Weather influence?

[Fuzzbucket]

Not really - he does a very fine job.

[absofacto]

@Fuzzbucket

im not sayin hes bad at it im just sayin its prolly a huge workload

[Moonwick]

I know that this isn't really in the same world as a game like DC, but this reminds me of something on World of Warcraft. You can only catch this one specific monkey pet on an island if it is raining there. It also reminds me of Pokemon Go weather!

 

In theory I think this idea is pretty cute, immersive, and fun. However, I have a feeling that it might not sit well with most users because of it being completely out of their control. Any mechanic that takes time (like waiting for a rainstorm to end, or a blizzard to subside) would probably turn a lot of users off, including myself. For me, it's because this game takes time in general. Catching stuff takes time, breeding stuff can take time, and building lineages take time. It would be disheartening to have to wait for weather to fade.

 

I can only think of one solution. Would this work if it was done in 5 minute increments? Since the biomes reset every 5 minutes, would it still be complicated if weather only lasted as long as that? For example, you go to a biome and see that it is raining, but you can at least know that it would fade after the biome resets. (Possibly have it set so weather can occur/change a certain amount of times every hour?) Dunno, might still be complicated, but that's one thing I can think of.

 

Reading through the breeding ideas, though, I think they sound a lot easier to handle. That way you can still have the immersive idea of weather and lose much of the complication.

 

There still might be a few things that would have to be taken into consideration though, I'm sure.=)

[TJ09]

On 8/16/2018 at 1:59 AM, RealWilliamShakespeare said:

Not gonna lie I actually really like this, it’d definitely be interesting and fun!

 

However, I feel like that might be a lot of programming for TJ. Atm, as far as I’m aware, the rarities are somewhat linear - I imagine there are a certain amount of rarities and each dragon falls under a specific one, instead of every single dragon’s drop being individually designed. That’s what it seems like to me, especially since we have stated rarities like cave-blockers being extremely common, and Golds being extremely rare and everything. As such, I imagine individually coding everything to have very specific and different numbers under a huge variety of weather conditions would be a lot of work! And probably something TJ wouldn’t be too willing to do, quite understandably tbh.

 

So while it is an awesome idea which I think is cool, I don’t particulalr think it’d go down well unfortunately. It fits in well on other websites, but perhaps not DC 

 

There is a fair amount of flexibility in how things are implemented. As others have pointed out, we have a dragon that "transitions in waves," and other dragons that do fancy things like move biomes from time to time, etc.

 

9 hours ago, Tesla said:

I can only think of one solution. Would this work if it was done in 5 minute increments? Since the biomes reset every 5 minutes, would it still be complicated if weather only lasted as long as that? For example, you go to a biome and see that it is raining, but you can at least know that it would fade after the biome resets. (Possibly have it set so weather can occur/change a certain amount of times every hour?) Dunno, might still be complicated, but that's one thing I can think of.

 

Reading through the breeding ideas, though, I think they sound a lot easier to handle. That way you can still have the immersive idea of weather and lose much of the complication.

 

There still might be a few things that would have to be taken into consideration though, I'm sure.=)

 

I do imagine that frequency of changes can definitely be tuned in a way that it minimizes the impact on peoples' plans. Time scales are already mixed up in weird ways: day/night + moons follow Real World time, but years of dragon growth are condensed into about a week.

 

It really depends on what types of weather-created effects would be fun and interesting. I'm not sure if small surges in dragon rarity would even be noticeable if not pointed out to people?

[Moonwick]

3 hours ago, TJ09 said:

I do imagine that frequency of changes can definitely be tuned in a way that it minimizes the impact on peoples' plans. Time scales are already mixed up in weird ways: day/night + moons follow Real World time, but years of dragon growth are condensed into about a week.

 

It really depends on what types of weather-created effects would be fun and interesting. I'm not sure if small surges in dragon rarity would even be noticeable if not pointed out to people?

 

Would it be any different if it wasn't specific types of weather, but rather the intensity? It's not hard to imagine the weather a biome would have. Such as the intense heat of the desert, it could make certain dragons appear more or less often than others. You could go through only three levels of intensity: Mild, Moderate, Severe. When you enter a biome, there could be a small, non-intrusive icon to tell you the intensity of the weather. If you click on the icon, it could also tell you more information about what dragons could be appearing more or less often.

 

Really I don't know though it still sounds complicated but maybe I'm just tired?

Edited August 20, 2018 by Tesla

[StarlightLion]

In terms of affecting the drop rate of dragons in the cave, I think the only way this could work in a non-aggravating manner would be if it specifically targeted rare dragons, making certain breeds more common in certain weather conditions (whether by individual weather conditions or severity of biome weather). And in the end, I think that's a lot of programming work that TJ just isn't going to want to do, especially now that the Marketplace is a thing.

 

That said, I *love* the idea of having scroll-based weather for each individual user that we could use to manipulate our own dragons. Most likely in the form of BSAs for certain dragons (Storms making it stormy, Frostbites/Ices giving snow (or even a frost condition for Frostbites that has a different effect), Embers of Hellfires starting fires, Magmas making different geothermal conditions) and really the options are endless. Especially if each condition only lasts for an hour (or less) or until a new weather condition is triggered.

We could even do things like have Moonstones affect the moon and allow out of rotation breeding of Lunar Herald or Lumina colours - have the Chronos have the ability to get out of season Seasonal breeding's, or Fire Gems in the wrong hour. And with those it could even be a compound effect; repeated use of the Chrono BSA pushes time forward another increment until it wears off or you use a different weather condition. (ie, it's Summer now so one use gets you Autumn breedings, two gets you Winter, three gets you Spring - and same logic applied to Heralds and Firegems).

 

Ooh, I love the idea of having BSA affected scroll-specific weather.

[Kaini]

22 hours ago, Ninjakittee said:

In terms of affecting the drop rate of dragons in the cave, I think the only way this could work in a non-aggravating manner would be if it specifically targeted rare dragons, making certain breeds more common in certain weather conditions (whether by individual weather conditions or severity of biome weather). And in the end, I think that's a lot of programming work that TJ just isn't going to want to do, especially now that the Marketplace is a thing.

 

Yea, honestly I'd hate to have weather increase cave-blockers, but having say... a storm roll through that increases your chance of finding rares would actually be really cool and exciting imo?

 

Maybe each biome would have two states; a normal state and a more rarely seen 'extreme weather' state where rares appear more often. So, MOST of the time the biomes would be normal, but occasionally one has a weather event (like a blizzard in the alpine) that increases rare drops for an hour or so. Wouldn't happen super often, maybe a couple of times a day, and only one biome at a time.

[StarlightLion]

@Kaini Yeah, I think that would be an awesome little addition - it adds an element of fun to the Cave that experienced hunters can play around with, but it doesn't inconvenience inexperienced hunters any with another mechanic they MUST learn in order to effectively play.

[DragonLady86]

The problem with anything that makes rares easier to be found is that they then have a disproportionately long time of not being anywhere because the ratios have to catch up.  See: golds/silvers drop like commons for couple hours creating years worth of no shows even in breeding.  What was it three years, four? before the ratios adjusted back?

[Fuzzbucket]

God yes.... That's just the kind of reason I don't like that idea.

[HeatherMarie]

9 hours ago, DragonLady86 said:

The problem with anything that makes rares easier to be found is that they then have a disproportionately long time of not being anywhere because the ratios have to catch up.  See: golds/silvers drop like commons for couple hours creating years worth of no shows even in breeding.  What was it three years, four? before the ratios adjusted back?

 

This, yes.

 

While what happened years back with the golds/silvers was very extreme, *anything* that makes rares show up more often then normal will have to have something to counter-balance that, ie them showing up *less* often then normal all other times. So, if some weather event makes rares drop, say, 10% more often then they normally would, to make up for that they'd have to drop that much *less* during the 'regular' weather.... Which means that anyone who's not lucky enough to be hunting during the small window of the weather event will be even worse off then normal when hunting those rares. Unless 'ratios' are basically completely redone, which it seems like that's never going to happen, any upswing *will* cause a downswing, and frankly that's a bigger 'con' then any 'pro' I've seen in this thread.

[olympe]

Well, the ratios could be re-done, in theory... But anything that affects them long-term is a bad idea indeed. I, too, remember a metal drought or two or - well, you get the idea. Thanks, but no thanks.

[RealWilliamShakespeare]

Yeah, I rather agree with the last few comments that have been posted.

 

While I suppose it would be cool to have them appear more frequently, in the long run it wouldn’t really be fair. Imagine being away from the internet for the length of time the storm happened and realising you missed all the rares, and then having to wait an age for the ratios to even return to normal! Tbh I don’t really see much point in raising the frequency of rare drops. Like, they’re rare for a reason

[TJ09]

Just curious: what if there were some minor incentive to grab eggs during certain weather? Maybe something small like a different biome label ("Coast (storm)") or even maybe they behave differently for biome-based breeding?

[blockEdragon]

11 minutes ago, TJ09 said:

Just curious: what if there were some minor incentive to grab eggs during certain weather? Maybe something small like a different biome label ("Coast (storm)") or even maybe they behave differently for biome-based breeding?

That would be great! Breeders everywhere would rejoice and it would just be cool for the rest of us.

[DarkEternity]

22 minutes ago, TJ09 said:

Just curious: what if there were some minor incentive to grab eggs during certain weather? Maybe something small like a different biome label ("Coast (storm)") or even maybe they behave differently for biome-based breeding?

What about legendary dergs only findable during specific weather?

Pretty interesting tho

Edited August 29, 2018 by DarkEternity

[HeatherMarie]

34 minutes ago, TJ09 said:

Just curious: what if there were some minor incentive to grab eggs during certain weather? Maybe something small like a different biome label ("Coast (storm)") or even maybe they behave differently for biome-based breeding?

 

How I'd feel about that would depend on the length and frequency of the weather events. I still think that making breeds more common during random weather events, and thus less common then normal all other times, doesn't seem like it would be much fun. Especially if the weather events are short in length and/or sporadic, random or unpredictable... Biome-hunting is already highly based on being at the right place at the right time, adding even more randomness and limitations to it doesn't sound all that great. I can't help but think that, *especially* if weather-event eggs behaved differently, everyone who isn't lucky enough to be there when this random weather event happens will be left out in the cold and probably rather frustrated over it. Now, if the weather events were predictable, like the moon cycles or something, that'd be a different story. 

[Fuzzbucket]

4 hours ago, TJ09 said:

Just curious: what if there were some minor incentive to grab eggs during certain weather? Maybe something small like a different biome label ("Coast (storm)") or even maybe they behave differently for biome-based breeding?

 

It would need to be very predictable. Many of us can't be on 24/7, and - Time Zones. I don't feel it would be fun at all, I have to say. Like HeatherMarie, I think:
 

Quote

everyone who isn't lucky enough to be there when this random weather event happens will be left out in the cold and probably rather frustrated over it

 

 

I REALLY don't think we need any more randomness.

[Aalbiel]

5 hours ago, TJ09 said:

Just curious: what if there were some minor incentive to grab eggs during certain weather? Maybe something small like a different biome label ("Coast (storm)") or even maybe they behave differently for biome-based breeding?

 

I think a breeding mechanic based on parent's weather would run into a lot of frustration from the userbase. However the different biome label idea seems like a great idea to me! It's enough incentive to make it a bit fun, yet not big enough that people would feel "left out" if they aren't able to spend much time in biomes to make sure they're around for weather events.

Edited August 29, 2018 by Aalbiel

[DarkEternity]

Weather's the one random thing that should be random, though. The forecast might be right most of the time but hardly always. 

[HeatherMarie]

Just because something is random in real life doesn't mean it's a good idea for a game. We already have *plenty* of randomness in this game in general, from specific breed colors (Nebulas and Gemshards anyone?) to breeding outcomes to what shows up in the biomes during the small amount of time most people have each day to hunt. Adding even more randomness just because it's realistic isn't a great idea, and will most likely only be frustrating instead of fun for the majority of the userbase. 

 

If the only thing that 'weather events' affected was, say, a different biome label, that's a lot less frustrating and game-changing then, say, actually affecting how often the breeds drop or how they breed.

[Kaini]

I would want it to be random, not predictable. There'd be no point to it being weather if it were predictable. Randomness is an intrinsic part of the game... it'd be no fun if spawns were predictable and golds showed up at exactly 4:00 every day, you know?

 

It would just have to be executed in a way that didn't cause problems when it popped up so it wouldn't be too frustrating.

[HeatherMarie]

3 minutes ago, Kaini said:

I would want it to be random, not predictable. There'd be no point to it being weather if it were predictable. Randomness is an intrinsic part of the game... it'd be no fun if spawns were predictable and golds showed up at exactly 4:00 every day, you know?

 

It would just have to be executed in a way that didn't cause problems when it popped up so it wouldn't be too frustrating.

 

Do you have any idea how it could be done so it wouldn't cause problems? Because currently I see plenty of frustrating problems, first and foremost that any increase in uncommon/'rare' dragons dropping due to weather would naturally mean a decrease in them dropping any other time, which would lead to tons of frustration for all those who weren't on at the random-weather time. And if those weather-event dragons breed differently, as per TJ's post, that would cause yet more frustration for all those who weren't on during that random time. 

 

Imo, there is a very big difference between the general randomness of biome hunting, and the proposed randomness of weather-events that will make biome hunting even harder the rest of the time, while making it easier for those lucky few who are on at that time. I dunno, I see the 'cave-hunting' randomness as something that has *always* been, but I see no reason to *add* even more randomness.

[olympe]

Hmm, I think TJ's idea does have some merit, although I'm still unsure about how things are supposed to work out. But the main thing I think is needed is a schedule, where the weather doesn't change more often than daily. (Yes, I know it's not realistic, but from a gameplay perspective, it might be a good thing. Because everyone who logs in daily will have a chance to grab "special weather stuff".)

 

If each biome had one kind of "normal weather" assigned to it and there's no real overlap between biomes, I could see this working. Like (for example), if storm was assigned to coast, and any breed with the biome label "desert (storm)" could breed either like a desert-based breed or a coast-based breed (because storms are most typical for coasts), it could work out. Especially if the weather at breeding time is also taken into account for bred eggs. (Yay!) Another thing we'd probably get is weather-based breeds. It could also affect seasonals. Get an out-of-season blizzard, find some out-of-season winter seasonals. That kind of thing.

[Pilauli]

Here's another thought:  what if we have weather events for each of the elements?  During that weather event, dragons with that elemental affinity would be more common.  For example, with a "life" weather event, Black Teas would be more common in the desert.  And if you breed, say, a Vine to a Black, you'll be more likely to get a Vine egg than you would otherwise.  Of course, if you breed a Vine to a Black Tea, the "life" weather event doesn't change the likelihoods at all.  I suppose several of the metallics have elemental affinities, but (especially with a significant base rarity difference), it would (hopefully) be a small enough difference to not throw ratios off too badly.

 

Second another thought:  each dragon is already designated as creation, change, or destruction for the Avatars, right?  What about corresponding weather types, increasing the chances of getting eggs of the aligned breeds?  Something like gentle rain, thunderstorm, or heat wave (with clear being the default) might work.  Maybe they could even allow you to get an Avatar of Whatever with a wrongly-aligned parent, if you really want to get an Avatar of Creation from a GoN and a Vine, or something.

 

"Another thought" 3: maybe the weather could influence the chances of matching the parents' breeds.  For example, in a storm, the offspring is more likely to match the father's breed, while sunshine makes the offspring more likely to be the mother's breed.  This would also be rather relative, so if you breed a male Silver to a female Mint during said thunderstorm, you'll still probably get a Mint.

 

For weather prediction, the obvious choice is an Aeon Wyvern.  Of course, they already have a BSA.  I suppose they could have an option, something like "choose a growing dragon to predict the future of or click the button at the bottom of the page to predict tomorrow's weather."  Alternatively, maybe something with antennae (oh, or a balloon!) could sense changes in air pressure and analyze what they mean.  Or maybe something like that holiday event with the option to push the bar towards one or the other end, only each user with at least one of a certain type of dragon could cast one vote, and the first weather type to get to a given number of votes could be the weather type for the rest of the day.  (If the weather types can be arranged into pairs of opposites, there could be half as many bars as weather types, too.)  This would allow the users to influence the weather, as opposed to the other way around.  It would also ensure that most weather lasts for less than a day.

 

Apologies for the wall of text.  Too many ideas .