The first issue of The Dragon's Tale is now out! Thank you and enjoy! Today I bring to you talk about the BFS update and I tour a park. For more information, please look to the end of the issue.
What's new in Dragonvale!
Well, as many of you know, Light and Dark Shrines, Competitions and Races have finally been integrated into the game. Furthermore we have seen changes to the graphics of DragonVale. This includes the touching up of island design, the new colosseum design, and the tweaking of the fire and blue fire dragons' adult counterparts' looks. Levels are now extended to level 70, there is a new island and also XP boosts! This is of course paired with the two new dream dragons, Elysium and Delirium. BFS have been busy! And it seems there is an event in the horizon!
Community News
Well, currently the Delirium Last Call competition is slowly petering out, a Galaxy shower is being thrown and beautiful park tours are being given.
What's in this issue?
This issue marks the marvellous Park Visit to Buffy 's islands and I hope to have more of your work in the future!
Community Matters
Congratulations to TexasTed for nominating the winning post in POTM for June and to jamesvaler on writing the post. Be sure to send a gem their way to celebrate (But don't send them to me, I'm just being greedy! )
This month, N/A , tabanid , LSeven and @powdragon67 have celebrated birthdays already!
At the moment, lots of members still haven't lost the last call competition for Delirium. Congratulations/commiserations on winning/ losing this competition!
Please do support azurya in his breeding for his own Galaxy dragon as part of their Galaxy showers! Their Facebook name is Soleil Noire.
In order to considerably confuse me, rulilind , vonfirmath and Skitch changed their avatars! Be careful to avoid confusing yourself after this wicked trick! But I do like Vonfirmath's new witch made for her by Buffy.
Feature: This Issue's Fav Pic
What an amazing picture, it's great to see how all the amazing creations start, and the progression which you make, Ex!
A-Team Interrogation by Jamesvaler
Fortunately, I haven't had time to interrogate a staff member for this issue, but be warned, I'm always on a lookout for victims! Bwahahaha!
Buffy's Park Visit By Jamesvaler
Well, I visited buffy's park today, and decided to have a little fun touring this beautiful area. The landing island is a beautifully thought out cold, air and water island! With rocks and trees surrounding the habitats, it looks almost as though I was back in the wild! Of course, it's hard to remember you are in a dragon park, when you are surrounded by the nature of this island. Moving on to the egg island, we notice the presence of the dream dragons, which make you quite sleepy... *yawn*. But moving away we notice lots of Chinese lanterns, and a beautifully laid out egg island, all in good order. And it looks mostly full, a very successful park! Onto the Easter egg island, we notice the beautiful vernal fountains and gemstone and Galaxy eggs surrounding the ovalith Dragons. Partnered with the path of roses, it truly is a romantic island! I teleport onto the rainbow island, and notice the abundance of aurora and prism dragons. It makes for an unimaginable sight! I broke the park rules and took a pic for you all As you can see this is all surrounding the celestial habitat with two dawn and two dusk dragons! To top it off, there's a rainbow fountain! Truly a picturesque island. Now onto the Sakura island, I find myself in an area which was perfect for a quick picnic! The scenic oriental ornaments and pagodas filled my view along with numerous Sakura dragons, floating around blissfully in the tranquil air. Parking myself on a romantic bench, I noticed the residents of a few houses and pagodas. I'm sure it would be lovely to live here! After lunch I teleported over to the light island. The surreal and ethereal feel of the island made me feel godly. The rift event prize was proudly sat opposite the light dragon eggs, and 7 islands showed off marvellous and rare dragons, a true spectacle! Accompanied by a light shrine and some lights to show me my way in the dark, I thoroughly enjoyed my brisk stroll around the islands gold paths. After this i entered a forest, full of berries, seeds, sprouts, leaves and personifications of the seasons. I fell in love with the butterfly pavilion, and watched the autumn dragon shed its leaves through its stained glass. Alas, I had to move on, as otherwise I'd be here all day! The dark and apocalyptic area was scary, and I had to move on quickly. The looks on their faces petrified me too! The next island that I hurried into was an event island, filled with monolith and midnight dragons, bouncing in their habitats. Topped off with the relic of the epics, obelisks and more Chinese lanterns, it truly was a sight. All the dragons were babified, making me feel larger than life! It was just so cute! Next i entered an island which was rather reminiscent for me. With d all habitats, filled with the primary elements and a 3rd year anniversary statue, it felt like a lovely tribute to the game. Filled in the centre by dark and light flags, the island was so curious, but I had 4 four more islands, and few hours left to see them all! I next made it onto the Olympus and treasure island. With no paths, I was allowed to get extraordinarily close to these looming dragons. They were very beautiful, and were magnificent against the backdrop of so many large trees! Next I reached an island like a factory. The warm scent of dragon fruit pumped out from the treat farms, and further along the sweet smell of ice berries from the treatery! Oh, it reminds me of Christmas! I explored the storage cave and had fun looking at all the marvellous dragons in the omnitat and forestry habitats. I even got to see the magic of two dragons in love! I nearly cried! I made it onto an island of dreams, deliriums, nightmares and daydreams before I cried though, and it made my emotions go even wilder. I also stayed to watch a tense dragon race, and I noticed the ongoing colosseum event. I also loved the moon and snowflake dragons, always a rare and special sight. Onto the final island, I was met with a horde of celestial dragons. My favourites, solar eclipses, were here, along with all their other sunny and moon types! I also saw an astrolabe, and admired the delicate handy work of buffy's hardworking wizards! I also marvelled at the fabulous shrines at one edge of the island! Finally, it was time to go home after a lovely visit to Buffy's Island! Tune in next time for the next visited island!
Koala
Well that concludes this issue, and I hope you have enjoyed it! Thanks to XY and Z for their amazing articles. If you would like to be included in the next issue PM me and for more information, look below. Please write for the next issue, it feels quite bare at the moment!
If you are a guest reading this, sign up to the community today here, who knows what the future will bring?
That's it for now, watch out for the next issue, and as always, Koala from me, jamesvaler!
Information
If you have any suggestions to make, or want to submit an article to this newsletter, please PM me. (Jamesvaler!) The article must have something to do with either the game Dragonvale, BFS or this community. There are no guidelines for length, but make sure it is appropriate! The article is edited and formatted by me Jamesvaler, and articles are written by myself and a number of members of the forum who have helped out this issue! Thanks to XY and Z for their amazing articles this issue. If you want to be the next interrogated staff member, or the person who's park I next tour, please PM me for more information. If you would like to see issues from the past, look (here).
Last Edit: Aug 17, 2015 2:09:21 GMT -6 by jamesvaler
No longer active on DragonVale! *briefly back online*
This issue of The Dragon's Tale is now out! Starring Buffy's wonderful articles. Thank you and enjoy! Today we have a heart warming community tale, our very first interrogation, and another beautiful park visit. For more information look to the end of the issue.
What's new in Dragonvale!
The Tidal dragon has just left the market, the next known time for its return is the BEB! Finally we have moved into the Plant and Treasure part of the dragon Faire event.
Community News
Caption This! is a new fun competition to play, the delirium competition drags on, the Elysium and Jasper competitions draw to a close and as ever fun is being had!
What's in this issue?
This issue's version of A-Team Interrogation, this issue's marvellous Park Visit and Buffy's article on the community.
Community Matters
Congratulations to Bloodstone on their POTM winning post and to Skitch on their nominating of the post. Be sure to send a gem their way to celebrate.
This month, tpring, pristoph and rion have celebrated birthdays, congrats to them!
At the moment, Fletch_smf, myke and shernea220 are still in to the last call competition for Delirium. Congratulations/commiserations on losing/winning, you must be getting delirious by now! EuroKnuter has won the Elysium Last Call competition, make sure that you have paid up! jamesvaler has won the Jasper Last Call competition, make sure that you have paid up.
Please do support @meilimonkey , azurya and tigerstripes in their search to breed more of their own Galaxy dragons as part of the Galaxy showers! GCID is meilimonkey, FB is Julia Wiseman Crew and Soleil Noir.
This is the best POTM competition I've ever seen, so many worthy posts!
I agree! I did vote for the Poppy post that I nominated but if it wins, send both gems to Poppy. He's not buying them anymore and we can't have him constantly wearing a Fletch mask as it might do untold damage to the various libidos in the Poppy household! 
I'm thinking... I have a one-week seminar cum short holidays around the first of September. I'll be missing out on some days. I've got some 2,300 tickets in the bank as of now and piling up... I could release them slowly to the limits and accumulate some more up to the end, and if colleagues catch me at the iPad, I could say I was doing some very important banking operations, right?
Having over 170 friends and going from the possibility of getting 5 tickets per friend s park, i could just visit 100 parks and have my daily ratio of tickets without doing anything else to collect lol
I think just breeding and selling 250 Plant dragons would be faster.
Lol you are business oriented (selling eggs), I am socially oriented (visiting friends, having a drink and a piece of cake) Hum, you are getting rich and I am getting fat ...
I recently bred a Leaf named Leif. I left the name.
Tidal Dragon
After the short release of the new Tidal dragon, we know that you want to know everything about it!
Name: Tidal Type: Limited Collection: Summer Habitats: Dark, Earth, Lightning, Water Elements: Dark, Earth, Lightning, Water Available Level: 25 Sell: 100,000 XP: 175,000 Reduced Breeding Time: 12h Incubation Time: 15h
Combo: ABYSS + QUAKE (when available- next known time is BEB) or TIDAL+TIDAL in the coop cave at any time.
DC/Min: 500, same as Bicentenial, Kite Breeding Hint Price: 10 Goal Complete Reward: 1 gem, 500,000 DC, 500,000 XP
At release hidden in the market, but seemingly can be bred. Or bought with tickets. For more information regarding breeding, look here
Feature: This Issue's Fav Park Pic
What an amazing picture, and guess what, you can caption it in the all new Caption This! competition! Wait a second, you don't know what that is...?
Feature: Caption This!
Play the all new competition, Caption This!, for some tomfoolery and laughs! Caption the above picture and then vote for your favourite caption. Remember to pay the winner at the end! Every caption you enter enters a gem into the pot for the winner. There are plenty of good ones already to inspire you if you haven't thought of one yourself, and even if that won't inspire you, at least they'll make you laugh! More information in the thread.
Wish granting is a unionized job with a set of bylaws and pandimensional standards that cannot and will not be compromised!
Chief among these rules and restrictions are The Sacred Three!
Firstly, one cannot intrude upon the purview of the Most Sacred Office of the No Longer Living, as per the Reaper Accords of Ctesiphon, which clearly states that wises may not be used to directly cause the death and/or resurrection of oneself or another.
Furthermore, one cannot wish to compromise the free will of another, id est no "love potion number #9" effects. If this is your desire, please instead contact the offices of Sir Reginald Cupid the 125th at Guild of Benevolent Lasciviousness. Make sure to send a self addressed stamped envelope and allow six to eight weeks for a reply, roughly double that in the months leading up to Valentines day or the World Cup.
Finally, last but not least, YOU CAN"T WISH FOR MORE WISHES nor the presence of additional authorized wish granting entities! Under section 37B of the contract signed by youm, as well as any and all aforementioned authorized wish granting entities, including but not limited to genies, leprechauns, shooting stars, wishing wells, et cetera, it states quite clearly that all offers shall become null and void if, and you can read it for yourself online, "I, the undersigned, shall forfeit all rights, privileges, and licenses herein and herein contained, et cetera, et cetera... Fax mentis incendium gloria cultum, et cetera, et cetera... Memo bis punitor delicatum!"
It's all there, black and white, clear as crystalline dragons!
You wished for more wishes, so you get NOTHING!
You lose! Good day, sir (or madam)!
Signed;
Barrister Bloodstone
PS: Be aware that the gnomes DO have you under observation and our lawyers will be in touch. I wouldn't leave the Vale if I were you...
PPS: Seriously folks, read the end user license agreement...it's all there.
I wish this wins POTM!
Hilarious! Barrister bloodstone, would you like to represent me in court? Free for a friend, of course!
A-Team Interrogation by Jamesvaler
Well, with BFS' Dragon Faire Event, I decided it was time to interview another A-Team member. This issue, I chose Fletch_smf to interrogate! Bwahahahaha.
Fletch, as the first member to be picked to be interrogated, are you scared at all? I am wetting myself with terror.
No wait … Spilt my cuppa tea is all. Turns out I am fine. Well then before you stain the carpet, let's get going! How are you enjoying this event so far? am enjoying it a lot. It's a much more relaxed way of collecting the magic currency, but I still find myself logging in several times a day. I love the chance to catch up on old rewards, because there are a few things I missed during my hiatus. I'm not even 100% sure what they are … because I missed them … but the Celestial habitat was one. I bought the Twilight Tower the last time it was available, so I think I'm all caught up there. I believe there was a halloween event I missed. Yes, I don't have Nightmare or Nosferatu and they sound like Halloween dragons, so I'm hoping they, and the connected rewards become available as well sometime during the Faire.
BFS have a history of listening to the players and doing what they can to keep them happy, so this new way of running events might be here to stay. It certainly takes the pressure off.
And it's a good way of maximising the use of the CBC. Not that it probably needs an excuse to be used, but with lots of new dragons about there is a real sense of team work, especially in the forum community, which is one of the main aspects of the game for me. Everyone sharing what they know about the game, what they're spending tickets on, strategies for amassing the BFS gift. It's all great stuff. Good to see you enjoying the event, I have to say, it's my favourite so far too! Mentioning your hiatus, would you say that you are enjoying the game more or less now that you have returned from limbo?
Good question. I obviously wasn't enjoying it at all just before I "left" because otherwise I wouldn't have left. But comparing it to early on … it was such a different game. My "Walks down memory lane" are a way of acknowledging that, I think. The play was so much more relaxed in the beginning. I've started a new baby park, which is currently level 29, and the number of dragons I need to get is just ridiculous. I am about half way there. It's just overwhelming and I'll be abandoning that park as soon as I get the Delirium dragon (or Myke and Shernea do). It's just not fun. And I've tried to keep that game as low maintenance as I can, only worried about collecting the dragons. It's still too much to do, when I compare it to my original park.
And that is part of the reason I stopped playing. The Light and Dark event had just finished, which was awesome, and I thought, "Cool. Now they've got a huge number of hybrids that can slowly release over the next year or longer." But no. They released them all in a couple of months, with every Thursday seeing another group of hybrids added to the game. It became "You better breed all these hybrids (plus a baby, plus a pedestal), because there's going to be more released in a week. They also introduced the "Refer a Friend" part of the game, and everything became so mercenary. Even at our lovely forum. So it stopped being fun. And life is too short to do things that aren't fun.
But the break was good, and I missed all the people. I looked in at the forum from time to time, but I didn't have the urge to play again. Until I did. I'm not sure what changed. But Christmas time became the time to reinstall the game and give it another go. I did install Gizmonauts first though. Missed that game more. Maybe because it didn't have the bad memories attached to it. I have always been a fan of long term goals, rather than the mad dash, "must breed these dragons now", so coming back missing a few dragons has been good. No hurry to get all the dragons in the Dragonarium, because I can't, even if I wanted to. So I can continue at my own pace. And breeding for Twin Gemstone dragons is a great way of forcing your game to go slow. I missed out on the Twin Ruby, so I am at least 11 months off being able to complete that one. And that's fine. That is an interesting insight into the reasons for your hiatus, thank you fletch. I too feel that long term goals are significantly more fun, and I do get put off by the mad dash type feel which often occurs in the forum, but I suppose it could be a lot worse. You talked about the light and dark event, the first event ever; would you say the bringing about of events was a good or bad thing in light of recent events?
Oh, it was definitely a good thing. It added another layer of fun to the game. Collect the magic and exchange it for eggs and reward habitats. There became a reason to do all those game elements that you maybe hadn't worried about. I don't feed dragons above level 10 because I don't like the orbs. So collecting DC or food was never a big drive for me. But the event gave me a reason to grow food and collect party hats again. And the forum was hopping with activity as everyone was posting the things they discovered and the progress they were making. You obviously get that when ever a new dragon is released, but this was something else entirely.
Since then, did they go a bit overboard with events? Maybe. It's not the sort of thing you want all the time, because then the game becomes a chore. You have to log in multiple times a day or you won't get the magic and you will miss out on some rewards. This has been mentioned to BFS, and so they changed up the way you collect magic and what you spend it on. Assuming this will be the norm, it's a great thing for the game moving forward. People can play in a more relaxed way and just collect the big ticket items, ignoring the small decorations and breeding for the epic dragons in the CBC. They are doing their best to take on feedback from the players and keep the majority of them happy. It's a good way to do business.
What would the game be like if they hadn't introduced events? When Metal was introduced it was just there as an 8th element, and there were a handful of hybrids. Every now and then they would release another one. Could they game have continued like that indefinitely? It's nearly 2 years since the first Magic event. I'm not sure the game would have survived to today without the updates they have introduced. There is no doubt that events have carved their way into DV history, and so far BFS have managed to regain the right balance during events. Another thought provoking answer Fletch! Last question, I promise - which of the events that you have participated in did/are you enjoying the most?
Definitely the first. The Light/Dark event. It was new, and exciting because of that, but it also had the two pronged approach that none of the others have that. Collect the magic, and then decide if you want to spend the rewards on Light Magic rewards or Dark. Which will return first? And when it became obvious that Light would return first there was that excitement of not knowing if you were going to get the full rewards for Light Magic before the whole player base had collected enough magic to bring back the Light Dragons. And then the same rush to get the Dark rewards. While there was an inevitable deadline it was not set in stone so the uncertainty of being able to "finish" added a nice element. It was well conceived and executed.
The other events (save for the current one) were all similar to each other, in that a deadline was set, magic needed to be collected, and you could essentially set up a spread sheet to track your progress and know if you were going to make it. That's fine, but it gets back to what I was saying about it becoming a chore. Especially near the end of the event, because prize prices rise as you collect them, so there is a lot of days near the end of the event when you are just collecting magic and don't really have anything to show for it.
They have turned that around here, giving us the ability to buy the prizes in any order, and releasing new prizes every 2 weeks or so. New dragons coming and new decorations, including epic Island themes (I still want a Seasonal theme so my island, habitats and dragons change by themselves all year round) means there is plenty of fun to be had and they have essentially removed the boring grind that occurs at the end of each event. Hopefully they'll keep as much of that moving forward as the can. Another interesting point of view fletch. Well, it seems Fletch survived the interrogation, and I had a lot of fun in the making of this. Thank you. My pleasure, let's do lunch. Thank you very much for your time, Fletch, we know it is so limited by all your hard work on the forum! Well, with that finished, it's time to plan for next issue's interrogation, so be sure to check it out! Bwahahaha.
The Dragonvale Community: A Storyby Buffy
“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.” ― Ruth Reichl
It's late as I'm writing this. Pouring my thoughts out into the open makes me feel a little exposed as I am somewhat a private person. This is a tale that should have been told some time ago, but I just didn't know when. It looks like now is a good time. It warms my heart every time I think about it, and I truly hope it resonates with you as well.
“I know there is strength in the differences between us. I know there is comfort, where we overlap.” - Ani DiFranco
On the last day of the Epic Egg Hunt event, jamesvaler asked me to look after his park. He was a few hundred eggs away from the 2nd Monolith. Jv had left that morning on a camping trip, and we thought the event was about to end very soon.
I wanted jv to have that 2nd Monolith so I reached out to the community.
In regarding to jamesvaler's acct - As of this morning Jv was 272 eggs away from the 2nd Mono.
I am asking his gem buddies to help w/ one last round of treats or gems tonight. Jv has asked me to look after his park, and your gifts to him would help me out quite a bit as well. Time wise, I wont be able check his acct often, maybe one or twice/day.
Jv has 140 uncollected eggs thus far. Please divert your gifts to someone else. Thanks a bunch! I am certain that he will get the 2nd Mono, I will let you know for sure tomorrow's morning.
{{{{{Group Hug}}}}}!
Later that night, another 160 uncollected eggs sat in jv's Social menu, waiting for him to come back.
The following morning, two Monoliths happily shared a habitat. The Epic Egg Hunt event ended soon after.
The next two days, a pattern emerged when it came to jv's frequent gem buddies. I realized how many members had answered my call to help jv obtain the 2nd Monolith. Jv and I shared many friends at that time, so I was able to match a name to a face, associating each GCID with a member of our DV community.
Also, to my surprise, many of the gifts jv received that day were not from active forum members. I believe these gifts were from members or guests that had been observing the forum in silence. I was so wrong to think that only regularly active members took part in community activities. Even though they rarely spoke up, these silent members came forward without hesitation when a fellow member needed help.
All of us - staff, members, and guests - must be doing something magically right. I see a thriving, fun, and wonderful group of people bound by the art of raising dragons. It is an invisible thread which ties us all together in this warm, kind, and caring community.
Thank you, DV Community! Of course, many thanks also to BFS, the creators of DragonVale.
“One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people...” ― Jean Vanier
Cyn's Park Visit By Jamesvaler
I had a highly enjoyable park visit today, at Cyn's park!
As I entered, I came to the highly recognisable home island which is a ferny forest, with the hatchery seeming to be levitating due to all the bright lights, it was truly magical. Amongst the lush forest were many different beautiful patterns, homes eggs and dragons. As I wandered around, I wondered how much amazing thought went into this. Between the lamp pattern and the path patter, the clover cottage and shamrock, it was truly beautiful.
As much as I wanted to stay there for some more time, I realised that I had an important meeting with my hypnotic dragon that afternoon, and I really needed to get a move on! So I reluctantly moved onto her air and seasonal island. But as I got there I realised that this was just as mesmerising as my hypnotic dragon anyway. The rainbow dragons fluttered about amongst the airy dragons, near the butterfly pavilion. Twilight vines were scattered about, brightening the whole area up. I sat and enjoyed the morning sun there, before moving onto Cyn's egg island. Complete with the gemstone habitats, decorations and dragons, it was truly wonderful and pretty. A smaller island, it seemed tailored to its precision and was different in a way to the relaxed atmosphere of the forest before. However, with 11 islands still to see, there was no time to stop for a snack!
Next came a dark island, with the celestial habitat and two large moon habitats too. With 4 solar eclipses, I had to say this did have a beautiful array of dragons! It also displayed the rewards from the magic and magic egg events of the past, and I reminisced over their beauty. The star fall path was magical, lighting a way to see the wonders of the island! Amongst numerous Sakura trees and dark dragon eggs, I lay, gazing at the sky above. But as my stomach rumbled, I realised that there was no time to stop and break! I entered the spooky habitat next. I decided that this time I would be more brave and try to stay on it longer, but alas, it was very scary and after looking at the tower hollow and some other apocalyptic dragons, I changed my mind. Leaving the jack o lanterns behind, I sighed in relief and nearly walked straight into the claws of a smoke dragon. Dodging behind it I managed to relax again, free from all the cares of the world. I looked in awe at the pagoda and ornate lanterns, accompanied by the panlong dragons at one end, and the volcano and fire statue at the other. Of course, cyn being the trickster that she is, she decided to make life a tiny bit harder for me
Entering the next island, I resolved to eat lunch, but alas it couldn't be so. As I entered I looked at the massive rocks and piles of rocks at one end! As I watched the metal dragons play, Cyn the trickster unleashed a rockslide on me, just as I sat down to my dragonade too! I quickly swapped to the next island, sad to miss the monolith dragons and the majestic relic of the epics. Instead I joined the earth island, with the dragon track in the centre. Sipping dragonade, and crunching on some fresh zazzberry tarts, I counted how many eggs and lamps there were on the island, before witnessing a flash dragon win in the dragon track. I entered a few of the many tents to ply some festival games as part of the Faire and then moved on.
After a filling lunch, I sat on the beach, watching the lotus' and tides, the abysses and the berries. The berry dragon eggs look so tasty, you know, but one of the Wizards stopped me just at the last moment. Next I entered a winter wonderland, with candy fences (tasty!) and snow everywhere! I had a nice snack at the treatery and decided that if I stayed any longer, the smell of the treatery would overwhelm me again! After exploring the crystal castle, I made my way onto another cold island. By now I was sh sh shivering so I d d decided to m m move on k quickly. As I war,end up in the light island I marvelled at the Beaty of the omnitat and the islands layout. I also noticed the dragonsai gifting tree, surrounded by an aura of magic!
Realising that I had just 10 minutes to visit the sun and lightning islands, I rushed through them. The Lightning island, thunderous as ever, was very vibrant and filled with treasure dragons too. Fortunately I didn't have enough time to steal some gold! As I moved in the last island, the sun island, I started to overheat under the power of all those Suns and sun dragons. Last thing I remember, I was marvelling at an Elysium dragon, and now I'm in the infirmary! So much for a meeting with my hypnotic dragon...
Koala
Well that concludes this issue, and I hope you have enjoyed it! Thanks to Buffy for her amazing article. If you would like to be included in the next issue PM me and for more information, look below.
If you are a guest reading this, sign up to the community today here, who knows what the future will bring?
That's it for now, watch out for the next issue, and as always, Koala from me, jamesvaler!
Information
If you have any suggestions to make, or want to submit an article to this newsletter, please PM me. (jamesvaler!) The article must have something to do with either the game Dragonvale, BFS or this community. There are no guidelines for length, but make sure it is appropriate! The article is edited and formatted by me, jamesvaler, and articles are written by myself and a number of members of the forum who have helped out this issue! Thanks to Buffy for her amazing article this issue. If you want to be the next interrogated staff member, or the person who's park I next tour, please PM me for more information. If you would like to see issues from the past, look (here).
Last Edit: Aug 14, 2015 1:43:13 GMT -6 by jamesvaler
No longer active on DragonVale! *briefly back online*
The Dragon's Tale-Anniversary Special - Issue #3 - 14th September 2015
Dear DragonVale Community,
This Special 4th Anniversary Edition issue of The Dragon's Tale is now out! Starring @ninjakiwi with her wonderful article. Thank you and enjoy! Today we have a nostalgic look back at our park guests, another interrogation, and another beautiful park visit. For more information look to the end of the issue.
What's new in Dragonvale!
The Garland dragon has just entered the market, available with plant+fire+earth+lightning combos. Finally we are about to move into the Epic part of the dragon Faire event!
Community News
Fletch has just set up the twemstone breeding thread. Be sure to check it out .
What's in this issue?
This issue's version of A-Team Interrogation, this issue's marvellous Park Visit and NinjaKiwi's article on the dragonvale guests.
Community Matters
Congratulations to wapatango on her POTM winning post and to wOMantraNOM on their nominating of the post. Be sure to send a gem their way to celebrate.
At the moment the Last Call for Garland Dragon competition is going on, koala to all participants. Congratulations/commiserations to @meilimonkey on losing/winning the tourmaline competition, you must be getting fed up! shernea220 just received her delirium dragon, after being crowned winner, make sure that you have paid up. EuroKnuter has won the Elysium Last Call competition, make sure that you have paid up! jamesvaler has won the Jasper Last Call competition, make sure that you have paid up.
At first I was like "Wha?" and then I was like "Pfft, I don't know where you get your info, but you wrong girl!" but then I was like "Wait a second...where does she get her info?" at which point I was trippin oujt, lookin round, checkin for hidden cameras and spywares and stuff... but then I was like "wait, maybe I put this out there or something..." so then I was all like "thank god I got mad google skillz, so I can search this forum and find out where Buffy is getting her busted out, of date info from, you know?" but the Google wasn't finding nothing and was about to lay down some hail marry and throw up some garlic, cause it was startin to look like witchcraft or voodoo or sorcery or somethin... and then I remembered that thing with the info and what not and I was like, "dang, we just done got Profiled again, dog!"
No, only an amateur swag snagger would swagger for the weight of the swag a professional swag snagger had snagged, would cause that snagger to stagger.
Wapa, you got my vote! POTM
If I'm perfectly honest, I lost you at swag snagger!
This week Vonfirmath pulled the short straw! I questioned her a few weeks ago in light of the upcoming anniversary, here's what she had to say. Vonfirmath, I would like to start by discussing the current event. What do you think of it?
Honestly, I'm pretty easy going. I like the event. I like having lots of new dragons to breed for. And choices for prizes. And even being able to earn tickets the way I want to. I can search for the Where's Waldo people. But not stress out if I can not find them because there is always other ways to make the tickets. It's nice not having to keep records of which points I have already earned.
And yes, I have not made even those 500 points everyday. Because Life Happens. But then a lot of the dragons are also breedable and not necessarily needing to be purchased with tickets so there is compensation even there. And there is change of scenery quite frequently (Maybe too frequently. I miss Ice Floe already). And change of music, etc. It really feels like a fair. Lots of options. Lots of fun! It really is a much more easy going event, which is a lot more fun. You mentioned loving the new dragons. Which of the new event dragons would you say is your favourite?
I'm glad you narrowed the field. Design wise, the new dragon that is my favorite is Tourmaline. (which I don't have yet) But that isn't exactly a event dragon. So. Let's see, We are in Goldenleaf so far there is (new) Midday, Snowflake5, Loot, and Tidal. We know we have Monolith5, Faire, and Darkling coming up from the tantalizing peeks we've been given in the competition tent. I guess I'd choose Midday. Tidal has some bad feelings associated because it was available for such short time that too many people that wanted it could not get it and it started some grumbling about the event. And Loot... doesn't fit the picture I had in my head. Darkling intriguingly reminds me of the Tamora Pierce Trickster books. So there's the potential there to be really disappointed if they are coming at it from a different standpoint, or being quite enchanted! But I like the round artistic elements of the Midday dragon (The blue stuff) and how the "ears" and "back ruffs" and "tail" all match. Oh and a short 8H incubation! I must agree that loot is not exactly as expected, and I'm not sure the colour scheme works. You also mentioned the new crystalline dragons, which are very beautiful. Another thing in the event to talk about is your approach to some of the decor. What do you think of the newer decor and what are or aren't you going to get?
I'm not much of a decoration person. I may, eventually, end up getting no decor at all. (Unless you consider the themes decor? I already have the Sun Theme and the Rainbow Theme in the theme chooser sounds intriguing. "rainbow" is my second favorite color after all! Though, I'm trying not to get too excited because I have already decided NOT to get Treasure Theme after looking at it in friends' parks.) The hot air balloon was VERY intriguing -- until I discovered it didn't fly very high, just bounced along around the ground. The fountain was fun looking (but not enough to pay the tickets? Maybe?) The most exciting is the bouncy mushroom! If I end up paying tickets for space-gatherers, that is likely to be the one. I am one not even that fond of the decorations from old events. You either have to find space for them on your island (which means moving them around when you need/want to rearrange habitats) or store them in the storage tower (which has VERY limited space available). It is understandable that you will only be getting the themes, and I agree, I will not be getting the treasure theme after all. Talking about the game in general now, the anniversary of the game is very soon, and for the fourth anniversary, we are expecting something big to happen, because it happens that the event ends near the anniversary and the wishing well should fill up too, so what are you expecting, if anything?
What if the "big" thing for the 4th anniversary IS this event? I think it will be hard to top.
I expect a special 4th anniversary dragon. 1st was Paper. 2nd was Cotton. 3rd was leathery. So I expect a 4th in that line -- Linen or Silk Wikipedia tells me is traditional in the US. Fruit and Flowers over in the UK. So there are more options. And another statue. (jv afterthought - wow, Vonfirmath was almost spot on, we got a garland dragon, as she said (well she said flowers, but close enough) and of course we got the fourth anniversary statue! Thank you very much Vonfirmath for your time, it was an interesting insight into your dragonvale experience.
Thanks to Crumble for allowing me to use this as an article! Information regarding the highest dragon earners.
The highest earning dragons (level 15) are all epics, so it doesn't matter if you look at the boosted or the unboosted earning per minute: 1 Double Rainbow 732 DC/min 2 Aurora 705 DC/min 3 Rainbow 587 DC/min 4 Leap Year 587 DC/min 5 Dream 564 DC/min
the highest earning non-epic, unboosted dragons (Level 15) are 54 Current 188 DC/min 56 Paper 168 DC/min 57 Leathery 166 DC/min 58 Cotton 163 DC/min 59 Darkling 161 DC/min (newcomer of the week !) ... 64 Panlong 147 DC/min
if you pretend that all dragons are fully boosted, the first non-epic are 35 Paper 348/min 36 Leathery 344 DC/min 39 Cotton 338 DC/min 49 Panlong 305 DC/min 52 Current 271 DC/min
and if you take in acount how much of that fully boosted dragons fit in a habitat and that you sweep after 4 hours: 1 Antarian 644.400 2 Polarian 644.400 3 Dream 541.440 4 Daydream 472.400 5 Seasonal 432.960 (yeah !)
At first, they were interesting. People! People were visiting your park! Better yet, they were paying to visit your park. You watched the numbers rise and fall with anticipation. Soon enough though, they all began to blur together, streams of similar witches and wizards ‘porting in and ‘porting out, oftentimes in the middle of the path. You wonder why you bother building entrance portals at all (oh yes, Regulation 17c: all areas accessible by teleportation alone must have a registered portal). Sometimes the visitors prove entertaining, such as when the use an old park map and wander into a dragon habitat, or when they ‘port into the thin air between islands (you have the regulation holding spell to catch wind-blown hats and over-adventurous wizzlings, so nothing serious ever happens, apart from that time when... you know what, never mind). Everything changes when the Faire comes to town. Sure, it started when Sandakloz shimmied down the chimney, but he was only ever passing through. This time however, the wizards get the general public to join in. And what a public! Sometime when you weren’t looking, you became world famous. No longer do you see merely the lily-white skin of the north. Your visitors come from all over. Even though you cannot distinguish individuals further than their mandated uniforms, you still recognise mages from the mountains, shamans of the savannahs, visitors from more places than you even imagined existed in your world. It is from this diverse group that the wizards pick their envoys. Fondrian of Eabuz and Lyree of Tara. Faxal of Nuce and F’loe of Erandor. It is not difficult to persuade these flagbearers: free entry to the park for a week or so, and all they have to do is carry around a flag for a while. Everyone offered jumped at the chance, no problem. Until Gaelyn of Nubea. The interview was going fine and the wizards already had Luoni of Fane outside, when they presented the flag and matching green tunic to Gaelyn. She took the flag but eyed the tunic rather critically. “Why do I need a new tunic?” she demanded. “I have a perfectly serviceable green dress for a uniform. I will wear that.” The wizards protested. This simply wasn’t done! (so?) She wouldn’t stand out! (good) It’s the wrong shade of green and won’t match the flag! (well...) Gaelyn raised one eyebrow, snapped her fingers, and the flag obediently changed colour to match her dress. She hefted it easily and swept out of the room past slack-jawed wizards. Transfiguration, even colour changing, is difficult and requires concentration. Doesn’t it? Gaelyn had a good time wandering your park; she sometimes returned sans flag to explore some more. The wizards, for their part, were rather relieved when her tenure was over.
1. Treat Farming Community As I landed on the island, the smell of dragon treats hit me. Zazzberries, as fresh as can be, dragon fruit, ready to be pressed to become dragonade for anniversary celebrations and sarjin peppers, to quote GregDarcy, "they make ghost chillies look mild". The rainbow dragon was playing blissfully in his habitat, and I knew I was in for a refreshing day!
2. Isle Rodeo I entered the second island and found myself staring into the kaleidoscope of colours on this island. From orlon's pavilion to the Reds of the fire dragons and golden yellows of the lightning habitats, this was music to the eyes for me. Having seen the air habitats at the back, I decided to watch a competition in the competition, and then, having had a lot of fun, I moved to the next island. 3. Magma Mile I entered a predominantly red hell, of apocalyptic proportions. Fire, Suns, apocalypses, zombies!, it was truly terrifying! Big bold red trees loomed over me, sneering at me. I shiver despite the immense heat. I don't think I should stay on this island too long. Gives me the heeby-jeebies. 4. Rainbow Reserve This is much more to my taste, tranquil and a beautiful reserve with some rare dragons. Framed by the picturesque rainbow in the background, the leap year, double rainbow and Celtic dragon frollick in their habitats, facing the seasonal, autumn, pepper and terradiem dragons. I take time to look at the caves and ponds and eggs. The prisms splatter light over the island, giving it a surreal look! 5. Woodland Preservation I just love being in the centre of a forest, watching the dragons prance about, sneezing and roaring, and then hanging out in the magically illuminated butterfly pavilion. Coolly staring at the dragons, munching on Billionaire's Zazzberries tarts. What a delightful moment that I will never forget! And when trekking though the woods, you will notice a hidden tower, filled with such wonderful things! I also say and had lunch at a watering hole, with light glistening over the pond like syrup. 6. Winter Wonderland The ch-ch chilly area is v-v very c-c-cold. I managed to get into a thatched roof cottage to warm up and through the windows I marvelled at the sights of the dragons! Santa Claus takes up permanent residence here, it's just that cold! Even the fierce glare of the cold dragon couldn't stop me from feeling so cold! 7. Desert Destination Ah, a much warmer climate, I enjoyed this until my throat went dry. The metallic dragons make a funny "clickety-clack" sound as they fly above the fields of metal below. A small group of trees provided me shelter, a time long enough to marvel at the natural beauty of the island and the dragons, then I had to move to a moderate climate. 8. Lunaland Lunaland was rather mild, thankfully. A bit overcast, but no rain! As I oohed and eeked at the sight of the dark dragons, I glanced constantly at the gliding and sophisticated moon dragon, so majestic on her interluna station! The dark plants are hard to manoeuvre about, but they are so beautiful at the same time! 9. Lightstation Stopping for an afternoon snack, I often had to shield my eyes at the radiance of these dragons. The sun especially cast a bright light over the island, and I was in awe of the Meriden habitat and its inhabitants. The midnight habitat was beautiful too, and I laughed as the water dragons bathed in their pools!
10. Fearless Forest The final island made me far from fearless. I don't like creepy forests at the best of times, never mind when bronze dragons are breathing down your back. But I pulled myself together to look at the Olympics dragons and earth dragons and crystalline dragons. The crystalline dragons have been recently discovered, and I'm still trying to replicate that crystal in my lab. No luck so far! Grrr...
Koala
Well that concludes this issue, and I hope you have enjoyed it! Thanks to Ninja Kiwi for her amazing article. If you would like to be included in the next issue PM me and for more information, look below.
If you are a guest reading this, sign up to the community today here, who knows what the future will bring?
That's it for now, watch out for the next issue, and as always, Koala from me, jamesvaler!
Information
If you have any suggestions to make, or want to submit an article to this newsletter, please PM me. (jamesvaler!) The article must have something to do with either the game Dragonvale, BFS or this community. There are no guidelines for length, but make sure it is appropriate! The article is edited and formatted by me, jamesvaler, and articles are written by myself and a number of members of the forum who have helped out this issue! Thanks to Buffy for her amazing article this issue. If you want to be the next interrogated staff member, or the person who's park I next tour, please PM me for more information. If you would like to see issues from the past, look here.
Last Edit: Sept 14, 2015 15:13:28 GMT -6 by jamesvaler
No longer active on DragonVale! *briefly back online*
The Dragon's Tale - Issue # 4 - 27th December 2015
Dear DragonVale Community,
Merry Christmas!
The Christmas issue of The Dragon's Tale is now out! Starring Buffy ,rion and ElektronX with their wonderful article. Thank you and enjoy! Today we have a heart warming tale, a little competition for you too! For more information look to the end of the issue.
What's new in Dragonvale!
BEB is well under way now, as is the Winter Frostival, Verglace and Flicker dragons are now available.
What's in this issue?
This issue's marvellous Frostival guide by Skitch and Buffy, Rion and ElektronX's stunning article on the tale of three friends.
Community Matters
Congratulations to Skitch and GoldenFire on their POTM winning post and to Cyn and TexasTed for nominating the post. Be sure to send a gem their way to celebrate.
This month, technofanatic and @jadeiiteoasis have celebrated birthdays - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
At the moment, lots of members are still in to the last call competition for the Pyrite dragon. Keep going people! Angengland has won the Last Call for Sanguinite competition, make sure that you have paid up! freitag has won the Last Call for Omen competition, make sure that you have paid up!
I must have really really naughty. Between 2parks I have had 7 aurora dragons. You want several but 7. And in my goals it says purchase a holly dragon..and I haven't managed to breed one in either park using lots of gems.. In large park I do have lace but none in small park. By the way I did breed a coal. Honest I promise to change my ways.
I've got about 20 of them in my big park. I could send one on a house call.
You arrived uninvited. If that wasn't enough...
- You were late
- and it wasn't what I ordered...
I ordered a Dr, and not DR...
Buffy , I double checked the authorisation I sent down to the guards. It definitely specified DOUBLE Rainbow. I don't know where the mix up happened that got you a PAIR of Rainbows. Please return them ASAP and I will sort it out.
How confident are we that the new dragons will follow normal Epic cloning rules? In other words, will they behave like normal Epics and allow us to breed them with a friend's dragon in the CBC or are there new breeding rules lurking about that will make Ornamental and Lace unbreedable after they leave the prize tent tomorrow? I'm having miserable luck with these two dragons!
Any insight appreciated!
Well, they are epics, not limited hybrids, so it really shouldn't matter if they are in season or not.
Unlike the surprise we got with Snowflakes, we are demonstrably able to clone them RIGHT NOW.
There's been no indication anywhere that things will work differently when they expire... from the Spire... tomorrow.
So yeah, I put confidence level at about 99.99999%... give or take some 9s somewhere in there...
That said, I suppose there's always a chance the wizards alakazm something up overnight... but if so I shall boldly proclaim that they are messing with me... and then I will go full Liam Neeson on them:
Enough said!
Regift Dragon
The Regift dragon is now available - you should have received one from BFS on Christmas Day!
21:36 Twenty one hours and thirty six minutes. Gather 'round children and listen to my tale of irony and woe. And triumph.
I took stock this evening. Surveyed my park and contemplated the war chest of coins, treats, and gems I have accumulated. I am a cautious player, in Dragonvale and in life, saving for a rainy day and making decisions with meticulous care. Just recently I annihilated my vast store of treats raising one of each primary dragon type to Elder status. I was unsure I really wanted to do this right away because I am level 70 and this act would bleed a regrettable amount of unrealized XP uselessly into the ether. But I did it. And it made me happy to see my 10 glorious Elders striding and gliding majestically in their various habitats, and it made me happy to seek out the 10 elusive banner wizards celebrating their arrival in my park. And because that heady and wild act made me happy, if treat-poor, I resolved that I would have an Omen. I. Would. Have. An Omen.
So I poured myself a glass of wine and I put on "Dark Side of the Moon" and I began spending gems. When I started I had 2140. I alternated breeding sites depending on which was currently the cheapest to buy out, but only flirted with the CBC now and then to break up the monotony because of the conventional wisdom that the probability of success in the CBC is comparatively miserable. I resolved to remain undaunted by the seemingly endless parade of Silvers, Electrums, Suns, Moons, and Rainbows (thankfully the Doctor never reared his fearsome heads). And, oh, the rush of adrenaline as I dipped into my stash with abandon! You will not deny me, Omen! I will breed you before the night is done!
When I started to approach 1000 gems remaining it occurred to me that the incidence of unwanted Epics was too high. Too high. I had been breeding level 15 Moons and Apocalypses on the theory that the Omen's rarity would be better served by the enhanced probability afforded by higher level parents even though this also meant the double-edged sword of more frequent Epic fails. I needed to shake things up. So I hied me to the Hibernation Cave and retrieved some baby Apocalypses and Moons. I fed them to level 4. Only 4, and not a bite more! I pressed the younglings into service and continued my quest. And it seemed to me that, indeed, the frequency of Epic fails was much lower. But still no Omen. A demon of doubt began to whisper in the back of my mind. I was fast approaching a gem level of 500 remaining. This. Isn't. Working. I need to shake things up again. So I deleted Dragonvale. Don't really know why. Just to try something new. And radical. And utterly illogical. When the reinstall finished I got back into my park and hit Retry. Again. Hey, look at that! Achievements have reset! I'm a Breeder! Again! But apparently not an Omen Breeder. Storm. Cactus. Fail. Fail.
And then it happened. 21:36. I kept hitting the button to double check. Triple check. Quadruple check. I quit Dragonvale and went to the Sandbox. Yup, 21:36. That's an Omen. And look how many gems I have left: 120! That means I spent... 2020. Ahahahahaha! If I had just bought the dragon in the market I would have spent 2015! Hey! Isn't that neat! The Omen's market cost is the same as the current year! That's gotta be an omen! For the first time in a long time I am a gem pauper. And it will make me happy to see the glorious Omen striding and gliding majestically in his habitat!
I. Have. An Omen.
POTM - thanks Skitch for sharing your epic triumph with us. Congrats on your win and KOALA to all those still trying in the last several hours. I will keep mine available for coop breeding through the weekend.
Hilarious! Skitch had an epic triumph - I hope everyone's Christmas was that successful
For me, it was the fourth try in the Breeding Island. It went a little something like this:
First Attempt: Storm
So I waited a few hours, and once a nursery spot opened up I sped up the last two hours of the Storm fail.
Second Attempt: Sun
That's not good, I thought. This is a limited release dragon, and if I don't sped this up I'm going to miss out on almost two full days of breeding! I couldn't have that. Not to mention, I only had one Crypt Dragon in my collection, so in order to bred at another site I would first have to bred another - which would also waste valuable time. Plus, I could, if I wanted to, easy replenish the spent gems with a few dollars whereas outright purchasing the amount of tickets needed for the Pharaoh Dragon would be approximately fifty dollars. I certainly didn't want that, and wouldn't do that anyway - but for me it kind of put things into perspective. Spending the gems to speed up a Sun fail wouldn't be that big of a deal, so I went ahead and sped it up and hit retry.
Third Attempt: (Another) Sun
At this moment, I was certain that somehow, somewhere there was someone laughing at me...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ ***Meanwhile at BFS HQ***
Another BFS Worker: What did you do this time, Bob?
Bob/BFS' Programmer/Dragon Selector: Some player just sped up a Sun Dragon fail while trying for the new Pharaoh Dragon.
BFS Worker: Yeah, and?
Bob/BFS' Programmer/Dragon Selector: They hit retry, so I sent them another Sun Dragon! *Falls out of his chair laughing uncontrollably* BFS Worker: You're a special kind of twisted, aren't you Bob?
~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Anyway, I sped up the second Sun Dragon fail, and hit retry again.
Fourth Attempt: Pharaoh Dragon
It just cost me 85 gems... *Thinks about it a little more* :-[ *Realizes 85 gems is actually cheap for a dragon*
Koala to all.
POTM! I can just picture Bob!
Bobs at it again people - beware! ** He sees when you're playing, He knows when you're breeding, He knows if you are playing nice, So play nice for dragons' sake!
O! You better watch out, You better not leave, Better not breed, Bob's telling you why, Bob is an evil worker! Bob is an evil worker! ** Sorry...
A Box and a Dream
Written by Buffy and Rion, illustrated by ElektronX
The duck, sheep, and pig were the best of friends living on the barnyard next to a tall, tall mountain. They often wished that they could fly, so that they could discover what lay behind the mountain. Of course, the duck could fly, but certainly not high enough to reach the top of the mountain.
But one day, the duck had an idea. She ran to tell her friends.
"I know how we can fly over the mountain!" Duck said. She explained her idea to her friends, flapping her wings excitedly as she went on.
When Duck had finished talking, Pig cast her a doubtful look. Sheep asked, "Are you mad?"
"You want to fly too, don't you?" Duck asked.
Sheep and Pig looked at each other, unsure, but they couldn't say no to Duck. The three of them were best friends after all.
The three friends gathered a big box, strings, sticks, and sheets of canvas from around the barn, building a flying machine with rainbow-colored sails.
One windy day, the three friends sat in the machine perched in a tall tree.
Up! The sails caught the wind, but the machine didn't fly very high before the sails tore, sending the machine plummeting to the ground.
"The wind is not enough to keep us off the ground," Sheep sighed.
"It will never work," said Pig, shaking his head.
"We just need to go higher," said Duck, spreading her wings out and reaching as far as she could. "I know! Balloons, we need balloons!"
The three friends collected as many balloons as they could find, blowing up and tying the balloons to their flying machine.
Up! Up! Higher and higher they flew.
As they got closer to the top of the mountain, birds caught sight of their rainbow-colored sails and colorful balloons. The birds flew towards the flying machine, popping the balloons and pecking at the sails.
Down to the ground they tumbled in a messy heap, Duck, Sheep, Pig, and the broken flying machine.
"Argh, we give up!" Pig and Sheep exclaimed, picking themselves out of the mess.
"Wait!" Duck held her wings out once more. "I have a better idea. Please hear me out!"
Pig and Sheep looked at each other in silence. Curiosity was getting the better of them.
"Fine," Sheep said. "This is the last time. If we fall again, I'm not doing this any more!"
"First, we need some cardboard, three pairs of scissors, some paint, and glue!" said Duck, running around. Reluctantly, Sheep and Pig went around to help look for the materials Duck wanted.
When they finally got everything, Duck said, "Now, Pig, can you cut out a long tail from the cardboard? Make sure it has a sharp tip at the end! Sheep, can you cut out a huge pair of wings? I'll cut out the head!"
The three friends set to work, cutting out the tail, the wings, and the head. Then they painted the pieces of cardboard and glued them to their flying machine.
Up! Up! Up!
The birds were frightened to see a huge dragon flying in the sky. It was so big, and looked so fierce. In their flying machine, the duck, sheep, and pig all laughed to see the birds flying away in fright.
The three friends were finally free to fly high and far. They flew past the mountain... and they haven't stopped flying since. For centuries, throughout history, and in almost every culture, there are myths about majestic, magical creatures called dragons. I can't help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, lore and tales about these dragons began with three friends in a far away farm, determined to follow their dream to fly.
Frostival Has Been Berry Berry Good To Me
By Skitch
- or -
Skitch’s “more than you ever wanted to know” guide to maximizing your Iceberry nest egg
We have seen continued confusion about how to save the most Iceberries during the Winter Frostival event, so I thought it would be useful to collect our accumulated wisdom and strategery* into a single post.
TERMINOLOGY - Part of the confusion has arisen over messy terminology, so let’s define some terms first. Iceberries are stored in two distinct places, and we somewhat sloppily refer to both of them as a “bank”. The “Iceberries” icon that appears on your main screen contains currency that you can spend in the prize tent at any time, so rather than calling this a bank, let’s call it the “wallet” (I’m open to other suggestions!). The other place that Iceberries are stored is in the Social menu’s Gifts tab. Iceberries stored here can’t be spent until they are withdrawn into your wallet, so it’s appropriate to call this the “bank”. For the purposes of this guide, “banking Iceberries” explicitly means accumulating them in the Gifts tab.
There is also some confusion over the term “reset”. There are three distinct kinds of reset that are relevant to this discussion. “Park reset” is when your park contacts the server to get new instructions and put new rules or conditions into place. Park reset occurs whenever you restart your app (e.g. after it has been killed or your device has rebooted), when you return to your park after visiting friends, or when your park has experienced a problem and had to reload (e.g. a spell has gone wonky, among other things). “Iceberry reset” occurs daily and means that the Wizards have hidden more Iceberries in your park and have reset the daily cap of Iceberries you are allowed to collect (more on caps later). Iceberry reset occurs at 11:00 AM BFS Time (there is a handy BFS Time clock near the top of our forum pages). “Gift reset” also occurs daily and means that new friend gifts are available to be sent and new Party Hats are available to be tapped when visiting friends. Gift reset happens around 6:30 PM BFS time.
COLLECTING ICEBERRIES - I won’t go into great detail about collecting Iceberries other than to note that they can be found in the same basic ways that we’ve seen in previous events (with, as usual, a wrinkle or two): competing in the Arctic Arena, spinning the Wheel of Chance, playing Name That Dragon, collecting a gift from the new Advent Calendar, collecting DragonCash, harvesting Treats, hatching/selling dragons, competing in the Colosseum, performing Kairos quests, clearing island obstacles, spending Gems, receiving friend gifts, visiting friends to collect Party Hats, and finding and tapping special park visitors. For this event the special visitor is Sandakloz. Sandakloz appears at least once a day in your park, but he may appear again 12 hours later if you find and tap him early enough after Iceberry reset. Finally, you can buy Iceberries as an in-app purchase using real-world money. Iceberries that you receive as friend gifts initially go into your bank and must be moved to your wallet before they can be spent (but you may want to hold off on doing this as I will explain below).
ICEBERRY CAPS - The amount of Iceberries that you can put into your wallet has a daily cap (although there are a few ways that you can put extra Iceberries into your wallet above the cap). The daily cap is 1000 Iceberries unless doubles are in effect, in which case the daily cap is also doubled to 2000. Iceberries that you receive from the daily Advent Calendar gift or that you buy as an in-app purchase are exempt from the cap and will be added to your wallet above and beyond the cap limit. If you have a problem in your park you may receive compensation from BFS in the form of Iceberries as well. Depending on the nature of the problem, Iceberries received in this way may go into your wallet or into your bank. If they go into your wallet they will not count against your cap either. Iceberries that you receive as friend gifts initially appear in your bank and are not subject to a daily cap (until you move them to your wallet). You can receive an “unlimited” amount if you have lots of friends. However, note that there is a practical ceiling associated with device limitations and we have seen problems if the gift tab has too many items in it (twin eggs as well as uncollected gifts). You may withdraw Iceberries from your bank into your wallet as long as you have not yet reached your daily cap by tapping the "Collect" button next to the gift. In addition to gifts received from friends (or from BFS), there are two other ways that Iceberries can be banked: if you exceed the daily cap by collecting a prize from the Wheel of Chance or Name That Dragon, the excess will be credited to your bank. Also, if you wait until you have reached your cap to collect your winnings from the Arctic Arena, those winnings will be placed in your bank as well.
BANKED ICEBERRIES - The precedent that BFS has established for previous events is that all event currency that has been banked will be moved to your wallet and made available to you for purchasing prizes when the event is over (the Prize Tent will remain open for a while after Iceberry collection is over), so don’t be shy about saving as many as you can. However, note that a new wrinkle in this event is that some prizes must apparently be purchased before the event is actually over (sorta like the one day limited offers we’ve seen in previous events), so be sure to account for that.
EXPLOITS - An “exploit” is a technique for using a mechanism built into a game to obtain a benefit. An exploit is not a “hack”, although exploits may be either intended or unintended by the developer. Some folks regard exploits as “cheating” but this is certainly a personal choice. There are two interesting exploits available in Dragonvale. The classic one is to “extend doubles”. This exploit allows you to continue collecting double Iceberries after Iceberry reset on the final day of doubles. To use this exploit, you must be in your park at Iceberry reset when doubles would normally be over. Basically, if you do not have a park reset (i.e. you don’t kill the app or visit friends) then you can continue to collect double Iceberries and your daily cap will remain doubled as well. If you intend to attempt this exploit, don’t quit the app or allow your device to go to sleep (these actions won’t necessarily cause a park reset, but they might), and don't visit friends.
A new exploit was discovered this year and there may or may not be another opportunity to take advantage of it. During the first doubles weekend, doubles actually started before Iceberry reset, providing a short window of time where the previous day’s cap was lifted to double its value and, if you were quick and efficient, you could collect an extra 1000 Iceberries before Iceberry reset. This effectively gave us an extra day of doubles. We have at least one more doubles weekend coming, so keep an eye out for this situation again if you’d like to try to use it.
MAXIMIZING ICEBERRIES - The trick to maximizing your Iceberries is to take advantage of the various ways available for sending them to your bank. Be aware of how big your wallet can grow as you play each day. This is a running total that increases by at least 1000 or 2000 per day (depending on doubles). It is made more complicated by the fact that Advent Calendar gifts or purchased Iceberries go into your wallet without affecting your cap, so pay close attention to the new total each day. As you play, be sure to save 1 or 2 spins of the Wheel (or 1 or 2 Name That Dragon plays) and don’t collect your last (5th) Arctic Arena reward. Note how close you are coming to your limit for the day and try to use small rewards (hatching Plant dragons, clearing obstacles, etc.) to creep to within 1 or 2 Iceberries of the limit. When you are within striking distance, go ahead and use your last spin or two (or your last Name That Dragon play) to surpass the limit. Any excess above the limit will be banked. This can net you anywhere from 0 to 39 Iceberries (or twice that if doubles are active). Once you have passed the cap, now you can safely collect the last Arctic Arena prize, which will be banked in its entirety (resulting in a 50 or 100 Iceberry bank, doubled to 100 or 200 when doubles are active). Also, wait until you have passed the daily cap to collect your Gem and Treat gifts from friends. If you do this you will still be able to collect your Gems and Treats, but the Iceberries will remain in the bank. If you follow these techniques, your bank will accumulate a large BFS gift and a bunch of smaller gifts comprised of uncollected Iceberries from each gifting friend. Again, after the event is over, BFS will move all your Iceberries from the bank into your wallet.
I hope this guide is helpful for you, and if you notice anything I've missed or gotten wrong. please let me know!
Koala everybody!
* Yes, that was on purpose!
Cyn's Park Contest!
By Cyn
The Dragonvale Community Decorating Contest 2015
Twas just after Christmas and all through the Vale, the Dragons were snoozing including the Hail.
The lack of enough Islands put Cyn in a tizzy, she yelled from the rooftops, "Decorating would keep me busy!"
With no Islands forthcoming and no decorating in sight, she thought and she thought with all of her might.
To relieve her frustrations she might find a way, "A Decorating Contest just might save the day!"
She planned and she planned as she sat in wintery dark, "Let's see how other Valers would decorate their Park!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So fellow Valers, pick one (1) Island in your Park.
Decorate it with your best Wintery/Iceberry finery.
Post a pic here - Impromptu Contest thread - or friend my GCID: !!vp!! so I can check it out.
You must be a member of this Forum - one entry per member.
Contest ends with the ending of the Winter Frostival Event on January 11th.
The winner will be announced on January 12th.
Winner will be contacted by Forum private message for shipping information.
Baby Fire will be shipped out as soon as Amazon delivers to me.
Let the decorating begin!
Koala
Well that concludes this issue, and I hope you have enjoyed it! Thanks to Skitch, Buffy, Rion and ElektronX for their amazing articles. If you would like to be included in the next issue PM me and for more information, look below.
If you are a guest reading this, sign up to the community today here, who knows what the future will bring?
That's it for now, watch out for the next issue, and as always, Koala from me, jamesvaler!
Information
If you have any suggestions to make, or want to submit an article to this newsletter, please PM me. (jamesvaler!) The article must have something to do with either the game Dragonvale, BFS or this community. There are no guidelines for length, but make sure it is appropriate! The article is edited and formatted by me, jamesvaler, and articles are written by myself and a number of members of the forum who have helped out this issue! Thanks to Buffy, Rion, ElektronX and Skitch for their amazing articles this issue. If you want to be the next interrogated staff member, or the person who's park I next tour, please PM me for more information. If you would like to see issues from the past, look here.
No longer active on DragonVale! *briefly back online*
'... overwhelming goodwill, and witty humour, profound grace and compassion blended with the spice of relentless taunts.'
Note: This is an independent forum and is not affiliated with Deca Games, the developer of DragonVale.
It was created by and is managed by DragonVale fanatics.
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As you can see this is all surrounding the celestial habitat with two dawn and two dusk dragons! To top it off, there's a rainbow fountain! Truly a picturesque island. Now onto the Sakura island, I find myself in an area which was perfect for a quick picnic! The scenic oriental ornaments and pagodas filled my view along with numerous Sakura dragons, floating around blissfully in the tranquil air. Parking myself on a romantic bench, I noticed the residents of a few houses and pagodas. I'm sure it would be lovely to live here! 
I agree! I did vote for the Poppy post that I nominated but if it wins, send both gems to Poppy. He's not buying them anymore and we can't have him constantly wearing a Fletch mask as it might do untold damage to the various libidos in the Poppy household!  This is the best POTM competition I've ever seen, so many worthy posts! 
I think just breeding and selling 250 Plant dragons would be faster.Having over 170 friends and going from the possibility of getting 5 tickets per friend s park, i could just visit 100 parks and have my daily ratio of tickets without doing anything else to collect lol
*spewing soda*Lol you are business oriented (selling eggs), I am socially oriented (visiting friends, having a drink and a piece of cake)
What an amazing picture, and guess what, you can caption it in the all new Caption This! competition! Wait a second, you don't know what that is...?Feature: Caption This! Play the all new competition, Caption This!, for some tomfoolery and laughs! Caption the above picture and then vote for your favourite caption. Remember to pay the winner at the end! Every caption you enter enters a gem into the pot for the winner. There are plenty of good ones already to inspire you if you haven't thought of one yourself, and even if that won't inspire you, at least they'll make you laugh! More information in the thread. Feature: POTM Winner Here is the winning post from POTM July 2015:
NEGATIVE! Can't even wish for the highly unlikely scenario?
I wish this wins POTM!NO! 
This hilarious picture shows less island and more tickets! Talk about being flooded with the stuff. Feature: Caption This! 
Wapa, you got my vote! POTMNo, only an amateur swag snagger would swagger for the weight of the swag a professional swag snagger had snagged, would cause that snagger to stagger. 
As I landed on the island, the smell of dragon treats hit me. Zazzberries, as fresh as can be, dragon fruit, ready to be pressed to become dragonade for anniversary celebrations and sarjin peppers, to quote GregDarcy, "they make ghost chillies look mild". The rainbow dragon was playing blissfully in his habitat, and I knew I was in for a refreshing day!
Really sweet message, oldsmol! Thanks for brightening up my Christmas!
Regift DragonThe Regift dragon is now available - you should have received one from BFS on Christmas Day!
*Thinks about it a little more* 
:-[ 
*Realizes 85 gems is actually cheap for a dragon* 
