2014-04-05 - Monthly Release Notice

[Stromboli]

I mean, it's going to be a bad time for some timezone no matter where it's put.

Good for some, bad for others. And for those of us who're going from a schedule that worked to one that doesn't, it's kind of disappointing. And we're going to talk about it.

[MoonShark]

This, actually. So VERY this. We are all reacting selfishly based on what WE want. Which is inevitable - but none of us has the right to expect it all to revolve around us.

Agreed. Granted, as a college student who stays up late anyway and doesn't (currently) work on Sundays, this hour change doesn't really affect me. But I understand where others are coming from... The unfortunate truth of the situation there were always be someone who can't make the drop, unless the drop is a 24-hour exclusive. Which to me would make sense, but depending on the rarity of the eggs and other factors, may not always be possible or logical for the cave itself.

 

For this drop, we'll just have to wait and see. Since TJ usually extends the time of the drop when it's delayed, I wouldn't be surprised if he did this time, due to the time change, although it's more than possible that he won't. Again, it's a case of wait and see.

 

EDIT: Ninjaed again. I'm just too slow at typing this morning.

 

*returns to lurking*

Edited April 6, 2014 by MoonShark

[Amazon_warrior]

All these negative replies are selfish.

 

Being GMT 0, I always miss the monthly releases. Its always at 5AM, and if I were awake at that time, I'd get have to get up at 5, which doesn't fit my clock.

 

This way, it's 6pm for me, and I can get them. So can the Americans.

 

Its way more fair.

The US and Europe are fine, but screw anyone in Asia/Oceania? They're sooooo selfish for living umpty hours ahead of EST! I'm (currently) on the same time zone as you, and while the new time doesn't bother me unduly (I find I'm caring less and less about DC anyway), I do see why some are upset and it is *not* selfish of them to state why they're upset.

[Dryadia]

It seems like a lot of users are slightly upset with the new change to this release...

 

I'm sure TJ is just experimenting...

I think TJ is trying to make it fair for as many people as possible, by trying something new.

Let's just see how it goes!

[Thuban]

Honestly, the midnight thing doesn't work for me (my kids are up at 6am, every day, school or not). At least at 1pm, if its an every biome drop.. I can sit down for a minute to try.

 

 

This is an interesting experiment honestly. It does show that hes trying to be fair, and make it a bit easier for everyone, not just the people in the states...

 

 

After this experiment, he might decide that the time needs tweaked a little more.. or, it might work out better than you guys think. Give it a chance, we'll see what happens.

[renlacarne]

well i hope i can catch something after i get off of work

[Sinnarn]

Midnight release was always horrible for me and I really don`t understand why people have so much problems with the new release time.

I am at GTM+13 ATM. For me, release time moved from 2 PM Sunday to 3 AM Monday. I'm not going to stay awake THAT long - I have work in the morning. By the time I get home, it will be, like, 15-18 hours since drop start. Forget commons mixed in drops - I'll hardly see new eggs at all, unless they are cave-blocker common. And yes, last release was easy - but Fevers and Brutes ARE cave-blocker commons.

Am I upset? Definitely. For me, drop moved from "not-very-good" time to "horrible". And I'm sure I am not the only one playing in that timezone.

[Sitamun]

Ok, this will be a good time for the Americans - but all other Nations lost.

The worst case is for the Australians.

 

Please TJ - think global - this time is not a good release time for all other Nations.

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited April 6, 2014 by Sitamun

[_Charky]

To everyone complaining that the releases are now in the small hours:

 

You do realise that's how it's been in Europe since the site opened, right? Being english, back in the day I had to set an alarm for 5am just to wake up in time for the Holiday releases. Yes, even on a school morning.

 

Luckily for you, it's now really quite easy to get new releases at ANY time on the first day.

 

At the end of the day it's only a test run, and by the next release it'll probably go back to being the small hours in Europe. You might feel it's unfair, but if TJ's analytics say most of his userbase are online at that time, then that's just what they say.

Edited April 6, 2014 by dracocharky

[DollyMadison89]

I'm not to sure how I feel yet, just going to wait and see how this drop goes.

[Stromboli]

Please TJ - think global - this time is not a good release time for all other Nations.

I mean, unless we start randomizing the release time it's never going to be good for all time zones simultaneously. And I have a feeling that a random release time would just cause more flak than a set time, even if that time sucks for a bunch of us.

[lynixe]

ah, nicely sleeping then

 

i guess i will just grab when i am wide awake with less competition

[WraithZephyr]

These releases are not a straight 24 hours. They are not easy to catch all day long. The only "easy" time really is within the first 6 hours. After that regular eggs are filtering back into the cave. Moving the time to the middle of the day when there are a LOT more people on will make it impossible to catch much of anything before the regular dragons start filtering in.

 

If the time is going to be changed especially on such short notice as this was then the courtesous thing to do would be to make it a real 24 hour drop with no other dragons showing up in the cave... just the new release ones. Don't let other dragons filter back in until after 24 hours have passed.

[dragongrrl]

Okay. I was here and all ready for the drop to happen last night. The news about the time change was a BIG disappointment, since the DC midnight was about as perfect as it could be for my timezone, west coast US, PSD, or 9pm locally. I messed about with other thing for about 4 hours and went to bed sometime between my local midnight and 1am.

 

Now, I wake up, reads many more posts, mostly expressing some degree of disappointment, since so many of us had adjusted our schedules to be here for the start of the drop.

 

I know Wales, Ireland, England are about 5 am with the old drops, followed by the rest of Europe and Africa, and moving across the Middle East, India, China and the rest of Asia throughout the day to Japan about 5 pm and Australia between 4 pm and 7 pm with the old drops. I know some in England and Wales got up very early for the drops, but it was during the day for most of the world, and the evening for the US and Canada.

 

It seem to me the main beneficiaries of the new time are those on the western edge of Europe, those in South America, and those in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, who no longer need to get up during the middle of their night to be there for the drop. Which countries are in the middle of the night group now, and is it worth the change?

 

I am going to get my coffee now, then head out to chores. Animals have their schedules, too, and the old time really was perfect here. I may or may not be done when the drops starts, but it is a disappointment to know I will probably miss the start of the drop.

[Fuzzbucket]

These releases are not a straight 24 hours. They are not easy to catch all day long. The only "easy" time really is within the first 6 hours. After that regular eggs are filtering back into the cave. Moving the time to the middle of the day when there are a LOT more people on will make it impossible to catch much of anything before the regular dragons start filtering in.

 

If the time is going to be changed especially on such short notice as this was then the courtesous thing to do would be to make it a real 24 hour drop with no other dragons showing up in the cave... just the new release ones. Don't let other dragons filter back in until after 24 hours have passed.

Last time that was not the case. Let's wait and see if this time is like the last release..

[Anavi_Ivy]

I would more like to it was "normaly" drop, like this it will be 19:00 in my country

And I am not sure will I be able to get on PC to catch some :/

[Rhunya]

I'm perfectly ok with getting a chance at 1pm for me, since I'm home sick with the flu anyways and wasn't about to stay up waiting. |D

Though honestly, I don't really care when they drop. If I miss them, oh well, now I have a quest to find them.

Edited April 6, 2014 by Rhunya

[Sinnarn]

ou do realise that's how it's been in Europe since the site opened, right? Being english, back in the day I had to set an alarm for 5am just to wake up in time for the Holiday releases. Yes, even on a school morning.

Yes, I understand that. When releases were at random time of week, i was never able to be online for initial drop (2 PM, remember? work\school hours in my timezone). So i was getting to release 5-6 hours late, mixed drop and all. When releases moved to Sundays, it became much better, and I think that it became better for Europe too - no school\work day, even if you have to set up a clock. Or you can just wake up in the morning and grab some eggs.

I still hope that with release time change the eggs will drop solid for 24 hours.

[Imposibibble]

Phew...I thought I missed the initial mass release (when it's all new eggs). Usually I let Midnight pass by and get eggs first thing in the morning. I wake up this morning and it was all old eggs. I guess in a few hours then..

[SunSunSun]

Don't know whether I will be still awake when the new eggs release. >.<

I think the release time can change in different months, sometimes good for the states, sometimes good for EU, and sometimes good for Asia. All take turns. And it's all up to luck that whose turn it is to encounter a rarer breed.

And Saturday is better than Sunday as east time zone may already go to monday when the new release begins. Lucky for me this time as tomorrow is still holiday for me. LoL

 

Most of all, thanks TJ and spriters! Thanks everybody! Enjoy the new releases!

[Thuban]

Heh Saturday releases could be awesome. Yay for the ability to sleep in after (normally having to) stay up all night

[LostFate]

Saturday is a great idea! Would love that.

[Hellen]

Saturday is a great idea! Would love that.

<= here to ruin your party

 

 

Saturday would be a mild catastrophe to everyone working saturdays.

 

Imagine the people working in retail?

 

[Melisande]

All these negative replies are selfish.

 

Being GMT 0, I always miss the monthly releases. Its always at 5AM, and if I were awake at that time, I'd get have to get up at 5, which doesn't fit my clock.

 

This way, it's 6pm for me, and I can get them. So can the Americans.

 

Its way more fair.

I find that you calling any one who has a different opinion than yours "selfish" to be very ignorant.

 

Some of the negative responses are because of the lack of notice TJ gave us... those who would normally be in bed at this time... those who woke up at 4/5 am or stayed up really late to be on only to get a notice saying sorry come back in 13 hours. It's kind of a little unfair to those people.

 

Now 1pm is great for a lot of people in the Americas... but then again it's also not great for a lot of other people. 1pm will be really early morning, or into the Monday work day for some people, and others who are on the west coast of the US may have issues with religious or family events that they normally attend on Sunday... where as a Midnight EST drip would have been 9pm, and about normal bed time.

 

A third concern is also Lag. The normal midnight drops have massive lag, which causes the site to go down. Now not every one who was on at midnight will be on at 1pm. But you also have to take into account the people who would have been logging in during the 13 hours between midnight and 1pm who had open scrolls expecting the midnight crowd to be scroll locked now have to all try for the same small bunch of eggs with the 1pm crowd. This means that the chances of getting an egg are smaller, and if you are not on a super fast computer with no lag there will be little to no chance of grabbing one.

 

Now we have no idea if TJ will do an extended / 24hr release like there was last month. It may be back to the 6 hours then normal eggs fliter in... at which point when the servers would normally be less laggy there will be blockers blocking the new eggs from being caught. I know some people who were here for the fiasco of the 7 day release that will probably never, ever be able to get a cb of Copper or Blusang.

 

Now if the drop lasts for 24 hrs that is great, there is still the massive lag and at least 20x if not more the normal population of the server on at once for the drop. I know at midnight it's normal to see 600-800 people on a page when refreshing for the 5 min drops... at 1pm I have no idea how much larger the server load will be.

 

Now if the drops were moved to Sat afternoon rather than Sunday, yes that would help some people, being the drop would end up Sunday morning not Monday... but it would still be better than the middle of Sunday afternoon, where staying up late to try to get them after the lag dies down means possibly cutting into sleep time for work/school on Monday for US residents.

 

There are a lot of factors into why people are complaining and it's not about being selfish.

 

Selfish would be "OMG I want eggs, give now!"

 

Complaints with a reason because of improper notice when there has been notice before in advance that a drop was being moved would be justified. As well as giving the site owner feedback about why the population on the site agree/disagree with the discussion are good. TJ is trying this as an exparament.... it could be 1pm rolls around and the normal 1pm group shows up and is like omg there are so many people on now, I can't catch anything please don't do that to us again TJ. Would they be selfish? No, they would be letting the site owner know that the changes made had a negative impact on their game play. Like the changes to the lineage views of dragons. And like the lineage views may be changed back to how they were prior if the experiment proves to be a failure, which this is looking like it's going to be.

[Merenwen]

These releases are not a straight 24 hours.  They are not easy to catch all day long. The only "easy" time really is within the first 6 hours.  After that regular eggs are filtering back into the cave.  Moving the time to the middle of the day when there are a LOT more people on will make it impossible to catch much of anything before the regular dragons start filtering in.

 

If the time is going to be changed especially on such short notice as this was then the courtesous thing to do would be to make it a real 24 hour drop with no other dragons showing up in the cave... just the new release ones. Don't let other dragons filter back in until after 24 hours have passed.

I miss when the new release was a full 24 hours (an wasn't it even longer at one point?)

but there was those who complained that the new release ratios made the older stuff not drop and they were tired of seeing only the new release yada yada

 

there will always be something. there is no way to make everyone happy

 

I would think that this new experiment is really for TJ, anyone take into account maybe he is tired of staying up til midnight to release something and if something is wrong he has to fix it and might not be at his full brain capacity to get it fixed fast?

 

I don't know why he is running the experiment but everyone assumes it is for the player, it might be for the makers sake LOL

 

I do wish it was a full 24 hour drop for new release, that way everyone in all the time zones could have a better chance before they slowly disappear