Forum Interviews: An Audience with @Novo 🎙️

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Good afternoon, shiny, happy people.

I’m still coughing and spluttering so do wipe down your screen after reading.

Today we’re back to the advertised schedule and you’re in for a treat as we hear from treasured Calendar Girl, @novo.
Novo is renowned for designing attractive yet practical schedules for the games events.

You can find her April calendar right here :+1:

Wash your hands :sweat_drops::palms_up_together:, wear a mask as appropriate :mask: and stay at home :house:.

Remember to #PlayApartTogether

If you missed them, you can find previous interviews below:

@MysterySpin - Here

@TheChef - Here

@Math4lyfe - Here

@Kikyo - Here

@BarryWuzHere -Here

@IvyTheTerrible - Here

@Pois1 - Here

@akionna - Here

Next time, we have a special treat from @NittanyLionRoar. Especially for fans of beards!

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So, in her own words:

How long have you been playing? :hourglass_flowing_sand:

I have been playing since December 2018. A little over a year now.

What’s your current role in your alliance? :bar_chart:

I’m a regular member, which I love. Having been a co-leader in some previous alliances and a leader in my own alliance for a while, it’s kinda nice to be able to enjoy the game without any leadership responsibilities.

Which hero are you currently levelling and how will you use them? :muscle:

I’m currently leveling Miki. I’ve been using Wu Kong on all my titan teams and I plan on replacing him with Miki on some of those teams.

Which is your favourite hero in your roster, and why? :heart:

Kunchen! He was my first HOTM before I fully understood what that even was and since I received him in February, I kinda thought SGG was gifting me a special hero for my birthday. :rofl: He was also the first 5 hero I ever leveled. I currently use him as my purple tank and I think he’s a great healer/cleanser.*

Do you have a particular memory of a great victory, a tragic defeat or a moment of madness? :exploding_head:

I’ll share a moment of madness more like a rookie mistake. Once I had started pulling 4 heroes I feed my all 3 heroes leveled or not to them. :woman_facepalming: So there was a while there where I was unable to participate in any of the rare events or 3* tournaments. Thankfully, I’ve managed to recoop and level some up.**

Which Season 1 hero would you most recommend to a new player? :man_student:

Either one or both of the healer/attack boosters. Kiril or Boldtusk, the uses for them are many, both in offensive and defensive raids, wars and against titans. I have both of mine max leveled +18 and I also have some duplicates of both waiting to be leveled.

What can you see out of your window right now? :telescope:

Here is a picture right as you step out my front door and face west. The sun is just setting behind the school across the street.

It’s just been so quiet lately, I miss the hustle and bustle coming from the school including the Principal’s morning PA announcements.

If @petri and you were on a road trip, where would you be going and what snacks would you bring? :red_car:

Really does depend on @Petri. There are a lot of great places within driving distance from my home in central California. We could head north east and drive up and visit the Sequoia National Forest do some hiking trails and check out the giant redwood trees. Another option could be to head west and enjoy all the splendors of the cental coastline like Morro Bay, Pismo Beach and Cayucus just to name a few. Unless of course Petri would prefer to head south and do some site seeing or visit some theme parks in Los Angeles, though they might be closed due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. Either way we’ll definitely be taking some homemade beef jerky.

If you could make two changes to the game, one realistic and one less so, what would they be? :crystal_ball:

Realistic Change: The amount of Loot Tickets received from War Loot and Wanted Chests was decreased slightly with release of version 27. That was a bit heartbreaking for me, as I had gotten accustomed to saving those for Atlantis Rises. I would love it if that would return back to the original amount.

Less Realistic Change: Would be the green light feature; being able to see which of your alliance mates are logged on apart from the battlefield. I think there’s a thread regarding this. Here it is: Online/Offline (Green Light) Indicator for players

If I gave you $1000 to spend frivolously, what would you buy? :moneybag:

Tools, but not for me for my hubby. As a forklift technician he has to buy his own tools for the job and they can be quite pricey depending on what he needs. He usually puts this off to ensure our home and family needs are always meet first.

This is a really strange and challenging time for all of us across the whole player base and all our communities around the world. How has your alliance been supporting each other or those around them? :handshake:

It’s quite easy to worry and/or stress during such times. Everyone from my current alliance members to previous alliance mates have all been more open and understanding given the situation we are all in. And I sincerely appreciated those that check in with me personally to see how I’m doing. However the best part for me are some of the memes I’ve seen floating around, some are quite hilarious and if done correctly they can lighting the mood and boost team morale. Laughter is the best medicine after all. :joy:

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Notable works / contributions by @Novo are her calendar

There is the monthly calendar (current one here: 2020 APRIL Calendar (Events, Trials, Rare Quests, Atlantis & Valhalla) Tentative)

But also a digital calendar which she & @zephyr1 are maintaining. Can add it to your own Google calendar & forecast/ see further ahead to next month. Or the month after. Or the month after!

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how thoughtful of you, to spend the tools for your hubby. @Novo though I always felt you were a very thoughtful person, considering how humble you are regarding the amazing work you do with the calendar!

And what a beautiful view you have.

and that beef jerky looks amazing.

and I can relate to the whole “it’s nice being a regular alliance member without leadership responsibility” thought. leadership is a tough job!

thanks for the nice interview :slight_smile: was a great read.

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The vast majority of our interviewees have been entirely too altruistic with their thousand bucks. Tools, gifts, investments…no one has bought a solid chocolate Zeline!!

Frivolous, people, must try harder…

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Hi, @Novo! Big fan and, like everyone, your calendar is a valuable source of information for me, each month. Not that it really matters, but you’re probably the person in best position to guess: where do you think the Tavern of Legends will slot in (assuming it is a monthly event)? There isn’t much space for new content.

I’m very envious of your proximity to the Redwoods. One of my life goals is to see them. But that (and all travel I had planned / as goals for this year) is currently on hold.

What / how did you make your jerky? It looks a thousand percent better than the packages stuff I’m accustomed to. The latter tends to look appalling, but yours actually looks like it retained some of it’s…I don’t know…plumpness? I’ll bet it’s good!

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@Novo
I must say this is some of the best homemade beef jerky that I have ever seen. And I am sure that it taste even better.

Very nice write up and thank you for all the things you have done to make the game better for everybody.
Tools, but not for me for my hubby. As a forklift technician he has to buy his own tools for the job and they can be quite pricey depending on what he needs. He usually puts this off to ensure our home and family needs are always meet first.

Sounds like a fantastic mate you have there. Definitely a keeper.

@JonahTheBard

I have very much to enjoyed reading all of the interviews, thank you for doing this.

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I agree. Great interview. I personally love my Boldtusk. Thank you for participating in @JonahTheBard’s interview @Novo , it was very good

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Novo you are such a wonderful giver! Jerky recipe please? :grin:

Morro Bay is beautiful, massive, shrouded in mist in the early morning. My husband and I were there in 1999 and have never forgotten it.

Loved this interview!

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That’s not frivolous!

Pleasure to read more about you Novo! Will respond back with more after I write my solilquoy in Mysteryspin’s thread.

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Great learning a little bit about novo. She is an ideal part of this community. The creation of the calendar is huge for a lot of us obsessed, planning E & P fanatics. On top of the that she is always kind to other members, especially those who for some reason love to correct her calendar the moment a quest didn’t drop. And interesting opinions and banter, just she a HUGE asset.

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3mlex2

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What a great interview! Thank you @Novo for the wonderful work you do. I check your calendars all the time.

I went to school in the central coast. Lived in San Luis for two years … then Morro Bay until I graduated. Took the kids to visit last year, to which the response was, “Whoa, that’s a big rock!” :smile:

I love these interviews @JonahTheBard. Keep them coming!

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1st off, thank you everyone! I’ll admit I was honored to be selected to be interviewed as I still feel like such a noob sometimes. :joy:

So that picture was from my first ever attempt at making homemade beef jerky and honestly, it came out amazing!

This may be a bit lengthy, but will include jerky recipe, I swear!
Back in early December the hubby and I went Christmas shopping and ended up buying more stuff for our home than actual Christmas Gifts :sweat_smile: One of the items we purchased was this :bacon: baking rack for the oven.


Seriously never pan frying bacon again.

The packaging stated it could be used to make other stuff like chicken wings, which I have made and also come out fantastic and of course the beef jerky.


I primarily use top round/London Broil, but you can use whatever cuts of meat you prefer. I cut the strips a bit thick as there will be some shrinkage while it’s cooking in the oven. The whole process takes about 3 hours for me since the lowest my oven goes is 200 degrees Fahrenheit. I also flip the jerky pieces at the half way point for even cooking. I also have all the dry ingredients pre-measured in a small container for when I decide to make this again, though next time I am planning on making teriyaki flavored jerky.

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Woo hoo congrats @Novo, such an awesome interview :slight_smile:

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Thanks @AncientPirate1. I know this may come off as cliche but he really IS my best friend (with benefits! :wink: :wink: he made me say that) :rofl:

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@IvyTheTerrible @rook @akionna
As much as I hate to admit it I am quite fortunate to live where I do, with so many great locations within driving distance. Which we usually do in summer to get out of the oppressing heat from the San Joaquin Valley. The San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay areas are our usual go to day trip destinations. But we would like to eventually head up north and visit Eureka, CA since the furthest we’ve ever been is San Francisco.

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@ThePirateKing there wouldn’t even be calendar posts if it wasn’t for you sharing the one I had made back in July. So from the bottom of my :heart: THANK YOU my dear friend!

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Boldtusk was my go-to Red for the longest until Telluria revamped my defense and became my healer and allowed me to bring in Jean-François as my Red in my Rainbow Defense.

Currently leveling Kiril in Ice because he is a valuable hero, and I don’t have any healers that are decent among Ice heroes except for him now.

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Awww, it would have been highly irresponsible of me as a friend if I did not present your talent and hard work to the EnP community. I am just glad that your amazing work has been truly loved and appreciated by everyone in the community, and helped countless players including me. I remember those initial days, when we used to discover your calendar from wierd places like Instagram, Reddit, FB etc, and used to have a laugh about it. Fun times. Anyway, as always, I wish you the very best in life for you. Stay safe and take care Anna :slight_smile:

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