Reinstate Honorable Mentions

[Rekha]

2 minutes ago, Starscream said:

I'd sooner have an ability to pick the code than the H.M.

Earning the right to pick a code for a dragon could be fun.

[Whirlaway]

An HM I would want would be a chance to get a custom code. I've always loved the idea of a custom code since they happened.

[Kovia]

I'd love to see either custom codes or CB alts/hybrids/etc. return somehow. At this point the handful of HMs are rarer than actual prizes.

 

I see two options. Either tack them onto the raffles, either constant or on a specific date of importance, or give you 1 fully customizable egg for attaining Platinum Trophy.

[VixenDra]

3 hours ago, Dragon_Arbock said:

I find it annoying that Hollies and Mistletoes are gender-locked at all. If limits for them are lifted or upped in the future, I should hope the gender-lock is lifted as well. Potentially the same for Blue-Wing Solstices.

Hybrids should probably never have been distributed, but well, too late now. As for Alts, I still have a hard time understanding why some breeds can alt as CBs, yet others cannot. Some form of consistency would be nice. They don't need any specific parentage to be an alt, so it's iffy to me.

Exactly this.

 

I need a CB Female Holly. I was excited when I saw there are re-releases and already knew the only CBs I need are a MF Holly pair, since there ARE female Hollies out there and further generations are influentable. SLAM to my face, the CB Holly eggs couldn't be influenced. Also the CB limits weren't rised at all. The re-releases had absolutely no use to me save disappointment and even envyness to past HMs who have a female CB Holly I so much needed and hoped&waited for...

Now my only option is to try to find 2 still-playing female Holly owners who ALSO own a CB male Holly adult and that would ALSO accept some unheavenly payment for a PB 2g Holly egg that I wouldn't even be able to provide I bet:/ and normally any kind of unique-thing owners are very much against being contacted for the offspring if they aren't the ones who initiate a trade discussion...

And I can't even dream of ever getting my own CB female Holly or 2 2g PB ones because HMs aren't a thing and because they may never be available to me in any way..

It's not fair.

ATM a CB female Holly(shoudl be a norm) or Hybdrid(was a mistake) are nearly as unique and elusive as SAs... They are way more special than CB Prizes especially now Prizes are somehow back but not these HM thigns...

[Sunfeathers]

I thought that the HMs and picking your own code were the most exciting parts of the old raffle and I was very sad that neither of them were carried over into the new system. I would have picked one of the hybrids or a CB alt over a prize if I had the opportunity and I spent a decent amount of time thinking about what my ideal codes would be. It would be cool if there was a special raffle or something that would be for HMs, maybe around DC's birthday.

[Ruby Eyes]

10 hours ago, Jazeki said:

I would be okay with this. And I was under the impression that this is what original  HMs were: "pick a dragon from the site"  with the exception of certain things like bright pinks and  some holidays. Just that people picked hybrids. 

You make that sound like hundreds did it, while it was done by only 2 Plus 3 people or so who picked alt Blacks.

 

Fact is, for anything pickable from the cave, you *may* be lucky one day, in the near or distant future, to catch it yourself, be gifted one or trade for it. So people picked what was *not* available: Hollies, some maybe Yulebucks?, Frills (which were discontinued back then), and 5 people picked something usually-breed-only. A whole handful.

I wanted something special, but breedable. After all, this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance in my eyes. (Turns out it was, seeing that HMs were discontinued as well.)

I decided against Holly or Frill - a good number of Hollies and Frills existed already, and wouldn't breed true most or all of the year. Plus, only their egg laid date would tell those who'd care that they were HM, not from back when they dropped.

 

Besides her beauty, what made my little Hellhorse special was that they usually come with a lineage attached to it.

What made her useful (to me) was that she could breed true, and much more readily than any Prize Dragon would ever be willing to. She helped me get things I'd never have acquired otherwise. Those 2nd gen metals I'm breeding and giving out for free? I couldn't do that without her because I'd be lacking the means to do so. I'd be still "poor" with plenty of commons but hardly any rares on my scroll. She also allowed me to give out her own special 2nd gens to people as a surprise gift (although with at least 2 people I'm still waiting for them to realize what they got ).

 

With biomes etc, I suppose *cave*born individuals of breeds released *after* biomes were introduced would be special as well - just difficult to convey, you'd always have to point people to that fact. Some people mourned the impossible Copper colour combos due to biome mismatch, I guess that would be something to look for. Xeno combos as well, despite their chance at randomness.

 

What else would you pick for HM? Upside-down Mints and Balloons if you could?

Golds, Silvers and other perceived rares?

Maybe you would still pick Hollies and Yulebucks because your catching luck just wasn't enough for that one week of holiday biome.

Frills drop like commons so who would pick them still?

 

What would really be left for HMs if you took away all the breed-only options?

 

9 hours ago, Starscream said:

I'd sooner have an ability to pick the code than the H.M.

Oh yeah. Worth another suggestion if there isn't any yet?

[StormWizard212]

12 hours ago, LibbyLishly said:

Discussion of CB Hybrids aside, which is apparently a much more controversial subject than I realized, what about HMs that are literally just "Pick a breed from the cave, like a CB Gold or Silver"?

 

I think this sounds like a good idea. Especially if quite a high number of people won this. It would take away some of the disappointment of seeing the losing message each month if occasionally we won an HM prize instead while waiting for an elusive prize dragon. Since any dragons chosen are easily accessible in the cave already I don't think there'd be any problem with it. It'd be a nice thing to dampen the disappointment every now and then and I think a lot of people would appreciate that!  Kind of like a consolation prize. "Here, I know you've been trying for a prize dragon for a while, but take a nice normal eggie for the time being and keep trying." 

Edited January 9, 2018 by StormWizard212

[Ruby Eyes]

1 minute ago, StormWizard212 said:

I think this sounds like a good idea. Especially if quite a high number of people won this.

Might make it impossible to find them in the biomes themselves though. Ratios of rares, and all.

[Fuzzbucket]

59 minutes ago, Ruby Eyes said:

Might make it impossible to find them in the biomes themselves though. Ratios of rares, and all.

 

That WOULD be a bit of a killer.

 

You know though  - I wouldn't  have wanted a CB hybrid or alt. BECAUSE - you couldn't  easily build a good lineage from them. No matching mate (unless a Thuwed.)

[Ruby Eyes]

Right now, I'm mostly building inbred checkers myself. And as far as I recall, at least 2 players got a matching mate for their Thuwed from me, for which they couldn't get a checker mate otherwise.

More cave-found hybrids would mean more possible checkers with those Thuweds, actually.

Otherwise, stairs. There's more than just checkers

[Fuzzbucket]

There are, but you see what I mean

 

Hmm Thuwed... Must check...

[Jazeki]

3 hours ago, Ruby Eyes said:

You make that sound like hundreds did it, while it was done by only 2 Plus 3 people or so who picked alt Blacks.

 

 

Lol I know only a couple did it (just as some picked frills and Xmas dragons). I was just pointing out that the original option was the same as what is being proposed now--without access to the fancy, once-in-a-lifetime things.

 

I'm not beleaguering hm winners. They are far less vocal than prize winners. I was just drawing attention to the fact that original hm winners could choose nearly any dragon on the site.

 

I would very much like a cb shallow water, but if HMs came back without anything special, I'd go for a CB gold.

[Ruby Eyes]

Not pickable were:

- Valentines (probably no problem anymore)

- Halloweens (no problem anymore)

- Old Pinks (no problem anymore)

- Neglecteds (narratively, these should not be desirable)

- Undeads (need to be made, not laid)

- Prizes (of course)

 

That doesn't leave much special, really, if you take away bred-onlies.

That would also mean that most people - like you - would go for the usual suspects, aka Golds and Silvers => depending on the amount of winners, that would be killing the ratios.

[JavaTigress]

17 hours ago, fuzzbucket said:

I'm 1000% with olympe. And also remind people that TJ said (and this one I think he meant for ever and ever) that we would never ever ever again have CB hybrids or alts.

I do see the concern about CB hybrids and such like... and IF the Bossman has already nixed the idea, well and good. 

(COULD be he realized after he had done it that it was a mistake...)
 

THAT being said, however, it doesn't mean that HMs of THEMSELVES are a bad idea.

I could support  rares being given out as prizes. AND I always liked the idea of being able to pick a code ( again... if the Boss nixes that second idea, well and good).

COULD give people with not-so-fast internets or reflexes a chance to own golds and silvers, for instance.

Edited January 9, 2018 by JavaTigress

[Ruby Eyes]

He nixed it for The Store (Thuban's Trader's Canyon). However, there's always the possibility that he may change his mind, either for HMs or for the store.

[Fuzzbucket]

What he said was that "they were never meant to be a thing".

[DragonLady86]

9 hours ago, Sunfeathers said:

I thought that the HMs and picking your own code were the most exciting parts of the old raffle and I was very sad that neither of them were carried over into the new system. I would have picked one of the hybrids or a CB alt over a prize if I had the opportunity and I spent a decent amount of time thinking about what my ideal codes would be. It would be cool if there was a special raffle or something that would be for HMs, maybe around DC's birthday.

This.  During the old raffles I was prepared to, in the unlikely event that I ever won, give up a shot at a prize for the chance at CB I couldn't get anywhere else.  Bonus points if I could get the code I wanted.  I even made a sheet with all the ones available at the time choices to narrow down what I wanted.  I wanted an alt vine with my name as the code.   

Honestly, if it was either/or I'm not sure which I'd prefer: cb alts or codes.  but if HMs come back they should include anything with an egg sprite.  (which it was mostly before.  the exception was negecteds.  Valentines/Halloweens were because they were "out of season" for a Christmas raffle.) Most people would likely still pick something like a gold or silver or such so really don't think they'd become a massive problem.

Edited January 9, 2018 by DragonLady86

[purplehaze]

3 minutes ago, DragonLady86 said:

but if HMs come back they should include anything with an egg sprite.  (which it was mostly before.  the exception was negecteds.  Valentines/Halloweens were because they were "out of season" for a christmas raffle.)

Technically, the Christmas dragons were out of season, too, by the time the prizes were awarded in January or February. Yet people were allowed to get Hollies.

 

I am pretty neutral on this whole suggestion. I guess I just don't see it really affecting me one way or the other. I do think allowing CB Golds/Silvers would skew the ratios, though. I remember the time when too many Golds accidentally spawned in the cave and it took forever for CB Golds to balance out and actually start showing up in the cave again.

[DragonLady86]

Just now, purplehaze said:

Technically, the Christmas dragons were out of season, too, by the time the prizes were awarded in January or February. Yet people were allowed to get Hollies.

 

Hey don't ask me, that was reason given at the time. /shrug   

 

not that I didn't think that too.

[Ruby Eyes]

3 minutes ago, purplehaze said:

I do think allowing CB Golds/Silvers would skew the ratios, though.

My point was that for disallowing all the breed-only options, Golds and Silvers would be what many people would default to. THAT may screw with the ratios.

 

Also, well, these were christmas raffles, after all.

Edited January 9, 2018 by Ruby Eyes

[JavaTigress]

8 minutes ago, Ruby Eyes said:

My point was that for disallowing all the breed-only options, Golds and Silvers would be what many people would default to. THAT may screw with the ratios.

 

Also, well, these were christmas raffles, after all.

It MIGHT BUT.... as far as I know... the proposal wasn't for EVERY raffle to have HMs just maybe one or two a year.

I am unsure as to HOW many dragons we'd be talking, honestly, tho.

[Ruby Eyes]

In the past, HMs varied between 20 and 40:

http://dragcave.wikia.com/wiki/Holiday_Raffle

[Amazon_warrior]

If HMs came back, I honestly don't know what I'd pick if CB hybrids or alts weren't an option - especially if choosing a code isn't an option.  I wasn't short on Halloweens even before the Holiday Biome, I now have all possible Christmas dragons as CB, and I imagine that I'll be the proud owner of a pair of CB Val'09's a month from now.  And I really, truly, honestly don't need more CB metals.  It's not that I am unsupportive of the notion of HMs, I'm just not really sure what good it would do me if I won one.  (Not, it must be said, that I would be likely to!  RNGs H-A-T-E me.)  I'd probably pick a CB metal and drop it to the AP for someone else to find, if they can't be traded or gifted....

[purplehaze]

5 minutes ago, Ruby Eyes said:

In the past, HMs varied between 20 and 40:

http://dragcave.wikia.com/wiki/Holiday_Raffle

I wonder how many days of Golds and/or Silvers that represents from the biomes.  Since I never see either in the cave any more I can't even guess.

[Jazeki]

I don't think we should worry over ratios as that's something that TJ has knowledge of and control over.