Fantasy Faire 2024 in Second Life: Help With The Quest

Fantasy Faire 2024, Using a flashlight in Thunnus Bay

Even after years of doing the annual Fantasy Faire Quest and other hunts, there are still times I have problems finding everything. I confess that my secret talent seems to be 'ignoring the obvious', whether it is the unicorn in the garden or the glasses on my forehead.

Here are some you might try to make the Quest easier.

Join the **Fantasy Faire Fans** Group. It is fun to listen to and participate in the chat, and you can always ask for help.

Try to be as low lag as possible. While I love to see elaborate Faire costumes, I know that rendering them can slow things down so I try to dress conservatively. You don't really need to wear your toenail color Hud.

Set up folders in Inventory ahead of time and put items away while they are still listed as "Recent"

My folders are: "Fantasy Faire 2024" with two subfolders: "Quest Items" and "Shopping".  By the end of the Quest you will have dozens of prizes, so it is always a good idea, if you have the time and discipline, to open your prizes right away and send thank-you's to the makers and givers of things you especially like.*

Use the "Help" button on your Quest Hud. It has some good information. This year I learned that if the Hud suddenly doesn't show everything you've collected so far, the first thing you can do is reset it.

Can't find the Queen?  Try using your map to see if there is a cluster of green dots away from the main area. 

Listen to the Quest characters and to your companion animal.

It's OK to ask for a hint in chat. I asked for a hint about finding the last ingredient, and had over a half-dozen people send me clues via IM.

Do not curse the Quest Organizers**.  There have been times when I thought that the hints were misleading or mean, but I have come to realize that they are just coming from a different perspective. We all see things differently.  Be prepared to encounter a few glitches. Try to stay calm and enjoy everything you see along the way and be glad you're not one of the dedicated volunteers who had to set up the Quest.

Know what you are looking for.  In many SL hunts the hunt object is always a specific item, in this hunt the thing you are looking for comes in many shapes.  Once you've found the first item, examine it and its surroundings. Who made it? Who owns it? How big is it? How far was it from the spot the hint directed you to?  Was it named as a hunt object, or something like "I'm just a rock"?

Take time to let the hunt object materialize. Depending on lag time, it can sometimes take minutes for a hunt object to show up. If all else fails, go away and come back later. Also, sometimes objects won't show up until you are almost on top of them so don't rely on camming around from one corner of the Region.

If you can't see, lighten it up. This year some of the Regions were very dark. In the ink I saw a few avatars with their facelights turned up to "stun" and one resident who was wearing a large shining globe as an avatar. There are things you can do to improve your vision:

• Turn up your computer screen brightness
• Use 'Environment' settings and see if you can set the world to mid-day.
• Turn off "Use Shared Environment" and choose a brighter environment. In one Region, I had to change the water to "Lassies Clearwater" to keep from bumping into things. (Be sure to change settings back afterwards.)
• Temporarily de-render things like underbrush and pesky buildings.
• Use the 'search area' option if your viewer has it. If you click on an item on the list and select 'edit' it will show up better.

Thanks to Ryan Schultz for some great tips on his website.

If all else fails, during the last days of the Quest you may be able to purchase an "Express Quest" HUD for $L5000.

End of the Fantasy Faire Quest 2024

The Fantasy Faire Quest is always one of the best hunts in Second Life, and I would like to thank Aisling Sinclair, Terra Volitant, Judi Newell, Cayenne Republic and Bitsofthisandthat for their outstanding job this year.

Have fun!

*Says she, who just noticed she had a few items from SLB20 in her inventory, unopened.

**I apologize for saying "I hope that when she tiptoes past the bears, she is covered with honey and the bears are awake and hungry."