Site Idea: Improving EC Economy

purrclan • 22 March 2014 at 10:20 PM

@windchill
No, the real issue isn't that things cost too much, it's that there's too much money. In fact, lowering the cost of SAR creatures would make the problem worse by letting more EC stay in the economy. If the auction/trading cap was lower, it would just mean people would use more trades to transfer the EC, just like if you want to give someone more than five creatures.
There are many possible solutions to this problem, but unfortunately, lowering SAR costs and mildly inconveniencing users isn't one of them.
What if there was more to buy? or different kinds of things to buy? or different ways to buy things? What about events that included ways to spend EC, instead of just 'feed to find stuff', 'look around the site', and 'get free things'? What if people could send (in theory) millions at a time to the SAR Center to fund research into new creatures, like how the Calla was funded? That would be new, and exciting, and interesting, and fun, and a new way to get rid of all the billions of EC floating around that's devaluing EC and raising user expectations of prices for creatures.

windchill • 23 March 2014 at 9:14 AM

@purrclan
That's a good point to see things too. All you can but things these days and back then were travels andeggs from the science and reaserch centre. But I've read the old news on the blog the was fundrasing

purrclan • 23 March 2014 at 11:02 AM

@windchill
My opinion is that, *especially* since the SAR Center specifically says they're working to develop new creatures, we really should be able to fund that.

pegasasu • 23 March 2014 at 11:30 AM

@purrclan @windchill @frosted

Yup. If anything, the SAR Center needs to increase the price in creatures, and provide creatures that are more appealing to the userbase. Maybe they temporarily find a way to bring back popular creatures that retired, like they did that one Christmas in the cave, for a HUGE amount of EC (50 million or so?).

Deleted • 23 March 2014 at 11:32 AM

@pegasasu
Good idea 😃

purrclan • 23 March 2014 at 11:33 AM

@pegasasu
I'd say that would be a good idea, except 1) half the users on the site would hate it and 2) after last time Ian promised to never do it again. ☹️
Although if it was in the SAR Center at high prices it wouldn't be so bad...but that's not how some people see it.

Ian has actually said that if a creature goes extinct - not a single one left - he will not bring it back. Which sucks.

pegasasu • 23 March 2014 at 11:35 AM

@purrclan

Wait, he did? I do remember everybody freaking out and such, but I thought it was a great idea to rekindle the trading spark.

Extinct creatures? That would be interesting.

@frosted

I think the key to getting rid of this EC surplus is definitely to make the SAR Center have more valuable items at extremely expensive prices.

Deleted • 23 March 2014 at 11:35 AM

@pegasasu
The creatures which have new artwork.. something unique and cool about them 8D

pegasasu • 23 March 2014 at 11:36 AM

@frosted

This new artwork gives me a bit of the creeps-- //killed

But it's definitely interesting to see a variety of art styles on EggCave! I love these SAR creatures like the Trinit. ❤️

purrclan • 23 March 2014 at 11:37 AM

@pegasasu
I don't know what his personal opinion is, but in the aftermath where half the users were going "HOW DARE YOU! THAT WAS THE MOST HORRIBLEST THING EVER TO EVER HAPPEN ON EGG CAVE!!!!!!" he said that. Then again maybe if a creature actually did go extinct, and everyone was sad, he *might* bring it back if everyone supported that. Then again maybe not.
:/

windchill • 23 March 2014 at 11:38 AM

@pegasasu
If you read the OLD news on the blog you'll get details on how it was on eeg cave like 5 years ago.

I noticed back then you could only have 100 creatures back tjen on your account. Wich kinda sucked.

pegasasu • 23 March 2014 at 11:41 AM

@windchill

I've been on EggCave for almost four years. I remember it. c:

It was a struggle OTL Personally, I've never wanted many creatures on my account, though. :> It's a hassle to feed 'em all.

@purrclan

Mhmm, I remember that. There were a few topics thanking him, but a lot of people were just ungrateful. >_>

spiritkoi • 23 March 2014 at 11:41 AM

@purrclan @pegasasu Extinct creatures... That's interesting. You couldn't, say, resurrect them? And what about the immortals?

purrclan • 23 March 2014 at 11:41 AM

@windchill
Yep. Then it was 150, then 300.
I'm sure that once we get, oh, four more creatures? We'll get another expansion. After all, there are always people who want a cove full of every species, and you can't exactly do that with a cove of 300 and a creature count of 301.

pegasasu • 23 March 2014 at 11:42 AM

@spiritkoi

That's why the probability of extinct creatures is so low. People are getting REALLY good at immortalizing. And there's Resurrection Stones.

spiritkoi • 23 March 2014 at 11:44 AM

@pegasasu The only thing that could make a species go extinct if every account with a dead one was deleted along with the immortals... I really hope they get more LEs out there. Seasonals are nice but there should be more LEs.

purrclan • 23 March 2014 at 11:47 AM

@spiritkoi @pegasasu
Yeah, both of those options do exist.
Except sometimes, users quit. Sometimes they quit without giving their creatures away.
Sometimes they leave their creatures to be there forever, a sort of undeathness as they waste away just sitting there doing nothing, their owner gone forever, but they can't die because they're immortal.
Sometimes the users outright delete their accounts with no care for what creatures they have.
Sometimes, they don't quit, but it dies and they choose to never get CC.
The numbers of every retired species are going down, ever-so-slowly. If Egg Cave is still around in ten years, I can guarantee that at least one species will be completely gone, or only remain as markers of dead accounts.

pegasasu • 23 March 2014 at 11:47 AM

@spiritkoi

...What's the difference between a seasonal and an LE-- //killed

What makes creatures so coveted is three traits that I've noticed.

1) Wolf/sparkly image (Nym, Biwo, Goldox)
2) Cute! (Tine, Nym, Onny, Pixigog)
3) Very rare CSP; possible unpopularity at initial release (Doovoo, Macbot)

@purrclan

I doubt they'll ever be an absolutely extinct species. However, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an extinct species in the sense that they're only present on inactive or abandoned accounts.

purrclan • 23 March 2014 at 11:49 AM

@pegasasu
Yeah, but that's basically extinct.
And ten years from now...who can say what will happen?
Also, a seasonal returns every year, like the Kujak. An LE doesn't.

spiritkoi • 23 March 2014 at 11:50 AM

@pegasasu A seasonal comes back next year like the Ami and LEs are retired.

pegasasu • 23 March 2014 at 12:33 PM

@spiritkoi

Ohh, the Ami is coming back? //killed Oops. I don't pay attention. c:

@purrclan

Ehh, that's true. Ten years, I doubt EggCave will still be alive xD Kujak is returning too??

purrclan • 23 March 2014 at 12:46 PM

@pegasasu
Well, we're coming up on five years this July, so anything's possible 😋
And yeah, the Kujak came first in 2011 and it's come back every year since then. Actually, I think it was the second creature to be seasonal...
The first was the Ghosty, but that was mostly because they hadn't come up with a different Ghost for Halloween that year so they had the Ghosty twice in a row. It's not really seasonal, though, now they're doing different ghosts each time and the Ghosty's just retired.