How can December 18th be improved?

[teddy]

So there’s been a lot of talk about altering how Dec 18th works, especially after the item rerelease and ideas circulating about how to improve the economy, with new players being considered as well. There are a few things to discuss here.

1. Multiple Dec 18ths, varying in size and rarity. For example, a smaller or less rare event in the summer which will allow for old pets to be pulled. If the community wanted the pulls to be as OMGSR as they are on Dec 18th, it would likely require that the pulls in actual December be limited as well in order to avoid a giant flux of Sunjewels that offsets the economy.

2. Improvement of item rereleases. To be honest I didn’t see much of a change in the item economy- it’s not like animal egg 2s became as common as UR tigers, which is around where they technically should be. I understand that having less of them is a good thing, because item demand already devalues them, but for item collectors it wasn't as helpful as it could have been.

3. This might get the topic locked, but at this point, as someone who used to be VEHEMENTLY against this, I have come around to the idea of rereleasing store pets (and items- especially items). There are legal issues to a paid gacha unfortunately, and so I think it would be difficult to figure out a fair way to distribute the pets. I don’t want this topic to just become a “rerelease store pets” topic so please do not make it the main issue of your reply. It is merely a consideration.

I will continue to add ideas here as they come in, so feel free to add your input! Please do not argue or let this topic get out of hand, and be constructively critical.

[ryomen]

i think these are really good ideas tbh, esp a summer release event for old pets! could take a lot of the unnecessary stress out of actual dec 18. support 🤝

[Papilio Ulysses]

There is an open suggestion for changes to December 18th (including additional re-releases) here.
During our last December 18th, I remember a staff member explained the importance of keeping specific discussions concentrated to a single topic. This makes it easier for our thoughts and ideas to be followed and searched - rather than dividing our discussion across duplicate topics and multiple boards.

Re-releasing Store pets is already an officially declined suggestion.

[teddy]

There is an open suggestion for changes to December 18th (including additional re-releases) here.
During our last December 18th, I remember a staff member explained the importance of keeping specific discussions concentrated to a single topic. This makes it easier for our thoughts and ideas to be followed and searched - rather than dividing our discussion across duplicate topics and multiple boards.

Re-releasing Store pets is already an officially declined suggestion.

I did see the site suggestion, I mean for this topic to have more in-depth discussion on rereleases rather than just having people support or not support it and give one word replies. I'm just going to say this on the latter point you made- I really don't believe that something being a declined suggestion years ago means that it can never be considered again.

[Papilio Ulysses]

There is an open suggestion for changes to December 18th (including additional re-releases) here.
During our last December 18th, I remember a staff member explained the importance of keeping specific discussions concentrated to a single topic. This makes it easier for our thoughts and ideas to be followed and searched - rather than dividing our discussion across duplicate topics and multiple boards.

Re-releasing Store pets is already an officially declined suggestion.

I did see the site suggestion, I mean for this topic to have more in-depth discussion on rereleases rather than just having people support or not support it and give one word replies. I'm just going to say this on the latter point you made- I really don't believe that something being a declined suggestion years ago means that it can never be considered again.

Yes, I understand wanting to have an in-depth discussion, which is essentially what I was told the Suggestion boards are (and have been) used for. But put yourself in the shoes of a staff member trying to find and follow this topic. It's already started in another thread and now they'll have to search through this one too - which also includes duplicate information.

Store pets aren't like the monthly adopts or event pets on the site. When real money is involved, it essentially becomes a contract between buyer and seller. A Store pet bought 10 years ago was purchased under the assumption that it is limited and will never be released again. To change that now would be a break of good faith and unfair regardless of how much time has passed. The reality is, buying something precisely because it's limited is a feature that motivates some collectors.

[teddy]

snip

From the front page of this topic- "I don’t want this topic to just become a “rerelease store pets” topic so please do not make it the main issue of your reply. It is merely a consideration." I also don't think that having to look at two separate threads is as taxing on staff as you make it out to be.

[bubblegumjello]

disclaimer 1: i have seen that thread before and i am pretty sure i replied to it in the past, however i don't remember much of what was suggested. forgive me if i'm regurgitating suggestions already made, i will edit this post and remove them if so.

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1. maybe instead of a secondary less rare summer release event, the pound opens up for an entire day with a smaller cool down period like it did in 2017? maybe a bit longer of a cool down than 15 minutes, 1-2 hours instead? something where you could get 5-10 pets during the entirety of the event. that being said, i don't think that having the pound only stocking older pets would be realistic though, so users chances of getting a rare and/or old pet would not be any greater than they are now. i know people have suggested this before, its hardly an original idea.

another idea is to change dec 18th from 3 pets to 5 pets, but the additional 2 pets can only be rare, maybe the pool is just from old summer events. i wouldn't be opposed to them having rares from all years, i don't think that option would make a difference. i don't remember if that was an option from the most recent dec 18th, i think the "lowest tier" gave users a chance to pull either a rare or very rare. correct me if im wrong.

should a "true" re-release for uncommon pets come, the only issue i see with introducing another re-release event is people getting confused when pets were originally released. but that will just be a learning curve users will have to get through, simply put.

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2. not sure how the item re-release was done, but most of my items were from 2022. i don't particularly mind, but if the odds are you're more likely to pull "recent" items (items released in the last 3-4 years) maybe we should get 10 items instead? again, i might have just had a bad pull, so i am not fully confident in this.

the other thing is, does anyone know if any items were excluded from the re-release? i am assume the free items were, since you can get those any time. do we know if anything store items were released? admittedly i do not know much about how the item re-release even worked. (im not asking anyone to, but if anyone knows the answer could you pm me? i don't wanna sidetrack from this thread, but i am curious <3)

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disclaimer 2: like teddy has said, this is not the point of this thread but i will give a theoretical idea for store pets. i am mostly replying for the sake of address all points made, i would feel it would be rude to ignore one of the points of the first post. i'm not asking for this to happen, this is just a fun idea; though i do feel anything around re-release store pets is a little taboo. i don't really like how long this section is, as i am more interested in the first 2 points but i believe if i don't make myself entirely clear my words could be misconstrued and that is the last thing i want.

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3. honestly if store pets were ever re-leased it should be like a "flash sale" event. put them in the store for however the average c$ trade is going and cap how much c$ can be purchased in a 7 to 14-day period. it should probably be on a predictable schedule, like once or twice a year one the 1st of the month when site traffic is the slowest (not gonna pretend i know when that is). again not all the pets at once, just maybe 1 or 2 prior sets per year/release (to clarify: maybe 1 or 2 sets a year are released). each user could only purchase this set once during re-release period. this could also put a sink in the c$ inflation. no exact set is ever guaranteed to return, and with the high price, it will (for better or worse) not allow most of the user base to obtain these pets. heck there could even be a cap on how many sets are bought, maybe there's only 100-200 sets sold before they're "sold out" (maybe 100 sets is generous, however many could be purchased without the store pet losing rarity). admittedly i have no idea what store pets go for c$ wise so maybe i'm just wasting my time lol. the goal/ what i am trying to get at is it would be the same as the re-released pets, to ensure these pets do not go obsolete and put a cap on their [perceived] value. to add, users snag store pets for free all the time from the pound. at its core, i fail to see how that is different from a re-release. (this last point i would actually like to discuss and see people's opinions on, it could sidetrack very easily but i do think it could help with the main topic at hand).

to reiterate to make myself entirely clear: this is a suggestion and a response to the points made. i am not begging for this to happen but sooner or later something's gotta give with the store pets. regardless of how you feel, when talking about rarities, store pets have to be included in the discussion.

side note, not important feel free to not read: ig if anyone is curious about my personal position, i have a ton of store pets that i have bought and traded for. i don't really care if they were re-released (including if they were sold at the original price point, 60-100c$, even though in my suggestion this wouldn't happen). yes i paid a lot for them, but oh well that was my decision and why should i be upset at someone obtaining a pet they really wanted? i'm not saying everyone has to feel this way, nor am i bashing those who feel differently, this is just my personal stance. i'm a believer in the more the merrier as opposed to these pets being exclusive or [feeling] impossible to obtain.

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again, there are so many ways to re-release old pets and items, its just a matter of finding what "feels" fair to most users. also of course, finding a balance so as to not entirely break the trading system (though i argue trading does not feel great currently, but to each their own /gen). of course we are not entitled to free pets (though most the pets on the website have been free at one point in time) and that is not the purpose of any of my suggestions. i'm not asking/suggesting for free handouts nor am i ungrateful for the ones we currently have, and i hope that my post does not come across this way. i also hope that this comes across as sincere and neutral, not aggressive nor demanding. if staff want to implement any of these but at some sort of "cost" then that is their decision (cost being literally with c$ or maybe through a token system like the events, OR maybe a goal system, but that's entirely a different can of worms). though i'd be lying if i said i didn't want any of my suggestions considered and discussed lol. also sorry for the long post i love talking sdgasdghasd and i love this topic so i hope more people respond /gen /pos <3

[Luscitrea]

For item re-releases, I wonder if it could be done by year instead of rarity since there is no item rarity. Maybe everyone gets 3 items from 2008-2012, 5 items from 2013-2018, and 7 items from 2019-current or something like that, for 15 items in total

[Gamezelle]

Hard agree with an additional December 18th sometimes during the year.
It could fit well with CS birthday, or before summer events.
The userbase is not as large as before, trading is becoming more and more difficult with a serious overpay culture, so everything to help alleviate that is a good thing.
It would also helps newbies, instead of having them wait until December (and they might have forgotten about this site by then).

Items are not really popular, frequent releases won't break the economy and its nice to have stuff to dress up your pet. Hell, the L&F is sometimes open for HOURS, go go go re-releases.

As for Store Pets, it's the main reason why I buy c$.
They're limited sure, but they are virtual. Unlike a solid, physical object with collectors value you can interact with, store pets are a bunch of pixels that could disappear any day if the site ever closes down/is hacked/whatever.
So yes to a flash sales. Huge yes. Or add them to the December 18th pool, the special releases are there and they're not going down in values.

[Dawulf]

As for Store Pets, it's the main reason why I buy c$.
They're limited sure, but they are virtual. Unlike a solid, physical object with collectors value you can interact with, store pets are a bunch of pixels that could disappear any day if the site ever closes down/is hacked/whatever.
So yes to a flash sales. Huge yes. Or add them to the December 18th pool, the special releases are there and they're not going down in values.

I am with you on this. I'd love something like the Dec 18th box but in the store. Store Pet price for a random box, and you can only buy it like 3 x or whatever. Leave it up for a few days and then pull it. I think that would be more than fair. I am missing a few to complete my collection and getting the Jeweled Liontail is a fairytale at this point. I kick myself so hard for not buying them when they were released.