Scroll Breed Limit of New Rare eggs

[moonstone981]

It's a matter of knowing when to go to the cave, where to go, and how to use the forums to get the eggs you can't get yourself.

This, exactly.

[ShorahNagi]

I'm with everyone else who says no.

 

To me, the only breeds that should have a restriction (like they do) are the Holiday Dragons for the following reasons:

 

1. Due to them only being around for a limited time - it gives everyone a chance to get at least 1

2. While a bit restricting on lineage - it encourages the trading of offspring to others to help keep a lineage going/get a group lineage going (cooperation)

 

To restrict a regular release of a Dragon that is a permanent addition (so one could catch it at any time with luck) just wouldn't work.

 

I've been on DC for about 7 years now - are there some CB eggs I've never been able to see for one reason or another? Yes.

 

Have I had issues catching eggs due to lag? Yes.

 

Do I feel imposing a limit on new release eggs will solve either of these problems? Nope - because while there might be a limit - once people hit that limit...they will still be people hanging around in the Biomes to try and clear out blocker breeds, or catch other eggs that might show before the new one (and I don't think that would help the lag at all)

[Vhale]

I can appreciate the frustration of trying to get them. But I can also say your suggestion won't help with several of the breeds you mentioned. Xenos and Spessartines aren't new releases. And having been at the Xeno release, several of us did catch one or two early because that was the feasible limit. After all, they all came out at once. People could trade for more, but that was all. I've tried trading a, Chicken, CB Magma, Summers and now a green dino for new lunar hatchies and gotten nil for any of them. So I kept most, decided the Xenos were a little too sought after and that no one was going for Spessartines. So I nabbed enough for my Halloween project. Like people said, that took days and hours of checking in.

[Riverwillows]

I've had people pm me with nasty posts, because they look at my scroll and see only the many rares and prizes on it. What they DON'T take into consideration, was that it took me SEVEN YEARS to get it that way, thru clicking and clicking, then trading the one lucky break for another, then breeding and trading and breeding and trading......

 

It took time. And patience. And I have to say, that in spite of all the frustration, it's actually made the game more fun, because what can replace that feeling of "YESSSSSS!!!" when you finally grab/breed that one rare.

 

No. Just do what the rest of us did. Stalk. Wrangle. Breed. If it was easy, you'd get bored real quick, now wouldn't you? Be honest. Yes you would.

Edited September 19, 2015 by Riverwillows

[Pangaea]

Personally, what I would appreciate—and what I think would help a lot—is a longer initial drop period for new releases, Rare and otherwise. I've lost count of how many times I've arrived a day late for a new release, and completely missed the opportunity to grab any of the new dragons. Or the times I arrived during the last few hours of a release, and still missed out on most of the dragons. (I only caught one Pyrope during the Pyralspite release, and I have still yet to find any CBs of the other Pyralspite colors.) I'm sure I'm not the only DC fan who doesn't/can't visit the site every day, or the only one who's suffered this frustration. If the new releases dropped for, say, three days instead of just one, a lot fewer players would miss the releases, and a lot more people who arrived late would have time to catch all the new breeds.

 

I too would really love to have better odds of catching Rare dragons, but I don't think a scroll limit is the way to go. I think the real problem is that there are so many dragon breeds out there right now, that all the Rares (and even the Uncommons) are diluted among the more common breeds to the point that anyone's chances of finding their desired Rare are nigh infinitesimal. Thus, when a Rare does appear, everyone grabs for it, and of course the player with the fastest computer has the best chance of catching it. In this scenario, however, it's not an issue of certain players "hoarding" the Rares; it's just that Rares are so sought-after due to their scarcity that it's virtually impossible for a casual player to get one. Since new dragons are being released all the time, I'm not even sure how to go about addressing this issue (though I certainly DO NOT want to see any dragon breeds retired). Perhaps if different dragon species had different "behaviors"; e.g., Silver Dragon eggs most often drop on Tuesday nights, while Blusang Lindwurm eggs are most likely to wash up between 8 and 9 (both AM and PM). Granted, there is the potential issue that if the predetermined times for these increased drop rates are too specific, then players will crowd the cave at those times, causing lag issues. Another idea, then, is to have "swarms": a random Rare or Uncommon breed drops en masse in a specific biome on a random 10-minute mark, probably a few times a day. Even if "en masse" means "three eggs dropping at once", it would provide players with much better odds of occasionally catching a Rare than the one in whatevertheheckillion drop rate we have right now.

 

I dunno, I don't visit the forums much, so I'm not privy to any prior discussions or suggestions relating to the issue of breed rarity, so I haven't a clue whether these ideas are any good. Would anyone else care to weigh in?

Edited September 19, 2015 by Pangaea

[AGYK]

I too would really love to have better odds of catching Rare dragons, but I don't think a scroll limit is the way to go. I think the real problem is that there are so many dragon breeds out there right now, that all the Rares (and even the Uncommons) are diluted among the more common breeds to the point that anyone's chances of finding their desired Rare are nigh infinitesimal. Thus, when a Rare does appear, everyone grabs for it, and of course the player with the fastest computer has the best chance of catching it. In this scenario, however, it's not an issue of certain players "hoarding" the Rares; it's just that Rares are so sought-after due to their scarcity that it's virtually impossible for a casual player to get one. Since new dragons are being released all the time, I'm not even sure how to go about addressing this issue (though I certainly DO NOT want to see any dragon breeds retired). Perhaps if different dragon species had different "behaviors"; e.g., Silver Dragon eggs most often drop on Tuesday nights, while Blusang Lindwurm eggs are most likely to wash up between 8 and 9 (both AM and PM). Granted, there is the potential issue that if the predetermined times for these increased drop rates are too specific, then players will crowd the cave at those times, causing lag issues. Another idea, then, is to have "swarms": a random Rare or Uncommon breed drops en masse in a specific biome on a random 10-minute mark, probably a few times a day. Even if "en masse" means "three eggs dropping at once", it would provide players with much better odds of occasionally catching a Rare than the one in whatevertheheckillion drop rate we have right now.

Your mass-drop idea has some merit on the surface, but I actually think it would exacerbate the rarity problem over time. Certain breeds are much more sought after than others, and the unwanted eggs are recycled at the top of the hour; as time goes on and the desired breeds are consistently grabbed and the unwanted breeds are consistently left ungrabbed, the cave will produce more and more of the unwanted breeds and fewer and fewer of the wanted breeds. A massdrop of the rarer breeds will only mean more of the rare eggs get grabbed up, and eventually we'll hit a point where the only rares to be found are in the massdrop.

 

I think the solution for the rarity issue is to be found in fixing the ratios, not trying to force-produce more rares or artificially limit the number of rares taken. Personally, I've gradually warmed to the idea of having everything chucked into the AP at the top of the hour before the new hourdrop is generated. Eventually the commons will fall to ~4d, the way AP eggs do now, and people will grab them. There will be a ton of commons chucked to the AP at first, since the ratios are imbalanced, but over time things will return to the way they're supposed to be. (This still won't make any individual rare easier to catch - people will still want them - but it'll mean more rares showing up, both in-cave and in the AP.)

[Shin'a'in]

I can nay be giving me support of this.

[kitsune93]

No way.

I'm not in favor of any breed limitations.

[olympe]

Your mass-drop idea has some merit on the surface, but I actually think it would exacerbate the rarity problem over time. Certain breeds are much more sought after than others, and the unwanted eggs are recycled at the top of the hour; as time goes on and the desired breeds are consistently grabbed and the unwanted breeds are consistently left ungrabbed, the cave will produce more and more of the unwanted breeds and fewer and fewer of the wanted breeds. A massdrop of the rarer breeds will only mean more of the rare eggs get grabbed up, and eventually we'll hit a point where the only rares to be found are in the massdrop.

 

I think the solution for the rarity issue is to be found in fixing the ratios, not trying to force-produce more rares or artificially limit the number of rares taken. Personally, I've gradually warmed to the idea of having everything chucked into the AP at the top of the hour before the new hourdrop is generated. Eventually the commons will fall to ~4d, the way AP eggs do now, and people will grab them. There will be a ton of commons chucked to the AP at first, since the ratios are imbalanced, but over time things will return to the way they're supposed to be. (This still won't make any individual rare easier to catch - people will still want them - but it'll mean more rares showing up, both in-cave and in the AP.)

Personally, I'm pretty sure TJ should be clever enough to create even week-long mass drops after the release without it affecting the ratios - simply don't check for dragons caught before (release + 6 days) when checking for the ratios. Or declare the breed as new_release_massdrop, then change the (internal) name to new_release, whatever the actual name of the breed may be. If both "breeds" have the same sprite and breed the same, new_release eggs (just like old pinks breed new pinks now), we (as users) won't ever see a difference, yet the ratio system would not have a problem with a week-long drop causing a year(s)-long draught.

[Millie_Azure]

I've gotten lunar heralds easily. They're just not popular. Xenos on the other way...

This isn't true. Xenos are classed as uncommon dragons (perhaps even on the cusp of mildly rare), while it's looking more and more like Lunars may be mildly common. Lunars are exceedingly popular, especially the blues and silvers. There's just more of them than there are the xenos. It's a ratio thing, not a popularity thing.

 

That being explained, I cannot offer my support to this suggestion. Sometimes life is hard. Sometimes you have to work to get what you want. Sometimes the things you want really badly take a lot of hard work to obtain. If everything was easy, life (and this game) would be excessively dull. I don't want instant gratification. I enjoy the anticipation and the challenge.

[Gruff]

I really don't see the need in this one to be honest.

 

We already have to deal with a limit on eggs. At my trophy level, I can hold six eggs at a time. If I want all six of my egg slots to be any specific type of dragon, why shouldn't it be. If I want six Lunars, six Silvers or six Stone ... that is my choice. My egg limit is six.

 

With the last few releases, the biomes dropped nothing but new eggs upon release for hours upon hours, like 24 hours.

 

I have a great internet connection. Mine lags if I am lurking in a biome during the hourly drops at peak times. I avoid it like the plaque. If I am egg hunting, I go for off times for hourly or try to check the five minute marks.

 

As for the trading rares only for rares ... that is not always true. Look at the trading threads, see what people may want. When I am egg hunting, I look for lineages. A second or third generation PB to help me with my current breeding project, or a select stair combination or even alts. Geodes, alt-undines, galaxies, alt blacks or alt vines ...

 

Look into a few of the breeding/gifting threads ... talk to people, make connections on this side of the DC.

[Oddsoxdi]

Every time this suggestion comes up it gets voted down.

 

I cannot add my support to any sort of limiting of my being able to get new Releases. So no from me too.

[Syphoneira]

Your mass-drop idea has some merit on the surface, but I actually think it would exacerbate the rarity problem over time. Certain breeds are much more sought after than others, and the unwanted eggs are recycled at the top of the hour; as time goes on and the desired breeds are consistently grabbed and the unwanted breeds are consistently left ungrabbed, the cave will produce more and more of the unwanted breeds and fewer and fewer of the wanted breeds. A massdrop of the rarer breeds will only mean more of the rare eggs get grabbed up, and eventually we'll hit a point where the only rares to be found are in the massdrop.

 

I think the solution for the rarity issue is to be found in fixing the ratios, not trying to force-produce more rares or artificially limit the number of rares taken. Personally, I've gradually warmed to the idea of having everything chucked into the AP at the top of the hour before the new hourdrop is generated. Eventually the commons will fall to ~4d, the way AP eggs do now, and people will grab them. There will be a ton of commons chucked to the AP at first, since the ratios are imbalanced, but over time things will return to the way they're supposed to be. (This still won't make any individual rare easier to catch - people will still want them - but it'll mean more rares showing up, both in-cave and in the AP.)

 

 

 

olympe

 

Personally, I'm pretty sure TJ should be clever enough to create even week-long mass drops after the release without it affecting the ratios - simply don't check for dragons caught before (release + 6 days) when checking for the ratios. Or declare the breed as new_release_massdrop, then change the (internal) name to new_release, whatever the actual name of the breed may be. If both "breeds" have the same sprite and breed the same, new_release eggs (just like old pinks breed new pinks now), we (as users) won't ever see a difference, yet the ratio system would not have a problem with a week-long drop causing a year(s)-long draught.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In too-many cases, those of us without fast connections pretty much have to load up during the Flood to try to get our scroll goals/numbers for prospective mates/lineage breeding, as anything in high demand (in example, the most beautiful dragons) may rapidly become invisible to us, having slower Refreshes, so this would penalize slower people, especially those whose main interest may lie in breeding, as well. A number of people have focused a greater interest on breeding at least in part because of having slower connections or other issues making catching more difficult for them.

 

Limiting the numbers of dragons people can get would ruin all sorts of plans and playstyles; increasing the numbers Dropped - at least initially, as suggested above - would alleviate the problem without fouling almost everyone up.

 

As others have pointed out, there's a great deal of lag affecting different people to different extents and even at different times. Much of this may have to do not only with some of us having slower connections than others, but with the routes and problems affecting those routes taken, especially with various providers deliberately slowing down traffic in specific areas, this being one of many reasons why the classification of the (publicly paid for, US-government-developed) internet as a publicly serving/regulated communications carrier is so essential.

 

Faster people are going to catch more eggs much faster than the rest of us. The plus side is that they fill up quickly which then increases chances for everyone else as they drop off, with lag also decreasing with reducing numbers of people on and frantically Refreshing pages. This works out well as long as there are enough eggs available to go around. The problem comes in not merely regarding our various catching abilities, but with the numbers of eggs Dropping and with the numbers which actually appear in the biomes (without being blocked off in the line-up by other eggs) to be taken by members.

 

As also mentioned above, the Suggestion of a Cave function shuffling unwanted/untaken eggs into the AP to come up as more desirable low-time eggs to be taken and raised/Frozen into the ratios, to prevent their endless recirculation and hourly re-creation as Blockers, would help enable both more variety to be created hourly and for that increased variety to appear in the biomes to be taken and provide actual hunting, rather than members enduring boredom in often fruitless and endless Refreshing with tooth-picks propping eyelids open and people having to sacrifice limited egg-slots for 5 hours to manually cart the eggs nobody wants at full time to the AP - essentially doing janitorial work in their fun time.

 

There are ways of improving the game which would enhance player experience overall without limiting the abilities of people to catch whatever they might need, whether fast or slow, and it's the implementation of these for which we should be hoping

 

 

[Sany]

Nope, this is just no good idea at all. There's people who happen to hoard a specific dragon, this would imply they can't hoard them anymore. Plus hunting is not all about the internet connection, it has a lot to do with perseverance.

Also, with new releases, there's tons of people who gift those hard to get eggs to people who didn't get one yet.

[Windnose]

I just wanted to take a quick second to point out that about 2 years ago or so, CB Blacks, Vines, and Stripes were as desired as CB Xenos are right now, and those are common/uncommon and were certainly not new during that time. The demand for those eggs just jumped up then for some reason. If something like this were added to the game, would it only affect the new releases/"rares", or would it affect any dragon that is in high demand? If it was for the dragons in high demand, what about the people who are not on the forums? They would have no idea why the common they need is suddenly limit locked.

[DragonLady86]

There is no such thing as hoarding.

 

No support despite not having a single CB gold, silver, copper, or even low gen prize after 6 and half years. I will (eventually) either manage to catch my own or find something trade worthy.

[Nalyua]

Title says the summary. Please add scroll breed limits to discourage people with higher internet speed, and highly likely script for other members with slower internet and no script to be able to get the Rare dragons, which rarity value actually raise over time due how it was programmed (more dragons owned = smaller amount of egg spawn).

 

I've gotten very, very bad experiences in the past, and just rejoined to get Xeno dragons. At the very start of an hour there's like, 20 seconds lag where the areas page didn't even load.

 

The scroll breed limit will be released when there's new dragons of SAME rarity released. Makes sense? Because everyone will be catching the new dragons instead of the olds, giving more opportunity to catch older rares, which by that time, will spawn less eggs.

 

Already suggested? Maybe. Will this even get approved? Highly likely not. Maybe y'all will tell that 'you should trade for the ones you wanted'. The problem is, people trade Rares with Rares. For ones who don't have CB Rare egg/hatchling, what should we do? Waste time on front of the comp at 5 minutes egg drop? Install the same script? Grieve?

 

No. We demand justice.

I don't support breed limits.

 

However I agree that something has to be done to help people with slow connections to be able to catch eggs on their own.

 

And before someone suggests the multiple giving threads: I don't want to depend on charity just because my connection is slow.

 

I always liked the GPX+ System where every player sees a random selection of eggs from a pool of eggs assigned to the pick up area.

 

That makes it so that less people see the same egg and better chances for individual catchers.

[CNR4806]

I always liked the GPX+ System where every player sees a random selection of eggs from a pool of eggs assigned to the pick up area.

 

That makes it so that less people see the same egg and better chances for individual catchers.

So, F5 until there is a rare without someone having to actually pick up the commons?

 

This will drive the ratios absolutely nuts in short order. Expect desirable commons to be rares, uncommons to be ultra-rares and real rares to be urban legends.

Edited September 24, 2015 by CNR4806

[Syphoneira]

So, F5 until there is a rare without someone having to actually pick up the commons?

 

This will drive the ratios absolutely nuts in short order. Expect desirable commons to be rares, uncommons to be ultra-rares and real rares to be urban legends.

 

 

 

Lol, you're absolutely right - except that for many people with slower Refreshes, the metallics - our only actual 'rares' - ARE and have long been urban legends which we only perhaps happen to have seen the odd time just lately due to the biomes moving and the emphasis being on a steady influx of pretty new dragons, and with so many people enjoying the low-time AP and hence picking up Blockers from there which have been transported from the biomes specifically to get them out of the way.

 

ALL desirable dragons would become outright extinct if people could just pick them out and leave the uber-Commons sitting...

 

 

I'll bet that GPX+ has a very wide variety of critters without too many of any particular kinds out-numbering others by radical proportions, which would make that work there.

[Gruff]

I could understand this more if new releases didn't flood the appropriate biomes for about 24 hours.

[olympe]

Lol, you're absolutely right - except that for many people with slower Refreshes, the metallics - our only actual 'rares' - ARE and have long been urban legends *snip*

Metallics? We have metallics in the cave? Must be one of those urban legends...

[zaverxi]

No.

 

It is frustrating to constantly see that 'sorry, that egg has been picked up by someone else' message, but I've been playing for 7 years despite that. My internet isn't great, and I haven't gotten all the rares I'd like, but I keep playing anyway on the off chance that I would manage to get something nice.

 

No support. There's nothing wrong with charity, there's a ton of nice people on dragcave even if there's also a ton of... not so nice people.

 

Heck, I can remember off the top of my head at least 6 occasions in the current news thread where people have complained about not getting any lunars, only to have someone post 'check your pms! ' afterwards, with nice shiny gifts.

 

(And I hope all those people got thanked, because seriously, you guys are awesome)

 

Anyway, no. This would ruin the cave.

[yosofine]

Just yesterday, I saw a Departure post giving away a CB Silver, so I Do Not Support this limitation thing of New Rare eggs.

 

I have been here for enough years to know. It's only the fault of the person if they don't find a way to get "some" of just about anything. It may not be the best shiny Gold Prize Shimmer, but those are raffled, not a subject for the Biomes or Cave.

 

If you have played a while, you should have wandered around the Forum to the gifting and giving threads and taken your chances with the rest of us. I've made some wonderful friends, and have been given some wonderful beautiful dragons. I don't expect any of them but if you give, eventually someone is going to give to you. (I try to give back when I have time to breed shiny eggs.)

 

One of the rules of DC is that there is no rule against hoarding. If you can catch it, it's yours. If you've got 500 Black dragons and want more, catch them. The very few scroll rules that are in place, are all we should need.

[Ribombee]

I have a lot of rares. Most of them I caught myself. That being said, I hardly catch them all in one fell swoop. I literally sit with the biome I am interested in plus my computer clock up, and I work on whatever else (grading, my own homework, studying). I pause what I am doing for the xx:05 reshuffle, refresh like crazy, and usually find nothing I want. Sometimes, however, I get lucky and spot something fun AND manage to be fast enough to grab it.

 

I hardly even bother at the hourly drops because the lag is just too much, despite having really good internet. It has nothing to do with scripters and everything to do with eggs being generated and more people being online on the hourly marks. Even the people with the fastest connections and quick reflexes (I include myself in that group) aren't sitting around scroll-locked with cave bred rares, in most cases. The few of us who are nearly always get that way because we trade for higher time eggs of the same breed so we can keep our scroll full of rares to trade up for something nicer. People do that often with silvers and golds, for example. If they want a 2G prize, they might catch one silver, keep trying for another CB metal, trade the silver for a higher time egg when it gets close to hatching, do that a few times until they get a second metal CB egg, repeat the process over and over until they have a lot of CB metals on their scroll at once. It might LOOK like they are scripting, but it's easy enough to check the catch dates to see they were not all caught at the same time or in the same biome. That's really the only time I would be highly suspicious of scripting.

 

I've personally given away several CB xenos in the departures thread, and I am accepting a few CB autumn hatchies in exchange for others. I see autumn eggs sitting in the biome for several page refreshes before they slowly trickle away. There is no reason they couldn't be grabbed, hatched, and traded. The same can be said for most any hatchies. A lot of people are happy to trade their rare for your time (i.e. for you hatching what they need and trading it as a hatchie rather than them being egg-locked with commons). I very frequently make trades like this. I will ask someone to find or breed me some commons, influence them correctly, and either hatch them or send them to me at 5 days (I have plenty of reds to incubate so can incuhatch them). For me, being a good catcher, it's well worth it to trade a rare for what might technically be underpay on their part because it means I can keep my egg slots open for other rares or for trying to breed the harder outcomes from my lineage projects (like that dang silver from black tea...).

[GoldeenTrix]

No.

 

I'm pretty new around here, and I've been catching a good amount of rares. But it's not because I have amazing internet, it's because when I hunt I hunt for hours on end. For 1 to 2 hours I do nothing but sit in front of a book with a 5 minute timer going in the background. I study inbetween drops and click into the biomes as quickly as I can right after the timer goes off. I don't always succeed, but I succeed often enough that I can fill up my egg slots pretty well.

 

I put hard work and time into getting my eggs, and just because somebody else can't get them doesn't mean I shouldn't be allowed to hunt more. I love the thrill of a hunt and I would probably leave DC if it was taken away from me.

 

I have gifted and raffled away lots of CB Xenos, and I've been gifted Blusangs and Cheeses. The DC community is amazing, if you're missing some eggs, I'm pretty sure somebody out there will be willing to help you. Scroll limits are not the way to go.

Edited September 28, 2015 by GoldeenTrix