Make Eggs Visible in Biomes

[Moonlight_Eevee]

12 minutes ago, cyradis4 said:

Derp. I knew there was something I was mixing up..... Where's mah coffee???

ETA: Hitting ctrl+enter posts. *pokes forums. 

The rest of what I was gonna say was, Firegems and Lunar Heralds would be really nice to see, but..... Didn't I see somewhere that TJ shut down the /lineage for the Biome eggs? 

 

Cheers!
C4. 

He shut down /view. I can do /lineage on mobile. It's a bit of work, but it's doable. Take that away and there's not way to see the eggs.

[Alrexwolf]

If this were to happen I would rather alts such as Ridgewings always show up as their more common alternative. That way it's still the same as it is now - you're picking up a ridgewing egg that's very likely to be purple, but may be tan instead.

 

As for the other similar eggs, I think it would have to be on a case-by-case basis. "This egg has strange markings," is generally fine to show the egg because the different breeds are generally in different biomes.

 

As for flamingos vs pinks, I think the flamingo description could be changed. Or they could remain as an unknown. As for the sun/moon stones.... I don't know. When a dragon is "very common," does it really matter which of the two you get? I know it's intentional but there are people who want Moonstones and people who want Sunstones. I feel like eggs might actually move quicker if collectors of these guys could see which was which in the biomes. 

 

 

I also feel like it should be an encyclopedia bonus; when you reveal all there is to know about a given breed, you can see their egg in the biomes. This would relieve a lot of the hassle of needing to change descriptions or worrying about similar species; if you've earned the ability to see the egg of a species it doesn't matter what the others are, you won't be able to see them.  

[purplehaze]

@cyradis4 I think it was just the /view that he shut down. Not sure because I haven't tried either lately.

I'm not really in favor of this. I think some things just should be left to chance.

 

Edited July 6, 2017 by purplehaze

[Paradisiske]

5 minutes ago, Alrexwolf said:

 

 

I also feel like it should be an encyclopedia bonus; when you reveal all there is to know about a given breed, you can see their egg in the biomes. This would relieve a lot of the hassle of needing to change descriptions or worrying about similar species; if you've earned the ability to see the egg of a species it doesn't matter what the others are, you won't be able to see them.  

i like that very much. so new release eggs would still be a mystery right off the bat,

[MoonTiger]

I'm hoping for a new biome at some point and I love the encyclopedia idea. Even since I've been on here, the list of dragons has expanded so much. I absolutely adore the massive variety, but memorizing all the descriptions and which eggs are in which biomes is getting overwhelming. Plus with the encyclopedia idea, it'll give more people a reason to care about and take advantage of that mechanic.

 

I also want to add that personally I find that the encyclopedia is utterly useless. I can just go to dragon cave wiki and find everything I need to know about a dragon. Instead of taking the time to track down and click/raise all the dragons to fill it in only to find that most breeds don't even have the info filled in yet.

Edited July 6, 2017 by MoonTiger
adding to it

[Bison]

34 minutes ago, Alrexwolf said:

I also feel like it should be an encyclopedia bonus; when you reveal all there is to know about a given breed, you can see their egg in the biomes. This would relieve a lot of the hassle of needing to change descriptions or worrying about similar species; if you've earned the ability to see the egg of a species it doesn't matter what the others are, you won't be able to see them.  

I really love this idea! It would be a great bonus for people who put a lot of effort into DC working on their Encyclopedia or collecting certain breeds.

[Fiona]

57 minutes ago, Alrexwolf said:

I also feel like it should be an encyclopedia bonus; when you reveal all there is to know about a given breed, you can see their egg in the biomes. This would relieve a lot of the hassle of needing to change descriptions or worrying about similar species; if you've earned the ability to see the egg of a species it doesn't matter what the others are, you won't be able to see them.  

This would require a pretty drastic change to how the cave is coded. Right now everyone sees the same thing - no special coding based on whose account is viewing. If the mystery egg was done away with and all eggs just showed their egg sprite again no special per-account coding needed for display in the cave. With your idea here, what is displayed is per account. I'm not saying TJ couldn't do it - he's a pretty awesome coder. I'm not sure the increased work and bandwidth required would be worth it though.

[Stromboli]

Yeah, if we wanna do away with the mystery egg, I'm in favor of linking it to encyclopedia progress. If you're to the point where the dragon breed appears on a dragon's details page, you'd probably recognize that breed's eggs if you saw them sitting in a heap in the cave.

[Sundew]

With changes like these, I'm always worried about the advantage it will give older players, and whether or not it will just make the learning curve more intimidating for new players. Yes, it makes sense that people who see the eggs would recognize them more quickly, but what does that do for people who haven't seen the eggs? They will become harder to see, since old players will be able to pick them up more quickly. My concern is that it'll create a game that becomes increasingly hard for new players to join, as more and more people unlock visible eggs. For as long as we are all hunting the same eggs at the same time in the same biomes, I think we should see the same thing.

So if eggs did become visible, I would be against it being linked to the encyclopedia progress.

I also don't know if I could support being able to see which Fire Gem/Lunar Herald/etc was there -- I feel like part of the point of that mechanic is to reward players who keep track and are mindful when hunting those breeds. And Dorsal/Ridgewing alts should definitely be left to chance, IMO.

[Stromboli]

Maybe make them semi-visible? like superimpose a translucent mystery egg over the regular egg image. You could see pattern, but desaturate the color so you can't see which color of the breed it is?

May take some of the usefulness of the feature out of the solid-color breeds but...

[Obscure_Trash]

23 hours ago, SheridanCharon said:

I'm sorry, but atm I'm not sure I can support this beyond the description change. It's hard enough to get rares as it is, how would this affect hunting for them? It's far easier to memorise an image than it is with a description, and while it might defeat bots for a while, they'll just find another way around it. Not only that, but how would it affect those of us with slower internet who can't always load images, like mine does on the 5 minute rotations? Especially if we went the "Just an image, no description" route like sites such as Magistream and VoU do?

With image cache, you shouldn't be at any more of a disadvantage than you would be now, load-time-wise.

I would like to keep the descriptions but also show the images.

As always, if we're concerned about bots/scripters/multi'ers, the solution is not to limit users (if a suggestion is useful to them) but to do a better job at catching cheaters and be faster about banning them.

4 hours ago, Stromboli said:

Maybe make them semi-visible? like superimpose a translucent mystery egg over the regular egg image. You could see pattern, but desaturate the color so you can't see which color of the breed it is?

May take some of the usefulness of the feature out of the solid-color breeds but...

I feel this would just be more distracting and defeat the purpose. I don't see the need for a compromise here. I think it's either mystery eggs or show the eggs. Anything else seems like it's over-complicating things. xP

Edited July 6, 2017 by SockPuppet Strangler

[Onakra]

I guess I'm going to be the bad guy here. I am against showing the images. Descriptions can be changed, sure, but keeping images a mystery makes it where you have two different tactics, depending on what's easier for you. (Pictures = abandoned page, words = biomes)

 

Old player here. I took a break for a few years, came back and was overloaded with all the new breeds that had popped up. It is a lot easier now than it was before, but I had to look up what eggs I was missing and, depending on if I was hunting on the Abandoned Page or the Biomes, memorize the description and/or picture. One of my tactics was anytime I saw a description or picture I didn't recognize, I'd look it up - and if there was something I was specifically looking for, I was going to make the effort and memorize it.

 

It's meant to be some sort of challenge. I like that you have to have separate tactics for CB and Abandoned Page, and besides, words load up fast; images do not for everyone.

 

 

[Obscure_Trash]

1 hour ago, Onakra said:

It's meant to be some sort of challenge.

I believe that at some point, we are going to reach enough breeds where it's not a challenge; it's simply unwieldy.

[Fiona]

We have enough breeds now that text descriptions are already unwieldy for me. If I want one of the eggs from the last couple years I have to go look it up before I hunt. Actually, because there are so many breeds that finding the one you want can be time consuming, I don't normally hunt at all. I breed something people will want and offer a trade because looking up the descriptions for all those breeds and then trying to catch my own is just frustrating.

The images are easier to remember, so seeing the egg sprites instead of the mystery egg would make things simpler for me. Not easier, so much, as you still have to be lucky enough to actually spot the egg you're looking for, then be the lucky person to actually get it.

[Onakra]

29 minutes ago, SockPuppet Strangler said:

I believe that at some point, we are going to reach enough breeds where it's not a challenge; it's simply unwieldy.

That is true. I guess for me I take the time to memorize only a select few at a time because I can't handle memorizing them all, but I spent a lot of time when I was younger studying them, so many of the common ones I still remember. And the amount people can remember differs for everyone.

 

It may be more than what the Cave can handle, but it could be the images become unlocked by Encyclopedia coding. Or the rares and above stay a mystery and everything else gets shown.

[andromedae]

I currently like the way we get text-only descriptions within the game. As others have mentioned previously, this adds quite the element of difficulty that I enjoy, although I can understand why others are not fond of it. As a text-oriented individual, I can say that I quite like the description memorization dynamic needed to obtain a certain egg. To me, it breeds a sense of familiarity and a bit of challenge within the biomes. If anything, I'd like a change made for descriptions that are shared by multiple breeds or those that are very similar in nature. I wouldn't be particularly against new images being introduced in place of descriptions, but I don't prefer them either. Of course, people process information at varying rates so it is understandable that they dislike the need for repetitive memorization needed to hunt for specific types of dragons. If memorization is very easy for me but harder for others, it wouldn't be fair for me to insist on keeping text descriptions when images can be implemented as an easier alternative instead. With the constant introduction of new breeds, removing text and adding in pictures instead appears to be the way to go. At least it's better for the greater good in my eyes.

[Obscure_Trash]

Just now, andromedae said:

I currently like the way we get text-only descriptions within the game. As others have mentioned previously, this adds quite the element of difficulty that I enjoy, although I can understand why others are not fond of it. As a text-oriented individual, I can say that I quite like the description memorization dynamic needed to obtain a certain egg. To me, it breeds a sense of familiarity and a bit of challenge within the biomes. If anything, I'd like a change made for descriptions that are shared by multiple breeds or those that are very similar in nature. I wouldn't be particularly against new images being introduced in place of descriptions, but I don't prefer them either. Of course, people process information at varying rates so it is understandable that they dislike the need for repetitive memorization needed to hunt for specific types of dragons. If memorization is very easy for me but harder for others, it wouldn't be fair for me to insist on keeping text descriptions when images can be implemented as an easier alternative instead. With the constant introduction of new breeds, removing text and adding in pictures instead appears to be the way to go. At least it's better for the greater good in my eyes.

I don't see why images have to replace the text? I feel like they can coexist. xP

[andromedae]

2 minutes ago, SockPuppet Strangler said:

I don't see why images have to replace the text? I feel like they can coexist. xP

Woops. My brain kind of failed me there? I got stuck in the "either or" mentality. Both can definitely happen even if I didn't contemplate the option. It would still kind of distract me to see both text and colorful, various dragon egg images at the same time, I've got to admit. 

Edited July 7, 2017 by andromedae
Added a tiny thing

[Onakra]

Perhaps instead of the egg's exact picture if there's alternatives (like Dinos, you can obviously tell which is which color), it would flash back and forth so it's still a guess.

It could do that for coppers and/or pyralsprites, things like that. And you'd just have to remember what biome you're looking in?

[Sundew]

Anything animated would be really distracting and would stand out too much. I would rather just have the eggs with alts be grayed out or assigned some sort of neutral/wild card color.

[Onakra]

24 minutes ago, Dew said:

Anything animated would be really distracting and would stand out too much. I would rather just have the eggs with alts be grayed out or assigned some sort of neutral/wild card color.

Or maybe have every egg be grayscale?

 

Might be more work than not.

[Ruby Eyes]

I'd prefer the mystery eggs, really, based on my experiences with the AP.

Imagine this: So there's a whole bunch of commons that shows up frequently and is properly cached, image loading time is nearly zero. Suddenly a Gold shows up - it's not in my cache since I never saw one before in a biome, so it needs to be loaded from the server and actually appears a split second later for me - after someone else grabbed it already.

Yeah sure, I can see how that would benefit me.

[Stromboli]

If it renders that egg's coded image (like the *image/code.gif one), would that be uncached for everyone to even that playing field?

[Ruby Eyes]

Not really. It again favours those with a faster connection.

[Fuzzbucket]

1 hour ago, Ruby Eyes said:

I'd prefer the mystery eggs, really, based on my experiences with the AP.

Imagine this: So there's a whole bunch of commons that shows up frequently and is properly cached, image loading time is nearly zero. Suddenly a Gold shows up - it's not in my cache since I never saw one before in a biome, so it needs to be loaded from the server and actually appears a split second later for me - after someone else grabbed it already.

Yeah sure, I can see how that would benefit me.

Wow. Good point. Let;'s stick with what we have