Star rating questions and concerns

[jewelfang]

Hello,
I have been playing Fashion Story for a while now, my shop is lvl 48, and I've read a lot about efficient layouts, how to avoid broken hearts, and how many booth and mirrors I might need, etc. What I do not see talked about here is the star rating system.

I have a 4 star shop, I visit 30 or more neighbors per day. Lately, I have been staying up late and I notice that if I am playing right at midnight, (when you are able to send out new gifts), my star rating will drop suddenly and hugely to about 3.75 stars. I know this doesn't happen to everyone, because most of my 4 star neighbors will still be 4 stars if I go and look at them RIGHT THEN. They NEVER drop below 4. It will not happen to me if I stop playing at 11: 58 pm, and don't start playing until 8 am the next day. I will also stay at 4 stars without the drop, assuming I visited people the previous day.

Another thing I have noticed is that some 4 star neighbors who have obviously stopped playing, even if only temporarily, remain at 4 stars for days and days even though they are inactive. Their shops will be empty, they will not be responding to posts on their wall, yet their shop remains listed as 4 stars for 3 or 4 days at least. It seems to only drop after either: You log in, OR after each weekly update.

My concern that the star system doesn't seem very accurate. I tend to play mostly late in the evening, and do all my visits then. If I visit 60 + neighbors between 11 and midnight (and I have) it doesn't keep me at 4 stars if I'm still logged in when midnight rolls around. I need to suddenly visit another 20 or so after midnight. Again, if I am not logged in and playing at midnight, then my stars stay at 4, and I can wait until the following evening to do my regular visits.

Obviously I can avoid this simply by not playing right at midnight, but I don't always notice the exact time, and it is near the time I tend to play.

Has anyone else noticed these issues?

[callofcthulhu]

I had that problem on another game that I've stopped playing. I don't know if it's due to the time or what.

I have almost the opposite problem. There are times that I actually want my star rating to drop, like when I'm traveling. I can not play for 2 weeks and my rating is at 2 instead of 0. I've learned that during school breaks 0 stars can give you peace.

[jojopeanut]

Mines the same except I log out before midnight sometimes I go back for a few minutes. Im 4 stars too but it doesn't matter if I log back at 1 min after midnight or 8 a.m. mine always drops to 3 3/4. Or just bellow 4. I don't know. I play on Android it's always been that way. How some retain the 4 stars I don't know. Maybe they visit 100's of neighbours.

[jewelfang]

I am on android as well, so that might be why my rating drops when others do not.

Also, the fact that you someone can not play for 2 whole weeks and not have their rating drop really illustrates my point. The star system is really fickle and does not serve its intended purpose of letting other users know who are the most active neighbors.

Android users seem to get a bit less out of this game. I am sad that we cannot get the makeup counter, for instance. I hope there is more stuff like that, and more bug fixes, for us in the future. :-)

[puppynox]

It's not really about the time of day, even if it seems like it. It's about how far you've built up your stars past 4. You can only reach 4 stars visibly, but if you "like" a bunch after you reached 4 stars, you build up a reserve. The amount you automatically drop at the beginning of the day stays the same every day, but if you "liked" to the point that you were at about 4.5 stars (not that you can see anything after 4 stars, but it's there anyway), you wouldn't drop under 4 stars at the beginning of the day. That's why you see some people who never seem to drop under 4 stars.

The neighbors who don't drop stars when they're not playing may be due to one of several factors. If they've built up such a reserve, let's say by "liking" a hundred customers daily for weeks on end, it may take that long for their rating to drop. Also, if they uninstall their game when they know they won't be playing, their rating will remain the same until they download the game again. Or, they may actually be playing minimally and visiting neighbors just enough to keep their rating up for when they come back to play for real.

You really can't rely just on the stars to tell you if someone is playing, or even if they will ever visit your shop. They could maintain 4 stars but only visit certain neighbors they like or who meet other criteria. On one of my games, I visit only neighbors with 3-4 stars, so anyone with 0-2 stars that thinks my perfect 4 star rating means they'll be visited is going to be disappointed. In the past, I've had other ways of doing it, like when I had a lot of neighbors and only visited a few shops a day, rotating who I visited. But at this point, I only regularly visit neighbors on one game, as I found that I was wasting too much time visiting neighbors in all my games, for very little reward. But other than not visiting, I try very hard to be a good neighbor by always answering requests and sending gifts, both which are important to me in a neighbor.

[jojopeanut]

I don't know if it's an device oriented design/bug or not just the same for me over a year of playing.
Great discussion BTW hope to see other players responses.

[jewelfang]

As far as building up past 4 stars, I thought it would work that way, but it does not seem to for me. I have in the past visited and liked nearly 100 neighbors in a day (I was home sick), and my rating still dropped to 3.75 stars that night. I mean, I spend waaaay too much time visiting neighbors on a pretty regular basis, and still lose my rating every night without fail, exactly the same amount. One day I was out of town and liked no one that day, and it did not drop further. It ALWAYS drops to 3.75 no matter how many or few neighbors I liked the previous day, as long as it was enought to get me back to 4.
And it always happens, every night wthout fail, at midnight.

[callofcthulhu]

[QUOTE=puppynox;614723]

The neighbors who don't drop stars when they're not playing may be due to one of several factors. If they've built up such a reserve, let's say by "liking" a hundred customers daily for weeks on end, it may take that long for their rating to drop. Also, if they uninstall their game when they know they won't be playing, their rating will remain the same until they download the game again. Or, they may actually be playing minimally and visiting neighbors just enough to keep their rating up for when they come back to play for real.

That actually explains a lot. Thanks for your post. I used to have over 300 nbrs that I would visit religiously and tip off my wall too. I haven't had that kind of time in forever. Even after getting my nbr list to 1/3 of the size and cutting down to only tipping from my wall I'm still at 4 stars. Truth is I'm a lousy nbr. I have 2 star nbrs that visit more frequently than i do. Hope this helps others like it helped me