This is my second event and just like the last one I am sitting here doing Nothing and watching everyone else have fun. It's not fair to be expected to be endgame just to participate in holidays.

I am chronically ill, I was literally getting an MRI yesterday, and I am often too sick to focus on grinding my way through the story when I really just want to take it slow and actually have time to absorb and appreciate the story and the characters... I don't want to have to force my way to the end just to participate in holidays. That is exactly the kind of game direction that makes me give up on a game.

Despite the frequency of my complaints, I hate being whiner. But it is what it is and I am feeling further and further pushed away from this game, which blows because I love the community, people, art direction, and the ideas and passion behind the project.

My entire experience here has been troubled from front to back and I have cried more over this pet site than more important things out of sheer frustration from how stupid and alienated it makes me feel. Everyone's been so kind, but I'm still floundering, frustrated, and feeling lost and alone.

I sincerely hope that accessibility is a priority in your revamp, because I don't know if I can keep struggling against the current state of the game even though I love it to bits. u_u

New player here as well and I have found the holidays to be a bit discouraging too.

I never got to do much with the Valentines one as I just couldn't get enough candy hearts and there wasn't much I could do outside of mailing one and nurturing pets. Doing 800 nurtures a day was a lot for me personally.

I have been able to get more tokens this event thankfully but I do find it a bit discouraging that the only thing I'm able to do is, again, nurturing.

Ive been slowly working on the story/world map content but I am no where near The Lost Grove, its going to take me a while to get there as Ive only been able to do this in small bits.

I'm hoping the revamp will also change these festival goals as well, its just been rough as a new player! I want to be able to participate in these festivals very badly but there's so little we can do as newbies.

This is something that many of us veteran players have brought up in the last few years about the 'mini fests' (Week of Love, Fortune Fest, and Patriotic Fest). The necessity of being at endgame to participate much at all, and to have gotten to the most difficult levels of said endgame to access parts of those events is something that has been complained about for quite a while.

Unfortunately, it seems that the reason for this is the difficulty in putting these features into older areas of the game (the Lost Grove is the newest area with the newest code). There are, apparently, plans for the future to change this, but for now, we are stuck with this.

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Now for the good news! The four main seasonal festivals (Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter) run in their own dedicated zones that scale in level from 10 - 75, so are far more accessible for new players, and much easier to participate in fully overall.

So, while Fortune Fest may be disappointing, look forward to Spring Fest, which does not require any real progress at all in the main story line ^.^

Link: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=105553&page=1#2 Author: Explosiveroses Time Posted: 3/18/2023 at 3:36 PM New player here as well and I have found the holidays to be a bit discouraging too. I never got to do much with the Valentines one as I just couldn't get enough candy hearts and there wasn't much I could do outside of mailing one and nurturing pets. Doing 800 nurtures a day was a lot for me personally. I have been able to get more tokens this event thankfully but I do find it a bit discouraging that the only thing I'm able to do is, again, nurturing. Ive been slowly working on the story/world map content but I am no where near The Lost Grove, its going to take me a while to get there as Ive only been able to do this in small bits. I'm hoping the revamp will also change these festival goals as well, its just been rough as a new player! I want to be able to participate in these festivals very badly but there's so little we can do as newbies.

Yeah nurturing is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT for me to do with my physical and mental disabilities.

100 is too many for me.

500 is outrageous.

800 is pure disabled-hating insanity.

Before Reset:


After Reset:

I am definitely feeling the squeeze of the grind with my work hours eating up much of my days. I dearly hope the rework considers a more casual friendly approach so that I don't have to see participating as a part-time job :')

Older player chiming in here, these mini fests used to take place in the Grove and two of the other Ethernia Zones, plus include rewards for running the dungeons in the first two zones. Obviously not a *perfect* solution, but definitely better and gave newer players a good shot at being able to participate.

I have always said, and will continue to say, that locking them to the Grove was a huge mistake. Not only do players need to be solidly in the Grove to play, but to really take advantage of it they need to be able to beat everything through the caves (WoL I'd argue temple access was pushed a ton). This is just a ridiculous thing to require of newer players - plus, even if you CAN grind through to it, as Astral pointed out, some people may not WANT to. Is the point of the game not to enjoy it? If someone wants to take their time and enjoy the quests and storylines, events should not punish them for that choice.

There's a huge gap between Winter and Spring fests, and it's filled with the mini fests. Making those mini fests inaccessible to new players is just,,, not a good decision. Sure, I guess they can grind nurturing forever to get the ticket pieces, and do 4 ethernia tasks (total of 6 tickets possible if my math is right), but what fun is that? I'll also note that the cap on nurture drops for the tickets is a further slap in the face for newer players - that's about the one way they might be able to access the event content as it's not Grove gated, but now there's a daily cap.

For those newer players here, I will echo what Mika said and reassure you that the main seasonal fests are not like this - they have their own zone and are very doable even if you're at a lower level. But I strongly agree with what's been said about the Mini Events being inaccessible to new players.

As a note for disability accessibility - Tigress has made an amazing extension for some browsers, should be listed in the Firefox and Chrome webstores as "Sylestia Extension 2", and it color codes the nurture buttons. The color coding is done so even if you're colorblind it'll still be distinct.

Hi all. Chiming in because I may be a veteran player, but I left for a few years because the LG was frustrating for me, and having come back, it's that much more frustrating to see how heavily pushed it is. Why did we ever move away from using the zones that were built for the mini fests? I don't remember if 4th of July and Fortune events had their own zone, but I know I remember WoL having it's own zone. I have absolutely zero issue with there being additional festival LG content for those players who enjoy it, and even some exclusive things to it wouldn't bother me, but this seems absurd.

Quite frankly, I just don't like the LG, I have worries about what the progressing storyline is going to be like in terms of difficulty thanks to it when we eventually get there, and it's quite annoying to have been almost entirely cut out from the mini fests because I don't want to bother with the Grove. And I have the diamonds to just buy the themed I want, so I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for those players who don't.

Absolutely agree.

Minifests used to allow newbies to participate some, but apparently forcing players into the Grove is so important that everything is getting stuffed in there instead.

It's insane that everything's locked to the Grove when it was built to be a time sink. No newbie could blaze through the Grove quickly enough to meaningfully participate, disabled or otherwise. And even if they could, it doesn't feel good to play like that, so what's even the point? It's a game, it should be enjoyable.

Nurturing... kind of sucks. It's bad for anyone without a touchscreen, and if you're physically disabled on top of it, have fun trying to click through thousands of pets in hopes of... *checks notes* not even one lucky pot ticket.

Nurturing is the only way for newbies to participate now for some reason, and even for people who could nurture as much as they wanted, there's now a daily cap of 5 pieces, because we can't let newbies get anything decent, now, can we? God forbid a player nurtures the site so they can get a free scratchcard.

Getting pieces from the early dungeons should be a thing. Not positive if it was a thing in previous fortune fests, but I remember the Week of Love having something similar. Pookas should also spawn in Astryl's Vale again.

Link: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=105553&page=1#8 Author: Selestial Time Posted: 3/19/2023 at 8:22 PM Hi all. Chiming in because I may be a veteran player, but I left for a few years because the LG was frustrating for me, and having come back, it's that much more frustrating to see how heavily pushed it is. Why did we ever move away from using the zones that were built for the mini fests? I don't remember if 4th of July and Fortune events had their own zone, but I know I remember WoL having it's own zone. I have absolutely zero issue with there being additional festival LG content for those players who enjoy it, and even some exclusive things to it wouldn't bother me, but this seems absurd. Quite frankly, I just don't like the LG, I have worries about what the progressing storyline is going to be like in terms of difficulty thanks to it when we eventually get there, and it's quite annoying to have been almost entirely cut out from the mini fests because I don't want to bother with the Grove. And I have the diamonds to just buy the themed I want, so I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for those players who don't.

As someone who has loved this game for so long, I have to agree.
The LG has been forced down our throats. I remember when Krin first announced it - this new, epic "MegaZone" that was supposed to lead us to salvation.
Well...one of the reasons I stopped playing this game so much was because everything had become so centered around the LG. Always. It feels like such little reward for so much grinding; and forcing players to interact with it just to get anything in the minifests? To be completely honest with you, I hate it.
It hurts my heart to see that it's gotten worse. WoL used to have its own zone. You used to be able to participate from Astryl's Tranquility and the Orchard. You used to be able to do a lot of things. It just sucks, man.

Link: https://www.sylestia.com/forums/?thread=105553&page=1#9 Author: Catinheadlights Time Posted: 3/21/2023 at 11:10 AM Absolutely agree. Minifests used to allow newbies to participate some, but apparently forcing players into the Grove is so important that everything is getting stuffed in there instead. It's insane that everything's locked to the Grove when it was built to be a time sink. No newbie could blaze through the Grove quickly enough to meaningfully participate, disabled or otherwise. And even if they could, it doesn't feel good to play like that, so what's even the point? It's a game, it should be enjoyable. Nurturing... kind of sucks. It's bad for anyone without a touchscreen, and if you're physically disabled on top of it, have fun trying to click through thousands of pets in hopes of... *checks notes* not even one lucky pot ticket. Nurturing is the only way for newbies to participate now for some reason, and even for people who could nurture as much as they wanted, there's now a daily cap of 5 pieces, because we can't let newbies get anything decent, now, can we? God forbid a player nurtures the site so they can get a free scratchcard. Getting pieces from the early dungeons should be a thing. Not positive if it was a thing in previous fortune fests, but I remember the Week of Love having something similar. Pookas should also spawn in Astryl's Vale again.

I even remember it being possible in a fest to get items from the bandit dungeons in Esior's Haven - whatever happened to that accessibility? Why did we have to remove it? Why are we going so far backwards?
Krin himself said that, when he announced the "MegaZone", that the LG was not permanent. It was never meant to be. Why is so much effort being put into something that is supposedly going to go away? What happens to all these minifests when we're out of Beta - or are we ever getting out of Beta?