🚀 VOTE FOR THE TOP DRAGON AT SPACE CAMP 🔭

[adlerist]

THE TOP DRAGON AT SPACE CAMP IS...

You’ve analysed and examined every aspect of each event dragon. Now, let us know which Camping Under the Stars II dragons brought the starlight to your late summer nights.


If you’re new to the polls or the Forum, here are some helpful tips:

1. You must be a member to vote. This is a restriction by ProBoards and cannot be altered. An account is required to keep track of votes and to prevent multiple votes by anonymous guests.

2. When you vote, it is automatically recorded. There’s no Submit button. Backing out or clicking away from the thread will not undo your selection.

3. If you accidentally vote for a dragon or warm up to another dragon later, you have until September 22nd to change your vote.

4. The poll will close on Friday, September 22nd at 11.00 PM MDT.



Also, in addition to the dragon ratings, I will include player feedback for the event. If you have any comments, suggestions, complaints, or compliments regarding the event structure, mechanisms, features, etc, please post them here, and I’ll pass them on.


Many thanks to everybody who participated — it is greatly appreciated by all!

[Deleted]

I went for Lambovian, Leonian and Scorpionian 😁

EVENT FEEDBACK
Requests
1. I’m not sure if Gravity is already in the NPC galaxy cycle, but if it isn’t, please can it and also Lambovian be added to the NPC Co-Op Galaxy cycle? Also, if any more galaxies are ever added in future, please make the event NPC’s dragon the new galaxy during the event it is released.
2. I’m guessing Magic Tap was counted as the extra EC mechanic this event (which wasn’t the fairest since that effectively takes away the mini game mechanic). I think in events where the extra EC mechanic is a mini game (or something else that might not be easily noticed like racing or collecting treats) it would be good for the event tutorial to highlight this EC mechanic to make sure the player knows it’s there. Things like RBCs, Eggy Hatchy and I think Donation Boards are already included in event tutorials so other extra EC mechanics should be too.
3. I know a lot of people will be frustrated with the addition of a new galaxy dragon because of how hard it is to get traited versions. Something needs to be done, and by now DECA will have a wide variety of suggestions to choose from. The main two suggestions I’ve seen are either having the Galaxy Egg of Mystery guarantee a new dragon anyway (or, since DECA have said in the past that that would unbalance the game — although many people, myself included, disagree — there could be a double the price, guarantee a new traited Galaxy option), and the ability to wish for traited dragons (which is more useful for long-term players who are more likely to have stacked up wishes than newer players, so if this was used, I think there should be something else too). Please, DECA, fix traited galaxies before adding any new Galaxies or using any in breeding combos.
4. Following on from the galaxy point, why wasn’t Lambovian one of the three unbreedables? It being released with the limiteds means that there were 4 unbreedables this event. Given their high prices and extra limited, this wasn’t fair. One of Leonian, Capricornian or Scorpionian should have been a limited in Lambovian’s place.
5. It seems most players are very keen for the Zodiacs to be released on their respective dates. I think this is a great idea, especially since it means it avoids Zodiacs solely being released during Dragons Weeks as their non-event availability (to avoid too much choice). It would be nice if they could still show up in the Camping event, as a way to buy them with EC if people struggle to breed them (because the majority of newer/casual/free-to-play players cannot afford the gem prices), but I think it would be great if they could also show up to be breedable during their dates. (That would also have the bonus of the possibility of people breeding their Zodiac dragon on their birthday, which I know a lot of people would like.)
6. The time skip tokens have a lot of potential should DECA decide to expand on their uses and release them again (hopefully, permanently since there isn’t much point spending a ton of EC on them unless they’re permanent). One possibility is that time skip tokens could still skip a short amount of time (i.e. stick with 30 minutes) but you can use as many as you want. That means they’re still not as useful as gems, but their use would be a lot more general instead of as situational as it is now, and that might encourage EC purchases for them (as they are now I highly doubt anyone would spend real money to buy EC purely to get the tokens). There have also been other suggestions for the tokens to be even more powerful, but that could be a whole other feature altogether.
7. Please can at least one or two (preferably all six) of the numbered Monoliths be added to events with the monolith-requiring hiddens, and their prices be quite cheap (under 1k EC preferably). If someone doesn’t yet have a Monolith dragon it is effectively impossible to get one of their own due to the bug with single parent cloning Monoliths in Co-Op and the fact that a Monolith is highly unlikely to show up from EoM. They can of course ask for certain Monoliths to be put up in Co-Op, but I’ve said my thoughts on Co-Op reliance enough times now so I won’t bore you.
8. Please stop making the new releases as expensive as they have been the last three events. 10k or a little bit more is a much more reasonable price for an unbreedable, and I personally don’t think the limiteds should start at much more than 12k. With that said, I think the gaps between limited prices have (in general) been much more reasonable lately.
9. Following on from this, please make prices much more reasonable in events where there are more new releases than the usual 3 unbreedables and then one limited per week/final ten days (after the first week). The unbreedables all being over 12k and the limiteds starting at 14k is not okay for an event with an extra limited or when one of the limiteds is actually also an unbreedable. Especially in an event without a decent extra EC mechanic.
10. Other than that, the same requests from previous events, like having the limiteds return on the two days of EC spending only. Also, I still see people thinking that the event will end on the day of the final event gift, so it would be useful for there to be a note that there will be more days. Please make it incredibly obvious that the unbreedables are unbreedable, as at the moment it’s not very clear in-game and I still see people thinking they’re breedable. Having a timer to show when EC collection will end would be useful (though I don’t see this suggestion as much as others). And please, please, please either keep all habitats etc. in the main market while they’re in the event (this would be preferable, as many, many players have requested this) or send players directly to the event market if they click the pop-up notice to get more habitats.

Positives
1. Thank you for not increasing the prices of the returning dragons and not solely decreasing the new releases from last year. I do think some more could have been decreased, though a lot of them were cheap anyway and at least two of the worst ones (Exandrew and Wilderness) were decreased, so I’m happy.
2. DECA, I can’t thank you enough for making the combos this event actually reasonable (ignoring Lambovian). Every single one of the required dragons were element-only and had odds of at least 2%. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!
3. THANK YOU for making the Zodiac cloning odds better! Especially since this event went from having three 1% clone unbreedables to three 10% clone unbreedables.
4. I know it kind of had to be Starfall given the theme of the event, but I’m still glad the default time of day for this event was a night one, after all the events being fixed on day recently. Ultimately when dragons are required that require both day and night times (e.g. Sun, Dusk, Moon, Midday, Midnight are all required this event) I think a time-switching Day theme (i.e. the non-event theme) is fairest (especially in this event when the Twilight Tower wasn’t available), but I’m glad there was finally a night theme nonetheless.
5. The dragons kind of had to be related to the event given its clear theme and the fact the Zodiac element was made precisely for this event last year, but still, I’m glad they were related! And thank you DECA for finishing the Zodiacs!
6. Zodiac is my favourite element (second is Galaxy... can you tell I like sparkly things?) so this event was great for me! The designs of the dragons are beautiful. I started playing again halfway through this event last year and knew I would fall in love with DragonVale again when I saw the Zodiacs. They’re such an awesome addition to an already amazing game — I’d been waiting for them to return for a whole year!
7. I love the new decorations!
8. I love that the Camping event is small and slower-paced compared to most other events, bar Spring and Om of Noms. I hope those events don’t ever get too large, as they are a nice break.
9. I’m pretty sure, besides the Monoliths, all required dragons were either permanent, in the event, or both, which is a nice change. Please keep this up in future!
10. Thank you for making the majority of the Zodiacs’ incubation times reasonable, especially given they’re epics!
11. Thank you for branching out from the 1-1.5%/10% Co-Op cloning odds! 4% is much more reasonable than 1%. I hope this is a pattern that stays.

I'm probably biased since I started playing DV again during Camping Under the Stars 1 but this has probably been my favourite event ever 😁
I remember hearing the beginning of the Star Fall music last year and thinking "Wow... I'm home." It helped that the dragons were so gorgeous. The Zodiacs, Gravity, Lambovian and Shadowflash are always going to have a special place in my heart because of that. Thank you, DECA 💖

[dragonglow]

Capricornian
Lambovian
Shadowflash

These are my three choices.

[rcooldude1224]

I went with Shadowflash, Virgonian, and Leonian
Thanks for making the odds of obtaining the zodiacs better
Just wish that the dragons didn't cost so much currency in event markets

[MinyaZ]

Thank you for changing the cloning odds for the unbreedable zodiac dragons in this event. With no extra way to earn currency this event, 1% was too low for the non-breedables and too many players would have needed to buy them, but would then have no currency to buy the limited dragons if they were unable to clone the unbreedables.

All the dragons that were released during this event were beautiful and fitted the theme perfectly. There are some amazing animations and great colours. And the eggs again were stunning.

The Zodiac habitats are lovely, but the area that houses the dragons is too small for the number of dragons they hold. Most of the Zodiac dragons are too big, especially for the available area on the habitat.

Twin weekend was a bonus during the event and a welcome addition. Thank you, we all love a Twin Weekend. We could have them every event. 😉

The dragons were all too expensive when there was no extra way to earn event currency. And to have a surprise dragon introduced to the event (Shadowflash) was a shock. Thankfully it was a reasonably easy breed, but it was unnecessary with the number of dragons already in the event and how expensive they were.

Cannot believe that there was another Galaxy dragon released as part of an event and as the last limited dragon. Galaxy dragons can only be bred in co-op. They are not a suitable dragon as a dragon in an event and until there is a guaranteed way to get traited Galaxy dragons there shouldn’t be any more developed. To get a Lambovian dragon traited in a year’s time, it is necessary to have a twin first so that it can be claimed as the end of event gift. Otherwise, it is a two year wait - twin one year, traited the next. It has been said time and time again, there is no guaranteed way to get Galaxy dragons in the Rift. Please address this issue before releasing any more Galaxy dragons.

[Arceus]

This time I voted for Shadowflash, Lambovian and Scorpionian. Even though I would vote for all of them if I could, those were my top three favorites

[Arceus]

-EVENT FEEDBACK-

Here is my feedback regarding the attributes of Camping Under the Stars:

-POSITIVES-

The new releases this event was overall much better designed than previous events. All of them were stellar in their own ways. Although there were a few which stood out more than the rest, it was still extremely difficult to choose the top three for my vote. DECA nailed the dragon designs this event, making them fit nicely with the theme and last year's dragons.

The remaining Zodiac Dragons affiliated with western zodiac signs were released, which, although I knew would not be released until the following year, was highly anticipated by the DV Community.

The introduction of Time Skip Tokens comes in handy when one needs to decrease certain timers by a little bit, especially if they want to save a gem or two.

The Star Generator was a surprising yet great addition to the event market midway through Camping Under the Stars II. Not only is it a type of weather generator - allowing your island to include falling stars - but it also functions as a proper boost to Zodiac Dragons. It took me by surprise when I noticed that it boosts Zodiac element dragons by 20% instead of the 2% boost that other generators do.

The decorations and Galaxy Island Theme were stunning additions to the Vale. The Galaxy theme especially is well-built, making your island feel like a much larger version of a galaxy island. Pair it with some Celestial or Meridiem Habitats and you can make a galaxy paradise.

The Gravity Dragon was available to be chosen as the final daily reward. Considering that I had a twin from last year and already had a rifted Solarflare, the choice was pretty obvious. DECA has been so kind to include dragons which are difficult to attain in the Rift inside the final daily reward in recent events.

The breeding combos for this event's dragons were much less difficult than prior events. It felt like a sigh of relief only needing to use one parent for each limited dragon. Although Shadowflash was a surprise release, its breeding combo was elemental, which made it a simple dragon to breed as well.

The surprise release of the Shadowflash dragon was really intriguing, especially considering that it had been in the game's files for years. On top of that, Shadowflash was my favorite dragon of the entire event, with its perfect color palatte and backflip-esque style. It was a cherry on top of the galactic cake.

The increase in breeding odds of the Zodiac Dragons to 4% or 10% was greatly appreciated - especially for the unbreedables and Ariesian. It helped me, and others, save a literal ton of event currency as the original odds made it so that most would have to buy the dragon(s). The increase of Ariesian's odds to 10% was also generous considering that Solarflare is a required parent - a dragon which contributes every element.

-NEGATIVES-

The #1 downside of Camping Under the Stars II were the absurdly high prices. Dunes of Magic might have also had high prices for dragons and limiteds, but nothing like this one. The starting three dragons all had prices over 12,000 EC, with Capricornian having a price of over 13,000 EC. The limited dragons, although not having significant jumps in price (thankfully), were similarly expensive - with Lambovian being over 15,000 to buy. These prices are usually more than a week's worth of EC, which makes it extremely painful when you did purchase one of the dragons.

Although understandable in its breeding combo, it was rather not nice for the Lambovian Dragon to have such a high price for a co-op only dragon. With a 4% base breeding percent (which isn't terrible), Lambovian is not the funnest dragon to breed due to its exclusivity to the co-op. Next time a galaxy is released, please make it cheaper, like Gravity, so that players are able to buy one if necessary.

Although time skip tokens were useful in a few aspects, they were overall an underwhelming addition. Even after the tweaks made to them towards the beginning of the event, they were still invaluable to most players, especially ones like myself who have played DV every day for many years. 30 minutes is usually a tiny fraction of a breeding timer, and hardly even makes a difference most of the time. For breeding, it is only useful if you wish to save a gem, or if your timer does have less than 30 minutes remaining. On top of this, the time skip tokens compete with ads, which are debatably better than the item itself. Not only can ads speed up the same amount of time as the tokens, but they can also be refreshed by closing and reopening the game. And since ads do not cost EC to shorten a timer, they are much more worthwhile.

Another complaint I had about the time skip tokens were how they override the icons for other timers. When putting a dragon in the Fountain of Youth, the Time Skip icon appears instead of the finish button, which makes it seem as if the process is not complete. Clicking on the Fountain of Youth when it finishes no longer automatically removes the dragon; instead, you have to click on the "Speed Up" button to complete the action. Overall, that mechanic both confused and annoyed me due to the overriding of the completion button.

Although the dragons this event had really good designs, I feel like they were a bit overdetailed. Most of the dragons in this event, except Shadowflash, have so many tiny details that even when they are big, are difficult to see. Considering that some of the fine details are near impossible to view, I would debate that there is too much detail incorporated into these dragons.

[ladyj]

I really wanted to vote for Lambovian as my favorite, since it is so very beautiful. But after tossing and turning and to show my disappointment of the non-breedable galaxies in the rift (I am even OK with cloning in co-op), I am voting for Scorpionian (even though the name is a mouthful) as my favorite. I love its colors and the animation. 


Event Feedback:
I have felt that the last few events had been a lot less stressful and more fun. I feel I am better organized, due to the many resources offered in this forum (e.g. strategies, the compendium, listing of breeding odds, etc.)

Likes:

• Higher cloning and breeding odds
  
• Shorter breeding times and easier combos, not a lot of long fails
• Zodiac theme, with beautiful dragons and pedestals, and new decorations

Not so much:

• Please provide a way to breed or obtain a traited galaxy dragon, besides the EOM. 
• Please do not use a galaxy dragon as a parent, let alone one with all 10 elements (yes, I am talking about Solarflare!)
• While I appreciate the concept of the time skip tokens, it would be nice if the skip can be at least a couple of hours, instead of just 30 minutes. Also, if one can purchase these tokens for future use. I would have happily purchased a bundle if the skips were for 2 or more hours, especially during twins weekend.

[hawk]

My three choices were:

Capricornian
Scorpionian
Shadowflash

I hope Deca considers a monthly rotation for the Zodiac dragons. It would ease Camping event bloat in the future and gives them a fun return mechanic like the gemstones. It makes so much sense.

Prices: Had the starter co-op odds remained as they were at the beginning of the event, this would be a very different review. THANK YOU to the reps who advocated for the odds increases! It made all the difference this event. Making all three starters whatever terrible odds they began at was ridiculous. I understand Deca wants to make some money, but that kind of thing just creates animosity.

Magic Tap is not a replacement for a real event currency-making mini-game. It's just a (sometimes) slightly better version of the omnipresent Dragon Drop. I tried it for a while and definitely got better at it, but discovered that more frequently than not, there weren't enough falling objects to make it to 50 or 100. So while Magic Tap could consistently give me a decent amount of event currency, a good Dragon Drop day could make me much more. Across an entire event, Magic Tap might not actually net more event currency than the widely variable Dragon Drop method.

All that to say, Deca didn't give us an extra way to make event currency, but thought they'd drop 1% (I think?) odds starters, an extra limited and a low odds, co-op only, limited (Lambovian). It shouldn't have taken player complaints to realize this wasn't gonna fly.

Dragon Release Schedule: I'm torn here. Lambovian probably should have been a starter, with one of Cap, Scor or Leo being a limited. But those three would have been on the hard side to breed and we also got Shadowflash and Anniversaries. It would have been more annoying to have a limited, low breeding odds Zodiac released with all those anniversary dragons. This way I was able to focus on remaining market dragons in the Rift AND rift anniversaries, instead. Plus, with the increased cloning odds, Lambovian has a chance of being cloned in co-op any time of year and is available in galaxy log-in rewards. This would have been a different story had her co-op odds not been increased to 10% and if the Anniversaries weren't in the mix.

Shadowflash: Happy to finally put a face to a name! Good event to introduce it in. Wish it hadn't been a surprise, but at least it wasn't too hard to breed. Thanks for adding it on a not-Thursday and give us more time to work on it.

Tokens: I also found the tokens underwhelming. They aren't necessarily a poor idea, but they were executed poorly. I would have considered buying some if more than one could be used per thing being sped up. 30 minutes is nothing on a long timer and short timers I'm willing to sped gems on anyway. Overall, I thought the tokens were an interesting idea, but hardly useful. I try to save currency until the end of the event in case I've had to spend on tough limiteds or we have a surprise limited drop. This means I won't ever be buying tokens through the event until I'm positive I'll have enough for everything I plan to buy from the market.

Visually, the little token icons hovering above basically everything with a timer was extremely annoying. They cluttered the Vale and were a reminder of something I had zero interest in using. It was especially grating to see them over the treat farms (my farms are ready every hour, so I constantly thought they were ready to harvest). Gem icons don't hover over everything just because we can use gems. These shouldn't have either. I want to thank adlerist for bringing our thoughts to Deca and to Deca for listening. When they return, I suggest Deca rethinks the location of the main token count icon as well. It clutters the screen. Maybe it could hide like the Runestone icon?

Star Generator: What a great idea! I hope this means we'll see similar generators for other epic varieties with time!

Galaxy Dragons and Galaxy EOMs: I don't really want to beat a dead dragon horse, but this Galaxy EOM coding needs to change. What is it about 'balancing the game' that requires players never ever get all the Galaxy dragons in the Rift? This balancing mechanic doesn't exist for ANY OTHER dragons in the game. I would really like to understand what this means. Deca is frustrating their playerbase and that cannot mean good things. While I was happy to see Gravity (and hopefully Lambovian next year) in the final reward list, it doesn't negate the fact that getting this group of dragons traited is beyond difficult, beyond expensive and requires some serious gambling. I bought 3 Galaxy EOMs this event against my better judgement. 2/3 were repeats. I have 5 Galaxy dragons left to get. Even if the EOMs were dupe protected - and I mean dupe protected through twin variants, not just regular versions (i.e. if you have them all twinned, the next one is a twin-traited one you don't have yet) - I'd be looking at about 600,000 etherium. But instead, every time a new Galaxy dragon is released, the probability of getting one I don't have goes down, while the price inflates. No. This is terrible business. It doesn't make me want to buy etherium. It makes me want to QUIT TRYING. Which makes me frustrated and bitter. Please please consider changing this mechanic, or changing the Daily Login Day 2 Galaxy egg mechanic to give traited after twin. Either or. But something! Again, I'm really glad Deca opted to include the newest Galaxy dragons into an event and include them in the final gift listing, but making more Galaxy dragons just makes getting the ones that aren't included MORE DIFFICULT (traited).

Sorry this has been so negative. I enjoyed getting the remaining Zodiacs. Thanks for letting us get lots of Zodiac habitats to house our babies. The Galaxy theme was also a very pleasant surprise. It's nice to see Deca trying new things and being willing to tweak them as they go. Thanks to all for their hard work!

[belorga]

Thank you Deca. You have outdone yourselves with the beautiful dragon, pedestal and decoration designs for this event and the complete Zodiac collection.
I much appreciated the early cloning odds adjustment, the twin weekend, the spoiler contest, the star generator and the galaxy theme.

As ever, a huge thank you to the Forum team for the tips, encouragement and sage advice, all of which really add to the DV experience for us all. Your generosity with your time is much appreciated.