So as a bit of a preface, I'm a complete newcomer to the site after someone I know found it and after playing it recommended it to me, and after a bit I decided to give it a go and mostly I really like what I'm seeing!
The concept is honestly great, it's really cool there's a proper storyline in place, the quests and missions and events? I really dig it, apply a bit of polish to the Avatar stuff and it'd be awesome.

But after studying a bit how things work, my main gripe absolutely has to be with the how of getting traits for your pets.
Frankly put, how difficult and tedious it is currently is insane, I'm still struggling to wrap my head around the fact breeding projects can easily last a year.

However, it'd be rude to just compaing without saying anything about how they could be fixed.
So now let's get to those:

1. Make it possible to breed Sylesties faster. The fact that right now from the time you get the egg till the day you can actually breed that new Sylesti takes 27 days is absolutely ridiculous. I don't really care where the cut down on time happens, personally I'd snip a bit from both the time it takes for a hatchling to become and adolescent and the time it takes for an adolescent to become an adult, or get rid of the adolescent stage completely.

2. Either make a reliable way to get Genetic Testing Kits, or make the currently Diamond Shop locked Exceptional version either something you get from the get go, or something you can eventually purchase, even if for a high amount of money. Since carried traits are extremely important for breeding projects and knowing what carried traits a pet has is pretty much essential, the fact that right now you get only one Testing Kit and after that you either have to get the Diamond locked one, or use a service to check you pets, which, if you're trying to start a project of your own quickly because extremely tedious to do, is something I think desperately needs a fix.

3. Either get rid of Hidden Traits or make them affect the visibility of traits. By this I mean that if two Sylesties have a different trait in the same slow, say one has trait A in M1 and the other B in M1, the offspring should be guaranteed to show either trait A or B, instead of just carrying one trait or both. The offspring could still pass down either trait but at least it would have a visible trait in the slot its parents both had a visible trait in.
I've been corrected on this so ignore it.

Anyway, those are the main things I personally think really need fixing.

But if those aren't things that get changed, then at least make it possible to add several traits via Genetic Philters, since right now you can add 1 at most, and you can't even add them at all to your starter which is frankly ridiculous in my personal opinion, since your starter is usually the one you want to spend the most effort on and the one you want to keep and show off.

1. At the very least, I don't want time to be cut off the hatchling stage. Nurtures increase hatchlings' stats. Less time means less possibility for stats gain. Also there's been a lot of discussion lately about overbreeding pets with little value, and it's possible that making it faster to breed would exponentially increase the amount of pets in game (which also affects things behind the scenes, 'cos the site has to process all the pets for searches and nurturing and such).

2. There are plenty of people willing to test pets. I agree that setting them up can be a bit of a hassle sometimes and having your own unlimited kit is easier (I have one). But it's definitely not a necessity if you want to do projects. Furthermore, regarding what you said here: "something you can eventually purchase, even if for a high amount of money" - it's possible to use your gold to buy diamonds from other players on the Currency Exchange. That's what I do. You can eventually use gold to get enough diamonds to buy a testing kit.

3. I don't understand what you're saying here...? This site's genetics are based off punnet squares. If the parents have NA and NB, for example, the offspring will get either NN, NA, NB, or AB. In the case of AB, A will be visible and B hidden. But then you ended with "...the slot its parents both had a visible trait in". If the parents have AA and BB in the same slot, the offspring is guaranteed to inherit AB with A visible. So I'm not quite sure what problem you're trying to indicate here. (For more selfish reasons, I'm a trait collector. I try to get as many traits as possible on lup themes. Eliminating hiddens would hurt the number of traits I could get. But the most important thing is that it would completely break the genetics system.)

As for adding multiple traits to the same pet, this is tricky too. Currently there's value on legendary/mythical tamed pets, exceptional waters for sculpting, etc. If you could add multiple traits to pets, wouldn't that affect the value of those things?

1: we have a massive overbreeding problem and thats only gonna make it worse.

2: this is the only thing i agree with, i think there should be a way to get one use ones for gold til you can afford the unlimited one.

3: getting rid of hiddens will make it so much harder to do projects. somn explained how hidden breeding works so i dont think i need to add onto that.


adding more mutaters.. that was already suggested in a post that later completely derailed but krinadon did say:
' the reason that philters are fairly limited is because Sylestia is strongly driven by its pet customization and we feel that if you could just simply select whatever Traits for every pet that it would be very game breaking and defeat a huge swath of potential content for the majority of the playerbase. '
mutaters prob wont be changing. they stay that way so their not game breaking.

Here my view on it (at least, what I remember. I've been on and off lately....)

Right now, theres an overpopulation of useless sylestia. With less time for babies to grow up, or less wait for breeding time, etc etc, someone who doesnt relaly know what they're doing or how the economy works will jsut keep breeding meaninglessly, then get mad when no one buys their pets, and then leave.

Magical pies can speed up growth as well. Plus, adding a limitless amount of traits to a pet makes it less worthwhile and less satisfying then taking time to breed it.

To keep the economy up and worthwhile, there has to be "blockades" or something to keep prices at a reasonable level and for some income to generate on the site.

The starter....yeah, that could use work but making it too extravagent....yeah, no. I mean, I wouldnt mind have a feature that let you do certain things with it but I certainly dont relaly do much else with my starter besides having her around for fun. Some might disagree with me on this but unless the prestige system that Krins talked about before does something to them....well, I frankly dont care either way. I'm still using my max stats most of the time, since I dont have gold or time to spend on that suff. I'm already up to my head in my orca project, which I accidentally abandoned...whoops. But I'd you know what you're doing and all that, a themed project can take only a few month, I started the orcas in what, July? August? And it's still going on only because I forgot about it for a while. So I could've finished it by December if I had more pies and time. But that just makes it more appealing, since its satisfying to say "I did this" when someone asks me.

But that's just me. I'm no major expert, but that's what I think.

Regarding number 3. I wasn't aware that it already does work like I think it should work, shows what a newbie I still am lol.

As for the rest, I see your point, though I still stand by on my own opinion. This site overall (in my own, personal opinion from how things look to a newcomer whose coming off of FR) currently has the problem that there's not all that many players on it, despite the Beta having been up for several years. (I acknowledge over 7000 players is a lot, but when compared to the success that is FR it seems rather small) Because of this, right now I think the economy is too...separated I think is the best word. People who have been playing for years and have the ability to make a lot of gold can trade with people who also make a lot of gold, but a newcomer has absolutely no way getting anywhere close.

The point I'm trying to make is that while yes, having there be some challenge is good, because that's what makes it satisfying, right now I'd say that challenge is way too high, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's what's turning potential player around from joining the site.