Making Costs for Breeders A Bit Lower

[Tressa Beaumont]

(02-10-2014 05:36 AM)Tad Carlucci Wrote:  The best storage is an alt's Cattery. Cats in inventory can be lost. Cats in the Cattery, by definition, can never be. Just don't purchase food for the alt. You won't forget the cats because KittyCatS will annoy you, twice-daily, about the lack of food in the alt's Cattery.

Auto break up on Menagerie can never be added. If it were, ALL breakups would be free: simply send a partner to the Menagerie then pull it back. Why purchase a break-up tonic when resurrection is free?

Maybe i was unlucky then, because initially i did menagerie the partner, but missed her so i brought her back, and no break up was effected at all by this ;/

[Tad Carlucci]

Not unlucky. That's the way it's supposed to be. If it were otherwise, there would be no point to auto re-partner and the sale of break-up juice.

[Kayla Woodrunner]

I thought sending a kitty to menagerie was permanent and you cannot bring it back. So you can bring it back?

I agree break up should be free if a kitty goes to menagerie. People will continue to buy breakup potions for other reasons -- they might get another kitty and decide that they want to partner an already partnered kitty to the new kitty. They could be friends with someone who wants to have a onetime kitten with their kitty. They made a mistake and partnered automatically by mistake. All kinds of reasons for the break up lotion besides the partnered went to menagerie.

Maybe a deeper discount for greater amounts of food for breeders that have larger numbers of cats. There already is a discount at 10 and 20 levels but maybe a deep deep discount for 50 or 100 kibbles and milk. Also deeper discounts for higher volume like a 20 to 50 package kits of 5% or 10% love potions, catnaps.

The thing, though, is that kittycats straddle the line of hobby and business. Most things that straddle that line even in rl usually result in a loss and it is a small percentage of folks that break even or make a profit. In RL, buying in great volume to cut costs or shopping around for prices is one way. As kittycats is a monopoly, shopping for price is out. But maybe they could have a special store for breeders where people can buy packages of food, milk and vitamins in packages of 25, 50, 100 and 250 at correspondingly deeper discounts.

Deeper discounts will probably mean people will just buy more kitty pairs and buy more food because how much they spend will probably stay at the same levels that they are currently at unless their RL finances change. So I don't think anybody is going to really save money but they will feel like they have and feel like there is stronger support for breeders. The breeders store could also have a large meeting room that people can hold classes in like the builders brewery -- for example in how to make collars, clothes, link kittycat animations to beds and catposts and other things so that people can start creating more auxiliary items for the casual owners of kittycats. And sales classes for newbie sellers and marketing classes on how to bring people to your store. People could also be allowed to use the room for their breeding classes. They could also sell items there just for breeders (like a calculator where you input how many cats you have and how much food you need for 2 weeks because I seriously miscalculated).

Kittycats also needs to continue to make enough of a profit that they continue to upgrade programming, animations, new breeds, support tickets, etc or they will disappear as other breedables have. Their primary income comes from food, milk and vitamins from what I can see because if people get into kittycats, their purchases of kitties is probably going to be 80% or more within the secondary markets (auctions, bidboards, stores, private transactons). So discounts in food, milk and vitamins are probably limited by those needs because we don't know how much support staff there is in the background and how many are being paid in RL money.

Anyway that's my 2 cents (or 2 quarters)

[Tad Carlucci]

Why in the world would anyone pay to for a break up potion if it's provided free? Change your mind?

If the suggestion goes in to effect:

Option 1: Send one partner to the Menagerie, the partnership ends, run to the main store and get a FREE Menagerie Magic Bottle, pull that (now former) partner back from the Menagerie.

Option 2: Go to the main store, purchase a break-up potion (it is NOT free) and use it.

You need to run to the main store in either case. So the difference is use a FREE Magic Bottle or PURCHASE a Break-Up Potion.

OK. Sure, there will be some few who would rather pay than do it for free. But I'd be willing to bet they'd be few and far between.

As I see it KittyCatS only has three viable options:

Option 1: Eliminate the Magic Bottle entirely. Ignore the complaints.

Option 2: Create two classes of Menagerie cats. If you send a partnered cat in, you CANNOT retrieve it using a Magic Bottle. Ignore the complaints.

Option 3: Leave things as they are and ignore the complaints.

[Kayleigh McMillan]

(02-10-2014 11:55 AM)Kayla Woodrunner Wrote:  ...

Kittycats also needs to continue to make enough of a profit that they continue to upgrade programming, animations, new breeds, support tickets, etc or they will disappear as other breedables have. Their primary income comes from food, milk and vitamins from what I can see because if people get into kittycats, their purchases of kitties is probably going to be 80% or more within the secondary markets (auctions, bidboards, stores, private transactons). So discounts in food, milk and vitamins are probably limited by those needs because we don't know how much support staff there is in the background and how many are being paid in RL money.

Anyway that's my 2 cents (or 2 quarters)

I agree very much with this one

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A free permapet makes no sense to me either the pet has value after alll and eventually even market value such as with specials or other cute kitties.
It makes sure no devaluation of KittyCatS in general, breedable or not, will happen.
A free permapet I can only see as a possibility when it makes the cat no transfer and not able to update with new features.
Basically as the Firestorm kitty is.
The Birthday kitties for example are no transfer they can be made transfer by making them a permapet which gives them market value for future KittyCatS! customers who like to obtain it.

As for lower priced food and milk, and as much as I want that, I believe it should not become very cheap because that would damage the market value of a KittyCatS! because people can sell their kitties for less which is in the long run not a good idea for the value of the kitties I think.
So if people are motivated to keep the value of their kitties stronger because their earnings go partial to food and milk I believe this is good for the future of KittyCatS! as a marketable product.

[Tad Carlucci]

To prevent updates with new features, a pet would need to be banned from the Cattery. Otherwise, the Dock would be required to have copies of all previous versions; which, while technically feasible, is a ridiculous requirement and would eventually cause the Dock to lag horribly when pulling cats back in-world.

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The argument about support, updates, whatever is vacuous. I get free storage (in the Cattery) for all boxes, and all cats, regardless of the age of the box or cat. If I need support for those boxes and cats, I'll get it regardless of whether I paid any food/milk/whatever fees. And, there are no updates or upgrades for cats in the Cattery. Updates and upgrades for those cats are in the Dock and only apply if/when I pull the cat in-world. I'll get that whether I pay for a pet kit or not.

If we're really concerned about the company paying for support, programing, updates and such, we should be arguing that there should be a per-cat and per-box daily fee for the Cattery. You get one guess how well I think THAT idea flies!

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I view the fees paid for food (as well as milk and vitamins) as license fees we pay.

Basically, the company has stated that about a week's worth of food is the fee we pay them for the right to produce a new copy of their work.

Also, the company has stated that, to them a cat is worth about 750L$, although they give away a goodly number of free ones several times a year, so the actual, net price, per Starter, is lower, possibly quite a bit lower.

And, the company has stated that they don't really care what we charge each other for those copies .. so long as we pay our license fees (food costs) we can sell/transfer/give cats for whatever price we choose.

But, after paying 120 days of licensing fees, the company demands that I continue paying a daily license fee TO HOLD ONTO, but not copy, a cat .. and, then, ONLY if I want to take the cat in-world. My other choices are to accept a crippled in-world product; purchase a permanent license; or accept a 10 L$ store credit to terminate my license to hold onto the cat. Oh, or I can hold onto the cat, in the Cattery, completely free.

It's not about costs .. it's about whether the fee charged for the pet kit is reasonable when it only effects in-world cats.

[Tressa Beaumont]

(02-10-2014 05:36 AM)Tad Carlucci Wrote:  The best storage is an alt's Cattery. Cats in inventory can be lost. Cats in the Cattery, by definition, can never be. Just don't purchase food for the alt. You won't forget the cats because KittyCatS will annoy you, twice-daily, about the lack of food in the alt's Cattery.

Auto break up on Menagerie can never be added. If it were, ALL breakups would be free: simply send a partner to the Menagerie then pull it back. Why purchase a break-up tonic when resurrection is free?

Hey Tad, i've now tried this twice and it doesn't work for me... and i'm not sure i feel comfy using the cattery and having KittyCats people having to message me twice daily, i'd rather take this on openly... but i do hear what you're saying, but it just didn't work for me sadly. Thanks for your input tho :

[MaareThoru Resident]

Well, first of all i want to say that everything i am talking about is my own personal opinion and it's up to anyone to agree or hate it.

I love Kittycats. I love the idea, the creation, the development of original... and what i want to say is that a creator can charge as many as he wants for his idea, his intellectual property. We can keep talking here about anything, yes, but noone push is to buy or to feed cats. We do it cause we love them. And we pay for smiles, for funny moments in company of our friends that are breeders too.

Anyway, it's up to us what we do, we buy or we don't. Tho ya, there r options. Demanding price reducing will be more effective if u will gather all breeders, or at least most experienced ones and yall will stop buying KC at all - in the meantime writing petitions to KC staff with your demandings. Say "drop it, or ur market will fall at once", but why do anyone need it, i don't really understand.

Now, finally, my own opinion. Yes, prices are too high. Yes, i do think KC are greedy as hell (especially those perma-potions for 120+). Yes i will continue breeding, tho. Cause i think that we live in a free world in which anyone have the right to be greedy, lol. So if u want to ask Creator about price lowering - ask? but don't expect all your dreams to come true right here and now. That's what i think

[Tad Carlucci]

I guess I am not clear enough.

At present there is NO early automatic ending of a partnership other than purchase of the kit..

At present, a partnership ends when a box is produced. If the automatic re-partner option was selected when the cats were first partnered, they will automatically enter into a new partnership.

If, when the cats would have produced a box, one of the cats is not present .. either not in-world, or out of range, or menageried, or one is in-world and the other in the Cattery .. no box can be produced and the partnership cannot be renewed.

The suggestion is that the partnership end early when one partner is sent to the Menagerie. This cannot be. It effectively lowers the cost of the Morning Before™ Break-Up Pill to "FREE".

If you want FREE Break-Up, ask for it; don't back-door it through the Menagerie.

[Tressa Beaumont]

(02-12-2014 08:48 AM)Tad Carlucci Wrote:  I guess I am not clear enough.

At present there is NO early automatic ending of a partnership other than purchase of the kit..

At present, a partnership ends when a box is produced. If the automatic re-partner option was selected when the cats were first partnered, they will automatically enter into a new partnership.

If, when the cats would have produced a box, one of the cats is not present .. either not in-world, or out of range, or menageried, or one is in-world and the other in the Cattery .. no box can be produced and the partnership cannot be renewed.

The suggestion is that the partnership end early when one partner is sent to the Menagerie. This cannot be. It effectively lowers the cost of the Morning Before™ Break-Up Pill to "FREE".

If you want FREE Break-Up, ask for it; don't back-door it through the Menagerie.

ok, if you look, YOU suggested Menagerie and using alts and Cattery, can we please discuss Cost Saving Initiatives as the Thread intended..