Development Update #6

please consider lowering the mutation scry price to at least 60 sc. 150 is wayy too high.

other than that, so happy about the update to hunting!

I have many potential carriers but now I'm reconsidering just competing im the mutie market as a whole. I liked how easy it was to get them, it wasn't overly complicated and expensive, I thought it made sense..

If anything like a lot of other people here isn't it just going to go further down? Nobody likes this lmao

It's nice to have a mechanic for carrier genes to be displayed in game, but with how difficult SC is, 150SC when I was paying 50SC to test a pup from another carrier, or 100SC to test a NBW is a leap in price. I have two teams for hunting and sell off spare carcasses, have been more choosy on which pups I keep from litters, and I'm still only able to test an extra NBW a day alongside the 1-2 pups I usually have growing if I want to try to keep ahead of making more den space for new adults I plan to keep. SC is unobtainable outside of quests, selling off 1 use meat to the racoon, selling things to other players or studding, and fishing. We have the lottery which can be a SC sink. We already have den expansion which serves as a SC sink. I've had enough difficulty keeping up with den expansions on top of trying to breed and check carriers. Now that checking carriers I've bred will be 3x the price, I'm not really sure keeping/breeding wolves that don't have the mutation visible on them is going to be worth it at all. Or even checking NBWs since the chance of them carrying any mutations are abysmal.

Tho the scy is a bit expensive THIS UPDATE IS AMAZING ! Its so simple and takes only 1 scry to confirm if your wolf is a carrier of a mutation ! Tho I do see where a lot of people are coming from since many pups and other wolves can't be confirmed by regular scry anymore and there are many unconfirmed mutation carriers ! It would just be really expensive and a waste to scry every wolf esp if their not carriers its very risky   

Well there goes most peoples' ability to scry NBWs. It needs to be 50, not 150.

The fact that 150 sc for a scry seems reasonable implies to me that the staff (all due respect to you staff, love you all) is not really fully in touch with *how hard* it is to earn and keep SC in this game. Or, I am left to surmise that possibly the difficulty for the average player to earn currency, is intentional and the scry tool costing for one scry more than many casual players earn in one day is designed to discourage scrying altogether. Either way: I hope you are listening, staff, because the difficulty to earn SC in the game has been a consistent complaint and this is not a new message from the player base to you <3

@Gnoll - You have a point, but unfortunately the scrying isn't really what's hurting the mutation market. Mostly because people scry, then breed to an already established Melanistic or Albino stud and try to sell those puppies instead of putting in the work to find another NBW carrier and make a breeding pair. (Not all users, of course, but I personally have not seen a whole lot of 'unique' or 'new blood' Melanistic or Albino pups. Just 'not of a currently popular bloodline.') It's a problem of studs and bloodlines rather than a problem of easy access to knowing if your wolf does or does not carry the mutation.

50 sc to scry for mutations vs 150 sc to scry for mutations is *tripling* the cost for the average player.

I really love the update! The hunding changes and the Secure Wolf feature are absolutely great! And while I prefer the concept of the Gene the Bat a lot more over puppy scrying, I do agree with everyone who have stated that the SC fee is very steep. I consider myself a somewhat wealthy-ish player (I don't struggle with currency and I can usually afford to buy "the next big thing"), but I don't think I'll pay for even one mutation check from the bat.

With the older system, you could spend just 30-50SC per wolf and get a somewhat difinitive result. Yes, there were scammers that would just photoshop a mutated puppy onto the image and sell the wolf as a potential/confirmed carrier, and I do understand the Bat is solving this problem now.

However, I don't think it's fair to the players to take the old way away completely, while making the "official" way to do it thrice more expensive than it was before. I think a better way to handle this would keep the scrying for mutations through the good old stone, but wolves that are checked this way would still have to only be advertised as "potential carriers". The Bat would exist to get that fancy official label on the wolf's page.

Or, as others have suggested, just lower the price to 50-60SC for a mutation scry. That's still more than most people would spend before, anyway, since people usually only scry 3-4 times.

People here have said it much better than I can do; I'm unfortunately one to agree with a lot of people here that 150 is too much when I wasn't even spending 50sc on scrying. Mutations are crashing in the market as it is and it's hard enough to sell any pup right now for even 50sc. With sc so hard to come by, I really think this needs a balance. 

I love the concept of it being on the wolf's page however, this is good to clear up any confusion with carriers.