I originally wasn't going to reply to this since I wasn't sure how far off-topic this would go, but it seems we are firmly seated in this discussion now, so I figure it won't hurt.
While I agree that revamping the Shrine Trait system would be nice, 1) Shieba, there is nothing preventing you from battling without receiving your requested Shrine traits. If you enjoy battling so much, why not just use temporary traits in their stead and have fun with what
is readily available? Your pets are already really strong without the Shrine traits too; they'd win a lot if you even if you sent them into battle as they are. 2) Our battle system suffers from a greater problem- a lack of interest in it among our user base. We can't deny that there's just a handful of people who are interested in battles. The only individuals who I can remember being eager for them are me, Shieba, Freezy, Millie, Gray, and Talcen. With this in mind, it's honestly not a surprise that anything related to battles is not being worked on as quickly as other features. As Shrewd said, our small, unpaid staff team's motivation is seeing active users. And we have very few users actively engaging with the battle system. Before battles, people want pets. Before battles, people want breeding. Any website/game/company/whatever with decent staff and agenda setting abilities should be working based on an idea of what their customers want. So, the battle system is a lower priority on Evelon.
I feel that the lack of interest in the battle system stems from perceptions that it is overly complicated, as Pickle and Shrewd stated. I personally don't find it hard, but that's only because I've been using it for a long time and was fairly active with the revamp; other users may be much more confused. There's a lot to keep track of, and some of the traits have gimmicks to them that might be hard to comprehend. In other words, our battle system suffers a lack of
accessibility. I'm not even sure we should talking about Shrine Traits until we figure out how to make the battle system more understandable and workable for everyone. Or even abolish the system entirely if it ends up that very few people would be interested in a fix.
On "leaking" information about upcoming features, I personally feel the two tried and true methods are 1) making it a complete surprise like the Kuhna revamp or 2) giving out information at a steady, reliable pace. As everyone probably knows, I play video games a lot, and these two techniques are what I see from gaming companies that know how to get their customers completely and utterly hyped (*cough cough Nintendo*). If I understand correctly, Shieba, your frustration stems from the fact that for the features we have "leaked", there is no steady, reliable pace of information. The frustration is understandable; sometimes I feel the same way when the Smash Bros. 4 website has the same "pic of the day" up for several days straight. And I think this is something Evelon could improve on. However, I think it's important to keep in mind that the mod team is small, has a lot on its plate, and also has to deal with situations in real life that could slow down Evelon work. Evelon does not have the manpower that gaming companies have. The mod team is also not truly hired. If Evelon
was their primary occupation, we'd definitely be seeing features arriving and updating much faster.
Stemming from that, having more people on the staff team would lift a weight off our current mods. The problem is, Baal needs to approve of new staff, and as previously pointed out, it can be very hard to get in contact with Baal regarding Evelon stuff. The other problem is that, as Shrewd said, lots of users who have volunteered to help with things have not done their jobs. We cannot make new staff if users do not meet qualifications. And, as our user base ages, the users who
do have the potential to become staff might end up not having enough free time to be staff. Evelon's demographic is mostly females in their teens or 20's, and recently, lots of our established female users have gotten married, had kids, found jobs, etc.
Creating a campaign to attract new users to Evelon may be a good way to not only inject more activity into the forums, but also provide us with more potential future staff. Newbies, of course, have to take time to learn about the forums. But once they're established, they might be the people most willing to help the site grow. I would much rather prefer giving the mods more help than having to drop promising features.
In opposition to Shieba's viewpoint this time, I have zero qualms about the roleplay rules on Evelon. We have a entire RP section dedicated to those one-liner, crack sorts of RPs you might find on Tumblr (and I think it's important to keep in mind that Tumblr is NOT a website dedicated to roleplaying). Writing at least five sentences may encourage developing better writing skills. It is possible to write sex scenes and other mature things without using forbidden words. Do I think censorship is silly in most cases? Yes, especially as it pertains to writing. However, and this is a VERY BIG however, there are possible
legal ramifications to posting what many websites refer to as "objectionable content" in their terms of service. Take, for example, what Proboards, another forum host, says in
their ToS:"You represent and warrant that you shall not use the Website or Services to upload, post, transmit, display, perform or distribute any content, information or materials that: (a) are libelous, defamatory, abusive, or threatening, excessively violent, harassing, obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or pornographic... ProBoards reserves the right to terminate Your use of the Website and Services or Your uploading, posting, transmission, display, performance or distribution of Objectionable Content. ProBoards, in its sole discretion, may delete any Objectionable Content from its servers. ProBoards intends to cooperate fully with any law enforcement officials or agencies in the investigation of any violation of this Agreement or of any applicable laws.
I am not sure what our host's ToS says on the subject, but it's probably pretty similar. I'm also not an expert on what any actual legal ramifications might be, but I'd prefer what is honestly a very lax degree of censorship to potentially having the entire website- and the staff team plus Baal- coming under fire from greater forces.
I feel like rarity will inevitably be a thing on pet sites; I don't think we can do much about that. We also can't just give out KS willy-nilly. That was exactly what brought down the whole farming system and drove our market crazy back in the day. But the system should be fully capable of adding KS gains to areas that normally do not give out KS. How else would we introduce new RP areas?
I'm...not really sure how I feel about an "everything goes" experiment. I feel like people are so used to how the forums have been running that even if such an idea were implemented, people would still follow our normal rules out of habit. I did like the idea about trying not needing LLPs or ELLs for same gender breedings, though. Maybe that could be a breeding season at least?
Azura, I like the idea of an RP directory for the war. As for the breeding search directory, I believe something like that was suggested when we talked about what to do with the Breeders Listing section? It's certainly been proposed at some point.
Finally, the last thing I want to say in this stupidly long post is an agreement to something Shrewd brought up. Evelon community, you
really should speak up in discussions. I feel like I always see the same few people pitch in during big conversations like these, and that does not represent our interests as a community well at all. We should all try our best to minimize complaining/panic and maximize productive discussion. Society crumbles without conversation.