Targeted Mass Breeding

[Vhale]

This thread is an attempt to get the ratios evened out for commons that are all but impossible to breed lineages with. If you've got a pair that is heavily favoring one side, throw us a link! We can try breeding the pairing and see how we do. If we find out its the breed, we'll list it. Otherwise, it might just be your pair and you'll know you can switch dragons for better results.

 

So the original post ended up being a raffle and swarming the AP with nice incuhatchable eggies. If people would like to continue the raffle, it's been moved. Otherwise this is now just discussion

 

Raffle: Moved to Trade Forum: Raffle Thread

 

The Approved Commons List: Pick one of these dragons to breed with any other dragon. Breed 20 approved common dragons for one ticket. Do not breed the dragon twice during a raffle.

Notes for possible changes for next raffle:

Removed Mint, added Swallowtails 8/11/15

8/18/25: Removed -Spitfires

Added - Imperial Fleshcrowne, Striped River, Anagalis

 

1/11/16

Looking to warm this back up after Valentine's Day. Anyone notice any changes in trends? I hear Olives might be doing better

 

 

Black Tea • Black Tipped • Bleeding Moon • Blue-Banded • Brimstone • Brute Dragon • Canopy • Carmine Wyvern • Cassare • Coastal Waverunner • Deep Sea Dragon • Falconiform Wyvern • Fever Wyvern • Frostbite • Lumina • Swallowtail Dragon • Nhiostrife Wyvern • Nocturne • Olive • Red-Finned Tidal • Royal Crimson • Seragamma Wyvern • Imperial Fleshcrowne • Speckle Throated • Spotted Greenwing • Sunstone • Gold-Horned Tangar • Black Capped Teimarr • Turpentine • Yellow-Crowned • Anagallis • Striped River

Edited January 12, 2016 by Vhale

[Sylph264]

Many people are against mass breedings, but I find this a much better idea than everyone sitting around being sad and waiting for TJ to manually adjust the ratios. Also, I'm sure people wouldn't mind as much if you're doing nice lineages (like holidays).

[FiveSix]

Perhaps less controversially (or as a side project to this) we could start epic group PB projects for these breeds, and maybe make them races with prizes to encourage joining?

 

Could be fun even if breeding and cave ratios aren't exactly working as we expect.

[Ylvanne]

I don't mind. I thought I really hated walls of eggs in the AP, but the truth is that massbreeding is really fun and you can find really pretty lineages! I only dislike massbreeding when they're random eggs with really messy lineages. I don't mind inbred or "unclean" lineages, I just like them to have a partern, fit on my screen () and look good, even if they don't have a perfect lineage

 

I'll go with this, but I'd like to add Waterhorses, Terraes and Harvests here .-.

[Vhale]

Many people are against mass breedings, but I find this a much better idea than everyone sitting around being sad and waiting for TJ to manually adjust the ratios. Also, I'm sure people wouldn't mind as much if you're doing nice lineages (like holidays).

I know when I first started people got extremely upset about it because mass breeders would cover the ap with one breed AND block the cave. So it made for extremely boring hunting. But now that is no longer true, but the emotional feeling against mass breeding still seems to be there. I know I still feel a bit of a twinge. But really, the worst that can happen from mass breeding now is that we get so many low-time eggs the neglected makers have a field day.

 

If people would like to do epic even gens I think there's already a huge project going for those in the breeding forum. THey are fun to do. I initially collected 7 of each breed. Two of each gender and the 3 hatchies. Then I'd breed them together for a purebred even gen. I gradually stopped doing it but I might start up again.

[FiveSix]

I'll go with this, but I'd like to add Waterhorses, Terraes and Harvests here .-.

If we add Terraes we need to add Blacktips

[Esko]

I would do this! Then maybe my commons here could have a use =3

I am a huge shiny collector, so maybe my collection of shinies won't be limited to Prizes or GWs :0

Edited June 4, 2015 by Esko_the_Wolf

[Tehya Faye]

Perhaps less controversially (or as a side project to this) we could start epic group PB projects for these breeds, and maybe make them races with prizes to encourage joining?

 

Could be fun even if breeding and cave ratios aren't exactly working as we expect.

I'd rather it just be general checkers than purely PB. It's more interesting that way, and doing both maximizes the chances of people off the forum joining in with the breedings. I don't generally do PB, but EG perfect checkers are fun.

[FiveSix]

I'd rather it just be general checkers than purely PB. It's more interesting that way, and doing both maximizes the chances of people off the forum joining in with the breedings. I don't generally do PB, but EG perfect checkers are fun.

The problem with checkers is if there turns out to be significant rarity steps between the targeted breeds we've ended up shooting ourselves in the foot and ended up making difficult lineages where the aim is mostly to churn out non-messies

 

Though I guess that's also result in plenty of evening out, just a lot more frustration alongside it Could give options between checkers and PBs, let people choose their own challenge level.

[Vhale]

If we add Terraes we need to add Blacktips

I only had 13 Black tips and not many male terraes, but I tried to get a few. All black tip eggs! (and one silver tin lol)

 

I'm a bit leery of adding Terraes because I have a Stone x Terrae lineage that is pretty 50/50 and stones were one of the breeds that wouldn't show up vrs the ultra-common. So I suspect Terraes aren't in too bad a spot.

 

I'm not going to limit myself to EGs personally, as it kinda defeats the point of mass breeding. It's nice if it can be done but it always ends up with smaller numbers produced. I used to do all 2g purebreds when I bred. And no matter what I breed, it all disappears from the AP. I think the EG bias is just a forum thing so it's good to not to feel like it what HAS to be done. It's just what a vocal minority? likes.

[Natayah]

Just to throw this out before I write a longer, more thoughtful positive response and suggestions post..... If you are breeding fevers, consider breeding them with Wrapping Wings. A lot of people, when building checkers, or PBs or other projects with some sort of special base, will follow TJ's lead. And since TJ has paired Fevers with WWs, people are going to follow suit.

 

Or if you were lucky enough like me, before that pairing came out, and over the holiday looked at your WW and thought hmmmm... I bet that would look ok paired with a Fever and kept the WW baby and can now checker them, there will be people quite happy to pick up checkered babies too. If not, they will probably like Fevers from that combo to start their own pre-checker plans for the Holidays.

 

Nutshell: Breed Fevers with Wrapping Wings.

Edited June 4, 2015 by natayah

[Tehya Faye]

The problem with checkers is if there turns out to be significant rarity steps between the targeted breeds we've ended up shooting ourselves in the foot and ended up making difficult lineages where the aim is mostly to churn out non-messies

 

Though I guess that's also result in plenty of evening out, just a lot more frustration alongside it Could give options between checkers and PBs, let people choose their own challenge level.

Well, that's why I said not purely PB. PB will be great to get the ball rolling, and then we can have an easier time getting some checkers out there. No limitations, just breed the target breed so we can get the ratios up.

[RecycledHeart]

Can we add black teas and speckled throated to this?

[Chalkboard]

If you're unable to breed a checker due to the ratios and don't want a PB, you can always have the rare breed in the base, like so (or the same idea with holidays). It works particularly well with breeds like Frostbite, Pyralspite and Blue-Banded that have no dimorphism. I'm sure a lot of people prefer perfect checkers, but the option is there in terms of massbreeding logistics.

 

In response to the actual topic, people actually seem to do this quite often? Relatively, anyway. I won't say I'm against it, especially for Bleeding Moons and Frostbites. I really like massbreeding anyway; from what I've seen, enough people see it as a delightful event and a chance to catch pretty lineages/low-time eggs that not much of a wall forms in the first place, or it's gone within the hour. Since I came back to DC I haven't seen the Cave blocked once, but... maybe that's because the cave can't be blocked by the AP anymore. Someone do correct me if I'm wrong.

[Cinnamin Draconna]

Mass breeding just for the sake of doing it is not my thing. I'm still a little touchy about mass breeding and don't want to accidentally cause a problem.

 

That said, the scheduled mass breedings we've been doing lately, like Mother's Day, Earth Day, and the upcoming Father's Day and 4th of July mass breedings are OK by me. They are limited in scope, only using a few selected breeds.. usually blockers or very desired commons.. and since they ARE scheduled folk can plan to avoid them if they wish.

 

I still remember the 3 day walls from previous mass breedings.. and tho things have changed a lot since then.. it's still not something I want to see again. And I just don't see how random mass breeding will help anything anyway. Overbreeding any breed just means fewer caveborns being dropped, so if your intent is to make metals less rare, then the best thing you can do is NOT breed them for a while. Fewer bred metals means more caveborn metals get dropped.. breeding more to get more does NOT work.

[LegendOfKorraFan]

>Reads thread

>Begins mass breeding Black Tea's

 

Huehuehue

 

Edit: Bred ~35/~37 of my Black Tea's, and they all produced, except one pair. They just weren't in the mood.

Edited June 4, 2015 by LegendOfKorraFan

[FiveSix]

Overbreeding any breed just means fewer caveborns being dropped, so if your intent is to make metals less rare, then the best thing you can do is NOT breed them for a while. Fewer bred metals means more caveborn metals get dropped.. breeding more to get more does NOT work.

We're planning the opposite - breed commons so fewer will drop in the caves and comparatively more CB metals might drop (depending on how exactly ratios work) in the caves. We're not planning to breed metals.

[Tehya Faye]

Bred ratios and caveborn ratios are separate now, I believe. Breeding commons won't help the cave ratios, but it'll make it easier to breed metals and construct common checkers without the difficulty we've been experiencing now.

Edited June 4, 2015 by Tehya Faye

[Dirtytabs]

Cassares, carmine wyverns, sunstones, spitfires, yellow-crowneds, red-finned tidals, and nhiostrife wyverns are also deliciously common. If everyone were to massbreed these all at the same time, the AP might still be varied enough that nobody notices.

[Vhale]

Bred ratios and caveborn ratios are separate now, I believe. Breeding commons won't help the cave ratios, but it'll make it easier to breed metals and construct common checkers without the difficulty we've been experiencing now.

This is both true and not true. After 1 year, dragons don't count towards ratios. But I'd be happy to just to help get the bred ratios better off for commons if anything.

 

I'm not keen on the "Holiday" Mass breeding myself because it seems like people tend to pick things like the BSA dragons, which don't need help. I'd rather focus on some that need extra numbers out there.

 

/adds notes to first post

[Tehya Faye]

Yes, dragons don't count towards the ratios after 1 year, but I believe there is now two groups of ratios - bred and caveborn. In the past CB Blacks, Stripes, and Seasonals were really hard to get. Now they're far easier, and the separation of the ratios is believed to have caused the first metal boom.

 

Now if I have my facts wrong that's fine, but people were talking about a separation of those ratios and it would explain why some dragons that are difficult to see in the cave are easy to breed (and vice versa).

Edited June 4, 2015 by Tehya Faye

[Natayah]

I thought it was self-evident from the first post, but just in case it wasn't, I think the point of this thread isn't just mass breeding of certain breeds, but just like with the holiday events, that they actually be lines and pairings that people would WANT to keep. Not just random ugly messes. Those are going to happen by certain people regardless and nothing done on the forums is ever gonna stop that.

 

The idea of them being nice though is that people are not going to be disappointed when they pick up a lower timed egg. And with the amount of dragons on this list, and possibly a few more to come, I just don't ever see a WALLOFEGGS being an issue.

[Tehya Faye]

I'm personally going to use this as an excuse to get that Trihorn x Coastal Waverunner project up and going. :3 I also have a Nhio x Falconiform lineage that still needs work, and I might put more work into a Thunder x Neotropical checker (though they aren't listed as a trouble breed, so that might just be for my own benefit). Need some more CBs of those first, however.

Edited June 4, 2015 by Tehya Faye

[Laugh]

Great idea Vhale! I'm up to supporting this. I think the list is fine, but I'd be in favor of listing all the breeds that dominate the progeny list (It's odd we don't have a term for this yet) and then getting it rolling so we're not all over the place within the thread.

[Vhale]

I thought it was self-evident from the first post, but just in case it wasn't, I think the point of this thread isn't just mass breeding of certain breeds, but just like with the holiday events, that they actually be lines and pairings that people would WANT to keep. Not just random ugly messes. Those are going to happen by certain people regardless and nothing done on the forums is ever gonna stop that.

 

The idea of them being nice though is that people are not going to be disappointed when they pick up a lower timed egg. And with the amount of dragons on this list, and possibly a few more to come, I just don't ever see a WALLOFEGGS being an issue.

Honestly, no. I think that is something assumed overall by the forum community. It is severely frowned upon these days for people to breed anything but an even gen or stairstep.

 

And frankly, it's a little intimidating for me to even post, Yes, it's okay to breed messy lineages. Because what I fear will happen is the thread gets either hijacked and buried or shunned and forgotten. I like even gens and stairsteps. But the push to breed that and only that has almost gotten to the point of bullying.

 

If I am aiming to produce as many eggs as possible, I will use my entire scroll. That means some of the progeny will not be neatly planned out. And I hope people will not threaten, catcall or bash me or anyone else for doing so.

 

@Saynna, Link me some breeds to add!

Edited June 5, 2015 by Vhale