Changes/clarifications for on-site Help section

[HeatherMarie]

I was randomly re-reading the Help sections on DC (I was bored!) and found multiple things that I think could use some tweaking. 

 

In the Introduction there is this: There are over 90 different kinds of dragon to collect

While not inaccurate, we now have over 200 different breeds, I feel like changing the 90 to 200 would be more enticing to new users.

 

Under 'Stealing an Egg' there is this for abandoned eggs: If you click on the message, you will see all of the abandoned eggs and hatchlings

This seems misleading, since the 30 visible eggs in the AP are certainly *not* 'all' of the abandoned ones. More accurate would be 'you will see many (or 'some') abandoned eggs and hatchlings' or somesuch. 

 

Under 'Egg Limits' is the one I personally find most frustrating: 

It is important to note that dead eggs and hatchlings will still count toward any limits for up to 24 hours following their death.

This is just not accurate. 'Dead' eggs do not count towards limits. *Killed* eggs do. An egg dying from sickness or neglect will not count towards limits. Earthquake, the 'Kill' action, and Biting, those are the instances where an egg will count towards limits. 

 

Under 'Actions', we have this for 'Abandon': Can be performed on: Eggs, unnamed hatchlings

I believe there was a recent-ish change here, I just checked and it seems named hatchlings can be abandoned. 

 

None of these are urgent of course, and I'm sure there are some other things I missed, but this is what happens when I'm bored at work. 

 

[Shadowdrake]

+1. The dead thing is definitely frustrating bc it's totally incorrect. Adding this caveat onto the actual help text for the Kill action would be great too.

[Sazandora]

Throwing in my support as well.

[olympe]

Seems like a good idea. I'll probably look at the help section later today to see if there's something else that deserves to be changed.

[GhostMouse]

12 hours ago, HeatherMarie said:

 

In the Introduction there is this: There are over 90 different kinds of dragon to collect

While not inaccurate, we now have over 200 different breeds, I feel like changing the 90 to 200 would be more enticing to new users.

Maybe just, "There are hundreds of different kinds of dragon to collect" ? That would remain relevant even if/when we reach 300 breeds. Just a thought.

I agree that all of these should be made more accurate. New players (or current ones looking for clarification!) should be able to count on the official information on the actual website.

And I had no idea named hatchlings could be abandoned now! I wish that had been announced somewhere (unless it's a mistake?)

[RealWilliamShakespeare]

Definitely supporting this! Accuracy is always important, especially when it could confuse people.

[olympe]

Okay, some more things that might be clarified:

From the Intro:

• Alpine: Dragons that like high altitudes tend to be found in these mountainous areas.

You'll also find dragons there that like it cold. 

 

Sometimes other users decide that they don’t want to raise a particular egg or hatchling. Those that decide to give away their eggs and hatchlings will abandon them to a pile outside the cave.

Uh, the times of eggs piling up in front of a single cave are fortunately long gone.  

 

If you visit the cave when one or more eggs or hatchlings have been abandoned, you will see a message mentioning a pile of abandoned eggs. If you click on the message, you will see all of the abandoned eggs and hatchlings. Click on one of these to pick it up. However, abandoned eggs and hatchlings may be near death, so you should check the timer below the egg or hatchling before grabbing it.

The cave, again.  And when - ever since the AP stopped blocking the cave/biomes - has the AP ever been empty? (But yes, it's true that there was no message when there was nothing in the AP.)

 

Also, we have "stealing an egg" and "raising an egg" twice in help - and both sets of links link to a part of the content of "Site Introduction".

 

The BSA page deserves several updates.

• Fertility should have a reference to lowered risk of refusal.
• Earthquake should warn you that it always affects all your eggs - no exception!
• Teleport should mention the in-cave marketplace.
• What about Trio-Summon and Zyu-Summon, Splash, Enrage/Pacify and Bite?

 

Freezing limits:

Can be performed on: Unfrozen hatchlings.

Usage Limitations: Can be performed 18 (10 + 2 per trophy level) times per 2 weeks.

Come again?

 

Kill action:

Killing an egg, hatchling, or adult will cause it to die and eventually be removed from your scroll. This action is not always successful and hatchlings or adults may resist your attempts to kill them.

"Killing" an egg can also result in an "accidental" hatchling. If you're lucky, you get to keep the hatchling. If you're not, the hatchling escapes to the AP.

 

Revive action:

The revive action has a small chance of bringing a dead dragon back to life. If it fails, then the dragon is permanently dead

There's also the small chance of reviving the dragon as an undead... The most coveted result of all.

 

About Sickness:

I'd love to see a little note about the Ward BSA.

 

Breed limits:

If you are at the limit for a breed of dragon, you will not be able to grab any eggs of that breed from the cave or abandoned page

We only have breed limits for three things: The newest Holiday dragons (Winter and V-Day only), GoNs and Leetle Trees. The most common two (leetles, GoNs) can't be abandoned, as far as I know.

 

I also miss some of the newer features in the help section. The trading hub, the market and shards, the encyclopedia (hidden behind "Account") and how these three tie in with each other. Maybe even one of the very old features - the forums.

Edited August 23, 2019 by olympe

[Shadowdrake]

2 hours ago, olympe said:

Freezing limits

I imagine the "18" changes to whatever is applicable (10 for level 0/trophyless, 12 for level 1/bronze, 14 for 2/silver, 16 for 3/gold, 18 for 4/plat).

 

2 hours ago, olympe said:

There's also the small chance of reviving the dragon as an undead

That's probably an Easter egg/surprise for players and therefore not alluded to, since I see Expunge isn't in help either.

 

 

And updating the help page to include the relatively newer features would be nice.

[pinkgothic]

5 hours ago, olympe said:

Usage Limitations: Can be performed 18 (10 + 2 per trophy level) times per 2 weeks.

 

Possible suggestion for a wording here:

"Usage Limitations: Can be performed x times per 2 weeks at your current trophy level. A higher trophy level will let you freeze more dragons (2 per trophy level)."

 

e.g.

"Usage Limitations: Can be performed 14 times per 2 weeks at your current trophy level. A higher trophy level will let you freeze more dragons (2 per trophy level)."

 

And when maxed out:

"Usage Limitations: Can be performed 18 times per 2 weeks at your current trophy level."

 

(I'd explicitly add the "at your current trophy level" so people don't unwittingly paste information to their friends that ends up being wrong for them.)

[Stromboli]

5 hours ago, olympe said:

Sometimes other users decide that they don’t want to raise a particular egg or hatchling. Those that decide to give away their eggs and hatchlings will abandon them to a pile outside the cave.

Uh, the times of eggs piling up in front of a single cave are fortunately long gone.  

 

If you visit the cave when one or more eggs or hatchlings have been abandoned, you will see a message mentioning a pile of abandoned eggs. If you click on the message, you will see all of the abandoned eggs and hatchlings. Click on one of these to pick it up. However, abandoned eggs and hatchlings may be near death, so you should check the timer below the egg or hatchling before grabbing it.

The cave, again.  And when - ever since the AP stopped blocking the cave/biomes - has the AP ever been empty? (But yes, it's true that there was no message when there was nothing in the AP.)

 

I believe "The Cave" refers to the starting location presented on the site's homepage, which is where the abandoned pile is located.

 

Quote

The Cave
You enter the cave and see many large dragons scattered about, some with hatchlings, sleeping on piles of gold.

...

Near the entrance to the cave, there is a huge pile of abandoned eggs. If you don’t want the dragons inside to die, you can take one of those instead.

 

[Rememberdrgns]

8 hours ago, olympe said:

The BSA page deserves several updates.

• What about Trio-Summon and Zyu-Summon, Splash, Enrage/Pacify and Bite?

Bite shows, but Corporealise doesn’t. 

[olympe]

11 hours ago, Shadowdrake said:

I imagine the "18" changes to whatever is applicable (10 for level 0/trophyless, 12 for level 1/bronze, 14 for 2/silver, 16 for 3/gold, 18 for 4/plat).

That might be true, though.

 

11 hours ago, Shadowdrake said:

That's probably an Easter egg/surprise for players and therefore not alluded to, since I see Expunge isn't in help either.

It's actually here, between Earthquake and Fertility:

 

Expunge

https://dragcave.net/images/riFY.png

Can be performed on: Undead Dragons

Usage Limitations: Once per 31 days per dragon

Expunge permanently removes an undead from your account. The removal is immediate.

 

5 hours ago, Rememberdrgns said:

Bite shows, but Corporealise doesn’t. 

Where? Couldn't find it by looking at it three times. Or did you mean the "available for BSA filter"? Which is true, I suppose. 

It's also more than just true that I forgot about "Corporealize".

 

Still, both the help section *and* the "available for BSA" filter don't show Trio summon (unless it does when you haven't reached your limit yet?), Zyu Summon, Corporealize, Enrage/Pacify... I think that's all of them.

[HeatherMarie]

Big *BUMP*!  I really wish this was more of a priority, it really doesn't look good for the site to have vague/confusing/downright incorrect information on their 'Help' pages, especially when it comes to Newbies trying to understand everything!

 

I'm quoting some of the stuff that's been posted that is still unchanged:

 

On 8/22/2019 at 5:07 PM, HeatherMarie said:

Under 'Stealing an Egg' there is this for abandoned eggs: If you click on the message, you will see all of the abandoned eggs and hatchlings

This seems misleading, since the 30 visible eggs in the AP are certainly *not* 'all' of the abandoned ones. More accurate would be 'you will see many (or 'some') abandoned eggs and hatchlings' or somesuch. 

 

Under 'Egg Limits' is the one I personally find most frustrating: 

It is important to note that dead eggs and hatchlings will still count toward any limits for up to 24 hours following their death.

This is just not accurate. 'Dead' eggs do not count towards limits. *Killed* eggs do. An egg dying from sickness or neglect will not count towards limits. Earthquake, the 'Kill' action, and Biting, those are the instances where an egg will count towards limits. 

 

Under 'Actions', we have this for 'Abandon': Can be performed on: Eggs, unnamed hatchlings

I believe there was a recent-ish change here, I just checked and it seems named hatchlings can be abandoned.

 

 

On 8/23/2019 at 1:45 PM, olympe said:

 

 

The BSA page deserves several updates.

• Fertility should have a reference to lowered risk of refusal.
• Earthquake should warn you that it always affects all your eggs - no exception!
• Teleport should mention the in-cave marketplace.
• What about Trio-Summon and Zyu-Summon, Splash, Enrage/Pacify and Bite?

 

I also miss some of the newer features in the help section. The trading hub, the market and shards, the encyclopedia (hidden behind "Account") and how these three tie in with each other. Maybe even one of the very old features - the forums.

 

(bolding last part of olympe's post for emphasis) That didn't really occur to me, but yeah. In general it just seems like the Help pages have more or less stayed the same for years, and there is a *lot* of new (fairly important) features that just aren't mentioned at all. Personally I think the Help section is just outdated in general and could use a complete overhaul, but I'd very much prioritize simply correcting false information and adding the newer features that have become a fairly big part of the game.

[Shokomon]

On 8/23/2019 at 4:45 PM, olympe said:

The BSA page deserves several updates.

• Fertility should have a reference to lowered risk of refusal.
• Earthquake should warn you that it always affects all your eggs - no exception!
• Teleport should mention the in-cave marketplace.
• What about Trio-Summon and Zyu-Summon, Splash, Enrage/Pacify and Bite?

I remember having a thread about adding the Summon dragons to BSA list that addressed that part.

Basically, the "Summon" BSA is supposed to be a surprise that players are to find on their own. So, it probably won't come up there.

 

As for Splash, that's a joke BSA, so I'm not sure it warrants an entry. It's more fun to have a player stumble upon it and try it to rather than to outright tell them you get a badge if you use it. but maybe something like this to point towards that fact (since not everyone is on the forum):

Quote

Splash

This BSA doesn't do anything, but maybe after enough tries...

Idk

 

Enrage/Pacify only changes the sprite of a single dragon, so I'm not sure it warrants an entry there either. It's not something that needs to be known to play the game well.

 

Bite, though...maybe? It does allow you to reproduce Vampires, but at the same time, it just basically function as BREED, but for Vampires. Maybe putting it under breeding as a caveat would make more sense? Or maybe a reference like "Some dragons need to reproduce by other means" if you want to be all mysterious. 

 

On 8/24/2019 at 1:12 AM, Rememberdrgns said:

Bite shows, but Corporealise doesn’t. 

I don't see "Bite" on the help page?

 

Also, Coporealize also only effects a single dragon, and while it does affect gameplay, it's only for that specific breed of dragon. So, I'm not sure it warrants an entry either. Maybe, if multiple dragons start using Coporealize, then it would be more relevant. 

--

 

On a side note, it looks like a lot of the requested changes have been put into effect now in some way.