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Dragon_Arbock

Update DC to the standards of newer pet sites

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Sorry if this has already been brought up before. I know bits and pieces of what I'm going to say have been, but I don't think it all has.

Dragon cave is an old adoptables site. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's an old site that has changed very little in that time. Since I have joined in 2009, the only things that have changed are the cave being split into 6 subsections, trophies, and BSAs. Everything else about the game has stayed the same, and in comparison to the functionality of other games, it is dated.

I cannot speak for all petsites, but I can speak for the other two I play, and attempt to give a comparison; GPXplus, and Flight Rising.

 

The first and biggest difference between DC and these games is that Eggs Cannot Die.

Now, death for some things makes sense- we have the kill function, zombies, and the Bite BSA may kill them, but death from Time I don't think should still exist. The fact that the only way to get enough views in the timespan your egg/hatchling has to mature requires the use of fansites should be a hint the the core design of DC is broken. Forum communities the the site was designed for are few and far between now, and even the ones that still exist and get some traffic, like Serebii, have strict rules about how many external images can be in signatures. Even worse, you can't even post them in your signature here. The fact that the game only still works because of fansites is a big flaw to me.

 

If eggs must still retain a countdown to their death, I propose this instead- User Activated Rollover.

I have also seen this feature places where things can die. Eggs/hatchlings would still have a limited lifespan, but that lifespan would not decrease unless the user has actually logged on that day. This way if people have to go away/have important school work/are in the hospital they don't need to get a scroll sitter to take care of their eggs while they are out of commission. If worried about users hording old eggs/hatchlings for trading, just make it so that anything older 14 days can't be traded, but at least this way they won't die while the owner is unable to access DC for whatever reason.

 

Another thing, and this I know has been talked about before, a Prize Shop, or really any kind of shop.

With DC, if you missed the time and date, it is impossible to get CB versions of many key breeds. On GPX plus, if you have enough of a specific currency, you can purchase a voucher that you can turn in to get the corresponding event egg. On Flight Rising, it is possible to buy an item to turn your dragon into an other breed or dragon, but for sake of example of system, GPX+ is much closer to DC. I have seen it mentioned before that raising a certain number of dragons should give you points, and over time you should be able to have enough points to get certain eggs from a shop. I would be all in favor of a point-based shop on DC where players could get CBs of things they missed out on. If an issue, I think it would be fair that they only get a certain number total from the shop, and that things bought from the shop should not be tradable, if necessary.

 

Another minor thing I have to mention involves trading. I think that adult dragons should be tradable. It might go against the lore, but really the idea of a person owning 500+ also goes against the lore when in the stories that accompany some events many draggons are shown to be as smart as people and not owned by anyone.

 

An also important thing I think DC is lacking- something else to do while waiting for things to grow.

DC is a very unengaging game. You come on, grab or breed a few eggs, then go away again for 3-4 days. Sure the holiday events try to provide something a little more, but I think we could use something all year. Some games have quests with rewards- GPX plus offers quests that often involve hatching a number of things, or giving other people views or clicks, a function that could be beneficial to DC. Coliseums or battle areas are also a common feature, but I'm not sure how well that would work with DC. Even just some mini games available to play would be nice- bring back the mana game. That was really fun and the bad thing about holidays I feel is that most of those things only get used once and become inaccessible afterwards.

 

The last thing I want to address is another issue that I know has been talked about a lot- cave blockers.

There's not really a good way to get rid of the more undesirable eggs in the AP. You can't take them all in because they take up scroll space, you can't bite them because any kills will also lock you for 24 hours. You can let them get low enough in time that eventually someone will take them because they will be ready to hatch.. but even then they take up space eventually due to there also being a hatchling limit. I say there could be one of two things that could be done for the AP; either remove the hatchling limit, or delete eggs that have been picked up then abandoned again a certain number of times. Considering how DC works off ratios and deleting things might now solve the problem, option one might be the better one- remove the hatching limit and encourage people to take in more of the less desired breeds so the ratios adjust.

 

These are just my observations, but I think some of these being implemented in some way or another would improve the game a lot, and this isn't speaking as some newbie- I've played DC for many years and as I also play other things, these are what stand out to me. DC doesn't have to be an entirely different game, but making the game more accessible to newer players, and more able to hold on to the attention of older users is needed to make sure the game will continue to thrive.

 

Not to mention, to TJ, the longer and more active people are on your site in a day, the more ad revenue you will get.

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I don't agree. Death is one of the most important part of DC. It can be annoying sometimes, but it's still important. If we removed death, most hatcheries would have to close, neglected dragon could not be made anymore and BSAs like Earthquake would become too buffed.

 

Forum communities the the site was designed for are few and far between now

This argument is false. I know a lot of active forums where they accept eggs. XenForos (the most used forum service) has signatures and it's really easy to put your eggs on it.

 

DC is a very unengaging game. You come on, grab or breed a few eggs, then go away again for 3-4 days.
This feature is nice, since it keeps people from grabbing egg everytime so there are enough eggs for anymore. Also, you can still do a lot of things while being egglocked: Trading, Use BSAs, or hang out in at the forum.

 

 

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I don't think it was a good idea to gather so many different things together in one thread. You think of them all being part of a bigger thing, but to the rest of us you've got a mixture of suggestions that we do and don't like. For one thing, a lot of the players here are here because they don't like some aspect of other pet sites. So a "make DC more like other pet sites" suggestion is always going to be iffy.

 

1. Eggs not dying.

I don't particularly like this. It would change the entire nature of how eggs are raised. There are people who use the time of death for eggs to make neglecteds, and there are people who use hatchling death to make zombie hatchlings without using the kill slots needed to make adult zombies. Sure, you give an out by letting the timer advance if the person is active each day, but why should the neglected maker have to log in every day just to watch the timer tick down? I think it's unnecessary and changes things too much.

 

And the fact that people use fansites is for convenience as much as anything. This is the only forum I am active on, so I need the fansites to hatch my eggs.

 

 

2. Store.

Yea, I support the store.

 

 

3. Tradeable adults.

NO. This has never been a thing, and I don't see why it should be a thing. You're going to have to do a lot more than say "I think this should be a thing" to convince me.

 

 

4. Other games.

A lot of what people like about DC is that it IS low maintenance. If these other things were almost completely isolated, like a battle system that only gives rewards that helps with the battle system, so that people could choose not to participate with no penalty, I could see it being workable. But then enough people would have to want DC to offer more in that respect for it to be something TJ would feel to be worth his time to code.

 

 

5. Destroying eggs that have been abandoned too many times.

Please no. One person's trash is another person's treasure. Often I find CB eggs like purple dorsals in the "nobody wants" group with the lowest time, and I treasure them as easy to hatch zombie fodder. I also love the low time messy eggs as zombie fodder. Really, the AP doesn't have a problem. Sure, there's a group of eggs at the top that are less desirable to most, but other people zoom straight there because they're lower time. You don't like them, so you can hunt at the bottom where the fresher eggs are. And destroying eggs after a certain number of abandons means that the AP eggs will be at a higher time, because you will work through the backlog faster. Part of the reason I LIKE the AP is that the eggs are at a lovely low time, easy to hatch.

Edited by Pokemonfan13

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I can't tell you how much I disagree with the first post here.

 

And yes, I think death should stay. It means we have to look after stuff.

 

But one of the main appeals of the game is that it is quiet and relaxed. We don't NEED whizzy flashing noise in our lives the whole time. In fact there is a LOT of actual evidence that we NEED our lives to slow down.

 

And no to trading adults, too. You don't raise it, you don't get to keep it. And I don't get how the fact that I own 5000+ means I should be trading them. I'd get - another adult. I'd still have the same number.

 

Between hunting and breeding - I plan. I have a gold trophy; I can have 21 growing things. I don't often have all my slots filled.

 

Please don't try and change it to be more "up-to-date". Newer is not necessarily better - in many cases it actually isn't.

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The "no eggs dying" thing is not a feature of newer petsites only. When I first started playing DC ages ago I tried out other petsites. They had non-dying eggs. Many also had some or most of the features you're asking for. Other games to play while there? Yep. More things to do with your pets? Yep. That too.

 

None of those sites held my interest. They certainly were different from DC, but that was a plus for me. I didn't want a game just like those other places. And those things are not new.

 

What's more, most of those sites I checked out are not around anymore. They died off. I think it's a testament to DC that it's still here after a decade. It has staying power that all those other places that had features like what you are seeking here did not have.

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This argument is false. I know a lot of active forums where they accept eggs. XenForos (the most used forum service) has signatures and it's really easy to put your eggs on it.

This argument is not false to me. All the forums I go on that used to have a lot of traffic are now dead. The ones that aren't have rules against too many things in the signature.

I don't know what XenForums is, but it sounds like Neoseeker- the few niche communities I go on on Neoseeker have dwindled. I'm not an extremely social person, I don't have a facebook. I should not be forced to join a large, active place that isn't discussing the fandoms I like (all the forums I've ever been part of have been Pokemon or Sonic related)- I should be on a forum because I want to be there, not because I have to be so my dragons live. But in general, forums have fallen out of favor thanks to social media and Reddit. This is true- that is where all the users of my old forum community went to; first to tumblr, then to discord. There's so many alternatives to forums now most have lost traffic.

 

As far as everything being in one topic, I intended just for it to be an overall comparison and to see what people's reactions are for each.

I did think of neglecteds, which is why I mentioned the user activated rollover at all- that was no coding needs to be changed for how neglected are created, as opposed to removing death entirely. But I really do think a manual rollover would be overall beneficial to a lot of people.

 

Also, yes the forums are a 'something else' you can do, but they're not even connected to the main site, and they're not needed to play the game. When you make a DC account you aren't automatically given a forum account too- that's something else you have to decide to do yourself, and anything you do here doesn't actually speed up the game, except maybe lineage trading.

 

If I had to think of two parts though of my topic that I would really want though, it's the shop (which there's a topic for I think) and User Activated Rollover (which I haven't seen).

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I cannot speak for all petsites, but I can speak for the other two I play, and attempt to give a comparison; GPXplus, and Flight Rising.

 

The first and biggest difference between DC and these games is that Eggs Cannot Die.

Now, death for some things makes sense- we have the kill function, zombies, and the Bite BSA may kill them, but death from Time I don't think should still exist. The fact that the only way to get enough views in the timespan your egg/hatchling has to mature requires the use of fansites should be a hint the the core design of DC is broken. Forum communities the the site was designed for are few and far between now, and even the ones that still exist and get some traffic, like Serebii, have strict rules about how many external images can be in signatures. Even worse, you can't even post them in your signature here. The fact that the game only still works because of fansites is a big flaw to me.

 

As far as I'm aware, both the examples you listed work on an active click based system, whereas DC is a time-click based system? I don't like active click based systems. They're way too much time, involvement, and work for me. I don't want to see us going down that path.

 

I don't see a problem with the site as it is now in this regard. Wait a day, throw your eggs into a fansite that auto-ERs. Even if things happen, as long as you pop in for five minutes, your eggs can survive (even if it's nicer when you can give views back). Or pop in for five minutes and abandon them. Or pop in for five minutes and ask for a scrollsitter. Or come back when you can and catch new eggs to replace the old ones.

 

I just don't really see the benefit of changing how we raise eggs by completely removing death altogether. (What's even the point of having a count down timer?)

Also, what would this do to the creation of neglecteds?

 

Plus, I would really hate to have to check DC every day. When I was in the thick of working on my thesis, I would catch eggs and forget about them until they had one or two days left, then throw them in an ER and leave it refreshing while I brushed my teeth. I was not the most involved with DC at that time, but I was very negatively spiraling downwards and was feeling awful about a lot of stuff, but logging into DC and seeing that I could ER my eggs and feel like I was "doing something" helped me think about something else other than the tragedy of my thesis. But if I'd been required to check in everyday to get the egg's time to move on, that would have been a lot slower and a lot more frustrating. Instead of checking in wen I wasn't too exhausted and frustrated, I would have had to work to check in and that would have been less relaxing and less of a relief. Yes, I almost lost eggs several times. But I didn't because every few days, I needed a moment to come home after spending two days straight at school and do something aside from thinking of my thesis or how little sleep I was getting. DC was the perfectly paced game for what I needed to distract myself.

 

I can see how this would benefit some people sometimes, but overall, I think our current system is better. This idea I do not support. We do not need to be exactly the same as other petsites in all aspects. Having different methods of raising creatures is a part of the draw for people to different sites.

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The "no eggs dying" thing is not a feature of newer petsites only. When I first started playing DC ages ago I tried out other petsites. They had non-dying eggs. Many also had some or most of the features you're asking for. Other games to play while there? Yep. More things to do with your pets? Yep. That too.

 

None of those sites held my interest. They certainly were different from DC, but that was a plus for me. I didn't want a game just like those other places. And those things are not new.

 

What's more, most of those sites I checked out are not around anymore. They died off. I think it's a testament to DC that it's still here after a decade. It has staying power that all those other places that had features like what you are seeking here did not have.

I mean, GPX+ is actually as old as 2008, and it's still around and gets updates. To say that all sites that don't function as DC will die isn't accurate. I don't think there would be anything wrong with adding more things to do though, or making the game more accessible to new players.

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I mean, GPX+ is actually as old as 2008, and it's still around and gets updates. To say that all sites that don't function as DC will die isn't accurate.

 

I don't think there would be anything wrong with adding more things to do though, or making the game more accessible to new players.

How is it not accessible to new players ? New players join all the time. (Yes I know this; I am a mentor !)

 

I don't think anyone has said that no site that doesn't function as DC will die. But it does have staying power - it is still here. and it does get updates. I see NO reason that DC will die if it stays as it is. It's lovely - but yes, could VERY much use the store, and a couple of other things. NOT an end to dying eggs though.

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Plus, I would really hate to have to check DC every day. When I was in the thick of working on my thesis, I would catch eggs and forget about them until they had one or two days left, then throw them in an ER and leave it refreshing while I brushed my teeth. I was not the most involved with DC at that time, but I was very negatively spiraling downwards and was feeling awful about a lot of stuff, but logging into DC and seeing that I could ER my eggs and feel like I was "doing something" helped me think about something else other than the tragedy of my thesis. But if I'd been required to check in everyday to get the egg's time to move on, that would have been a lot slower and a lot more frustrating. Instead of checking in wen I wasn't too exhausted and frustrated, I would have had to work to check in and that would have been less relaxing and less of a relief. Yes, I almost lost eggs several times. But I didn't because every few days, I needed a moment to come home after spending two days straight at school and do something aside from thinking of my thesis or how little sleep I was getting. DC was the perfectly paced game for what I needed to distract myself.

If you're that busy that would be exactly why people would need a user active rollover. If need be,it could be an account option people could choose to use. Maybe you're fine with not needing to check DC every day, and you only almost lost eggs, but others did.

I'd consider it less of a tragedy to forget to rollover a few days then to for forget about my rare/uncommon/project egg and find it dead.

I will fully admit what brought this line of thought about is that both of my Christmas hatchlings are dead due to unforeseen circumstances that recently occurred. I accept I'll have to settle for gen two's now, but the whole idea of having a limited release at the busiest time of the year for some people and then having them able to die while away is not very flexible for people.

 

If the User Active Rollover was optional, would that be better?

 

How is it not accessible to new players ? New players join all the time. (Yes I know this; I am a mentor !)

 

I don't think anyone has said that no site that doesn't function as DC will die. But it does have staying power - it is still here. and it does get updates. I see NO reason that DC will die if it stays as it is. It's lovely - but yes, could VERY much use the store, and a couple of other things. NOT an end to dying eggs though.

I personally would not recommend this game to any of my friends that would be frustrated by the inability to get CBs of a lot of key things. Since a large appeal of this game is lineages, not having the building blocks to make them is a barrier.

 

Shop could help this, but no word on if that will ever happen.

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1. Eggs not dying: no. Honestly eggs being able to die is about one of the only "challenges" DC core gameplay presents, and I think removing it would give on the edge players less reason to return, not more. If people who don't use hatcheries are having trouble getting things to hatch then you could argue for lower views being needed, but from what I've seen almost everyone uses hatcheries so it's hard to tell just how much of an issue it is.

 

2. Store: yesss store. This suggestion has already been really well developed (check out the thread called Trader's Canyon), but unfortunately it's just up to TJ at this point if it happens.

 

3. Trading adult dragons: I'm not 100% against it, but I fear it might destroy trading already more than it's currently destroyed. Why would people with rare eggs deign for asking a single CB Gold in return when they could haggle for ALL your CB Golds? Why would people who farm the cave for days and snap up most of the metals stop at a full batch of them when they can keep adding in adults to make insane offers? Obviously what would happen is a very open question, but I have a lot of fear that it would make many of the already near-impossibles (2gs from spriter's alts, 2g prizes, 2g thuweds, to a slightly lesser extent CB Metals / Neglecteds) all that much more impossible to trade for, leaving yet more power in the hands of people who got lucky with the raffle or have tons more free time than the average player to farm for goodies.

 

4. Games: as long as they aren't game essential I wouldn't mind. I DO NOT want DC to become Neopets or Flight Rising where you have to grind boring games forever to get nice things. Although even then I don't think games are particularly needed... DC for me has always been something of a quirky mobile game, a game-between-games, something to check in on for a minute or two every couple days in between all the other stuff in my life. I don't need DC to add extra fluff here to keep me busy between eggs when I can go pick up a video game or read or draw or insert any other life thing here.

 

5. Cave blockers: agree something should be done here. I like a combination of eggs that sit in the cave for too long being sent to the AP and eggs that sit in the AP too long being destroyed. Wouldn't mind an 8th egg slot / platinum trophy gig either, which might help a little. Or even an AP only slot like we used to have.

 

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5. Cave blockers: agree something should be done here. I like a combination of eggs that sit in the cave for too long being sent to the AP and eggs that sit in the AP too long being destroyed. Wouldn't mind an 8th egg slot / platinum trophy gig either, which might help a little. Or even an AP only slot like we used to have.

I have wanted a platinum trophy as well. Would be nice to be able to get an even pain of Halloween or even just new releases. Cave to AP could also make sense, if they got their time lowered.

 

And at this point I feel like I should have only mentioned User Rollover and not brought up not dying at all since that's all anyone's paying attention to.

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We didn't use to have an AP-only slot, but a breed-only slot way back before "the change". Just saying. smile.gif

 

I'm also not in favor of user rollover. And the "let's make it optional" card really doesn't make it any better. (Because, well, TJ doesn't like to add "optional" features because they would clutter the respective page and, uh, make the game mechanics inaccessible to new players?)

 

Even if you know that you're going to be busy, you can use one slower fansite on 7 day eggs and hatchlings. Silvie's doesn't really manage to make your eggs or hatchlings sick, and neither does EATW (which is anything but slow) - unless you insist on putting fresh incubated eggs in there or try to ER incubated prizes. So, since you obviously had the time to get your eggs, you could have taken the extra half minute to add them to one fansite and be done with it.

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Many of the things you addressed here are reasons why I, personally, prefer DC over other pet sites.

 

Death is a fundamental part of DC and by taking that away I think you would taking away a huge part of the game. Death gives you a reason to keep trying, and a risk factor. I find immunity immensely boring.

It is not difficult to look after your eggs. I don't think a rollover is necessary. The only circumstance in which I can see that being useful/necessary is for neglecteds, and that just takes the fun out of them.

 

The lack of adult trading, like death, is an important part of DC, and gives raising and owning dragons more meaning.

 

Fully in support of side quests or other things to do while waiting for eggs to hatch.

 

--

 

"these are what stand out to me"--yes--these are the things that make DC stand out. I feel like these suggestions ignore the fact that to a lot of people these are enjoyable features and challenges and not just nuisances. I would not like DC to become like any other pet site. If I wanted a different pet site then I would go to a different pet site.

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I have wanted a platinum trophy as well. Would be nice to be able to get an even pain of Halloween or even just new releases. Cave to AP could also make sense, if they got their time lowered.

 

And at this point I feel like I should have only mentioned User Rollover and not brought up not dying at all since that's all anyone's paying attention to.

I feel like rollover is essentially the same as removing death, though. Technically things could still die... but it would require an active user ignoring them for such a long amount of time that they'd almost have to want them to die to let it happen.

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Sorry to double post but don't want this to be missed--

 

Arbock, I am sorry about you losing your holidays, it sucks when it happens for things you have no control over. However I feel a shop would be a better solution to such exclusives dying then would be removing death, which is a part of daily gameplay. If the store had holidays and prizes available then the next rarest things you could lose are extremely rare lineages, and at least in those cases you can explain what happened to the breeder and hopefully gain both their empathy and a new egg.

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I want to say that the only things I agree with at all here are the store, and minigames.

 

The Store option has its own merits, which I have weighed in on in detail in its own thread.

 

Minigames are something that I would really like on DC; the Halloween Contagion was really fun for me, and I'd love for there to be year-round (or perhaps seasonal?) mini games available to play. I love this site and I want to support it as much as I can, but when you're locked with 7 fogged eggs for ND experimentation (well, 5 - I'm keeping 2) there's simply not a lot that can be done. It's why I spend so much time on the Forums. I make personal goals, like having the last post in every Forum Game in the first page. (I probably have the screenshot of that somewhere...)

ANYWAY. Random tangents aside, while the Forum is a great place to hang out when there's not much to do on DC's main site, I wish there was some kind of minigame to play.

 

I seem to be in the minority with the latter opinion, though.

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If you're that busy that would be exactly why people would need a user active rollover. If need be,it could be an account option people could choose to use.

...Except I just posted about how I was that busy and do not and would not have wanted this rollover feature. Yes, I understand why some people sometimes would find it useful, but this game is already slow paced. I don't see a reason to make it slower paced if it's not going to improve the game for the majority of the userbase. If it's only rarely useful, it just seems like a big change for basically nothing. I think many of us enjoy that we can let time tick on, come back on, and oh! Our eggs are ready to hatch, they just need some more views. Rather than having to make sure we log in everyday to be able to make time move on our eggs.

 

I'm against it being an option. It is too big a feature to let people be doing it differently.

 

If you're too busy, there are already several options, which I listed. Yes, including just letting your eggs die and re-catching a new batch. Sometimes things happen. That's okay.

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Sorry to double post but don't want this to be missed--

 

Arbock, I am sorry about you losing your holidays, it sucks when it happens for things you have no control over. However I feel a shop would be a better solution to such exclusives dying then would be removing death, which is a part of daily gameplay. If the store had holidays and prizes available then the next rarest things you could lose are extremely rare lineages, and at least in those cases you can explain what happened to the breeder and hopefully gain both their empathy and a new egg.

I'm just being honest. It was a fluke thing with my laptop needing to be repaired then needed to go somewhere and not having it.

If shop is the solution to this I'd be happy with that- shop would also help out newer players. Just I feel shop has been a suggestion for so long if it was going to happen I'd think it would have happened by now :/

 

And in general I like the minigames that have done so far and it feels like a waste to retire them.

 

If you're too busy, there are already several options, which I listed. Yes, including just letting your eggs die and re-catching a new batch. Sometimes things happen. That's okay.

That's not okay when you can never get them ever again. If shop was an option and everything was available with a dedicated effort, then fine, but as it is right now that's not the case.

Edited by Dragon_Arbock

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No quests, no battle areas, nothing that REQUIRES me staying here real-time! If I feel like playing additional stuff, I go and do play other stuff - I don't need to limit myself to DC, and neither do you.

 

I actually like the fact that DC does not require real-time attention, besides whatever little is needed to add my stuff to fansites. I can spend more time here if I want, be it for trading, looking for codes or other special things, or lineages and breeding - but none of that is actually required, and I like it that way. Quests and battle areas would completely change that - PLEASE NO!

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No quests, no battle areas, nothing that REQUIRES me staying here real-time! If I feel like playing additional stuff, I go and do play other stuff - I don't need to limit myself to DC, and neither do you.

 

I actually like the fact that DC does not require real-time attention, besides whatever little is needed to add my stuff to fansites. I can spend more time here if I want, be it for trading, looking for codes or other special things, or lineages and breeding - but none of that is actually required, and I like it that way. Quests and battle areas would completely change that - PLEASE NO!

These things would be optional. When you get down to it everything about DC is optional except putting your eggs in fan sites. That is the minimum requirement to play the game. Would it be too much to ask TJ to provide us with some other things to do instead of us having to give everything value and meaning? (like with lineage projects and the like).

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An also important thing I think DC is lacking- something else to do while waiting for things to grow.

DC is a very unengaging game. You come on, grab or breed a few eggs, then go away again for 3-4 days. Sure the holiday events try to provide something a little more, but I think we could use something all year. Some games have quests with rewards- GPX plus offers quests that often involve hatching a number of things, or giving other people views or clicks, a function that could be beneficial to DC. Coliseums or battle areas are also a common feature, but I'm not sure how well that would work with DC. Even just some mini games available to play would be nice- bring back the mana game. That was really fun and the bad thing about holidays I feel is that most of those things only get used once and become inaccessible afterwards.

I think DC's low-maintenance gameplay is a part of its charm.

 

But a few games or side projects would not hurt. It has to be done very carefully though.

 

You mentioned Flight Rising. Flight Rising is a wonderful example... of what NOT to do. The Coliseum is the greatest torture device that has ever been invented. It would be better if it was not there. It's grindy, it's boring, it's unfun, it hurts your wrist. It's all the fun of grinding in an RPG, without the fun of the RPG. Worst of all, in the monthly holidays, it's essentially required in order to get the special holiday skins that you have no guarantee of being able to get ever again (without ridiculous amounts of cash, anyway). The Coliseum was a major contributing factor in me losing interest in and leaving FR. I'm only slightly exaggerating when I say I would rather drink a nice cup of Ajax than grind the Coliseum again.

 

So, besides the horrendous gameplay and design, what's the big problem with it? It's that it's required in order to get holiday skins. Sites and games that incorporate minigames/events/monthlies, weeklies, dailies that are: 1. Grindy and annoying 2. Required to get unique items 3. Said items are on a strict, ridiculous time limit 4. Factor in stupidly low RNG chances 5. All of the above (Flight Rising) ...tend to die out. So if DC incorporates side games and projects, they either better be fun, better not be required to get unique eggs or items, or better not have those unique items be ridiculously difficult to obtain.

 

(Mostly, avoiding grinding, and clicking 3 buttons until you win, would be great.)

 

But that's assuming DC goes the route of a battle system. There are other suggestions that could work too. A long time ago, here in the Suggestions forum, there was a really popular suggestion to have a collectible/hoard system, with lots of fanmade art. I really liked that. Dunno if that thread is still up.

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I'm on both GPX+ and DC, and I'm going to be blunt: almost all of the things you are suggesting are either not things I want (removal of ToD, for one) or are addressed in different threads (the store).

 

We are trying to address the issue of irreplaceable eggs elsewhere, since it is a known problem, but most of what you suggest would not actually help with certain eggs being irreplaceable without drastically altering aspects that a lot of players enjoy or are vital to certain aspects of gameplay.

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So, besides the horrendous gameplay and design, what's the big problem with it? It's that it's required in order to get holiday skins.

That part is not true- the skins are also stocked in the marketplace, with the exception of one or two being brewing exclusive.

 

I'm not saying FR is the right way to do a coliseum. Keyboard controls would be nice. I'm also not a fan of the holiday only items, but at least they can be sold and traded long after the fact- but you ignore that DC has the very same issue, just in a different form.

Holiday items = CB holiday dragons. Except our CBs are only available for one day as opposed to a whole week, and can't be traded after they grow up.

Either adult trading or an in-game store for DC would rectify this, but as of right now, it's no better.

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That's why IF we get any sort of side game at all, the game rewards should only benefit that same side game. Like a battle system that only give items that buff your dragons for the battle system. The people who play get rewards that help them play, the rest can ignore it without missing out on a single thing.

 

Because I definitely agree that adding a game that you feel forced to play because it gives some benefit to the main game of catching and raising dragons is a bad thing. The closest to that that I've supported would be the store idea of having minigames that would allow you to earn the potions and other cool side items. But that would ideally be combined with any extra dragon raising points that were above and beyond the cap would go to the minigame cap, so that people could still earn those cool items by raising dragons if they hate griding minigames.

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