Don't make Secret Releases

[Kith]

I wouldn't have been concerned about the straterae flood as such if not for the hideous drought after. I've kept slots open and been hunting since the release, but when the sightings go from one every other hour to one a day, and get to the point where I haven't seen one to try for in three days, it's terribly discouraging. I'm rapidly losing hope that I'll fulfill what I thought was the modest goal of a pair per biome.

 

(Edit in the interests of full disclosure. I have five: two from the flood, two from the AP, and one post-flood cave catch. Not asking for a gift or anything, just relaying my experience.)

Edited July 10, 2020 by Kith

[RainDear]

My opinion. Not speaking for anyone else.

 

I also came late to the party, after the end of the flood. I still haven't caught all the regular new Xenos I want. I have not caught the Straterae, though I have seen some. Still, t thoroughly enjoyed the "Secret Release" and hope for more. This is not the first release I am having trouble getting my desired dragons from. I recognize the frustration of having trouble getting all one wants, but I don;t blame the Straterae for that. It has happened to me before and is likely to happen to me again. Doesn't dim my enjoyment in the release at all.

[HeatherMarie]

16 hours ago, Zimtie said:

 

I don't mind the secrecy and I don't mind that it proved difficult to catch those. But as one of the players who missed the release and the flood I came online to people offering CB Strats and asking for CB Golds and my firstborn child in return. Which would have been ok if this were an ordinary release of a new rare.

 

But this was supposed to be a celebration. The way this was handled it was like a birthday party where the early guests got served enough cake to make them sick while the late comers got nothing and were told to get themselves cake in the store down the street if they wanted some.

 

Besides many of us use this site and the community to distract ourselves from the not so nice things happening in real life, covid-related or not. So yes, I think, we are allowed to be frustrated and collect suggestions how to make it better for everyone next time.

 

Why could we not have a nice relaxed Xeno-b-day release we could all enjoy and an ultra-rare-release at another time?

 

Bolded for emphasis. 

I guess I'm just not understanding how that is soooo different than most other releases? I get that this release was frustrating in general because of the combination of rare + so many at once + surprise breed + short-ish flood, I do understand that. What I don't get about all of this is why people are acting like this release was some new horrible mechanic. *All* new releases (excluding holidays) act exactly as you describe, the 'early guests' are there for the flood and are able to get whatever relatively easily, while late-comers have a harder time because the flood is over and the new ones are mixed with all the old ones. Yes, this time the new Xenos became unusually scarce after the flood, but that can easily be down to Xenos *meant* to be uncommon, plus excited overbreeding and overgrabbing. We've had new releases do that before. 

 

What could be done differently about the 'secret' release in particular to change all of that? I feel like the 'secret' release wouldn't have gotten so much backlash if it wasn't the same time as all the other stuff, 6 other new *uncommon* breeds and such. I don't recall this much commotion about the other secret releases (although admittedly my memory isn't the best). Of course I get frustrated with new-release stuff as well (yes I stress about grabbing stuff right away even though I'm not big on CBs in general, it's part of the fun/excitement for me!), but I wouldn't want secret releases to stop completely. 

[Fuzzbucket]

I don't think the "secret" would have been an issue if it hadn't been for people "accidentally" managing to breed them ahead of their hitting the cave. Other than that - he release was fine by me. I would suggest  that another timeTJ hide any growing things on his scroll that he doesn't include in the thread announcement until it DOES hit the cave, though. I imagine that was what started people breeding.

[DragonLady86]

8 hours ago, HeatherMarie said:

 

 

What could be done differently about the 'secret' release in particular to change all of that? I feel like the 'secret' release wouldn't have gotten so much backlash if it wasn't the same time as all the other stuff, 6 other new *uncommon* breeds and such. I don't recall this much commotion about the other secret releases (although admittedly my memory isn't the best). 

The only other secret release I recall is the purple dino. And it was less of an issue because not everyone collects the joke breeds. Myself included.  As I recall many even said that. "I don't  collect dinosaurs anyway, I don't really care we weren't told."  The dino was ALSO confirmed once it was found not ignored for a week. I really believe that is the real issue. That neither TJ nor the artist came forward and confirmed it was a real thing for so long. 

[RainDear]

6 hours ago, Fuzzbucket said:

I don't think the "secret" would have been an issue if it hadn't been for people "accidentally" managing to breed them ahead of their hitting the cave. Other than that - he release was fine by me. I would suggest  that another timeTJ hide any growing things on his scroll that he doesn't include in the thread announcement until it DOES hit the cave, though. I imagine that was what started people breeding.

I thought the reason people were breeding so quickly was to see if they could get the new Xenos from the old ones. 

Edited July 11, 2020 by RainDear

[random_dragon_collector]

5 hours ago, DragonLady86 said:

The only other secret release I recall is the purple dino. And it was less of an issue because not everyone collects the joke breeds. Myself included.  As I recall many even said that. "I don't  collect dinosaurs anyway, I don't really care we weren't told."  The dino was ALSO confirmed once it was found not ignored for a week. I really believe that is the real issue. That neither TJ nor the artist came forward and confirmed it was a real thing for so long. 

 

This.  Once found, it should have been confirmed.

[Kith]

That was my impression also. TJ's staterae weren't found until after the initial flood, if I remember correctly, since when I grabbed mine initially there was still a strong feeling that they weren't intended and might get the aether treatment. It's part of the reason I didn't swap my entire egg load over at the time.

[Jazeki]

Much of the commotion also stemmed from the fact that users were very upset once they discovered staterae were available in the cave and had missed the initial drop. I saw a lot of posts where people were quite...miffed...that this wasn't a hybrid and how dare people spread false information that it was "breedable only." Very early on, we started to see a hierarchy of desirability being established based on availability. It would have been fine if people could try and breed the staterae later, but once they were in the cave, they became the most desired thing and there they stay (for now). It seems people always forget that arms and legs are offered for every new release. Right before the release, I got a thalassa for a 2nd gen amalthean. 

 

But, I think if there had been some kind of confirmation after discovery that they weren't being taken away and that you could get them bred and CB, people would have been less upset. 

 

 

Edited July 11, 2020 by Jazeki

[Fuzzbucket]

1 hour ago, RainDear said:

I thought the reason people were breeding so quickly was to see if they could get the new Xenos from the old ones. 

 

Either way - they were discovered ahead of the cave release, I think.

 

25 minutes ago, Jazeki said:

Much of the commotion also stemmed from the fact that users were very upset once they discovered staterae were available in the cave and had missed the initial drop. I saw a lot of posts where people were quite...miffed...that this wasn't a hybrid and how dare people spread false information that it was "breedable only." Very early on, we started to see a hierarchy of desirability being established based on availability. It would have been fine if people could try and breed the staterae later, but once they were in the cave, they became the most desired thing and there they stay (for now). It seems people always forget that arms and legs are offered for every new release. Right before the release, I got a thalassa for a 2nd gen amalthean. 

 

Yes - this seems to be the case EVERY times !

 

Is it actually true that they only show up at particular times of day ? That was one theory going the rounds.

[olympe]

Personally, I don't mind secret releases if the release is either common or breed-only. I'd be more than thrilled f TJ announced in September (before the long no-regular-release months) that there are twenty or so new alts/hybrids/breed-only variants released, and happy figuring out what it is. Be it re-colored geodes (there was discussion about this), additional stripes (brown and purple come to mind), color blind nebula (monochrome only), extra frill colors (brown and crimson look great!) and countless hybrids. No eggs shown in the OP until the first egg of that type gets posted by a member. Fun times!

 

However, I've felt from my earliest days that rare releases are awful. (My first-ever regular release was the Trios.) And secret rare/uncommon releases are even worse.

[Jazeki]

1 minute ago, Fuzzbucket said:

 

Is it actually true that they only show up at particular times of day ? That was one theory going the rounds.

I have no idea. I caught only one at the end of the initial flood and haven't seen any since. I bred one last week, but this week, my staterae gave an aso. I think it's random like all the other rares. 

[random_dragon_collector]

35 minutes ago, olympe said:

Personally, I don't mind secret releases if the release is either common or breed-only. I'd be more than thrilled f TJ announced in September (before the long no-regular-release months) that there are twenty or so new alts/hybrids/breed-only variants released, and happy figuring out what it is. Be it re-colored geodes (there was discussion about this), additional stripes (brown and purple come to mind), color blind nebula (monochrome only), extra frill colors (brown and crimson look great!) and countless hybrids. No eggs shown in the OP until the first egg of that type gets posted by a member. Fun times!

 

However, I've felt from my earliest days that rare releases are awful. (My first-ever regular release was the Trios.) And secret rare/uncommon releases are even worse.

 

That be so awesome!  I doubt we'd get 20--but just this kind of release with 5 or something!  Like a treasure hunt,  Maybe more than 5 because of more than one color, etc.  Dang it, thanks alot!  Now you've given me something to hope might come to pass! 

[HeatherMarie]

We *have* had other secret releases (besides the purple Dino), although the only other one I can recall at the moment was the Black Stripe. 

 

I agree about the lack of confirmation, I've mentioned before that many of us weren't sure the new mystery egg was for real... While glitches like the 'gusty' release are rare, when there is no official information at all it does feel kind of iffy. Secret releases are fine with me, but I do agree *someone* should've confirmed it a lot sooner. 

 

I guess it's also different this time because (I believe) this is the first-ever hybrid-also-in-cave? That definitely caused confusion and argument. Hybrid releases are fun, imo. So are secret releases. But the combination of learning early on that this mystery breed can be bred from Xenos, and *then* later the 'breed-only' started dropping in the cave, and then they seemed almost impossible to get in the cave *or* breeding later... Yeah, I can see the issue there. 

[RainDear]

My opinion Speaking only for myself.

 

Well, the "bred only" was pure player speculation when they showed up in breeding. When they started dropping in the biomes, "drops only at specific times" was also player speculation. The anger at misinformation was because the players made guesses, which I saw as perfectly normal (the speculation - not the anger). As far as getting no input from TJ and co, well it's not the first time we have been left running around waving our arms in frustration and to be honest I saw that as normal, too. However angry we sometimes get at him TJ does often leave us guessing and frustrated. I enjoyed the release even though I didn't know any more about it than anyone else. I'm sorry some were so angry that they still feel bad, but I still hope there are future surprises/secrets in store.

[Fuzzbucket]

What RainDear said. And all xenos are kind of hybrids n that they breed each other - to a degree unpredictably.

[UnicornMaiden]

6 hours ago, olympe said:

Personally, I don't mind secret releases if the release is either common or breed-only. I'd be more than thrilled f TJ announced in September (before the long no-regular-release months) that there are twenty or so new alts/hybrids/breed-only variants released, and happy figuring out what it is. Be it re-colored geodes (there was discussion about this), additional stripes (brown and purple come to mind), color blind nebula (monochrome only), extra frill colors (brown and crimson look great!) and countless hybrids. No eggs shown in the OP until the first egg of that type gets posted by a member. Fun times!

 

However, I've felt from my earliest days that rare releases are awful. (My first-ever regular release was the Trios.) And secret rare/uncommon releases are even worse.

 

That sounds like a really fun idea for a secret release! The announcement would be  a heads-up to let people know that there is something to look for, but what that something is would still be secret.

 

The announcement would also show up on the homepage, like all announcements do, so people who don't frequent the forums/discord/wiki wouldn't be at a major disadvantage like with this release.

[Firefury Amahira]

My main gripe is that the initial flood really should have been longer. The lack of communication/confirmation, lack of foreshadowing and so on isn't great either, but I feel like that would have at least been mitigated if everybody could have had an equal shot of trying to catch the flood instead of only a tiny slice of timezone-privileged players. I've seen a grand total of 3 flow eggs in the biomes and have resigned myself to the fact I'm going to have to spend shards to get any. (Thank you hatchery sites for getting it unlocked in the encyclopedia!) A minimum 24 hour flood would have been fair, then every timezone would have had one equal shot at the flood. Sure, those who don't check in daily would still miss out, but at that point that's really on them. Whenever the website I help run has a time-limited event such as our April Fools, we run it for a minimum 36 hours (and often 48) so that all timezones have a chance to really dig into it.

 

I have no inherent issue with "secret" or "surprise" releases, but I feel like those need to have some sort of sufficient foreshadowing so that players are surprised without necessarily being completely blindsided and fretting about potential glitches. But that's the writer in me; a "surprise twist" without even the faintest bit of foreshadowing is usually going to feel forced, fall flat, often not fit the established narrative arc, and as a result generally sour the reader/viewer's opinion considerably. A twist that is suitably foreshadowed will still be a surprise, but more of a pleasant one that flows and fits with the narrative and doesn't feel like it's been shoehorned in awkwardly.

 

New release floods lasting shorter spans of time seems like it's becoming more and more of an issue as well. Perhaps regular new releases need a guaranteed 3-day flood akin to holiday releases? A 3-day new xeno flood with staterae sprinkled as uncommon/rare throughout would have been a great deal more fun all around than the confusion and dismay surrounding the poor communication that occurred here. At least that's my take on it.

[Fuzzbucket]

I think that is a perception thing, possibly fed by angry posts here. I wasn't on till a little while before the old stuff started mixing in, and I got quite a few. And quite a few misclicks that I had to hold for 5 hours... And I was still seeing them for a couple of days afterwards.

 

ETA and we can buy them SO cheaply... Just did !

Edited July 12, 2020 by Fuzzbucket

[HeatherMarie]

12 hours ago, Fuzzbucket said:

I think that is a perception thing,

 

I think a lot of the complaints about this release boils down to perception.

In general, this specific flood-length was *not* unusual for a new release and in fact used to be the norm. We've had a few longer-than-normal new release floods this year though, and that seems to have shifted expectations. Users didn't used to complain *this* hard about the exact same flood lengths in releases last year or the year before, but I guess with uncommons instead of commons people see it differently. 

I wasn't online when the Staterae started dropping in the biomes, and before when we thought it was breed-only I bred frantically without getting a single one (or any other new xenos). I didn't get one until about a week later. But, that's pretty normal for new releases, or at least it *used* to be normal, especially when so many new breeds are released at once. 

I do agree there could've been some sort of hint posted about the 'secret' release, and actually I think that would make it more fun and exciting in general. Almost like a treasure hunt, like 'waait what does that phrasing mean, something is different here, what is it??' and everyone exploring everything they can trying to find out what this mysterious thing is. 

[olympe]

41 minutes ago, HeatherMarie said:

 

I think a lot of the complaints about this release boils down to perception.

In general, this specific flood-length was *not* unusual for a new release and in fact used to be the norm. We've had a few longer-than-normal new release floods this year though, and that seems to have shifted expectations. Users didn't used to complain *this* hard about the exact same flood lengths in releases last year or the year before, but I guess with uncommons instead of commons people see it differently.  

With a common release, it's relatively easy to catch more once the flood is over. I had an easier time catching the original 6 Xenos and the Zyus than with the new Xenos, just for comparison. Not to mention that the Statera is even rarer than the others. I have yet to see one in the biomes. To me, they're about as hard to find (outside the market) as Trios just after their release. And we all know that Trios are true rares.

[random_dragon_collector]

29 minutes ago, olympe said:

With a common release, it's relatively easy to catch more once the flood is over. I had an easier time catching the original 6 Xenos and the Zyus than with the new Xenos, just for comparison. Not to mention that the Statera is even rarer than the others. I have yet to see one in the biomes. To me, they're about as hard to find (outside the market) as Trios just after their release. And we all know that Trios are true rares.

 

There's also the issue of there being 7 new kinds.  That makes it very different from the usual 2 or 3 from a normal release.  The birthday party went on for a long time--since this was the Xeno Anniversary, it should have maybe been extended, too.

[Varasse]

On 7/11/2020 at 3:07 AM, HeatherMarie said:

 

Bolded for emphasis. 

I guess I'm just not understanding how that is soooo different than most other releases? I get that this release was frustrating in general because of the combination of rare + so many at once + surprise breed + short-ish flood, I do understand that. What I don't get about all of this is why people are acting like this release was some new horrible mechanic. *All* new releases (excluding holidays) act exactly as you describe, the 'early guests' are there for the flood and are able to get whatever relatively easily, while late-comers have a harder time because the flood is over and the new ones are mixed with all the old ones. Yes, this time the new Xenos became unusually scarce after the flood, but that can easily be down to Xenos *meant* to be uncommon, plus excited overbreeding and overgrabbing. We've had new releases do that before. 

 

What could be done differently about the 'secret' release in particular to change all of that? I feel like the 'secret' release wouldn't have gotten so much backlash if it wasn't the same time as all the other stuff, 6 other new *uncommon* breeds and such. I don't recall this much commotion about the other secret releases (although admittedly my memory isn't the best). Of course I get frustrated with new-release stuff as well (yes I stress about grabbing stuff right away even though I'm not big on CBs in general, it's part of the fun/excitement for me!), but I wouldn't want secret releases to stop completely. 

 

I'm perfectly fine with needing my time to catch the regular new Xenos. That's what I get for missing the release weekend and beginning catching on monday. I'm used to that by now.

My problem lies with the Strats. I can't catch what I can't see. I've seen exactly one in the cave since they were released. One.

The Dino and Trio release were before I started playing. So (I think) this is kind of my first super secret release.

 

Back to the topic at hand... 

Secret releases in general are ok for me.
But in combination with the flood and the following drought its flatout terrible.

[Ruby Eyes]

35 minutes ago, Zimtie said:

I've seen exactly one in the cave since they were released. One.

Me, too! Might have been the same one, even Missed it, of course.

 

Secrets ... meh, I don't like when there's absolutely NO hint about it.

Edited July 13, 2020 by Ruby Eyes

[purplehaze]

Perhaps there should never have been a total flood of the Staterae? If the number of eggs released during the flood had been spread out over at least a few hours it might not have bothered people so much. They wouldn't have felt so cheated to have missed it.