EC to CC conversion

Deleted • 5 April 2021 at 8:42 PM

Greetings Egg Cave community,

I don't know about you but recently it’s been hard for me to find people that sell CC for EC. It seems like CC is getting harder and harder to come by for people who are not able to purchase it themselves.

For example, let’s say you saved enough EC to buy 50 CC but no one has any available to sell. You then have to sell your more valuable creatures that are worth CC.

EC already takes up enough time to earn as it is, and not everyone is able to buy CC. This game is in fact a kids game. Yes there are adult players now but let’s not forget that there are younger Egg Cave players too.

I was talking to @vulpix90 and @murmurw about how it would be awesome if the Egg Cave Team could make an option in the Strongroom where we can exchange our EC for CC. We think it would make it more fair for people who cannot buy CC and make it easier for people who want to convert their EC to CC. We do realize there will have to be some sort of limit to how much you can exchange because if there wasn’t Egg Cave wouldn’t make any money from CC purchases.

Also, some people may argue “What about the users that do want to sell their CC?” You will still be able to sell your CC. This is more for people who can’t buy it/can’t afford it.

Even if this idea doesn’t end up happening, I think we can all agree that something must change about our currency. This should not have to be a pay to play/pay to win game. That’s just not fair to anyone.

We appreciate you taking your time to read our idea and we would love your feedback. If you can, please vote on the survey. Please be kind when leaving a comment. Thank you. You can also ping your friends as well.

Sincerely, @sassybrat, @vulpix90 and @murmurw

Pings:
@Ian
@orderedchaos
@mastergemma
@xmidnightstarx
@dragonreaper
@megamisama90
@cala
@miraeggs
@possudio
@namyna
@purple17
@thedarkarcher
@shadowfaxe

Ian • 5 April 2021 at 9:14 PM

Hey! Thanks for the idea. What do you all think would be a fair conversion rate, if something like this were to happen?

foxbit • 5 April 2021 at 9:15 PM

@sassybrat I like this idea! I came back from hiatus to find out CC had inflated a LOT and man is it hard to buy CC for EC now.

Deleted • 5 April 2021 at 9:17 PM

@Ian omg thank you so much for replying.

we can do 500kec for 50cc 1 million ec for 100cc

when the cc goes on sale for black friday or whatever ya do

maybe that can go on sale too.

50cc be for 450kec or something


@foxbit thank you and yes it's a great ideal

foxbit • 5 April 2021 at 9:23 PM

@sassybrat 500K EC for 50CC and the like was the conversion rate before I went on hiatus, nearly a year ago. I don't know why the inflation happened, though.

tortoise • 5 April 2021 at 9:29 PM

@foxbit I think there was a huge inflation because so many people left Egg Cave throughout the years. I too went on a hiatus for 6 years. I came back the beginning of February and I’ve noticed things have definitely changed since I first started and one of them being the decrease in CC.

Deleted • 5 April 2021 at 9:29 PM

This is an AMAZING idea!!!! @sassybrat

foxbit • 5 April 2021 at 9:30 PM

@vulpix90 yeah, that would explain why. ☹️

Deleted • 5 April 2021 at 9:31 PM

@xmidnightstarx thanks Bestie since your at work
@vulpix90 help me with everything. make it look good lol

tortoise • 5 April 2021 at 9:34 PM

@Ian thank you for reading our idea! I agree with @sassybrat, I think the least we could convert should be 500k EC to 50 CC and the most we could convert should be 5mil EC to 500 CC.

Deleted • 5 April 2021 at 9:35 PM

@vulpix90 thank you so much for agreeing with me and thank you so much for re wording everything for me to make it sound right..

cartel • 5 April 2021 at 9:38 PM

more ways for people to earn cc would be great, but the problem with this idea is that it totally disincentivizes buying cc with cash. even if it was capped, it's gonna put a dent in the number of people buying cc from the cash shop.
another site I play has a daily log in bonus, which awards small amounts of their premium currency every x days for consecutive logins and resets monthly, so you end up with ~100 points per month. maybe something like that could work here.

tortoise • 5 April 2021 at 9:41 PM

@cartel That’s a good idea too. I had another idea that we could maybe do daily tasks for more EC or CC. For example, we could feed X amount of creatures or coves for a certain amount of currency.

cartel • 5 April 2021 at 9:42 PM

@vulpix90
I was just about to edit my post to suggest adding a small chance of finding x amount of cc (like 5 - 10?) while feeding, too :') great minds 😋

Deleted • 5 April 2021 at 9:45 PM

@vulpix90 @cartel

I agree that be awesome.

People can still use their credit card to buy CC

this ideal for those who don't have a card.

tortoise • 5 April 2021 at 9:54 PM

Gonna ping some more players so we can get more input. Sorry in advance if you didn’t want to be pinged.

@sapphire12
@toebeans
@frankenstein
@sybil_howlett
@distorted
@moonstruck10
@shadowfaxe

froot • 5 April 2021 at 10:04 PM

i do agree that inflation's been a big problem...
the conversion rate used to be fixed at 50cc = 500k ec, but now i've found more and more that people are asking for 450kec for 50cc.

i also agree 100% with all the points @/cartel's mentioned, the point of cc is to give eggcave income lol
but yes, it's controversial for a reason, and i understand both sides of the story, which makes this such a difficult problem to fix, so to say.

i'm selling a little bit of cc for ec atm, does anyone want some?
conversion rate 50cc = 500k ec

Deleted • 5 April 2021 at 10:05 PM

@shadowfaxe Yes I seen people selling 50cc for 450kec. that because they are on sale. that cool.

sapphire12 • 6 April 2021 at 12:32 AM

@vulpix90 thanks for the ping - I think @Ian replying to this is a good step that your idea is being heard 😊

Converter -
I agree with @cartel and @shadowfaxe, that CC is meant to be a way to support eggcave and it might disincentivise buying CC from the cash shop if there is a converter in place - but earning EC from feeding is tedious menial labour and the people who buy CC are exactly the people who don't have time to do all the clicking, so some portion of people, namely adults, at least will still buy CC.

Spending 50 cents or clicking through 5000 creatures? My page loads at 2 seconds per creature so that's about 170 minutes of attention when I can trade 50 cents for it. So it's a matter of convenience.

With the converter, eggcave wouldn't be a pay to win but a pay to win faster, which is a better direction than completely disadvantaging people who cant buy CC.

I think also inherently that CC is just a stronger currency - as there is things you can buy with CC but not so much with EC. You've spent time to gather EC and it gets you items for quests that can get you a creature you want but you also have to put in more time to do the quests. So there is less demand for EC in general. If EC becomes a stronger currency then there might be more people selling CC at a fair rate.

A cap should also be introduced to how much you can convert so 500 CC will probably be a good number. Enough for one CSP monthly (where you still need to get extra CC for the other one) and if you want a rerelease, should they continue, you have to save up for one as well (or buy the extra CC)?

Converter, in my opinion, will stop the inflation. The going rate for the only user shop who consistently sells CC is 1.3 mill to 100 CC with others selling for 1.1 mill just because they can lol so the 50cc to 500k only works if you know the users selling it privately and you're at least friends with that person - difficult for a newbie

Other ideas -
Daily login bonus wise, it shouldn't amount to 500 CC at the end of the month because it gives less ad revenue than feeding just to show up once a day

The tasks for CC would be fine as well but you probably can't have both the converter and the tasks.

It probably comes down to the finances in the end if the potential loss in cashflow outweighs the gain in userbase/page clicks? It might be a trial run again - apparently a working economy in a game needs to be playtested and stresstested so this should be good.

sybil_howlett • 6 April 2021 at 2:21 AM

@vulpix90 thanks for the ping 😊 @sassybrat
I love the idea, it would make me happy if I could exchange 500k to 50CC or 1 million to 100 CC in the strongroom, I would say it would make more sense for small amounts of money. so people could feed and get small accomplishments with the exchange and could work up to make it possible for them to buy the leaf of vaka or to get the cash creatures without being frustrated and stop the game all together.

Deleted • 6 April 2021 at 3:37 AM

@sassybrat I would love an EC to CC converter.

There are 3 places to spend CC, mainly monthly CSP creatures at 500CC, random CSP creatures at 200CC and recently 1000CC > CSP rereleased creatures.

While there are opportunities to get CC from the the site through events, it at most comes to 1000CC yearly.
EggCave Birthday Anniversary and Thanksgiving Find the Gobblers event.

The EC to CC converter should have a limit of once a month or once every two/three months. Aside from this, could it be mentioned that while I do support the continuing rereleasing old CSP's, I hope it can become an annual event rather than monthly rereleases. Or twice a year.. after all there's a lot of places to spend CC at.

500kEC = 50CC ; So, 5M EC = 500CC
Edit: Another place that consumes CC, Rebirth and Essence of Litsdnats potions. Or CC travels..

snowywinter • 6 April 2021 at 3:43 AM

@sassybrat, @vulpix90 and @murmurw
& @Ian

I was actually thinking about this myself the other day, inspired by another game site I was on where it could all be converted to one format or another (in the early days you could even convert your game cash into real life money.)

I had no idea how the conversion could even be set up let alone what conversion rate would keep Egg Cave afloat and not have too many players complaining, so I let the idea drop.
This post was a great surprise to see pop up!

I do think that if people want to be able to also convert CC into EC they should be able to do so.

I think the EC into CC conversion should be at a 5-20% loss so that it still encourages people to buy CC using real money.
Maybe there could be a few special days a year where there's a 0% loss.
(So long as Double EC days get to stay!!! People like me with mobility and connectivity issues depend on those bonus points to get anywhere. It is a boon to new players too. )

Deleted • 6 April 2021 at 3:50 AM

@snowywinter Wow, that's a good idea! There could also be days where there is 0% loss like as maybe during the Cyber Sale during December? After all, that's when CC is discounted, meaning people are buying for personal use and to exchange CC to EC with other users.

Since, the EC to CC converter would have a limit to it.

minnie298a • 6 April 2021 at 6:15 AM

I'm on the fence about this idea.

Against as I know it's how EC gets it's real money to function. I'd hate for the quality to go down because the revenue wasn't coming in like it used to.

For because for the majority of my time on here, my finances have been limited and any CC I've acquired was done through the Gobbler and Birthday events or by buying from other players. It is something I would use.

However if something could be worked out:

- I like the idea of a cap. Be it something like 50 a day or 200 a week or 1000 a month or what ever is decided on. Something with a regular reset like 2am or every Tuesday, or the 6th of each month. I'm even fine with the idea of the cap being under what the 2 CSP would cost every month to encourage RL purchases and trading.

- I feel what ever the conversion rate is through the site, will become the new conversion rate for the players.

So if its set at 50CC to 500kec or 50CC to 1mil ec, that will set the tone for private sellers, because "you would be paying that much through the site anyway, so pay me that". The buying with real cash could still be lower, to help encourage that so for example $1=100CC=120kec. Some would still buy straight, and others would buy with ec with the intention of trading to others. That way things like the Cyber Sale still only benefit those shelling out their real money.

-Regardless of what happens, people will still complain. "I don't have a card/don't have any real life money". "I paid hard earned real life money for that CC and now your getting it for free". "I don't have the time to feed." " It's all too hard because I need to put more than 5 seconds into getting my ultimate dreamy despite only having joined an hour ago so I'm rage quitting".

OK, sorry, that last one came out slightly more sarcastically exaggerated then intended, but still the sentiment remains.

snowywinter • 6 April 2021 at 1:36 PM

@laylamocha Thank you ^^
That Cyber Sale sounds like the perfect example of a 0% loss day. I think even having a ZPL day only four times a year would be fair.

and I agree with you, a point @minnie298a, and a few others that mentioned that there should be some kind of cap on how much someone can exchange in a certain time period. And that point actually ties in to the subject I came to clarify.
(I think the cap should be dependent on what the site can sustain. Not necessarily leading up to capacity, but making sure it doesn't ever get to breaking the bank.)

And after I had time to think on it, I want to say I do think the current community accepted rate is should be the basis. While it made my eyes bug out of my head when I first joined, it has come to seem rather fair and logical.
So, if I didn't mess anything up with my zeros (Miraeggs can attest to me being BAD at math, lol.)
10 cc = 100,000 EC is the going rate when trading for creatures. ( If a player is being fair, one in theory could also get 10 cc for 100,000 EC, but) what I was proposing then is that through the official site exchange ...100,000 EC would now only equal* about 85,000EC. (any one able to work out on that scale how much EC it would then take to get 10 EC?)
(* 100K would still technically equal 100K but think of it as eggcave taking a certain percentage for themselves, like a service fee.)

~ ~ ~

I just want to state for the record that I didn't mean Eggcave should ever offer the option to covert any of the site currencies into real money.

It's like comparing apples and oranges. Yes, they're both websites, but they're very different. The other site (not the actual name, but for the sake of efficiency, for the rest of the post shall be known as,) 'Playground' encouraged user generated content, no mod approval needed, (one of the original sandbox games.) Which in turn brought in a LOT of revenue with little effort from the site owners (as far as content creation) during the height of Playground's popularity. 100's of new users a day, 1000's of content creators, meant lots of money pouring in from people wanting to buy new characters and items to customize them. People were able to make Playground their day job. ...but when the popularity of the game tanked, the site was still paying out and it nearly put them in a financial hole they almost couldn't dig out of.

Seeing how a fiasco like that nearly ended one of my favorite websites of all time, I wouldn't want to see that happen to another website ever again.

And thus also why I would also support limits even on virtual currency exchanges.

(Now ad-revenue sharing for those that click on the ads... that's another matter. And separate topic altogether. But I've always been fascinated by the sites that offer that and how they make it work... but I've never joined one out of an abundance of caution.
Feel free to PM me if anyone has an answer to how those work. I don't want to go too off topic in this thread.)

Deleted • 6 April 2021 at 4:48 PM

Perhaps instead of a cap or whatever as some are suggesting what if advertising videos are put in the ec too cc exchange that are a few seconds long similar to twitch that pays the site/streamer through the ad but also allows the user to get the cc where ad on twitch you get bits. The longer the ad the more cc.

Or add more games that allow you to earn the cc. There's a lot of ways to do it without risking breaking the site financially.

Could even do a premium feature for members that is a monthly subscription with extra little perks like early access to new creatures in the cave or something idk.

There's always a way to balance things just have to consider all options. This entirely possible to do without hurting the site. Need to think outside the box.

Deleted • 6 April 2021 at 4:51 PM

@ian

You know how we do the lottery to win CC Creatures by using our ec buy tickets what if we do the same but win CC vouchers?

for example

You can buy a maximum of 50 tickets per drawing at 2,000 EC each. The more tickets you buy, the greater the chance you'll win!

so if you buy 50 tickets the price will be 100kec

@snowywinter I agree with cc change

10cc is 100kec
20cc is 200kec
anything helps

tortoise • 6 April 2021 at 5:37 PM

@minnie298a I know this probably doesn’t matter now since adults took over but this game was originally a kids game. When I started playing in 2011 the majority of the players were kids who had to use their parents credit cards to buy CC. CC wasn’t such a big deal back then, but you have to think about how there are still kids playing today who can’t buy currency. Of course adults can buy themselves CC because most have a source of income. But there should be more than one way to earn CC other than buying it with real money.

@snowywinter @xmidnightstarx I do think that having the option to watch ads for CC would be a good idea because it would benefit both the game and the players. Another idea I had is some sort of daily wheel you could spin or wishing well/fountain you could try your luck at for a chance to win EC, CC or one of the Cash Shop monthlies/rereleases. Of course it would be a smaller chance to get the CSPs or rereleases from it but I thought that would be a nice addition to the game.

It would also be nice if we could earn a bit more EC from feeding. I think we should change the amount of EC earned from feeding to how much we get on double feed day or maybe a bit less. If we earned more EC it wouldn’t take forever to save up like it does now and it would balance things out more (in my opinion.)

cuty • 6 April 2021 at 6:11 PM

I completely agree with the EC to CC conversion! I had this idea since I started playing, way back in 2013 because I was a kid and didn't have a credit card, but even if I did, I wouldn't have been able to spend it here because of my financial situation, which is 100% on me. @/snowywinter made a point that it should be at a percent of loss so EggCave could still profit and people who are able to, would continue buying CC with real-life money.

Deleted • 6 April 2021 at 6:14 PM

@cuty I agree with you.