Raise odds of successful zombification

[angelicdragonpuppy]

@Cinspawn dodges are incredibly frustrating, but I don’t think just making them less prevalent would actually fix the zombie issue. I let about 20 hatchies die via running out of time (no chance of dodge) and stocked up on extra adults to make sure I’d get my 10 adult kills. So it’s annoying, but there are ways around it. In contrast, there’s no way to improve the low turn rate. With 51 unique sprites and a 30% or lower turn rate on the BEST day... you’re looking at more than three years to get just ONE of each sprite. Maybe a little quicker with the other 31sts, but not much better.

 

So yes, lowering dodge rates would be GREAT, but I feel a higher turn rate is the meat of the issue. Everything else is a nice perk, but not a real fix for how very, very long it currently takes to get a set of zombies. 

 

 

 

(Yes, DC is a slow game, and not everything needs to be fast... but 3+ years just to collect one of each variant of a breed strikes me as rather much)

 

 

[Cinspawn]

@angelicdragonpuppy

I see. I guess the dodges bother me the most cause it feels like a completely useless mechanic to me. It doesn't add any 'difficulty', as you said there are ways around it. It's just really frustrating. 

 

Honestly I'd be all for a complete zombie rework. Remove dodge or change how kill works (every hour), give people more kill slots, up the zombie chance. All of it! 

 

And no, I don't think that will make zombies less special or super common. It still needs preparation and like 7 days (?) of the year to actually work. 

I think it will make people actually want to try to collect these beautiful cool sprites instead of not even bother because of the odds. 

[purplehaze]

8 hours ago, Cinspawn said:

 

I think it will make people actually want to try to collect these beautiful cool sprites instead of not even bother because of the odds. 

Amen to that! I am at that point of not even trying because they just feel unobtainable.

[HeatherMarie]

6 dodges in a row. Only had a few ready fodder, so I had to go find a few more, and they all dodged. 6 in a row. That's just useless.

[Fuzzbucket]

I am aware of this thread: 

But TJ closed it in 2016, saying there were "plans for zombies". Whatever they were, they don't seem significantly  to have upped the chances; we can now create them year round - but even on Hallowe'en, the fail rate was enormous (I scored exactly none last Hallowe'en) - I have tried frequently - though because of the fail rate not as often as some - and have achieved a whole TWO in 2018. There are so many lovely zombie sprites, and it seems there is almost no chance of collecting them all.

 

Please up the chances ? (not to mention the dodge rate - though I do keep a stock of zombie fodder, so that isn't as huge a problem as it is for some people.)

 

[RealWilliamShakespeare]

Lol I’ve never had a single one so definitely support this!

[GalacticNovie]

In my 8 years on DC I've gotten 3 in 2015, and 2 in 2018, both years only on Halloween, even though I try every 31th. This is a joke. It shouldn't take literal years just to get one dragon, especially from a species as varied as this one. There's a fine line between difficult and unfeasible, and we're definitely past that point.

Edited January 31, 2019 by FlyingDragona

[Nokturna]

I tried it this morning with five dragons since its the 31st and I heard the chances are higher on such a day, I killed ca. 3 dragons, one dodged the blade and one let himself revive normally. If I had known the chances were as low as they are, I wouldn't have tried it. I don't even have silver trophy yet and now I'm a additional three dragons further away. 

[RandomBreeder]

WAIT WAT.

 

The success rate is higher on other 31sts as well?? IS THIS TRUE?!

[Ruby Eyes]

12 minutes ago, RandomBreeder said:

WAIT WAT.

 

The success rate is higher on other 31sts as well?? IS THIS TRUE?!

 

[angelicdragonpuppy]

Fuzz, this thread is still alive:

@RandomBreeder it is higher on 31sts but it's still horrible. It's less than a 10% success rate. I'd save anything you really want to zombify for Halloween.

 

[RandomBreeder]

2 minutes ago, angelicdragonpuppy said:

@RandomBreeder it is higher on 31sts but it's still horrible. It's less than a 10% success rate. I'd save anything you really want to zombify for Halloween.

 

Welp, too late. 3 fails already xD

[Moonlight_Eevee]

1 hour ago, FlyingDragona said:

In my 8 years on DC I've gotten 3 in 2015, and 2 in 2018, both years only on Halloween, even though I try every 31th. This is a joke. It shouldn't take literal years just to get one dragon, especially from a species as varied as this one. There's a fine line between difficult and unfeasible, and we're definitely past that point.

Not to mention scroll bound. I would see the argument of them having a low success rate if they were tradable but having many varieties of a zombie and having such a low Success rate is kind of odd. 

[purplehaze]

All of my Zombies are from 2015 or earlier. I have tried many times since then but in spite of supposedly having the ability to get Zombies on the 31st of any month, I have been totally unsuccessful at getting any more -- even on Halloween. Adding more awesome Zombie sprites with almost no chance of actually obtaining them is cruelly frustrating!

[RealWilliamShakespeare]

I completely forgot it was 31st today so, inspired by this thread, I went on a killing spree. And I actually got my first EVER Zombie!! (So thank you Fuzz for inspiring me!) But I think it goes without saying that considering I've been here for almost 5 years and am only just getting my first... The odds could do with be raised I think.

[Fuzzbucket]

1 hour ago, angelicdragonpuppy said:

Fuzz, this thread is still alive:

@RandomBreeder it is higher on 31sts but it's still horrible. It's less than a 10% success rate. I'd save anything you really want to zombify for Halloween.

 

Oh. I searched titles with zombie, as just zombie got me SO many threads. Did't see zombification coming ! Thanks. Mods could merge....

 

[animatedrose]

I agree with this. I haven't built up the nerve to do zombies yet (not keen on murdering hundreds for just one sprite out of dozens) but I watch on the DC Discord when others do their revives. It's...extremely disheartening. Usually one of two things happens:

 

1. Almost everyone gets nothing and the successful turns belong to maybe 3 or 4 people. Granted, this only encompasses the active 50-60 people in a server of several hundred, most silent.

 

2. Most get nothing and then somebody will pop in who somehow got their whole collection of zombie fodder to turn successfully. All of them.

 

I don't see why something SCROLL-BOUND and UNTRADEABLE must be this difficult to obtain. I get TJ's reasoning of "not wanting to make zombies too common"...but when you suddenly add loads of sprites and then make it basically impossible to obtain them? I'm sorry but you have a massive problem when even HALLOWEEN, the biggest zombie turn boost of the year, can net most of your players NOTHING. In my opinion, Halloween should at least get you ONE. But that's just me.

[SkyWolf25]

Topics have been merged.

[VixenDra]

16 hours ago, animatedrose said:

I agree with this. I haven't built up the nerve to do zombies yet (not keen on murdering hundreds for just one sprite out of dozens) but I watch on the DC Discord when others do their revives. It's...extremely disheartening. Usually one of two things happens:

 

1. Almost everyone gets nothing and the successful turns belong to maybe 3 or 4 people. Granted, this only encompasses the active 50-60 people in a server of several hundred, most silent.

 

2. Most get nothing and then somebody will pop in who somehow got their whole collection of zombie fodder to turn successfully. All of them.

 

I don't see why something SCROLL-BOUND and UNTRADEABLE must be this difficult to obtain. I get TJ's reasoning of "not wanting to make zombies too common"...but when you suddenly add loads of sprites and then make it basically impossible to obtain them? I'm sorry but you have a massive problem when even HALLOWEEN, the biggest zombie turn boost of the year, can net most of your players NOTHING. In my opinion, Halloween should at least get you ONE. But that's just me.

 

the 2. sounds unbelievable to me:o though I never tried to revive alongside with other players, wonderign if that has anything to do with it....

 

 

I also don't see why those are SO riddiculusly limited-chance... especially with so many various sprites. Not to mention I can't even appreciate them because they are visible when I'm asleep and/or at work... 6h for a few years of continuous trying and still not havign reached my small goals? Feels so muhc not worth it, especially with those odds and sacrifices...

 

TBH I belong to very persistent players who will do a lot to achieve their goals and would put time into it, but I'm honestly getting fed up with the Undeads and I get myself less and less of zombie fodders - even though I have plenty of egg and hatchie slots, especially in the no-releases holiday period we're currently at when I have nothing else to catch or breed for my minimal scroll goals, and some of the remaining zombie fodder breeds are common and easy tocatch e.g. Nocturnes from alpine, I just lost most of the interest in playing because of that... I have "just" 20 undeads left (I collect a set of 5 per type) but it doesn't help after so many years of trying and still missing so many, despite aiming for so few (MF, MF hatchi and S1 is a very small set goal)... It's just taking too long and is way too wasteful...

And I was very active at catching zombie fodders and using my kills, and also letting hatchies (S1s included) die out of time too... I'm probably among the most zombie-trying player group, I'm also pretty close to reachign my goal %-wise... I'm just feeling more and more discouraged though... doesn't mean I won't try anymore but the entire process is just an unrewarding duty to me at this point... no more excitement, no more joy whenever I succeed - I feel like the game is owing me every single turn I get at this point...

[angelicdragonpuppy]

@TJ09 thoughts on this? It’s been three years with very little improvement, but ever more zombie types.

[GalacticNovie]

The odds are utterly idiotic. If you spend weeks building up stores of dead hatchlings and dead adults, seeing every single one of them disintegrate truly makes one wonder "why even bother??" Yet again, I had an entire batch disintegrate, which makes me feel like trying to get a zombie outside of every few Halloweens is an actually impossible task. There's 18 sets of sprites (54 total) for Undeads, yet in my years of DC I've made 5, one of which was a repeat body type. Again, how is this even remotely feasible?

 

DC is a game. A game should be fun. How can seeing this be considered fun?

 

Edited March 31, 2019 by FlyingDragona

[Fuzzbucket]

Not to mention the dodge factor. I have one that has dodged about 8 times now...

[purplehaze]

1 hour ago, Fuzzbucket said:

Not to mention the dodge factor. I have one that has dodged about 8 times now...

That one deserves to live!

[Fuzzbucket]

I'll consider it

[VixenDra]

On 9/24/2016 at 9:01 AM, TJ09 said:

I don't really see any compelling arguments here as to why the chance should be increased.

 

There's already four tiers of success chance (day time, night time, 31st of month, Halloween), which match the four states of zombie visibility. Those seem sufficient while presenting enough challenge that you need to dedicate some effort to getting a ton of zombies.

 

because 2 undeads turned today out of freaking 28->32->34 wasted dragons on the second best odds day which is available just 5 times a year (+ 1 highest(halloween)) is a deeply discouraging and very unfunny joke, not a challenge (your idea of a challenge here is really weird and unpractical, no wonder since the decision making person isn't a regular player and didn't invest years into trying and still not succeeding, you won't understand us if you don't try to make a basic goal of like 5 per subtype to cover all stages and genders just 1 each), and especially when nearly all of your tries end up in dragons that just went poff after all the hunting/tradig, raising etc.... Well, honestly, not being able to get the most basic sets of each subtype (not counting the most recent 2-3 subtypes, I'm just speaking of the long-available ones) while tryharding ever since the expansion happened is seriously making me on the verge of just quitting the game, it's no longer challenging, it's boring and outraging at this point.Like today I tried 28 Blancblacks, got 2, worst, both are S1s because I tired to increase the odds for any of the S2s but OFC the one that did turn was another S1(which means I'll have to expunge it...)... Not to mention the riddiculusly low kill limits, especially comapred to the amount of unique sprites available.

Sum all that.

The chances are WAY too low if you take all of this into account, all the work, time, repetition, waste, amount of sprites, subtypes that have just 1 breed to turn from, riddiculusly low turn rate (2 out of 34, come on... you have no idea how I had to bribe my bf and cousins with irl to have them help me gather this many dead Blancblacks for today), (insert things I forgot about)... and not to even mention how unrewarding it is to actually finally have the undeads -> freaking 6h of visibility occuring exactly when most of people are either asleep or at work, and 6 full days a year(365,25 days)... you can't even have a seat, sip coffee and contemplate your success... because nearly whenever you'd maybe think of doing that (and had time to), all you can see are the tombstones... for all of this, so called "challenge" that lasts so many boring and frustrating years... You have no idea how bored it made me with the game by now, I'm not even into breeding frozens of the new releases anymore, heck, I didn't even care to have an adult Blancblack (I got one revival so... well, didn't try to get that adult, it's a lucky zombie-work-wasted's sideffect I feel very indifferent about at this point, against all the disintregration, it's not much of a "reward". And I was always crazy to get adults as quicky as I could and breed frozens from them - zombie failures simply sucked all the DC-enjoyment/involvement out of me tbh)

 

and now, take into account that when I counted all my tries since the last success-continign batch, the final result is 2/49 -> 51 total - I never try during normal days, only 31s and nights. No.Comment.

 

 

YAY, update, 4 more disintegrates today!:/ 2 zombies in 49 tries...
...and another update(from just before midnight DC time), 2 more disintegrations, that's 2 out of bloody 51:/

--extra edit: 1 more disintegration on April 2nd (night)...

Edited April 2, 2019 by VixenDra