Seriously, SC, do you hate us?

Look at the last six months.

1. You gave us land expansions finally - but with a hitch. You need scrolls for the "special" areas. OK...fine...but for anyone who didn't rush to do that area first, they now get to experience a rarity of those items. So, expanding that area is now just plain painful.

2. You do a game update and give us the wildlife area. "WooHoo!" thinks everyone. But wait, we need "special" puzzle pieces to create an animal, and those are being doled out painfully slowly and randomly per animal, so the much vaunted sanctuary is the place a solo animal goes to die - in pieces. There is nothing to do there, no reason to wake them, and tough to even get more than one critter in a reasonable time. "Special" hits again.

3. Then, you announce "special" derbies. By now, your customers should be conditioned respond with horror because that word "special" always means trouble. Sure enough, yet again we have a "special" derby that isn't working. Tasks up to 400, if you happen to be that rare NH that actually gets ANY task above 320.

Why do you keep doing this to us? We've been loyal followers of your game. Yet, it feels like one punishment after another being inflicted on us.

There's a saying in the plane flying industry: "Know how to make a small fortune in aviation? Start with a large one." That feels like the model you're now following. Your loyal customers made you a multi-billion dollar company. You seem determined to annoy us until you've turned yourselves into a multi-million dollar company.

Why not make it less painful for all of us, and just return the money we've spent on bagillions of diamonds? The pain will be shorter lived for us and you. No need to thank me, its just my "special" suggestion for your business model.

Oh don't mind me then. I'm just playing this game for fun, taking my time with the expansions and sanctuary. I'm almost to a second animal, even!

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Originally Posted by pilothaggard

Look at the last six months.

1. You gave us land expansions finally - but with a hitch. You need scrolls for the "special" areas. OK...fine...but for anyone who didn't rush to do that area first, they now get to experience a rarity of those items. So, expanding that area is now just plain painful.

2. You do a game update and give us the wildlife area. "WooHoo!" thinks everyone. But wait, we need "special" puzzle pieces to create an animal, and those are being doled out painfully slowly and randomly per animal, so the much vaunted sanctuary is the place a solo animal goes to die - in pieces. There is nothing to do there, no reason to wake them, and tough to even get more than one critter in a reasonable time. "Special" hits again.

3. Then, you announce "special" derbies. By now, your customers should be conditioned respond with horror because that word "special" always means trouble. Sure enough, yet again we have a "special" derby that isn't working. Tasks up to 400, if you happen to be that rare NH that actually gets ANY task above 320.

Why do you keep doing this to us? We've been loyal followers of your game. Yet, it feels like one punishment after another being inflicted on us.

There's a saying in the plane flying industry: "Know how to make a small fortune in aviation? Start with a large one." That feels like the model you're now following. Your loyal customers made you a multi-billion dollar company. You seem determined to annoy us until you've turned yourselves into a multi-million dollar company.

Why not make it less painful for all of us, and just return the money we've spent on bagillions of diamonds? The pain will be shorter lived for us and you. No need to thank me, its just my "special" suggestion for your business model.

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I agree with you about special derbies. I doubt there is a quality control or quality assurance team anymore as the roll out of features 100% are guaranteed to be buggy, if i had a $1 every time there was a bug I would be a Billionaire. Forget about tech support for the app as we can clearly see no improvement on the issue of the day with none of few tasks over 320 we have gotten 1 in 7 1/2 hours so does that mean 10 tasks in 3 days? Um that's all great and dandy for small hoods under 3 opted in derby but what about the larger hoods. If you ask if anyone is there they will say yes but its one or two voice hiding behind closed doors trying to pretend like there is a team. There is a minority that is happy with the the status quo, but the majority is annoyed and loosing their patience supporting this app financially. Keep listening to the minority and think everything is great, lets see those minority match the financial loss of the majority when they abandon the sinking ship that is Hay Day.

Not being negative or toxic, this is my personal view, as a loyal player for so many years, being hurt by what I see happening to an app I used to love 10000000% but now its more like 30% my faith in things being turned around for the better is nil. Please prove me wrong Team Hay Day PLEASE!!!!

I stopped playing for almost two years, finally returning in mid-March 2017 to start playing again. So, my perspective is picking up after 2 years of not playing and the last 5 months of playing.

I didn't think expanding the land was that bad. I came back to a significant amount that had to be unlocked on both sides of the farm. I gained land scrolls from the derby and chests mostly. It took about 4 months to unlock the special area across the road with the decos. I finished expanding the other side before that (that took about 3 months in parallel with the other side).

I do agree that the sanctuary is significantly underwhelming. I was one of those crazy players that spend about 600 diamonds to try and finish when they held the puzzle piece boat event. I managed to unlock 4/6 animals. I am now about 10 pieces away from unlocking all 6. So, as a player who has almost all of them unlocked - my advice is that it was not worth it. The item drops and XP from waking them coupled with the occasional sanctuary visitor bonus just does not add much value to the game play in the town... I get more from just taking care of my donkeys on my farm. I would have rather seen something that added more involvement to the town itself. The addition just feels more passive than active.

These "special derbies" are tough, especially for smaller players. In fact, most of our smaller players now opt out for them - which is a shame because they really love to contribute and help in derbies. These higher point tasks can involve both tasks that are impossible for smaller levels or be extremely difficult with not a lot of crop fields. As for getting the tasks above 320 - I think you need to be in the champion league to get them. I don't think it is difficult to stay in the champion league with a well-managed NH. Those opted in ours just do tasks 300+ and we usually place within the top 5 each week.

Overall, I think they are just trying to find the balance between challenging and keeping players interested. I think the sanctuary, IMO, was a flop, but it didn't have to be. The amount of effort (acquiring PP, making feed for them) involved doesn't seem to be rewarded back. It's a shame because there was so much hype, and then there was the realization that it just doesn't do much (at least for my game play). But, that's the thing, what frustrates some players might appeal to others.

I also feel like they could do so much more... Such as, I think the game has everything it needs for a distillery on the farm. Wheat = Beer. Potatoes or Corn = Vodka. Grapes = Wine. Sugar = Rum. Could make yeast in the sauce maker. A pub would compliment the town nicely too. But, my guess is they don't want to introduce that sort of content into the game :( which is a shame because the game almost has everything you already need to introduce it.

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Originally Posted by Spartan1

As for getting the tasks above 320 - I think you need to be in the champion league to get them.

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Nope, you're wrong! My NH was demoted to the Expert league this week and we've seen a few of the special tasks. Not as much as we did in the other themed Derbies, though. Not sure if bug or by design as we're not in champions league now...

Also RE: Alcohol... They do want to keep this game 'family friendly' so that's why they are not doing that (as you guessed) :)

I guess I am in the minority here but I totally disagree on all points.

Being at a level where there is nothing left to unlock as far as machines or products, collecting puzzle pieces and scrolls added a much needed reason to keep coming back. I love the challenge of the special derbies and that it's not the same old grind derby after derby. It's a new challenge that I embrace. There is no goal or end point to the game, having some things to work for is fun and keeps me interested and playing. I am glad it wasn't possible to just unlock everything at the time of the update. But, that's just me.

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Originally Posted by Td14

I guess I am in the minority here but I totally disagree on all points.

Being at a level where there is nothing left to unlock as far as machines or products, collecting puzzle pieces and scrolls added a much needed reason to keep coming back. I love the challenge of the special derbies and that it's not the same old grind derby after derby. It's a new challenge that I embrace. There is no goal or end point to the game, having some things to work for is fun and keeps me interested and playing. I am glad it wasn't possible to just unlock everything at the time of the update. But, that's just me.

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THANK YOU.

That's what I was trying so say. I don't even mind things taking a little while. And I'm not even to that level yet!

I understand your complaints but I also understand the SC team is made of humans that make mistakes. I LOVE the themed derbys. They are much more interesting than the boring old reg derbys that I don't find challenging anymore. Even when the themed derbys fail at what they are doing they still manage to shake things up and keep me on my toes which is a win in my book. I say "if at first you don't succeed try try again." Not "let all the haters bully you into giving up." I am optimistic. SC doesn't hate anyone they just made mistakes. They'll never get anything right if all people do is look for faults.

Still don't understand the obsession with these themed derbies. Just picked a 320 task and will continue to pick the ones I feel comfortable doing. Higher the better, if not...whatever. Our team will probably place between 4th-10th once again when the derby ends, just like a regular derby. Different but nothing special.

Why continue playing a game that is so "painful"? There are plenty of non painful games out there. Some of u folks seriously need to take a break from this game.

I rather enjoy the game as they have developed it. I agree that maybe some derby tweeks are in order though.