Suggestion: Exploring Habitats/Battling? (feedback/ideas welcomed)

poptarts • 26 October 2024 at 3:23 PM

(I apologize if there are grammatical errors or areas lack clarity, I quickly typed this up)

Idea:
I understand that implementing new activities, events, and plots takes time and money. However, I believe introducing more interactive features would not only financially benefit EggCave but incentivize new and old players to remain active longer (as in not quitting the website or going on extended periods of hiatus). 

Exploring
Give players the ability to explore the cave or other habitats. 
Why not put those assigned habitats to use? There is a lot of potential and things that can be done with this feature. 

(Examples: random dialogue of retired/current creatures interacting in their environment; rare drops of retired travels or habitat exclusive travels; habitat exclusive item collecting, which will be perfect since galleries are being implemented; finding fragments/gems; holding Easter egg/gobbler hunts there instead.)

The setup can be like the Corn Maze or even a player’s desired creature moving about on a map (similar to a DND map).

Implement a new status bar: Stamina
Pets will all be given a stamina bar that only influences the ability to explore, a pet will not die if it reaches 0% stamina.

(i originally had happiness influenced, but some players brought up good points).

What would stop players from using a different creature with 100% stamina?
I am uncertain about this really, perhaps someone reading this will have an idea.

The only suggestion I have is requiring a player to select up to 5-creatures that they will use to explore and being locked into using those creatures for the next 24-hours or the next 7 days. (or less days)

Explore Drops Replacing Item VEND Quests
Exploring can be a replacement for item quests. Instead of NPC Shop-owners requesting store items in exchange for VEND Tokens, they will request fragments/gems/materials found in exploring. (or some other item, like ingots)

Wouldn’t That Devalue Items?
No. A player will be required to choose a specific creature that will explore. Each step will cause a reduction in creature stamina. When a creature reaches 0% stamina, they will be too tired to explore and will require shop items to boost their stamina or players to feed them. 

This will encourage players to feed their coves/other players' coves/dying coves to obtain more EC to purchase items. 

Potentially Increasing EC Demand?
Adding an Exploration option where items are required to replenish stamina may increase the demand for EC. This may encourage players to trade their CC vouchers for EC so they can continue buying items to replenish stamina.

What about using Tim’s Food Shoppe as a cheap option for Happiness Reset?
Pets booked into Tim's would not be able to explore for as long as they are booked into the service or 24 hours after canceling Tim's service. (with the stamina idea, this would remove this idea. if tim's food shoppe were to reset stamina back to 100%, then the 24-hour limitation will be needed)

Exploring Different Habitats
Now, this is not a required idea, but one I believe would make exploring more engaging and enjoyable. Make creatures only able to explore habitats they are assigned to and make it where habitats require specific fragments/objects to unlock another habitat. (this option will provide a goal/something more to work towards)
 
 
Example:
Yeep can only explore Ark City, as that is their habitat. The yeep will explore and encounter random events and sometimes collect fragments, gems, etc. The Yeep cannot explore anywhere outside of areas in Ark City.

A loose Cayni wooshes past you, chasing a ball

(insert yeep name) takes a short break. They sit against a tree looking at the Ark River; they flinch when a small stream of water shoots at (insert yeep name); it is a school of mischievous Koin.

Something shiny catches (yeep name) attention; they begin to dig and pull out an (insert item).

rare event (0.08% encounter): (yeep name) stumbles across a field of poppies (you obtained Poppy Plains).
 
So what items will be found in explore?
Potential ideas: (not all need implemented, these are just ideas)
-Habitat-exclusive items
- Retired Travels
- Current Travels
- VEND quest items: (such as ingot like in the asteroid event, fragments of something, different colored gems, NPC specific materials)
- Holiday-Event Items
- Maybe random shells, flowers, butterflies, etc for galleries?

Potential New NPC?
A new NPC, one that makes maps to unlock new habitat areas. Players must deliver specific items/fragments/whatever to trade in; once a player hits the quota, they will obtain a map to a new area to explore.
(Example: Ark City is the default starting map.) The Map NPC may require, for example, 200 fragments or 200 total of different colored gems or maybe even ingots like in the asteroid event. You will then be met with a dialogue about obtaining a new map and a new area to explore, such as grasslands, which will be the next area to explore to unlock the next map.
 
Exploring can increase creature values
I noticed that Thief Shop pets in the auction center barely sell for the amount of EC players put into purchasing the mystery eggs; as it stands, it is far cheaper to buy your desired Thief Shop creature from a player. 
Giving Thief Shop Creatures slower degradation of stamina during exploring or even “extra luck” buffs could increase value. Maybe even making a location only Thief Shop creatures can access would increase demand. 

The same can go for Asteroid, CC, and SAR creatures. 
(CC/asteroid/SAR creatures can explore longer than common/LE creatures.)
 
Wouldn’t that make CC creatures pay to play for exploring?
Not necessarily. Thief Shop creatures & Asteroid Creatures will have a chance at similar exploration stats to CC creatures. Therefore, there is a chance of obtaining a “free” explore buff. 

Additional Thoughts/Random Brainstormed Ideas
- Pets would either need to be hatched or immortal to explore. 

- Achievements can be added.

- Leaderboard for most steps

- Maybe Explore exclusive creatures (with low drop rates).

- Can be an option for implementing retired travels with very low drop rates.

- Maybe give a low chance for cave commons to have a "rare-buff" in exploring (such as a slight increase to encounter an item, slight increase in obtaining more than one fragment/gem, slower happiness degradation, increased chance of encountering something else) - that way some commons will have increased value?

- Can incorporate retired creatures interacting in their habitat (ex: you stumble across a blobbart stacking rocks into a pile. a group of onnys are huddled together sunbathing, you smell peanut butter and jelly, it occurs to you that you just stepped into a bzzt nest)

- Holiday exclusive drops/encounters (Halloween: finding collectible pumpkins to show off in the upcoming gallery; collectibles can also be used for a slight happiness increase, but not as much as store items). Maybe Halloween travels; instead of releasing them into the travel agency, put them into Explore. Or random encounters such as you stumble across a sack of kinup seeds, you bend down to grab it but are suddenly swarmed by ocktin, you flee empty handed) The same will go for other holidays. 

- Plots that involve Explore (example: mysterious portals are appearing across habitats; Cathy has requested that you investigate). Cathy will give you an object to scan the portals and develop a device for you to close them. When you close them all, you will encounter a new creature that can teleport, or maybe even a new NPC for whatever future idea or use they may have.
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Battling
Bring back battling. Back during the 2016 Asteroid Event, pets were assigned random elements and could battle mobs. When a mob is defeated, they can drop random items.

Battling Drops Replacing Item VEND Quests
Battling can be a replacement for item quests. Instead of NPC shop owners requesting items in exchange for VEND tokens, they will request fragments, gems, or habitat-exclusive items found during battle. 

What if I do not like battling?
Perhaps only incorporating exploring is the best option for this, or perhaps both. That way players who enjoy battling will have that option, and players who enjoy more pacifistic alternatives can explore. At this point, the benefit of battling could be faster leveling up, leading your creature closer to immortalization, or perhaps a leaderboard for battling. 

Conclusion
As stated before, I recognize that developing new features involves significant time and resources, but I believe that the site would also financially profit and that the amount of money put into implementing such a feature will pay off. 

This is just a rough sketch/skeleton idea of what I believe would make the EggCave experience more enjoyable. 

Please share your feedback/ideas. Any feedback is great feedback, be it positive or negative, along with adding your ideas to refine and enhance implementing this feature.

Pinging players would be greatly appreciated by those who stumble upon this topic! The more community engagement and feedback, the better for bringing potential improvements to the website. 
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Added a poll for players with social anxiety, lack of time to respond, or who prefer to be quiet. Players who respond are free to vote in the poll as well!
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Pinging some players who I see most active in suggestions. I apologize for the pings.

@prairie (you always have great ideas, so pinging you)
@ian (would this be doable, or something that interests you in implementing?)
@audrei9 (your item/dying coves made me think of this, plus you are active with suggestions)
@heatherm19 (you are also active in suggestions, so pinging you)
@minnie298a (pinging you as I noticed you are active in responding in the suggestions forum)

Deleted • 26 October 2024 at 4:51 PM

@poptarts

It is an interesting idea, but I do have a few questions and concerns about it.

1) You mentioned that pets booked into Tim's Food Shoppe are unable to explore, but could someone use a Leaf of Vaka instead? Instead of encouraging players to trade CC for EC, would that instead make CC much more valuable?

2) Will the NPC Shop-owners only request fragments, gems, or habitat-exclusive items found in exploring only, or would they also request items occasionally? Because if it just items obtained from exploring only, would that make all the items I collected obsolete?

3) Regarding your example that (CC/asteroid/SAR creatures can explore longer than common/LE creatures), would that be a disadvantage? Does that mean longer waiting time to start another exploration? Would it be better if it were shorter exploration time or higher probability of obtaining rare items instead?

poptarts • 26 October 2024 at 5:23 PM

Thank you for bringing up a very good point regarding the Leaf of Vaka and its impact on the exploring features. You are right in that the Leaf of Vaka, bypasses the need for items to replenish Happiness. That is something that slipped my mind. I have updated the main post.

1. What currently comes to mind to help this issue would be adding another status bar to all creatures such as stamina. Instead of pets losing happiness during exploration, they will lose stamina instead.

- this will ensure that pets will not potentially die if you bring their happiness down to 5-10% if you have to log off for a few days.
- this will remove the Tim's Food Shoppe Limitation.
- Items and feeding will still help recover stamina.

Not quite certain what you mean by this " Instead of encouraging players to trade CC for EC, would that instead make CC much more valuable?"

I assume that items would have more demand to continue exploring, items cost EC to replenish stamina, players may be more willing to trade their CC vouchers for EC to buy items to continue exploring.
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2. The fragments/gems are mostly potential ideas of what could replace item quests. (this would in theory exclude habitat-exclusive items as something being requested).

But items will still have value as in being used to regain stamina and something to add to galleries. Though, I guess there is also no harm in keeping item quests either, if there are different rewards offered for requests of items, or gems/fragments.
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3. There are no wait times for when a player can explore. They only need to use items to regain stamina. By exploring longer, I mostly meant that their Happiness (stamina) would decrease much slower compared to cave commons. You can still regain stamina by purchasing items to give your creatures.

(example: Camlette will have 75 stamina, a Snawler will have 50 stamina, a Cackler will have 100 stamina, A Camlette with "increased stam buff" will have 100 stamina) - this is just a general example of what I am envisioning, the "buff" ideas would mostly be a random chance upon purchasing. buffs are of course not really needed for explore.

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Hopefully, this answers all of your questions. Let me know what you think, if you need more clarification or if you have more ideas! 😊

@cherished

minnie298a • 26 October 2024 at 9:56 PM

@poptarts
I like the concept. Part of me can see it as a way to rerelease retired items like "*creature* has stumbled upon a *retired item* hidden in a hole in a tree and wonders how long it has been hidden there". Or the idea of "treasures" being found that could be turned in for an item. Through a specific shop (items available for a set time like the VEND), or a lucky dip style thing with a pool. The treasure could also be counted like the tokens for the VEND machine, eg turn in 5 red bits and 5 blue for an item.

Definitely prefer the idea of stamina over happiness. While it will be a new element, it should reduce the difficulties associated with the leaf and Tim's.

I also prefer the idea of only a set amount of creatures being allowed to roam. Maybe have them chosen through a system like Tim's or XC. With limits on changing out creatures.

Or to stop that sort of potential abuse, maybe have the stamina linked to the player/account. We, a human, already do things like approach the cave, so maybe we, the humans, take our creatures for a "walk". So it's our stamina that is affected, not the pets. Stamina could be recharged through something like baiting or questing if you want to use items, or a shop system like the CC boosters for ec. This would also eliminate the possible issue of those players who don't want items used on their creatures.

I would also like to see some sort of auto gaining of the points as newer players wouldn't have the resources to participate. Maybe link it to an average of the cove health or creature levels, or an accounts age. So those that are older get a little more for their loyalty, but it's something that can be worked up to by newer players. Maybe even work it like the sign in bonus. First day you get 10, second 20, up to say a limit of 70 per day for a week or more. Player could still have the option of purchasing more if they want. For example you could set a daily limit of 200 stamina being used. So the first day a player gets 10 for free, and can buy the other 190, but after a week the player gets 70 for free and can purchase the other 130.