While I have attempted to be understanding of the whole "New game, there's gonna be problems." Even I am beginning to grow a bit weary.

The economy is so stale right now even decent wolves are selling for literally nothing if they sell at all, there's no money in any of the professions either as far as I've seen. The only useful ones I've found are fishing and cooking because it allows you to keep grinding. I have the free time because I resigned from my job because I will be moving soon but others have lives outside of this one game and it's exhausting to think about how hard it has to be for those players to even play let alone get ahead. There's a serious embalance of either you pay or you spend countless hours trying to grind and let's be honest that can burn a player out real quick.

While I can't speak on the need for optimizing since I play on either mobile or tablet and it doesn't seem to cause too much problem for me- from the amount of people having issues it should definitely be a high priority. As excited as I was for Open release after missing out on Beta testing I seriously wish they would've stayed in Beta a bit longer or even done an open Beta just to get all of this worked out before hand. I would rather wait than have this many members in the community find the site unenjoyable.

Above all though, Communication is probably the biggest issue. I would rather have an update daily or just a small "We are currently doing ____" than just be left in the dark and then have the hype of an update and it literally tells you little to nothing or addresses none of the issues members are bringing up. I get this is a new game, I get that it's a small team- but these are two things that should've been considered before opening completely. It isn't too much to ask for to have staff communicate with us.

I've voiced my opinion on the whole MS locks on so many things. I think it would be better to have it on a scaling system just like Den expansion is. This could even be implemented with the MS current cost, just make it so eventually expanding costs MS instead of immediately- give fp2 players a chance to actually enjoy the game. Nothing core based should ever be locked behind a paywall.

Another thing I know many many players are trying to make the game enjoyable and easier on newer players but- the fact we started a group just to try and go into introductions just to try and help new players understand mechanics and how to play shouldn't be necessary. There needs to be a tutorial even if it's just a "join message" That gives you some kind of direction.

Hi sorry me again, I just wanted to post here on the topic of staff not disclosing stuff in the patch notes that the clouds in the day mode banner have been switched from using an HTML5 canvas to CSS animations, which while it's really good that they're listening and working to optimize the site better, I'm very puzzled as to why there was no talk about this in the patch notes or dev update.

There was a bit of a large window (a few days) in between when I last saw it was a canvas and when UwU and I had noticed that it's now a CSS animation, so admittedly they might've actually added it after the 4th and it'll be in the next patch notes post, but... I'd rather them just give us a post right when an update occurs, or roll out all these updates when the next patch notes post is ready.

All this guessing makes my brain hurt. :(

as someone who has been very concerned about LW's longevity & quite critical of the team, i'm surprised to see people doubling down This Hard on the doomsaying after this dev update.

they're Actively Trying. they are making changes, they have hired another coder & are going to hire more staff in the future. the optimization issues are being worked on As We Speak. we should wait to be hysterical until after some of the promised future changes are actually implemented. i feel like a lot has been addressed- not all of it (MS expansions), & not in as much detail as maybe we'd like, but it IS there if you look.

my main concern has been lack of base game apparel/pebble apparel & other pebble sinks (incl. changing expansions from MS to pebbles). that is a HUGE part of the issues with the economy because pebbles are worth squat rn. these changes will help fix that.

imo a lot of posts here like OP are very emotionally charged & what staff have stated/implied is being twisted in the worst way possible. OP is insanely accusatory. i do not believe the current system is any more exploitative than any other business trying to make capital by offering a product or service, no idea where this is coming from.

just try to have a little hope & give the team 2 nanoseconds to breathe, yeah? MULTIPLE pet sites have had very rocky starts & they still find success & have genuinely improved -wild gesturing to dappervolk-. even FR's launch was messy & ugly. there is still time to spruce up the site into something great.

Adding my two cents into the discussion:

I think that it is good for players to have a place (e,g, forum threads and discord) to share concerns and frustrations. I do not want to come across as condescending or judgmental of anyone on this thread, merely to share my own perspective.

One of the incredible things about human brains is that they are wired to fill in the inevitable gaps that life throws at us: visual gaps (e.g. the gestalt principle of closure) in images, written gaps (how our brns hlp us undrstnd wrds evn with missng lettrs), and logical gaps (e.g. there is a gap between word and action).

To go more deeply into it, the gestalt principle of closure states that when we look at a complex arrangement of visual elements, we tend to look for a single, recognizable pattern. In other words, when you see an image that has missing parts, your brain will fill in the blanks and make a complete image so you can still recognize the pattern.

Right now, because of a gap in what was communicated and what was done, people are filling in the blanks/the gaps/the unknowns. In several posts, there seems to be a pattern of, 'I don't want the game to fail.....but....' or the implication that lorwolf is definitively headed in an unchanging negative direction. And I worry this will splinter the playerbase as people start to take different sides.

This 'filling in the gap' thing is normal and i'm definitely not here to criticize how anyone is filling in the gaps with their own thoughts, feelings, and conclusions!!! I just want to share that what my brain fills the gaps with is different from player A, B, C, etc. and while I share some frustrations and many of the concerns brought up in this thread, I do not think any one person should speak for anyone other than themselves. This can lead to the perception that the level of dissatisfaction is smaller or larger than it really is.

I think it will be helpful for staff to make some kind of statement on the MS issue and the state of the economy within a reasonable time frame (for me, that would be by the end of the month at the very latest), but I also want to emphasize that "gaps' in communication are inevitable given that 100% direct, real time communication is simply inefficient. It is impossible for communication between players and staff/devs to be fluid; hence the role of community managers to act as intermediaries, and why there are things like patch notes.

Another thing to note is that if the game becomes too stressful or the economy problems start to negatively effect my mental health, I will be taking a break from lorwolf and changing my subscriber status. And I encourage anyone else who might feel this way to do the same. Mental well being is so so important.

I hope for everyones sake that the MS currency issues and the relevant economy issues are addressed sooner rather than later and that everyone continues to remain civil and kind.

@/Sparx

"OP is insanely accusatory. i do not believe the current system is any more exploitative than any other business trying to make capital by offering a product or service, no idea where this is coming from."

Thank you. Their comment accusing Lorwolf staff of intentionally taking advantage of "vulnerable groups" seriously rubbed me the wrong way, and I had real trouble regarding the rest of their post after seeing such an extreme claim as that. The fact that Lorwolf's userbase might consist a majority of minors and neurodivergent individuals (because it's a form of escapism? All games are, games are entertainment) is outside of staff's control, and I seriously doubt the thought process of "let's take advantage of vuinerable people!" crossed their mind for even a second. Staff are fellow humans, just as capable of facing their own mental and financial struggles as the rest of the userbase. This is a website run by a handful of people, not some scheming megacorp.

@Sparx

>the optimization issues are being worked on As We Speak.

I might have missed it, but did the devs directly acknowledge the optimization issues somewhere?

To my knowledge they haven't which is why I personally have such an issue with the lack of communication.

I'm pretty sure I've seen a separate suggestion thread for it, but I think there would be a lot of benefit in a section similar to FR's site status box where tiny updates such as the cloud animation change can be communicated without making an entire announcement for one (1) thing! I think it would open the door for a lot of communicating small changes that happen in between major updates.

> All this guessing makes my brain hurt. :(

I'm hoping the second coder they brought on will start addressing bug report threads. In all of the communication threads, the fact staff don't comment on bug report threads except to lock extras keeps slipping through the cracks.

Another thing to mention is speed isn't necessary. If a set of apparel takes an extra two weeks to release because Alaunis is responding to threads and interacting with the community, that's fine. We have multiple status bars like Sims (or something I've never played Sims) that need to be taken care of.

I have added my opinion on the economy and communication issues to a few threads already so I just want to give this one a bump as well since it seems the dev team is eager to keep silent even with how much traction all this is getting.

Everyone has already said all that I was thinking well so I don't want to repeat it. I really think they'll start losing players soon. It is frustrating to feel like something that seemed like a project of passion that I couldn't wait to be there for from it's first launch day is turning into more of a cash grab. It would feel much less so if there was communication at the very least, but the silence really doesn't help.

I don't think asking for acknowledgement is asking too much or very time consuming to provide. Communication is one of the basic things that a company should provide to it's customers. People are paying money to support them and have the right to be upset if they're not satisfied.