@Ghostybees
I'd support shorter hoard times if it also meant that item/PC finds would be lowered too. The hoard mechanic is a delicate thing that decides the fate of the economy, after all. As you might already know, we don't have an egg sink right now, and I feel like that should come first before attempting to tweak hoards, so that we aren't further inundated with them.

I would love gameplay that's more constant, so I'm with you there. I'm hoping that we can lean towards more activities, though, rather than continuing to tweak what we already have. I'm not saying that the hoard mechanic should never be messed with, because it may very well need to be, only that I don't think it should be the main focus for achieving a more frequent gameplay experience.

With that said, this game has a slow start, but it does get better. It's easy to worry about the future when you're at the bottom of the hill, doing the math on hoard times. When I think from the perspective of living in the starting house, the game definitely seems very slow. Since you can only send out two pets, the idea of having a level 100 pet in the starting house does sound like a bad time. And that's why I recommend investing early in a bigger house. You'll be able to send out more pets, and when you have pets of varying levels on hoards, it means that usually at least one of them is returning soon. And some people actually swap out their level 100s for lower levels when they want shorter hoards.

@Heartrend
Hmm, are you using potions? :o