Esyhl Resident

So here's an update! After the initial post I have seen the blog update about quality of life changes for the event including ovens at affiliates and more spawners, as well as a an extension in to Friday evening so people who have weekends off can do a quick run through of everything before it ends. There was even a complimentary free cake due to people having to obtain an updated basket and losing those ingredients stored. That was very kind of the devs. Thank you!

Thank you for taking the time to make these changes for the event on short notice, especially with it being a free complimentary event. And thank you again in general for the gift of the 1 year anniversary events.

Hello! First of all, I would like to make it very clear that this thread is intended for constructive feedback. Don't just focus on aspects you didn't like, but build on how it could be improved upon, and why that might benefit people without taking away from the experience of earning the prize.

I saw some great success in the first afternoon of this event. There were a good handful of people who were able to make enough cakes to redeem the prizes they wanted in one night. However, I see aspects of the system (just from what can be observed by an outsider with no access to code) that could be tweaked for the future.

One of the first things I discovered immediately, and that others were already taking advantage of, was that it was very easy to use the area search tool for this event.  Some proof of this is that if you watch item spawns in area search, the item is gone as fast as it spawns even when the spawn point is never quite the same. The spawners had a recognizable owner, meaning all spawns were recognizable by that owner. The names of the items were also very straight forward and easy to search. In some cases for huge community hunts on popular brands they find ways to discourage area search. One of the biggest  "problems" I saw this year was that the hunt items were not scripted to have a range check like the ovens. If people wanted to, and I'm sure they did, they could click an item from a distance by camming, or even more conveniently by touching it in the area search menu. It didn't matter how far away the person was. The items also disappear after 1 person finds it, so others have to wait for the next. It reached a point already within hours of the first evening that if you didn't use area search, you would be sniped from ever seeing spawns. Since the spawn rates weren't enough to keep up with this 'exploit', many people were stuck waiting for the more requested items and unable to make any progress if they didn't join in on the exploit.

This type of issue is amplified by the very limited window of the event. For collectors, a 3 day window for active breeders only is a great opportunity to make a turnover on the new dragon skin. On the other hand, that 3 day window during a work week, especially at the beginning of the week and not on a holiday, results in many people having to choose to miss the event for the sake of their 40+ hour a week jobs. A typical working hour job in a time of economic uncertainty. These same people are likely the ones who were able to use that income to support Mystical Creatures on the business side of things over the past year by buying in to the breedables. People being responsible about their offline life (which should always come first) are possibly being forced to miss out due to the short window with no weekend overlap. The above mentioned exploits certainly give them reason to either join in on the exploit and hinder those that haven't discovered it (or wish to play fair), or not participate. There is feedback on day 1 floating around from people who were not enjoying the event, because they just don't have hours to compete like this. The birthday event shouldn't have been a cutthroat competition. It should have been a fun easter egg hunt for ingredients. The balance isn't there and favors the people who understand the SL system tools. And then those that enjoy an honest hunt currently have no chance of doing just that.

Please take this feedback with an open mind towards future projects. The community loves these gifted opportunities and yes, users do get entitled... but currently this truly feels like a balancing issue with the experience.

I may have missed it, but I didn't see a place on the website or the forums to post our feedback (positive, or constructive). To start this post off, I would really like to see a place in the forums where the community can talk about what they want to see in the future. With that said, I hope that this thread is alright.

One feature that I am a little on the fence about is having to do with the Eternal Dragons. If you use the charm, you don't need to feed the dragon anymore and since it's beyond breeding age you don't have to worry about mood stats. You do, however, have to worry about energy. I understand a dragon/pet needing its sleep, but once it has the eternal charm it still requires being rezzed out when it hits 0 energy (as it can still lose energy) and need a recharge. One of the perks of an eternal pet is usually that it doesn't NEED to be rezzed out somewhere to be used. If a Dragon is tired, you cannot wear it as a companion or mount. I feel like this is a reasonable request to find a way to not require the rez/rest once made Eternal with a charm. It's not always easy to have a place for the dragon pet to be rezzed out resting.

Another odd thing I've seen with the Eternals is that sometimes if they are in your inventory for too long (I haven't figured out what is too long yet), if you put it on, it will fail to attach as if it needs sleep. When I finally do rez it out, the dragon is sick for a moment (stone) and needs to rejuvenate itself and transform back to healthy. The process does this automatically once rezzed... but in a way this shouldn't happen at all to an eternal dragon should it?

On non-eternal (or any) Dragons, the only thing I'd like to see changed in the future is being able to ground sit with my dragon. Sometimes you just want to be somewhere with your companion close by in a no-rez area, and being able to sit sometimes is preferred to not be bumped in to, or just because you want to sit on furniture while hanging out. I understand that the auto-detach on sit was enabled due to an exploit found in digging somewhere before I started up dragons. I'm hoping that maybe the development team is still interested in finding a different workaround.

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If you read this, thank you for your time! I hope that it's seen that the reason I am even thinking about suggestions like this is because I truly love the product you have made. These Dragons are the best breedable I have seen in SL, and the skins are remarkable. I've become very invested in these. The suggestions I'm making are really based on issues I am running in to in every day life as a Dragon Collector who wants to wear them and show them off all the time throughout SL.

Thank you again to all of the staff and testers!