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12:30am Feb 14 2019 (last edited on 12:41am Feb 14 2019)
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Normal User
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Q: GIFT NAMES TO NEWBIES NOW (FUZZ) Well for starters, I actually don't expect this system to encourage old/wealthy users to just gift names to new/poor users. I'm pretty sure I didn't state that anywhere, but correct me if I'm wrong! This system would however, in theory, encourage users to SELL names that they are less attached to. Or let them die and have their names clear. Yes, users could decide tomorrow to be super charitable and just give away names, but it wouldn't make much sense and there's no reason for them to do so. This is a game after all, and these things have value. There's no incentive or motivation for them to do that. That's the whole point. They need a reason to "thin the herd" and sell off pets and names.
Q: THE STRUGGLE OF NAMING FOR NEWBIES (PAT) I agree with Breeze - I am so far removed from being a new user that this hadn't occurred to me either. It's a super valid point, one that I'm sure deters users (especially those that are new to virtual pet sites) from getting much further in the game. This also makes me wonder if pets remaining unnamed but hatched should be a thing... For Kir it makes sense, of course, because so many pets are only hatched as fodder to go directly to him/rancher shops and their names might as well be 'FartHead68'.
Q: COLLECTORS WON'T LOSE PETS (PAT) I hadn't thought of it like that either! Though I do see the appeal in having your collection visible to other users, and currently the graveyard is not visible, nor can it be organized into categories or even sorted. Again this might be an argument in favor of unnamed creatu that could be stored somewhere without needing to be fed but could be on display for other users to see. Features for collectors is a whole other rabbit hole to go down of course... But if that would aid in making users happier with this change, I'm all for it - and I have lots of ideas! Haha
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Also, I too struggle to imagine a life event that would mean absolutely no time for or access to Rescreatu. I know this may sound insensitive, but hear me out. Half of my time on Rescreatu is spent on mobile (either on my phone or tablet) and I don't think I've gone more than 24 hours in the last 10 years without access to the internet on at least one of my devices. That being said, I'm sure there are people who HAVE gone that long or longer. But for most of us I think a pretty significant life event would have to take place to leave us without access to Res for something like 30 days or more... Which would be very upsetting, no doubt. However I think if you find yourself in such a devastating situation, your pets on Res are among the least of your worries. And if you knew this system was in place and it was very important to you that you didn't lose your pets I have a feeling you could find a way to hop on for ten minutes and throw food in your pen. Trust me I understand that at times Res is NOT a priority. But when it is, if you are aware of the risk to your pets/names you're going to make sure your pen is well stocked.
In fact we should encourage users to do just that - dump all of your food as often as possible into your pen, just in case! Also email alerts for dying pets should be instated as an added warning system. Even if something catastrophic happens in your life you're most likely to still have access to the internet. The last time I was in the hospital I spent most of my time online on my tablet. Even when I was super broke and working crazy hours I still had internet access and time to do fun things here and there. And the future of the world is cheaper, faster and easier internet access - this is only going to become less of an issue over time.
The thing is, if a user can't log on even once every few weeks or months and be bothered to buy food, they probably aren't very invested in the game anymore and we can't shape the game around just those people. It leaves active users that are trying to enjoy the game to suffer for the negative impact the inactive users have, and then no one is playing the game.
Q: TURNING IN FOOD FOR EVENTS Realized I never addressed this concern, I'm sorry! :c So the great thing about events is that they are always subject to change! If food became a more important resource for every day use on Res I have confidence that our clever staff members would change events to fit the new economy of the site. Events that require food to be turned in could be reworked to simply ask for different item types. Currently I believe the only annual event that requires food turn-in is the summer event, as the Thanksgiving event hasn't happened in a few years. Correct me if I'm wrong! This alone is definitely not enough of an issue to veto this idea, imo.
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2:04am Feb 14 2019 (last edited on 2:07am Feb 14 2019)
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Normal User
Posts: 2,943
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I hope,we get a gardening feature, For a year or so to stock up, Before this is a real thing.
Bigger then the potted flower quest one.
Maybe..we can get plots, And we can upgrade them if needed. To grow trees. Each tree will bare 5..of whatever you plant.
I knew a game, That you can earn seeds,just by harvesting, As a reward. And very rarely,you get a golden food Item,you can sell for alot or trade it for 5 bags of seeds.
I seen,no..I been on a cute animal site. Called super poke pets. Everyone was used to a system. New stuff was being added. It was great! But then they changed it where it got Too hard. After a week when t by, People were losing stuff, Pets got sick,died. People started fighting,arguing. Then, One day I when t to log in, And the place was gone. Shut down, Due to the chaos they created. Its still gone, And everyone lost what they had left. And,the site was huge! Over 300 would log in everyday. But because of an idea, That made it too hard to play, And TOOK everyone's stuff, And fun away. It blows up in the creators faces.
I just don't want it to happen..again.
They didn't think it would. But,it did.
I'm on a serious note. I'm not joking.
I dunno how making this game harder, More frustrating is going to make it More fun.
Adding new features, That rewards you does. Like a battling system, Or more events, New planets, And more. Is a FUN challenge.
This idea,is not. I like having what I searched for hours for, To pay a ton of tu on, I enjoy collecting. And I thought this site was to mainly, Collect,enjoy..No pressure.
Now, I'm going to get more anxiety, About a game that's changing and threatening My and other players collections.
In 38 colors, and a thousand black Gondras later... I rise over my Army as the Gondra Queen! \r\n  \r\n\r\n |
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2:10am Feb 14 2019
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Normal User
Posts: 2,943
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This is not making all users happy as an idea. I want more to come in here, And see how many are truly down with this idea.
Not just and hand full.
In 38 colors, and a thousand black Gondras later... I rise over my Army as the Gondra Queen! \r\n \r\n\r\n |
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2:40am Feb 14 2019
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Normal User
Posts: 450
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MissHalloween I encourage you to share this thread and invite other users to share their thoughts! :) I'm very interested in hearing more feedback as well! I have put a lot of thought into this and I truly believe it could improve the game and ensure its growth in the future, but I genuinely welcome anyone who can convince me otherwise through constructive criticism. If this will break the game, I want to know, and I want to know why!
Simply saying that big changes can be bad is not enough to convince me that Rescreatu should not consider making a big change. Yes, they can be bad, but they can also be great! Stagnation and lack of a user base can also kill a game, and that's an issue I think Rescreatu should be most concerned with right now.
And I am SUPER interested in a battle system too, can't wait! ;) I think if Rescreatu was able to retain more active users that were willing to invest money in the game we might see more features, such as battle, become a reality! |
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10:08am Feb 14 2019 (last edited on 10:18am Feb 23 2019)
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Normal User
Posts: 51
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EDIT: This concern was addressed by Oriette, Patrick, and other users. Thank you. :)
Original Post [unchanged]:
@Patrick, you bring up a good point. I forgot all about the graveyard when I was voicing my initial concerns. Not losing the pet I think was my biggest concern. I was thinking that I would cry if I lost one of my precious few albino creatu. I am proud of some of the names I have though, and I would be pretty sad to see them go - although that would motivate me to make sure my food pen is stocked up.
Haha, I forgot about the fact that the graveyard exists precisely because as @Oriette pointed out, I'm newer so I really haven't utilized all aspects of the site yet in ways other users might have.
I suppose if food was more readily available, the idea could work. Now the only turn-off for me is that I kind of have this nagging like, oh I have to put food in my food pen... and potentially keep up to a thousand creatu fed. Not that I have a thousand pets right now, but I do have three pages worth of creatu in my showroom currently. Each of them I've put a fairly significant amount of time into. I don't see myself as ever having thousands like some because I like the creatu I put in my showroom to be truly "special" or significant to me in some way. But the longer I am around on the site, the more it could add up, I suppose.
That having-to-do-this is not really a bad thing, I guess. I already do it for the creatu on my profile.
It definitely will limit the amount of creatu on a whole that people can realistically have, even if it does solve the name-hoarding issue. It would definitely be quite a pain the more creatu I keep. I probably would sell more. But collecting is definitely the fun part of the game, and you are in a sense limiting that in a huge way.
I guess that's really the only dynamic that makes this an issue for people like me. Although I could adjust to that. Maybe I'd find it's not really a big deal, especially if feeding your pets became really easy.
On Flight Rising, another virtual pet site that I like, you have to feed all the dragons you own to keep their energy at 100%. You can buy food, but the way most users do it is to go out and use up a certain amount of turns on the site to "gather" food and then convert that food into "food points". All you do then is hit a button and it distributes those food points to all your dragons so they are back at 100%. It's pretty easy. If it was something like that on Res, I think I could get behind it because it's simple and there's not much hassle and it doesn't take that much time and no monetary cost - but it does require you to be an active user.
I'm sure that some of the users who have been on here for years who are active want to be "grandfathered" in so to speak because they would now face the most massive of taxes essentially. You know, you play the game for years on way and think you can just store as many creatu as you want and suddenly you have to think about getting rid of them or paying a huge amount. I can understand why for some people that is hard and a concern, and I can understand why some are saying that could be a reason why they'd leave if it was implemented.
he was a man of suffering, familiar with pain...
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10:11am Feb 14 2019
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Administrator
Posts: 394
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" On Flight Rising, another virtual pet site that I like, you have to feed all the dragons you own to keep their energy at 100%. You can buy food, but the way most users do it is to go out and use up a certain amount of turns on the site to "gather" food and then convert that food into "food points". All you do then is hit a button and it distributes those food points to all your dragons so they are back at 100%. It's pretty easy. If it was something like that on Res, I think I could get behind it because it's simple and there's not much hassle and it doesn't take that much time and no monetary cost - but it does require you to be an active user."
This sounds like the food pen to me? Or am I missings something? |
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10:31am Feb 14 2019 (last edited on 10:19am Feb 23 2019)
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Normal User
Posts: 51
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EDIT: This concern addressed!
Original Post [unchanged]:
Yeah, it's very like a food pen, Patrick. It's just easier to transfer things from your "hoard" (aka: inventory) into food points. You go to your inventory and you can check a box underneath each item.
The site already sorts out items in your inventory FOR you. It has like tabs that read "food", "apparel" (aka: clothes), etc that you can easily switch to.
So all you need to do is go to your food tab which any food you find on the site automatically goes to, check the boxes underneath and hit a button that reads "convert". I think there's even a way to "select all" so you don't have to click a thousands boxes.
Then anytime you want to feed your pets, right where all your pets are displayed (this would be like your showroom) there is a button that says "feed". You hit it, and bam, your dragons are fed.
Your food points never expire.
I think if Res had a system like that, I'd be much more down for having to feed all my pets.
he was a man of suffering, familiar with pain...
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10:41am Feb 14 2019
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Normal User
Posts: 450
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Hephzibah, we do have feature like that called 'quick stock'. You can find it in your inventory, there's a link at the top. :) There's also a storage in your bank on Reiflem that functions the same way. So you can just sort by 'food' and select all to be deposited in your food pen. One way our 'quick stock' feature is inconvenient however is the fact that you have to go through and select the quantity. It defaults to '1' so if you have '20 apples' you have to change the number to 20 manually. If it could default to the max quantity that would help immensely. If the food is in the food pen there is no need for a 'feed' button because your pets automatically do that themselves, so actually it's even more convenient than Flight Rising, where you have to tell them to eat. But there's also a feed option, if you needed to immediately feed a pet for some reason. And food never expires on Res either. |
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11:27am Feb 14 2019 (last edited on 10:20am Feb 23 2019)
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Normal User
Posts: 51
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EDIT: This concern addressed. :)
Original Post [unchanged]:
Yeah, when I hit "quick stock", I am taken to a long list of all of the items I own. I do like the tabs on FR - stuff looks more like how a hatchery is laid out, so it's easier to scroll through and see everything, I guess. And food is separated from all the other items, so instead of seeing food with clothes with everything else, you can flip between your "food" tab and "clothes" tab.
It just is a really nice feature. It takes away the necessity of even having a "quick stock" feature, which means you're still scrolling and clicking each individual food item instead of being able to, for example, just go to your food tab and then hit "select all" and move everything there to your food pen all at once.
And it is nice that food pens automatically feed your creatu. That's pretty cool beans. I forgot about that too whilst writing, although I do use a food pen on Res myself.
he was a man of suffering, familiar with pain...
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11:33am Feb 14 2019
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Normal User
Posts: 450
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You can sort by food in quick stock. The drop-down menu that says "show all" has different categories. If you select "food" it will only show you food. And then at the top there is an empty check box that if you click it will select all food items in that column. So, under the 'food pen' column, you would click that check box.
Visually this could possibly be improved, and like I said you do still have to manually change quantity so that needs an update. FR has a very different system because there you don't move your items around to locations like a shop, storage, gallery, closet, food pen, trash isthmus etc. It would be difficult on Res to present all those options in the same format that FR does, where your only option is to move things to your hoard, or go to the auction house to sell your items.
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12:02pm Feb 14 2019 (last edited on 12:03pm Feb 14 2019)
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Administrator
Posts: 394
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"One way our 'quick stock' feature is inconvenient however is the fact that you have to go through and select the quantity."
I have been planning on adding a button / link under the quantity header that allows you to toggle all the dropdowns to the max value - kind of like a check all.
Generally speaking I think the entire Quick Stock could use a UI / revamp, however, I haven't done so because I have not yet come up with a more elegant solution.
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1:34pm Feb 14 2019
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Normal User
Posts: 13
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Re: Naming As a user who's only been here for like 2 months, I can definitely say that naming a pet for the first time was rough. I had no idea the name had to be an unused one and I got very frustrated that none of my names were working. I ended up googling it lmao. It's definitely deterring.
And in general I still don't really have any idea how names work. Like people say in the chat they're selling names but I have no idea how to actually do that (and since I don't have enough tu to buy any of them anyway, it'll probably be a while before I investigate). Like, if I somehow ended up with an awesome RWN or something, I wouldn't have a clue how to sell it lmao. Like is it just selling the pet with that specific name or is there a way to sell the name by itself?? I'm clueless lmao. So I definitely think it would be a good idea to have something about it in the Help section or a forum post that new members (or just me lol) can be linked to.
I think having both a Name Guide and also having more names available in general would be really awesome for new members as well as old. Also I have no idea what grave robbing is either. A guide for that would be nice too.
Re: Ranchers / Kir pets Overall, though, I really support these ideas in general! As someone who is not very wealthy, it's super hard for me to get Kir pets because so many are out of my price range and it takes a while for me to save that much and still have enough leftover to buy stuff I need like food or items for quests, etc. And it's hard when there might be a pet that is somewhat affordable, but you don't want to wait around to buy it because it's the only one for sale. When there's literally thousands of them sitting people's showrooms. I think if there was more incentive to actually sell pets that this issue might be reduced and I might be able to actually make some progress with Kir xD But I do understand that collecting is a big part of this site and I can see that older members with huge collections might be bothered by this...
Also this might be me being a newbie and clueless, but I notice there are a lot of pets for sale in ranchers for 2,147,483,647? It's an oddly specific number so I'm wondering if that's maybe the maximum? Obviously it's a ridiculous price so it's basically the same as putting pets in your rancher but not pricing them. It would be nice if something was implemented where you can't do that anymore. If you want to sell a pet, you should have to put a price on it... you might as well keep it in your showroom?? Though I supposed there's no real way to get people to stop maxing out their prices at 2bil+. It just gets my hopes up for nothing when I see so many options in the rancher search but none of them are actually for sale because they're all 0 or 2.1 billion.
But anyway back to the topic! I really love a lot of these ideas. Pet trading and food login bonus is great!! The idea of having some kind of drop-down menu to "feed all" in a certain category, showroom, rancher, profile, all, or even more specific like one type of pet etc. I also think having an option to leave pets unnamed could be useful, especially if you might want to sell them or save them for Kir. In my own experience people are more likely to buy your maybe not-so-rare natural hatches if they can choose the name - whereas named natural pets can sit in ranchers forever and are never bought even when they're cheap.
Anyway this got really long I apologize!!!!
TL;DR -- A Naming/Selling Guide and Grave Robbing Guide should definitely be made! And, from a 2-month-old user's perspective, I don't really see many (if any) downsides to any of the ideas being shared here, as long as proper and simple ways of getting large amounts of food were implemented. I'm here for all of it!!
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1:48pm Feb 14 2019
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Administrator
Posts: 394
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I would note also that generally speaking, Kir's Quest is supposed to be by far the hardest thing to do in Rescreatu and is not intended for new users.
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2:37pm Feb 14 2019 (last edited on 10:22am Feb 23 2019)
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Normal User
Posts: 51
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EDIT: This concern addressed!
Original Post [unchanged]:
Oriette, ah I see. I did not even know I could use it that way. Then perhaps all that needs to be done is make it more intuitive in the future. Or maybe just providing a tutorial for it. I really didn't know I could use it like that. Patrick, thanks for taking the time to listen to me hash my concerns out haha.
I think the only thing left is just to wonder if the suggestions will have the intended effect of having that many more names back in circulation and what kind of fallout from unhappy users there would be.
But I think that to me is a matter left more for Patrick and the staff to consider than me really. :)
Also, Kir's quest is hard, but to me that's okay. I actually was able to buy Iviks off of people by buying CS eggs in the CP shop and either trade them or sell them.
Kir's quest is meant to be hard.
It would be cool if there were quests - like earning blessings - that are more accessible to newer users. Quests that give effects to your creatu or pave the way to earning some kind of egg you wouldn't be able to get any other way. That would be so fun and I would love participating in something like that.
he was a man of suffering, familiar with pain...
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3:13pm Feb 14 2019 (last edited on 3:44pm Feb 14 2019)
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Normal User
Posts: 450
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Thanks for sharing your perspective julzella! I'm going to rmail you to give you some tips and info on stuff like how to sell a name and why people price pets like that, just to keep this short for others trying to keep up with the thread. :)
Q: IN REGARDS TO KIR
I agree with Pat that Kir is not intended for new users, it's definitely suppose to be a more "end game" thing. That being said though, as someone who I think qualifies as an end-gamer, Kir is a seriously tedious and expensive task right now, more so than I think it should be. I also think we have a lot of people who 'qualify' as end-game users that aren't doing kir because right now, financially it doesn't make a ton of sense to participate (the cost of playing usually out weighs the price you could pay for prizes) and there's just not a market to support many people playing Kir.
I regularly end up over-paying for pets because I don't want to spend three months or more trying to hatch just one pet. There have been pets that I've spent 10+ beans on, and at around 7mil per bean that's nuts - not even a seasonal albino should cost me 70mil+ - but I don't have any choice because there's no pet on the market (for example - an albino seasonal that is out of season). And this is only going to get harder now that we don't have the income from stocks that we use to (I still think this was the right choice for stocks - just saying it changes things!). I think most of us funded Kir with stocks.
Anyway, when only a small number of people can participate in Kir, it does feel kind of broken. I haven't checked the item DB on all of Kir's prizes, but I'm willing to bet there are still items in his shop that exist on the site in single digits. People really only bother to spend their points on eggs/nests, and occasionally HA items or stardust. Part of this is because many of those items don't have much use/appeal/resale value. Part of it is because we can't even consider those prizes when we need to try to make up for the 2bil we just spent to get there.
The BEST solution for this issue is getting more users to hatch on a daily basis to improve the market. And personally I think the best way to get people hatching is to get them on the site in the first place. ;D
So... yeah... I confess, my motives aren't 100% pure. XD
I REALLY want Kir to be more, well, doable! It's a part of the game that I've always wished to participate in but even now I really struggle to.
Q: WOULD THIS REALLY GET
NAMES BACK ON THE MARKET?
I think for me the answer to this is very clear, because I have spent a lot of time in the last few years browsing the showrooms of inactive users, and I have seen SO many great names out there just rotting. If you're interested Hephzibah I could link you to at least one showroom that I think would influence your feelings about this! There is such an abundance of names out there that are just going to waste, even on accounts that ARE active. So many of us hold onto names because we're not sure how to price them, we can't find buyers, or we're just not inspired/motivated to do anything about it. And new users are the ones that suffer for it, because to a new user a name that I couldn't care less about could mean a great deal to them - and make them feel much more invested in the game. We can't underestimate just how important it is for a user to feel invested in the game! That's what keeps people logging in, playing the game and hopefully spending money on the game. A single decent name could make a great deal of difference for a new user who feels like they get to care about their pet and the game just that much more. From my experience, having great names really makes you feel like you have something to show off and be proud of among other users, and that's a great incentive to play. It's great if you're someone that just doesn't care - and I understand that! There's so many great pets and more aspects to the game than just names, so there's a lot to enjoy. But I promise you, they really do matter to a lot of people. Plus, like I said before, a new user that gets ahold of names has something of VALUE on their account now too - which means they can make tu, and I think that matters to pretty much everyone playing Res.
Beyond that, I've already seen a few users react to this forum by starting to sort out and sell off names/pets that they've been holding onto - and that alone convinces me this could have a big impact on the name market! As someone who still owns a good chunk of names I know that I am already considering what I would sell off, pricing more pets in my rancher, etc.
Q: USER FALLOUT
This definitely is a concern to me too. I'm pretty sure some users are ready to hang me by my toes already. :'D I foresee certain users being the most upset - those who have a huge number of pets and are forced to sort through them. I think though, if you're someone that has a huge number (1000+ pets, let's say) you probably already imagined a scenario where this collection could become a lot of work to manage. Luckily, there's features in place like ways to sort and categorize your showroom/rancher that should aid you in this endeavor, and with the aforementioned ways to make food easier to obtain, these users should hopefully be able to take their time sorting through their showrooms and etc. The #1 user I worry about in this category is Kina, and personally I'd be happy to make an extra effort to make this easier for her because she's a really special part of the Res team and community and the last thing I would want would be to lose her from the site. Perhaps special case users could be given more time to sort through their collection, or be given extra free food to start off with, etc.
The second group of people is, of course, inactive users that could come back and be very upset that the game changed while they are gone. However, I think a few factors will make this fair for them:
- Give everyone advanced warning - especially through EMAIL alerts
- Advise them how to best handle feeding their pets (with the pen)
- Give everyone an initial "care package" of food to get them started
- Again, a nice long grace period before changes start happening
Other than that, I think users will have to adjust and accept what is best for the game. And if they just don't care enough to feed their pets, then it's for the best that other users get to benefit and enjoy those names instead.
WOW I WROTE A LOT WITH THIS POST
I just want to be sure I make everything clear!
<3 SORRY! HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! <3
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6:04pm Feb 14 2019
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Normal User
Posts: 131
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I'm not really on board with this, and I originally didn't want to voice my opinion because of that.
If this were to go into effect I wish there would be some way to choose what sections of my showroom that the food pen would get applied to.
If I have to pick and choose what creatu I can keep due to feeding, I don't want to waste food on creatu that aren't my favorites. And feeding the Rancher shop seems like a large waste, since I have multiple naturals that probably not sell for a long time, and I don't want to keep decreasing my prices to where its not even beneficial to sell it.
With the decrease in ways to gain TU, it will be really hard to keep up with spending TU on food. Merchant shop prices are now decreasing to below NPC shop price, and without getting or having lots of seasonal/hard to get items.
And the only quest that I can really accomplish is the food one, and if those merchant prices spike I won't get any TU from that either.
It would make more sense to clear out inactive accounts at a faster rate.
Milk
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6:41pm Feb 14 2019 (last edited on 7:00pm Feb 14 2019)
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Posts: 16
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It sounds like there are several issues you want to address by proposing these changes. The first that I see is the concept of treating this website like a pet site.
Res is a pet site on the surface. However, I think the goals users have on this site are slightly different than other pet sites that rely on interaction with your pets to drive content. This site seems to be heavily focused on collecting. Users collect colors, names, save up to collect CS pets, cosmetics. This site is less about 'bonding' with your virtual pets through interaction, and more about collecting as many pets and items as you can to meet personal goals.
If this assumption correctly describes the way others interact with the site, then requiring that we feed all of our pets regardless of where we store them destroys this concept. Trying to limit users' pet collections is extremely unintuitive and would be beyond frustrating for users who have amassed a large collection of colorful pets with cosmetic effects and appealing names. Collecting becomes an inconvenience rather than a fun activity, and users might be forced to let go of pets they paid money for or put long hours into saving up for.
It also makes collecting other items (such as quest requirements, item collection requirements, avatar cosmetics, etc.) much more difficult if the user is simultaneously attempting to collect pets. More Tu going to food for large pet collections drains users' savings for other items. I have seen others address the difficulty of funding food for pets now that the stock market has changed. This is a significant issue to resolve if we want to keep the site fun and keep personal goals realistically attainable.
Next, I'll address your point of helping the Kir economy.
If users are deterred from keeping lots of pets on their account because they know they will have to spend Tu to feed them, then I would expect the availability of Kir pets to drop, not increase. Users would also be deterred from hatching as many pets as they can because they have to pay to feed them until they sell. I've seen ranchers in this thread make the same argument; that currently, we can keep colorful pets in a rancher shop indefinitely, waiting for someone to buy them and not worrying about feeding them. This is important because pets can tend to remain in shops for a significant amount of time before selling. With the proposed system, hatching pets comes with a significant drawback, and ranchers are presented with a disincentive to use their hatches every day in order to obtain Kir pets to sell.
I've also seen others bring this following point up, but it is extremely important to take into consideration: Kir's Quest is meant to be difficult. Although I don't believe the proposed food system would increase Kir pets on the market by any means, the attempt to do so defeats the purpose of the quest. It is meant to be challenging, take time, and give exotic rewards for our resilience such as eggs that can't be obtained any other way and really neat cosmetics. It is something to strive for and put time into, not something we should be making easier. Mind you, this is coming from someone who does not have much Tu and had to wait for over a year to get the pet I needed for Kir. I believe difficulty is not a flaw in the quest, it is its point.
I think there are also flaws in the argument that the proposed system will favor active players and encourage players to stay active.
The argument here seems to be that if people need to log in to feed all of their pets because they can't rely on a showroom to keep them in stasis, that this will encourage users to frequent the site more and search for food in a more interactive manner, thereby retaining players.
The glaring flaw I see with this is that the existence of food and hunger at all already accomplishes this goal. Users have to log in every once in a while to keep their pets fed if they want to age them into adults, which is required for cosmetic effects and events such as the ice tunnels.
Requiring users to feed all of their pets regardless of where they are stored does not create a situation in which users will be more likely to log in. It introduces something tedious for a site based around collecting pets, and this is most likely to deter users from staying active. I have seen countless posts in this thread from others supporting this assertion.
The above issue also worsens the 'old, rich player' image.
Users who have amassed the Tu required to support a large pet collection under this proposed system are likely to be users who either have sufficient free time to dedicate to this site, or are comfortable spending money regularly to fund their account and collections. These 'old, rich players' may therefore find the proposed system much less draining on their large Tu accounts than users who cannot spend the time nor money to pad their wallets. Hopefully, you can see how this worsens the divide.
While I agree that catering to inactive players doesn't make sense (financially or otherwise), I think players who are active in any capacity are sources of potential income for the site and therefore must be taken into consideration as much as users who regularly purchase items from the cash shop.
Overall, I think the problems you want to address are valid, but I don't think this is the right way to go about doing it. If your ultimate concern is to make names available from inactive accounts, then this accomplishes this goal but harms the playerbase in a way that does not make the system a good tradeoff. |
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6:50pm Feb 14 2019
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Administrator
Posts: 394
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"With the decrease in ways to gain TU, it will be really hard to keep up with spending TU on food."
IMO, there has not been a decrease in ways to earn TU. I would argue precisely the opposite. TU prizes for many areas have been increased. You can certainly earn more now from daily quests than you ever reasonably could with stocks, except maybe in some cases where the player was already incredibly wealthy. I'm not sure players have fully realized this yet. I might go into the math at some point, if/when I have time.
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6:57pm Feb 14 2019 (last edited on 6:57pm Feb 14 2019)
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Administrator
Posts: 394
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"Res is a pet site on the surface. However, I think the goals users have on this site are slightly different than other pet sites that rely on interaction with your pets to drive content. This site seems to be heavily focused on collecting. Users collect colors, names, save up to collect CS pets, cosmetics. This site is less about 'bonding' with your virtual pets through interaction, and more about collecting as many pets and items as you can to meet personal goals."
I think there is actually a lot of truth to the statement above, however, the honest reality is that is not by design. It's really more of a consequence of poor game design, incohesive features, and overall bad long term planning when I was 13-17 years old and first making Rescreatu.
A primary goal of mine in future revamps and versions of Rescreatu is to bring a more coherent vision - one which includes much more interactivity and focus on your creatu.
Collecting is fun too - and I wouldn't want to ruin that aspect. But collecting for the sake of collecting has its natural limits.
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7:11pm Feb 14 2019 (last edited on 7:14pm Feb 14 2019)
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Normal User
Posts: 16
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Patrick, I really appreciate your response. I can respect that the current state of pet collection and pet interaction may not be what you intended years ago, or the vision you have for the future of Res. However, it is essential to understand the reasons users have for continuing to interact with the site after creating an account. Making changes which are counter-intuitive to those reasons for logging in should be expected to drive part of the userbase away. Whether it was the original intention of the site or not, users here have gotten used to the content currently available on the site (and more importantly, have spent money on this content) - namely, collecting.
In my opinion, I think introducing new content that builds upon the current state of the site is a much safer route than drastically changing the foundation it is build upon. For example, more pet interaction could be achieved without forcing users to part with a majority of their pets. Things that could easily be introduced to encourage a connection to our online companions could include minigames that interact with your pet, new rewards for increasing a pet's stats like areas that are only accessible to super smart or strong pets, pet battles, etc. This is just spitballing, but my overall point is that I believe you can achieve your vision for the site through gradual, positive changes that will retain the dedicated userbase while attracting new users without flipping the state of pet collection on its head and upsetting users who have spent time and money into these collections, thereby encouraging them to become inactive.
I understand that this does not in any way address the issue of inactive accounts holding onto valuable names, though I think this issue could similarly be solved through less drastic measures that will not disrupt the current active playerbase. |
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