Award a prize dragon with each trophy.

[StarlightLion]

60 is definitely better than 6 One might even say an order of magnitude better. But compared to the size of the playerbase it's still not a lot (at least, I don't think so but I also don't have that statistics on that, we might be smaller than I think).

[11th]

7 hours ago, Starscream said:

Now I'm going to toss this little nib-let out there. It could be kinda interesting if any of the available hybrids (summons excluded) could be available as the prize for each of the levels as a CB.

CB hybrids would have the same assumed problems that a new prize breed would... worse than a prize would, too, because there are so many more breeds that users could pick from. At least with a new prize, everyone with platinum would get the same thing & everyone who raises an extra 1k dragons would be able to pick from the same small pool of 7 or 8 prizes (3 Tins, 3 Shims, 1-2 Plats) instead of the 20 hybrids + 12 bred-only alts (Black, Vine, Undine, Nilia, Copper, 4 Stripes, 3 Florets, Spinels -- not including blue Solstice). That's just begging for the trouble.

 

For clarity, I am indifferent about there being a new prize or not. I can easily live without one, but I also can't imagine it being as damaging as some here seem to think.

 

I was collecting stats last night from a larger sample of scrolls... and lost what I had collected due to a power outage. orz But of the ~400 scrolls that I checked, over 1/3 of active players I checked had platinum trophies. Silver was the next biggest group, followed by bronze, then gold. Most of the users without any trophy had joined in the past year. As for how long it would take to reach those trophies: The youngest scroll with platinum was from May 2022 (that is much faster than usual, which is 2+ years -- the next two were March 2022, and after that was sometime in early 2021); the youngest with gold was from November 2022 (also above average); the youngest with silver was from December 2022 (do-able with the Holi/Val APs); and the youngest with bronze was from early Feb 2023 (very do-able with the Val AP).

 

That 1/3 of the playerbase could easily breed enough 2Gs to quickly cover the other 2/3in 1-2 months once the excitement of bloodswaps passes, and those other 2/3 could still someday earn a CB if they continue collecting.

[Fuzzbucket]

5 hours ago, StarlightLion said:

60 is definitely better than 6 One might even say an order of magnitude better. But compared to the size of the playerbase it's still not a lot (at least, I don't think so but I also don't have that statistics on that, we might be smaller than I think).

 

I THINK it's a "minimum" of 60 and TJ said it adjusts to the number of entries. Not players, and fair enough; if you don't enter you shouldn't be counted.

 

 

[Starscream]

6 hours ago, 11th said:

That 1/3 of the playerbase could easily breed enough 2Gs to quickly cover the other 2/3in 1-2 months once the excitement of bloodswaps passes, and those other 2/3 could still someday earn a CB if they continue collecting.

You presume its easy to breed a 2g. I spent a year and a half trying to get a 2G as a gift for someone.

[KageSora]

7 hours ago, 11th said:

That 1/3 of the playerbase could easily breed enough 2Gs to quickly cover the other 2/3in 1-2 months once the excitement of bloodswaps passes, and those other 2/3 could still someday earn a CB if they continue collecting.

 

???

 

How...  How well do you think prizes breed other prizes?  They breed like garbage, you're infinitely more likely to get either the partner breed or nothing at all--one of the reasons their 2nd gens still hold value is that they don't breed well at all.  I doubt that a new prize breed would be intended to breed significantly better than the existing ones, so I cannot fathom it taking only a few months to get everybody else flooded with 2nd gens.

 

Also like.  If we have STILL not reached a point where 2nd gens of existing prizes are so common they're not really worth anything, despite them having been around for so long, WHY would you estimate such a short time frame for a new breed??  Yes, they've gone down in value over time.  But they're still hardly common and still can command better a decent price on the trade market as such.

Edited March 2, 2023 by KageSora

[Starscream]

2 hours ago, KageSora said:

How...  How well do you think prizes breed other prizes?  They breed like garbage, you're infinitely more likely to get either the partner breed or nothing at all--one of the reasons their 2nd gens still hold value is that they don't breed well at all.  I doubt that a new prize breed would be intended to breed significantly better than the existing ones, so I cannot fathom it taking only a few months to get everybody else flooded with 2nd gens.

I don't feel so bad that it took me so long to get a shimmer out of my pair. I'll be surprised if I get another one out of my pair anytime soon, and I am breeding again as a gift. There was a time when I was getting them fairly frequently but as of late... been terrible. I'm sure adding CB prizes would make breeding G2's so much harder (which I personally think has been happening)

[Fuzzbucket]

I agree - I quite often can't even get 2g kin from mine, never mind actual prizes. And like you, I breed them to gift. But when I do manage one to trade for something I want, it goes at once. They do still have value.

[Quinney]

It took me eight months to fulfill a 2g kin trade.  I got my hatchie immediately and felt terrible because my silver wouldn't cooperate.   I'll never put myself in that position again. I was asked if I'd like to do a trade with someone late last year, but refused an egg from them and just said I'd try and gift them with the pairing they wanted.  I'm still trying but at least I don't feel guilty now!

[AnthillDragon]

I've bred four 2g prizes and 2 kins this year, from new years to now (approximately 2 months), idk what y'all are talking about.

[Fuzzbucket]

Well lucky you.

[MissK.]

It really depends on what mates you try, your willingness to switch them if it's not working, and finding opportune trades. During 2022 I bred 10 2gs with one of my prizes, and 7 with the other, not even breeding them every week. I only did when trades showed up that asked for specific 2g mates, and have traded for multiple CB metals that way (yes, in 2022). Similar stats for the year before that too, but I'm too lazy to count again (edit: 6 and 18, even more than I thought). Breeding with many different mates and a lot of holidays and rares instead of commons does wonders, unlike when I was breeding to a serrati for years to no effect. Prize rarity depends on a lot of things including just bad luck, so let's not assume there's a horrible flat rate in general just because of specific cases. The average might be quite a bit better.

 

Regardless, I don't think having a new prize breed is good either. At first they would breed pretty decently actually, because that's what usually happens with new breeds, but I honestly just don't see the point. We already have 6 different prizes that so many people want CBs of. We can get pretty and shiny dragons in regular releases instead, why not focus on that? Maybe after a while of prizes becoming much more attainable, the general opinion might be different about adding more, but right now it seems like a bad idea. 

 

Other than that (the addition of a new prize breed), support for the suggestion of getting prize dragons for trophies or for x amount of dragons, preferably in addition to putting them in the market too.

Edited March 3, 2023 by MissK.

[Starscream]

12 hours ago, AnthillDragon said:

I've bred four 2g prizes and 2 kins this year, from new years to now (approximately 2 months), idk what y'all are talking about.

I kinda take this as sounding rather rude.

 

The perma mating is because I don't want people requesting specific mates (or in rare cases names for said mates.)

 

But if you'd like to look. I have the image below. I have been breeding every week and have had a significant amount of no interests. Just because it hunky dory for you, doesn't mean its hunky dory for everyone else. there were 13 successful breedings before I got a shim.

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by Starscream

[Fuzzbucket]

Yes indeed; mine has bred a total of 40 children since I won him in 2019 - and almost half of them were multi-clutch breedings.

[AnthillDragon]

14 hours ago, Starscream said:

I kinda take this as sounding rather rude.

I apologize. I wasn't trying to make light of anyone specific's struggles, of course it sucks when your dragons won't breed what you need. But the point of the discussion was how fast a new prize would enter circulation in the trading center. There's luck and timing involved for sure, but my point was simply that prizes are being bred successfully. A potential platinum dragon wouldn't be as impossible to get as some of y'all are making it out to be. It's fine if you don't want a platinum dragon! I like when things are rare; it seems most people in this thread like it less. I'm on team platinum but it is not up to me, so who's to say.

I haven't had much luck when I've been explaining myself in this thread so far, so I resorted to just stating that I do not relate to this experience, without wasting too much time.

[Skadi]

Perhaps adjusting prize ratios might be slightly fair if they're being handed out to every user?

 

I don't breed my prize every week, but she's produced 4 trueborn prize children since 2020. I tend to breed her more around holidays and dump her kin into the AP as nice little gifts for people. As it stands, breeding them is hard; but if they become more common, I think it'd be fair to give prizes a better breeding chance.

[Guillotine]

I feel like just kicking the Prizes up a step compared to their color is better than debating a new Prize, because they really do breed quite poorly--not on the level of a silver, but still not great. Even if the ratios are tweaked, they probably won't produce that well for the vast majority of mates, because quite frankly commons struggle to produce with many mates, and that will inevitably lead to a nasty FOMO bottleneck even if a lot of people get them at once.

[StarlightLion]

It seems like a good chunk of reservation regarding Prize breeding and distribution would be addressed by changes to the ratios system itself (which is another thread entirely but still). A lot of the economic problems the Prizes have caused would have settled a lot faster if 2Gs weren't so aggravating to get hold of even for CB owners.

[missy_]

On 2/26/2023 at 4:07 PM, Shadowdrake said:

Frankly, as 2g prizes have greatly decreased in worth, I think raffle winners have had enough time to enjoy exclusive wins and it would be healthier for the prize trading/lineage ecosystem if they were made more common.

 

 

On 2/26/2023 at 4:07 PM, Shadowdrake said:

 

I like the concept of one prize for every trophy as well as the idea of another prize for every 1000 milestone plus being purchasable. Even if someone can raise 1000 dragons in a year and is on every week, that's 1-2 prizes a year and with 6 prize breeds, that's 5-10 years to get a pair of every color including trophy prizes. 

Bold emphasis mine. I like the original premise, along with modifications per Shadowdrake's suggestion. This would allow players of different play styles to own Prizes. It would look something like this:
 

All of these would be available:

1. Purchased with shards

2. One per every 1000 dragons raised

3. One for each trophy level

 

The monthly raffle could continue as well ... at least it is a way for some people to win prizes. My disappointment with the monthly raffle is that it seems to mostly target inactive players or new players who have just started playing and often do not continue playing. I have seen players with a bronze trophy and a new prize; then they go inactive and their beautiful Silver Shimmer is sitting there. I am puzzled by whatever algorithm is used to give players prizes. I think most people at this point are dissatisfied with this current system. I believe it needs an overhaul, and I hope it gets one.