Emandbuddy wrote to BFS to find out why x+x=x doesn't work anymore.
This is their response.
Bryan Mashinter (BACKFLIP STUDIOS)
Oct 24 12:26 (CDT)
Hi there,
We received your email expressing frustration with the recent changes to the breeding rules in DragonVale. Please allow me to explain why, as the game's developers (and personally as the Producer on the game), we felt it was an important and necessary change.
The truth is the old breeding rule that allowed 100% chance of breeding Rainbow + Rainbow = Rainbow was a bug that made it into the game. We refrained from fixing the 100% bug mostly because of the belief that it would make the community angry.
So why decide to change it now? Why risk the anger of the community? We believe it's important for the overall health and fun of the game, as well as an important step for the future. Let me explain...
When a player has unlimited access to Rainbow, Leap Year or Panlong Dragons (as an example), they essentially have access to unlimited resource generation. Not everyone does this, but a number of people then get rid of every other dragon and habitat and churn out DragonCash so that it becomes a semi-useless resource. Then they can make as much food as possible, quickly level all dragons and then the fun of collecting, raising and nurturing the dragons is diminished.
Secondarily, one of the most fun things about the game (in my opinion) is breeding. You mix a Plant and a Fire Dragon...and who knows what you'll get. Forest? Poison? Flower? The not knowing is part of the fun. When we guarantee a result we're essentially removing the fun from breeding.
Lastly, changing the automatic breeding rule was an important first step toward allowing Epic Dragon Breeding. Imagine the cool combinations of allowing a Rainbow + Sun Dragon to breed. Gold Olympus + Leap Year? We have plans for the future of DragonVale to allow for some really cool new combinations and possibilities...but the only way to make that possible is to break the 100% rule.
We understand that a number of players have become accustomed to the 100% chance breeding rules and planned around them. We would like to find a way to help those players feel better about the current changes, but in order to do what we have planned for the future, we can't guarantee that X + X = X. I encourage you to submit some feedback and engage in the discussion of how to solve this issue by writing an email to DVBreeding@backflipstudios.com
I can't promise we'll use everyone's ideas, but I can promise we'll listen to the community and try and find a solution that both benefits the future of the game as well as the amazing community of players we have built.
I'm one of the frustrate people. I just got my 2nd Gold Oly, which was the last breeding pair I needed. With that goal completed, I could now focus on my egg collection, however with the new rules, that will be extremely difficult and to expensive to buy the eggs. With that being said, I am hopeful that BFS will possibly do a X+X=X weekend.
Well, that's fairly conclusive isn't it? If there was still any doubt left in people's minds.
Has anyone ran the numbers of what the odds of getting a clone is?
I am very curious to see what the probability of netting a Solstice from Solstice + Solstice is.
If it is very low, then I should probably start breeding soon.
On the other hand, if the probability of getting a clone is indeed much higher when it is in season (seems to be the case with Zombie??), then I'd be better off waiting until the next Solstice...
I would very much appreciate if someone could test Zombie + Zombie once the Zombie expires. If it does drop down to say 5% chance of success, I think that would conclusively prove that cloning an epic (or any dragon?) is much more likely when it is in season.
With that being said, I am hopeful that BFS will possibly do a X+X=X weekend.
Nice idea, I wonder if they would do it? They'd probably net quite a few purchases out of it as people hurry to breed as many clones as they can in the limited time frame.
Given the new ruleset, I would like to see another breeding location added however.
The largest nuisance factor to me is probably the fact that breeding for profit is now, well, not very profitable. Magnetics during the day and rusts overnight was so darn convenient. Didn't have to check the park too often and didn't lose much 'potential' income overnight. Airs earn ok money, but are too cumbersome to check your park that often and don't work at all overnight. But breeding something else overnight clogs up your nursery during the day for the air dragons...
Given the new ruleset, I would like to see another breeding location added however.
The largest nuisance factor to me is probably the fact that breeding for profit is now, well, not very profitable. Magnetics during the day and rusts overnight was so darn convenient. Didn't have to check the park too often and didn't lose much 'potential' income overnight. Airs earn ok money, but are too cumbersome to check your park that often and don't work at all overnight. But breeding something else overnight clogs up your nursery during the day for the air dragons...
This. A thousand times over, especially having at least a third breeding location and perhaps a fourth.
I'm glad to see an explanation, even if it's one I don't agree with.
GCID: joliesdragons (please, no new gem/treat gifts, and repeated GC challenges will lead to unfriending)
I completely understand the change, but a month or so notice would have been nice. I have a bunch of pairs of dragons that I left as a pair to later make an egg.
If they allowed a way to create an egg from pairs of dragons you have, that would make everything OK with me. Perhaps even an email to BFS listing the pairs of dragons I have and eggs I would like to have them place in my park. This also avoids the resource issues they are worried about. I just am bummed that I can't do X+X to get the egg. Of course I would like an army of DR but I am OK without that.
There's already a bottle neck in the hatchery with the sped up breed times in the caves. Adding extra breeding caves will just make that worse.
More breeding locations + Bigger nursery.
I didn't mention it in my post, I thought it was implied. Otherwise you'd be correct - it would be ridiculous. You need at least 2 nursery spots per breeding location.
More breeding spots + bigger nursery = more purchases by players as well. I'm assuming they'd charge gems for the privilege.
I completely understand the change, but a month or so notice would have been nice. I have a bunch of pairs of dragons that I left as a pair to later make an egg.
Yup I know the feeling.
I'm fairly lucky though as I had most things covered. The annoying part is I had strategically left some of the eggs in case I got them as fails later (i.e. Double Rainbow).
If I had known the update was coming, I would have bred about 30 odd Solstice and put them in the hibernation cave for later use
Post by KCfireangel on Oct 24, 2013 20:56:53 GMT -6
Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I was kicking myself for selling off all of those past double rainbow fails when I needed quick DC, so I decided to get a start on breeding them now.
I know that it's not much data, but with DR + DR in the EBI so far I've got two DR the first two tries and I just got a 4:48 fail. Two out of three ain't bad right? For a minute I thought maybe I had stumbled upon a convenient glitch!
Even so, it suggests that the chances of breeding a clone from like + like are not as low as we might think. Either that or it was a very lucky fluke!
I also just tried breeding LE + SE in the EBC and I got one or the other, first try, won't know which until it goes in the nursery.
It just seemed like too much of a coincidence not to report. Hopefully it's not just me having a string of Koala!
LOVE that it auto corrected "gd luck" to koala!!
Last Edit: Oct 24, 2013 21:00:16 GMT -6 by KCfireangel
Still breeding for:
1st Dragon - Delirium, Monolith 5, Ortreat, Comet, Eridanian. 2nd Dragon - All of the above, Faire, Darkling, Loot, Lycan, Spectre, Trick. Pedestals - All of the above, Snowflake 5.
I completely understand the change, but a month or so notice would have been nice. I have a bunch of pairs of dragons that I left as a pair to later make an egg.
If they allowed a way to create an egg from pairs of dragons you have, that would make everything OK with me. Perhaps even an email to BFS listing the pairs of dragons I have and eggs I would like to have them place in my park. This also avoids the resource issues they are worried about. I just am bummed that I can't do X+X to get the egg. Of course I would like an army of DR but I am OK without that.
You can do X+X and get the egg. It's just not guaranteed.
Sorry. I don't buy it BFS. How does X+X=X affect LY+BMD=Xyzzgy? You have a table of combinations and their results. They are different entries in the table. No cross over
Also if player A want to earn more cash than anyone else in the history of the game, then the beauty is that he can. DV could be played many different ways. I run two parks and have been playing them quite differently. The latest changes have pretty much forced me to play them the same way. This has reduced my enjoyment of the game. Not enhanced it
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There's already a bottle neck in the hatchery with the sped up breed times in the caves. Adding extra breeding caves will just make that worse.
More breeding locations + Bigger nursery.
I didn't mention it in my post, I thought it was implied. Otherwise you'd be correct - it would be ridiculous. You need at least 2 nursery spots per breeding location.
More breeding spots + bigger nursery = more purchases by players as well. I'm assuming they'd charge gems for the privilege.
Maybe in the short term, but I think more gems are spent feeding up fails with the two options available now. 3 caves means 3 shots at hitting the jackpot without speeding up fails, or an extra 50%. Trying to compensate for changes makes the changes pointless.
I think the new breeding changes are supposed to make use of genetic principles, so that any Epic will carry forward whatever "recessive" gene that exists in its DNA, so to speak. Like the letter says, this should open up a whole range of possibilities in dragon breeding.
Personally, I've never really made use of the 100% breeding to duplicate my Epics, but I can certainly see how it's frustrating enough to get 2 same Epics, and how it can be even more irritating when you're not guaranteed that same Epic each time.
GCID: rionhow Thanks to ElektronX for my Light Rift avatar!
I didn't mention it in my post, I thought it was implied. Otherwise you'd be correct - it would be ridiculous. You need at least 2 nursery spots per breeding location.
More breeding spots + bigger nursery = more purchases by players as well. I'm assuming they'd charge gems for the privilege.
Maybe in the short term, but I think more gems are spent feeding up fails with the two options available now. 3 caves means 3 shots at hitting the jackpot without speeding up fails, or an extra 50%. Trying to compensate for changes makes the changes pointless.
I like this idea, but it will probably never happen.
Little story: Like every morning, John goes to the restaurant nearby to have breakfast. Like every day, he orders two eggs sunny side up and hash brown. Couple of minutes later, the waitress comes back with scrambled egg and half the amount of hashbrowb as usual. John : what is this, this is not what I ordered!!! Waitress: oh, we just changed the rules, if you order eggs, sometimes you get them scrambled, or an omelette or pancakes, and the new rules has also divided by two the amount of panlong hashbrown. This is a breach of contract, says John, an order being a contract. And if things are now turning this way, i also introduce a new rule and I do not pay for the food anymore.
Oh and I love the part re like + like = like was a bug. They really take us for idiots.
vivianne: And John would stop going to the restaurant and they would lose his business. If other customers didn't like the new rule, they ALSO would stop going.
If people don't like this enough they will stop playing Dragonvale and (espeically) stop tossing them money.
My thought? The situations are not enough alike. Enough people will continue to play that BFS will be just fine.
This is more like when World of Darkness changed all of their rules for the live action werewolf games (which dramatically nerfed the usefulness of healing; I played a healer-type). I didn't like it. But I bought the books because I wanted to continue to play with my friends.
Or when Magic: The Gathering decided the Moxes were too unbalancing and stopped allowing them to be used in their tournaments.
There's a long history of games changing the rules midstream and people continuing to play anyway.
Last Edit: Oct 25, 2013 8:12:20 GMT -6 by vonfirmath
Little story: Like every morning, John goes to the restaurant nearby to have breakfast. Like every day, he orders two eggs sunny side up and hash brown. Couple of minutes later, the waitress comes back with scrambled egg and half the amount of hashbrowb as usual. John : what is this, this is not what I ordered!!! Waitress: oh, we just changed the rules, if you order eggs, sometimes you get them scrambled, or an omelette or pancakes, and the new rules has also divided by two the amount of panlong hashbrown. This is a breach of contract, says John, an order being a contract. And if things are now turning this way, i also introduce a new rule and I do not pay for the food anymore.
Terrible analogy. Here's a better one.
John goes into a soup kitchen every Wednesday Night because it's Free Ministrone, tastes fantastic and there are unlimited refills. One Wednesday he discovers he can still get free Ministrone, it tastes as good as ever but he can only get one bowl full. He witches and complains about it endlessly to everyone he knows.
John won t like that story, furthermore, he is not the type to go to a soup kitchen. John has invested a lot of money in his breakfast restaurant. He wonders what next change of rule the owners may introduce making his life even less enjoyable.
I too heartily dislike this change. It has made it more a game of chance rather than being able to work out a plan of breeding actions. I already find it very tedious and frustrating. Those few sad persons who only bred Rainbows etc for money, miss the whole point of the game. My whole family have been in competition with each other since Dragonvale started but, sadly, are already finding it becoming very boring....... There must be an alternative you can come up with???
Welcome to the forum superian. It does seem the new changes have messed with everyone's strategy however with any change there is discomfort. Once you get used to it and the new things are being released perhaps the game will become fun again. I am one that has tried to keep 2 of everything just in case I wanted more. For the most part I only bred them together to get the eggs which I have not completed. I have a lot of rainbows but they were mostly fails as were my double rainbows. I just couldn't see selling them off since they were such DC earners. I am waiting to see what happens when the rift dragons get here. I think these impending dragons are way the changes were made.
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