Friend Requests

[FuecocoBoi09]

So I was talking to my friend @/—Seven-  (hi sev) when I had an idea. He has a plethora of dragons, and I was always wanting to see his scroll. I’ve seen it a couple times, but I realized something. There should be a friend request system in game! My idea is once you become friends in game, you can see each others scroll, fogged dragons, and maybe breed each other’s dragons. 

[Brite]

I'm not sure about this idea, but I'm strongly against breedings others' dragons.

[KageSora]

So, if you're already friends then you can show each other your scrolls already so that wouldn't really be an advantage of this.  (In-game I don't think "send a random request to a total stranger so you can see their scroll even if they have it hidden" would get you very far, and as there's no in-game communication then it's not like you'd be talking to other players on the game site itself and want to add them--if you're talking to other players elsewhere, again, you can always add bookmark their scroll when they show it to you)

 

Seeing each others fogged dragons also doesn't seem to have much point?  If you're already friends elsewhere then they can just tell you what their fogged dragons are or they can unfog them to show you.  And, again, I don't think people would be accepting random requests from total strangers if that would mean suddenly their fogged eggs could get peeked at--they're fogged for a reason.

 

As for cross-scroll breeding...  It's been suggested a few times over the years.  There's also been a "stud dragon" suggestion as well.

 

Arguments against such include:

• Difficulty of deciding who gets to keep the egg in a way that doesn't involve a player feeling disappointed
  • Does the breeding always produce two eggs?
    • If so, are they always the same breed?  What happens if you get 2 different breeds and then somebody isn't happy because the other person got the one they were hoping for?
  • If it only produces one egg, who gets the egg?
    • Does it always stay with the owner of the female?
    • Do they players decide in advance and have some setting that says "egg sent to X player"?
    • Is it random?
• How compensation would work in the case of something like an official breeding hub?  (A stud system, or one that isn't limited to offering male dragons to stud)

Any inter-scroll breeding would require consent of both parties otherwise a random player could just get you to add them as a friend then ruin your lineage project timetables by breeding to all your dragons you were going to use or they could come and destroy your "this dragon will never breed" or "these dragons are exclusive mates" setup by breeding their random dragon with them.  That's all something that could be worked out off-site, must like how you can work out trades via PM or something, but would be more complex if you could add random users on-site as, again, there's no on-site communication, and I don't believe that's something on the table to add.

 

In general I'm not opposed to some kind of buddy system where you can mutually add each other to a list of favorite scrolls or whatever--but it's actual practical use would be fairly limited, I think.

[DragonLady86]

No communication between scrolls as it conflicts with TJ09's actual job.

[seventeendeer]

I'd love to see some kind of friend list happen - I think it would open up some interesting possibilities for player cooperation. Of course the specifics would have to be worked out quite carefully (as with the 'stud' function referenced above), but a few potential ideas off the top of my head include: being able to send your friend breeding requests, trading with your friend without using up a teleport slot, and the ability to request use of your friend's dragon's BSA on one of your own dragons (perhaps at a doubled cooldown cost?).

 

A direct messaging system has been established as a no-no, but since trading (including private two-way trading, where you can even attach a little message) is already in the game, I think that means it might not be completely off the table!

 

My S.O. and I cooperate a lot on this game and it would be really fun to be able to help each other out more easily. A lot of work would have to be done to prevent more social players from having too big of an advantage over players who prefer to play solo, and also we'd probably need some systems in place to prevent highly-visible/popular players (TJ himself, spriters, forum mods, etc) from being bombarded with friend requests, but I do think it would be possible! At least fun to consider, if nothing else.

[KageSora]

I dislike the idea of giving official scroll buddies too many exclusive perks.  That would encourage mutli-scrolling, I suspect.  Why bother trading all the good stuff you catch on a second scroll to your main one if you can just add it as a friend and cross-scroll breed while pretending you're family members?  I'd also have concerns about it opening up things like somebody designing a dragon that can only be obtain when you breed certain dragons cross-scroll--we already have too many dragons you can only obtain with the help of a second player for my tastes as it is.

 

As for people being bombarded with requests, I'd imagine that having an "enable/disable requests" option would do a lot for that?  It could be divided into 2 types of requests--"public" requests, where anybody that can see your scroll can request you if you have public requests enabled, and "private" requests that have a unique link and only somebody with that link can send you a request.  (Sort of like how we have public and private trade options).  That would both allow high-profile players to avoid getting swamped and still allow them to add people they actually want to send requests to without risking getting bombarded every time they enable requests to let a specific person add them.  (For the unique link I think it would need to expire after every single use, otherwise somebody who felt malicious who got their hands on it could post it and get the person spammed with private requests--I don't think that's likely but people can be petty especially if there's a falling-out among actual friends so...  Best to consider the ways folks might abuse something and head it off if possible)

[seventeendeer]

16 minutes ago, KageSora said:

As for people being bombarded with requests, I'd imagine that having an "enable/disable requests" option would do a lot for that?  It could be divided into 2 types of requests--"public" requests, where anybody that can see your scroll can request you if you have public requests enabled, and "private" requests that have a unique link and only somebody with that link can send you a request.  (Sort of like how we have public and private trade options).  That would both allow high-profile players to avoid getting swamped and still allow them to add people they actually want to send requests to without risking getting bombarded every time they enable requests to let a specific person add them.  (For the unique link I think it would need to expire after every single use, otherwise somebody who felt malicious who got their hands on it could post it and get the person spammed with private requests--I don't think that's likely but people can be petty especially if there's a falling-out among actual friends so...  Best to consider the ways folks might abuse something and head it off if possible)

 

I think this is a very elegant solution! The fact that it resembles some of the features/steps for trading should help players pick up on how it works quickly, too.

 

For balancing purposes/preventing multi-scrolling, I think it might be helpful to look at what can already be done in the game and give people who are friends the "perk" of skipping some steps? Just picking "request breeding" as an example - as the game is now, you can message your friend on another platform and ask them to breed two of their dragons for you, then teleport the offspring to you, but it might be neat if you could go on the scroll of someone on your friend list, pick 2 dragons you'd like offspring from, and send them a breeding request. Your friend would then have a notification that so-and-so would like offspring from two of your dragons, and they can say yes/no, then have the option to instantly teleport the result to the other person's scroll (or keep it if they change their mind/got the wrong outcome).

 

I do think it would be nice if minor bonuses were added (like not using up a teleport slot/reduced cooldown, in this example), but I also think the streamlined process would be very helpful in and of itself. Of course multi-scrollers would also have access to the more streamlined system, but I don't think just skipping a couple of steps would make a big difference in how many or how often people multiscroll. Not enough to outweigh the benefit for the rest of the player-base, at least.

[Fuzzbucket]

18 hours ago, Brite said:

I'm not sure about this idea, but I'm strongly against breedings others' dragons.

So am I. Breed for other players, not with their dragons.

17 hours ago, KageSora said:

So, if you're already friends then you can show each other your scrolls already so that wouldn't really be an advantage of this. 

 

Exactly this.

 

17 hours ago, KageSora said:

 

I can't delete this box...

14 hours ago, DragonLady86 said:

No communication between scrolls as it conflicts with TJ09's actual job.

 

This is the crucial issue, not that I would ever want to see this happen.

9 hours ago, KageSora said:

I dislike the idea of giving official scroll buddies too many exclusive perks.  That would encourage mutli-scrolling, I suspect.  Why bother trading all the good stuff you catch on a second scroll to your main one if you can just add it as a friend and cross-scroll breed while pretending you're family members?  I'd also have concerns about it opening up things like somebody designing a dragon that can only be obtain when you breed certain dragons cross-scroll--we already have too many dragons you can only obtain with the help of a second player for my tastes as it is.

 

As for people being bombarded with requests, I'd imagine that having an "enable/disable requests" option would do a lot for that?  It could be divided into 2 types of requests--"public" requests, where anybody that can see your scroll can request you if you have public requests enabled, and "private" requests that have a unique link and only somebody with that link can send you a request.  (Sort of like how we have public and private trade options).  That would both allow high-profile players to avoid getting swamped and still allow them to add people they actually want to send requests to without risking getting bombarded every time they enable requests to let a specific person add them.  (For the unique link I think it would need to expire after every single use, otherwise somebody who felt malicious who got their hands on it could post it and get the person spammed with private requests--I don't think that's likely but people can be petty especially if there's a falling-out among actual friends so...  Best to consider the ways folks might abuse something and head it off if possible)

All of this. Make friends and have them look at your scroll when they choose. We don't need special groups to share.

[inghelene]

Tbh, I'd actually like befriending people with no perks outside of just having a friend list under account for an easy link to their scroll. I don't always recall my friend's weird scroll names, so there is some benefit to that. (If only to avoid having to scroll through chat or make a long list of favorites on my pc.)

 

Maybe also a setting where you can hide your scroll so that it is only visible for your friends?

 

Outside of this though, I do not see the need for additional perks.

Nor is it a function I'd really fight for.

Edited December 16, 2023 by inghelene

[Jazeki]

I'm already friends with plenty of people here. And taking a moment to ignore the obvious issues against, how would this work specifically once the friend request happens? Also, what happens if one of your "friends" does something bad to your dragons? Can you remove them? Is there a block feature? What if you don't want friend requests? How would you prevent harassment or spam friend requests?

[seventeendeer]

3 minutes ago, Jazeki said:

I'm already friends with plenty of people here. And taking a moment to ignore the obvious issues against, how would this work specifically once the friend request happens? Also, what happens if one of your "friends" does something bad to your dragons? Can you remove them? Is there a block feature? What if you don't want friend requests? How would you prevent harassment or spam friend requests?

 

There is already discussion on all of these issues further up this page. Most people are against friends being able to do anything with your dragons unauthorized and there are already good pitches for how to prevent the feature being harmful/annoying.

 

The only thing that hasn't been covered is that yes, I do think if you can add friends, it should go without saying that there should also be a way to remove them. I can't imagine a friend system would be implemented without it.

[CandraCat]

 

In my experience a significant amount of people have their scrolls available to be viewed, I know mine is….

ive always assumed that if someone has their scroll hidden it’s because they don’t want people looking at it, and if a friend is desperate to see it, or even if they just wanna show it, it’s not difficult to make your scroll available for public viewing, is it?

 

i don’t see a huge issue with having a ‘friend system’ just to be able to see a scroll that is hidden from the majority of people…..

I mean, other than it seems like a waste of time for TJ….. wonderful guy 🥰 he’s built such an amazing place for us here ❤️ 🐉 

I’m not sure if you’d want the mechanics to include some kind of ‘peek’ function to be able to see a fogged dragon, or if you mean you actually want to be able to unfog your friends dragons. The first option would be okay, the second option would be terrible…. 😬

I think that being able to actually breed your friends dragons, (following the natural logic that anything you bred on their scroll stayed on their scroll or got dumped to the AP if they were at max younglings) would be a terrible idea and would make many people inclined to not allow anyone to be their ‘friend’

Ive got friends, I show them my scroll, point out a dragon here or there, breed things they request, if they wanted to know what I had fogged, I’d tell them 🤷‍♀️ or maybe not, if I didn’t want to….. 🤔 

since you already use the forums, I don’t see what a ‘friend system’ in the game would benefit you, 🤷‍♀️ 🤔 I mean unless by ‘breeding each others dragons’ followed the backwards logic of you getting whatever egg you bred from your ‘friends’ dragons, and you plan to send out random friend requests to people whose dragons you want eggs from?

 

I can’t see any logical/beneficial reason for the thing you have presented here, unless your plans are as I just stated, in which case it would be a detriment to everyone else…. But a benefit to you… 🤷‍♀️ 

 

Edited December 17, 2023 by CandraCat

[Jazeki]

4 hours ago, seventeendeer said:

 

There is already discussion on all of these issues further up this page. Most people are against friends being able to do anything with your dragons unauthorized and there are already good pitches for how to prevent the feature being harmful/annoying.

 

The only thing that hasn't been covered is that yes, I do think if you can add friends, it should go without saying that there should also be a way to remove them. I can't imagine a friend system would be implemented without it.

Thank you, but I was asking for the original poster's further explanations regarding this suggestion and my questions. I already read the rest of the thread.

Edited December 17, 2023 by Jazeki

[Fuzzbucket]

As far as removing friends goes, I am very aware of the merry hell that function already causes on f*rtbook. I'll feeling and revenge all over. And as there can never be scroll to scroll communication, I cannot see how this would benefit anyone, or even what it could achieve.

[schenanigans]

Given the "social" nature of friend requests I can't help but think we will likely never get this. 

That being said, I'm not inherently opposed to such a feature. I'm not sure that several steps to access the friend list is going to be much better than my browser autocompleting their scroll names for me, and that would be pretty much the only thing I would use it for. 

But definitely no to friends being able to see hidden things, or do *anything* to my scroll such as breeding. 

 

It really leaves me to wonder what the purpose would be in a game like this knowing the limitations on social features. My support on that is heavily dependent on what "friend requests" and their benefits actually entail, and I'm just leaning towards no support for the very limited benefits I'd actually want out of such a feature. 

Edited December 17, 2023 by schenanigans

[TJ09]

On 12/15/2023 at 10:38 PM, DragonLady86 said:

No communication between scrolls as it conflicts with TJ09's actual job.

Please let me be the arbiter of what is or isn't a conflict of interest with my day job. If you don't agree with the suggestion, feel free to state as such directly.

[Rosedamai]

I don’t want a “friend” to breed my dragons, I really don’t see why someone would want to see another person’s fogged sprite when, if you are friends irl or on another site or on the forums, you can just ask them directly, and you can already see a “friend’s” scroll or anyone who doesn’t have their scroll hidden for that matter by typing their username out as in dragcave.net/user/(insert name) so I really don’t see what the perks of this suggestion would be. Sorry.

[Fuzzbucket]

7 hours ago, Rosedamai said:

I don’t want a “friend” to breed my dragons, I really don’t see why someone would want to see another person’s fogged sprite when, if you are friends irl or on another site or on the forums, you can just ask them directly, and you can already see a “friend’s” scroll or anyone who doesn’t have their scroll hidden for that matter by typing their username out as in dragcave.net/user/(insert name) so I really don’t see what the perks of this suggestion would be. Sorry.

 

This says it all. I too can't see any point to this. Make friends on forum or discord and show them whatever you want.

[_Charky]

I'm not strongly opposed to a friends list, but this can just as easily be achieved by making a group of dragons named after your friends' scrollnames.
I don't like the idea of seeing fogged dragons- they're usually fogged for a reason.
I'm not opposed to cross-scroll breeding, but I don't want someone else breeding my dragons for me, and I'm not convinced that building a system for that is the best use of TJ's time at the minute.

[animatedrose]

A friends list might be cool, but only if it's just that--a friends list. They shouldn't be messing with your scroll in any capacity, period. Not breeding your stuff, not fogging or unfogging your stuff, nothing. They have their own scroll. Why should they basically get to operate on their scroll AND your scroll too? I can see so many things going wrong if one day that friend decides to be trolly or go toxic, because I doubt TJ would be willing to revert any mischief done in those instances.

 

A friends list? Sure, just a list.
A friends list with the ability to mess with each others' stuff? No.