Suggestion: Pound Update

[Baltoo]

I feel as if the pound has become such a difficult place for people to adopt pets they would like. Currently the pound runs on a date system, the older animals appear first and newer ones later, for example there could be a 2014, 2015, and then a large amount of 2020s. What I find to be the most difficult part of this system is that older pets are almost guaranteed, with minor exceptions, to be rare+, so you have to be at the pound exactly when it opens if you want a chance to get something older that might be on your wishlist. This can be unfair to those who are working right when it opens and do not have a chance to jump on right away, or for players who have slow internet speeds and have to wait patiently for pages to load. By the time they jump on their is not much left, in terms of rares unless you know your pets extremely well. I feel as this can be an extremely unfair to new players or players beginning to learn the system.

I feel as if the pound should opt for a randomization feature instead. Instead of working by order of date it should be 100% random, the system grab 20 random pets at once to show to the player(I think it shows 20 at a time).For example this means that if someones internet is running slow or they don't have the opportunity to go to the pound right away, there will still be opportunities for them to grab pets they prefer, or even better rare+ pets.

[roblox]

i was just thinking about this i miss the pound by a minute and i get a 2021 december pet i completely agree with this

[useless witch]

Agreed. I've tried talking about this tho and got shut down, it's unlikely this will be implemented because people don't believe it's not randomized

[Lennie]

I'm actually fairly certain that this is how the pound currently operates ^^;
Every user who clicks into the pound is presented with ~20 random pets from the total pool, and the ~20 pets are displayed in order of ID number - oldest to newest ID. The reason that older pets seem to disappear faster is largely because those are the ones that more users are aiming for.

If 200 people enter the pound at the same time, they will technically be presented with ~4000 total pets between them, but there will be duplications between the visible pets as only ~750-1200 pets are released per Pound opening. When this happens, it is likely that every pet available in the Pound is seen at least once. Out of those 200 people, 150 may go for the oldest pets they see and reduce the overall available number by 150 "older" pets. It is not that rare pets are shown to the first people who enter the Pound, but that the pets are shown randomly to enough people at once that users recognize it and adopt it before aiming for a newer outcome.

The reason newer pets appear to be available later on is because less people may be inclined to go for them unless they are seeking a specific outcome, not because the pound waits to release those until later on. Often times the pound clears out very quickly during events as there are more users online and active to catch it.

(just to clarify, none of these numbers are exact and are either being used for the purpose of example or estimation)

[useless witch]

I'm actually fairly certain that this is how the pound currently operates ^^;
Every user who clicks into the pound is presented with ~20 random pets from the total pool, and the ~20 pets are displayed in order of ID number - oldest to newest ID. The reason that older pets seem to disappear faster is largely because those are the ones that more users are aiming for.

If 200 people enter the pound at the same time, they will technically be presented with ~4000 total pets between them, but there will be duplications between the visible pets as only ~750-1200 pets are released per Pound opening. When this happens, it is likely that every pet available in the Pound is seen at least once. Out of those 200 people, 150 may go for the oldest pets they see and reduce the overall available number by 150 "older" pets. It is not that rare pets are shown to the first people who enter the Pound, but that the pets are shown randomly to enough people at once that users recognize it and adopt it before aiming for a newer outcome.

The reason newer pets appear to be available later on is because less people may be inclined to go for them unless they are seeking a specific outcome, not because the pound waits to release those until later on. Often times the pound clears out very quickly during events as there are more users online and active to catch it.

(just to clarify, none of these numbers are exact and are either being used for the purpose of example or estimation)

When I enter the pound at the right time I am ALWAYS presented with old rares first.

[iHolli]

{supporting this suggestion, tho as Natasha mentioned this has been suggested before and shot down bc the common misconception is the Pound already works like this. It does not.}
{If I time it exactly right and get in the same second the Pound opens, that is when I see '08 & '09 pets. If I refresh and land on 1 second I will see no earlier than '11, '10 if it's a quiet day.}
{Meanwhile, in the Lost & Found, I might hop in with 700 items left and find a few things from '11 still in there. This isn't because of user interest. Everyone knows what Medieval Faire items look like. It's because Lost is actually thoroughly randomized.}
{The Pound drops older pets first. If you're not on in the first 2 - 3 seconds, you will not see anything older than '11. If you get on when there's even 500 pets left you're going to get 2018 - current and that's all. Maybe a year or two older very common. The Pound is NOT genuinely randomized. It needs to be fixed.}
{To further my point-- if the Pound opens at around 3am in a US timezone, well, there's maybe half the usual amount of people online. Yet despite the pets disappearing more slowly if I am not on within maybe ten seconds of the opening I still will not see an older pet. I should have no trouble finding an older pet when fewer people online if the Pound is properly randomized. This is not the case.}
{I imagine part of the problem too is there just isn't the number of older pets that there is newer ones. But that should be the case for items too, and yet here we are.}
{I would even argue the Pound picks out rarer pets first. Store pets are also gone within the first couple seconds even if they are newer. Whatever the case, it does not seem to be randomized at all.}

.Holli.

[CaptainSpank]

I find the Thread Title not very clear and I don't agree with all Arguments mentioned by @OP but I support:
Pound: Pets randomized instead of being sorted by Date Order.

The current System (has always been like that) is:
Wait for when Pound will open, Refresh like crazy at exactly 0 Sec, ... and try to blindly click as quick as possible on the very 1st Pet as it is always the oldest one.

[Logia]

Not sure I support this suggestion because I think it will ultimately backfire.

First of all, the Pound does pick 20 random pets. It does not give you rarer ones first. The rarer ones are gone after refreshing because people already took them by then, which is why there seem to be so many more rare ones when you first get on.

The pound does list the 20 random pets in the order of oldest to newest. I understand the frustration of this system, but I think that with any system where a bunch of people want a limited amount of things, there will be frustration. If the pets were randomized age-wise, this wouldn't necessarily make things easier. It would just encourage people to memorize which pets are rare or make their wishlists into Pound guides. Newer players would no longer be able to click on the first pet they see and get something valuable. Older players who can spot a rare just by looking at it would benefit. Implementing this would basically be trading existing problems for new problems.

[Tailish]

I'm actually fairly certain that this is how the pound currently operates ^^;
Every user who clicks into the pound is presented with ~20 random pets from the total pool, and the ~20 pets are displayed in order of ID number - oldest to newest ID. The reason that older pets seem to disappear faster is largely because those are the ones that more users are aiming for.

If 200 people enter the pound at the same time, they will technically be presented with ~4000 total pets between them, but there will be duplications between the visible pets as only ~750-1200 pets are released per Pound opening. When this happens, it is likely that every pet available in the Pound is seen at least once. Out of those 200 people, 150 may go for the oldest pets they see and reduce the overall available number by 150 "older" pets. It is not that rare pets are shown to the first people who enter the Pound, but that the pets are shown randomly to enough people at once that users recognize it and adopt it before aiming for a newer outcome.

The reason newer pets appear to be available later on is because less people may be inclined to go for them unless they are seeking a specific outcome, not because the pound waits to release those until later on. Often times the pound clears out very quickly during events as there are more users online and active to catch it.

(just to clarify, none of these numbers are exact and are either being used for the purpose of example or estimation)

I'm pretty sure this is the correct explanation for how the pound operates ^^ there was another thread earlier this year where we came to the same conclusion: pets are randomly selected to be shown to you, and are then arranged from oldest to youngest. Because people usually want older, valuable pets, those are always gone first. Later in the pound opening, the same thing happens as early in the pound opening: a random set of pets is selected to be shown to you, but because the old pets are more likely to have been adopted, only the newer pets are left to be selected and shown.

It's not the case that all the old pets are selected to be shown first, just that those old pets are more likely to be adopted when they are shown, and are therefore gone sooner.

Maybe it would be an idea to update the pound page with a short blurb or link to a page that briefly explains how the pound selection works, so that this confusion could be cleared up?

I agree with feathermoth and think that randomizing the pet order won't be helpful, especially for newer players.

[useless witch]

I have tested this over my time of existing in cs.

When I get into the pound with maximum amount of pets in pound it's ALWAYS a page of very rare, very valuable old pets.

This is years of research.