An explanation of gifts and material requests

[LancelotNYC]

Occasionally I come across a neighbor who just doesn't understand the game mechanics for gifts and material requests. Unfortunately, they become rude and irritable and outright demanding that they won't accept your material request unless you accept theirs first, so I felt it was time to post about this to explain to others who are unaware of how the game works.

If you request materials for a new appliance, there is a limit to how many friends can accept those requests each day. Based on other information in the forum, I believe that limit is 20 items. If 20 neighbors accept your request for an item, all other requests you made for items for that day will disappear from the remaining neighbors' News. I have received alerts that a neighbor requested help only to find when I loaded the game that the request wasn't there. I was too late responding to the request before too many others beat me to it.

Also when you tap accept for a material request, the item automatically is added to the player's inventory. You DO NOT have to send that item as a gift, but doing so can help your neighbor build faster. Gifts and material requests are two different things. I have had neighbors refuse to accept my request because they didn't see a message that I sent a gift, when in reality, I had already hit accept on the material request. Sending a gift is independent and results in a second item. Please keep that in mind. Some people like to use gifts to send food instead of parts. Others have a habit of sending parts that aren't even in demand. When there is no goal to build an appliance, anything is fair game, but while material requests are being made, it's a good bet to gift the same thing that was requested so they get two of that part instead of one. Keep the daily limit in mind, though.

Like material requests, there is also a limit to how many gifts a person can receive in a day, which is also 20. If you try to send a gift to someone who has already received the daily limit, you will get a message telling you so.

Please don't be greedy and refuse to accept material requests from your neighbors because you insist that they respond to your request first. As explained above, you probably have a lot of neighbors and have already maxed out what you are allowed to receive for that day. That is not your neighbor's fault, and it is not for their lack of trying to send you a gift in place of the missing material request. Be thankful that you have enough neighbors to receive the daily max, and be a friendly neighbor and hit the accept button. It's not that hard, and it costs you nothing!

[spydre1]

Actually, I think it's more how many items are in THAT person's news, including neighbor requests, such as when you open the app. You can only have so many items appear on that page (I've had way more than 20 items accepted in one day, only limited to neighbors who don't pay attention or the request has scrolled off the screen). I've had neighbor's requests scroll off the screen before because I try to wait until I can VISIT the neighbor, to respond to the request, and then after I've dealt with other requests, and neighbor requests, the next time I open the app, the requests that scrolled off are back again. I also think there is a time limit on requests - at least in Dragon Story, I know that when I've had a series of days where I've been slow to get back to people, after about 48 hours, the material requests disappear (same with neighbor requests in all games).

EDIT: I should add this is my third account - each account prior to this one (which I started in February with a new device) was played for a year or more before I got a new device - and by that time, my level was maxed out.

[bobbyrae]

Another thing to remember is this. If you have a neighbour who does this:

Unfortunately, they become rude and irritable and outright demanding that they won't accept your material request unless you accept theirs first,

Then it's usually a good idea to just delete them and go on about your business. Lol.

Unfortunately not all players come to this forum so not all will read this or all the other explanations on this forum about how the gift and request systems work.
Some players also will send out requests one day for one part to all their 200+ neighbours and then do the same thing the next day requesting another part. Since you can only have 20 requests accepted each day what this seems to do is place the other 180 requests per day in a queue. Those requests then get rolled out over a period of up to 5 days (?) I believe. There was a thread on here sometime ago that discussed when requests lapsed.
For those of your neighbours who accepted the request on day one, the next day's request will get to them, but only if the other twenty requests have not yet been answered. Meanwhile the remaining unanswered requests get backed up again in the queue. When you keep sending out requests day after day they all get seem to get queued and eventually there's one huge ineffcient backlog that just locks up your requests and you feel that nobody is answering your requests. And then some just lapse and you never get those answered.

So. How do you prevent this from happening? Send out only twenty requests for parts per day to neighbours you know play every day and who will accept them each day. If you send out more than twenty then just wait a day or two to allow those requests to come in before sending out more requests. Those two days won't be wasted since your requests are actually still rolling out to your neighbours who, chances are, will accept them.

[bobbyrae]

Another thing is the newsfeed as the newsfeed as the previous poster mentioned. This has been an issue for sometime. Some players only have time to check their newsfeed and send out gifts and answer requests once per day. They'll answer the requests that appear in their newsfeed when they go into their game and then that's it for them for that day. They don't realise that some requests (and even gifts!) have dropped off the newsfeed and if they check back later those requests might come back up. So those requests never get answerd until MAYBE the next day when they get back to their game and then they may drop back off because new gifts and requests have come in for that new day.

[meme1098]

The newsfeed only holds the last 10 visitors & the last 10 nbrs who responded to your request. So many nbrs will eventually drop off that newsfeed.

BTW...I once received a request from a nbr that was 6 days old. I went to their wall & left a message stating that fact so they would know that sending out 200 & more requests would do cause that to happen.

The trick is once you know you've gotten your 20 limited requests answered, send a request to Stormie & you'll get 1 more for 21 for that day.

And, thanks Lancelot for your post. I wish more players would be able to read it...lol

[AMuffins]

There are a lot of people who do not know about the forums..

They also do not know how to scroll down on there neighbors walls to read messages. Yes there is another thread discussing this issue.

There is another thread that discussed the backlog of requests and gifts. I have read it. I have seen some gifts and requests show up saying 2 days or 3 days ago.

I have read a message on someone's wall asking her friends to "unblock" the gifts so she can gift them. She was level 50 something and I explained to her that her friends are not blocking gifts. I told her that people can only receive 20 gifts a day and that is why she is getting the maxed gift message. Storm8 is the one that limits how many gifts a person can receive. She messaged me to thank me for explaining this to her. I just thought it was funny that she had been playing for several months and did not understand this.

Also some people decline gift requests because the said neighbor thinks the requested material is coming out of there inventory. I have heard this multiple times in Dragon Story.. That is why they decline maps n gold. The neighbor is like "Send me a map or gold or material and then I will send you one back". Lots of people are like this in all of the different games Storm8 has. Neighbors say well I do not have said material in my inventory so I will decline the request. Until you tell them it is not coming out of there personal inventory.. It is not costing them anything to accept the request.

I also had a rude neighbor. She told me I have to tip and gift her before she does or I will be deleted. I asked her where she lived and I told her I was 3 hrs behind her. She said ok and will make a note of it. About a week later she deleted. Its ok cuz I am not going to work my schedule around her. I have plenty of neighbors who are friendly.

People do forget this is just a game and we are here to "help" each other out. Afterall most people do have lives outside of the internet.

[queentina3]

One of the main problems I found with the newer players is that they don't realize that until they ACCEPT or DECLINE a gift, it is counted against what they can receive. They let gifts sit in their newsfeed and don't accept or decline any waiting to see who will send to them, not realizing that they've received their 20 and now need to do something about them before they can/may receive more. If they decline some, then they can receive more until they hit the 20 accepted mark. I honestly wish TL would put a gifting/requesting explanation in the FAQ detailing how it actually works, this way there would be less confusion by players that don't use the forum to get their information.

[AuntyRose32]

Those requests then get rolled out over a period of up to 5 days (?)

I have gotten requests from neighbours that were 7 days old, so I think it rolls out over a period of seven days. Which is crazy, those poor people waiting on the parts they need. I feel bad but there's not much I can do about it.

I've tried explaining all of this to certain neighbours over the years who have asked and it doesn't always sink in for some people. I've had neighbours who thought that by accepting anyone's request they were actually giving their neighbour a part directly from their own inventory; so if they had 20 screws and got a request from a neighbour for a screw they would then be left with 19 screws themselves, so they just weren't accepting any requests

Personally I've always found the system to work okay (it's probably not the best system but I find it gets the job done, relatively painless) I don't wait too long to get parts, thanks to good neighbours and I'm someone who keeps a low neighbour count also. So I never send out more than 20 requests in a day. Even when I was a new player that's how I did it and thankfully I found these forums early on in my TL gaming career, which were (and still are) an endless source of great information. I wish more people knew about them.

[bobbyrae]

I honestly wish TL would put a gifting/requesting explanation in the FAQ detailing how it actually works, this way there would be less confusion by players that don't use the forum to get their information.

Come on QueenT. You know they don't know how it works. Lol. We were the ones who worked it out and told them. Lol.
Seriously, though. I seriously wish TL would provide a detailed explanation on how it works, even here on the forum, but especially in the game itself and in the language of the player too. Tall order, i know. But not all players are English speakers and this forum for the most part is in English.

[meme1098]

There are a lot of people who do not know about the forums..

They also do not know how to scroll down on there neighbors walls to read messages. Yes there is another thread discussing this issue.

There is another thread that discussed the backlog of requests and gifts. I have read it. I have seen some gifts and requests show up saying 2 days or 3 days ago.

I have read a message on someone's wall asking her friends to "unblock" the gifts so she can gift them. She was level 50 something and I explained to her that her friends are not blocking gifts. I told her that people can only receive 20 gifts a day and that is why she is getting the maxed gift message. Storm8 is the one that limits how many gifts a person can receive. She messaged me to thank me for explaining this to her. I just thought it was funny that she had been playing for several months and did not understand this.

Also some people decline gift requests because the said neighbor thinks the requested material is coming out of there inventory. I have heard this multiple times in Dragon Story.. That is why they decline maps n gold. The neighbor is like "Send me a map or gold or material and then I will send you one back". Lots of people are like this in all of the different games Storm8 has. Neighbors say well I do not have said material in my inventory so I will decline the request. Until you tell them it is not coming out of there personal inventory.. It is not costing them anything to accept the request.

I also had a rude neighbor. She told me I have to tip and gift her before she does or I will be deleted. I asked her where she lived and I told her I was 3 hrs behind her. She said ok and will make a note of it. About a week later she deleted. Its ok cuz I am not going to work my schedule around her. I have plenty of neighbors who are friendly.

People do forget this is just a game and we are here to "help" each other out. Afterall most people do have lives outside of the internet.

That person must live an awful life. You do things for people because they're your friends/family & you get enjoyment out of seeing their smiling faces, not you wash my back & I'll wash yours. That's a pretty sad mentality.