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Spooky Food Contest Mystery

Posted: 10 Oct 2013 06:22 am
by thelonetiel
A while back, a new Halloween event was introduced, the Spooky Food Contest! You were able to pick among four contestants and cheer or boo among them to encourage your favorite to win.

Unfortunately, when the contest ended on October 1, the winner turned out to be a monster in disguise.

Right now, it seems there is a plot like something going on. Today a puzzle step was released, which requires manipulation of singing flowers to make a melody. I have no idea if this is a full plot or a mini-plot or just a Halloween event, but I love puzzles, so who cares.

Our protagonists(?) seem to be new:
Image Kell
Image Corbin
And they are also the cause of the monster. Something about getting a dosage wrong. Always double check your prescriptions people!

If this is a plot, there are always bonus points for doing things on time! So definitely get started if you get a chance.


I always recommend JellyNeo for plot steps. I solved it without too much difficulty by setting all my plants to the bottom row (each plant can only move vertically in it's column), then moving each plant by a square or two at a time. When you hit the lever at the lower left corner, it'll turn on the fan and make the plants sing, and you get a number. You want to get that number to 0, so if you move something and the number goes up, undo the move, and if it goes down, you're likely in the right direction. It wasn't too difficult for me, and the sound could've been worse (you could in theory do this on mute - the number is what actually matters).

When that's finished, your character falls asleep, and you're told to come back tomorrow.

Re: Spooky Food Contest Mystery

Posted: 10 Oct 2013 07:31 am
by Gumdrops
The melody puzzle is my favorite puzzle step in like, forever. It was difficult enough to not solve instantly, but not so difficult that it made you wanna quit. I had fun with it.

Re: Spooky Food Contest Mystery

Posted: 10 Oct 2013 09:05 am
by Kantark
It looks like it could be a mini-plot, woohoo!

I just left the plants in their default positions and eventually worked out that I needed to move one at a time to 'tune' for minimum value. I did manage to break the Flash at one point - 2 plants became stuck and couldn't be moved. If that happens to you guys just referesh the page - it doesn't lose your current settings.

Re: Spooky Food Contest Mystery

Posted: 10 Oct 2013 02:46 pm
by Jamie
ImageImage

Hmm.. two monster chasers you say?

Image

All we need now is a Christmas Zafara in a trench coat to turn up

Re: Spooky Food Contest Mystery

Posted: 10 Oct 2013 07:09 pm
by Cranberry
Oh man, they even sound like Sam and Dean, with the "gone to ground" and the "don't make me beg" and the jokes about bullet points and such. Someone on staff is a big Supernatural fan!

Re: Spooky Food Contest Mystery

Posted: 10 Oct 2013 09:58 pm
by thelonetiel
There's a new puzzle for today - same thing only with a few more flowers. I wonder how many iterations we're to do?

I didn't realize the Supernatural connection! (Probably because I've only seen commercials for it) That's neat, the hair is a dead give away, now that I see a reference pic.

Re: Spooky Food Contest Mystery

Posted: 10 Oct 2013 11:15 pm
by Kantark
thelonetiel wrote:I didn't realize the Supernatural connection!
I'm glad you cleared that up, I thought it was Savage Garden. :oops:

Re: Spooky Food Contest Mystery

Posted: 11 Oct 2013 02:10 am
by EofS
Bleh. I just spent ages trying to explain my method for solving the melody puzzle but I'm struggling to make it make sense. But it's good and it's quicker than the one step at a time one. Mrr.

(You basically start the same way, all plants on the bottom row and blow the fan, but then you move the first plant to the very top row. From those two numbers you can calculate which row the plant should be in by counting down from the second number and up from the first). Repeat until you have all your plants in place. My last two columns I didn't even have to experiment - by the time I reached them I was 12 mDB off, and since there's only 6 mDB you can do from each column they had to both be at the top.)

I like this plot, plottette, event, whatever. In fact I'll be perfectly happy if it is just a plottette or event, it's nice to have a little variety - and it's so nice not to just be given yet another mindless clicking event.

Re: Spooky Food Contest Mystery

Posted: 11 Oct 2013 06:51 pm
by thelonetiel
I totally used your method today E and it was much easier. It didn't work perfectly the first time around for me (I thought I'd put a plant in the place dictated by numbers, but it needed correcting at the end), but it was still faster than going one at a time from the bottom, and most of the plants ended up in the right place on the third movement, which was an improvement.


Also, Kantark, I'm taking Cranberry's word on it being Supernatural. I blame her if that's not right. ;) If you'd mentioned something else first, I would've blindly nodded and assumed you were correct in your reference catching skillz.

Re: Spooky Food Contest Mystery

Posted: 11 Oct 2013 09:40 pm
by Cranberry
Oh, it's undoubtedly Supernatural! The characters are wearing some of the more iconic outfits from the show, and they sound just like Sam and Dean. I love that they made Sam an ogrin.

Re: Spooky Food Contest Mystery

Posted: 14 Oct 2013 12:20 am
by Tom
It's scary how close the Ogrin's face is to Sam's face. They really did a good job there. The Dean Wocky is a bit more subtle, but the Sam Ogrin... wow. I wouldn't ever have imagined it before.

I used the same method, E. Seemed a bit quicker than moving them all one place at a time. :D Plus, required mild thinking. I even managed to get them all right, today, without messing any up!

Re: Spooky Food Contest Mystery

Posted: 14 Oct 2013 07:22 pm
by Cranberry
Okay, this was fun at first, but now I'm getting tired of the plant puzzle.

Re: Spooky Food Contest Mystery

Posted: 15 Oct 2013 08:12 pm
by Kari
Yeah, it's up to 10 plants now or something? Getting really tedious to move them all.

Re: Spooky Food Contest Mystery

Posted: 21 Oct 2013 10:33 pm
by Kantark
Well I can't go any further with the plant puzzle it seems. Very much stuck on what I think is the last one - I can pull the lever and the animation & tune plays as expected, but I can't move any of the plants and the text in Kell's speech bubble doesn't change to show the 'score'. I've tried reloading and ctrl-reloading the page, I've tried reading all the pages of the plot again and that's it. I'd submit a ticket but a) the support system looks like it's going DFM shortly and b) I've already got enough to do this week as it is.

Re: Spooky Food Contest Mystery

Posted: 21 Oct 2013 11:11 pm
by EofS
I assumed that was because it's over and we're waiting for the next step?