New Biomes

[olympe]

I must admit the idea is kind of inspired by Pokémon games. There, you need to have Pokémon with certain abilities (swimming, flying, scaling waterfalls, smashing rocks...) in order to proceed to new areas of the map. I simply tried to translate this to DC.  

[Bloommist]

Probably why I loved the idea so much I'm a massive pokemon fan

[High Lord November]

I would love new biomes that are accessed specially. There are different ways to do it.

 

One way is for each biome to be paired with an 'alter biome'. For example, Coast could feature dragons that tend to live in rivers and near the surface. Coast has an alter biome, "Deep sea", which you need to use that "affinity-based action" (ASA) to access, and you get switched over. It would feature deep sea dragons. Alpine could have a Sky alter biome. Jungle could have a Swamp alter biome, Forest could have a Plains alter biome, etc.  The difference between the base page and the specialized page would be the art and the dragon pools, and could maybe allow for more rare dragons and special collectables

 

Another way is to only allow for one special biome to be active at a time. It would be like having a blank biome page, which you could change to Deep Sea or Plains etc, through an ASA. 

 

Or we could just have two different rows of eggs on a page... so on the "Coastal" page, we'd have one row being eggs that are found near the surface and in rivers, and the other being Deep Sea eggs.

Edited February 23, 2020 by High Lord November

[Bloommist]

I think the alter biome sounds really good that way if you have the dragon it's a simple add on (well I assume simple I really have no idea) and choice to ho the the special biome, it could all tie in nicely I think 

 

Also more beautiful page artwork is always a bonus 

Edited February 23, 2020 by Bloommist

[Stromboli]

On 2/22/2020 at 9:29 AM, Ruffledfeathers said:

I don’t think anyone has pointed out extra biomes would affect zombies as well- there would more to collect with more biomes. 

 

Undead dragons only have to do with morphology, not area of origin. Unless new biomes meant adding new body types, it wouldn't affect undeads.

 

I wouldn't mind new biomes. Sub-biomes to the current ones could be kinda cool. Don't know that I'd want to have a bunch of actions to "activate" them and have to switch them on and off though.

 

seasonal biomes could get really fun

Edited February 23, 2020 by Stromboli

[purplehaze]

1 hour ago, Stromboli said:

Undead dragons only have to do with morphology, not area of origin. Unless new biomes meant adding new body types, it wouldn't affect undeads.

The only thing affected by the area of origin is the design of the tombstone, which is only pertinent to CB Undeads. Each biome has its own unique tombstone.

[Stromboli]

ohhh thas right. i forgot about that feature. 😬

[Fuzzbucket]

10 hours ago, Stromboli said:

 

seasonal biomes could get really fun

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO And what about the Antipodes ?

[Stromboli]

We already have breeds that migrate depending on the season. I think it'd be cool to have biomes that explicitly react to seasons. Like dry scrubland that becomes a lush floodplain in the spring and attracts a different crop of dragons than usual.

[Fiona]

My biggest concern with adding a bunch of new biomes is how much it would spread the existing players out. I think one of the reasons biomes already don't move much is because there's so few people in each to take eggs. If we spread the hunters out even further would they move at all?

[olympe]

3 hours ago, Fiona said:

My biggest concern with adding a bunch of new biomes is how much it would spread the existing players out. I think one of the reasons biomes already don't move much is because there's so few people in each to take eggs. If we spread the hunters out even further would they move at all?

Valid question.

 

But, honestly, unless there's a new release or it's the week after, the biomes pretty much don't move at all, and we all depend on the 5-minute-shuffles. Adding more biomes won't change that for the worse. However, more biomes does mean more eggs visible, meaning more choice of different breeds.

 

When Biomes were created, we had a little over 60 different eggs in the cave. (Not counting holiday eggs, alts, color morphs, hybrids, GoNs or neglecteds for obvious reasons.) Now, there are 50+ different breeds in each of our biomes, and Jungle and Forest are populated by 70+ different breeds. (Yes, I know that there are breeds which aren't exclusively in one biome. This doesn't change the fact that our chances of even finding a common CB are... not very good. Not within an hour, at least.)

 

I'd much rather see a suggestion for 1-minute-shuffles instead of the 5-minute-shuffles we currently have to alleviate the non-moving problem than wait for another decade to add more biomes.

[High Lord November]

Seasonal biomes would be fun!

 

One-minute shuffles would be nice, but I don't know how intensive that would be on the backend.

[aussieJJDude]

On 2/25/2020 at 4:57 AM, High Lord November said:

Seasonal biomes would be fun!

 

One-minute shuffles would be nice, but I don't know how intensive that would be on the backend.

Not really. just change the code to shuffle it from 5 minutes to 1. Say the code was 

Shuffle @ xx.05 , all TJ would have to do is change it to xx.01 and it should work really. 

[Keileon]

3 hours ago, aussieJJDude said:

Not really. just change the code to shuffle it from 5 minutes to 1. Say the code was 

Shuffle @ xx.05 , all TJ would have to do is change it to xx.01 and it should work really. 

I don't think HLN means difficulty in coding, I think they more mean the impact on the server and thus the site's performance. It's seemed to be struggling for a while lately as it is.

[Naruhina_94]

On 8/17/2018 at 11:55 AM, RealWilliamShakespeare said:

Zyus would create much more of a problem. You need all of them to get a Sino, and if more were introduced, it’d be unfair on the people who don’t yet have a Sino as they’d require more dragons to summon, meaning the people who got a Sino when there were only 5 Zyus get an unfair advantage.

 

If there were more biomes introduced, I don’t think Xenos and Zyus should get more variations because of this problem. I mean, it isn’t that unbelievable that a creature with multiple variations isn’t available across the whole of the nation, so it wouldn’t be too bad I don’t think. 

 

To solve this problem I think would be great if each Biome would transform in 2 biome-subtypes. Xenos and Zyus would belong to the original main Biome even if there are more areas to explore.

 

Here I introduce how would i like to see them sorted:

 

Alpine could double as Artic and Mountain   -> Artic being the true cold climate like north pole/tundra and Mountain being just mountain environment with trees like pines and stuff.

 

Coast could double as Marine and Coastal -> Marine open ocean and deep sea and Coastal being rapresentative of any kind of shore (think of sand, rocks and cliffs)

 

Desert could double as Grasslands and Desert -> Grasslands are plains, savannah without many trees while Desert is a very arid biome, either covered in sand or in plain dry earth.

 

Forest could double as Woodland and Rivers/Lakes -> Woodland would be any kind of temperate forest, rich of vegetation Rivers/Lakes is the biome for Freshwater breeds and includes swamps.

Jungle could double as Tropical and Clouds* -> Tropical is the jungle we all imagine now, with long lianas pending and Tarzan swooping Clouds would allow a new concept in game: floating islands in the sky! REFERENCE LINK

 

Volcano could double as Volcanic and Underground -> Volcanic is the area of active volcanos, geysers and dry land with sulfur clouds and rivers of magma. Underground is a Biome dedicated to deep earth creatures who barely go out of deep tunnels and caves. Amazing deep giant caves filled with crystals and bioluminescent plants and shiny stalactites, but it's extremly hard to reach them due to an inctricated dark labyrint of tunnels that connects them to the surface.

 

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Edited October 8, 2020 by Naruhina_94

[Keileon]

Or dragons like Zyus, Xenos, and Coppers could simply not be in those new biomes.

[olympe]

I think that "no extra Zyus/Xenos/Coppers" is one possible option - maybe some breeds can be found in all of the biomes, maybe there's a new biome that hosts all of them. Whichever.

Another option, should new Zyus be introduced, could be to make Zyu Summon use any 6 different kinds of Zyus available. Where there's a will, there's a way.

[Bloommist]

I think the biomes doubling up in to sub biomes would work rather well then that way everything is covered and it would spread a lot of breeds out in cave, as previously mentioned olympe some biomes have many breeds in them already and they get somewhat clogged  like Forrest this subspliting would allow more room to spread and be more realistic world play overall and probably give more inspiration to new and forthcoming breeds

 

P.s. I really wish the cloud biome could exist 

Edited April 26, 2020 by Bloommist

[Fuzzy_Blip]

Sub biomes sound awesome

[Fuzzbucket]

I would worry rather about the effect of extra biomes on players using mobile devices, who often come here to say that they cannot see everything as it is.

Edited May 23, 2020 by Fuzzbucket

[olympe]

15 hours ago, Fuzzbucket said:

I would worry rather about the effect of extra biomes on players using mobile devices, who often come here to say that they cannot see everything as it is.

This can be alleviated quite simply. Instead of a row with links to all biomes, just make one point to tip that offers a drop-down menu with links to all biomes. 

 

Another thing is that I don't necessarily want to see 6 new biomes implemented at once. That'd probably be overkill, and quite a few interesting kinds of biomes would need lots of new creatures to fit in. But adding 1-2 at a time, maybe in a year - I think that might work.

 

And I'd totally love if TJ involved the community - first via a discussion of what biomes we'd like to see, and what kinds of dragons we'd expect to find there. (Maybe, just maybe add requirements for how to reach them. I personally prefer a temporary unlock (1 hour? 1 day?) via BSA of several adequate breeds.) Maybe, at a later stage, TJ could ask us or especially the artists what would suit them best/what they'd be most interested to work on. Then make an announcement similar to the recent Egg Hunt events where he asks for art to be submitted. Unlike the eggs, however, I think a *subforum* in DR for the requested biome(s) only would be in order so newer artists have some back-up if they want to join. And, yes, I'm well aware that this won't happen quickly, it'd probably take 6 to 12 months from start to finish. And, yes, quite a few breeds could be (partially) migrated to the new biomes if they fit in.

 

"Easy" to implement biomes (IMHO) would be biomes that could literally be split from existing biomes that are quite full of dragons. Grasslands is probably the one that would need the fewest extra breeds (and might eventually be split into steppe/savannah for dryer climates and meadows for more humid climates) could contain a lot of breeds from both Jungle and Forest, and probably a few more from the Desert.

 

Of course, there are also some "natural" biomes that could be added:

• Arctic/Frozen/Ice Shield - a true "cold" biome that is dark a lot of the time. This would also allow us to turn Alpine into a true Mountain biome that, while mostly cold, could be more of a space for height- and rock-loving dragons.
• Wetlands that include all freshwater-based wet areas - riversides, lakes, swamps and the like. (Could mostly be split from Coast, which currently contains everything in and around the water.)
• Probably also (eventually) Wastelands, Hills...

Some more exotic places that are still quite natural:

• Underground. Cave-dwellers of all kinds, also dragons that live in underground lakes/rivers. Since it's eternally dark there, they'd have to either be (almost?) blind or have to have really big eyes to catch even the littlest bit of light from whatever source there can be - bioluminescent fungi or dragons or... And, yes, bioluminescence could also be a major thing.
• Remote islands/small continents. Think of Australia, New Zealand or Madagaskar. Some really different dragons could have developed there. Maybe there's one remote island that has lots of two-headed or pygmy breeds on it (island dwarfism is a thing!). Maybe we could have an island that is mostly inhabited by dragons with fairy wings / insectoid wings (faewings? flutterwings?) that might or might not be their own breeding group. (Please include them in the existing groups, though!) Maybe there could be a small island that always gets flooded when both moons are either full or new, and the dragons living there have developed some amphibious traits. Think of all kinds of creatures that spend a lot of their life inside the water, but also a lot of time outside - seals, penguins, marine iguanas, base something of coelacanths or even crabs... You get the idea.

Magical or fantasy biomes:

• Sky/Floating Islands: For height- and sky-dwelling breeds. The islands would probably be their nesting grounds, though, since eggs don't usually float around. (Unless they're balloon eggs, that is.)
• Magical Wasteland. Run wild with your lovecraftian dragon ideas!

[Bloommist]

8 minutes ago, olympe said:

This can be alleviated quite simply. Instead of a row with links to all biomes, just make one point to tip that offers a drop-down menu with links to all biomes. 

 

Another thing is that I don't necessarily want to see 6 new biomes implemented at once. That'd probably be overkill, and quite a few interesting kinds of biomes would need lots of new creatures to fit in. But adding 1-2 at a time, maybe in a year - I think that might work.

 

And I'd totally love if TJ involved the community - first via a discussion of what biomes we'd like to see, and what kinds of dragons we'd expect to find there. (Maybe, just maybe add requirements for how to reach them. I personally prefer a temporary unlock (1 hour? 1 day?) via BSA of several adequate breeds.) Maybe, at a later stage, TJ could ask us or especially the artists what would suit them best/what they'd be most interested to work on. Then make an announcement similar to the recent Egg Hunt events where he asks for art to be submitted. Unlike the eggs, however, I think a *subforum* in DR for the requested biome(s) only would be in order so newer artists have some back-up if they want to join. And, yes, I'm well aware that this won't happen quickly, it'd probably take 6 to 12 months from start to finish. And, yes, quite a few breeds could be (partially) migrated to the new biomes if they fit in.

 

"Easy" to implement biomes (IMHO) would be biomes that could literally be split from existing biomes that are quite full of dragons. Grasslands is probably the one that would need the fewest extra breeds (and might eventually be split into steppe/savannah for dryer climates and meadows for more humid climates) could contain a lot of breeds from both Jungle and Forest, and probably a few more from the Desert.

 

Of course, there are also some "natural" biomes that could be added:

• Arctic/Frozen/Ice Shield - a true "cold" biome that is dark a lot of the time. This would also allow us to turn Alpine into a true Mountain biome that, while mostly cold, could be more of a space for height- and rock-loving dragons.
• Wetlands that include all freshwater-based wet areas - riversides, lakes, swamps and the like. (Could mostly be split from Coast, which currently contains everything in and around the water.)
• Probably also (eventually) Wastelands, Hills...

Some more exotic places that are still quite natural:

• Underground. Cave-dwellers of all kinds, also dragons that live in underground lakes/rivers. Since it's eternally dark there, they'd have to either be (almost?) blind or have to have really big eyes to catch even the littlest bit of light from whatever source there can be - bioluminescent fungi or dragons or... And, yes, bioluminescence could also be a major thing.
• Remote islands/small continents. Think of Australia, New Zealand or Madagaskar. Some really different dragons could have developed there. Maybe there's one remote island that has lots of two-headed or pygmy breeds on it (island dwarfism is a thing!). Maybe we could have an island that is mostly inhabited by dragons with fairy wings / insectoid wings (faewings? flutterwings?) that might or might not be their own breeding group. (Please include them in the existing groups, though!) Maybe there could be a small island that always gets flooded when both moons are either full or new, and the dragons living there have developed some amphibious traits. Think of all kinds of creatures that spend a lot of their life inside the water, but also a lot of time outside - seals, penguins, marine iguanas, base something of coelacanths or even crabs... You get the idea.

Magical or fantasy biomes:

• Sky/Floating Islands: For height- and sky-dwelling breeds. The islands would probably be their nesting grounds, though, since eggs don't usually float around. (Unless they're balloon eggs, that is.)
• Magical Wasteland. Run wild with your lovecraftian dragon ideas!

I agree with all of this, nothing has to be done straight away and getting it right will take time and effort, YES, but I do think we would benefit to new biomes some of the ones we have are crowded and it will only help enhance and expand game play and the world the game is set in as a whole.

The game can still be as nice and simple as it already is just with a few added bits to explore, even if like olympe said the new biomes are accessed temporarily with BSA and times it would be really fun and will only inspire new amazing breeds to be designed and new descriptions to write.

 

Personally I would love love fairy dragons to be a thing on the site- small dragons with fairy/ insect wings they could be small and dainty and very colourful it would be amazing in my opinion 

 

I've also always wondered what else is out there in this wonderful imaginative world what haven't we yet discovered what else wastes us, the good thing about this game is people can play kind of how they like, you can collect, breed and build lineages, create descriptions and build up wonderful worlds to an extent having more inspiration of a bigger setting will only expand and help and if that's not your thing as it is peoples every right it won't change to much by adding in biomes.

I do think the current biomes limit us a little dont get me wrong I'm very very grateful for what we have and mabe I'm just being greedy but more diversity and having more accurate settings to find eggs would just add more realism and enhanced immersion to the game, I feel for example splitting coast up would really work not all the current watery dragons are found along the coast we would benefit like mentioned above having riverside and lakes.

Yes it will disrupt things and yes some breeds may move or have the possibility to move we could just leave them where they are and slowly add new breeds over time, I agree all this adding and potentially switching may be confusing or irritating at first especially for long established breeds were long time players have come to know them there but mabe there are ways around this or maybe it's just worth it in the end.

 

I mean come on who doesn't want a tiny miniature populated island or cool underground caverns to find eggs it just sounds so cool 

Anyway that's just what I think, I believe olympe makes some really good points here and I agree that although things a great as they are this would make a lovely addition to DC

 

 

[RealWilliamShakespeare]

Definitely agree with both Bloommist and Olympe! I think it would be a lovely addition to the site, as well as allow a place for Faeries! Something like "Grove" that could maybe only be accessed by BSA would be really cool  Also maybe something that's stated as being close to a human settlement? I think it would be really cool for some species who have a sort of symbiosis with humans, and I like the idea of some dragon species being more like pigeons where they're more "urban" than others!

Edited May 24, 2020 by RealWilliamShakespeare

[Bloommist]

I like the urban idea that sounds cool it could also work with some domesticated breeds mabe a wild counterpart and a domesticated one like wolves and dogs

 

Also living the grove idea I wish we could make faerie dragons happen