Make Eggs Visible in Biomes

[Fuzzbucket]

Well, as far as horses, skywings etc go - it's mostly a matter of choosing the correct biome these days. It was MUCH worse when there was only the one cave. Honestly I'm fine with things as they are.

 

 

Edited January 16, 2018 by Fuzzbucket

[purplehaze]

May I suggest if you are looking for Horse or Frill CBs, the AP is a great source. I just found the last CB Horse I need for a project -- got 8 of them in total, all from the AP. I also just tossed back a CB Frill and have seen lots of others when looking for nice lineaged ones.

[WildDragonFlying]

2 hours ago, purplehaze said:

May I suggest if you are looking for Horse or Frill CBs, the AP is a great source. I just found the last CB Horse I need for a project -- got 8 of them in total, all from the AP. I also just tossed back a CB Frill and have seen lots of others when looking for nice lineaged ones.

 

I'm no longer looking for horses, but the AP brings up one of the technical problems: it takes longer for images to load if they haven't been seen relatively recently(as opposed to text at any time regardless of time being seen), and slower internet connections are, again, going to be at a massive disadvantage for this. When I first started in DC, I had dialup. More than that, I had dialup way out in the boondocks, so I technically had internet, but it was the slowest connection you could have. I had to stick to the regular cave, because 9/10 times the AP wouldn't be able to load because "The page is taking too long to respond" because of user load/the amount of images that needed to be loaded. Even now, connection speeds vary depending on a number of factors, and slower connections are going to have a harder time loading images.

[Fuzzbucket]

I used to have that kind of internet. Dialup, 56k modem, dropped out all the time. To the extent that at one point I got TOTALLY FREE phone service including calls for 6 months because they agreed it was that bad. I still caught good stuff. Even a couple of CB silvers. Others may not WANT to click on a horse in the AP.

 

You can turn off page style, by the way. That helps.

[WildDragonFlying]

My point was in the AP, it still has to load several different images at once, regardless of whatever breed you're hunting for. If you have a slower internet connection, it's going to take longer to load the AP even without page style. As for your point about the CB silvers, if you caught them from the cave, then you were catching based on the description, which was text, which always loaded much faster than the images even with the worst dialup in existence.

 

If you don't like the original idea of this thread, that's fine; I was just bringing up an example from my own past to illustrate the point I was making about how image-heavy pages load slower to begin with, and the problem is exponentially worse with slower internet connections. As it stands, I still believe that tweaking some of the egg descriptions where 5+ share nearly-identical descriptions with those descriptions being found in the same biomes might be the best compromise, because of the points I brought up in my original post.

[Moonwick]

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I think hunting eggs with only a description to choose is a double-edged sword. Yes, it adds a layer of... something to the game. But it also discriminates all people with less than stellar reading ability (like dyslexic people), people who grew up with a different alphabet or at least a different native language. Then there's the matter of same/similar descriptions.

 

@olympe I wanted to reply to you on the other thread but it has been rightfully closed because of this one currently existing.

That's another point I was a bit too shy to bring up. This is what makes my indifference tilt towards support for this suggestion.

I've got poor comprehension when it comes to reading and dyslexia, too. You know the reason I can't catch rarer dragons? It's not that my connection is slow or that I don't know descriptions or can't memorize them... it's the sheer fact that my brain processing the words before me gets all jumbled up and I react slowly due to that. It's less of a fun "challenge" for me to read it and click it fast, it's frustrating.

 

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I don't think having a thing in your encyclopedia makes sense as a requirement for seeing an egg.

 

@osmarks  It does make sense, at least to me. Here's how I see things:

 

Say it's your first day on Dragon Cave.

You stumble upon dragon eggs that are unguarded, free to take as long as you're not spotted. You need to quickly grab one, all you can do is pretty much take note of what they look like (e.g. "This egg appears to be covered in scales."). After that, you (inevitably) start collecting more and more eggs and dragon breeds to write/draw in your scroll. You write down notes of your experiences with these types of dragons AND most importantly, their appearance.  So it does make sense that the more dragons you collect and eggs you identify, the more you will understand WHAT you are looking for in a biome when you go there.

 

OK Yes, technically you see the egg/sprite because you can describe it! However, you STILL don't know what the dragon inside of it is yet. And honestly, it seems like that's how lots of actual players start their scrolls on here that I've noticed--grabbed their first four eggs and not knowing what they were until they hatched. I can only imagine that when you get more experience with dragons and their eggs that you'd be able to identify one by looking at it, and then know that's the one you want.

 

As far as it goes with people who find it more enjoyable to have a challenge: maybe the effect could be optional, where it could hide the eggs again and just use that blank (?) sprite.

[olympe]

8 minutes ago, Tesla said:

As far as it goes with people who find it more enjoyable to have a challenge: maybe the effect could be optional, where it could hide the eggs again and just use that blank (?) sprite.

I have a feeling that won't fly. Because if there are two different ways to view the eggs, things become even less equal than they are now. So, going back to script-only would be a bad disadvantage.

[Aalbiel]

I like the biomes as is.

[blah]

I honestly don't mind either way as long as the text description will still be there.

[purplehaze]

13 hours ago, Tesla said:

As far as it goes with people who find it more enjoyable to have a challenge: maybe the effect could be optional, where it could hide the eggs again and just use that blank (?) sprite.

I agree with olympe on this. That would put them at much too much of a disadvantage if everyone else was able to see the images.

Also, I know TJ is not a big fan of making stuff optional.

[Soulsborne]

I'm sure it has already been mentioned at some point in this thread but loading images would probably take longer than loading text only so people with slow internet (or on their phones - at least mine is slower on there) would have even more trouble...

[Starscream]

I thought about this for a while, to decide an answer, and I am of the vote that it should stay the way it is. I think the cave is set up in a sort of "blind-box" style. You are given a clue as to what you get. If there is a chase figure, which some of the alternative colours are, then you'll end up picking up a bunch of boxes.

 

I can also understand the loading time issue. A single sprite for eggs is going to have less impact on loading times than a bunch of spri.

 

I also like the surprise when I get an egg.

 

[RealWilliamShakespeare]

17 minutes ago, Soulsborne said:

I'm sure it has already been mentioned at some point in this thread but loading images would probably take longer than loading text only so people with slow internet (or on their phones - at least mine is slower on there) would have even more trouble...

 

I agree with this - yet another reason I feel the biomes should stay as they are. 

[purplehaze]

1 hour ago, Soulsborne said:

I'm sure it has already been mentioned at some point in this thread but loading images would probably take longer than loading text only so people with slow internet (or on their phones - at least mine is slower on there) would have even more trouble...

I hadn't thought of that, but you are right. I have trouble picking anything even remotely rare out of the AP as it is because the images often load really slowly for me. By the time I see a Xeno or a Blusang or whatever, it is long gone. Also, I sometimes hunt the biomes with images off (especially during new releases) for faster loading. But if the images of the eggs were displayed I couldn't do that. As it is I still see a little box with the link, but on the AP if I try to turn off images it is just blank space.

[Fuzzbucket]

4 hours ago, Aalbiel said:

I like the biomes as is.

 

Me too

 

4 hours ago, Soulsborne said:

I'm sure it has already been mentioned at some point in this thread but loading images would probably take longer than loading text only so people with slow internet (or on their phones - at least mine is slower on there) would have even more trouble...

 

I hadn't thought of that, as my internet is good - but that is a VERY good point.

[osmarks]

Actually, assuming it's done sanely, the images will be cached, so the extra bandwidth would be negligible. Except it'd download the image when you first see an egg sprite, but that happens anyway.

Edited September 22, 2018 by osmarks

[animatedrose]

I'm fine either way but with my comp's slow loading time, my chances of getting any kind of rare would probably plummet straight to zero with image loading. I have a hard enough time being able to memorize the descriptions and remembering them at the exact moment I see something. By the time I do realize "oh, that's a Gold!", pretty much 100+ (if not many more, like I even attempt to figure those numbers) people have already clicked it. While images might make it easier, the loading time could negate that.

 

I like the mystery for lore reasons. You're in a dark cave, so you only have some light to work with. Though unlocking images after grabbing some may work, that could mean only a small pool would ever have the rares unlocked. But that's how the game goes, speed and reflexes. If you don't have them, RIP.

 

So I guess I'm neutral either way.

[osmarks]

You can probably justify it either way with the lore. It's not as if usually you would be able to smell an egg, notice that it makes your hair stand on end, somehow feel like time is distorted, notice it having a breeze around it, see all those sort of visual descriptions, and all that, and not... actually see it.

[HeatherMarie]

3 hours ago, purplehaze said:

I hadn't thought of that, but you are right. I have trouble picking anything even remotely rare out of the AP as it is because the images often load really slowly for me. By the time I see a Xeno or a Blusang or whatever, it is long gone. Also, I sometimes hunt the biomes with images off (especially during new releases) for faster loading. But if the images of the eggs were displayed I couldn't do that. As it is I still see a little box with the link, but on the AP if I try to turn off images it is just blank space.

 

This is a very good point. While I'm sure showing three egg images in a biome would be different then showing 30 (?) egg images in the AP, there would almost definitely be *some* difference then simply showing the generic-egg and text. I've been using my phone for DC a lot lately (because I *finally* have an internet-capable phone!) and I've noticed the difference in the way it loads the AP, compared to my computer... It seems to load the eggs individually, some loading before others. On a slow phone connection it's a lot more noticeable, and would probably be noticeable in the biomes as well. 

 

Personally I think the biomes are fine the way they are now, in terms of the descriptions and generic-egg. (I'd love *more* eggs shown at a time, but that's a different discussion.) I know it's probably frustrating to some people, but I personally like the challenge of having to memorize the key words in the descriptions, training myself to very quickly look over the three to see if there is anything rare, it's fun for me. I saw a few people mention that people with reading issues are at a disadvantage in the biomes, but that's kind of true for the entire game and I'm not really sure that's a reason to change something so drastically. A lot of this game is based on understanding what you read, breed descriptions and the holiday games and even the Actions page... It's just a little different in the biomes because of the time factor, that's all.

[Fuzzbucket]

And actually - I find the words much easier to remember than the images - so many look rather alike anyway...

[Luxrayx]

I really like the idea of showing both text and sprites for people who have unlocked the encyclopedia. Memorizing egg descriptions isn't an issue for me personally, but it must be pretty daunting for newer users. Not to mention frills/horses and sun/moonstones. The randomness feels less like a fun challenge and more like an unnecessary layer of frustration. It's not that big of an issue though, so if loading more images is going to slow things down, then whatever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Nagapie]

I have to say that I'd prefer things staying the way they are. Having started the game only a couple months ago, I never really had an issue with learning the ropes of egg hunting. Of course, not everyone is like me, but my personal experience still makes me lean more on the side of "even newbies don't really need this kind of an aid". Yes, you do need to put a bit of effort to it at the start and read the wiki if you don't want to do it the hard way and find everything out by yourself, but honestly it's fine as it is in my opinion. After all, if you aren't willing to invest the bit of time required to memorize rare egg descriptions for hunting, I don't see why you'd even deserve to catch rare eggs in the first place.

I do understand the argument that it sucks for people with poorer reading ability though. At the same time however, changing the experience so drastically for everyone just to fix this feels like too big of a sacrifice to me. Especially so, when you can get most rare eggs relatively easily through trading anyway. Not even mentioning that we have the market too, which already exists for the purpose of countering the randomness of the cave.

[Tetelestai]

As much as I would like to see the actual eggs, I'm okay with just the text. However, I have to add that if I was new, trying to memorize all of the current egg descriptions would be near impossible. I've been here for years, so I've learned them as they've been released. Biggest reason that I won't play another collecting game is that I would have to learn things all over. Since I know the egg descriptions, it seems like and and other older players have an advantage over newer ones. I wouldn't be opposed to letting new played be able to see pictures of the eggs. I know that it would probably never happen, but just saying. I guess it could be potentially tempting to multiscrollers though. *shrugs*

[osmarks]

... what do multiscrollers have to do with this?

[Sazandora]

If loading visible egg sprites in the biomes instead of the "mystery egg" sprites is going to cause lag, then I'll definitely have to say no to this suggestion. It can potentially give an unfair advantage to people with faster internet connections over those who, say, play DC on their phones or have a slow computer. Like my dad's laptop, my home computer is plenty fast enough for me to occasionally catch good stuff when I see them, but my father's laptop that I use when I'm visiting his place is terribly laggy on its own. This could put a stop to any and all cave hunting for me while I'm at his place and that's obviously not good.