MAKING BANK
While most explorers consider exploration and discover to be their main goals, the money that is to made there is also a motivating factor! Mana Village's primary currency is called cumulus. Cumulus is tied to your account and can be used to purchase items for any of your characters, including various customizations, apparel, equipment, consumables, pets, and much more!
Bronze, silver, and gold cumulus coins
CHECKING YOUR CUMULUS COUNT
The Sky Explorers team keeps track of your cumulus for you. Checking is simple - just go to the #inventory channel on the Discord, and use the rp!eco command! You'll be able to see all the money you've earned. You can also use the rp!inv command to check what items you have.
BLOOMS
A staple for any explorer, these special fruits can be bought from the general store for 1000c each. When consumed, they grant double cumulus on a submission. To apply its effects, all you need to do is type that you are using a bloom in the description of your deviation. Use them wisely to optimize your income!
VILLAGE LIFE SUBMISSIONS
Cumulus can be earned by submitting completed, polished pieces to the group. Submissions to the Village Life folder are calculated based on several factors - here's a rundown:
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BASIC AMOUNT EARNED
• 300c for a polished image/revised literature of 500+ words
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Polished image sample l Revised literature sample
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ADDITIONAL BONUS (LITERATURE) +100c EACH
• every 200 extra words
• cameo another member's explorer (applied once per unique character)
• cameo a group NPC (applied once per unique character)
• cameo an official member NPC (applied once per unique character)
• cameo an official pet belonging to a character int he group (applied once per unique character)
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*Remember, written cameos don't consist of just mentioning another character! The character in question needs to have some sort of role or significant interactions with other characters within the story.
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Bad example: "Butter Toffee was walking home after a long day of collecting berries. He waved to Rosemary and Ghost Pepper, who were chatting on his way. Afterwards, he went inside to bake a pie."
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Good example: "Butter Toffee was going home after a long day of collecting berries. He saw Rosemary talking to Ghost Pepper on his way, and invited them over since he would bake a pie! Rosemary agreed excitedly, while Ghost Pepper enthusiastically offered his help and moral support. Toffee happily walked with his friends, chatting as they headed back home to start working."
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ADDITIONAL BONUSES (IMAGE) +100c EACH
• include another member's explorer (applied to every unique appearance made by characters not owned by you)
• include your own character more than once (applied to every extra unique appearance made by your character)
• include an official pet belonging to a character in the group (applied to every unique appearance made by characters)
• include a group NPC (applied to every unique appearance made by NPCS)
• include an official member NPC (applied to every unique appearance made by NPCS)
• include a detailed background (examples)
COUNTING COMICS AND ANIMATIONS
When creating comics and animations, you may have multiple panels or frames including the same character. For each individual panel you include in your animation, you'll receive a 100 cumulus bonus. For simple animations such as blinking or winking that have little motion, no bonus is applicable.
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For each unique background you include, you receive 100c bonus. (i.e. drawing a comic page that has 3 unique backgrounds included would get you a bonus of 300c.)
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Bonuses are added cumulatively onto the basic amount you earn for your submission. Here's some additional information:
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• Commissioned artwork and trading post payments do NOT count for cumulus!
• Pixel icons must be a minimum of 50x50px to earn cumulus.
• Art trades count for regular cumulus!
• In collaborations between artists, cumulus is split equally. For bi-weeklys, only the person who posted the collab will receive a tally toward milestones. For VRs, all collaborators receive the full reward from the request. Artists can back out from these rewards by commenting as such on the collab post. Collaborations are restricted to 3 artists max and what each artist did must be specified in the deviation description.
• Applications are worth cumulus! Starter PC apps are worth 500c, Secondary PC apps are worth 300c, and Official NPC/Pet apps are worth 100c! The exception is Personal NPC apps, which are worth no cumulus.​
• Updated app art counts for regular cumulus when submitted separate from the application!
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CONTENT QUALITY POLICY
Our group encourages our members to experiment and try new art techniques, or use them to convey different feelings and atmosphere. For that sake, we leave the "quality level" rule rather lax, so that members can have a wide branch of techniques to choose in order for their artwork to best fulfill its intended purpose. Examples could be making use of toned sketches to convey a feeling of sadness, or a messier lined piece to convey confusion or as a stylistic preference.
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However, artwork that is deemed overly rushed, done merely to earn cumulus and/or rewards, will be denied to receive cumulus or any type of rewards it was made for, and might be moved to the Contests/wips/sketchdumps folder.
Visual works for VRs and bi-weeklys should be polished, full-colored, and either have a background or shading. Visual works for events should be polished, full-colored, and have a background. Written works for VRs, events, and bi-weeklys should be a minimum of 800 words, proof-read, and have few-to-no grammatical and spelling errors.
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Artwork will also not count for cumulus or rewards if it is far below your skill level. If made for a villager request or biweekly prompt, a proper reason will be given.
BIRTHDAY BOON!
Submit a drawing of an explorer on their birthday and you'll earn yourself 500c! This can be a fullbody, headshot, bust, a transparent image, full illustration, etc. The birthday boon can only be earned once per birthday, so while you may create multiple gifts for the explorer on the same day, you will only receive the money for the first one.
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Birthday gifts should be posted to the village life folder. If the gift you create is a polished piece, it will also receive cumulus that normally applies to Village Life submissions.
VILLAGE REQUESTS
While some village requests offer material rewards and stat boosts, others will provide cumulus upon completion. Village requests are bound to our Content Quality Policy and its implications, and the cumulus you earn from the art itself adds up to the VR reward, if applicable. (i.e: If the request grants 200c and the artwork totals 300c, you'll receive 500c for its completion)
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You can find the currently available village requests here.
WEEKLY PROMPTS
Posted weekly, weekly prompts are easy tasks you can complete to earn extra 200c on top of what you'd normally earn for your submission, as well as netting extra bonus by accumulating milestones. They are also bound to our Content Quality Policy. You may submit multiple pieces for a weekly prompt, but only your first will net you the extra 200c.
EVENTS AND EXPEDITIONS
Events and expeditions are great opportunities to make cumulus that pop up periodically. They each have their own set of rewards which are outlined on their journals, and the amount you can earn from participating varies for each of them.
It's not unusual to be able to earn several thousand cumulus from a single event. Check the rewards section at the bottom of the journal to find out what you can get for completing the tasks they assign!
RECOGNITION BONUS
If you create a particularly stunning piece of work that shows a lot of time and effort, there is the possibility that a member of the Sky Explorers team will come along to award you a recognition bonus! This amount of cumulus can be anywhere from several hundred to over a thousand.