Neuro Galaxy

For posting threads about MMOs, console games, other virtual pet sites, gaming news and suchlike.
Cranberry
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Neuro Galaxy

Post by Cranberry »

http://www.neurogalaxy.co.uk/index.php

This is a neat little pet site with some unique features; it's not just another Neo or Subeta clone. A bunch of Subeta people joined today and we've been exploring and trying to get a feel for things. The pet art is decent (see all colors here); kinda cutesy and definitely not as detailed as Subeta, but not bad. The battle system and the ability to "roam" the site and get into random battles/get sent on quests is cool, and the "mercenaries," which replace a human avatar feature (you can have a couple of mercenaries; they're basically characters you control and can dress) are cute. I really like how the hair is done (you select length, bangs and side strands all separately). These are my two (ignore the girl's lack of pants; I haven't bought any yet, haha). This newbie guide covers a lot of the basics.

I'm Cranberry there. Shocking, right? :P
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Huggles
Feral Koala
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Re: Neuro Galaxy

Post by Huggles »

There's a creature called a Huggle? I must have one! I will report back shortly.

Report #1 The Huggle is not a koala! It's some weird cat thing. I wonder if I can convince them to change it to the appropriate koala creature? I probably won't stick around long enough to play it afterward, but I'll sleep easier.
Mistress Morbid
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Re: Neuro Galaxy

Post by Mistress Morbid »

Heh, seems like a cute site. :) I'll try it out for a bit. I love their crocodile pet, the Miggon. <3

It seems weird that their 'elemental' colours are lacking an air form of some sort. Perhaps they'll add one in the future.

EDIT: Haha, I found a striped top hat. xD
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Cranberry
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Re: Neuro Galaxy

Post by Cranberry »

I have a striped hat, too... a pink one, haha. I've managed to restock a couple of items that sell for a bit more, but I don't know what percentage of the population actually has enough money for them, so who knows if they'll sell. Right now I'm just playing a few games for money:

Double Die (every five minutes)
Skylow (every half hour)
StarSaver (every half hour)
Zubby (every four hours)
Mystika's Quests (spend under 2k or so per quest, five times per day)

And making sure to visit the 12 Days of Christmas page and do the Trivia (click here). I'm also catching snowflakes. If you watch the snowflakes that fall on every page, sometimes there will be a slightly bigger one that moves faster and more erratically than the rest, and if you click it, you get some star coins (and a prize every few).
Last edited by Cranberry on 30 Dec 2009 12:23 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Mistress Morbid
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Re: Neuro Galaxy

Post by Mistress Morbid »

You're links are very helpful Cranberry. ^^

So far I'm liking this site, it has a unique feel to it rather than just another carbon copy of a generic pet site that pops up and dies off. Don't know how long my interest will hold, but the mercenary part is definitely fun to dress up (I love any sort of customization things like that). Money seems a little hard to come by at first, but I'm just impatient to get some more clothes. xD
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Faun
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Re: Neuro Galaxy

Post by Faun »

This looks quite fun. :) Im pipkin there.
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Keith
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Re: Neuro Galaxy

Post by Keith »

Hey Guys -- The reason that Cranberry actually posted about it is because we (Agoge Inc.) are thinking of purchasing Neurogalaxy and making it a part of our little company. I think that it's unique enough to be a separate site from Subeta (And we wouldn't be crossing artists or anything), we'd basically just be buying them up, paying their staff, and giving them the resources to grow in the direction they've been growing all along.

It'd be super duper helpful to me if you could join, and maybe poke around a bit (those of you that haven't!) and maybe find things that you don't like, things that are hard to navigate to, etc. I probably won't be doing much personal work on the site if we do decide to buy it, but regardless I can pass it on to the people who do work on it :)
Cranberry
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Re: Neuro Galaxy

Post by Cranberry »

Thanks, Keith! Wasn't sure if you wanted to make that public yet. :)

Yeah, I think it'd be cool to get in on the ground floor, so to speak. I know the site has been around for a while, but I'm sure that if Keith buys it, it'll rise in popularity, so it would be neat to get a bunch of us over there and somewhat established before everyone else starts joining. I think the site has the potential to become really fun -- it just needs a few little improvements (for example, I'd like to not have to wait 15 minutes for mall clothing I've purchased to show up in my account, and I'd like to be able to hide that randomizer :P).
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Huggles
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Re: Neuro Galaxy

Post by Huggles »

I'm curious about the roaming part. Is that something running along in the background, or does it require you to refresh or click around the site? Also, is there a list of ickle pets somewhere? It's also kinda weird how disconnected the pets and mercenaries are from each other. Your user profile page has links to them all, but there aren't any links back from their pet/mercenary profile.

The snowflake thing would be neat, except that I can't really see any to click because most of the background page colors are white.

The gators are my favorite pet so far, too.
Cranberry
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Re: Neuro Galaxy

Post by Cranberry »

I'd like to see the pets and mercenaries be a little more connected, as well. They're all supposed to be part of a "party," so it'd be neat to know more about what that means. I did find an interesting post in the forums -- someone was asking if the mercenaries could get wearable animals, and this was a reply:
This is an idea that the staff has already discussed while working on the Mercenary Project. It's fairly common on other sites to have little 'pets' to equip to an avatar. Several concerns came up during our discussion, though. I'll post the two biggest ones here...

1. Allowing your mercenary to have his/her own icklepet undermines the fact that your mercs are supposed to be pals with your pets! Mercenaries are meant to be independent characters, rather than an 'avatar' representing you; they're supposed to have a relationship with your pets (future features will put very strong emphasis on character-pet compatibility). That's why we call them your 'Party' and not 'your pets and your avatars.'

2. If we were to make distinct icklepets used only for fashion, then it creates a big divide between the pet aspect of NG and the mercenary side. Too many sites make that mistake, and I'd really like NG to be unique from them; I want to turn this idea into a robust feature, instead of just something 'kinda cool.'

Now, I'm not saying 'no, we will never have such a thing! Rargh!' In fact, we've already come up with a solution that won't undermine pets or create a division between pets and mercs. :D The idea will hopefully create a sense of unity among your entire party--pets, mercenaries, and icklepets, alike. But these things take time, of course. So, please be patient with us, and hopefully we can see the idea come to fruition. ^_^
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Kantark
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Re: Neuro Galaxy

Post by Kantark »

Hmm, well you had my interest at '.co.uk', but a quick look around it seems they're using American spellings ;-)

What I couldn't find was any 'About' page or similar to determine what sets it apart from what we've seen before. I realise you wouldn't want a page that says 'this is pretty much what the game is all about' but a few pointers would be helpful (like: explain mercenaries, parties and the like). The pets are pretty (although nothing there to really set them apart from other pet sites), many with the usual kinds of bastardised animal/mythical creature names that tend to crop up.

I can't play, however - the rules clearly state "You have to be 13 years old in order to play NeuroGalaxy. If you aren't, please ask your parent(s) or guardian for permission.". I'm just a little older than that!
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Mistress Morbid
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Re: Neuro Galaxy

Post by Mistress Morbid »

Kantark wrote:I can't play, however - the rules clearly state "You have to be 13 years old in order to play NeuroGalaxy. If you aren't, please ask your parent(s) or guardian for permission.". I'm just a little older than that!
Haha, that made me grin. xD
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Keith
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Re: Neuro Galaxy

Post by Keith »

One thing that I do want to point out is that this will be mostly a sort of really easy transition for the site (if we decide to buy it, which it's looking very likely that we will). We will be keeping all of their current staff 100% on the site working on it (and now being paid which == more content) as well as providing more resources as they need them.

The Subeta team (besides myself) won't really have a huge hand in the direction of the site, as we like where it is now a lot, and where it's going organically.

Just incase anyone was worried that this would pull a lot from Subeta, or that we'd let this site stagnate for Subeta, etc.
Mistress Morbid
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Re: Neuro Galaxy

Post by Mistress Morbid »

I think that being backed by you guys will be a great opportunity for them. I mean, for being what it is now it's a pretty cool pet site and I can only see it getting better.
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AngharadTy
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Re: Neuro Galaxy

Post by AngharadTy »

I signed up, and I'm going to see how I like it. I'm thoughtful, because why not.

My almost-very-first impression: mousing over the circles on the index page makes a bubble-popping noise; I hate that. Mayyyyyyybe things should make noise when I click on them, but never on merely a mouseover. Oof.

The FAQ doesn't give me a structured list of questions, just a random assortment every time the page loads...? I clicked one to see the answer, went back to try to click another that had interested me, and it was gone. Yeah, I can type it in the search box, but this is just awkward.

I got an automated greeting-mail, which is a feature I tend to like on new sites; however, I don't like that all it said was "read this big How-To page" and "post in the newbie forum." It would be nice to have it say "try making a pet" with a link to that, and maybe another couple suggestions of what to do. The big how-to page is nice, but really, people want easy links, a gentle push into the world, and pretty pictures.

I made a pet. I actually really like the pets; they all look like they belong to the same world. However, it says, "Your pet needs an Icklepet!" Needs? Yeah? Why? Also, my pet is hungry--what the heck kind of adoption agency was caring for it?--and there's nothing about food in the how-to page, and nothing about why it's bad if the pet is hungry. No link to a food shop, but that's a little more handholding than I actually need; it's just nice to have.

Links often don't look like links. Things that I think should be links (e.g., cranberry's name on my friend list) are not links. It's not a very intuitive link system. There are other things that really aren't intuitive, either; the pet room doesn't say how many pets I can have. My Leader: None link took me to a broken thing, not something explaining, y'know, leaders. The big how-to thing doesn't mention mercenaries at all.

I love building my mercenary! The way the hair is set up is great--I like picking all the best-looking sections of hair, heh.

Yay! Roam has a "woo, you're a newbie" option. That makes me feel a lot better.

It looks really promising overall; I'd just like to see some of the content tightened up so that it can be friendlier. More intuitive. I'm not nearly as negative as I sound; I can definitely see the intriguing parts for what they are. It just needs to be polished a bit.
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