the fact of the matter is that the amount of sP that's donated should be extremely low and easily obtainable for people. Like I mentioned earlier - maybe it should've been as simple as instead of you getting the sP from playing the plot games, the sP went directly to the plot. That way it stays within the plot, it's sP earned from the plot that can be given back to the plot and it's an obtainable amount instead of these increasingly high numbers that people are seeing just so that they can receive (note that I said "receive" and not "earn") the prizes that they've paid for and not earned through sole plot participation.

Battling and training is continuous plot participation even when there's no plot. You're continually training and participating in battling to prepare for the next plot and the next and the next, and if people choose not to that's their choice as battling is a component in every plot. But for newbies, players have lower sP and players that want to actually earn prizes and not just hand sP over in exchange for prizes (non-physical prize shop for the rich), it's illogical and unjust.

I agree with there should be more transparency from staff.

As for you, , my suggestion over on the suggestion thread to limit things between R 1-99 makes very much sense and is quite logical. It'd help to bring the prices of the super cheap Rares and Super Rares up to a better level instead of what they are now. Rares and SRs are supposed to be more expensive than what so many of them are now (some being 25k or so or less.) and make the lower rarities a little more valuable as so many of them are way less than what you'd RS them for from NPC shops; instead of allowing donations of all raries which include highly expensive items (Cash Shop, MC probably) including CWs and driving their costs up higher

Top battle prizes are usually battle related. Having these attainable by non nattlers doesn't make sense. The rest of the prizes are usually a mix of things, so if you really want them, you should do what it takes to get them. The least you could spend to get through this plot was 100k, most being what, 500k x3 for rb, 200k on jules, not sure about mathis since I battled. Those numbers don't sound unreasonable to me since you can easily make 1m a day as a newbie. There's really only so much a plot can be without just handing over prizes for reading or skipping through some text and clicking some boxes

The biggest complaint I have is the lack of communication. I assumed all paying parts of the plot were required. Afterward I realized they weren't, and I wish that had been made more clear up front. Comments buried in out of the way threads or news posts just don't cut it. I personally didn't mind the cost (too much) but I can see how it might be daunting for someone new and/or poor.

That said, I do wish that if the user is presented with items that are far too expensive for their taste in the Mathis part of the plot, that "please give me different ingredients" would actually provide different and less expensive ingredients, with the tradeoff of waiting say, two hours or five hours or something. Let people participate at a lower price point, but increase the cost in time.

/nope. not bothering

Admin posts is something everyone should read at least once a day. Things aren't as buried as they may think. If someone wants to know something, ask, because likely it's already been answered and someone can answer it for you, if not, staff can answer it and that answer can get buried in the admin posts. Assuming anything is just bad practice in life.

I agree with you on all points there, Liri

It's far easier to inform the entire userbase by using slightly clearer descriptions and language in news posts than it is to expect every single user to regularly go digging for admin posts. Because that'll never happen.

Maybe not. They aren't aware of questions users will have before they put out the news. The news doesn't give new events when it is edited either. Would you love to have 16 different new newses about little questions only a few users have? If you are that in need of knowing something, press one button and read 5 sentences. That's all admin posts is. If you don't see your question answered, ask somebody. People are very good at spreading information

That's true, but why not just edit the news post or announcement when it's clear there's confusion over a particular function of the plot/site? And honestly, if it's an optional activity, it seems pretty evident that people would want to know it's optional, especially if it requires effort/cost/what have you. They've edited news posts before. Again, the onus shouldn't be on the entire userbase to dig for information they may not even know would be helpful when all it would take is a quick post edit.

Nope, nty.

Whatever happened to expecting clearer answers from news posts? What are we worried about? Too much text on a news post? Seriously, what is it that keeps admin posts so disorganized? Can't there be an official faq the news links to if news posts don't keep us informed? Expecting everyone, especially newer players, to find admin posts is expecting too much.

Also, with prize tiers for plots like these, they have to go off something to categorize people. If it's not buying items, it's battle participation / wins, which also requires sp (and more than 500k, easily). If it's not either of those, it's time spent on an activity and then people post about how repetitive / taxing time-wise something is. Unless people want the same prizes across the board, these things will occur. We can't have a plot where everyone clicks on the next piece of dialogue without investing time and/or sp. If we did, that wouldn't be a plot. It would be pointless clicking. Boring. :c

In some cases that is already done but it doesn't make sense for specific issues

You make it sound like looking for staff posts is really difficult. I really did my best to answer all the questions I saw in the plot forums. did an incredible job providing information and corrections that I feel she wasn't obligated to provide. You did have to smelt at least once to move on didn't you? If not, is it really that bad? You contributed and now you will receive a prize for doing so since we reached our goal. If you did not contribute to that, you won't get that prize.

Do you know how hard it is to preemptively answer all of the questions? Admin posts isn't a hard thing to find. Really newer players get it, I've seen many just make a thread asking the question and it gets answered. It seems a bit lazy of users to want their questions answered but they don't want to actually ask them to get the answer.

I just spent close to 40mil last week upgrading my weapons, scrolls, and training my pet. Please tell me more about how a 500k [B]OPTIONAL[/B] weapon quest is too much for you.

... Also want to point out that I earned that 40mil during my latest sp sprint and would probably only take me a week or two to replenish. (aka, anyone can do it if they spent the time.) And yes, if you want to get prizes on this site, you must spend the time. Everyone has a real life and it can be difficult to get online at times, but that doesn't make it unfair.

Yeah, just want to reiterate that for years people have been complaining about battle components of plots and saying how non-battlers have nothing to do. Well guess what! Staff just gave you something to do! If it's too expensive, then wait 15 min for the next one, or skip altogether. Again, it's an optional task for those who are unable to battle.

God damn people are annoying... You know what I did first time I encountered a battle plot I couldn't complete? I fucking started training my pet! The ONLY people who are exempt from this are those who are relatively new- but now they can participate through the quests.

[edit] And to address the other aspects of the plot, you were required to spend a min of 100k on smelting. I didn't have to bribe Jules at all, because I happened to show up at the right time. Anyone else could have waited for a similar time, or gone to the boards for advice. (Anyone who doesn't know the boards are a venue for help need to learn now.) Now I went and spent another few hundred thousand on smelting to help out with the plot, but again, it was goddamn optional. Similarly with having the sp for Saggi... It's not like you had to spend it on him, and there were people all over the boards loaning sp to others.

So much complaining for a fun plot that's so goddamn inclusive and already giving out gorgeous items of all different types...

If there is a question that most everyone is asking it makes more sense to edit the news post/the part in question than having it buried somewhere. First off it should stop the questions from continuously being asked. Second, not clarifying makes things look rushed and half-assed, almost like someone didn't care what the instructions said.

Edit to add about the expense: I kind of felt like this was almost a small, site wise test to see what users would spend sp on without outright foaming at the mouth and yelling about a sp sink. lol Maybe I'm just suspicious because of all the "nerf everything that gives out sp" talk.

I'm not expecting for them to preemptively answer all the answers when they first make the news post, but they sure can edit it in later or make a specific faq for the event that gets updated and link to that from either the news posts or the sidebar on the right-hand side. What I'm expecting is organization and convenience.

Not everyone is lazy though? That's making assumptions imo. ;x People can be busy too. Just because you see new players make threads on the boards doesn't mean all the new players do that.

Generalizing and assuming are kinda different, but if you want to call me a hypocrite, outright do so please.

I am tired of this staff blaming though, users should put in a bit more work than to expect to have everything served up to them in one convenient location.

I just want to thank and for their communication they have been doing, answering many questions throughout the duration of the plot and doing a good job in general.

I agree with kbbob on how users really should make more of an effort to look at the admin posts. Its right there at the top of the forums for anyone to access, and doesn't take that long to read over the recent posts. It's really not as hard as people seem to be making it out to be to see what staff are communicating.

That said, I think the staff should utilize the announcements forum more than they currently do, especially during events. If staff are having to answer the same question over and over, making an announcement to post answers to these FAQ could really benefit both users and staff (since it would save them the trouble of repeatedly answering these questions). And then, if people still need further clarification on the answer to the question, there would already be that set thread for people to look for it rather than having to dig around in other forums.

Dude, relax? I'm saying you're assuming, because you are. I'm not saying you're a hypocrite. Chill. xD

I don't think users ought to put in work to know whether something is mandatory or not.

While I dislike the higher price for reasons, I could understand where the site is coming from on a "we need sinks" front. However, this isn't even a good sink. At all. I did one of the weapons and bought the items from other users... Then made back more than what I spent because people bought the potions from my shop. That isn't a sink.

I also would have loved to know that the potion making wasn't mandatory. Staff needs to be more up front with stuff like that. No, no we should not have to hunt down posts to find things out that should be put out for us in a more professional way.

sorry, it was a bit of an overreaction on my part but that's what I get with 5 hours of sleep and replying on my phone. I also didn't phrase that very well. I assume A LOT. but assuming and then getting pissed because I assumed incorrectly, that is a bad thing.

I wouldn't be against clearer this is mandatory this is optional labels. there aren't really many optional steps though. battling everything except goo hund (once) is optional, you miss out on their prizes, but they are still optional. smelting once/donating 10 things/playing pete's game once was required, and it was pretty clear (to me, I know this isn't the case for quite a few people) that doing these more was optional. I didn't actually read any of the plot text, so I don't know if they explained it or not. I did see many people ask if these goals were personal or community driven though, but I also answered all of the questions I saw unanswered. if anyone read any of the plot threads, they should have seen this. participating extra in the plot isn't hurting anyone, it's only helping really.

[edit] oh yeah the mathis thing was optional, but I didn't read anything about that since I was focused on the fight. it would have been nice to see a note that this is the alternative to battling though.

I am a poor subetan (the most i've ever seen in my vault is 40mil) but I still don't have a problem with dropping a few mil on the plot. shrug it's going to be earned back in a few short days anyway, questing makes you at least a million a day, so spending half a mil isn't all that rough.

I DO understand it can be annoying to some users to spend if you're saving for something in particular, or if you just like to hoard sp, but nobody HAS to spend the money. If it bothers you too badly, just refrain from doing this part? Even if your battle pet is weak AF, you can participate that way instead. :)