Halloween is coming

In preparation for the upcoming Halloween event, introductory information has been released about what will be involved in the event here ->
http://forum.thesettlersonline.com/threads/25508-Dev-Diary-Halloween-is-coming!?p=237919#post237919

Unlike previous events, this time they've decided to make it not matter whether you received the same items last year (previously if you already received the Grim Reaper, you couldn't get him again for example). It all being available regardless is a bit of a shift in feeling of the events, one I think I'm generally happy with.
Previously it seemed that the devs wanted everyone to have access to exactly the same things, regardless of how long you've been playing, so for example only allowing 1 Grim general ever kept things "even".

Resetting things (assuming the trend continues) will allow older players to collect multiples of items, rewarding their long term play, and will continue to give them something to spend resources on. The old becoming new again may also mean the Devs will stop trying as hard to come up with new content, which is less good, but not a problem seen in this event so far.


Now, for the items you can get during the event.
First, you'll need Pumpkins to pay for any item in the Store, you get these from first buying Pumpkin Sematary's (Name borrowed from Stephen King's Pet Sematary novel).
There are :

• 3x Small Semataries for 50 Stone and 100 Pinewood Planks each. These have 45 Pumpkins and 1 is produced every 8 hours.
• 3x Common Semataries for 150 Marble and 200 Hardwood Planks each. These have 80 Pumpkins and one is produced every 4 hours.
• 3x Noble Semataries for 10 Granite and 15 Exotic Planks each. These have 100 Pumpkins and one is produced every 1 hour.

Important Note: Once you place the fields, if you destroy them, they will not go back to your star menu, they will be gone for good, and you cannot buy more from the store.

They can be buffed, but only need to be buffed just when the pumpkin is produced at the end. For the Small Semataries placing a 30 minute Fish platter buff just before it is produced will yield a second Pumpkin. Since they have such a long production time I would tend to not worry too much about buffing the small fields, but certainly try to keep the other two types buffed.
Not counting buffs, you're only going to get 675, and you will also be able to get some from quests. Golems will appear on your home island, and you will be able to use Marble, Wheat and Water in your provision house to produce weapons that you use on the Golem. When he falls, you get some pumpkins.

As far as possible, it may be a good idea to stockpile these resources to help you kill Golems when it's time.


As for the actual items you're spending the Pumpkins on, I generally don't consider Decoration items or limited use buff's/refills worth worrying about, so that leaves a few items.

There's the Grim Reaper general for 1560 pumpkins (cap of 1). If you're starting out acquiring this many pumpkins may be hard, but if manageable is well worth it. He recovers twice as quickly from defeats when on adventures, and travels to and from adventures twice as fast (15 minute trips). This travel speed alone makes him excellent for ferrying troops back and forward.

The Silo for 600 Pumpkins (cap of 3). I'm generally fond of Silos for helping to remove the need to redo fields, but since you can always buy Silos on the Trade Office from players at any time, and for the prices Pumpkins are likely to go for, it's unlikely that buying Silos with Pumpkins will be a good move financially.

Village School for 600 Pumpkins (cap of 3). Produces 1 settler every 2 hours (12 extra per day). This isn't a big boost to your population growth as you already produce 96 per day, but over time it will save you on bread costs when producing an army. If you're able to get the Pumpkins together and have space permitting, a few of these can make a difference.

Improved Storehouse for 600 Pumpkins (cap of 3). These have 3 times the storage space that a regular storehouse provides, so at first seem like excellent investments. However, they are not in the classic 2x2 tile shape like most other buildings, they are 2x3 (2 across, and 3 down), making them the only building in the game to have this shape. Not to be confused with the 3x2 shape (3 across and 2 down) that Friaries and Watermills take up.
3 times the production is generally excellent, but the unusual shape of the building will make placement and arranging buildings around it difficult. I'll be taking more of a look at this later to see what sort of placements I can come up with. It may be a fine idea in the end to just get them and not worry too much about efficient placement, and instead primarily utilizing them for their +16000 storage capacity.

At this stage I consider the Grim general the most useful thing to go for, followed by the Storehouses and then Schools.

This is all subject to change before going live of course.