Don't make Secret Releases

[VixenDra]

The June official release news post is... a disaster!

I hate that we can't have an official RELIABLE source of information of how many breeds are released, at elast for cave-dropping ones!

 

Why do we need to rely on luck, third party site (wiki) or wasting time for reading through many pages of user-made comments?! it's...

 

as if I needed any more stress in my life, now I need to add "can't rely on the news thread to infrom me how many breeds I need to get from cave, June 2020 can happen again anytime", well "thanks":/

 

 

 

  

3 minutes ago, VixenDra said:

why on Earth was my comment made into a separate topic? like I didn't want to be an OP of any topic in the forum nowadays, ESPECIALLY in suggestions...
Whoever did this, why didn't you make your own thread and just quoted me instead? 😕

Hence I won't partake in the discussion.

PLEASE DON'T QUOTE ME for this thread, I'm not interested in a flood of pings for a thread I didn't even make

 

Edited July 1, 2020 by VixenDra
the title someone gave this was misleading, and next time don't open a thread for me, amke your own:/

[Pixxelation]

22 minutes ago, VixenDra said:

The June official release news post is... a disaster!

I hate that we can't have an official RELIABLE source of information of how many breeds are released, at elast for cave-dropping ones!

 

Why do we need to rely on luck, third party site (wiki) or wasting time for reading through many pages of user-made comments?! it's...

 

as if I needed any more stress in my life, now I need to add "can't rely on the news thread to infrom me how many breeds I need to get from cave, June 2020 can happen again anytime", well "thanks":/

intentional secrets are fun! dragons are permanent. you'll get one 😄

[Fuzzbucket]

Quite. The OP said there was a new dragon in every biome; the extra one was just a surprise. To everyone equally.

[HeatherMarie]

I do think this release could've been handled better, a 'mystery' unannounced new breed is nothing new to DC but I think it would've been better received by the userbase if there had been *some* official communication about it at some point. Maybe after the flood, or within 24 hours, or whatever, *someone* (spriter/TJ/mods) could just post confirming that it was on purpose, planned this way, etc. I think a large part of the opposition to this release was centered around simply not *knowing* what was going on, at first it seemed the 'flow' egg was a hybrid, then CB, now apparently in the cave *and* bred? A lot of us thought it was a glitch, too, like the early release of the 'gusty' breed that ended up being changed to the 'correct' breed... So we really had no idea if we'd even be allowed to keep these 'mystery' eggs. 

I personally don't see this release negatively, but all of the frustration of so many users probably could've been avoided with a simple confirmation at some point. 

[Paintra]

7 minutes ago, HeatherMarie said:

I do think this release could've been handled better, a 'mystery' unannounced new breed is nothing new to DC but I think it would've been better received by the userbase if there had been *some* official communication about it at some point. Maybe after the flood, or within 24 hours, or whatever, *someone* (spriter/TJ/mods) could just post confirming that it was on purpose, planned this way, etc. I think a large part of the opposition to this release was centered around simply not *knowing* what was going on, at first it seemed the 'flow' egg was a hybrid, then CB, now apparently in the cave *and* bred? A lot of us thought it was a glitch, too, like the early release of the 'gusty' breed that ended up being changed to the 'correct' breed... So we really had no idea if we'd even be allowed to keep these 'mystery' eggs. 

I personally don't see this release negatively, but all of the frustration of so many users probably could've been avoided with a simple confirmation at some point. 

 

This is very much how I feel about it. The radio silence was frustrating, and I sympathize with people who were upset by the release. I personally believe that if the "flow" egg was dropping in the initial flood, people would have seen the description and go, "that's not quite right," and news would have spread faster and there would have been less room for misinformation.

 

One thing I do not understand is the frustration from the community towards the fans compiling the info? Wiki contributors have just as much access to the DC site as regular users do.

[Fuzzbucket]

10 minutes ago, Paintra said:

One thing I do not understand is the frustration from the community towards the fans compiling the info? Wiki contributors have just as much access to the DC site as regular users do.

 

Very much this.

[olympe]

43 minutes ago, Pixxelation said:

intentional secrets are fun! dragons are permanent. you'll get one 😄

I hope they'll be available in the market, then. Because I haven't seen a single one of the "surprise breed" in either biome, much less caught one.   (On the plus side, I actually *saw* a gold.)

[Pixxelation]

6 minutes ago, olympe said:

I hope they'll be available in the market, then. Because I haven't seen a single one of the "surprise breed" in either biome, much less caught one.   (On the plus side, I actually *saw* a gold.)

I would expect them to be added, as they are a permanent breed. However, please note that I do say this with no knowledge or authority on the subject other than what's available to everyone.

[Tini]

1 hour ago, HeatherMarie said:

I do think this release could've been handled better, a 'mystery' unannounced new breed is nothing new to DC but I think it would've been better received by the userbase if there had been *some* official communication about it at some point. Maybe after the flood, or within 24 hours, or whatever, *someone* (spriter/TJ/mods) could just post confirming that it was on purpose, planned this way, etc. I think a large part of the opposition to this release was centered around simply not *knowing* what was going on, at first it seemed the 'flow' egg was a hybrid, then CB, now apparently in the cave *and* bred? A lot of us thought it was a glitch, too, like the early release of the 'gusty' breed that ended up being changed to the 'correct' breed... So we really had no idea if we'd even be allowed to keep these 'mystery' eggs. 

I personally don't see this release negatively, but all of the frustration of so many users probably could've been avoided with a simple confirmation at some point. 

I second this, I'm sure the gusty egg was on most of our minds when an egg not on the OP appeared, I think a 'you found the surprise egg, have fun' message just to communicate it's meant to be here and won't be deleted/converted to something else would be helpful. The apparent glitch with it not dropping for several hours didn't help things. Add to that that it's a 7 egg release and people didn't know if it was worth time to pick up a 7th that might vanish, or if they should pick up more xenos. Then it only flooded for a couple hours and....it was just a recipe for disaster. 

[Stormcaller]

1 hour ago, VixenDra said:

The June official release news post is... a disaster!

I hate that we can't have an official RELIABLE source of information of how many breeds are released, at elast for cave-dropping ones!

 

Why do we need to rely on luck, third party site (wiki) or wasting time for reading through many pages of user-made comments?! it's...

 

as if I needed any more stress in my life, now I need to add "can't rely on the news thread to infrom me how many breeds I need to get from cave, June 2020 can happen again anytime", well "thanks":/

 

I absolutely agree!  While I greatly appreciate the good work the Wiki folks do for us, there is a delay in posting the information.  Relying on the comments further down the release thread is difficult because a lot of it's guesswork or off the wall comments. That's fun but waste's time when you are trying to catch eggs while seeking information at the same time. It's very difficult to play a game when you don't know the rules.

 

It would be better, IMHO, if the OP included everything, either upon the beginning, or as soon as additional information became public.

[KrazyKarp]

A small pinned post in the news thread after a few hours of initial flooding, like "Nothing is glitching, everything is working as intended.", that makes sense. Or a small hint in the front post of the news thread, that's fine, too. I don't think it's a big deal to have a secret release without warning, though. And surprises are fun to begin with! But I understand why people may want a small indication that doesn't ruin the surprise, and also doesn't cause "Is this a gusty egg situation?" questioning. Regardless, it's not a big deal. I don't think a secret release should be adding a considerable amount of stress to your life, or that it should be labelled a "disaster". But to each their own, I guess.

[Stromboli]

Eh, idk. I like surprises. I think it's fun to stumble across something in-game that you weren't expecting, and get to investigate it.

[animatedrose]

I didn't get hit as badly with the surprise...but I was on the unofficial discord when the first one was bred. I did get hit badly when, hours after I went to bed, there was a brief 1-2 hour flood of them that then proceeded to poof by morning. But that's my own fault as being part of the playerbase that is too slow to view or catch anything above mid-uncommon tier. Plus the lag. The lag really doesn't help.

 

I do agree that some eventual confirmation might've been nice. When the CBs hit, I did see a ton of "what if these are glitches? I don't want to get in trouble/lose a slot/waste my time" chatter and so on (doesn't make sense to me but i understand what they meant, as someone who got affected by the gusty egg glitch and thought the same thing). Considering what does happen a lot when egg-related glitches occur, concern was valid because...nobody official commented on it. At all. Ever.

 

I did enjoy the initial surprise of "hey, new egg, yay! i can breed these later!". Not so much the "oh, these are CB? oh, these are rares? uh oh, i'm screwed". But again, that's my own fault for being slow, but that's when having a kind community is awesome.

 

A surprise isn't a complete disaster. Unless TJ is introducing a new mechanic thing, these SHOULD hit the Market...unless they are excluded, like Zyus and Sunrise/set and a few other breeds currently are. Then we can all panic.

Edited June 30, 2020 by animatedrose
clarifying and junk because i can't type, lol

[redwolf]

I love the flow egg, but I definitely felt the frustration. I dont mind secret releases, that part was interesting. The parts I found frustrating was everything else about it. At first it wasnt dropping, then it flooded for like, an hour, someone said. Just an hour. After that it was metal-level rare. Like gold level rare. I only saw ONE before the regular eggs started coming back. The time the flow egg flooded was cool. For the people that were awake. There's an entire other half of the planet that was sleeping. Half the user base missed out on the flood of flow eggs simply cause they're in the wrong time zone. So some people ended up with 4+ flows, while others had to scramble after the release was over just to get a single one. Sure the egg is rare. But this part in particular, in my opinion is INCREDIBLY unfair to the entire chunk of users who missed out due to no fault of their own. Its annoying and frustrating and now its impossible to get a cb flow egg. All of this on top of trying to get 6 OTHER brand new eggs. 

 

I just hope secret releases (which I'm not inherently against) are better handled and that the fact that not everyone is going to be up at the same time will be taken into account.

[Jazeki]

I'm not sure if there is a suggestion buried in this topic, but I think @HeatherMarie and @KrazyKarp summed up possible solutions for future issues regarding secret releases.

 

I was locked when it was first posted that Staterae could be bred and was sleeping during part of the flood. 

 

I think a forum post edit would be nice before the dragon in question grows up, but I don't mind secret releases and I'm glad that a lot of the userbase do their best to share their findings with us. I don't think this was a disaster, but to each their own. 

Edited June 30, 2020 by Jazeki

[Penthasilia]

I agree with @redwolf in that the methodology was lacking. A surprise egg is fine, and is just that- a surprise. The problem was in how it was set out. I feel it wasn't appropriate to have a short mass drop on one particular egg with it turning incredibly rare after such a short period of time. If the egg is to be more rare- simply have it pop up less frequently than the other new releases at set intervals throughout the day. People sleep/work/live and not everyone on the game can be available between that short of a window. I don't think that it is really that unreasonable of a request.

 

Honestly, what I found more sad was people dismissing those who brought up the valid concern regarding it. I am used to seeing the "fan boys" of forum and FB pages rushing to the defense of their chosen side, but it always leaves me a bit heartbroken to see other peoples' frustrations (justified in this case imho) just brushed under the rug with trite replies of "it's just a game", "secret releases have happened before" and so forth. I think that is to the detriment of the game instead of helping it. You can't improve if you refuse to acknowledge that there may actually have been a better way!

 

I have no particular investment in it as I am gifting my hatchis and retiring from DC. I just don't spend that much time on the computer anymore and the past few days of endless clicking helped me realize I didn't miss this in my two year hiatus. So why post? I thought about it and hoped that maybe seeing this from someone who isn't personally attached to getting the eggs would help and hopefully gain future resolution for those who still play. I do hope it gets better, and hope the biomes increase to handle the influx of new eggs to allow everyone to love and enjoy the beauty of the game without having the emotional tilt that this new release has produced.

 

 

[eldritchcakepop]

Normally I stay pretty quiet on the forums and just lurk, but just this once I've got something to say. I feel like the only other person who thinks this release was a mess, sometimes. I understand xenos are supposed to be a little higher in rarity than most breeds, but the length of the flood considering the time of the release was unreasonably short. I would have completely missed it if I hadn't been up insanely late; the release happened at 2AM for me, if I'd been in bed I would have missed the flood window entirely. I can't even imagine the frustration of the people who were asleep (in timezones where it was late) or busy (in timezones where the release occurred during work hours). Nevermind the "secret" breed-- I might have been okay with this if the flood had lasted long enough for more people to realize that there was an "extra" type of xeno. This is probably a contentious opinion, but either they should have told us about the secret breed and had a short window, or had a longer window and kept the secret. The whole thing was executed very inconsiderately.

 

3 hours ago, Penthasilia said:

Honestly, what I found more sad was people dismissing those who brought up the valid concern regarding it. I am used to seeing the "fan boys" of forum and FB pages rushing to the defense of their chosen side, but it always leaves me a bit heartbroken to see other peoples' frustrations (justified in this case imho) just brushed under the rug with trite replies of "it's just a game", "secret releases have happened before" and so forth. I think that is to the detriment of the game instead of helping it. You can't improve if you refuse to acknowledge that there may actually have been a better way!

 

This is also a thing that kind of made the release feel like a slap in the face. I'm seeing a lot of people who felt honestly disregarded by the timing or length of the flood get more or less shouted down, or obliquely treated like they somehow didn't deserve to have a fair chance at the new eggs. It's not a good look. There's nothing any of us can really do about it at this point, but it's been pretty unpleasant to see how a certain portion of the community reacts to the dissent of people who felt cheated or left out because they didn't have the good fortune of being around at the exact right time. Why should they have less of a chance to participate than the rest of us? Fairness is a real argument here, considering that this is, y'know, a game. I got a handful of the new eggs, so this isn't me complaining because I missed out. I just think that a lot of people really got screwed by this release, and I would like to hope it wouldn't happen again, but...

 

This reminds me a little bit of Flight Rising's first Night of the Nocturne, with the emotional/social effect it's produced. Uncommon/rare things being released for a short time during hours where most people would have a hard time showing up to get them is a guaranteed mess. If the release had been during high-traffic hours with a short window? Fine. If it had had a longer window? Fine. Would've been nice if they told us about the extra xeno because it's rare anyway, but that's immaterial compared to the timing problems. There really was a better way to do this.

[VixenDra]

why on Earth was my comment made into a separate topic? like I didn't want to be an OP of any topic in the forum nowadays, ESPECIALLY in suggestions...
Whoever did this, why didn't you make your own thread and just quoted me instead? :/

 

guess I need to at least adjust the misleading title

[Ruby Eyes]

56 minutes ago, VixenDra said:

why on Earth was my comment made into a separate topic? like I didn't want to be an OP of any topic in the forum nowadays, ESPECIALLY in suggestions...
Whoever did this, why didn't you make your own thread and just quoted me instead? 😕

You should have at the top the option "Moderation Actions" with "Hide" which would make the whole thread disappear.

[RainDear]

My opinion-that's all.

 

I came late to the party. I didn't know about the release until after 4pm (7pm cave time) Saturday afternoon. Yeah, this isn't the first time I would have liked to see a longer release drop, but to collect all the eggs from this release is going to take me forever anyway. in regard to the "SECRET" egg, so what? Someone saw one in a hatchery and brought it to the forum's attention. Someone bred one and brought it to the forum's  attention. Different people speculated on it. Some put their guesses on the Wiki. This is all standard during releases, secret or otherwise. I find it to be part of the excitement and fun of releases - so, no I wouldn't want to see that changed.

 

I would like longer initial drops, though..

[Moranna]

On 6/30/2020 at 9:25 PM, Penthasilia said:

Honestly, what I found more sad was people dismissing those who brought up the valid concern regarding it. I am used to seeing the "fan boys" of forum and FB pages rushing to the defense of their chosen side, but it always leaves me a bit heartbroken to see other peoples' frustrations (justified in this case imho) just brushed under the rug with trite replies of "it's just a game", "secret releases have happened before" and so forth. I think that is to the detriment of the game instead of helping it. You can't improve if you refuse to acknowledge that there may actually have been a better way!

I agree with you.  I don't normally post on the forums any more (because adulting ) but I had to speak up there when there was too much dismissiveness towards people's feelings were happening.  It was starting to look like a dogpile.

 

Back on topic - I don't need everything spelled out, but a hint would have been nice.  I looked back on a few other announcements with secret releases.  A few times, a sly little aside was included as a hint for people to look further than just the eggs included on the post.  I think that would have helped this month, even if it were added after the fact. 

 

Personally, I logged in in the middle of the flow flood.  I didn't even realize that I wasn't catching the eggs that were in the initial post until I starting weeding through the many many posts.  I was really confused that I only had bright purple eggs.  By the time I realized what had happened, after digging through so many posts in the release thread, the mix was happening and I was out of luck at trying to catch the Xenos for myself.  I got a lot of "just trade for them later", but I missed out in the fun of grabbing them for myself.

[UnicornMaiden]

I don't like how this was released. I had a hard scramble to get one of each of the release because the cave kept lagging on me. But I got them , and when they grew up I went to look at my encyclopedia. I was really confused to see a locked sprite right in the middle of the xeno sprites. I didn't know what it was, what dragon I had missed. There had only been six eggs in the announcement post, and I had gotten them all. I went to look at the June release post again, and there was a seventh dragon, fully grown. I never knew that there was another one to get, and I had no hint that there had been a second flood. I haven't seen a single one of these flow eggs in any of the biomes.

 

If you want to have a secret release at least have the decency to do it with a common or uncommon breed. If you release a rare breed without telling people how will people even know about it if they aren't regulars on the forum or discord?

[anetofstars]

Too many unhappy users, as I have said elsewhere. I've seen comments elsewhere that are sad-making. And for every such post, there's at least 10 people who feel the same way, but may be too shy or something to post abt it.

 

Secret releases seem to surprise too many.  

 

My other main issue was the 16-17 hour length of the 1st day drop. 24 hours would have been polite, as there are players of DC all around the globe. The short drop leaves players out and that's not right.

 

This thread has a lot of good and logical comments with suggestions that need to be seriously looked at. 

[Marduk]

The release was horrible in general.  It was done Saturday instead of the usual Sunday, so people who don't check as frequently missed it.  The flood was less than 24 hours making it easy to miss and hard to get 1 of each for those able.  There were 6 new breeds anounced, and all of them rare so getting even 1 of each was impossible for those with bronze or no trophy and fully unlocking their encyclopedia entries will be incredibly difficult.  Then there's an unannounced egg added on top?  I never even saw the flow egg in the cave and only know it exists because of forum posts... none of which seem to have their scrolls linked so I can't see the egg myself in order to unlock it in the marketplace.  The frustration of digging through dozens of forum pages hoping I can find at least one egg to view only to find no links anywhere is not what I want to do with my spare time.  To have that frustration topped off with seeing a lot of people dismissing complaints about the secret release just makes me feel like DC is no longer a site I want to visit.

[anetofstars]

Marduk, look through the trading section via yr scroll. This tip was given to me by a helpful dragon cave player. HTH!