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CB Prizes: A User Guide

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Awwww! Disappointed to learn that. That was one of the things I was looking forward to about possibly winning a prize. Alas!

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Hi, folks! ^^ Just wanted to post a sincere thanks for this guide and comments from folks. I had the happy fortune to win a Prize from December 2017 raffle! Had to triple check to make sure it was real, haha! With advice in this thread, I definitely feel better prepared for what I'd like to accomplish with him. Hope new owners find this thread helpful, too.

 

Congrats to folks with shinies, and best of luck to all in future raffles. Happy New Year! :wub: 

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Wow the advice here is amazing, I really wish I would have read this before I created my IOU list. I made some rather silly trades but that is okay, I don't need anything that great for my babies that I would probably be willing to breed for free at times. I just wish I had realized how stubborn the breeding was, my other Prizes breed so much better than Rozemyst (my baby). I think I am going to send out a message to all of my IOUs and ask if they would mind if once in a while I tried to breed her for gifts or my own purpose like I passed up breeding with my Holly because I felt obligated to breed for those on my IOU list and I don't want to have that happen again on Holidays where its the only time I can get a holiday offspring. 

 

I won my baby in November, got her half way through November. I honestly almost missed her because I didn't think I could or would ever actually win the raffle but my Hubby checked His and I figured oh well might as well check and there she was waiting for me. I find it a blessing because I was able to create something to remind me of my mom (who just passed last year) and let her online user name be carried on with great pride. Hence the name Rozemyst. Anyways, that's enough about my sob story about my mom. 

 

I wanted to thank everyone for their advice here and congratulate those who have won pretty little Prizes as well.

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1 hour ago, Rekha said:

Wow the advice here is amazing, I really wish I would have read this before I created my IOU list. I made some rather silly trades but that is okay, I don't need anything that great for my babies that I would probably be willing to breed for free at times. I just wish I had realized how stubborn the breeding was, my other Prizes breed so much better than Rozemyst (my baby). I think I am going to send out a message to all of my IOUs and ask if they would mind if once in a while I tried to breed her for gifts or my own purpose like I passed up breeding with my Holly because I felt obligated to breed for those on my IOU list and I don't want to have that happen again on Holidays where its the only time I can get a holiday offspring. 

 

I won my baby in November, got her half way through November. I honestly almost missed her because I didn't think I could or would ever actually win the raffle but my Hubby checked His and I figured oh well might as well check and there she was waiting for me. I find it a blessing because I was able to create something to remind me of my mom (who just passed last year) and let her online user name be carried on with great pride. Hence the name Rozemyst. Anyways, that's enough about my sob story about my mom. 

 

I wanted to thank everyone for their advice here and congratulate those who have won pretty little Prizes as well.

Don't feel bad taking a breeding for yourself every now and then especially once the holidays are in season they only breed once a year after all. I don't think anyone will expect you to breed for iou's during that time, most people will be locked with their holiday eggs anyway. ^_^

 

Congrats everyone!

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Thank you for that. I would love to be able to make some pretty lineages for the holidays. I hope you are right. 

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5 hours ago, Rekha said:

I just wish I had realized how stubborn the breeding was

When breeding, it may be a good idea to swap mates every now and then to avoid a pairing getting "tired". It seems that breeding the same pairing over and over again results in a higher chance at "no interest" over time.

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50 minutes ago, Ruby Eyes said:

When breeding, it may be a good idea to swap mates every now and then to avoid a pairing getting "tired". It seems that breeding the same pairing over and over again results in a higher chance at "no interest" over time.

Oh good to know that actually I definitely don't want them to have no interest that would be sad. Thank you very much hon. 

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On 11/4/2017 at 2:41 AM, Amazon_warrior said:

 

In the old Christmas-only raffles, the winners got to choose (or if they didn't, they got a random code).  Now, everyone just gets a random code.

 

For most of us, this has been old news for some time. Someone really should make a suggestion to bring back custom codes. :rolleyes:

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15 hours ago, Ruby Eyes said:

When breeding, it may be a good idea to swap mates every now and then to avoid a pairing getting "tired". It seems that breeding the same pairing over and over again results in a higher chance at "no interest" over time.

Is this a theory or something confirmed? I was breeding the same pair since Halloween to try to breed a prize (so about 2 and a half months) and only had the "no interest" result once in the middle of it. Every week besides that turned out to be prizefails. Now I wouldn't be surprised if swapping mates does something...but I really can't tell on my end.

Edited by Mizashi

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17 minutes ago, Mizashi said:

Is this a theory or something confirmed? I was breeding the same pair since Halloween to try to breed a prize (so about 2 and a half months) and only had the "no interest" result once in the middle of it. Every week besides that turned out to be prizefails. Now I wouldn't be surprised if swapping mates does something...but I really can't tell on my end.

 

I believe it's a hypothesis. Most of our knowledge of DC is strictly theoretical. No one can confirm the exact nature of breeding mechanics but TJ.

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1 minute ago, Miral said:

 

I believe it's a hypothesis. Most of our knowledge of DC is strictly theoretical. No one can confirm the exact nature of breeding mechanics but TJ.

I looked and looked and couldn't find a Prize Breeding thread, I know this thread exists here if I were to want to start discussing the breeding with others would this be the place to do it or should I start a new thread for that?

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38 minutes ago, Rekha said:

I looked and looked and couldn't find a Prize Breeding thread, I know this thread exists here if I were to want to start discussing the breeding with others would this be the place to do it or should I start a new thread for that?

I found this, but nothing for CB Prizes specifically. Starting a new thread is probably a good idea.

Edited by The Dragoness

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1 minute ago, The Dragoness said:

I found this, but nothing for CB Prizes specifically. Starting a new thread is probably a good idea.

Thank you for that.

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6 hours ago, Mizashi said:

Is this a theory or something confirmed?

TJ himself said it somewhere, I just don't remember the correct wording so searching is difficult - it's been a couple of years ago.

 

Nope, can't find it. May have been in a now-closed and hidden thread.

 

Basically, he stated that he'd rather breed a given pair every week to get at least a chance at an egg at all, even though pairs grow tired over time if bred too frequently.

From that I drew the conclusion that swapping mates every week might help, and so far, it worked nicely for my one dragon with the most offspring. That's just not an option for TJ with his Thuwed pairs, obviously, or anyone with lifetime-mated dragons.

Edited by Ruby Eyes

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6 hours ago, Miral said:

 

For most of us, this has been old news for some time. Someone really should make a suggestion to bring back custom codes. :rolleyes:

 

They could, although based on a comment TJ made in the "Reintroduce HMs" thread, it's very unlikely to happen.

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I am a fairly new CB Prize recipient, but I think I have a weird Prize.  I expected it to be lazy about dropping Prize babies, most are, but did think it might give me a few Prizekin that could also be traded or gifted, since I know many players, myself included, that use those in lineages. I have tried a variety of common mates, and it always give me the old "no eggs for you" message.  Notta single common, none.  It hasn't dropped anything except Shimmercales, and has only done that when crossed with metal or Holidays mates. That has to be outside the norm....isn't it? Makes trading and gifting difficult, so I have avoided offering a trading "list" at all. I appreciate all the information everyone is providing on this thread; it is helpful to see what others go through with their breeding and trading experiences. 

Edited by Bodecia

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All the below is 100% my opinion and experience and nothing is scientifically proven, so take everything with a grain of salt.

 

 

Honestly, as I am probably newer than you, I have chosen the - I don't generally trade route, but here is a list of things I am obsessed with if you really really want one and we can work something out. Generally, if you are going the trade route, especially if you are having issues producing what you think would trade well, you might be better to breed what it is you want to breed, and throw it up for trade and see what you get. I know there are richer people who are either "Holiday lines aren't worth as much as they are more likely to produce more quickly, thus... they lower in value more quickly" Especially if the owner breeds more than those lines. I know everyone is all: Oh ratios are all random all the time, and that may be the thing, but for me, A Prize breeding better with Holiday Themed dragons, especially before the Holidays hit, seems to be a pretty normal thing. If they literally produce ZERO egg, and you really want an Uncommon or Common mate (so if you can Prizekin if nothing else as those still have value, especially for people who checker stuff), then I'd just swap out the common dragon to another one. The only way I have been able to understand Breeding is a way I made up without any secret info, just something my head put together, and I feel it has held true over the years, but I don't really have "proof". I always use a scale of 1-100, but you could use 1-1000 if you feel that is better. I just figure each dragon, upon hatching is given some sort of number. And other random dragons are given other random numbers. And the closer or further away from each others numbers depends on if they will breed always, sometimes, or never, or show less interest, or be more finicky, or just never breed, even though they don't outright ever refuse.

 

But I also know there are certain days upon which certain rare dragons (like Golds, Silvers, Prizes, etc.) breed better than other days randomly throughout the month or year. I don't know if there is a reason why, but generally if you suddenly see a lot of Golds and Silvers or Tinsels or Shimmers or whatever up for Trade, or people suddenly saying they were "Finally" able to breed something, that is usually a good day, but nothing can be assured.

 

There was a time when Rares x Rares or Metals in general bred really badly. I was a new player I was gifted my First Silver (2G Silver), After some time I tried breed him with a 2G Bone Marrow Female. And they literally produced silver eggs 80% or more when I bred them. These two LOVED each other. This was a time when getting metals to produce was HORRIBLE. So Horrible people were constantly begging TJ to do something, and ANY metal, even messy ones, had some value. I gifted a LOT of these dragons to my friends who were delighted. I might have traded a few, but since the Father was gifted to me from The Gifting Tree (pretty sure that is right) I mostly gifted them, and it was a highly valued gift! It was 3EG, no pattern, but EG and not inbred made it a great dragon! Many of those people still have those dragons on their scrolls because, at the time, it was a valued item, and I wanted to share the love, especially to people who would give me nice things, and this is something I was able to give them in return or gift them as thank yous, or just to give them something nice as a gift. Pay it forward and such. But my gain was still a great issue for the Player Base at large.

So TJ changed things. Not exactly sure what happened, but metallics now bred more often, and my forever lovely matched pair now no longer bred well, and still to this day it is very rare to get a Silver Baby. I normally don't keep my own babies, but from this pair I did as they have been with me for so long and I felt after all they had been thru, they deserved that.

 

That's not meant to ramble, but there is a rhyme or reason to why dragons breed or don't breed, so you could have had a bad day, but there was a posting, someone posted it somewhere recently, quoting TJ a long time ago that said something about variation of mates or also not necessarily breeding them at every literal 7 day mark. Sometimes every 8-14 days or so might give you a better result, take a week off, experiment with that.

 

At this point, minus the one time where someone really wanted a Prizekin more than anything else and it was a one-shot thing and would take whatever produced, I was ok with that. And I got an Egg. But I had also purposely let my dragon sit for over a week, perhaps almost 2 before making that breeding, and have literally bred nothing but Holiday Mates. My Dragon Seems to Super LOVE the Garland I randomly patched him with on his first go round. And often continue to mate with.

 

If you want to "trade" non-holiday Mates, I would highly suggest that whatever dragons you are going to go thru, you go out and get at least 6-10 male or female of whatever that dragon breed is and rotate them thru. And give them some down time. Possibly set up a few uncommon/common breeds to swing back and forth between. Don't breed literally every 7 days. And rotate mates. If they don't produce something, rotate to the next dragon. And if you reservations between doing that is that - Well this dragon has a special name or code .. Well... be willing to swap which dragon gets to "carry that name."

 

I wasn't going to have a large collection of Luminae. I was going to have almost none. Then I got a 3G Shimmer x Lumina when that was an amazing thing to have. Even 4Gs still had a lot of value. I *HATE* having Lumina as mates. No offense to the dragons they are lovely. But she takes a lot of work and I ended up collecting over 20 different males (maybe more) for her to run thru as her own personal harem, and there isn't a particular favorite, just a few that sometimes produce, and some that do not. If you are really committed to that breeding combo, you might need to allow yourself to be willing to gather 20 or more of that particular breed and gender and just rotate thru them. If one seems to work better than the others, that might be something that *only sometimes* works better than others. I mean, I don't know how dedicated to this particular breed combo line. And I don't know if there is a trade out there that exists that is going to ever compensate you for that amount of time, work and effort. If you have a customer that is especially willing to provide CB's for you to rotate thru, that might be more helpful. Again, possibly switching between 2-3 Breeds (that are non-rare/non-holiday) and having at least 10 on standby for each breed/gender combo might be the way to go. And again, you can't do it every 7 days. Unless they are a perfect or almost perfect match, that isn't going to always produce you something. And since you are producing that line more often, the people who are willing to pay higher prices for 2G babies are probably *NOT* going to be willing to pay it for that combo. But I do need to give a ShoutOut to Vanity of Vanities. As much as he is part of the "Harem" he also seems to have his own Harem as he is the *ONLY* Lumina that also seems to breed decently well with various Gold and other "rare" dragons. So all the rare ladies love him to some degree. As much time as Luminae spend sunning themselves and vainly lying around awaiting to be fawned over or fawn over lovelies, I think he gets the most props, and I am glad I was able to find him in my search for the perfect mate. Queen Maeve is the correct name for a lady who goes thru males and is very picky and very non committal. To this day she is still one of my favorites, despite her not having nearly the "lower gen status" as some of my "better Prizes" because she took so much darn work and still was never really satisfied. I have to give props to a dragon, pixel or not, who works on her terms, and doesn't care two bits about what I want or how much I work to appease her. She is the Prize I probably hold in the highest regards minus my obvious CB baby. And Only because he has been highly cooperative. We'll see how long that lasts.

 

I know some Prize Winners have taken different routes. Some of them prefer the "Life Mate" option and if you want offspring from their dragon, that is what you get. It is really tempting to go down that path since I've found one that I really think works well with him, He's a Gold Tinsel, she's a Garland, they are sooo pretty together, they have great names for each other, and she has a great code, they were likely created to be themed well with those dragons, etc. Possibly not, but they really seem perfect. Until the Holidays are over, I'm likely to stick with mostly Holiday mates not because I am purposely trying to be lazy (but I'm not looking to put several weeks and months to get someone an offspring when I could have instead gifted a lot of other people several offspring, and maybe it is not as "valued" by some than others, but at least they got a 2G Gold Offspring, and that has some value to it regardless of mate). But I do want there to be some other options out there, and if Gold Male Tinsels still don't have as much representation (or gold Tinsels in general); I feel in fairness to the Community I do need to be willing to do SOME other lines. And I will. It is just literally Pre-Holiday prep Time, and this is a *BAD* time for me to take on mates other than Holidays. After V-Day, or as the V-Day craziness begins to wrap up, maybe before then .. sure! And again, there are plenty of people who just aren't willing to do IOU lists (maybe with the exception for a friend) and they breed what they breed, and throw it out for trade, and that is how it works. That doesn't seem like a horrible option to me, either. It's up to you how you make those choices and weigh the pros and cons.

 

And there are very specific requests of things that I want, and very specific people who have things that I want, that I would happily spend 1-3 months, possibly more months, breeding them multiple Prizes or multiples attempts to breed them some specific line they wanted. And it is generally something that is just much harder to easily get, and was something that took them some time and effort to get. Or I'm just that obsessed with it, that my obsession is worth that amount of time. I would happily consider trading a Gold Tinsel x Holiday/Rare for standard options. For something other than those options... I just feel you aren't paying for the line, you are paying for my time. If my dragon just magically pops out some amazingly common baby, I understand that line is worth more, but I'm obviously going to be more open to taking less to trade for it than if I had spent 2 months trying to get that offspring. It isn't just the value of the lines, it is the value of my time. And, again, I'm very clear in my Profile how to get those. But mostly, the greatest payment for my time, and where I get the most value for my time is by offering Gold Tinsel x Holiday Prizes, and people enter the contest and someone wins them, and that gives me a great amount of happiness or whatever positive feelings. And those are generally worth more to me than most trades I would have out there.

 

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I wish I'd found this place a bit sooner, but I think I've done well so far with my prize. Only did two or three IOUs with it. Haven't gotten screwed yet, though I've run into things I'd have rather known ahead of time.

 

For one, as much as people do have CB metals on hand, there's no guarantee anyone with them will even WANT your 2g prize. It took me 3 separate prize eggs before I finally got any CB Golds at all. And that was with both the Hub and on the trading forums. So never expect to get what you want for it. It does NOT guarantee anything. *hugs her long-awaited CB Golds*

 

For two, make sure when you set up an IOU that the person requesting a specific pair ABSOLUTELY WANTS THAT PAIR. My last IOU picked a breed and mate and when I first bred them, they suddenly requested a mate breed change because "it didn't look as good as I'd thought it would". While I wasn't too annoyed, it wasn't anything horrible but...it wasn't fun to see. One wasted week of Fertility and breeding. So be certain they've put the breeds themselves together and like the look of the pair before wasting your time!

 

For, three, rather obvious but...it's YOUR prize! You do what you want with it! The first thing I did with my prize was focus on getting some prize offspring for myself. I told nobody I had won so I wouldn't be bombarded with "pls gimme a prize" messages. Sure, I may have lost out on a lot of cool things that way but...highly doubt I'd have ever gotten my current three 2g kids if I had announced it. I'd probably be in the IOU hole of doom right now. And I won back in July 2017, only a few months after I'd joined the game. No regrets on keeping my prize status a secret until this summer.

 

Other than that, enjoy having your prize! Because it's yours. And nobody (except TJ) can take that from you.

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This thread has been really helpful. I'm already in love with my new Tinsel and I'm interested in trading some of her future babies. Are there any mates I should avoid? I know that commons are problematic, but...how problematic? Are certain breeds worse than others? I plan to rotate through mates, which sounds like it should help a little. I don't want to dig myself an IOU grave. 

Edited by The Dragoness

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1 hour ago, The Dragoness said:

This thread has been really helpful. I'm already in love with my new Tinsel and I'm interested in trading some of her future babies. Are there any mates I should avoid? I know that commons are problematic, but...how problematic? Are certain breeds worse than others? I plan to rotate through mates, which sounds like it should help a little. I don't want to dig myself an IOU grave. 

 

Congrats on your Prize! :) I haven't done any in-depth research but I've kept a spreadsheet of Yellowstone's breedings since March 2015. Feel free to PM me if you'd like to take a look at it. Every Prize seems to have their own quirks but I've bred her to a fair number of commons/uncommons so it might help give you some idea.

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2 hours ago, The Dragoness said:

This thread has been really helpful. I'm already in love with my new Tinsel and I'm interested in trading some of her future babies. Are there any mates I should avoid? I know that commons are problematic, but...how problematic? Are certain breeds worse than others? I plan to rotate through mates, which sounds like it should help a little. I don't want to dig myself an IOU grave. 

Newer commons I find are a pain to get a Prize out of. But, your mileage may vary on that as there's always weird exceptions thanks to RNG (as an example I have a CB Silver that seems to only make more Silvers with my Bronze Tinsel). Like, I've not actually had much trouble getting a Prize out of older, more established breeds and things that are uncommon to rare. For me, the biggest thing I've noticed just seems to be how new/old the breed is. This is what I've observed over the years, seeing as how my goal is to get an egg (Tinsel or otherwise) with every pairing I can possibly do. Hopefully this information is helpful.

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Thank you, @Bison and @Commander Wymsy! I will definitely be careful with newer breeds, at least for my first few breeding attempts. And I definitely agree about the crazy RNG factor--hopefully my Prize is one of those lucky breeders, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

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I am so glad that this thread exists as it has been really eye opening on what I can expect now with Lil Tj.

 

Is any CB owner around that I can PM for some advise?

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4 minutes ago, osean said:

I am so glad that this thread exists as it has been really eye opening on what I can expect now with Lil Tj.

 

Is any CB owner around that I can PM for some advise?

You can always bug me if you want. I don't mind answering questions.

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On ‎10‎/‎1‎/‎2018 at 9:31 PM, osean said:

I am so glad that this thread exists as it has been really eye opening on what I can expect now with Lil Tj.

 

Is any CB owner around that I can PM for some advise?

 

Same here. I think most people on this thread are pretty game to help. :)

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