Ernya.com

Hey everyone,

Back in May 2010 when the first spell was released, 10 hearts per spell was a reasonable price considering how many items were in the system.
This number kept increasing at a rapid pace with Donation Items, Coin Items, Limited Items, and recently Leveling Items gradually introduced month after month.

Each time an item is released, it comes in 3 default colors, as well as all of the spell colors ever released.
Each time a spell is released, every single item along with its different poses have to be recolored and each individual layer has to be uploaded manually. There is no magic recolor and upload button unfortunately, although we wish there was, this is actually the reason the spell color is only available for all items a few days after the release.

Now, let's do a bit of math, and take an average of 5 layers per item multiplied by how many items supporting the spells are currently available on the site, the result is simply insane.
194 items as of today, multiplied by 5 layers gives us a total of 970 layers that need to be recolored. Add another 970 layers for each preview and another 970 layers for the male counterpart, brings us to a grand total of 2910 layers which need to be uploaded manually for the white spell this month.
Now this number will keep increasing every month as more items are introduced.

Rationally it's impossible to have a fixed price on a fluctuating and variable feature, this is why we decided on a price increase for the spells.

We had a few options. Either we were to stop the spell feature all together (but we know how much you guys love this feature, and how much you are looking forward to the new colors every month).
Or we could have gone another route, and change the way the spells are currently working, and make the spells consumable. We know for a fact that many of you would have preferred a price increase over consumable spells, this is why we opt for this solution.

The price will be adjusted every year, starting from the release date of the first spell which was in May 2010.
The price adjustment that should have occurred in May 2011 didn't, because we tried to take on the extra cost and see if we could avoid the impossible. It turns out that the spells are not paying for themselves, and our budget is not able to cover this feature any longer.

In consequence, the price adjustment will begin next month.
There will be a 15 hearts increase per every year on the month of May, meaning that the spells will increase for another 15 hearts in May 2012.

The pure white spell this month is the last spell available for 10 hearts.
Next months spell will be on sale for 25 hearts, as well as every other spells until April 2012 included. Then starting from May 2012, the spells will be on sale for 40 hearts, until the next increase in May 2013.

We hope you understand why we are doing this, and we are trying to be as transparent as possible. We hope that you can still enjoy the spell feature just as much as before and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.


Edit: Posted on Page15

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• Emy wrote:

  Pyreon wrote:I'd like to see what Emy herself thinks about all of these suggestions.

  
  
  For those of you who would also like to hear my opinion, here it is.
  
  Right now, the spell requires an average of 42 to 50 hours of labor, which will keep on increasing every month. As far as efficiency goes, it can't be much more efficient than it already is, and even if there was any efficiency to squeeze out, eventually over time the efficiency would be over taken by the increase of items in the system.
  
  Now, if you ask my opinion, to be truly honest we only keep the spell because we understand the versatility in it. But at this point I would prefer to discontinue the spell feature all together which would mean no further release after this months spell. But this is my personal opinion on the matter.
  Additionally, it would result in no further cost for any of you, and no price increase either.
  All of these lost hours could then be invested in other important aspects of the site, new features, new items, more commons, events, etc.
  
  To replace the spell, we could add one extra item every month in the donation shop for 10 hearts. It would make up for the loss, keep Ernya afloat, and literally make everyone happy.

Edit: Posted on page 46

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• Emy wrote:We would like to thank you for your feedback and taking the time to post your ideas.
  We will be going over all of the suggestions within the next few days, and either let you know about the final decision, or take it to a poll with whichever options we think are the best for Ernya and its users.