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UnicornMaiden

BSA Suggestion- Bodyguard/Escort

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There have been a lot of threads suggesting improvements to stop eggs from getting viewbombed in the Trading Hub. Some of the best ideas are centered around preventing an egg from gaining views while it is in the Hub:

 

https://forums.dragcave.net/topic/185122-prevent-items-in-trade-from-gaining-views/

https://forums.dragcave.net/topic/153851-fog-while-in-teleport/?tab=comments#comment-7635151

https://forums.dragcave.net/topic/183466-teleport-option-invisibility/?tab=comments#comment-9739007

 

I'd like to throw out a related idea for a BSA to do the same job. Being an optional BSA instead of a fundamental change to how the Trading Hub works means it would only affect people who choose to use it and would probably be easier to implement.

 

The BSA could have a name like Bodyguard or Escort. It would go to the Guardian Dragons since I think they'd be a perfect match and are common enough to be good as a BSA dragon. Their description even says, "Often, they will guard the eggs and hatchlings of a nest while others are away."

 

When used on an egg or hatchling the BSA would prevent them from gaining views for 24 hours. This way it wouldn't be a 100% guarantee, unlike options to turn off views altogether, but it would provide significant protection during the most vulnerable period. (People could either use it preemptively when they first put the egg in, or they could use it later if they notice the egg starting to gain an unhealthy amount of views and they don't want to take it out of trade to fog it.) Unlike fogging, people would still be able to see the egg and view its page, but doing so would not give it views. That way there would be no concern about trading blind. The action would only be able to be performed on eggs and hatchlings which are currently in trade, not on eggs or hatchlings which are not up for trade, so it wouldn't have any overlap with fogging.

 

When performing the action with a Guardian Dragon the message will be something like, "[Name of dragon] accompanies the egg/hatchling to the Hub to protect it."

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Support, but I would rather it be applicable to all eggs above 3d (like other BSAs). That way it can act as a preemptive measure when using hatcheries or to deter viewbombing, as well. In that case the message would be something more like

 

"[Name] shields the egg from view."

 

And on the egg's page, similar to how the Ward message appears at the bottom, would be

 

"This egg is being hidden from view by a Guardian Dragon."

 

I feel like an overlap with Fog is a nonissue, as Fog is immediate, unlimited, and indefinite; this would be a BSA action and thus be time-limited and limited to once per egg/dragon (in a specific time frame).

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This would work for me, too. Anything that prevents eggs in trade from being viewbombed into an early grave. RIP, little eggs.

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I like this idea much better than changing the basic mechanic of teleport. There are times when I actually want an egg in trade to get views.

 

I can't really think of any downside to this except for the need to collect a few Guardian dragons, which are easy enough to get. What would the cooldown be? Obviously a Guardian would only be able to guard one egg at a time.

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Brilliant - full support.

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I love this! Protects your eggs and makes Guardian dragons valuable! I'm so sad when I see the AP full of Guardian eggs, and I can only save so many! This would give people a reason to collect them. Get enough, and you could have a Guardian protecting your eggs at all times. 

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Support from me! Seems easy enough to implement and it makes a world of sense, both as a BSA and for the dragon it's intended for. 

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Ohh, what a great idea! Support. :) Would you be able to use a different Guardian dragon to protect the egg again once the first BSA wears off? (Just in case you're really paranoid about your egg? :lol:)

Edited by Aqub

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I think - like Ward - it would need to be a one shot deal.

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2 hours ago, Fuzzbucket said:

I think - like Ward - it would need to be a one shot deal.

Agree.

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11 hours ago, purplehaze said:

I like this idea much better than changing the basic mechanic of teleport. There are times when I actually want an egg in trade to get views.

 

I can't really think of any downside to this except for the need to collect a few Guardian dragons, which are easy enough to get. What would the cooldown be? Obviously a Guardian would only be able to guard one egg at a time.

 

 

Yes, each Guardian should only be able to protect one egg at a time. For cooldown I think one week would be good. Maybe two weeks? Most BSA cooldowns are either one or two weeks.

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Would a one time 24hr protection not defeat the whole anti viewbomb thing? It'll still be vulnerable after 24hrs, or still force people to watch things like a hawk/have them play around people who want to ruin your eggs. 

 

Also, can't one ward + put it in trade? Isn't that the same idea? After the effect wears off, still killable by viewbombing. I thought the point of this BSA would be to prevent that. 

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If the egg is 24 hours older when the protection is lifted then it is that much less likely to get sick. A six-day egg is much hardier than a seven-day egg. Also, 24 hours allows people time to do whatever real-life stuff they need (sleep through the night, spend the day at work or school) before they need to check in on the egg again. You don't need to watch like a hawk if you know the egg is safe until the same time tomorrow.

 

Blocking views permanently would have its own set of problems. If I have an egg up for trade I usually don't put it in any hatcheries because I don't want it to hatch and auto-cancel. However, if I have had an egg up for a few days and haven't gotten any offers I will put it in a hatchery to prevent it from dying. I still leave it in the hub in case any offers come in, but at that point I do want it to get views. There are plenty of instances where people might want to block views at first and then allow them.

 

This BSA would be more comparable to fogging than to Ward. Both the proposed BSA and fogging prevent the egg from acquiring any more views, but if it has racked up too many it can still die while fogged. Ward prevents the egg from dying for six hours, but it doesn't stop the views. An egg which is Warded can continue to receive a flood of unwanted views so it can't recover from sickness.

 

Also, Ward cannot be used on an egg which is in trade. You could Ward the egg, and then post it in the Hub, but then you are limited to only having protection for the first six hours that the egg is posted. If the egg is already in the Hub you can't use Ward on it without cancelling the trade.

 

Ideally I think that we should be able to use Ward on eggs that are in the Hub, but that's a topic for its own thread.

 

Sadly, nothing we can implement will be 100% guarantee against viewbombing so long as there are people whose lives are so empty that they best thing they can do with their time is devote it to trolling people online. The best we can do is minimize their opportunities.

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I actually don't see any harm in being able to Guard/Escort an egg multiple times in a row, granted that the first 24hrs has passed. Obviously you'd need multiple Guardians for that, but it's not going to break anything or give anyone an unfair advantage if they wanted to prevent views on an egg several days in a row without using Fog. 

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13 hours ago, UnicornMaiden said:

If the egg is 24 hours older when the protection is lifted then it is that much less likely to get sick. A six-day egg is much hardier than a seven-day egg. Also, 24 hours allows people time to do whatever real-life stuff they need (sleep through the night, spend the day at work or school) before they need to check in on the egg again. You don't need to watch like a hawk if you know the egg is safe until the same time tomorrow.

This reasoning only works if eggs actually are that hardy once they're 24h older. I'm paranoid enough about my eggs that I wouldn't trust them "out in the open" even when they're 24h old, but I understand that might just be me. I just don't have any data on eggs. Once I'm not egglocked anymore, I could try to kill an egg that's 6d old.


I understand your reasoning, I'm just.. not completely convinced eggs are safe after those 24 hours, that's all.

 

Quote

Sadly, nothing we can implement will be 100% guarantee against viewbombing so long as there are people whose lives are so empty that they best thing they can do with their time is devote it to trolling people online. The best we can do is minimize their opportunities.

Also I do not agree with this, because obviously a longer protection could be implemented, in theory sickness could be removed as a mechanic by TJ, etc. etc.... I feel like we shouldn't aim too low when we're talking about thwarting trolls. Maybe 100% is impossible, but right now the percentage is WAY too low.

 

I do agree that protection shouldn't be forever if it's not able to be canceled in some way. So either some sort of cancel (if it would be a very long protection), or like hazeh said, multiple Guardians for multiple 24hrs of protection.

 

I'm neutral on the idea so far, though I do agree something should be changed. I will report back when I tried killing an egg I guess 🤷‍♀️ :lol:

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I am not really a fan of trying to patch over the larger issue of viewbombing with a partial sort-of-fix which also requires collecting other dragons.

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Back to report that just stuffing a 6 day left egg into all hatcheries doesn't seem to kill it. But, viewbombers don't only use hatcheries - so I don't know how useful this piece of information is anyway... 😐

 

I remain neutral on this suggestion, mostly because of this:

 

On 6/2/2019 at 2:43 PM, osmarks said:

I am not really a fan of trying to patch over the larger issue of viewbombing with a partial sort-of-fix which also requires collecting other dragons.

 

But if TJ doesn't want to change the way sickness works, I'd rather have this suggestion over nothing.

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Been thinking about different possibilities...

 

Like I said above, there are a lot of reasons not to make the protection permanent. People will often want to protect an egg from views at first and then allow them. The 24-hour protection was my first idea, and I still feel like it would work well that way, but some other ideas have come up here.

 

Should the protection be able to be repeated? If you protect your egg for 24 hours and then still feel that it is in danger should you be able to use another Guardian on it? Repeated protection would give the BSA more flexibility, but I don't know if I see much need for it. Repeating the protection would require multiple Guardians because when the protection ends the first dragon would be on cooldown.

 

My initial idea for 24 hours was thinking that people have real-life things to do and should be able to sleep through the night and spend the day at their job or at school. I kind of feel like if the protection can be repeated then it seems like the 24 hours is too generous. But people shouldn't be obligated to check their scrolls multiple times a day to head off trolls.

 

Alternatively, should it work more like Fog? You can keep an egg fogged for as long as you want. Should the Guardian be able to protect the egg for as long as you want? And if so should the egg be able to be guarded again if you remove the protection?

 

I think the difference between these possibilities should affect how the Guardian's cooldown works. Let's say cooldown is one week. If the protection is a set 24 hours then I think the cooldown should start at the time the action is performed. The Guardian would spend one day protecting the egg and then six days on cooldown. If the protection has no time limit then I think the cooldown should start when the Guardian is taken off duty. The Guardian could spend two or three days protecting the egg, and then it would need a full week after that for cooldown. Otherwise a person could have one Guardian protecting an egg for five days, complete the trade, and then only wait two more days before using it again. That would kind of defeat the purpose of the cooldown.

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Full support, though I am not convinced that eggs should be able to be guarded again beyond 24hrs, as this could serve as an extra incentive to be proactive with trading. Want to trade your egg and have it safe while you go out for a short while? Fine. Want to leave it gathering offers for half a week? That's fine too, but you're gonna have to watch it more closely.

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11 hours ago, Vaatzes said:

Full support, though I am not convinced that eggs should be able to be guarded again beyond 24hrs, as this could serve as an extra incentive to be proactive with trading. Want to trade your egg and have it safe while you go out for a short while? Fine. Want to leave it gathering offers for half a week? That's fine too, but you're gonna have to watch it more closely.

 

I very much agree with this (I have had a trade offer up for DAYS now, and am annoyed....)

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