.com Forum · Bug Reporting and Suggestions

A thought :

basics are limited on rations so getting condition scores up is a slow process, so how about this suggestion:

If a dog receives 3 sessions a day (obedience/muscle/coat) then that should reflect on condition. Say .1 for each session but only if they receive all 3, so a gain of .3 on condition if given all three sessions. On a basics Super Duper ration that would up the gain from .1 to .4 a day - worth working for.

I certainly think condition improvement needs looking at - it should be increased if the dog is sessioned day after day, not just be reliant on rations

Poll maybe?

Personally, since we REALLY want basics to stick around and show dogs .... I think basic accounts should have access to custom rations.

.. just my 2 cents ..

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posted by rhondacline
Personally, since we REALLY want basics to stick around and show dogs .... I think basic accounts should have access to custom rations.

.. just my 2 cents ..

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Maybe the ability to make one, not multiple. That's certainly a perk.

As a 'basic' player the only way to stick around and enjoy the game is by showing dogs.

Having those basic players stay benefits the game - show entries, puppy buyers, etc. I believe we should be doing everything we can to help 'basic' players succeed and encourage them become active players.

I would gladly give up the perk of custom rations (for paid subscribers only) if I thought it would get more basic players to stay and play.

Just my personal opinion
(Edited because I used "stick around" about a zillion times)


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Last edited by rhondacline on 4/18/2015 11:33:09 AM

I think the idea is to get basic players to stick around, get comfortable with the game, and upgrade to be able to more freely participate, not give away the perks we pay for.

As someone who has played this and a number of other games in the series for some years, I have to say that Basics actually have it pretty good here.

If you stick around and gain a good reputation many breeders will sell you a puppy that is started on a premium ration and it will stay on it until you change it.

I would not oppose the suggestion but I can't really support it either. Sorry.

In my early days in this game I played as a basic for about 7-8 months before I had the money to upgrade. The thing that encouraged me to stick around wasn't bells and whistles, but the community that I participated in.
The thing that encouraged me to subscribe was a really successful GR kennel selling me one of the all time top dogs and trusting me to show him. After a while I got sick of everyone else breeding from him, but not me and so I subscribed ... the rest is history.

I've been back a little over 6 months and am showing competitively in 3 breeds. If anyone contacted me in any of my kennels I'm happy to provide broods (just did that in one of my kennels for a new kennel), studs at reduced fees, and I'd love someone to take a dog and finish it for me.

In the old days I remember new users coming to forums and having a mentoring thread with designated mentors in each breed. This might be a good idea.

I do feel that with fewer players SD has become less of a community.

Jessica

SD has lost its community spirit - that is obvious.

WHY?

I think we need SD to 'give' more in order to encourage more players -

encouraging more players = more basics playing

and happy, active basics enjoying the game become premium players.

I have tried making all sorts of suggestions to improve the lot of the basics, and generally get murmurs of support, HOWEVER, the same players seem to poo-poo ANY suggestions, whatever they are, always saying premiums deserve their perks so don't give anything more to basics. We need to be much, much nicer to basics, because basics become premiums. Newbies don't log on to SD and decide BEFORE setting up their kennel to become premiums. We should remember that.

The best recent suggestions (not necessarily mine)
imho are:

Updated help pages - they need to be far more informative;

The ability to 'buy' SD $ with RL $;

The option for basics to create 1 puppy and 1 adult custom ration;

Admin to have a 'stud facility' where breeds that have less than 3 studs available offer stud dogs;

an Obedience Champion title for UD dogs having gained say 100 points in UD;

a Merit Award for kennels training 10 CD dogs (bronze), 10 CDX dogs (silver), 10 UD dogs (gold), 10 OCH dogs (platinum);

Please feel free to copy, paste, repost my suggestions, adding your own, BUT don't diss my or others contributions please.

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posted by
The ability to 'buy' SD $ with RL $

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The rest of your suggestions are interesting.

However, perhaps you werent around but this idea was discussed at length (I will try to find the thread) and it was shot down for obvious reasons. This is a strategy game and this would probably upset the SD economy and create an ocean between the people can would be able to buy and those who can't.

Eta and yes, I deserve the perks I pay for. Basics can upgrade - this game is rather inexpensive.

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Last edited by Kievan Kennels on 4/19/2015 7:01:49 AM

I'm not sure who posted the above post, (since it's anonymous). But I'm not sure how we can have a discussion without being allowed to disagree with others ideas. I'm not talking about name calling, but being allowed to respectfully disagree.

In terms of offering basics more perks it comes down to economics. You give too much for free and no one is going to pay to play! I think that's quite simple.

The whole point of restricting basics is to have people go 'ooh, I like this game but I wish I could breed more, or have my dogs session faster, or have more money' and then people pay to play.

I think this is a broader problem than just at this game. If you look at numbers at RL dog shows, they are down too. So it stands to reason that SD numbers would also drop. There's also a lot more in the internet market to take peoples time now. When I started playing SD, there was no Facebook with 5000 games to play.

I think we need to connect with players that do come in as basics, help them to start playing successfully and then they hopefully upgrade as they actually invest in the game. I'm not sure how we do this. It's almost like we need a 'hey someone new has arrived and has chosen ... breed, can someone contact them and welcome them to the game'. A door bell function if you will.

Jessica

I respectfully disagree with the ideology that every player needs to become a subscriber.

Yes, we need subscribers – but I would argue that we NEED ‘basic” accounts also.
Some basics will convert to subscribers – but even if they don’t subscribe we should want them to stay and play.
(I want basic players in the show ring, showing the puppy that they bought from me. -I want their $ and I want them to finish the dog I bred.)

Don't misunderstand - I realize Jeff needs to make money off of the game. In today's sim game market, most games make $ from subscribers and from non-subscribers.

I don't think so either... However, I happily played on this account as a basic for a few months before I "got" the game and upgraded.
More along Jessica's line, there needs to be some sort of introduction to the game to get basics to be more active in their breed(s) and the game (and possibly upgrade) which does not involve throwing features at them that they still possibly won't understand or even use.

The fact remains that while showing is fun, this game also centers around breeding and you can't do that anyway with ration options for basics, etc. I think giving basics the option to breed for a month is generous. However, there should be an option for them to start breeding when they want to (a button to press to start that month), not just the moment they sign up. By the time they find broods, figure out SOPs, etc., half of that time is gone. If they received a better introduction, even just by observation, they'd get the idea.

I posted it - it took me so long to type it that it must have timed out - apologies - it wasn't meant to be anonymous - yet another glitch that needs sorting?

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posted by Kievan Kennels
I think giving basics the option to breed for a month is generous. However, there should be an option for them to start breeding when they want to (a button to press to start that month), not just the moment they sign up. By the time they find broods, figure out SOPs, etc., half of that time is gone. If they received a better introduction, even just by observation, they'd get the idea.

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Wonderful idea - not sure if/why this hasn't been suggested before - it's simple, yet brilliant!

Just a thought.......


I just looked in on the 'off topic forum' and their 'game' thread 'which name would you steal......' is on it's 41st page!

Maybe some more 'non competition' threads might encourage basics to post or at least read the forums, lets be honest, the same few of us read and post, and a good 90% of the 'breed' forums are never used, or very rarely used.

Maybe a thread where players could post pictures of their pets (not RL show dog poses, just pets doing what pets do) might jolly everyone up.

Oh and as I have no idea how to do it, how do we post photos in posts?

Posting Pictures . . .

Here's how you do it.

Change the {squiggly brackets} to [square brackets] though.

{img}HTTP:// File-Location-Link {/img}

It's identical to the coding to place the banners on your page,

The picture has to be hosted somewhere first - photobucket and such.


This is from ShowRabbits:

{img}i723.photobucket.com/albums/ww234/Zass_Rabbits/dutchbun_zpsdf5f9b7d.jpg{/img}

Don't forget to change the brackets from {squiggles} to [squares] though.


Gives you this - my Banner picture . . .

Thanks - cute bunny too!