awesome!! can't wait C:

Hey, didn't see any mentions of this so I just thought I'd bring it up. It seems that the male and female vulnyxes have different inner ear colours, noticed it in the generator and thought I'd whip up and example real quick.

Please post any type of graphical errors on the Vulnyx in the bug forum so that they don't get forgotten. :)

I know I'm pretty new to the site so my opinion probably won't be that valuable buuuuuuuut...

I like the update. The design is nice, it's an upgrade...although a bit too startlingly different.

The thing that gets me the most however is-there was no real transitional process done with this update. It was so sudden and all I can think about when I look at them is how many breeding projects suddenly have to be adjusted or were ruined altogether for this species. I feel this change should have been handled over at least a week's lapse of site wide announcements or gathering opinions regarding the artworks, previews of what genes/mutations would look like after the change, and maybe given the option (or a premium currency item) to keep them in the old art style. That is my biggest disappointment...and I really hope that future changes will be handled more...slowly and carefully. Like after reading this forum thread entirely, I hope there is mention of the Draeyl's getting a revamp in a more-obvious and professional manner than just a forum reply from an admin.

I feel this could've saved a lot of frustration and anger regarding the change :(

Okay. Breaking my shyness-induced lurking to comment on the revamp.

When I first saw the revamp thread, I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I had chosen the vulnyx as my starter because the sleek look was a lot like one of my pre-existing OCs in look and form so I figured... why not, right? So because of that connection, the update had me all in knots. But when I stopped by my stable and checked out Grim...



Ho-lee SNAP.
Everything went better than expected. She looks pretty different now, admittedly, but in a good way. It was an extreme redesign but... I'm okay with this. More than okay. I like it a lot- the stock and formidable look is almost as nice as the sleek and nimble one! Very nice art style (even if it looks pretty different than the other pets) overall. Granted, the only fly in the ointment is that The Skinned Disciple doesn't so much resemble his namesake so much any more (sleek look + flesh tone + skeletal armor = flayed horrorcat) but he still looks pretty wicked so I'll adapt.

I do feel bad for those that had their breeding projects and star pets affected by the redesign/gene swap/color application shift, though. I've seen the amount of effort, luck and in a lot of cases, real-life cash that goes into crafting the perfect pet. It's an art form in its own way, so I do feel bad for them. Maybe if changes were less drastic in the future, it'd help? Or if there was a way to premier revamp ideas before releasing them and get feedback from the community? Just a thought! :3 Probably been repeated a lot but oh well, I'll just add my voice to the chorus...


...I am a little nervous about the Draeyl revamp since Aurum was genned to look sort of like a shiny Charmeleon but... I have faith in you guys!

As stated in the original post, pretty much all of the issues complained about were either unavoidable or on purpose by design. For the "unavoidable" issues, they don't really ever arise until we're on the step of actually adding the content into the game. So giving previews about that wouldn't really help. I'm mainly referring to us moving some of the traits around.

You also have to remember that Sylestia is still in Beta. We specifically tag it as in Beta because we're still trying to figure out how we want everything to be for the long term. This includes artwork. We were not satisfied with much of the original 6 species as they missed our mark for our original conceptual design. We also have learned many many new tricks for the image builder that allows us to do many more complicated things. That's why the Aeridini and Griffi are so much more "advanced" than like the Vulnyx was. We want all of our species to be of the same quality and complexity.

Additionally, everything we do we spend A LOT of time making sure we're doing what's best for Sylestia. We never just slosh stuff together and rush it out. For the Vulnyx, we spent months from beginning to end. We had all of our artists evaluate the design to make sure they all agreed that everything was 100%. It was a pretty grand process. Adding in more stages would just make it more complicated, take even longer, and increase our expenses.

Lastly, nothing is permanent. We can always change things and make tweaks. But it's virtually impossible to view changes, like the new Vulnyx, and have it be fully functional without just having it be available on the Site. And if it's available on the Site at that point, it would be silly to not release it.

Oh, and for using both the new and old versions - that's pretty much impossible for a few reasons. The main reason though is that it would require us to keep both models up to date with new genes and mutations. We would never spend resources on doing that.

Just maybe something to think about for people who wanted to keep a couple prize pets in the original art form, instead of the new ones. I understand it would be entirely impossible to keep both new and old versions up to date, but what if there was an option similar to how neopets handled the art switching over? Users had a choice, with certain species, to keep their pets the way they were, the 'un-converted' pets. So my suggestion would be to make a diamond shop item that, when the new versions of the starters come out, would allow the person to choose to 'freeze' one of their pets. For example:



Zalesi was my first 6vis Zolnixi. I am a little worried, as much as I adore the new Vulnyx design, that Zalesi will require a second make-over when Nixis are redone. So, if this was made possible, the diamond shop items, if I used it on her, would freeze her as she is, rather than transferring her over to the new design. And these items would only work for a limited amount of time, so after, say, a week with the new design, they would be unavailable and no other pets would be able to be frozen.

It would mean people who couldn't bear to see their hard work gone to waste could freeze one or two of their pets the way they want them, the site would gain a little bit of income, and you and Krin wouldn't need to worry about updating the old designs with new genes/mutations. These 'frozen' pets would still be fully functional, but breeding them would still produce a baby with the new design.

I understand that a lot of work went into this new design and as I said before, I like it. As for everything you brought up however...you kept referring to the administrators, the artists, the developers...but what about the members of the site as a whole?

I am aware of how much work it would take, the expenses that it would most likely generate, and the overall time consumed in the process of updating a sylesti. Been there, done that, experienced quite a few equivalents in quite a few ways. I would never come to the conclusion that things are "sloshed" together or "rushed" out. I however do have the conclusion without a doubt that previews still would have bettered the community reaction as a whole.

This art update is snow to a middle eastern child. They haven't truly experienced it and don't know what to do now that they have to face it. Could you explain to me why the art update couldn't have been delayed possibly another week from now? Why it had to be posted and changed almost immediately? Otherwise I am lead to believe that all images regarding the changes were perfectly capable of being uploaded to a site wide alerted forum thread to show how the markings/genes/mutations would transition and given a week's notice ahead of time. I myself was looking into obtaining Vulnyxs for specific breeding purposes to create my desired outcome and in this change, I have to alter my original plans-costing my budgets in site and time frames to be adjusted. While that may not account for the same budget a website administrator might face-it does demean my overall satisfaction with the site. Thus creating mixed feelings and reactions.

If all of the issues previously complained about were unavoidable, a preview and explanation of the process and thinking behind each issue and change would help meld the minds of the members and the admins into a cohesive form of opinion.The time and expenses for such should have been trivial unless there are unknown and possibly unnecessary purchases being made. Sure there will be those who dislike the change no matter what, but quite a few of the complaints that I have seen-make sense to me and sooner change my opinion towards the negative side than this response did towards backing up the admin's decision. That shouldn't be an issue.

Also continuing with the information that Sylestia is still in beta, then this is the time to be improving relations with the first members founding the base of the community. A beta is generally released after the foundation for a useable platform has been established and can run for a decent amount of time without too much interference from tragic errors. Losing that connection of human to human interaction and expressing feelings of sympathy or understanding is what ruins most pet sites nowadays (another would be holding too strong of an opinion that allows no community member to think for themselves). Especially in Beta form when the site is expected to hold some form of stability. Improving functions on the site as a whole is a good thing as well but perhaps this was too soon of a change if the budget would be overdrawn by expenses regarding a preview?

I once again, am wecloming the upgrade...but I worry about the interactions in the future. This would mark my...tenth pet site I have included myself in-not including remakes of older pet sites-and so far this has the highest rating out of all of them for overall satisfaction. I do not want to see it go under with something as trivial as an art transition and given that the admins seek to update more as time progresses-this could wind up a crippling factor for the older members of the site.

That would be perfection. And I still fully support this idea whether it was communicated properly on my end or not. I do not desire to see the designs being "used" but once a breeding is at the peak of what one originally set out to do...

no one wants to see their hard work tampered with.

I thank-you for the way you worded it in your post as well.


Also that is a BA pet.

Thank you. ^^ She is my darling, so as much as I trust Krin and Fai to make the redesign as wonderful as possible and as much as I love the new design for the Vulnyxes, I still think it would be nice to have the option to keep her like that if I don't care for the new design, when it comes out.