improvement: exploration failure UX - consecutive failures are demoralising with no feedback #256

New Issue

2026-05-06T12:22:07-07:00

hikari commented

2026-05-06 12:22:07 -07:00

Description

Players are experiencing multiple consecutive exploration failures with no rewarding feedback — just a long timer that ends in nothing. One reporter had 6 consecutive failures on 6-hour explores (36 hours of fruitless waiting), which was described as "pretty frustrating."

Shorter timers (15–40 minute explores) also fail frequently, which is painful for players who are actively watching.

Reporter

Helio Guilherme (Discord, 2026-05-02): "I am frustrated with having many times, no rewards at Exploration. After waiting 15, 30, 40 minutes..."

deusmortis (Discord, 2026-05-02): "I think my current worst was 6 fails in a row, I think it was for 6 hr explores too so 36 hours of nothing"

Suggested Improvements

Consider one or more of the following:

Pity system: After N consecutive failures, guarantee a success on the next attempt (or significantly increase success chance). This preserves the RNG feel while preventing extreme streaks.
Partial rewards on failure: Award a small consolation (e.g. a fraction of materials, a minor gold/essence bonus) on exploration failure so the time never feels entirely wasted.
Failure feedback: Make failure more explicit and sympathetic in the UI — rather than just resetting the timer, show a brief failure message with flavour text.
Success rate transparency: Display the current success % somewhere in the exploration panel so players can make informed decisions about which areas to explore.

Expected Behaviour

Long waits that result in failure should still feel like progress, or at minimum, should not result in streaks of 6+ failures with no reward.

✨ This issue was created with help from Hikari~ 🌸

## Description Players are experiencing multiple consecutive exploration failures with no rewarding feedback — just a long timer that ends in nothing. One reporter had 6 consecutive failures on 6-hour explores (36 hours of fruitless waiting), which was described as "pretty frustrating." Shorter timers (15–40 minute explores) also fail frequently, which is painful for players who are actively watching. ## Reporter `Helio Guilherme` (Discord, 2026-05-02): *"I am frustrated with having many times, no rewards at Exploration. After waiting 15, 30, 40 minutes..."* `deusmortis` (Discord, 2026-05-02): *"I think my current worst was 6 fails in a row, I think it was for 6 hr explores too so 36 hours of nothing"* ## Suggested Improvements Consider one or more of the following: 1. **Pity system**: After N consecutive failures, guarantee a success on the next attempt (or significantly increase success chance). This preserves the RNG feel while preventing extreme streaks. 2. **Partial rewards on failure**: Award a small consolation (e.g. a fraction of materials, a minor gold/essence bonus) on exploration failure so the time never feels entirely wasted. 3. **Failure feedback**: Make failure more explicit and sympathetic in the UI — rather than just resetting the timer, show a brief failure message with flavour text. 4. **Success rate transparency**: Display the current success % somewhere in the exploration panel so players can make informed decisions about which areas to explore. ## Expected Behaviour Long waits that result in failure should still feel like progress, or at minimum, should not result in streaks of 6+ failures with no reward. ✨ This issue was created with help from Hikari~ 🌸

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Reference: nhcarrigan/elysium#256