We want your opinions! Subject: GOLD | Comment by March 31st!

[vipor]

Also we can just use site wide events.
Like with the celestial butterflies and the candle ayoti's. Say that every month a city on the map has an event. Say Synara has a event "hunt of the desert" For which they want Alpyn's. Handing in an alphyn egg gives 1 point, hatchling 3 points and adult 5 points. You lose the creature of course, only taking them from the main tab. Let the event run for three weeks. Say each person can only hand in enough of the target creature to earn 100 points. This ensures veteran players can't just dump old stock into the event to score thousands of points. The 100 points would turn into 5 event tokens as an extra currency. Then in week 4 the event store opens with old event and giftborn creatures which you can only buy with the event tokens. Giving a gold free way of earning the old creatures and controlling the influx of the new creatures by giving old and new players the same max amount of tokens each month.
Then the next month, new location, new event, new creatures picked. Which allows less wanted pets to get in the spotlight for a limited time.

I like this idea a lot. It's very site oriented, gives you a reason to use the world map and turning the creatures in means you don't get stuck with things you don't collect or want. The 3 week timeframe also means you don't have to rush to finish, and you should be able to do your regular things too.

I, on the other hand, strongly dislike this idea. In the past year alone, there were 4 months where I was not able to be on the site at all. (separate months, not together, and not including the downtime.) So with this 'monthly event' system, I would have missed 4 months of creatures. We can't fix the site's economy by replacing gold with another currency.

To be fair, my opinion is not to bring in new creatures.
More of an monthly returning shop where the giftborns and such of old events become buy-able again. Think of the bell/chain elk, tinsel/coal wyrm, sintervos and all the other giftborns of the old celebrations. Maybe add in old normal event creatures with dust bunny, the jackalopes and such. But nothing new.

[Thaliel]

How about a lottery? This is one option to earn onsite currency on xanje and is something I participate in regularly even if I rarely win

Also, adopting an egg fro the stream could give you a few coins

daily login bonusses are only nice until you miss a day, which happens to me a lot on eggcave and FOM

I neither have the time nor the interest for playing games to earn currency, but I already have over 300k in gold, so I don't really ned that anyways

[MageLorelei]

First, I found out I had way more gold than I thought I did! Second, my thoughts on ways to make gold:
Minigames like "match 3", "tower climb", "solitaire" etc.:
Sounds fun! Especially if it’s win/lose games without scores. Also limiting the amount of times the game pays out might help?

Daily quests:
It depends. Losing creatures just for a bit of gold I’m not a fan of, unless it’s frozen eggs, but breeding or just having a few of a certain type might be fun! Idk how hard they would be to program, but if there could be ones that track site navigation (exploration?) or posting (communicating with your fellow magi?) that might be cool too!

Daily login bonuses:
Only if it’s a flat amount every day. I’ve never been a fan of login bonuses that get higher every day in a row you log in. Also as someone who doesn’t sign in/out, would it mean something like a button you can press once every Magistream day?

Gaining gold from various activities like breeding, crafting, and otherwise interacting with the site:
No to breeding and crafting. However it might be fun (though I’m sure it would it would be a nightmare to program and would probably have people complain) if as you clicked around the site you had a random chance of finding some gold.

Sell your creatures for gold to NPCs or some other non-player function:
I’m pretty meh on this, but it might be a good way to get rid of inbred creatures.

Encourage trading and making the gold flow between players, make the system a closed gold system:
I’ve seen people asking for automated shops and I’m a big fan of that!! Also, being able to buy potions from other people! Or cookies, or any item.

Create non-gold ways of getting shop creatures:
I’m gonna be honest, not a fan of this. Shop creatures are special, something a little more fancy.

Reduce prices in shops and/or quests:
Above being said, I’m all for them going down in price. Especially the scrolls. And black market creatures. I know I spent a lot of gold on it the last time it was around, and I was lucky to have that much to spend.

[DarkstarWolf]

I don't really buy too many creatures because getting gold is so dang hard, so i don't have an opinion on most of this. However, I really like the daily login/site activities giving gold idea.

[audrei9]

Okay, but consider:
Silver alicanto egg
Like the gold alicanto egg, but it gives you 1 extra gold for every hatchling you click. Doubled if your elements match.

[Airasyraye]

I like this idea a lot. It's very site oriented, gives you a reason to use the world map and turning the creatures in means you don't get stuck with things you don't collect or want. The 3 week timeframe also means you don't have to rush to finish, and you should be able to do your regular things too.

I, on the other hand, strongly dislike this idea. In the past year alone, there were 4 months where I was not able to be on the site at all. (separate months, not together, and not including the downtime.) So with this 'monthly event' system, I would have missed 4 months of creatures. We can't fix the site's economy by replacing gold with another currency.

To be fair, my opinion is not to bring in new creatures.
More of an monthly returning shop where the giftborns and such of old events become buy-able again. Think of the bell/chain elk, tinsel/coal wyrm, sintervos and all the other giftborns of the old celebrations. Maybe add in old normal event creatures with dust bunny, the jackalopes and such. But nothing new.

I do not support "no, because I wasn't here" as an excuse to not release a feature. It's a game. You can play it or you can't. I can't donate, therefore, I lose out on DPs unless I can afford them in other ways. I wasn't here for certain quests, such as the original ice kitsunes. Therefore, I missed out. I was able to get one through the Black Market and was gifted one by an amazing player, but neither of them are release dates, and that's just how it goes. The entire site shouldn't be asked to not have been able to have that Quest because I wasn't here.

I like Vipor's idea. It incorporates a new thing to do, a new way to gain old pets that aren't just grinding clicks and throwing a frankly overpriced sack of gold at Master Belmos, and seems to go with the heart of the game as if we are magi in an RPG. Sadly, something that has been lacking lately and overall quite a bit. I adored back when we had regular quests and could read the stories and figure out puzzles and such.

[stealthxstar]

Minigames like "match 3", "tower climb", "solitaire" etc.:
Pros: could be fun
Cons: Have a risk of steering away from the spirit of the actual heart and purpose of the game. Take a lot of time to implement.

Ehhh.... so many sites have this. unless they were themes specifically lore-integrated with magistream, i'd pass on this.

Daily quests:
Pros: you'd have a regular and steady way of getting some gold
Cons: You'd need to remember to do them. Depending on what kind they would be, some might feel tedious or not worth it. Could feel a bit separate from the normal game play unless well executed.
This would be a fun wayto expand lore. most adoptables sites have "dailies" so i dont think remembering to do them would be anything most players arent used to. i think this could be very well integrated into MS story/lore.

Daily login bonuses:
Pros: Steady and reliable way to get gold even if you're tight on time, just log in and get some gold.
Cons: Relying solely on this would require quite a bit of patience to get enough cold to afford something. A bit more tedious to implement.
sure, why not?

Gaining gold from various activities like breeding, crafting, and otherwise interacting with the site:
Pros: Could be quite easily tied to the normal game play and existing mechanics, making gold a by product instead of the main goal.
Cons: Need to be mindful that the gold gains remain meaningful instead of becoming yet a new way of grinding.
getting gold is ALREADY a grind. more ways to grind for it aside from forum posts would be very very welcome, especially for functions i am already using, and it would give me more incentive to do these kinds of actions.

Sell your creatures for gold to NPCs or some other non-player function:
Pros: You have a pretty good control over when and how much gold you get
Cons: another more tedious grinding mechanic?
same as above

other things I can think of:
-selling/trading items to players
-site achievements

Encourage trading and making the gold flow between players, make the system a closed gold system:
Pros: Works more like a healthy economy, gets the resources moving instead of gold piling up on the top 5-10% richest or those who at least in the past have been able to goldmine
Cons: How to do this, what would be the incentive?
-possible incentives: making a trade a day be a daily for earning gold
-have trade ranks? competitions for trading? maybe not for anything besides a leaderboard, so it doesnt get too competitive or abused?
-badges for trade count milestones? (achievements?)

Create non-gold ways of getting shop creatures:
Possibilities would be e.g. quests, crafting like mechanic, exchanging a number of creature X to get a creature Y, or something similar
Pros: You don't have to rely on gold to get the creatures you want
Cons: Could take a bit longer to get the creature, could feel like just another type of grinding mechanic
Alternative methods for obtaining event creatures would be lovely. honestly i used to sell donis for gold to afford those but now if i miss creatures i just wait for a gift giving holiday and add them to my wishlist and hope i get some eventually.

Reduce prices in shops and/or quests:
Pros: things are more affordable
Cons: shop history statistics need a tweak so they don't get skewed
-yes please. i am not a super active forum user anymore (i'm in my 30s and have a full time job - not that i was ever SUPER active compared to some people - and don't have time to play forum games all day to be able to afford most of the stuff in the shop). like i said before, now when i need gold i just sell bred donis or whatever. which, i guess is good for you guys because i give you more money, but isnt really the point of this lol.


edit to add: i am 100% in support of making adult creatures give 0 gold (to prevent mass goldmining) while simultaneously increasing egg gold amounts (maybe doubling?)

[CinnaminDraconna]

I've been thinking about the suggestion of selling items to NPC's or other players and have decided I'm not interested. Primarily because of the mystery bags and how inventory works with the process that determines what you get in a mystery bag.

As it stands now, what you get in a mystery bag is determined by what you do and don't have in your inventory.
Say the bags contain 4 items.. every time you buy a bag it's going to check your inventory for those 4 items. Then the process is then going to give you a random item that is heavily weighted to the item you have the least of.

I paid close attention when I did my mystery bag experiment here: https://magistream.com/viewtopic.php?t=233545 and I got more and more crafting items until my inventory started evening out, after that it was more random and I quit buying bags when I maxed out breeding potions, cooldown potions and chocolates.

So because of that 'maxing mechanic' I have no intention of selling any item that I have in my inventory, when I need other things to come out of mystery bags. Things that are worth paying 1,010g per bag for.

As for selling creatures to an NPC, I'm all for that. But not items; not as long as the mystery bags vs. inventory works like it does.

[BeeNme]

I, on the other hand, strongly dislike this idea. In the past year alone, there were 4 months where I was not able to be on the site at all. (separate months, not together, and not including the downtime.) So with this 'monthly event' system, I would have missed 4 months of creatures. We can't fix the site's economy by replacing gold with another currency.

To be fair, my opinion is not to bring in new creatures.
More of an monthly returning shop where the giftborns and such of old events become buy-able again. Think of the bell/chain elk, tinsel/coal wyrm, sintervos and all the other giftborns of the old celebrations. Maybe add in old normal event creatures with dust bunny, the jackalopes and such. But nothing new.

I do not support "no, because I wasn't here" as an excuse to not release a feature. It's a game. You can play it or you can't. I can't donate, therefore, I lose out on DPs unless I can afford them in other ways. I wasn't here for certain quests, such as the original ice kitsunes. Therefore, I missed out. I was able to get one through the Black Market and was gifted one by an amazing player, but neither of them are release dates, and that's just how it goes. The entire site shouldn't be asked to not have been able to have that Quest because I wasn't here.

I like Vipor's idea. It incorporates a new thing to do, a new way to gain old pets that aren't just grinding clicks and throwing a frankly overpriced sack of gold at Master Belmos, and seems to go with the heart of the game as if we are magi in an RPG. Sadly, something that has been lacking lately and overall quite a bit. I adored back when we had regular quests and could read the stories and figure out puzzles and such.

The "no, because I wasn't here" I only meant as referring to a monthly event. I have missed many creatures over the years due to being away from computer access, and know that it's just part of life, (some of the missed creatures I've been gifted, some I still don't have) but if it were to become a monthly thing with a new currency it would change the whole flavor of the game.

The recent change of being able to breed past event creatures will be a huge help in obtaining many older creatures, both as gifts or buying from others and breeding my own.

[provo7demons]

I strongly support daily quests and selling unwanted creatures to NPCs for gold! I also think more crafting options for creatures would be nice; I love how crafting has gotten more relevant over the past bit, and I'd love the opportunity to do more of that.