Holiday pygmies/drakes/2h?

[Kazeko]

I think this counts as a general suggestion? Since I don't have any specific suggestions in mind. I'll happily move it to the dragon requests subforum if that's not the case.

 

I just think it would be nice if we had some Holidays that count as one of the unique breeding types, á la the Pumpkin -- a Valentine's pygmy could be really cute! or a Halloween two-headed! a Christmas drake! You get the picture. Holiday stairs and checkers are a classic part of the game, and it would be nice to see the special breed types get some love in that regard.

[Fuzzbucket]

I have been begging for holiday drakes for YEARS - and pygmies would be good too.

[Ruffledfeathers]

I too have (secretly) been yearning the idea of other breed types getting holiday dragons. Even a two headed holiday would be epic.

 

[angelicdragonpuppy]

Not really something needing suggestion, as it's already something anyone who creates holiday concepts can choose to do. It's just a matter of if anyone wants to.

 

Personally I'd rather continue to see main type holiday releases, as the main breeding group has hundreds more options of choices available then the others. Wouldn't be very excited about even the most gorgeous non standard group holiday if I've only got like a dozen choices of things to match it with.

[Ruby Eyes]

I'd love more holiday Pygmies, at least 1 for valentine's and 1 for the winter holiday

Please, spriters!

(And I'm secretly hoping that one or some of Shokomon's many Drakes will be a holiday of some sort.)

 

[Moonlightelf]

We already have Pumpkin for Halloween pygmies... I have desperately been wanting more of them!

[Jazeki]

I'm with @angelicdragonpuppy on this one. Concept creators/artists are the ones who design the holidays and TJ is the one that picks what gets released.

 

I wouldn't mind non-standard holidays. There's just less to breed them with. (A reindeer drake for Christmas would be cute though.)

 

[Silverwatermist]

I assume a lot of players would be upset and disappointed about how limited the breeding options would be if a Two-Headed or Drake got a holiday release like the Pygmy did, and would complain and/or choose to not collect them, but I am very not one of those people. I'd LOVE to see 1 Holiday release for Drakes and 1 Holiday release for Two-Headeds to match the 1 that Pygmies have. I've felt for a while that Pumpkins being a Pygymy breed is one (of several) reasons why Pygmies are more popular than the other limited breeds, and I think giving each limited breed* something special like a Holiday dragon would boost their popularity.

I do agree that it being a suggestion on here isn't "necessary" since, as far as I know, the spriters can choose to submit these concepts already if they want! But maybe just showing that there are some of us who would look forward to such a Holiday dragon might get the gears turning for at least one of the artists if they happen to see this thread It could inspire somebody to brainstorm a concept, for all we know.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Silverwatermist

[lexi_]

two headeds as well! weren't two headed lindwyrms supposed to be a halloween breed? i'd love to see something like that actually make it in as a hallo breed !! we need more diversity with them ;;

[ValidEmotions]

5 hours ago, angelicdragonpuppy said:

Not really something needing suggestion, as it's already something anyone who creates holiday concepts can choose to do. It's just a matter of if anyone wants to.

 

Personally I'd rather continue to see main type holiday releases, as the main breeding group has hundreds more options of choices available then the others. Wouldn't be very excited about even the most gorgeous non standard group holiday if I've only got like a dozen choices of things to match it with.

 

3 hours ago, Silverwatermist said:

I assume a lot of players would be upset and disappointed about how limited the breeding options would be if a Two-Headed or Drake got a holiday release like the Pygmy did, and would complain and/or choose to not collect them, but I am very not one of those people. I'd LOVE to see 1 Holiday release for Drakes and 1 Holiday release for Two-Headeds to match the 1 that Pygmies have. I've felt for a while that Pumpkins being a Pygymy breed is one (of several) reasons why Pygmies are more popular than the other limited breeds, and I think giving each limited breed* something special like a Holiday dragon would boost their popularity.

I do agree that it being a suggestion on here isn't "necessary" since, as far as I know, the spriters can choose to submit these concepts already if they want! But maybe just showing that there are some of us who would look forward to such a Holiday dragon might get the gears turning for at least one of the artists if they happen to see this thread It could inspire somebody to brainstorm a concept, for all we know.

 

(More directed at angelicdragonpuppy, but also quoted Silverwatermist because of line of discussion.)

Well see, that's the vicious cycle of the situation. Isn't it?
The non-standard breeds are restrictive because standard dragons get released far more often than not. But standard dragons get released far more often because no one's contributing to the creation of non-standard breeds due to concerns/dislikes over limited breeding pools. One feeds into the other which just feeds back into itself.

Someone has to start somewhere. We're not just going to suddenly have a pool of 30 non-standard breeds per category. It has to be built up to it. So why not include holiday/valentine's/halloween into that effort?

[Murkydepths]

I think it's already allowed to submit other breeding group concepts, up to Tj if he picks them. I personally would be ok with them, if he's holding back based on user opinion, but I do foresee others being upset.

[angelicdragonpuppy]

@ValidEmotions again, anyone's welcome to. It's just not my preference. Every release for the next two years could be a sub category only and they'd still have far less options than the main group. I'd hate to see Holidays shoved into those small pools, much less the current even smaller ones.

 

Edit: mm, to phrase it better, sub groups will always be just that: sub groups. By design they're never going to be anywhere near as comprehensive as the main group. Even if they had 50+ breeds each (which, again, you'd have to release nothing but then for years to do), I'd rather have special holidays in the main group for max options. And again, the current pools are far more shallow than 50 breeds and would just exacerbate that feeling all the more.

 

If people like the idea, they can go for it. But getting one as a holiday for me would feel like getting a puppy you can never take out of a single small room of your house. Terrific and cute, limited in how you can interact with and love it.

Edited February 19, 2021 by angelicdragonpuppy

[DragonLady86]

Having a limited breeder for a holiday could also encourage people to collect more of those breeds. And if a breeding group is more desirable, then hopefully more content will be created for that group. A dr Jekyll/Mr hyde two-head would be an excellent Halloween release.

[Fuzzbucket]

OOOH yes - that would be awesome.

[sorenna]

The only holiday I would want this for is Halloween, but I do think it would be cool to have a 2-headed Hallo, a drake Hallo, etc. to go with the pygmy Halloween breed we already have!

[animatedrose]

Yes please! We already have one restricted breed as a holiday. More would be nice to help spread more love to those groups. *craving candy cane pygmies for xmas*

Edited February 20, 2021 by animatedrose

[soullessheartofsteel]

Like, it definitely is true that a holiday pygmy/two-headed/drake would have a super limited breeding pool, and that it will always have fewer pairing options than main-release dragons, but I think that the idea of non-standard holidays is popular enough that it could work. Perhaps making those releases both male and female, instead of single gender like most holidays, could help counter their small breeding pool.

 

Also, DC has been around for over a decade now, and there are plenty of holidays and holiday dragons, and if you don't like a certain year's dragon, you don't need to collect them! There are plenty of dragon species I don't have too much interest in, either because I don't care for their design or because I don't like the lore behind them. So I just don't collect them. There's nothing saying that you have to collect and breed every single holiday dragon. There's often plenty of other non-dragon collecting related activities available during the holidays, and so it's not like you're entirely shut out of the festivities if you're not interested in that year's offerings. It just means two more eggslots for you to collect more of your favorites.

Edited February 20, 2021 by soullessheartofsteel

[tjekan]

21 hours ago, angelicdragonpuppy said:

Wouldn't be very excited about even the most gorgeous non standard group holiday if I've only got like a dozen choices of things to match it with.

I'm actually the opposite. With SO many dragon breeds in the cave, it's become sheerly impossible to get all the pairings I want for each breed anyway. A nonstandard holiday dragon would give me the chance to catch my breath, fully explore all the pairing options for the new one and still have room on my scroll for some of the older ones. Win-win.

My most desired additions would be a Christmas pygmy (an ornament dragon!) and a two-headed Halloween dragon. I wouldn't say no to a drake, though. There are some gorgeous drake sprites which I rarely use for anything, and if there was a holiday drake--or a prize drake, if prizes were ever to be expanded again--then I would.

Edited February 20, 2021 by tjekan

[Silverwatermist]

35 minutes ago, tjekan said:

I'm actually the opposite. With SO many dragon breeds in the cave, it's become sheerly impossible to get all the pairings I want for each breed anyway. A nonstandard holiday dragon would give me the chance to catch my breath, fully explore all the pairing options for the new one and still have room on my scroll for some of the older ones. Win-win.

This is exactly how I feel, too. I'm at the point where I find the number of Holiday dragons and lineages I'd like to do to actually be pretty overwhelming, so if one or two more got released for the limited breeds, I'd feel like I could finally catch my breath and have an easier time planning what I'd like to breed for the following holiday. I also just think it would be really cool, and would encourage people to breed a bit more with the Drakes/Two-Headeds 🙂

[Guillotine]

Honestly I'd really like if every breeding group had at least one holiday--Halloween would probably be ideal if we're limited to only one, but I'll take any, honestly.

 

Unfortunately I don't have it in me to spend time fighting the shading for sprites on my own for someone else's game when I have a 60+ portrait backlog to clear out...

[tjekan]

Also, I love the pumpkin sprite but the pumpkin part is so big it really just doesn't work for me in lineage display with the other pygmies. A sort of gilded, ornament-like Christmas pygmy would look so nice with darkmyst, pipio, any of the red or greenish ones... well, I can dream!!! 😄

Edited February 20, 2021 by tjekan

[Keileon]

A couple of notes;

 

1. I don't think the Pumpkin was originally a pygmy; it couldn't breed with the Common Pygmy at first. That was a change made later.

 

2. I know a bunch of users, both normal players and in-cavers, have said they'd rather not see nonstandard holidays until the breeding pools are increased.

 

With that said though, getting nonstandards as holidays is something I support whether we get more non-holidays of them first or not.

[DragonLady86]

I do not remember the pumpkin not breeding with the pygmy.  That was even how I got my first one because I couldn't catch them for anything.

[camelia2]

I support. We have few drakes/pygmy, but they are GORGEOUS. Do you know how many times I was in 'how gorgeous this new holiday looks with Honey!....oh wait...' way too many 😢

And since pumpkin set a precedent, at least 1/holiday should exist

[schenanigans]

I know a huge reason I don't breed pygmies, drakes, and 2 headeds as much is due to the fact that there aren't any holidays for them, other than the pumpkins. What I'd like to see as an introduction to adding them as holidays, particularly for Christmas and Valentine's (since limited to 2), is one normal breed release and one other breeding group release - the only issue with that is needing enough limited breed submissions, haha.