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Search Options ►March Madness - Part I!
Site Update
Welcome to the first part of March! Are you excited to see what we have underway for you? You already got a taste of some of the fantastic new stuff we've brought out for this month, but we're going to make it even better! Put your seat belts on, and we'll begin our ride!
New Jeweled Pets
As with every month, the new Jeweled Pets have arrived. This month's artist is Hikaru (LLs) (#15577)!
If you would like to become an artist for the Jeweled Pets, check out the application thread. There's a new incentive to encourage artists to apply!
New FauxBox Theme
A new month always means a new Faux Box theme! So let's see what theme we'll have for March... how about Easter? Adorable rabbits, candies, eggs, chicks... let your imagination go wild with this month's edits!
Premium Item
Wow! You really cleared out the FauxBox! We're really proud of all of you, and happy to see that all those designs now have loving homes in your lairs. So to celebrate those 2,000+ fauxes finding homes, the premium item for this month is the Fox Pen!
If you don't remember what this item does, it allows you to add 10% edits onto your faux to make it more unique. Have fun!
New USD Bonus
There's a new item available as a bonus for purchasing GP or USD Items! That would be the Metal Trinket Box. You can get one Metal Trinket Box for every $5 spent in GP or the USD Shop. Keep scrolling to see why this is going to be extra fun!
This bonus will last until March 19, at 11:59 PM Aywas Time.
Goodbye, Paintbrushes!
After checking out the usage and popularity of the Commissions feature, we have decided that we will be retiring Paintbrushes from the USD Shop. The Commissions feature is easier for the Aywas Team to manage over Paintbrushes, and it also allows artists to collect more cash for less of a fee.
The Paintbrushes will officially be leaving the USD Shop on March 13, 11:59 PM. If you have any lingering Paintbrush transactions to complete, be sure to grab your necessary item before that date.
Despite leaving the USD Shop, existing Paintbrushes will be available to redeem indefinitely. The supply of them will simply cease as we encourage artists to move toward the Commissions feature.
Free Silver Art
We announced a few weeks ago that we were in the process of revamping the "Free Silver Species Artwork" part of Silver Custom Crystals. We will be revamping it to be similar to the GCC and MDT features, where artists can apply for the team and players can submit an item and select artists they want to take their commission.
While this feature is not ready to release yet (consider this an informational update), this is the plan for it and you can start to decide whether you want to join the future team! We hope this will streamline the feature and allow you the ease and accessibility of the existing ones.
Some Voting is A'Comin'!
We teased you earlier in this post that those Metal Trinket Boxes would come in handy near the end of this post... well, here's what's going to happen! We have a number of different pet genus lines that we have hoarded. YOU are going to be voting for your two favorite from the big batch!!
The First Place winner, with the most votes collected, will become the newest FAUX BOX pet! Though, it won't be called a Faux Box. It'll have its own separate box from the existing one.
The Second Place winner, with the second most votes collected, will become a brand new TRINKET species! So if you really, really love that second place winner, you can color it and upload with those trinket boxes to your heart's content.
When's this vote taking place, you ask? You want to see all the pets stockpiled? How's tomorrow sound? Yes, we'll hold our vote tomorrow and allow it to go for forty-eight hours.
And even the losing linearts will show up later as Raw Crystal pets, or for some other project. How's that for excitement?
Let us know which part you're most excited for in a comment below!
Posted by JAK
(#15) on Sun Mar 6, 2016 2:36am
- NyctiCorax
(#1965)
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Posted on: Sun Mar 6, 2016 2:28pm
Frid (#28513)
I think that creates the same problem as the paintbrushes. If I recall correctly, the problem was that paintbrushes get sold at some point, and then there's a lot of time between the user buying them and someone turning that in, but when it eventually is turned in, the site does have to pay the artist, regardless if any paintbrushes were sold in that time. I believe in a similar manner it also had something to do with taxes, but I'm not sure about that since I don't know anything about US taxes. Anyway, if there was something like usd currency, and people hold onto it like they would've done now with the paintbrushes, you end up with the same problem. If using the commissions feature to get a commission done, there's a time limit in which the art has to be delivered, and then there's one pay moment where the site as well as the artist get paid, and then all of it is done.
- Conium
(#39365)
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Posted on: Sun Mar 6, 2016 3:02pm
Ville (#69565) I would but... I'm actually working on a ticket order right now. I've been sick for nearly the entire week, and this was like. my lunch break. Once I'm done with this and not like. bedridden, it's definitely something I'd be up to do.
- synicals & pluto
(#50345)
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Posted on: Sun Mar 6, 2016 3:26pm
i thought that it was because Paintbrushes get sold, and they get stashed for a while, so the sites overspends themselves (because they forgot/lost track) due to the unredeemed paintbrushes. And as a result, when the paintbrushes are redeemed, the site then panics over it? i'm probably completely wrong...xDD but that's how i thought it worked? Murkrow Nycti - LLs (#1965)
- NyctiCorax
(#1965)
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Posted on: Sun Mar 6, 2016 3:47pm
Eevee 훗 Pichu [LL] (#50345)
Yeah, that's what I meant with the first part indeed. If somehow a lot more paintbrushes get redeemed than they estimated, that can give problems financially. I thought there was also something with taxes, but I'm not sure and might have confused that with something else. The point is that if there's going to be some kind of usd currency to be used for commissions, the same might happen again, people just keep it stashed for a couple of months or even a year, and then redeem it. Then you'd get the same problem again.
Unless it would expire after like 2 months or so, but I can see a lot of people getting pissed about currency that might expire. :P
- synicals & pluto
(#50345)
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Posted on: Sun Mar 6, 2016 3:51pm
Murkrow NyctiCorax (#1965)
But logically wouldn't it make more sense to set aside the money that is supposed to be used to pay artists, and just use the "extra" (from selling the PBs) for spending? that way the site would always have the "slush fund" that would be used to pay artists. It's almost like...responsible credit card spending. Not spending more than you can back up? Yeah, it'd be a bummer to have a ton of money the site can't spend...but it wouldn't cause any problems in terms of "running out" of money? There wouldn't be any issues with keeping PBs for a long period anyways if that was the case?
so...is this just the result of irresponsible spending/not keeping track? or of something else entirely?
lmao i hope i don't chewed out, i'm just honestly curious about how this entire thing works behind the scenes?
- Kita🦊
(#3988)
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Posted on: Sun Mar 6, 2016 3:56pm
Eevee 훗 Pichu [LL] (#50345)
Any money that is being brought in by the site is taxed, so if they just sat on that money they would be taxed for it and would lose 30-40% of the income from paintbrushes (which means they'd end up with less money than the paintbrushes pay out).
It's not the fact that someone is being irresponsible and not keeping track, it's the fact that taxes exist and the site is losing money if someone doesn't redeem a paintbrush in the same month they buy it from the USD shop.
- Kita
- synicals & pluto
(#50345)
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Posted on: Sun Mar 6, 2016 4:01pm
Kita & Riri (#3988)
thank you for explaining! I seriously don't understand a lot about taxing and stuff, so i didn't really take that into account!
- Kita🦊
(#3988)
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Posted on: Sun Mar 6, 2016 4:03pm
Eevee 훗 Pichu [LL] (#50345)
Yeah no problem! Like unfortunately it's something that is like...no matter what the site does they're going to lose money unless they purge all un-redeemed paintbrushes at the beginning of each month which....would definitely be extremely negative on the user side of things xD.
However, I am under the impression (staff would have to confirm, of course) that you can still pay someone GP to commission someone on the USD commission feature for you, so at least that option is still open for users who only have GP to spend?
- Kita
- synicals & pluto
(#50345)
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Posted on: Sun Mar 6, 2016 4:05pm
Kita & Riri (#3988)
"I am under the impression (staff would have to confirm, of course) that you can still pay someone GP to commission someone on the USD commission feature for you, so at least that option is still open for users who only have GP to spend?"
if that's the case, I don't think i'd mind so much. :'D it's just that i've never heard anything about that, so i wasn't sure if that could be an option. :o
~pichu
Posted on: Sun Mar 6, 2016 2:00pm
Conium (#39365) Ville (#69565) Or even add the option to buy USD currency. ;o Like on the USD shop you can have the option to buy for example 30 USD to add to the commission feature currency. Then the person who buys it can gift it to someone (The one who paid with GP to that person) and then you get 30 USD in a little bank, like the bonus page- to use on whatever you feel like. n_n