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Nerfing Blackberry Jellyfish at the Aero Village and Sky City Estate

AuthorMessage
Survivor
Apr 16, 2011
1
Recently, the blackberry jellyfish spawn rate at the Aero Village and the Sky City Estate has been nerfed, and all previous blackberry jellyfish have been replaced with the ice school of fish. As you know, the blackberry jellyfish are used in the golden wheat bread recipe, which is a rank 9 mega snack. I am asking the Devs to please reverse this change, because it is very unpopular among the players, and these kinds of changes make people not want to play the game at all.

This specific change forces players into unwanted and unnecessary microtransactions, by buying the Mega snack pack, and it takes away crafting opportunities to achieve similar items through hard work. While increasing microtransactions may appear like a profitable way to make money for the company, forcing microtransactions, and taking away hard work crafting alternatives, will ultimately make people not want to play the game entirely in the long term.

For example, I, like many other players, bought my own Aero Village last year so that I could have a quiet place to fish for blackberry jellyfish. Additionally, yesterday, I purchased the new Sky City Estate bundle from GameStop for the sole purpose of fishing for the blackberry jellyfish. I will likely be returning this new bundle to the store, because it is now useless for fishing and crafting. In total, I spent $80 on these bundle houses so that I could fish and craft mega snacks, and I, like most players, would never spend this much money on Mega snack packs. There is already an incentive for players to spend money on these bundles so that they can have their own place to find blackberry jellyfish and craft golden wheat bread. Therefore, this change sets a dangerous precedent that whatever players buy or acquire for this game can become completely useless at any point through one of these sweeping changes.

Furthermore, this update is a serious problem for new players. Fishing for black berry jellyfish used to be one of the best ways for new players to obtain gold, because these fish sold for thousands of gold, and now this option no longer exists.

I do propose a compromise, since I know that the golden wheat bread was very easy to craft. Perhaps, instead of nerfing the spawn rate of black berry jellyfish at the Aero Village and Sky City Estate, the golden wheat bread recipe could be updated to require 3 or 4 black berry jellyfish, rather than just 1 fish. This way, players are still incentivized to buy the bundle houses for fishing and crafting, and there are still alternatives to acquire rank 9 mega snacks through crafting. Lastly, this benefits new players and returns the option for them to farm for gold through fishing.

I encourage the Devs to consider the feedback about this update from the players and reverse this change.

Survivor
Jun 05, 2017
1
I feel the same exact way, My son is Autistic and we have played the game for years. (this is his favorite game) We have four accounts between the two of us. He hates gardening but he enjoys fishing for blackberry jellyfish in his Aero Village place that I purchased for him for the sole purpose of being able to get the jellyfish. Telling him to garden instead for the snacks is not an option. Please,Please put the jellyfish back in the Aero Village. He has actually said he doesn't want to play anymore because the jellyfish aren't there anymore......My son is twenty years old and crying about this. I really don't want to stop playing this game with him. We have been loyal players for a long time.

Survivor
Mar 12, 2009
7
I agree with the other posters. Why take this out or lower the drop rates. It makes the game playable. I spend crowns as well but this helps me keep up with my pets and enjoy the game. Sad to see these drop rates decreased. :(

Survivor
Apr 21, 2020
3
sosanna on Mar 31, 2022 wrote:
I agree with the other posters. Why take this out or lower the drop rates. It makes the game playable. I spend crowns as well but this helps me keep up with my pets and enjoy the game. Sad to see these drop rates decreased. :(
Me too! I bought the Aero Village solely for fishing. I love fishing but the Mooshu site for the Blackberry Jelly is ridiculous, inside a dungeon with a locked gate, that has to be unlocked every single time to get access to the spot for fishing. Please nerf them back! Along with the Sturgeons and Strawberry Jellies.

Survivor
Feb 13, 2010
11
I completely understand why you guys are upset about the jellyfish changes.

This was done to fix a bug that the fish was too common, it's a rare fish and it was always intended to be harder to get than the average fish. They don't want to cause trouble for you and they didn't lower the fish rates to make people upset with the drop rates, They simply wanted to fix the drop rate so it's .. I think it's an epic fish so it's meant to be very rare.

Perhaps in the future they will add new fish to improve this issue and help you guys make mega snacks. anything is possible. Good luck in the game, my friends :)

Survivor
Apr 21, 2020
3
Thank you for your response but that doesn't answer all the 'nerfs' - what about taking out the cranky catfish, brain sturgeon, and strawberry Jellies? Wizard 101. com pages for both castles need to be updated asap otherwise this is fraud don't you think? Sad and makes me nervous when I plan a purchase and it can be changed without notice. Makes me think twice about purchasing castles with fishing. You set up the castle to begin with.. and I definitely won't be buying the Sky Estate. Still disappointed and unhappy with this part of the game play.

Survivor
Feb 13, 2010
11
If they are bugged, they would be changed later on, yes. but if rare fish already have a low drop rate, hard to get, It's very unlikely you'll ever lose your fishing spots. Please keep in mind these changes are for the sake of a balanced game.

Defender
May 27, 2013
149
Rare976 on Apr 10, 2022 wrote:
I completely understand why you guys are upset about the jellyfish changes.

This was done to fix a bug that the fish was too common, it's a rare fish and it was always intended to be harder to get than the average fish. They don't want to cause trouble for you and they didn't lower the fish rates to make people upset with the drop rates, They simply wanted to fix the drop rate so it's .. I think it's an epic fish so it's meant to be very rare.

Perhaps in the future they will add new fish to improve this issue and help you guys make mega snacks. anything is possible. Good luck in the game, my friends :)
There was no bug. They knew exactly what they were creating and that the rare fish would sell the bundle. The designers at KI are professionals and know what they are doing. Even if for some amazing reason, this is an actual flub - why is it now our problem? I paid $40 for the privilege of those rare fish. I would like to have what I paid for in good faith.

If the snack is the problem - fix the snack. To me, this is bait and switch. No pun intended.

Survivor
May 26, 2013
1
Great posts everyone. I did the same thing, purchasing the Aero Planes bundle for 40 bucks.I used to play this with my daughter and first started playing in 2013. We both stopped playing around 2018 for similar frustrations, and last July (2021), I decided to play again. It brought back fond memories, so I purchased a one year membership in the Fall. I have easily spent more than two thousand dollars on this game (on crowns, castles, buying lands for crowns, etc.).

Since this nerf, I have became disinterested and only logged in to feed my plants. The second and third-order effects of this nerf include me losing the enjoyment of catching epic fish in my own Aero Village castle, crafting mega snacks and building up a large quantity of mega snacks, and being able to train pets without having it take forever. This was a large part of my daily routine when I logged on, and now it is gone. I have tried over and over to catch an epic fish since the nerf and have not caught a single fish.

Mega snack recipes are now useless. When my membership expires, I will not renew it. I doubt the developers have considered they'll lose players over this decision. In the short term, they'll make more money from people purchasing those overpriced mega snack packs, but losing players threatens the longevity of the game as the community disappears.

Another compromise would be to dramatically lower the price of mega snack packs. I am not even willing to pay 1250 crowns (when on sale). That is still too high. Sell them for 399 and you'll find that most players will buy them. I make a lot of money but am still frugal. I feel sorry for the young people who cannot afford this game and wish the decision-makers were a bit more visionary with their decisions on how they manage their business model.

Cheers, and thanks everyone for weighing in and having your voices heard.

Explorer
Feb 21, 2010
58
I just started looking for this fish yesterday on one account since free fishing started and what i discovered is that I have spent the equivelent of about 500 dollars in ice winnow, reveal large fish (wait for fail), and reset spells for just this one fish so far. What I learned is that I WILL not spend that future money looking for the other epic whopper and small fry fish on this list. It's a shame that KI took such a short-sighted approach to looking for alternative methods of profit besides what they already earn from memberships. My suggestion would be to develop the spreadsheets, look at the options and whatever monetary value is placed on those options be cut in half from the outset. People want to feel as though they gave you "money well spent" but by turning these transactions into larger and larger sums, that idea gets thrown out pretty quickly and they instead feel like they were robbed. Is that your intention, to make people feel as though they were robbed?

Explorer
Feb 21, 2010
58
The Larger the equivalent dollar value gets by just casting 3 spells during free fishing looking for just this whopper sized fish reinforces the idea of how much money will be saved by not wasting it on future pet energy sales. Good job to you and your company for showing this serious flaw in game design to me when I am on my fourth fish out of the remaining 27 epics that I will not be chasing. Outstanding accomplishment!

Explorer
Feb 21, 2010
58
I was casually going to try to catch all of the 27 Epic Small Fry and Whopper fish that is currently in the game and store them in 3 Small fry multi-tanks & 3 Whopper multi-tanks but after spending the amount of time just chasing one whopper Blackberry Jellyfish with no success, I have decided that that might not be as fruitful an effort as I thought. How much money is lost in making efforts like this next to impossible versus how much is gained? I know that's an impossible equation to answer but it is a valid question. You lost the transaction for the 3 whopper tanks and the last small-fry tank on 2 accounts because you let greed win the day. Good Job.

Explorer
Feb 21, 2010
58
The "Sky City Estates" House has a bug with the "reveal large fish" spell. After "Winnowing" everything except Ice Fish, Clicking the reveal large fish will occasionally audibly indicate a fish present without any graphical representation of its location. Entering the underground room and returning will clear the fish and sometimes allow for the graphical indication of the location but so far every time I cast at that location, it only nets me the whopper ice school of fish. I suspect, the audible indicator that is getting cleared is probably the blackberry jellyfish but there is no hope of catching it because going underground and returning is just obliterating the fish and does not ever reveal its location.

Explorer
Feb 21, 2010
58
NOT Every aspect of your game has to be a frustratingly long grind. Please figure out an alternative method to these monotonous practices. The game used to be quite enjoyable before these long grinds were incorporated. You people have had over a decade to learn and relearn how to program this game. sometimes you get it right on the first go but other times you seem to miss the mark by a mile and make the game burdensome. Some people just like to complete selected path to the end. You seem to want those people to complete those tasks using their wallets versus just playing a game using non-stressful practices. I am not sure i understand some of these approaches without just calling them overly greedy. It's a pass-time. not a piggy bank. I think you forgot that.

Explorer
Feb 21, 2010
58
Whatever the nerf was that was done, it ruined the fishing experience for me and i was just starting to enjoy it. I have been searching for the whoppers and small fry to store in the multi tanks. that amount of fish seemed like a reasonable expense for 6 tanks for just the epic array of fish. buying multi tanks for every fish in the game seemed like a grotesque waste of funds just for regular fish. I stumbled across this jellyfish that gave me trouble for a day and i thought that maybe it was a one-off. I finally got them then proceeded to aquila only to discover that over the next 2 days i would seriously struggle to get either one of the two of those fish at all. Now, the math tells me that if i struggled for 2 days on 3 or 4 fish that the potential for misery really exists for the remaining 24. who wants to spend 90 days searching for fish and that is supposing that every day was free fishing. I mean, who is doing the math for this company that they smash their players with this much misery just to chase after money in a game that is intended to be a pass-time? A Pass-time. that's it. Nothing more, nothing less.