Lengthen Flood And/Or Increased Drop Volume for New Releases

[KageSora]

Especially with massive releases that outstrip even a platinum player's ability to obtain, it can get pretty frustrating trying to grab the eggs especially for people in time zones that are not conducive to being online until hours after a release.  Those of us lucky enough to be on at release and have great connections get frustrated and so I can only imagine how much worse it is for people with a poor connection and/or who are busy at work while a release is happening or something.

 

This becomes especially annoying in the case of eggs that become extremely difficult to find post-flood.  And with the fact that we never know if a dragon will still be easily found post-flood, will go through a relatively brief period of scarcity, or will be extremely difficult or next to impossible to find CB post-flood...  I think that does add to the scramble to get as many as possible as quickly as possible rather than players being willing to wait it out and grab some later.  (After all, if you don't even know if you'll have a chance later you're more likely to go for it right away)

 

I propose, therefore, a guaranteed 24 hour flood, and/or an increase in the number of eggs present at each hourly and 5 minute drop.  Preferably both, possibly on a bit of a scale--higher volume drops towards the start of the release when there's the big scramble that reduce down towards the number that get dropped now as the release continues.  Or maybe something like a continuous, endless flood for a few hours followed by resuming the regular flood rates for the remainder of the initial 24 hour period.

 

Possibly several different releases could be used to test variations in flood duration and density in order to find a volume that doesn't end up being completely overwhelming but does ease some of the strain and annoyance especially with larger releases.

[alyelle]

Support.

[Laugh]

Definitely agree that 24h should be the norm for releases and possibly double the rate of current floods. 

[deleted_account]

I'll just repeat that this is simply a necessary update. The spawn rate is outdated and way too low for the current size of the userbase, while the spawn rate should grow together with the site.

 

1st page refresh on the xx:x5 and I see just 2 eggs. This speaks for itself. (I caught 1 of them, but the problem remains.)

[Maia NaViolith]

Agreed--I was on at the time of the release, but did not catch my first one until 2 hours later (and didn't even see them for a solid 50 minutes).  Even one hour after, I saw some but never caught any (I'd get that "someone else grabbed" message).   Finally caught additional ones (one from each biome) at 6am, but even then the 5 minute was down to two, and I only succeeded because I was only hunting one biome.

[OMGitsKairi]

+1 Support. 

 

I am still not caught up from the LAST release and now there are NINE new eggs to worry about. 

[Fuzzbucket]

While I'm not fine with waaaah TJ has to do what I want - I'd be glad of this too.

[Tiira]

Why not a 24-hour non-stop flood? How could that hurt anyone? It would only be about once in a month after all.

 

Not only because catching new eggs on the day of release has become too challenging for many, but also because this difficulty leads to frustration and frustrated people are prone to express their disappointment and concerns. It may even lead to bitterness, since some are always more skilled at hunting for difficult eggs than others (or just luckier). The News threads for monthly releases seem to be turning more and more into an area of this kind of discussion, which I think is unfortunate, when the focus should be on the released dragons, and we should all be sharing our excitement and delight rather than our worries.

 

I know that it's not a must to get any new dragons on the first day. But it's also not a must to make the releases so difficult. People might have different reasons for rushing, but I feel that everyone who comes here for the new eggs on the release day should have a real chance to grab something.

 

(Sorry if anything sounded offensive, I had a hard time today translating my thoughts into English but I really never mean to complain. I would just love to see everyone enjoying the releases and looking forward to them.)

Edited July 30, 2023 by Tiira

[stardust13]

Support.

[OMGitsKairi]

43 minutes ago, Tiira said:

I know that it's not a must to get any new dragons on the first day. 

 

This is true, but as the number of breeds increases, the likelihood of finding a specific one decreases, without even taking ratios into account. At least during the flood one is guaranteed to at least SEE the egg in question. 

[Lovecats]

Support from me.

 

Usually, the floods end and the NRs get incorporated back into the rest of the biomes by the time a lot of users in European time zones can next visit the cave. It makes catching NRs quite frustrating, since they're not only harder to get but since others in more reasonable time zones got the chance to catch em much more easily. So yes please, i'm all for a much fairer system which brings more happiness to more people.

[seventeendeer]

I'd support any variation of this honestly - while the issue of cave-hunting being more tedious than it ought to be is a multi-faceted problem that will need major changes to fix, simply implementing longer/more intense new release floods would definitely help in some capacity. I also can't see any downsides to any of the variations discussed here. Yes please!

[_Charky]

I don't disagree with the principle of this, but I'm not sure it's as easy to implement as you're thinking. As far as I've ever been told (which I think was in an IRC message from TJ many years ago), "flooding" isn't something that's defined by length of time.

 

What actually happens (again, I think) is that the new eggs are added to the cave with a pre-defined ratio, and then the cave generates a whole bunch of the new egg to balance out the ratios because it takes one look and goes "... well that's not right, there are WAY fewer of this dragon than there should be". Essentially, flooding is more of a bug than a feature.

 

The only way to increase the number of eggs in the flood is to temporarily increase their ratio, and I don't know how possible that is on the backend because I'm not TJ.

Edited July 30, 2023 by _Charky

[Tiira]

23 hours ago, OMGitsKairi said:

This is true, but as the number of breeds increases, the likelihood of finding a specific one decreases, without even taking ratios into account. At least during the flood one is guaranteed to at least SEE the egg in question. 

 

You're right, I also said that people might have different reasons why they'd like to catch something on the release day, and this surely was one of the reasons I had in mind.

 

But I guess I wanted to emphasize that no matter why someone wants the eggs on the first day, if a player comes to the site for the release, I think they should get something for it. I've always believed that this release day competition for eggs was not intended, but rather an accidental consequence of too few eggs for this many players. I could also be wrong about this.

Edited July 31, 2023 by Tiira

[Edenello]

I support this. I can't imagine trying to get dragons from a late night release once I go back to university or if I work the next day, and I'd imagine it's even harder for people living in different time zones.

[KageSora]

9 minutes ago, _Charky said:

I don't disagree with the principle of this, but I'm not sure it's as easy to implement as you're thinking. As far as I've ever been told (which I think was in an IRC message from TJ many years ago), "flooding" isn't something that's defined by length of time.

 

What actually happens (again, I think) is that the new eggs are added to the cave with a pre-defined ratio, and then the cave generates a whole bunch of the new egg to balance out the ratios because it takes one look and goes "... well that's not right, there are WAY fewer of this dragon than there should be". Essentially, flooding is more of a bug than a feature.

 

The only way to increase the number of eggs in the flood is to temporarily increase their ratio, and I don't know how possible that is on the backend because I'm not TJ.

 

Mostly I figure S&R for an area where players can discuss things they'd either like to see or things they find to be an issue with the game as well as possible solutions which, naturally, can only come from our limited perspective as we don't have all the coding knowledge of the game to know what's feasible and what isn't.  It's then up to TJ to take a look at requests, suggestions, and proposed solutions to problems in the player experience and decide either the "issue" isn't worth addressing or to find a way that actually works on his end to implement some form of change--that doesn't always have to be in the way we users come up with ideas, either!  He might come up with something totally new to address it as well.

 

At this point, however, the nature of the ratios is causing so many ripple problems that it's damaging quite a few areas of player experience.  If the problem is so complex it can't be reasonably addressed then perhaps the game is simply reaching the end of its potential.  This is a natural thing that happens to all online-based games eventually, and DC has run for quite a few years now....

[_Charky]

3 minutes ago, KageSora said:

 

Mostly I figure S&R for an area where players can discuss things they'd either like to see or things they find to be an issue with the game as well as possible solutions which, naturally, can only come from our limited perspective as we don't have all the coding knowledge of the game to know what's feasible and what isn't.  It's then up to TJ to take a look at requests, suggestions, and proposed solutions to problems in the player experience and decide either the "issue" isn't worth addressing or to find a way that actually works on his end to implement some form of change--that doesn't always have to be in the way we users come up with ideas, either!  He might come up with something totally new to address it as well.

 

At this point, however, the nature of the ratios is causing so many ripple problems that it's damaging quite a few areas of player experience.  If the problem is so complex it can't be reasonably addressed then perhaps the game is simply reaching the end of its potential.  This is a natural thing that happens to all online-based games eventually, and DC has run for quite a few years now....

As I say, I don't disagree that the new eggs should have more availability- I'm just trying to temper expectations

[KageSora]

15 minutes ago, _Charky said:

As I say, I don't disagree that the new eggs should have more availability- I'm just trying to temper expectations

 

Personally, my only expectation is to try and bring some additional awareness of player frustration.

 

TJ can do or not do as he pleases, after all--but the less communication about it there is to users the more suggestions we will make in the hopes that eventually we'll find one that aligns with what he can and is willing to do.

[Fishkeeper]

On the topic of coding, would it be possible to make the flooding a feature? As in, add something in so TJ can press a figurative button and tell the cave "only spawn these dragons for 24 hours", and then let the ratio take over?

Edited July 30, 2023 by Fishkeeper

[GhostMouse]

10 hours ago, KageSora said:

I propose, therefore, a guaranteed 24 hour flood, and/or an increase in the number of eggs present at each hourly and 5 minute drop.

 

Support for both of these. New releases are getting increasingly competitive and many of the new breeds seem to disappear completely once their flood is over. Everyone should have a chance to get eggs on release day.

[Brite]

Full support. I had a feeling things would get heated as soon as this NR happened...

[Quinney]

Support.

[OMGitsKairi]

1 hour ago, Tiira said:

 I've always believed that this release day competition for eggs was not intended, but rather an accidental consequence of too few eggs for this many players.

 

I agree. And it also factors into the ratio "ripple" effects that KageSora mentioned. 

[Gluria]

Definitely support.

As apparently in the release thread every single post that's not 100% praise gets deleted maybe our wishes will be heard here.

[Murkydepths]

I would like 24h so it's fair for people regardless of timezone.