We need your feedback on an update to the rarity system!

[conarcoin]

Two more thoughts on this:

I don't understand the idea that this will somehow make trading significantly harder? People will probably just do, say 2 EC for a VC the way they do now. Which is fine. The issue with 2:1 is when it involves dates because it makes things like "a 2010 UC is worth a 2011 R" which is factually nonsensical.

And secondly, I want to reiterate that I feel like making a drastic change is the only way to make a change to this site's rarity system that will have an actual effect.

[Blaubär]

Two more thoughts on this:

I don't understand the idea that this will somehow make trading significantly harder? People will probably just do, say 2 EC for a VC the way they do now. Which is fine. The issue with 2:1 is when it involves dates because it makes things like "a 2010 UC is worth a 2011 R" which is factually nonsensical.

Well, with eleven categories, people will want to trade rarities just like you mentioned. With the categories in place right now you trade an uncommon for an uncommon or two commons for an uncommon, but let's say you received several very commons and need this very uncommon from a monthly litter - means you'd have to bridge three higher levels in rarity from your pet. This will more commonly occur, since pets will be a lot more spread out, so it's not like something very unlikely to happen, if you take the distribution diagram in the OG into consideration. Meaning you'd have to spend a lot of pets in return for a single one all the time. Of course, as long as rarities aren't out this might be less stressful, but if you're a little late to the party or just weren't lucky to find someone willing to trade you that particular pet and rarities are out, this will certainly be an issue.
And that's just for current pets (from the last couple months).

Thinking about past events pets and in general just older pets this will become increasingly difficult, since in general most people are not willing to trade down (it's even often mentioned in trading rules). It will be even harder for people with smaller collections, new players or even just players who don't own a lot from certain years.

[Maligator]

I feel like, if anything, this will help the issue of date when trading pets up or down. Isn’t the entire idea of older pets being worth more the fact that since they are older they might be harder to find? I always figured the reason people cares about date so much was because an old uncommon is more scarce than a recent uncommon. With more rarities and therefor more distinction on how hard to come by a pet is, wont this remove some of the emphasis on matching up dates?

For example, I would assume that the numbers of a certain pet in circulation would determine accurately what the pet is worth. If there are 5k of certain old UC rat in circulation and also 5k of a certain newer UC rat in circulation, doesn’t that just make them worth the exact same? People just assume if a pet is older there are less of them around. However, with an updated system, All of the newer UC rats that have a bit more than 5k in circulation would then be moved to a lower rarity since they are a bit more common that the ones with 5k out there exactly. Same can be said for those older UC rats that have a bit less than 5k in circulation.

Is this making sense, or am I on a strange thought train?

[Craz3dBunnii]

With new rarity being added would it be possible to get a new sorting system? Right now, everything is sorted by date, but a lot of us, if not a majority, sort by rarity. So, would it be possible to make that an option? Especially since many of us will likely need to reorganize a LOT if the "4 new rarities" option is chosen. It would just make sorting into groups a lot easier if we could. Since we can sort like that, select all, and move them instead of clicking on individuals.

[Blaubär]

I feel like, if anything, this will help the issue of date when trading pets up or down. Isn’t the entire idea of older pets being worth more the fact that since they are older they might be harder to find? I always figured the reason people cares about date so much was because an old uncommon is more scarce than a recent uncommon. With more rarities and therefor more distinction on how hard to come by a pet is, wont this remove some of the emphasis on matching up dates?

[...]

Is this making sense, or am I on a strange thought train?

You are making sense, and if this change comes I will hope that you are right.

However, just from my personal experience, I do have a completely different perspective.
As an example: I missed out on quite a few rare pets from the 2020 carnival event. I had a good amount of common and lower pets to trade for at least those rares I liked the most. I made offers that adhered to the general 2 for 1 rule, when uptrading. I made offers that I considered overpaying according to that rule, because I thought that maybe people still have the "free adoptions vs. token pets" in mind, although personally I think that shouldn't matter after an event ends, because rarity compensates for that in my book. Yet, it is extremely hard to find people willing to downtrade, like I said, even when overpaying and adding wishlisted pets. Offering only WL pets, sticking around the same date, wasn't helping either, since they then mostly aren't from the same event.

I've had more success just accepting random trades people sent me that I deemed fair.

Then, having to deal with eleven categories I think will just be confusing, when doing a trade and not having the whole scale in front of you. Offers coming in with more than three or four pets will also be more complicated with so many categories.

Lastly, I do get the impression that older pets are valued more, just because they are older. It's hard to seize that. How to put value down in a reasonable way for something that just feels "aged" and thus more valuable? Same thing with lineart. I am guilty of this: there are linearts that are unique or just rarer or that I just like more, so the personal value is just higher for those. It's usually marked as "hard to trade for" in collections or mentioned in trade rules. My point being: I don't know that date value can really be alleviated. Maybe can be helped for those who think like you described it.

I guess my main concern is the many, many rarity levels and how that will affect how much you have to offer for higher ranking pets (while still receiving the same amount of pets as we did so far) and my personal bad experience with trying to trade up in order to receive single pets I missed out on or older ones that I would just like to see in my collection.

[Tyrannidae]

Adding 4 new categories would probably be the best for new players who aren't familiar with the worth of older pets. A rare from 2009 is obviously rarer than an event rare from 2023 but they have the same rarity. I found that very confusing when I first started playing.

EDIT:

With new rarity being added would it be possible to get a new sorting system? Right now, everything is sorted by date, but a lot of us, if not a majority, sort by rarity. So, would it be possible to make that an option? Especially since many of us will likely need to reorganize a LOT if the "4 new rarities" option is chosen. It would just make sorting into groups a lot easier if we could. Since we can sort like that, select all, and move them instead of clicking on individuals. :)

I think the best way to do this would be to implement a drop-down list on the "My pets" page or maybe an account setting that lets you select the default sorting. That's something I'd like to see that I'm surprised doesn't exist. Ways to sort by species, rarity, date, and maybe even event would be SO nice

[+Vesper]

I'm 100% for adding 4 new categories!
The distinction between a 2023 rare and a 2009 rare is honestly so important.

In my opinion raring things by date is so much more tedious - having more distinct categories would make things so much easier.

Also store pets that are rare would most definitely be placed differently to rares of their year which helps a TON.

[Lanayru]

I feel like, if anything, this will help the issue of date when trading pets up or down. Isn’t the entire idea of older pets being worth more the fact that since they are older they might be harder to find? I always figured the reason people cares about date so much was because an old uncommon is more scarce than a recent uncommon. With more rarities and therefor more distinction on how hard to come by a pet is, wont this remove some of the emphasis on matching up dates?

For example, I would assume that the numbers of a certain pet in circulation would determine accurately what the pet is worth. If there are 5k of certain old UC rat in circulation and also 5k of a certain newer UC rat in circulation, doesn’t that just make them worth the exact same? People just assume if a pet is older there are less of them around. However, with an updated system, All of the newer UC rats that have a bit more than 5k in circulation would then be moved to a lower rarity since they are a bit more common that the ones with 5k out there exactly. Same can be said for those older UC rats that have a bit less than 5k in circulation.

Is this making sense, or am I on a strange thought train?

I actually don't think this'll help with that no matter how it's implemented; while the logic should add up on paper (like you said, both a newer and an older uncommon have similar numbers of active pets on site) it doesn't factor in how many of those pets are actually in circulation (aka not locked up in someone's collection/hoard/favorites group) which is a big reason why older pets seem to overall be harder to find. The idea that older pets are worth more is also SO ingrained into the overall trading culture it'll be hard to shift away from it imo

I'm still pro-some kind of rarity update (specifically adding new tiers in the UC-OMGSR range because the value gaps between rarities are generally bigger there), I just hope people aren't setting themselves up for disappointment with their expectations of how this'll affect trading from now on ;v; Things will probably continue the same, just with some new rarities added to the mix.

[Lufi]

I was waiting for this for years and i'm so happy, that something is finally happening. I have voted for 4 new rarities (although it will mean a lot of work for me with editing of rarity changes thread xD) as I think, that it is really needed with so huge amount of pets on the site and with so long history. I believe, that this will help to the site and even trading in the future, although many people are afraid of it at the moment.

[Anade]

My first instinct was that 4 new rarities would be too much... but especially with the more clear rarity bars, I think more labels will help. Especially those of us who aren't great at rarities and figuring out how to do fair trades.

(I know this isn't what it's about, but maybe some kind of item rarity system in the future?)