Egg Descriptions

[Fuzzbucket]

 

But in the example given, where only people seeing the actual sprite know instantly that it's a CB Alt sprite, this is blatantly unfair to those who may not WANT to click endlessly on dragons to open the Encyclopedia entries or even to come on the forums.

 

 

In order to do this, so far we have to:

 

change the Cave, altering egg appearances

 

change people's playing styles in enforcing forum use

 

and change other people's playing styles in making Encyclopedia use a like-it-or-not priority simply in order to see what others do in regular Cave hunting

 

while changing Encyclopedia function by withholding earned information from players under certain circumstances,

 

all in order to show an egg sprite in the Cave as we see it in the AP, rather than the traditional Cave Mystery egg with a description that must be learnt, making at least some hint of knowledge about the egg other than the way it looks something of importance.

I TOTALLY agree with Syphoneira.

 

And to be honest I don't have the time to complete the encyclopaedia. I do a bit occasionally - but there is life to be lived. I shouldn't HAVE to complete it to play on a level field with everyone who has that much time - it was supposed to be an EXTRA.

 

And as I am actually retired, I shudder to think what this would be like if I had a job, a family to look after etc. (I also know that - for instance - my granddaughter will never be allowed to be on line enough to have any chance of completing it. She won't be the only young player to lose out.)

 

Not to mention I cannot see ANY need for this. Any PURPOSE, even, except for giving an advantage to those who have the time to complete the encyclopaedia.. It would show tans and dorsals and give an advantage there - and I think that's a BAD Thing myself. At least the cheaty way to find out takes a bit of time.

 

Sock - I don't think you are being negative in S&R - I have been in several threads and I have agreed with you in almost all of them.

[Mondat]

I absolutely agree with you and olympe here. Those of us who've been here a while practically have the descriptions hardwired; we don't NEED this.

Fuzz: I've been here a while, trust me there will be some like me who have been here a while and need this

Mondat is lurking in the Volcano biome.

"This egg gleams with a reddish shine."

Mondat:"....That's a Gilded Bloodscale!"

D'oh!

 

Anyways, I don't think this changes the site into "all the others".

Compared to the other suggestions floating around which seem to be supported by many this suggestion is mild to me. Here I can still get the same cave eggs as everyone else by looking at the description even if I do not choose to work on my Encyclopedia, at least.

 

I like this suggestion, especially revealing the true egg sprite.

[AnanoKimi]

Ha-ki mentioned maybe only getting as far as unlocking the egg sprite. I would say get as far as to obtain enough egg entries to move on. it gives you an x number of eggs raised/viewed to unlock the next section, once past that then anyone can view it. Honestly with normal hunting and egg viewing it shouldn't be too hard to get there.

 

I understand how some see that Newer or less interested in the encyclopedia users might not/wont be able to compete so lets try and see if we can work this idea to where maybe everyone can achieve and compete on the same level. If we at least try and fail we tried.

 

personally this would be amazing. even if it was a semi saturated image over the mystery egg or something. Some use the "We should have the descriptions memorized by now" point and really that's a moot point. I'm lucky if I can remember what happened a week to two weeks ago.

 

Literally my mom had called me to call her a city ride. I did. She called me to check if I did, we had some issues and she came home eventually. I saw her home, said hi to her, and then proceeded to do my own thing. 10 minutes later she calls me and I had completely forgotten that she had come home and still asked her if the ride had picked her up yet. I mean really. You expect me to remember every if at least most breed descriptions when I can't remember that 10 minutes ago my mom had arrived home and then left again for the store?

 

So yes we are really trying to consider all players here. Some of us are here since 2009-2010 and still don't know the freaking Gold dragon description much less the newer Coppers and such. We are considering all players and their disadvantages so instead of just shooting it down cuz the rough draft is not perfect, then lets try and perfect it, weed out the errors, fine tune it, and if at the end we really cant get this to work then we scrap it.

 

You cant call out an artist on a basic base sketch and tell them their art is terrible. You gotta slowly criticize, help them improve it. If at the end of all improvement attempts it still looks pretty darn bad, then you tell them to toss it aside and try something else

[Dachre]

 

 

But the Mystery egg description doesn't tell us that something is an Alt - the image they won't be able to see does that.

 

Almost nobody who's been playing very long and doesn't need more is going to instantly snatch up any and all incoming Ridgewing/Dorsal Mystery eggs when those are types usually just sitting there, but if they go to the trouble to check out the code and see that it's a Tan/Red, they'll likely take it.

 

But if only some people can see the *actual image of an Alt egg* the instant an egg appears, where others see only another Mystery egg labelled with a Ridgewing/Dorsal description, it's gone by the time they've checked that code.

 

And once we start getting into the upcoming Release season, any of the new dragons Released could add to those having Alts with identifiable eggs but with the same descriptions.

 

 

Not everybody wants to bother with the Encyclopedia.

 

Some people just want to hunt the Cave and collect dragons - but this suggestion means that *they can't see what other people see* when hunting in the Cave - the first and most basic point of DC - unless they change their play-style and spend what's to them a boring waste of time clicking dragons, when they may not even want to be on the forums at all, or even able/allowed to get on the forums.

 

 

 

People typically won't join DC in order to play 'the Encyclopedia game', (which it isn't, of course, it's merely a new adjunct to a game, for those interested,) they join to collect dragons.

 

They can't recognise as Alts Mystery eggs they can't see images of which are not labelled as being Alts.

 

Catching speed doesn't matter if they're just looking at another Mystery egg Ridgewing/Dorsal (or whatever other dragon might have an Alt egg,) because they usually are just more regular ones and it takes time to check a code.

 

Yes, it's generally a lot easier to recognize images when hunting the AP, but would you have caught your Cave rares if they were under another description and only some of the *other* people in the Cave could actually see what they were?

 

How would you feel about joining a collecting game where you were unable to even SEE the same things as others could without doing a lot of boring repetitive stuff you really didn't want to waste time on, or might not have time to do?

 

Maybe you'd be OK with that, but it certainly would have turned me off.

Firstly, I think we've done away with the idea of changing the descriptions at all, that was one of our first edits to the idea. The descriptions stay the same, only the egg sprites become revealed based on encyclopedia completion.

 

I'm having difficulty understanding the "we don't have time to complete the encyclopedia" point of view. The encyclopedia completes itself automatically as you play. Especially true for new players: there is absolutely zero additional effort involved in completing encyclopedia entries. As you collect eggs naturally, the entry becomes more complete.

 

Maybe if you could explain that angle a little more in depth, I could see your point of view more completely.

[DragonNighthowler]

Compared to the other suggestions floating around which seem to be supported by many this suggestion is mild to me.

 

My thoughts exactly. The thought of an in-game market or a minigame to earn special stuff is... bothersome to me.

 

But this pretty much adds a well explained (lore wise) feature to the site which I (IMO) don't see game breaking at all. I still do not believe this will add that huge advantage to older players.

As I stated, connections play a greater role in advantage-disadvantage. For example;

 

- I'm an old player with a slow connection. I can see all eggs.

- New player, good connection. Can't see the sprites.

 

Who will get the silver? I tell you, the newer player. I've seen it happen. I've seen many new players able to hunt metallics whether I can't.

 

As a person with little time (really, I've got two jobs, one of which is dog behaviorist, which is pretty time consuming) I'm into that bandwaggon. I wouldn't unlock all sprites. I mean, why should I unlock caveblockers. It'd be something that'd happen as I advance through the game (You don't start in Eve piloting an Avatar, or in Skyrim wearing a daedric armor), hunt, raise, etc. You guys picture it as if we had to unlock all dragons for tomorrow. Why? Would that give you any significant advantage when hunting for terraes? People would unlock golds, silvers and be done.

 

Yet again, I agree with the issue about dorsals and ridges. I said that would have to be something to work on (I even gave possible solutions), but these are still two breeds out of the huge ammount of breeds.

[pederino]

But the Mystery egg description doesn't tell us that something is an Alt - the image they won't be able to see does that.

To fix that I think a gray-scale of the egg can be put into play. I mean, take for example the ridgewing which can be tan or purple, the sprite in the biomes can be in gray-scale, that way you know is a ridgewing due to the pattern of the egg, but dont know if its a tan or purple until you click the egg and see it in your scroll. This can affect only the breeds that have a breeding behaviour like this, that includes the dorsal and the ridgewing, and maybe another breed, but I am not totally sure.

[Dachre]

To fix that I think a gray-scale of the egg can be put into play. I mean, take for example the ridgewing which can be tan or purple, the sprite in the biomes can be in gray-scale, that way you know is a ridgewing due to the pattern of the egg, but dont know if its a tan or purple until you click the egg and see it in your scroll. This can affect only the breeds that have a breeding behaviour like this, that includes the dorsal and the ridgewing, and maybe another breed, but I am not totally sure.

That's a pretty good idea. You'd have to adjust the hue a little bit for it to be more undetectable. For the Ridgewing, as an example, the purple-top would still be darker than the tan-top unless some hue adjustments were made to even out the grayscales.

[Dachre]

Here's an idea:

 

What if the egg sprite reveal is done on mouse-over? i.e., upon loading the page, the mystery eggs display as normal, but, provided your encyclopedia entry is complete, if you mouse-over the egg, the true sprite becomes visible?

 

That way, we still get the revealed sprites for completed entries, but they're not immediately visible. Players still have to perform an action (positioning the mouse) to see the sprites. You could make it even less of an insta-reveal by adding a fade to the switch. Hold the mouse over the mystery egg for a second to reveal the sprite. This would reflect something like "examining the egg more closely" in lore terms.

 

Thoughts?

[DragonNighthowler]

To fix that I think a gray-scale of the egg can be put into play. I mean, take for example the ridgewing which can be tan or purple, the sprite in the biomes can be in gray-scale, that way you know is a ridgewing due to the pattern of the egg, but dont know if its a tan or purple until you click the egg and see it in your scroll. This can affect only the breeds that have a breeding behaviour like this, that includes the dorsal and the ridgewing, and maybe another breed, but I am not totally sure.

That's absolutely brilliant!

 

The gray scale issue can be fixed by making a unique sprite for dorsals and ridgewings in gray. That way we wouldn't have the issue with X or Y being lighter gray.

[pederino]

Here's an idea:

 

What if the egg sprite reveal is done on mouse-over?  i.e., upon loading the page, the mystery eggs display as normal, but, provided your encyclopedia entry is complete, if you mouse-over the egg, the true sprite becomes visible?

 

That way, we still get the revealed sprites for completed entries, but they're not immediately visible.  Players still have to perform an action (positioning the mouse) to see the sprites.  You could make it even less of an insta-reveal by adding a fade to the switch.  Hold the mouse over the mystery egg for a second to reveal the sprite.  This would reflect something like "examining the egg more closely" in lore terms.

 

Thoughts?

Good and bad. Is good because there is less advantage to the ones that got it, bad becuase it slows you down, making reading a lot more preferably, example: lets say you are in a biome and you got: flamingo wyvern, black and almandine pyralspite; while you inspect all three eggs with the mouse you have probably lost the almandine to someone else, which you could have read the descriptions that only says: "This egg feels like polished stone"; making this way to determine a breed kind of useless.

 

Also, I would like to say something: since this is affecting the eggs in the biomes and the encyclopedia, I think is better that you dont have to unlock all info of a breed in the encyclopedia, but have raised a certain quantity of dragons of a breed (lets say 20 or 30, maybe more, maybe less); or maybe you have to unlock all info of a breed and have had at least 10 to 20 eggs. This way you are recognized to be a person that have a lot of experience with that breed. I am saying this mainly because I have unlocked all information on certain breeds but only had 1 egg (according to encyclopedia, of course) when I did so (black for example), everything else was just observation.

Edited January 29, 2015 by pederino

[Dachre]

Good and bad. Is good because there is less advantage to the ones that got it, bad becuase it slows you down, making reading a lot more preferably, example: lets say you are in a biome and you got: flamingo wyvern, black and almandine pyralspite; while you inspect all three eggs with the mouse you have probably lost the almandine to someone else, which you could have read the descriptions that only says: "This egg feels like polished stone"; making this way to determine a breed kind of useless.

 

Also, I would like to say something: since this is affecting the eggs in the biomes and the encyclopedia, I think is better that you dont have to unlock all info of a breed in the encyclopedia, but have raised a certain quantity of dragons of a breed (lets say 20 or 30, maybe more, maybe less); or maybe you have to unlock all info of a breed and have had at least 10 to 20 eggs. This way you are recognized to be a person that have a lot of experience with that breed. I am saying this mainly because I have unlocked all information on certain breeds but only had 1 egg (according to encyclopedia, of course) when I did so (black for example), everything else was just observation.

I think the time it takes someone to mouse-over would be minimal, because: if you're egg hunting, you're gonna have your mouse cursor as close to the eggs on the page as possible to start with. Sort of like a "ready position," if you will. Moving the cursor that extra half a centimeter couldn't slow you down that much.

 

In your example, you used a Pyralspite, which has a unique description. The images wouldn't be as useful for that, since you know what you're getting by default.

 

I see the image reveal feature being used in tandem with the text descriptions, not as competing features. If you're hunting for something specific, chances are you know what biome to look in and what description to look for. In that case, text description recognition would be the superior choice. If, however, you are (like I usually am) just casually browsing the caves to see what's there, the egg sprite recognition feature would come more into play. I could mouse-over the mystery eggs to see if I "recognize" any of them, and if I recognize one I want, I can try my luck nabbing it.

[pederino]

I think the time it takes someone to mouse-over would be minimal, because: if you're egg hunting, you're gonna have your mouse cursor as close to the eggs on the page as possible to start with. Sort of like a "ready position," if you will. Moving the cursor that extra half a centimeter couldn't slow you down that much.

 

In your example, you used a Pyralspite, which has a unique description. The images wouldn't be as useful for that, since you know what you're getting by default.

 

I see the image reveal feature being used in tandem with the text descriptions, not as competing features. If you're hunting for something specific, chances are you know what biome to look in and what description to look for. In that case, text description recognition would be the superior choice. If, however, you are (like I usually am) just casually browsing the caves to see what's there, the egg sprite recognition feature would come more into play. I could mouse-over the mystery eggs to see if I "recognize" any of them, and if I recognize one I want, I can try my luck nabbing it.

Thats a fair point, and as I said , it is good because it doesnt make this feature too powerful or useful. Thats of course if you just mouse-over and then you see the egg.

[AnanoKimi]

I would prefer if the eggs were visible normally. If the issue is really about all the alts the sudden fear that only the alts will be picked and not the regular ones (Which honestly... already happens... I mean... really) I would prefer Ha-Ki's version of the egg is somewhat visible but transparent over the mystery egg.

 

I mean I personally don't really see the issue. I don't see this as suddenly causing an influx of tans and red dorsals and the other non alt version that will never be touched. I mean as is they are rarely picked up. if on the rare occasion they are by accident then they get dumped or bitten in to more desirable vamps. So I don't see a game breaking issue here.

 

If Ha-ki's example we're to happen and lets say I unlocked what was needed in the encyclopedia to see the egg in the growth line then in the cave I would see

 

This

 

Thats a 30 percent saturation. lets try Ridgewing

 

 

the slightest difference in tone and it make you look a little harder to make sure that's not something else. This will be an ever so slight advantage, still take some time to try and recognize what it is and maybe still be able to get it. We could lower the saturation to 25-20 percent if this still feels like too visible.

[FoxintheBox4]

I support this idea of slightly visible or fully visible eggs in cave it would be so much easier to catch things ☻

[Syphoneira]

I would prefer if the eggs were visible normally. If the issue is really about all the alts the sudden fear that only the alts will be picked and not the regular ones (Which honestly... already happens... I mean... really) I would prefer Ha-Ki's version of the egg is somewhat visible but transparent over the mystery egg.

 

I mean I personally don't really see the issue. I don't see this as suddenly causing an influx of tans and red dorsals and the other non alt version that will never be touched. I mean as is they are rarely picked up. if on the rare occasion they are by accident then they get dumped or bitten in to more desirable vamps. So I don't see a game breaking issue here.

 

If Ha-ki's example we're to happen and lets say I unlocked what was needed in the encyclopedia to see the egg in the growth line then in the cave I would see

 

This

 

Thats a 30 percent saturation. lets try Ridgewing

 

 

the slightest difference in tone and it make you look a little harder to make sure that's not something else. This will be an ever so slight advantage, still take some time to try and recognize what it is and maybe still be able to get it. We could lower the saturation to 25-20 percent if this still feels like too visible.

 

 

 

 

Hi, AnanoKimi!

 

Actually, the 2 current Alts are only one aspect of this.

 

 

To repeat some previously posted listed points:

 

In order to do this, so far we have to:

 

change the Cave, altering egg appearances

 

change people's playing styles in enforcing forum use

 

and change other people's playing styles in making Encyclopedia use a like-it-or-not priority simply in order to see what others do in regular Cave hunting

 

while changing Encyclopedia function by withholding earned information from players under certain circumstances,

 

all in order to show an egg sprite in the Cave as we see it in the AP, rather than the traditional Cave Mystery egg with a description that must be learnt, making at least some hint of knowledge about the egg other than the way it looks something of importance.

 

 

We've been having a recent influx of relatively new people who may not have spent much time at DC suggesting changes, some of which are fairly radical and alter basics on DC, which is something they may not understand, and which may profoundly affect the site in other ways they simply haven't considered.

 

Unfortunately, I don't really sleep enough to get it together to explain it well enough, lol, so I keep trying to rephrase it in a manner they might.

 

But on DC, things like freedom of playing style and no impediments created for newer players have been traditionally valued, and altering these changes DC itself into something else.

 

 

The Encyclopedia was created as an addition to the game, and presumably not as something intended to make the game and players change basics integral to the individual playing experience and the overall apparent site philosophy in order to forcibly overlay Encyclopedia use as a main function overriding all else.

 

 

[Nerei]

How would this enforce forum use

You wouldn't need to use the encyclopedia, and chances are if there's a rare in the cave, it would be snapped up just as quickly regardless of whether the egg picture was changed.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Niyaka

[AnanoKimi]

Lets address these issues one by one then from my perspective:

 

change the Cave, altering egg appearances

 

The cave has been altered already and will continue to change whether we like it or not. Lets say these semitransparent egg version should be added in. It will not change egg drop time, cave size, breed quantity drop, rarity, or anything of the sort so this change would not break the cave nor severely distort it to the point of being unable to use it. So personally I do not see why this would be a big issue.

 

change people's playing styles in enforcing forum use

 

I don't see why forum use is required for this suggestion. Normal non forum use game play already unlocks encyclopedia entries, and the only way I could see a user forced to use the forum is a sudden realization that the mystery egg sprites look different and feeling that it might be a glitch. Otherwise I do not see how this would be a forced requirement.

 

and change other people's playing styles in making Encyclopedia use a like-it-or-not priority simply in order to see what others do in regular Cave hunting

 

The encyclopedia exists, but it is not a feature that you 'use' like lets say a BSA. I would agree that this would change playing styles if they had to visit the encyclopedia to log in every single egg they hatch or see, but that is not the case. From the moment you now join the site and start collecting eggs, the encyclopedia silently begins to record your information in the background. You are not required to click any extra links, visit any pages, do any extra things to have this happens. It happens on its own. So users would still be free to collect what they want, when they want, and how they want it. This game is about collection. Even if a user only wants 2 of each gendered adult, 2 S2 if for whatever their reason, and 1 S1, they still need to collect the eggs. Given that yes, users that do not collect past that are not going to be able to unlock the feature, but then again, they are not here to amass a huge collection of eggs. Just a few. and even as is with or without this feature, they will still have an extremely hard time collecting certain rares and if they really want to collect them all, they will be forced to use the forums to trade for a CB gold or ask for one from TGT. So this also ties in to the forced forum use. If they want to complete their collections, they will need to trade which forces forum use. So there's no avoidance in that.

 

So in terms of that for some its gonna be either or. If you do not have fast reflexes, good connection, better computer, etc, then you can either not collect that breed, go on the forums and try to negotiate for one, or complete certain entries to have this features advantage through hatching or viewing. Even with out that last one, its still an either or.

 

while changing Encyclopedia function by withholding earned information from players under certain circumstances

 

Earned information I don't think should be withheld. If I need to hatch/see 75 nebula eggs to unlock the egg sprite and thus activate the feature for that one breed, I would like to know where I stand. If I need 20 more out of 75 I would like to see that. If someone suggested that then I do not agree and I feel the information should be there to see so we can keep track of where we stand.

 

 

I know you're tires Syphoneira, so no worries and I hope my responses from my perspective shed some light on how this could work. I would love to see your elaboration because this is how ideas are worked out and fine tuned. I give you what I see in terms of whether this is an issue or not, you tell me why and how you see this as an issue.

Edited January 29, 2015 by AnanoKimi

[pederino]

...

But on DC, things like freedom of playing style and no impediments created for newer players have been traditionally valued, and altering these changes DC itself into something else.

 

The Encyclopedia was created as an addition to the game, and presumably not as something intended to make the game and players change basics integral to the individual playing experience and the overall apparent site philosophy in order to forcibly overlay Encyclopedia use as a main function overriding all else.

The second paragraph: With this feature you are still free to do as you please, you do not need to go to the forum to complete the encyclopedia, the cave doesnt have to change at all, and the encyclopedia will work the same way (you just need to complete all info of a breed to unlock this feature in that breed, from what I understand, I dont think thats too hard to implement). The only change will be in the biomes and have to do with seeing the actual eggs and no mistery eggs.

About the 3rd paragraph: people have said already that the encyclopedia "fills alone", with what they mean: you got an egg? you unlocked an information, you hatched an egg/got a hatchling? a bit more information, you have now an adult? more info, the encyclopedia actually fills on its own just by owning or viewing, 2 things everyone does on DC, it will still be an addition, but will not be just a decorative thing.

Anyway, learning a piece of text and associating it with an image is fairly easy: for certain people. I dont have problems with that (I even remember very trivial things people have said to me 2 or 3 years in the past, and the name of all 700+ pokemons), but I have friends that have a lot of trouble remembering things that happened 10 minutes before (of course they are non-important things, but still); you cant expect them to learn at least 10 descriptions and their eggs (plus biomes!), they are at a disadvantage here (a big one since they choose by mere luck most of the time, or in a "I am feeling lucky" way).

Sorry if I seem rude...

[Dachre]

In order to do this, so far we have to:

 

change the Cave, altering egg appearances

 

change people's playing styles in enforcing forum use

 

and change other people's playing styles in making Encyclopedia use a like-it-or-not priority simply in order to see what others do in regular Cave hunting

 

while changing Encyclopedia function by withholding earned information from players under certain circumstances,

 

all in order to show an egg sprite in the Cave as we see it in the AP, rather than the traditional Cave Mystery egg with a description that must be learnt, making at least some hint of knowledge about the egg other than the way it looks something of importance.

 

 

We've been having a recent influx of relatively new people who may not have spent much time at DC suggesting changes, some of which are fairly radical and alter basics on DC, which is something they may not understand, and which may profoundly affect the site in other ways they simply haven't considered.

 

Unfortunately, I don't really sleep enough to get it together to explain it well enough, lol, so I keep trying to rephrase it in a manner they might.

 

But on DC, things like freedom of playing style and no impediments created for newer players have been traditionally valued, and altering these changes DC itself into something else. 

 

 

The Encyclopedia was created as an addition to the game, and presumably not as something intended to make the game and players change basics integral to the individual playing experience and the overall apparent site philosophy in order to forcibly overlay Encyclopedia use as a main function overriding all else.

Changing the cave to alter egg appearances: yes. But like I said before, all things creative are mutable, and do tend to change over time. I simply can't fully get behind this point. If the creator(s) of this game were unwilling to make changes to it, then this suggestion forum wouldn't exist.

 

Enforcing forum use: I still don't quite grasp this point. The feature we suggested would in no way, shape, form, or fashion mandate that players attend this forum. I've been here for quite some time, and this is the first time I've seriously used the forum, myself.

 

Making the encyclopedia a like-it-or-not priority: I don't see this happening, either. As we've said before, the Dragon Encyclopedia completes itself naturally as you play. No additional effort would be involved; and, indeed, the activation of this feature would be quite transparent to many users, I'm sure.

 

Withholding earned information from players under certain circumstances: you'll have to elaborate on this point a little more, I'm not sure what you mean.

 

" We've been having a recent influx of relatively new people who may not have spent much time at DC suggesting changes, some of which are fairly radical and alter basics on DC, which is something they may not understand, and which may profoundly affect the site in other ways they simply haven't considered."

 

This part—First: don't assume that just because someone has no previous forum activity that that someone is alien to the subject at hand. To use myself as an example: this is the first time I've seriously used the forums, but I've been a DC member for an amount of time reasonable enough to propose suggestions, I'm sure.

 

Second: some of the greatest ideas come from applying a fresh, new look to an aging issue. In business, for example, companies often bring in brand-new people to examine issues and solve problems that may have been plaguing them for ages. There's absolutely nothing wrong with "new" people offering suggestions—in fact, that's how a good many innovations in the modern world come about.

 

Third: considering all possibilities is my most primary goal, whenever I make a suggestion of any kind, to anyone. Careful consideration of the consequences, both good and bad, is of the utmost importance. That's why I'd really like to ramp up this discussion and get tons more opinions. I believe that something needs to be examined from every possible angle before an informed decision can be made. You assert that we haven't considered the effects that this change might have on the basic functionality of DC as a game, but that is exactly the purpose of continuing this discussion thread: to evaluate all possible outcomes of implementing this suggestion as a feature, pointing out its every drawback, every flaw; and trying to come up with viable solutions to rectify those problems.

 

If, in the end, no solution can be devised that adequately addresses the needs of those involved, or at least achieves some acceptable compromise, then the idea falls flat. But I don't think we've reached that point—I believe our suggestion has potential. Sure, it could still use some hammering out, but I still believe in it at this point.

 

EDIT 1: Reread that and took out a sentence that, I just realized, sounded angry. Heh. Apologies for that.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Dachre

[Fuzzbucket]

The Encyclopedia was created as an addition to the game, and presumably not as something intended to make the game and players change basics integral to the individual playing experience and the overall apparent site philosophy in order to forcibly overlay Encyclopedia use as a main function overriding all else.

This is one reason I am against this idea; the other is the alts thing. WE should NOT get to see which they are till we get them - it is a pity that can be done now my "cheating". I wouldn't want to see it made even easier for quick clickers to get them first as well as all the rares.

[DragonNighthowler]

change people's playing styles in enforcing forum use

 

I still don't understand this.

[Fuzzbucket]

I still don't understand this.

I don't understand that bit either... Though I suppose the instructions on the scroll pages aren't exactly detailed.

 

But I really would rather stay with the lovely old mystery egg

[Nerei]

I don't understand that bit either... Though I suppose the instructions on the scroll pages aren't exactly detailed.

 

But I really would rather stay with the lovely old mystery egg

It would be cool if it were an option that we could turn on or off

[AnanoKimi]

The option to turn it on or off would be moot. Only those who feel they don't need or want it will turn it off. The rest would leave it on.

 

I don't see the issue with the encyclopedia thing. This isnt forcing anyone to do tedious extra work. Just the normal every day hatching an catching. I guess the only tedious extra work would be viewing eggs, but there are hatcheries that allow you to click on eggs without much hassle so its not like its such a big extra effort. Plus it helps the eggs.

 

Honestly the egg viewing is the only thing I would see as extra work to make this happen. Other than that really I see no problem. And whether its memorizing descriptions or checking through alternative links or bots, cheating will be a thing and might as well even it out a bit for those who actually play the game right but cant compete as opposed to trying to keep track of tons of descriptions, reading each one frantically trying to figure out what is what, and hoping you get it before all the fast clickers, fast checkers, and bots.

[Dachre]

This is one reason I am against this idea; the other is the alts thing. WE should NOT get to see which they are till we get them - it is a pity that can be done now my "cheating". I wouldn't want to see it made even easier for quick clickers to get them first as well as all the rares.

If those are main obstructions, let's work on them.

 

The Dragon Encyclopedia was added recently, as a neat little way to sort of catalog players' knowledge of the dragons that they've seen/collected. It's not currently integral to gameplay. Now: what if our suggestion is implemented? Increased encyclopedia completion, something that happens naturally as people play, provides a visual clue (be it slight, or more than slight—that's still up in the air) as to what eggs they might be looking at in the cave. I don't see how this is, in any way, as game-breaking as it may seem.

 

Second: everyone's upset that people can "cheat" to see which egg is which. If this feature were implemented, then it would provide a game-sanctioned way to get clues as to which eggs are which, and maybe, just maybe, that will be enough to discourage people from analyzing links or whatnot.

 

Third: we've been discussing the possibility of not making the eggs blatantly and openly visible, but rather overlaying them with the mystery egg, making them only slightly recognizable. If this were the case, and players began to rely on it, people will still have trouble with eggs that are visually similar, e.g. whites/grays/silvers. In those cases, the text description still plays an extremely important role in egg hunting.

 

Additionally, even if the eggs were one-hundred percent visible on the cave pages, I honestly don't think that it would confer any widespread advantage. People who have memorized the descriptions of certain dragons will be able to recognize that text and click just as fast as people that have memorized the appearance of the eggs. I say this because I have done both: memorized descriptions and memorized appearances. It's how I was able to get my rares on the first try. I can glance down and, in a split second, recognize "... much smaller than the others." and, blammo—that chicken was mine. On the abandoned page, where eggs are displayed visually, I can home in on those rare egg graphics like a cat chasing a mouse. From my point of view, my perspective, having images in the cave would net me absolutely no advantage over the other players lying in wait for that rare spawn.

 

But it would be really neat if I could, from a lore perspective, recognize which eggs were which based on my previously acquired knowledge.

 

Some thing else to consider are the basic differences between people who are visual versus people who are verbal. Verbal dominants would easily remember and recognize a text description, whereas visual dominants could do the same with the images—but it might be difficult for them to switch roles. Giving them both options levels the playing field between the two information processing types.