You’ve analysed and examined every aspect of each event dragon. Now, let us know which Whitbee’s Candy Bash X: Into the Screamhouse dragons brought the fright to your night and the hallow to your Halloween.
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Last Edit: Nov 1, 2023 15:44:54 GMT -6 by adlerist: Added baby Light thread icon!
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Please stop making dragons this expensive! It’s not fair on new and casual players, and it’s getting to the point where it’s not fair on longer-term players who don’t manage to breed the dragons either. Apart from Greymatter, and Machina at a generous stretch, all the limiteds this event costed more than what most players (regardless of how casually/“seriously” they play) could earn in the time they’re available for (not counting plant farming or real money purchases), leaving nothing else for any other dragons without either grinding or being forced to spend money. This is getting ridiculous, DECA. And you’re not going to get anything out of it — people will stop buying EC etc. if you keep this up. Following on from this, I can’t say how disappointed I was that the prices of the limiteds after Machina weren’t made a lot more reasonable, given the bug that meant so many players couldn’t get in for over a week. The prices were stupidly high so shouldn’t have been that expensive anyway, but after the bug, it’s simply unfair.
When price has been brought up in online communities, the main counter argument has been “you can breed the dragons”. It’s a fair counter argument, but the fact is, some people are new (and so won’t have the required dragons) and/or play casually (so there’s a good chance there’s a dragon they really want but can’t breed due to not trying to get the parents in time), and there are people who are just unlucky with breeding. These players should not be punished for the fact that they’re new, play casually, and/or are unlucky breeding wise. (Yes, dragons come back around, and the dragons from this event all have decent cloning odds, but this has become a pattern in the last three or four events, regardless of how difficult the dragons are to breed, either in relation to combo or cloning.)
I did want to offer one possible way of encouraging EC purchases that will probably be more favourable to the community than obscenely high prices. The idea of treating event market dragons like EoMs (i.e. following the normal > twin > twin-traited structure) has been requested in the past, and from memory DECA didn’t seem likely to implement it. But I think it’s a great idea, and I think it will be more profitable for DECA than the current structure. Give the dragons slightly lower prices than usual — unbreedables around 10k or slightly under/over, and limiteds from around 11k-16k at the absolute most — but say that if you buy a dragon when you have one already, it follows the EoM structure. For unbreedables that could well mean a player needed to spend 30k EC (or at least 20k, for a twin and a twin-traited) on a single dragon, and for later limiteds that would mean probably 30-45k. At the current prices I doubt most non-whales would want to spend money to get EC, because it’s practically imposed on them (people generally don’t like being forced to do things) but I reckon people would be more willing to if the EC prices were more reasonable and it meant they could get a twin/traited variant if they couldn’t get one or were struggling to. Plus, this would rectify one of the two major issues with purple fire (although galaxies are still problematic) — it would now be possible to get traited versions of every new release in the event they were released during, meaning players would no longer need to wait till DWs, RBC events or for the event next year to be able to get traited versions of unbreedables. DECA could keep this EoM structure to new releases alone or have it affect all event dragons — either way I think it’s a much more sensible route to go down than making the prices obscenely high without any reward for the player. And I highly doubt DECA could get more money from the current structure of “high prices without an incentive” than this proposed one of “more reasonable prices (but probably costing more overall) with an incentive”.
Though I will add that for any of this to work, DECA needs to make the real money prices for EC more reasonable. Not even the most reasonable real money-to-EC ratio is 800 EC for £1 on a doubleday.
Please, DECA. The high prices have gone on long enough, and with Exterrean costing over 20k it’s just too much. Even the early limiteds are edging closer and closer to 20k. This. Has. Got. To. Stop.
TL;DR I totally understand the need to encourage purchases but I think there’s a better way of going about it than stupidly high prices with no incentive to buy the dragons (besides necessity due to not managing to breed them) — I gave a possible alternative.
I’ve been skimming the forum every now and then and noticed a post about the Love dragon now being level 31. I checked in a small park (one of the ones under level 31 that was created during a reinstall) and that still seems to be the case... Why? It’s required for so many dragons (some of which are required for further dragons), all of which are unlocked before that level (the latest is 26 for Lumineux, but some are unlocked at level 12, when Love used to be unlocked). It’s a rare dragon (rather than epic) and a staple of DV, having been in the game for ages and being among the first limiteds released. Please have it be unlocked at the same level as the lightning element. I’m not the best judge since I only play my small parks casually, but it took me almost a year to get up to level 31 in my two smallest parks. I reckon for casual players or people who don’t play daily it would take at least half a year. Since Love is required in so many combos, I don’t think that’s fair.
TL;DR Please make the love dragon available at level 12 like it used to be. There’s no reason why it should unlock at level 31 and it just means people who don’t yet have the dragon can’t breed the many, many dragons it’s required for (all of them are unlocked before level 31).
While I am SO happy that Eldritch etc. got better odds, the horsemen have suffered if a player already has one of the dragon. For example, Barbarous now has 1% odds if you’ve already got one, while it used to have I think about 3.5% odds regardless (I don’t think it was exactly that but I know it was over 3%). There’s no point in a decrease when the dragon has specific parents apart from to make players struggle unnecessarily. This has led to a lot of people having to sell main-park dragons (including twins) in the interest of getting traited ones — with no guarantee they’ll ever get a traited one, or be able to afford a main park one afterwards. Please remove the decrease — it makes the initial increase completely pointless if a player already has one of the dragon! (I probably don’t speak for many players when I say this, but I’d honestly take the four horsemen always having 4% odds but Eldritch being 0.2% again over what is currently the case. I’m not suggesting Eldritch’s odds should be reverted, this is just to give DECA a perspective on how annoying the unnecessary decrease is.)
Adding Fury to an event is great, but please add Snowpocalypse and Winter too. Narcis (which is in the Spring event) was added to this event for Hyperion, so DECA clearly doesn’t have issues with adding more dragons to this event even if they’re already associated with one. Either that, or please change Fury’s combo to include a second permanent dragon or a dragon already in the Halloween event. Effectively, this request boils down to “please make sure all required dragons are available”, which is a request I’ve asked before. The fact is, DV is at heart a dragon breeding game, and anyone who hasn’t been playing for long enough to get the unavailable required dragons is excluded from that core mechanic (especially given the ridiculous prices of most dragons). That isn’t fair and will lead some new players to uninstall — something I imagine DECA doesn’t want.
TL;DR Please remove the decrease in odds for the horsemen dragons, and make all required limited dragons available.
4. Shrouds: Please can you make it more obvious that the shrouds are for the Eldritch dragon despite having other dragons’ names? This confuses people every year. Since the shrouds are in a separate category to everything else, you could have a note in that category, and at the beginning of the shroud’s info box (if it’s not there already). Or you could change the names e.g. instead of “Barbarous’ Tail”, the name could be “Eldritch’s Tail of Barbarous” or “Eldritch’s Tail of Barbarity”.
Donation Boards aren’t great for newer players because they’re more likely to be actively trying towards event dragons. It’s really not a fair EC mechanic to use when there are going to be so many expensive dragons. Please use a better EC mechanic when there are going to be many expensive dragons. (Or make the prices vaguely reasonable.)
Following on from this, I still think it would be better for there to be a release for etherium option during donation board events. Now that I’m doing 16 breeds daily, I’ll have lost about 70k etherium this event because of the release option being taken away. That’s not an amount to scoff at.
TL;DR Please don’t use donation boards in events with unfair prices, as a lot of players — most notably newer players — won’t get much out of the mechanic. Please also add back the release for etherium option during donation board events.
Please stop using Halloween as an excuse to make an event difficult. It’s already difficult enough with expensive dragons, low odds, hard combos, evolution dragons, and so on. Please don’t actively try to make it worse. We’ve got three events (along with Winter and Summer, Valentine’s is sort of included in this but not as much) that are difficult already. DECA does not need to actively try to make any event difficult, because we’ve already got enough that already are difficult enough.
Please, please, please, please, please don’t put Dragon Week during Halloween again. The Halloween event will most likely be starting while the anniversary dragons are available, which from now on will mean 13+ dragons are added to results and choice for the first part of the event. Halloween is notorious for having hard combos, low odds and too much choice. Please rework the Dragon Week structure so that it avoids Halloween completely — and preferably if possible also the summer event (the one with the treasure dragons) and winter event since they’re also way too difficult as is. I get that you’re insistent that some Dragon Weeks will have to happen during events (I still beg to differ, but regardless), but you can absolutely avoid putting one during Halloween at the very least. Om of Noms would be a much better time, presuming it will stay relatively small like it was last year. Or the end of the Camping event would be okay (besides the fact that that may mean DW coincided with the anniversary), and that’s closer to when the Halloween DW happened this year (if Om of Noms would be too late in the year).
TL;DR The Halloween event is difficult enough as is so DECA doesn’t need to actively try to make it worse. Also, please don’t put a DW during Halloween, because of aforementioned difficulty.
7. Regular requests: -- Having all limiteds available to be bought (or both bought and bred) in the two days of EC spending only, so that players don’t regret buying one limited and then wanting the next more; this is essential if DECA keeps giving limiteds silly prices, but good either way. -- Having a note that there are more days than daily gifts; I still see some people assuming that the event will end when the gifts do, which leads them to plan their event differently to how they would do if they knew it was lasting slightly longer. It also means people who missed days will spend gems to catch up when they don't need to, or could wait and spend fewer gems. -- Making it obvious that the unbreedables are unbreedable; I don’t see posts about this quite as frequently but I know there will always be players, especially newer players, who assume the unbreedables are breedable since there is nothing in-game that explicitly says otherwise. Not all players participate in online DV communities or even know they exist. -- Having a timer under the EC count icon to show the last week or so of EC collection; again, I don’t see this request very frequently, but it should be fairly easy to implement, given this timer appears if a park is too low-level to participate in the event. -- Keeping all habitats etc. that are available in the event also still available in the main market for their usual DC/gems price; this is just generally fairer, makes more sense, and avoids the tons of posts of people asking where things are because they’re not in the main market. (Should I start adding “make the prices reasonable” to this list? And I guess I’ll be adding “please make all required dragons available” too... 😞)
There have been so many bugs this event. The milestone bug, the loading bug, the bug where people lost the event and/or had their dragon chosen for them, someone actually managing to hack the game and send everyone hacked gems, and so on. I really, really, really think DECA needs to slow down. If they stop churning out events like they are now, they’ll actually have time to do maintenance, check for bugs, and so on. It will give them time to develop the game as a whole rather than just keep adding more events and more and more dragons. It will give them time to consider implementing non-event requests like a better way of getting traited galaxies, a search filter in the gifts menu, and the ability to wish for traited dragons. Please slow down. Just a bit. So that the game can keep running and doesn’t end up unplayable due to bugs.
Just an idea for how breaks could work, obviously DECA doesn’t have to stick with it or could tweak it however they want. The current structure has 8 events in a year, each lasting for 34, 41 or 48 days (which includes the 2 days of spending spree at the end), depending on the number of expected limiteds — 3, 4 or 5. If the 48-day events were removed or restricted to one per year, that would leave plenty of time for breaks. It could be that three events have 34 days (3 limiteds), four have 41 (4 limiteds) and one had 48 (5 limiteds). Unless I've done my maths severely wrong (and feel free to correct me if I have), that leaves nearly 8 weeks spare. It could be that there’s a week-long break between every other event (so four breaks in a year), the other breaks are the usual one day, and the rest of the leftover days are kept for event extensions due to bugs; or it could be for bonus, unexpected mini events, which will keep players interested as they never know when they're going to happen (the current structure makes things incredibly rigid and some players do get bored, even sometimes to the point of quitting). The number of days in an event could correspond to how many dragons there already are — the 34-day events for the events with the fewest dragons, and the 48-day event(s) for the one(s) with the most dragons. DECA could use mini events like Dragons Weeks, Decorators Weeks, and Expansion Events to keep players interested in-between. And they could even come up with more mini events. Longer breaks would mean Dragons Weeks could all be outside of events. While there may be people who don’t mind them being during events, I can’t think of any reason why anyone would find them being outside of events worse than during.
I personally don’t even mind the lack of breaks anymore in regards to gameplay. I’m under 30 dragons away from completion and events are the best way of getting closer, so in terms of actual gameplay I actually like that breaks are short. But with how buggy the game is getting I think longer breaks need to be reconsidered — and carefully and fairly, not just dismissing it because “it’s bad for profits”.
TL;DR There were a load of bugs this event (and in the last year in general — early ends of events, crashing issues, the RBC bug, and probably more that I’ve forgotten) and I seriously think DECA should carefully re-consider more regular breaks so that they actually have time to do maintenance etc. outside of events.
The thing is, their main reason against longer breaks is that fewer people play and those who do don’t play as much during breaks, but the fact is the amount of bugs in the last year suggest that DV is getting closer to breaking point, and people are going to stop playing if it gets too buggy. Having breaks might cause a short-term loss (though I would argue less so if DECA used the breaks for mini events like Dragons Week), but the continuation of the game being actually playable will be a long-term gain. If DECA doesn’t slow down, it’s going to hurt DV more in the long run than having breaks.
And none of us want our beloved DragonVale to be at risk of shutting down again.
Positives 1. I like that the unbreedables were 10% Co-Op cloning dragons. It took the pain away (slightly) from those prices. 2. Thank you SO MUCH for increasing the odds of Eldritch and co! (Just please get rid of the decrease.) 3. I’ve never been a massive fan of Halloween so DECA did really well to create Halloween-related dragons that I actually like. Especially Eww and Exterrean. And the creepier ones like Tickles work well for what they’re meant to be, meaning Halloween-loving people can enjoy them too. 4. Thank you for the changes to the Spooky habitat. Given it can house Apocalypse dragons, it makes much more sense to have a higher DC cap, and I know a lot of people will be appreciating the habitat cap increase. 5. Eww is precious. (Should definitely be called Aww though.) 6. Again, THANK YOU for not making every non-10%-clone dragon 1% or 1.5%! 5% is very reasonable without being too easy. It doesn’t entirely make up for the horrible prices, but it does make them feel slightly less greedy. 7. The specific theme of this event was great and I love that most of the dragons were obviously related to it.
I appreciate that this section looks a lot smaller than the negative section, but that’s because I was offering suggestions and explaining why I was giving them.
All in all, I loved this event since I was very lucky (this will be another golden event for me, which is something I never thought I’d say about Halloween of all events), but putting myself in the shoes of newer and casual players, or people who are unfortunately just unlucky, and those affected by the bugs, I can see how they wouldn’t have enjoyed it. Which would be a real shame if they had been looking forward to the Halloween event — and I know a lot of people do.
Post by rcooldude1224 on Nov 1, 2023 20:11:16 GMT -6
I voted Fortified, Machina and Eww! All wonderful designs and great additions to the game!
PLEASE chill out with the unnecessary difficulty and prices. Just because it's Halloween gives you no reason to make it difficult for players. The fact that we had a dragon cost 20K currency is ridiculous. Do better. At least the odds were tolerable? I guess? Doesn't change the fact that some combos were horrendous (seriously, what were you thinking by using Hydnellum x Macabre as a combo) I don't mean to sound harsh, but Halloween events are events I usually don't look forward to nowadays because of how difficult they are, I genuinely considered taking a break from the game entirely a few times during this event I really hope DECA fixes prices for future events
I just wanted to add to my feedback that I, along with a lot of players, am disappointed by the mediocre compensation. It would be fine if the bug hadn't lasted as long as it had, but from my understanding most people were affected for almost two weeks.
Thank you very, very much to the game reps for trying to get more compensation. Hopefully DECA will see the negative reaction, of both people affected by the bug and those not, and give better compensation, or at the very very least know for future. (Though hopefully there won't be bugs of this scale in future.)
I miss you guys 😭 Unfortunately I don't think I'll be rating the dragons for the next event since things are getting busier. Sending all my koalas your way 🌿🐨💙🐨💙🐨💙🐨💙🐨🌿
A little odd that Machina and GreyMatter are not favorites for the Screamhouse Event. They worked so well for Mrs Murphy’s School of witchcraft and Wizardry that Mrs Murphy hired them on the spot for the Magical Engineering Department.
I started DragonVale as a collector, became a decorator, and then added being a Visual Storyteller. For co-op friending my ID is GKVale # 4024
DECA’s approach to pricing is rather perplexing. Prices of dragon go up every event, yet I doubt players here get a raise in pay every 40 days or so. I’m assuming DECA Is raising prices based on what the market will bear as we do keep playing. I use the term play loosely as it has become a daily grind to scrounge up every bit of event resource I can find. This was an anniversary of DragonVale for me …and I decided a couple events ago that I would semi-retire from the game after this event. I wanted the dragonarium breathing red fire for the occasion and it is. I have my screenshots of my islands at retirement. At this point I will set my goals; they won’t involve red fire or having a twin and rifted version of every dragon. I will be here every day …PLAYING …because I am fond of my dragons and have traded gems and treats with half of the people on my friend list for the full 12 years. I think a couple of them were friends of my grandson when he played, so they may be graduating from college now …and still playing and trading gems with Grandma 🥰. Cheers to all, carry on in whatever way is fun and satisfying for you. PS I used my DV budget to join a gym to get back some muscles I’ve lost sitting and playing DV. DV detox/rehab! 🏋️♀️🏋️♀️🏋️♀️🏋️♀️
I started DragonVale as a collector, became a decorator, and then added being a Visual Storyteller. For co-op friending my ID is GKVale # 4024
All of the dragons released this event were a great fit and there was a nice balance of spooky/scary dragons and dragons that you wouldn’t mind meeting. Some of the animations were exceptional – Eww and Fortified especially stand out.
The portal decoration was outstanding. The addition of Dortal using the portal to get home was brilliant. The eggs as usual were beautiful and Eww’s eyes staring out of its egg is one of the best egg decorations ever.
Most of the dragons were a good size this event, not so big that they don’t fit in their habitat or so small that they risk getting squashed by other dragons.
Five dragons used in breeding combos were only released last year. Three of these were required for the new limited dragons. Four of these dragons were available to breed for 1 week during the event and for 1 week in Dragons Week. This makes it very difficult for players who collect traited versions to obtain them, especially when the Rift is not guaranteed to give a traited dragon.
Thank you for increasing the breeding odds for Eldritch and the four horsemen. Not sure why a second version of the horsemen is at 1%. Players have to target the dragon, they cannot be bred by ‘accident’ (unlike Aurora). Some players were selling their normal version so that they have better odds at obtaining a traited version. This does not seem very balanced. It should be equal odds for these dragons regardless of how many are owned.
The dragon prices were out of this world this event! Spooky, scary and horrifying! Exterrean has the dubious honour of being the most expensive dragon ever released. The overall average price for all the dragons is also among the highest in an event. The donation boards do give extra event currency, but the balance doesn’t seem right between the number of event days, currency earned and the price of dragons.
This event has six out of the eight dragons with double parent locked breeding combos. And so many of the combos don’t make sense for the dragon that is being bred. If it is really necessary to use a difficult to breed a dragon (like Hydnellum), perhaps the rest of the breeding combo doesn’t need to be another difficult to breed or a dragon with a complicated parentage.
I’m unsure when the Love dragon’s available level was changed from Level 12 to Level 31, but please change it back. Love is needed to breed seven dragons and evolve one dragon. Most of these dragons are available at Level 12. Having Love’s availability at Level 31 puts it on a par with Sunscorch, which requires a player to be at Level 31 to breed it. I think that Trick or Ortreat have played a prank with Love’s level.
I was not affected by the bug that meant some players were unable to open their parks for ten days. The fact that I get 50 gems for this privilege seems very strange. Deca have obviously handed out a large number of gems doing this and while I’m sure that it was with good intentions, players that couldn’t play should be the ones being compensated, not those of us that could play as normal. I would willingly donate my 50 gems to an affected player.
I’m not sure who did the analysis for compensation for these players, but I would respectfully suggest that the batteries on their calculator went flat. It doesn’t take an accountant or a rocket scientist to see that the compensation offered is woefully inadequate.
The number of gems given (150) was not enough to totally unlock the daily reward calendar for the outstanding ten days. That required 281 gems. For newer players especially, they don’t have the extra ~131 gems needed to open the rest of the calendar. For so many players the highlight of the event is getting to pick a free dragon as the last day log in prize.
The 10,000 event currency that was given as compensation seems fair on the surface. 10 days of 500 EC from habitats and then doubled. There were three double days during this time. Thank you for giving extra double days on 27 October, 30 October and 3 November to help make up for lost EC. Again everyone benefits from this, not only the affected players.
For an endgame player, 1000 EC per day doesn’t adequately compensate for Rift breeding and donating to the donation boards. Most endgame players would probably collect a minimum of 1500 per ‘normal’ day. That would be on the conservative side.
Newer players wouldn’t be able to generate the same amount of EC, so 10,000 might be a fair compensation for them. Overall, wouldn’t it be fairer to have a different compensation for different levels of players or err on the side of generous rather than miserly?
Players want to feel that they have been fairly compensated for the time that they were unable to access their game. So many players are feeling disillusioned and bitter.
Perhaps at the beginning of the next event the affected players could be given 10,000 of the new event currency and one of the new unbreedable dragons. This would go a long way to heal the hurt and disappointment that these players are feeling.
Not event related.
The themed slot in Dragon Draw expired several weeks ago. Will there be a new theme released soon?
The dragons this event are much worse than usual. In fact, I don't really like any of them all too much.
This event, my vote only goes to one dragon - and that's Eww. It's the sole dragon good enough to deserve my blessing.
DragonVale is very much a 'to each their own' game. Just goes to show that Deca will never be able to please or reach a consensus with their players about dragon designs, so they might as well do whatever they want.
I loved all the dragons in this event, especially the limiteds. Every single one was smashing! Machina, Tickles, Fortified, and Eww were all super original designs for the Vale (even if some of them were inspired by other creatures). The DV artists really hit a high note with this event — the highest (high C)!
Friend ID: adlerist#5274
Due to a potential limit on the number of friends a player can have before issues arise in the game, I will only be able to add Forum members. Thank you, for your understanding, and please consider joining us!
The dragons this event are much worse than usual. In fact, I don't really like any of them all too much.
This event, my vote only goes to one dragon - and that's Eww. It's the sole dragon good enough to deserve my blessing.
DragonVale is very much a 'to each their own' game. Just goes to show that Deca will never be able to please or reach a consensus with their players about dragon designs, so they might as well do whatever they want.
I loved all the dragons in this event, especially the limiteds. Every single one was smashing! Machina, Tickles, Fortified, and Eww were all super original designs for the Vale (even if some of them were inspired by other creatures). The DV artists really hit a high note with this event — the highest (high C)!
It will be the same way, no matter the game. There will always be players who like additions and those who do not. This event was not my cup of tea - but more so for the high prices and difficult breeding combinations rather than the dragons themselves.
(Overall, Lovely Doubly had even worse dragons than this event. Nomnoter was the only one I actually liked that event.)
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🐉🔥 Dragon Tamer - Red Fire accomplished on August 27, 2023 🔥🐉
Post by DragonMoonX on Nov 7, 2023 10:05:10 GMT -6
My favorites this time are Tickles, Machina and the adorable Eww. If I had to pick just one, I would say Eww is the absolute best. Its so gooey and cute, I love it. 💚😊
I agree with the others who've stated that the prices this time around are way too high. Please remember that some of us have to work five days a week and aren't able to sit around tapping our screens all day for event currency.
We share our physical lives with those in spirit. For life, like love, never dies. Love knows no limits, not even death.
I have enjoyed this event. Thank you for all the new dragons and decos. The portal deco is awesome! I think some of the dragons are pretty creative (Machina, Fortified), and some are scary (Tickles). Eww is especially cute! All the eggs are beautiful.
Prices of the dragons were extremely high, and some of the breeding combos were very difficult, with long fails.
The log in bug was terrible and I feel for those players who had been locked out of the game for 10 days. I don’t what to beat a dead horse regarding the compensation, but we all know how we feel.
Hopefully, the next event will be more smooth, with lower priced dragons. I am loving the greenhouse theme and the beautiful water lilly already!
Dragons - Honestly, choosing three was tough. Deca blew me away with the art this event. Both the dragons themselves and their eggs were spot on. Eww's egg in particular, was amazing. I really like Fortified's too and Machina's was very classic. And it wasn't just the designs. The animations brought a lot of unique character too! I just love Machina's derpiness and that chewing bat animation of Fortified's was a dark, but cute addition. Bravo to the Dragon Design Team! You outdid yourselves!
Decos - Wow! I don't have a whole lot of room in my park anymore, so I try to avoid buying decos I'm not in love with, but the new dragon bones are incredible! Thank you for them and for making them individual pieces that we can play with and use our own creativity to design with! These are such wonderful additions! The portal isn't so bad either (I really like it). I love how actual dragons are being incorporated.
Habitats - I was thrilled to see an increased cap on Spooky habitats. Then to find out the Plant element was added AND the currency capacity was increased? Thanks, Deca! Very much appreciated!
Theme - Really happy to see most of the dragons and their descriptions follow the theme! This event felt very cohesive. The descriptions were really inclusive too and were really well articulated! This was a really solid event thematically.
Donation Board - Poor Eggy Hatchy. I've already discussed my thoughts on the Donation Board in the past, but here goes. Maybe I'll say something new or inspiring. It's not that the Donation Board mechanic is completely without merit, but I can honestly say, at the moment it's really only useful to players who don't need the event currency. Breeding for the Donation Board is completely counterproductive to all but the most Endgame players. Most early and mid-game players are too busy trying to breed actual event dragons to spend cave time on Donation Board requests. That leaves breeding fails and Gift menu twins as the main means by which players can complete boards. Suffice it to say, not many boards can be competed that way. That means early and mid-game players aren't getting the most out of Donation Boards. Every time a player can't finish a board, they have to wait for it to time out. That may not be such a big deal when a given board expires in 2 days... but I got a 5-day timer mid event. I had to wait 5 days for the board to time out and in the meantime, got little additional event currency via the mechanic because my fails didn't match and my Gift menu twins didn't match. Then, to add insult to injury, I got several Epic boards and boards with ghostlies. I actually managed a few of the Epics due to Rift breed fails, but the payout was barely worth it. Epics pay out well enough just by selling them. I couldn't complete a full row, nevermind the entire Epic Board. Again, I had to wait out the 2 days.
Given the high dragon prices and packed market this event, this mini game just wasn't up to the task. Donation Boards really feel like a mechanic designed to benefit Rift moguls and players with incredibly well stuffed Gift menus. I implore Deca to rethink the mechanic so it can be utilized across the playerbase more evenly. Ideas might be the ability to skip a board every few days, or have a few boards going at once. Maybe someone else has better ideas. The Donation Board mechanic is also probably THE main reason players are begging for a search function in the Gift Menu.
The Horsemen Odds - Thanks to all who were involved in changing the breeding odds for Scourge, Macabre, Charlatan, Barbarous and Eldritch. Eldritch's change to a solid 4% was absolutely an incredible quality of life improvement. THANK YOU. The Horseman odds change was... better than nothing? Deleting dragons, especially when I've worked hard to make twins in preparation for traited versions, was a super tough call. Ultimately, I couldn't bring myself to delete twins and will just have to get those dragons through Runic Caves, EOMs etc. The odds increase did help many parks though, and allowed for breeding tree progress that had stagnated.
Prices - I'm sure there's a fine line between player satisfaction with free to play content and the game developer making enough to keep the game going. But this price inflation is getting out of hand. At this point, I'm just grateful to be an endgame player. When it starts being work and stops being fun, people will move on.
Dragon Week - Bad. Timing. I know we had the Anniversary dragons for the first week, but really, Dragon Week during a Limited release? Especially a limited that has an ancestor who's breeding odds only became viable the week before? Let's face it, we all know some of the Dragon Week dragons are going to be included in limited combos this winter/spring and we really weren't given a fair shake to work at them. It's frustrating.
The Login Issue - I don't pretend to understand how Deca figured out which accounts were directly affected and which were collateral damage, but needless to say, whether direct or indirect, it sounds like none of those accounts were accessible and compensation for over a week's worth of down time was limited and stingy (while I got 50 gems for doing nothing at all). The whole thing was poorly handled. I hope going forward, Deca establishes a more comprehensive compensation structure to work through when problems arise. Thanks to our reps for working so hard to try resolving the compensation issues.
Last Day Reward Issue - I did have this issue, and Deca responded to me very kindly and helped me out quickly. I appreciate our reps for working with Deca to make issues like this as easy to resolve as possible.
I'm sorry for all the criticism. I hope Deca knows it's because I love this game. I've spent far too long today working on this overall commentary, but I do it hoping that it makes a difference. Thank you, Deca, for keeping DV going! You have a wonderful community of dedicated players and we want nothing but the best for our beloved DragonVale!
Last Edit: Nov 9, 2023 18:40:15 GMT -6 by hawk: if I didn't fix the crazy paragraph spacing, I give up. I don't understand why it does it. grr
Thank you Deca. Lots to like about into the screamhouse, in particular the inventive and eclectic range of new dragons and decorations. I thought they were very pricy though.
Thank you to all in the Forum team for all the tips, guidance, user representation to Deca and general wisdom. You make playing Dragonvale much more satisfying for us all.
First, I thought the dragons were great this event in terms of design! For the most part, all of the dragons had very clear inspiration and relation to Halloween. Also, I enjoyed the decorations and their price! It’s fun to see decorations that can be grouped together to make a larger design like the skeleton pieces.
As most have pointed out, I think the prices this event were ridiculous. I understand that the prices should be higher on new event dragons, but I don’t understand the purpose of having event dragons that are 20,000 EC. While this might not be true for everyone, I think these prices actually discourage me from buying the dragons and definitely don’t make me want to purchase EC in the market. However, I do appreciate that most of these dragons had higher cloning odds than some events in the past, which made it possible to collect them all if you have the right friends.
Lastly, I dislike the use of last year’s dragons in breeding combos. Not only are they difficult to breed for newer players due to needing multiple parent dragons, but they are also typically the most expensive returning dragons. These combos are hard enough as it is!
Overall, I enjoyed the event and the new dragons it brought. I understand that DECA needs to keep the event challenging and profitable, but some of the choices seem to discourage game play in my opinion, especially for newer players.
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