Make Cool Downs More Flexible (count full days instead of exact time)

[StormWizard212]

On 01/04/2018 at 4:20 AM, MoonShark said:

Alternatively, the exact countdown timer would be awesome as well, but I doubt that will be implemented because then people will want it for their eggs/hatchies as well.

 

What about an hourly countdown timer that's like the ones eggs/hatchlings have? Even if it's not an exact time that your dragon comes off cooldown, it would still give you a rough indication in a way that's consistent with other elements of the game. So instead of the current message "This dragon cannot warm another egg for 3 more days" or "Please wait 3 days" it could say "...3 days and 18 hours". 

If an exact timer is not possible, do you think this would be an adequate compromise?

[Fuzzbucket]

35 minutes ago, StormWizard212 said:

 

What about an hourly countdown timer that's like the ones eggs/hatchlings have? Even if it's not an exact time that your dragon comes off cooldown, it would still give you a rough indication in a way that's consistent with other elements of the game. So instead of the current message "This dragon cannot warm another egg for 3 more days" or "Please wait 3 days" it could say "...3 days and 18 hours". 

If an exact timer is not possible, do you think this would be an adequate compromise?

 

Yus

 

I have to say the "day" one would be tricky, time-zone-wise.

[olympe]

Time zones would have to be defined as "according to EST (aka DC standard time) or EDST (aka DC daylight saving time) to avoid confusion. Everyone in a different time zone will just have to cope. (And I'm in quite a different time zone.)

[Fuzzbucket]

Yes I know. Just saying it wouldn't  be the instant simplicity thing that whoever suggested it imagined, for a lot of us. (But no worse than the current situation, of course.) I'd MUCH rather see  the "Please wait 3 days and 18 hours"   option.

[StormWizard212]

14 hours ago, Fuzzbucket said:

 

Yus

 

I have to say the "day" one would be tricky, time-zone-wise.

 

Sorry, just to clarify, are you saying that timezones would make a countdown timer tricky? Would you mind explaining what you mean? What I was suggesting was a system that counts down the way eggs/hatchlings count down days and hours, but using it for breeding and BSA cooldowns. It's already a system that works without timezones having any impact since it's a countdown, one hour at a time. Is there something I'm missing or were you referring to something else? 

[Fuzzbucket]

No - simply that Wednesday, say, starts at a different time in the UK from when it does in New York, and even more so for Australia.... so the idea that it would say "You can breed again on Wednesday" and the window would open at 00:01 on Wednesday, cave time, instead of exactly 7 days after the last breed, - which was the suggestion that started this thread - wouldn't be THAT much of an improvement.

 

It's not a huge issue and is the same issue as for looking at the action log. I would rather see a countdown that says days AND HOURS remaining. That would be the same wherever. In other words - I am absolutely with you

[StormWizard212]

28 minutes ago, Fuzzbucket said:

No - simply that Wednesday, say, starts at a different time in the UK from when it does in New York, and even more so for Australia.... so the idea that it would say "You can breed again on Wednesday" and the window would open at 00:01 on Wednesday, cave time, instead of exactly 7 days after the last breed, - which was the suggestion that started this thread - wouldn't be THAT much of an improvement.

 

It's not a huge issue and is the same issue as for looking at the action log. I would rather see a countdown that says days AND HOURS remaining. That would be the same wherever. In other words - I am absolutely with you

 

My mistake! I got mixed up about which part you were referring to!  But I agree -- to me, there's no real difference between saying 'You can breed again on Wednesday' and 'you can breed again in 5 days'. Different word, same problem. I really do think a regular countdown timer like eggs/hatchies have is the easiest and most convenient way forward. 

Edited April 6, 2018 by StormWizard212

[MissK.]

I don't see how this would be any more confusing than anything else already having to do with DC time. Releases happen at midnight cave time, which I know is 7 in the morning for me. Zombies are visible between midnight and 6:00 cave time, which is 7:00 until 13:00 for me. Sunrise/set dragons also have specific hours, which I don't care to remember because I haven't hatched them in ages but I already know I'm 7 hours ahead of cave time so it's pretty easy. This is even simpler; the one thing you need to know is when days change on DC time, which I imagine a lot of people already have some idea about since, as I said, that's when releases happen and events start and end. You only need to calculate once and then remember it in your own time zone. 

 

That being said, an exact timer of "you can breed in x days and y hours" is obviously very clear and I would not be opposed to it in the least. But as someone who has experienced the "creep effect" very much, I wouldn't mind eliminating that issue as well. 

Edited April 6, 2018 by MissK.

[Tears in Rain]

Thanks for the feedback guys  I agree that there's a number of things already in place that depend on DC's midnight and other times, and that would make this kind of chage not completely 'brand new' in its nature.

 

Not sure if that's better but I changed the topic title a bit  

[Paintra]

On 4/6/2018 at 12:18 PM, MissK. said:

I don't see how this would be any more confusing than anything else already having to do with DC time.

I would be writing a bigger post, but MissK said my thoughts on changing timers to roll over at 12AM DC time.

Of course, there are always exploits someone could do. For example, if you incubate an egg at 11:59 DC time, the dragon gets to incubate essentially one day earlier, but I feel like this exploit would be limited and annoying to pull off, not getting you much for the effort of staying up.

 

That aside, I feel like the most valuable change that would please everyone would be an exact timer. It would be really helpful to have a message of, “This dragon can breed again at 11:59” instead of “This dragon can breed again in 6 days,” which is pretty vague and often leaves me confused on when my dragons can actually breed/use their BSAs again.

[olympe]

As I pointed out before, this "exploit" would only work once unless you dawdled again and moved the timer up again. Otherwise, the whole total of time you could shave off over an endless amount of time is no more than 24 hours (minus that fateful second).

[Paintra]

Yep! That’s what I meant by “limited and annoying to pull off,” but you worded it much better than I could have. ^^;

[Emerald01]

On 2/12/2018 at 7:29 AM, Aie said:

I don't like the idea of counting-from-midnight because I feel like it wouldn't be equal for players from different time zones. I prefer the idea of a countdown clock. 

This, please.

[olympe]

Alternately, if you could set your preferred time for "changing days", so to speak. Or just enter your own or preferred time zone.

[Pilauli]

Other other option, if you're worried players will be confused by "what does it mean, starts on Wednesday?  It's already Wednesday," would be to count down to DC midnight.  How about something like "This dragon's can breed again in 3 days 8 hours (beginning of November 3rd 2019, DC time)"?

 

Or, yes, manually picking a time of day rollover would be nice, too.  I'll point out the obvious: by shifting your day rollover time, you could squeeze more time out of your dragons.  This obviously can't cut it down below 6 days, but it would be slightly more sustainable than the one-time "breed at 11:59, then next week at 12:01" model - you could do this nearly (completely?) 24 weeks in a row with sufficient dedication, then I suppose skip a week and start over.

 

I've thought of two potential ways the site could respond to changes while dragons are on cooldown.  Both seem kind of broken.

- The obvious is to make the cooldown-endings be recalculated based on when a dragon was last bred.  After breeding, you scoot the cooldown ending an hour later, which scoots the latest breeding into the previous day - the game shouldn't have let you breed that dragon then, but it can't really take it back now, can it?  At this point, you can breed again in 6 instead of 7 days.  Repeat x24.

- Alternate is to keep track of the ending point of any active cooldowns.  To exploit, scoot the cooldown ending way early to trick it into thinking you're breeding your dragon at the end of the day.  Then scoot it a little later - when the dragon comes off its cooldown timer (which was unaffected by the second scooting), breed it again.  Scoot the cooldown wraparound a little later yet before each time you breed it; the dragon's timer will always function as if it was bred at the end of the day.  Repeat x24.

 

I can think of two safe methods, which are as follows:

- When cooldown wraparound time is changed, dragon timers increase if possible and never decrease.  Essentially, "cooldown will last until both obvious cooldown calculations have expired."  Like "whichever comes sooner" but in reverse.  Possibly annoying or confusing, but shouldn't be any great inconvenience most of the time; aside from "I'm trying to exploit the system", I can't think of any reason for someone to need frequent, cooldown-breaking timezone changes.

- Don't let timezones be changed while actions are on cooldown, or don't let dragons use actions with cooldowns for the next 24 hours after changing timezones.  Potentially very annoying indeed.

 

It seems to make sense to restrict to once a year timezone changes, but show of hands.  Who wouldn't line it up with your favorite holiday to get a crucial extra dose of BSA over that frantic time?

 

 

That got long.  I guess, in a nutshell, I had two things to say: a more precise countdown would be nice, even with this suggestion, for people in other time zones.  Letting people change when their BSA timers reset would be far more exploitable; I think the best solution would probably be to allow cooldown lengths to increase but never decrease upon changing the reset time.

[pinkgothic]

Huh, I thought I'd posted this, but I guess not.  I'd already be happy if cooldowns were just not full multiples of 24-hours. 6 days and 23 hours is plenty for a breeding cooldown, for example. Even 6 days and 20 hours would be plenty.

 

That said, the suggestion in the OP is also pretty cool and nice and simple, and DC midnight seems like the right time for it to roll around to me (even though I am in a completely different timezone). But if people think that's confusing (or might cause oddities with ratios being uneven across the day and perhaps favouring people of certain timezones), just having very slightly shorter cooldowns would be sweet.

[Fuzzbucket]

Just realising.... I'd like a cooldown message on kill that gave me more than "You cannot attempt to kill this dragon because you have used this action 5 or more times in the past several weeks."

 

I'd settle for pretty much anything rather than that !

[wobster109]

I like it! I'm not worried about when to "change days" since DC displays cave time in the top right corner on every page. You are right, there is no way to game it to breed every 6 days, not even once in a while. the most you can ever "gain" by using whole days is 23 hours and 59 minutes, once ever per dragon. I suppose if you missed a day you could "gain" those hours again the next day. What I mean is, there is no mathematical way to have ever have your "calendar days / breeding" be under 7, no matter what schedule you try, and how diligent you are.

 

I'm also with everyone else about having a more specific timer with the current system. That would be second best, in my opinion.

[Fuzzbucket]

More than anything can we PLEASE have a more accurate kill timer. I am fed up with reading it was several times in the last few weeks....

[sorenna]

On 12/9/2019 at 8:30 AM, Fuzzbucket said:

More than anything can we PLEASE have a more accurate kill timer. I am fed up with reading it was several times in the last few weeks....

 

This!  And freeze also has an incredibly vague and unhelpful message along the same lines. 

[Fuzzbucket]

But freeze you can check by going here

 

https://dragcave.net/help/actions#freeze

 

and it lists them with the date.