So it's been about a year since I first joined, and the one thing I dislike is how limited the trait customization options are. Don't get me wrong, it's not something I'd quit over, I greatly enjoy everything else about this site, but it's frustrating to have such limited options for customizing my pets' traits.

Greater Genetic Mutator? Only usable on Tamed pets, and you can only ever use one per pet.

Restricted Trait Disruptors? You can use them on a wider variety of pets, but comes with a long list of limitations. Plus, it erases an existing visible trait, so if you wanted to add a Restricted trait onto the regular traits your pet already has... tough luck, I guess. If a pet already has 6 visible traits then of course it'd make sense for the RTD to remove one, but if the pet already has open slots? Doesn't make sense to me. And you cannot pick which trait you want, which is a bit of a deterrent for a premium item that costs the IRL equivalent of around $4 USD.

The only option that doesn't have frustrating limitations is the Themed Trait Disruptor, since you can use more than one. But even then, you don't get to pick which traits you get from it.

I'm sure Krin has his reasons for why these items have all these rules attached to them, but one of the reasons I joined was because the front page bills Sylestia's pets as "fully customizable". They're really not, and it was a disappointment to realize how limited the trait customization options. Especially since I've been playing Flight Rising for several years, where you can customize any pet trait at any time, as long as you have the currency to buy gene scrolls.

Granted, the sentence on the front page says "Create fully customizable Pets", so maybe it's referring to the Generator. (If so, I think it should be clarified). But even then, it's not really true: Generator pets can have any colors you want, but even the Mystical Essence only allows 4 trait points, which is a maximum of 2 visible traits. That's a huge limitation, given that Mystical essences are a premium item costing a little under $10 USD. The only difference between the Mystical and Enhanced Essence is that the Mystical one gives you the exact colors you want. At 1000 diamonds vs 750 diamonds, that's not much of an incentive.

So my suggestion is, I'd like to see a wider range of options for pet trait customization. I believe it'd improve user experience overall, and it would provide added incentive to buy diamonds (or to spend time grinding for gold to trade for diamonds, which means more time invested in the game).

no support. i think the items have to have some sorta randomness in order for them not to be game breaking.

bred pets created from projects are fully customized if you put the work into it.

I disagree, I think there are ways to balance the items so they're not detrimental to the value of pets. RTDs being random would be fair, if we could apply more than one without having to remove the already-applied trait. Plenty of other games have items that let you choose which traits you apply.

Not everyone wants to do breeding projects, and breeding projects do have drawbacks:

1) Each and every spare pet produced from a breeding project adds more pet data to the server. Even if all of a player's castoff project pets are released, they're still existing and taking up server space, since released pets are still viewable. If every single player did breeding projects for 6vis pets, the number of castoff pets taking up server space would increase at a massive rate.

2) If there were more customization items, some players would choose to use them, and some would still choose to do breeding projects. Giving players more options is very rarely a bad decision.

3) More customization items in the Diamond Shop = more reasons to buy Diamonds. Let's say GGMs are changed so you can apply up to six visible traits per pet. If I wanted to put 6 traits onto a 0vis pet, I would need to buy 6 GGMs from the Diamond Shop. At 200 Diamonds each, that's 1200 Diamonds, which comes out to about $15 USD if I'm not buying Diamonds during a sale. Even if there is a sale, that's still $10 USD for 1200 Diamonds. That's an extra $10-15 USD into Sylestia's funds, and that's just for one single pet. Now imagine if I have ten pets I want to use multiple GGMs on.

Even if I buy Diamonds from another player, or if I buy GGMs from another player, GGMs are Diamond Shop items. Someone will have had to buy Diamonds for those GGMs. More chances to use GGMs = more reason to buy GGMs = more reasons to buy Diamonds.

4) I for one would prefer to customize the pets I have, rather than filling my stables with project castoffs. If I could choose between investing time and energy into grinding gold so I can either trade for Diamonds or buy customization items off other players, or save up extra money to buy Diamonds, I would much rather do that than spend ages and ages breeding extraneous pets just to get one end result. Plenty of other sites offer players a similar choice between "save up for trait items" vs "breed for the traits you want". Both options require an investment of time and resources into the site, and they accommodate a wider range of play-styles.

No support

Fully customizable pets are achievable, they're called projects

And most regular traits are common and easy to get

So all you really need is the currency.

Plus...the site has to get income some way. Diamonds is that way., since sylestia doesnt have a premium avoutn version like many other sites

cant argue w/ #1, but im not sure how that affects site long run.

#2: if there are more custom items, breeding projects become completely useless. you say its a option, but its going to entirely faze out projects. those who can afford spending irl money can churn breeding pair after breeding pair of custom pets will outsell slower project breeders. for some, breeding is what makes us stick around. imo it would be super boring w/o my projects.

#3: not everyone buys daimonds, and if this is a thing it becomes nothing but pay-to-play. i cant even tell you how much id hate that. would discourage ppl who cant afford spending irl money ( like me ) on a game from playing the game atall to the point where id flatout quit.. im pretty sure krin made this game bc he enjoys coding. the money keeps it running, but i dont think its the only thing the game was made for.

#4: like you said, project duds can be released. not sure why you mention them filing up stables. other games might do that, and it might work, but those systems were there since the start of those games. doing that now, to this site, is game breaking.

think abt why all your suggestions dont exist. its very simple, they would ruin it. think abt why there is a limit to how many vis can be on custom design a pet contests or fest exclusives, why tame pets can only have upto 8tp, why their genes are random. there has to be rng to make it fair for pay-to-play and those who cant aford it.

nothing thats worth doing takes no effort.

#2, that is your opinion. I've been on Flight Rising for nearly 5 years and plenty of people still choose to do breeding projects. Others, like me, choose gene projects. Some do a combination of both. The site does quite well, even though breeding projects are not the only option. Plenty of people stick around for gene projects instead, like I do.

If the items are more expensive than the current items, or equally as expensive, then very few players will have the means to churn out pair after pair. Besides which, I could argue that the Diamond shop already favors those who can afford to spend IRL money. Such is the nature of games with premium currency shops.

Breeding might be what you play for, but that is again your opinion. My opinion is that customizing is more fun than breeding. I will still continue to play Sylestia even if we don't get more customization items, but it is my opinion that more trait customization would improve my experiences here.

#3, I did not suggest that the game should become pay-to-play, nor did I suggest that Krin only created this game to make money. So I'll thank you not to imply otherwise. The fact of the matter is that games like this do cost money to run, no amount of love for coding can keep a website like this afloat without resources. More money from Diamond sales = more funds to operate the site, which means more opportunities to add new features, revamp existing features where needed, add new traits/avatar items and so on.

I did mention in my reply that there are other ways to acquire Diamonds and Diamond Shop items, besides buying Diamonds. If I wanted to trade Diamonds or GGMs from another player, I'd still be spending a lot of my spare time acquiring gold to buy Diamonds or items.

All right then, how about this: if the Diamond shop is too unfair, then there could be other ways to acquire trait items through gameplay: as Festival rewards, or Scale shop rewards, or any number of other ways. There could even be a shop with its own currency which sells entirely trait items. There are tons of possibilities for how these items could be made available. It doesn't have to be the Diamond Shop at all.

#4, Even if the duds are released, they still take up server space. You can visit released pets, which means they're still stored on the server. Plus, besides the dud babies, projects also create tons of breeder pets with no purpose but to be bred a few times and then released. I've seen players with dozens of breeders with various combinations of traits as they work their way up to their desired trait combination. Each and every one of those breeders takes up server space.

Again, it is your opinion that adding customization items would ruin the game. There are plenty of ways these items could be created and made available so that people have more options while still being fair.

Now where did I say there should be no effort involved? Again, please don't imply things I didn't say.

I am well aware that breeding projects exist, thank you. Not everyone wants to do projects. My opinion is that customizing is more fun than breeding. Please see my replies to Encryption, where I have elaborated further.

Yes, regular traits are easy to get. On separate pets. I'm saying I want to be able to take a specific pet I already own, and add traits as I see fit, as long as I have enough currency to buy the required items. If RTDs work best the way they already are, then fine. But at the very least, I think we should be able to use more than one Greater Genetic Mutator per pet. Or, maybe we should have entirely different items that let us further customize our pets.

Yes, the site does need to make income. And increasing the variety of Diamond Shop items gives people incentive to buy more Diamonds. Giving us more trait customization items would be one such way of doing so.

rudeness is really not appreciated, especially if your trying to convince others your opinion is the only right one.

krin, can i ask you to weigh in on this?

I could say the same to you, on both counts. I will not be replying to you anymore.