Topic

piggy underpopulation problem

what happened to all the piggies? Is everyone hog-tying them off the streets for their own gardens? Can't we leave some for everyone to enjoy? I hatched a new pig in Pakodi Prim today and within an hour it was gone, bringing all of Andra down to 7 piggies. Do we need a piggy replenishment society?

Posted 14 months ago by Niqster Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • eugh - just created some piggies (on my way to do the 103 achivement) on a few streets in groddle meadow and literally within 30mins the population went from 5 to 3 pigs... it sucks pig time that it takes a lot of effort to create "new life" but it's so easy and quick to take them away.

    I understand that the mechanics of the game allow this and therefore there is nothing wrong with doing it - but there needs to be more of a balance. A longer cooldown on hogtieing would be good - a least a game day.

    My 2 cents
    Posted 14 months ago by Makona Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Makona, I found some on my street, thanks very much. How many did you release? There was one there already, from a few days ago and I saw one numbered 1401 and one named 1403 Does that mean somebody had already napped one?
    Posted 14 months ago by Billy McBinky Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I've seen multiple pigs spawn. 
    Posted 14 months ago by Ambrosius Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Instead of nerfing the hog-tying (especially since some people are doing it for quests), I'd like to see more value placed on raising animals. Perhaps some bonus items that appear when you raise an animal? 
    Posted 14 months ago by Mackenzie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I've captured and donated 5 piggies in the past few hours, and EVERY ONE of them respawned on the street I donated it on.

    Donated piggies respawn.
    Posted 14 months ago by Kaessa Subscriber! | Permalink
  • And again, I ask, where is your official post to confirm it.  It's too easy to say, "Guys, true story, I saw it happen."  You say nothing about any of the other possible variables in that scenario.  To say you saw it happen is no different than me saying it doesn't happen because I haven't seen it happen.  We're both speculating.
    Posted 14 months ago by Joojoo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Joojoo, I've donated hundreds of piggies, I've been documenting this for weeks. I haven't seen an official post, but according to my fairly careful observations, this IS what is happening.
    Posted 14 months ago by Kaessa Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Nothing will convince me until a dev says so. I have seen streets with LOTS of pigs be completely pig-free the next day. And stay that way for days. Other times I have seen streets with more pigs than a normal piggy pusher would place - even us piggy lovers think that there can be too many piggies on one street.

    Antidotal evidence is unreliable. Because it is based on individual observations or hearsay it is frequently not representative of reality. When someone says he or she "saw a pig respawn" there is no scientific way to evaluate that statement. Did the pig wander in from an overcrowded street, escape from another player's bag, get "set free" from someone's home or actually respawn? Is the player saying that to justify pig-napping? Unless you designed the software or wrote the code, you do not know for sure.
    Posted 14 months ago by Kookaburra Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'd like to thank Kookaburra for using the phrase 'scare the XP out of me' - provided some welcome laughter this afternoon!

    ETA - Antidotal evidence? Have you been reading the tree threads too long?
    Posted 14 months ago by arcturus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • HA! spell checker was no good on that error!

    The correct phrase is, of course, "anecdotal evidence "

    I am sorry for any misunderstnading this may have caused to concerned Glitchens.
    Posted 14 months ago by Kookaburra Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Kaessa: I can give you two possibilities that could explain what you say you've witnessed.  Someone could have released a piggy on the street at the same time you made your donation.  Or someone could have "set free" a piggy from a housing block.  Those possibilities are no more or less likely than what you are suggesting and yet can neither be proven or denied.  None of us are privy to the inner workings of Glitch so we cannot say with certainty how something does or does not work.  Without a staff post, it's all purely speculation, no matter how many times you've perceived it to be the case.
    Posted 14 months ago by Joojoo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The real problem here is my pigs keep dying. Lets solve piggy hunger! COME FEED MY PIGS!
    Posted 14 months ago by cynder Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I find when I hatch an animal in my house it does not necessarily appear right under me. It could appear so far away that I might have to go looking for it to confirm it did appear somewhere.  For a casual observer, that could seem that no one was nearby and it must have spawned by itself.

    I'm an egg seasoner and have never donated or sold a hog-tied piggy, but I'm happy to believe Kaessa's remark.  She sounds fairly certain of herself.

    That said, I don't think I will populate public streets with piggies I've hatched - butterflies and chickens, sure :).
    Posted 14 months ago by Lara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Joojoo: Believe what you want, I've seen it too many times for it to be coincidence. I've been making a deliberate observation, because I *track down* that extra piggy so I can nibble him.

    I'm not saying piggies that are removed from the street to another street, or removed to the auctionhouse, or someones backyard respawn, but the ones donated to the shrines DO respawn. Try it yourself. Find a street and count the pigs. Check the names of the pigs. Grab one and donate it. Wait a minute or two. Now go back and count the pigs again. There will be a fresh pig named "Piggy" to replace the one you've donated.
    Posted 14 months ago by Kaessa Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I had two pig eggs in my inventory, so I nabbed a pig off of one street, left that street, donated it and waited.  I went back to the street that I took the pig from and nothing respawned.

    I hatched both of my eggs to replace the one pig that I took.  I grew them and then stood on the street and watched.  One of the pigs got taken less than 2 minutes after I hatched it and named it.

    I know it's part of the game...and I know there is really no way to stop people from taking them...but it is kinda sad when a new pig gets taken in less than 2 minutes.  LOL
    Posted 14 months ago by Poppy of Detwoit Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The difficulty really is there's not much of a disincentive to... not go on a serial pig-napping spree, while the cost of remedying the piggy shortage is disproportionately high. :/ And the more people pig-nap for profit via auction (I won't mention shrine donation because Kaessa might be right about the respawn), the more the cost of hatching piggies rises, since you factor in the possibility of the hatcher's disappointment too. I've been seasoning a lot of piggy eggs but I can't bring myself to hatch them into the wild because I don't want to have to deal with that disappointment, I guess.

    And maybe you could say, "never mind that, do what is good for the community" so I should go ahead and hatch them anyway, but the possibility that hatching might not benefit the community at all -- because like Poppy mentioned, pigs can get taken in a matter of minutes -- isn't very encouraging to contemplate.

    I can't suggest anything people should do to solve this. Although from an economics perspective it's really interesting and I'm waiting to see what the community will do, if anything, in response to this. (Maybe I can write my next public goods/NIE paper on the Glitch piggy situation? Haha.)
    Posted 14 months ago by miir Subscriber! | Permalink
  • miir, you echoed my sentiments.  I tried once to repopulate Groddle Heights when I lived there, and my efforts were erased rather quickly.  I tried adding piggies to my block when I moved to Bortola, and those too were snatched rather quickly.  It's very disheartening and makes me question why I even bother to do something nice for the community.  Sadly, as much as we would like for Glitch to be a magical, friendly place for all, it will always mirror real life -- a place with douchebags that care about no one but themselves.

    Incidentally, there has been much talk about pignapping in recent days both here and in the Ideas forum.  I hope that even though there are no posts from staff in either thread and there's been nothing done to address the issues being raised, that staff is reading this.  It's obvious that it has the potential to be a very divisive issue and should probably be addressed before things get worse.
    Posted 14 months ago by Joojoo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Poppy, I just tested that, they respawn on the street you donate them on, not the street you take them from. It can take several minutes for them to respawn, but I've seen it be nearly instantaneous.
    Posted 14 months ago by Kaessa Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Much as it pained me to do it, I sacrificed a piggy for the sake of Truth.  I went to nearby Raudan Sparkle and followed Kaessa's prescription to the T.  Found an unnamed piggy, abducted it, dropped it into a shrine.  The end result?  NO NEW PIGGY!!!

    Before: http://i.imgur.com/Swjzu.png
    After: http://i.imgur.com/vyGoK.png

    Can we finally lay this silly (and unfortunately misleading) myth to rest before others buy into the fallacy?
    Posted 14 months ago by Joojoo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • How long did you wait?
    Posted 14 months ago by Kaessa Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Check the timestamp on the pictures.  3 minutes.

    Please don't try plugging the holes in your argument.  It won't make it any more credible.  You said from the very beginning it was instantaneous.  Although, I think we can all agree 3 minutes is long enough, especially considering the light population and lack of stress on the servers in the morning.  You were wrong, as I suspected.
    Posted 14 months ago by Joojoo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ok, I asked in chat, and I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong: 

     Staff:  kevbob  they dont respawn if donated

    kevbob  and Shalcker is correct there are places strewn about the world where random stuff will appear on a street.. at random times.

    So.. my testing must have been extremely fortunate and I happened to donate a piggy every time something randomly appeared on a street.

    I shall atone for my piggy sacrifices by strewing mass piggies throughout the world. :D
    Posted 14 months ago by Kaessa Subscriber! | Permalink
  • That is music to my (and many piggie lovers') ears, Kaessa.  Thank you for the sentiment.
    Posted 14 months ago by Joojoo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Is everyone taking the following two things into account? 1) Streets have limits on how many animals they can support. 2) Piggies must be fed.

    For example, I saw the 15 piggies someone placed on the floating island in Cerbarkul. I left some grain there for them to eat since they had nothing. About an hour later there were only 5 left. I am sure the piggies de-spawned, or moved because it was beyond the population limit. Some streets, particularly the underground ones, won't support piggies at all. The piggies are not happy when placed there and will not stay.

    Another example, I had 15 piggies on my block. Grain was placed to keep the piggies fed. I came back one morning and all the grain was gone, the piggies were starving, and 3 were missing. I am pretty sure some player came through and looted the pig-food which caused 3 of the piggies to die of starvation.
    Posted 14 months ago by Ayrock Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ayrock, those of us passionate enough about the piggie population to try and do something about it are fully aware of the care & maintenance of piggies.  I think I can safely say we're referring to a dwindling population of piggies on streets with ample trees for the piggies to nibble on, where overcrowding isn't an issue.
    Posted 14 months ago by Joojoo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Well.. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who wants to know more about the pigs of Ur.  Good discussion, tho.   I appreciate the pigs even more now.  When I was new, had no home (a couple of weeks ago, ha!) the piggies were everywhere and fed me.  I do see more streets now without pigs so it might be a harder start for the next new Glitches.   I'm happy to make an egg for someone that needs a house pig, but I don't want to be a source of free donation money.  Illogical and sentimental maybe, but I'm not into piggie sacrifice at the shrine.  So many other ways to get 50 currants of donation credit.. surely.       
    Posted 14 months ago by Ooola Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Billy - I hatched quite a few last night. 5 on MM main street, 3 on each of the adjoining streets and 3 in each housing block up to 1500 including my own street 3300. More will be hatched specifically for my neighbours of MM... just gotta go on a bubble gathering hunt first XD
    Posted 14 months ago by Makona Subscriber! | Permalink
  • People, it's not difficult. Piggies respawn if they came free with the street, but not if it was released by another player. In general, this means respawn happens only in Groddle areas. Evidence: I have pignapped in Alakol, no respawn, but in the pre-reset party, we tried to clear Doon Way of pigs so we can put food down, but no matter how many pigs we captured a certain number remained. I have confidence that unless the mechanics have been changed since reset, this will be a repeatable test.
    Posted 14 months ago by Saro Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Saro, did you not read Kaessa's repost from Global chat?

    Staff:  kevbob  they dont respawn if donated

    There's no * for whether they "came" with the street (what does that even mean?  I thought we place all the trees and animals in the world?).  It's a flat out, "no, they don't respawn."
    Posted 14 months ago by Joojoo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • They mean the ones that TS put on some of the streets after the reset (since it'd have taken a while to start repopulating the world if reset came with no animals at all, especially chickens to hatch the eggs).
    Posted 14 months ago by Little Miss Giggles Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The proverbial chicken or the egg conundrum...:p
    Posted 14 months ago by Joojoo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Joojoo.. there ARE things that will randomly respawn on the street, according to kevbob. There may be a set number of piggies assigned to a street that you can't get rid of?
    Posted 14 months ago by Kaessa Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Kaessa, I thought he was referring to how there's always a jar of honey in Raudan Sparkle, or a rock of Sparkly in Onkamo Ward, or 2 carrots up on a tree in one of the other streets in Bortola.  There are random items that do indeed respawn all over the world, but I didn't think he was specifically referring to animals.  Although the idea that there had to have been at least a handful of animals manually placed at the start of the world certainly makes sense.
    Posted 14 months ago by Joojoo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Well, I think in the case of Glitch mechanics, there's not much conundrum to it. If animals were left solely to the players to provide, we'd not be able to until we had a hatched chicken to incubate eggs, even if we had the skill to make eggs. Vendors only sold eggs, not the hatched creatures waiting to be fed, unlike tree beans.

    Soooo... TS must have at least put one hatched chicken in the world!
    Posted 14 months ago by Little Miss Giggles Subscriber! | Permalink
  • There definitely were a certain number of animals placed at the start of the world. If there weren't, nobody could have eaten until people could make them. Well, unless you wanted to eat nothing but beans... ;)
    Posted 14 months ago by Kaessa Subscriber! | Permalink
  • LOL.. I just got an image of a single hatched chicken and a line of Glitchen standing in front of it waiting their turn to get eggs hatched. 
    Posted 14 months ago by Kaessa Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ewwww beans!

    And yes, that is a very funny thought. Chicken squawks, "Next! Chicken eggs first, please!"
    Posted 14 months ago by Little Miss Giggles Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Ayrock, when piggies die, they drop meat.

    Also consider: if someone was going to loot anything for personal gain, would they loot grain (grand total of 1 currant each) or a piggy (worth 400+ each at market)?

    @Kaessa and @Little Miss, hilarious!
    Posted 14 months ago by Lara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • There is one way to solve this: get a group of Glitches together, each with a bag of piggie bait, go to Doon Way or similar location, attempt to pick up all the piggies, see if the mechanics have changed...

    If someone takes a screenshot of Doon Way entirely cleared of piggies, I will concede that my hypothesis is no longer correct.
    Posted 14 months ago by Saro Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think it's fair and appropriate to auction, sell to vendors and donate baby piggies and piggy eggs. 

    You can't capture and sell grown butterflies or chickens. Auctioning, donating and vendor sales of grown piggies should be eliminated. (Yes, I realize you can't capture those)

    I have no problems with Piggy-napping. I napped 3 from random overpopulated streets before I could create and hatch my own eggs because I needed them for my house.
    Posted 14 months ago by g33kgurrl Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I just find it impossible to keep piggies on streets adjacent to housing blocks. Rikki Regard seems to be the worse in terms of pig-napping. I mainly try to keep Bortola populated piggy wise. It is a never ending job but I guess that is good in terms of the egg and piggy achievements I can obtain.
    Posted 14 months ago by Scarlett Beth Subscriber! | Permalink
  • tl;dr

    PIGS RESPAWN ON MANY STREETS!  I've seen it multiple times with my own eyes.  Respawn right after capture.  Then you can nibble the new pig named Piggy.
    Posted 14 months ago by Friend Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Friend: quote from Kaessa:

    Ok, I asked in chat, and I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong: 
     Staff:  kevbob  they dont respawn if donated
    Posted 14 months ago by Lara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • if pigs didnt respawn, there would be no pigs in groddle.
    Posted 14 months ago by Friend Subscriber! | Permalink
  • maybe take the time to read the thread you posted in :) i rather not repeat myself or quote others endlessly when you can scroll up just fine ;)

    also, typing on an ipad. copypasting is no fun.

    edit: at least you were frank about the fact that you didn't read any of the posts above yours.
    Posted 14 months ago by Lara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Friend- I have dropped at least 20 or 25 piggies in Groddle which I grew from eggs. I am far from the only one adding to the piggy population every day. Spawning is not the only way to get new piggies.
    Posted 14 months ago by Kookaburra Subscriber! | Permalink
  • e.e

    /off to capture pigs
    Posted 14 months ago by Friend Subscriber! | Permalink
  • is that to me, friend? i'm not sure what you're asking. am i not supposed to post in this thread?

    edit: uh.. ok, edit wars, sure.
    (der trolls dey hungry today)
    Posted 14 months ago by Lara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • They dont respawn if donated.  But they do respawn normally.  Correct?  Why is this thread so long.  They respawn sometimes.  They dont respawn other times.
    Posted 14 months ago by Friend Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Friend: It's already been disproven by experiment that they don't respawn*, and it's been confirmed by a dev.
    *Groddle may be an exception.
    Please stop spreading this uncorroborated myth unless you have empirical evidence to substantiate it (outside of Groddle).
    Posted 14 months ago by Joojoo Subscriber! | Permalink