will launch with NeoPass, tying into the main game and collect points.
Live Giveaway Code
As a reminder, you may only use this on your main account as its only one redemption per player. It will expire February 17th at 6PM NST.
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