Travel Time Update

The Travel Time update was released on the 13th of July 2015 for iOS players, and on the 14th of July for Android players, with release still pending for all other platforms.

The Travel Time update introduced 1 new picture, Observation Deck, 21 new collections, 127 new quests, and finally introduced a search function to the collections tab to mobile platforms (was available on Facebook version of the game since its release August 2014) and also introdued a rudimentary way for players to sort their friends lists.

The Travel Time Update also introduced a new set of non-holiday themed timed challenges, which gave players a chance to win a lunch chest along with a once off talisman, the Traveller Talisman, and a new unique game avatar.

The Travel Time Timed Challenge
The Travel Time timed event introduced 3 new challenges for players to complete within a set time frame:
 * Achieve 'Academic' level in Observation Deck to win an unique game avatar.
 * Collect 500 Flowers by winning games of the Gem Match puzzle to win a Lunch Chest
 * Complete 30 challenge quests to win a special once-off Talisman - the Travellers Talisman - which increases the rate of energy restoration by 5 times for 24 hours once activated.

For the duration of the Travel Time Update challenge, Token special items were needed in addition to energy points to play Observation Deck. Tokens were given as rewards for every successful investigation for every picture, and as rewards for banishing anomalies, but not for playing puzzles. Tokens cannot be gifted between friends, however they are given as rewards for combining some of the new Travel Time collections.

Note: The amount of time available for the Travel Time timed challenges will vary across platforms. iOS players have 26 days to complete the challenge.

How to Win the Lunch Chest
Players can win the Lunch Chest by collecting 500 Flowers. Flowers can only be won by successfully completing the Gem Match puzzle. For each successful win of Gem Match, you can potentially win between 1-5 Flowers as one of the rewards for completing the puzzle.

When you open the Research Window for Gem Match by tapping on the Gem Match puzzle icon on your Home Desktop you will see Flowers listed as the first item in the 'Can be found' list for the puzzle. Flowers are available to win for every play of the puzzle at every puzzle level.

You must keep playing (and winning) Gem Match until you have collected 500 Flowers in order to win the Lunch Chest. Once you win the Lunch Chest it will automatically go into the 'Special' tab in your inventory. To open the box, open the inventory section and select the 'Special' tab. Tap on the Lunch chest to bring up a window with details about the chest, and press the green 'use' button at the bottom of this window. The chest will disappear from the Special tab of the inventory and the items it contains will be added to your inventory.

Once opened, the Lunch Chest will add the following energy items to the 'Energy' tab of your inventory: 2x Cappuchinos (2x 30 energy points); 1x Ice Cream (1x 50 energy points); 1x donut (1x 100 energy points); 1x Lunch box (1x 150 energy points) and 1x energy drink (1x 250 energy points). You can use these items any time you want by going to the energy tab of your inventory and going to the 'Energy' tab.Tap on any item you want to use and a window giving details of the item will appear. Tap the green 'Use' button at the bottom of this window and the energy points will be added to your total. You will also automatically be offered to use these items if you try to play a picture/puzzle that requires more energy than you currently have, which means you do not have to go through all the steps in the inventory tab if you wish to keep playing.

Note: Just because an item is on a picture/puzzles 'Can be Found' list, it is not guaranteed you will win that item every time you play that picture/puzzle. There is an element of chance in the game that determines what items you will win when you successfully complete a picture/puzzle. All items are weighted based on their value in the game. Higher value items, like the Flowers needed to win the Lunch Chest, are weighted in such a way that they are less likely to be won than low value items such as some low level collection items and most combining elements. This means you will not win multiple Flowers every single time you win a Gem Match Game. However, all of the Timed Challenges are designed to be completable within the given time limit, so it is possible to collect 500 Flowers well within the time given. The task is designed to be challenging, but it is not impossible!

Hints/Tips for Collecting Flowers
Although it will take many plays of Gem Match to win 500 Flowers, there are things you can do to make the challenge easier:
 * 1) Read the Gem Match article on this wiki for tips on playing Gem Match, including how to make special gems and combine them to create special moves to clear the board faster.Seekerseye_inventory.png
 * 2)  Use tools when playing Gem Match. You can use Seeker's Eyes and Time Machines when playing Gem Match. Using a Seeker's Eye will remove one yellow border from the game board at random. This can be particularly useful for tricky corner pieces. However, since you cannot control which border is removed by the Seeker's Eye, it is better to wait until you only have a few left to remove to increase the chances of it removing the difficult one. Time Machines add 45 seconds to the puzzle timer, which can be a great help for the more difficult board configurations.
 * 3)  Don't just play Gem Match over and over again; try to play a variety of pictures and puzzles as much when possible. The more you play a single picture/puzzle repeatedly, the worse the rewards for each win gets. In order to keep your chances of getting many Flowers per play high, try mixing other pictures/puzzles into your playing rotation. Perhaps rotate trying to get the Lunch Chest with the other challenges in the Travel Time event (playing Observation Deck and completing the 30 challenge quests)
 * 4) Don't rely on Luck Talismans/Artefacts. Luck talismans (e.g. Horseshoes) and artefacts (e.g. Symbol of Success) do not increase your odds of winning a particular item, such as Flowers, i.e. they do not change the weighting of items. However, they do increase the number of items you will win for each successful play of a picture/puzzle. Because you can win more items for each play, you essentially get more rolls of the dice each time you win. However, since Flowers are rewarded using the same mechanism as Christmas balls/Pumpkin Lanterns/Tokens special items etc during holiday themed timed challenges (i.e a number of Flowers are awarded for each play, it is the number you win that is weighted not whether or not you win them) instead of using the same mechanism as collection items/combining elements (i.e. you may or may not win the item each play, it is whether the item will be won or not that is weighted), Luck talismans and artefacts will not affect the number of Flowers won per win of Gem Match. Since the game is coded to give out Flowers for each play, increasing the number of different items won per play, by using luck talismans, will not change anything. The number of Flowers given is also based on chance, with higher numbers weighted to appear less often than lower numbers, but Luck talismans/artefacts cannot help with this since they do not affect weighting.
 * 5) Use the Time Talisman artefact. If you are struggling to win Gem Match in the time given (particularly at lower puzzle levels, where less time is allotted to each play) then try to use a Time Talisman artefact. Once activated, this artefact adds 1 minute to every picture/puzzle for 24 hours.

The Unique Avatar - Getting Observation Deck to Academic Level
Players can win the Unique Travel Time Avatar by playing the new picture, Observation Deck, until they increase its scene progress level up to Academician Level during the Travel Time update's time sensitive challenge (during the first 26 days after the update is released for a platform).

For the duration of the Travel Time update, Token special items were needed for each play of the Observation Deck picture. Tokens were given as rewards for every successful investigation for every picture, and from banishing anomalies, but not for playing puzzles. Tokens cannot be gifted between friends, however they are given as rewards for combining some of the new Travel Time collections. Players with the Pyramid of Wonder or Sphere of Miracles also have a 1 in 5 chance of receiving Tokens from these Desktop Awards when collecting their rewards every 12 hours. The number of Tokens needed for each play of Observation Deck increases as you increase the Picture Levels of Observation Deck (+5 Tokens per Level increase), starting at 5 Tokens per play when the picture is opened at Novice Level and increasing to 40 Tokens per play when the picture is at Professor Level.

As a guide, in order to reach Academician Level on Observation Deck, and win the new Avatar, you will need to play the picture approximately 150 times, which will require approximately 3,285 Tokens!

Hints/Tips for Winning the Unique Avatar

 * 1) Try to play a variety of pictures as much when possible when playing, instead of just playing Observation Deck over and over again. The more you play a single picture/puzzle repeatedly, the worse the rewards for each win gets. Additionally, the bigger variety of pictures you play, the bigger variety of collection items you can potentially win. This will greatly increase the number of regular collections you will be able to combine, which will potentially give you more tools, energy items, talismans and artefacts that will all help with completing the quest.
 * 2) If you are low on energy, but close to leveling up (at which point your energy will restore), play Buddha's Square until you level up. At higher picture levels Buddha's Square potentially rewards a cappuccino for each successful picture investigation. Cappuccinos restore 30 energy points when used, and Buddha's Square only requires 31 energy points at most to play (at professor level). This means you can play for free or next to free if you have a good success rate of winning Cappuccinos. Using Luck talismans and artefacts, like horseshoes, while playing Buddha's Square will increase your odds for winning Cappuccinos. This also means that Buddhas Square is a great picture to play when collecting Tokens, as by winning cappuccinos and restoring the energy you are using to play, you are basically collecting Tokens for free in terms of energy costs.Santa_amulet_2014.png
 * 3) If you are low on energy, avoid playing the newest pictures in the game too often (Tavern, Treasure Island, Theatre, Forest House, Excavations, Winter Street, Flower Shop) as these pictures do not reward combining elements and usually have a high energy demand (except for Forest House and Winter Street). Although some of the collections rewarded by some of these pictures (especially Tavern) are tempting, the lack of combining elements means you will struggle to combine the collections they reward, and the majority of collection items they reward are for collections with lesser rewards than the original pictures in the game.
 * 4) Artefacts_portal.png(to be confirmed if works) Use the Amulet of Santa artefact to decrease the number of Tokens needed to play Observation Deck. The Amulet of Santa artefact reduces the number of special items needed to play paid scenes like Observation Deck by 20% per 24 hours once activated. All of the items for the collections needed to create an Amulet of Santa can be won by playing Winter Street (but see point 3 above about playing some pictures too often when trying tomake the most of your energy while collecting Tokens and section on glitches about winning the items needed to combine more Amulets of Santa). Using Amulet of Santa artefacts when playing Observation Deck could potentially reduce the total number of Tokens you need to find to reach Academician level from 3,285 to 2,628.
 * 5) Use the Valentines Amulet artefact to decrease the amount of energy needed to play every picture/puzzle when you are ready to Observation Deck a number of times. The Valentintes amulet reduces the amount of energy needed to play by 10% for 12 hours, so will enable you to play Observation Deck more times with your available energy.
 * 6) Use luck talismans and artefacts, such as horseshoes, in conjunction with the Valentine's Amulet, and make sure to play Tree of Dates in rotation when you are playing the pictures. This will increase your chances of finding all the collection items needed to combine another Valentine's Amulet as you play.
 * 7) As you play through the 30 challenge quests to win the Traveller's Talisman, you will be able to combine 5 new collections added as part of the update. These quests will reward Tokens once combined.

The Challenge Quests and the Travellers Talisman
The Travellers Talisman can be won once a player completes all 30 of the special Travel Time challenge quests introduced as part of Travel Time update. The quests must be completed within the 26 day time limit of the Timed Challenge in order to unlock the Talisman. Once the quests are completed, the Traveller Talisman automatically goes your inventory, and a new Diary page will automatically open. The Travellers Talisman can be activated from the Talisman tab of the inventory like any other talisman/artefact. Once activated, the Traveller's Talisman will increase the rate of energy restoration by 5 times for 24 hours (i.e. it is exactly the same as a Witch's talisman artefact).

A special decorative border in the quest list marks the 30 quests needed to win the Travellers Talisman. Other quests added by the update, with regular gold borders, do not count towards the 30 when completed.

Note: the very first quest that displays the special decorative border is the quest to find the picture pieces needed to unlock and open the Observation Deck picture. However, this quest does not count towards the 30 quests needed to win the Travellers Talisman. This means there are actually 31 quests that display the decorative border, but only the last 30 of them count towards the challenge. But importantly, you will need to complete this first quest in order to complete the challenge as the 30 quests that make up the challenge will not start until this quest is completed (there is only ever one quest with a special decorative border active at any one time) and the other quests require you to play the picture Observation Deck (which this quest opens).

The special 30 quests that must be completed in order to win the Travellers Talisman consist of 5 collection sequences of 6 quests each. The first 5 quests of each sequence are to find each of the 5 items belonging to one new collection added by the update. The 6th quest is to combine the collection.

The 5 collections players gather as they complete the 30 quests are:


 * 1) Beach gear (combines to create "Beach sundress")
 * 2) Skin protection (combines to create "Sunscreen")
 * 3) Seashells (combines to create "Angaria poppei")
 * 4) Beach postcards (combines to create "Postcard: Sand castle")
 * 5) Nutritious salad (combines to create "Asparagus")

All the items that make up these collections cannot be gifted between friends (they do not have green plus signs to add them to your wishlist and they will not appear in the 'Send a collection item' tab when sending gifts to your friends. They are all also 'Quest only' items, which means that they cannot be won normally by playing pictures/puzzles. They are only available to win in pictures while the quest for the particular item is activated and will stop being available to win in that picture once the quest is completed. They may also drop as random items when you are visiting your friends and charging their desktops; from the Collectors Desktop award when collecting its rewards; and from opening Pandora's Chests, however whether or not you get any of these items in those ways is completey up to chance. This means that the only way to complete these quests is to follow the quest instructions as you get the quests. This makes these 30 challenge quests slightly more difficult than the challenge quests in recent Timed Challenges, all of which could be gifted between friends or won in regular play of certain pictures.

The Challenge Quests
The 30 quests that are needed to win the Travellers Talisman are:

Hints/Tips for Winning the Travellers Talisman

 * 1) Diamond_horseshoe.png the strongest Luck Talismans/artefacts you have available whenever you are playing. This will increase the number items you win for each play, which will increase you chances of winning the quest item. Diamond Horseshoe talismans (+90% chance of winning items for 120 minutes) and the Symbol of Success artefact (+50% chance of winning items for 24 hours) are the most powerful luck talismans available in the game, so when playing other pictures choose pictures which award items needed for collections that reward these talismans. You will need to play other pictures during the challenge anyway to collect Tokens to play Observation Deck, so by making sure that Tavern (rewards items for collections that reward Diamond horseshoes) and Venice; Buddha's Square; Throne Room; Mayan Temple; Ghost Town; Joy Cafe; Amusement Park; Bungalow; Misty Shed (rewards items for collections needed to combine Symbol of Success) are in your rotation when collecting Tokens you increase your chances of getting more of these powerful luck talismans to use for the quests.
 * 2) Do not activate a Magic Crystal Talisman during the challenge. The Magic Crystal Talisman works as a luck talisman (it increases your odds of finding objects by 12% when activated), however no other luck talisman can be activated while using it, and it lasts for 10 days once activated. This will lock you into a 12% increase for 10 days, and you will not be able to use any other luck talismans during this time, even if you get a much stronger one. The difference between the 12% increase that the Magic Crystal Talisman gives and the 10% increase that the Fortune Talisman gives will not be noticeable in the game, so it is better to use these 30 minute talismans that are easily won in the game if you do not have any stronger luck talisman available.
 * 3) The Challenge quests usually ask for you to play Observation Deck, so it is best to continue to work on Observation Deck as normal when playing and not to worry too much about the quests themselves, they will be completed as you go. That is, it is better to concentrate your resources just working on the Avatar challenge - getting Observation Deck to Academician level. You will complete the quests naturally as you increase the picture to Academician level. The hints/tips for that challenge will therefore also aide in completing this challenge.
 * 4) As you play through the 30 challenge quests to win the Traveller's Talisman, you will be able to combine 5 new collections added as part of the update. These quests will reward Tokens once combined. Since you will need Tokens to play Observation Deck to complete the quests, this means you will earn Tokens simplyby working through the quests from combining the collections that make up the challenge quests.
 * 5) Read the quest instructions carefully. Most quests just ask you to play Observation Deck, but some will specify a mode. The item will only be available to win when the picture is in the correct mode. Most modes cannot be 'forced', which means you cannot make them appear in rotation. However, 'Text' mode can be triggered by banishing (not playing) an anomaly in the picture. If the quest asks for Text mode in Observation Deck, then play other pictures to collect Tokens for Observation Deck until an anomaly appears in Observation Deck. You can then banish the anomaly, making the next mode Text mode, and you will have enough tokens to play Observation Deck. (Make sure the picture is not in Night mode while waiting for an anomaly, play it to change the mode if it is in night mode).
 * 6) The items needed to complete the quests cannot be gifted between friends. However they may drop as random items when you are visiting your friends and charging their desktops; from the Collectors Desktop Award when collecting its rewards; and from opening Pandora's Chests. Whether this happens or not will be completely up to chance, but in order to increase your odds it is a good idea to visit your friends every day when doing the challenge.
 * 7) You can complete a quest by combining the collection involved in the quest. E.g. if you already have all 5 items for the Beach Gear collection and are currently on the quest for the Sandals (3rd item in the collection), then combining the collection will automatically complete the Sandals quest. The next quest to start will be the quest for the Pareo wrap (4th item in the collection) and you will have to find both the Pareo wrap and the Tunic (5th item in the collection) as normal, but the 6th quest in that sequence - to combine the Beach gear collection - will also complete automatically when it starts. However, it will be rare to be able to complete any of these collections early since the items do not have a regular play location, so do not rely on being able to do this to skip difficult quests.

Search Function in the Collections Tab
The Travel Time Update finally introduced a search function to the collections tab to mobile platforms. This function was available on Facebook version of the game since its release August 2014. You can search for either collection names or item names, and you will be brought to the collection that contains that item. To use the search feature, tap on the search box (bottom left of the Collections tab window) and a keyboard will appear. Start typing the word and press go to perform a search. The search is not case sensitive so you do not need to use capital letters and you do not need to type the full word for the item to be found (e.g. searching 'gold' will bring up both the Wishmasters collection (contains the item 'Goldfish') and the Banker's Treasure collection (contains the item 'Gold coin') as well as the collection 'Golden statuettes' amongst the search results. This can help if you do not know the full name of the item/collection you are searching for, but will also mean that your search will return more results so you can also type in the full name if you want to quickly locate a particular item/collection.

Sorting of Friends by 'Activity Level'
A sorting feature for player's friends lists is one has always been one of the most requested features by players of the game. Players have asked for different ways to sort their friends, such as alphabetically or to be able to group their friends them selves uing their own criteria.

The Travel Time Update has finally introduced a simple way to sort friends in your friends list. This works like the "sorting enabled" function in the collections tab. When enabled, this feature will sort your friends based on their activity level. This will group active friends together and away from inactive friends, which will definitely give players more control in managing their friends list.

It is now also possible to search for a particular friend by typing their name in a search box at the bottom of the friends tab. This will bring you directly to that friend. The search is not case sensetive (you do not need to use capital letters) and you do not need to type in the friends full name for them to be found in the search.

Friends Charges on Your Pictures/Puzzles Accumulating
Before the Travel Time update, if more than one friend charged the same picture or puzzle, the original charge was over written by the newe charge. Now more than one charge of different professions can accumulate. This means that you will get the benefit of the multiple professions that charged the picture/puzzle the next time you play it. Only the name/avatar of the first friend will appear in the info box for the set of charges.

Total Special Items Displaying in Research Window
When you select a picture that requires Special Items to play (e.g. Ladybugs for Mill; Carrots for Illusionist's Room) and open its Research Window, the number of Special Items needed to play that picture at its current Picture Level is shown in the 'Demands' section.

Prior to the Travel Time Update, the maximum number of Special Items that would appear in the 'Demands' section of the research window was the number needed to play the picture one time at that Picture Level.

If a player had more of that particular Special Item in their Inventory, the surplus would not be shown in the 'Demands' section. For example, if a player had 100 Fireflies in their Inventory and currently their Night Garden was on High Seeker level, which requires 25 Special Items per play, then when they opened the Reseach Window, they would see 25/25 in the 'Demands' section. This would show that they had enough Fireflies for that particular play at High Seeker level, but not would not show how many Fireflies total they had in their Inventory. If the player had fewer of the Special Item in their Inventory than the required amount for one play at the current picture level, then their total number would be shown in the 'Demands' section in red writing instead. For example, if the player had 10 Fireflies instead of 100, then they would see 10/25 in red writing in the 'Demands' section of Night Garden instead. This meant that players would need to go to the 'Different' Tab of their Inventories to see how many of each Special Item they currently had if they had more than they needed for one play of the picture.

The Travel Time Update has changed this system, and now the total number of Special Items available in your Inventory will show in the 'Demands' section of the Research Window. In the picture above, the player has 203 Tokens in their inventory. Their Observation Deck is on Pro level and requires 20 Tokens per play. The 'Demands' section of the research window shows this as 203/20. If the player only had 2 Tokens, then they would see 2/20 in red writing in the 'Demands' section instead, the same as before the update.

Palm Trees in Bungalow on some Devices Glitch
There has been a very minor change to the Bungalow picture, that is appears to only effect some devices, where the Palm Trees in the picture are missing. Counter-intuitively, the Palm Trees are missing in wider screen resolution devices, such as iPhones, but still present in the more squat displays, such as iPads, that often have the edges of Pictures cropped. This may suggest that the missing decoration is an issue with parts of the picture loading on certain installs of the game rather than a purposeful change.



Taken To Task and Friendliness Desktop Award's rewards Changed
The Travel Time Update has also changed the rewards for two of the game's Desktop Awards - The Taken to Task Award and the Friendliness Award.

For the Friendliness Award, the change is positive. The number of Strength (Power) points given out by the award at each level has not changed. However, the award now gives out experience points and coins in addition to strength (Power) points in its uncharged state (which is a good thing since awards can no longer be charged by visiting friends, see 'Problems with the Travel Time Update' section below).

For the Taken to Task Award, the change is a negative one. The award now gives out fewer energy points every 8 hours. This may be in anticipation of the players reaching level 7 of the award for the first time as the number of unique quests in the game has surpassed 2000 quests with the 127 quests added as part of the Travel Time Update.

Energy Points Display returned to full size
The Spring 2015 Update changed how the game displays some large numbers on larger screens (e.g. iPad screens). In the case of the energy meter at the top of a players home desktop, the game used the symbol 'k' for energy numbers greater than 1000 when displaying the players current energy, but continues to write out the whole number when displaying the players maximum energy. The abbreviated number was not rounded, and so stayed the same for all 1000 points, i.e. the meter displayed 4K for energy points 4000-4999, meaning it was difficult for a player to know exactly how much energy they have using the meter once they exceed 1000 energy points. The only way for the player to see exactly how much energy they had was to check their stats as they appeared in the top1000 in the Friends Section.

The Travel Time Update returned the energy meters to their original format, so that they now display the players full current energy again:



The Spring 2015 update also changed how Combining Elements display in the Collections Tab, and how Tools display while playing pictures and puzzles. In both cases, numbers greater than 100 are displayed as 99+ instead of giving the total number the player has in their inventory. These changes still remain in the game.

In the case of combining element numbers in the Collections Section, the game now displays numbers greater than 99 as '99+' instead of displaying the total number the player has in their inventory. In the picture below, the player currently has 1482 Treble Clefs, 1000 Bass Clefs, 1036 Alto Clefs, and 1784 Sharps. To see exactly how many of a particular combining element you have, you can just press the box that shows the combining element requirements for that collection to bring up the detailed combining elements screen. The total number of each combining element in your inventory will be displayed. Alternatively, go to the Inventory Section of the game and select the 'different' tab. Here all your combining elements and how many of each you currently have are listed. In the case of tools when playing pictures or puzzles, the game now displays numbers greater than 99 as '99+' instead of displaying the total number the player has in their inventory. In the picture below, the player currently has 182 Seeker's Eyes, 603 Lanterns and 1932 Time Machines. To see how exactly how many of a particular tool you have, go to the Inventory Section of the game and select the 'Tools' tab. The total number of each tool in your inventory will be displayed. In the case of the tools, the game has always displayed numbers greater than 9 as '9+' on smaller screens (such as iPhones). But even on the smaller displays the numbers of combining elements in the collections tab and the amount of energy in the energy meter had always previously been written out in full. Note that now iPhones also display the new number formats seen on larger screen devices including showing the number of tools up to 99 and displays numbers greater than 99 as '99+', just like larger screen devices.

Note: The Windows computer version of the game does not have the change in the number of combining elements in the collections tab, but does have the change in the number of tools displayed when playing pictures/puzzles.

Visiting points for iOS players
The glitch introduced with the Spring 2015 Update and reintroduced to IOS players who installed the Spring Update patch (version 1.13.5) that reduced the number of points a player received for every charge when visiting friends down to 5 experience points has been fixed. iOS players who update to the Travel Time Update will receive 50 points per charge again while visiting friends.

Invite Tab not refreshing
The Spring 2015 Update also lead to an issue with the Invite Tab of the Friends Section. The Invite Tab allows players to invite new friends from a list of randomly selected players. Every 8 hours 6 new random players appear in the Invite tab, and you can choose to send an invite request to them if you woul like to add them as game friends.After the Spring 2015 Update, this list could no longer refresh as normal. This meant that new random players would not appear in the Invite tab consistently. Every time the tab was refreshed the 8 hour timer would reset to 8 hours. This meant that the timer was constantly returning to 8 hours and rarely reaching 0 triggering new players to be added to the Invite list. If a player happened to playing the game for 8 hours without interuption and without refreshing the Invite Tab, then 6 new players would be successfully added for them to invite. But this did not happen regularly, and as such most players could not use the Invite tab.

The Travel Time Update fixed the invite tab's 8 hour timer, and the list should refresh as normal every 8 hours again.

However, the update has introduced a new glitch into the Invite tab, that has essentially "over-fixed" the invite list. Now you can make the invite list refresh without waiting 8 hours by adding all 6 random players in the invite list in the Invite Tab and then visiting a current friend in the Friends Tab. The Invite tab will then show another 6 players to add. Some times the new set of 6 random players contains some, if not all, of the random players that were previously on the Invite list. When this happens they will not go to the Waiting tab if you click 'Add' (as they are already in the Waiting tab), but will just disappear. But by going back to your Friends List and visiting a friend again the Invite list will refresh again and there should be new random players in the list. By using this secondary glitch, players can invite many other players at a time, without having to wait 8 hours for the list to refresh or having to pay 4 crystals to manually refresh the list.

Disproportionate work for rewards in Timed Challenge
Once again, the rewards for completing certain tasks in the timed challenges introduced by the Travel Time Update do not reflect the amount of work required to complete the tasks.

As part of the timed challenges, players are asked to collect 500 Flowers by winning games of Gem Match. In order to do this, players must play Gem Match at least 100-500 times, assuming the player wins the puzzle every time they play it. This would cost the player up to 36,000 energy points, depending on how many plays it takes them and what Level their Gem Match puzzle is currently on (Gem Match costs 30 energy points per play at Novice level and costs 72 energy points at professor level). The reward for this challenge is a single Lunch Chest.

The Lunch Chest contains the following energy items: 2x Cappuchinos (2x 30 energy points); 1x Ice Cream (1x 50 energy points); 1x donut (1x 100 energy points); 1x Lunch box (1x 150 energy points) and 1x energy drink (1x 250 energy points). Using all these items would give the player a total of 610 energy points.

Assuming a player opened Gem Match for the first time to start the challenge (starting at 0% Novice Level) and completed the challenge in exactly 100 plays. It would cost them 4,842 energy points. Which is nearly 8 times the amount of energy they will get back from the Lunch Chest they are rewarded with for finishing the challenge.

The Lunch Chest itself is not a particularly special itemin the game, nor is it something unique that was introduced with the update in order to entice players to complete the challenge. It can be won in other ways in the game, such as by completing the following rewards: 'Specialist'; 'The Professional of Photos'; 'The Lord of Photos', 'The Adept of Photos'; 'The Master of Photos'; 'Traveller'; 'Great One'; 'High Seeker (Level 5)' and by combining the giftable collection 'Animal Tracks'. The items needed to combine the Animal Tracks collection can be found in the game by either banishing or playng the Anomaly 'Lost Time'. These items can also been gifted between friends

This means that the only reason to do this challenge is for the enjoyment of playing the timed challenges and for the sense of accomplishment in completing them. These reasons should not be under-estimated. The timed challenges really are fun to play and it does feel amazing to finish them. But be warned that the rewards you receive will not reflect the work needed to complete the task. And if all you really want is the Luch Chest itself and not the sense of achievment of completing this particular task, you would be better off putting the Animal Tracks collection on your wishlist, as your friends could probably just give the items to you.

Awards not being charged by Visiting Friends
Update 19th July 2015: This problem has been fixed by a server update. The awards are now being charged successfully again. The changes to visiting as part of the update, such as allowing friends' charges on pictures and puzzles to accumulate charges by different professions, has had a secondary effect where charges on players Desktop Awards are no longer counting. This means that players will not get the bonus rewards when collecting the rewards from the Desktop awards when their friends charge their awards.

Collection Items Available to Win in Winter Street Reset
After installing the Travel Time Update, the items available to win in some pictures may be reset. Every picture has a set number of Collection Items that can be won for successful investigations. These items are listed in the 'Can be Found' list that appears in the Research Window for the picture (accessed by tapping on the Picture on your Home Desktop). When Pictures are first opened, they may only have a small number of items available to win, but as you progress through the Picture's Scene Level progress, more and more items will unlock and become available to win by playing that picture. The Items unlocked at each picture level for each picture is listed on the Picture Levels Rewards and Resource Demands page.

The Travel Time Update has broken this system for some pictures for some players. Even on very high levels (e.g. Professor Level), some pictures do not have any items that are supposed to be won in that picture listed in the 'Can be Found' list and the items that should be available to win that picture cannot be won by players.

Winter Street, for example, has 5 collections whose items should be winnable by playing the picture - Christmas cake; Christmas ornaments; Christmas candles; Dancing elves and Gingerbread ornaments. When the picture is first unlocked (on Novice level), only the first 3 items from the Christmas cake collection are unlocked as available to win after successfully investigating the picture. For all plays of the picture at Novice level, these 3 items will appear in the Pictures 'Can be found' list, along with any mode dependent collection items or quest items that could also be potentially won for that particular play of the picture.

More and more Collection Items from the 5 collections unlock as the player cntinues to play Winter Street and increases it's scene progress level, until they reach Professor level (light blue frame) on Winter Street, at which point all items from all 5 collections are unlocked and are available to win as potential rewards for successfully investigaing Winter Street. At this point onwards, for all plays of the picture, all 25 items from these collections will appear in the Picture's 'Can be Found' list, anlong with any mode dependent collection items or quest items that could also be potentially won for that particular play of the picture.

The picture below is the 'Can be Found' list for Winter Street after the Travel Time Update was installed. The picture is on Magister Level, at which point 21 of the 25 Winter Street collection items should be unlocked and available to win (all items except for the last 4 items from the Gingerbread ornaments collection which should unlock at Professor level). However, only Tokens (special items needed for Observation Deck, available to win in every picture during the update) and the 5 items from the Italian Cuisine collection (mode dependent items, available to win in any picture in silhouette mode, which the picture is currently in) are listed in the 'Can be Found' list.



The Collection Items belonging to the 5 collections that should be found in Winter Street are still listed as available to win in Winter Street when you look at their information box in the Collections tab (see Almonds from the Christmas Cake collection, above). This means that they should still be available to win by playing the Winter Street picture, and their being missing from the pictures pool of potential rewards is a glitch and not intentional. This problem may be related to the fixing of the mode dependent collection items (see glitches fixed by the update section).

Since the 5 collections that should be won in Winter Street are the ones that are used to create the Amulet of Santa artefact. If these items cannot be won, then new Amulet of Santa aretefacts cannot be made, which will make investigating paid scenes that require Special items to play more difficult for players. This will also impact the Travel Time Updates timed challenges themselves, since one of the challenges involves playing Observation Deck, which is currently a paid picture that requires special items (Tokens) to play.

Server Problems Gifting and Visiting
As with all large updates released for the game, the Travel Time update will cause an overload in the games servers during peak times for a couple of days immediately following the release of the update on any platform. During this time players may encounter problems visiting and gifting, and be given a "Failure to connect to the servers." error message when trying to interact with the Friends portion of the game. The servers normally go back to normal after a couple of days once all players on that platform have downloaded the new update.

Mode dependent items won a play early
The Travel Time Update has not fixed the glitch impacting Collection Items whose regular play locations are determined by the mode the picture is in. Mode dependent items can only be won when playing pictures in a certain game mode, but can be won in any picture as long as it is in the correct mode. Originally introduced by the Valentines 2014 Update, this glitch results in mode dependent items being won when playing a picture the game before the picture changes into the right mode for those items.

Some items in the game can only be found when playing (any) picture in a certain mode. For example, the items from the Venetian Masks collection can be won when playing a picture in Text mode. This glitch means that a player might win an item from the Venetian Masks collection in any mode, as long as the next mode in that picture is Text mode. Players could potentially win an item from the Venetian Masks collection in any other mode (e.g. Night mode) as a result of the glitch.

Confusingly, the Venetian Masks items will then still appear in the 'Can be found' list for the picture in the following play of the picture as normal (in Text mode, which they are supposed to be won in), but an item from the Venetian Masks collection will only be won in that subsequent play if the next mode after that play is also Text mode (i.e. Text mode repeats), otherwise items from a different mode dependent collection may be won instead.

One handy consequence of that glitch was that you could tell which mode will come next in a picture by looking at the items won during the current play, as if any item from a mode dependent collection is won, then that mode will be the next mode in the picture. Seeing items from the Ghost Town collection (not the picture!), for example, in your rewards after playing a picture, will tell you that Night mode will be the next mode in that picture.

Level Unlocking Glitch
Originally introduced by the Tavern Update, this glitch causes the game to change the requirements to unlock certain pictures. This means that players must reach higher game levels than expected to unlock these pictures.

This glitch causes the game level number stated at the beginning of the game to change to a higher number once the player reaches the original level. For example, for the Flower Shop picture, a new player will see that they must reach level 85 to unlock Flower Shop. However, as soon as the player reaches level 85 the picture will not unlock and trigger the quest to open the picture. Instead the requirements to unlock Flower Shop will change to show level 87 instead of level 85. Once the player reaches level 87 the Flower Shop picture will unlock and they will be able to open it. Below are examples of some of the pictures currently experiencing this glitch, and the true game level a player will need to reach order to unlock those pictures:

Related

 * SS Home
 * Updates
 * Holiday Updates
 * Halloween Update
 * Christmas Update
 * Valentines Update
 * Tavern Update
 * Treasure Island Update
 * Halloween Update 2014
 * Christmas Update 2014
 * Valentines Update 2015
 * Spring 2015 Update
 * Observation Deck
 * Quests
 * Collections
 * Artefacts