09-16-2012 at 6:51 PM

I do not want to turn this into a debate about trial teams, but I view trial teams as a way of cheating.<br /> If your dog is losing in trials on his own, using other dogs to fill the trial so he wins is just unfair. The game of Alacrity is to breed higher and higher and in turn, higher TP dogs will win more in trials.

09-16-2012 at 6:38 PM

Clayton, after watching bone auctions for several days now, the auto bid (and many of them were auto'd) has been around 200k per bone, so it's already at that point. :/<br /> <br /> BB, removing teams was necessary because, if allowed to have teams, every person could win every time and gain as much money per day as they wanted. The limitations are there for a reason, and we're still tweaking things (when frisbee was first changed, we had the win amount set WAY too high, and people were getting hundreds of thousands as you said, but since then we have adjusted it trying to find a good medium) - we're going to be adjusting trial levels so dogs can reasonably reach the levels again and thus, users will be able to reach trial level goals.<br /> We will look into adjusting the entry fee, to reflect the new rewards for trials, however we would like some suggestions other than "change it back" or "you've ruined everything for us" - please, if you have a suggestion for maybe an amount that would be reasonable for the average dog to make it to odie (since odie seems to be, and has always been as far as I'm aware, the average place for a dog to retire), then we can work from that and see if it'd be worth trying.<br /> <br /> We knew this wouldn't be a really popular idea. Hell, it wasn't popular among US even, since we trial to earn money too. But we had to look beyond "how much can I make" and try to see the big picture, which was ever increasing asking prices for anything that didn't come from the game, and the eventual increase in prices from the game (again) because of that - and in the end, I believe, it would lead to more new users leaving than staying (which is a problem as-is, because they don't feel they can do anything or afford anything without buying bones with money), and the overall userbase being more unhappy.<br /> That's why I'm asking for you guys to bear with us while we try and make this change for the better.

09-16-2012 at 6:05 PM

<b>In regards to the "why hasn't the monthly shop lowered its prices yet" posts</b><br /> It doesn't make sense to implement methods of deflating the economy and then <i>immediately</i> lower the shop prices. Let's look at it as if it were a "closing sale" at Wal Mart.<br /> <b>Bad economy:</b> 100 people go into the store with little money ($100 each). They can only buy things at the regular price and leave with way less money than they came in with. They're poor.<br /> <b>Normal economy:</b> 100 people go into the store on a normal day, each holding $500. They buy things at regular prices and leave the store with a little less money than they had. (Considerable amount because all of the prices are original). <br /> <b>Inflated economy:</b> 100 people go into the store on payday, each holding $1000. They buy things at regular prices. They leave the store with more money than the would have if they went in any other day. <br /> Now, say we take the inflated economy scenario (which is what Alacrity is right now) and then WOAH there's suddenly a closing sale at Walmart.<br /> People go in with their payday money and purchase things at HALF of what they would be during the inflated economy, and walk out with way more money than they would have on a day where there was no sale.<br /> <br /> I hope that makes sense.<br /> What needs to happen is the cash flow needs to slowly be choked off (which is what is currently happening with trial changes, age limits on trials, etc) until people are back to having the amount of cash that they would have in the "NORMAL ECONOMY". Then, the prices will slowly be adjusted to accommodate the players cash amount.<br /> This is what happened when Alacrity first started getting out of control economy-wise. People had more and more money, the prices slowly rose. Do you guys think $100,000 a bone is bad? Imagine if we don't choke off the cash flow, it could go up to $200,000 a bone.<br />

09-16-2012 at 4:29 PM

I'm going to try to keep this short and hopefully it will make sense too. (I am sick and sleep deprived x_x ) <br /> <br /> I wasn't thrilled about the trialing cuts, but I can deal with that. xD However, like others have stated if you're adding the limitations that were voted down, I would really like to see the teams implemented again because fewer people will be able to afford trialing soon which may make it more difficult to trial. <br /> <br /> I'm sorry, but I fail to see how cutting trial money while adding insane rewards for frisbee is going to help the economy. :-S Some people are currently getting several *hundred* thousand ala cash per day with frisbee now. o_o How is that beneficial to the game as a whole? <br /> <br />

09-16-2012 at 3:02 PM

Basically what it will come down to is, what can the average user afford. With the way people could easily earn 100k and up in a day of trials... that was a lot. So it's very hard to rationalize exactly why things should be cheaper when there's so much money just sitting around.<br /> Shroom, I understand you probably have a personal goal or something to earn, but... if you feel you can't buy everything, but are going to buy stuff anyway, then rank things based on how much you want them. Favorite items vs stuff you aren't that excited about. I know that there are some items each month that I myself couldn't care less about, while there are always one or two that I would wrestle an angry alleycat for. c.c

09-16-2012 at 12:10 PM

<b>"pick and choose what I want to do with it instead of impulse buy... but is that necessarily a bad thing?"</b><br /> <br /> Yes, at least for me. It's not like I can do that in RL so it is nice to be able to do it here. <br /> <br /> I doubt we'll see a lowering in the monthly shop because I think all those measures won't do a thing but people wanting to hoard more money.

09-16-2012 at 8:27 AM

You have a point Larth. So, this change is temporary until the economy is back in place, or is only the monthly shop's prices going back down ?

09-16-2012 at 8:07 AM

Please remember, though we have lowered the payout for trials, we will be ADDING rewards in the near future to offset that!<br /> <br /> In the case of it not being 'worth it' to trial your dogs for tp bonus now, I don't see why there is such entitlement to get not only the TP bonus but also to make profit with it too.<br /> <br /> The problem with the economy is really that everything is starting to cost so much in user shops. If it's not in the general site shops, then new players or even those who've been playing for months have little ability to buy the stuff, meanwhile everyone is getting more and more cash at leaps and bounds ahead of newer users or even older users who don't have capped dogs, which brings more money onto the site. More money from trials = more money to spend = higher asking prices for things such as bones and accessories.<br /> <br /> We still plan on lowering the monthly shop prices again, <b>when the economy is at the right place to do so.</b> When users are making less money at a regular pace and the almost two billion dollar active money on site has dissipated to a reasonable amount in relation to the number of active users, when the user asking price for bones goes down to actually reachable levels, then we can talk about actually setting the prices back on the monthly shop.<br /> <br /> Until then, no you don't get free alarm clocks. Can't reach your goals you set when you were able to make ridiculous amounts of money? Maybe re-evaluate your goals and set ones that are more attainable with the new limits set up.<br /> <br /> Yes, it's a big change, for everyone. I made money from trials too, and now I've gotta pick and choose what I want to do with it instead of impulse buy... but is that necessarily a bad thing?

09-15-2012 at 6:40 PM

I love the point shop idea:) However I would love to see trials go back as they were with same pay out. I made 580k playing the frisbee toss with my main account of dogs! i was utterly shocked and amazed but i really would like to see the higher pay outs on trails since i am currently going to be training up capped dogs i recently bought and i will be hand maxing them. Or maybe going back to the old way of trialing?

09-15-2012 at 4:43 PM

I want the old way of Trialing back ... no limit on entries. <br /> As of right now, I barely have 88K in the bank... having a hard time keeping my bank account afloat.

09-15-2012 at 11:38 AM

<i> Isn't (wasn't) this game supposed to be about trailing? If you make trialling so hard and unprofitable, then no one will be trailing. People were already complaining about how hard it is to trial, and you guys just made it a lot worse.</i><br /> <br /> I have to agree. Alacrity means Agility, not 'Frisbee Catching Dogs'. The frisbee games are basically making more money then trials are now. Plus, unless people still want to trial, TS are really useless except for maxing dogs to have pups with good TP. And THAT'S what Ala was for - breeding high TP dogs that are maxed in training, so you can get better offspring to trial.<br /> I'm sorry admins, I don't want to be rude, but I think you really just threw the concept of agility away.

09-15-2012 at 10:47 AM

Capped dog comparison in Odie:<br /> 09-15-2012 7:35 AM : Crevan`s Isaac [8999.91] placed first in the Worldclass Competition trial with a score of 5038, meaning you earned $6298.<br /> 09-14-2012 7:55 AM : Crevan`s Isaac [8999.91] placed first in the Worldclass Competition trial with a score of 5030, meaning you earned $12575.<br /> Capped dog comparison in toto:<br /> 09-15-2012 7:40 AM : Crevan`s Aiden [8999.91] placed first in the Auto Alacratious Trial trial with a score of 5028, meaning you earned $10056.<br /> 09-14-2012 8:35 AM : Crevan`s Aiden [8999.91] placed first in the Auto Alacratious Trial trial with a score of 5025, meaning you earned $15075.<br /> <br /> <br /> So they do pick up again in toto I suppose; though I am personally favorable of the x2 payout across the board for all trial levels. Makes it so dogs don't start making huge huge amounts in upper levels, but also makes it so they aren't making what used to be dogbert profits all the way through Odie either. [So a capped dog, not going beyond cap, would make 10kish every trial for its whole trialing career] So one capped dog makes 40k a day, 80k a day or so if someone uses an energy companion on it or whatever. I'm still personally in favor of also only allowing four trials a day, though honestly they will run out of time anyway because once a dog hits gromit its career is pretty well over. This is the reason I rarely ever trial over four times a day anyway.<br /> <br /> New players have a hard time trialing beyond Odie as it is; especially without some kind of team. And this just makes lower TP dogs kind of pointless. Either up the payouts again OR make the entry fees a flat rate of 50$ or something. This might help fix issues of trials not getting filled in upper levels, too.<br /> <br /> Of course this is all just my opinion ^^

09-15-2012 at 9:39 AM

I'm really mad at the lower payouts. My Odie dogs are making half what they did before! Isn't (wasn't) this game supposed to be about trailing? If you make trialling so hard and unprofitable, then no one will be trailing. People were already complaining about how hard it is to trial, and you guys just made it a lot worse.

09-15-2012 at 8:38 AM

I'm not a fan of the new trialing payouts.<br /> When trialing with 3 of my high TP dogs, I usually make around 25-45k. Now ? I'm making <i>13k</i>, and my 6.1k TP sheltie is making WAY less than my 3k Border collie, which makes no sense at all (I guess it is because he has more TP boosts from trials, but the sheltie was making at least double his before!).<br /> I'm thinking about the new players who can't earn money very well...so their income is from games ? If games make more than a capped dog trialing, what's the point in trialing ? Although I'm not sure how much you are increasing these by. *shrug*<br /> The point system seems cool. What kinds of items will be in it ? Old monthly items, or brand new items ? Companions ? Perhaps some Cash Boutique items ?

09-15-2012 at 8:29 AM

Just tried an Odie trial, and considering that we often need to put in fillers to win anything at all, I spent 525 on one account and 575 on the other. <br /> <br /> I won $14 and broke even on the other. That's a joke. Both dogs have over 700 TP. o_o<br /> <br /> Even without the filler dogs, the wins wouldn't be worth the hassle of finding trials for the dogs.

09-15-2012 at 8:03 AM

<b>I'm not a fan of the lower payouts either and from what I can tell by trialling my dogs. Otis has been lowered by about 2k, Marley by about 1k and Toto by about 1-2k (if I remember what my dog used to make) yet Odie has been nearly halved?</b><br /> <br /> Oh dear, if that is the case... many of my dogs barely broke even, trialing for TP boost. And most of them don't get to Toto at all. Trialing has become a hassle with the team changes already, now it turns into useless area for most dogs. Shouldn't trialing be the #1 activity on here?

09-15-2012 at 8:01 AM

Yes Clayton, because people were doing things to get money they wouldn't have done before, just for the items. Like creating and going extra races... hard to explain but it doubled the money in game. But the n again, you can't do such stuff on Ala so we're probably fine. <br /> <br /> There is something I just realized. Lots of us trial not only for money but for the TP boost. This has, for me, become pointless now as my customs and other low TP dogs are now causing money losses even if they win. I know some people puts thousands into just trialing them but I can't do stuff that makes me lose money like that, it feels terribly wrong and I'm probably not the only one.<br /> <br /> I don't think the frisbee payout is too high, after all you will probably not manage to trial all your dogs every day 5 times. Unless you want to use that as main source of income but then you'd need lots of dogs and not trial at all.

09-15-2012 at 6:14 AM

I'm not a fan of the lower payouts either and from what I can tell by trialling my dogs. Otis has been lowered by about 2k, Marley by about 1k and Toto by about 1-2k (if I remember what my dog used to make) yet Odie has been nearly halved?<br /> <br /> I don't know if I'm missing something here but for Odie to be halved while Toto has barely been lowered it just doesn't make sense to me...

09-15-2012 at 2:47 AM

are we going to be given alarm clocks to age our currently trial able dogs back to the equivalent that they are not to age? <br /> <br /> i also kinda agree trial system's being messed with everyone voted and what won won why go back now and re implement things that wern't voted to win lowering winnings really isn't fair and the games we just don't have enough of them to make them fun we do work hard to get dogs to high trial levels and it takes a long time to get them there <br /> <br /> point shop sounds fun and i would love to see more games of many different kinds even some flash games like tetris and other's would be great and would take away from boredom like neopets has hundreds of games(not saying we should have that many) and a limit of sending the score 3 time per game per day <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> we've also not seen a lowering in the monthly shop and other things promised when you guys added the limit on how many dogs per trial

09-15-2012 at 2:04 AM

Well, I believe the age decrease for trialing was a different option instead of the max 2 dogs in a trial? In which case the max 2 dogs in a trial won over the top of that...? Maybe I'm wrong on this, I thought that had something to do with it. In which case either the age needs to be left alone, or teams should be allowed again.<br /> <br /> Also... trial payment cuts were yet another option at that time as well, and people chose the 2 max dogs over that as well. <br /> <br /> So really, seems like at this point all the options that didn't get voted through are now being implemented anyway? If these two things are being implemented I would love for teams to be allowed again perhaps. I don't recall how lower payouts and aging ranked on that particular poll, I just know they didn't win so perhaps weren't favorable to people over what has already been implemented.<br /> <br /> All other ideas are very nice :) I'm glad beauty shows have gotten something added, though I still look forward to more being done for them ^^