ok i know cc just got added, but ef is being used way more now since they actually have a use, and there's definitely gonna be a shift in the market. so i think the amount of ef you get from various activities (citying, level up packs etc) should be increased. not by a lot as to not cause inflation, but maybe up to like 5 or something

the way it is ef is hard to get, and as someone who doesn't adventure much anymore my main source of income is citying notcats, and it doesn't feel as rewarding to have to send cats away for just 1 ef. even more so when i do actually decide to grind for level up packs, it doesn't feel worth the effort. so i can city 20 and even then i still won't have enough to submit an item much less buy

i know its a bit early to judge the ef market with cc being out for only 5 days, but im sharing my feedback from now because this is something i've struggled with for months, and i know squid is looking to implement alternative ways to get ef, so this is my experience grinding for it

Yeah I'm keeping an eye on this. One of my ideas is that I'd like to add a "treasurer" lodge job that gives passive income when visiting Nestor (very small) and the frequency of getting fragments is a current unknown.

I'm hesitant to touch anything until after people can buy them because once that happens, the ratio of notes:fragments in item sales forum is very likely to change because that is going to cause a significant supply influx into the system. And people who buy them will not always be spending them on fragment-sinks.

Until then though, everyone is going to have to just hold tight. The queue is already increasing in page numbers faster than I'm able to keep it down despite using 100% of my free time on it (and Naja helping out). I'm hoping that that will slow down as I get through all the stuff people have pre-made in the backlog and that the currently low fragment supply will keep things at least a little manageable until I can pay someone else to help out.

oh yeah, im not asking for this change anytime soon, i get its best to wait a while until things settle down and being able to purchase ef will def change things. this is more a suggestion for the long run

i do like the idea of a passive way to earn ef, but i personally think there should still be some increase in the ef rewards for the methods we earn through them now, so that if you do decide to actively grind for more ef it will be more rewarding

I know this got replied to already, but honestly support for this and for this early period as well.

Unless I misunderstood, it's going to take months for EF purchases to be here (which is fine and understandable!), but after a few days it already feels like most people have started running out of EF.

Like I'm fine with a very slow queue, but it's difficult to even consider buying already approved things with how limited EF is.
Even a temporary raise of EF gained from e.g. backpacks would be super helpful.

Just my thoughts and feelings though

@Nika It won't be this month if that's what you mean by months, but we're not looking that far out. I have a huge ($1500) hosting bill due at the end of February that I need to cover. Some IRL stuff I have going on might interrupt that (hence no timeframe), but if you were imagining this as appearing over the summer, it won't be nearly that long.

But I'm definitely keeping an eye on it. If things get super extremely out of hand, making them purchasable won't be enough so some increases in certain places might be required.

The mention of something temporary gives me some interesting ideas though

A temporary event sounds cool and fun, though I don't think this is super necessary. This is the prime time to buy approved stuff because once EF are more commonplace people might raise their custom item prices so they'd be more expensive anyway. Not everything has to be done right away (in fact it's probably better that EF runs out so people stop submitting items, considering how monstrous the queue has been since release) and it's also helping the regular player-base get into the habit of citying cats.

I'm not against a way to get more money because I like money, but I also don't think the situation is that dire right now.

Oh I see, that's how I understood it when rereading the announcement post, that you wouldn't have time to work on it for a few months due to personal circumstances but I see I was wrong

Thank you for clarifying that leaves me less worried

A temporary event would still be fun though

And like I said I don't mind a wait for the queue at all I think people understand that reviewing 100s of submissions takes time

i think something short term thats easy to shoo away once ef purchasing happens would be better than something like flat out increasing backpack EF. right now its a huge timesink but in the future when you can stick a cat in a high level area and get them leveled to 4 or 5 really quickly thatd be like, 25 EF per cat in a fairly short amount of time? thats like if you could get 250g every time you exalted a dragon on FR which is…a lot
though on the topic of backpacks, something that could work might be a bonus “level cap” backpack that gives some extra EF when the cat hits the level cap. it’s unlikely to ever be the most time efficient thing, which is good right now when the concern is getting more EF into the economy and not being efficient about the means of it. i believe level 4 alone takes the amount of xp of the prior 2 combined? so its a lot more time/effort efficient to get a cat to level 3 and city rather than go all the way to max level, and since itd be based on the level cap it could be flexible when future areas happen too so having level 4 cats pop out absurd amounts of ef doesnt become a problem in the future
a temporary event, contest, or an extra letter review thrown in could work too

love the idea of a temporary solution!
i too noticed that in the first day there were much more sales than it is now, and it was much easier to find sponsors for custom items.
from the buying perspective, i had 100 ef from playing every day for almost 1 year i would say that right now its a really expensive luxury to have custom items other than sponsoring them.
from the seller perspective, it's discouraging to see and feel that its better not to submit your ideas and use the new site feature you waited so long for because you don't have the ef to submit, and others don't have the ef to buy

To clarify I was specifically asking for a temporary increase ofc!