Ask The Staff: Egg Cave Version 3

izziebee1017 • 3 December 2016 at 11:45 AM

@element

I love that idea!

moonwolfstar • 3 December 2016 at 4:05 PM

@Ian

Will we be able to post pictures in the Forums?

jello • 3 December 2016 at 9:45 PM

@Ian What if we were able to make Bank Notes? They would basically be a certain amount of EC, with a message accompanying it. You would be able to send them through your Strongroom, and you can redeem any that you have through the Strongroom. But, you don't have to redeem them right away. For example, in a Secret Santa giveaway, you could send the manager a Bank Note and he/she could forward it to the recipient without it touching the manager's own pocket. Oh, and instead of a normal 140 character limit for the message, make it 255 like the trade Centre.

gogetavegito2498 • 3 December 2016 at 9:52 PM

@ian could there be a page with a list of all active people at the moment so we can just go and say hi with a better chance of getting a reply.

momokie • 3 December 2016 at 10:09 PM

@gogetavegito2498 I fully support this idea oh my gosh

metaphor • 4 December 2016 at 12:18 AM

Yeah, as much as I'm okay with re-releases in reasonable quantities, I'm not sure how I'd handle it without upsetting at least a handful of people. I really feel for all sides. On one hand, I'd hate to come on one day to find Tines worth as much as, say, the latest months LEs. On the other hand, I really think it's impractical to have so many creatures inaccessible to new players unless they're willing to fork over exorbitant amounts of real money. That's just not sustainable in the long run. You could do a cash shop special (as has already been mentioned) where so many retired creatures are available for so long before they retire again indefinitely--but then someone would complain that that's favoring people who can buy CC. You could do some giveaway or contest, but if it's not handled very, very carefully, I can see some hard feelings arising there as well.

So, my suggestion regarding the matter: don't abandon the matter completely, but continue to tread with caution. I'm sure there's a way out there that would please most, but what it is remains a mystery at this time.

shadowy_overseer • 4 December 2016 at 8:51 AM

@lunacharm1037 Where the re-releases are concerned, I doubt that extremely valuable and sentimental creatures like the Onny will be re-released. That would just plunge the economy into total chaos.

@Ian Like several other users suggested, I think there should be other ways to get CC apart from the CSP, plots and Find the Gobblers.
Speaking of Find The Gobblers, I feel that it's an event where it's extremely difficult to catch up once you fall behind. In addition, while the reward is great, it's offset by being way too difficult to obtain (I've seen many people just give up a few days in or not take part altogether). Maybe we could receive prizes based on how many Gobblers we find? Like, 100 Gobblers = set amount of EC, 200 Gobblers = item and so on. This might increase incentive to take part.

jello • 4 December 2016 at 10:11 AM

@shadowy_overseer @metaphor we should re release creatures through the Thief Shop. Also, make the thief shop so that you don't have to spend 500K for it. Every month, two new creatures will be available through the Thief Shop of they've been retired.

shadowy_overseer • 4 December 2016 at 7:40 PM

@jellifysh But that would only make it harder to obtain the TS-exclusive creatures.

musicgurl333 • 4 December 2016 at 9:33 PM

I like the idea of re-releases, as new players have no chance of getting many of the old, rare pets, and I agree with others who have said that this just doesn't seem sustainable. I have seen re-releases done on a different site with success. On the other site that I use, there is one day a year in December where every user can three adopt old, rare pets. The pets that you get are random, and not all of the pets released are that great, but you have a CHANCE of getting something really valuable. It doesn't really do much to effect the rarity or demand, but it does give all players a chance to get pets that they would be unlikely to ever obtain otherwise.

I don't think that exact system would work as well here, as there aren't as many total pets released, so the chance of getting a valuable pet would be much higher unless lots of current cave eggs were included. For eggcave it might work better if retired creatures could have a very small chance to appear in the Oasis, or if they had a small chance to appear in the cave for a day, or even a span of a few hours (preferably announced in advance). Perhaps cave steals on that day could even be limited to 10, to further restrict the number of old rare pets that would be released.

Another thing about the re-release on the other site is that pets that required real money to adopt are never re-released. Though on eggcave I think it would be nice if they were. Perhaps there could be a mystery box in the CSP where you get a random retired CSP creature. The box could cost more than the usual monthly adopts, and the exact creature that you get would be random, so it would be a bit of a gamble. That would discourage too many people from doing it, while still putting some older creatures back in circulation.

I do understand the fears of players with very valuable pets, but I really believe that a re-release could be done way that gives more users a chance to get old, rare pets without significantly reducing the value of those pets for those who already have them.

shadowy_overseer • 4 December 2016 at 10:47 PM

@musicgurl333 For the limited cave steals on the old creature re-release day, that would only entice other people to use their side accounts.

bingo • 5 December 2016 at 11:01 AM

@shadowy_overseer "Speaking of Find The Gobblers, I feel that it's an event where it's extremely difficult to catch up once you fall behind."

^Agreed, and this is why I hesitate at suggesting a contest of some sort to "win" retired creatures. Despite the enticing prize for Find The Gobblers, I almost immediately gave up when I saw that after the first day the top 50 list were already in the hundreds. I just don't have that kind of time to spend sitting on Egg Cave and it would technically be CHEAPER for me just to spend $$ than spend virtually all my time for a month online to win. Now I know technically everyone has a fair chance at winning these contests, new and old, but I end up seeing the same faces on the top of the charts for each event so I feel like if creatures were redistributed this way, most would just end up being acquired by the same group of people.

@musicgurl333 I like your idea of a CSP box. I think for me, if I had spent 500 CC on a CSP creature a few years ago only to find it re-released in the Cave, I'd be a little upset, so I think CSP creatures should still require $$ in a re-release, to make it fair.

shadowy_overseer • 5 December 2016 at 11:06 AM

@bingo I'm glad to see someone who understands! I also agree with how it's become disenheartening to see the same people winning EVERY SINGLE YEAR. And for the leaderboards, I also agree with it being extremely difficult to get on said leaderboard, especially when most of the creatures on the leaderboard got their stats from outside sources. It's really unfair for those who don't use external sources.

tikimaki • 5 December 2016 at 7:47 PM

@Ian
I've got one suggestions that I believe would change Egg Cave for the better:

Mass delete friends
I know some users have huge friend lists and as users quit they want to update their friends list quickly and efficiently. The current friends list only allows 1 person to be unfriended at a time, and then it refreshes back to the first page of the friends list. So if you unfriend someone on page 30, you go back to page 1, and then have to get back to page 30 to begin unfriending again. I know many users are frustrated with this.

silverserpent • 5 December 2016 at 8:19 PM

@tikimaki
This has always been an issue with the friends list. I really hope to see it improved and more userfriendly in v3.
In other words: Good suggestion! 😸

tikimaki • 5 December 2016 at 8:50 PM

@silverserpent
Thank you very much! Glad to see support 😊

@Ian So yeah, it is a common issue and I'd say the majority of users would want this fixed

metaphor • 6 December 2016 at 12:48 AM

I didn't do find the gobblers this year simply because I wasn't up to it. I've done it in years past and didn't really have a problem. I was able to find close to 100 a day just by feeding my coves alone--to the concept itself never really bothered me. It's just by nature tedious.

silverserpent • 6 December 2016 at 6:00 AM

I've never even bothered to try hunting Gobblers. I have no chance what so ever to keep up with the users that always win so the event always seem pointless to me. ^^;

skyfall4 • 6 December 2016 at 7:13 PM

How do some people even get 5000 gobblers? I've gotten only like, 2 a day! 😋

jello • 6 December 2016 at 7:17 PM

@Ian What if we were able to make Bank Notes? They would basically be a certain amount of EC, with a message accompanying it. You would be able to send them through your Strongroom, and you can redeem any that you have through the Strongroom. But, you don't have to redeem them right away. For example, in a Secret Santa giveaway, you could send the manager a Bank Note and he/she could forward it to the recipient without it touching the manager's own pocket. Oh, and instead of a normal 140 character limit for the message, make it 255 like the trade Centre.

gogetavegito2498 • 6 December 2016 at 8:27 PM

@everyone who supports re-releases, so basically there a people who have spent hmm 150$ for a NYM and if you rerelease it, what's it worth? 5$ or even less ☹️ this is insane/crazy, you gotta work for your creatures, if you can't get them then just suck it up and find something else 😱 that's what happened with me and solis D:

Orderedchaos • 6 December 2016 at 8:50 PM

Please remember this topic is for talking about Version 3, not re-releases.

jello • 6 December 2016 at 8:53 PM

THANK YOU ORDEREDCHAOS rereleases are bad.

Orderedchaos • 6 December 2016 at 8:53 PM

@jellifysh
So something like CC vouchers but for EC? That could be interesting.

@tikimaki @silverserpent
I believe a more efficient way of cleaning out one's friends list could be looked into.

silverserpent • 6 December 2016 at 8:56 PM

@Orderedchaos

That would be great! 😃
(I gave up trying to clean my friends list years ago...) 😋

jello • 6 December 2016 at 8:57 PM

@Orderedchaos Yeah. Roght now, Bank Notes could help out a lot with the secret Santa programs, as it will separate EC offers. It will be an item that you redeem in the Strongroom.

momokie • 7 December 2016 at 12:54 AM

@Ian

I would LOVE to have a mass move items choice; to either other people or to side accounts. I feel like we should be able to send more than 1 item at a time

Ian • 7 December 2016 at 6:13 PM

Thanks everybody for your continued questions! Sorry for the slight delay on this response, as I've been so busy with version 3. 😱

@comethail: Not sure if anyone has suggested this but how about a way to trade creatures without auctioning them for just ec/Cc instead of having to always have an egg there within the trade

Yep. We’re working on this in version 3, to eliminate junk eggs.

@moonwolfstar: Will we be able to post pictures in the Forums?

No, for the time begin you will not be able to embed attachments on the forums. You are, however, welcome to link to an off-site image.

@jellifysh: What if we were able to make Bank Notes? They would basically be a certain amount of EC, with a message accompanying it. You would be able to send them through your Strongroom, and you can redeem any that you have through the Strongroom[…]

We’re working on a basic “gifting” or “sending” feature that would allow a one-way transfer of items, EC, and creatures. This would likely serve as a solution in this suggestion’s place.



With regards to re-releases, we are considering implementing Cave monthly re-releases in the form item Questing. What do you guys think of that?

We are also considering a monthly former Cash Shop creature raffle, whereby one user wins the lottery. What do you guys think of that?

Thanks for bringing this up again, everybody. We really will need to implement a long-term solution, otherwise so many valuable rares will eventually become extinct. I think that there's a way to make re-releases fun and interesting, without totally destroy values.

carter • 7 December 2016 at 6:23 PM

@ian
How would Item Questing work? Would it be like just have such and such items in your inventory? Or would there be more to it than that?

Maybe a solution to the problem could be that a creature could be temporarily available to be purchased in the Cash Shop around it's anniversary?
The rarer the creature, possibly the more it could cost?
That way every month it would be fun to see both the new and old creatures that are available (Even if the older ones aren't around for the entire month)
For those who have no interest in buying or trading/converting for CC, older creatures could possibly also show up in the Thief shop? (Again, the rarer they are the more potential for them being expensive) Giving anyone with the means a chance at buying the creatures they want, with either free or buy-able currency?

Edit: I really think that the raffle idea might just make users who happen to be un-lucky very frustrated. If you can never win a raffle, and even not for the dream creature you were after, then it's almost like the creature is just as unobtainable.

jello • 7 December 2016 at 6:31 PM

@Ian why not make it 3 or 5 users that get a selection in a pool of creatures? That way, it wouldn't feel like they would never win anything.