Proposal: Increase Variety in CB Drops

[dinofsilence]

Hi all, long time lurker here. And I mean a looooong time, lol! 😀

 

It occurred to me that with the ever-growing number of common and uncommon species that now inhabit the Cave, it may be a good idea to tweak the drops a little, and I had a thought that would work to mimic the actual ecosystems of Galsreim. I don't believe the cave spawns are set up in any specific way at this time - meaning that some fancy server math decides how often a particular species will spawn, with exceptions already in place for some species like the Lunar Heralds, for example.

 

But, canonically speaking, would for example a Nebula dragon be a common sight in the wild in the daytime, despite spawning in daylight Cave Time? As far as I know, a Spotted Greenwing can spawn in Cave at any time, despite their breed description stating they are primarily nocturnal.

 

My proposal is to further limit the existing server math to include a "spawn window" of time for some - SOME, not all - species, most especially those who's natural characteristics mean they would be nocturnal, diurnal, or crepuscular in nature. Not only would it fit in with the existing concept of biomes, it could also increase visibility for some harder to find commons for those who don't want to spend shards on them. It would easily add an encyclopedia entry or two to unlock to inform players when the best times are to hunt for whichever dragons they are looking for. The spawn windows could still easily be large enough to be available to players of any timezone and still have a marked effect on spawn variety.

 

For example;

 

Crepuscular [C] 3a-9a, 6p-12a

Nocturnal [N] 9p-6a

Diurnal [D] 9a-6p

 

Aria [C]

Blue-Banded [D]

Daydream [D]

Diamondwing [D]

Lunar Herald [N]

Mistra [D]

Moonstone [N]

Nebula [N]

Nhiostrife [C]

Ridgewing [D]

Royal Blue [N]

Sapphire [C]

Spotted Greenwing [N]

Striped [D]

Sunstone [D]

Swallowtail [C]

 

I'll be glad to do more if the idea takes, but I have to stop myself now or I'll check every dragon on my scroll! 😀

 

Most of these state directly they're nocturnal or diurnal, or I chose based on coloration or behavior. I chose Crepuscular for several of these breeds because their breed descriptions mention they are insect eaters, and since most insects are out at dawn and dusk.

 

[angelicdragonpuppy]

My one thought on this is that, since we are finding eggs and not adults, behavior doesn't really have a logical reason to affect egg finding times. Chickens are diurnal, but I could stomp into a coop at night and still find eggs from earlier.

 

THAT BEING SAID--we really do have an over abundance of breeds competing against each other for very limited space, so anything to relieve that would be good.  

[HeatherMarie]

Honestly this just seems unnecessary and frustrating. (I actually thought the title meant something totally different before I read the whole post, something to do with tweaking commons to drop more varied in the biomes...)

 

We already have multiple breeds that are only available at certain times, and those are frustrating enough. Just because something is mentioned in their description/encyclopedia that they are only active during certain times doesn't mean it has to actually be that way gameplay-wise, there are plenty of things mentioned in descriptions/encyclopedia that we don't actually see in gameplay, for many different reasons. (You've mentioned Nebulas, they apparently can be black-and-white but we don't see that!

 

I support the basic idea of getting more variety in the biome drops, but I feel like this is a very round-about way to do that and there are much better ways that wouldn't be nearly as frustrating. 

 

Also agree with angelicdragonpuppy, if this suggestion is based on what lore we have for those dragons, it would only apply to non-eggs. Eggs can be found anytime, regardless of when the parents are active.

[DragonLady86]

Id much perfer "seasons" rather than time of day. That leaves too small a window for  many people. I can not support some dragons only at night when eggs take many days to hatch.

 

But if x breeds manly lay eggs in spring, and y breeds in summer, etc. It wouldn't even need to be every breed, but a subset being less available at times and others being more available then so that a more natural rotation occurs I think would go a long way in helping. The initial change would be a lot of work to set up though.

[Laugh]

My only concern with this is that not everyone has a ton of time on their hands to sit down and hunt the biomes. If eggs appeared based on cave time there would be quite a handful of eggs users wouldn't be able to get just because of their time zone and allocated time to play. Don't get me wrong; I like the idea of it fitting the breed descriptions, but it just would be more frustrating (imo) for someone with limited time to hunt knowing there was zero chance of finding what they want. 

-

I think a better way of handling this is to increase the amount of eggs visibly seen from 3 -> 5-6 eggs per biome. You would see 30-36 eggs vs 18 eggs and maybe add a spawn mechanic where if a species can be found in all biomes, it cannot be found more than twice globally across the biomes at any given time.  

[HeatherMarie]

30 minutes ago, GrimmyYA said:

 

I think a better way of handling this is to increase the amount of eggs visibly seen from 3 -> 5-6 eggs per biome. You would see 30-36 eggs vs 18 eggs and maybe add a spawn mechanic where if a species can be found in all biomes, it cannot be found more than twice globally across the biomes at any given time.  

 

Oh my goodness yes, many times I've been biome-hunting and switched biomes only to see the exact same breeds in multiple biomes at the same time. Seeing more eggs at once in each biome is a good idea too. (I also think just in terms of being able to *see* more variety, that long-standing suggestion of adding more biomes would go a long way to spread things out more.)

 

There are tons of ideas that could help increase the variety in cave drops, especially when it comes to commons I feel like some sort of common-balancing tweak would be helpful because some older breeds that are supposed to be common are seen a lot less than some newer commons. I'm not thrilled about the idea of 'seasons', Seasonals are enough of a pain by themselves, but I'd definitely prefer seasonal changes to day/night type changes.

[Fuzzbucket]

This is a world-wide site. Time zones, seasonal zones. Australians already have to breed their winters in summer, and MANY players have to catch their glories at weird hours and never see their zombies at all...

 

I'd love more eggs to be visible, but this is all too convoluted. What about BREEDING, for instance; would all our projects stall out of "!season" / times - seasonals are quite enough of a pain as it is, as HeatherMarie has already said.

[DragonLady86]

Ok yes, seasons would also have issues though i wasn't suggesting breeds completely disappear like actual seasonals, just be more common at some points and more rarish other times.

[Murkydepths]

I do agree with the increasing variety it gets harder and harder to get specific eggs, but strict time windows I don't think are the way to go. The dragons that are time specific are already kind of annoying, but the benefit is there's few of them and they're very obviously based on time of day. I think increasing this mechanic would just make it frustrating. Especially for players who only get a small amount of time to play, maybe even at the same time every day. I think it'd be ok if it were more, amount based? So you COULD get a nebula during the day, but they're much rarer than at right. 

 

Honestly, I wouldn't mind an extra biome. I've always been surprised we don't have a grassland/savannah like area. 

[Paradisiske]

I think more biomes is better than artificial scarcity. 

 

Tundra, savannah, island, underground, canopy, marsh/bog, tar pits, etc

 

 

helps spread out the existing dragons

[Tini]

(if any of this happens it'll be a birthday thing tbh) I wouldn't mind more biomes, but I really love the egg increase or just the twice across the biomes idea. If it is more biomes/eggs I would say it could be thrice across the biomes.

 

I'm not super a fan of more time based mechanics, no matter how we slice it.

[Ruby Eyes]

Absolute NO to time window limits. It already annoyed the heck out of me to have to stay up way past my bedtime just to get those Spirit Ward and Stratos observations for their sprites, but actually having to do that to get a shot at specific eggs?! Nope. Nope. Nope.

 

Nope.

(I'm glad I'm done with the Glory Drakes, too ...)

[dragongrrl]

No, no support.

Not everyone can pop in any time of day like I can. And, as fuzzbucket said, this is a truly global community. There is no one time convenient for everyone who plays.

 

Yes, it would be nice to see a little more variety available at one time, and three to six more biomes might be an answer, but this suggestion is not the solution.

[Jazeki]

I'd like variety in what's showing, but please no limiting dragons to certain time windows further than what they already are. Based on this example, I'd theoretically never see certain breeds in cave during the week again because of my current work schedule.  This doesn't seem like it would actually change the variety at all, either. 

[Bloommist]

Personally I think the idea of more biomes would be a great addition to the cave there are so many that could be implemented and that would make sence. but as much as I love the idea of this implamention as was mentioned in the add new biomes thread many players beleave new biomes would lead to limited veriaty of eggs in drops for the new biomes until more breeds are released to fill them.

 

I do like the idea of limiting breeds from being in to many biomes at one time though  that way it would give other breeds more chance of showing.

 

I do think whatever happens something would be beneficial, were very lucky to have all the breeds we have and carnt wait for more to be added in the future, but there are many breeds I hardly see now which is sad, fun in terms of hunting to a degree but still sad 

[UnicornMaiden]

I don't like the idea of limiting when eggs are available for the same reasons already mentioned, ie increased difficulty for some people and egg availability not really being relevant to when the adults are active. I also see a lot of problems with adding new biomes. It could be done, but it would be very difficult to make it work with how many breeds have biome-specific variants.

 

I do like the idea of having more eggs visible at a time. I think increasing the number of eggs that are available in the cave would make it a lot easier to find the ones you're looking for.

[Tini]

I feel like new biomes would be pulled from breeds that don't have biome-variants. 

 

Now, how it would act with biome-dependent breeding is a little more work but not terrible imo.

 

I do just prefer the 6 egg setup tbh but, doubling biomes or doubling eggs is the same thing.

[HeatherMarie]

I think adding new biomes would *definitely* help when it comes to spreading out the different breeds and helping to show more variety. There are plenty of common breeds that drop in all biomes, including some of the common 'blockers' that just sit around not getting picked up. Spread those out to even more biomes, it increases the chance for other biome-dependent or uncommon breeds to show. It might be a case of the new biomes mostly only having those common 'blockers' until new breeds are released to those biomes, but it should help the distribution at least. 

 

However it's done, confining more breeds to time-based mechanics is not the best way.  (I'd also like to point out that some of the breeds proposed in the OP are already fairly difficult to find, IF something like this was to be done to help with variety it should be focused on the super-commons, not ones people already have a hard time getting.)