2018-05-21 - Dragon Cave's 12th Birthday!

[Brekke]

1 minute ago, TJ09 said:

I'm sorry you feel that way. DC is not a company. It's a person; me, who is trying to put forth the best experience possible for everyone who is gracious enough to give me the valuable time out of their day. And because of that, it's hard to leave art on the site with objective flaws, knowing that there is a huge gap of standards between what was released 10-11 years ago and what would be released today. I know that's a lot of time to build up emotional attachment, but for every person who is upset by the transition to different art, it's been pretty evident that there are even more people who are excited to now have art that is more inline with the current standards of the site.

 

That said, there are plenty of companies willing to let you spent time admiring art and features a certain way, only to change them. Nintendo and Riot Games (makers of, you know, Pokemon and League of Legends, which are one of the most beloved video game franchises and literally the most popular game in the world) do this all the time. It's a weird cost-benefit analysis when emotions come into play, but in the end, it's almost always worth it.

So tell me—what are the exact flaws you’ve corrected?  Can you be specific?  Those sprites were perfect—better than the majority of what artists have created since.  What exact flaws in my seasonal hatchlings did you correct?  Clearly in the thread I’m the only unhappy one.  I get that.  But when I collect something, I expect it to stay the same.  That seems pretty basic to me—why else would I collect it?

 

Why aren’t we given a choice of keeping old sprites?  Lock them, make them unbreedable—but why can’t I keep them?

 

 

[Laura-Lana]

The redone sprites are very pretty. My compliment to the artists. That said, I loved the old sprites too.

[Gealach]

Happy birthday DC!

I LOVE the revamped sprites! The Seasonals have always been one of my favorite breeds, and while their new appearance will take some getting used to, they still look true to themselves.

And the Red dragons are absolutely great.

Also really excited about the market and new opportunity to get the rarer eggs.

 

All in all, thank you SO MUCH TJ and everyone who have worked on the updates! Yay!

[Shokomon]

2 minutes ago, lovecats99 said:

Wow, what an update! Thanks, TJ and congrats to the new moderators.  

 

Can't wait to see how the trader's canyon (?) works out! In other news, how do we get to the /market/ through the site without having to type it into the url? Haven't quite figured that out, yet.

 

29 minutes ago, Rosastrasza said:

There should be a little bell icon next to your username at the top of the page, but idk if it shows up before you get notifications.

Click the number with the shard sign next to it (the 101 in the image) to get to the market.

[HeatherMarie]

1 minute ago, DragonLady86 said:

So, the problem with spazz-clicking for hunting is sometimes you lock yourself with too many of one breed and can't get another.  /sigh.  Managed 3 alpine and 3 volcano (and 2 forests)  so now I have to wait 5+ hours to get a coast pair.  /sigh

 

 

I've learned the hard way about that. When this release started I grabbed 6 random AP eggs before I started hunting, so I could only get a max of 2 of one new breed. Then I'd abandon 2 of the AP eggs, and hunt for the next breed, and etc. 

[UnicornBlues]

1 minute ago, DragonLady86 said:

So, the problem with spazz-clicking for hunting is sometimes you lock yourself with too many of one breed and can't get another.  /sigh.  Managed 3 alpine and 3 volcano (and 2 forests)  so now I have to wait 5+ hours to get a coast pair.  /sigh

 

Block your open egg spots with AP eggs so you save spaces.

[The Dragoness]

I skimmed, so ignore me if someone already pointed this out. On the market page, there's a weekly limit of 100. Yet I'm able to surpass the limit? As in the bar is full, but the number keeps increasing beyond 100 when I breed my dragons. 

[Pixxelation]

1 minute ago, Brekke said:

So tell me—what are the exact flaws you’ve corrected?  Can you be specific?  Those sprites were perfect—better than the majority of what artists have created since.  What exact flaws in my seasonal hatchlings did you correct?  Clearly in the thread I’m the only unhappy one.  I get that.  But when I collect something, I expect it to stay the same.  That seems pretty basic to me—why else would I collect it?

 

Why aren’t we given a choice of keeping old sprites?  Lock them, make them unbreedable—but why can’t I keep them?

 

 

The original sprites had no underlying skeletal or muscular structure, little properly applied perspective, inconsistent lighting, and very little definition of details. They were objectively flawed at pretty much every possible area to have objective flaws. That doesn't mean you can't have subjective attachment to them and prefer them to newer artwork, but they are by all definitive standards significantly worse than the majority of recently-released artwork.

[Syiren]

1 minute ago, The Dragoness said:

I skimmed, so ignore me if someone already pointed this out. On the market page, there's a weekly limit of 100. Yet I'm able to surpass the limit? As in the bar is full, but the number keeps increasing beyond 100 when I breed my dragons. 

I think TJ gave us all 100 to start out with, kinda like in any new game you start out with some cash/gold/points/etc.

[Imzadi]

4 minutes ago, The Dragoness said:

I skimmed, so ignore me if someone already pointed this out. On the market page, there's a weekly limit of 100. Yet I'm able to surpass the limit? As in the bar is full, but the number keeps increasing beyond 100 when I breed my dragons. 

It resets on Sunday  Today is Monday, so as far as i can tell, anything you did yesterday is counted.  Otherwise we could not have over 100 already.  Or, what  Syiren said 😋

 

Edited May 21, 2018 by Imzadi

[Brekke]

Just now, PieMaster said:

The original sprites had no underlying skeletal or muscular structure, little properly applied perspective, inconsistent lighting, and very little definition of details. They were objectively flawed at pretty much every possible area to have objective flaws. That doesn't mean you can't have subjective attachment to them and prefer them to newer artwork, but they are by all definitive standards significantly worse than the majority of recently-released artwork.

Not buying it.  The floral-crowned were a major disappointment with pinched, insect faces.  Most of the dragon “paws” on this site are awful—very crudely drawn.

[Lovecats]

Just now, DragonLady86 said:

click on the shard icon next to your name.

 

Ahh! I see! Thanks.  Well this is interesting. Someone could look at this list and make a judgement on the rarity of a breed based on the value of shards a breed has. But then Magmas are 4700g whilst Golds are 4200g atm so I wouldn't really know about that. 

[DragonLady86]

8 minutes ago, Brekke said:

 

 

Why aren’t we given a choice of keeping old sprites?  Lock them, make them unbreedable—but why can’t I keep them?

 

 

Because that creates it's own problems.  See: Old pinks drama before they finally became a separate breed and were re-added several years later. 

 

Updated sprites are thing that you just have to live with if you are going to play any game for enough years for "style" to change.  I played WOW for over 10 years and they updated the character art a couple years back.  I still hate all my characters faces now.  but, them's the breaks.   It's also possible to like and hate the same update.  I loved the updated zombies and that different body types are now represented, however I collected zombie babies because the old sprite was the cutest thing ever, and I really lack motive to collect zombies now as result.  Even though I like the new versions.

Edited May 21, 2018 by DragonLady86

[Vain.3805]

THE DRAGONMARKET LIVES AGAIN.  FONDLY YOU SHALL ALWAYS BE IN OUR MEMORIES, EGGS AROUND THE WORLD.  NOW YOU ARE IMMORTALIZED FOREVER IN THIS MONUMENT TO YOUR INGENUITY.

[Chronomaly]

8 minutes ago, Brekke said:

So tell me—what are the exact flaws you’ve corrected?  Can you be specific?  Those sprites were perfect—better than the majority of what artists have created since.  What exact flaws in my seasonal hatchlings did you correct?  Clearly in the thread I’m the only unhappy one.  I get that.  But when I collect something, I expect it to stay the same.  That seems pretty basic to me—why else would I collect it?

 

Why aren’t we given a choice of keeping old sprites?  Lock them, make them unbreedable—but why can’t I keep them?

 

 

I understand that some people are upset by the redraws, while some are neutral, happy, excited, etc! However, I don't think it is fair to compare the sprites to other artists' who have not worked on it or are part of it, as that may come off as undermining (is that the right word?) their work.

Edited May 21, 2018 by Chronomaly

[Talisraye]

26 minutes ago, Whirlaway said:

 

You can also unlock by observing, check out the Encyclopedia Helpers thread in Site Discussion to view what you need.

Thanks for the answers, everyone. Now I need five people with paper eggs.

[DarkEternity]

I like the new sprites!

[Syiren]

1 minute ago, lovecats99 said:

 

Ahh! I see! Thanks.  Well this is interesting. Someone could look at this list and make a judgement on the rarity of a breed based on the value of shards a breed has. But then Magmas are 4700g whilst Golds are 4200g atm so I wouldn't really know about that. 

Shhhh! They might make it even harder to get golds. And i really REALLY want another one, lol 😅

[CursedFlames]

Just now, Vain.3805 said:

THE DRAGONMARKET LIVES AGAIN.  FONDLY YOU SHALL ALWAYS BE IN OUR MEMORIES, EGGS AROUND THE WORLD.  NOW YOU ARE IMMORTALIZED FOREVER IN THIS MONUMENT TO YOUR INGENUITY.

RIP EATW

Never Forget

Press F to pay respects

[leafshine]

Loving the trading hub! Great work!

[Pixxelation]

Just now, Brekke said:

Not buying it.  The floral-crowned were a major disappointment with pinched, insect faces.  Most of the dragon “paws” on this site are awful—very crudely drawn.

Disliking a dragon's face is not the same thing as having objective artistic flaws. And the original Seasonals paws fit what you're describing pretty well?

[Sextonator]

2 minutes ago, Brekke said:

Not buying it.  The floral-crowned were a major disappointment with pinched, insect faces.  Most of the dragon “paws” on this site are awful—very crudely drawn.

Do you know how hard it is to make tiny pixel paws? Harder than collecting enough golds to create a pretty lineage.

[Vain.3805]

OH MAN.  SO MUCH HYPE.  MY ENCYCLOPEDIA LINEAGE NOW HAS RELEVANCE FOR THE DRAGON SHARD THINGIES!?! HYPE HYPE HYPE

[angelicdragonpuppy]

I think the problem in comparing Pokémon art changes to DC art changes is that in Pokemon there are oodles more things to do with them then there are things to do with dragons here. The two main things to do—collect and make lineages—very much sit INTIMATELY on how the art looks, and thus make things sting a lot more when said art is changed (not that an ugly looking Pokemon model isn’t also a bummer, but there’s more to relieve the pain).

 

That being said, @Brekke there WERE a lot of objective problems with the old sprites; they had some really undefined anatomy with super thick, shapeless limbs and weak shading. I can see why they were chosen for updates. However I don’t like the SPECIFIC updates that were done—I feel the heads are too large (same for the reds) and they look nearly as cartoony as before, while still managing to really change the overall and lineage look. I was in the middle of several seasonal lineages at the moment so it hurts especially now. :c

[Shokomon]

For everyone who needs to unlock stuff for the Market (including me):

UNLOCK ALL THE POSSIBILITIES.