we are going to keep it the way you dont like AND decreasing the amount of fun by increasing energy needed to explore in an attempt to make you like the origional way.

and honestly with an admited we are only going to keep this site open if we can make money form it, it may end up being better just to close befor people like it too much. or just make it pay to play. 

we are offering things that the players would be willing to PAY for. i will staight up say i spent 500$ on a site called GRYFFs in the last MONTH. its not like im not willing to spend money on sites I LIKE. -okay ill better spend my money else where.

that grand prix analogy doesnt really compair to this situation.

- you are invited to my house for a free dinner, but now you have to pay for forks to eat with. Oh and there is no desert. sure the diner is good but you have to eat it with your fingers or pay for utensils. i would rather get the utensils and pay for an optional desert.

" AND decreasing the amount of fun by increasing energy needed to explore."

___________________________________________________________________

Clearly many people on this thread do not find exploring "fun." You may be a minority there. I explore because I need resources, experence, and those chests are quite nice at higher levels. It stoped being fun two weeks ago, and today it was almost painful it was so dull. If I didn't need vermillion in order to use the main mechanic effectively, selective breeding, I wouldn't have explored with so many pets.

But I don't think it would hurt if Angel got some more opinions on the issue, only a small number of people have spoken out on this thread. I think the change is for the better but do most people? Should it be done anyway just to keep people from burning out on it? I dunno.

I like the utensil analogy though, because that's how I feel. I'll pay for some cake but you better offer me the tools I need to enjoy the meal or I will leave before desert.

No one is saying we won't donate. In fact we are saying, yes we will donate, and for these reasons/things. Trying to "force" people to donate by making the game downright tedious for those who don't isn't the right way to go about it. We are giving you ideas we, the players, feel are fair bonuses and not an integral part of the game, any one of which could replace auto battle while exploring as a premium feature.

But I do like some of the things that have been agreed on to try.

If the amount of energy needed to explore is increased to where we can only do it twice per pet (but get the same resources of 5) even without auto battle it may still be faster. I need to test it sometime... The question is, will it feel less tedious? I suspect not.

I don't mind exploring, at times it's fun at times's it's a bit boring; I do not enjoy the manual battling. I tried it a couple of times but the manual battling is tedious.

koben, we don't want anyone to spend $500/month on our game. This is too much for a single person. We believe that no game worth this, it's only pixels. We don't want to steal the real life from our players, the game is just a bit of fun, nothing more. And personally I think that it would be better to donate that money to World Parrot Trust and save some real lives instead of hoarding pixels.

The result.

1. In the first place we're fighting with grind both for basic and premium users. Explore energy will be increased to 5. Removing grind factor automatically removes the problem with autobattle giving too much advantages. The play time will be increased only with the new game features, not with modifying the old ones.
2. There will be no autoexplore. Once more, this is against game concept. It's an official position and it's not up for discussions anymore.
3. No balance affecting features will be a part of premium subscription. Premium users are not special, they are the ones who decided to help the game by a small donation and receive some interface improvements for this.

The further flaming here will result in closing of this topic.

Shadow, we're going to reduce the amount of explore time by increasing the energy required for explore and the amount of resources found on the island. This way basic users won't have to spend more time on explore than everybody spend now. For premiums, it will be even quicker because of the autobattle.

But wait.... If you do that... Wouldn't that still be less resources, AND less monsters, thus, less chances to level up?

In order to achieve a similar amount of goods and EXP earned from making 5 trips with the current system, the new maps are going to need to be a LOT bigger.

And even then, It does happen quite often, especially with lower level pets, that pets are going to lose a battle and be kicked off the island. Especially when monsters DO have the ability to block off your path, even when you first arrive.

*Please note, that I am NOT flaming you or anything, just pointing out the flaws in the proposed design. I hope I am coming across as respectful and calm, because I just want to help. I REALLY want to watch this site grow, and I want this to be the kind of site I'd WANT to play and spend my money on*

Here's an example to help me get my point across:

Say we get 500 exp and 500 goods per day. (Not exact numbers, but 500 is easy to split into 5) If they are broken up into 5 goes, that's 100 exp and 100 goods per trip.

If the number of available trips decreases, in order to keep that 500 exp and goods, you'd need to impliment 250 worth of exp and 250 worth of goods.

This means that if a lower level pet were to get ambushed by monsters on the portal square, and is forced to leave, that's a 250 exp and 250 good loss, instead of just a 100 exp and 100 goods loss.

Also, I'd like to point out that saying things like "premium users are not special" and saying you won't give them perks isn't going to make people want to give the site their money. Once again, not being mean, I'm just a business oriented person who makes it a habit of figuring out the best way to boost sales and how to improve a business and whatnot (And that's essentially what this site is, a business)

If you'd like to talk about business and sales related things, and how to not only create a positive environment for customers (users), but also to bring in revenue (donations), feel free to send me a message, I'd love to have a chat :)

The problem currently is not that people feel like autobattle gives too many advantages. The problem is that people feel like the current battle system is tedious and detracts from game play.

However, you've made it clear that you're not interested in hearing about how to generate income for your site, so I'm going to politely duck out of this discussion to avoid anything that could be called "flaming". 

Beyond my own personal input, you may want to look at the way you handle issues with your users. Your conduct is highly unprofessional and has turned away a number of possible players/donators already. When people offer suggestions and defend their point, it's not flaming. Unless someone has gone out of their way to personally and unconstructively criticize you or aspects of the game, they are offering feedback. 

Disagreement is not the same as flaming. I don't see anyone attacking you. They just don't agree with your position.  *shrug* Respectful discussion and debate are healthy ways to explore options and possibilities.

Honestly.. it's pointless and a bit controlling to tell people how they should spend their money. It's theirs to budget and spend how they like. And if everyone spent it elsewhere, you'd not be getting any money for the site, which seems sort of counterproductive to your natural aims as a site owner. I get what you're saying, but I don't think I would have put it quite the way you did. ;)

I think the point is being missed here that people want to understand why autobattle can't be an open feature for everyone when it makes explore more fun. I don't have half the pets some folks on here have, and even if explore was dropped to two trips at five energy each, that still adds up over my number of pets, and if the time is increased exponentially by having to manually battle each monster, well... I can see that being a problem.

Shadow said:
"This means that if a lower level pet were to get ambushed by monsters on the portal square, and is forced to leave, that's a 250 exp and 250 good loss, instead of just a 100 exp and 100 goods loss."

^ Also, this is a highly valid point, and would be incredibly annoying and a waste of a trip.

Beyond my own personal input, you may want to look at the way you handle issues with your users. Your conduct is highly unprofessional and has turned away a number of possible players/donators already.

I have to agree with this. Watching how Angel has conducted herself throughout various threads, especially this one, has made me seriously reconsider whether I want to stick with this site, and I'm definitely the type of user you want to keep. I tend to buy premium, donate, I'd contribute with skins, I do a fair amount of selling, chatting, etc etc. And I'm sure there are more people not speaking up who are turned off by your threatening tone. For all intents and purposes you may as well be going 'I AM RULER, DON'T ARGUE WITH ME YOU PEONS!!'.

Disagreeing with you politely is not 'fuming'. Telling people to shut up for trying to help you build a fun, profitable website simply isn't how you do these things. Please step back, learn not to take crticism and suggestions so personally, and understand that we aren't arguing for fun, we're contributing because we want to see this site be successful. We care. Let us help.

I enjoy this site, but I don't want to feel like making suggestions is pointless or that I have to be afraid of the owner because she's too defensive to be doing PR.

Editing to add that I really don't mean any of this as an attack. I don't know you personally. I understand that you can't accept everyone's suggestions, as someone who mods/admins some pretty big communities (as in, thousands of members), I get it. Just remember that we're trying to help you. We wouldn't be here, making suggestions and giving you our view on things if we hated you or something.

Lastly, to be more on topic, I really don't feel like simply making it take more energy to explore is the solution you're looking for. Now if I die to a random low level monster, I'm just going to be even more peeved about the waste of time it causes. 5 energy is way too high.

3. No balance affecting features will be a part of premium subscription. Premium users are not special, they are the ones who decided to help the game by a small donation and receive some interface improvements for this.
- Angel

Premium users are special precisely because they decided to give you real-life money in return for pixels. If they weren't special, they wouldn't be getting these perks. The perks would be avaliable for everyone, and donating would just be a fun option for people to do out of the goodness of their heart. From what I can see - on my list of suggestions, at any rate - no balance affecting perks have been offered, and if they have, they've been incredibly minor. There's a difference between premium and basic, and thats supposed to be the incentive to buy premium.

I personally don't understand how auto-explore is 'against game concept'. The Game Concept, from what I understand, is a breeding game. Auto-explore would help players focus on the breeding aspect. But, the boot is down on this one, so its best to stay silent on it lest an opinion be construed as flaming.

I enjoy this site, but I don't want to feel like making suggestions is pointless or that I have to be afraid of the owner because she's too defensive to be doing PR.
- Kayla-la

This, as well, is amazingly offputting. Telling players where to 'better' spend their money? Silencing users about a topic and decision they're clearly unhappy about? 

I feel like the new 'fix' hasn't been thought through entirely, for precisely the reasons Shadow listed. However as you've made it clear its your way or the highway, I am at a loss at what to suggest, or if there would even be any point in doing so.

The fact that users have to bow, scrape and assure you that they're not flaming is a bad sign, Angel. That leaves a bad taste in the mouth and creates a very bad atmosphere.

Closing. Please read the previous posts for the details about energy explore tweak.