New action: Search

[Lythiaren]

NOTE: This feature should not share a cooldown with breeding. I'm sick of people trying to shoehorn AP crowd control into this thread. There is no rule against breeding, and the system should not be implying that you should not be using a feature available to you. After all, if no one bred their dragons we'd all be fighting over caveborns. If you want to propose a solution to AP clogs, do it in your own thread and leave Search OUT OF IT.

 

So ever since the "elder" suggestion that Phazzy made awhile back, I've been thinking. I suggested this in that thread, but I think it kind of warrants a thread of its own. It's not like this function would exist entirely for purposes of an "ascension" feature, after all.

 

I know a lot of suggestions in the past have been looking for something to do with our adults. As it stands now, all they seem to do is make eggs. Since they just pop out more of the same eggs that produce the same dragons, breeding can quickly become rather dull.

 

 

So with this in mind, I propose the addition of a new weekly action on all adults: Search.

 

Now, this action by itself won't do all that much. Click "Search", and as the name implies, your dragon will go out and search for things, then come back. Possible outcomes are pretty obvious: either it comes back with some loot or it doesn't.

 

It can be up to TJ how high he wants the chance of success to be. If this feature gets implemented, intially it can be paired up with Dove's idea of hoards, as well as the "Ascension Elixir" idea. Loot gathered by a dragon can be added to his/her personal (dragonal? :V) hoard. Different breeds collecting different things, larger hoards gathering more valuable objects, etc.

 

The reason I wanted to suggest this, though, is not to provide a gateway to Dove's hoarding idea, nor for the elder stage suggestion. Imagine the possibilities that could be inserted with a low chance upon successful searching.

 

Rare eggs that don't appear in the main cave entrance?

Items affecting breeding, like, say a fertility draught?

For the sake of prestige, people for various purposes as servants?

Time extension items for those with eggs in trouble?

Medicines to increase resistance to soft shell and sickness?

 

 

Well okay, these possibilities wouldn't be without their restrictions. For one, the rare eggs thing might only appear if you have enough space for the egg (thus encouraging people to avoid maxing out their eggs/hatchlings).

 

Items could be added to your scroll so you can use them on any dragon/egg of choice, but as one-time use only. Perhaps a fertility draught would allow a dragon on breeding cooldown to sneak in one extra breeding attempt for that week. Medicines could be used one per dragon to make it just a little easier to avoid softshell/sickness, as well as increasing the tolerance to malicious refreshers. Time extensions could be one-per-dragon to give a half-day boost or something. A small safeguard for those who just grabbed that coveted gold and want to keep it safe. Consumable items can be used by adding a "Use (item)" action to your dragons whenever such an item exists on your scroll.

 

But those are just random examples to illustrate my point. A "Search" action could open the doors to so many possibilities. Opinions?

 

Referred threads:

 

Dovealove's description/hoard suggestion

PhazonDragon's 4th stage (elder/ancient/ascended) suggestion

Edited April 1, 2009 by Lythiaren

[Kuraianubis]

awww..so CUTE..little dragons searching for shiny things

 

YAY

 

>.> ehem..I mean..great idea , it would be nice.

[PhazonDragon]

Ha thanks for reminding me about that thread... -pops back over to it-

 

And yesh, I love this idea, as I stated before. It can be incorporated into other features, but it can stand on it's own as well.

 

Phazzy supports!

[Fabby]

Not sure that I really care about my dragons being able to search for things, but I do agree that we need something to do with our adults.

 

I wouldn't mind if this was implemented. It's something to do, at least.

[Pa Tone]

Great idea to go with the other two, Lyth!

[TJ09]

Medicines to increase resistance to soft shell and sickness?

I was thinking about this when it came up before. The point of soft shell isn't necessarily to make it harder for users, it's to prevent ratios that shouldn't be possible as well as stop people from abusing the server. I'm not sure I want to add some kind of prevention for soft shell. It would allow a user that is placing more strain on the server than most other eggs to continue straining the server. The eggs that die from the "too much too soon" sickness often have more views and unique views and clicks than they would need to grow up, all in less than 2 days.

 

Not to mention that about 90% of egg (and hatchling) deaths are from running out of time, not sickness. Something that gives more time to eggs would thus be more useful.

[Panlah]

This sounds like a fun idea. Right now the only use my adults have are fanfic material. Be nice to send them out to do stuff for themselves.

[TJ09]

Actually, the soft shell "message" is a warning. It comes up way before the egg reaches levels that would kill it. An additional warning stage might not hurt, though.

 

It seems to work, too. Just the mention of "soft shell" on a dragon's page sends the owner into panic mode. =P

 

EDIT: Wut. Lyth's post disappeared. =o

Edited July 22, 2008 by TJ09

[Lythiaren]

The medicine thing was only an example. A time extension is probably a better idea... but each dragon can only consume one, so people don't just spam all their extensions onto the same dragon. ^^;

 

EDIT: Yeah, I was going "waitaminute that post sucked D<" so I baleeted the post. :B

Edited July 22, 2008 by Lythiaren

[leeway]

A 'too much build-up of chemicals can kill the egg' sort of thing?

 

 

I really love this idea. ^^ I get to play with my females once a week because of breeding, but all the guys just sort of.. sit there.

It'd be great to actually do something with them.

[lindsy95]

And perhaps the dragons could search onec every three days?I admit it is rather boring to have random useless (aside from breeding) dragons sitting around....

Edited July 22, 2008 by lindsy95

[Lythiaren]

I don't like the idea of it being available every three days. Once a week, sure, but not every three days... it would be too easy to get special things then. >.>;

[engelina]

maybe they can also find a potion for re-naming? i know i have one or two who i either have a minor spelling error on the name, or forgot part of the name... not sure if its do-able, but would be nice to be able to find.

Edited July 22, 2008 by engelina

[Pokemonfan13]

A potion that dissolves the ink on the scroll and lets you write a new one. xP

[Quintafeira12]

Better yet: Why potion? Free reanamings for all!

 

Wait, that kinda ruins the potion idea right?

 

Well I didn't like much anyway.

[lindsy95]

Well you would have to re do the url when you name dragons but It might work with some coding effort ^^

[Lythiaren]

White-out? :V *BRICKED*

[lindsy95]

White-out? :V *BRICKED*

But then you would have a white smudge on your scroll.....

 

 

 

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Edited July 22, 2008 by lindsy95

[Fabby]

...Wait, a potion that lets you rename dragons? =o Awesome.

 

I have a few dragon names that were just random, and I wish I could change them.

Even if it's not a potion, I'd just like to see that option implemented somehow.

[Lythiaren]

Yeah, but that doesn't have too much to do with a searching action. :B

[Umbreonage]

I like the idea very much, although I agree with the others, soft shell is a warning. Ink dissolving name changers would be great, as would time extenders. And also random shiny pretty stuff that's rare and looks nice on your scroll, that would be cool. A dragon could have its own little hoard on its viewing page!

Edited July 23, 2008 by Umbreonage

[Lythiaren]

That ties in with Dove's suggestion.

 

Name changing item would be cool, but I do hope that if that's ever implemented, it's very rare and for use only on adults and frozen hatchlings. Sure I'd need a couple (gave the wrong surnames to some of my frozen hatchlings), but I can see a lot of people abusing it... >.>;

[lindsy95]

I dont think you can change names because the dragons URL transforms into its name instead of the code.....9Im not a coding person either so it may be possible)

[Raenia]

I love this idea. It would give us something to do with our adults besides breed, and something to collect other than rare eggs.

 

Name changing would be useful, for people with typos or other mistakes. While I don't need that feature now, I can see myself having a problem once I have more bred dragons.

 

I like the hoard idea too. Collecting shiny things, very appealing.

[Lythiaren]

I dont think you can change names because the dragons URL transforms into its name instead of the code.....9Im not a coding person either so it may be possible)

It doesn't actually transform the URL. The original egg code continues to work just fine. The only problem we'd have is when people rename, their previous name can be claimed by someone else. And it would take a bit of server power to remove names, especially for people who keep changing their minds. *shrug*