Sorry if this has come up before. With no forum search, I went back about 12 or so pages and didn't see anything, nor did I see much in the planned features, so I figured I'd go ahead and post.

I think the avatars are really neat! But the bulk of the clothing available right now is either from past holiday events or in the diamond shop. There's no problem at all with diamond shop clothing; I know it's necessary to fund the game.

However, having so few regular currency choices can be a barrier to people who enjoy a site for avatar dress-up. A lot of people enjoy both the pet component and the dress-up component of a pet site; it's standard stuff, and by offering a more even ratio of easily obtainable, gold/AP clothing to diamond clothing, I think you would be able to catch the interest of one pet site audience much more easily. Once you have their interest, plenty of them will go on to pay for diamonds when the clothing interests them. I know on most avatar sites I'm on, I like having immediate game currency options, but I wind up paying real currency periodically (that I might not have spent otherwise, if I wasn't having fun with the dressup already) when I spot a monthly item that I really like.

In part, I think this could be rectified by adding AP costs to the regular (not monthly, of course) diamond-only items and adding more of the basic AP clothing options. I'm also pretty excited about the region overhaul and hope a decent amount of gold-based clothing (perhaps a clothing vendor in every town) and exploration clothing is added at that point. That sounded like it might be the plan, but the overhaul didn't specify what currency the avatar items would require.

edit: Oh yes, and it would be great if we could craft avatar clothing too! I know the crafting system is far off and the details are vague right now, but I would enjoy that very much.

You can always contact buy other players extra or unwanted items. Players sell their stuff all the time in the item auctions forum

I agree that we should have a few more gold-buyable and AP-buyable stuff. I know we have a TON of outfits as it is, though most outfits are mostly from either limited time events or monthlies.
I really like AP outfits. I do hope we have more pieces of outfits in the future for AP.

It's wishful thinking that regular diamond items would have AP costs, even if it's high. While its nice, it's probably one of the site's main income sources that remains fairly constant all year.
(Which is resolvable with the Exchange, where people can buy diamonds with gold. )

Crafting clothing sounds pretty cool. c:

@Talin
True, but as it is, I'd have to either pay quite a few diamonds or quite a lot of gold to build up any kind of a wardrobe to play with. I'd also guess that roughly half of the items out there are limited event items, many of which aren't even up on the broker (more can sometimes be found on IA, but that's not a given). The first time I went to dress my avatar, I just kind of gave up because it was confusing and so little seemed to be obtainable through regular game means. On the other hand, having more gold/AP clothes would allow me to build up outfits I like enough to want to embellish with diamond shop items. Does that make sense?

Mainly, I feel like dressup itself can be a big draw for people joining the site, but if they have to either pay cash or pay the rather high gold cost of secondary market diamond clothes immediately in order to customize their avatar beyond bare basics, that can be an entry barrier and a turnoff. I ran into this when basically advertising the game to friends. It's more important for some users than others. I'm going to keep playing for the pets either way, but a crowd-pleasing avatar system can net the site users that might not join otherwise.

@Flute
Glad you agree! Yes, I would love to see more AP items too. More of the separate pieces in the clothing section would be nice, so that we can put more outfits together. The AP hair selection is great, just not so much the clothing pieces.

Yeah, I would definitely understand if the diamond shop non-monthlies stayed diamond only. :) It would be a quick way to remedy the lack of game currency items, but there are plenty of other ways to go about it, and avatars are obviously not the site's #1 focus (pets are!), so "quick" is not the most important thing here.

edit: Meant to ping you two back ,but I'm not sure if it worked. I typed it into the message, and now I'm not sure if the system recognizes that. ^^;;

1) I guess that makes a bit of sense... I only ever really thought of the avatar system as a bonus that when I got the money to buy diamonds or the items themselves that I got to add to, though most of the items I got from the festivals.

2) I wasn't saying that your idea was a bad one. It's not. It's a good one, I was just commenting that you CAN get the items from other players.

3) The system no longer recognizes pings typed in a message. You have to type their names in the "Ping Users" Bar. You also have to properly spell their names as well.

I understand your feeling, but we have to think that this is a PET site before an Avatar site, one of the reason they try to focus on pets first is because its a pet site. :3

But even if lots of the items are "Holidays", those Holidays come each year and some items return.
During Holidays, the most common Holiday items are REALLY cheap in the Broker! :D

And thats my two cents. *run away to continue her boxes*

As much as the site is considered a pet site, on forums, on account pages, at the top of the screen... it is your avatar that is seen, not your pet. No matter how cool your pet is, it's the avatar that you see, first.

There's $152.50 worth of stuff in the avatar shop right now. Just the avatar, not the other stuff. If I wanted to transfer my gold to diamonds through the currency exchange (which is at 100 diamonds (or, $1) for 290,000 gold) that's 44,225,000 gold. There are five people on the site who could afford that (Flute is /just/ under!) with their cumulative gold and most of them have been playing for nearly a year or more.

It isn't even a, "I can get this on the trade broker or auction forum" sort of matter, either. It's a... "I have this currency that is basically, "I love Sylestia, I'm active on Sylestia", but the amount of things I can buy with that currency is pretty much... nothing." sort of matter. As someone who cannot afford to give to Sylestia as I'd like to, I have to make do with what is given freely, and what the RNG decides to drop for me. Which is apparently a lot of hatchets, but if I sell a billion of those, I /might/ be able to afford one of my wishlist items (who am I kidding? That Herbalist's Outfit will cost my souuuuul)!

As someone not fortunate enough to be financially stable, I really have no option but to be at the whim of the RNG, and other players. On all aspects of the game, not just the dress-up ones. We're really lucky to have a super sweet community that is willing to share what they have when it comes to the pet aspect of the site... but clothes are something that are pretty much hoarded and only sold for diamonds or really high amounts of gold.

I don't think the monthly items should be available for AP - you're right in that people could get those from the forums or the trade broker, and I think there should be gold-sinks, in a way. But there are 32 "free/AP" clothing items. 12 tops, 12 bottoms, 6 pairs of shoes, and 2 arm thingies. That seems like quite a few, until you realize that there are 37 "RNG" (as in, if you're lucky, they'll drop while exploring) helds.

For the people who can afford to pay (or, rather, support the developers), there are a lot of options. For those who can only support with their love (but may eventually be able to support financially), there is considerably less available.

I would like to see more available for AP/gold. It doesn't have to be anything as fancy as the monthly items, as any good fashionista knows that you can make something fantaaastic with as little as a few necklaces, a sheath dress, and a scarf... but having more variety I think would be a wonderful thing, and would still leave everyone the ability to be pretty as they can afford it.

I need to learn how to be more concise. Ergh.

I suppose it would be nice if there were more clothes in the AP section... but from a business standpoint, you can't pay the artist who draws the clothes with AP so... (or with Sylestian gold for that matter!)

In every town there are items you can buy with alternative currency - gold or badges, in Astryl's Vale there are vendors in both areas. There are even arena items. The holidays provide a lot of clothing, and as you have said there are the exploration items. In my mind these are plenty of options for people like you and I who cannot afford to spend real money on digital clothes. And I have saved up my gold to buy diamonds for a few items I felt I had to have. Yes, it takes a lot of work, but it's totally doable. (and not really too much work, missions are pretty easy)

Don't get me wrong, I would love to have more options! I just won't be disappointed if it doesn't happen because I understand that the implementation takes time and money.

Just a few more weeks and there will be a whole new influx of fancy totally obtainable new outfit items! Happy grinding ;-)

Just as a quick response to this thread, the main source of "drop-able" avatar items is supposed to come from the exploration realm of the game. Unfortunately, it's barely 20% (if that, honestly) completed. It's also due for a major overhaul that will add a lot more avatar items to the game. An easy comparison is to compare the amount of items available from Astryl's Vale to that available from Viridian Meadows.

Artwork is also a major issue. It takes time to get new avatar items drawn, edited, implemented, and then added into the game. But once they're there, they will always be there. So a year, two years, or even more down the road - the amount of available avatar items will be significantly higher than what's available now.

Sorry for late responses, everybody. I got busy IRL for a while!

Talyn:
Ah, don't worry, I didn't think you were calling my idea bad! I was just explaining my reasoning a bit more and pointing out why that, although it is nice that we can buy the items secondhand, I would still like to see some more gold/AP/dropped items added.

I know that the focus of the site is pets, and some people are going to feel that way about the avatar system -- that it's more of a bonus than an important element of their site experience. That's totally valid. :) But for some people, it's a little more important. Personally, I'll keep using the site for the pets either way, but some of the people I told about the site were less interested when they saw that the avatar selection wasn't very robust. That's the way I am with other sites whose pet systems I find less interesting. I've given money to those sites, but only because I got interested in the avatar system to begin with.

And eek, sorry I misspelled your username! Sometimes I think I'm typing one thing but actually typing another. Orz *copypastes into bar this time, juuust to be safe*

Sheechwan:

I do totally understand that it's a petsite and that pets will always be the main focus. :) But again, the avatar system matters more for some users, less for others. A lot of people play pet sites like this for both the pets and the avatars, and some may even play mainly for the avatars (as I am with Subeta). I just feel like they could take more advantage of this audience.

Thinking about it from the perspective of the pets, would as many people start playing if pets weren't obtainable for free with relative ease? But they are, so people start playing. How many people will go on to embellish their experience with cash after that? I did! I bought myself an endless genetic tester fairly early on, and I have plans to hit barn sales. As I've noted, this is obviously a pet site first, avatar site second, but avatars are a popular feature with the ability to attract a certain audience. It's just an audience that may be easier to hook if you give them more to play with before they have to fork over cash.

But this is not something I expect to happen overnight! I know the site is fairly new and in beta, so it makes sense that there's not a ton of stuff yet. I just wondered what the plans were.

Ashadelmg:

I agree! The AP could stand to be utilized more, and I think it helps to spark an interest in people who may not be able/willing to spend their cash now but might later, if that interest is seeded. I think it's important that there always be a variety of cash shop fashions, as the site is free and needs to monetize what it can. I just also think that matching that with a variety of non-cash, non-event-limited fashions will make for a system more people can fully enjoy.

Divinis:

It's definitely true that the artists need to be paid properly for their hard work, and I don't expect a thousand gold/AP items to materialize overnight (awesome as that would be! xD). This post was more to make suggestions on behalf of a certain type of player (in case it wasn't already being considered) and assess the eventual direction of the site. It's in beta, after all. I just wanted to know what the future was going to look like.

My problem with what's available is simply with the proportion of gold/AP/alternate currency items to limited event items to cash items. I just don't agree that there's really such a wide variety of easily obtainable items, especially when it does have to compete with the pet function of the site. Particularly because the site is in beta and isn't that large, event items that don't reappear are going to eventually get very rare and very expensive when the site has a larger userbase. Many are pretty pricy right now. As a new player, it may not even be readily apparent where all these items are supposed to come from. When you're trying to attract someone to your game, you don't have that long to win them over. First impressions are important. If the first impression is "I can't figure out where or how to get clothes, and most of what I can find is really expensive," that may be all you get. There should always be things players have to work for, but what I'm arguing for is a better base to build on than we have now.

It's not even necessarily about not being able to afford the cash clothes. Money is tight for a lot of folks, and some people truly cannot spare even a few dollars for virtual goods. I have been there too. But a lot of other folks, if they wanted to, could find the cash. It's not simply a matter of what people can do but what people will do. The reason F2P, highly casual, microtransaction-based games work so well is that people are more willing to spend money once they're hooked on the free portion. If you have to pay first thing or work really hard right off the bat, people may just abandon ship. The free draws them in, makes them happy, and then they want to move onto the shiny stuff.

As it is, I don't think there's enough present in the clothing system to make a lot of "clothes horse" types happy. Some may be totally content with it, but I can say this: if I were more concerned with the avatars than I am, I wouldn't be. It may seem odd given the time I'm spending on the subject, but this is not a dealbreaker for me in the slightest. xD I just would like it even more, would be more likely to spend cash on clothes if I had more non-cash clothes to pair them with. Finally, probably the biggest reason I made this topic: I actually wound up bumping into this wall when I tried to recommend the site to others. As it is, the avatar system did not interest them, and since it was important to them, they wound up not joining. But again, the site is new, and so I wasn't expecting there to be a ton of stuff right now, myself. Just hopeful for future expansions.

Krinadon:

That's great to hear! :) I understand that it could take a lot of time. I know the site's in beta, it's building its userbase, the primary focus is pets, the artists need time to do their stuff and have to be paid, etc. In light of that, I'm definitely not expecting a huge, immediate increase. Most avatar systems do take time to build up their item selection. It was just that at first glance, there seemed to be such a huge focus on cash shop and event items, I couldn't tell if there was going to be anything else.

It makes me feel muuuch better to get confirmation that you plan to expand, even if they're going to take time. Being a pet site, it's not vital to put that much emphasis on avatars in the main part of the game, but I enjoy that emphasis and think it would be beneficial to the site. That's why I spoke up. I look forward to expansions, however slow they may trickle in! And now I can at least reassure people when I recommend the game that there are plans for more.