Egg Cave Quests Beta: Suggestions & Feedback

Ian • 7 September 2018 at 1:24 PM

Hello everyone!

As of September 7, Egg Cave is testing a brand-new questing system that will allow users to obtain rare and limited edition creatures from months (and years) past. The limited beta group currently consists of around 50 people and may be expanded in the near future.

If you are NOT in the quests beta group, we kindly ask that you refrain from posting on this topic.

DISCLAIMERS ABOUT QUESTS BETA

- Things might break (when they do, report it on this topic!)
- Things might change a lot during beta
- You get to keep the limited-edition creatures you earn from the beta (CRW 2018)
- Quests may be difficult to complete successfully during this beta
- Report all bugs/errors you encounter using the text form below on this topic

QUESTING SYSTEM CRASH COURSE

- Visit NPCs, start a quest, and return items to them (they must be in your Inventory)
- You will be rewarded with Quest Tokens for successfully completed quests
- Use your Quest Tokens at the VEND Machine to obtain rare creatures
- You have to wait 5 minutes between successful quests or 60 minutes between failed ones
- Canceling a quest is considered a failure
- NPCs are calibrated to not ask for retired items too frequently

HOW VEND MACHINE DOES/WILL WORK

- Reward pools are created by Team Egg Cave and can change at any time
- Reward pools feature rare and limited edition creatures from months (and years) past
- Reward pools, for now, will not feature CC/CSP-only creatures
- Creatures obtained from the VEND Machine are marked on their profile (near Essence of Litsdnats/Star Potion area)

COMING SOON

- Public questing leaderboards (on a monthly basis)
- More reward pools after the public release
- More questing NPCs that request different types of items

QUESTIONS WE ARE TRYING TO ANSWER

Our main concern (which is why we are doing the beta) is that quests may be difficult to complete due to an initially low user shop item supply. During this beta, we will be tracking the average percentage of successfully completed quests (among other stats) to help adjust questing difficulty for the public release. A questing system where you're failing more than 30%+ of your quests is not a fun system. Bear with us!

HOW TO REPORT A BUG ON THIS TOPIC

Please report all bugs with the questing system on this topic using the following text form...

What I was expecting to happen:
What actually happened:
Page URL:
Error message displayed (if any):

We want this site feature to be a collaborative effort with our user base. Essentially, this questing system is designed to help prevent Egg Cave species from years past from going extinct. Please submit all observations, suggestions, and feedback you have about what you'd like to see from this feature here.

Thank you for helping us test this system!

budgie • 7 September 2018 at 1:53 PM

@ian Are we allowed to make topics on the forums to look for quest items? I just wanted to double check before I start asking around

Orderedchaos • 7 September 2018 at 1:59 PM

@budgie
You can as it would be no different then any other trade topic. Just be sure that you are trading for these items not asking for them for free. (as that would be begging)

lbowe_elbow • 7 September 2018 at 2:02 PM

Hey guys, excited for these quests. I am thinking that the refresh time is WAYYY low. How about daily quests?

I am also thinking that asking for retired items is totally silly alltogether, and users should just not get asked for retired items.

newlife • 7 September 2018 at 2:03 PM

1) The 5 minute refresh between quests feels too frequent honestly, if the quests last for 12 hours, the refresh should be around the same, in my opinion.

2) Asking for retired travels is... a bit excessive. Retired items shouldn't even be asked for. They're retired, having the quests asks for it will make the prices skyrocket and/or make the travels non-existent. I believe CC travels ARE exempt but I just want to check if this really is the case

chihiro_sang • 7 September 2018 at 2:04 PM

How do you spend the tokens? I can't click on them on the vend page, and can't do anything on the balance page.

budgie • 7 September 2018 at 2:04 PM

Found bug: clicking on 'Unusith' brings me to a 404 page

edit: make that all of the currently available creatures, specifically the name. Clicking on the image brings me to the archive

prairie • 7 September 2018 at 2:18 PM

@budgie @ian

Same thing. 😱
It happens when I click on the name, but if I click on the creature image it brings me to the right place.
The URL on the names are missing a / between the creature name & show: https://eggcave.com/archives/unusithshow

Orderedchaos • 7 September 2018 at 2:21 PM

@chihiro_sang
You can only spend tokens in the VEND machine once you have 10 of each.

eggberts • 7 September 2018 at 2:28 PM

Observation - Easter Egg Hunt I had on one of my pets. Could not remember if this was CC or not. I thought it was and removed it only to lose it. Discouraged and won't do this again.

Have Lucky Dart Game in inventory.

prairie • 7 September 2018 at 2:44 PM

Just wondering, when you say "More reward pools after the public release", does that mean there will be different columns? Like, for EX: we have CRW week 2018 box, and there would be another box, like CRW 2016 there???

And if so, would you be able to enter your tokens for one of those selections, or would it be randomized between both???

chihiro_sang • 7 September 2018 at 2:49 PM

Personally I like the refresh time between completed quests, but think the wait time between failed quests is too long. If in the majority of cases the quests lapse because one simply can't find the item or it's too rare to part with, it seems almost cruel to make the user wait another hour to try a different quest, when some one who just has every item on hand for a quest only has to wait 5 minutes.

Course this is coming from someone who so far has had every travel asked, but only been able to complete 1 food quest, so I may be biased.

Orderedchaos • 7 September 2018 at 2:49 PM

@prairie
There probably won't be multiple prize pools at once but the prize pools will change. So there could be a Halloween themed pool during October or a Christmas one during December, that sort of thing.

immortalraven • 7 September 2018 at 2:50 PM

I think the wait time is too low also.
At least like an hour and no lower. Maybe higher?

Also I haven't been asked for retired items yet, but I saw lbowe_elbow say something about it.
I feel it shouldn't ask at all for them or it should give us more tokens if we turn it in and/or give us a different retired item back in return since it gives us a random item also maybe?

prairie • 7 September 2018 at 3:26 PM

@immortalraven
I think that happens only if you decline/give up on a quest. 😋
Whenever I finish one, It only takes 3-5 minutes for a new one. 😱
Or maybe I've just been really lucky all this time. :l


On a side note for difficulty, I've completed 5 quests so far in total. Kinda stuck on a lot atm, as user shops don't have some I'm seeking. Currently stuck on all of the questers.

love23bug • 7 September 2018 at 3:27 PM

I think the wait time is reasonable, as you do need to collect 10 of each token in order to play the VEND machine once. I wouldn't want it to be much longer.

No bugs as of yet! 😊

immortalraven • 7 September 2018 at 3:47 PM

@prairie
No, I meant it should be longer than 5 minutes after you complete one. I haven't declined/cancelled one yet. I mean for this prize pool I think that's ok since they aren't worth too much anyways, but for older/rarer ones out of beta I feel too short

prairie • 7 September 2018 at 3:51 PM

@immortalraven
OHHHH 😱
I misread. xD I would say it is super short. 😋
I think it should be a little longer as well. :x Cause it would make it easier to get all 10 of each token set in a day or so if you really go at it. 😋 I'd say 30 min minimum???? Definitely agree that the wait time might have to depend on how old/on demand the creature set is.

Also, the Time to get the items should be lower as well. 😋 I mean, we currently have (I think 12 hours) to find each set. 😋

chihiro_sang • 7 September 2018 at 4:40 PM

@immortalraven @prairie

Personally, I don't see as it having a longer wait time would be better. I don't think being able to get the creature within a day should be seen as a short coming of the feature. It seems like it's sort of the point as the feature is meant to reintroduce creatures and what creature is given if you can finish all 50 quests is randomized, it seems adequate as is.

immortalraven • 7 September 2018 at 4:50 PM

@chihiro_sang
Personally I don't care if the wait is changed. I'm thinking in terms of the people who hated the thought of rereleases being upset and complaining about it being too easy or whatnot. I'm actually surprised I haven't seen a complaining comment about it although I think most the people who were against it are on hiatus or have changed their minds since they've found it so hard to get critters they want. I myself kinda like having a short time wait lol. I just feel like when this gets released to everyone there will probably be complaints on it being too easy because they spent so much on old critters. Being someone who's spent a ton on this site I like that it's short to be honest. It makes it a little more worth having spent so much if I can get an older critter by collecting items and such. I just know some might have issues on it

@prairie
Yeah I don't think 12 hours is totally needed, but could be helpful to some. Although may just be easier to cancel and get a new one and most would do that instead of taking 12 hours to maybe find what they need

Sorry if any spelling mistakes and such. On phone laying in bed cause stomach hurts and I hate typing on it cause well I just hate texting too so yeah lol

degong • 7 September 2018 at 5:22 PM

I think the refresh times are a bit slow if you miss a quest, but that may just be my impatience. After all, making it harder to get all of these tokens is a good way of keeping the creatures' population in check. I think it's a good system, though the 12 hour time span may be a bit much.

I don't think retired items should be asked for at all, since there's a limited number of them and our wallets probably wouldn't be too happy. And also, since you're turning in these retired items into an NPC, the items are literally disappearing, making even more expensive.

eschla • 7 September 2018 at 5:24 PM

@Ian
I have my first 10 tokens at Toybox quests complete. Want to use them but get this:

Egg Cave
404 Page Not Found
The sky is falling, the sky is falling!
We couldn't find this page for you at Egg Cave.
Return home or report this broken link to us?


And question:
Why is it not possible to collect more than 10 tokens per category?

Orderedchaos • 7 September 2018 at 5:41 PM

@eschla
You need all 40 tokens to use the VEND machine.

eschla • 7 September 2018 at 5:44 PM

@Orderedchaos
Thanks for answer 😊 Then up to the other ones (only 12 more to go)

wigglytuff • 7 September 2018 at 6:00 PM

I hope there'll be a poplin 😱

sackname • 7 September 2018 at 11:07 PM

Hello! I just have a couple things I wanted to share based off of the beta testing.

1) The time between quests to me is fine. It works and within the time between, I work on the other quests.

2) Just a thought, but can we hold more than 10 tokens in each type incase we want to save up? If we reach the max of 10 and we don't like the VEND pool of the period of time, it lowers the want to do the quests.

3) Also concerning tokens, I have only been doing the quests since today and can barely find any of the items in the trades, user shops, and won't turn up in the site-run shops. It's difficult for me to get 1 token in any of the categories. Just a thought, but will it be possible to have a different VEND pool for each type of token? Like 10 Manjul tokens could vend a travel? Then if you had 10 of each you could use them for the creature VEND pool?

4) Another idea to maybe make this more fun, could there be weekly quests? Where you're given a week to complete a quest and get a large prize for completing it?

5) I agree with most users above that retired items shouldn't be asked in a quest as they could result in never being found again or shoot up in value. However, I had an idea to handle it. If a quest asked for a retired item, maybe it should give out a larger reward than a regular one?

Generally speaking, I am enjoying the quests. I think I'll make a trade topic to ease my search for items 😊 Most of my list is consisted of ideas of ways to improve. Back to item-hunting I go!

tamora • 8 September 2018 at 8:04 AM

I really really love this idea! It makes visiting the shops and the user shops so much more fun. Even if there's no quest at the moment, one starts to collect different items ❤️ And it's a great motivation for feeding creatures, so you have enough EC on hand 😊

I've got one suggestion/question, though.
The toy quests are in the toy shop, the travel ones in the travel shop, etc. What about the food quests? Do you only have to collect items of the General Food Store or do they include the bakery, Finley's Flavours and so on, too? If so, it might be good to add in which shop you can find the item? Especially for new users on the side...

And then there might be a bug:
What I was expecting to happen: I failed a quest and I expected to have to wait for 60 minutes to get a new one.
What actually happened: I got a new one right on the spot.
Page URL: It happened in the Toybox Quests as well as in the Speed Reading Quests.

Have a great day!

Ian • 8 September 2018 at 11:25 AM

Current Quest Cooldown Times

5 minutes for successfully completed quests
60 minutes for failed/canceled quests

To be adjusted

On Blazing Through Quests

As a security measure (so as not to screw over CDWC 2018 rarities), I have temporarily increased the tokens required for the prize pool from 10 to 50 for each quest type for the weekend. Expect this to change again. Rest assured that this will continue to be adjusted based on questing difficulty.

The ease of completing quests, the time that it takes to complete a quest and get items, and how many tokens you can acquire in a given period is really what we are testing here. Continue completing quests to furnish us with data!

In my opinion, a fun questing system is something that you can complete multiple quests a day. I’m thinking that, instead of drastically increasing cool down times in between quests, we increase the number of quest tokens required for prize pools (10 per quest type was initially very low in my mind). What do you guys think about that?

On CC Items For Quests

To confirm and verify: YES, CC items are exempt and never asked for on any quest. They won’t be.

On Prize Pools

@prairie @Orderedchaos

Actually, I was thinking that we would be running multiple prize pools at once and be rotating them in and out. The VEND Machine should be stocked with such lovely creatures that it would be hard to decide which one to choose when you finally have your tokens gathered.

On More Item Types Requested From Quests

@tamora

Yes, more questing types (that ask for different items from different shops) are coming after the initial release.

Thank you for all of the bug reports so far. They may not be fully fixed until next Monday, as I'm mobile this weekend.

prairie • 8 September 2018 at 11:39 AM

@Ian
After doing more quests, I'm actually seeing how many items aren't readily available in the User shops. 😱 Thus making the long quest time reasonable.
At first I thought 10 per was actually hard enough. XD Mainly because of how some items were not able to be found in the User Shops, thus leaving us to stalk the shops. I feel like a number such as 50 per each is a bit overkill. (I'm aware its mostly to keep the CRW value stable RN.)
Today, I've completed 4 quests, but an stuck on all 4 shops now, as the remaining item(s) needed I gotta stalk the shops for. Yesterday, I had completed 7.

Running multiple prize pools at once seems super cool to me. 😊 When you say rotating them in and out, do you mean at random times, or they are kinda like different boxes you can put your tokens into to get a random prize from that box?

chihiro_sang • 8 September 2018 at 11:51 AM

Personally, I think 50 tokens for each category is a little overkill given what's currently in the prize pool, and plagued by the fact I have thus far been unable to complete a single speed reading quest and only a few food or toy quests, but I can recognize that the quests are also to try to bring more items to user shops, but they simply aren't there right now.