Suggestions

The poll out right now only has two choices:

1. turn the bears into Joxar box items about the same rarity as a skin
2. Keep the bears the same

I would like to suggest/discuss third options.

Here's my third option: Make them appear with a very very low frequency as an additional NotN item.

Yes, it's sort of like the Joxar box's chance of getting a skin, but I would go even rarer than that. Something like 1% or less chance of getting an additional item (bear/faux bear). It only will happen during NOTN, though!

This kills two birds with one stone: the bears remain a holiday thing and their rarity goes way up.

How is this better than Joxar-ing the bears?

It keeps them as a holiday-specific thing which ups rarity. NotN chests can't be found or opened outside of a single yearly festival that just happens to be during one of the busiest months of the year for most people. Joxar chests are year-round. Joxar-ing the bears means chances of getting a bear at literally any time of the year.

How is this better than what we currently have?

It removes bears as a normal NotN drop which will help make way for newer items. They become a "bonus" you rarely see which keeps them in circulation without being super annoying.

But can we actually fix the bears? Isn't it too late to change it?

Anything becomes rarer with time and lack of drops and I do mean ANYTHING. Even bears. This isn't an overnight fix. Frankly, the poll options aren't overnight fixes, either. All things will take time.

I also expect oldbies to keep burning bears for various reasons which further lowers the bear population. It's not too late as long as new people keep joining the site, people keep burning bears, and/or people decide they want to collect bears, IMHO.

What do you think? Is this a decent idea?
Can you think of any other options for the bears (besides straight retirement)?
.

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Ps for Newbies:

NotN = Night of the Nocturne.

What's the fuss?

They made too many bears initially. Staff underestimated how many people grind the coliseum for hours on end. Staff tried to fix things, but it was too late and many older players are still drowning in bears. Many people see bears and groan. Me? I like bears, but I agree they really should be less common than they are.

[b]More ideas from other folks[/b] [quote name="Subunit" date=2017-11-20 22:15:05]I think the simpler solution is to just cycle them out for a couple of years. The effect would be even better than adding them to chest drops. When it's time to reintroduce them, maybe there would be even better ways to drop them that could maintain their rarity. [/quote] [quote name="DutchDragon" date=2017-11-21 03:17:51] I think the bears should be a Joxar token item only. That way people who really want the bears can get them. [/quote] [quote name="JamboreeJen" date=2017-11-22 04:44:07] these are great ideas as compromises.. still unsure why there isnt a swipp trade (bear hoodie anyone?) or a baldwin special NOTN recipe or 22 recipes lol xD make it fun for everyone and help empty the forests for vets. [/quote]

Thread open!

I’m personally very pleased the bears have a chance to leave. As I truly dislike them and would beg for New familiars to take their place this year and retire a year or two later to the spare inventory. Here is my comment for the origin poll thread [quote name="0MidnightHeart" date=2017-11-20 21:48:42] [color=red][size=5]I can’t wait for the bears to finally be gone! Well they won’t be gone but I just don’t like bears.. so I can’t wait to see what they come up with next so the prices can rise on the bears and eventually be like old festival items. ALSO THIS [quote name="Karma" date=2017-11-20 20:49:04] Bears are so devalued now, might as well make them monthly for someone who wants them. But that aside... I still am all for retiring Night of the Nocturne altogether. December originally had no festival because it is supposed to be a time for family and holidays... Now its a huge stressful grindfest, and nocturnes aren't even rare anymore. [/quote] [size=5][color=blue]In My opinion NOTN needs to retire as its not quite fair anymore and I made a suggestion thread for how it could be made a background happening for a new holiday. (Let’s never go there again please) but as a whole nocturnes are a well established breed and December was meant to not have a holiday as people have personal lives and should be spending this time with family and not ona computer. There are only eleven deities with each a festival, except nocturnes are shadows only breed and makes this holiday similar to celebrating shadow twice. But that just my opinion so please don’t give me hate.. [/quote]

I can support this suggestion, as long as the bears are an additional drop that would not take away the odds of players getting other items in the crate.

But I think the simpler solution is to just cycle them out for a couple of years. The effect would be even better than adding them to chest drops. When it's time to reintroduce them, maybe by then there would be even better ways to drop them that could maintain their rarity.

@0MidnightHeart [quote name="0MidnightHeart" date=2017-11-20 21:56:21] I’m personally very pleased the bears have a chance to leave. As I truly dislike them and would beg for New familiars to take their place this year and retire a year or two later to the spare inventory. In My opinion NOTN needs to retire as its not quite fair anymore and I made a suggestion thread for how it could be made a background happening for a new holiday. (Let’s never go there again please) but as a whole nocturnes are a well established breed and December was meant to not have a holiday as people have personal lives and should be spending this time with family and not ona computer. There are only eleven deities with each a festival, except nocturnes are shadows only breed and makes this holiday similar to celebrating shadow twice. But that just my opinion so please don’t give me hate.. [/quote] Actually... technically NotN is my fault. Ok, not entirely mine as a whole bunch of us in Shadow got in on it. Back in year 1 there was no December festival. None! I took at look at this and said, "hey, it's the longest nights of the year. Shadow should be celebrating this." and attempted to start a "longest night" event. It was something that ran for a couple weeks with games and raffles run by folks in Shadow for Shadows and non-shadows alike. Well, the event didn't really take off but we really tried anyway. Much to our shock, staff liked the idea and adapted it into NotN. That's where NotN came from and why it's so Shadow-flavored. I think the fear of missing out on rare items is why NotN is so stressful for a lot of people. Changing things up to include cycling will help alleviate this as time goes on, which is why it's GOOD that nocts aren't insanely rare and neither is anything else NotN related. Rarity = stress. That said, items dropped also shouldn't be annoying to those who actually want to join in and get stuff. [quote name="Subunit" date=2017-11-20 22:15:05] I can support this suggestion, as long as the bears are an additional drop that would not take away the odds of players getting other items in the crate. But I think the simpler solution is to just cycle them out for a couple of years. The effect would be even better than adding them to chest drops. When it's time to reintroduce them, maybe there would be even better ways to drop them that could maintain their rarity. [/quote] @Subunit It would be an additional item, not a normal one. And a super rare addition at that. As long as it's not a permanent retirement it might help. Permanent retirement is always a bad thing as you can see from any "retired" festival item. It's the next best thing to a drop so low it's practically a zero drop. I'll put it up in the ideas post.

Given how many chests are opened during NoTN vs how many Joxar Boxes are opened, I'm 90% sure that the staff suggestion will increase rarity faster than this one. I haven't got a skin from Joxar yet, but I opened 150+ Strange Chests as a rough estimate - and I wasn't anywhere near the top grinders.

Sure, they could reduce the drop chance on the chests... but they can do that on the Jox boxes as well. There's nothing in the Announcement to say they'll be as likely to appear as a skin currently is, just that they'll share the bonus pool - which if they were just dropped into the existing pool would make them at least half as common as skins are now.

Honestly, this seems like adding complication to no net effect.

Nope.

I'm done with bears. I want them gone from NotN, and the "remove bears from NotN" option does just that.

Usually I advocate for never being against something that will benefit others and isn't completely game breaking, but I won't use, but this ... relegating them to the same position as usermade skins in Joxar's Spare Inventory would suit me just fine.

It's going to be annoying enough that last year's NotN crap returns, thus making the holiday frustrating for older players who want new stuff, we certainly don't need a chance, even a 1/1000 chance, of bears to make it worse.

I personally like the suggestion of them being a prismatic token item: there for people who want them, but not bothering people who don't.

This would also mean that they would become rarer MUCH faster because lets face it: who would buy a bear for a PT?

However, in a few years when they aren't dropping anymore and we, hopefully, have plenty of new players, they may be worth more, especially since bears (as far as I can remember because I think that is how I lost some of my collection of bears) are meltable, so older players are going to be getting rid of them while no new bears are coming in.


The only drawback to this idea is that new players might buy them with PTs not knowing how cheap they are, however, that is a risk really for any site run marketplace with player run selling going on. I know I have bought stuff from NPC stores before and then looked in player stores and realized I got ripped off... (not on this site but others)

I like the updated option (its an extra chance from joxar) it gets rid of them from NotN and won't negatively affect you if you buy joxar chests as its an extra chance. If you don't like then they are meltable so that's a nice plus.

Moving them to Joxar makes more sense than leaving them in NotN as all other festival items and recolors are Joxar