I haven't really been all that active for a couple years now, so I sorta feel like I don't really have a place adding to this thread. ^^' It also seems a bit... toxic, or charged. Maybe it's just me. I dunno. I'm sorta watching my step here, because I really don't want to offend anyone or seem demanding or anything, and I normally don't voice opinions like this. But this is a Beta right, where we're supposed to be beta testers and find all the bugs and problems before it becomes official, right? So yeah, sorry ahead of time if I seem offensive at all.

Anyway, I remember I left right before the Megazone was announced to be released really soon. 'Bout the time the Peacock Griffis came out, 2-3 years ago. I don't know if that's when it really came out or not. There's been a lot of changes since I was last here, and I'm not sure they're all for the best, in my honest opinion.

When I came back, it was just... different. I don't remember too terribly much, but what I do remember is just not the same. There seems to be gears grinding between the older players and the dev team. I feel like the community is saturated with disappointment, while the dev team is more indignant that they're putting in all this work and there's quite dominant and prominent voices saying it's not good enough. Both parts have quite a bit of justification for that, from what I've seen. Again, I've only recently come back, so I don't know whether I have the full picture or not.

I honestly love the idea of festivals. I love special events. I've never actually really understood them though. I just sorta do whateves, and whee for me if I accidentally get something special. Fests are especially important for an official release to keep interest and the fun meter up, but I believe that they've all been tested enough by the beta here, so not a lot of attention needs to go to it right now. I also agree that the avi items might be a bit too much - I'd much prefer to get another shot at the old cool stuff that already exists than new stuff that I'm probably not going to be very interested in since a lot of the cool ideas are already done.

The ferriki are adorable little puffs. I'm glad they exist, but I believe that it would have been best to wait until it was all completely finished before releasing the new species. Keep us updated with the artwork and listen to feedback, but don't have it accessible to have as an actual pet until it's completely finished and no more work needs to be done on it. New species can also be released after the official is done, since there isn't too terribly much to beta test with that since you already have a solid system for pets and genes. I believe that further new species should wait until the official. Art updates on revamps for existing pets should still be posted about and get feedback on, but should also wait for the official release. Have one big release together of all the new art to celebrate the official opening, that's the product of the community pitching in their opinions and ideas.

As for the megazone, I'm just sorta not interested.Everyone has their opinion - I'm just saying me personally. I'm not complaining, it's just sorta not my thing. Sometimes I wander in there, but I mostly just sit here and breed my pets. I'm a pet hoarder and breeder. I love finding the most beautiful designs for pets and hoarding them, and selling them so other people can have pretty pets too. That's the main purpose for a pet site to me - having the ideal pets. I don't really like battling all that much, though I love having bragging rights in having a max stat fully leveled pet. That's pretty much all I want. It's cool sometimes to visit and look at the pretty landscape, but it just isn't something I really want to do very often. I feel bad by saying this, because I remember how excited krin was about it and how much effort went into it. I know it's really disheartening to see something you spent so much time on being trod on.

I think that the current best course of action would be to figure out how to balance out the boss stats, figure out how to encourage people to get rid of their pets more instead of just hoarding them even if they're not normally good enough, and fix the drop rates so it's still rare but it's enjoyable to get them. That's all that this place really needs right now to keep the interest - all other efforts should really be put into the Official release. The beta has been here for over five years now, which is.... a bit long.

I think it's really important to really push for this official release. If there's things that you know for sure you're going to put into the official but not sure if it'll work properly, go ahead and put it in the beta! That's what it's here for - to test things out. The beta isn't really meant to be a game of it's own - it needs some interesting aspects so people will playtest it, but it's only supposed to be used as a playground to tinker with and figure out how to incorporate things into the official so it doesn't bug out.

I also think the dev team should be a smidge bigger, so it's not resting mostly on just a few people. It eases pressure and stress, and also lightens the workload.

Anyway, just my opinions! Please don't take any offense at what I've said here, it's just some thoughts. I normally don't really participate in forums much. ^^'

My heart hurts to write this, I have been playing Sylestia for almost three years, and consider myself a Beta tester of sorts. Thus, I only want to see the site grow and be the best that it can, which was a bit frightening and shocking for the past few months, including the Lune revamp, site attitude, and the MZ. I have to agree with everyone deeply on this, And I think it is a good representation of the site, as you have both those that grid for Hours and those that are more relaxed players. Its been clear that neither side is happy, and the new players will probably be at the same loss once they reach this point of dramatic shift.
Just to be simplistic I'll comment on the Topics Fox expressed in her post. Just a reminder that I care about this site and the last thing I want to happen i it sink and only run off of player who play for three months or so and then never return. With that in mind Here are My feelings and perspectives.

The new website.
Four Years for a Beta is long...... really long, and can get a bit tiring but having things you create implemented into the site and seeing it progress in a positive direction is almost worth the long wait, more because you know it will be the best it can be.
However, having this site still in beta and the things going on with the site like they are now is disheartening. I don't want it to go out of Beta in the state its in now or the direction we are heading. I think retracing our steps would benefit and not hurt us.

The megazone.
" You can lead a horse to water but you cant make them drink " I understand not everyone likes/wants the MZ, personally I was excited for its release but its turned into " You can lead a horse to water but you cant make them drink, unless you make them eat salt ". When I thought of the MZ I was excited for new NPC's, interactive and meaningful Quests and progressing. But it has been more of an endless grind with no profit, and I have to grind to level my pets or Buy XP potions for real money. I'm not sure If you intended this to be a diamond sink? and if you did that is the worst possible way you could have done it. If I'm going to spend Diamonds, Its going to be on things I cannot get anywhere else including in the Zone Like avi items, Big bundles, and limited Items (like the boxes), but Quite frankly It pisses me off when I spend real money on a bundle of avi items just to have them released in zone where I could grind for them. That's not productive to get me to buy bundles in the future, but I'll leave the rest of this Argument for the Festival section.
The Megazone itself has lovely art and uniqueness, However , It has no value. this meaning the NPC"S are not relateable or really interactive, we kinda bounce back and forth with a few and they are both bland. The guards a bit rude, and the science man is well absorbed in his work. I think the thing we expected was Jinxi to stay with us, or have another constant companion. As someone who RP's its common psychology that people are more motivated to participate in a group. I know you tried to facilitate this with it being a community event, but as players We don't know who we are really in a "Party" with. In all it needs to be more personable, and it is lacking in lore and NPC personality making it bland, It has great base features but Its Like Playing Zelda, and there is no Zelda for Link to rescue..... What makes a zone remembered is not what come from it item wise, but the Lore it contains and its event. for the MZ the only thing I have is it has Rikkis and the Grove behemoth was Adorable.

The festivals.
I love festivals but lately they have almost not been worth my time or money. The reason this is I think is because it took a sharp turn to more rarity, This could have to do With you not wanting there to be an over abundance of the players who grind during fests to get a bunch of themes and avi items. That really..... does not make any since. I could see it in a business setting where you don't want to produce many of Item X so it sells for a higher price, but this is not the same principle. Art work is something you pay for, it would be more profitable to set and average drop rate. The players that grind deserve there Items, they spent time to get them. Restricting them puts a strain on us more relaxed players who can never seem to get anything. The best example of this is the MZ.... its loaded with this issue, and the Easter even with the rikki eggs was less of "oh cool challenge " and more " sell me your soul and I'll give you what you want"....Don't really know how else to put that it was really bad.
We are not the type of community that takes fests for granted, nor do we aim to horde everything. many of us work to trade and help one another out, that's what this site is all about in my eyes, and I know I'm not the only one who thinks that. We all take the time to help out Newbies, Help with each others Projects, assist with Fest collections, and everything else. We are not a community who grinds for ourselves and is out to kill the market.

The Ferrikki.
I like the Rikki, I do..... a lot. The things that have involved the Rikki though are kinds BS. Using a new species as a breeding experiment was not smart, and I know you tossed it, but it put us all on edge as what else was going to come. Their appearance in the Zone combined with the overall grind of the zone is a little less than trying to make a project off of grove Noodles...... its a bit crazy especially if you don't have the tracking hut yet.
I like the species and I think the Idea of more species is good! but I think we should focus on fixing some more hindering problems.....

The art.
This Has changed a lot..... The first few revamps were good, the lunes were not so good and some helpful feedback was ignored, and we now have to go back and fix those problems, Same with the runes which is on more than Just the Puff. And the Lup revamp I fear with have the same problems. You shared your vision on the Luporas, and I think you should have submitted a sketch of that as well, You have a community of hundreds of little brains that all have different opinions, and Now you have a poll feature !!! Use it!!! I think It would fix a lot of things If a poll was taken for things the community is asked about and seems split on. You also have these hundreds of little brains that want to see the site succeeded, so our feedback and suggestions are not something that's going to hurt the site.

The attitude.
I think this is the topic that hurts the most to talk about. As a Business person PR is invaluable, you can't replace it with fancy updates and cool content...... it hurts the most to see that our Admin are responding to situations with
"If you don't like the game and don't want to participate, then that's fine and, quite simply, don't participate then."
(though not intended to sound disrespectful It kinda was.....)
And there are more than just this one, through writing only so much tone can be taken. However there is no need to say things in the range of "You can just leave or not participate", or "its not my problem"..... things like that are a bit Harsh, we know how much this site means to us and we are not just pointing things out to be nit picky, there are some problems that really need to be fix and somethings that are under the bar.

Most of the tie your responses are thoughtful and respectable, but it seems that with the release of the MZ you have been really stressed and Tiered which is understandable. However its starting to show with your comments that blatantly go against the feedback the community is providing to you (which By the way Is Free.....) It almost feels like your so tiered you don't care about the sites persona anymore and just want it to be what it is. we all understand that you are pressed thin with all that's going on, and we know your not big on getting more Admin, But expansion of material and players will one day require an expansion of admin for organizing and keeping Moral high (which currently is at an all time low for this site).

I think personally I've invested a couple hundred dollars into the site, not that its a lot, but It makes me feel invested in the site. Thus I want to see it prosper and grow, You already have the open mindedness to ask for our opinions and our suggestion in both art and site inputs, so please don't discard that, its one of the things that makes it exciting. Making your players feel like part of the site and a bigger community with meaning when they log on is the longevity of the site. I want to see more players that have been active for 2-3+ years that what lets you know your site is not only prospering, but is sustainable.
That being said I belive this site is, I just think its headed in the wrong direction by placing focus on the zones and their difficulty rather than the things that come from them like NPC's, Lore, the Pets, and other items.

I just feel the environment is shifting and becoming "If you can Grind you get a number of it, if not suck it up and grind anyway" It just hurts to see the site take this dramatic of a shift, I play for the pets and the community not to grind and get items.

Thanks, and I hope this all turns around soon

As a player of two, three years in July, I do have some strong opinions on this topic.

First off, the new website. I, personally, feel as though this isn't need. The current website could most likely just have some minor revamps out into it. I mean Mega Zone and short story line aside the forums on here as well as all the stables and things like that work just fine, sure they could use a few updates but nothing severe enough to warrant the need for a new site. Other things on this website need to be concentrated on them the writing of code for a new site.

The Mega Zone. I really could care less what happens to it. Sure the Rikki is nice and all the new themed but it really isn't needed. It's just a grinding zone, which i, for one, dislike greatly. So many more important things could have been invested into that were more important then the MZ. Like I can pretty say for the majority of players that we would all much rather have the main story line increased and furthered. I loved following the story line back when I was still a newbie and progressing through it. Sure the MZ kind of has a story line but it really isn't much of one. All in all i would be ok with the MZ just being left alone how it is and forgotten until you actually have extra time for it.

Here I disagree partially. The festivsls are something I love about this website and would hate to see be forgotten. I love the way they work and all the new items that are obtainable. I hope care is still continued to be out into them for years to come.

The Rikki is adorable but also not really needed. I love them but other creatures should have been fixed up and all issues corrected before these guys were thrown into the mix. You have an entire mega thread of artwork issues that should be cleaned up and dealt with first before creating the rikkis.

Now onto the art. I love the art for this site but I feel as though it is,, lacking. Like the lunes and the puff's runes. It took months for all the issues with these species to get fixed and even the they still are not the best. I for one am scared of the lup revamp slightly. I don't want a species i love to be ruined. I think other things should have more time invested into their art work rather then revamping species that really don't need it

Now the attitude is another thing I don't really agree with. This community is one of the most welcoming i have seen when it comes to newbies. Most players I've seen are always willing to lend a helping hand to the younger players. One big negative shift i have seen though is the lessening of care from the admins for players opinions. Back when I first started it was easy to find and talk to Krin in the region chat and often be would hold conversations but now I don't see that as much anymore. Krin I've also seen you start to brush off older players opinions who care and love this sight more and more. You have even flat out told players if they didn't like something to leave.Now I know some of this is because you have more and more work to do, I understand that, but don't snap at the hand that feeds you. Players are what are keeping this site alive so don't stop listening to them. Along with all of this there is also the other admin who has essentially gone missing. I'm not going to comment on this as much as I don't know if there were other reasons and I never talked to her but from what I've heard from older players she used to be really active. When newbies don't even know about the existence of one admin that is a problem.

All in all i truly love this site and I'm devoted to it. I plan on sticking around now matter where it goes. I just hope everything that has been said by me and the other players is being listened to. It would be a tradagy to see this site crash into the ground and become a relic of the past. I really don't want this site to be the next Neopets, gone and forgotten. I love this game and I want it to last but it won't last of the players aren't listened too. We are what is keeping this site running and without us there would be nothing.

Krin, I know you are just a single person, and it can be disheartening for people do criticise you after you spent so much time on a project. I do want the site to do well.

Megazone:

I agree with a lot of people that the megazone is too grindy. The zone's difficulty has quite the steep increase when compared to other areas, and you have to kill a lot of enemies to get a building up. And that is before you can craft anything, get tasks and so on.

Not everyone is a grinder like LadyM, and it becomes more of a chore when you have to battle a lot of creatures to progress.

I suspected you made it super grindy because you need a lot of time to set up the new site, but it feels like I'm getting nowhere.

The Festivals:

I'm also with a lot of people on how rare the items are. I rather have too many helds to delete, and be able to own all outfits from bosses. Right now, they are almost unobtainable and I find it less enjoyable to play during the fests. Back then, even if I was busy, it is still quite easy to snap up outfits from the broker since they are affordable.

Pet Revamps:

A lot of people aren't too thrilled with changes, I think it is just better to keep the revamped art as close to the original species as possible. I really liked the new fairy wings on the lunes, but they are so different from the original fairy wings that they could be an entire new trait.
I wasn't thrilled with the new Ladybug gene, it used to be one of my favourite G1 on the lunes, but now I am not fond of the spots.

I am glad you changed the lune's furry body at least, I loved how fluffy they looked before the revamp, and I'm glad they are fuzzy bugs again!

I really liked the original candy wings on the puffs too, they were one of my favourite wings. If the trait doesn't fit the name, I think it should be renamed rather than changing the image.

I just want to say that I've been feeling all of this, too. I've lost motivation and interest, and I thought it might just something about me and not the site, but now it's been explained. I feel the main issue is how unrewarding everything's been lately. I may have time on my hands, but if it doesn't feel worth it to spend it here, I don't find myself on here much.
I also think it's affecting the community, which is one of the main reasons I stay. I like watching the chat and participating, but now nobody's really here, and when they are, I see complaining. And it's often the most active players (which should lend weight to their words), which also happen to be the people I know more. The people are still open and generous, yes, but not....engaged. And it lessens my engagement in the game.
Anyway, I'm just adding this to the pile. Sylestia still has a lot going for it, which is why I care enough to want to see it go in a good direction.

I agree with many of these points! here's my short say on the stuff

[Megazone/b]
A bit overkill also (totally personal) puttering around for hours in hopes of cool drops isn't what I like doing, I would really like to see some development of the World map with all the other regions *stares at volcano*
Festivals
I wish they were more integrated in! I miss half the festivals because I forget they exist (no big obvious sign) also it requires a huge commitment of time, most of the players I see with the themed pets and festival themed items are people I see as the ones who play this as their main game. I'd personally be more excited if in the festival zone almost all pets dropped stuff/ were themed. Yes I know that is the super lazy route which takes the commitment out of it, but festivals should be fun and encourage you the whole time. The named bosses and the random wild sylesties all the time tend to make me discouraged.
Ferrikki
I personally don't like them since I thought they were weasels with feathers. But I can see how people do and hope they follow their dreams. I had also kind of wished that some of the Ferrikki time was devoted to adding more traits to some of the less popular species like Drayel and Bulbori, I mean compare the number of G1 traits of a Drayel to a Kelpari or a Ny'vene there's a whole amount of difference
Art
I like it alot it takes time to make new traits that are unique! I do hope Drayel will get a revamp because they don't have a huge appeal bodywise, I've been calling them Bi-pedal dinos with wings

I'm not going to touch most of these issues. I only came back to Sylestia in the last few months and I spend little time on the forums. The main thing I like to do is collect pets, especially festival pets, and to a lesser extent avatar items. The avatar has grown on me so I'm okay with that.

To put things as succinctly as I can, the grind is making me want to leave Sylestia again. I like the game. I like the pets. Then along comes the megazone. My first experience was much like everyone elses. I went in, we all got killed. I realized you can't even play in there until you grind up a few more levels. So I did. It took far too much time, more than I should have spent, but I did it and I thought finally, the grind is over! Only it wasn't. In fact the grind had just begun. So I sat on the sidelines, doing my usual slow grind, while much of the rest of the site jumped ahead of me stage after stage. I was envious of those who, because they had been able to grind a lot already, got to move ahead by doing one or two things, but I continued doing the best I could.

I enjoy the festivals, or rather I used to. The spring one and this one have both combined to turn me off the fests such that I don't even want to participate anymore. Why? Because festivals, as well as virtual pet games, are supposed to be fun. And fun to me is not grinding in a zone hitting 1 and 2 over and over again until my hands and wrists ache. Until my hands are shaking so much I can't do anything with them for hours.

And what do I have to show for those hours of grinding that are causing me so much literal physical pain? 2 avatar items. One hat, and one held.

It's not worth it.

As much as I love Sylestia's general system, and as much as I want to participate and get some of the pretty new pets, it's just not worth it. I cannot and will not throw my time into a site that makes participating either painful or expensive.

And yes, playing the regular game is still an option but... having a fest going on and being unable to participate enough to find anything fun is like being a kid at a birthday party where everyone else is running around with cake and you have to sit there watching them but you can't get any yourself because you can't go to the kitchen. Yeah technically you can still talk and have fun with your friends, but you miss out on something really good. That's not a fun place for anyone to be in. And these last two festivals there's been a grind fest of epic proportions between me and the kitchen, so at this point I don't even want to look at everyone else's cake.

Ok, metaphors aside lol, the grind is just intense. I believe I saw mention that it was intended to slow us down but to be honest it's only slowing down those of us who can't or don't want to grind all the time, The power grinders are already through it and the rest of us are either giving up or plodding on and growing more resentful of the required grind with every forest sprite battle.

Hmm... this thread seems like a bit of a rant fest, but I'll try to give contructive feedback.

The main thing I see is... efficiency (the need for more). This seems to be a very small site, with very few staff. Thats a lot of work on your shoulders Krin!

In many ways smallness is lovely! I think the admins and players are extremely nice, and admins pay a lot of attention to little details that make the site pleasant. A lot of the mini-games during the fests are fun and entertaining. :)

However, delays seem to be more frequent and for a longer duration (spring fest in the end of June, for example...). It seems that the majority of content on this site is built from scratch each and every time. I would hope there would be more recycling of code. There are enough mini-games, that it should be simple to recycle them over the years to keep festivals fresh. Throwing in the occasional new activity from time to time is wonderful, but doesn't need to be something overwhelmingly new every fest. A new map and a shakeup of the activities offered should make for a nice fest.

But it doesn't seem that simple. Making a new map (for example) seems like coding a whole new section of the site. Ideally, the "fest code" should just be there, and making a new map a simple matter of mixing tiles around. A new boss should be a matter of tweaking "boss code" options instead of building from scratch, etc.

Ideally, there should be a lot of easily transferable code that can be used for various sylestia purposes easily. But it seems each section is completely separate!

This brings my major concern about the MZ. It has taken years! To build temporary, 6-month content! Its a lot to build and play test with limited numbers, so fair enough. At first, I was quite happy with the MZ, because I thought it would be "skeleton code" for the new site. But now, after almost 6 months of opening, the MZ itself isn't finished, and even each section of the MZ seems to be separate.

Unless there is a huge host of new types of content, this is concerning. Ideally, all this new code should be a base to be reused easily in all the various sections of the final site.

Changes should be rapid and easy (for you) to complete! A new boss (with different mechanics but same general coding), some new maps, and the greatest amount of time writing the storyline for each area. Maybe a new species to open up the new sections with a bang. Except for the latter, these changes should be simple and quick to implement.

What I'm seeing now, is detailed and time-consuming coding at every step, even with the MZ itself... Why? Why not have master code with some cosmetic tweaks? Gameplay doesn't need to feel identical, even if the underlying code is the same! Then new content becomes much, much easier to handle, and genuinely new things (like mini-games) can be focused on and built without pressure.

Art is also taking a long time, in a way that it didn't before. Why are revamps so slow now? They didn't use to be this long, and it looks like the same process. Involving the community with a frequent series of quick sketches seems like a good idea until there is a general consensus of what they should look like!

Art updates are an important part of Sylestia--new avi items, mutations, etc. (and with new regions--bosses, scenery, crafting materials, etc). Is there a way to make art (financially) rewarding for the site, but also quick and efficient?

So my main concern is this: inefficiency. Changes to Sylestia should take hours or days (not weeks, months, or years), because the code supports this and changes are minimal.


My other concerns are smaller, and mirror the "grindiness" others mentioned in the lost grove. It's...not worth it to me and seems excessive. I barely bother with the lost grove these days.

Difficult content is a nice challenge, but should only be there for those who like battling (like an arena or optional dungeon). These *should* have a really high barrier! But the rest of the content should be more encouraging, less about battle/grinding and more about following the storyline.


In the past, fests were a time of abundance. I don't know about the financial side of things, but is scarcity really worth it? In the past, everyone could get a bunch of good items, avi, etc without *too* much grinding. Then there were the paid wheels, legendary boxes, etc. The paid things still seem to be there, but now the fests just seem to offer scarcity, which makes them less interesting/exciting in general, making for less engagement. Only you, with all your data, would know if it is worth it overall for fests.

But with the "no-trading" mechanics of the lost grove, scarcity there leads to uninteresting gameplay.


My final concern, is that the whole site is focusing more on battling. Some people like this, but there should be multiple supported gameplay options! Breeding/nurturing are great. :) Crafting right now is just battle grinding in disguise. There is no way to get crafting materials other than battling, not even trading!

Tasks might have fit this idea, but they are currently just a subsets of the battle mechanic (i.e. battle until you collect enough of x").

Missions would be a great avenue if they became fleshed out more. If they had real crafting/building rewards (either as an alternative to battling or "mission only" options), it would be beneficial. Especially if missions became more complex to justify them (like requiring multiple pets with different characteristics to complete advanced missions, and if pets could advance in some way from missions like they do right now from battling, or even mission-specific gear, potions, etc to boost chances of getting certain types of mission rewards).


To sum up:

1) Site efficiency--so that changes are quick with minimal effort. (This means the final site would be up and running much sooner!)

2) Too much grinding to progress is not pleasant, and makes one want to stop.

3) Is scarcity worth it? Abundance, with scarcity in a limited type of items seems more valuable overall...

4) There needs to be more alternatives other than battling! Using a (more complex) mission mechanic or something else to advance pets/craft/build would be useful.

I just think the site would do much better if more people were working on it (time to hire, Krin xD).

Ok, so from what I have heard, the reason you arent hiring anyone is because you would have to take time off to teach them how to work the coding on this site. I am sure a number of players would prefer to have really slow gameplay for a couple months (or however much time is needed), than to have stuff come out slowly for possibly the rest of Sylestias time as a virtual pet site. There is also the matter financial wise, but I am sure many players would start buying the in-game purchases if a better site was produced.

While I have not been here for as long as some players, I do believe that a few of the things that have been mentioned could easily be fixed with a couple more coders and possibly artists.

Otherwise, this site is awesome and I am never going to stop supporting Sylestia.

As a new player reading through this entire thing and seeing that its not just NEW players that are facing down the same issues i am? It validates what i'm experiencing.

The "Megazone" aka Lost Grove is stupidly hard. The pets drop the items you need so little that I could probably still be trying to build my first building this time next year.

The events, while the idea behind them is great, are so poorly executed as to be laughable. When I complained about the most recent Patriotic event not only did I feel brushed off by Krin, who apparently is the ONLY person working on anything on this site (dude this is a dang business...most businesses have multiple people working at them) who pretty much made me feel that "filthy casuals weren't worth the time". Like for real an event should be easily playable as a new casual player the same as a devoted older player. On top of this Krin apparently has a bunch of attack dog players who attacked ME when I said that I felt like most of the top players of the event were most likely teenagers OR childless adults OR people who were focusing entirely on this game.

Add to it that after you use your freebie scanners and genetic testers the only way to get more is to spend real money to buy them? this game starts stinking of pay to win where the admin only cares about where the next dollop of cash is coming from...not a game where the admin actually cares enough about the people who play it to actually give them the best game they can.

To rectify all these issues the key thing would be hiring extra coders and artists to help with everything.
You need a team to bring the old half of the site to the same as the new half. A team of artists can be used to update any and all art. if you hire enough you can have both a team of each fixing that which is wrong and a team of each bringing out new enjoyable content.

I mean it struck me as odd that we weren't able to get our garden pets the moment the event ended or even a few hours after because Krin "had to write the code" ...any game worth its salt would have had the code written BEFORE the event went live. All Krin should of had to do was flick the switch in the code to actually run the script?

The thing that i feel needs to be worked on the most is the learning curve between the new zones where you walk around (especially Lost Grove) and the old text based style of exploring that the first 2 zones has. I blew through those in like 3 days with my casual playing and then through the 2 subzones of the 3rd zone in like the same amount of time. However, I haven't even gotten a single barracks building built because except for branches and a few bandit items NOTHING is dropping and the enemies are so hard I spend half my actual time playing in the barracks healing. From the talking I've done with other players having a team of max stats with at least the exotic LG stuff should make it easier there....but as a new player I don't have the money for stables/stable tabs and all the philters and stuff to get myself a Max stat nor do i have the money to BUY them from other players (I was gifted ONE by a lovely player ...but one won't do much on a team of 3). Of course the easiest way to get all this money is to send off missions (great if you can remember to) and by selling off the spare drops you get from the level 60+ zones. Which of course is pretty much a catch 22. I need to fight in Lost Grove to make the money i need to buy the pets that enable me to easily fight in Lost Grove.

Lost Grove should be easy enough that a newb of level 60 should be able to face it without much effort...as it was I was leaving the grove every 5 or 6 battles for healing at level 60 ....that is NOT conducive to keeping a client base past Zones 1&2


Edit: Read through everything again (mainly skimmed the first time) and gotta say I am 1000000000% agreeing with everything @Nightfeathers has said. No one should have to feel physical pain while trying to enjoy a festival which is EXACTLY what happened to me. I'm at the point where I just want Krin to code an animation of my the forest sprite shrieking in agony after my fire pet sets it on fire -.-