Tiny Little Questions

[Confused Cat]

Alt blacks are EXTREMELY popular and therefore the ratios for them are very high, making the odds to get one very, very low.

I'm only applying logic here and not knowledge about the DC program code, but shouldn't the popularity of an Alt have absolutely no effect on the percentage of successful Alt breedings?

(Unless you mean TJ made them rare because they are popular...)

 

If it was for example 3%, then 3% of Black eggs would become Alts, no matter if 10 or 10000 people breed Black eggs, and we can't change that percentage, because we always get the 97% Non-Alts and 3% Alts. We can only (and did in the past) make all Blacks rare...

 

But it seems more like the "success rate" is varying, that is, there were times when lots of people reported getting Alts all the time, and at other times, most people report not getting any Alts.

 

I think this means it is not a fixed percentage of breedings, but (perhaps?) a ratio of existing dragons that count for the current ratios, much like with different dragon breeds.

Since (I think I've read) dragons stop being counted in the ratio system after a certain time (one year maybe?), the success rate of Alt breedings changes when lots of old Alt dragons - or lots of Non-Alt dragons - "fall out" of the system for some (historical) reason.

 

 

(I hope this posting makes sense, language-wise and content-wise... )

[Fuzzbucket]

I'm currently on my tablet, and I've never used a mobile version of the internet on it, thus my site theme (on my scroll) would show up perfectly and behave as it was supposed to. Today when I logged into the site from my tablet (from the same non mobile browser) it's suddenly forcing me to the mobile version of the site. Does anyone know why the site is behaving this way? I've checked my browser settings to make sure it's not in a mobile mode, and it doesn't seem to be. Even other sites that are much more sensitive to tablets (such as YouTube) are in desktop mode.

I quite often have to select desktop mode again and AGAIN on my tablet, if that's any help...

[Wahya]

I quite often have to select desktop mode again and AGAIN on my tablet, if that's any help...

I'll try it - it could work. At this point I'll try anything. Mobile is so ugly; efficient to a certain extent, but ugly.

[Lurhstaap]

I'm only applying logic here and not knowledge about the DC program code, but shouldn't the popularity of an Alt have absolutely no effect on the percentage of successful Alt breedings?

(Unless you mean TJ made them rare because they are popular...)

 

If it was for example 3%, then 3% of Black eggs would become Alts, no matter if 10 or 10000 people breed Black eggs, and we can't change that percentage, because we always get the 97% Non-Alts and 3% Alts. We can only (and did in the past) make all Blacks rare...

 

But it seems more like the "success rate" is varying, that is, there were times when lots of people reported getting Alts all the time, and at other times, most people report not getting any Alts.

 

I think this means it is not a fixed percentage of breedings, but (perhaps?) a ratio of existing dragons that count for the current ratios, much like with different dragon breeds.

Since (I think I've read) dragons stop being counted in the ratio system after a certain time (one year maybe?), the success rate of Alt breedings changes when lots of old Alt dragons - or lots of Non-Alt dragons - "fall out" of the system for some (historical) reason.

 

 

(I hope this posting makes sense, language-wise and content-wise...  )

From my experience, alts do not work that way on DC. I do not think it is a fixed percentage. I too have observed that the difficulty to breed an alt varies. Like I said, back in the day I was able to do one or two alts for IOUs without that being a big issue, but in the last year I've had exactly zero success. There are only two possible explanations for this.

 

1.) There is a fixed percentage chance for any given dragon to be an alt, regardless of how many other alts may exist on the site. However, this percentage is altered by TJ on a fairly frequent basis to account for his personal sense of what's currently appropriate for DC.

 

2.) There is a ratio system in use rather than a fixed percentage.

 

If it is a ratio system, then the number of blacks bred DOES matter, because one person's successful alt breeding makes it less likely for everyone else trying the same thing to succeed.

 

Let me explain it this way. Say the ratio is one alt for every 100 normal blacks. It's tempting to think that this means that out of every 100 blacks bred, one will alt. But the thing is, if there's already one alt in existence before those 100 blacks are bred, then not a single one will alt, because the 1:100 ratio is already fulfilled, and if any more were born, it would mean there are 'too many' alts.

 

Now, if I'm the only player in the whole game breeding blacks, and the ratio is 100 to one, and I know there are no alt blacks in the game, I'm in a pretty good position. In fact, if there are 99 normal blacks in the game and I'm the only one breeding that species, then my chances of getting an alt are almost guaranteed, because the ratio demands that if there are 100 blacks in the game there must also be one alt black. So I'll probably get an alt within a couple of breedings. But if a lot of other people are breeding at the same time... well, SOMEONE will get that alt, but the odds that it will be ME go down significantly. And not only that, it gets worse. Once someone DOES get that alt, that means the ratio is now fulfilled, meaning there will have to be 100 (or whatever) MORE normal blacks bred before another alt black even has a chance to appear. Meaning the more alts are bred, the less chance for more alts, until a proportionate number of non-alts are bred. So any given player's chance of being the one to breed that alt goes down even more. We don't even know what the actual ratio IS, nor do we have any way of tracking other player's breeding. Which makes it absolutely impossible to plan intelligently for alt breeding. So it comes down to luck. The odds against you happening to breed a black at JUST the right time when the ratios are able to allow an alt to be born are small enough, but the more people who are also trying for the same goal at the same time means that even if you do get lucky and breed at the right time, there will be that many more people who also get lucky because they're going for the same goal. If that makes any sense? So five people breeding all at the 'right time' to get an alt means any one of those five people has only a 20% chance to get the alt, whereas if there were only one person, that person's chance of success would be 100%.

 

That's what I meant by the more people trying for alts means it's less likely that any specific player will get one.

 

If it worked by a fixed percentage, then it wouldn't matter how many other people are breeding blacks. Any given egg would have a 1% chance (or whatever) to alt, period, full stop. The number of alts already existing would not matter, nor would it matter if everyone is breeding blacks or only you.

Edited November 23, 2015 by Lurhstaap

[Jazeki]

Luhrstaap, I think it also depends on someone's dedication to trying to get an alt. I've had some alt black promises that took months to fulfill and another that I just fulfilled after 10 or so consecutive breedings (all from different pairings of course). I have fairly good luck with alt undines overall--usually one in every other batch of seven eggs if I'm really trying. It also helps to ask others to help breed alts as well if possible to increase odds. This generally happens around the holidays.

 

TL; DR: Getting an alt is subjective per user.

[fergalicious214]

Hmm... All of this is really interesting to read about the alts. I guess I'll just have to keep trying and crossing my fingers until I get mine.

[Obscure_Trash]

Try another browser ? Try another skin (I can't use the new default at all, for similar but no the same reasons.)

Also try toggling addons and other things? I had that thing that lets you customize the look of your toolbar for about two days (like a few years ago, though) before I had to disable it because it made things lag so bad for me.

[Prince_Xanthius]

How do you calculate when a given egg will hit the AP with the added day? I auto' an egg by accident, and my brother has agreed to try and catch it. Does it hit the AP when it reads the same time as the eggs in there, or does it hit ~24 hours later (accounting of course for fluctuations in AP time). So would an egg reading 6days 3 hours now (it's "true" age) hit now/already been, or should I be expecting it to go through tomorrow?

[Obscure_Trash]

How do you calculate when a given egg will hit the AP with the added day? I auto' an egg by accident, and my brother has agreed to try and catch it. Does it hit the AP when it reads the same time as the eggs in there, or does it hit ~24 hours later (accounting of course for fluctuations in AP time). So would an egg reading 6days 3 hours now (it's "true" age) hit now/already been, or should I be expecting it to go through tomorrow?

The time added doesn't show up on the view page until it's been grabbed.

 

So if the time left matches the time that should be left due to when you bred it, then it's still in the queue. If the time left is a day younger than what it should be according to its breed date, then it's been picked up.

 

So if it's at 6d 3hr and that's the age you expect due to when you bred it, then it's still in the queue. It'll need to hit 5d 3hr before it appears in the AP at the AP's current time.

[Prince_Xanthius]

The time added doesn't show up on the view page until it's been grabbed.

 

So if the time left matches the time that should be left due to when you bred it, then it's still in the queue. If the time left is a day younger than what it should be according to its breed date, then it's been picked up.

 

So if it's at 6d 3hr and that's the age you expect due to when you bred it, then it's still in the queue. It'll need to hit 5d 3hr before it appears in the AP at the AP's current time.

Ah thank you!

[Oddsoxdi]

I have an Avatar at 4d8h who still hasn't gendered. Backstory, it got a TON of views and got sick so I Fogged it and haven't put it back into hatcheries lest it get sick again. Do Avatars take longer to gender, and do they need more views to gender?

 

ETA: Thanks Fuzzie!

Edited November 24, 2015 by oddsoxdi

[Fuzzbucket]

I have an Avatar at 4d8h who still hasn't gendered. Backstory, it got a TON of views and got sick so I Fogged it and haven't put it back into hatcheries lest it get sick again. Do Avatars take longer to gender, and do they need more views to gender?

 

ETA: Thanks Fuzzie!

In my experience - yes to both. But others will now say nope...

 

Have you got it in ANYWHERE ? I do recall something about them having to be kickstarted after fogging.

Edited November 24, 2015 by fuzzbucket

[Lurhstaap]

Luhrstaap, I think it also depends on someone's dedication to trying to get an alt. I've had some alt black promises that took months to fulfill and another that I just fulfilled after 10 or so consecutive breedings (all from different pairings of course). I have fairly good luck with alt undines overall--usually one in every other batch of seven eggs if I'm really trying.   It also helps to ask others to help breed alts as well if possible to increase odds. This generally happens around the holidays.

 

TL; DR: Getting an alt is subjective per user.

Well, yes, of course, because a more dedicated player will try more often. But to say it's subjective per user isn't terribly helpful when asking what the actual likelihood of getting an alt egg is, though - you might as well say that about any egg on the site, when we all know that some are easier to find than others.

 

Also, it evens out in some ways because the more dedicated players there are the more competing for the same 'ratio egg', if that makes sense? You have better luck of getting an alt egg if you breed a lot of blacks than if you only breed a few, that's for sure, but in terms of ratios there are still plenty of other dedicated people out there trying the same thing so it only helps so much.

 

It's not like, for example, the situation with an uncommon, unusual, or brand-new pairing where you know that if you personally breed the same type of pairing often enough, eventually the ratios will slide in your favor and you'll get the species egg you want. (For example, Pyro Xenowyrm x Magma. There are still a lot of Xenowyrm pairings in general that will produce Xenos consistently for quite a long time before the ratios settle and you start to get the non-Xeno parent's species from the breedings.) That works because you are pretty much the only person making a specific effort to breed that pairing at that time in the game, or one of only a relative few. Whereas huge numbers of people are constantly trying to produce an alt black. Alt undines are easier to do because they are newer and therefore their ratios are less flooded out. Also, I may be wrong about this, but I think alt vines and especially alt undines are less popular than alt blacks as a sprite. Not sure why, since I love alt vines and people usually love golden stuff so no idea why the undine is less popular. But in my experience at least it definitely is. So breeding for those two alts does tend to be somewhat easier, the undine in particular since it also as I mentioned benefits from its relative newness.

 

As far as asking others to pitch in and such, I wasn't going into that since I was focusing specifically on the odds of getting alt eggs from your own breeding efforts. But that's always a good way to go. More people breeding black eggs naturally means more likelihood of an alt appearing -somewhere- on the game and if you have two other players actively breeding for an alt for you, they're not only helping you, they're people who COULD conceivably be competing with you for that egg but who are now not. So you've not only made it more likely that an alt will be generated by increasing the amount of black breeding going on, but you've turned two potential competitors into allies and thus improved your odds of ending up with the lucky alt when it does appear.

 

In short, the only way to get an alt black is by persistence, but you can improve your odds through trading and teamwork. Just keep breeding black eggs and sooner or later one of them will alt. It's that simple, really. Just don't be surprised if it takes a long time to get lucky!

Edited November 24, 2015 by Lurhstaap

[Starscream]

Also try toggling addons and other things? I had that thing that lets you customize the look of your toolbar for about two days (like a few years ago, though) before I had to disable it because it made things lag so bad for me.

chrome its worse in how it loads. I don't know why but it is a lot slower. The only addon which is active is adblock. And I am not disabling that for anyone.

[Ribombee]

I have an Avatar at 4d8h who still hasn't gendered. Backstory, it got a TON of views and got sick so I Fogged it and haven't put it back into hatcheries lest it get sick again. Do Avatars take longer to gender, and do they need more views to gender?

 

ETA: Thanks Fuzzie!

Avatars are one of those breeds notoriously reluctant to come out of their cozy little eggs. I have had prizes hatch with less overall and unique views than some of the avatars! Unless I make a concentrated effort to get them views each day (while being careful they don't get sick), they usually don't gender for me until very close to growing up.

[danicast]

Does anybody knows when Christmas breeding start? I'm so anxious for Christmas!!

[Vrack]

Does anybody knows when Christmas breeding start? I'm so anxious for Christmas!!

I'm pretty sure it starts a week before Christmas? I'm not positive.

[Ruby Eyes]

Past 2 years, it started on midnight between 18th and 19th of December.

[danicast]

Thanks!

[Lurhstaap]

Holiday breeding always starts a week before the holiday in question.

[Deletethis]

Hi!

I'm a bit lost. Is it just me or we do not have Lunar Heralds in the dragon encyclopaedia?

[purplehaze]

Hi!

I'm a bit lost. Is it just me or we do not have Lunar Heralds in the dragon encyclopaedia?

They have not been added, yet.

[Deletethis]

They have not been added, yet.

Thanks!

[Meg_752]

Quick question. How do you pronounce Caligene?

[Riverwillows]

Um...Cally-jean..maybe? That's how I say it....??