Goldmining is causing the lag, and must stop

[Vagabollain]

I am not a fan of quests. I don't do them on other sites either, so I'm hoping for minigames to earn gold. I go to hatcheries and click manually whenever I see links I haven't clicked yet, mainly magi-ifn, and I only ever really click eggs/hatchlings because I see little point in clicking adults. (They don't change, wherein the others grow.)

I work 12hr shifts some days, a full normal 5-day workweek, I ain't got time for hardcore goldmining and scripts confuse me anyway. I'd REALLY appreciate some kind of simple matching game to bide my time, and if over-flowing the economy is something you'd worry about, some sites have "gold caps" that keep you from earning a certain amount per day. But as another user has mentioned - and I only saw it brought up maybe once while perusing the thread - eggs and hatchlings need clicks to grow. I really recommend a gold cap if games become involved to incentivize clicking as well, because removing gold from clicking eggs/hatchlings could cause a self-destruct on growing babies.

[Eschaton]

I love the idea of minigames to earn gold, quests sound like they could easily become too difficult/tedious for a casual player to finish daily, depending on how specific they are. Weekly or monthly quests with bigger rewards would be more sustainable I think.

I also like the idea of sign in/daily site visit bonuses that might add up if you visit the site every day (a common thing with mobile games, for example)

What about a feature to sell creatures (aka "release them", not sell to other users)? They could have varying price ranges based on if they're a hatchling or adult, if they're stream born or bred, event or a common creature, etc. I would love to clean out my massive doubles tabs.

I also like it when games have an afk gold making feature built in, such as "work for x hours" during which time some of the sites features become inaccessible (since you're "at work"), but when a selected time period is completed, you get a gold reward, or pay for your "work". Or other types of afk activities, like automatic fishing, during which time you could collect items that could then be sold or used for crafting or summoning creatures, for example. A big appeal to me in goldmining has been the ability to do it in the background, so afk gold making options could scratch the same itch without nearly the same amount of load on the site.

[Kayliee]

If gold mining continues at rates that slow the site, we will remove the ability to get gold from adult creatures.

To be honest, it sounds like it needs to be removed altogether (or capped at a maximum number of adult gold clicks per day) to totally remove any benefit of mining adult creatures. That way there is no benefit to mine adult creatures and prevents people 2 years down the track doing it as they don't realise it's a problem.

Another option is a click exchange - Virtuadopts does this well, where it's all manual and helps people exchange clicks without snaplinks etc.

I'm very glad the cause of the lag was discovered, but it is slightly amusing (in an ironic kinda way)that it was potentially a very small number of major miners that caused so much grief over the past few years,

Side note - there has been some clarification of the first post in secondary posts (i.e. image free nursery is still okay, but image free gold mine is not, snaplinks still okay etc.), can these be added to the first post.

[BlackOrchid93]

I'm glad the reason behind the issue has been found at last!

If gold mining continues at rates that slow the site, we will remove the ability to get gold from adult creatures.

To be honest, it sounds like it needs to be removed altogether (or capped at a maximum number of adult gold clicks per day) to totally remove any benefit of mining adult creatures.

I agree with Kayliee that maybe we should stop adult creatures from giving gold as that would stop the possibility of this issue really happening again. Especially since there will be a lot of adult creatures on gold mines from potentially abandoned profiles...

i've think about this a bit since i saw the news and think about how to fix this problem. i think about a new mechanic like an crafting system.

I like this idea, with most creatures having an element maybe we could get small resources linked with their element? Maybe having ten of an element shard to make a set 'item' to make an item to sell to an NPC.

Or maybe something such as an 'egg shell collector' that would give small amounts of gold each time you hatch a creature for the left over egg shards? This would do nicely as an incentive to hatch more creatures and become essentially a 'daily login' amount of gold.


I'm always wary of minigames though; I'm very limited on time around my job, like many others, and I'm worried they would be at high risk of cheating because of the impatience/lack of time from users. Maybe a very simple game which gives an item to help hatch eggs or grow hatchlings instead?

[falsanthin]

I love the idea of minigames to earn gold, quests sound like they could easily become too difficult/tedious for a casual player to finish daily, depending
What about a feature to sell creatures (aka "release them", not sell to other users)? They could have varying price ranges based on if they're a hatchling or adult, if they're stream born or bred, event or a common creature, etc. I would love to clean out my massive doubles tabs.

Personally i feel this is a good idea, maybe not as a replacement for gold mining because there isn't as much as an incentive to click others creatures but it would be a nice way to encourage people to raise creatures they normally wouldn't and give a way to clear out unwanted creatures without the hassle of trading them to other players or mass releasing. Even if the creatures only sell for a small amount of gold or say trade creatures for points to use in a new way (buying other creatures, items, crafting, growth boosts for your other creatures etc...).

I've never had the time or patience to goldmine much so i would be happy if it was limited to just eggs/hatchlings or outright removed altogether if there was a good alternative way to get gold. I don't like the idea of quests (i know i would get lazy and not do them ) and would be happier with some kind of a login bonus or something along those lines

[faedemon]

what is goldmining technically? i only have a vague idea/wouldn't know what does or doesn't count

[Lestat]

I like the idea of mini games and preventing adults from giving gold. Maybe if you sign in a certain amount of times in a row can give a boost of gold.

[Kayliee]

what is goldmining technically? i only have a vague idea/wouldn't know what does or doesn't count

It's mass clicking adult creatures to earn gold -almost always using a way to bulk open hundreds (if not thousands) of links at once.
It used to be supported - with plenty of people offering goldmines, and even having a non-official page where there were hundreds and thousands of links to do so.

I'm glad the reason behind the issue has been found at last!

If gold mining continues at rates that slow the site, we will remove the ability to get gold from adult creatures.

To be honest, it sounds like it needs to be removed altogether (or capped at a maximum number of adult gold clicks per day) to totally remove any benefit of mining adult creatures.

I agree with Kayliee that maybe we should stop adult creatures from giving gold as that would stop the possibility of this issue really happening again. Especially since there will be a lot of adult creatures on gold mines from potentially abandoned profiles...

I even have one on my profile - I have tried to remove it but can't seem to find where the About Me profile info is saved. I think it just needs to be done, as it's far too easy for someone to miss a rule or announcement to say it's prohibited and mine their own keep.

[Eschaton]

I love the idea of minigames to earn gold, quests sound like they could easily become too difficult/tedious for a casual player to finish daily, depending
What about a feature to sell creatures (aka "release them", not sell to other users)? They could have varying price ranges based on if they're a hatchling or adult, if they're stream born or bred, event or a common creature, etc. I would love to clean out my massive doubles tabs.

Personally i feel this is a good idea, maybe not as a replacement for gold mining because there isn't as much as an incentive to click others creatures but it would be a nice way to encourage people to raise creatures they normally wouldn't and give a way to clear out unwanted creatures without the hassle of trading them to other players or mass releasing. Even if the creatures only sell for a small amount of gold or say trade creatures for points to use in a new way (buying other creatures, items, crafting, growth boosts for your other creatures etc...).

I've never had the time or patience to goldmine much so i would be happy if it was limited to just eggs/hatchlings or outright removed altogether if there was a good alternative way to get gold. I don't like the idea of quests (i know i would get lazy and not do them XD) and would be happier with some kind of a login bonus or something along those lines

For the incentive part, what I've seen other sites do is have some sort of a system that rewards mutual clicks, so mass clicking would have no point if the other person doesn't return the favour. I think that could work, along with not giving gold for clicking adult creatures.

I also like the idea of views to raise creatures, which could help to offset less people clicking if minigames were introduced. Or clicking/returning clicks could be a quest in itself.

[fauna]

I use link clump to select multiple critters to open on the "click my eggs" threads. Is that also considered goldmining/part of the problem?