We Need New Drop Mechanics. It's Just A Fact.

[Fuzzbucket]

TJ did say a while ago that anything over and above the site costs goes back into te game. I have no idea how, but I do know (from another site I am on) that invision - the forum software- isn't cheap.

[blinkdog]

I know I’m in the minority here but I actually don’t think drop mechanics should change? I’ve been playing DC what over a year now, and i usually commit about 20-30 minutes to play before I go to bed. Yeah, I’ve never seen a CB stat, but I HAVE seen CB silvers, golds, coppers, tons of xenos, unbreedables etc. all things considered “rare”. Right now I’m going through and trying to get CB pairs of every dragon and making good progress! Even though most of the ones I’m missing are “commons”! I’m delighted that even a year out this game still has new content for me to work on, because there are so many dragons!

 

Folks who are willing to put more time into a game, whether thats hours or days, are going to reap better rewards. That isn’t exclusive to DC, that’s how games work. And in terms of collecting-style games - some things have to be rarer/more desirable in order to call other things common/less desirable. From what I’ve read, DC rarities have always shifted around weirdly based on ratios. Everyone was so panicked about getting blue sonatas after the drop, and now I see sonatas all the time in the cave, and they were cheap in the market to boot!

 

tl;dr I like the community initiative of “bounty hunting” as a solution, since the desire for a change is coming from frustration over well-established mechanics rather than an actual problem with the code.

 

Also, that would be fun :3

 

[Alskasaur]

Full support! I'm personally in favor of adding another row of eggs into biomes!

[alyelle]

Adding support for revised drop mechanics - I've spent the last few months hunting daily for commons with little to no success. Most of the time, the same three eggs sit in each biome for the entire five minutes, and there are simply so many breeds now that even 12 biome refreshes an hour doesn't guarantee I'll see the species I need, much less catch it. The AP is consistently full of xenos, which I know is a separate problem largely caused by people trying to get staterae, so doesn't really provide a great alternative to the biomes, and while I could use the market, it's super frustrating to spend a few weeks' worth of shards on something that I should be able to find in the cave. Even new releases are becoming increasingly painful to keep up with, particularly when they're huge like the last few have been. I was fairly lucky in the Vespine release to get a pair each of yellow and white on release day; since then, I haven't seen a single one drop in the cave.

 

There have already been some great suggestions by others in this thread, so I won't offer any new solutions here, but amongst what has already been suggested, I'd be very supportive of both 24 hour floods for new releases (to allow all players a fair shot at catching, irrespective of their time zone) and additional biomes/sub-biomes.

[KageSora]

12 minutes ago, Alskasaur said:

Full support! I'm personally in favor of adding another row of eggs into biomes!

I think the biggest problem with that one is that you'll simply end up with 6 blockers sitting there that nobody wants until the refresh instead of 3, if an extra row is the only thing changed.

[laevsk]

I'm only two years into this game but have seen a definite change in the number of rares seen in the biomes. It stands to reason that as the number of breeds increases, the number of rare eggs available will be less. 

 

I find the idea of an additional one or two biomes to be ideal, but I'm sure the logistics of re-vamping everything would be difficult. The game continues to grow, however, and without growth of the game structure it will become more and more congested.

 

Maybe we could have some releases that are hybrid dragons only - ones we can produce through breeding our current dragons without filling in more slots in the biomes.  I'd love to see a hybrid dragon with a new BSA. More hybrids make breeding more fun, too, and maybe we could even have a specific breeding that could result in two or three different types of hybrids.  

 

If TJ decides to increase biomes and it comes down to expense, then we as a community can and should rally behind that.  By the way, for those of you who don't have the luxury of top of the line internet, you might try paying to remove ads. It made a difference for me.

[Laugh]

On 3/9/2023 at 12:04 PM, Skadi said:

And now I need 10 CB male tercorns to even out my potential generations, which could take an entire year of hunting for a common dragon.

 

I think this is a little ridiculous to punish common hunters this much. Commons should be COMMON.

 

I started DC in July 2013. About a month later I decided to give myself a big scroll goal: Collect 2,048 CB Whites to create a self-made 12g PB White. The first CB White I caught was August 23, 2013. I didn't finish that goal until April 30th, 2021. Between the years 2013-2016 I caught, traded, and grew 1,982/2,048 CB Whites. I stopped playing the game right before I finished my CB White goal because I felt overwhelmed with the constant releases, keeping up with other scroll goals (4 M/F CBs of each dragon, 3 CB Frozen hatchlings M/F, s1 hatchling), and breeding goals. When I came back in Feb 2021, I didn't finish the goal until April 2021 and those were all self-caught. So 66 eggs took 3 months+ of self-catching. A little under half of my CB whites were from trades (900+). Back around 2013-2015 I remember I could hunt for about 2-3 hours a day and fill 7/7 egg slots with whites without too much of a problem and that was without having to sit through EVERY 5 min refresh. Coming back in 2021, I couldn't catch enough whites to be egg locked with with them over 3-4 hours of hunting a day. It's definitely a lot more challenging these days (especially since trading values have significantly changed as well) compared to previously. 

 

Oddly enough it doesn't feel too different with rares from my personal experience. CB Trio/Unbreedables/Metallics seem to be dropping roughly at the same rate as I remembered back then =P

 

Kinda ironic. 

[AzureWyrmsblood]

I had an idea about a workaround-ish-thing in which brand new alternate biomes were added but they were a hybrid of the existing biomes. Like you could have a "Swamp" as a place to find both jungle and coast CB dragons, a "Dunes" biome as a cross between Desert and coast, Rainforest with Jungle/Forest.  Geysers,  Cold deserts, Tundra and other natural formations exist that could inspire. I think it'd be better to have additional biomes not have truely exclusive dragons overall though. 

Or even just a "Grassland" or "Cave" where every CB available dragon could potentially drop (With 9 slots! (And refreshes every minute! (I'd use it :3)))

[Edenello]

9 minutes ago, AzureWyrmsblood said:

Or even just a "Grassland" or "Cave" where every CB available dragon could potentially drop (With 9 slots! (And refreshes every minute! (I'd use it :3)))

I think having different biomes would be cool, but what especially stood out to me here was the refreshes every minute. Even for daily gameplay without the new release flood I would love to see the biomes getting refreshed more often than every five minutes, as with the current number of dragons in the game it does not seem like the eggs are getting refreshed nearly enough to display them all. I think for the new releases there would still need to be something else added, like allowing them to be the only spawn for 24 hours, but one minute refreshes would be amazing.

[AzureWyrmsblood]

3 minutes ago, Edenello said:

I think having different biomes would be cool, but what especially stood out to me here was the refreshes every minute. Even for daily gameplay without the new release flood I would love to see the biomes getting refreshed more often than every five minutes, as with the current number of dragons in the game it does not seem like the eggs are getting refreshed nearly enough to display them all. I think for the new releases there would still need to be something else added, like allowing them to be the only spawn for 24 hours, but one minute refreshes would be amazing.

 

I'd never say no to a higher refresh rate personally, but with how the server almost always trips at the 60th minute it might be a bit much load. 60 refreshes as opposed to 12 might be a bit much.  There's another thought to this that I dont necessarily dislike outright but I think might hit home with some people is that it facilitates rare camping somewhat; Because you are more likely to see a rare at a 3 egg rotation at a predictable time than just refreshing and hoping someone else is grabbing commons at that time. The pool of dragons that's refreshed on the 60m mark has a higher chance of being depleted of rares and perhaps makes it so that this punishes people that can't or won't sit for a minute long refresh for an extended period of time. Missing the 5 minute refresh by seconds can lose you that metal egg or canto or blusang etc and I think this could make the cave hunting experience exponentially worse for people that dont "minmax" like I tend to, but as a minmaxerTM I'd fall head over heels for it.  Assuming Im understanding cave mechanics correctly.

 

I think thats why people are keen to suggest 6 eggs per biome as opposed to 3, since (Im no math person, so take this with a pinch of salt) it basically halves or more the chance of a single egg (Like Arrakama's for me personally) sitting there for 5 minutes or even more without encouraging the problems above. Or extra biomes so there's less chance that the entire cave is egglocked.

[Gluria]

Two suggestions I think would ease the pressure in the cave, especially with the sheer amount of new dragons being added:

 

- changing 5min-drops to 1min-drops, maybe smaller ones, with the usual "big drop" each hour

- six slots per biome instead of three

 

Both were suggested before by other people, just wanted to add my two cents.

[Freima]

I haven't understood all the technicalities in this thread, but as a player since 2008 it does seem high time things changed to reflect the increase in player numbers and the increase in available dragons.
 

The game has grown so much over the years, and although the introduction of biomes helped a great deal it's time for something else to be added to make life just a little less frustrating for players.

[calankh]

Support something along these lines. I found out about this release <24 hr after it happened, but still missed the flood, and have seen exactly one new egg. Frustrating and not fun. 

[Fuzzbucket]

If you set email notifications for the news forum rather than the scroll thing, you hear on time: I think a good few people didn't get the scroll notification this time - I did get the one from the forum. (After I had started trying to catch, as I expected it, but still !)

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by Fuzzbucket

[Freima]

On 8/1/2023 at 3:21 AM, Fuzzbucket said:

If you set email notifications for the news forum rather than the scroll thing, you hear on time: I think a good few people didn't get the scroll notification this time - I did get the one from the forum. (After I had started trying to catch, as I expected it, but still !)

 

This is true; however new releases tend to happen on Sundays, when a lot of people might be out with families all day or otherwise not playing or online. There are still a lot of people playing on computers rather than mobile devices, and of course those of us in different time zones might only be  awake for the second half of the drop.

A 24 hr drop would make it fair for everyone, regardless of where they are in the world or what they've been doing that day.

As far as the rest of the game goes, I seem to see the same descriptions in the cave at all times of day and night. I can't remember the last time I saw any of the metal dragons in the cave. It was probably when the Pennybright variant of Copper arrived, and that was - how many years back?

 

The game has grown in terms of dragons available and the number of people playing: the mechanics haven't really changed to reflect that except for the introduction of the biomes.

[MusicalMaladies]

Support an extra row of three. It's desperately needed.

[StarlightLion]

On 8/1/2023 at 2:21 PM, Fuzzbucket said:

If you set email notifications for the news forum rather than the scroll thing, you hear on time: I think a good few people didn't get the scroll notification this time - I did get the one from the forum. (After I had started trying to catch, as I expected it, but still !)

 

I did get the scroll notification but it didn't do me any good Drop happened while I was asleep and the flood was over by the time I woke up, which I think it the main reason 24h floods are so in demand. That said, it is nice to have the scroll notification so I at least know I missed the flood lmaooooo

[sakana]

As someone whose playtime is super limited, I would love if the flood could at minimum last for 24 hours - aside from the anniversary release (which I think flooded for more than a day) I've missed every release since I came back. I just returned to the game around the anniversary release and the cave biomes are feeling a lot more plugged up than when I last seriously played a few years ago. Another row of eggs would be a huge help.

[PancakeIsBest]

I agree with this post because any time there is a new release, I either cannot get it at all, or it takes a very long time to get. I also hardly ever get accepted for trades so I can't really get it from that.

[zerynn]

Adding support for new drop mechanics - one thing I have noticed recently, particularly with some of the new releases (not the astraels or vespines though) is that I'm now seeing doubles of the same egg in the cave? Perhaps even coding it so that there aren't any doubles would be a minor but helpful change to get more variety, particularly for those who are hunting commons!

[Moiken]

I support this greatly. The last releases were so frustrating. I was in time to get a few Astraels but the last couple of weeks my hunting was just pain frustrating. Don't let me start about the Vespines. Missed those and only saw one in the cave since the release. By the time now I'm more or less quitting the game, because it's just not worth the trouble. Beeing able only to meet scroll goals during initial releases is disappointing.

 

A though crossed my mind today, thats why I looked for a thread with impossible demands or suggestions for releases. This is the closest I found. So bear with my crazy idea.
But what about including a new release type a few times a year, where old releases are flooded? A bit like at Christmas or Valentine or like in Pokemon Go, which started community day classics. That way people can still hunt for the dragons they want, but can at least hope to have a higher chance of getting the rare or elusive ones somewhere in the future. I hope it's comprehensible, what I'm trying to propose.

[Skadi]

I'd be cool with increased chances to catch commons on certain days. I think rares should remain rare, but as a common hunter I think so long as these days are announced in advance so I know to stay open for them, it would be fun.

[ShadowMistaken]

Support! I think someone mentioned this already but sub-biomes? like an extra mini-tab in each biome. otherwise a new row would be amazing.

[yieldy]

I would be happy if a new row of eggs is added as well. It will give benefit to luck, rather than speed and that way more players would be able to grab rare things.

[Fuzzbucket]

2 hours ago, yieldy said:

I would be happy if a new row of eggs is added as well. It will give benefit to luck, rather than speed and that way more players would be able to grab rare things.

 

But there won't BE any more rare things, just another row.....