Another breeding page modification suggestion

[olympe]

Okay, reading about all the other suggestions for uncluttering the breeding page, I want to add my own idea.

 

First of all, there is no questioning the fact that breeding your dragons with the mates you intend can be rather tedious, especially if you have a couple of hundred potential mates displayed. Not to mention the server load this causes.

 

For me, finding the designated mate often means scrolling through several mates of each breed that is sorted above the dragon I have as an intended mate. (Like, around 25 reds of each gender...)

 

When breeding my dragons, I usually have a very good idea of what breed the mate is, and I suppose this is similar for most players. So, why not display one pic for every dragon breed available as mates at the moment? By the side, you have either a + symbol (like when you look at folders with subfolders on your hard drive), or a link saying "Show all potential mates of this breed" (or something to that effect). If you click this, all potential mates of the breed are displayed, with the breed buttons beside them.

 

(Of course, the dragons that have successfully bred with the one whose breed action you used can still be put on top, out of their respective breed folders.)

 

Advantages:

* less server strain

* less scrolling to find the dragon you're looking for

 

Disadvantage:

* one more click (several if you want to look around)

 

The questions I see are: Is this a good idea (in general, as ideas go)? Is it possible/easy enough to code? Would you like this, if it was a scroll option?

 

Hello,

 

Since I did not see this anywhere yet, I wanted to start a thread. If this idea has already been brought up, I would be happy if you could link me.

 

What I was thinking:

When you go on "breed" for a regular dragon and you have a few dragons on your scroll, you get a bit of lag and then a long list of all dragons load.

So instead of this terribly long list, there could be a tab system, starting with previous mates and then the breeds sorted by name and lastly rejected mates.

So instead of immediately showing 15 Albino, 17 Black, etc. it only shows the tag albino and when you click on it, the 15 albino ready for breeding show up.

If you have none of these, you get a default: "No dragon of this breed is available for breeding", similarly if all are on cooldown or have been rejected

 

I know this is only interesting for people with a certain number of dragons on their scroll. It is also not crucially necessary, more of a nice to have in my opinion.

 

Any ideas, suggestions, pro, cons?

 

So by my understanding of the above, in addition to tabs, you would get previous mates separated at top, then folders of all the breeds, then rejected dragons, so you don't have to go through your folders to find your previous mates.

Edited January 12, 2015 by SockPuppet Strangler

[Obscure_Trash]

Oooh, I like this. I'd actually like this in addition to being able to remove dragons from the list. Maybe with this you could also just remove whole breeds, rather than have to go through and remove each dragon from the breeds you're not going to breed with.

 

We are getting up there in number of breeds. o-o

 

And even within breed, I know people who have hundreds of one type. o-o

 

So, yes, I like this in addition to being able to remove single dragons and whole breeds from the list. :3

[Syphoneira]

What she said!

[bbik]

Advantages:

* less server strain

Actually, if it were to work as you suggest, just being a + to click to show the dragons, it wouldn't reduce the server strain or loading times. Currently, 'click to show' features on DC are plain JavaScript, which means everything for the page is already loaded, some of it just starts out hidden. So to have the + to show breed-groups, every dragon in that breed would need to be loaded so it would be available for display if/when the + is clicked. There are ways to only load + stuff when the + is clicked, but that would require different coding, so I don't know how likely it is.

 

Also, while the reduction in scrolling would be nice, I'm not entirely sold on the idea. I do sort my dragons by breed, but that's secondary. I first sort them by CB/bred, and I use the switch from end-of(-CB)-list to start-of(-bred)-list, with a breed-group showing up a second time, to determine when I reach the right section. So if all dragons of a breed were grouped, I might have less scrolling to find the right breed, but I would have to check even more dragons to find the specific one I wanted. The end result would probably take the same amount, if not more, time to finish the breeding.

 

In short, it's an ok idea, but it probably won't be as good (server-wise) as intended, and it would need to be customizable, at least to some extent, to be genuinely helpful.

[Nectaris]

I'm with bbik on this one. I already sort mine by breed, so they are already together, this will just cut down on scrolling. As for SPS's modification, it would need to be a scroll wide exclusion for disabling a whole breed to be useful. I have nearly 1000 dragons, if I had to customize each and every dragon's breed page then it would be a pain in the rear.

[HeatherMarie]

My knee-jerk reaction to seeing "breeding modification" in a thread title is usually "nooooo!". I seem to have issues with many of the suggestions requested lately.

 

But this is actually a very interesting idea. Whether or not it would actually cut down on server strain, it would definitely make this a *lot* easier for players with huge scrolls.

[olympe]

@bbik, Nectaris: I, too, sort my dragons by breed. But things get scroll-intense as soon as I want to breed my dragon with a mate from the middle of the scroll (because of the red army pretty much on top - I sort by a customized rainbow sort with some modifications).

[Syphoneira]

Actually, if it were to work as you suggest, just being a + to click to show the dragons, it wouldn't reduce the server strain or loading times.  Currently, 'click to show' features on DC are plain JavaScript, which means everything for the page is already loaded, some of it just starts out hidden.  So to have the + to show breed-groups, every dragon in that breed would need to be loaded so it would be available for display if/when the + is clicked.  There are ways to only load + stuff when the + is clicked, but that would require different coding, so I don't know how likely it is.

 

Also, while the reduction in scrolling would be nice, I'm not entirely sold on the idea.  I do sort my dragons by breed, but that's secondary.  I first sort them by CB/bred, and I use the switch from end-of(-CB)-list to start-of(-bred)-list, with a breed-group showing up a second time, to determine when I reach the right section.  So if all dragons of a breed were grouped, I might have less scrolling to find the right breed, but I would have to check even more dragons to find the specific one I wanted.  The end result would probably take the same amount, if not more, time to finish the breeding.

 

In short, it's an ok idea, but it probably won't be as good (server-wise) as intended, and it would need to be customizable, at least to some extent, to be genuinely helpful.

 

 

Hi, bbk! *waves*

 

If the sort order of each dragon on the scroll stays on the breeding page, wouldn't that part stay the same?

 

Or am I misunderstanding? (Again, lol.)

 

olympe did say ... (Of course, the dragons that have successfully bred with the one whose breed action you used can still be put on top, out of their respective breed folders.) ...

 

 

Personally, I think the big advantage would be for those of us who know the breed of a specific dragon we want to try with a new breeder, or perhaps a new temporary mate requested by someone for one, but who would rather not have to scroll through every dragon of that gender on our scrolls to find each one with each dragon tried, often repeatedly, as eggs are so often NOT produced time and again with multiple new dragons we're trying to breed with that special someone possibly waaaaay down near the bottom of the current whole-scroll breeding page, since no success has been had in all those attempts.

 

This happens week after week with various reluctant breeders, increasing with new pretties coming in, and can really build up in numbers during times of low breeding success.

 

Of course, I speak as one who keeps her dragons in the order they came in, so that probably makes the situation different than those with various custom sort-ordered scrolls.

 

And I believe this should really be optional, much as sort orders on scrolls are, to give people choice.

 

???

 

 

[urusta]

Hello,

 

Since I did not see this anywhere yet, I wanted to start a thread. If this idea has already been brought up, I would be happy if you could link me.

 

What I was thinking:

When you go on "breed" for a regular dragon and you have a few dragons on your scroll, you get a bit of lag and then a long list of all dragons load.

So instead of this terribly long list, there could be a tab system, starting with previous mates and then the breeds sorted by name and lastly rejected mates.

So instead of immediately showing 15 Albino, 17 Black, etc. it only shows the tag albino and when you click on it, the 15 albino ready for breeding show up.

If you have none of these, you get a default: "No dragon of this breed is available for breeding", similarly if all are on cooldown or have been rejected

 

I know this is only interesting for people with a certain number of dragons on their scroll. It is also not crucially necessary, more of a nice to have in my opinion.

 

Any ideas, suggestions, pro, cons?

[LibbyLishly]

When you go on "breed" for a regular dragon and you have a few dragons on your scroll, you get a bit of lag and then a long list of all dragons load.

So instead of this terribly long list, there could be a tab system, starting with previous mates and then the breeds sorted by name and lastly rejected mates.

 

 

I know this is only interesting for people with a certain number of dragons on their scroll. It is also not crucially necessary, more of a nice to have in my opinion.

 

Any ideas, suggestions, pro, cons?

Bolding mine: Maybe the dragons in the middle tab should be sorted by scroll sort, since people will likely be able to locate the dragon they want more quickly if the dragons are in the order they're used to.

 

In any case, I like this idea. If we ever move to a scroll tab sorting system, this would fit in effortlessly.

 

In the meantime, I would MOST like to be able to click on the potential mates in order to see their lineage before I hit breed, instead of having to open a whole new tab in my browser, finding the dragon in question, and then checking.

[urusta]

Ah, there the thread went. Thank you for merging, I did not find that one.

 

Seems even though it is considered a nice to have, there seems to be no enormous interest in this suggestion.

[Fuzzbucket]

Ah, there the thread went. Thank you for merging, I did not find that one.

 

Seems even though it is considered a nice to have, there seems to be no enormous interest in this suggestion.

Oh yes there is ! It would save a LOT of time.

[olympe]

Especially if your scroll contains thousands of dragons - nearly half of which might be potential mates for any given dragon. At least if your collection focuses on standard dragons and you're not currently breeding pygmies, two-headed dragons or drakes.

[zaverxi]

Bolding mine: Maybe the dragons in the middle tab should be sorted by scroll sort, since people will likely be able to locate the dragon they want more quickly if the dragons are in the order they're used to.

 

In any case, I like this idea. If we ever move to a scroll tab sorting system, this would fit in effortlessly.

 

In the meantime, I would MOST like to be able to click on the potential mates in order to see their lineage before I hit breed, instead of having to open a whole new tab in my browser, finding the dragon in question, and then checking.

This. ABSOLUTELY this. I'm ok with the folders and whatever, or even a tiled system like when you use fertilize, but please for the love of little dragons let us be able to look at the lineages before we breed.

 

I have had so many misbreeds because it's too much of a hassle to open a tab and look for it. I know you can just use ctrl-F to look for the mate in question, but it's still extra unnecessary steps.

[Nerei]

Oh, I like this idea. For people who life-mate dragons, they should also be able to remove all dragons but the one. That would be more helpful in my opinion.

[olympe]

Why? Isn't it good enough that the life mate appears on top of the breeding list?

[whitebaron]

I still like tags best. They could be used in breeding pages, as well.

[cyradis4]

I still like tags best. They could be used in breeding pages, as well.

You always prefer tags. But what if TJ won't implement tags, but will implement folders? Myself, I prefer a combination of the two: being able to physically sort dragons into different "folders", but still being able to tag them.

 

As for the OP's suggestion, I like the idea of collapsing the breeds.

 

As for the "breeding tabs" suggestion, not a fan unless general tabs are implemented, in which case breeding tabs makes sense.

 

As for removing non-life-mates, I think its not worth it. The chosen mate already goes to the top.

 

Cheers!

C4.

[Fuzzbucket]

You always prefer tags. But what if TJ won't implement tags, but will implement folders? Myself, I prefer a combination of the two: being able to physically sort dragons into different "folders", but still being able to tag them.

 

As for the OP's suggestion, I like the idea of collapsing the breeds.

I always prefer folders. I also like collapsing the breeds.

[Lizzyluna]

I'm all for it, if there's a way to still show the lifemate/last mate on top.

For the first breedings, it would be a great idea.

[Syphoneira]

It would also be nice if the dragons you'll never, ever breed again could be marked so as not to appear on any breeding lists, which in my case would cut down on a lot of loading and scrolling...

 

Edit: I'm also assuming that this would be a separate option, so that mates obtained at the same time on a 'as they arrived'-type sorting could be easily accessed on the current breeding page?

 

If they're close to the top and near each other, there's not the major problem of bringing up separate pages and checking through thousands of dragons to see which dragon you're looking at on the breeding page (currently still without being able to look at its lineage and breeding record) to make sure that you have the appropriate one which you may have picked up several (or more) years prior.

Edited March 19, 2015 by Syphoneira

[Rhynn Collins]

I think this idea could work. It would definitely be nice to not have to load every single dragon of a gender that's available to breed, every time I'd like to breed. This could work together with other breed page modifications, I'd say

[rabbithaver]

I love this.

 

It'd also be nice to be able to create folders and sort your Dragons as you want, but that's a different topic all together.

[Obscure_Trash]

Bump. I do like this idea.

[Cinnamin Draconna]

No, I prefer another idea.

 

Dragon has never been bred... ALL potential mates show up on breed page

 

Dragon has successfully bred before.. only established mates show up

..... this page has a link for 'Show ALL Potential Mates'

 

It would work because anything but a Refusal would establish a mate. Then if you decide to change the mate, you just click the ALL link and find the dragon you want.

 

I like it. Speeds the Breed page up, find mates fast.. and if you want more, just 1 more click (which you expect to load slow because of the content, no surprises).