The Problem With Silver Cones

Edit as of Feb 11, 2021: I am noticing some concerning patterns in how players (including myself) have been feeling in regards to this topic, so I wanted to come back to this thread and touch upon some of the things in Wolvden I still feel are an issue and what can be done to improve them. Some of my main ideas have also been rewritten for better clarity and due to some of the updates gone by since the original creation of my post.

Lastly, I sincerely apologize for the novel down below, I did not mean for it to get so long.

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I haven't seen a topic like this on the board yet so I hope I'm not repeating what someone else may have already submitted incase I somehow missed it. Now to my concerns/ideas for improvement.

To be frank, it is far too difficult to earn and keep Silver Cones! I am excluding Gold Cones as that is the currency we can buy, but SC is supposed to be the currency we earn in game. The problem is simply that there is a huge imbalance between the spending of SC and the earning back said SC. If you are not grinding for cones 24/7, the rate at which players might spend cones is difficult to recover from by just playing the game normally. Which is to say, not buying GC. The SC scarcity I've been seeing has also been affecting how much GC is worth, in the trading center, the lowest I've seen GC go for is a ratio of 60:1!!! Players have been forced to mark down prices for their rare items and tier III wolves because people can't afford them otherwise. Players have worked hard for these things, so they should make a profit. But if we can't earn, we can't buy, if we can't buy, we can't sell. Cones have been going nowhere. Some of the ways players can currently earn SC is through Daily Quests, Selling to the Raccoon, Explore Encounters, Games and the Trading Center. I will go into detail as to how these aren't as helpful to earning cones as they could be.

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Daily Quests: Earning around 100 SC a day is the most consistent and helpful way to stack up on funds, but sometimes it can be incredibly difficult to complete quests. Like the battle quests for instance *cough* bears *cough* (especially if you're a low level/new player). As of now, the only way to change an unwanted quest is to use a Snake Skull and hope that you don't get the same or similar quest again. However, by using the Snake Skull, you will have essentially wasted the cones you could have earned from the quest as Snake Skulls cost 150 SC in Raccoon Wares. This does not include having to use multiple Snake Skulls in case you get another unwanted quest. It really just isn't worth it sometimes with how random the quests are in terms of difficulty and to then complete them when the rewards don't match up with the effort you have put in

My Ideas for Improvement: Increase the SC earned for quests as currently all daily quests rake in about the same amount of SC per day despite the difficulty. Perhaps make it so that daily, players can choose 1 Easy, 1 Medium, and 1 Hard Quest with each earning their own respective SC. And for New Players, maybe even implementing a fourth option of a "Beginner Quest" that would be available for the first 30 days of playing Wolvden. It could be something along the lines of giving common items, like bones and herbs for a reward of 50-100 SC or something like that to help them get started.

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Raccoon Wares: Selling to the Raccoon for me is the only reliable way to earn SC by giving him the items in my hoard I no longer need or have a use for. However, the cone limit on him is hindering and the amount he gives for some items is practically worthless. For instance, a vast majority of the items I sell are amusement items, meat chunks and occasionally small/critter carcasses. The problem is that they sell for a staggering 1-5 SC each. Even rare recipes that I have multiples of only sell for 10 SC. Items that have up to 5 uses (like the peregrine feather) only sell for 1. I understand that it's supposed to be challenging, but I find this limit to be instead simply unfair, and to be honest, rather pointless. And when some of the items the Raccoon sells go upwards of 1000 SC for a background, it becomes infuriating to make any decent progress on savings. He maxes out at around 240 SC per day but if I were to need to buy anything, that SC is immediately gone again.

My Ideas for Improvement: Either Increase the worth of items or get rid of the daily cone limit. I personally feel that no item should sell for a measly 1 SC. But I also enjoy the challenge of having to be smart about how I save and spend. However, by having a combination of low-worth items in comparison to what the Raccoon sells, and a cap on how much you can sell to him per day, the challenge just becomes draining and unrewarding. 

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Explore Encounters: This one is similar to Raccoon Wares, but to go into detail, there are some fun ways players can earn SC while exploring which I find makes up about 70-80% of my playtime. Some cute critters can give SC when given an acorn or when the player lends a helpful paw to them. Additionally, some other encounters can even turn up SC by just interacting with the environment. The issue that I see with it is just that the 1-5 SC that can be found per encounter, just isn't enough. And the bigger issue I've learned is that there is also a cone cap. If the player has 5000 SC (which I feel is not a lot) then they can no longer find these treasures while exploring.

My Ideas for Improvement: Simply increase the SC that can be found per encounter. Maybe put the limit that Raccoon Wares currently has of 240 SC in exploring so players can only find that much SC per day. Or alternatively, get rid of the 5000 cap. As it is now, I'd much rather save my acorns to trade for recipes and lucky feet than a max of 3 SC.

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Games: This one is relatively new and is still growing so I won't nitpick it too hard. So to get right into it, I can't say I'm a fan of Slots and the Lottery. Both are pretty cheap to play, but my issue with them is that I feel the payoff isn't great. Slots is basically gambling, and the Daily Lottery, 500 SC is not enough for that to be the max you can win. As for fishing, I was really excited about the addition of this new game and can still see potential for it, but as of now...wow, are the controls kind of wonky and the consistency as to what fish have what bars is almost nonexistent. But the SC issue? It's the dreaded cone cap again. Just why? Do people really spend that much time, 10 minutes per fish submission just to max out at 100 cones?

My Ideas for Improvement: Either increase or get rid of the cone cap or raise the price of fish per submission. 8 SC for a rare fish every 10 minutes is just too much of a waste of time as it is now. This topic is new, so I really look forward to new games in Wolvden that don't make playing them feel more taxing than what they give back.

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The Trading Center: This one is tricky to tackle as it is very dependent on other players and supply and demand. It's no surprise to see that there is a serious problem with the overabundance of unwanted wolves in the market. Raising wolves to chase is taxing on supplies and funds and unless a wolf has a desirable base, high stats, special markings, or new carrier genes now, no one wants to buy them. Underselling is the problem. Why? Because people can't afford them. Why? Because there are not many reliable ways to earn a steady income of SC. Does this mean that these things should be worth less? Heck no! Some items and wolves are super rare and deserve to be worth something, especially for the players that got them. This is a similar issue I have also seen repeated in Studs. Tier IIIs going for cheap when they really should be worth so much more considering their rarity (I only just got my first fox pup born after two months of non-stop breeding). This particular topic is incredibly touchy and even as I write this, I still have a hard time trying to wrap my head around it. I won't pretend to understand how the market works at all, but to put it simply, it's hard to not see how players are unhappy with how things are currently.

My Ideas for Improvement: I've seen some really nice and creative ideas for this so I won't parrot what has already been said. But basically, I think a system needs to be put in place to deal with the surplus of unwanted wolves. To put it simply, being able to actually earn something from otherwise undesirable wolves would be fantastic I think when to otherwise keep them in the pack until adulthood so they can be chased is expensive. I also think having some minimum and maximum values put in place for items would also help the issue with underselling. 

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To summarize, I say none of this to be overly critical or ignorant of what the game developers have done or are in the process of doing for this stunning and artistic game they have created. I say this because I can see improvement to make the game even more fun and accessible to players who don't want to spend real money in order to feel like they're making progress. Especially those who play casually. I've been playing daily since the public release back in September and have been having loads of fun in Wolvden since then. So of course the only thing I'd want is to help out and see how the game evolves in the coming months by adding and improving game mechanics for even more enjoyable playtime. 

Comment below your thoughts on how you feel Wolden can improve upon its currency crisis. Do you agree or disagree with something? Do you have a different idea? Do you even feel like there's a problem with currency? Let me know your thoughts and ideas below. 

And remember, please be kind. Everyone has different play styles and everyone has a right to be frustrated with something. But please do not take it out on the Devs or your fellow players.

I 100% agree! I barely have enough SC to get by most of the time. I didn't come online for 3 days and when I got back, five of my wolves had left and I only had the SC to bring back 3 of them, plus all of my wolves were starving so I had to use some of the GC I had been saving up to buy food and amusement items. Idk, I just feel like it should be a little easier to get SC

I also agree, fully. I feel the earning and spending of SC is way out of ratio and should even out a bit more. I'm trying my best to sell my wolves so I can buy more territory space but I'm struggling and having to chase "higher value" wolves 3:

I agree! I'm glad to see people speaking up about this, this has been a problem for my friends and I but more so for them. >_<

I agree. I have been avoiding this game for days on end because I am barely scraping along aha. 

Additionally, den expansions are too expensive. The game wants you to have at least one hunter, one healer, one pupsitter, a breeding male, and pups, but you have to pay 120+ SC for the den expansions required to even get those wolves. Honestly this game is stressful with the way it handles pricing and earning and its chasing players out.

@.mageía kranía. (#7508) on the topic of den expansion, yes! I agree!! I made a post a while back about an alternative way of getting territory similar to lioden where you can fight for territory but everyone disagreed with me >.< They should at least lower prices though

I  completely agree! I've been playing almost daily since the public release, and I still majorly struggle to get sc and keep enough to keep my wolves happy. The territory expansion is definitely a problem, it's far too expensive. 

What if instead of paying increasingly expensive prices to territory, which is incredibly unfair and annoying, you could get more territory with scouts? Like, if you have scouts above a certain level, perhaps 12, you can send them out scouting your current home territory to expand it by a little bit. To make it a bit more balanced, it could cost some certain items each time. 

These are good suggestions, and I’d also like to suggest an increase of the sc cap to go with them.  (you stop earning sc from explore when you have 5000 sc)

5000 is too low when raccoon decors cost 1000 and den expansions go past 1000 sc.  Sc is already hard enough to earn and taking away the explore earnings so early is harsh 

I only recently learned that there even was a SC cap in explore at 5000, and it made me wonder why it was even a thing. 5000 isn’t really that much when, as you said, taken into consideration Raccoon Decor and Den Expansion. 

I guess that you could possibly bury cones to bypass the cap maybe??? But again, why even implement it?

It takes buried cones into account

I’m not sure what is the reason for it.  First time I’ve seen something like it on a petsite.  Maybe to increase the difficulty?