Drop Mechanics: Adding Additional Habitats

[blinkdog]

This is a request to add additional habitats to the cave.

 

Lore Rational:

✅ Pros: There are a plethora of different environments in the natural world, and new dragons have started appearing with descriptions that don't match present habitats (i.e Peach Pied and Turpentine mention living in grasslands, Algaare and Hooded Murkling mentions living in swamps, Freshwater vs saltwater dragons).

 

🟥 Cons: Having to name a bunch of new habitats. New habitat art would need to be created, and the map adjusted. Encyclopedia entries updated.

 

Mechanics Rational:

✅ Pros: The addition of habitats could help with some of the habitat congestion we see during new releases (70+ people in volcano and alpine for 3 eggs), as well as increasing the amount of eggs available with each 5-minute and 1-hour drop. It would spread out the amount of commons currently released.

Compared to other suggestions, adding additional habitats would prevent mobile layouts from becoming too clogged with the addition of another row of eggs to existing habitats.

This is not an entirely new change, either! In 2011 the habitat system was originally introduced, expanding from one "Cave" to the six we have now.

 

🟥 Cons: Overhaul of preexisting habitat tags, dragon codes would need to be adjusted to accommodate new habitats so they aren't just empty on creation. More eggs would mean more pressure server-side. etc. A lot of work in the background - this is a BIG ask!

 

1. (3-4) New Habitats:

🌾 Prairie / Grassland

A grassy and flowering field prone to wildfires that rejuvenate the ecosystem.

Example dragons:

Spoiler

Astrael, Black Tea, Freckled, Harvest, Honey Drake, Horse, Monarch, Peach Pied, Turpentine, Whiptail etc.

 

🌿 Swamp / Wetlands

A brackish or freshwater body, with riparian habitat full of tall reeds that supports an abundance of life.

Example dragons:

Spoiler

Algarre, Blue-Banded, Dark Green, Green, Hooded Murkling, Hydrophidius, Kovos Pygmy, Lacula, Striped River, Terrae, Undine, Water Walker etc.

 

🦇 Caverns / Cave (?)

A dark, cold expanse beneath the earth, the deepest tunnels still unknown.

Distinct from the volcano because it doesn't have the fire association.

Example dragons:

Spoiler

Albino, Azure Glacewing, Brute, Ciriax Lindwyrm, Green, Guardian, Laboradorite, Mimic Pygmy, Nexus, Nocturne, Occulri Pygmy, Red, Scimitar-wing, Stone etc.

 

Some ideas to think about: Rainforest, Tundra, Glacier, Cold Desert, Foothills, Old-Growth Forest, Open Ocean, Kelp Forest, Reef, Lake, Savannah, Shrublands, Taiga etc.

 

 

2. Divide Into Sub-biomes

A larger expansion was suggested by jellystualy in the second post - having sub habitats; separate pages for each of the preexisting habitats (i.e Alpine would have the Summit, Cliff Side and Alpine Forest sub habitat). Each habitat could be expanded to three new locations to explore, tripling the current number of habitats. This would capture a greater diversity of habitats and provide even more areas to egg hunt in. Players would select an umbrella habitat that would lead to links for the sub habitats. Like Seasonal Dragons, certain species could be more or less common in some habitats depending on the time of year.

 

🏔️ Alpine --> Summit, Treeline, Alpine Forest

🌊 Coast --> Open Ocean, Beach, Reef

🏜️ Desert --> Savannah, Grassland, Dunes

🌳 Forest --> Lake, Woodland, Swamp

🍃 Jungle --> Canopy, Forest Floor, River

🌋 Volcano --> Caverns, Caldera, Hot Springs

 

These are just a few ideas, please comment if you have more!

 

 

3. Geographically Different Habitats

Another idea from jellystualy and a previous board is the separation of biomes we currently group together into distinct, named areas. So there would be 2 deserts but one would be on one land mass and another on the other side of the ocean. There could be similar divisions for all of the biomes. One desert already has a name: Jehumah Desert
 

Based on the current map the splits could be:

🌵 2 Deserts

❄️ 2-3 Mountain Ranges (Alpine)

🔥 3 Volcanic Ranges

🍃 2 Jungles

🌳 3-4 Forests

🐟 2-3 Oceans/Seas (Coast)

 

 

4. Have another idea?

Lets discuss!

 

Parent Topics

Spoiler

We Need New Drop Mechanics. It's Just A Fact. - active but congested with ideas, opted to separate discussion off

Add a new Biome - Swamp - last active 2019

New Biomes - last active 2020, creator appears to be inactive. Will be compiling a bunch of information from this thread.

will add more as I do more archived forum research

 

Reminder to keep the discussion civil and focused on the topic. It takes a lot of work to update DragCave and updates are not owed to any of the players.

Please do not discuss other proposed drop mechanics here (i.e higher egg limit, more drops, another row of eggs, etc.)

I will continue to edit this post as I write up habitat descriptions and poll results come in, as well as to include different highlights of the discussion.

Edited September 11, 2023 by blinkdog
addicted to formatting this and adding emojis

[jellystualy]

As the one who suggested a Biome overhaul in the parent thread here, I may as well elaborate further on what my points were:

 

Firstly, in terms of graphic design (as that seems to be the biggest concern for both PC and mobile players), I thought that sub-biome regions would look roughly the same as the current layout does, with maybe 4 areas per sub-biome to keep things neat and concise. Instead of each Biome being listed I figured that instead it'd show the sub-regions: Alpine would include a Peak/Summit (the top), the Base, and whatever else, to go off my example back in the Thread. I do feel like some regions can be added under the existing ones whereas new Biomes can be implemented if they stand out or can't fit under what can basically be considered an "umbrella." I do really like the given suggestions for Biomes here though! I would love to see a Swamp or anything similar too

 

Secondly, as it's been said before, it's kinda silly for 70+ something people to go to the same Biome when the Map itself shows a bajillion potential locations with Galsreim itself being a continent and not just some teeny area. Going off dracornithologist's idea I figured that with such a vast open area that there could be “hot spots” or specific areas to go to—in lore reasons, probably areas adventurers have unanimously agreed to be worth checking out, or are infamous for the types of dragons they're inhabited by; in gameplay reasons, to promote more variety. For example, we'd have different Forests, one being Forest "A" and Forest "B" (where A and B stands for a name or the like), where dragon breeds could spawn depending on what the regions offer—no forest is the same IRL and I very much doubt forests are all the same in DragCave either. In fact, we already have the Jehumuh Desert, so it'd be nice if there was another desert or if it had different special areas to visit. How exactly going from one Biome to the Other Biome works, maybe using the interactive Map we already have? Instead of highlighting an entire Biome it could highlight them separately as we hover over them or something (I didn't think this far admittedly)

 

And this brings me to my third point, multiple areas and especially different Biomes would go off both the lore of many, MANY breeds, as well as pre-existing mechanics. In other words: distributing dragon breeds in certain regions (besides the all-Biome ones, unless there's a change to be found with those too). Each region would have its own quota, with mayhaps some dragon breeds being found in several areas as they are now?

The Dragon Encyclopedia lists off Habitat preferences so it'd go off of things already established (for most dragon breeds at least), and some dragons have time-based availability (such as Seasonals) and then there's Stellarum Wyrms that rotate between Biomes. Dragon Cave has many wonderful mechanics and ideas for dragon distribution in the Cave right now, but as far as limitations go all we really get is the Caves being "blocked" ’cuz of that.

 

I Think that should sum up what I've been thinking of? I'm well aware this would completely overhaul everything anyone's known for years now as well as it'd imply reworking ratios (possibly, I figure at least?) and everything on the site is managed by one (1) guy so I don't expect any changes overnight and it'd be silly to, however I would still love to see sub-Biomes or even new Biomes being added in the potential future to spice up Cave hunting and especially open up more opportunities for more mechanics 

[blinkdog]

I updated the first post to include more details about your sub-biome idea! I really like the part about actually giving names to the different locations.

[Silverwatermist]

Support! Very well-written and well-organized ideas! (On a note unrelated to DC mechanics, the use of colors, bold, and emojis in your post made it extremely easy for me to read it and then skim to find what I wanted to re-read! Thanks for that 🙂)

[Yashiro]

Fully support, as afaik I also thumbed up the other thread about drop/map overhaul. You wrote and explained SO SO well, loved how you organized everything. 

Even if the whole site is handled by a single person, maybe he could do it on times it comes to his mind, with time, no promises. The site may need some big change, or at least something more elaborated for the drops, there's a lot of new dragons releasing that really don't match their description. I know it will also probably need some change on the odds and everything, but isn't it worth it? Anyway, I fully support those map/drop change, being them overhaul or just some touch ups. 

[blinkdog]

5 hours ago, Silverwatermist said:

On a note unrelated to DC mechanics, the use of colors, bold, and emojis in your post made it extremely easy for me to read it and then skim to find what I wanted to re-read! Thanks for that 🙂

 

3 hours ago, Yashiro said:

You wrote and explained SO SO well, loved how you organized everything

 

Thank you for the compliments 🥲 I tried really hard haha. I’ll try to keep it organized as the discussion expands!

[inghelene]

I like it! I support!

[Jazeki]

I like the idea of sub biomes. Tentative support for this as it moves through development. We've come a long way from our single cave days, but there's still room to improve. 

[OMGitsKairi]

+1 Support for this. As the number of dragon species continues to increase, so does the variation in habitats that

they live in and I think it would be neat for the cave itself to reflect that. 

[themagiciansky]

Support!! 

[Diggie]

Not only do I like the idea as a whole, I like how well you presented it from multiple different points of view. Massive support from me!

[Paarthurnax]

Support! While I'm not sure how feasible this is on DC's current budget and all, it would be an incredibly welcome change to me.

[Aie]

I'd love this, support! I'm particularly fond of the sub-habitats idea, as I don't think the current situation would significantly improve with the addition of only a couple new biomes.

[inghelene]

Thinking about this again, I think the only real challenge is that you’ll have very few users for each biome. Thus it will remove competition to a larger extent. 🤔

[blinkdog]

9 hours ago, inghelene said:

Thinking about this again, I think the only real challenge is that you’ll have very few users for each biome. Thus it will remove competition to a larger extent. 🤔

I agree. The sub-biomes expansion would be really great but maybe too many new ones? I still really like the idea, however so I’m happy to discuss it more. (also it’s fun to just throw around ideas 🙂)

 

On 9/2/2023 at 9:43 AM, blinkdog said:

3. Geographically Different Biomes

Another idea from jellystualy and a previous board is the separation of biomes we currently group together into distinct, named areas. So there would be 2 deserts but one would be on one land mass and another on the other side of the ocean. There could be similar divisions for all of the biomes. One desert already has a name: Jehumah Desert
 

Based on the current map the splits could be:

🌵 2 Deserts

❄️ 2-3 Mountain Ranges (Alpine)

🔥 3 Volcanic Ranges

🍃 2 Jungles

🌳 3-4 Forests

🐟 2-3 Oceans/Seas (Coast)

 

Updated the first post to include a 3rd idea about naming and separating geographically different habitats

Edited September 7, 2023 by blinkdog

[Whiteberry]

Superbly presented proposal - thank you, @blinkdog. Full support.

[Murkydepths]

I really want a grasslands biome please please please

[Moonlight_Eevee]

Support. The cave is nearing 300 breeds and currently can't hold all the breeds released. There was a few months that I hadn't seen a balloon egg.

[Fuzzbucket]

7 hours ago, MoonlightEevee said:

Support. The cave is nearing 300 breeds and currently can't hold all the breeds released. There was a few months that I hadn't seen a balloon egg.

 

I'm afraid that's probably down to my grandson, who hoards them, with the help of several members here.... 1,144 and rising.

[Lagie]

I like this idea.

And...

57 minutes ago, Fuzzbucket said:

I'm afraid that's probably down to my grandson, who hoards them, with the help of several members here.... 1,144 and rising.

Guilty.

 

(That opening post looks amazing. Very clear.)

[TJ09]

I've been planning something similar for a while now. No ETA or details to share, but the mechanics on that are fairly set, so I can say you definitely shouldn't be surprised if you eventually see something that looks a lot like the the ideas that have been kicked around here.

[blinkdog]

Thank you for the reply TJ! Can't wait to see whats in store 🤩

 

Updated the main topic to highlight TJ's comment so people know whats in the works 👀

Edited September 10, 2023 by blinkdog

[AzureWyrmsblood]

Very exciting news!

[jellystualy]

Oh that's very exciting indeed!!! Happy to hear it's been considered before and can't wait for the day it might be implemented 👀

[Murkydepths]

Super hype to hear from Tj!