Random Releases Returning- suggestions

[Fiona]

A calendar announcement does seem like a good way to inform us when a release is coming. I don't personally check the calendar often, but if I knew that was how he was going to announce upcoming releases I would start doing that on a regular basis.

 

I don't think there's any way to prevent people from talking about the calendar announcement ahead of time, but I'm not sure that matters. Certainly the mods can prevent threads being made about it, or rather, closing any that get started. But in regular threads we tend to get chatty and people would probably talk about it in such places. Exposure would be limited though, and I don't think that would be a problem.

[AnanoKimi]

Some already suggested a sort of alert on the game page to alert you as to when a release may happen like the one you get when an egg is sick. At the very minimum the alert stating that within the next week or the next two weeks a drop may happen if people really think random drops are surprises. And it definitely is. Its a nice suprise for those available almost 24/7 to the site and a sour surprise to those with things to do because they where to busy to check the cave 24/7.

 

I do think that personally TJ would have to plan when to drop the eggs since he has to code everything in before the drop. If he personally knows when then maybe allowing users some kind of email subscription or some sort of opt in notification system for those of us who would like to plan ahead so at least the group that want to plan ahead can with personal notifications from TJ and the rest can sit there in their suspense of when the heck the drop is gonna happen.

 

I personally just think stay with planned, don't change what isnt broken. The planned release system worked perfectly fine. Everyone got a chance to get a release, no one was left out, everyone was happy. They didn't have to mess it up, it wasnt stale.

 

I seriously predict a drop in user activity because if it remain purely and absolutely random, some users are not gonna wanna play. That said I guess it doesnt really matter because that's easily replaced by other little one with all the time in the world to constantly hunt and refresh. Yeah... now that I think about it I doubt this is gonna change now.

Edited August 18, 2014 by AnanoKimi

[LadyFoxfire]

I'm quite "on the fence" about the subject.

 

From a personal point of view I don't mind if a release isn't announced since:

1) I consider unimportant to have eggs caught on the 1st day of the release,

2) thanks to a fast connection and decent reflexes,  I can always catch new release eggs later

3) anyway, usually,  I wait until I see the adult sprite, just in case I don't like it.

 

At the same time,  I sympathize with the people that (because of slow connections or other issues) are concerned that their only chance to catch new releases is on the release date or within 24 hours. Furthermore, from a selfish point of view, the announced release is better since the days before the releaseand right after present great opportunities to catch the rares I collect since many will not be catching to keep their slots available and, afterwards, having the same slots full of new eggs

 

All things considered, I'm assuming that random releases would be perfectly acceptable if they were announced a bit before they happen, maybe around 48 hours earlier.

Yes, absolutely. I would only need 48 hours advance before a new release. At least then I could try to plan for it a little bit, keep some space clear on my scroll and make sure I could be here to catch a few when the drop happens before having to rush off. 24 hours would be a strain though. I like the idea of 48 if we really have to get more random.

 

Except... if they are going to be a rare drop. I think a week in advance would be nice so that we can open up all egg slots if we'd like to.

Edited August 25, 2014 by LadyFoxfire

[Starbit]

I wholeheartedly support the 3 day flood. As someone in the UK, the DC timezone has never been friendly when it comes to releases. When it was midnight, that's 4am for me, a time I just can't manage to be awake. Having scheduled releases meant I could prepare a little more, but if they're random again I need that 3 day flood. Otherwise, everyone outside of the DC timezone is disadvantaged.

[Jazeki]

I wholeheartedly support the 3 day flood. As someone in the UK, the DC timezone has never been friendly when it comes to releases. When it was midnight, that's 4am for me, a time I just can't manage to be awake. Having scheduled releases meant I could prepare a little more, but if they're random again I need that 3 day flood. Otherwise, everyone outside of the DC timezone is disadvantaged.

I think someone is going to feel disadvantaged no matter what time zone they are in. I may have liked being up at midnight for those drops, but it wasn't always an advantage to be awake and hunting at that time.

 

Anyway, I support the optional email alerts if people want to keep the surprise on-site. I still support flooding as well.

Edited August 28, 2014 by Jazeki

[MessengerDragon]

Some already suggested a sort of alert on the game page to alert you as to when a release may happen like the one you get when an egg is sick. At the very minimum the alert stating that within the next week or the next two weeks a drop may happen if people really think random drops are surprises. And it definitely is. Its a nice suprise for those available almost 24/7 to the site and a sour surprise to those with things to do because they where to busy to check the cave 24/7.

 

I do think that personally TJ would have to plan when to drop the eggs since he has to code everything in before the drop. If he personally knows when then maybe allowing users some kind of email subscription or some sort of opt in notification system for those of us who would like to plan ahead so at least the group that want to plan ahead can with personal notifications from TJ and the rest can sit there in their suspense of when the heck the drop is gonna happen.

 

I personally just think stay with planned, don't change what isnt broken. The planned release system worked perfectly fine. Everyone got a chance to get a release, no one was left out, everyone was happy. They didn't have to mess it up, it wasnt stale.

 

I seriously predict a drop in user activity because if it remain purely and absolutely random, some users are not gonna wanna play. That said I guess it doesnt really matter because that's easily replaced by other little one with all the time in the world to constantly hunt and refresh. Yeah... now that I think about it I doubt this is gonna change now.

I don't know, but I feel this could put those who like surprises at a disadvantage.

 

I think I like them being random.

[Wahya]

Why fix something that isn't broken?

 

What was wrong with monthly releases? EVERYONE has a schedule - kids have school, adults have work, many people go to college, everyone has other various priorities, etc. At least with a schedule everyone had a chance to plan around it.

[Rosedamai]

I think this month put me firmly in the "I prefer scheduled releases" group....

[Frodo]

I think this month put me firmly in the "I prefer scheduled releases" group....

It's been weird, not having a release this month.

[Jazeki]

It's been weird, not having a release this month.

Well, the month isn't over yet. :3

[_Sin_]

Well, the month isn't over yet. :3

I confess that I got carried away with hunting and I didn't keep any empty slots for new releases. But I still missed the excitement and the threads about new eggs and new breeding expectations. The forum is so much alive during a new release.

[Rosedamai]

It's been weird, not having a release this month.

More like aggravating for me because I keep checking the forums just in case.

[missy_]

Alternately: Back when the releases were random the new drops lasted for a LONG time. Like, several days. People would complain because there was such a flood of new eggs. If we can't get any advance warning, then please reinstate the 3 day new egg flood so those people who are late to the party still have a reasonable chance of getting the new eggs near the release date.

^This would be nice, or a warning message in game that was suggested by Naruhina_94.

[Jazeki]

Now that the first "officially unplanned release" has passed, I think that the main issue that was brought up in the Pyralspite thread concerning this release was that people were not getting a notification of a news post (or they were missing the news posts on outside sites like Facebook). However, TJ did give a preview earlier showing an updated home page with the news posts from the forum on the front page. Do you guys think that this is enough to curb some of the anxiety surrounding unplanned releases?

 

Other issues mentioned included the 1:00 PM time slot, lag, and rarity.

 

For me, this was a relatively easy unplanned release. I made sure to keep my scroll empty and I followed the posts in the speculation thread. I also happened to be at the computer at the start of the release, so I was able to catch seven eggs before five minutes had even passed.

 

But, I did notice that people who came to the release later were struggling as older eggs mixed in. I had a significantly harder time hunting for my second batch of eggs. I managed one Almandine (alpine egg) just after my first set hatched and one coast as well. I sat for a few hours switching back and forth between the two biomes to catch one more of each with no luck. I actually managed to catch a CB silver in the time that I spent hunting (granted it was from the desert as I was wasting time until a 5 minute drop). Once I realized I was not going to catch any other new eggs from the coast and alpine, I settled on filling up the rest of my slots with volcano eggs. These were all caught over the course of six hours.

 

Anyway, thoughts and experiences on this release? Suggestions for improvement based on these experiences?

 

I still think that an initial announcement that gives a general period of time of when the release might happen or a notification of when drops are occurring might help. Longer initial releases may help too. They do not have to be days long, but 8-12 hours might be all right.

Edited September 24, 2014 by Jazeki

[Fiona]

One common misconception that I think should be cleared up is that TJ plans and controls how long the unmixed drop will be. It's not as simple as him setting a number somewhere that says "these will drop solid for x hours"

 

Instead (I believe he posted something to this effect somewhere but search = fail) it is a matter of a delicate balancing act between how long the site counts each dragon toward the ratios and what a breed's ratio is. He sets a breed's ratio and the rest is handled automatically by the code. Note: It's different for holiday breeds, but they don't get added to the regular drops.

 

Of course, being TJ, he potentially could do anything code-wise. However, since he has things set up to figure automatically I don't know why he'd want to mess with that.

 

So, for all those asking for "drops should be solid for x amount of time before older eggs start mixing in" you're asking him to change the whole mechanic of how the cave determines what will drop.

 

He probably does some tweaks all the time to insure the cave drops an appropriate number of eggs per user online at the time, and for how long the ratios count any particular dragon.

 

 

As for the lack of notifications, I think Socky spoke to that in the news thread. It's something to do with how the release posts are done. Hopefully the new site layout will fix that. Reviews are mixed on the 1 pm drop time. Some hate it, some love it, some are indifferent. I think it balances out pretty much a wash.

[Jazeki]

One common misconception that I think should be cleared up is that TJ plans and controls how long the unmixed drop will be. It's not as simple as him setting a number somewhere that says "these will drop solid for x hours"

 

Instead (I believe he posted something to this effect somewhere but search = fail) it is a matter of a delicate balancing act between how long the site counts each dragon toward the ratios and what a breed's ratio is. He sets a breed's ratio and the rest is handled automatically by the code. Note: It's different for holiday breeds, but they don't get added to the regular drops.

 

Of course, being TJ, he potentially could do anything code-wise. However, since he has things set up to figure automatically I don't know why he'd want to mess with that.

 

So, for all those asking for "drops should be solid for x amount of time before older eggs start mixing in" you're asking him to change the whole mechanic of how the cave determines what will drop.

 

He probably does some tweaks all the time to insure the cave drops an appropriate number of eggs per user online at the time, and for how long the ratios count any particular dragon.

 

 

As for the lack of notifications, I think Socky spoke to that in the news thread. It's something to do with how the release posts are done. Hopefully the new site layout will fix that. Reviews are mixed on the 1 pm drop time. Some hate it, some love it, some are indifferent. I think it balances out pretty much a wash.

Fi, I'm aware that it's automated and I'm sure that the adjustment to how many eggs are spawned in cave according to how many users are grabbing them has something to do with how long eggs drop. More users grabbing more eggs in the beginning probably equates to shorter drops, but I would be would be okay with TJ doing additional tinkering if he feels so inclined.

 

I am meh about the drop time myself. Midnight worked and so far 1:00 PM has been working. So yes. It's a wash.

 

The first part of my post noting TJ's changes to the home page to add the news post was kind of in response to Socky pointing out that the release announcements were sort of a different beast than the other news posts.

[djengis]

I like the Random Releases! I was only able to get 2 eggs , as i had a scroll full of rares and wasnt going to drop any, but the 2 i got i grabbed easily . Was able to get the one i was missing the next day with great ease too, an alpine one.

And i still see them dropping regularly.

 

Wasnt sure what to think of Random Releases, but i like m! Keep m going * runs and hides from people with pitchforks *

[Frodo]

The drop was 6pm my time, and that was perfect. The timing works really well.

 

Previously, drops were at 5am, which wasn't as good. It's murder trying to get up for 5am, plus I had more lag at that time in the morning, so kudos to TJ, for changing the time.

[TJ09]

time slot, lag, and rarity.

Irrelevant because they're brought up at every release ever.

[Sany]

I didn't mind the random release at all! Since I only saw it when I got home at 9pm, I didn't catch many eggs the first day, but it was easy completing the 3 pairs, and definitely less lag!

[Jazeki]

Irrelevant because they're brought up at every release ever.

Yes, they are brought up every release (and will still be brought up). Rarity and lag are subjective and "irrelevant" because they're not an issue that can be addressed site-wide. However, there were some people who believed that random releases also could mean changes in the release time, like switching from 1:00 back to midnight. I simply mentioned them because they were other noted issues that people were attributing to this being a random release.

 

[pinkgothic]

For me, a bit of a quibble (I don't know if it'll turn into a major quibble over time) is that on the one hand, the random release schedule seems to be set up to make people do other things on Dragon Cave... and then when people do just that, rather than stay unlocked all the time except for new releases, they're the ones that have to 'suffer' for it (the word is terribly inaccurate, I just can't think of a better one right now that better expresses what I mean), by either having to forgo catching for up to two days (for some people, that's a lot of rarity anxiety) or throwing some of their between-release work down the drain.

 

The perceived incentives just feel backwards to me, I guess, but obviously I don't know what the idea behind the random releases is, either - so, just because I think they're what I think does not make it true.

 

Personally, I've lost a lot of motivation to work on lineages or catch things ever since it was announced that the random releases were returning. I mostly log in so I can keep my names... and, because I know I'd stop doing that if I didn't do anything else, I hunt, albeit with a subpar motivation that's beginning to turn the game into a bit of a chore. That's not a problem, don't get me wrong - I understand if it hits the tipping point, I can just go away - but it feels like a bit of a shame.

 

First world problems, though, eh? I honestly don't mean to complain, I just figure maybe it's useful to actually write my thoughts about this down, just give some honest feedback.

[prpldrgnfr]

For me, a bit of a quibble (I don't know if it'll turn into a major quibble over time) is that on the one hand, the random release schedule seems to be set up to make people do other things on Dragon Cave... and then when people do just that, rather than stay unlocked all the time except for new releases, they're the ones that have to 'suffer' for it (the word is terribly inaccurate, I just can't think of a better one right now that better expresses what I mean), by either having to forgo catching for up to two days (for some people, that's a lot of rarity anxiety) or throwing some of their between-release work down the drain.

 

The perceived incentives just feel backwards to me, I guess, but obviously I don't know what the idea behind the random releases is, either - so, just because I think they're what I think does not make it true.

 

Personally, I've lost a lot of motivation to work on lineages or catch things ever since it was announced that the random releases were returning. I mostly log in so I can keep my names... and, because I know I'd stop doing that if I didn't do anything else, I hunt, albeit with a subpar motivation that's beginning to turn the game into a bit of a chore. That's not a problem, don't get me wrong - I understand if it hits the tipping point, I can just go away - but it feels like a bit of a shame.

 

First world problems, though, eh? I honestly don't mean to complain, I just figure maybe it's useful to actually write my thoughts about this down, just give some honest feedback.

Quoted because this is pretty much how I feel about it. I *hate* not knowing if I can work on projects or if I should keep my slots clear. I did like *knowing* when a release was coming, I could breed around it. If we can't have a schedule, can we at least have a 48 hour heads up?

[kerrikins]

Personally, I've lost a lot of motivation to work on lineages or catch things ever since it was announced that the random releases were returning. I mostly log in so I can keep my names... and, because I know I'd stop doing that if I didn't do anything else, I hunt, albeit with a subpar motivation that's beginning to turn the game into a bit of a chore. That's not a problem, don't get me wrong - I understand if it hits the tipping point, I can just go away - but it feels like a bit of a shame.

 

First world problems, though, eh? I honestly don't mean to complain, I just figure maybe it's useful to actually write my thoughts about this down, just give some honest feedback.

TJ *did* say that it's most likely to be on a weekend, though - doesn't that make it a lot easier? I mean, everyone is different of course but for me, personally, with incubate the way I look at it is that it gives at least two sets of eggs during the week and still time to be prepared for a release.

[edwardelricfreak]

TJ *did* say that it's most likely to be on a weekend, though - doesn't that make it a lot easier? I mean, everyone is different of course but for me, personally, with incubate the way I look at it is that it gives at least two sets of eggs during the week and still time to be prepared for a release.

It's still not *guaranteed* though. I'd be okay with it maybe being *guaranteed* on a weekend, or if it's not on a weekend 24-48 hours notice that there will be a release, so some people can get prepared and those late to the party might not be *as* late.

 

I guess, though, TJ's intentions are that having the News feed in-cave will make schedules unneeded...but I still think there needs to be *something*.

 

I don't hunt super actively normally anyway, but this change has made it to where I don't enjoy filling up on eggs unless they're AP or it's the only way I can reliably have certain eggs (and then I breed them or grab them from the cave if I see them, partly to help move blockers out of the way).

 

I kind of get the feeling that we're not *supposed* to be prepared for them, partly to lower competition and lag from so many people getting the new eggs...or something. o3o Maybe not, though.