A new player's opinion (too pay to play)

viltuvitrast • 25 April 2022 at 9:25 AM

@galactic_pigeon Well, Ian said in February-

"To recap, we are open to creating a way for users to obtain CC without a direct buy. You all are right. Most other games that I've played have had some other way to obtain the premium currency. But, it has to be done in the right way."

https://eggcave.com/forums/topic/76031?page=5

I actually don't think it would be very hard to fix. Being actually able to earn CC through site activities (even a little bit at a time) would be huge for this site. Maybe an EC to CC terminal with a monthly cap, being able to earn CC by doing quests, etc.

@ian any new developments? What if we gave it a shot for a few months and see how it goes? 😊

aquafaba • 27 April 2022 at 12:00 PM

I agree with you @viltuvitrast that it shouldn't be very difficult to at least try implementing ways to earn CC through site games like questing, site trivia, conversion terminal, etc.

@stormwarden I love what you said.

"who even is the target audience of this game? the only people who have disposable income at the rate that this game demands to accumulate the "chase" creatures (to put it in tcg terms) are adults who either have school or work or family to occupy their day-to-day, so the grinding clicks for EC is nigh impossible. the PG-rated everything offers a kid-friendly experience, but kids aren't going to stick around if they're literally never going to get anything with a population # of >~500."

In my opinion, our dream coves should be obtainable either by spending money for CC or through hard work and time spent on the site earning EC and playing the site games. The way the site economy currently is though, even if you spend a lot of time on the site feeding and earning EC, poor players still can't get the creatures we want because most players only want CC. This is a big problem.

@ian any chance we can get a response? Thank you 😊

quinoafuntime • 29 April 2022 at 1:22 PM

@ian check out the trade center. "CC" "CC only" "looking for CC." It's great that desirable creatures are being rereleased, but it's turning this site into a coin slot where spending time here doesn't matter at all. All that matters is spending money. Please let us know what the team is planning.

Ian • 29 April 2022 at 3:25 PM

@viltuvitrast @aquafaba @quinoafuntime and others

Great discussion here. As I said, we're exploring a way to obtain CC without a direct buy but through site activities and being rewarded for regular, consistent play time.

I know this message will seem short (and that you all will be asking for more details) but what I can say is... stay tuned... an announcement is coming within the coming months. Hang tight! Promise. A few details, so far, that I can disclose is:

• Ability for main accounts to obtain CC without a direct buy
• The goal is to reward you for consistent, regular play time and for things you're already doing
• Offering CC rewards will require additional account verification to deter cheating and multiple accounts abuse
• The monthly CC reward will not be 500 CC

dougprishpreed • 29 April 2022 at 5:11 PM

Thank you @ian for letting us know this info. I'll ping some people who have been active in these threads in the past so they can see this update.

@mr-blue-bones @stellalunagirl @izziedragon @kataclysm @autumnal @tryvegan4theanimals @prairie @iia @hinokazes @brookie @pipkitten @theyeepkingdom @riceboysleeps @lexicon @solaris @doublechin @structuresfromsilence @spacecowboy79 @poserpanda @portal @chapus @justagiannamoment @pooh @cryptic_cryptic @raindrops @sodabearjess @wweesisa @nut @wolfmoon @myriadium @poptarts

lobstertheremin • 29 April 2022 at 5:18 PM

This is very exciting news. Thank you Ian 😊

I'm a bit worried that the potential CC that players will be able to earn each month will be too small to make a meaningful impact on the site's economy (since you say it won't be 500 CC), but I guess we'll have to wait and see. Anything will be better than nothing, of course.

structuresfromsilence • 29 April 2022 at 5:37 PM

Thank you Ian ❤️

I'm inclined to agree with you @lobstertheremin. 500cc seems fair, as a lot of players have argued.

"With this terminal you can only obtain a maximum of 500cc a month. That is enough to afford 1 CSP monthly. Not a re-release or both monthlies for each month. This is enough to where someone can still get use of buying CC each month, but still has a drive for purchase/trade of more CC." @prairie

https://eggcave.com/forums/topic/76031?page=1

"Personally, I think it is fair to have a cap at 500cc simply because 2-3(1kcc+ Each) rereleases plus 2 cash shop creatures(1kcc) and 4 cash shop travels(200cc) released every month. For someone that tries to buy everything that’s about 4.2kcc($42USD) of releases PER MONTH" @iia

https://eggcave.com/forums/topic/76031?page=3

And I said this a few months ago:

"I'm very certain that 500cc a month won't dry up the amount of financial support that the site gets. It's enough to get a good foot in the door but little enough that people will be interested in getting more. And letting everyone have a chance to get a steady source of the currency will also get people to think of the site in a more positive light instead of with bitterness. 200cc is a bit insulting.

And remember, this isn't giving people 500cc a month. People have to earn 5 million ec to do that, which takes a lot of time on the site. And that's the whole point: increasing the number of time spent here."

https://eggcave.com/forums/topic/76031?page=4

On the bright side, I'm very happy that we got more news 😊

hinokazes • 29 April 2022 at 5:40 PM

@dougprishpreed
I already saw it, but thank you for the ping ^^

Was pretty happy to see that news, I just hope the fact it says monthS will not mean those months may turn into years.
Kinda sad that the monhtly CC will not be enough for a shop pet, but maybe there'll be ways to actually reach those by different means that will ask for different investments from us. Anyway, the simple idea of being able to get CC is already a win in my eyes (I'm curious of the amount tho) if it means I can get some more shops at the end of the year (please I beg you DO NOT remove the yearly shops last chance at the end of december, it's when I choose the ones I prefer and also we can only get the 1K CC from the november event at the start of december !). I would also think about the leaf of vaka for new players, because having to wait the anniversary or tryhard the november event to hope to be in the leaderboard to get enough CC to buy a leaf of vaka and not see their beloved pets die is not cool.

mr-blue-bones • 29 April 2022 at 7:15 PM

@dougprishpreed Thank you for the ping!

While I'm excited to hear this, I agree with @lobstertheremin, @structuresfromsilence, and @hinokazes.
It's an improvement and I'd be happy with any CC at this point, but if the reward isn't 500 CC it would take two months to earn enough CC to buy one regular shop creature, and by then there's 4 store monthlies and 4 re-releases. Unless there is enough supplementary CC rewards, which it sounds like there might be something like that, I imagine it would be a little disappointing to the people who've been waiting for this.

And I have a feeling there won't be an EC exchange terminal. There was no mention of it in Ian's update. ☹️

dragrawr • 30 April 2022 at 2:30 AM

As @Ian said,

“
• Ability for main accounts to obtain CC without a direct buy
• The goal is to reward you for consistent, regular play time and for things you're already doing
• Offering CC rewards will require additional account verification to deter cheating and multiple accounts abuse
• The monthly CC reward will not be 500 CC
“

I can assume that soon we will be able to obtain more cc. Although many creatures are released and rereleased frequently and consistently it does not mean there are too many- but we all can agree with this. However, I believe it should still be a little challenging to obtain EVERY cash shop for every month- I think being able to feed and trade and collect should still be the one goal of the site, but with these implements promised by Ian, I am sure it will be easier for people on less often or people with less time to grind ec. If cc becomes too available the price will deflate and the whole economy will get trashed, leaving a virtually unplayable game. His first bullet point seems to be a plethora of things- possibly- and it seems as though from his other points our mains will be reinforced heavily [this is a good thing]. His second point is likely a daily log-in chart with rewards after a long time for consistent/loyal players- which thank you so much Ian + staff. It might not be a log-in based chart like some other games, but time will tell!! The last point is okay with me, as long as improvements are being implemented it shows us the staff HAS been listening and they are working on solutions so don’t be too quick to be discouraged by the last bullet point there- as long as some cc is obtainable without hours and hours of clicking then that is a great improvement.

Basically- good job everyone for discussing such great points, and thank you Ian + staff for hearing us and working so hard to make this game fun and accessible but still unique in its own little eggcave way, thank you! 🌸💗

izziedragon • 30 April 2022 at 10:26 AM

@dougprishpreed Thank you for the ping! I've been very inactive. This is great news!

riceboysleeps • 30 April 2022 at 2:55 PM

I am very excited as well, though I agree with everyone else that 500cc seems like a reasonable amount that each player can earn every month. One new cc creature a month or one rerelease every other month. And you can make it challenging and time consuming to earn that 500cc, it's not like everyone will be able to do it easily. Thus, the site's economy won't be damaged by it. I think that it could help the site get more traffic and retain new players 😊

Ian • 30 April 2022 at 7:55 PM

To respond to the disappointment that the reward won’t be 500 CC: we will need to trial the CC reward/achievements system first at an initially low offering, and are open to increasing the reward into the future.

As part of this CC reward system, part of the first few months of the new feature will literally be managing abuse and fraud and account patterns and behaviors. I hope that makes sense!

hinokazes • 30 April 2022 at 8:24 PM

@Ian
Oh, will it be like when re-released were first introduced ? Iirc at first you were looking closely at how it was going to see if it was a good idea or not to continue depending of users behavior, but I'm not sure anymore after all this time

Ian • 30 April 2022 at 9:30 PM

@hinokazes yes, similar! Think of it as a live experiment, as opposed to something that’s set in stone forever.

greengrassoftunnel • 2 May 2022 at 8:14 PM

Sounds great @ian, thank you for your transparency 😊 very excited about the future of eggcave!

riceboysleeps • 5 August 2022 at 12:26 PM

I hope this is coming soon! I am also excited :]

hikanu • 5 August 2022 at 3:12 PM

This topic is quite interesting, just reading everyones opinions on the matter.

I'll be looking forward to that live test. 😊 - Which is probably not a sentence I ever thought I'd get to say. Especially not after the last live test I was (sort of) a part of. It wasn't exactly wanted... Lots of lovely backlash from less than pleased players who no longer got to abuse a game mechanic... xD - I do suppose there is no mechanic to abuse here, so that might be the difference.

Regardless, I wish you luck reaching the proper balance. ^^