Suggestions for improving the game.

[Alabama]

So, in an effort to try and improve the size of SBF's player base, what things do you think could be done? I've thought of a few and would like to know what you think about them, as well as things I haven't thought about, that you would like to see.

Please, this isn't about how to keep AE's etc. protected, but about how to make things easier or more appealing to new players.

Current suggestions:

Give studs a certain number of times they can be bred per examination, such as with VHR. They may disappear from the market if this number is used up, but once examined, they will return to the market automatically.

Extend the length of time an animal remains up for sale. The animal will stay on the market until it is bought or the owner removes it.

Update the farmhouse page (Volunteers for linearts/colorings? )

Make enclosures more fun or challenging to achieve and maybe add some more that require more than just money to buy.

More Orbis created colors and variations toward the rarer end, to create interest in different breeds/variations.

A way to specialize without penalty. Perhaps another round of goodies that apply to people that want to specialize to offset the exam penalties for not having wider variations. Trophies for achievements, perhaps with prestige attached.

Changing costs for colors: decreasing creation costs, increasing color/variation purchase price (does this make sense?)

More free rescues available over time. (Perhaps ability to purchase more rescues with game monies)

More things to spend game monies on.. ie, gifts for pets/goodies

Upgrade the forums

Contests

Warning system for retiring animals

Pause button for if a player knows they are going to be gone for a while. Would stop animals from aging. Can have an automatic turn off after a length of time or perhaps shuts off when a player does something on their account.

Have the market return a number of animals in game to keep from having to manually count animals.

Ability to undo pregnancies.

[Chloe Taylor]

what about games? Alot of virtual petsites have games. It dosn't have to be something big, but maybe like a little lottery game?

[Alabama]

Now to explain my suggestions.

A hard part for new players is finding animals to breed to once they've used up their rescues. As it is now, even if a player wishes to put animals up for stud for other players to use, the animals remove themselves from the market after a certain length of time. Requiring the player to go back through their animals from time to time and put them back on the market.

Personally, I find it hard to try and take my exams, sort my animals to look for ones about to retire without replacements, etc. without sorting them to put animals up for sale or stud and deciding prices. I want players to be able to use my animals, to buy animals I don't need or want, but not to the tune of taking vast amounts of time to do it.

[firebird!]

I think it would be fair that the people who havent played in years get their accounts deleted, and the animals get put up for sale. It would be fair to the creators of so many breeds, as long as they get first choice to buy before put on the market. Anyone agree?

[shaggydoggy]

I don't really agree. what if the person is gone for so and so many months but they still want their account. Queso, for example. Shes in the navy, and she can't go on all the time, so is gone for long periods of time, yet she still comes on everyonce and a while.

[firebird!]

I mean like 3-5 years plus. not months.

[Chloe Taylor]

I agree with FiREBiRD ! Alot of us new players don't have alot of rare animals and such because alot of new players can't get tokens/large amounts of money. I think the solution to that would be to put the 'missing' players' animals up for sale.....For as much money as they are worth of course.

[Alabama]

For games, what do you mean? We already have betting, what else could be integrated into the game itself and how would it be judged?

As for animals going up for sale on unused accounts, that's a no-go. The biggest reason more people don't play Virtual Pups is because of the ability for personal breeds, rare dyes and and dogs they've worked hard to train and breed to be the best being able to be rescued.

SBF has a hard enough time drawing and keeping people without the added detriment of their animals possibly being obtained by other people because they may forget about the game for a while. Most players and prospective players already don't like the fact that anyone can buy the creations they buy with real money unless they pay even more money to make them AE.

New players may have a hard time getting rare animals, but it isn't impossible. If they make enough money, they can sell it for tokens and change colors, etc or be able to pay for studdings or animals that are rare. Examinations are based on the variety of animals, not how rare they are.

The game determining the price on such animals also won't work because game prices fluctuate, dependent on the number of players, how much money they have to spend and how many of the animal there is, along with other factors. Besides which, if the player is "missing" or doesn't intend to return, they have no need for money.

Orbis Games never deletes accounts.

What about more rescues, less rescues, discounts?

[firebird!]

more rescues would be nice for everyone.

[Sipphy]

I don't think you should try too hard to incorporate a new mini game into the game. What I'm saying is, most of the game basically click a few times, and then wait at least several hours, sometimes a day or more. I think it would be nice if there was a game, like a puzzle game, that involved skill, not just patience.
With the betting game, it's so hard to know who to bet on, it just isn't fun for new players who don't have that much money to waste.
Does anybody agree with me? Or even understand what I'm saying, for that matter...

[sandtiger]

I kinda disagree with incorporating a mini game, please don't go calling me names. I don't think it would be a good idea because Neopets and such have tons and I just feel SBF is not the type of game to house that. But if its something like Sipphy suggested, I think ti would be a good idea, just not the Neopet or other pet site like ones. Something like a puzzle and more complex, it would work out. And rescues would be nice too.

[Misty Glen]

Before anything else happens, I think the game really needs to fix some fairly major bugs that have been hanging around for quite a while. They've been mentioned before, so it's not as though the game staff are unaware of them.

The main bug I can think of is the one that essentially gives a player infinite free rescues.
I think this bug could easily be fixed.

Apart from bug removal, I'd like to see some improvements added to the game. The first two suggested in the first post sound like the perfect compromise between actually having studs and such available on the market, but at the same time preventing excessive breeding as a result of people accidentally underpricing their animals. With the second suggestion though, I would go as far as to say there's no need for a time limit at all. If an animal is still on sale after 30 days that just means that it's overpriced for the current market, but this may change as the market fluctuates. I don't see what removing it from the market will actually achieve. Also, when auctioning off an animal some players actually overprice their animals to encourage bids.

Also, I'd like to see some rarer Orbis-made colours and variations added to a lot of the species that don't have any, including the player-made species. The main reason a lot of these species aren't very popular is because players can only get common to overpopulated animals, which aren't very interesting to collect, and if player-made rarer colours or variations exist the only way to actually obtain them is to pay lots of money or tokens. If there's a chance a rarer colour or variation could be rescued (such as when it's an Orbis-made one) then a lot of these species will become much more popular. I miss the days when Orbis staff added in the species. There was always something new to look forward to and while it did mean more work for the staff I think the game as a whole was more interesting.

Finally, I'd like to see the farm page updated. A grid of images is a bit boring, and some of the images don't even exist. One option I like is to replace it with an interactive flash farm map, similar to what's seen in MondoZoo (message me if you want to see an example, since I can't post links to other games on the forum). If this isn't possible for whatever reason, a simpler option is to use an image map. I've been trying to code up something like this on my farm page here: http://www.sandboxfarm.com/publicfarm.php?player_id=29997#coding
It's currently incomplete, but the idea is that you click on different parts of the image to go to your different enclosures.

[Jinxx]

Ack..no flash. My desktop can handle those but my laptop has hissy fits.

I still say a way to specialize without losing the ability to gain like you would regularly 'collecting'. I really only want a couple species and it drives me crazy I have to collect as well as show to keep up Prestige. The number of animals I have to worry about keeping is a game killer. I've known players who've quit after a short time playing because of the penality against specializing.

Some higher enclosures/special items/animals one can gain by reaching some sort of achievements. SBF cash is easily come by with the way people trade/sell and new players get to the end relatively quickly compared to how long it took those of us who started way back when SBF started. I was one of the first to reach the last enclosures, the excitement about reaching another is gone. The goodies are okay but not a draw for me. A lot a new players reach the last enclosure then lose the excitement too.

Token costs for player made creations increased for everyone but the creator. My desire to create has been dampened by how cheap it is for others to import a foundie pair of something I created. I don't even care if the amount of tokens a creator gets goes up or not with the cost. This may not be geared for new players per say but it is a killer for a lot of older players.

I really wish you could't cross breed variations. Or if they're cross breed they get a grade/mutt/mixed breed. Yes, it would get harder to breed variations but if you don't have a pair and their's none up for stud communicate and message someone with one. This is suppose to be a community, their is nothing wrong with communicating. This too isn't geared to new players but I still fee it's a game improvement and needs saying. It's too easy to acquire breeds this way and takes an element of challenge out of things.

A way to approve breeding requests. I'd be more willing to put animals up for stud if I could approve the breeding. Something with a little note box so I can say what I require to allow a breeding. In real life people approve breedings. If I was a show winning dog owner who wanted to stud out her dog I'd not allow just anyone to breed their females to him. Same goes for any of the stallions I've owned in the past. I'd not have allowed just anyone to bring their mares to be bred. Again, an overall improvement, not necessarily geared to new players though I play elsewhere where approving works and it's connected new and old players and helped new players in the long run.

I'm not interested in games in-game. It might be my age. *shrugs*

I'm sure there is more but at the moment I'm drawing a blank.

[Misty Glen]

I like some of these suggestions, but I'm not sure about some of the others.

I agree that the issue with specialising being penalised needs to be addressed, but I don't know how it could be done.

The breeding approval idea sounds fantastic too. I'd also like to see the ability to put females up for brood in a similar manner to studs.

Making it more of a challenge to reach higher enclosures would also be a bonus. Perhaps this could be achieved by having the necessary requirements be a combination of things, not just max cash. Or you could be required to pass a quiz which incorporates questions about animals, habitat and other stuff to do with the enclosure you're trying to get, which could be interesting and educational. Or you could have to get above a minimum score in a certain minigame. The minigame idea is one I like, but it's the sort of thing that has to be done well, otherwise it'll just flop.

I've always disliked the way variations are crossbred. I feel that breeding, say, an Ostrich with an Emu, and ending up with an Emu is unrealistic. Firstly, those breeds are incompatible - they're entirely different species, and secondly, even if it were possible, the offspring should be some sort of hybrid, like Jinxx said. Having said that fixing this problem would involve rewriting a huge portion of the game code. And if it was implemented in the way Jinxx suggests this would mean some of the more scarce colours and variations, especially the AEs whose creators are inactive, would eventually go extinct.Admittedly this is quite realistic - the same would happen in the wild with extremely small populations, but I think a lot of players would have serious objections to it.
I can't see a solution, to be honest.

[Queso]