Suggestions

Support, as it's easy to get stuck with harder ones that make it almost impossible to make any progress (or you end up with all the slots as egg tasks, which is one of my greatest fears on this site).

I'm not seeing any convincing arguments for the dichotomy to be forced to open "expensive" slots or be softlocked if you don't want to or aren't able to. Also, no-one's forcing you to shuffle either ;) It's just an option, and options are always great!

I've actually had this thought myself a few times - it'd be a nice feature, although I also like the orderliness of the Coliseum item slots progressing in order. Re-rolling would be handy for sure.

[quote name="Cryoseism" date="2024-11-26 01:06:34" ] I'm not seeing any convincing arguments for the dichotomy to be forced to open "expensive" slots or be softlocked if you don't want to or aren't able to. Also, no-one's forcing you to shuffle either ;) It's just an option, and options are always great! [/quote] Making slots harder to get is a feature not a bug. Lair space is one of the most valuable things on this site- it’s why exalting is a mechanic. As a balancing mechanic the more difficult tasks are vital, they allow for a somewhat more linear progression of increasing lair space. I can’t even imagine the strain on the servers that a shuffle mechanic would allow since it would result in thousands of more spaces literally overnight. This is just one of those things where making a task “easier” would just negatively impact the site as a whole.

I do think with a significant cool-down and a treasure cost, this wouldn't be the worst thing. A shuffle doesn't guarantee getting cheap/easier tasks.


Potentially the treasure cost could increase each time as well, so that eventually shuffling the slots would cost as much as just buying a slot, so there would still be an eventual wall to run into where you just have to suck it up and buy some genes.

[quote name="Unrest" date="2024-11-27 02:56:10" ] Making slots harder to get is a feature not a bug. Lair space is one of the most valuable things on this site- it’s why exalting is a mechanic. As a balancing mechanic the more difficult tasks are vital, they allow for a somewhat more linear progression of increasing lair space. [/quote] I'd agree with that, but the thing is... This is what my list looks like at the moment. Note that I've already fed it quite a few gene/breed scrolls, rare coli stuff and expensive familiars and such. [img]https://i.imgur.com/ujfMKOY.png[/img] The cheapest thing is 160kt, which is quite a lot, considering that gem slot is only 50g. But hey, I could get more cheap ones after to balance that, right? Uh... no. If I complete one, I'll get one easy task and then another gene scroll. Then one easy and breed scroll. Two more and gene scroll again. Then five easy but then two breed scrolls in a row, aether and auraboa, 275k each, and an ice egg after that, and then ANOTHER breed scroll worth 275k, and then raven sylvan dress for 180g, and then - I kid you not - ANOTHER breed scroll worth 250k. It's ridiculous, those slots would end up costing me more than the most expensive lair ones. I have no idea how I ended up with such a weird list of potential tasks (maybe because they kept adding tasks to the middle of the list), but it definitely shouldn't be so. And there are another 16 scrolls, 2 eggs and boss fam slots left for 126 quests I have left after that batch, but at least those are spread out more evenly, it's the middle quests that somehow ended up totally messed up.

[quote name="Cryoseism" date="2024-11-26 01:06:34" ] Support, as it's easy to get stuck with harder ones that make it almost impossible to make any progress (or you end up with all the slots as egg tasks, which is one of my greatest fears on this site). [/quote] I'm afraid that's the point. Lair spaces are [i]incredibly[/i] valuable, especially to exalters. For an idea of how vaulable they are, you can buy [b]one[/b] slot for 50g. I've seen Hibdens described as "free money printers" before, and whoever said that was right: it's [i]very[/i] easy to utilize a large Hibden by picking up cheap fodder hatchlings, freezing them until they grow up, and then selling the ones with exalt bonuses to OOF collections currently pushing for Dom. Easy money right there that requires zero effort on your part. Most Hibden tasks ask only for items that can be picked up through casual site play, or they can be bought for pennies on the Auction House. There has to be [i]some[/i] kind of barrier that holds you back from breezing through the whole list. You don't want to give up expensive items but still want the experience of a nearly-full Hibden? Tough luck, that's just how game progression works. I wouldn't complain about the mechanics of an RPG that locks me out of a Lvl 50 area with all the best loot when I'm barely Lvl 5. You get what you put in. The only kind of shuffle feature I'd support is one that takes the value of Hibden items into account. If my topmost 3 HibDen tasks are asking for: [list=1] [*]An Unhatched Lightning Egg [*]A Tundra Breed Change Scroll [*]A Leafy Amaranth[/list] I can support a shuffle feature that changes those items into: [list=1] [*]An Unhatched Wind Egg [*]A Guardian breed Change Scroll [*]An Emerald Webwing[/list] I wouldn't support a shuffle feature that changes those items into random food and material items I can get for 3g at most from the Auction House. That's not a fair tradeoff, and it throws a wrench into natural game progression.

[quote name="Valemora" date="2024-11-27 06:45:39" ] The cheapest thing is 160kt, which is quite a lot, considering that gem slot is only 50g. But hey, I could get more cheap ones after to balance that, right? Uh... no. If I complete one, I'll get one easy task and then another gene scroll. Then one easy and breed scroll. Two more and gene scroll again. Then five easy but then two breed scrolls in a row, aether and auraboa, 275k each, and an ice egg after that, and then ANOTHER breed scroll worth 275k, and then raven sylvan dress for 180g, and then - I kid you not - ANOTHER breed scroll worth 250k. It's ridiculous, those slots would end up costing me more than the most expensive lair ones. I have no idea how I ended up with such a weird list of potential tasks (maybe because they kept adding tasks to the middle of the list), but it definitely shouldn't be so. [/quote] That’s rough and I would support the devs rebalancing the middle tasks, but if I’m counting that right that’s [b]eighteen[/b] den slots for the cost of roughly 1.5kg. My main lair has 110 slots because I’ve been lazy about expanding, but even with my earth dom discount of 5% it would cost me just north of 1kg for five slots in my lair. I used to be HEAVILY involved in dominance, not up there with earlh’s heavy hitters by any means but I was averaging a couple hundred levels a week, and a few thousand per push. College hits like a train though so I’ve had to dial it down, but I still train fodder when I have time. Let say that I’m buying hatchlings at an average of 5kt (a bit below LAH but accounts for the fact that I do breed some of my own fodder), and they all take exactly 5 days to grow up and leveling them to level 6 nets me 10kt every time. That’s 90kt of profit every 5 days, for as long as I feel like leveling my fodder. I would hit 1.8 mil treasure in profit after 100 days of this. Expensive hibden slots suck so bad but the reality is that they’re money printers. I’ve hit a wall with expensive tasks myself but the limiting factor for me is honestly just laziness, so it’s working as intended.

I get that empty slots can make a huge profit if you just grow-exalt fodder there - I did the same myself when I started playing - but not everyone can coli, and some, like me, lose that ability as the time goes, and big hibden is much easier to maintain than a big lair, especially if you want to keep breeding some of the pairs. Also, the in-built lock on accidental breeding/selling/exalting is invaluable, as we can't get it anywhere else.

Honestly, I'd be happy to simply swap my useless hundred of empty lair slots I don't want to feed anymore for hibden ones at this point. With the price of coli mats needed for tasks and nearly all the tasks involving either coli mats/familiars or scrolls and eggs, hibden already costs roughly the same for me anyway...

Friendly reminder that all of the unhatched eggs (with the exception of Bog eggs) are free if you get a lucky drop from either Coli or Gathering.

Just because they have a higher playerbase-assigned value on the AH does not mean you have to pay that in order to get them and complete the task.

Honestly, the only hibden items that have to be bought are the gene/breed scrolls, and those cap at 400kt (if you don't use a Dom discount). All the other items can be gathered/collected as loot for free with enough time/patience.

And I agree that the "pricier"/harder to acquire items are part of the trade-off for the "cheaper"/easier to acquire items, so no support for a re-roll.

[quote name="Valemora" date="2024-11-27 06:45:39" ] The cheapest thing is 160kt, which is quite a lot, considering that gem slot is only 50g. Uh... no. If I complete one, I'll get one easy task and then another gene scroll. Then one easy and breed scroll. Two more and gene scroll again. Then five easy but then two breed scrolls in a row, aether and auraboa, 275k each, and an ice egg after that, and then ANOTHER breed scroll worth 275k, and then raven sylvan dress for 180g, and then - I kid you not - ANOTHER breed scroll worth 250k. It's ridiculous, those slots would end up costing me more than the most expensive lair ones. I have no idea how I ended up with such a weird list of potential tasks (maybe because they kept adding tasks to the middle of the list), but it definitely shouldn't be so.[/quote] No support. This just looks like HBD doing its job. You have a lot of earlier egg tasks on there, they're going to pile up and really push the pressure. Personal perception and late added scrolls (there's four easier tasks between the "back to back" aura and aether scrolls, 11 between the Ice Egg and the last scroll (the auraboa one), and most likely more but those get the point) doesn't make it unbalanced. Its a bit confusing and I don't blame you for the frustration but the harder : easier task ratio should really be looked at via the full list, not potentially deceptive mid HBD task work, since I assume the weirdness was due to knocking out all the easy tasks and then sitting on hard ones till more hard tasks where added. It's doing exactly what it should be doing! I would support instead staff adding new tasks to the end, not in the middle, since it is annoying when tasks you've been working towards get moved and out of your reach when new tasks are added. I know they usually do it like that because of venue order but I think people can get the idea and just save their den items for last. Edit: I'd support a reroll feature that was like this instead! [quote name="BassetBites" date="2024-11-27 06:49:43" ] The only kind of shuffle feature I'd support is one that takes the value of Hibden items into account. If my topmost 3 HibDen tasks are asking for: [list=1] [*]An Unhatched Lightning Egg [*]A Tundra Breed Change Scroll [*]A Leafy Amaranth[/list] I can support a shuffle feature that changes those items into: [list=1] [*]An Unhatched Wind Egg [*]A Guardian breed Change Scroll [*]An Emerald Webwing[/list] I wouldn't support a shuffle feature that changes those items into random food and material items I can get for 3g at most from the Auction House. That's not a fair tradeoff, and it throws a wrench into natural game progression. [/quote] Edit 2: Snipped the image from Valemora's post since it's quite large due to the HBD layout and its only a few posts up.

[quote name="Comical" date="2024-11-29 15:14:03" ] I'd support a reroll feature that was like this instead! [quote name="BassetBites" date="2024-11-27 06:49:43" ] The only kind of shuffle feature I'd support is one that takes the value of Hibden items into account. If my topmost 3 HibDen tasks are asking for: [list=1] [*]An Unhatched Lightning Egg [*]A Tundra Breed Change Scroll [*]A Leafy Amaranth[/list] I can support a shuffle feature that changes those items into: [list=1] [*]An Unhatched Wind Egg [*]A Guardian breed Change Scroll [*]An Emerald Webwing[/list] I wouldn't support a shuffle feature that changes those items into random food and material items I can get for 3g at most from the Auction House. That's not a fair tradeoff, and it throws a wrench into natural game progression. [/quote] Edit 2: Snipped the image from Valemora's post since it's quite large due to the HBD layout and its only a few posts up. [/quote] This isn't a bad idea! Provided it's only shuffling from tasks you still have to do and can't give you ones you've already turned in.