This change from EA just feels awful for actual gameplay, and not mentioning at all that it was changed between then and now feels much worse. Locking basic stuff like this behind a paywall is bad for the longevity of these types of games, as it scares away casual players who might otherwise enjoy the game. More players will make the game more money long-term.

It shouldn't be moonstones at all. It was originally was moonstones and much of the community in the discord brought up the fact that it was a heavy pay to win factor. It was then changed to pebbles during one of the testing periods. I was heavily frustrated to see it went back to moonstones for launch. And not because they're expensive (which is another issue) but because I'm concerned for the site. I was told it was to help the site be profitable, but if the site relies that heavily on these two things being moonstones, the problem is much bigger than we think and actually lies elsewhere.

These aren't just qol changes or high prices for aesthetic items. Pot and cart size tie directly to progression and heavily influence one's income on the site. Locking these behind premium currency is a big pay to win factor and pretty hefty one. It allows someone to just throw real money at it and easily get a leg up over everyone else. It made much more sense when they cost pebbles.

I understand that the site needs to make its money but it can't be here. Not in things that so heavily influence gameplay, progression, and income. Also, the expansions can't cost both moonstones and pebbles because that would lock in a fixed moonstone to pebble ratio and that wouldn't be good for the health of the site either.

Vi and I were talking offsite and like… at super early levels, the idea of paying premium currency for more room to put fishies seemed ridiculous. Now that I'm getting close to level 10 in Mining/Cooking, though, it feels ridiculous the other way.

I've put a fair few hours into the game and I have five Moonstones to my name (which, compared to the other petsites I've played, is a fine and even generous amount of premium currency to have gained over that time). But, it means that as soon as I unlock the next area, I'm absolutely toast if I don't want to fork over cash to expand- complex recipes take up so much space in the pot, and I'm already having inventory issues with just three types of ore to manage.

Making this stuff premium currency has mobile game vibes, and not in a good way… which is a shame because I really want to like this site, I'm just super worried that in about two days it'll effectively lock me from playing. Learning that in early access, this was changed, really saddens me too… like, you need to keep a playerbase to keep a petsite going, even if some are f2p, and I feel like there's gonna be a sharp dropoff as soon as people start getting their levels up.

I support this a lot!

Flight Rising is constantly looking for new Treasure (regular currency) sinks. Every suggestion that comes up on the forums tends to have someone saying “This could be a treasure sink if you make it something you pay for with treasure!”

Making sure the currency you can obtain freely in-game makes its way OUT of the economy and back into the game is incredibly valuable. In a few years, if there aren't enough Pebble sinks, then the value of Pebbles will plummet and Moonstones will be the only currency worth using.

Please consider reverting this change, and making expansions Pebble items. This does not mean the site gets less money. Players can trade Moonstones for Pebbles via the Flea Market, and so any player wishing to spend money to bypass the long wait time it may take to save up for a high Pebble cost expansion will still be able to purchase Moonstones to bypass this. I have purchased Gems several times on Flight Rising to exchange them for Treasure in order to buy Lair expansions.

Aside from the fact that this change loses a very valuable Pebble sink, it is also just unfriendly to users. The first thing a new player sees when they start playing any of these activities is that when they click expand they are greeted with a box that says ‘Pay our premium currency to expand this."

New players who don't know that this game allows for conversion of currencies may be immediately put off by seeing that the game requires a premium currency for expansions to activities.

I very much support more things to buy with Moonstones, but I don't believe expansions should be limited to Moonstones (at the very least, nothing but perhaps the last one)

Lyu is absolutely right about pebble sinks and how unfriendly it feels to be greeted with so many MS exclusive expansions. I'm already finding it very easy to get pebbles, I have a feeling the economy will plummet quickly as everyone begins to grind out massive amounts of pebbles. More sinks are absolutely necessary, especially when the Mole Market only restocks 4 times a day. I'm finding it difficult to spend my pebbles. I would really love it if I could sink them into the expansions I badly want, because Renaiwom was correct that you begin to feel currency-locked as you raise your profession level. It's not fun, it's going to drive paying customers away before they even get attached to the site and gain some loyalty that will incentivize playing. This won't work out well long-term.

Agreed. I have no idea why it was silently changed from pebbles to moonstones, but I'm definitely not a fan of it. In fact, I was in the process of expanding my cooking pot thing during beta, moonstones just feel like more of a grind. Especially early game.

Huge support, I already felt it was really odd to have just basic gameplay locked behind the very hard-to-obtain (without paying, that is) premium currency, but knowing it was changed since EA just makes it worse. :( I definitely think the cost should be changed to either be far lower, or even better, just changed to pebbles, at least for the lower levels.

Just want to point out that I completely agree and expressed these exact concerns to Alaunis and this is how she replied:

https://www.lorwolf.com/Forum/View?id=3066

Sadly doesn't give me a lot of confidence.

EDIT: I also wanted to add to the discussion: If they decide to rollback these upgrade costs (which I think they should), IMO they should also refund everyone who has purchased these upgrades for moonstones.

@Loki

I saw this response to your concerns and was disappointed by the way it was handled. It felt like nothing was bein answered and the thread was locked after your valid concerns were pointed out. It felt like silencing an uncomfortable (but fair) discussion.

I hope they will announce that this is being worked on too, because personally I think it's more important than the wolf tokens- which are kind of too little too late now.

A refund would be ideal- and a good admittance of a mistake being made right again.

Re: the post Loki linked:

The idea that the expansions are a premium ease-of-use “luxury” falls apart for Mining as soon as you enter an area with 3+ ore types. Without even one expansion, suddenly, you have several ores all competing for space, which lowers your overall efficiency in having enough of each type to smelt, which in turn lowers the efficiency of your trips too (and your wolf energy expenditure). It's not an extraneous “get a little boost if you pay premium”, it actively hinders early-game progression. Not to mention that folks who have little time to play the game and grind Moonstone Shards (as well as the required Bones/Bone Paste to even make the Moonstones) will find their limited progress slowed even further, which could very easily result in them being turned away from the game out of boredom.

As a free-to-play site, it's natural that Lorwolf will need to provide incentives to buy their premium currency, but this isn't the sort of thing they should be monetizing.