-LOCKED - Community Update #113!
Posted on 2021-07-09 14:16:12

Community Update
As we mentioned before, aside from event news and the 2nd Friday of the month being focused on coding/art updates all at once, all other Fridays are centered around the community!


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Official Lioden Raffle


LINK - This is our official community update raffle. Everyone gets a chance to win a rare prize, plus something extra for any runner ups. These raffles have a very minimal ticket price, and there is a limit of 1 ticket per account to make it fair! Good luck!
This raffle will automatically end on 2021-07-16 00:00:00.


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Art and Coding Bug Fixes


* Decors on Dorsal Fur pride leader portraits should no longer be flipped
* Fixed a duplicate of "Celadon" that replaced "Tessera" genetics, and thus prohibited any "Dunt" eyes to appear
* Lion Pride Veiled Wraps [Light Blue and Pink] should now display on all lions
* Previously, the Item Catalogue would not search all locations that an item was available in, this has been fixed
* Searching for main males wouldn't sort by level properly, this has been fixed


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Regarding the July Event


Hello, Lioden!

We're just writing this to extend a hand from the devs to the players, and touch base with you all on some of the feedback and comments we've been receiving over the past couple of days.

Retiring the Event


As we mentioned in previous news posts (July 2020, June 2021, and July 2021), the original July event would be retiring this year. We know that July was a very content rich event with lots of things to do. We know that the theme overall is popular, too. We know that by comparison, what launched this month seems less than and that can be a shock. However, all of our events started off launching on a smaller scale and grew over time. This time is no different, but we understand it can be disappointing now that the majority of events have had several years of fleshing out. We really hope you'll be patient with us and be excited to watch it grow.

Because of several years of content additions, in the end the event became messy and disjointed, and we felt it required a complete overhaul. Additionally, we know that the storyline left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths, and as explained, we felt it best to leave these characters behind and move on with new characters. We know that originally it was planned for Tefnut to have a mini backstory, but over time we as devs felt the storyline needed to be put to rest, and so that didn't happen.

We were surprised to see players upset about the removal of the storyline when we had explained it would be retiring, and so few players voiced their upset at this before.

Launching the New Event


Tefnut's memories, in hindsight, shouldn't have launched until the 8th and we apologise for that. Gathering MS which could then be spent there sent the wrong message when the new explore requires the shards to have steps. The apps originally launched in SB prices. After concern started being voiced by players about how cheap they were and the risk it would ruin the market, the prices got upped. This then caused more upset with other players, and the prices were changed to MS. This, then, caused upset again, and it became obvious that all of these choices were wrong. We then moved to remove the apps entirely from the shop and are still considering what to do, but we can promise that the apps will not return for a MS price, and more likely to be reverted to either SB, AC, or the option for both.

The new MS output is intentional because the event has changed. However, we listened to you all and gave an increase so you'd be able to get more steps in celestial explore.

Back to the celestial explore. We've seen comments voiced that it's too similar to the lunar event on Wolvden and that's upsetting, but we think considering it's an explore system, it is impossible not to see similarities between our other games and events. We will however consider the feedback for this, and look to see if we can do anything about this.

With regards to the enemies - they have more 'special' components than regular enemies, such as some of them having soft skin, some having tough, some being biters or stranglers, etc etc, but their overall 'power' is still lower than most enemies. In fact, it's lower than fighting regular lions in explore, though it likely feels different because they have more components and you have to work out what their strengths and weaknesses are. Additionally, we actually lowered this again after your feedback. Success rates were pretty good in testing as well, even with low stat kings.

To Sum Up


We hope you guys will agree that whilst we might not get everything right to begin with, we have a good track record of doing what we can to make it right. Any time event tiers have been too high or seeming unfair, we have moved to change them or lower them for better balance. We don't do things just to upset players - what would the point of that be? We're trying our best, and sometimes we don't always get it right first time, but we endeavour to make sure we do what we can to *put* it right.

We'd just like to formally apologise for all the ups and downs over the past few days. There have been a lot of quick fire changes. A lot of upset forum posts, news comments and chat posts. We don't anticipate to make any further changes this year beyond one or two more tweaks and hope that things will settle, but we're taking everything on board for next year.

Thank you for your patience, and we appreciate the valuable feedback you have given.

* We have adjusted "empty" explore encounters in Celestial Explore to now reward between 5-10 Meteorite Shards or 1 Axion Core at random.

Feedback and Surveys


In light of recent events, we have chosen to be more strict in our enforcement of attacks on our staff team. The attacks on our staff team and comments directed at them have been unacceptable, cruel, and without constructive criticism. These attacks not only harm our staff team, but our players as well—we have received feedback that players have been afraid to give their opinions in the chat room and on the forums due to the fear of being turned on by their fellow players with these same attacks. Due in part to this, we have found it necessary to follow with the enforcement of limiting attacks on our staff team. These are not new rules, these are existing rules that are currently enforced within the Code of Conduct.

To offset this, we will also be introducing greater chances of feedback so that every voice can be heard. Today, we are introducing a new way for you to give us your feedback - anonymous surveys. These surveys are here to provide an equal opportunity for players to provide feedback, and allow all voices a chance to contribute to the game's growth. They will offer a safe way for everyone to be heard, and will be everyone's first and best place to supply their thoughts in a constructive way without fear of being criticised.

We have created a survey to receive feedback from everyone regarding July's event update, and the link can be found here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeL-aPtccdpLklsQ0C-V2oHbcBUrhy5spza1CT_Ga65Aarvmw/viewform


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Raffle Lioness


Congrats Karina (#212267)! You have won last week's Ebony lady, woo!
A new Madagascar lady with Clay Indri (NEW!), Vitiligo 8, and the thirteenth Shores of Burundi background is up for impressing in the Special Lioness area linked here!

Marking Note: Lilac Crackle, Noctis Indri, and Noctis Panther are now possible to apply via RMAs/Total Shuffle!

Poll Results - Thanks for your votes! August's new stud base will be named "Bandit".

There is no new poll this week, in light of the survey. We'd like the focus to be on the survey if possible.


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Next Development Update: August 13th!


No Friday goofy doodle comic this week, sorry!



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Cj 🌈 (#174601)

King of the Jungle
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Posted on
2021-07-09 16:28:48
This ^^^^^



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Also Perseflora (G2
TDL Harle) (#213947)


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Posted on
2021-07-09 16:30:15
😂 What you're describing is grinding. I don't have to explain my
opinion to you when loads of other people understand what I meant just fine. I'm saying it's very clear they're catering to people who pay to play and making the game more inaccessible for those who don't. It's great you can save up and spend on Black Friday - not all of us can. But whether I can or can't, I'm allowed to be frustrated that it's now expected of me to buy GB to earn enough rewards to buy the apps that in other years were plenty easy accessible. I'm not sure what you're failing to understand here. Some of us don't have hours to spend collecting and selling food and toys for measly amounts of SB, especially when they released the apps for 10k, even the basic storyline ones. So yes, they expected us to cash out. Calling them out on that isn't being nasty. I did it in a respectful way that stated my disappointment with their decision.



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Edited on 09/07/21 @ 16:32:28 by Also Perseflora (G3 Sutekh) (#213947)

oliver! [G2 🥧] (#163090)

Interstellar
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Posted on
2021-07-09 16:33:07
jupe (#218656) they will not be for meteorite shards, they will either be for sb or ac

also i apologize if my earlier responses came off as blunt, i have a difficult time putting emotion into my words and i say what's on my mind. i didn't see any negative comments wishing harm on the mods, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. if it did happen, then those users need to be dealt with accordingly instead of making a big deal about it in the news



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Also Perseflora (G2
TDL Harle) (#213947)


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Posted on
2021-07-09 16:34:25
Furthermore I don't know how they can claim to be surprised people are relating the celestial explore to the lunar explore feature on Wolvden when they're practically identical. I expressed my disappointment in the greedy nature of those events and left Wolvden thinking Lioden would stay Lioden - so far this does little to prove that.



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persephone [main] (#194433)


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Posted on
2021-07-09 16:35:53
Thank you to the administrative team, we know you guys are working your hardest and we really appreciate it! can't wait to see how the event changes and develops over the years! Props to you guys, we thank you for everything you do!



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Adi [Cimmerian 👑] (#195501)

Protector
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Posted on
2021-07-09 16:41:24
Agree totally with Dante and Perseflora.

Like others I also feel like the survey results need to be made public. Part of the reason for so many requesting polls was for community transparency. So much of this could have been avoided with preemptive community feedback.



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Dante (#200112)

Notable Lion
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Posted on
2021-07-09 16:42:43
@Adi

I wasn’t even thinking about that, but that’s an absolutely genius idea. Staff-player discussions are great, but player-player discussions regarding staff are what ensures they keep up their end of the bargain.



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mumble ☾ g1 nrlc (#56246)

Spicy
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Posted on
2021-07-09 16:44:59
Thank you staff for doing your best no matter what. Y’all are great. Sorry some people suck.



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Oblivions [G1 BO
Majivu] (#99583)

Recognizable
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Posted on
2021-07-09 16:52:13
I appreciate the updates to help balance the event thus far and the survey to consider everyone's opinions, not just the loudest people's. Hopefully it gives good insight into what the community (as a whole) is feeling. Also, the entire point of the survey is to be anonymous so players can share their thoughts with the devs and don't have to have player-to-player communication that they don't want. Player-to-player discussions regarding staff sounds like a breeding ground for hate and bashing and overall a bad idea in my opinion.

It's important to remember that the owners of Lioden are real people who work very hard to provide a fun game for us and they are most definitely not obligated to follow every demand of the player base, especially when there are a lot of snarky and generally disrespectful comments. They do not have any kind of "deal" to uphold. I would definitely not be inclined to listen to people who are being passive-aggressive and hostile towards something I was proud of and excited about. I'm glad that they have listened and adjusted the event even though it's only been two days. This event will be awesome in the years to come when more content is added.

There is literally no way everyone can be happy. Some people enjoy the challenge, others want everything to be easy. At the end of the day, Lioden is a pet sim and nobody's making you play it. If you're unhappy with it you're free to not participate in the event or stop playing and find another game that suits you better. The devs should not have to cater to everyone's personal wishes, it's their game and they should be able to implement their ideas without being bashed for every single thing they do. I can only imagine how exhausting it is to wake up every day and see people throwing fits about what you did with your own game.

I agree constructive criticism and offering solutions is fine and should be welcomed, but the key is constructive. Posting passive-aggressive comments or spewing that you hate the event and everything that's changed and this isn't what anyone wanted isn't helpful and is just creating resentment and an awfully toxic environment. Instead maybe provide what you want to see or offer solutions to problems you see instead of leaving it at nothing but complaints and bashing. Really disappointing to see how unhelpful and unapologetic people can be online, and it seems to be getting more frequent. :(

I'm hoping with some more minor adjustments and time people will calm down. Thanks to devs, coders, artists, writeres, and mods for working to get this event out and dealing with the hot mess that followed. Have a nice weekend and go treat yoselves.



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❄️Snowbird🎱G1
Ogdoad Pie (#154474)

Holy
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Posted on
2021-07-09 16:52:22
I appreciate having a form to give anonymous feedback. I hope it gives the staff useful information! I just wanted to say one thing here as a thank you to the staff, about something that was done here that I felt was very well done!

The deployment of this first stage of the event overhaul did have its problems, but I deeply appreciated how quickly the staff responded to say that they were listening to our reactions. In every situation I've had similar to this in other games or communities, it helped tremendously when staff said "thanks, we hear that you're upset and we're discussing what to do" when people were reacting negatively to a new change or policy, and when there was radio silence from the staff of that game or site, it made me feel more frustrated about the situation. I know it's on me to act appropriately to the other real people who are working on something, and I know that speaking up like that does put an extra demand on staff to figure out a way to say "we hear you" that doesn't promise something prematurely, but at least in my experience, I feel a lot better about it when I know I've been heard and it seems many others do too. So thank you very much for doing that! Not that I expect or want a repeat of this (lol not at all), but if something like this happened again in the future, I hope staff does the same thing to let us know quickly that we're heard! Thank you!

EDIT: I also want to add that I don't think staff owes me the publication of the survey results, but it would be very nice to get a summary at a later time, something like a post saying "a significant majority of you said you really liked the theme and artwork, and the most common complaint was about currency drop rates." It's nice to be able to recalibrate my expectations by matching them to a userbase survey. It helps me answer my own question of "is my opinion so loud because it's the popular one, or just because the people who share it are the most likely to speak up about it, or is it both, or neither?" After all, the people most likely to fill out surveys are the ones who have strong feelings one way or another! But I also respect if the staff chooses not to publish the results, because that would also be more work to write up a post to report them and then moderate the responses. I appreciate that you took the time to set up the survey in the first place, I imagine it's going to be a lot of work to go through any written feedback from the text portion of the survey.



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Edited on 09/07/21 @ 17:00:23 by Snowbird❄️G2 cracked ice (#154474)

VoidedGalaxies (#232708)

Usual
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Posted on
2021-07-09 16:57:08
Excited for the new feedback! I love space and dragons so this'll be a fun event either way and I am excited to see it grow.

The only thing I am worried about is since the survey isn't tied to an account, there is nothing to stop someone (or many someone's) just answering over and over to skew results.



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RedRarebit (#33862)

Aztec Knight
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Posted on
2021-07-09 17:03:09
It is tied to an account - you have to be signed into your google account to answer it, and it only lets you answer it once. (Though I suppose you could make tons of google accounts but I have no idea how long that would take lmao)

And re: Publicising the results -- all the answers will still be anonymous, obviously! But we do deserve to see what the results are, instead of just being told what the results are with no way to verify it. Otherwise anyone could make anything up XD



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Edited on 09/07/21 @ 17:03:36 by Rarebit (#33862)

Oblivions [G1 BO
Majivu] (#99583)

Recognizable
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Posted on
2021-07-09 17:08:23
Oh I see, I agree with that! I just don't agree that player-player discussions are good/have been good the past couple days because most people will not participate since they're anticipating being attacked by the more outspoken or passionate players. The survey will be a good way to get responses from everyone, even the quieter people. c:

also Snowbird you wrote that all beautifully, same brainwave



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Edited on 09/07/21 @ 17:09:46 by Oblivions [G1 3x Ros Haze] (#99583)

Moony the 2nd-G2
Noctis Ferus (#108860)

Maneater
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Posted on
2021-07-09 17:24:21
@Also Perseflora

Uh... no. Every event on this game has apps that are bought with event currency. Most event currency requires you to grind as they can only be obtained through fighting or walking around in the explore. Last month's event required you to battle for event beetles. The Halloween event is the exact same way so this is no different. A lot of the events do this.
I'm a non-paying player and have been playing Lioden for almost 6 years. I never had an issue obtaining enough event currency to buy the stuff I want and I don't play every day. I don't grind every day to get stuff. This game is nowhere near as grindy as Wolvden. I never felt Lioden was unfair to me (unlike Wolvden). Buying GB to resell for SB is not the only way to get SB. If you do that, that's on you- not the game. They're not forcing you to get the apps.

They just upped the number of shards you can get and changed it to where you can get cores just by walking around. That's good! They also made the enemies a little easier. The new event is rough around the edges but it's not a grind-fest. Using AC to buy apps is the best choice because it's fair. It would be similar to angelic feathers and demonic scales in the Halloween event, currencies that you have to fight enemies for. If they used MS the price would have to be really high since MS are very easy to get. It's even easier now. With shards, it would be too easy and it would diminish the value of the apps because people would buy so many of them and flood the market. Think about the brawl apps during the May event and how they're pretty much worthless because they're too easy to get in bulk. As someone who makes all of her GB money by selling apps, these apps need to remain a little hard to obtain to keep their value. Not impossible, just hard.

You are entitled to your opinion. We all are. I'm allowed to reply and explain why I don't agree, just like how that other person who "unnessacarily @ you" was.

Edit: So do you just want stuff handed to you? It's a game. You EARN stuff. Almost everything about the game requires time and some grind. This game does not cater at all to paying players. Not one bit. If it did, I would've quit a long time ago. How is using in-game methods to obtain SB a bad thing? That's the name of the game! You sell lions to get in-game currency to buy more lions. That's the goal, at least it is for me. Especially since SB is really easy to get with the Monkey Business. It doesn't take that much time to get a bunch of skulls from the explore, sell them in bulk at the MB, and receive hundreds to thousands of SB. That was how I made my money early on without spending a single cent. Hell, it's still one of the ways I get quick cash.

I'm with the other person here. I don't understand why playing the game the way it's meant to be played is a bad thing.



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Edited on 09/07/21 @ 17:34:06 by Moony the 2nd (Ebony Breeder) (#108860)

Also Perseflora (G2
TDL Harle) (#213947)


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Posted on
2021-07-09 17:30:06
If y'all are content to grind, just say that.



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