I'm gonna come off so bitter... I actually love the new additions (halo recolors were so wanted! I'm very happy they don't require a halo to make one), but it feels like a stretch to call this a new feature. This genuinely could have been an addition to baldwin, using the goo and slime as per usual, and nothing would have changed imo. It might have actually been more challenging with Baldin materials having much more variation and sources of what a material is transmuted from.
ON A PLUS SIDE, Sophie's UI is straight up much better. I hope they add the item selection menu like that to Baldwin, too. Overall, W for Halo recolors and adorable new NPC, just wish the mechanic was a little more unique.
I agree that it's nice it doesn't at least take up the same cauldron, yes. If I were to make it more unique, I would have made players play a simple minigame to create some thread (First thing that comes to mind, probably not the best: a game about untangling different colors of yarn, like the mobile games). OR Make thread drop from Familiar Bonding, though in that case I would probably overhaul bonding to make it easier. OR Add an easter egg hunt mechanic to the site's UI, where you can find "recolor tokens" hidden around sites' pages every 20-30 minutes, that you would trade for recolored items.
Alternatively, forget the thread, and make it the long-awaited bounty NPC that will reward you with "recolor tokens" for completing tasks that you can spend on the new apparel recolors. They don't have to be Coli tasks either, it can be a mix of Pursuits and Coli quests.
Or, even more elegant, put it in Achievements Association for points, and rehaul Pursuits to be more visible/give you notifications (I always forget they exist). I would maybe make the daily pursuits replenishable, so when you do them all, you can keep grinding for more points and buy more recolors. But that wouldn't "feel" like a new feature, innit? Not as Anniversary-worthy.
Lastly, I feel like this whole apparel recolor feature would have been a great fit with Joxar, so maybe introducing an additional feature to his recolor store could have also been a good fit C: It can be available year-round as well.
Anyway, again, these are raw ideas that just came to my mind now, and I don't hate the current feature. As someone mentioned, I wish we could at least transmute junk scenes and vistas, especially since Sophie already isn't picky about item types and transmutes them into only 2 thread types. Nonetheless: YAY HALOS
>"I would have made players play a simple minigame to create some thread (First thing that comes to mind, probably not the best: a game about untangling different colors of yarn, like the mobile games)."
So either you get limited on how much you can make a day or it is timer based so now not only do I have to come back every 30 min or whatever I also have to play a fucking minigame that's gonna get old fast to get the items.
>"Make thread drop from Familiar Bonding, though in that case I would probably overhaul bonding to make it easier."
Not much of an update just adding them to that pool and you'll be limited to it being a chance like all the other familiar drops or you quickly make the new clothes worth nothing. And get ready for the bond all button suggestions to become even more common.
>"Add an easter egg hunt mechanic to the site's UI, where you can find "recolor tokens" hidden around sites' pages every 20-30 minutes, that you would trade for recolored items."
This is even fucking worse than the minigame suggestion, hunting for shit on the site ui is not fun and it is not screen reader friendly. And once again coming back 20-30 minutes to instead of just do a few clicks you're asking people to do even more tedious drawn out shit.
>"Alternatively, forget the thread, and make it the long-awaited bounty NPC that will reward you with "recolor tokens" for completing tasks that you can spend on the new apparel recolors. They don't have to be Coli tasks either, it can be a mix of Pursuits and Coli quests."
So just more stuff from doing the same pursuits we're already doing, and also already get complained about and coli locked stuff which people will bitch about. Not sounding any better than a reskinned baldwin with better ui to me. What's wrong with her existing and it's just lore flavor for the clothes recolors?
>"Or, even more elegant, put it in Achievements Association for points, and rehaul Pursuits to be more visible/give you notifications (I always forget they exist). I would maybe make the daily pursuits replenishable, so when you do them all, you can keep grinding for more points and buy more recolors. But that wouldn't "feel" like a new feature, innit? Not as Anniversary-worthy."
I wouldn't use elegant here, you mean simple. And people already bitch about all the notifications. So more grinding for people to complain about too and what pursuits can people keep doing all day anyway? None of that seems any better than baldwin 2.
>"Lastly, I feel like this whole apparel recolor feature would have been a great fit with Joxar, so maybe introducing an additional feature to his recolor store could have also been a good fit C: It can be available year-round as well."
I don't want joxar more cluttered than he is already and let him just be a festival dragon.
Could it be more interesting? sure probably somehow, but i dont want it to be more chores or something tedious either. second baldwin like this is at least like having another cauldron and it is easy to slot into my playstyle.
Thank you for your service there. I was going to take a nap but the hire this guy rubbed me wrong.
Seriously, My biggest issue was most of it is just throw it into another existing mechanic and claiming it's creative.
Except the mini games, which a portion of the playerbase would have the same issues they have with coli and G&G and the stealing the bullshit Neopets random events/generic site wide Easter egg hunt of games from years ago.
It just proves my theory that the worst person to design a new game feature is any single player. They look at it with their playstyle in my and go "here, it's perfect".
There is no game feature/idea that will please every player or work with every playstyle. However, if a thing is appealing to one person, there's a non-zero chance it would appeal to at least some others as well - perhaps even a significant-enough fraction of the playerbase to make it worth implementing. Or perhaps not. Or probably not. But brushing off an idea because "You're only suggesting that because you'd enjoy it"...I don't know, why else does anyone make any suggestions?
"0Add an easter egg hunt mechanic to the site's UI, where you can find "recolor tokens" hidden around sites' pages every 20-30 minutes, that you would trade for recolored items."
I really don't want a Chickensmoothie event clone.
like granted i don't play tons and tons of games with crafting systems so maybe somebody's come up with something really unique but it kinda feels like there's only a couple of ways to do crafting systems and they all essentially boil down to "trade junk item for material to make cool item" anyway.
like look at Swipp. Swipp is a very simple "trade this amount of specific items to get cool item". Baldwin is "use junk items to make an assortment of other items and then use those items plus an amount of other specific item to get cool item".
there's really no other way to make a crafting system that isn't building on "trade item for other item"? unless you want to get into more convoluted mechanics like that other anon suggested such as adding a mini-game or having to gather items through random site events instead of being able to control how many you can make yourself. and even then it's still "trade item for item".
Sophie is a nice mid-point between Swipp and Baldwin. the item trade you want is always present but she's not as dependent on rng like Baldwin. and she's solely clothing-themed. personally i'd be fine if they moved all of Baldwin's clothing recipes over to her.
players have been asking for years for a "dye mechanic" to make other color variations of existing apparel and this is it. like, given the way fr works there's no way to have a true "dye system" where you can make whatever hex color-based monstrosity you want but this is as close as you can get.
I love a good crafting system! Often it's not the physical thing that a player is doing to craft that makes it good, it's like...the surrounding elements.
One thing that can make an engaging crafting system is a set of meaningful choices. Essentially, have players make a choice that has a cost to it and/or establishes part of their identity as a player, so it feels significant. FR is a pretty casual game, so you wouldn't want to be too strict with this.
One way it could look with tailoring specifically is with I dunno like different disciplines or something? You have to choose your clan's tailoring discipline, then the other disciplines are locked out to you (with maybe a gem cost way to switch because, casual game?). They could be maybe dyeing, leatherworking, spinning, weaving, sewing? With the first four crafting their respective materials and the sewing discipline crafting the final apparel. But crucial to systems like this is that the sewing discipline needs the materials from players of the other disciplines. Each discipline could even have their own unique craftable related apparel, like for instance a thread disaster for the spinners, a dragon tangled in thread that got out of control lol.
(I'm just brainstorming based on crafting systems I've experienced in the past, btw, not saying this would even be good, just throwing examples out there.)
Another crafting system I really like is when you don't know the recipes. This really works more for like alchemy type stuff. But I love when players have to throw things together and figure out as a community project what combinations of things make which items. The mystery and discovery makes it so fun!
sa that first crafting system you described, while i'm sure that's fun in other games, would not be popular in fr.
players are already frustrated that they have no way to breed dragons of the other 10 elements and complain about grinding mats in less popular coli venues.
you apply that to a system where you can only pick one discipline and have to depend on other players to create the things you need in the other disciplines you're going to get a lot of frustrated players.
one of the things players consistently say they like about fr is barring a few limitations you don't have to interact with anybody if you don't want to. you can completely play fr solo.
a crafting system like that first one you described would totally negate that.
the second system would be less objectionable but i have a feeling a not small number of players wouldn't enjoy not knowing how to get certain items right away.
I played an old mmo with a discovery based magic system. Some people adored it, but the reality is, it is frustrating to not know what your results will be.
At least there'd be no reason to bot it, but still... Also, with the database usually listing what all items take, how would that work?
I'm brutally dating myself here, but Asheron's Call at release had an extremely complex spell system based on components. Eventually it all went to scrolls, but at the beginning, I remember the experimenting. I found self debuffs by accident.
DA Exactly the same, it's Baldwin with a new look, so it feels for me like 'congrats on leveling Baldwin, now do the exact same thing with Sophie'. (Wasn't there already a Sophie NPC? What's the Valentine's day NPC's name?). Players have been asking for a way to reduce vistas and scenes, so there was even a way to include Sophie like Swipp with his daughters.
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Re: 12th Anniversary
(Anonymous) 2025-06-09 02:47 pm (UTC)(link)ON A PLUS SIDE, Sophie's UI is straight up much better. I hope they add the item selection menu like that to Baldwin, too. Overall, W for Halo recolors and adorable new NPC, just wish the mechanic was a little more unique.
Re: 12th Anniversary
(Anonymous) 2025-06-09 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)It's a crafting system. I prefer this because it's less stuff to need my single Baldwin cauldron.
Re: 12th Anniversary
(Anonymous) 2025-06-09 03:15 pm (UTC)(link)I agree that it's nice it doesn't at least take up the same cauldron, yes. If I were to make it more unique, I would have made players play a simple minigame to create some thread (First thing that comes to mind, probably not the best: a game about untangling different colors of yarn, like the mobile games).
OR
Make thread drop from Familiar Bonding, though in that case I would probably overhaul bonding to make it easier.
OR
Add an easter egg hunt mechanic to the site's UI, where you can find "recolor tokens" hidden around sites' pages every 20-30 minutes, that you would trade for recolored items.
Alternatively, forget the thread, and make it the long-awaited bounty NPC that will reward you with "recolor tokens" for completing tasks that you can spend on the new apparel recolors. They don't have to be Coli tasks either, it can be a mix of Pursuits and Coli quests.
Or, even more elegant, put it in Achievements Association for points, and rehaul Pursuits to be more visible/give you notifications (I always forget they exist). I would maybe make the daily pursuits replenishable, so when you do them all, you can keep grinding for more points and buy more recolors. But that wouldn't "feel" like a new feature, innit? Not as Anniversary-worthy.
Lastly, I feel like this whole apparel recolor feature would have been a great fit with Joxar, so maybe introducing an additional feature to his recolor store could have also been a good fit C: It can be available year-round as well.
Anyway, again, these are raw ideas that just came to my mind now, and I don't hate the current feature. As someone mentioned, I wish we could at least transmute junk scenes and vistas, especially since Sophie already isn't picky about item types and transmutes them into only 2 thread types. Nonetheless: YAY HALOS
Re: 12th Anniversary
(Anonymous) 2025-06-09 03:22 pm (UTC)(link)Re: 12th Anniversary
(Anonymous) 2025-06-09 03:56 pm (UTC)(link)Re: 12th Anniversary
(Anonymous) 2025-06-09 04:34 pm (UTC)(link)da
(Anonymous) 2025-06-09 04:45 pm (UTC)(link)>"I would have made players play a simple minigame to create some thread (First thing that comes to mind, probably not the best: a game about untangling different colors of yarn, like the mobile games)."
So either you get limited on how much you can make a day or it is timer based so now not only do I have to come back every 30 min or whatever I also have to play a fucking minigame that's gonna get old fast to get the items.
>"Make thread drop from Familiar Bonding, though in that case I would probably overhaul bonding to make it easier."
Not much of an update just adding them to that pool and you'll be limited to it being a chance like all the other familiar drops or you quickly make the new clothes worth nothing. And get ready for the bond all button suggestions to become even more common.
>"Add an easter egg hunt mechanic to the site's UI, where you can find "recolor tokens" hidden around sites' pages every 20-30 minutes, that you would trade for recolored items."
This is even fucking worse than the minigame suggestion, hunting for shit on the site ui is not fun and it is not screen reader friendly. And once again coming back 20-30 minutes to instead of just do a few clicks you're asking people to do even more tedious drawn out shit.
>"Alternatively, forget the thread, and make it the long-awaited bounty NPC that will reward you with "recolor tokens" for completing tasks that you can spend on the new apparel recolors. They don't have to be Coli tasks either, it can be a mix of Pursuits and Coli quests."
So just more stuff from doing the same pursuits we're already doing, and also already get complained about and coli locked stuff which people will bitch about. Not sounding any better than a reskinned baldwin with better ui to me. What's wrong with her existing and it's just lore flavor for the clothes recolors?
>"Or, even more elegant, put it in Achievements Association for points, and rehaul Pursuits to be more visible/give you notifications (I always forget they exist). I would maybe make the daily pursuits replenishable, so when you do them all, you can keep grinding for more points and buy more recolors. But that wouldn't "feel" like a new feature, innit? Not as Anniversary-worthy."
I wouldn't use elegant here, you mean simple. And people already bitch about all the notifications. So more grinding for people to complain about too and what pursuits can people keep doing all day anyway? None of that seems any better than baldwin 2.
>"Lastly, I feel like this whole apparel recolor feature would have been a great fit with Joxar, so maybe introducing an additional feature to his recolor store could have also been a good fit C: It can be available year-round as well."
I don't want joxar more cluttered than he is already and let him just be a festival dragon.
Could it be more interesting? sure probably somehow, but i dont want it to be more chores or something tedious either. second baldwin like this is at least like having another cauldron and it is easy to slot into my playstyle.
Re: da
(Anonymous) 2025-06-09 05:10 pm (UTC)(link)Ayrt
(Anonymous) 2025-06-09 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)Seriously, My biggest issue was most of it is just throw it into another existing mechanic and claiming it's creative.
Except the mini games, which a portion of the playerbase would have the same issues they have with coli and G&G and the stealing the bullshit Neopets random events/generic site wide Easter egg hunt of games from years ago.
It just proves my theory that the worst person to design a new game feature is any single player. They look at it with their playstyle in my and go "here, it's perfect".
Re: Ayrt
(Anonymous) 2025-06-09 10:17 pm (UTC)(link)There is no game feature/idea that will please every player or work with every playstyle. However, if a thing is appealing to one person, there's a non-zero chance it would appeal to at least some others as well - perhaps even a significant-enough fraction of the playerbase to make it worth implementing. Or perhaps not. Or probably not. But brushing off an idea because "You're only suggesting that because you'd enjoy it"...I don't know, why else does anyone make any suggestions?
Re: 12th Anniversary
(Anonymous) 2025-06-11 11:40 am (UTC)(link)I really don't want a Chickensmoothie event clone.
Re: 12th Anniversary
(Anonymous) 2025-06-11 01:22 pm (UTC)(link)Re: 12th Anniversary
(Anonymous) 2025-06-11 05:22 pm (UTC)(link)Re: 12th Anniversary
(Anonymous) 2025-06-09 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)like granted i don't play tons and tons of games with crafting systems so maybe somebody's come up with something really unique but it kinda feels like there's only a couple of ways to do crafting systems and they all essentially boil down to "trade junk item for material to make cool item" anyway.
like look at Swipp. Swipp is a very simple "trade this amount of specific items to get cool item". Baldwin is "use junk items to make an assortment of other items and then use those items plus an amount of other specific item to get cool item".
there's really no other way to make a crafting system that isn't building on "trade item for other item"? unless you want to get into more convoluted mechanics like that other anon suggested such as adding a mini-game or having to gather items through random site events instead of being able to control how many you can make yourself. and even then it's still "trade item for item".
Sophie is a nice mid-point between Swipp and Baldwin. the item trade you want is always present but she's not as dependent on rng like Baldwin. and she's solely clothing-themed. personally i'd be fine if they moved all of Baldwin's clothing recipes over to her.
players have been asking for years for a "dye mechanic" to make other color variations of existing apparel and this is it. like, given the way fr works there's no way to have a true "dye system" where you can make whatever hex color-based monstrosity you want but this is as close as you can get.
Re: 12th Anniversary
(Anonymous) 2025-06-09 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)I love a good crafting system! Often it's not the physical thing that a player is doing to craft that makes it good, it's like...the surrounding elements.
One thing that can make an engaging crafting system is a set of meaningful choices. Essentially, have players make a choice that has a cost to it and/or establishes part of their identity as a player, so it feels significant. FR is a pretty casual game, so you wouldn't want to be too strict with this.
One way it could look with tailoring specifically is with I dunno like different disciplines or something? You have to choose your clan's tailoring discipline, then the other disciplines are locked out to you (with maybe a gem cost way to switch because, casual game?). They could be maybe dyeing, leatherworking, spinning, weaving, sewing? With the first four crafting their respective materials and the sewing discipline crafting the final apparel. But crucial to systems like this is that the sewing discipline needs the materials from players of the other disciplines. Each discipline could even have their own unique craftable related apparel, like for instance a thread disaster for the spinners, a dragon tangled in thread that got out of control lol.
(I'm just brainstorming based on crafting systems I've experienced in the past, btw, not saying this would even be good, just throwing examples out there.)
Another crafting system I really like is when you don't know the recipes. This really works more for like alchemy type stuff. But I love when players have to throw things together and figure out as a community project what combinations of things make which items. The mystery and discovery makes it so fun!
Re: 12th Anniversary
(Anonymous) 2025-06-10 03:58 am (UTC)(link)players are already frustrated that they have no way to breed dragons of the other 10 elements and complain about grinding mats in less popular coli venues.
you apply that to a system where you can only pick one discipline and have to depend on other players to create the things you need in the other disciplines you're going to get a lot of frustrated players.
one of the things players consistently say they like about fr is barring a few limitations you don't have to interact with anybody if you don't want to. you can completely play fr solo.
a crafting system like that first one you described would totally negate that.
the second system would be less objectionable but i have a feeling a not small number of players wouldn't enjoy not knowing how to get certain items right away.
Da
(Anonymous) 2025-06-10 12:46 pm (UTC)(link)At least there'd be no reason to bot it, but still... Also, with the database usually listing what all items take, how would that work?
Re: Da
(Anonymous) 2025-06-10 04:26 pm (UTC)(link)Ayrt
(Anonymous) 2025-06-10 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)Re: 12th Anniversary
(Anonymous) 2025-06-09 02:58 pm (UTC)(link)Exactly the same, it's Baldwin with a new look, so it feels for me like 'congrats on leveling Baldwin, now do the exact same thing with Sophie'. (Wasn't there already a Sophie NPC? What's the Valentine's day NPC's name?). Players have been asking for a way to reduce vistas and scenes, so there was even a way to include Sophie like Swipp with his daughters.
Re: 12th Anniversary
(Anonymous) 2025-06-09 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)