Single post in Dev Log 204
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I'm still just as bad at introductions and I honestly hate Mondays.
This is not a good mix.
Here, have this - I'm gonna get a coffee =w='
Q: Why was the update done around midday and not at reset?
A: Because there bugs. If it was done at reset then Niet would have been in bed until about 8am (that's when he woke up this morning anyway) and would have been unable to fix the bugs that presented themselves.
So... Yes, it was something of an inconvenience to release it in the middle of the day - but I think it's fair to say that, all things considered, that inconvenience is better than it being broken for 8 hours and then Niet coming online to fix it which already took a few hours.. x:
tldr: When we were faced with the choice of 2-4 hours vs 10-12 hours, we chose 2-4, which we presume is what would've been preferable for everyone.
Yeah, it reset things and it was an inconvenience, but at least it wasn't 3x longer which was the alternative ^^'
We need sleep xP
Q: Can Party interactions be added to the Timers bar? A: Really this should've been in a suggestion thread - I'll explain why real quick in a tldr fashion. If it was in a suggestion thread then it would've been seen by now and possibly could've been implemented. As it stands though, I don't really care that it wasn't in a suggestion thread because that is a good idea and we'll look in to manners of implementation. Right now we're thinking of changing the "Today's Interactions" widget to have a slightly different formatting where it's "2500 / 1500" where 2,500 is your total interactions and 1,500 is your Party interactions. We'd also add it to the Today's Interactions page itself, of course. So that's basically "You've made 2,500 interactions, of which 1,500 are party clicks". We decided this may be the best idea because "1,500 / 2,500" could look like a progress bar, when it isn't xD
Q: Will we be able to keep our username / reserve our username? A: So I'm going to less answer this directly and more talk to you about the issues that we're presented with when this kind of situation comes up. Some people are asking if they can have usernames that have been taken, but they have been inactive for an extended period of time. Other people are wanting to make sure that their username isn't taken by someone else. These two 'camps' don't work together. You cannot have both. We're going to do our best to make sure that we please as many people as possible with future implementation for things on the new project. But I mean... Someone is going to be upset no matter what we do. Even if we add a string of numbers to the end of a username to serve as an identifier (see Discord for an example of this), I feel like there's going to be someone saying "I want that number" xP My point with that is nothing more than, ultimately, it'll never be perfect, but we'll certainly our best and, you know, we're open to suggestions that don't involve ripping the username from someone else ^^'
Q: Perhaps increase EXP.Share's output? A: Honestly, that would be a step back. We've favoured field clicking so heavily that there was next to no benefit for party clicking outside of getting people to click you back. But why bother doing that when you can do it for yourself? After those 1.5k clicks, you can go right back to field clicking and reap the benefits just as before - there is no need to increase the power of the EXP.Share.
Q: Why don't people just use the custom CSS feature that PokéFarm supports to make party clicking easier? A: Because, as someone correctly pointed out, we shouldn't be using the fact that people can customise / change these things as a crutch. If something can be improved then we shouldn't be saying, "well go on, you do it then". No, we should be doing it. Custom CSS is there to help, not to replace - it's not there to fix bad design, it's there to customise. Besides that, it doesn't work for everyone so it's not a catch-all where as just making core improvements is.
Q: Why not make the Egg Timer work on both field clicks (5k) and party clicks (1.5k) ? A: Because that would undermine the entire point of this update. I've had numerous people telling me of their eggs hatching so fast with this update because people are actually party clicking as a result of this change. The data that we have has shown a3-4x 50-100% increase in the number of eggs being hatched since we made this update on the 18th. ( Note that this doesn't mean it's definitely worked, the data pool is too small to make such a claim - that's just what the current data shows!)
Niet will give more information on this in his part of the Dev Log post. :)
This doesn't take away from the fact that party clicking needs to be made better, in the slightest, by the by - this is just our observations on the facts presented to us.
Q: Will PFQ's trading system get an update to allow trades with multiple items and Pokémon? A: It's something we can certainly look at.
Q: If the plan is to support both games, why not have a two-way transfer? A: Oof, now you're asking the hard questions. So... To sum it up. Transfer isn't perfect. Data is lost on transfer and there's no way to get that information back. Example: PF1 to PFQ transfer reverts Pokémon to level 1. They lose happiness. etc -- This is all caused by fundamental changes in the system. In other words, these 'losses' are not something that you can 'work around'. Once changed, there is a good chance that they are not compatible for a Transfer in the other direction. ...That doesn't mean we're not already trying for this, though c': Whether or not it can be accomplished is... Well. A different matter entirely.
Q: Will PFQ events be more interactive and engaging? A: Well, that's kind of subjective xD But such is the aim, yes. We're still working on improving the system so we can do more with it. I'll be honest, having worked on the new project for a while and effectively having built a new system to do the same job has afforded us some new ideas to build upon for the system here on PFQ. ...Of course, that system was originally meant to replace the one here so there are similarities we can utilise for future improvement.
Q: What's the incentive to field click now? A: Uh, well... Faster overall interactions which leads to -- > Interaction Points. > Breeding Cycles (1 per 64 clicks). > Credits ("It's like printing my own money" - Toy Story 2) > EXP.Share Usage > Lucky Egg Usage > Boosting Garthic / Niet counters (this one's a bit indirect but still, it's a thing) > Interaction based tournaments (not always relevant, but it's still an answer) > Dojo training bags (if you care about that) All these things are done faster / easier through Field clicking and not party clicking and I bet I could think of more if I took the time ^^
Q: Empty parties are annoying - fields give a free click, what about parties? A: The initial thought is "maybe filter empty parties out". The problem with that is that this means it would have to load in the party information before showing it to you - and then, if it turns out it has to filter some out, it would have to go and get some more users to fill the now empty spaces. THEN it has to load their parties to ensure that these ones have things in their party (see: are valid) and if not, potentially repeat forever. ...Not...Great. We've also seen some complaints regarding loading times - uh... This kind of 'fix' would make them potentially infinite. ...Uh. Yeah. We're not doing that xD 'What about a free click, like the fields?' I hear you say. ...Maybe. It does seem a little unfair for say, someone to have moved things in to fields and they're looking for some more eggs - you load their party at this 'empty'-moment and suddenly this person is deprived of interactions because they were... You know. Playing the game. That's also not a fair fix... But it is a potential fix so we'll offer some consideration to it. For now, though - no. Later? Maybe.
Q: What about the premium currency? A: You'd be able to transfer it - this is actual money that's been paid so. You know... We don't feel it would be right to lock it to one game like most other games out there do. I think we can do better than them, and I hope you agree.
Q: "because right now it looks like the daily interaction goal only counts party clicks as well?" A: Nope. That's wrong. If we changed that then we would have said so. The update applies to what we say it applies to. If something else is affected by it then that is a bug and should be reported as such. In this case, we double-checked, just to be sure and fortunately, this claim is incorrect. All interactions are counted, as they should be.
Q: Why didn't the News button flash to indicate a new post? A: Because the way that works is that it updates on first post, and first post updates. These are new posts - not first posts, or updates to the first post. To be candid, there's a reason we said to subscribe :p Moving forward, I will just force a silly update to the first post of some description to make it do the flashy-boi. I'll figure that one out when I go to do it after posting this xD
Q: "Will we be starting out with the Kanto pokedex and gradually add the other dexes in site updates or minigames like you're doing with Eben and the Galar region? Or will all the dexes be added in the one sitting?" A: That sounds like a gameplay related question to me - and is something that we don't have information at this time. ... Thanks for the idea, though :p [/joke]
Q: Maybe lower the number of party clicks a bit more? A: We're gathering information in order to make an informed decision. No solid answers at this time, but I will mention that it's better to have the numbers start out a bit too high and lower them - rather than the alternative of them being too low an then being raised.
So. I do just want to open by apologising for sort of being here but also not being. This is my first week back home after 2 months of being in America with madam waif (Sei! <3) and her family. So... As you can probably imagine, my own family are wanting to see me, as are my friends now that I am back home! Now while I do have this overwhelming desire to sit in my house all day (the graphics outside suck - and the content updates are terrible!), I do... You know. Love and miss my family and friends. I'm not very social, I'll admit, but... For them, You know - for a couple of weeks (especially given that it is my birthday next week), I'm willing to put up with the idea of putting some shoes on xP Maybe I'll even walk outside c: It's also very different, I have to admit. I went to Florida to visit Novie, Belial, AlyssaNights and Elfonzo while I was with Sei and we also met a new fellow who was a lot of fun! Which all of that was lovely but I've gone from having, effectively, a summer... To... Lovely old British weather. ...It snowed today. Niet informed me of that and the first thing I said today was a fun little quote: "My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined" ...So that in mind, I hope you don't mind if I finish this off with a little bit of fun as I aim to pick my mood up a tiny bit. Time for a bonus question that you should not take seriously. Q: Where have you gone? Where are you!? A: Don't worry. We've been working on some fantastic products to help you feel like we're there, with you, all the time. We have a (trademark pending) Garthic-style wacky arm-waving inflatable tube man - comes with free air pump to keep him waving all day! We've also taken some inspiration from our local Supermarket where they have a totally amazing... Cardboard cutout of a Police Officer. For them it TOTALLY deters crime! For us... We have a cardboard Niet. He solves a whole... 0% of coding issues... But he also doesn't cause any! Uhm... At least he's there! ...Speaking of Niet...
Q: Can Party interactions be added to the Timers bar? A: Really this should've been in a suggestion thread - I'll explain why real quick in a tldr fashion. If it was in a suggestion thread then it would've been seen by now and possibly could've been implemented. As it stands though, I don't really care that it wasn't in a suggestion thread because that is a good idea and we'll look in to manners of implementation. Right now we're thinking of changing the "Today's Interactions" widget to have a slightly different formatting where it's "2500 / 1500" where 2,500 is your total interactions and 1,500 is your Party interactions. We'd also add it to the Today's Interactions page itself, of course. So that's basically "You've made 2,500 interactions, of which 1,500 are party clicks". We decided this may be the best idea because "1,500 / 2,500" could look like a progress bar, when it isn't xD
Q: Will we be able to keep our username / reserve our username? A: So I'm going to less answer this directly and more talk to you about the issues that we're presented with when this kind of situation comes up. Some people are asking if they can have usernames that have been taken, but they have been inactive for an extended period of time. Other people are wanting to make sure that their username isn't taken by someone else. These two 'camps' don't work together. You cannot have both. We're going to do our best to make sure that we please as many people as possible with future implementation for things on the new project. But I mean... Someone is going to be upset no matter what we do. Even if we add a string of numbers to the end of a username to serve as an identifier (see Discord for an example of this), I feel like there's going to be someone saying "I want that number" xP My point with that is nothing more than, ultimately, it'll never be perfect, but we'll certainly our best and, you know, we're open to suggestions that don't involve ripping the username from someone else ^^'
Q: Perhaps increase EXP.Share's output? A: Honestly, that would be a step back. We've favoured field clicking so heavily that there was next to no benefit for party clicking outside of getting people to click you back. But why bother doing that when you can do it for yourself? After those 1.5k clicks, you can go right back to field clicking and reap the benefits just as before - there is no need to increase the power of the EXP.Share.
Q: Why don't people just use the custom CSS feature that PokéFarm supports to make party clicking easier? A: Because, as someone correctly pointed out, we shouldn't be using the fact that people can customise / change these things as a crutch. If something can be improved then we shouldn't be saying, "well go on, you do it then". No, we should be doing it. Custom CSS is there to help, not to replace - it's not there to fix bad design, it's there to customise. Besides that, it doesn't work for everyone so it's not a catch-all where as just making core improvements is.
Q: Why not make the Egg Timer work on both field clicks (5k) and party clicks (1.5k) ? A: Because that would undermine the entire point of this update. I've had numerous people telling me of their eggs hatching so fast with this update because people are actually party clicking as a result of this change. The data that we have has shown a
Q: Will PFQ's trading system get an update to allow trades with multiple items and Pokémon? A: It's something we can certainly look at.
Q: If the plan is to support both games, why not have a two-way transfer? A: Oof, now you're asking the hard questions. So... To sum it up. Transfer isn't perfect. Data is lost on transfer and there's no way to get that information back. Example: PF1 to PFQ transfer reverts Pokémon to level 1. They lose happiness. etc -- This is all caused by fundamental changes in the system. In other words, these 'losses' are not something that you can 'work around'. Once changed, there is a good chance that they are not compatible for a Transfer in the other direction. ...That doesn't mean we're not already trying for this, though c': Whether or not it can be accomplished is... Well. A different matter entirely.
Q: Will PFQ events be more interactive and engaging? A: Well, that's kind of subjective xD But such is the aim, yes. We're still working on improving the system so we can do more with it. I'll be honest, having worked on the new project for a while and effectively having built a new system to do the same job has afforded us some new ideas to build upon for the system here on PFQ. ...Of course, that system was originally meant to replace the one here so there are similarities we can utilise for future improvement.
Q: What's the incentive to field click now? A: Uh, well... Faster overall interactions which leads to -- > Interaction Points. > Breeding Cycles (1 per 64 clicks). > Credits ("It's like printing my own money" - Toy Story 2) > EXP.Share Usage > Lucky Egg Usage > Boosting Garthic / Niet counters (this one's a bit indirect but still, it's a thing) > Interaction based tournaments (not always relevant, but it's still an answer) > Dojo training bags (if you care about that) All these things are done faster / easier through Field clicking and not party clicking and I bet I could think of more if I took the time ^^
Q: Empty parties are annoying - fields give a free click, what about parties? A: The initial thought is "maybe filter empty parties out". The problem with that is that this means it would have to load in the party information before showing it to you - and then, if it turns out it has to filter some out, it would have to go and get some more users to fill the now empty spaces. THEN it has to load their parties to ensure that these ones have things in their party (see: are valid) and if not, potentially repeat forever. ...Not...Great. We've also seen some complaints regarding loading times - uh... This kind of 'fix' would make them potentially infinite. ...Uh. Yeah. We're not doing that xD 'What about a free click, like the fields?' I hear you say. ...Maybe. It does seem a little unfair for say, someone to have moved things in to fields and they're looking for some more eggs - you load their party at this 'empty'-moment and suddenly this person is deprived of interactions because they were... You know. Playing the game. That's also not a fair fix... But it is a potential fix so we'll offer some consideration to it. For now, though - no. Later? Maybe.
Q: What about the premium currency? A: You'd be able to transfer it - this is actual money that's been paid so. You know... We don't feel it would be right to lock it to one game like most other games out there do. I think we can do better than them, and I hope you agree.
Q: "because right now it looks like the daily interaction goal only counts party clicks as well?" A: Nope. That's wrong. If we changed that then we would have said so. The update applies to what we say it applies to. If something else is affected by it then that is a bug and should be reported as such. In this case, we double-checked, just to be sure and fortunately, this claim is incorrect. All interactions are counted, as they should be.
Q: Why didn't the News button flash to indicate a new post? A: Because the way that works is that it updates on first post, and first post updates. These are new posts - not first posts, or updates to the first post. To be candid, there's a reason we said to subscribe :p Moving forward, I will just force a silly update to the first post of some description to make it do the flashy-boi. I'll figure that one out when I go to do it after posting this xD
Q: "Will we be starting out with the Kanto pokedex and gradually add the other dexes in site updates or minigames like you're doing with Eben and the Galar region? Or will all the dexes be added in the one sitting?" A: That sounds like a gameplay related question to me - and is something that we don't have information at this time. ... Thanks for the idea, though :p [/joke]
Q: Maybe lower the number of party clicks a bit more? A: We're gathering information in order to make an informed decision. No solid answers at this time, but I will mention that it's better to have the numbers start out a bit too high and lower them - rather than the alternative of them being too low an then being raised.
So. I do just want to open by apologising for sort of being here but also not being. This is my first week back home after 2 months of being in America with madam waif (Sei! <3) and her family. So... As you can probably imagine, my own family are wanting to see me, as are my friends now that I am back home! Now while I do have this overwhelming desire to sit in my house all day (the graphics outside suck - and the content updates are terrible!), I do... You know. Love and miss my family and friends. I'm not very social, I'll admit, but... For them, You know - for a couple of weeks (especially given that it is my birthday next week), I'm willing to put up with the idea of putting some shoes on xP Maybe I'll even walk outside c: It's also very different, I have to admit. I went to Florida to visit Novie, Belial, AlyssaNights and Elfonzo while I was with Sei and we also met a new fellow who was a lot of fun! Which all of that was lovely but I've gone from having, effectively, a summer... To... Lovely old British weather. ...It snowed today. Niet informed me of that and the first thing I said today was a fun little quote: "My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined" ...So that in mind, I hope you don't mind if I finish this off with a little bit of fun as I aim to pick my mood up a tiny bit. Time for a bonus question that you should not take seriously. Q: Where have you gone? Where are you!? A: Don't worry. We've been working on some fantastic products to help you feel like we're there, with you, all the time. We have a (trademark pending) Garthic-style wacky arm-waving inflatable tube man - comes with free air pump to keep him waving all day! We've also taken some inspiration from our local Supermarket where they have a totally amazing... Cardboard cutout of a Police Officer. For them it TOTALLY deters crime! For us... We have a cardboard Niet. He solves a whole... 0% of coding issues... But he also doesn't cause any! Uhm... At least he's there! ...Speaking of Niet...