Name: LexophServer: 11Game: Haypi MonsterA thorough investigation of Haypi Monsters' features
I have endeavoured to discuss aspects of the game below. I purposely did not outline the features in the same way that everyone did by creating a column for what is liked, another for what is disliked and a third for improvements. Instead, I opted to discuss each in detail. I have identified the attraction, flaws and improvements each feature have/should have. I discussed my thoughts on each as well.
I hope that these suggestions are considered!
Main Features
GraphicsThe graphics are of high quality. This is the reason why I started to play this game. I was constantly searching for games that offer an excellent visual display for the players. I believe that is of paramount importance for a game to capture someone's attention on the first glance. Having excellent graphics would certainly help with this. I am sure that I am not the only person whose first criterion is this when searching for a new game! However, there are still some features that can be improved. I believe that the interface for the map and the main page (after clicking start) can be improved. At the moment, it is, undoubtedly, acceptable but I find that there are some inconsistencies. There certainly can be more improvements but what is available now is acceptable.
Not Pay-to-Play GameAnother reason why I started to play this game is because I am not obliged to pay to start playing the game. I think that this is a very attractive aspect of the game and should certainly not be changed. After all, the consumer should be able to test the game out before paying!
(I have more opinions diverting from this which are outlined in sections below.)
Continuous Game-playSome game apps need the players to wait quite a long time to progress through the game. One of the benefits of this game is that it gives the players a number of things to do, such as PvP and training in dungeons(maps), as well as give them something to look forward to - using a timer. Namely, these features with cool-downs include the team modes, breeding, monster training and the daily reset.
Although I praised the game for having PvP and other features for continuous game-play, there certainly should be more of them. I do think that the PvP alone would make the time pass by but since there is a limit to it - which is not being able to face bots after 2000 PvP Weekly points - there needs to be another outlet in which the players should be able to spend their time on, if they wish to.
An idea that I have for this is the guilds/clans idea, which is discussed in detail towards the end of this report.
Unfair Advantage to VIPs (4th Slot Monster)One of the features of this game that I mentioned was that it was a free-to-play game. However, players who are not able to spend even a single dollar(or whatever their specific currency is) has a distinct disadvantage of only having 3 monsters. The players are not obliged to pay for this but to progress any further in the game, they would need to have the 4th monster as facing one with it is going to be an almost insurmountable task. I have made a few friends in the game who had lost motivation to keep playing as a result of this.
Lack of Players on Certain ServersI understand your reason as to create multiple servers. However, in some of the servers, there is a lack of players - which leads to a lack of competition and, eventually, motivation for players to keep going in the game. A suggestion that I have been notified with is the merging of some of the servers. I would certainly agree to this. Merging the servers will create more competition for the players and this will motivate them to play and pay more in order to catch up to those at the top.
This will also make the chat livelier. This will be beneficial since it will allow the newer players to get help much quicker and would also convey a sense of a community. Having someone to talk to most of the time will let the players play for longer as they don't get bored while playing.
Having more players in the servers certainly has numerous advantages.
AvatarsI do not want to sound rude but my avatar has a weird nose. I don't like how our avatars look at the moment and this is one of the first features that I wanted to be changed when I first started playing. I think that every player should be able to customize their avatar. There can be a feature where we can customize the clothes, facial features, skin colour, etc.! The items may even be rewarded from the wheels or elsewhere. This is another milestone that players would want to achieve - to get the best possible clothes for their avatars.
SupportNo matter what anyone says, the company is listening to the complaints of the players as they are implementing changes and fixes to bugs and errors that were put forward by the players. However, the support needs to be increased if the game will progress. I see a number of staff members offering help in the forums but I believe that there should be more support for the bugs. The support button should be easier to find in-game so players won't be further frustrated trying to find it.
I recently encountered an error where I purchased coins and my payment was deducted from my account but I didn't receive the coins. We were told that the support staff are not available during the weekends but it is highly frowned upon to have no one working to help the players during the weekends - especially last weekend, when there was a coin sale. It is not acceptable that players have to wait days before getting a response, especially if it involves real life currency. There needs to be at least 1 support staff working on the weekends so as to provide a solution to this problem. This particular issue relating to real life currency is critical. It is paramount that these issues are solved as soon as possible.
I do admire the support staff as they are very professional in helping players in the forum but there should be more of them.
UpdatesI commend the company for listening to the players and applying bug fixes as soon as possible. However, with regards to maintenances for bug fixes and tweaks, there should be an early enough notice for these. I am not condoning making these less frequently now, as we are certainly getting happier and happier that the bugs are fixed as soon as possible, but there should be a couple of hours notice for this.
The maintenances are more frequent and this is a good thing and should not be stopped.
I am sure that I speak for everyone when I say that we are always eagerly awaiting the release of the next versions. I hope they keep on coming! We need the game to keep progressing as this game has a lot of prospects.
ForumI absolutely love the forums. I think it is a great way to converse with other players in other servers about game strategies, hints, advices, problems, etc. I like that the events are requiring the players to use the forum. However, I believe that the company should try to divert more players into the forum. The forum button should be much more visible.
I think that a lot of players would benefit from visiting the forums and reading what other players has to say. It should be more emphasized on the events description - e.g. adding a link to the forum every time at the start to make the players more aware. The link should be embellished to attract the players' attentions.
The forum is a great conveyor of news and other useful information about the game as well as being a place to seek help and support. It should be used by many more players.
Monsters
GeneralI love the monsters in this game. I am a collector by nature and it is certainly an objective of mine to capture these monsters. The variety in the monsters is excellent and the community is eagerly anticipating the release of many more monsters (and types!).
Breeding and SynthesisThese two features of the game are very innovative. I don't have any improvements that I can offer to these as I believe that these are working properly and that no one should have a problem with them.
Some players are facing some problem with acquiring silver to fund these two features but I believe that it should take a lot of resources to create excellent monsters.
Monster SortingThe current monster sorting is acceptable but it's still not optimal as, especially for those who have hundreds of monsters, it is extremely hard to track down specific monsters. There should be other ways of organizing the monsters such as: by name, by level, by rank (legendary, epic, rare, etc.), by stats, etc. I know that I am not the only one that have accidentally sacrificed a monster or have taught a skill to the wrong monster from this issue. Although the current version is acceptable this suggestion will be favoured by everyone.
TrainingAt the moment, there should be a way of having all the training slots activate with just one button. This is not because it is a pain having to click 4/8 buttons when you have 4 training slots (although it will help!) but it is because of the notifications. It is quite annoying getting 4 different notifications - especially if they are consecutive. There should only be 1 notification for the first training completed since the user has not played the game. Another should appear only after the user has entered the game and has, therefore, paid notice to the notification.
The cost needs to be lowered as well. Some players have an almost unlimited amount of silver that they don't even have to worry about it anymore but the majority does not. With training costing approximately 4000 silver for each slot every 4 hours, it is not possible for players to breed and synthesize monsters. The amount of features that require so much silver is simply not possible for most players. The solution for this would be to decrease the training costs - but not by a lot! They just need to be reduced down by 25% or so and this will have an impact. Some players may argue that there is the free one for 10 minutes but when you are at school, college, work, etc. it will be a waste of time not using up the ones you have to pay for.
Another addition to the training may be to display the monster you trained on the slot that you trained it on. This is not a big issue but a useful one, nonetheless.
Cost of Monsters Obtained Using GoldAlthough I did pay for another Skelly, I feel that having to pay $100 for 1 monster is too much. I don't know of any other game that needs this much just for 1 monster. I think reducing these by at least half will yield more income for the company and puts a smile on more player faces. I really do feel that these are overpriced.
Monster EXPAt the moment, I really do feel that getting to level 50 takes way too long. I do have a monster or two at level 50 but the amount of time and resources needed for this was way too much. It doesn't need to be a big decrease. I would say even a 10% decrease would make a lot of the players happy. At this moment, it takes way too long to get to 50 and players are becoming fearful that their level 50 monsters would be superseded when the next version comes out.
Intelligence of MonstersThere is a great debate on whether or not the intelligence of the monsters should be changed. Making them really smart will make PvP a lot harder but the ladders would be a bit more exciting. The monsters in the dungeon maps will also get much harder - the fine balance for the intelligence still needs to be met. However, one thing that I want to be added is the use of healing moves in ladder. I pride myself in adding healing moves to my monsters and I feel that this is a waste of a move slot in ladders when they are never used (anymore). Other than this, I can't suggest other improvements as we have to leave it up to you to get the balance on the knowledge of the monsters. It really is a hard task but experimentation is a good way to solve this - analyze a few battles.
There will always be pros and cons to the tweaking of the bot intelligence.
Skills and Talents
Ambiguous DetailsOne of the more common complaints in the 'Bugs' section of the forum is the topic of the usage of the skill not complying with the description provided. There are a lot of features of the game that convey ambiguous details. They confuse and frustrate the players. There needs to be a better description to skills, talents, etc. in order for the players to be more informed about them. I don't mind helping with these questions but it would certainly be a big help to everyone if even some of the more ambiguous descriptions are cleared up.
Skills - GeneralThere is a variety of skills available for the monsters and this is certainly one of the reasons why the game is as popular as it is. Players are able to create strategies with them. I am also a fan of the skill effects as they are aesthetically appealing.
One suggestion that I have with regards to skills, which is brought up by a number of players as well, is that there should be unique skills for each monsters. The reason why I am bringing this up is so less-used monsters would have more usages. It would be an excellent idea to create unique skills for each monster and have it be learned at a higher level, let's say level 40. It should be an option to learn this skill and should act like a skill book - in the sense that the user can place it anywhere he/she pleases once the monster hits the required level. I am also suggesting it this way as I know that naturally-learned moves will not be learned any more if the monster is taught a skill in the supposed slot for the move. This way, the monsters will always have a chance to learn this skill - but only if the player allows it ONLY when the monster hits the necessary level.
Another suggestion would be to include different moves to be learned by each evolution of monsters. This is going to be a challenge as it will be hard to raise a 1st stage evolution to level 40 (or whichever level is required).
This idea may also be incorporated into an event, where the company will host a challenge to players to create unique moves for each monster. They may choose the monster they want to create the move for and the best ones will get chosen. Less popular monsters should be emphasized as well as the majority of the players would most likely only create moves for the monster they want. To encourage players to create moves for less popular monsters - give an extra incentive!
Players should only have 10 maximum (or even 5) suggestions.
I am sure that you will get a lot of participants from this event!
Detailed Monster StatsI think that the community would benefit from seeing the dodge rate, critical rate and aim rate of the monsters. I don't know if they are all the same for all the monsters and if they are, there should be a statement saying that they are as some players feel that some monsters have higher dodge rates, etc. than others, from their experiences.
These may be added as a 'second page' behind the attack, defence, etc. stats of the monsters - if they are not the same for each monster. A new dimension to game play would be added if these are not the same as before as well.
Mystery TalentsThis is an excellent, excellent addition to game play. Before this was introduced, everyone relied only on certain monsters to win against pretty much everyone. These talents add more dimensions to the game. An improvement that I would like to see is the balance of the acquisition of these skills. I know for sure that it is not the same percentage for each skill. For example, even though I bred more than 50 Neons and used 15+ Ultimate Rune Gems on one Neon, I still haven't gotten an Adaptability Neon. I think that it would be a good idea making these the same for each of the talents of the monster - if a monster has 3 available talents, these should have 33% each.
Also, adding more talents would add more dimensions to game play so this will certainly not have an adverse effect.
I also want to add that - similar to my suggestion for the prize wheel - when using a rune, it shouldn't allow for the same skill to be acquired. I feel that this is the irritating aspect of mystery talents and this will certainly solve a lot of issues. I am suggesting for it to not land on the same talent for that spin only. It should be able to land on a previous talent if it's not the same as the current one, if the player does changes his/her mind afterwards.
WeatherSimilar to mystery talents, the weather adds a new dimension to game play. Players are now building teams around certain weathers and I think that this gives a more balanced system. I wouldn't mind getting a weather for Psychic, Ghost and Normal-type monsters, though! I would say that Psychic Field, Darkness and Clear weather, respectively, would be good names but some may have better ideas. I think that the effects shouldn't just add extra attack to the types but other innovative ones.
Items
InventoryBefore, I was quite angry about the lack of bag spaces but I think that the current (free) number of slots is enough. I think further decreasing the payment for more spaces is going to benefit the company, as well as the players. This is more of a necessity rather than a giveaway since there is numerous skill books that everyone would like to hold onto for the right monsters. The inventory should not be a big and constant problem for the players, in my opinion.
Prize WheelThis is the biggest issue everyone has. Landing on the same space even after numerous spins is what frustrates most players. I, myself, had to spin for more than 10 times - just to land on an item I don't want/need before giving up. The real solution that I can see is that players shouldn't be able to land on the same tile in the wheel. This will solve everyone's problems. It is extremely frustrating to have to spend a lot of real-life money to not even be guaranteed something you want. With the advanced book chests not appearing as often, it won't be as problematic as it won't be like everyone would get the advanced moves every time. I honestly do feel that this is an excellent compromise for the players and the company and if I have only one of my suggestions implemented, this is the one I want to be implemented. I am very passionate about this idea.
A suggestion to make it even more of a win-win situation is to increase the payment after the first by 4 gold coins each time, instead of 2. This is a carefully-thought of answer as it is high enough to give a significant increase in the percentage of the revenue of the company but also not high enough that will discourage the players to stay away from re-spinning. I tried to find a balance between these to satisfy both parties and I believe that this is that balance.
I have created a thread regarding this idea and have received numerous supporting responses:
Thread CrystalsWith regards to crystals, I feel that these should drop more regularly from battles, rather than being on the wheel. In days when we just cannot spend hours farming for these, it is just way too much. I can't afford to lose those 2 extra Expert mode challenges so I think it would be a good idea to reward this more often after battles. Players will, or rather shouldn't, complain since selling these won't take more than a few seconds and they will be rewarded with silver.
Removing these from the wheel will also make a lot of the players happy as a lot are complaining about seeing too many crystals from Veteran/Expert/Team mode wheels.
Miscellaneous
Daily QuestsI think these are okay for now but I would redirect back to the issue of the crystals, as I discussed above.
Player ChatI do like the player chat now but I believe that it can be further ameliorated by adding more interactive emoticons, images, etc. I believe that the chat adds enjoyment to players. When they are bored, they can just chat with other players and making the chat much more dynamic will add more flair to conversations and allow for very interesting topics!
I think that it would also be a good idea to add notifications when a friend of a player logs in or out. At the moment, the only way to check it is to go through your friends list, which will take a number of clicks as well. This list does not update instantaneously (from my experience) as well so this notification will definitely be helpful.
PvPI feel that the PvP system is stable and balanced. It is certainly a nice idea making the monsters' level the same. I do not have a problem with this feature at the moment and I think that the players really are enjoying this feature, ever since version 1.2 came out. Players are enjoying the challenges posed by the AI. However, one improvement that can certainly be implemented is the availability of opponents when the PvP Weekly Points of a player goes above 2000. At this point, a player will not encounter bots anymore. Therefore, it is a tough challenge to find players to battle with and against when the server barely has any PvP players during your play time. I think that bringing back the difficult monsters that were introduced at the very start of the release of version 1.2 would be a good solution to this problem. It is not always possible for players to find another player so it is good to keep fighting bots - just make them much, much harder for higher PvP points. Players relish the challenges posed by these tough bots. This will especially useful now since when your PvP Weekly Points is too high even normal players, who have low points, can't even face you now.
However, apart from this problem, the PvP arena is doing okay!
Clans/GuildsThis feature is another that, I personally feel, must be added. These days, players have their 'dailies' to do - which include finishing the daily quests, completing their Expert/Veteran mode challenges and collecting the daily free items. After this, a player may play PvP or train the monsters. However, most just stop playing for the day after. I think that adding a clan or a guild system will encourage players to play a lot more.
A clan or a guild will consist of a group of players who can chat with each other through a dedicated clan/guild chat. There would also be clan/guild wars were players can fight against a group of players from another clan. There should be rewards for whoever wins but also for those that lose. Awarding Honor points would be a good idea as long as there are more items/monsters available to be purchased through Honor points. There may also be other events such as who can level up a monster to a certain level, etc. first in the clan itself for other exciting adventures. There really is a lot that can be done with this idea.
The only problem I can see with this at the moment is the fact that we don't have enough players in each server to make this viable. If we make it so that clans from different servers can battle each other, then, it would add a certain mystery to the battles and, definitely, make this idea viable. Merging servers, as I suggested above, will also make this idea work.
I believe that this should be the next big feature to be added. We need this feature more than we need newer types and more monsters (although, we do need more of those as well). I believe that this type of game would benefit severely from this type of feature and it will be a waste not to add this as soon as possible, when it's viable.
Events
I am sure that everyone is enjoying the events that Haypi is hosting for now. Therefore, I would like more events to be added. Below are just a few suggestion for current events and for future events.
LotteryThe lottery is an excellent addition to the game but I do feel that it is better to add it in-game - as in the players choose numbers and enter them into a ticket. They can, then, submit the ticket and when the results come out on Tuesday, the prizes are rewarded. The way it is now is certainly not a problem but this may be changed to my suggestion as well - so there would be less of a need to read thousands of replies!
TournamentsThere can also be tournaments! There should be a tournament where some x number of players can sign up on and they would battle in PvP. The next day (or week), the winners battle and so on -until there is a champion.
Another suggestion for tournaments would be that players need to meet a certain set of guidelines for their monsters and they would need to fight bots when they are ready. The rounds would last for a day or so. The requirements would be harder and harder until there is only a few players left - who will, then, be given the prizes.
These are just some suggestions but there can be a lot more!
PlotsAnother excellent idea that I have is the idea of plots!
A plot is basically an event that will require the players to complete various challenges. At the end, players are rewarded with currency for a specific shop that only sells items for the currency from the plot. The items sold may range from jellies, which should not cost a lot, to advanced skills books and epic monsters, which should be the top prizes.
The players are rewarded the currency based on their contribution for the plot. They may be required to fight a bot whose monsters are the 'bad guys' for the plot.
Then, there may also be a boss, which will have a lot of HP. The players will work together to bring this monster down.***
There can also be a step where players will need to solve puzzles, like a mini-game! There can be sudoku-like problems, hunting problems, jigsaw puzzles, etc.!
They can also be required to create/acquire a specific monster, i.e. an Antee with certain attack and defence stats.
There will be a lot of challenges that will last for a certain x number of days for the plot, which will last for a month.
This is a very exciting idea and will have all the players on their toes for each step needed - every day of the event! They will relish what unique items/monsters are available in the plot shop at the end, which should be available from that shop. This rewards loyal players of the game. There should only be very few of these a year.
I really believe in this idea and I know that this will get everyone excited.
Bosses*** - As I suggested as one of the challenges for the plots above, the idea of bosses may also be implemented as a separate event.
There can be an event where players would join together to bring down a monster that has a lot of hit points (HP). Afterwards, the players are rewarded with prizes based on the contribution they have had.
I believe that players should only have a set amount of attacks available every day during the event - in order for the best players to not all have the best prizes.
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Just as a concluding remark, I urge you to consider these suggestions - particularly that which I suggested for the prize wheel.