Cave Blockers: Mossy Egg

[SlowHornpipe172]

New sprite + cool BSA is the best way to go about this, I think.

What if there was a new Moss Dragon that could only be obtained by breeding two moss-laden dragons (of any breed) together? That would keep the ratios of the blockers in check but also up the incentive to grab mossy eggs.

[Wildcard999]

I like Fiona Blufire and Ixupi's moss examples.

 

I'm not sure about the actions, although I like the breeding one better. The first one seems to fit better, but the second one seems more useful. I'd only use the first one for the hell of it, like Splash.

 

It'd still be cool to get special types of dragons from the more common eggs. I only pick them up to send them off to a cave-blocker friend when I've got egg room and nothing better to do with the space.

[quadibloc]

I would think that it would be simpler if a mossy egg had some percentage chance of hatching into a Moss Dragon instead of becoming a moss-covered variant of the original dragon type.

 

I have felt that even if it "drastically alters gameplay", there needs to be an alternative way to obtain CB rares that avoids people refreshing the cave like mad and overloading the servers and so on.

 

So I would suggest something like this:

 

There are some dragons, such as the Two-finned Bluna, the Shallow Water, the Ultraviolet, that can only be obtained through breeding other dragons.

 

Breeding two dissimilar dragons of that kind together - perhaps two specific breeds - could have a chance of producing another new dragon; let's call it a Nova Dragon. (With a name like that, perhaps it should be the offspring of an Ultraviolet and a new obtained-by-breeding from a Nebula and a Sunsong Amphiptere.)

 

Then mating a Nova Dragon with a Moss Dragon could produce an Intron Dragon.

 

Breeding two Intron Dragons together has a small chance of producing a CB dragon of the breed of any of its ancestors (excluding discontinued dragons, dragons only obtained through breeding, and prize dragons), or a normal descendant having the breed of any of its ancestors (excluding discontinued dragons). The chance could be as low as that of summoning a Guardian of Nature - but since it applies every time a pair of Introns breed, it would still happen more often.

 

Since breeding an Intron, Moss, or Nova dragon with any other dragon can produce an Intron, Moss, or Nova dragon, the idea is that this also makes dragons with long, messy lineages in the AP that happen to include rares attractive as well.

 

This would meet the demand to provide some alternative to being a quick catcher, but I don't think it would make the game too easy. And that would make Moss-Covered Eggs very attractive, as an essential component to participating in this.

 

Of course, one could just suggest short-circuiting this, and have moss-covered eggs turn out to be other breeds at random instead of Moss Dragons - that, too, would make them very attractive.

 

Hmm. There might be another way to do this that would also be interesting.

 

Let's instead have the Moss Dragon from a small fraction of moss-covered eggs, and the Nova Dragon as a second-generation obtained-by-breeding dragon.

 

But now the Nova Dragon has a BSA. It works like fertility, except it can only be applied to a Moss Dragon. That BSA causes the Moss dragon, the next time it breeds, to have a small probability of breeding as though it were any one of its ancestors at random - and possibly also for the egg to appear CB instead of showing its lineage.

 

Combining these elements, there should be a way of not making the game too easy.

[PJOraindrop]

I like the idea.

[quadibloc]

I've realized, though, that I may have missed one important factor.

 

If some kind of dragon, however difficult it is to breed, can generate rares, then once it has been obtained, it can do so over and over.

 

Of course, I have assumed that the odds would be low, so that having such a dragon would be no "worse" than having a rare dragon that can breed.

 

Another possibility would be to give the BSA to the Moss dragon - and let each Moss dragon only use the ability once. Oh, and to make it even more fair, don't allow Moss dragons to breed. (Actually, perhaps let them breed - but their descendants either have the breed of their mate, or are Lichen dragons!)

 

So it would work like this:

 

A mossy egg might hatch to be its original type, or, with a small chance, a Moss dragon.

 

Some second-generation obtained from breeding dragon, which can be bred with other dragons, can be subject to a Moss dragon BSA that lets it hatch a CB egg of the breed of one of its ancestors or that of its mate. Both dragons would need to be of this breed.

 

One could even involve Lichen dragons in the required breeding program...

 

But wait! What happens when a Mossy Egg hatches, and it's only some boring unwanted breed, like a Mint?

 

At least it's already a hatchling, so even if it gets abandoned, it won't clutter the AP too much.

 

But maybe we do need to have "mossy dragons" of any breed, which will themselves have some attractive special property.

Edited April 1, 2013 by quadibloc

[Wildcard999]

Personally, I prefer that Mossy dragons are like alt Luminas. The trait isn't passable to the next generation. That way you have to grab more cave blockers to get more Mossies.

 

But I support the BSA ability, however it turns out, just because it'll encourage people to grab them.

Edited April 1, 2013 by Wildcard999

[Destiny Arts]

I like the egg's look

[quadibloc]

The April Fool's release suggests an alternative. Instead of possibly getting rares, if that's too radical, just get frozen Easter eggs to go on your scroll! That would keep people busy collecting them all.

[Wildcard999]

Good idea, but I'd hate the fake-out. I want to know what I'm getting.

[DarkWaters]

Sounds interesting

[Spelunker]

I'd prefer them just to lose time.

 

That has proven very effective with the AP.

 

I don't know where discussion of 2nd generation breedable-onlies came from, but I think that belongs on another thread. It seems to have nothing to do with mossy eggs.

[TheGrox]

Yup, I'd say that discussion belongs in a thread of its own. I support mossy eggs in some form, but certainly not what was suggested there. I can't see the logic behind a certain hybrid having a chance to breed a CB egg, either...

[Spelunker]

...but again, that's for another thread.

 

(This forum makes no sense sometimes.)

 

 

I'll restate what I said above- having eggs lose time seems to make them much more valuable to people.

 

Also, I don't see why people have discussed respriting the adults. Surely the dragons would not hatch and become covered in moss.

Edited April 3, 2013 by Spelunker

[Wildcard999]

You can't get a cave-born from breeding.

 

Surely the dragons would not hatch and become covered in moss.

 

Idk about moss, but I'm pretty sure lichens sometimes bore into whatever it is they're covering in order to leech nutrients from it. In that case, it makes sense that the lichen would've gotten into the egg and covered the developing dragon.

 

And by that logic, you could end up with a dead or 'empty' egg from an egg getting covered so completely that the embryo has died.

Edited April 4, 2013 by Wildcard999

[Spelunker]

That sounds like it would very quickly KILL the dragon, then, as the developing creature would need those nutrients to live.

 

The poll is in favor of moss, anyway, so I think I'll stick with moss for whatever I propose.

[Wildcard999]

Okay.

 

And I edited to add that same thought before I saw your reply. I just thought it'd be a convenient way to work in that frozen egg-trophy idea people seem fond of.

[aussieJJDude]

I am loving the idea of a moss dragon

I so want this now!

[Spelunker]

Aussiejjdude, this isn't a moss dragon concept. It's an idea to help move along caveblockers by deducting time from them if they sit longer than x minutes. :3

[TemperedBreeder]

OK..here's an idea: What if we just created an image that laid over top of a dragon...kind of like what we were doing with the eggs a few pages back?

 

We wouldn't have to ask the people who drew our dragons to re-draw them to accommodate for the moss, and we could create moss for different spots, like leg moss, tail moss, back moss and neck moss, and certain types of moss - as well as a certain amount - would appear on certain species (the volcano dragons would be the tricky ones, though).

 

It probably wouldn't be smart to have moss on the head or wings. We still want our guys to fly, right?

[Fiona]

Since the legs, tails, backs and necks of the in-cave dragons are in many different places how are you going to make overlays for legs, tails, etc? You'd have to make a specific overlay for each breed of dragon. You would need to get artist permissions for that.

 

What's wrong with the idea of just adding a line of text for mossy adults?

[AwesoMan30000]

Well, if the moss stole some of the warmth from the egg, maybe the egg would just require more views to hatch? You'd just need to heat it up a bit more, that's all.

 

This is a very interesting idea! Some kinks would need to be worked out, but it would certainly be a creative way of fixing the blocking problem. ^^

Yeah, maybe it could add more time to the egg. I mean, who doesn't get stressed at waiting for eggs to hatch? No wonder reds are so rare.

[TemperedBreeder]

Since the legs, tails, backs and necks of the in-cave dragons are in many different places how are you going to make overlays for legs, tails, etc? You'd have to make a specific overlay for each breed of dragon. You would need to get artist permissions for that.

 

What's wrong with the idea of just adding a line of text for mossy adults?

The thing is, when people hear "Mossy Dragon" being said, they more than likely expect to see something on the dragon. Hence why I'm suggesting such ideas.

 

Although you are right in that a simple line of text would solve everything, and for the record I also support that.

[Wildcard999]

OK..here's an idea: What if we just created an image that laid over top of a dragon...kind of like what we were doing with the eggs a few pages back?

 

We wouldn't have to ask the people who drew our dragons to re-draw them to accommodate for the moss, and we could create moss for different spots, like leg moss, tail moss, back moss and neck moss, and certain types of moss - as well as a certain amount - would appear on certain species (the volcano dragons would be the tricky ones, though).

 

It probably wouldn't be smart to have moss on the head or wings. We still want our guys to fly, right?

I like that idea.

 

Why would you need artist permission to just create an overlay for that dragon?

Edited April 8, 2013 by Wildcard999

[Fiona]

Because you are altering the appearance of that dragon. You'd have to create an overlay for each dragon breed, which is directly using their sprites. Even though you wouldn't be altering the actual sprite image, it's still based off their work. Hence, you'd need permission.

[Spelunker]

Many people also wouldn't WANT moss on their dragons.

 

And just as many would.

 

I think that the dragon would eventually get frustrated at the moss, and wipe it off, y'know? Plus, this is a thread for EGGS. Not editing adult sprites.