Market Feedback

[MoonTiger]

I going to throw in my opinion on the shard limit. 100 shards a week is not much at all and I can see it frustrating active players who want to be rewarded for spending time on DC so I have 2 suggestions.

 

1) Have different types of currency like bronze, silver, and gold (or what have you). Bronze would be the easiest and gold the hardest. So, 1000 bronze to 1 silver and 100 silver to 1 gold. Rare dragons would require more gold and thus more work. Uncommons would cost more silver but not gold, and commons would cost bronze but not silver. Price depends on rarity thus maintaining balance and rarity index.

 

2) Remove the shard cap, but cap the number of dragons you can get for x amount of time. For example, grind away for gold dragons, but you can only buy say 2 per year. Again maintains rarity while still rewarding players for being active.  

[Fuzzbucket]

First off - this really needs time to settle in before things like that happen.

 

Secondly - it isn't supposed to be a substitute for cave hunting. This is an extra way to get-things, and there's nothing wrong with having to save up.

 

How do you see these different currencies working - we do NOT want to end up with grinding and people with heaps of time having an advantage over those who have JOBS and SCHOOL. Rewarding activity is one thing; rewarding me for being able to be on 24/7 because I am retired is quite another and very unfair. What do you imagine having to do to get it ?

 

I think the way it is now seems pretty much ideal, to be honest. Prices may lower over time, after all.

Edited May 26, 2018 by Fuzzbucket
typo....

[purplehaze]

12 minutes ago, Fuzzbucket said:

First off - this really needs time to settle in before things like that happen.

I agree that we need to give this time and see how it works out.

 

If you are familiar with the Suggestion thread about Traders Canyon, this came from that suggestion. It was nearly unanimously agreed that grinding or giving an advantage to those who were able to spend more time due to no other pressing obligations should not be part of the system. This is really the fairest way to handle it. Yes, it is quite easy to reach the limit, but it does require a bit of activity each week if you want to maximize your shards. It was intended to be fairly easy.

[Wymsical]

I reached the weekly cap within 3 days of just doing stuff I'd normally be doing anyway, which is grabbing a few eggs and breeding a few select dragons. I do have more stuff than normal so I'd guess during a regular week when there isn't a release it'd probably be 4 days for me personally to reach the cap. While I could afford to set aside the time to grind if it were an option, I think this cap better suits DC's more laid-back and slower pace. Since the Market is stated to be supplemental, I think the current prices (especially given that they fluctuate) are fine. Just like in life, if you want something desirable yet expensive you've gotta swallow the pill and save up some cash for a while.

 

If there were ever a way to get more shards I think tying it to the little event games would be a good one, with the same 100 shard cap enforced there in such a way that you don't have to achieve 100% completion in the event to hit the shard cap. Just passive poking around at the event like how the cap is with usual site activity, and not grinding to get absolutely everything. I like the shard raffle suggestion given earlier in the thread as well, but I think it should be kept to 200 shards or lower.

 

I do hope there is a way to have dragons in the Market that have specific biome alts in the future. While I would not personally care about that, there are a lot of people who do and I see no justifiable reason to exclude them unlike Hybrids, Prizes, and the like.

[Kaini]

1 hour ago, MoonTiger said:

2) Remove the shard cap, but cap the number of dragons you can get for x amount of time. For example, grind away for gold dragons, but you can only buy say 2 per year. Again maintains rarity while still rewarding players for being active.  

 

I actually... very much like this suggestion, right here.

 

Remove the cap on shards and just limit how many of each TYPE of dragon you can buy. So, maybe you can only buy 2 golds per year, but you could get 10 of a common if you wanted. Still rewards active players for being active, and preserves the rarity of big stuff like golds.

[Kegluneq]

2 hours ago, MoonTiger said:

I going to throw in my opinion on the shard limit. 100 shards a week is not much at all and I can see it frustrating active players who want to be rewarded for spending time on DC so I have 2 suggestions.

 

1) Have different types of currency like bronze, silver, and gold (or what have you). Bronze would be the easiest and gold the hardest. So, 1000 bronze to 1 silver and 100 silver to 1 gold. Rare dragons would require more gold and thus more work. Uncommons would cost more silver but not gold, and commons would cost bronze but not silver. Price depends on rarity thus maintaining balance and rarity index.

 

2) Remove the shard cap, but cap the number of dragons you can get for x amount of time. For example, grind away for gold dragons, but you can only buy say 2 per year. Again maintains rarity while still rewarding players for being active.  

 

I suggested the same before, but anyway, I don't have anything else to add, just that I support both ideas.

 

If it'd be better to wait some time and see how this works at least we can set a precedent with these ideas.

 

@Kaini (I don't how to multiquote anyway) I support removing shard cap limit as well. If market is not meant to substitute for cave hunting we could have the opportunity to buy different stuff regarding its rarity.

[olympe]

2 hours ago, MoonTiger said:

I going to throw in my opinion on the shard limit. 100 shards a week is not much at all and I can see it frustrating active players who want to be rewarded for spending time on DC so I have 2 suggestions.

 

1) Have different types of currency like bronze, silver, and gold (or what have you). Bronze would be the easiest and gold the hardest. So, 1000 bronze to 1 silver and 100 silver to 1 gold. Rare dragons would require more gold and thus more work. Uncommons would cost more silver but not gold, and commons would cost bronze but not silver. Price depends on rarity thus maintaining balance and rarity index.

 

2) Remove the shard cap, but cap the number of dragons you can get for x amount of time. For example, grind away for gold dragons, but you can only buy say 2 per year. Again maintains rarity while still rewarding players for being active.  

#1: This doesn't really change anything. We'd still have to play for our currency just as we do now. Just renaming the currency won't change caps, either. Also, if you indeed proposed "do a little bit and get 1 bronze, do quite a bit to get 1 silver and do quite a lot to get 1 gold", it seems like all you want to achieve is circumventing caps. (I might misinterpret this, though.) And caps are there for a very good reason.

 

#2: Please don't. The caps are there so people are on an even playing field with a minimum of activity. Yes, this means that it will take a while before you can get (insert cool dragon here) from the market, but there's always cave hunting, too. The market isn't meant to give you every cool egg you might want at the snap of a finger, it's meant to help out player with little time/bad luck/slow internet/abysmal reflexes/other things that hinder their success in the cave.

The way your suggestion sounds you want to have your cake and eat it, too. Grind some, get everything from the market (instead of hunting) - but make sure to not get too many of any one kind. Grind some, get 2 golds, 2 silvers, 2 of each copper, who-knows-how-many Xenos//Zyus, 2 of each trio... all without saving up, but for grinding. Many of us enjoy DC for its simplicity and its laid-back style. Grinding, as you're trying to suggest this way, is the very opposite of that. Which is why I absolutely don't support this.

[Fjord]

Splitting the currency up seems like it just unnecessarily complicates the whole thing, without actually changing much. It makes it more confusing for players, especially new players coming in. If the end result is still 'save more for higher rarities', why go the more confusing route?

 

Typically, sites like these have multiple currencies because one is the regular, game-earned currency, and the other is the payed for premium currency. I could easily see someone thinking the gold is just premium currency until they earn some, which might turn off people early.

[Fuzzbucket]

34 minutes ago, olympe said:

#1: This doesn't really change anything. We'd still have to play for our currency just as we do now. Just renaming the currency won't change caps, either. Also, if you indeed proposed "do a little bit and get 1 bronze, do quite a bit to get 1 silver and do quite a lot to get 1 gold", it seems like all you want to achieve is circumventing caps. (I might misinterpret this, though.) And caps are there for a very good reason.

 

#2: Please don't. The caps are there so people are on an even playing field with a minimum of activity. Yes, this means that it will take a while before you can get (insert cool dragon here) from the market, but there's always cave hunting, too. The market isn't meant to give you every cool egg you might want at the snap of a finger, it's meant to help out player with little time/bad luck/slow internet/abysmal reflexes/other things that hinder their success in the cave.

The way your suggestion sounds you want to have your cake and eat it, too. Grind some, get everything from the market (instead of hunting) - but make sure to not get too many of any one kind. Grind some, get 2 golds, 2 silvers, 2 of each copper, who-knows-how-many Xenos//Zyus, 2 of each trio... all without saving up, but for grinding. Many of us enjoy DC for its simplicity and its laid-back style. Grinding, as you're trying to suggest this way, is the very opposite of that. Which is why I absolutely don't support this.

 

Exactly this. And @Fjord - this too. I beoieve there will NEVER be real currency in this game. Ever may it be so.

[Irabane]

Just wanted to pop in here and say that I don't think CB Prizes should be available in the market, like it is now (I'd actually have less issue with things like CB hybrids/alts being available). And to clarify I'm not a CB Prize owner myself, I'd just prefer to keep them more exclusive because I feel like their rarity is an interesting game dynamic for the economy and such (particularly seeing as nearly everything in the game is technically accessible to everyone already, especially now with the introduction of the market). People might say it's not fair that certain players get the huge trading advantage of being able to breed 2G Prizes themselves, but the fact that the CB Prizes are distributed randomly means that everyone has an equal shot at being one of those lucky players to obtain such an advantage.

 

That's just how I feel about CB Prize availability, I know it's a bit of a contentious issue haha.

[Raldoron]

Shards income too small, prices for real valuables too intimidating. Saving up for a good chunk of the year for a single dragon feels like overkill. What exactly would be wrong to cut down prices at least for a quarter? Or more. People would still have to get and raise dragons to be able to buy anything, thus spending significant time, but with more reliable results.

Also being "shardblocked" is probably just as annoying as being eggblocked. There should be more place to expand, to a month limit, or without any limit, minding income speed.

Lastly expanded market would be welcome. Prizes for sale kills the idea, but old holiday specials not so much. Making them available for sale during their respectful events would be perfect. Although, for people to afford this and greedlards like Thunder/Magma/et, there should be some economy tweaking. I know I want Omen Wyrms and everythings, even if in due time.

[purplehaze]

8 minutes ago, Raldoron said:

Shards income too small, prices for real valuables too intimidating. Saving up for a good chunk of the year for a single dragon feels like overkill. What exactly would be wrong to cut down prices at least for a quarter? Or more. People would still have to get and raise dragons to be able to buy anything, thus spending significant time, but with more reliable results.

Also being "shardblocked" is probably just as annoying as being eggblocked. There should be more place to expand, to a month limit, or without any limit, minding income speed.

You really think waiting 9 months or so to get enough shards to buy a Gold is too much? Then hunt your Golds or whatever in the cave and good luck. I have been playing this game for nearly 10 YEARS and never have been able to catch a Gold on my own. Seems like a bargain to me to be guaranteed to be able to get one in that length of time. Sure I'd love to be able to get them quicker, but they are rare dragons and should stay rare.

 

I really think we need to be patient and give this time to see how it plays out and how it affects the whole game dynamic before we ask for too much. I'm sure TJ will be willing to tweak things if it is shown to be needed, but let's give it a chance.

 

 

[Fuzzbucket]

18 minutes ago, Raldoron said:

 old holiday specials not so much. Making them available for sale during their respectful events would be perfect. Although, for people to afford this and greedlards like Thunder/Magma/et, there should be some economy tweaking. I know I want Omen Wyrms and everythings, even if in due time.

Old holidays are very very easy now that there is the holiday biome - which I imagine will stay.

[Raldoron]

12 minutes ago, purplehaze said:

You really think waiting 9 months or so to get enough shards to buy a Gold is too much? Then hunt your Golds or whatever in the cave and good luck. I have been playing this game for nearly 10 YEARS and never have been able to catch a Gold on my own. Seems like a bargain to me to be guaranteed to be able to get one in that length of time. Sure I'd love to be able to get them quicker, but they are rare dragons and should stay rare.

 

Tough luck. But nonetheless at this rate, new rares would appear faster than you could save up to them. Say, the legendary trio, plus paper, plus silvergold, that's around 4-5 years assuming current rates. Long planning? I suppose it's fine for you since you've already waited twice that time, but still seems a long way up that could be shorter.

I'm not asking, just give impressions. And I don't see much of a game dynamics change. Easy dragons come easy, and no increases for rare gains in any forseeable future.

19 minutes ago, Fuzzbucket said:

Old holidays are very very easy now that there is the holiday biome - which I imagine will stay.

Well duh, guess this just shows how new I am.

[purplehaze]

4 minutes ago, Raldoron said:

Tough luck. But nonetheless at this rate, new rares would appear faster than you could save up to them. Say, the legendary trio, plus paper, plus silvergold, that's around 4-5 years assuming current rates. Long planning? I suppose it's fine for you since you've already waited twice that time, but still seems a long way up that could be shorter.

I'm not asking, just give impressions. And I don't see much of a game dynamics change. Easy dragons come easy, and no increases for rare gains in any forseeable future.

Not really. So far Golds are the only dragon I have been totally unable to catch. Zyus are coming close (although I have caught some of them, so they aren't impossible), but they aren't currently available in the store anyway. If they do become available I will prioritize them lower than the Golds and continue to try to catch them in the cave. I have given up Gold-hunting in the cave.

 

You are entitled to your opinion -- I didn't mean to sound like you weren't. I am just giving my perspective.

[Starscream]

I am against removal of the cap. I thought it would be harder for me to hit it, but there I did. It levels the playing field for a busy person to a person who has time on their hand. I more or less quit FR, because it required grinding, and i don't have that sort of time on my hands, and when something becomes a frustrating task, then I start to lose interest. I'd say a slight increase in the cap, but not a removal. 50 -100 points maybe.

 

I am sort of so so with being able to get a gold in market. I still think the ultimate reward will be to actually catch one of those slippery suckers in cave. I know some people have "supernatural luck" with getting golds, but in time, I am sure I will get one myself (I have several from trades)

[olympe]

1 hour ago, Raldoron said:

Shards income too small, prices for real valuables too intimidating. Saving up for a good chunk of the year for a single dragon feels like overkill. What exactly would be wrong to cut down prices at least for a quarter? Or more. People would still have to get and raise dragons to be able to buy anything, thus spending significant time, but with more reliable results.

Also being "shardblocked" is probably just as annoying as being eggblocked. There should be more place to expand, to a month limit, or without any limit, minding income speed.

Lastly expanded market would be welcome. Prizes for sale kills the idea, but old holiday specials not so much. Making them available for sale during their respectful events would be perfect. Although, for people to afford this and greedlards like Thunder/Magma/et, there should be some economy tweaking. I know I want Omen Wyrms and everythings, even if in due time.

Well, the valuable dragons are valuable because they're (supposed to be) rare. And they should stay rare. Making them available for half their current price (or whatever) would be too much too soon. Especially if, in 20 weeks (at half price), everyone and their second cousin will buy a gold. Can you imagine what that will do to the ratios? Making prices higher also discourages quite a few people from saving up exclusively for golds, so the sales will be spread out more. Which means less of an impact on the ratios. And don't forget that it's the very same ratios that also influence how much a breed costs.

[HeatherMarie]

3 hours ago, olympe said:

#1: This doesn't really change anything. We'd still have to play for our currency just as we do now. Just renaming the currency won't change caps, either. Also, if you indeed proposed "do a little bit and get 1 bronze, do quite a bit to get 1 silver and do quite a lot to get 1 gold", it seems like all you want to achieve is circumventing caps. (I might misinterpret this, though.) And caps are there for a very good reason.

 

#2: Please don't. The caps are there so people are on an even playing field with a minimum of activity. Yes, this means that it will take a while before you can get (insert cool dragon here) from the market, but there's always cave hunting, too. The market isn't meant to give you every cool egg you might want at the snap of a finger, it's meant to help out player with little time/bad luck/slow internet/abysmal reflexes/other things that hinder their success in the cave.

The way your suggestion sounds you want to have your cake and eat it, too. Grind some, get everything from the market (instead of hunting) - but make sure to not get too many of any one kind. Grind some, get 2 golds, 2 silvers, 2 of each copper, who-knows-how-many Xenos//Zyus, 2 of each trio... all without saving up, but for grinding. Many of us enjoy DC for its simplicity and its laid-back style. Grinding, as you're trying to suggest this way, is the very opposite of that. Which is why I absolutely don't support this.

 

This this this. The point of the Market is *not* to replace hunting, it's *not* supposed to be the main way you get dragons, so being able to grind and get tons of dragons in a short time period very much defeats the entire purpose of the whole feature. While I'd be okay with raising the cap a little I definitely do not support no cap. Having no cap, again, defeats the entire purpose of the whole idea of 'earning shards by doing what you normally do, save up for a rare'. The Market is supposed to be an extra thing, a way to *eventually* get those rares that you've spent months and months hunting for with no luck. It's not supposed to be instantaneous. And I, like most people, am very very against the idea that grinding can get you everything immediately just because you have the time to do so.

Edited May 26, 2018 by HeatherMarie
typo

[silkalivedoll@gmail.com]

I have a problem (and I'm wondering if this is a bug or what), but I've got the Paper Dragon fully unlocked in my encyclopedia, but I keep getting this error in the market:

 

Please post any questions about the new features in the help forum in future. Thank you! ~ StormWizard212

Edited May 27, 2018 by StormWizard212

[Fuzzbucket]

Have you the EGG image unlocked in the encyclopaedia ?

 

If so - people seem to find that viewing one more egg does it.

[Shokomon]

40 minutes ago, silkalivedoll@gmail.com said:

I have a problem (and I'm wondering if this is a bug or what), but I've got the Paper Dragon fully unlocked in my encyclopedia, but I keep getting this error in the market:

 

From what I have observed, you need to have at least observed (meaning clicked in a hatchery or someone's scroll) one egg of the dragon's species before it is unlocked. You can find out how many eggs you have seen on the dragon's encyclopedia page.

 

However, if you feel like you have observed those eggs, yet STILL don't have access, then you should report it in the Help thread here:

 

I hope this helps.

[Auriene]

14 hours ago, Fuzzbucket said:

 Rewarding activity is one thing; rewarding me for being able to be on 24/7 because I am retired is quite another and very unfair.

 

Sorry, but that's not true, every game rewards - or should reward - players who spend more time playing and who put more effort in playing the game. Making people want to spend their time, effort or money on the game you created is one the basic goals of every game creator and to achieve that, you simply have to reward the most dedicated players. Spending a lot of time playing? Great, have a bonus. Spend less time playing? Play without a bonus and have fun, it's not like the bonus for dedicated players ruins your gaming experience. Plus, if you don't reward dedicated players, they often get bored and go somewhere else, where being a dedicated player pays off.

 

On DC, every players sticks to their own scroll, so I really don't see how the other player buying more eggs from the Market or earning more shards for spending more time on DC ruins your gaming experience. Does that prevents you from playing the way you want or what? Because for now, it's something along those lines: "I can't stand it when more active player gets more good stuff than me, I don't have so much time for playing, it's not fair!"

 

Edit: And yes, I know that many of those "it's not fair" voices come from the active players who spend a lot of time on DC. That doesn't change the fact that getting rewarded for your time and efforts, or wanting to be rewarded for your time and efforts, shouldn't be perceived as "unfairness". In my opinion, it's similar to reverse discrimination (discrimination against more active players, in favor of less active players).

 

Well, I think i'ts not fair for dedicated players to not be rewarded for their activity. I spend a lot of time playing, but I won't get any real bonus for that because... well, less active players won't like it? So what's the point of being more active than them? Log once a week, get as many shards as pretty much every other player here, spend them or save them, that's not encouraging from the point of dedicated player.

 

OK, enough of my rambling. I just wanted to say that I'm all for giving players a reward for spending significantly more time on DC - the ability to earn more shards. Maybe not from breeding dragons, as that would encourage throwing a lot of bred eggs to the AP, but for other actions - catching eggs, trading, maybe also for naming dragons, using BSAs etc. The ability to buy a temporal egg slot would also be awesome.

 

I'd also like to point out that Market prices are weird, in Trading Hub I saw people who wanted to trade Papers, Dinos or Trios for Silvers or Golds because their Market prices are somewhat similar. Those prices can be pretty deceiving, especially for newbies who hope to trade a Magma for a Gold.

Edited May 27, 2018 by Aurigena

[JavaTigress]

On 5/23/2018 at 8:24 PM, HeatherMarie said:

 

This exactly! The very *existence* of the Market means that things are suddenly actually *available* to people who previously had absolutely no hope of getting them at all. I've said before, almost 10 years of playing and I've only seen 1 CB Gold in the biomes. For people like that, who have *no* hope of getting certain rares otherwise, the Market is a wonderful amazing thing. I totally understand that some people might see 9 months as being too long to wait, but for those of us who have tried without success for *years*, 9 months is nothing. 9 months is welcome! 9 months is like 'omg, you mean in 9 months there is a *guarantee* I can get the thing I've been trying for for years?!!?'. It's awesome!

 

As for not buying anything else during that time, I've said it before: Priorities. If a CB Gold is important enough to you, make that the priority and save up those shards. If you'd rather buy something else sooner, do that. You have the choice, you have the freedom to decide what exactly you think is worth the time. If saving up without buying anything for 9 months isn't worth it, then don't. No one is forcing you. If you are like many others and have tried for *years* without success to catch a CB Gold, then waiting 9 more months shouldn't be all that horrible. 

AND isn't that how real money works, also?

 

Sometimes you have to decide what is important enough to you to spend it on?

[Meruru]

I have been playing this game for over 8 years, and never came close to even catching 1 gold, and with my dumb luck, average internet and slow reflexes sometimes just from the shock of seeing a gold pop up and it's already too late to grab

currently the only way for me to even hope for getting one that isn't bred is either:

 

1- you win the raffle and earn a prize (bonus points for gold prizes)

2- trade a neglected for one (which i rarely see nowadays)

3- becoming a sprite artiest and owning a spriter's Alt dragon for breeding (bonus points for holiday alts)

 

another way was to trade 2 silvers for one gold but that doesn't work anymore, i feel that silvers drop more often than golds since i managed to grab all of them myself which lowered there worth?

 

I have long since given up on gold hunting and it's the only CB dragon that I don't currently have on my scroll and my neglected experiments have failed me so far lol

so for a player like me, my only alternative is getting one through the market, I know that its not what the market was intended for but what choice do I have really?

back when it was just 1 cave without biomes everyone had a chance to grab one when it pops and now with 6 biomes while not knowing when 1 might pop up you will need incredible luck to be in the right biome at the right time which is extremely difficult.

 

i'm okay with the weekly cap and the high prices are understandable and currently it takes about 1 year to get 1 gold, my only worry is that when people manage to save up enough shards and everyone rushes to get one and then look at the price skyrocket! I really hope I don't have farm for 2-3 years for an egg T^T

and CB golds are more valuable to me than market ones.

 

[olympe]

3 hours ago, Aurigena said:

 

Sorry, but that's not true, every game rewards - or should reward - players who spend more time playing and who put more effort in playing the game. Making people want to spend their time, effort or money on the game you created is one the basic goals of every game creator and to achieve that, you simply have to reward the most dedicated players. Spending a lot of time playing? Great, have a bonus. Spend less time playing? Play without a bonus and have fun, it's not like the bonus for dedicated players ruins your gaming experience. Plus, if you don't reward dedicated players, they often get bored and go somewhere else, where being a dedicated player pays off.

(tbc)

DC isn't "every other game". DC is DC. And, unlike "every other game", DC is and always has been a game where everyone could play at their own pace. Besides, DC isn't meant for anyone to spend their money on, as there isn't anything you can actually pay for (unless you count the ad removal subscription). Being dedicated already pays off for many by being able to get more of the rare dragons that pretty much everyone wants. Also, DC and "every other game" seem to define "dedicated players" in a very different way. While "every other game" defines dedicated players as players as those with often excessive daily activity and often the willingness and ability to spend lots of money, DC's definition is different. Because DC rewards long-time players with at least a modicum of regular activity (weekly to monthly) more than any other kind of player.

 

Quote

On DC, every players sticks to their own scroll, so I really don't see how the other player buying more eggs from the Market or earning more shards for spending more time on DC ruins your gaming experience. Does that prevents you from playing the way you want or what? Because for now, it's something along those lines: "I can't stand it when more active player gets more good stuff than me, I don't have so much time for playing, it's not fair!"

(tbc)

Ratios. Ever heard of them? If the most dedicated players could get their golds first - and roughly at the same time, too - the ratios would be skewed so badly that later on, golds would be not only way more expensive, but also almost impossible to find in the biomes (for those who actually manage...) and just as impossible to breed. Which would serve nobody save for the very first to get there. But it would penalize more than 99% of all players.

 

Quote

Edit: And yes, I know that many of those "it's not fair" voices come from the active players who spend a lot of time on DC. That doesn't change the fact that getting rewarded for your time and efforts, or wanting to be rewarded for your time and efforts, shouldn't be perceived as "unfairness". In my opinion, it's similar to reverse discrimination (discrimination against more active players, in favor of less active players).

 

Well, I think i'ts not fair for dedicated players to not be rewarded for their activity. I spend a lot of time playing, but I won't get any real bonus for that because... well, less active players won't like it? So what's the point of being more active than them? Log once a week, get as many shards as pretty much every other player here, spend them or save them, that's not encouraging from the point of dedicated player.

OK, enough of my rambling. I just wanted to say that I'm all for giving players a reward for spending significantly more time on DC - the ability to earn more shards. Maybe not from breeding dragons, as that would encourage throwing a lot of bred eggs to the AP, but for other actions - catching eggs, trading, maybe also for naming dragons, using BSAs etc. The ability to buy a temporal egg slot would also be awesome.

First of all, save for breeding thousands of eggs for the AP or mindless combing through the AP (catch, re-abandon, rinse, repeat), there'd be a cap in place already. Because you can only hatch/raise so many dragons in any given time. Unless, of course, you trade for ER eggs or hatchlings. And, seriously, I wouldn't want to encourage either behavior because they're both mindlessly boring (=grinding) and might even have some negative consequences. Imagine what would happen if everyone bred every messy-lineaged dragon on their scroll because of shards.  *shudders*

Trading offers another loophole: You and your friend trade dragons, get shards. Trade the same dragons back, get shards. Trade the same dragon back again, get shards... Same for naming/renaming.

Other BSAs are pretty much acceptable, as they come with some kind of soft limit.