Seasons of Orbis

What it is

Seasons of Orbis is a content pack of yearly events. Its first event is Hallow's Eve, from October 1 to November 12 every year, with Harvest Moon from October 28 to November 1 October, October 29 to 31. Both start and end on their own by the date, counted in UTC. While Hallow's Eve runs, Old Jack sets up in the Forgotten Temple with work for players and a stall that takes Hallow Sweets, and after dark the dead walk.

It runs on Ziggfreed's CommonLib and RPG Stations and never needs MMO Skill Tree. With MMO Skill Tree beside it, the season trains skills too: see With MMO Skill Tree.

What you need installed

1. 1

   Ziggfreed's CommonLib (ZiggfreedCommon)

   2.2.0 or newer. The calendar, the quests, the board, the stall and the reputations all run on it.
2. 2

   RPG Stations

   1.1.0 or newer. It runs the Carving Bench.
3. 3

   Seasons of Orbis

   Drop SeasonsOfOrbis-1.0.0.zip into your server's Mods/ folder beside them and start the server.

CommonLib and RPG Stations are hard dependencies: without either one, the server does not load the pack. There is nothing to place. During the event Old Jack sets himself up in the Forgotten Temple.

The season

• Hallow's Eve, October 1 to November 12. A banner tells each player that Old Jack is waiting at the Forgotten Temple the first time they are on during a run, and another marks the end.
• Harvest Moon, October 28 to November 1. More creatures walk at night, and every Cursed Geode and Hallowed Pumpkin a player finds comes in pairs. Old Jack's board can post the Harvest Moon Hunt, and his stall puts out a bundle of bombs.
• When it ends. Old Jack leaves and takes his stall, his board, his quests and the trick-or-treat line with him, and the sweets leave the wallet strip. No new creatures come, and any still out are gone by dawn. Nothing a player earned goes with him: sweets and favor keep until next year, and a quest or board job left unfinished waits for him to come back.
• The items keep working all year. Bombs throw, the wand dresses, the set applies, and a Cursed Geode kept past the event still cracks.

Old Jack

Old Jack, a pumpkin-headed host, stands in the Forgotten Temple while the event runs. Press F to talk to him. His conversation hands out his quests and opens his board, his stall and the Almanac, and once he knows you, "How do we stand?" opens the Reputation page. While you carry one of his quests, the line under his name says which one and the step you are on, such as "Pumpkin Patch: Bring 3 Hallowed Pumpkins (0/3)".

When you take a quest from him, he tells you where to look straight away: pumpkins grow wild in the autumn woods and in the Kweebecs' gardens, the dead walk after dark away from any torch, Cursed Geodes fall out of stone and ore, and Lantern Bombs come from your pay, his stall and the Jack Skeletons. Come back with the quest still open, nothing to hand in and nothing new to offer you, and he greets you with the same line. The Hallowed Pumpkin's and the Cursed Geode's own tooltips say where they come from and what to do with them too.

While the event runs, every player finds Lanterns in the Temple in their quest log, tracked. It sends them through any Forgotten Temple Gateway to find Old Jack. Talking to him opens his quest list on it, where they hand it in and collect it, and then he offers Pumpkin Patch. Its reward waits to be collected like any quest's: a few Hallow Sweets, an Objective Book and, with MMO Skill Tree, Acrobatics XP. It pays once, and never to a player who has already finished Pumpkin Patch. A player who abandons it can take it straight back from the Quests tab, since a quest that puts itself in the log is never taken only at its giver. It also comes back at their next login, and Old Jack offers it again: that answer takes it and opens his quest list on it.

His questline and dailies

• Six quests in order: Pumpkin Patch, Lantern Work, Ghouls on the Steps, Ectoplasm Run, Cursed Stone and The Hollow Lantern. The last ends with lighting the Hollow Lantern, a keepsake with the year in its name, and it comes back every October.
• Three dailies, every day of the event: Restless Souls, Pumpkin Rounds and Geodes for Jack.
• Every quest pays Hallow Sweets and favor with both of the season's reputations, and the quest card shows how much. A finished quest's reward waits under Ready to collect until the player presses Collect.
• His quests file under the Hallow's Eve category in the quest journal ("Hallow's Eve - Daily - Old Jack" for a daily). A quest he gives goes on the player's quest tracker when they take it, if one of their five tracked slots is free; it never pushes off a quest they pinned themselves.
• A quest's page lists every step it asks for, the ones still ahead under a lock, and each step counts what it wants in plain words: "Bring 4 Hallowed Pumpkins", "Set 6 Lost Souls free".

His board

Old Jack's Board posts work for the dark and work for the daylight. It is drawn once a day, at midnight UTC, for the whole server.

• Night Work is a creature hunt: Soul Sweep, Ghoul Cull, or on Harvest Moon nights the Harvest Moon Hunt. Night means the game world's night, since the creatures are only out then.
• Day Work wants Lantern Bombs thrown (Lantern Barrage) or Cursed Geodes cracked (Deep Geodes).
• A second Night job opens once a player is a Regular with Old Jack, and a second Day job once they are Trusted. Until then the player sees the slot on the board, locked, reading "Requires Regular with Old Jack" or "Requires Trusted with Old Jack".
• On a server with MMO Skill Tree, the board also posts a Skill job every day.

A job a player takes goes on their quest tracker like his quests, if a tracked slot is free, and its page lists each step it asks for. A finished job's sweets and favor wait at the board until the player presses Collect there; in the Objective Book it sits under Ready to collect marked Elsewhere, with "Collect it at Old Jack's Board" under its name. The board tells players to collect before Old Jack packs up: a job left uncollected waits until he comes back next year. The board and the stall open only in the Forgotten Temple.

His stall and Hallow Sweets

Hallow Sweets are the season's money: quests, jobs and treats pay them, and Old Jack's Stall takes them. A player cannot drop or trade them, and whatever they do not spend keeps until next year. Prices and the balance under the stall's title name them in full ("6 Hallow Sweets", "1 Hallow Sweet"), in every language the pack ships.

• Lantern Bombs: all four tiers, and a bundle of bombs while Harvest Moon runs.
• Lanterns: the Jack Lantern, and the Ecto Lantern for sweets and Ectoplasm.
• Gear: the Jack Helm, the Jack Shield, the Costume Wand and the game's own Halloween Broomstick, which no recipe or drop hands out. The Burning Jack Helm and the Flaming Jack Shield, charred and sturdier than the plain pair, show on the shelf, locked, until a player's favor opens them (see below).
• Decorations: six of the game's own Halloween pieces, the Halloween lights, a scary and a cute carved pumpkin, a straw basket, a scarecrow and a wagon.

Old Jack's Favor and the Hallowed

The season brings two reputations. The game keeps a player's standing with each through death and from one Hallow's Eve to the next. A bar on screen moves with each gain and a notice marks each new rank; the menu's Reputation tab shows where a player stands. How a reputation is built is on Authoring Reputations, which quotes both of these.

• Regular opens the board's second Night job, and Trusted its second Day job.
• Jack's Own, or Revered with the Hallowed, opens the Burning Jack Helm at the stall, and Exalted with the Hallowed opens the Flaming Jack Shield.
• Confidant earns the achievement Jack's Confidant and its title. It stays with the player across the years, and the Jack Helm's favor counts toward it.
• Once a day Old Jack points a player at his board and pays a little favor for the visit when they answer him or say goodbye.
• Favor from gear counts toward every rank and lock, and the Reputation tab shows it apart from what the player earned. The Jack Shield counts in either hand, so two shields stack.

On the Reputation tab, each of the two lists how to earn it, every rank with the favor it takes and what it opens (the second board jobs, the Burning Jack Helm and the Flaming Jack Shield, where they are found), and what the player has earned and what their gear adds. A player wearing the Hallowed set sees it under Sets you wear on the Hallowed's page, with the bonus the set is giving them. What a rank opens shows all year, so a player can see what is waiting for them while the stall is packed away.

Trick or treat

While Hallow's Eve runs, every character who has a conversation for a player offers a trick-or-treat line among their answers, Old Jack included. A player can knock once a day at each character: knocking at one leaves the line waiting at the next, and each comes back at midnight UTC. Visiting characters is the loop, since every knock pays in full.

A knock always pays a few sweets, then maybe more sweets, candy canes or a pumpkin pie, or now and then a costume trick; a player already in a costume gets a treat. Each knock also adds 5 favor with the Hallowed. The conversation stays open: a notice inside it lists everything the knock paid (the treat, the Hallow Sweets and "+5 The Hallowed") with the pickup sound, and the line is gone from that character until the next day.

With MMO Skill Tree or another pack that gives characters conversations, every one of them plays along; on this pack alone only Old Jack does. The game's own merchants have no conversation, so they hand out nothing. A costume comes off any time with /zigcostume off.

After dark

At night, away from torches, the season's creatures come out: Jack Skeletons, Hollow Ghouls and Lost Souls in the open from the first zone to the fourth, and Geode Wraiths in the mineshafts of the first three zones. They drop Lantern Bombs, Ectoplasm, Hallowed Pumpkins and Cursed Geodes, and they are gone by dawn. Each one is as tough as the game's own creature it is built on, so a Hollow Ghoul hits like a Ghoul, even in the first zone. None of them are Memories.

While Hallow's Eve runs, mining stone and ore turns up a Cursed Geode now and then. Crack one open for crystals and something extra: a bomb, some Ectoplasm or fire essence. A pumpkin picked by hand sometimes comes up Hallowed.

Items

• Lantern Bombs, in four tiers: the Lantern Bomb, the Burning Lantern Bomb (it sets what it hits alight), the Spectral Lantern Bomb (it also slows) and the Shattering Lantern Bomb (it also throws flaming shards). A blast never hurts a player.
• The Hallowed set, the Jack Helm and the Jack Shield. Wear the helm with the shield in your off hand for more health and less damage from fire, and you glow like a lantern. The Burning Jack Helm and the Flaming Jack Shield count the same as the plain pieces, so any helm with any shield completes the set.
• The Costume Wand turns another player into a Jack Skeleton or a Lost Soul for a few minutes. They can take the costume off with /zigcostume off.
• Lanterns: the Jack Lantern and the green Ecto Lantern to place and light, and the Hollow Lantern, the keepsake Old Jack gives once each year.
• Ectoplasm and the Hallowed Pumpkin: what the Lost Souls leave behind, and the season's own pumpkin.

The Carving Bench

Craft it at a Workbench from pumpkins and wood, any time of year, and press F on it to carve from your bag. It carves lanterns, the Jack Helm and Lantern Bombs all year. With a Hallowed Pumpkin in hand you carve the Jack Shield there, but only while Hallow's Eve runs. Sneak and press F to pick a recipe; a plain press carves the first one your bag can pay for. RPG Stations runs the bench.

Achievements, titles and keepsakes

• Seven a season. Hollow Lantern (lighting it with Old Jack), Lantern Lobber, Soul Warden, Ghoul Breaker, Geode Cracker and Jack's Guest cover the season's work. The achievement The Hallowed is for earning those six in one season and gives the title "the Hallowed". Each year's set carries the year in its names and stays with the player as feats.
• Kept across the years. Old Friend is for coming back to Hallow's Eve year after year. Lantern Keeper is for lighting the Hollow Lantern in several seasons and gives the title "Keeper of Lanterns". First Lanterns is for lighting it in 2026, the first season, and nobody can earn it after that year. None of them counts toward the achievement The Hallowed.
• Jack's Confidant, for reaching Confidant with Old Jack, gives the title "Jack's Confidant" and is kept across the years too.

The Almanac page

Hallow's Eve has its own page in the Almanac: a player's Hollow Lantern keepsakes and lifetime tallies of Lantern Bombs thrown, Hollow Ghouls felled, Jack Skeletons knocked down, Lost Souls freed, Cursed Geodes cracked and Geode Wraiths put down. Ask Old Jack ("Show me the Almanac.") to open it, or open the menu's Almanac tab, or type /zigalmanac open. While the season runs, the Almanac tab has a second line under its name: "Hallow's Eve" with the Jack Lantern.

• The banner. The page opens on the season's lanterns, bombs and pumpkins laid out over a night sky, with an orange strip under it. It says whether the season is on and how many days are left, or when it comes back, and the dates it runs every year.
• Every year. A chip for each year a player can read: that year's tallies, or every season at once. Each tile shows the player's own number, their total across every season, and the whole server's.
• Keepsakes and achievements. A shelf holds the Hollow Lantern for each year, earned, still to earn or missed, and a bar shows how many of the season's achievements the player holds.
• In the statistics. The Achievements tab's Statistics view has a Seasons row for Hallow's Eve with how many times the player took part, and a button back to this page.

How a season's page is written

The page is one file, Server/ZiggfreedCommon/Almanac/HallowsEvePack/Hallows_Eve.json. Its file name is the calendar event's id, and the folder above it is only the author's own grouping. A pack of your own writes a page for its own event the same way. The season's name and line (Text), its list picture (Icon), its place in the list (Order), its yearly keepsake (Keepsake) and its tallies (Stats) are what the page reads; 1.7.0 (CommonLib 2.2.0) adds three leaves that dress it:

"Accent": "#F08A24",
"Hero": {
  "Composition": {
    "Background": "#121A2E",
    "Gradient": { "Top": "#0A0F1E", "Bottom": "#2A1A2C" },
    "Glow": { "Color": "#A0501A", "X": 514, "Y": -78, "Size": 400 },
    "Items": [
      { "Item": "Hallows_Eve_Jack_Lantern", "X": 650, "Y": 58, "Size": 128 },
      { "Item": "Hallows_Eve_Ecto_Lantern", "X": 546, "Y": 90, "Size": 96 }
    ]
  }
}

Every leaf is optional and inherits through Parent; inside Hero, Art and ShowArt inherit one by one. The Hallow's Eve file writes no Art, so its banner is the composed one. Keep the left part of the banner (up to about x 450) clear: the season's name, status and dates sit there.

With MMO Skill Tree

Install MMO Skill Tree 1.7.0 or newer beside the pack and the season trains skills as well. The MMO jar carries this layer itself, so the pack needs no change.

• Lantern Bombs train Artillery, for every hit a burst lands.
• Lost Souls give proper kill XP. The other creatures already count as the ghouls, skeletons and wraiths they are built on.
• Old Jack's rewards and cracked Cursed Geodes pay skill XP, and the Carving Bench trains Crafting. A season achievement's XP waits on the achievements page until the player collects it. The achievements The Hallowed and Jack's Guest each add a boost token, and it arrives the moment the achievement is earned.
• His board posts a Skill job every day: earn a set amount of Artillery, Harvesting, Mining or Crafting XP. Like his own jobs, its sweets, its XP and its favor with Old Jack and the Hallowed wait at the board until the player collects them.
• The Hallowed set adds a little luck and harder Artillery hits.
• Harvest Moon lifts Harvesting and Artillery XP for everyone on the server. See Boost rules.

Add the MMO Skill Bounty Pack 1.3.0 or newer and its Daily board posts a haunt contract each day of the event, paying a few Hallow Sweets on top of its tokens and XP.

For server owners

The switches below are files in mods/ziggfreedcommon/, beside the library's other owner files, so the pack's own files stay as shipped.

The event and its days

{ "Hallows_Eve": { "Enabled": false } }                  // Hallow's Eve off
{ "Harvest_Moon": { "Enabled": false } }                 // Harvest Moon off
{ "Hallows_Eve": { "Window": { "End": "10-31" } } }      // move a day (month-day, UTC)
{ "$Enabled": false }                                    // every calendar event off

• Run /zigcalendar reload after editing the file. /zigcalendar status Hallows_Eve shows what the server reads, and /zigcalendar list lists every event.
• /zigcalendar force on Hallows_Eve starts the event now, to try it out of season; force off stops it, and force clear hands it back to its dates. A force lasts until the server restarts.
• Off means gone, the same as the end of the event: Old Jack and everything he brings leave, no new creatures spawn, and nothing anyone earned is lost. It all comes back when the event does.

The rest of the season

Restart the server after editing one of these files to be sure it is read. To take the trick-or-treat line out of every conversation, ship a file named Hallows_Eve_Trick_Or_Treat.json under Server/ZiggfreedCommon/DialogueExtensions/ holding {"Enabled": false} in a pack of your own that lists Seasons of Orbis as a dependency, so it loads after it.

On a server without MMO Skill Tree, /zigcommerce validate notes the board's Skill slot as UNFILLABLE_SLOT, an INFO line. Only MMO Skill Tree's contracts post there, so that is expected.

The Almanac

{ "$Enabled": false }                                              // no Almanac at all
{ "$MenuTab": { "OnlyWhileLive": true } }                          // the tab only while a season runs
{ "$MenuTab": { "Show": false } }                                  // never show the tab
{ "Hallows_Eve": { "Hero": { "Art": "UI/Custom/MyServer/Hallows_Eve.png" } } }  // your own banner picture
{ "Hallows_Eve": { "Hero": { "ShowArt": false } } }                // the composed banner, even with Art set

• A Hero leaf you leave out keeps the pack's, and a value the server cannot read keeps the pack's too, with a warning in the log. A Composition of your own replaces the pack's whole. Your own Art picture has to ship in a pack of your own, under its Common/ folder.
• Restart the server after editing the file. MMO Skill Tree's admin General page edits the tab switch for you (its Almanac Tab dropdown).
• The server-wide numbers on each tile are kept in a file of their own, almanac-server-tallies.json, which the server writes for itself: see The Almanac's server totals.

Reading it as a reference

The pack is plain content in the library's formats. Everything that leaves with the event gates on ziggfreedcommon:feature Hallows_Eve_Live, and a roll or a lock reads ziggfreedcommon:calendar_live Hallows_Eve (see Factor spellings). The authoring pages quote it:

• Authoring Reputations - both reputations, gear favor and the lock lines.
• A slot's own gate - the board's favor-locked slots.
• Beats that pay - Old Jack's daily board line.
• Boost rules - MMO Skill Tree's Harvest Moon lift.

Related

• Official content packs - every pack, what it needs and the install order.
• ZiggfreedCommon - what the library owns, and its owner files.