What's the point of habitat boosts?

[CoopFizz]

I spent a lot of money and time building the Eternal Flame, Sunshine Temple, Pantheon Pool, and Flower Egg. When they were first built, all the according habitats made money very rapidly, but now they have stopped doing that. What gives? It was really helpful to get money faster since all the new 'light dragons' require SOOOOO much food. SO MUCH FOOD. But I shrugged it off, because the speedy money made it possible to spend more on the expensive food items. Now that you have 'fixed' the 'bug', money is a huge issue, so I only buy the old slow foods that I can afford, making all the light dragons absolutely ridiculous to evolve.
Solution A) make the light dragons require the same amount of food as all the other dragons, or at least lower the food amounts needed considerably
Solution B) bring back the rapid money-making ability to the various temples
Solution C) Do nothing, and hope we all forget this happened and that we will continue to play DragonStory with jolliness and glee

I'm just saying, the rapid coins were a good thing, not a 'bug' that needed to be 'fixed'. Now I'm annoyed with this game, and have been playing it about 1/10 (if that, honestly) as often as I was when the rapid coins were in place. You should really put the 'bug' back in, it made your game's economy somewhat reasonable and it made the game more fun to play.

[Chianti]

They aren't listening. I gave them the equivalent of a mathematical proof showing that the coin boost would yield them more income (from users buying gold), yet they choose to ignore it? Fantastic business model they have going over there.

[[S8] Elsa]

PonyRoar,

You say "in the meantime" we can ask any questions we want. So please answer this. If this was a bug, how in the hell did it get past QA? Do you even have a QA division? Person? This type of "glitch" does not make it into production - that is unless you don't play your games at all. I'm going to assume you play your games, so i'm also going to assume you knew of the coin boost.

You realize even with the coin boost in place, people were having trouble keeping up with the cost of feeding the new dragons, right?

What I suggest you do, if you had any business sense whatsoever, is return the coin boost while you "evaluate" the economy, and then act accordingly. If you don't, you'll see more than half your user base go *poof*.

Bugs don't always present themselves when it's convenient. Unfortunately, sometimes they sneak up on you (as anyone with experience running any live game will tell you). The benefit of having live games is that we're able to recognize and fix those bugs as soon as possible.

We're human, we miss things sometimes, and I'm sorry that you're not happy with the bug fix. As GroupMagma mentioned, we may have similar feature in the future if you enjoyed the boost. (:

[killbethy]

Bugs don't always present themselves when it's convenient. Unfortunately, sometimes they sneak up on you (as anyone with experience running any live game will tell you). The benefit of having live games is that we're able to recognize and fix those bugs as soon as possible.

We're human, we miss things sometimes, and I'm sorry that you're not happy with the bug fix. As GroupMagma mentioned, we may have similar feature in the future if you enjoyed the boost. (:

This is CLEARLY not the type of buy that can just "sneak up on you". I could MAYBE believe that statement if the "glitch" was apparent in one of the Boosts, but all of them? Hardly. If so, where was the update needed to fix this glitch? Why was the glitch left, quite literally, for almost the perfect amount of game time to encourage players to BUY them (because of the coin increase), and then just take it away. I'm sure the majority of your active players purchased the Boosts during the "glitch" time period... excellent way to keep people calm about the new absurd feeding levels and target your most active playing audience for gold purchases. The fact that the only Boost this "glitch" did NOT occur in is the Light boost is laughable. Notice that is probably the only Boost no one was able to get... since actually leveling 10 Light type dragons to Epic level takes an astronomical amount of food and would be **** near impossible to do in several days. Do you honestly think that the people playing your games are idiotic enough to believe that you don't test out your "updates" before launching them? Huh. That's funny... because last time I checked, everyone gets a neighbor called "Stormy" in every game. Turns out Stormy is usually close to the maximum level and quite ahead of all "real" players upon the launch of any game. I don't think "Stormy" is waiting for Thursdays to have access to the new updates like the rest of us.

AND WHY PUT THIS FEATURE IN LATER? The DS economy needs it NOW. Do you honestly think peope will have enough coins to purchase ANOTHER 6 boosts with the current costs of food and clearing (not to mention the sheer amount of food it takes to level the new dragons)? Even if someone could get all of the necessary coins for clearing, at the point in which you have cleared anough space to place the current maximum amount habitats, farms, breeding area, nests, and boosts, it takes 3 DAYS for ONE PLOT of land to clear?! Add that to the amount of time to clear things off the plots of land, and you are realistically talking about a minimum of atleast 3 weeks (and that is given the assumption that the clearing time does not go higher than 3 days and that each player has the necessary coins and maps to expand as soon as one spot is finished).

Really though, no argument will EVER make you guys do something differently if you don't want to. From reading the forums of any TL game, it is clear that their biggest problem across the whole board is customer satisfaction.

The decision to change the Boosts in DS back is an absolute no brainer. Many people, like Chianti, have made excellent arguments as to why.. but simply put: there is a demand for them, and you already have the means to supply it. That's as basic as economics gets.

The real question isn't why did this glitch pass or how it happened? It's why hasn't it been restored already (especially in the face of obvious customer disapproval and potential loss of players). If you want people to be satisfied with the ambiguous, non-explanations we have beee given for the removal of the coin increase speed, answer that. Why not put it back? Who does it hurt?

[CoopFizz]

PonyRoar,

Please read this and tell us what you think. I do not want to attack you or team lava, I just want to explain everyone's frustration logically:

A level 7 light dragon requires 3600 food to go up.
3600x5=18,000
A level 8 light dragon requires 4500 food to go up.
4500x5=22,500
A level 9 light dragon requires 15,000 food to go up.
15,000x5=75,000

Now, 75,000+22,500+18,000=115,500

115,500 food to get ONE light dragon to epic form! That's not even including levels 1-6.
And you think we don't need fast money to pay for all that food???

Well then, let's look at that. Each diamond date is $75,000 every 5 hours.
75,000x6=450,000 coins. As previous users mentioned, if they checked DS compulsively every 10 minutes with the 'bug' in place, they could make that much in about an hour. But, as a different commenter wisely pointed out, the rapid coins made the money come in 11x faster. Therefor, we now need to check DS compulsively for 11 hours in order to come up with 500k. That essentially takes diamond dates completely out of the game. It simply renders them economically useless. Same with upgrapes and rushrooms. Too expensive, so the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
I'd also like to point out that even with the 'bug' in place, therefor making diamond dates viable, we would still need to plant diamond dates on all 6 farms about 25 times before being able to feed a light dragon to epic. That's 125 hours of waiting, a little over 5 days. So even with the 'bug' in place, the food requirements are ridiculous. Taking the 'bug' away made that 11 times MORE ridiculous. Literally.

If you don't put the "bug" back or find another way to make the DS economy reasonable quickly (key word quickly), I'll stop playing completely. Loyal DS players (I.e. everyone who cared enough to comment on this thread) do no deserve this.

Ponyroar, is Team Lava going to do anything to make this right? And if so, when? Thanks for your time

[sweetstuff525]

Wow I wonder if we didnt state here that we were gaining money fast.. I think tl would. NEver had known ...since we all can see tl doesn't play their own games.... Next time we should communicate in game walls not here .. When something good happened like thusly money boosts

[Chianti]

Bugs don't always present themselves when it's convenient. Unfortunately, sometimes they sneak up on you (as anyone with experience running any live game will tell you). The benefit of having live games is that we're able to recognize and fix those bugs as soon as possible.

We're human, we miss things sometimes, and I'm sorry that you're not happy with the bug fix. As GroupMagma mentioned, we may have similar feature in the future if you enjoyed the boost. (:

PonyRoar, I sincerely do appreciate you keeping up with the form posts, and responding as often as you do. It's customer service like yours that leaves us with any hope whatsoever for this game. Unfortunately, I'm discouraged by your response... it partially implies you aren't reading posts in full, and it fully insults anyone with development experience. A bug like this can only make it i to production if you don't play your game at all. End of story.

This is no matter to "(:" smile about... nor is it about "liking" coin boost or not. And quite frankly, your attempt to "bait" the community by implying something similar may be implemented in the future shows complete disregard for the severity of the situation here.

The economy is completely unsustainable right now, and its driving players away. If you haven't read my posts in full (there are 5 at most) then please, please do, and PLEASE forward them to the appropriate people.If they have any business sense whatsoever, they will heed my advice.

In the interim, have them restore at least a partial increase in coin boost; it doesn't have to be anywhere near the level it was, but even 30% would be better than nothing and avoid mass departure. The time it takes for things to progress in the game (breeding, hatching, planting, etc.), coupled with the cost of clearing foliage, the cost of the new foods, and the sheer amount of food required to level the new dragons is making the game unplayable. I've laid out complete plans to make both the business and the users happy. I hope someone with sense in management actually reads my posts.

[Chianti]

Wow I wonder if we didnt state here that we were gaining money fast.. I think tl would. NEver had known ...since we all can see tl doesn't play their own games.... Next time we should communicate in game walls not here .. When something good happened like thusly money boosts

Sweetstuff, I bet my account on that fact. Had coin boost not been mentioned in these forums, it still wouldn't be "patched"

[Chianti]

PonyRoar,

Please read this and tell us what you think. I do not want to attack you or team lava, I just want to explain everyone's frustration logically:

A level 7 light dragon requires 3600 food to go up.
3600x5=18,000
A level 8 light dragon requires 4500 food to go up.
4500x5=22,500
A level 9 light dragon requires 15,000 food to go up.
15,000x5=75,000

Now, 75,000+22,500+18,000=115,500

115,500 food to get ONE light dragon to epic form! That's not even including levels 1-6.
And you think we don't need fast money to pay for all that food???

Well then, let's look at that. Each diamond date is $75,000 every 5 hours.
75,000x6=450,000 coins. As previous users mentioned, if they checked DS compulsively every 10 minutes with the 'bug' in place, they could make that much in about an hour. But, as a different commenter wisely pointed out, the rapid coins made the money come in 11x faster. Therefor, we now need to check DS compulsively for 11 hours in order to come up with 500k. That essentially takes diamond dates completely out of the game. It simply renders them economically useless. Same with upgrapes and rushrooms. Too expensive, so the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
I'd also like to point out that even with the 'bug' in place, therefor making diamond dates viable, we would still need to plant diamond dates on all 6 farms about 25 times before being able to feed a light dragon to epic. That's 125 hours of waiting, a little over 5 days. So even with the 'bug' in place, the food requirements are ridiculous. Taking the 'bug' away made that 11 times MORE ridiculous. Literally.

If you don't put the "bug" back or find another way to make the DS economy reasonable quickly (key word quickly), I'll stop playing completely. Loyal DS players (I.e. everyone who cared enough to comment on this thread) do no deserve this.

Ponyroar, is Team Lava going to do anything to make this right? And if so, when? Thanks for your time

Great post. I can only hope someone at upper management is reading our deductions. We've put a lot of thought into them; it would be insulting to find that they are falling on deaf ears.

[[S8] Elsa]

@****bethy I understand that you're upset, but the description you provided isn't the case. The boost that increased the amount of coins was a bug in the game. I'm very sorry that we didn't catch it before.

Stormie isn't really a "test" account. He's a virtual neighbor designed to give in game benefits to users. You can visit him, send him parts requests, and sometimes he'll have special decorations so players can visit him for design inspiration.

The change will not be reverted as it was a bug. However, Group Magma mentioned, we may add similar boosts in the game in the future if you enjoyed this particular boost.

@Chianti Didn't mean to offend anyone with the emoticons. I think they add character, but I suppose they don't always translate so well in certain situations.

I will pass on the feedback to the team and be sure to share the posts that include the math, that some users have thoughtfully crafted in their feedback posts. Please continue sharing feedback and let us know how this affects your game and I'll keep passing it along.