If I could think of one thing I'd LOVE to see added to Helovia, it would be a 'shop' of sorts (economy related was an option, right?!). Not for OOC currency obviously, but for a type of Helovia-only currency, with a horse-ish name. Leaves? Bones? I'll go with leaves for the purpose of this explanation xD I've seen a lot of sites with this sort of idea and I really like it. I missed the SWP on the cloud with the points earnt via SWP deeds like discovering it etc, which could then be swapped for prizes, and I'm gutted about that because it looked awesome! This would be like a permanent version of that.

This currency would be earnt via IC and OOC deeds. You'd get, say, three leaves for interacting with a new character, or five for bringing someone home from the Threshold, or maybe two for making somebody a table or a piece of art. With these leaves, you could buy prizes - such as magic and items.

Now I know the main negative levelled against this idea will be that special stuff is meant to be just that - special. However, imo, drops are extremely hard, and it's next to impossible to win the 'major' ones such as the drops for royal companions, unless you have a ridiculous number of VOTG rolls or just sheer immense luck. At the moment, the only real way to get something is the birthday giveaway or to get extremely lucky with drops. With this 'shop', this stuff would still be extremely rare, but it could be a way of getting things for people who have awful bad luck in drops. And I'm thinking this stuff wouldn't be cheap, either - it'd be ridiculously expensive, so a lot of work would go into earning them.

Some ways to earn leaves:
- 1 leaf for completing a thread
- 2 leaves for making somebody some art/a table
- 3 leaves for interacting with a new character
- 5 leaves for recruiting someone from the Threshold
- 5 leaves for participating in (but not winning) a drop
- 8 leaves for participating in a SWP
- 10 leaves for meeting a god

There'd be no events that would give more than, say, 15 leaves, so they're really tough to get. In contrast, things you could buy would be mega expensive, so that as I say it's not an easy way to earn these things. Little IC deeds could earn leaves too, like meeting your first hybrid, or helping somebody out with a problem, to really encourage threading and IC interaction.

Some things that could cost:
- 200 leaves: Small marking, small item, amulet, VOTG roll, twin foal stats
- 500 leaves: Medium marking, medium item, VOTG pass, magic/hybrid foal stats
- 800 leaves: Large item, regular companion, hybrid pass
- 1000 leaves: Common NSS or SS companion, magic
- 1200 leaves: Plain NSS or SS companion, genetic mutation
- 2000 leaves: Royal NSS or SS companion

Maybe it could cost like 100 leaves just to join a new character? To discourage people making hundreds of characters.

Pros:
- Encourage people to do things like go to the Threshold and recruit new people. If you actually had a reason to do it, these threads wouldn't die as much.
- Encourage OOC niceness like making people tables (and rewarding people who already do that stuff).
- Place focus on using your characters and developing them.
- Give people who have bad luck in drops another avenue for earning cool stuff.

Cons:
- Could possibly foster a 'moneygrabbing' culture where everyone only cares about earning this currency.

I don't expect to see this implemented but I thought I'd suggest it anyway since I've seen it be mega popular on other sites, and it would definitely give newbies a sense of 'wow I can earn awesome stuff too' <3