ANSWERED:Night or day indicator for Solstices

[Fuzzbucket]

I still wish the blue winged one was shown in the encyclopaedia. ON the same page as the rosy - as with alt blacks and vines. Just so that people could see they exist

[stagazer_7]

I still wish the blue winged one was shown in the encyclopaedia. ON the same page as the rosy - as with alt blacks and vines. Just so that people could see they exist

Me too. I love both and I'd like to see them together.

[Tigerkralle]

Pushing the suggestion up because the breeding for Holiday Dragons will start soon.

 

I like to hear other thought how this could be indicated. Two separate entries for the Solstices is too much, but we really could push TJ to include the blue variation into the encyclopedia. I forsee a lot of confusion for especiall newer users when only one variation visible at all in the encyclopedia.

[Pokemonfan13]

Technically can't you figure it out? (unless maybe it was right on the line given the rough times given) Like you see how many hours on its time, look at dragcave time if your time differs, and do the math to get the hour it was born. A little bit of work, but it's not that it's a total mystery as it stands.

 

Not saying I'm against this. If TJ wants to do it I think it's a good idea. Just saying it's not like it's the only way to know if it's day or night as an egg.

[Prince_Xanthius]

Technically can't you figure it out? (unless maybe it was right on the line given the rough times given) Like you see how many hours on its time, look at dragcave time if your time differs, and do the math to get the hour it was born. A little bit of work, but it's not that it's a total mystery as it stands.

 

Not saying I'm against this. If TJ wants to do it I think it's a good idea. Just saying it's not like it's the only way to know if it's day or night as an egg.

The problem is with AP eggs that's not always possible due to the way the extra day gets added. If there is a non-AP'd sibling you can work it out, otherwise you have no way of guaranteeing the time they were laid.

[Digital Decay]

Technically can't you figure it out?  (unless maybe it was right on the line given the rough times given)  Like you see how many hours on its time, look at dragcave time if your time differs, and do the math to get the hour it was born.  A little bit of work, but it's not that it's a total mystery as it stands.

I think the issue is that the AP either adds a full day to the timer, or an unspecified amount of hours until the timer hits 7 days because that's the maximum you can have. Let's say we have an egg with 6 days 4 hours left, and one with 6 days 18 hours - in both cases their timer would be reset to 7 days when someone picks them up, but there's no way for that person to figure out when they have actually been bred. It's not a huge problem as long as there is no Holiday egg wall in the AP, or if the backlog of Holidays goes far enough that the displayed eggs have a "real" time of <6 days and show as 6 days XX hours, but otherwise the timer is not a reliable indicator of the hour of birth.

 

Unless that behavior has been changed, of course, but I don't think so.

 

Edit: So yes, I'd very much support something that would show me when an egg actually has been laid. Maybe just add the time [DC timezone] to the "Egg laid on:" - entry on the dragon's page?

Edited December 9, 2015 by Digital Decay

[Tigerkralle]

I think the issue is that the AP either adds a full day to the timer, or an unspecified amount of hours until the timer hits 7 days because that's the maximum you can have. Let's say we have an egg with 6 days 4 hours left, and one with 6 days 18 hours - in both cases their timer would be reset to 7 days when someone picks them up, but there's no way for that person to figure out when they have actually been bred. It's not a huge problem as long as there is no Holiday egg wall in the AP, or if the backlog of Holidays goes far enough that the displayed eggs have a "real" time of <6 days and show as 6 days XX hours, but otherwise the timer is not a reliable indicator of the hour of birth.

 

Unless that behavior has been changed, of course, but I don't think so.

 

Edit: So yes, I'd very much support something that would show me when an egg actually has been laid. Maybe just add the time [DC timezone] to the "Egg laid on:" - entry on the dragon's page?

Like you said sometimes it is just a few minutes and this extra time made it so confusing. Without this extra time added to the eggs this will be a piece of cake just to figure out the difference and not confusing am and pm.

[bluesonic1]

As someone who failed to get any blue-winged Solstices last year, I'd love to see a marker of some sort implemented as well, mainly for the reasons Digital Decay highlighted above in that there are extraneous factors that can mess up your calculations when it comes to the holiday breeding madness. And you don't find out until it's an adult...

 

Someone mentioned earlier that Odeen was thinking of updating the hatchling sprites? I know you said no to different eggs Odie, but what's the verdict on the hatchlings? Because that could be an alternative solution to this.

[Ruby Eyes]

I don't remember having any trouble predicting wing color from AP caught solstice eggs last year, once I knew the mechanic was to be put into effect. The only ones I wasn't sure of were the ones that had already hatched prior, and even then I had a greater than fifty percent instance of being right. I suspect people are exaggerating the difficulty of simply counting back to the time laid when dealing with eggs.

You may not remember having that kind of trouble because at first ALL new adults were blue. The day/night mechanic was put into effect long after breeding period was over, on 8th of January cavetime: https://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?showtopic=165824

 

Your suspicion is ... impolite, to say the least. People are simply *remembering* the trouble of calculating egg laid times from Glory Drake eggs, back when these had no indicator whatsoever either. However, Solstices are, as you yourself noted, NOT the same as Glory Drakes. Solstices have a one-week-breeding period in the whole year, while Drakes can be found all year long. Solstice hatchlings didn't show any difference, while Glory Drake hatchlings already show the adult colours. That doesn't make calculations more difficult, it just makes mistakes SO MUCH MORE FRUSTRATING which is not exactly the intention of having holidays, is it? So it would be best to avoid all of that frustration that *can* be avoided as early as possible.

[Pokemonfan13]

Ah, I forgot about the AP problem. Then yea, it probably would be a good idea to do *something* to either flat out tell you or allow you to figure it out yourself.

[stagazer_7]

Someone mentioned earlier that Odeen was thinking of updating the hatchling sprites? I know you said no to different eggs Odie, but what's the verdict on the hatchlings? Because that could be an alternative solution to this.

Different hatchling sprites wouldn't really solve the problem of potentialy choosing a wrong wing color when hunting the AP/trading for eggs from the AP - sure, they'd look pretty (and there'd be more frozen hatchling sprites for me to collect, yay), but having them would only enable me to find out I've grabbed a wrong AP egg a bit sooner. I'd be just more work for the spriter with very little payoff.

 

I still feel that a night/day indicator would be an elegant way to solve the dilemma of what color Solstice one has and avoiding all worries that the egg's breeding time was incorrect due to the AP lag. Or like Pokemonfan13 said, give us some other way to allow us to figure out the precise time when the egg was bred.

[Auriene]

Different hatchling sprites wouldn't really solve the problem of potentialy choosing a wrong wing color when hunting the AP/trading for eggs from the AP - sure, they'd look pretty (and there'd be more frozen hatchling sprites for me to collect, yay), but having them would only enable me to find out I've grabbed a wrong AP egg a bit sooner.

At least you would be able to tell which Solstice variant you have before the dragon grows up and becomes untradable...

[bluesonic1]

Different hatchling sprites wouldn't really solve the problem of potentialy choosing a wrong wing color when hunting the AP/trading for eggs from the AP - sure, they'd look pretty (and there'd be more frozen hatchling sprites for me to collect, yay), but having them would only enable me to find out I've grabbed a wrong AP egg a bit sooner. I'd be just more work for the spriter with very little payoff.

It half solves the problem. To be fair, I'm more in favour of the marker as well, but considering how the suggestion has been going so far with the spriter, and that someone mentioned that Odeen had talked about doing new hatchlings, I feel like the hatchling compromise is a "something better than nothing" situation. While the marker is my first choice, I'd rather have the new hatchlings as opposed to nothing.

 

But as Ruby Eyes already highlighted, I feel like something really is needed considering the one-week-a-year breeding period we get for these guys. Building on what Ruby Eyes also mentioned, the holiday period super busy. This is the time a year that we want to be spending with friends and family, not spending unnecessarily extra time gaming that could have been avoided with some foresight.

[stagazer_7]

It half solves the problem. To be fair, I'm more in favour of the marker as well, but considering how the suggestion has been going so far with the spriter, and that someone mentioned that Odeen had talked about doing new hatchlings, I feel like the hatchling compromise is a "something better than nothing" situation. While the marker is my first choice, I'd rather have the new hatchlings as opposed to nothing.

 

But as Ruby Eyes already highlighted, I feel like something really is needed considering the one-week-a-year breeding period we get for these guys. Building on what Ruby Eyes also mentioned, the holiday period super busy. This is the time a year that we want to be spending with friends and family, not spending unnecessarily extra time gaming that could have been avoided with some foresight.

"Something a teeny tiny bit better than nothing" is really a way to describe this, the wrong Solstice egg will still take up eggspace, waste a Red for incubating and after more more waiting to see what color she grows into then have to try (and most likely fail) to swap it with someone who doesn't care or is looking specifically for this wing color. Last year, I noticed my Solstices had different wing colors a day or so after they've grown up, because I ran out of time to play due to RL and just grabbed what I could, placed the eggs in the hatchery and left them to grow up.

 

Not that I would mind more hatchling sprites, not one bit, especially if the artist wishes to create them - but knowing what you have from the egg onward is much simpler IMO. I have plans with my rosy- and blue-winged Solstices alike and while not having an indicator definitely won't stop me from collecting Solstices (because I totally will try to get as many nice lines as I can <3), a little help to make lineage work less complicated would be much appreciated, since this specific breeding mechanic was chosen for them.

 

[Bison]

I support something. We really need a way to see exactly which they are as eggs, or at least S1 hatchlings so we can try to find trades asap if they miscolor.

 

Solstice are my favorite Christmas dragons but I only want the pink wings on my scroll. The blue ones are pretty but I like them for their sunrise-y look. I was really disappointed by the blue wings and I'd love to not have to stress over that this year.

[Nine]

I hadn't even thought of this. I'd be happy with some sort of indicator for eggs, or their descriptions, or something, since I tend to do 99% of my egg hunting in the AP.

[olympe]

Of course, we could help out our fellow players by renaming one parent to indicate the wing color of the offspring. ("RosyWings" suffix for rosy wings, "SkyWings" for blue wings? or a simple "bred at nine pm" to indicate when the eggs where bred?)

Edited December 17, 2015 by olympe

[angelicdragonpuppy]

Can't some very tiny indicator just be added to the egg or hatchling text?

 

"This egg emits a soft, heartwarming pink glow."

"It's very festively colored, and is fascinated by the night sky."

 

Blue wings can use the original text.

 

[PhantomoftheWolves]

what about the alt sweetlings? I only see the normal pink ones in the Encyclopedia

[angelicdragonpuppy]

what about the alt sweetlings? I only see the normal pink ones in the Encyclopedia

Alt Sweetlings fall under a similar category to Spriter's Alts and thus aren't shown.

[stagazer_7]

Can't some very tiny indicator just be added to the egg or hatchling text?

 

"This egg emits a soft, heartwarming pink glow."

"It's very festively colored, and is fascinated by the night sky."

 

Blue wings can use the original text.

I'd be fine with such an egg description.

[Odeen]

I'd be fine with such an egg description.

I wouldn't. Also, the hatchling description suggestion would imply that when a solstice dragon was bred somehow changes her behavior - all solstice dragons love the night sky.

[angelicdragonpuppy]

I wouldn't. Also, the hatchling description suggestion would imply that when a solstice dragon was bred somehow changes her behavior - all solstice dragons love the night sky.

Since it's your dragon, can you please just tell us something you'd find acceptable? Right now it's impossible to tell what an S1 Solstice will be, or what an egg will be (since an egg dropped at 6d1h and an egg dropped at 6d13h will both gain a day and become the same 7d time in the end). A solution from you would be a lot quicker than the rest of us yammering on about things you then say you don't like.

 

And before anyone brings it up, I don't think "just take a risk lol" is an acceptable solution, since these are dragons that are only going to breed true once a year, competing with over half a dozen breeds that also only breed once a year. Playing the guessing game at a time like that isn't as fixable as a miscolor Nebula or Gemshard.

Edited December 17, 2015 by angelicdragonpuppy

[Odeen]

Since it's your dragon, can you please just tell us something you'd find acceptable? Right now it's impossible to tell what an S1 Solstice will be, or what an egg will be (since an egg dropped at 6d1h and an egg dropped at 6d13h will both gain a day and become the same 7d time in the end). A solution from you would be a lot quicker than the rest of us yammering on about things you then say you don't like.

I don't have any issues with how they are on-site - that's why I'm not suggesting anything specific. I also don't have any issues with people discussing solutions to something they perceive as a problem on the off-chance an idea comes along that I like or don't mind, but in the interest of maintaining breed integrity I will at the very least pop in and say what absolutely isn't my cup of tea.

[Fuzzbucket]

I wouldn't. Also, the hatchling description suggestion would imply that when a solstice dragon was bred somehow changes her behavior - all solstice dragons love the night sky.

Actually, in all fairness to Odeen, nor would I. Same thing as for nebbies and glories - the egg description doesn't vary. It would be ideal if they just showed "night" or "day" as glories do. Could that work for you, Odeen?