permafrost layer of unopened giftboxes :-(
kiheikid
Posts: 2,168 ✭✭✭✭✭
caveat: i realize my and everyone else’s respective experience, methods, and preferences are uniquely individual ... so maybe what i describe below is truly happening to me and no one else (but i suspect not).
due to the daily limit of 10 giftboxes maximum that can be opened in any day (re-setting at midnight), i seem to have developed a mostly permanent layer of unopened giftboxes from among my current (approx) 120+ friends in my list.
this is how it happened. i live in a rural area with not too many points of interest (POI) that are inns, greenhouses, and fortresses nearby, and moreover very spotty cell service that continues to cause many problems/errors affecting gameplay. before the introduction of giftboxes, my wife and i were constantly starving for spell energy (SE). SE giftboxes, and particularly the extravagant and essential SE giftboxes, have become a gamechanger for us ... and that means we have come to prioritize looking thru our lists for them and opening them first before any other types of giftboxes unless we have a great need or desire for something else.
runestones are always in high demand, because their use in fortress battles is the ONLY kind of activity that returns a giftbox (for us to send out to friends) 100% of the time. because we have to travel into our nearby hamlet or further into town for the better POI and better cell service, it means we cannot afford lots of time trying to collect giftboxes at inns and greenhouses that return giftboxes much less than 100% of the time ... we get what we get and it is what it is. therefore, after our immediate SE needs are met from POI visits and opening a handful of extravagant and/or essential SE giftboxes, various runestone giftboxes are the next to be opened.
occasionally, if i am running short of particular ingredients, i will try my luck opening the applicable ingredient giftbox corresponding to that desired ingredient, such as baruffio or exstimulo or dawdle ... and of course the occasional potent exstimulo potion giftbox is always welcome due to the savings of brewtime and rare unicorn hairs from just getting that potion outright.
so, what remains are regular SE giftboxes and regular ingredient giftboxes. if i am lucky, i can open maybe 2 or 3 of those a day; if not, one or none. how do i choose which 1 or 2 or 3 ? often by what the associated postcard in the giftbox looks like, whether due to geographic location or interesting POI shown.
i also tend to open and re-open the giftboxes that come from friends who have already established a pattern or history of consistently sending the types of giftboxes that i have prioritized as described above.
and that means that there are an estimated 40-60 (or more) giftboxes that i have not ever opened and, in all likelihood, might not get around to opening for a long, long, loooooong time ... kind of like a layer of permafrost in the frozen tundra - never opened (giftboxes)/never thawed (permafrost).
what to do — (A) cut’em loose (by deleting that person from the friend list, since we cannot just delete received giftboxes while keeping the friend who sent them) VS (B) continue to keep them in a state of permafrost in hope that eventually i might get around to opening them ??
(i theoretically could group the friends on the list in bunches of 10 or so and just go down the list to the next group each day, but that does not necessarily meet my immediate SE needs or specific ingredient needs or runestone needs.)
so ... looking for suggestions and thoughts you all might have about this predicament ... or even mention that one or more of you have a somewhat similar situation.
thanks in advance. tagging @HPWULola so she can pass feedback to @HPWUTeam ... yes, the OBVIOUS solution is to eliminate or at least greatly increase that daily limit of 10 giftboxes that can be opened.
Comments
It is really sad that these limits impact people like this. I have started thinking twice before gifting regular spell energy boxes for this reason, because I don't want it to sit there if I do get a good gift to send to someone.
As I only have 12 friends, I don't have this problem on my end (and am grateful for this). But it is a real shame that this wonderful social aspect has such tight restrictions.
It’s a dilemma. Do you open the ones that you want/need? Or do you just open consecutively down in an attempt to be gracious?
I’m currently doing the latter. I apologise if some of you think me rude (or stupid) for not opening your brilliant gifts, I’ll get to them eventually!
@Dewin99 I do the latter as well. With over 115 + people on my list and, depending upon the day, easy access to all poi, I'd rather try to just go down the list to make sure no gift sits there for too long. However, that means I get through my list approximately every ten to eleven days!
It doesn't add up. I don't really need the gifts, but with no real way to communicate that to the majority of my list and with the guilt when I only can send "regular SE/ingredient/rune" sometimes I end up not gifting because of the amount of grumbling I read on the posts and discord about those "gifts".
Gifting has become a double edged sword instead of fun; outside of the postcard aspect of it, and sadly, the gifts I send don't really have a cool postcard.
by the way, sponsored POI (for us, only AT&T fortresses and Cricket fortresses; sadly, no more AT&T inns because they were foolishly converted into fortresses here) are probably the absolute LAST giftboxes that i want to open (though i occassionally do when desparate for SE) because even among the lowest priority categories of giftboxes that i describe above, they do not have much appeal for me.
the sponsored postcard is just a bland corporate logo advertisement. blech. yes, i do send them out, because ... so far ... i do not have enough other, nicer, better giftboxes every day with which to reciprocate in gifting and i feel awful about that. the only thing that keeps me going to sponsored fortresses is my time management. if i am trying to grrrrrind out maximum fortress foundables, then the SE partial rebate that is given out at sponsored fortresses helps me optimize my time available by not having to take a break battling in wizard challenges to go to inns to fill up.
then again, with hopefully more extravagant and/or essential SE giftboxes, i might be able to skip sponsored fortresses altogether and, instead, just go to non-sponsored fortresses whose POI generates nicer postcards for the corresponding runestone giftboxes that i could send out!
sorry in advance to disappoint those of you who might actually prefer sponsored giftboxes over non-sponsored giftboxes ... i think the nicer postcard compensates for the 1 SE differential
Its such a shame to read these comments- I'm in exactly the same predicament as all of the above described.
And as we know it is a lovely feature introduced to be fun & it really is exciting to receive gifts with the widespread and amazing postcards. It's fun to collect them when you see you have a few extravagant or specific ingredient ones to give out. It's certainly solved my dragonclaw problems!!
But then theres the side to it described here where we can't help but react to the gifts like we would in real life, and send the best ones to our closest friends, or maybe to reciprocate a player you don't really know well but they are kindly always sending you extravagant or essential gifts.
So it falls down when we get to the ordinary spell, ingredient and to a lesser degree i think the runestone ones, because we actually feel BAD for sending them! And are compelled to hold off sending them to wait for a better gift so that we don't clog up the other person's list.
One idea that has been brewing in my mind since i realised that a meagre 10 per day just wasn't enough- is that, as ive said in a previous post somewhere i think- that we can click on the box to see what's in the gift we're sending... then add to it ourselves to make those gifts more exciting & personal to friends so they become more worth opening?
So if its a basic spell energy with say 3 SE, we can choose to add some of our own energy to it - however much we feel like adding from our own energy pot. That way- it adds to the surprise & incentive to open those because you could get more SE than in an extravagant gift! Not as much xp- but the chance of more SE which can be really needed!
With ingredients you can add to whichever ingredients are in their again from what you wish to spare from your own pot. Also the same can apply with runestones as long as its the same type & level as the one in the gift- making it easier for the devs to do -in that we are just doing an increase in number from what's already there.
I dont know how feasible this would be, but i would love it if we could personalise the ordinary gifts in this way, so that it becomes a real gamble between opening those or the higher level ones.
Obviously the ideal would be that in the future we could create our own gifts including giving away xp from our own total!!
But for now, the idea of a simple addition to what is there is a thought??
@AuroraKadavra I doubt there will ever be an option to customize gifts (or along the same lines, to directly share items from our inventory with other players). It would be too easy to abuse, and the devs wouldn't want to introduce a feature that would skew the game balance so much.
Yeh @MtPollux , you're right there, it would unfortunately be too easy to abuse.
It's a shame tho, cos if used properly it would be great for city folk to help out rural friends with spell energy & ingredients perhaps- as we've heard some players have to go to great lengths to reach an inn or greenhouse.
But yeh, it was just an idea that i think would have been fantastic- however the way it could really swing the balance, now in retrospect, makes it not a viable option- shame tho 🤷🏼♀️
i have not quite been able to bring myself to deleting giftboxes i collect ... same mindset as finishing everything off my plate so as to not waste food.
i feel guilty for not being able to reciprocate in same quality or quantity of giftboxes, not even close. every giftbox i might delete is one more person on my list whom i cannot offer even smallest token of aloha in return. 😞
It would be nice if as a temporary "fix" to the situation they would allow us to open everything we receive or have received on Christmas. I think I have read that suggestion somewhere else. If they are trying to be PC then New Years Eve or New Years. I don't want to sound ungrateful for this addition to the game. It has wonderful potential. So far it just feels like it complicates the game for me.
Thanks to all for thinking of me and sending all the helpful items. The one positive of this feature right now for me I now feel a sense of community within the game. /sniffle
Yes, @Li11ee. Thankfully, when I saw your request this morning, I knew you would understand the lack of gift opening at the moment. I am doing a massive chop very soon, for random names I have no connection to.
Just another side to the discussion here - my mom lives in a rural area where there are no PoIs... so she gets all of my extravagant energy gifts. I on the other hand live in an area with lots of fun PoIs so I never feel badly about sending basic gifts when they have beautiful views, murals or are of the Mrs. Doubtfire house ;o) and I always send them hoping the person on the other end will enjoy the photo more than the gift itself.
(I'm enjoying immensely my 'postcards' from around the world and take a screenshot of each.)
@FogtownGirl I absolutely agree with you! I live in a really target rich area. I really appreciate gifts, especially at the moment while not so mobile, but the postcards are really lovely and what will keep me invested when I am back on my feet properly. In fact, collecting gifts for others has quickly become my favourite part of the game.
i like your approach, @FogtownGirl
And I have done it. I chopped the list. I know I said I would wait until the end of the event, but I couldn't hack it any longer. I feel like I have chopped one person too many, though. I started the event with 12 and have kept two of my new ones, but only have 13. Oh well, not the end of the world, and definitely no-one I know in person - I only have one of them on there!
Just read this thread and am really bummed that this has turned into something where your gift is only opened if it's "good enough". I try to go through my list and send gifts out daily, but I certainly don't have time to delete and keep hunting for extravagant gifts only.
I thought the gift giving was supposed to be a fun, new feature. It's disappointing that the spirit of it is disappearing.
Do I sound like I'm talking about the commercialism of Christmas? Maybe! That's what it feels like. And now, to add insult to injury I may not be able to finish my bonus Calamity tasks because I need to send more gifts.
So quit the bah humbug people and just enjoy the gift giving. And my one teeny wish would be to allow us to increase the open/send rate to 25 per day. It's high, but on weekends or extended play times allows us to do more. Merry, merry!!
Thank you @Magpie31 I've been struggling with how to state what you put so elegantly.
Thanks @Bormacska . Although it seems the comment has disappeared - I was trying to edit a spelling mistake and the whole post disappeared! WHOOPS!
I put my friend code in the forum when I was struggling to send enough gifts for brilliant tasks and reached 200 friends in a couple of hours. Now I have way too many gifts to handle with only 10 openings per day so I have to pick and choose also. First I try to do the gifts from the couple of real life Friends on my list, then the few people I recognize from here. The other 190 or so friends I basically just go down the list looking for extravagant and essential gifts, then usually runestone, then specific potion ingredients. Sadly, spell energy is usually the last I get to as I have so many POIs to visit that I rarely am below full capacity. If it would let me, I would open them anyway to clear them out but it won’t unless there is space. It really is very frustrating.
@Li11ee @Magpie31 @Bormacska @CeruleanGirl - i’m with y’all and share in the same approach and feelings you have regarding our respective lists.
@FogtownGirl - i hear ya, and share your delight in finding beautiful postcards in all kinds of giftboxes received, and in choosing giftboxes with certain local postcards to send out with specific friends in mind.
@Minervina19 - i think it is less “bah humbug” and more “the way niantic sets up the gifting feature for HPWU players really BITES and these are the challenges and frustrations that result”. you have a different perspective and that is good. but if we REALLY had a bah humbug attitude, we wouldn’t be trying so hard in this forum to get the attention of @hpwulola and her @HPWUTeam in order to advocate for positive change.
I sadly only get regular gifts. (Explains why many remain unopened) I feel bad sending them, but I want to send gifts to people because I don’t want them to think I’m ignoring them. Before the Christmas task, I usually deleted the spell energy gifts, but since it’s a Christmas gift, and they have scrolls, I’ve been sending them. I hardly ever (if at all) get extravagant gifts, whether it’s from a POI or from a gift someone sent me 😕 so I just live the normal. Not look the gift horse in the mouth and all that.
Idk. I’m a confusion.
@Magpie31 - re your post #18 above, very strange but i found your missing post in a list of my thread notifications (because you had tagged @kiheikid ) even though it cannot be clicked on and it is missing from this thread.
i believe it originally appeared after @Minervina19 ’s post #16 above but before @Bormacska ’s post #17 above
here it is, in two screenshots:
Thanks @kiheikid!