⭐️💰 Monthly Challenge & Dailies Feedback Megathread

pwuffy • 3 February 2023 at 10:02 AM

@crazyangel4life totally agree and just came here to write that - it seems everyone is getting the same dailies across the site each day, which makes sense for trial/testing purposes i suppose but i'd really like to see them randomized for everyone each day

also agreeing on the sentiment that 3 blog posts are pretty excessive and imo more egregiously spammy than the 3 wall comments/forum posts dailies :/ 1 blog comment is fine and could potentially foster NATURAL conversation but 3 blog comments is just so forced, especially on a day where there is no new blog post and many people already gave their thoughts on whatever the most recent blog post is....

lunacharm1037 • 3 February 2023 at 10:20 AM

Well everyone has already posted anything I might have said but I need to make blog posts

sarikunezume • 3 February 2023 at 11:00 AM

I completely agree that the blog comment task is a bad idea. The first two had decent options for those of us with anxiety disorders (posting on our own wall then deleting the posts, and playing simple forum games). Today's social task feels impossible to do for people like me. I struggle with communicating my thoughts all the time. I always take forever to get a post written, and I've had a really bad experience on a previous site. Because of this, I get a bit shaky when I have to do these kinds of interactions.

greengrassoftunnel • 3 February 2023 at 11:00 AM

I came here to say exactly what pwuffy said - randomizing the dailies would make the site more balanced and have a more even distribution of people doing different stuff.

Also I hope the CC reward will be increased eventually. Other than that, I'm enjoying it! And it seems like the site is much more active, which is great 😊

aquafaba • 3 February 2023 at 11:40 AM

We haven't seen all the dailies yet, but maybe instead of ones like "write 3 blog posts" have ones like "gift an item to another player" to encourage players to do nice things for each other

heatherm19 • 3 February 2023 at 12:09 PM

@aquafaba That's a sweet idea but I fear it would come with it's own issues. Sending items to users is still interaction, an those of us who struggle with that will still struggle. It could also easily feel spammy as well, everyone just sending random people random items they may not want just to meet a requirement. An unlike creature transfers, transferring items between users is instant an doesn't require the receiver to actively accept it... I'm very strategic about what is in my inventory at any given time an would be extremely frustrated to start getting random items tossed into my inventory.

aquafaba • 3 February 2023 at 12:15 PM

@heatherm19 Good points! Thanks for pointing that out 😊

dragrawr • 3 February 2023 at 12:17 PM

Im still concerned for my social anxious friends on here, i don’t them to go into full panic mode, and I’ve noticed really old topics being brought back up and it’s all just turning into spam. I feel like there has to be a way around this, perhaps some sort of “npc” account, where maybe that new Flor can help you complete your daily tasks without interacting. People shouldn’t have to interact to gain a reward on this site, many people here are anxious/shy/introverted.

Also, i don’t really understand the idea that everyone has the same task at the same time. Don’t get me wrong I love the dailies, but it just creates so much spam when it’s a social one, or floods the donations. It should be randomized daily for each person, i feel.

Also bringing back my point that the emojis are a little unsightly, and could be instead white icons like the original sidebar 😊 it would be cute

Deleted • 3 February 2023 at 1:23 PM

This seems actually really fun so far!

Ian • 3 February 2023 at 6:21 PM

Thanks for the feedback so far, everybody! Here are the top points that we see rising to the top.

1. Concern and anxiety about forced social interactions (we understand you don't want your personal walls invaded!). Tip: you can post on your own wall. For a forum post daily, you can post on a forum game topic or comment on a creature suggestion. We're not asking for paragraphs and paragraphs of disclosure; it can be quick/snap thoughts and reactions to things on Egg Cave.

2. Some discussion of dropping the monthly requirement down from 25 (some leniency, but potentially not enough--I get that. People should enjoy their weekends.)

3. New daily ideas: donate to SARC fund, give a creature up for adoption (could have a saturation problem, we'd need to think on this)

4. Individual daily tasks rewards (EC reward for claiming) is a bit lackluster. How can we spice that up a bit?

We'll clarify the "100% increased chance" language on the Monthly Challenge page. Your chance at a Cave monthly is essentially doubled versus what it normally is visiting the Cave in a single attempt. This verbiage will be updated on the Monthly Challenge page tomorrow.

dragrawr • 3 February 2023 at 6:27 PM

@Ian

1. Full agreement on own wall, and I’m happy the blog posts are no longer. Forum posts still an issue at Hand.

2. I agree with this concern, I’d be happy with 20-22 out of the month. :] whatever works !

3. SARC is a good idea, adoption I’m not sure, i feel like many many many commons would stay there basically forever. Exploring mysterious asteroid could work as a daily.

4. Perhaps more ec, since site trivia gives us 10k for one question, i feel like the ec amounts could be upped- or for completing all of them you get 10k Ec like Site Trivia.

Ian • 3 February 2023 at 6:32 PM

@dragrawr I'd recommend posting on a forum game topic (doesn't require generating new discussion), dropping a quick reaction on a creature suggestion, or welcoming to the site. I feel like people are overthinking this a bit.

Mysterious Asteroid is already a daily in the system, it just hasn't appeared yet by random chance. Stay tuned for that.

I agree that the EC amount could be upped for day-to-day claims. Alternatively, we could do something more interesting like a random roll at an item, quest token, etc. I'm unsure here, as I don't want to make the Monthly Challenge too similar to something else (i.e. Dragold's Den power ups). Open to any and all ideas that are reasonable, fair, and make things more interesting without going overboard.

P.S. I really like the "Feed Friendly Cove" badge idea that's a simple checkbox people could check under Preferences.

spell • 3 February 2023 at 6:39 PM

1. I think the workarounds for forum posts and wall commenting are good enough - the blog posts were the main problem and they were already taken out.

2. Is it 25 per month? Does the counter reset the next month? I was under the impression that it was when you reach 25 days regardless of whether it takes you a month or a year to reach it, you would get 100 CC - I think I would prefer this model over it resetting every month, especially in shorter months like February ^^" But I get how resetting it would encourage more activity, so not sure which would be better :/

3. I would avoid the "give a creature up for adoption" one - it costs EC and the adoption center will be flooded with cave commons. I think SARC donation is fine (though there would always need to be a creature being researched when it pops up) if there isn't a minimum donation or if the minimum isn't too high.

4. I don't mind the small EC rewards for individual daily tasks - most of them don't take too long and tasks like feeding and answering the site trivia already rewards us with EC anyways. Maybe some more EC like @dragrawr suggested for completing all of them in addition to the cave monthly chance?

Ian • 3 February 2023 at 6:54 PM

@spell In response to your question in #2, it's based on the current calendar month. If you don't complete the monthly challenge in the current calendar month, you cannot obtain the monthly reward of 100 CC. Resets each month.

Thanks for your additional feedback. 😊

dragrawr • 3 February 2023 at 7:27 PM

@Ian the feed friendly cove would be wonderful !!

Also, I’m an extrovert so posting is no big deal, I think the games forum is perfect for anyone not wanting to interact. It’s just counting to a million or saying “ping pong” not too bad.

Oh lovely! Excited for the asteroid one 😊 and thanks @spell for being in agreeance with the final reward of ec each day 😊

Also *still pushing the emoji idea here* where the icons aren’t emojis but instead white icons like the side bar to make it fit the white/green beauty of the site

As always, endless thanks to you and the Team, Ian! I’m so excited to be a part of this new integration and I can’t wait to watch the site grow even more :]

alityria • 3 February 2023 at 7:53 PM

After reading through the topic I really like the idea of alraune3. Instead to complete 5 dailies in a day you'll be able to do 125 (25 x 5 =125 tasks total) tasks a month. You can also add 5-10 bonus tasks which can rotate after 5-10 days (or less) so people can choose from what they would like to do. Not everyone wants to feed, interact, consume or whatever reasons nor the time.
If not, is it an option to add 1-3 extra tasks to choose from for the current system? On that way we can decide which 5 dailies we want to complete for that day.

I'm very pleased with changes already^^ Thank you all so much for the time, work and giving us the opportunity to give feedback!

mindwhiper • 4 February 2023 at 1:08 AM

Mmmmmmmmmm another 3 posts. It's becoming more and more annoying. I know you are very interested in site's views, adds and everything else, but I really don't think it's good idea. Because these posts will have no difference from spam, just a noise without meaning.

On the other side, it's a wonderful example of reflection of social services: if you give something free, it's always nice to push ppl to something that they won't do, but this shiny things soooo free, so attractive...

okami • 4 February 2023 at 1:24 AM

@ian_hives
The posting on forums isn't a difficult task though? There are multiple game threads where you literally just post a number. And posting on those threads isn't spamming at all because they're trying to count upwards. There isn't a character requirement to the postings or anything 😊

mindwhiper • 4 February 2023 at 1:29 AM

@bluewolf no, it's not difficult task - yet, cos imagine this thing you're will do every day, like work.

heatherm19 • 4 February 2023 at 1:41 AM

@bluewolf It is definitely a difficult task if you are already having an extremely-high-anxiety day. Some people don't understand that even things like game-topics can be extremely difficult for some of us.

okami • 4 February 2023 at 1:53 AM

@heatherm19
I completely get that, I have multiple diagnosed anxiety disorders so I understand the struggles of those. In my opinion there are many forum topics that aren't overly anxiety inducing (like the number one, that doesn't require any conversation or back and forth)- but again varies by person. Another option for users with high anxiety could be to delete their post after making it- that way it'll still count towards the post amount but people won't be able to see or interact with the post.

For the staff I feel like it'd be a bit excessive to delete the social category of the dailies for those reasons, but maybe they could provide an accommodation. Maybe users could select to replace their social category with a second of another one.

heatherm19 • 4 February 2023 at 1:57 AM

@bluewolf Hmm, do we know that a post will still count if you delete it? I guess it's different everywhere, but I'm used to a forum where deleting a post deletes anything tied to it (like number of posts, level, etc). If it still counted that would be a great work-around!

okami • 4 February 2023 at 2:04 AM

@heatherm19

Yeah it does, I tried it the first day (shhh xD). It also counts if you delete wall comments immediately after making them.

I do think providing accommodations all-around would still be a good idea though. I know there are some users who have mobility struggles with their hands, so the days where we have to feed 300 creatures might be very painful for them. If the replace one category thing were implemented, then those users could elect to replace their feeding daily with a different daily category. Or I know it was mentioned that there are easy-medium-hard categories for all the dailies, so maybe allow users to elect one category that they would like to permanently be on easy mode and have the rest be random?

spell • 4 February 2023 at 2:10 AM

Not sure if any of these ideas have been suggested yet, but I think that completing a vending machine quest; buying an item from a shop; or during events: visiting the Dragold's Den, visiting the Advent Tree, sending chocolate, or playing a Halloween Fair game could all be dailies as well ^^

minnie298a • 4 February 2023 at 3:43 AM

@Ian
My 2 cents to your points and questions.
1 - Now the 3 blog posts task is removed, I'm feeling better about the interaction things. With the blog, it was more making sure all the posts were meaningful and not in anyway spam that was the main cause of my anxiety.
The work around solutions calmed the initial panic of being forced to interact. I'm fine with posting on my own wall to immediately delete, and playing the forum games. In my mind that is less "risky".

2 - I'm thinking the 25 days thing is more a "this started in February" issue. Yes I'm aware it's only 2 or 3 days sorter, but it a mental thing as well. There feels to be more of a rush, less room to mess up sort of thing. You can only miss 3 days not 5 or 6.
I've seen the idea of making the CC dependent on the number of tasks done not completed days posted before. This could also play into the social aspect. If someone really isn't up to interacting, they only lose the task point, not the whole day. So if the prize is awarded at 120 (which is 5 task for 24 days), you could theoretically miss an interaction task everyday and still gain the CC (120 / 4 tasks = 30 days). Well for 11 of the 12 months anyway.
With that concept in mind, if the tasks had a point value then there is also the possibility of offering longer, harder or bonus tasks worth more points, eg feeding 7000 creatures in a week gets you 3 extra task points, make it out of the Halloween Maize Maze, win one point etc.
The creature wheel with the extra chance could still be an incentive to do all the tasks in a day.

3 - Not a fan of the idea of donating a creature, purely based on the amount of the fee to do so. I do have the ec to do this, but I also remember my early days where raising that amount would have been stressful (totally doable as explained by my random end notes, but would seem like a waste of hard earned funds). I'm also envisioning a great dumping of freshly stolen cave commons, that linger around for weeks until some unsuspecting new player comes along.
Although to quote the Adoption Center "NOTE — The Egg Cave staff does not encourage the abandonment of any creatures! Your creature is for life!".
Two other ideas I have are putting at least 1 creature in Tim's shop for a day (his fee is less than what you earn from a single feed) and attempting a quest. And by attempt I mean accepting, not necessarily completing because the only penalty for failing is a time one.

4 - As for the rewards. Personally, at the moment, I'm OK with the amount. I'm donating old event prizes I have laying around, and finally getting around to the long neglected task of putting travels on my creatures. Of course, I wouldn't complain if it was upped, but I'm happy with the extra ec.

For anyone interested, I started taking notes on my awards.
Day 3 - Total awarded: 2548 ec, which averaged 509 ec per task. Plus approx 10,000ec for the feeding task.
Day 4 - Total awarded: 2834 ec, which averaged 566 ec per task. Plus approx 20,000ec for feeding.

So on that exceedingly small sample, if you win an average of 500ec per task, and you complete every task every day, you are looking at a little over 912k a year.

daisycat • 4 February 2023 at 12:25 PM

There is still a typo in the dailies, it says "discarding" twice. I believe @/lynncrow mentioned this as well.

"Use or consume 5 items in your Inventory. Generic actions like moving, discarding, donating, or discarding do not apply."

mightyeglantine • 5 February 2023 at 2:02 PM

I know this topic has been mentioned many times before my mention of it, but I'm still rather confused by the reward for finishing all 5 dailies being a cave attempt with a 100% chance of finding a monthly.

Does this mean we are guaranteed to find a monthly through that cave attempt?
Does it mean the chance of finding a monthly is increased at all?

I've completed the dailies everyday since they've come out and have yet to get a monthly through the reward cave attempt, though I have found two Unixi(plural? lol) and I'm not sure what the 100% chance is referring to in terms of finding a cave monthly. Some more detail on that part would be wonderful ❤️

Though in terms of actual improvements or changes, I'd love to see the tasks each player is given be randomized in some way so that we're not seeing a constant flooding of items into the donation center for one day and nothing the next. Having a random set of 5 tasks given each day that not every player has could also cut down on the wall post/forum post spam and make things feel a little more natural and less influenced by the Dailies.

I do also agree with some that the amount of CC being awarded for 25 days of work is a little wimpy but I also don't care much as I don't need the dailies for CC and can buy my own whenever I want to, so I'm not relying on it. Though I can definitely empathize with those who either don't have the money or don't feel comfortable spending the money for CC and will have to use the dailies alongside trading to get it.

okami • 5 February 2023 at 2:08 PM

@mightyeglantine

The wording was a bit confusing when they initially announced that. They've since corrected the wording in the most recent blog post:

"Starting tomorrow, the language will be clarified on the Monthly Challenge page when completing a day's worth of dailies. Your chances of receiving a Cave monthly are doubled for your single attempt (claiming via the Monthly Challenge page). You can still receive a Cave common."

heatherm19 • 5 February 2023 at 3:33 PM

@minnie298a I love the idea of (eventually?) offering longer/harder tasks that maybe give a little more benefit. (Though I say this as someone who normally feeds over 1k creatures a day and can be on here for long stretches of time.)

I think 100CC per month is a decent amount to be able to get for free, though I had an idea that maybe there could be a slight increase during events? Like with the Ark Victory event, celebrating the victory could include a little more CC for that month.

(As a side note, I was a bit wary of the 'use items' task at first because I was thinking too narrowly and didn't realize that putting travels on creatures would count... I'm *extremely* behind in that in my cove and am appreciating the incentive to get some done!)

ohanasystem • 6 February 2023 at 2:49 AM

as a new player, i'd like to say that the quests daily is kind of brutal. i've been trying to build up my items when i can, but i don't have much of anything yet - and between donating & consuming dailies, that was already pretty tough; but adding in completing 5 quests as well is way too hard on the funds.

i had to cancel 2-3 quests because i had no chance of completing them (one asked for an item that would have cost 9million ec) and just barely scraped in on the 5th by doing a stack of feeds & then using everything in my pocket cash. i really want that cc, but this daily is not sustainable for me -- fine if it only pops up once or twice in the month; but more often - or with more quests required -- and it's just not going to be doable for me (and, i assume, other new folks -- which will deter newer people from playing).