More releases/ Bigger releases

[QAndais]

NO! Please do not retire any more breeds. I still need many 'blockers' for my lineage goals but as it stands I am trying to get the harder dragons out of the way first before I pick up a bunch of the blocking species :/

 

I would hate to miss my chance to complete my goals just because some people are annoyed by them. Not only that I know MANY people who LOVE those blocker breeds like pebbles and HOARD them like crazy. Everyone is free to play this game in the exact way they want to and it would be terrible for those people if their favorite breed was suddenly retired just because they sit in the cave more. IMO there needs to be a better way to rotate eggs in the cave. Like maybe every season a new group or dragons drop. NOT retire them completely.

I agree with Reidragon. I don't want anymore dragons retired because they show up too often. I have lineages that I want to start on after I get mates for the majority of my current dragons of those plans include common dragons like pebbles, WH, Moonstones, sunstones and other "blocker" dragons. Besides now that some commons are being used hybrid starters removing the CB of the commons will reduce number of 2nd gen hybrids geodes for example.

[Vhale]

Like maybe every season a new group or dragons drop. NOT retire them completely.

if I remember correctly (and am not just dreaming) this was suggested and pretty well received once. But people came to the conclusion that biomes weren't full enough to justify it just right now. But it seemed a fairly popular option.

[Red2111]

the only reason why i bring this problem up is because as the amount of breeds dropped in the cave increases the more blockage there will be. not of specific species, but blockage in general.

 

 

right now, the Alpine, Dessert and Volcano clear out almost every drop. the more dragons we add, the less this will happen; and that sort of back up will cause its own problems imo

 

so with an increased rate of new releases, there has to be a consideration of either making older breeds drop less than they currently do (like what happened with Vines) or (the less popular option) retirment from dropping, but still allowing them to breed their species on scrolls. because liek it or not, the more new dragons that get released, the less appealing and wanted the older common dragons will be.

 

 

and making the older commons cave blockers more "rare" (rare as in drop frequency) as CB's will increase the desire to have them and the speed they move.

Edited March 5, 2013 by Red2111

[DorkJulian]

Well I guess the seasonal dragons thing is something to consider if we are worried about the more frequent releases clogging the caves...

 

Plus the biology/ecology geek in me likes it. Certain animals you see all year, some you only see in winter, summer, etc, and most only breed a certain time of year. But at least unlike the holidays they'll be breeding several months instead of a week or so.

 

(Besides, we already have it so sometimes some species just stop breeding to keep the ratios in check it'd be nice if some were more predictable. )

 

In all honesty though I do not want to be the one to figure out the math for the ratios tho. o__O

 

ETA: But yeah totally no on retiring breeds. I still miss my hoard of frills from my ancient, for all purposes abandoned scroll... (I named the last one I caught SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFrills...)

Edited March 5, 2013 by DorkJulian

[cyradis4]

Absolute, categorical NO to any more retired breeds, for any reason.

 

I still remember what happened when they retired Frills. I am still very unhappy that I can no longer get CB Frills.

 

Now, if a breed proves to be a huge blocker for a while, maybe adjusting their ratio a little bit might work well. I think I saw that sort of suggestion somewhere? Or possibly force the biomes to cycle if the same eggs have been there for x amount of time. Something to get the Coast, Forest, Jungle, and even Volcano to move.

 

However, biomes aside....

 

I support 2 or 1 dragon releases a month, and I'm a heavy lineage breeder. Mind, 3 or more a month, every month, would be a strain. But an occasional 3, or an average of 1.5 or 2 a month, for the summer months, wouldn't be bad. Remember, for those who like lineages, you'd have from October through February to work on just lineages. That's 5 months. Why do I say that? Because that's what I ended up doing, the last 5 months, beucase there was nothing else for me to do. I have all the Holidays I want, and other than the two new Holidays I get on each Holiday, I had nothing to do.

 

So I think, this schedule is the best of both worlds. Half the year, it's getting CBs. The other half, working on lineages and newbies catching up.

 

And for those worrying about people being able to catch up, if the biomes would move and stay unblocked on a regular basis, it wouldn't be hard to do, even with our current number of dragons. What makes it hard is when you refresh for the full 10 minutes in, say, Jungle, over the same 2 or 3 breeds of dragons. When Jungle is actually the most populous of biomes. And with the biomes often blocked for most of an hour? Really bites.

 

As for new releases, I was gifting and trading GWs after I had mine, same with Blusangs. And I'll probably do the same with these new ones. Um. Actually I'm already doing that with these (don't PM me for them I bite except when I decide I want to gift, though I am happy to breed commons or commonsx umcommons on request, usually for nothing).

 

 

 

 

So! My thoughts summed up:

 

1. With TJ's proposed schedule, breeding lineages would mostly happen from October through February (nothing else to do), catching new releases from March through September with lineage breeding happening in between.

 

2. The winter or Holiday new release "down time" would give newbies a chance to catch up, same for others.

 

3. This will work best if something is done to get all the biomes moving and staying un-blocked for a significant period of time, on a regular basis.

 

Cheers!

C4.

[Red2111]

What makes it hard is when you refresh for the full 10 minutes in, say, Jungle, over the same 2 or 3 breeds of dragons. When Jungle is actually the most populous of biomes. And with the biomes often blocked for most of an hour? Really bites.

 

^ is what i'm afriad of happening and becomming even more of problem with an increase in new releases.

[Dimar]

^ There's suggestions elsewhere about cycling the eggs through their biome differently, so if blockers are sitting there they get shifted away. Other eggs get moved through, and blockers come through again later. It's supposed to help stimulate the flow in the biomes and prevent that problem. IDK how well it would work implemented, though. But it's a possibility.

[dustpuppy]

My first reaction was "Oh dear please no!"

I consider myself a somewhat older and pretty active player (I'm almost always egglocked, with incubating everything) and it would be a lot of stress to get so many new dragons to chase. New dragons would also be less of a pleasant surprise. And for new players it would be even harder to come anywhere near getting everything, and players who need to take a break from DC may hesitate to come back with so much to catch up on.

So, upon consideration, I still think it would more hinder than help.

[DorkJulian]

I must be the only one who feels like that catching up hasn't been that hard. Then again I've already been savvy about incubating, influencing, the pros and cons of hatch sites, not putting eggs on hatch sites till one day has passed, etc, so I may be at an advantage.

 

I really also do think the randomizing of the eggs in the biomes would be very beneficial. Not only will the shiny eggs not be hidden, the fact that we won't have eggs just SITTING there for ten to fifteen minutes may give them a greater appeal; it's human nature to want something that you only see periodically rather than something you've seen just hanging around.

[siliconrose]

I must be the only one who feels like that catching up hasn't been that hard. Then again I've already been savvy about incubating, influencing, the pros and cons of hatch sites, not putting eggs on hatch sites till one day has passed, etc, so I may be at an advantage.

 

I really also do think the randomizing of the eggs in the biomes would be very beneficial. Not only will the shiny eggs not be hidden, the fact that we won't have eggs just SITTING there for ten to fifteen minutes may give them a greater appeal; it's human nature to want something that you only see periodically rather than something you've seen just hanging around.

One thing is, I've seen the randomization-on-refresh done on an adoptables site, and I didn't feel it worked very well. Maybe randomization-on-five-minute-drop would be more feasible?

[DorkJulian]

That's more along the lines of what I was thinking; not by refresh, but more like the AP. I guess a lot of this depends on your feelings on how well the AP works, but I've always liked it well enough. Besides bizarre floods like the mint flood there was a couple weeks ago and that whiptail flood I missed, the variety's been pretty good especially considering that it's what people are abandoning and frequently empties itself out.

 

Of course, others may not be as fond as the AP as I am and have their own issues with its randomizing feature, but that's why this is a forum, so we can all weigh in. :b

[Slaskia]

On the current and potential blocker issue, how about if the CB and bred ratios were made independant of each other. For bred, ratios can stay as they are. For CBs, their ratios would be a set chance across the board, depending their rarity. Doing this may help with the blocker issue, at least somewhat.

[earthgirl]

I personally don't see why people would run away at the thought of more dragons to catch up on. If it were me, I'd go squee! more new dragons! must. get!

Then I'll get more of those i like and less of those I'm not very fond of. (Actually, that's what i do)

 

But then, my mind works strange. :/ lol.

 

The AP doesn't randomize the eggs. It displays them in a chronological order.

[shikaru]

I'd love to see more dragons (and this is coming from someone who still hasn't caught up on all the releases I missed). It adds some more excitement, and really..I'd just love to see more of the beautiful concepts floating around see release.

[DorkJulian]

The AP doesn't randomize the eggs. It displays them in a chronological order.

Well, the ones currently on the page at the time are in chronological order, but too many of my favourite AP catches were were eggs and hatchies that popped up, I missed the first time, it disspapeared for a bit, then popped up again, certainly NOT with enough time in-between for someone to have picked it up, peeked at its lineage, then abandon it. That the majority that are at 7 days pop around the page enough, too (if I decide to let one go for hopefully an egg with a more appealing lineage I usually try to remember the code of the egg I let go so I don't grab it again.)

 

That's my experience, tho.

[Fiona]

There is a big problem with divorcing the bred ratio from the cave ratio. If you remember a few months ago TJ posted that they had been independent, and as a consequence cb rares were almost non-existent because those are the breeds most likely for people to try breeding. Things only evened out and golds, silvers and blacks returned to the cave when he tied them together again.

 

The only way I can see that he could remove that tie would be if cb eggs and bred eggs of the same breed were treated as two separate breeds. I don't think that's practical from a coding perspective. (though I could be wrong, as I'm not a coder.)

[CDM]

Well, the ones currently on the page at the time are in chronological order, but too many of my favourite AP catches were were eggs and hatchies that popped up, I missed the first time, it disspapeared for a bit, then popped up again, certainly NOT with enough time in-between for someone to have picked it up, peeked at its lineage, then abandon it. That the majority that are at 7 days pop around the page enough, too (if I decide to let one go for hopefully an egg with a more appealing lineage I usually try to remember the code of the egg I let go so I don't grab it again.)

 

That's my experience, tho.

A lot of the time, people don't even look at the lineages. They just look at the view page to see if the egg or hatchie is CB, and if not, throw it back.

 

And yes, please NO to retiring more breeds. I only have one CB Old Pink and no CB Frills, I would hate to see more retired just because some people don't like certain "blocker" sprites.

[Reidragon]

I still think that if we get a flood of new dragons into the cave then they should consider releasing different dragons seasonally. It would keep the cave from becoming mega blocked and we could keep all our breeds and not have to worry about having too many. Spreading them out over spring, summer, fall, and winter would give us plenty of room for new ones as well.

Edited March 5, 2013 by Reidragon

[siliconrose]

There is a big problem with divorcing the bred ratio from the cave ratio. If you remember a few months ago TJ posted that they had been independent, and as a consequence cb rares were almost non-existent because those are the breeds most likely for people to try breeding. Things only evened out and golds, silvers and blacks returned to the cave when he tied them together again.

 

The only way I can see that he could remove that tie would be if cb eggs and bred eggs of the same breed were treated as two separate breeds. I don't think that's practical from a coding perspective. (though I could be wrong, as I'm not a coder.)

I'm not sure it would provide an visible change if he disconnected the rates or if he treated them as different breeds. Either that, or it might go off the rails in a horrible fashion.

 

However, if divorcing them resulted in fewer CB eggs, that's fascinating, because that means that bred eggs were unrepresented.

[olympe]

I agree with Reidragon's statement about cycling breeds. First of all, if a breed is out of season (for cave drops only), the CBs become more desirable, and once they're back, they will be picked up much faster than normal. I mean, look at seasonal dragons - even before the ratios got messed up last winter, CB seasonals were picked up rather quickly, probably because each of them is only available 1/4 of the time.

[Reidragon]

I agree with Reidragon's statement about cycling breeds. First of all, if a breed is out of season (for cave drops only), the CBs become more desirable, and once they're back, they will be picked up much faster than normal. I mean, look at seasonal dragons - even before the ratios got messed up last winter, CB seasonals were picked up rather quickly, probably because each of them is only available 1/4 of the time.

^ THIS

 

It would I think solve our problem at least a bit about stones and things. If you can only get them part of the year people who want them will be snatching them up like crazy during that time.

[arlymaye]

Migration has already been suggested before here :

 

http://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?showt...23&hl=migration

 

And TJ's response was:-

 

You keep talking about blockers migrating.

 

Don't forget, the breeds you want will also migrate.

[Reidragon]

Migration has already been suggested before here :

 

http://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?showt...23&hl=migration

 

And TJ's response was:-

 

So? Lets let all the breeds migrate. I don't see the issue. There will be more then enough uncommon ect breeds if the releases get increased to make up for it. It would also help trading I think.

 

[DorkJulian]

Like I said, the seasonal thing tickles the biology/ecology geek in me. Since the vast majority of animals do not breed all year long, anyway, and you're more likely to see certain species at certain times of year, depending on where you live. I set out different foods different times of year to bring different species to my yard to observe as a bird watcher, so to me at least the idea seems "fun." :B

 

That, and certain breeds go through breeding droughts, anyway, which a frustration to a lot of breeders, but perhaps them being planned can alleviate that?

 

Also while I don't roleplay, I would imagine it would bring creative ideas to the RP, if a dragon migrates to breed, or waits till a time of year a certain food is more abundant so they breed...again I don't roleplay so I don't know how breeding plays into it, but I feel it can bring forth a lot of neat ideas.

 

EDIT: Erf, sort of ninja posted, except I'm actually just slow...uh keep that in mind if you bother to read this post. >.>;

Edited March 5, 2013 by DorkJulian

[Fuzzbucket]

One thing I really like(d ?) about this game is/was its simplicity....

 

This all sounds too much for my aging brain....