darkSpyro

And what was it like ?

I started playing 10 months after it came out . I recall there was no weed invasion .

I tried a quick restart after that weed upgrade and it was a fight . I literally had to brick road my island to get some breathing space .

I've been around since basically the beginning. There were no companions, no visiting friends (OK, that's pretty much the same, but for different reasons) no wishing well at the very beginning. When the wishing well came (and the first alter ego) you could get gems from the well, but there weren't many other ways to get gems. Took a lot longer to progress in the game without the companions.

Kind of hard to believe how much this game has actually changed over the last couple years.

Wow no companions ? Kay which companions came out first ?

I believe I started just before Autumn Stump Smash was the first alter ego. I'm not sure how far from the beginning that was, but I think it was close.

Was not around since the beginning but I did research on the alter egos a few months back when I was starting to get into it, the other I think is this...
Cupid Flameslinger Feb-2013
Hoppity Pop Fizz Mar-2013
Lucky Boomer Mar-2013

The first alter ego was Cupid Flameslinger and that was 1/2 a month before I started. I started in March of last year, so Lucky Boomer was in the well, but we had no chance of winning him.

Not sure how much before that the game actually started, but I know other forum members mentioned there was a developer hiatus in January and then the Wishing Well with Cupid Flameslinger was introduced in February, so it had to have been going for some time before then.

I liked the original old Wishing Willy - the ancient druid able to grant wishes appealed to me more than the current young version. Apart from the grand prize, you could win gold, energy, or gems from the well - no other prices and no inventory for them to go into.

Getting gems was much harder then though. No sugar bats, no Hyde, no chance of getting gems from clearing mobs, no gem from silver chests, no toy link tower, no chance of gems from Sanctuaries, no things like Christmas Trees popping out a gem each day. A few Giant houses had been released, but not yet all of them, and no alter ego houses, no halls of legends, or any other type of houses.

You also couldn't spin for skylanders. It was enter the code or buy with gems. When you leveled your kingdom up, you got an option to pay real money (at a discounted price) to get gems and a skylander. Every 5 levels you were awarded a random skylander. I think that's how it went anyway. My memory could be a little off.

It was a long time before I created an Activate account and made friends - but eventually found this forum and proceeded. If you wanted gems, that was the way to go. Before kudos, you got gems for every new friend you added, and the daily gift was gold, energy, or gems. You used to be able to see at a glance how many gifts you'd given to a particular friend relative to how many you'd sent to them, so you could easily chop friends who weren't gifting back. You could also see who was visiting your islands, but that wasn't useful. It was nice at those early levels to be able to visit other islands and collect gold and energy when you were short.

I think there were corruption issues when visiting from the start, but I only looked up names to add as friends and wasn't active on the forum, so I was oblivious to that for a long time. It used to be that on a given night of visiting, a handful of friends (different each night) would cause your game to crash, but you'd only lose whatever you'd collected visiting since you last returned to your island. So if I went 6 places without getting a gem, I would purposefully visit a "crashing friend" to reset those 6 islands and try my luck again to find gems! And I'd always return 'home' after collecting a gem. Time consuming, but it was really the best way to get gems back then. I'd spend about an hour a night visiting while watching tv.

Hmm - just read lamoracke's post. Yup, 2013 is right, so I started in March 2013, not 2014. Wow. I've been playing this game too long...

I've played since close to the beginning, and getting gems was a very rare occurrence back then - you basically paid for them to get them in any real number - and when they introduced Companions (Cali and Flynn were a couple of the first for 3,500) they were pretty much pay to win, the idea of saving up that many was absurd. You could win some in the well, but no one had many stones to blow on that. Alt egos were also really hard to obtain, the Luck meter wasn't added until several had come and gone. I didn't even bother using the well for alts until Skeletal Cynder because it was so pointless before the Luck Meter (which I never realized until it was out a couple months how quickly it could get you the alt) and they added other avenues for getting a substantial quantity of stones.

The game has gotten WAY better, manually collecting exp and crops was TEDIOUS before they added those companions.

I'm not sure when the true beginning was. Certainly it was long before the wishing well. I remember TreeRextravaganza when the first Giant house was introduced. That was fall 2012.

Quote: CrazyCanuck

I'm not sure when the true beginning was. Certainly it was long before the wishing well. I remember TreeRextravaganza when the first Giant house was introduced. That was fall 2012.

Birthday Bash celebrated the first year anniversary, and he came out in November - so November 2012 was the initial release.

arkham - the Xmas tree pops out gems?!!!! I bought it a couple of months back, and it's been sitting in my inventory ever since. I thought it was just another pretty experience-giving decoration. Bought it just in case it was a limited time thing. Are there any other decorations that pop out gems? (Got a piggy bank, pot o gold and a thumpback statue also sitting idly in the inventory awaiting "get off my bottom and beautify the islands day".

On another note - the sanctums give "MORE Gold and BIGGER Bonuses!" Before shelling out 1200 gems on a sanctum, any advice on how much bigger the bonuses are? If they're not decent, they could take years to break even.

Finally, do the windmill, observatory and aquarium offer anything other than experience or gold? Or are they the things you buy when you've got nothing else to spend gems on?

My son has played since day one. I joined in about two months later to help him out.

Other things I remember include:

Arguments over spending $79 for a portal to scan in his Skylanders. Until Lost Islands came along there was no need to keep the codes was there!

Waiting weeks if not months for them to raise the level cap. I think it was level 10 and level 30.

A husband who thought that saving to the cloud meant our iCloud accounts. We weren't allowed access to Activate until I was level 35.

I don't know how we dodged the visiting glitch.

Quote: Woz

On another note - the sanctums give "MORE Gold and BIGGER Bonuses!" Before shelling out 1200 gems on a sanctum, any advice on how much bigger the bonuses are? If they're not decent, they could take years to break even.

Sanctums are not good for more gems, their payout is roughly the same if not exactly the same. Their value lies in they take 2x2 instead of 5x5 and they give a bit more gold. If you need gems, Halls of Legends and character houses are great options, with Swap and Trap houses being next. Dark and Dragon Houses (and the Gateways) have the best payout since they are on a 2 hour collection, but they are expensive and in the current situation, I don't see them coming up for sale anytime soon. Scout houses and Bird houses have a fairly low payout, so skip them.

Diggs is obviously one of the best gem gainers, assuming you have extra resources - however I'm not sure he is currently available since I already have him. If you aren't unbound by resources, Ole Mac is a big game changer.

I started playing from day 1 .. but on my android device.
And unfortunately they needed a whole year to port it from iOS to android so all those apple guys are a year in the lead :-)

defpally: got all the houses, characters and companions. I've got 11K gems, but I'm not going to just throw them away on pretty buildings that don't do anything. With experience at max, there's all the island space anyone needs without sanctums.

I remember the game launch and started playing in they very beginning. Sometime in the fall of 2012. Boy was I mad when I realized there was now some use for those code cards I had thrown away, but I figured out how to access the codes from the figures about a month later. I maxed everything out very quickly, there was nothing to do, so I spent all my gold on useless decorations (no XP bonus back then), and stopped playing. I checked back in a year-and-a-half later, and there was all this crazy new stuff! More levels, more islands, companions, periodic quests, a wishing well, storage, bats, villains and traptanium, alter egos, houses, sanctums, etc. A ton to do, and I have been playing ever since. Now that I am finally nearly caught up, the game seems to be winding down to its demise. Sad.

Quote:

the Xmas tree pops out gems?!!!! I bought it a couple of months back, and it's been sitting in my inventory ever since.

oohh that burns ......

December 2012? How close to the beginning was that?

Quote: Woz

Are there any other decorations that pop out gems?

The Piggy Bank and Christmas Tree each give one gem every 22 hours. The statues (Eon, TreeRex, and Thumpback) all usually give out energy, but periodically give out wishstones or gems. Can't remember if its 1 or 2 gems. But we're talking something like once every week or two - it's more of a nice surprise when they give a gem - not something I expect. Sort of like getting gems from the upgraded summoning dais. You almost forget it can happen and then bam- there is it again.

Quote: Woz

arkham - the Xmas tree pops out gems?!!!! I bought it a couple of months back, and it's been sitting in my inventory ever since. I thought it was just another pretty experience-giving decoration. Bought it just in case it was a limited time thing. Are there any other decorations that pop out gems? (Got a piggy bank, pot o gold and a thumpback statue also sitting idly in the inventory awaiting "get off my bottom and beautify the islands day".

On another note - the sanctums give "MORE Gold and BIGGER Bonuses!" Before shelling out 1200 gems on a sanctum, any advice on how much bigger the bonuses are? If they're not decent, they could take years to break even.

Finally, do the windmill, observatory and aquarium offer anything other than experience or gold? Or are they the things you buy when you've got nothing else to spend gems on?

Piggy bank also pops out a gem a day (plus some gold). Thumpback statue just gives you energy, just like the Tree Rex statue. Windmill, observatory and aquarium just give XP and gold.

Quote: defpally

Quote: CrazyCanuck

I'm not sure when the true beginning was. Certainly it was long before the wishing well. I remember TreeRextravaganza when the first Giant house was introduced. That was fall 2012.

Birthday Bash celebrated the first year anniversary, and he came out in November - so November 2012 was the initial release.

Actually, the release was October 6, 2012 (had to check version history). I remember suggesting Birthday Bash as an alternative to doing the obvious Halloween alt for October 2013.

Quote: Woz

defpally: got all the houses, characters and companions. I've got 11K gems, but I'm not going to just throw them away on pretty buildings that don't do anything. With experience at max, there's all the island space anyone needs without sanctums.

Then don't do it, because they are primarily space savings and with your resources you don't need 10,000 more gold per collection.

Quote: defpally

Quote: Woz

defpally: got all the houses, characters and companions. I've got 11K gems, but I'm not going to just throw them away on pretty buildings that don't do anything. With experience at max, there's all the island space anyone needs without sanctums.

Then don't do it, because they are primarily space savings and with your resources you don't need 10,000 more gold per collection.

My question is what else are you going to do with those 11K gems? At some point, you either start buying things just because you don't have them (like companion Cherry, even when you already have more wishstones than you can spend), or you stop playing because there isn't anything else to do. Even if an exciting new building or companion is released tomorrow, the odds of it costing more than 5K gems is pretty slim.

Quote: arkhamhorrorfan

Quote: defpally

Quote: Woz

defpally: got all the houses, characters and companions. I've got 11K gems, but I'm not going to just throw them away on pretty buildings that don't do anything. With experience at max, there's all the island space anyone needs without sanctums.

Then don't do it, because they are primarily space savings and with your resources you don't need 10,000 more gold per collection.

My question is what else are you going to do with those 11K gems? At some point, you either start buying things just because you don't have them (like companion Cherry, even when you already have more wishstones than you can spend), or you stop playing because there isn't anything else to do. Even if an exciting new building or companion is released tomorrow, the odds of it costing more than 5K gems is pretty slim.

I made the mistake of getting Cherry because she was the only companion I didn't have. Now I feel obligated to click on the totems that constantly are there even though I have 23k wish stones. I just hate the sound of them imploding. I would have been fine without her.

Quote: Coachjohn2049

I made the mistake of getting Cherry because she was the only companion I didn't have. Now I feel obligated to click on the totems that constantly are there even though I have 23k wish stones. I just hate the sound of them imploding. I would have been fine without her.

Good point.

Quote: Woz

defpally: got all the houses, characters and companions. I've got 11K gems, but I'm not going to just throw them away on pretty buildings that don't do anything. With experience at max, there's all the island space anyone needs without sanctums.

Then don't do it, because they are primarily space savings and with your resources you don't need 10,000 more gold per collection.

arkham: yes. My post back at #11 was an attempt to find out what a few of the buildings I don't have offer in return, or are they the things you buy (as you've recently pointed out) when there's nothing left to buy, which in itself is a perfectly acceptable motive. Haven't had much feedback on the worth or return of those buildings (piggy bank, pot o gold, windmill, observatory, aquarium, sanctums).

There's nothing stopping the developers releasing upgraded shrines for every element costing 3000 gems each tomorrow, at which point I'd be rueing gems I'd spent unnecessarily. Hell, they haven't even made all the sanctums available for purchase - it's like they stopped mid-stride and forgot where they were walking to.

I've played since November 2012. I've lost 2 games at high levels and if I lose this one, that's it for me. I remember everything stated above. Top prize in the well was 100 gems which I got a few times.
I have everything so far and I got the aquarium and windmill so I could complete the quests that accompany them.
I currently have 6000 gems with nothing to buy. I have even maxed out my storage. I would like something to work towards to keep my interest in the game. Something hard to achieve. I would also like something pretty that costs millions in gold or energy.
I used to have 100 friends, but now I have 9 left and we gift each other daily.

Quote: Woz

arkham: yes. My post back at #11 was an attempt to find out what a few of the buildings I don't have offer in return, or are they the things you buy (as you've recently pointed out) when there's nothing left to buy, which in itself is a perfectly acceptable motive. Haven't had much feedback on the worth or return of those buildings (piggy bank, pot o gold, windmill, observatory, aquarium, sanctums).

There's nothing stopping the developers releasing upgraded shrines for every element costing 3000 gems each tomorrow, at which point I'd be rueing gems I'd spent unnecessarily. Hell, they haven't even made all the sanctums available for purchase - it's like they stopped mid-stride and forgot where they were walking to.

Yeah, they could always dump some high gem item/companion on us, however it has a negative side for them as well. If they make it expensive enough to give pause to us high level/resource players, the content is unusable and frustrating to the vast majority of lower level players - as far as they are concerned, it might as well not get added at all. Secondly, in order to justify the expense, it has to be good enough to entice people to save/buy gems to get it - in turn it makes the game even easier for high end players.

For example, character houses are a nice enticement, chance at gems, good gold payout, no energy to run, reasonable cost. However, most of the high end players now have whole islands of these low costs houses generating big piles of gems multiple times a day. If they don't generate many gems, players won't spring for it - if they do, high end players max them out and further trivialize gem costs. I really don't think the game was designed for the 250+ gem a day haul maxed out players can obtain when regularly checking it.

Right, November 2012 was the official launch. I've been playing since at least October 2012 when it was in a Canada only beta. That as close to "since the beginning" as you are likely to find.

I've been playing since New Year 2013. I was so mad when they changed the wishing well and I couldn't win gems. Only enemies were trolls and sheep, no debris, I remember getting Cherry during a Memorial Day sale. That's all I remember right now.

November 2012. Day one. One of kids asked for it on the ipad and i realised it was going to be more my thing than theirs. Took me a little while to find this forum. I think about the time they introduved the friends thing. After which i had a game glitch and lost 2/3 giants and their houses. That set me back and was v upset.
Gems were soooo rate limiting. Getting giant houses was essential. Then they started the wishing well and i won 100 gems as top prize. My goodness it was incredible the boost it gave me. A few months later they stopped the gem winning in the well but by that time with all the giant houses and steady supply of alter egos and houses it was starting to become easier.
Spins made a big difference too. I have no way of getting all the skylander figures. They just dint release them in oz. So i do remember crazy having all the figures and gems for levelling them and that was a huge advantage. I was so jealous of him being in north america.
I stopped playing last year for a while but it didnt take long to get all the skylanders again and back into it.
Now i play once or twice a week to ensure i have enough for spins and the wishing well. Keep it ticking over.
Hope its mot the end. I thought that lat year and boy was i wrong.

I started probably around April/May 2013 (it really is hard to believe it's been that long). I know the first alter ego I got was Surfer Slam Bam, but I know I missed an alter ego or two because I didn't have enough wish stones. I looked and saw that I joined these forums in June of 2013. That's when I learned to save up my wish stones to get an alter ego (even if it meant missing an alter ego...which I didn't mind since I didn't care for Buddy Wrecking Ball). I, too, downloaded the game for my son, but it soon became an addiction for me while he had given it up pretty quickly. We would have started earlier, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't be worth playing. My son wanted a Skylanders game, and I believe it was the only free one at the time (I can't remember if Cloud Patrol was or not). I saw that it was a "farming" type game and I was already fed up with similar games where you had to keep buying, building, and farming to move on. But eventually, we decided to try it. I soon realized that it was much better than the rest. At least there were fun things to collect. I will admit, though, that it probably led us to collect the actual figures more than we probably would have, originally. I'm pretty sure we set out to not buy everything, but this game made use want to. It was a struggle for a bit, but with help from people on these forums, I soon got on track.

I doubt the game is over. I believe it's just another hiatus like last year, and it may not even go that long. Remember that after that hiatus, we ended up with sanctums and the monthly quests. Maybe they're working on something similar. I was surprised we didn't get a hiatus earlier, this year, so I'm not too surprised. One good thing about not releasing new items is that it gives some people a chance to catch up. That's what happened for me, last year. I used the hiatus and the "personal" sales to catch up on houses, companions, etc. I remember I finally spun for my last Skylander right as Trap Team was introduced. Kind of bummed me out that I was finally catching up when they released new figures (especially as we wait until Christmas to get the new game). After that, it's just been collecting lots of gold, gems, and energy for what? I don't know. But I still check in every once in a while.

There is a good chance it is just a hiatus, but I'd say it is likely to last until the new game hits. The thing that makes me wonder though is that they dropped all the character houses out at once like someone at a garage sale that is ready to shut it down. I'm not sure on companions, did they make those all available too? It sounds like the missing alts are coming up in the well for people randomly that need them.

I'm not sure how they would implement vehicles in this game. Maybe they have just reached the point where they feel the game isn't generating enough of its own income to keep developing it.

No, sale companions are not avaliable at all. Though it might just be that the personal offers didn't pick one up for me at random.

Quote:

Maybe they have just reached the point where they feel the game isn't generating enough of its own income to keep developing it.

They done this before . I will need at least 2-3 months more of silence before i am convinced that they put it on autopilot .

Quote: defpally

There is a good chance it is just a hiatus, but I'd say it is likely to last until the new game hits. The thing that makes me wonder though is that they dropped all the character houses out at once like someone at a garage sale that is ready to shut it down. I'm not sure on companions, did they make those all available too? It sounds like the missing alts are coming up in the well for people randomly that need them.

I'm not sure how they would implement vehicles in this game. Maybe they have just reached the point where they feel the game isn't generating enough of its own income to keep developing it.

Not all of the companions are in the game to purchase. This is exactly how they left it when they put it on hiatus, before. The alter egos are popping up in wishing wells for those that don't have them because that's how it's always been programmed. If you have all the alter egos, then it will throw a random gem item into the well. I've even see that happen when they were updating but didn't get the new alter ego in on time (which has only happened once or twice).

The alts are popping up in the wishing well? You mean, WITHOUT being displayed as one of the possible top prizes? If that's the case, then I'll throw a few thousand wishstones at the well just on the off chance I can snare one of the three alts I'm missing.

The alts are popping up in the wishing well? You mean, WITHOUT being displayed as one of the possible top prizes? Just picked up Buttered Pop Thorn as the grand prize. But I'll gladly throw a few thousand wishstones at the well just on the off chance I can snare one of the three alts I'm missing as a random but unpictured top prize.

The alts "pop up" as Grand Prizes for people. Once you have one that grand prize, you will not get other alts (unless they have a special promotion, which seems unlikely right now).

Quote: HappyGamer

I've been around since basically the beginning. There were no companions, no visiting friends (OK, that's pretty much the same, but for different reasons) no wishing well at the very beginning. When the wishing well came (and the first alter ego) you could get gems from the well, but there weren't many other ways to get gems. Took a lot longer to progress in the game without the companions.

Kind of hard to believe how much this game has actually changed over the last couple years.

And with no wishing well no wish stones and totems.

I've been playing since Thanksgiving (US) 2012. I reached level 30 just as they raised the level cap and added Skylander spins for gold. I had really been looking forward to the next free Skylander.

I've been playing since all the way back in April 2015. Back when there was no Enigma, Fling Kong, or Flip Wreck. We didn't even have Gourmet Gusto back then! You kids sure have it good now!

I started on march/april 2013 with surfer slam bam in the wishing Well. Two time a lvl cap raise and a lot harder to get gems. With friends and gifts and the companions gems are so much easier to get. I really loved the coming of the flying bats. Two gems everytime.