Cave Blockers: Mossy Egg

[AlternateMew]

for hatchlings: This hatchling seems to be developing powers the others of its breed don't have. Could that have something to do with the lichen that were on its egg?

for adults: Because it ate the (insert cool name for magical) lichen that was on its egg, this dragon has developed powers other dragons of its breed don't have.

I rather like those descriptions, and the reasoning behind them.

 

Just to be clear - MSAs would be ONLY for CBs, and not able to be passed down through breeding, right? And what of those *cough*Pebbles*cough* that have a BSA? Is it agreed whether or not these would be overwritten or still be there alongside the MSA? Sorry if either of these have already been addressed, there is a lot of TL;DR here for me, I just don't have the attention span to through so many insightful posts right now. <@_@>

[~!~]

I think the consensus is that a dragon can have both a BSA and an MSA.

 

I think this should happen with eggs on the AP as well, but not inherited through breeding.

[Fengari]

... It seems to me the people of the dc world wouldn't be scientific enough to separate the moss and the lichen into different plant species, but would see the mat of growth and call it one thing. I think lichen is probably the plant most likely to grow on eggs, but it would also make sense for the people to call it moss, mistakenly.

That is a relief to read.

I feel the striving for realism and natural accuracy is being taken way too far lately. I know there's quite a few people here that are really interested in the exact workings of reptiles, mosses, lichens, and all the other wonderful things our earth has to offer, and I realise I have been carried away by those same interests too sometimes, but I think we should wonder if the majority of DC players actually cares about the exact workings of a game feature as longs as it looks nice, has cool effects and helps reduce a situation most of the players dislike...

 

EDIT:

- yes to BSA and MSA both

- yes to AP too, if after a longer waiting time.

Edited September 1, 2011 by Fengari

[Shanthaia]

I have a few questions if you want to extend that to the AP - should it be 5min waiting time there too? Because there is so many more egg slots there, eggs easily sit for 5min, I am not sure that basically every common breed egg that went throught the AP should be MSA prone - I have a feeling that would rather support eggs being taken from the AP and not from the cave. Also there is eggs in limbo, after new releases even for days, not only a few hours - should it take effect when the egg is visible only? Or from teh time it ends up on the AP onwards?

[~!~]

I don't think 100% of mossy eggs will get MSAs.

 

EDIT: Yeah, first post says 30%. That sounds reasonable to me, although after testing it might turn out that it should be altered.

Edited September 1, 2011 by ~!~

[Fiona]

Personally, I'd think that fs we include the AP, it only apply to visible eggs. That is, eggs that are available for people to pick up. The rest are "buried in the pile" so to speak, and the moss would only grow on the top ones. As long as that wouldn't be too hard for TJ to code, it's what makes the most sense to me RP-wise, and would eliminate the question of what about more desired eggs buried in the limbo backlog at holidays and new releases.

 

I'd also suggest a longer than 5 minute wait before they can get mossy. 10 minutes maybe?

[auroshen]

It's a great idea! Also 10 minutes does sound better.

I would do a moss sprite but I cant sprite.

Well, I support!

[Painter]

Ten minutes feels a bit too long, but I dunno. o3o People might (probably would) leave the eggs to sit until they turn mossy, and waiting 10 minutes for things to move (in the caves, anyway) seems like it would be counterproductive.

 

And I personally think it should be cave only. The caves are the things moving slowly, not the AP. If I had to choose between the AP and cave for moss eggs, I'd go with the AP. There's no 5 hour wait and plenty of the ones getting mossy would still be CB.

 

I'd be worried about them getting too common, too, since so many eggs are in the AP for plenty of minutes at a time. (Though maybe it wouldn't be so bad, if it were top row only, like Fiona BlueFire said?) But I'd still rather cave-only.

[~!~]

And I personally think it should be cave only. The caves are the things moving slowly, not the AP. If I had to choose between the AP and cave for moss eggs, I'd go with the AP. There's no 5 hour wait and plenty of the ones getting mossy would still be CB.

I might point out that nobody's asking you to choose between the AP and the cave. They're asking you to choose between the cave and both.

 

That said, I guess the AP does move pretty quickly. I guess I'd recommend releasing the feature for the cave only at first, then if it seems like adding it to the AP wouldn't cause problems, try that as well.

[Painter]

I might point out that nobody's asking you to choose between the AP and the cave.  They're asking you to choose between the cave and both.

Oh, no, I meant if people were hunting for mossy eggs, and both the cave and AP were available, I think more people would choose to hunt for them in the AP, which wouldn't really help the cave move. x3 I didn't think that people were trying to get mossy eggs in just the AP, or anything.

 

I can see how it might have looked like that. :b

 

EDIT: Also, should Wookie's moss be on the OP? x3 I just noticed other sprites were on there.

Edited September 2, 2011 by Painter

[Fiona]

Looks like I need to clarify something I said earlier.

 

I was suggesting a 10 minute wait only on AP eggs, if we include the AP. Also, by the top eggs, I meant the (up to) 30 visible at once. The "layer underneath" is the backlog of eggs waiting in limbo that often happens during new releases and holiday drops. I don't suggest that eggs waiting in limbo be susceptible to moss. They are underneath the visible eggs.

 

I still think 5 minutes is plenty of time for cave eggs to wait before possibly becoming mossy eggs. And I like the suggestion that they have only a 30% chance of growing moss.

 

I'd suggest that the "?" turn green after 5 minutes whether they've become mossy or not, and once it's green waiting longer to be picked up won't add more chances to turn mossed. It's a "wait 5 minutes, roll the die. If it comes up trumps you get moss. Otherwise, too bad" sort of deal.

[Painter]

I seem to be a little confused today. For some reason I had thought you meant only the first row of eggs in the AP, Fiona. And that all eggs wait 10 minutes. Sorry 'bout that.

 

30 eggs (I know, max, and not every egg will sit for ten minutes) seems like much too many eggs that could turn mossy. It really wouldn't do much good if the mossy dragons were too common. Even with the 30% success rate, which I'm in favor of :b, that would still be a heck of a lot of mossy dragons.

 

But who knows, maybe it would be okay. I would rather go with what ~!~ said and introduce it to the cave first, and perhaps the AP later if things went well. Remember though, we're trying to help the cave move. The AP doesn't really need the help of moss to get things moving, since it doesn't block the way the caves do.

[sajcdragon]

Ok, first off, I LIKE this idea. I don't know how viable and/or practical it would be to implement but I think it's interesting/creative/fun and potentially helpful. Now, I'm gonna leave this screen open, go back to the thread and address a few other things as I find them...

 

and yes, moss could grow on an egg and no it wouldn't take any nutrients from it. Not directly anyway. There is the sunlight/temperature thing. But, then again, the DC universe could have/create it's own rules anyway.

 

Amount of time for moss to form: No comment on that really. Whatever TJ decided would be fine with me.

 

The question mark: LOVE the idea of some sort of indicator. Only one tricky part about the green ? though... I know several people who are red/green color-blind. I don't know how common it is among the DC community so it probably wouldn't effect many but the idea did make me wonder about the possibility of a partially obscured question mark. Or both, green and obscured.

 

70/30% chance: I like it. I think that or something close to it would be good.

 

MSAs: I actually thought all of the ideas were clever. Any or all would be fun. But I think I may also agree with whoever said:

"I suppose the only downside is that people might abandon eggs that don't end up having the extra description or something. Maybe have the description appear on all "Mossy" eggs? And then the MSA appears only once it's full grown, of course, so then they can keep it on their scroll or release to the wild or whatever."

 

Sub-Descriptions: I like them. I think they are workable even in juxtapostion with the originals. The original descriptions would still be applicable. The Sub-descriptions as a modifier when the hatchling had been compared to others of it's kind. I Think it would work in most cases at least.

 

Moss on eggs/hatchlings: I like this idea too for the eggs only. Since every egg is the same size/shape (plus pygmies) it would be much easier to implement a change to them than to every type of hatchling. (And the moss shouldn't get through to the inside of the egg anyway, imo.) But if changing the eggs is a problem and we could get the moss feature without the change... I'd be for it. As another added thought if some sort of mossy visual Was added to the eggs it would make it possible for the feature to be used in Both the cave And the AP if that was desirable. But that's probably complicating things again.

 

hmm CodCod said "How about for each biome, something different grows on the egg? For the forest, it would be the moss. For the volcanic biome, it would be hardened magma. For coastal dragons, it would be Calcium carbonate, or salt crust, or algae, or coral or barnacles (so many choices). And so on."

 

That's taking the idea and running with it. But it makes sense and could be thrown together with the lichen idea. I like it, but it both expands and complicates the original idea. It would make more work for whomever implemented it and the multi-biome dragons may be a sticking point. So... again, if we were offered the feature but only as a simpler version (ie, Only moss no matter the biome) I'd be fine with it. After all, we catch paper dragons in the Volcanic biome and consider it a fun quirk of DC.

 

Counters continuing/not when AP blocked: I pretty much agree with this.

"CONS

Incentive to clog the AP in order to force more uncommon eggs to grow moss. (and it's a big one and a deal-breaker for me)

Less incentive to pick up the more unwanted eggs"

 

 

 

Finally made it to the last page. Eyes are getting tired, lol. I think I agree with whoever said this too.

"- yes to BSA and MSA both

- yes to AP too, if after a longer waiting time." (and only only applied to the top layer or 'visible' eggs.)

 

ok, I think my brain is shutting down but I'm all caught up. That's what I have so far.

 

 

 

[hazeh]

What about a green "!" mark instead?

[olympe]

Whichever, both would be fine. Yet, the question mark makes more sense because you still don't see which kind of egg it is, only that it has grown moss.

 

+1 support

[~!~]

I still think 5 minutes is plenty of time for cave eggs to wait before possibly becoming mossy eggs. And I like the suggestion that they have only a 30% chance of growing moss.

 

I'd suggest that the "?" turn green after 5 minutes whether they've become mossy or not, and once it's green waiting longer to be picked up won't add more chances to turn mossed. It's a "wait 5 minutes, roll the die. If it comes up trumps you get moss. Otherwise, too bad" sort of deal.

I would prefer it if the egg had a 100% chance of getting moss, but only a 30% chance of getting an MSA. That way, people wouldn't just dump the eggs to the AP if they turn up mossless.

[Valkiepoo]

I would prefer it if the egg had a 100% chance of getting moss, but only a 30% chance of getting an MSA.  That way, people wouldn't just dump the eggs to the AP if they turn up mossless.

This was my original intention when drafting this idea, and I concur with your logic. I'd be interested to see how others feel about the percentage chance as well since implementing a 30% at hatch would mean people would be more likely to either keep it or pick it off the AP instead of an increased flood of unwanted eggs to the AP.

 

I realize that there will be some opposition to that simply because it would mean holding onto a lotto ticket for a few days rather than dumping after 5 hours, much like vines and blacks when it comes to alts (though blacks are in enough demand nowadays that it isn't the hardship it used to be). However, I think the overall benefit to the ratios outweighs the inconvenience of raising an egg to be a dragon.

 

Thoughts?

 

Edit to add:

Oh snapples, I completely blanked on colorblindness. That's an extremely good point. Whether or not it's widespread among the DC community, it would still be rather unfair to them. A quick google search showed statistics varying from 7-9% of males having some degree of colorblindness, which seems significant enough to me to alter the idea somewhat.. I'll run a few mockups on vischeck

Edited September 2, 2011 by Valkiepoo

[Painter]

This was my original intention when drafting this idea, and I concur with your logic. I'd be interested to see how others feel about the percentage chance as well since implementing a 30% at hatch would mean people would be more likely to either keep it or pick it off the AP instead of an increased flood of unwanted eggs to the AP.

 

Thoughts?

I had also thought this is what was intended. :3 100% growth of moss after X amount of time, but a 30% chance of moss description carrying over once hatched.

 

Agreed, for all the reasons previously stated.

[Fiona]

I would prefer it if the egg had a 100% chance of getting moss, but only a 30% chance of getting an MSA.  That way, people wouldn't just dump the eggs to the AP if they turn up mossless.

I missed that somehow in reading the thread. I do think that makes sense. I think having to hatch them to see if they're going to get the MSA would be fine with most people. I suspect it would work rather like the alt vine and alt black lotto, resulting in more people hatching those eggs just to see if they got lucky.

 

 

I would like to mention that people will be more apt to pursue mossy eggs if they have an MSA that is at least somewhat useful. If it's mostly just a badge or a similar idea, they may not care whether the egg has moss or not.

Edited September 3, 2011 by Fiona BlueFire

[Renorei]

I don't like the idea of changing the appearance of the mystery egg (whether it be changing the ? to a ! or changing the color) because there are countless people with computers so slow that it helps them to turn off images even when they hunt in the cave. If you make recognition of a mossy egg reliant on images, these people will be at a disadvantage. Why not change the color of the egg description text to green, or tack something on at the end, like "It's mossy." Or, have an alternate description for every egg that contains the word "moss" or "mossy" somewhere. This sounds like a lot but it really wouldn't be that hard to come up with. The pink egg for instance could be, "It's bright. And pink. And mossy." The red egg could be "This mossy egg is rather warm." And so forth.

[Fengari]

I don't like the idea of changing the appearance of the mystery egg (whether it be changing the ? to a ! or changing the color) because there are countless people with computers so slow that it helps them to turn off images even when they hunt in the cave. If you make recognition of a mossy egg reliant on images, these people will be at a disadvantage. Why not change the color of the egg description text to green, or tack something on at the end, like "It's mossy." Or, have an alternate description for every egg that contains the word "moss" or "mossy" somewhere. This sounds like a lot but it really wouldn't be that hard to come up with. The pink egg for instance could be, "It's bright. And pink. And mossy." The red egg could be "This mossy egg is rather warm." And so forth.

This is a good point, I hunt with images turned off as well. I like the idea of a mossy description instead of or maybe in addition to the visual change.

[Shanthaia]

This is a good point, I hunt with images turned off as well. I like the idea of a mossy description instead of or maybe in addition to the visual change.

I am not sure if the picture turned off hunting style should be the incentive for making a none visual ajustment. After all it is the advertisment piccies that pay for the site. However it is an excellent way of getting around the colourblindness issue.

[Renorei]

I am not sure if the picture turned off hunting style should be the incentive for making a none visual ajustment. After all it is the advertisment piccies that pay for the site. However it is an excellent way of getting around the colourblindness issue.

Plenty of people turn images off solely for hunting but disable image blocking when viewing their own scroll or hunting the AP, etc. Until the site finds a way to equalize things so that people with slow connections/puters have an equal chance at desirable eggs, I don't think it's fair to put someone at a disadvantage just because they disabled images while hunting in the cave.

[TCA]

I like the idea of changing the egg description text to green.

[IsmaielDeath]

Maybe adding a green 'And its Mossy!' would solve the colourblindness issue and the 'hunting without pictures' issue at the same time?

 

If only the description and/or the ? is changed to green there isn't any indication that the egg is mossy, if the person is colourblind.