We need your feedback: Bigger, less frequent pound openings?

[A s t r a]

I just thought of something that might help us decide better.

How about we do a 2 week trial for both a bigger and smaller pound openings? We can do 2 weeks for bigger pound openings and then after 2 weeks we do a smaller pound openings? This could help us decide which would work best for the community and to see which one we like best?

They basically already did a bigger pound test during the Easter event, though. It was raised while significantly more people were online for the event. Of course, they could still try an official scheduled trial run of the bigger but less frequent openings, but it seems a little late now that the poll has been out for a while. I think a lot of people have already voted on the poll with the Easter pounds still fresh in their minds.

The thing is, since they aren’t shrinking the pound (They’re either making it bigger or it’s staying the same size as it is now.) there’s no reason to test a smaller pound opening, because really that’s just how it’s normally functioning. So if you like how it works now, you can vote for that! But if you want to try the bigger openings, you can vote the other way!

Oh. I didn't know. I joined April 16th so I missed the Easter event, unfortunately.

Oops my apologies. I joined April 11th.

[PansyPossum]

Oh. I didn't know. I joined April 16th so I missed the Easter event, unfortunately.

Oops my apologies. I joined April 11th.

Hey it’s no problem at all! Welcome to the site!
It felt like a pretty quick change to the pound at the time, so really easy to have missed it. I’m sure an official two weeks to fully try it out would definitely help some people make their decision!
Who knows, maybe they’ll expand the amount of pets in the pound during future events, too! I’d love to see that happen!

[A s t r a]

Oh. I didn't know. I joined April 16th so I missed the Easter event, unfortunately.

Oops my apologies. I joined April 11th.

Hey it’s no problem at all! Welcome to the site!
It felt like a pretty quick change to the pound at the time, so really easy to have missed it. I’m sure an official two weeks to fully try it out would definitely help some people make their decision!
Who knows, maybe they’ll expand the amount of pets in the pound during future events, too! I’d love to see that happen!

I know for me, personally, I'd have to experience both to see which one I would like better as I honestly cannot say for myself which I would like better. So, I personally love to experience new changes before I make a decision and I don't think I actually voted on the poll, as I was more so just reading the response and only giving my opinion where I thought mattered. I know it got off topic at some point? I can see both sides and understand what they mean, but I don't think bots have anything specifically to do with the pound becoming less open or more open. I mean, a ping system on Chickensmoothie to remind users who are online about openings would be cool, but I'm unsure if that would cause lag or other issues or maybe no issues at all. I think a bigger opening could be helpful/useful versus less pet openings.

I have noticed the past few days that I'm only seeing 1,200 pets or less per opening. I'm not sure if that's the case or if the site lags like crazy due to too many users online or if it's just my phone acting up. I have been having bug/glitch issues with this phone, unfortunately. But I have also noticed that even when my data is full bars and 5G, Chickensmoothie still lags every now and then. So, I'm not like saying it's anyone's fault as technology hates us humans, I swear! Technology said, "nah I'm done with you."

Sorry, off topic there. But going back to what I was saying... I'd personally like to have a trial for both to see which may work better and give a better input that way than now as I'm still extremely new and probably don't know what I'm talking about as I'm still learning how things work here. Though, I did notice a few users suggest mix matching the dates to where they aren't together, such as; 2009 pets close together and so forth, but put a few pets in the same year next to each other. That could possibly help with the "this isn't fair for new players because they don't know rarities yet" but I don't think it's unfair as I find the pound a way to learn rarities by pets designs and not seeing the rarity bar. It's a great way to learn!

I also saw someone suggesting silhouette's instead of showing us the design itself, which I also thought was a great idea and it becomes a mystery of what you get other than knowing the species. Another user suggested a mystery box like they do on December 18th, which I do not know what that day is. But I thought it was an interesting idea as well.

But I honestly do not know if any of these suggestions would help the community as I think we'd need a trial run to figure that out. At least for me, it definitely would help to decide what would be good for the community.

[ButterflyChaser]

Am I just unlucky or is this a common problem that the pound fails to load until about 10+ seconds later and end up with non wishlist pets from 2019 + with very few to no older pets?

This has been going on for the last week and a half for me so far. I think the oldest I've been seeing was from 2017.

[avaloafe]

Am I just unlucky or is this a common problem that the pound fails to load until about 10+ seconds later and end up with non wishlist pets from 2019 + with very few to no older pets?

This has been going on for the last week and a half for me so far. I think the oldest I've been seeing was from 2017.

it has been taking a very long time to load up pets, and my oldest ones have also been from 2019. not a single rare on my page for almost two weeks. if anything, it’s a very recent rare. rather infuriating. not quite sure why this is happening..

[answrs]

Am I just unlucky or is this a common problem that the pound fails to load until about 10+ seconds later and end up with non wishlist pets from 2019 + with very few to no older pets?

This has been going on for the last week and a half for me so far. I think the oldest I've been seeing was from 2017.

it has been taking a very long time to load up pets, and my oldest ones have also been from 2019. not a single rare on my page for almost two weeks. if anything, it’s a very recent rare. rather infuriating. not quite sure why this is happening..

dang, you guys are getting 2019s? I haven't seen a pre-2022 pet in a week i think. and even then half of them get snatched up before loading, and the others throw a "whoopsie! already adopted!" screen at me when I click one. like I know my internet isn't the *fastest* but it's not dial-up and I'm refreshing the moment it opens. and like. i don't know, is this the supposed penalty for going right at opening they added, maybe? because it's annoying at best and supremely disheartening at worst. 🙃


edit: okay, slight correction: in the last few trades, I did nab one 2017. everything else though...

[A s t r a]

Am I just unlucky or is this a common problem that the pound fails to load until about 10+ seconds later and end up with non wishlist pets from 2019 + with very few to no older pets?

This has been going on for the last week and a half for me so far. I think the oldest I've been seeing was from 2017.

It's not just you. I have the same issue and I thought maybe it was my phone but I guess others are having this problem too. I understand I'm new but I think it might be due to too many users on when the pound opens, maybe?

[ButterflyChaser]

This pound I missed the opening by 2 minutes and 40 seconds. Again I was left with a disappointing selection. Ended up with an omgsc from last year Halloween.

At this point I'd be happy to get even a common pet if it is something on my wishlist. I have lots of wishlist pets in the common and uncommon range. If I could just even snag an uncommon of any pet on my wishlist I'd be happy, but this is frustrating to the point of almost giving up even bothering with the pound. Unless I am doing art in my computer room, I'm having to use mobile and the pets already load with the taken message without even a moment of seeing them before that happens.

I find it hard to believe that pets can be snagged even in the 1 second mark, unless I really am seeing the countdown delayed from real time. What I mean is if I am seeing the 5-4-3-2-1 second countdown and it is already open in another part of the world. I guess that could explain why even when I am on time I get the auto taken message on the top row of pets as soon as the images load.

[A s t r a]

This pound I missed the opening by 2 minutes and 40 seconds. Again I was left with a disappointing selection. Ended up with an omgsc from last year Halloween.

At this point I'd be happy to get even a common pet if it is something on my wishlist. I have lots of wishlist pets in the common and uncommon range. If I could just even snag an uncommon of any pet on my wishlist I'd be happy, but this is frustrating to the point of almost giving up even bothering with the pound. Unless I am doing art in my computer room, I'm having to use mobile and the pets already load with the taken message without even a moment of seeing them before that happens.

I find it hard to believe that pets can be snagged even in the 1 second mark, unless I really am seeing the countdown delayed from real time. What I mean is if I am seeing the 5-4-3-2-1 second countdown and it is already open in another part of the world. I guess that could explain why even when I am on time I get the auto taken message on the top row of pets as soon as the images load.

If it's that case of it's already opened in a different time zone then it really isn't fair for the other time zones. How would we know if it's based on that though? We need to figure out a system where it opens in one time on all time zones instead of opening up differently with each time zone to the point the pound would seem kind of useless in a way for those at a disadvantage. I joined April 11th and all the older pets are just gone. I'm on mobile myself and I only have bunnies/rabbits on my wishlist so I understand why I'm not getting anything on my wishlist besides last night but it was automatically taken when the pound open. I'm not sure how that's possible but okay.
Here's what I've caught at the pound since joining:
• yesterday at 10:29pm (2019 uncommon bunny, already had)
• 04/27 at 11:31am (2012 extremely uncommon)
• 04/26 at 5:16pm (2021 extremely common)
• 04/25 at 6:46pm (2016 common)
• 04/23 at 2:31pm (2019 uncommon wishlist bunny)
• 04/22 at 1:02pm (2012 extremely uncommon PPS rat)
• 04/21 at 4:24pm (2019 uncommon)
• 04/20 at 11:15am (2021 extremely common)
• 04/19 at 12:22pm (2022 omg so common)
• 04/17 at 11:07am (2021 common)
• 04/16 at 5:54pm (2021 common)
• 04/16 at 12:42pm (2023 extremely common)
• 04/15 at 3:28pm (2013 very uncommon)
• 04/15 at 10:41am (2023 omg so common)
• 04/14 at 10:42am (2022 very common)
• 04/13 at 2:27pm (2021 common)

These are all my pound catches and I guess a statistic of what players might be catching? Not really sure, honestly. I have yet to get a rare or higher from the pound, but I'm honestly not complaining as I know I will eventually, just still learning what I should and shouldn't catch. But I usually just get species I think will be easier to trade for bunnies/rabbits.

My question is, was the pound opening more frequently before I joined on April 11th or is it the same amount of openings now?

Editing: for me I seem to get the lost & found more than the pet pound, but I'm not sure if CS evens out the two pounds or if it's completely random.

[galactia]

to be honest i came to this thread after weeks of really bad luck with the pound, thinking it was just me. but it's been very interesting to read everyone else's experiences because we all seem to relate! admittedly i had great luck a couple of weeks ago with one of my catches. but since then i've hardly so much as seen a good pet despite attending many openings. in the rare occasions that the page loads quickly, any good pets are already adopted before their images even appear. as an on-and-off user for 10 years, this is honestly the first time i've took to the forums about an issue, as frankly it's been quite discouraging!

i was reading some of the suggestions on earlier pages and i think it would be a great idea to hide the available pets before the opening. i've heard there are bots that notify users when there's a really good pet in the pound? so no wonder the system gets overloaded with so many people attending the pound for such a limited number of pets. additionally i feel that a) randomizing pet order and b) larger, less frequent openings would give more people a chance to adopt a good pet when they're online. tbh i'm usually only online for 1 pound opening a day anyway, so i'd prefer an increased chance of getting a good pet instead of multiple low chances. if that makes sense?

either way it's been nice to see i'm not the only one experiencing troubles recently and hopefully we can come to some resolution soon:]