Luna's Empire Ghost Hunt For Halloween 2023

 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

 A year ago, the Newser reported on the Ghostbusters-themed Ghost Hunt in the pony-themed Luna's Empire sim. A year later, the game is back. It's gotten some improvements, which make for more interesting gameplay. 

As before, the game isn't just for ponies, but open for just about all avatars to play (the very large and those smaller than tinies will likely have trouble). A board in the entrance room gives some instructions on how to play.

Just outside are more instructions about how to use the HUD, and explaining one change to the game: classes of ghost hunters. You can choose to be a "Binder" whose shots slow down ghosts. You can be a Hunter, whose capture of a number of regular ghosts can bring on a boss ghost. And finally you can be a Cleaner, whose shots can clean slime off other players.

Clicking the instructions outside, you get a hud, a map, two guns (one for ponies and the other made for human and anthro avies) and an emitter.

One other change in the game this year, the ghosts can slime you. The slime bar on your HUD goes up, and your screen appears streaked with good. Besides feeling icky, this can reduce the candy you get for busting ghosts. The more you're slimed, the less candy you get. To clean off the slime, you need to either bathe in the fountain near where you get the HUD and gear, or another player on "Cleaner" mode uses his gun to zap it away. Sometimes there's always a cleaner around to help you, and other times you wait for a while and end up walking to the fountain to wash up on your own. 

Most of the ghosts are regular ones, with one or two circles over their heads. 

 

They just take several seconds to zap, weaken, and trap. Just don't be too close so they won't charge, touch, and slime you. A typical reward is ten candies.

Some of the regular ghosts do look like "Slimer" from "Ghostbusters" (hard to see in this picture).

Less common are those with three, four, or five circles over them.

These boss ghosts are tougher, and will need multiple people to take down. Fortunately, you can call for help, and others will see a red "X" on the map where you did. The result will be people closing on the boss ghost to bust it to get a share of it's greater candy prize. 

 

About every couple hours, a much more powerful boss ghost will appear. You can't just simply zap him, but apparently one will need to take out some pillars around the pond he appears in first. 

It also throws splotches of slime around, which hunters will need to zap and clean up. 

Taking down this bad boy takes effort, and likely getting slimmed and cleaned up a lot. But the rewards are great. For helping out, I got 1000 pieces of candy.

 

 What to do with all that candy? One can use it to buy prizes. The majority of them are for ponies, but not every single one.

There is a scoreboard for the top players. Some guys and girls have done a lot of 'bustin. 

 

Going around, there's a variety of players.

There's also plenty of Halloweenish scenery (G-rated) in the sim.

Have fun ghostbusting.

 

 http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunas%20empire%20events/215/26/14

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Luna's Empire Ghost Hunt

 

 By Bixyl Shuftan

 

 Various communities in Second Life are having some Halloween fun in various ways. For the Pony community of Luna's Empire, they've set up a "Ghostbusters" style game: Luna's Empire Ghost Hunt. It's not just ponies that are invited to take part, but it's open to all.

 

To take part, head to the Luna's Empire Events sim. In front of you are a few panels explaining the game, and a map of the sim. Between the two panels on the right is a proton pack and ghostbusting gun giver. Touch it, and you'll get guns made for both ponies and humans/furs, as well as backpack units (the later are just for show). 

 

 

The ghosts come in two main varieties, normal level and boss level. Normal level ghosts come either slow, which look like sheets, or fast, which look like "Slimer" from the movie and cartoon. Both have a single star over them. Just aim the gun a little above them, or right at them if you're a pony, and fire. Before long the ghosts are captured and you get a few points. As the guns were originally made for pony avatars, those adapted for humans and furs may misfire if not aimed just right over the spooks.

 

Less common but tougher are the boss ghosts. A single proton gun won't be enough to stop them. They have multiple stars over them, which is the number of players it takes to stop them. The zombie ponies need just a few. But Nightmare Moon needs several players all firing on her at once to take down. When finally busted, both give all players involved a larger amount of points. 

 

The points are good for more than just bragging rights. In front of the town hall are a number of prizes they can be exchanged for. Most are made in mind for pony avatars. Unlike the Caledon Downs Ghost Hunt, there are no actual Linden dollars up for grabs. 

The sim itself has been decorated for Halloween, giving it a cartoony spooky fun (some use the term "spoopy") look. At night, a few glowing wisps move about. And oh yeah, occasionally you'll hear something shout "BOO!" behind you. But when you turn, there's nothing there ... nothing you can see anyway.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lunas%20empire%20events/215/26/14

Bixyl Shuftan

Valentine's Day Game At Club Cutlass

By Bixyl Shuftan

For those looking for something fun to do, Shockwave Yareach has something for this time of year. For this Valentine's Day season, he has a new game out, the "Big Box O' Candy." He announced the game in Sunweaver chat.

There is now a pair of vendors to the Valentine's Game.  One is in the Club Cutlass, and the other at the train stop on the ground.  

Anyone can play -- in or out of the group.  Game is free to play.

There are 12 candies hidden in Sunweaver Bay.  As you touch them, a chocolate appears in the box you carry.  Find all 12 and give it to your loved one, and they
will get a special prize.  (And hopefully so will you.)  

To play the game, head to one of the vendors carrying it, a large rotating heart candy that changes color over a pyramid. As Shockwave mentioned, one is in Club Cutlass at Sunweaver Bay (114/117/757), located next to the wall near the movie poster. The other is at the Sunweaver Bay train stop at the end of the main railway line. Just touch it to receive both the instructions and the box of chocolates. Just "add" the box for it to appear in your arm (you may need to adjust the box if it appears too deep into your avie).

After that, you look around for twelve candy hearts scattered around the Sunweaver Bay sim. They look like the rotating heart over the game vendor, but smaller and are a single color. Obviously some are easier to find than others. Some are more or less out in the open. They're either at ground level or on a hill. None are underwater, Shockwave musing, "They dissolved when we tried that." Some are in public buildings, but none are in a private home. Each time you touch one, another chocolate appears in your box.

Shockwave says if you find all twelve, the person you give the box to will get a prize, "Find all dozen and then detach the candy box.  You can now give it to your sweety. And since some of you have several sweethearts, it is set copy as well as transfer so that you can give out as many as you like. When your love rezes the candy box, if all 12 candys have been found, she will get a special prize.  And hopefully you will get a special reward from your honey for all the hard work you did - you don't have to tell her that you had fun." While you can give away an unfinished box, no prize will be given.

Going about the sim myself, after about half an hour I myself found ten of the twelve candies. How many can you find? Play the game and find out.

Once again, to play the game, head to Sunweaver Bay (114/117/757)

Bixyl Shuftan

RFL: Settlers of Hope And Fiona Fei's Ribbon Hunt

By Bixyl Shuftan

The theme of this year's Relay season was "Game On, Cancer." And at the Relay track this year, the camps often had a tribute to a game. Several of the camps had builds inspired by Monopoly, such as the Sunbeamers. And some had actual games such as the Second Life Cheerleading Squad's playable game inspired by Donkey Kong. Two I came across offered prizes for completing games. One was in RFL Encourage: "Settlers of Hope."

Sandie Loxingly told me that the game had been made by her Relay Team "Seekers of Hope." It was based off the board game "Settlers of Catan."

 I would come back later with an alt.  In this SL game, a player had to purchase the HUD for 100L.

 As one goes down the track, one clicks on the people next to the signs to get a resource. You only get one good per station. There's also several games on the track, such as this Bejeweled spinoff.

Usually you get the same kind of good as the station. But sometimes a different one will appear. If you prefer the usual kind, click on the person again once or twice again.

Besides the game, there was a little scenery to explore.

At the end of the course, click on the chest at the end to get a prize. What you get depends on what combination of the six resources you have. For instance, one of each will get you a "Gamer Signs Fatpack." But there are others. Trying a combination not mentioned in the notecard, what I got was a token prize. Oh well, next time.

Oh, and Sandie told me one can get an online version of "The Settlers of Catan" for free on Steam (link).

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/RFL%20Encourage/194/113/22

Of the sims, RFL Courage was a unique one, as it was designed by an artist.

Fiona Fei (Fionafei Resident) had designed the exhibit.

One place was meant to say "Pencil and paper games," which certainly described the sim.

Much of the place looked like landscape covered in various scribbling and simple games on paper.

But the place wasn't just scenery. There was also the "Black Ribbon Hunt."

 Clicking on the sign, one would get the first clue, and would find the eight others by finding the eight black ribbons in the sim.

 There were several tiny critters in the sim, that when clicked on would say something, occasionally offering a clue to finding a ribbon.

Some of the ribbons were clearly in plain sight, though others took me a while to find.

 A few of the ribbons had little gifts, such as this overhead, "Game on, Cancer!" (those in furry avatars, don't wear but add).

For getting all of the ribbons, the player gets a tiny "Toontoons" avatar. It seems to be one at random from a couple dozen, in my case getting a female panda.

There are of course more games in the rest of the sims, and a lot to explore. While some people have picked up their camps, there's plenty to look over. But not for long. Eventually the sims will be gone, so look around while you can.

Bixyl Shuftan