View source for Spring Festival 2019

{{event|
|holiday=Spring Equinox
|status=complete
|year=2019
|date_from=March 15
|date_to=March 25
|creator=Shadowfax
|builders=
|highlights=
|new_areas=
|code_advancement=
|theme=
|event_areas=
|summary=The '''Spring Festival 2019''' was an event that took place during the latter half of March 2019, encompassing both Saint Patrick's Day and the Spring Equinox.  The event was organized by [[Shadowfax]], with assistance from [[Morpheus]].

The event features the metarrexi as antagonists, which were last seen during the [[Homecoming 2017]] (Fall Kickoff) event.  Numerous assets from that event were reused, as well as the Rainbow Factory area from the previous Summer Solstice Celebration, and an additional event area was constructed.

Like the Homecoming event, there were two metarrexi masterminds on the mainland at any given time, each in one of twenty-one randomly-chosed locations.  For this event, additional masterminds were present on Sloe, Kordan and Archais of appropriate levels.

Masterminds on the newbie island generated a few guards to protect themselves, while those on the mainland generated drones every tick until they had a hundred such drones. Fallen drones were replaced as soon as possible. When a mastermind was defeated, another one spawned in a different location to take its place.

There were also four metarrexi dreadnoughts, each spawning in a different body of water. One was in the Northern Ocean, one in the Southern Ocean, another in the Gulf of Takar and the other in the Eisenmere (Iron Sea).

|preevent=
Having already been an established tradition, there wasn't any doubt that there would be a spring-themed event.  Shadowfax proposed reusing assets from the Homecoming 2017 event to quickly generate a new event, and the other world builders agreed to the plan.  He started organizing the necessary building assets at the beginning of March.  His first act was to start releasing metarrex wingnuts throughout the world to promote the upcoming event.

|history=
Like the Homecoming 2017 event, this event was purported to be another metarrexi invasion of the Prime Material Plane, only this time, players would not only be able to defeat the invading armies, they would be able to take the fight to the plane on Diurnus.

|timeline=Act 2 was originally scheduled for March 20th but had to be delayed for a day to allow time for additional building when playtesting had revealed a few bugs.


|story=

Prior to the event:

{{MUDdisplay|
Pending Event Information
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Metarrex drones have been spotted in many parts of the wilderness, scouting
out new places for their masters to take root.  The plant-like aliens
reproduce rapidly and threaten to take over the whole world if left
unchecked.  Soon, it will be time to hunt them down and eradicate them for
good.

Please see the 'event schedule' for more details.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
(see 'show schedule' for a schedule of events)

Current display mode: SOON
}}

After Act 2:

{{MUDdisplay|
Current Event Information
------------------------------------------------------------------
Metarrex drones have been spotted in many parts of the wilderness, scouting
out new places for their masters to take root.  The plant-like aliens
reproduce rapidly and threaten to take over the whole world if left
unchecked.  It is time to hunt them down and eradicate them for good!

To start the quest, you must locate and slay a metarrex mastermind
appropriate for your level.  If you are level 10 or lower, your target will
be on Sloe.  Levels 11 to 19 should kill the mastermind on Kordan.  If you
are level 20 to 28, your target will be on Archais.  If you are level 29 or
higher, you should look for a mastermind on the mainland to kill.

Masterminds appear in different places but they prefer places with lots of
water and access to sunlight.

Once your have defeated a mastermind, you can continue the main quest by
via 'event join 150' from your recall and talking to the copper aureon.

After finishing the copper aureon's quest in the Rainbow Factory, you can
complete the main quest via 'event join 151'. You do not need to accept a
quest--simply hunt down the overmind and kill it.  If you can't get into
the area, try talking to the copper aureon one last time.

For high level players, there a four metarrexi dreadnoughts haunting the
great bodies of water of Alter Aeon: the Northern Ocean, the Southern
Ocean, the Eisenmere and the Gulf of Takar.  Defeat all four for a legacy
quest!

Please see the 'event schedule' for more details.
------------------------------------------------------------------
(see 'show schedule' for a schedule of events)

Current display mode: IN_PROGRESS

There are open event areas!  Use the 'event list' command to see them.
}}

|schedule=
The main story event areas were single player autolevelling areas (beginning at level 5) and thus could be completed players of any level.

{{{!}} class="wikitable"
! Date
! Summary
{{!}}-
{{!}} March 15
{{!}} Act 1 of the main story began.
{{!}}-
{{!}} March 21
{{!}} Act 2 of the main story was released.
{{!}}-
{{!}} March 25
{{!}} Death March is ran, after which event areas are closed and quests are disabled.
{{!}}}

|areas=
The main story event areas were:

* The Rainbow Factory, Diurnus (150)
* The Pool of Radiance, Diurnus (151)

===Death March===
A Death March conducted the night of March 25th, which marked the end of the event.  The Death March ran through the following unfinished areas before running concluding with the main story event areas.  Each of these became temporarily event area 99.

* The Dreamscape
* Dentin's Workshop
* The Achromatic Palace, Luam

|quests=
Players were able to gain a quest for defeating mastermind of appropriate level.  Only one such quest could be complete by any player.  If a player slew a mastermind that was considered too low level for him, he would not get the quest.  This was to dissuade mainland level players from attacking masterminds on the newbie islands.  If a player was WAY too high level for the mastermind (in this case, at least 20 levels higher) he received a noshow quest that prevented him from entering the event areas and advancing any of their quests.

Furthermore, there were side quests available in the Rainbow Factory area unrelated to the main story.  In the Summer Solstice 2017 event, these quests to fight the gray paladins and teraphim were part of the main questline.

|notes=Unfortunately, an unscrupulous player tricked two others into attacking newbie-level masterminds and gaining the disqualifier quest, prompting Shadowfax to introduce additional code to prevent such a scenario in the future.

|see_also=
* [http://www.lawful-evil.org/logs/spring_festival_2019_death_march.html  Shadowfax's log of the event]

}}

[[Category:Death March]]