2018-07-29 - July Dragon Release (Part 2)

[Mangrit]

I like the mysteries too. 👌 my favourite parts of this game is the speculating, comparing data etc. The sheer teamwork you're forced to do. I really appreciate it. I like a lot of the "annoying" rules to be honest. 

[Stellalunastorm]

Man. Y'all complain quite a bit. Just play the game and be happy. It's not a huge deal. The sprite colors thing is such a minor inconvenience. You have the whole rest of the time that you play this game to collect all of them.

[Aalbiel]

Honestly, people are going on about how it's a collecting game so it should be easy. Do you know how  hard collecting is? In real life, unless you're collecting something with a very small pool, you'll likely never get /all the things/. It's as much about having as it is about obtaining in the first place.

 

Zombies are ridiculously hard to get and - do I wish the odds were slightly increased? Sure, it's frustrating to have a success rate that's hovering around 5%. But I'd sooner have it be this hard than have it be a sure thing.

[VixenDra]

26 minutes ago, Seriva Senkalora said:

 

But how boring would this really simple game be, if everything is known and follows the same, predictable rules?

 

But how enfuriating all those forced exclusive mechanics are, and how much they ruin certain playstyles, and completely discriminate any kind of a patterned goal? It's not fun nor interesting. What holds people on DC is NOT releases of new and completely not-needed breed-specific mechanics and what all the breed-specifics are doing is to cause frustration. Not to mention they are never explained and theories are never confirmed... People still don't know what's the Lumina breeding mechanic about, it's all STILL just a theory... I personaly am fed up with green Spinels: https://dragcave.net/progeny/HwUbg (many of the greens were killed by those who caught them, the disproportionis in fact bigger) and many other things... nearly all of which have to do with this kind of rule-breaking mechanics.

Those new rule-breaking mechanics will sooner be the reason for people to leave than to stay:/ (honestly, since Sinomorphs I'm on the verge of quitting all the time, if it weren't for all the time I invested into DC before that, I'd have surely insta-left.)
 

Edited July 31, 2018 by VixenDra

[Nagapie]

So has anyone hatched another one yet now that it's after 8am DC time? I'm really curious to see if it's any different. My own eggs still have min 23h left.

[Quinney]

All green was a surprise.  An even bigger surprise was that I managed to catch four more on my phone on the way home from work!

 

This is going to be interesting...

[Seriva Senkalora]

No one NEEDS to stay and play a game he/she dislikes.

 

Honestly the most anooying thing on this game is the whining and complaining in the forums.

That's why I'm not really active here and spent most of my time reading instead of writing.

Think I'll go back to this and enjoy my dragons and the collecting.

[Jazeki]

13 minutes ago, Nagapie said:

So has anyone hatched another one yet now that it's after 8am DC time? I'm really curious to see if it's any different. My own eggs still have min 23h left.

Someone mentioned that they saw a green hatch slightly after 8.

 

And sure, real life collecting is hard (I spent hundreds of dollars on Pokemon cards and beanie babies), but this is DC with pixels. I don't doubt I'll get everything. It's just frustrating to me.

Edited July 31, 2018 by Jazeki

[Vict]

11 minutes ago, Nagapie said:

So has anyone hatched another one yet now that it's after 8am DC time? I'm really curious to see if it's any different. My own eggs still have min 23h left.

you could go check the hatcheries, and any hatchling in the egg section probably hatched recently, and if there's still only green ones, then the color didn't swap at 8:00

[Laura-Borealis]

It's funny to me that I bought into the biome theory of the colors so quickly (and seems like it was nearly unanimous, most of us believed it without really questioning our assumptions). Now we realize we're wrong and 😱 

 

But honestly I don't have the interest or energy to experiment and track the colors and times and all that. I'll leave it to minds who are engaged by that sort of puzzle.

 

I agree that the fact that the theories about Luminas, etc. have never been confirmed is demotivating.

[Eeveecat1248]

16 minutes ago, Vict said:

you could go check the hatcheries, and any hatchling in the egg section probably hatched recently, and if there's still only green ones, then the color didn't swap at 8:00

 

I just checked Silvi’s Lair. I haven’t seen anything but green.

 

I find this mystery element pretty fun, but I wish the creator would give us a hint. I do imagine it will be pretty satisfying to figure it out though.

[Minkee]

These are adorable!!

 

I'm not gonna stress too much over it, I'm thinking green may just be the base color. Once they grow and start breeding, we will figure it out!! 

[Lantean_Pegasus]

1 hour ago, Alrexwolf said:

tbh for a game where all you can do is collect sprites and breed them, i... expect to be able to catch whatever (non-holiday) sprites i want and breed them whenever I want.

 

I should not have to do research every time I want a certain dragon sprite or a certain pair to produce certain offspring. Random is fine - it is what it is. But making me jump through hoops/keep calendars and clocks just to try to get a bunch of pixels is silly. 

Ridgewings, Gemshards... I'm ok with random alt mechanics, or breed only alts. It's a chance. I can still breed them whenever I like to whatever I like and end up with the result I want eventually. I don't have to remember a million different nuanced things for them.

 

1 hour ago, Jazeki said:

Ok, honestly. This game is pretty boring even with unpredictable elements. I love DC. I'm happy whenever we get releases (even surprise ones). But at the end of the day, it exists for collecting sprites. Sure, you can breed and do other stuff, but all of the actions tie into collection. I'd rather it stay boring and easy. It's not fun for everyone to make calendars or monitor threads or whatever else.

 

I beg to differ.

This game doesn't just "exist for collecting sprites". At least not solely. And yes, it is about collecting sprites and breeding them. But that doesn't imply that you can catch OR breed anything you want at any time you want.

I'm sure there are games out there that meet this criteria. BUT...

 

This is Dragon Cave. No more, no less.

It is a game about collecting sprites, some of them at any given time, others only at specific times of the day/month/year. Some of them are very easy to get, others very hard.

It is also a game about breeding said sprites to each other. (If it wasn't, there wouldn't be mechanics to do so.) Again, some of them at any given time, others only at specific times (like holidayxholiday). Some of them are very easy to breed, others very hard (commons vs. rares, for example). And some breeding results can only be achieved by breeding at specific times.

These "mystery mechanisms" (or whatever people may call them) are an inherent part of the game called "Dragon Cave", have been for quite a long time now. So when you decide to play DC, you decide to play a game with certain rules and mechanisms. You can like or dislike them, sure, but you can't just declare that those rules and mechanisms have no place in this game, just because other games that share some elements (like sprite collecting) don't have them.

Doing some "research", as you call it, is also part of the game. Like feeding your critters is part of other games. Though I must say, with the forums and the wiki in place, all you have to do is using about 5 minutes to look up any given mechanism, and then proceed accordingly.

DC never said anywhere "get anything you want at any time you want". On the contrary, it uses a variety of mechanisms you have to take into consideration. Like time and view limits (minimum/maximum) on hatching and growing, cooldown for breeding and BSAs, dragons that appear/hatch/breed differently by time of day/month/year.

That's the game it is, those are the rules and mechanisms it has. If it didn't have all this, it would be another game.

 

***

 

So, the new mystery mechanic...

 

What options do we have:

- Time of Day (hour or day/night) when caught or when hatched

- Moon phases

- Seasons

- Use of (specific?) BSAs

- Biomes (seem to be out as single factor)

- Elements (not sure how they could figure into this, though)

- Scroll trophies (quite sure that won't mix in, but it came to mind)

- Combinations of any of the above

 

Looking at all that (and not finding it very helpful):

What if every dragon just goes through all the colours with time ?!

Like the Nocturnes (Oh, same spriter, look at that ! 🙂 ) Only with another timeframe than day/night. Maybe weekly ? So one week they are green, then they are blue, then purple, then green again and so on...

Or maybe, instead of weeks, the moon phases come in here. Seasons seem unlikely, because there are four of them, and only three colours. And three different colours during the day (day/night/dawn&dusk) seem a bit much.

That would be quite cool, I think ! (And it would give all colours as CBs despite all hatching green right now.)

 

 

Edited July 31, 2018 by Lantean_Pegasus

[Eeveecat1248]

*claps* Well said!

[Nagapie]

52 minutes ago, Vict said:

you could go check the hatcheries, and any hatchling in the egg section probably hatched recently, and if there's still only green ones, then the color didn't swap at 8:00

 

Thanks for the hint! I should have thought of this myself.

[purplehaze]

28 minutes ago, Laura-Borealis said:

But honestly I don't have the interest or energy to experiment and track the colors and times and all that. I'll leave it to minds who are engaged by that sort of puzzle.

 

That is what I love about this forum! There are enough people who love a good mystery and are willing to work toward the solution and then share it with the rest of us so we don't all have to figure it out for ourselves! I feel sorry for those who do not use the forum when such things come up.

 

@Lantean_Pegasus As usual, you are the voice of reason.  

[scalesofgrey]

My eggs are caught a day later after release day. Hoping for a 3-day hatch time rotation so I can fog/unfog as needed!

[Jazeki]

@Lantean_Pegasus you're kinda just declaring what DC is as well. I never said anywhere that I could have whatever, whenever. I can probably get everything I need  because I can trade. I said it was focused around the sprites--collecting them, making lineages based on how they look, gameplay that shifts away from battles or minigames and the like, very little onsite reading, etc.

 

I don't mind mechanics, but I'd rather not have to dedicate time to a calendar or research or whatever else the rest of DC finds entertaining.

 

And clarification: DC is inherently boring to me. But I've been playing for nine plus years and I don't mind that it's that way.

 

 

 

Edited July 31, 2018 by Jazeki

[Fawkesian]

easy with the drama, y'all!

this is a game, and if you're not enjoying it, you can always take a break - i certainly have!

 

but color me intrigued, the chirpy hatchlings don't get their color based on biome? mine hatch in six hours - eager to see whether they're all green or not.

[angelicdragonpuppy]

I think people are just seeing the game inherently different ways.

 

95% of my time on DC, aside from special cases like holidays, probably comes in the form of quick 5 minute sessions. DC is pretty simple and not exactly highly interactive, so there’s not much to make me stay longer. So while things like Lunar Heralds and Dark Luminas SOUND like cool mechanics, when you get a Dark Lumina in your previously reliable Lumina lineage for two months straight, or miss a Lunar Herald window and have to wait three weeks to try again... it’s annoying. I already have some pairings I’ve been trying to get to cooperate for a LITERAL YEAR, so when you add extra conditions on top of it...

 

And that’s just talking about the more reasonable mechanics, to say nothing of Fire Gems and Gemshards (completely arbitrary, and Gemshards in particular are a nightmare—having an only 1/3 success rate and wasting time every set of the way is NOT FUN in a pick up and go game), Aegises (where a single button pressed by another user can ruin your lineage, but you have no choice but to rely on others due to arbitrary scroll limits), Solstices (had a dumb twist unaccounced in the first year, ruined literally half of people’s once a year breeding plans, got zero remorse from the spriter about needlessly tripping people up). 

 

I like DC. But as life goes on and real life gets ever more busy for me, a lot of mechanics in an otherwise simple game that tend to make me lose time are a little irksome. Obviously some feel differently, but that’s how I feel. Interesting obtaining mechanics are cool in theory, but the majority seem designed to just cause annoyance.

[Jazeki]

I think ADP hit the nail on the head for what I'm getting at. Exciting mechanics are more often tedious than not.

[Clark_Kent]

To those asking about post 8am: I had an egg hatch at midnight as green and another at 9am as green aswell, both from different bioms.

 

I'm glad to see im not the only one surprised by all the green. I wonder if its the same glitch that had all of the hatchies on page one hatch the same colour too. And if so, will 2/3rds of our collective hatchies be changing colours :0

[Sazandora]

Eh, I'm not a huge fan of all these breeding gimmicks that are seemingly introduced for no reason, other than to have dumb gimmicks annoying everyone. But I like all the colors the new dragons have, green and purple particularly.

 

But the pygmies... I can already say I'm not a fan. They looked kinda... off when they were at stage 1, now at stage 2 they look even worse. Only time can tell what my final opinion will be, but so far, not so good. They don't look much like dragons to me, that's probably my biggest problem with them.

[VixenDra]

26 minutes ago, angelicdragonpuppy said:

I think people are just seeing the game inherently different ways.

 

95% of my time on DC, aside from special cases like holidays, probably comes in the form of quick 5 minute sessions. DC is pretty simple and not exactly highly interactive, so there’s not much to make me stay longer. So while things like Lunar Heralds and Dark Luminas SOUND like cool mechanics, when you get a Dark Lumina in your previously reliable Lumina lineage for two months straight, or miss a Lunar Herald window and have to wait three weeks to try again... it’s annoying. I already have some pairings I’ve been trying to get to cooperate for a LITERAL YEAR, so when you add extra conditions on top of it...

 

And that’s just talking about the more reasonable mechanics, to say nothing of Fire Gems and Gemshards (completely arbitrary, and Gemshards in particular are a nightmare—having an only 1/3 success rate and wasting time every set of the way is NOT FUN in a pick up and go game), Aegises (where a single button pressed by another user can ruin your lineage, but you have no choice but to rely on others due to arbitrary scroll limits), Solstices (had a dumb twist unaccounced in the first year, ruined literally half of people’s once a year breeding plans, got zero remorse from the spriter about needlessly tripping people up). 

 

I like DC. But as life goes on and real life gets ever more busy for me, a lot of mechanics in an otherwise simple game that tend to make me lose time are a little irksome. Obviously some feel differently, but that’s how I feel. Interesting obtaining mechanics are cool in theory, but the majority seem designed to just cause annoyance.

 

In general I'm adding Sinomorphs (completely screwed all hatchling goals, even of as little as 1 per breed), Spinels (this speaks for itself - note people who caught their green offspring killed some and in fact more greens were born than survived, this is just broken especially since greens are supposed to be the 'occassionally born': https://dragcave.net/progeny/HwUbg), GoNs with their limits (6 should be the very minimum - there are 3 Avatars, one could choose to have 6 adults for good, unrelated base for Avatar pairs, or Grow 3 adults 1 per Avatar and freeze 3 if they collect hatchlings, or 2 adults, 2 gendered and 2 ungendered hatchlings... Or, like me, go 5 and don't summon the 6th, also many people collect 2 pairs per breed and could stop at 4... so many scroll patterns are imposible... ), holidays with their single genderness and limit of 2(Aegis is a good example of how bad it went, it's a combo of forced 'interesting' mechanics')...

Edited July 31, 2018 by VixenDra

[Syiren]

2 hours ago, Stellalunastorm said:

Man. Y'all complain quite a bit. Just play the game and be happy. It's not a huge deal. The sprite colors thing is such a minor inconvenience. You have the whole rest of the time that you play this game to collect all of them.

It's not so minor when you try to obtain the other colors and depending on the color you hunt people in trading ask for nearly impossible and unfair things in return, simply because they know how much you want them. I remember when a dragon released that had other colors people in the trading sections were wanting CB golds, silvers and 2G prizes in return. only after everything died down was it easier to find, but its still not easy for those with slow internet.

 

Thankfully I have high-speed internet now, but a month ago I would've still been hunting on my phone and I don't think I would have fared as well. No one wants to complain. We love this game. I've had my scroll for over 5 years. Of course, we enjoy a good challenge, but we also want a challenge with reasonable goals. If you run a race, you know where the finish line is, but it becomes a little unfair if someone keeps moving said finish line. (not a very good comparison, but hopefully you get my point.)

 

And before anyone possibly thinks I might be a little sore about this, (which I'm not) know this;  in my five years of hunting in the cave, I have never caught my own CB silver or Gold, but I enjoy the hunt and cannot wait for the day when I finally do catch my own. The ones I currently own have been gifted or traded by wonderful people on this forum.

 

As for these dragons. I am eagerly waiting to see what the adults will look like, and hopefully the breeding/color pattern will be explained by then. Who knows? Maybe they'll end up being like the Stripes, where they're all born one color and their eggs change depending on the color of the mate?

Edited July 31, 2018 by Syiren