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    Your Elvenar Team

Where’s Waldo or maybe a Wizard?

Would you like to see this idea implemented?

  • No, not right now

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Undecided- Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    9
  • Poll closed .

samidodamage

Buddy Fan Club member
I've been reading this thread, and there are merits to the ideas expressed. (wait for it...)
But (lol!)
I don't see where it has been presented in anything close to the format the devs require before the mods can even set it up with the only acceptable poll for the devs (The 'In Favor/Not in Favor' polls). The requirements are detailed here.
That brings me to my 2 questions:
@Ember Candy Mint
Do you have any intention of coming back, editing the original post as required, and shepherding the idea through the process?
If not, is anyone else here willing to take this on? If so, tag a mod, (Xelenia is the best for this) and get some direction as to whether it's better to start a new thread or if this one can be saved.
If the answer to both those questions is 'no', we're back to just talking among ourselves and the idea will never be seen by anyone with the power to implement it...
 

SoggyShorts

Mathematician par Excellence
I opted out of the brown bear... and have paid the price for it. The same with the fire chicken in several worlds where I chose the gold bird, It was a choice that worked against me with the new scheme, but it is what it is.
Hmmm, you seem to be disagreeing with me but your example proves my point. If a prize is really really great then FOMO sets in and the player must participate or suffer the consequences.

People are only willing to put X time and effort into the game. If you want to increase that and add a feature with a very significant reward you need to make that time&effort not only appropriate but also significantly entertaining.

I think that's asking a lot from a where's Waldo mini-game.
But making the reward for the search lame and stupid, why would anyone bother?
I must have missed the post where someone suggested a lame and stupid prize.:rolleyes:

Hopefully, there is a sweet spot somewhere between a 1-minute timer and a Fire Phoenix
 

SoulsSilhouette

Buddy Fan Club member
My point was Soggy dahling, there are choices to be made in any game. From Scrabble to Smyte. A player makes choices and they can pay for them later. I never thought for one moment that a Fire Chick would be popping out of chest. But if you make the effort far outweighing the reward, there is no point in it at all.
 

SoggyShorts

Mathematician par Excellence
My point was Soggy dahling, there are choices to be made in any game.
Of course there should be choices, but if you make one choice far superior to another, it stops being a choice in practical terms.
I have the choice right now of whether or not to punch myself in the groin, but not doing so is such a superior option* that it turns into no real choice at all.

*YMMV
But if you make the effort far outweighing the reward, there is no point in it at all.
Exactly. Too powerful a reward and choice is effectively removed. Too weak a reward and motivation is removed.

So far this idea for a feature sounds like something that would be fun a few times but in the long run could easily become quite tedious (since it's like getting original visit chests but harder)
Therefore I would like to see it closer to the weak end of prizes than to the powerful end so that while the reward is tempting, skipping it doesn't lead to FOMO.
 
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Ember Candy Mint

New Member
I've been reading this thread, and there are merits to the ideas expressed. (wait for it...)
But (lol!)
I don't see where it has been presented in anything close to the format the devs require before the mods can even set it up with the only acceptable poll for the devs (The 'In Favor/Not in Favor' polls). The requirements are detailed here.
That brings me to my 2 questions:
@Ember Candy Mint
Do you have any intention of coming back, editing the original post as required, and shepherding the idea through the process?
If not, is anyone else here willing to take this on? If so, tag a mod, (Xelenia is the best for this) and get some direction as to whether it's better to start a new thread or if this one can be saved.
If the answer to both those questions is 'no', we're back to just talking among ourselves and the idea will never be seen by anyone with the power to implement it...
First, Thank you for looking at my posting and second for providing insight on the decision making process. This is my first posting, yes I’m watching it and definitely open to suggestions- I just thought I had to wait till my preliminary pole was finished. I have only looked at forum a few times and certainly do not know your protocols or even who Xelenia is or how I’d tag this person- I’m pretty much clueless!
If you could help direct me on the correct path I’d really appreciate it.
 

Ember Candy Mint

New Member
I was reviewing this thread, and debating over the voting options, and now am wondering what is meant by
"Yes but only on holidays" @Ember Candy Mint.
Does this mean that the reward would be event widgets?
Hello @Lelanya, thank you for your question! I may not have same definition for widget as you (a separate small application run independently within a program) so I may not fully understand your question, but my thought was for the various standard holidays (Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc) that this ‘game’ could be held and a special associated character (ie Mrs Sniffles) could appear running around our cities, wherever paths are laid, just like our little people do now but with a magical prize when found. I hope this helps!
 

Iyapo1

Well-Known Member
I like the idea of having a person on the paths in my city that I get a prize for finding.

Having said character in other people's cities, not so much. I play exclusively on mobile so I often have to download more content to visit other cities. (already with the complaining)

The only problem I see with the original idea is with the graphics settings for pc players. Low settings=nobody walking around.
 

Ashrem

Oh Wise One
They could overlap it into the Fellowship adventures. Have a badge that is carried by locating a particular vendor in your city. then those who like doing that could pursue the vendor, while others ignored it, and it only matters during the FA.
  • Limited appearances (FA only)
  • Required participation by the group, but not the individual
  • Incentive for the group toward a significant prize, but something all FA members can get obtain without all being forced to participate in the specific activity.
 

ajqtrz

Chef - loquacious Old Dog
In the long run it's a question of how many players are going to "bored," by it, how many are going to find the rewards "lame" and how many are going to find it "too hard" or "too easy" compared to the number of players who find it "just right" or close enough to it. The "sweet spot" is what would have to be discovered or calculated. Can that be done? I think it can be but we, as the players, are limited to our own perceptions of how people play and how they ought, perhaps, to play, and thus our opinions are somewhat limited to our experiences. Some players insists everything make the game more interesting but things they find uninteresting others find interest. (collecting unicorns?! That's interesting? :p ) No player, I suspect, knows enough players to determine the actual response the player base would have without a more detailed picture.

Thus," the devil is in the details." That being so, in my opinion anyway, to hit the "sweet spot" we might like to think about those details before we make a judgment about the whole matter. Rewards, difficulty in fining, frequency of appearance and all that.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

AJ
 

Ashrem

Oh Wise One
We do have hard data on the previous search mini-game, which was almost universally despised. (Please note: almost is not the same as completely)

Unless the suggestion is a departure from that, then we have a pretty good idea how players will react. "fun the first twenty or fifty or hundred times, not so fun after that."

we might like to think about those details before we make a judgment about the whole matter.
Has someone made a judgement? As far as I can tell, any negative comments have been of the form "this needs to be clearer defined and or adjusted because at the moment it's a lot like a feature that was removed because it wasn't popular."
 
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samidodamage

Buddy Fan Club member
@Ember Candy Mint
Yay! Glad to know you're watching this. I really like new forum posters; they come up with interesting ideas that elude some of us more jaded long-timers!
On the process: This is a primarily player-driven forum with volunteer moderators. The devs finally agreed to look at ideas from this forum in March 2020; before that there was no path here and we were just talking amongst ourselves. This is a one-way communication; if the mods hear anything back, they will let us know, but that's rare and usually of the 'not what you wanted to hear, but...' variety. The system is less than we would hope for, but more than what we had.
All the devs will look at is the original post (and maybe the results of the in-favor/not-in-favor poll, I'm not sure about that part). They won't look at any of the discussion. The requirements laid out in the Guide for this forum are what the devs came up with, and they're pretty strict about them. The mods try to make sure all those requirements are met before setting up the formal poll. Once they set up the poll, no more changes are allowed and we are strictly voting on what is contained in that post and nothing else. We are not allowed to 'canvas' for votes; some of us (me for one) got really excited when the first ideas got to a vote and asked FS members to come vote. That is really frowned upon, so we stopped. Eventually, you'll need to go back into your original post and edit it, making it say precisely what we're asking them to consider implementing as well as listing the pros and cons identified in the discussion. You then tag a mod to let them know it's ready for a poll. Xelenia is the mod who worked really hard to make this happen and is usually the one who will review everything, make suggestions as appropriate, set up a poll with a defined ending date, and forward it to the devs if all goes well in the voting. To tag her (or any other forum member), you just type the @ symbol and then the member's forum name. As you're typing the name, a small pop-up window appears with a list of member names with the letters typed so far and you can choose the correct one (helps me with not having to remember exactly the way the name appears in the forum!).
 

Lelanya

Scroll-Keeper, Keys to the Gems
Hello @Lelanya, thank you for your question! I may not have same definition for widget as you (a separate small application run independently within a program) so I may not fully understand your question, but my thought was for the various standard holidays (Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc) that this ‘game’ could be held and a special associated character (ie Mrs Sniffles) could appear running around our cities, wherever paths are laid, just like our little people do now but with a magical prize when found. I hope this helps!
In this case widget means generic term for city litter, be they snowflakes, sky essence, keys, scrolls, tickets or whatever.
 

ajqtrz

Chef - loquacious Old Dog
Truffles grow under trees. So at least some truffles are, in essence, "left" under trees.

" When truffles are growing below the soil surface they are creating VOCs (volatile organic compounds). These VOCs burn off competing grasses and weeds acting as a weed control because certain seeds can’t germinate when they are present. It is an effective way of knowing that the truffle growth is becoming stronger on that certain host tree. It is not a guarantee that the tree will produce truffles but it is a good start, you know that the truffle mycorrhiza is present and active. Many people have used this as a way of locating truffles in the wild in Europe and continue to go back to the site in following years." https://www.kingstruffles.com/2015/03/11/what-are-truffle-tree-brules/ -emphasis added

AJ
 
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