EC to CC conversion

minnie298a • 6 April 2021 at 10:03 PM

@vulpix90
Yes, there have always been children around. The ones that stuck around grew up to become some of the adults. I was never a child on here, even back in 2009 when I started, but while I was working and studying, I didn't have the spare money. I still don't. Back in my "poor ec" days the exchange rate did seem excessive, and it was just something I ignored. It was just different pixels after all. I did become slightly more interested in CC when the items with benefits started to show up like the leaf and resurrection stone. When something come about I wanted, I buckled down to make it happen. I had goals to work towards. My featured creature was my first CC egg and I traded something like 20k worth of Halloween seeds for her. My leaf was a result of the Gobbler event (back when it was top 50 got 500CC).

There are also sites I belong to that don't allow an exchange between the two currencies at all. It's a freezable offence. I'm ok with that as it's only pixels, with no advantage in the game other than different things for your avatar to wear.

I'm not a fan of raising the amount of ec gotten through feeding. The only things that have changed in price are player orientated prices. I don't think increasing the amount of ec in the economy will help that.


Once upon a time, many moons ago, there was an idea proposed to help boost the XC. One of the ideas was trading excess click points into some sort of shop or lucky dip, with CC being a possible rare prize.

The idea of another raffle with voucher prizes also sounds OK to me. It would be an ec sink as well.

pwuffy • 6 April 2021 at 11:09 PM

i also am a bit on the fence about it but i agree with pretty much everything @/minnie298a has said so far... i don't want egg cave to be hurting from the potential revenue being lost but i definitely understand the sentiment behind wanting to be able to earn CC without spending money

i think the ad-watching suggestion from earlier is a pretty decent compromise. it's been ages since i played neopets but if i remember correctly i think they had some flash games with ads in them or that were sponsored or something like that. also pleased to see ian has already responded... perhaps it would be helpful to hold a poll of some kind? it might help to see what kind of ideas ian thinks are feasible to keep the site going while also implementing some kind of conversion/free-to-play change 😊

Deleted • 7 April 2021 at 3:13 PM

I want to thank everyone for voting and replying. that means a lot and I love hearing ya feedback for everything and adding new ideals that means a lot.

shine • 7 April 2021 at 3:26 PM

While I understand the concerns about the site losing revenue, I support the idea of conversion 100%. EggCave is very demotivating to play right now, as it is entirely pay to win. It is not only children who cannot afford it. The international playerbase can’t, either. Perhaps for the majority of players there isn’t an issue, but I am from Brazil and the current exchange rate makes it so that 5.000 CC costs 225 reais. I have supported the site all the same and bought that voucher twice this year, but it is very disheartening to know that that is the only reliable way to get CC even with all the time I invest into the site. All the Brazilians I know have either quit or barely log in anymore. A change like this is much needed not just for the kids, but for players from places other than Europe and North America.

Ian • 7 April 2021 at 3:39 PM

Hi all!

Thanks for the really valuable feedback in this topic.

We feel that allowing an Egg Coins to CaveCash direct conversion disincentivizes the purchase of CaveCash, which is vital to supporting the site. It could also incentivize and lead to a rise in bot abuse, specifically with feeding creatures and dilute the current value of CaveCash. If the conversion were set too low, the value of CaveCash plummets. If the conversion were set too high, users would scoff at it saying, "Pffft, what's the point anyway?"

What has been valuable about this feedback, however, is it has started to make us think of ways to allow users other ways to possibly earn CaveCash without a direct purchase. Think of it as a bonus or reward.

One possible thing that I've been thinking of lately is overhauling and redoing the daily sign in reward that is essentially the number of days you've been signed in * 100 EC. Although the EC is nice, it's kind of boring. What if daily sign in rewards contained more than just Egg Coins--like maybe items occasionally--and what if it wasn't based on a back-to-back streak but just a cumulative count?

Here's the idea... imagine you played Egg Cave for all 31 days in March. Your daily sign in reward streak is at 31. Then, imagine if you missed playing on April 1 and came back on April 2. In the current system, your streak would be all the way back at 1. But what if, instead, when you came back on April 2 it just kept ticking forward to 32? And what if every 50 or 100 days of playing, there was actually a small CaveCash award that everybody was entitled to?

What do you all think of that idea? 😸 Looking forward to hearing everybody's thoughts.

Deleted • 7 April 2021 at 3:50 PM

@Ian Yes I agree with that, thank you so much Ian for bring that up to us.

seraph • 7 April 2021 at 3:51 PM

I love everything about Ian's idea. That would make me prioritize eggcave every day, to make sure I collect my rewards.

Ian • 7 April 2021 at 3:58 PM

@seraph @sassybrat glad to hear you both like the idea! Yeah, the goal would be to reward loyalty and activity on the site. 😸

Deleted • 7 April 2021 at 4:04 PM

@Ian don't do me wrong, I love this site, but its hard to get enough Ec to buy CC. I am disable so hard for me to even get money to borrow a card you know.

this ideal is awesome.

I know you are very busy guy and I thank you for even checking this out. that means a lot to me and I am sure everyone else.

I am sorry that it didn't work out and I now have find someone who will be selling cc but yeah. thank you though for hearing us out.

Ian • 7 April 2021 at 4:05 PM

@sassybrat you're very welcome. Thanks for playing. Always looking for ways to better the community.

What do others think about the idea related to daily sign in rewards?

distorted • 7 April 2021 at 4:11 PM

@Ian Yes! That idea would be wonderful! It would help kids like me whose parents won't buy CC or is unable to buy CC.

boba • 7 April 2021 at 4:12 PM

@Ian @sassybrat
Great idea! 😃

thedarkarcher • 7 April 2021 at 4:20 PM

@Ian I really love this idea. I personally dislike the current rewards especially the interest rates of ec so a revamp of this is wonderful. I love your idea of adding items as its nice to have the possibility of having different items each month perhaps to a certain theme. Maybe it could contain a pet at the end but have the same pet for awhile so people won't feel so bad if they miss a month. Anything that creates more reason to be active on this site is a positive thing.

shine • 7 April 2021 at 4:58 PM

@Ian I really like the idea of CC as a log-in reward, and a revamp of the reward system in general. Keeping the streak going is pretty awesome!

@pet_cemetery I personally don’t think we should get a creature from these rewards. It feels to me like we should do a little more to acquire a creature, and besides there are enough ways to get them. Plus, a creature that requires logging in on a certain date, such as the end of the month, defeats the purpose of the streak being continuous imo. That, and a month feels like too short a time to get a creature reward.

That being said, it might be nice if it were an exclusive deal, as in a creature that you cannot get anywhere else and that you need to log in for, say, 365 days to obtain.

moonlight24 • 7 April 2021 at 5:02 PM

I think this is a good idea... I'm a kid and my parents won't allow me.
My friend gave me 50 CC. But since I'm not good at saving I used it.
Now I can only get CC pets and items through giveaways, lottery and trades/auctions.
I was originally online a lot, but I started being online less.
Because I don't have and can't get CC, I am really bad at the game.

@shine
Agreed.

pwuffy • 7 April 2021 at 5:17 PM

@Ian i think that's a great idea! one thing i'm wondering about though is side accounts: would side accounts be entitled to that CC as well? not everyone has the maximum # of side accounts so it could be seen as unfair in that regard or abusing the system. perhaps there would have to be a system in which you can flag your account as a side (maybe somewhere in settings, a check-box or something to determine whether your account is a main or a side? it would have to be an honor system i suppose, or monitored somehow) and sides could still receive the EC but not the CC? i'm unsure about the logistics of that or what your thoughts are on it but that was just my first thought!

Ian • 7 April 2021 at 5:35 PM

@pwuffy ah—yes! Ye olde side accounts. This would be problematic, so that would have to be taken into consideration and not extended to side accounts.

cuty • 7 April 2021 at 6:21 PM

@Ian it would have never crossed my mind, great idea, especially if the login streak would continue if we were to miss a day! @pwuffy has a point though, without some kind of a difference between main and side profiles, these login rewards would probably be abused and unfair.
This would help a lot to younger players and players in general, who aren't able to afford extra cash to spend on this site. 😊

musical_slytherclaw • 7 April 2021 at 11:51 PM

I agree with @/snowywinter, I think there definitely needs to be some kind of "disadvantage" for those who buy EC, the easiest and most simple in my opinion would be the extra cost. This might also stop those who are marking up CC for some sort of...profit? (This isn't supposed to be referring to anyone in particular, but selling 5000CC for 57M is super sad.)

There's also been a very obvious stall in trading recently (which I think we can all agree is attributed to rereleases, which is to be expected), so this might jumpstart the economy again now that there's could be more CC that people are willing to put into circulation (nobody wants to sell their 3k creatures for 30M EC...who even has that much EC?).

It really just comes back to the same arguments when it comes to pricing anything related to CC. I think the specific price shouldn't be left to us due to how chaotic the whole rereleases argument was when it was first announced, and the EggCave team sticking by what they decided on really worked, given that those complaining about the rereleases haven't been heard from in a while. Right now, everyone's writing "CC" in their trade lots but no one's offering. I think most people really have found the rereleases to be good, so I'm sure the EggCave team can come up with another good solution for us. 😊

For the user who was talking about making it easier to make EC (@/vulpix90?), I think the rate that EC is being "made" from feeding is already really fair, especially with the double feed days. If we increased it I feel like the value of CC would then be thrown into wack again. But I have heard complaints from users that repeating the menial task of clicking to feed with no real excitement can be annoying to those who don't find it relaxing. Maybe tiny quests (not really the word I'm going for since we have Quests but close enough) around the site that helps one get EC would be more exciting for those that need a break? The month long events around the site are super fun but smaller things can really go a long way as well.

This is slightly unrelated but there's no real incentive when it comes to the Strongroom interest increasing EC? No one really has 40M in their Strongroom to turn a profit of 10k EC everyday, and people always complain about having no EC and spending it too quickly (I'm interpreting the Strongroom as an incentive to save up money). Maybe if there were more small things like the Strongroom and Site Trivia that gave us more EC or even CC for interacting on the site in a way that bots would have a hard time doing would be helpful? My intuitive suggestion would be something simple like "if someone posts on your wall or vice versa you get EC" but that would just lead to spam.

lol so I have a lot of thoughts. but overall I think the EggCave economy was quite good when I first joined and now is kind of at a standstill, or is at least moving quite slowly, with most people only selling cave creatures. this conversion would probably provide a long term solution to a problem that's been building for a while, but I don't think the solution should be quite as simple as just automating the same conversion we've been using so far by manifesting CC out of thin air. (if that happens, watch people mark up their creatures like they did with CC,) nevertheless, I'm sure we'll find a solution 😃

minnie298a • 8 April 2021 at 12:01 AM

@Ian
I like the idea of an overhaul to the rewards system. While I don't have any main issues with the current system, personally the 3000ec a day it's not that "rewarding" when compared to, say, my daily interest amount. It's still free ec, so I won't reject it though.

So other items thrown in, regardless of how exclusive or long it took to get them, would be an extra incentive for me. I also wouldn't mind if the current counting system was kept, or was changed to an accumulative one, or even a mixture, eg the current system stays, but when you've logged in X amount of days total, you get a prize. But I don't know coding, so that may be too difficult.

A suggestion towards the side account issue. Would it be possible to have the daily reward as an interaction rather than something automatic when you log in? Something like the button you click to collect your daily interest. On it's own special page, or maybe at the top of the blog page, or something. This could be a way to keep both systems in play.

I like the idea of the prizes being somewhat fixed. So for example from day one, you know you need 61 days to get Y prize. Regardless if it takes you 2 months or 2 years, you still know the goal.


Edited because the post above was posted while I was typing: I feel the compounding interest is an incentive to go and collect your interest everyday. In starting out, it may only be 10ec a day. But that is "free" ec that only takes seconds to earn. Eventually it turns into 11 a day, then 12, and if you can refrain from spending to much, it's at about 40,555,000 that you get the 10k a day interest. However, I find feeding to be a soothing activity when my insomnia is playing up, or I am actually invested in what I am watching on TV. By mindlessly feeding, I found the ec to build, with the events being an extra boost.

pwuffy • 8 April 2021 at 12:11 AM

@minnie298a i actually like your idea with regards to the side account dilemma better than mine, and idk why i didn't think of it myself haha since it makes perfect sense... i feel that solution aligns much better with how side account-exempt features across the rest of the site works... everything a side account isn't allowed to do, is something that isn't automated, i.e. you have to actively click/claim/participate/whatever... so yeah i think some kind of claim button would probably be a lot better!

this is maybe a bit farfetched or ambitious but maybe it would be fun to have some sort of calendar on eggcave. from the calendar you could claim your reward every day but perhaps you could also see monthly events and things like double feed day?

soraia • 8 April 2021 at 12:34 AM

'kay so I'm new, so take my thoughts/opinions with a grain of salt. xD But here are some of my inputs.

@Ian
I really like the idea of changing up the login bonuses. Even as a brand new player, the low EC bonus is kind of just "meh." You could even just do 30 day cycles, so it still adds up to roughly once a month depending on how many days are skipped in between, with escalating prizes throughout. You could also maybe do a sort of advent calendar each month. Players would only get the prizes on the days they are able to login for, but there could be chances here and there of CC to spice it up. Creates the incentive to login without seriously hurting you if you don't. (EDIT: Looks like @pwuffy actually thought of something like this in the post above while I was typing up my reply. xD)

But while I do really love the idea of a better login rewards system, in whatever form that may take, I have to mention that I'd really rather see CC used as an incentive to make the Click Exchange more active, if possible. I have to say that as a new player coming to this game, it's really off-putting to see such a potentially useful tool being used to rarely. So maybe, if there's going to be a converter system, it should be from XC to CC. It would maybe increase the incentive to click if those extra XC could be traded instead of sitting there unused. There could perhaps be a small rewards shop built into the Click Exchange where users could trade XC for CC, exclusive travels, etc. Also, I understand that CC needs to remain something worth purchasing with real money, so the conversion could be for small amounts of CC, like 1000XC for 5CC, or something. Or maybe it could just have a 1% chance of popping up when you click a pet through the Exchange? Not really sure the best way to implement it, just mostly wanted to point out it might be a good way to incentivize the Exchange.

That's just my two cents, but if it doesn't work somehow, that's fine!

shine • 8 April 2021 at 1:08 AM

@Ian Regarding the side account issue, perhaps make it so the daily bonus has to be claimed instead of being automatically given? It would add an extra step for players, but I personally don’t mind. Maybe the notification could be something like, “Thank you for logging in! Don’t forget to claim your prize” and upon clicking you’d be redirected to the page. A pop-up page is also a possibility.

snowywinter • 8 April 2021 at 1:29 AM

@Ian

While I'm sad to hear the exchange is a no go, I'm grateful the staff is open to other possibilities for getting more CC into the community.

I'm both for and against changing the way the current daily log-in bonus works. While the idea of it not resetting may appeal to a new player, it has already occurred to me that would tilt the scales into an unfair advantage for longer-term player and the current inflation problem that others have mentioned.
And it hardly seems fair that someone who may have started 9 years ago could leave for 7 years, then decide to come back and get the same advantage as someone who has logged in daily.

The idea of a 31 day log-in steak special bonus does sound appealing though!

or...
like the chances of getting a monthly creature at the cave is lower than getting a cave common, what about something like that with the EC. Like a 10% chance of getting an item or double DSiB EC, 5% of rare item, or a 2%* chance of getting CC? (Like 1-5 CC, and maybe a 0.5% chance of getting 25 CC)
(*percentages are just an example)

As a new player I REALLY look forward to that "boring" daily sign-in bonus of EC, but I could also be on board with jazzing things up.

and I agree with @/pwuffy that there should be a click box or something for people to mark their side accounts. Something that automatically disables certain features, rather than having to rely on people to report their honest mistakes.

megamisama90 • 8 April 2021 at 5:56 AM

I've been reading this from the start and I've been silently just watching from the side but as I've come to read more I'm with @minnie298a. Login bonus and daily interests are important to me. I like your idea @Ian. Also someone said before that it would be nice to keep the April Fools puzzle and get some rewards from it when completing it, to me that sounds good idea too or something like that.

moonlight24 • 8 April 2021 at 10:03 AM

@megamisama
Makes sense! And I just thought of something; there's EC to CC, but what about CC to EC? :> Or does that exist?

athanasia • 8 April 2021 at 11:14 AM

@sassybrat
I like the idea, and I think a good way to make it so that EggCave can still make money, is maybe by making a new currency. So we can have a 3rd currency like ECC or something, so you can exchange EC for the new currency and be able to buy some things like LEs and maybe CSP, but you have to use CC to buy rereleases. 😸

dragiigy • 10 April 2021 at 12:07 PM

@Ian
.....And what if every 50 or 100 days of playing, there was actually a small CaveCash award that everybody was entitled to?

SUPERB !!!!!

nightslayer300 • 11 April 2021 at 9:28 AM

@sassybrat I love this idea!

dragiigy • 22 June 2021 at 1:58 AM

@Ian
anything new about your idea?