Bugs and the Economy
 

It should be apparent to many by now about the nerf to bug values. Now, with the addional economic nerf to farming, things are starting to look grim financially, as well as timely, unsuitable to experienced players.

This thread is here for us to discuss the future possibility of bug value being reverted to what was once an enjoyable, worthwhile activity. Bug hunting in general really has lost its luster and has become almost illegitimate as a means of earning gralats within the game. Hopefully, with your attention and consideration, this would no longer be the case, and things would be made slightly easier and worthwhile for everyone.

I would like to start off with a list of all the available bugs within the game, including the five new ones.

Here the old prices will be listed alongside their current values and their respective rarity levels. It's likely rarity levels have been adjusted, too, so I'm a tad biased with what I've personally been seeing.
The bugs are listed from least to most valueable. I have at least one of every bug, but have never personally seen the Spider in its habitat, and I do not have a spider. 'Eventual' means you're more than likely to find the bug if you continue your current method. 'Interpretive' means that since the bug is new, we're all still finding out the rarity level.
[B]Some bugs have been buffed as of 05/26/2020, and are no longer to be of reference for the argument. [B]

Bugs, Costs, and Rarity

I honestly think these values need to be adjusted. This is probably the one and only activity besides Baddy Killing that requires effort. Looting is good but only requires patience and luck. The frustrating thing about loot and bugs is that some loot items sell for much more than some bugs, and looting is the easiest way to make gralats. People have to compete for bugs, which makes them instantly more valueable in my eyes, but they aren't right now.

I'm good friends with Beryl, and even she thinks King Tristam's price regulations are hard to work with. The lowered prices have caused a deflation in the potion business, and that's hurt a little bit. She can't charge as much for her potions, and she's been struggling a little. Good thing these new bugs popped up, at least Beryl has some new potion recipes to make. And, due to the unlikelyhood of finding some of these new bugs, the new potions she can create can cost a pretty gralat or two. :D

It would seem the values are based more on rarity level than anything. I would think more attributes need to be added to make the value of the bug mean more, such as 1: Rarity, of course. 2: The areas they can be found. 3: Catching difficulty, and 4: competitive influence the bug could have on players.

Habitats


Now that we know their habitats, let's discuss their values.
Some butterfly values are attrocious. I hardly see Monarchs, and they're only worth 8 gralats. Honestly, I don't see very many different butterflies in the game right now. I only ever see the Swallowtail, Clouded Yellow, Large White, Arizona Sister, and Fatal Metal butterflies. That's 5 of 12 butterflies. I guess 7 of them are rare. I haven't seen a Mantis in ages, either.

Cockroaches are only worth 4g. Disgusting. They're very common, but it's disheartening when 100 roaches don't even get you 1000g, let alone 500g. There are 31 bugs in the game; I'd have to wait a month to get roaches again and sell them as the bug of the day,aybe even longer since some bugs are cycled multiple times throughout a month.

Worms are a huge waste of time to hunt for.
With a value of only 1g and no other use for them, it begs to question why this bug even exists. Even as the bug of the day, they're still worth only 1g. They aren't even that common to find, and you may have to spend at least 30 minutes to an hour just digging to find one worm. If fishing were to be brought back, they should no longer be a bug but should be a resource in a bait and tackle shop, for which the owners should pay a lot more for.

The Bumblebee is the only bug that can harm a player. They're also rare, and difficult to catch. They're worth only 48g... That's discouraging enough for me to not bother trying to catch them on purpose.

The Pillbug has to be the second rarest bug in the game. Not difficult to catch, but you're never likely to see one anywhere. They're only worth 50g.

My point is there's no specialty to catching them, even if they're super rare. It's just a little bonus. "Nice! You caught a bee! Take it for less than 100g!" Or "You're the first person to find and catch a Pillbug in 4 days! Take it for less than 100g!" It's a slap in the face.


[/Spoiler]
Updates/Buffs/Nerfs

Overall, I believe bug prices need to be buffed, or at least the BOTD value change should be buffed. It's tough enough to think I'm putting in all this effort and feel like it's not enough. It feels like a grind, and that's discouraging. Looting should not be a better alternative to something that requires more time and effort.

The BOTD value increase seems to be standardised for every bug; 1.50x more if Beryl needs that bug. I believe that needs to be AT LEAST 2.00x to 4.00x more instead.

Would like to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Thank you.

Pillbug used to be 300 g on a normal day.

Not to derail this, but fp4 promised our furniture would go back to 50% like a year ago when furniture resale got nerfed, too.

300g for 1 Pillbug is pretty hefty for sure. I only ever see 1 Pillbug every 3 or 4 months, so theoretically I think 300g is a good number.

I read about the furniture resale buff, too, but it's already been a year and we just got another nerf to the economy.

doubt this will happen, there's a reason why prices were nerfed, looting cap reduced and recently - inability to farm in guild houses apparently. The target demographic for players on iClassic are young children. People with even half a brain will understand what I'm hinting at.

I don't doubt anything. I don't think lowering the prices encourages spending money, especially younger kids. They just end up quitting. My younger brothers quit because they say making gralats is too difficult.

I was traversing the caves and catching roaches. Found lots of beetles and even found a Pillbug. As I was catching roaches, some girl was like, "Dude, they're super cheap..."

Oh well. I'm gonna keep grinding for fricken gralats.

I have added a section with the recorded value changes from the Bug of the Day. It will be updated daily until I've recorded all Bug of the Day values.

I have added a buffs and update section. The 5 new bugs have all been buffed in value ranging from 1.38x to 2.50x more than their first original value. I will continue to update this section if I notice any other buffs. I will state that I probably won't use those bugs for reference to the argument, as I think they're decent buffs. They could have probably been better, but I'll take it.

Centipedes. I've found three different kinds of vase in game, each with different speeds they're picked up or thrown and one with an old fashioned graphic instead of the new one. Haven't been able to find a centipede... yet. Where did anyone else find them?

The last time I found Centipedes, they were in those red-striped vaces. They're extremely rare is all. A vace can spawn up to 2, so you can make up to 104 gralats just picking up a vace and catching them.

Just pick up vaces. Preferably not ones where many people are or where there are tons of vaces.

It seems the Bug of the Day (BOTD) value increase has been standardised to 1.50x. I think it should be at least 2.00x instead, but it's more consistant and may save me some time. I'll continue my observations to confirm this, as the Centipede had one of the highest BOTD increases before at 2.78x, but due to the buff to its original price from 28g to 52g, a 1.50x increase would keep it at 78g, which was confirmed by myself and a friend from our observations. 28*2.78=78, and 52*1.50=78. Technically no change, but it's all standardised to 1.50x.

Arctic Spiders had the highest BOTD at 3.15x.

They were worth 20g before the buff, and 20*3.15 is 63.
They're buffed value is now 42, and as the BOTD on 05/31/2020, they are worth 63. 42*1.50=63.

Technically the bugs weren't buffed, as the BOTD value remains the same. This further confirms the BOTD values are standardised to 1.50x.

Thoughts?

Shhh. Dusty will change them again if we complain too much .

my thoughts on fishing and bumblebees
 

looting is fishing

Treasure maps are quests.

Update as of 07/25/2021
I've noticed bugs have been cycled this year. I saw no bees this summer, and I'm seeing more exotic bugs like Green Hairstreaks, Small Blues, Peacocks, and Mantises. I'm still seeing the more common bugs like Large Whites, Ringlets, Swallowtails, Clouded Yellows, Emperors, Agrias's, Grasshoppers, and both Destiny butterflies.

I've not seen any Tigers, Monarchs, Ladybugs, Black Ladybugs, worms, or Spiders.

As far as I'm concerned, regular Spiders are extinct in Graal. I've not seen a regular Spider in years, and others have said the same.

I've not been able to find worms, either.

I dislike this cycling between different bugs biannually as it's always been done. The values are still low and the cycling doesn't make much sense anymore, especially when half of the bugs are worse in value than others.

Ground bugs like Roaches, Beetles, Pillbugs, and Waterstriders seem to be around all year like normal. I haven't actively looked for Centipedes but I'm sure nothing's changed.

Still gonna wait for value changes. :)