Dragon backgrounds/Environments

[notecardPasta]

Main Summary: I think it'd be cool if we could select different backgrounds to give to our dragons! Backgrounds could be based off of each biome, and perhaps after initial release expanded for one of each magic element as well. Backgrounds would be slightly larger than the max size for a dragon sprite, but not so large as to take up the entire scroll. (Unless that'd be cooler but it sounds like a ton of work to draw)

Visually backgrounds could fade into the scroll at the edges, match the sepiatone color of the scroll, or look as if the scroll has been torn open to reveal the dragon and background beyond! The mockups roughly attempt the last option but are quickly done so please imagine a world where they're done by an actual pixelartist haha

Backgrounds should not show up on the main scroll to avoid any layout issues, only behind the dragon on the dragon's individual page. Dragons should have no background by default. Backgrounds probably shouldn't show up on lineages in case it ruins past ones so that this feature isn't invasive to anybody that doesn't want to use it, and wouldn't mesh well with how lineages are cropped in the first place.

 

Mockup examples:

I chose "Home" for the action title to match with the rest being one-word actions but there's probably a better one out there!

The background selection area with the world's roughest bg examples.

Living worlds by mark ferrari has some really good examples of pixel bgs that look really nice to show what I mean!

Optional/Extra ideas on mechanics:

How to obtain: Backgrounds could either all be unlocked by default, or earned through raising dragons corresponding to each background. The latter would make implementing all of this more complex, but I think it'd be a cool new goal for people to complete, almost like another type of trophy! For example, you could need to raise x amount of dragons from the alpines to unlock a mountain background, or x amount of dragons with the air element to unlock the sky background. Once a background is unlocked, it could be used on any dragon you own.

Backgrounds could also be purchased with shards to give more purpose to them, but I'll admit I really like the idea of each corresponding to a biome/element so there's more quests around haha


Pros:

• Users can personalize their dragons a bit more and find fun palette combos for different breeds on different backgrounds! Dragons that users are proud of could get a bit more TLC with a nice place for them to hang out in.
• If backgrounds can be earned, users will have extra goals and rewards to work towards! We know element and biome counts could work from the monthly raffle requirements as well.
• If backgrounds are released gradually or in small batches it could give something exciting to look forward to and a lot of fun pixelart potential!

 

Cons:

• Not all breeds will look good with certain backgrounds, or blend in/be overpowered by them. This can be mitigated by just making sure there's a good range of palettes between them and to avoid neon brights and super dark darks, but backgrounds should also be optional so that if it doesn't look good, it doesn't need to be used.
• Backgrounds will be a lot of work -- not only is it a larger canvas but its an entire environment on top of that! Since dragcave is contributed to by volunteers it may be an intense project to complete, but I think it'd be worth it for the end result! I'm not sure how picking background artists would go, however...

Edited March 2 by notecardPasta

[Cinnamonear]

AWESOME!!!

Totally supporting this!

 

🤩

[blinkdog]

This would be a cute addition. Not sure how feasible, but I like the idea.

[purplehaze]

If implemented this should absolutely be optional. To me, it is nothing but unpleasant clutter.

[Fuzzbucket]

I wasn't going to bother commenting as I am totally meh about this, but yeah. I use the St Pat's skin just so that I can avoid the various biome backgrounds.... I couldn't use this, so if it were to happen, it does need to be optional.

[notecardPasta]

I'd imagine it'd be as optional as naming a dragon! If you don't want to use it, you shouldn't have to.

Since backgrounds would only be on the dragon's page (like descriptions) it wouldn't change much else about the game, which may be an argument against implementing it in the first place but hey the point of games is to have fun which this certainly would be for myself and friends I've discussed the idea with!

As far as feasibility goes, I'm not sure how TJ prefers to set things up but an extra column with a null default could be added to each dragon entry that contains an integer that corresponds with a BG (1.png, 2.png etc) which shouldn't take up too much memory? The unlocking bgs stuff would be a bit more involved but the base stuff I've done myself on a personal project before without too many snags!

[Skadi]

I'm down for anything that adds more optional collection things to the game, without making it too punishing for not doing it. Since it's only on the dragon's individual page, I don't see a downside to this besides the fact that it would be a lot of work and we'd need volunteers who would want to do it. That's really the main hurdle: would there be any artists willing to do this?

Edited March 2 by Skadi

[Brite]

I'd definitely support it if it were optional. I kind of like the idea of adding a background.. 

[inghelene]

The suggestion is cute and looks nice, but it would mess up the size variations of dragons. All sprites are locked at a max size, that doesn't quite reflect the actual size of the dragon portrayed.

It would be kinda odd to have a forest background of one of the larger breeds in the game. (I heard Mint dragons are supposed to be the size of a small car or so. And that's the smallest dragon.)

 

That being said, I do think it would look rad for the people who opted in to use it.

But again, not seeing it come to fruition within the premise of DC. Your scroll is supposed to be notes of the dragon you raise, and drawing a bg isn't quite following that theme.

[Iveolra]

whoa that sounds really cool! though would prefer it optional

[KageSora]

3 minutes ago, inghelene said:

Your scroll is supposed to be notes of the dragon you raise, and drawing a bg isn't quite following that theme.

 

For you, maybe, but plenty of people take notes with visuals.  For a record of animals raised it wouldn't be strange at all to include some drawings of habitats they find most hospitable, for example (though it would make less sense for using unrelated backgrounds on dragons such as a volcano background for a sea dragon).

 

To me it doesn't make any less sense than an "encyclopedia" that lacks the most basic of info on each breed which is what DC has.

 

It also doesn't make sense that for one day a year we change a bunch of the info on our scroll to be goofy (April Fool's), and yet that happens regularly.  Sometimes you have discrepancies between gameplay and lore and that can often be a good thing--sometimes in the name of making things either more fun or flow better they have to be disconnected from the lore or story.

[inghelene]

15 minutes ago, KageSora said:

 

For you, maybe, but plenty of people take notes with visuals.  For a record of animals raised it wouldn't be strange at all to include some drawings of habitats they find most hospitable, for example (though it would make less sense for using unrelated backgrounds on dragons such as a volcano background for a sea dragon).

 

To me it doesn't make any less sense than an "encyclopedia" that lacks the most basic of info on each breed which is what DC has.

 

It also doesn't make sense that for one day a year we change a bunch of the info on our scroll to be goofy (April Fool's), and yet that happens regularly.  Sometimes you have discrepancies between gameplay and lore and that can often be a good thing--sometimes in the name of making things either more fun or flow better they have to be disconnected from the lore or story.

If you drew it, you would draw it to size though.  

But I don’t mind this as a suggestion that’s optional. I rarely bother with people’s scrolls, and it looks cute enough.

Just pointing out that the Pygmy/drake/dragon size relation isn’t as absolute as their sprite suggests. Whilst the first two tends to be consistent, dragons go from large to absolute massive. You are just drawing the dragons to fit the paper regardless of their actual size. Thus I don’t see it implemented like suggested, as some dragons would be taller than forest itself.

Edited March 3 by inghelene

[porkchopseven]

It would look cute! What if depending on the dragons element, there are different types of backgrounds, e.g. 3 backgrounds for every element, if a dragon has two, lets say, Ice and Time, they have 6 options, 3 Ice and 3 Time backgrounds.

[KageSora]

20 minutes ago, inghelene said:

If you drew it, you would draw it to size though.  

 

I mean, not necessarily?  "Not drawn to scale" is a thing to better show off details.

 

20 minutes ago, inghelene said:

Just pointing out that the Pygmy/drake/dragon size relation isn’t as absolute as their sprite suggests.

 

 

Right, as you yourself point out, the sprites on our scrolls are already not to scale.  So I don't see why suddenly a theoretical background would need to be to avoid being Too Different but we can draw our dragons without regard for the size they are in relation to each other.

 

Logically "a same size background for dragons of different sizes" doesn't seem any stranger than "drawing dragons to fit the page rather than to scale with each other", IMO.

 

One could look at it less that the background is meant to be to scale and is more meant as a visual organization system to at a glance tell something about the dragon (if you limited backgrounds to being related to the dragon in question) or a fun artistic choice by the scrollkeeper (if you could apply any BG to any dragon).

[seventeendeer]

This is such a fun idea and I would love to see it happen. I especially like the details of the borders on the mockups - the burnt paper on the volcano background, for example, is such a fun touch!

 

The only potential problem I could see would be that the dragon sprites have different light sources. However, I think this could be mitigated by having the option to flip/mirror the background. One option for top-left lighting and then a mirrored version for top-right should be enough to make the vast majority of sprites fit in just fine, I think!

 

I'm sure finding artists who would want to do backgrounds wouldn't be too difficult. The DC community has tons of skilled artists. Even if no in-cave spriters felt like doing backgrounds, we have lots of up-and-coming spriters I bet would love to take a crack at it.

 

 

[porkchopseven]

If you would like me to, I could potentially do a background if the idea is approved?

[Rosedamai]

I am concerned as to what the market dragons or dragons caught before we had biomes would look like, also am kinda meh abt the element part (how would you describe neutral element, etc) but it’d be a fun addition as long as it’s optional! 

[porkchopseven]

12 hours ago, Rosedamai said:

I am concerned as to what the market dragons or dragons caught before we had biomes would look like, also am kinda meh abt the element part (how would you describe neutral element, etc) but it’d be a fun addition as long as it’s optional! 

Maybe neutral element/no biome just has biomes for backgrounds instead of things related to the element?

Edited March 4 by porkchopseven

[seventeendeer]

I feel the need to point out that the suggestion involves choosing the background manually, not an automatically chosen background based on biome or element.

 

On 3/2/2024 at 7:24 PM, notecardPasta said:

 

 

[KageSora]

I expect people have been thinking about the biomes in relation to how they're connected to the dragon because there's a strong tradition of trying to justify every gameplay element possible by lore reasons and what lore reason would there be to draw, say, a sea-dwelling dragon in a sky background?

 

Personally I figure it could he explained away as "scrollkeeper just doodling among their notes for fun".

 

I also figure that if this were restricted to backgrounds that have some connection to the dragon then cave or market or bred dragons would simply be applicable for backgrounds based on where their egg can be located in-cave.  It'd be a bit trickier for bred-only dragons, if you limited it that way, but there could be a separate background for such things I suppose? Or they could have relevant backgrounds added manually rather than being automatic based on breed biomes...

 

But I don't think that limiting it is inherently necessary since it's easy enough to just argue its the scrollkeeper having a bit of fun if the BG doesn't match the dragon.

[jellystualy]

I would likewise enjoy seeing this be a feature  it adds a bit of optional customization and as someone who's doodled completely unrelated things under notes before, I don't think it necessarily has to be related to The Lore to be added and it can just be something fun to have implemented for people who want to further customize their most treasured.

[Rosedamai]

1 hour ago, KageSora said:

Personally I figure it could he explained away as "scrollkeeper just doodling among their notes for fun".

Very much like this explanation, can we then expand this idea to just doodles on scroll, so we can add, for example, a smiley face on the corner of our scroll, etc? 

[notecardPasta]

My idea was that since dragons are intelligent some could simply just move from their birthplace biomes either by the one that raised them or on a personal journey themselves, especially ones that can fly! Of course a strictly aquatic dragon being in a volcano biome doesn't make much sense, but neither does one named Dubstep CB Male and those that want to put some thought into their dragons' lore would probably pick backgrounds that can be explained storywise haha

[dracornithologist]

I think this is such a cute idea, especially if the backgrounds only display on the dragon's view page itself (i.e., not affecting scroll aesthetics, group page aesthetics, or lineage aesthetics). 

 

Maybe it would be fun to have an unlocking feature for each background? Raise a hundred dragons (random number choice) from the alpine biome to get the alpine background, etc. Then, after it's unlocked, you could choose which background you had behind each dragon (if any). I think it would make logical sense that no matter the lore, dragons could probably at least visit or imagine visiting each biome, so I also agree it could be explained pretty easy storywise! 

[Rosedamai]

10 hours ago, dracornithologist said:

Maybe it would be fun to have an unlocking feature for each background?

Please no growing stuff... viewing things maybe... 

Edited March 5 by Rosedamai