So! A discord chat with Sabre and Berenos kicked off the cogs in my head, so full credit to them for starting this off and sharing ideas! <3

Long story short; we have Bismuth, craftable out of roughly 150 Gems of specific types. Looking at some other pretty rocks out there, and combinations thereof, I decided to try my luck making some craftable eye apps! Not like Amethyst or Jasper, mind you; these would require multiple components, but would be craftable outside of specific Event tiers.

Before I get started in earnest; these are just mockups/ideas! If implemented, they can be changed in any way the higher-ups wish. The main thing that fuels these is 'more craftable eyes', and pretty mockups tend to help get the idea to take hold. ;D Plus they're fun. Critique is welcome, though I already know Petrified looks off and needs tweaking, as is supporting just the idea but not the eyes, or the eyes but not the idea behind them.

The first two that came to mind were fossil-based: Petrified and Ammonite. Both would require fossils to craft and would be best introduced in early November. So, like Fuschia and Trophy, despite being most easily obtainable in a given Event, if you keep the components around you could craft them later, too.



I imagine Petrified would be based on petrified wood, which can sometimes be found with other minerals and even gems having formed within the rings/empty space where rings rotted away before fossilization.

In this case, it's mainly based off of specimens present with opal rings, so I figure it would be craftable by combining a handful of each Fossil [maybe 5 of each?] and 30 Rough Opal + 30 Sparkling Opal.

[Apparently there's a suggestion for a base inspired by these, but I think I'd rather see them as eyes. ^^ Also IMO this one didn't come out super duper, catching that 'look' is very hard; if you have any suggestions to better represent opal wood, please let me know!]





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The next idea was Ammonite. This one is a lot simpler; ammonite fossils are some of the most abundant in the fossil record, often used to date other fossils based on which species are in the given sediment. Like trilobites, really, only these guys have cool swirly shells. The inside chambers were hollow, to control their buoyancy in life. and we have many specimens where these chambers are filled up with various pretty gems or minerals, divided up by the chamber walls.

I'd think this one would require more fossils to be crafted than the other, or maybe 5 of each Fossil plus a stack of some rock-ish item (huge stack of Pet Rocks, MASSIVE stack of Large Rocks, 5 Rocks, or hell, maybe 5 Afrovenator Fossils?)



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This craftable eyeball idea is separate from the other two: one made entirely/almost entirely out of Phantom Quartz. Phantom quartz is pretty much a quartz crystal that forms with other minerals, often pretty ones, inside/behind it, often making for cool visual effects due to the difference in opacity.

I referenced the Phantom Quartz item we have in-game for this, so we can finally put the buggers to use. I'd assume these would, as a result, have a new way to drop given the June revamp though; maybe in the Wallowing Pit along with other junk/semi-junk? A Championships reward? IDK. Either way, I imagine a stack of 50 would be reasonable, given how many most users who participated in that Event still have stashed away.




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Other ideas I've got for craftable eyes: Iridescent eyes [from a massive pile of Glossy Ibis+Shining Drongo feathers, plus maybe a few Purple Starlings ], Faceted eyes [stacks of the classic craftable bugs], ?????? eyes [from a decent stack of Moonlight+some gems or somethin]


*None of the images other than the eye mockups are mine. References were retrieved off Google and should be on the first page, and all credit to the Explore eyes/item art goes to Xylax as per usual.