Something needs to be adjusted with the odds now that we have a zillion dragons in the mix. That is one way of dealing with the endless need for event currency. Adjust the odds so we can breed a dragon sometimes.
So either the number of fails and adding more dragons DOES make a difference on the breeding odds or it doesn’t. Can’t have it both ways.
(1) I agree with you, samiam , cynmed , nagini , esme and the many others who liked their posts because you perceive the breeding odds (not to be confused with the breeding percentages) are worse due to more dragons — so lowering the number of breeding fails is key to successfully breeding a dragon. Most players have a tendency to gravitate towards the combo that has less fails (and I like the dice imagery too, very on point). I know other mods and members may seem to have a contrasting strategy for the game’s breeding odds (which is very valid and I agree with too), but it’s clear with all the responses to cynmed’s post, that many members have a different view.
However, that being said, I do not believe more dragons being added to the game has affecting the odds. The reason why isn’t based on a breeding hypothesis or interpreting the file’s breeding percentages — it’s because almost all the new dragons have been limited event dragons — therefore, they cannot be breeding fails, so they cannot be changing the odds.
If there were many new permanent dragons added to the game, then the number of breeding fails would rise. But there’s only been 10 permanent (golden hybrids) added in 2020, plus Daylily. Most of these dragons were released in February, when Deca first took over DV. Ten hybrids are not enough to change the odds. If you’re trying to breed Iden, of the 81 potential offspring, 4 of the newer hybrids are an outcome. For Nox, none of the new hybrids are a fail. And of course, none of the new event dragons from 2020 are fails either because they’re limiteds and unbreedable. So, the dragons Deca has added cannot be negatively impacting our breeding results.
The reason why the new event dragons are difficult to breed is due to their epic status, which carries a low breeding percentage, and of course over time, BFS lowered it even more. But as I stated earlier, Deca has not lowered the percentage. They have raised it from last year’s Hallowe’en event.
Like I have said before dragons with a locked combo and that have many fails should not be lower than 5% chance. I should be able to get a rift dragon in a week spending 500,000 e or less when I am only going after one dragon and and I should be able to get a dragon spending 500 gems or less to speed up breeds trying to parent clone a dragon.
(2) Deca cannot increase the new epic event dragons to 5%. That would be equivalent to the Orchid dragon. The game would not be challenging at all. Players would obtain the new dragons in a day or two, not bother opening the game for the rest of the week, and forget about DV. I understand people want every dragon to be super easy to breed, but think of how bored you are when you play an easy game. If there’s no challenge, there’s no point in playing.
It’s also important to look at the game in the long-term. For DV to continue to run it must be profitable. If all content is easily obtained, there is absolutely no reason for players to make an in-app purchase.
I wholeheartedly agree that there needs to be a balance. For a game to sustain, it cannot be too simple or too difficult. This balance is a little tricky, as there’s a difference between new and long-time players and what they’d consider challenging. And remember, even if the percentage is raised slightly, there will always be some who are unlucky and don’t breed the dragon in time.
(3) Complaints on the forum about breeding new epic dragons has been a hot topic off and on for a couple years. It began when BFS was at the helm. Deca has never promised to raise the breeding percentages on BFS’s dragons or their new dragons. Until I mentioned this issue to them a couple weeks ago, they were likely unaware this was even a problem, since as I posted earlier, this complaint has not been expressed in other DV communities. So any outrage over Deca not changing the breeding percentages already is misplaced. If you would like to see a change, it would be incredibly helpful if you could email them the next time you’re in the game.
(4) When I mentioned to Deca that members were having difficulty breeding the new dragons, I asked if they could raise the breeding percentage for new epic event dragons to 3% (it is currently at 2%). Players can ask for 5%, but it’s highly unlikely. I can’t see them going higher than 3%, maybe compromising at 2.5%. Another solution would be for Deca to add new rare event dragons instead of always having epics. A rare dragon would have a higher percentage of ~4%.
Friend ID: adlerist#5274
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It doesn’t bother me that players plant grind. It’s so boring I can’t do it but if other players are willing to breed again and again for hours then more power to them. I don’t think DECA should make a big deal about it because it just draws more attention to it. Let them plant grind at least they’re playing DV. If DECA takes it away they’re not gonna buy candy or magic they’ll probably get mad and stop playing. It’s not worth it.
I really love the Runic caves too. It’s hard to get twins for some dragons so this is a good way to breed them. New players think it’s cool because they get a lot of dragons especially if there’s lots of limited dragons released or during beb. It’s one of the few things in the game that everyone agrees they really like, so it makes it more of a shame that it’s gone.
I figured DECA didn’t want to use the Runic caves because it’s Backflip’s thing but they didn’t replace it with something else so yea players are gonna look for other ways to get candy or magic.
I also don't have a problem with plant farming- if you don't have anything better to do with your time, that's up to you. The attention about Plant farming was created by the players on Reddit, it seemed every other post was from someone boasting about how much event currency they had as they had been farming plant dragons - and then proceeded to give instructions on how it was done.
As adlerist said If we’re given other, more interesting and challenging ways to earn currency, players won’t bother with the Plant dragon. That’s how BFS resolved the Plant problem — they created the RBC and donation boards. And it totally worked. Players didn’t Plant breed or talk about it nonstop on Reddit.
During this event, the only active way to get event currency is to clear habitats, collect pumpkins (can be done at the same time) and repeat breeding attempts. Runic caves or donation boards give extra currency, but they also provide players with additional incentive to visit their park more. It creates more player involvement other than mindlessly collecting from habitats, which has a daily cap and can be completed with only a couple of park visits during the day.
Yea I think we’re in agreement here. I agree with every you said and I really like what you said about the Runic gives players more reason to visit their park. I know I check in a lot because the breeds are really short.
I agree with you and I would like to add some more things that DECA should be doing:
Have someone working on the crashes (caused by running out of memory). Crashes are caused by improperly exiting a subroutine involving an array of data (looking up a list of dragons for instance). Programmers know what to look for, they could easily find these improperly coded routines and fix them.
Work on NOT needing so darn much memory so that we DVers with older devices (which don’t have as much RAM) don’t have to run in low resolution or other memory saving options. These are ‘work-arounds’ for problems...they really should do a little more digging FIND THE CAUSE AND FIX IT! It would help with the crashes too.
It’s my belief that new items (Dragons, Events etc.) are coded (Programmed) without a lot of QC as evidenced by the problems (no, not Issues, Problems!) with new items. We pay them real money for this product. We should not have to deal with so many problems. In the real business world, the errors we have in DV would be considered unacceptable.
(He slowly exhales...) gonna have a glass of Gewurtztraminer now 🥂
Crashes due to large parks on devices with low RAM cannot be resolved. It is not a matter of simply finding improperly coded routines and fixing them. It’s not a bug that can be easily quashed. Players with large parks will need a device with 4GB RAM to run DV smoothly. Deca has been upfront about this since they first took over DV, informing players who email them about crashing complaints that 4GB RAM is required.
Backflip employees have stated they spent an enormous amount of time and effort working on crashes. In the end, low resolution was the best they could offer. BFS loved DV and took tremendous pride in its design and animation. If they could have fixed the crashes without low res, they would have done it. Degrading their work with low resolution was not ideal for them; it was a last resort.
It’s important to remember that DragonVale is over nine years old. It was developed before there were commercial game engines for mobile. It pre-dates Unity. So the only way to create a mobile game was to write your own. As a result, DV is running on a now 10-year-old custom game engine, which presents lots of challenges and limitations. Crashes are part of that, and also the need to find new and creative ways to push the system through to design more complex dragons, like using shader tech and enhancement pieces.
And in case anyone is wondering, there is absolutely no chance of DV’s engine ever changing. It would require rebuilding the entire game, so there would never be a situation where this would be the logical, reasonable solution.
Since complaints about crashes due to devices with low RAM (2GB RAM or less) occasionally arise on the forum, I will link this post to the ED for reference.
🤯🤯🤯🤯 I didn’t know this! It changes my view on the game and how I might guess it’s programmed. Wow what a pain that it’s a custom engine I have even more respect for the BFS and DECA employees who had or have to work with it! I forgive them the bugs lol 😅 Thank you so much guys and gals who work on DragonVale!
I agree with you and I would like to add some more things that DECA should be doing:
Have someone working on the crashes (caused by running out of memory). Crashes are caused by improperly exiting a subroutine involving an array of data (looking up a list of dragons for instance). Programmers know what to look for, they could easily find these improperly coded routines and fix them.
Work on NOT needing so darn much memory so that we DVers with older devices (which don’t have as much RAM) don’t have to run in low resolution or other memory saving options. These are ‘work-arounds’ for problems...they really should do a little more digging FIND THE CAUSE AND FIX IT! It would help with the crashes too.
It’s my belief that new items (Dragons, Events etc.) are coded (Programmed) without a lot of QC as evidenced by the problems (no, not Issues, Problems!) with new items. We pay them real money for this product. We should not have to deal with so many problems. In the real business world, the errors we have in DV would be considered unacceptable.
(He slowly exhales...) gonna have a glass of Gewurtztraminer now 🥂
Crashes due to large parks on devices with low RAM cannot be resolved. It is not a matter of simply finding improperly coded routines and fixing them. It’s not a bug that can be easily quashed. Players with large parks will need a device with 4GB RAM to run DV smoothly. Deca has been upfront about this since they first took over DV, informing players who email them about crashing complaints that 4GB RAM is required.
Backflip employees have stated they spent an enormous amount of time and effort working on crashes. In the end, low resolution was the best they could offer. BFS loved DV and took tremendous pride in its design and animation. If they could have fixed the crashes without low res, they would have done it. Degrading their work with low resolution was not ideal for them; it was a last resort.
It’s important to remember that DragonVale is over nine years old. It was developed before there were commercial game engines for mobile. It pre-dates Unity. So the only way to create a mobile game was to write your own. As a result, DV is running on a now 10-year-old custom game engine, which presents lots of challenges and limitations. Crashes are part of that, and also the need to find new and creative ways to push the system through to design more complex dragons, like using shader tech and enhancement pieces.
And in case anyone is wondering, there is absolutely no chance of DV’s engine ever changing. It would require rebuilding the entire game, so there would never be a situation where this would be the logical, reasonable solution.
Since complaints about crashes due to devices with low RAM (2GB RAM or less) occasionally arise on the forum, I will link this post to the ED for reference.
Not to start an argument but think of it this way:
If we start out with a cleared memory and start up DV, we use a large chunk of memory. Each task we perform uses a little more memory. As the task is completed properly, the extra memory that it used should be returned to the system for use by subsequent tasks but it is not. Instead, that memory can no longer be used. So instead of the next task using the the memory released by properly exiting the previous task, it now has to grab another different chunk of memory. If the tasks are ‘nested’, (a task which initiates another task within it, which initiates another task, etc) memory is quickly gobbled up and if any task within the nest is not properly exited, that memory is not returned to the system. That’s why, we (with older devices) eventually crash. They should be able to track down these improper task exits and correct them. And if, as you say, the crashes are due to DV’s custom game engine then that game engine could be investigated and corrected.
Last Edit: Dec 2, 2020 0:40:32 GMT -6 by grandpakenny
Something needs to be adjusted with the odds now that we have a zillion dragons in the mix. That is one way of dealing with the endless need for event currency. Adjust the odds so we can breed a dragon sometimes.
So either the number of fails and adding more dragons DOES make a difference on the breeding odds or it doesn’t. Can’t have it both ways.
(1) I agree with you, samiam , cynmed , nagini , esme and the many others who liked their posts because you perceive the breeding odds (not to be confused with the breeding percentages) are worse due to more dragons — so lowering the number of breeding fails is key to successfully breeding a dragon. Most players have a tendency to gravitate towards the combo that has less fails (and I like the dice imagery too, very on point). I know other mods and members may seem to have a contrasting strategy for the game’s breeding odds (which is very valid and I agree with too), but it’s clear with all the responses to cynmed’s post, that many members have a different view.
However, that being said, I do not believe more dragons being added to the game has affecting the odds. The reason why isn’t based on a breeding hypothesis or interpreting the file’s breeding percentages — it’s because almost all the new dragons have been limited event dragons — therefore, they cannot be breeding fails, so they cannot be changing the odds.
If there were many new permanent dragons added to the game, then the number of breeding fails would rise. But there’s only been 10 permanent (golden hybrids) added in 2020, plus Daylily. Most of these dragons were released in February, when Deca first took over DV. Ten hybrids are not enough to change the odds. If you’re trying to breed Iden, of the 81 potential offspring, 4 of the newer hybrids are an outcome. For Nox, none of the new hybrids are a fail. And of course, none of the new event dragons from 2020 are fails either because they’re limiteds and unbreedable. So, the dragons Deca has added cannot be negatively impacting our breeding results.
The reason why the new event dragons are difficult to breed is due to their epic status, which carries a low breeding percentage, and of course over time, BFS lowered it even more. But as I stated earlier, Deca has not lowered the percentage. They have raised it from last year’s Hallowe’en event.
Like I have said before dragons with a locked combo and that have many fails should not be lower than 5% chance. I should be able to get a rift dragon in a week spending 500,000 e or less when I am only going after one dragon and and I should be able to get a dragon spending 500 gems or less to speed up breeds trying to parent clone a dragon.
(2) Deca cannot increase the new epic event dragons to 5%. That would be equivalent to the Orchid dragon. The game would not be challenging at all. Players would obtain the new dragons in a day or two, not bother opening the game for the rest of the week, and forget about DV. I understand people want every dragon to be super easy to breed, but think of how bored you are when you play an easy game. If there’s no challenge, there’s no point in playing.
It’s also important to look at the game in the long-term. For DV to continue to run it must be profitable. If all content is easily obtained, there is absolutely no reason for players to make an in-app purchase.
I wholeheartedly agree that there needs to be a balance. For a game to sustain, it cannot be too simple or too difficult. This balance is a little tricky, as there’s a difference between new and long-time players and what they’d consider challenging. And remember, even if the percentage is raised slightly, there will always be some who are unlucky and don’t breed the dragon in time.
(3) Complaints on the forum about breeding new epic dragons has been a hot topic off and on for a couple years. It began when BFS was at the helm. Deca has never promised to raise the breeding percentages on BFS’s dragons or their new dragons. Until I mentioned this issue to them a couple weeks ago, they were likely unaware this was even a problem, since as I posted earlier, this complaint has not been expressed in other DV communities. So any outrage over Deca not changing the breeding percentages already is misplaced. If you would like to see a change, it would be incredibly helpful if you could email them the next time you’re in the game.
(4) When I mentioned to Deca that members were having difficulty breeding the new dragons, I asked if they could raise the breeding percentage for new epic event dragons to 3% (it is currently at 2%). Players can ask for 5%, but it’s highly unlikely. I can’t see them going higher than 3%, maybe compromising at 2.5%. Another solution would be for Deca to add new rare event dragons instead of always having epics. A rare dragon would have a higher percentage of ~4%.
That’s brilliant! The fact that all the dragons added in 2020 aren’t breeding fails so they aren’t making it harder to breed new dragons is something I never thought of and I don’t think anyone else realized it either. When we email DECA we probably shouldn’t use that use that as a reason to up the percentage. 😉 I see now that others were talking about the % and not the odds so sorry to them I didn’t mean to get your strategy wrong. 3% sounds good to me. Maybe I’ll get 2/3 of the dragons at 3%. Thank you so much for clearing all this up it makes it A LOT easier to email DECA. Now I know what to say and what to ask for instead of being really vague or giving wrong info.
I think it’s interesting (and sad) how hard Deca is willing to work to limit how much event currency that a player can get while actively playing their game (despite the time and effort that the player has to put into plant farming to earn a few extra event currencies), but when contacted about a legitimate problem like not getting event currency when choosing a pedestal while breeding in the rift, they blow off the request (made obvious by their response). This problem has been going on since the beginning of the event, but it does’t appear that it’s important enough for them to actually investigate it. I’ve literally lost out on hundreds of event currency because I chose to fill in the gaps in my pedestals.
Edit- sorry if this is too negative- just frustrated and venting 😖
No need to apologise, you’re not being too negative. I understand how frustrating it is when you feel you’re not being heard or understood. I didn’t know you had questions about pedestals and currency in the Rift, or that you contacted Deca about this and received an unsatisfactory reply. If you posted about it on this thread, I don’t recall seeing it. Perhaps I misunderstood your post and thought you were discussing a different issue (?).
When you breed in the Rift and choose the pedestal instead of hatching or selling the dragon, you do not receive any event currency or XP. This is because the pedestal transfers directly to the Rift Gate to teleport to the Vale. The way pedestals operate is they’ll payout their currency and XP when they’re placed. Since a pedestal cannot be placed in the Rift, they lose their currency and XP value in the Rift Gate. This isn’t a glitch. It’s an unfortunate result of the way Backflip designed pedestals, the Rift, and the Rift Gate. It’s been like this from the inception of the Rift, so if you ever need the event currency, please sell or hatch the dragon and skip the pedestal.
adlerist – Thanks so much for the explanation!! I posted in this thread on 11/18 asking if anyone else was having the issue (https://dragonvale-tips.proboards.com/post/201718/thread), but only after I had contacted Deca the day before and felt like their response had reiterated that something was going on. I pasted the correspondence below (and removed names):
My initial request 11/17@10:26am EST: “I haven't been getting candy when hatching an egg for display in either my park or the rift.”
Deca’s initial response 11/18@5:05am EST: “Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out! I just loaded up your park for testing, but unfortunately, I was unable to recreate the issue here. If you are still experiencing issues with this, I would suggest uninstalling and reinstalling DragonVale to see if that resolves the issue.”
My first impression after reading it was that since they could not replicate the issue that Deca was actually confirming that - yes, there should be compensation for placing a pedestal. Since my initial request included both the park and rift, I felt like I should be more specific (with screenshots).
From me 11/18@1:22pm EST “Hi “Deca Support Person”. Thanks for the response. Did you try replicating it in the rift? I’m still not getting any candy when choosing a pedestal. I’ve attached some before and after pictures (I’m not sure if it’s the same park, but every one I’ve gone into is doing the same thing.
Attachment(s) image0.png image1.png”
I also realized that I hadn’t actually followed directions 🤦♀️, so I did as requested with no change and shared that information with Deca.
From me 11/18 @3:32pm EST
“Deca Support Person”,
I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled the app and the issue persists. I recorded my screen for you. This is one of my other parks because I didn't want to waste any breeds in my main park. Thank you,
Attachment(s) Video.mov”
From Deca 11/19 @12:17pm EST
“Hi there,
Thank you for providing the video and screenshots.
Please be advised that the Candy is awarded after you take the pedestal from the Rift Gate and place it in your park. You can either wait 2 hours for it to travel through the Rift Gate and then place it, or you could also use a speed up.
Please let me know if you're still running into trouble!”
Again, I felt like this was affirmation that, yes, I should be getting candy when placing a pedestal from the Rift. And of course, I had to test and provide a video of it not working for me.
From me 11/19 @12:12pm EST
“I considered that as well, but unfortunately it doesn't award candy at that time either. Please see attachment. Attachment(s) Video.mov”
At this point, I really felt like we were getting somewhere and they would do a real evaluation of the problem and possibly even provide a credit for all of the missed event currency.
From Deca 11/20 @5:15am EST
“Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out! I just loaded up your park for testing, but unfortunately I was unable to recreate the issue here. If you are still experiencing issues with this, I would suggest uninstalling and reinstalling DragonVale to see if that resolves the issue.”
Since this was the original generic cookie cutter response and since placing a pedestal out of the rift doesn’t provide candy, it’s obvious that didn’t try to replicate in the first place. That response in conjunction with the penny pinching plant farm killer left me quite unsettled and in need of some whine!! I hope no one felt that my vent was directed at them… well, maybe it was directed a little at Deca’s support. I am truly thankful for this forum and all of the knowledge and support from my fellow Valers! Thanks for clearing up my question!!
What I really miss is being able to breed a dragon in this dragon breeding game. Mostly it's a dragon purchasing game now. Maybe I can breed a dragon in the rift every now and again, but breeding one in the cave or the island is a very very rare occurrence indeed, at least for me. I don't think it should be like this. I remember the days when it wasn't. Something has broken. Plant dragon grinding, the occasional extra event currency if your are on when the shift changes, and even the endless cash habitat could never break the game like this impossible breeding scenario has. Something at the core of the game has shifted. Something needs to be adjusted with the odds now that we have a zillion dragons in the mix. That is one way of dealing with the endless need for event currency. Adjust the odds so we can breed a dragon sometimes.
I completely agree. I have two parks which I play a minimum of twice daily sometimes 3 or 4 times if I can. I breed all caves using level 20 dragons and the rift up to x2500 as often as possible and do spend gems to speed up and I've only managed to breed ONE event dragon TOTAL. I love this game and I love breeding dragons but I'm soooooooo tired of not getting anything. I breed and sell, breed and sell, it's really taking the fun out of it. We aren't asking to game the system or even to make it especially easy, but please don't make it impossible!
Every day is a good day to feed dragons. Prisca#4020
It will be free on day 37. You need to claim it before the event island disappears.
Sweet!! Thank you!
There are always a few days between the last of the free gifts and the event island disappearing. The event island always disappears at the same time as the event finishes. For this event - The Whitbee's Candy Bash VII: The Haunted Harvest event runs through December 6th, and concludes on December 7th at 11:00 AM Mountain Time.
This is also the last day you can collect currency (should be at the end of doubles weekend). Deca consider this to be the end of the event. There are still two days after this to spend your currency before the event disappears altogether.
I don't care if the problem is percentages or if it's the odds or whether it's an epic dragon or whatever the matter is I just wish it could be sorted out. I just wish we could go back to the days when we could breed a dragon once in awhile. I don't want to break the game so DECA can't make money, I just want this to be a dragon breeding game again if possible. I think the game needs to be more balanced so it's not so hard to breed a new dragon or breed a twin. I don't know what's off but it feels like something is. Of course if it can't be fixed then I'll have to get used to it because I don't plan on stopping playing. Maybe DECA isn't aware of the difficulty in breeding new dragons or getting twins or really anything you actually need. If it can't be fixed to be more balanced in the breeding department perhaps DECA could look at not closing off ways for players to get more event cash, like what they did shutting down plant farming. Or bring back bingo cards or runic breeding caves. I'm open to anything that helps. I figure being able to breed an event dragon or two or being able to acquire a bit of extra cash beyond what you can earn or afford to purchase would help. Either/or, not both of course. And not a big change, just a tweak. I lean toward a breeding tweak because it would make BeB more than just a disappointment and a twin weekend a chance to actually breed a twin you need.
Thank you Minyaz, for "translating" the event end details so they're very clear. I looked at the "Help" button on the event island, but still had some uncertainty what "The event runs through December 6" meant in relation to the time zone and collecting vs. spending event currency.
Eithne Brown, I'm not sure you are a member here but if you are I wanted to let you know how wonderful it was to receive an Iden twin from you. This is only my second Event dragon and not bred by me but I am totally happy to have it. Thanks so much!
Every day is a good day to feed dragons. Prisca#4020
I don't care if the problem is percentages or if it's the odds or whether it's an epic dragon or whatever the matter is I just wish it could be sorted out. I just wish we could go back to the days when we could breed a dragon once in awhile. I don't want to break the game so DECA can't make money, I just want this to be a dragon breeding game again if possible. I think the game needs to be more balanced so it's not so hard to breed a new dragon or breed a twin. I don't know what's off but it feels like something is. Of course if it can't be fixed then I'll have to get used to it because I don't plan on stopping playing. Maybe DECA isn't aware of the difficulty in breeding new dragons or getting twins or really anything you actually need. If it can't be fixed to be more balanced in the breeding department perhaps DECA could look at not closing off ways for players to get more event cash, like what they did shutting down plant farming. Or bring back bingo cards or runic breeding caves. I'm open to anything that helps. I figure being able to breed an event dragon or two or being able to acquire a bit of extra cash beyond what you can earn or afford to purchase would help. Either/or, not both of course. And not a big change, just a tweak. I lean toward a breeding tweak because it would make BeB more than just a disappointment and a twin weekend a chance to actually breed a twin you need.
A breeding tweak would be ideal. This could have been a great event, but has ended up being disappointing and frustrating with the odds of breeding the new event dragons and the returning Apocalypse dragons (Barbarous etc) being so low.
A breeding tweak would be preferable rather than a way to earn more event currency. There is far more satisfaction in managing to breed a dragon than buying them during the event.
Everyone keeps saying it - Dragonvale is a breeding game, not a buying game.
I don't care if the problem is percentages or if it's the odds or whether it's an epic dragon or whatever the matter is I just wish it could be sorted out. I just wish we could go back to the days when we could breed a dragon once in awhile. I don't want to break the game so DECA can't make money, I just want this to be a dragon breeding game again if possible. I think the game needs to be more balanced so it's not so hard to breed a new dragon or breed a twin. I don't know what's off but it feels like something is. Of course if it can't be fixed then I'll have to get used to it because I don't plan on stopping playing. Maybe DECA isn't aware of the difficulty in breeding new dragons or getting twins or really anything you actually need. If it can't be fixed to be more balanced in the breeding department perhaps DECA could look at not closing off ways for players to get more event cash, like what they did shutting down plant farming. Or bring back bingo cards or runic breeding caves. I'm open to anything that helps. I figure being able to breed an event dragon or two or being able to acquire a bit of extra cash beyond what you can earn or afford to purchase would help. Either/or, not both of course. And not a big change, just a tweak. I lean toward a breeding tweak because it would make BeB more than just a disappointment and a twin weekend a chance to actually breed a twin you need.
I agree that having additional ways to get event currency would be nice but that is still BUYING dragons. I'd really like to be able to breed dragons, that's the reason I play. I enjoy the events and take an active part but more dragon BREEDING please, however you need to fulfill that, whether it's from the runic cave or increased percentages or...whatever. I'm sure the people at DECA could come up with some new and interesting ways to breed dragons also.
But lest it seem like I'm DECA bashing I assure you I'm not, I appreciate the fact that they took on what is considered in the industry to be an old game and let us continue on with our DragonVale obsession. So thank you DECA!
What I really miss is being able to breed a dragon in this dragon breeding game. Mostly it's a dragon purchasing game now. Maybe I can breed a dragon in the rift every now and again, but breeding one in the cave or the island is a very very rare occurrence indeed, at least for me. I don't think it should be like this. I remember the days when it wasn't. Something has broken. Plant dragon grinding, the occasional extra event currency if your are on when the shift changes, and even the endless cash habitat could never break the game like this impossible breeding scenario has. Something at the core of the game has shifted. Something needs to be adjusted with the odds now that we have a zillion dragons in the mix. That is one way of dealing with the endless need for event currency. Adjust the odds so we can breed a dragon sometimes.
From what I read earlier, the idea that more dragons in the game are hurting the odds and making it harder to breed new dragons is opposite to how some of the moderators believe the odds work in the game. They said it doesn’t matter how many offspring there are, the breeding % is the same. Even adding elements and doubling the fails won’t make any difference. That means adding 50 new dragons to the game or 50 new fails won’t change your chance of getting the dragon. I see their point.
But I also see what you’re saying cynmed and it makes sense to me and it looks like a lot of people agree with you. If there are more dragons then there are more fails so it would be harder to breed like how another player I think it was singleimage said it’s like rolling a dice. I can see how more dragons would make it harder for the dragon you want to show up on the right side of the dice.
So either the number of fails and adding more dragons DOES make a difference on the breeding odds or it doesn’t. Can’t have it both ways.
It’s been difficult breeding dragons for a while but I don’t think DECA made it worse. I’ve gotten about half the dragons for this event by breeding and bought the other half that’s pretty normal for me.
So the main thing it seems to change, is the type of dragon you get, with rares and epics taking up more sides of the dice. There are a lot more of those in the game now (compared to when events were first introduced). And the thing about rares and epics, is that they generally have a longer breed time. This is the thing that can really affect your chances of breeding the dragon. The only way of breeding the dragon, is to keep breeding until you get it. And the shorter the average fail time, the more attempts you can have to breed it. The more often you can roll that dice. dragonvale-tips.proboards.com/post/201813
So if the chances of cloning the dragon are 2%, but one breeding combination gives you a 12 hour average fail time, and the other gives you a 10 hour average fail time, then over the course of a week you get 14 attempts or 17 attempts. (Crazy to think how few attempts to get a limited that is. Especially as a 2% chance means you need 35 attempts to have a 50/50 shot of breeding it.) Those 3 extra attempts are 20% more breed attempts, so choosing the breeding pairing with the shortest average breed times is really important.
Now obviously, we're speeding up some of those attempts with gems, so having some super short breed times is important as well. The absolute most I will spend to buy out a breed time is 4 gems, so if the shortest breed fail is 7 hours, then I have to wait at least 3 hours between attempts. But if using a combination can give me a high chance of a 30 minute fail, then I can buy that fail out immediately, and roll the dice again. Even a 2 or 3 hour fail is not too bad. All these cheap fails, get me closer to that 35 attempts/even money chance to breed the limited.
Last Edit: Dec 2, 2020 0:27:40 GMT -6 by Fletch_smf
I don't care if the problem is percentages or if it's the odds or whether it's an epic dragon or whatever the matter is I just wish it could be sorted out. I just wish we could go back to the days when we could breed a dragon once in awhile. I don't want to break the game so DECA can't make money, I just want this to be a dragon breeding game again if possible. I think the game needs to be more balanced so it's not so hard to breed a new dragon or breed a twin. I don't know what's off but it feels like something is. Of course if it can't be fixed then I'll have to get used to it because I don't plan on stopping playing. Maybe DECA isn't aware of the difficulty in breeding new dragons or getting twins or really anything you actually need. If it can't be fixed to be more balanced in the breeding department perhaps DECA could look at not closing off ways for players to get more event cash, like what they did shutting down plant farming. Or bring back bingo cards or runic breeding caves. I'm open to anything that helps. I figure being able to breed an event dragon or two or being able to acquire a bit of extra cash beyond what you can earn or afford to purchase would help. Either/or, not both of course. And not a big change, just a tweak. I lean toward a breeding tweak because it would make BeB more than just a disappointment and a twin weekend a chance to actually breed a twin you need.
Twin weekend would be a great way to get us back into the breeding grove we're looking for.
I think the main problem with the events, is that there are 3 or 4 permanent dragons that can only be cloned, and the a run of limiteds that you only have a week to get. As I said above, 35 attempts is required to give you a 50/50 chance of breeding a limited. So you need 5 breed attempts every single day of a week when it is available. The more breeding caves you can dedicate to it, the better the chance you can hit 35 attempts. But if you don't have the required parents, then you are stuck to just cloning for it in the CBC, and 5 attempts a day in one cave just isn't feasible.
I guess what I am saying, is that I would love the release of a permanent event dragon, that you could attempt to breed the entire run of the event.
Last Edit: Dec 2, 2020 0:29:24 GMT -6 by Fletch_smf
I don't care if the problem is percentages or if it's the odds or whether it's an epic dragon or whatever the matter is I just wish it could be sorted out. I just wish we could go back to the days when we could breed a dragon once in awhile. I don't want to break the game so DECA can't make money, I just want this to be a dragon breeding game again if possible. I think the game needs to be more balanced so it's not so hard to breed a new dragon or breed a twin. I don't know what's off but it feels like something is. Of course if it can't be fixed then I'll have to get used to it because I don't plan on stopping playing. Maybe DECA isn't aware of the difficulty in breeding new dragons or getting twins or really anything you actually need. If it can't be fixed to be more balanced in the breeding department perhaps DECA could look at not closing off ways for players to get more event cash, like what they did shutting down plant farming. Or bring back bingo cards or runic breeding caves. I'm open to anything that helps. I figure being able to breed an event dragon or two or being able to acquire a bit of extra cash beyond what you can earn or afford to purchase would help. Either/or, not both of course. And not a big change, just a tweak. I lean toward a breeding tweak because it would make BeB more than just a disappointment and a twin weekend a chance to actually breed a twin you need.
Twin weekend would be a great way to get us back into the breeding grove we're looking for.
I think the main problem with the events, is that there are 3 or 4 permanent dragons that can only be cloned, and the a run of limiteds that you only have a week to get. As I said above, 35 attempts is required to give you a 50/50 chance of breeding a limited. So you need 5 breed attempts every single day of a week when it is available. The more breeding caves you can dedicate to it, the better the chance you can hit 35 attempts. But if you don't have the required parents, then you are stuck to just cloning for it in the CBC, and 5 attempts a day in one cave just isn't feasible.
I guess what I am saying, is that I would love the release of a permanent event dragon, that you could attempt to breed the entire run of the event.
This is my biggest problem, how many time I’m able to visit my park to set the breeds, with real life issues going on around me.
During normal days, I visit my park once, maybe twice a day. With events, 2-3 times a day. With clone only dragons, breeding multiple 20-48 hour fails makes it darn hard to catch a limited in only one week, even if it did have a 5% breed rate. I honestly don’t think I’ve even been able to reset the CBC 5 times a day, unless I’m speed breeding and burning through gems.
This, I’m pretty sure, is Decas purpose with this whole extremely limited limiteds thing and as a profitable business. For the player to buy gems, to speed breed the last day, to get the dragon....or..... for the player to buy event currency to get the dragon.
Either way, as well as a dragon breeding game, it IS also a player buying game. Which is alright with me. Because if it weren’t for the players doing the buying, along with the ads, to support Deca, there would be no game.
I see this very much like gambling. Sometimes you are on top, koalas aplenty, breeding all the dragons with little effort. Then there are slumps, where nothing comes and the “dragons needed” list gets longer. Eventually the koalas return and you’re getting the dragons your friends are struggling to achieve. Ying and yang, like everything else in the universe.
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Crashes due to large parks on devices with low RAM cannot be resolved. It is not a matter of simply finding improperly coded routines and fixing them. It’s not a bug that can be easily quashed. Players with large parks will need a device with 4GB RAM to run DV smoothly. Deca has been upfront about this since they first took over DV, informing players who email them about crashing complaints that 4GB RAM is required.
Backflip employees have stated they spent an enormous amount of time and effort working on crashes. In the end, low resolution was the best they could offer. BFS loved DV and took tremendous pride in its design and animation. If they could have fixed the crashes without low res, they would have done it. Degrading their work with low resolution was not ideal for them; it was a last resort.
It’s important to remember that DragonVale is over nine years old. It was developed before there were commercial game engines for mobile. It pre-dates Unity. So the only way to create a mobile game was to write your own. As a result, DV is running on a now 10-year-old custom game engine, which presents lots of challenges and limitations. Crashes are part of that, and also the need to find new and creative ways to push the system through to design more complex dragons, like using shader tech and enhancement pieces.
And in case anyone is wondering, there is absolutely no chance of DV’s engine ever changing. It would require rebuilding the entire game, so there would never be a situation where this would be the logical, reasonable solution.
Since complaints about crashes due to devices with low RAM (2GB RAM or less) occasionally arise on the forum, I will link this post to the ED for reference.
Not to start an argument but think of it this way:
If we start out with a cleared memory and start up DV, we use a large chunk of memory. Each task we perform uses a little more memory. As the task is completed properly, the extra memory that it used should be returned to the system for use by subsequent tasks but it is not. Instead, that memory can no longer be used. So instead of the next task using the the memory released by properly exiting the previous task, it now has to grab another different chunk of memory. If the tasks are ‘nested’, (a task which initiates another task within it, which initiates another task, etc) memory is quickly gobbled up and if any task within the nest is not properly exited, that memory is not returned to the system. That’s why, we (with older devices) eventually crash. They should be able to track down these improper task exits and correct them. And if, as you say, the crashes are due to DV’s custom game engine then that game engine could be investigated and corrected.
It depends on what’s hardcoded. I think BFS would’ve look at bugs as being the source of the crashes first. If they went through the trouble of adding Low Resolution they probably knew they couldn’t fix the crashing because it’s more than just improper coding.
From what I read earlier, the idea that more dragons in the game are hurting the odds and making it harder to breed new dragons is opposite to how some of the moderators believe the odds work in the game. They said it doesn’t matter how many offspring there are, the breeding % is the same. Even adding elements and doubling the fails won’t make any difference. That means adding 50 new dragons to the game or 50 new fails won’t change your chance of getting the dragon. I see their point.
But I also see what you’re saying cynmed and it makes sense to me and it looks like a lot of people agree with you. If there are more dragons then there are more fails so it would be harder to breed like how another player I think it was singleimage said it’s like rolling a dice. I can see how more dragons would make it harder for the dragon you want to show up on the right side of the dice.
So either the number of fails and adding more dragons DOES make a difference on the breeding odds or it doesn’t. Can’t have it both ways.
It’s been difficult breeding dragons for a while but I don’t think DECA made it worse. I’ve gotten about half the dragons for this event by breeding and bought the other half that’s pretty normal for me.
So the main thing it seems to change, is the type of dragon you get, with rares and epics taking up more sides of the dice. There are a lot more of those in the game now (compared to when events were first introduced). And the thing about rares and epics, is that they generally have a longer breed time. This is the thing that can really affect your chances of breeding the dragon. The only way of breeding the dragon, is to keep breeding until you get it. And the shorter the average fail time, the more attempts you can have to breed it. The more often you can roll that dice. dragonvale-tips.proboards.com/post/201813
So if the chances of cloning the dragon are 2%, but one breeding combination gives you a 12 hour average fail time, and the other gives you a 10 hour average fail time, then over the course of a week you get 14 attempts or 17 attempts. (Crazy to think how few attempts to get a limited that is. Especially as a 2% chance means you need 35 attempts to have a 50/50 shot of breeding it.) Those 3 extra attempts are 20% more breed attempts, so choosing the breeding pairing with the shortest average breed times is really important.
Now obviously, we're speeding up some of those attempts with gems, so having some super short breed times is important as well. The absolute most I will spend to buy out a breed time is 4 gems, so if the shortest breed fail is 7 hours, then I have to wait at least 3 hours between attempts. But if using a combination can give me a high chance of a 30 minute fail, then I can buy that fail out immediately, and roll the dice again. Even a 2 or 3 hour fail is not too bad. All these cheap fails, get me closer to that 35 attempts/even money chance to breed the limited.
I was referring to something else and the idea that having more dragons in the game doesn’t change the odds b/c the number of offspring doesn’t change the odds. It’s a different way to look at breeding, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it, I like the idea but it’s different than what a lot of people seem to think.
I don't care if the problem is percentages or if it's the odds or whether it's an epic dragon or whatever the matter is I just wish it could be sorted out. I just wish we could go back to the days when we could breed a dragon once in awhile. I don't want to break the game so DECA can't make money, I just want this to be a dragon breeding game again if possible. I think the game needs to be more balanced so it's not so hard to breed a new dragon or breed a twin. I don't know what's off but it feels like something is. Of course if it can't be fixed then I'll have to get used to it because I don't plan on stopping playing. Maybe DECA isn't aware of the difficulty in breeding new dragons or getting twins or really anything you actually need. If it can't be fixed to be more balanced in the breeding department perhaps DECA could look at not closing off ways for players to get more event cash, like what they did shutting down plant farming. Or bring back bingo cards or runic breeding caves. I'm open to anything that helps. I figure being able to breed an event dragon or two or being able to acquire a bit of extra cash beyond what you can earn or afford to purchase would help. Either/or, not both of course. And not a big change, just a tweak. I lean toward a breeding tweak because it would make BeB more than just a disappointment and a twin weekend a chance to actually breed a twin you need.
I agree with you, maybe it doesn’t matter if it’s breeding odds or more dragons being added to the game as long as breeding gets easier. But for me it is important to know what the cause of the problem is and to have it sorted out on my end before emailing DECA and asking them to sort it out on their end. If having more dragons in the game isn’t the source of the problem then I don’t want to say it is b/c they’ll know that isn’t the reason so they won’t change anything. I suppose we could just ask them to make the dragons easier to breed and leave it at that without adding any details about extra dragons or breeding %. But I think the fact that the dragons that were added this year aren’t changing the odds and that the breeding % can’t be 5% is REALLY interesting and helpful. If anyone else has more info they’d like to share to help us understand the problem and make our emails better I’m VERY interested in hearing it! Thank you! adlerist what do you think is the chance that they’ll changing the %?
Not to start an argument but think of it this way:
If we start out with a cleared memory and start up DV, we use a large chunk of memory. Each task we perform uses a little more memory. As the task is completed properly, the extra memory that it used should be returned to the system for use by subsequent tasks but it is not. Instead, that memory can no longer be used. So instead of the next task using the the memory released by properly exiting the previous task, it now has to grab another different chunk of memory. If the tasks are ‘nested’, (a task which initiates another task within it, which initiates another task, etc) memory is quickly gobbled up and if any task within the nest is not properly exited, that memory is not returned to the system. That’s why, we (with older devices) eventually crash. They should be able to track down these improper task exits and correct them. And if, as you say, the crashes are due to DV’s custom game engine then that game engine could be investigated and corrected.
If it were really that simple I’m certain BFS would’ve figured it out and cured the crashes in a weekend or two. After all, it was their game and they knew it far better than anyone else. I know players assumed BFS didn’t care and didn’t work on the game, but nothing could be further from the truth. They really, really wanted to resolve the crashes, and they really, really worked on it. It was to their advantage to have a game that doesn’t irritate and lose players. But anything can easily be overlooked, so I definitely encourage you to contact Deca with any helpful information. I know they’ll appreciate it.
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adlerist what do you think is the chance that they’ll changing the %?
No idea, but Deca has said they’ll discuss it and see if anything needs adjusting.
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Something needs to be adjusted with the odds now that we have a zillion dragons in the mix. That is one way of dealing with the endless need for event currency. Adjust the odds so we can breed a dragon sometimes.
So either the number of fails and adding more dragons DOES make a difference on the breeding odds or it doesn’t. Can’t have it both ways.
Like I have said before dragons with a locked combo and that have many fails should not be lower than 5% chance. I should be able to get a rift dragon in a week spending 500,000 e or less when I am only going after one dragon and and I should be able to get a dragon spending 500 gems or less to speed up breeds trying to parent clone a dragon.
