The Two versions of Castle Story, The Haves and The Have Nots

[beefus]

Intentionally or not, S8 has built two versions of Castle Story and that is where their troubles begin.

I'm not referring to the Apple\Android difference, nor am I referring to the in game offers of bonuses\rewards to earn free gems\energy\decorations for viewing videos, or visiting advertiser sites.

No, I am referring to the Love Shack.

Albeit a small chance to add to a players Alicorn 'herd', this simple building that S8 refuses to make available to all players continues to drive a divide into this game that slowly marches it into oblivion. Castle Story all comes down to the turns(energy) that you can earn\generate\save.

Lets explain... you will live or die in Castle Story based on the number of available turns(energy) you have, or that you can earn... period.

As CS continues to age, the Haves, will slowly continue to add to their daily\weekly available Energy by continuing to build Alicorns. Their banked and saved turns can be in the hundreds... it was recently revealed in another thread that one player had over 1400 Energy saved (Not a typo, One Thousand and Four Hundred Energy saved,) as they announced their plans to take on an upcoming event challenge.

The Haves will continue to complete Energy intensive tasks quickly, and often, multiple times within the first day or hours of a new task being revealed.

The Have Nots however will continue to struggle. Energy intensive tasks that Haves complete within hours, will take Have Nots days. And those days may be wasted as the amount of Energy it takes to successfully complete a task continues to grow and grow, many Have Nots never complete a task, no matter how hard they try, the Energy just is available to them.

Sure the Have Nots can buy an Alicorn, but why should one player have to BUY something when another player can EARN IT FREELY?

The longer this goes on, the longer S8 fights this, the harder and harder it will be for S8 to fix this.

It may already be too late.

MOo

[meme1098]

Many players, myself included, surmised several years ago that since S8 has re-released many items except the Love Shack, the coding for that goal line is corrupted or lost. Sure they could recreate that goal but that would require too much work on their part. 🙄
A year or so ago, a max limit of 99 was placed on the weekly Alis so the wings & horns have started to pile up in my Queendom since I occasionally still get the parts from my daily Desert Sands Adventures. I do wish I could gift Ali's to my great neighbors & thus have use for the parts languishing in storage.
Also, I do understand the desire & have been on the bandwagon to even out the game for the have nots. It's a game changer for sure.

[bobbyrae]

A real shame.
I have, however, won two alicorns from watching videos. Hopefully I can get some more this way.

[riverly]

I've worked very long and hard for my herds, those thru quests, elves, and MRC, investing in cabbage hut. Etc. I do not have the Love Shack. And I've bought some of the original weekly white Ali's. But what will hurt the havenots is the trend to devalue these items or cap them.
But I like the idea of gifting the unneeded extra parts.

[PrincessCupOButter]

I am a have and have not. I started too late to get the love shack, (I believe S8 should expend a little energy and recreate it if the code has indeed been lost or corrupted. Personally, I think they just decided it was bad for the games economy.)
But through some spending and some well-timed luck, I have been able to amass a small army of daily Alis, and those were mostly gained before the new trend of setting daily energy drops at a ridiculously low 2 energy. It is amazing how quickly energy can add up when a player strategically chooses to neglect certain areas of the kingdom. For example, as an upper level player, I rarely use the kitchens anymore, so harvesting is not really necessary. I am also maxed on quite a few items, so it is easy to skip all but a few essential collections. I average 120-150 energy from my daily Alis and I use approximately 50-60 of that on collecting, so I am able to ‘bank’ the rest of the energy for use during events. If S8 did more story line and less demanding timed energy draining events, players would not have to resort to hoarding energy.

I think this new trend of 2 energy drops has been the most detrimental to newer players, because they will never have a chance to get good reliable energy sources without spending a fortune. So I do agree, the chasm between the haves and have nots is growing ever wider. If I was just starting out, I seriously doubt I would still be playing, knowing the game has been altered to the point that a newer player will never get ahead the way older players have.

S8 wants (and needs) to earn money, so it appears they are trying to sell energy and energy sources (weekly alicorns) There is a very simple fix, for both the have nots and S8. Offer players things that they want and they WILL buy them. (Cheaper alicorns, the Love Shack, deco with good drops, etc. Just watch the forums and see what people are begging for!) That way players feel heard and S8 gets money without resorting to ever increasing energy hog events in order to force gem spending. It’s a win-win solution.

[CharmOfLea]

The code is not lost. S8 is probably making the most money selling alis and co. I also think the 15 unlimited energy offer is quite successful. They have no interest in re-releasing the Love Shack. 99 is the cap? WoW. If all had it, how would they cash in on all the high-energy-pressure events? Also it’s not about fair for S8. Whoever saw this game early is castle story bourgeoisie. And that’s it.

[AnnirasSweets]

I agree with the general idea and if they don't want to re-introduce the Love Shack then I think they should offer some other way for players to craft Alicorns. I get that crafting one Alicorn would take months as the parts are super rare drops but it's the fact of just knowing you have the option that would make players feel more equal. Plus, with the new cap of 99 they wouldn't have to worry about the players with the shack crafting way more and being even more ahead.

All that being said, I don't agree that it's impossible to complete events without a herd of weekly Alis. Every weekly Alicorn I currently have, I've won and that was only within the last year but I still completed every event I participated in way before I got those animals. As for the daily Alis, I only ever purchased those when they were on sale like most people. But again, I don't think having the weekly alis is what can make or break me for an event, sure it makes it go by quicker but careful planning and (sometimes near obsessive) dedication got me through every event before that.

I also think PrincessCupOButter's sentiments regarding the lowered energy from the new daily's and the idea of offering things we've actually asked for is pretty spot on. There are a million ways for S8 to improve without them having to lose money. If only they would actually listen to what's being said in these threads they could very easily turn things around and make CS the amazing game it was when I first started out all those years ago.

[podunkiana]

S8 has that code in a secret vault and its labeled ‘Revenue ****er’. I think they realized the mistake they made with Love Shack but also in a weird way kinda let it help them by stringing out the hope that it would be reintroduced. So,we are chasing the iterations of ...corn in every way they can now imagine. And sometimes when we got a extra ....corn. It was stolen away like the heart of a teenage boy by a flaky teenage girl or vice versa.

[Steffihilson]

It would obviously be nice to have the love shack, but it's not impossible to finish tasks without it. If you struggle with energy, you can still get some daily alicorns and buy wizard schools with gems you get in game. I started playing long after love shack, never spent any money and I completed every event I took part in. Right now I usually get approximately 130-140 additional energy a day, but sometimes it's 200 or even more. For me it's enough to complete events without stress. And there were times I started an event with hundreds of energy saved, because I completed a previous event early. Right now saving 1400 energy would probably take me almost 10 days, but it's not impossible and it the future, when my alicorn herd will grow bigger, I'll be a much quicker process.

[riverly]

It seems to me that the "haves" also must be big gem spenders. No matter the amount of energy you start out with is not going to get you past waiting on Ivy to progress. So I can only assume that those who zip right through the quest are spending gems to speed up Ivy. I can come up with the theory that the "haves" spend more money on gem purchases. I would think S8 would like that.