I've been playing for a while but have only started reading these forums when the Dark & Light Dragons came out, wanting to know how magic worked. I found it quite useful, and thanks to all the posters for their time and valuable information.
Solar Eclipse island is nearly complete. Both Jets are bred. All I need is my Turquoise and then I think I'll be breeding for profit.
Looks like breeding the dark + plant elements is the easiest, and most reliable method. Light + plant is marginally better on paper, but in practice, is probably worse due to the unpredictable breed times (more likely to lose more hours overnight etc).
If you really wanted to push it, dark + plant with 1-2 breeds of air + air is actually the best option. But I don't think I can be bothered doing this for the extra 1-2 million per day. It might be viable though.
Still haven't figured out what to do with Kairos either to optimise the breeding. I'm actually way ahead of schedule so wasn't expecting to have to consider it for at least another month or so.
Sorry for the post-quoting-necromancy from a few pages back.
From the sounds of it, I've been doing something similar to you for a while, without knowing it until I started reading the forums - that is, masses of DR's/Solstices, breeding for cash, solely for the purposes of (eventually) leveling everything to 20.
I had a look around and can't find any similar discussions other than your occasional posts, pjsteel, about maximizing DC production. None of my friends do anything similar, they all play the game very differently. Is there such a place or thread?
I've been playing for a while but have only started reading these forums when the Dark & Light Dragons came out, wanting to know how magic worked. I found it quite useful, and thanks to all the posters for their time and valuable information.
Solar Eclipse island is nearly complete. Both Jets are bred. All I need is my Turquoise and then I think I'll be breeding for profit.
Looks like breeding the dark + plant elements is the easiest, and most reliable method. Light + plant is marginally better on paper, but in practice, is probably worse due to the unpredictable breed times (more likely to lose more hours overnight etc).
If you really wanted to push it, dark + plant with 1-2 breeds of air + air is actually the best option. But I don't think I can be bothered doing this for the extra 1-2 million per day. It might be viable though.
Still haven't figured out what to do with Kairos either to optimise the breeding. I'm actually way ahead of schedule so wasn't expecting to have to consider it for at least another month or so.
Sorry for the post-quoting-necromancy from a few pages back.
From the sounds of it, I've been doing something similar to you for a while, without knowing it until I started reading the forums - that is, masses of DR's/Solstices, breeding for cash, solely for the purposes of (eventually) leveling everything to 20.
I had a look around and can't find any similar discussions other than your occasional posts, pjsteel, about maximizing DC production. None of my friends do anything similar, they all play the game very differently. Is there such a place or thread?
I don't think there is such a thread - my analytical posts don't seem to attract a lot of attention here (particularly the long winded optimisation ones). I did some fairly detailed analyses back in the day, but the posts went virtually unread and are now hidden in the depths of the forum...
I'm all for a thread purely about optimisation in terms of DC, breeding etc.
I think the main point of contention from some folk here is that there is no 'optimal' way of playing the game.
But of course, all my posts are coming from an efficiency standpoint - optimising your playing style to get as much of the in game resources as possible.
On a related note, I just got my Turquoise and my SE island is complete. So now it is back to breeding for profit. Have to have a bit of a think about what I want to do now.
I've been playing for a while but have only started reading these forums when the Dark & Light Dragons came out, wanting to know how magic worked. I found it quite useful, and thanks to all the posters for their time and valuable information.
Sorry for the post-quoting-necromancy from a few pages back.
From the sounds of it, I've been doing something similar to you for a while, without knowing it until I started reading the forums - that is, masses of DR's/Solstices, breeding for cash, solely for the purposes of (eventually) leveling everything to 20.
I had a look around and can't find any similar discussions other than your occasional posts, pjsteel, about maximizing DC production. None of my friends do anything similar, they all play the game very differently. Is there such a place or thread?
I don't think there is such a thread - my analytical posts don't seem to attract a lot of attention here (particularly the long winded optimisation ones). I did some fairly detailed analyses back in the day, but the posts went virtually unread and are now hidden in the depths of the forum...
I'm all for a thread purely about optimisation in terms of DC, breeding etc.
I think the main point of contention from some folk here is that there is no 'optimal' way of playing the game.
But of course, all my posts are coming from an efficiency standpoint - optimising your playing style to get as much of the in game resources as possible.
On a related note, I just got my Turquoise and my SE island is complete. So now it is back to breeding for profit. Have to have a bit of a think about what I want to do now.
The long winded optimisation ones are the ones I found the most interesting! Don't stop posting them for my sake, at least.
I definitely agree there's no one way to play the game. I like seeing all the different things people go for. Personally, I'm a bit of a completion-ist, and doing some math quickly in my head about how long two of each dragon to 20 would take quickly led to strategies (and spreadsheets) to try cut down the mind boggling numbers to something.... better.
I'd be interested in a thread as well. I don't know if I'm the best person to create such a thing. I'd love to compare notes and see if there was anything I was missing to get more out of my park. For example, I realized far too late that I was going to run out of room in my hibernation cave. I have a few light/dark dragon I wish I didn't waste treats on leveling to 15. If they release too many more limiteds I'm going to have to part with a few and re-get them at the end.
The long winded optimisation ones are the ones I found the most interesting! Don't stop posting them for my sake, at least.
I definitely agree there's no one way to play the game. I like seeing all the different things people go for. Personally, I'm a bit of a completion-ist, and doing some math quickly in my head about how long two of each dragon to 20 would take quickly led to strategies (and spreadsheets) to try cut down the mind boggling numbers to something.... better.
I'd be interested in a thread as well. I don't know if I'm the best person to create such a thing. I'd love to compare notes and see if there was anything I was missing to get more out of my park. For example, I realized far too late that I was going to run out of room in my hibernation cave. I have a few light/dark dragon I wish I didn't waste treats on leveling to 15. If they release too many more limiteds I'm going to have to part with a few and re-get them at the end.
Haha, well if I do any more analysis of interest I will post it up. The new breeding rules does lend itself to some interesting opportunity cost analysis (and it makes it somewhat harder to 'value' gems as well).
Re the hibernation cave - I've been struggling here as well.
I'm not sure what dragons you are hoarding, but my advice would be to only keep singles of all low fail time dragons (e.g. poison, flower, cactus etc). If you ever want two later, it's easy enough to breed them. Same goes with dragons you get frequently as fails.
Also, consider completely selling off your prime dragons as you can simply buy them from the market without having to do anything.
Obviously if you have levelled them to 15, this is no longer viable (well it is, but obviously you have a sunken food cost).
For this reason, I don't level my prime dragons to anything other than 10 unless they are out earning money (light + dark).
Eventually I want one of each to level 20, but the prime dragons will probably be last on that list.
I'm not going to bother breeding any of the light / dark hybrids as I just don't have room. I'll get a few dark / plant hybrids for breeding for profit, but that's it.
Haha, well if I do any more analysis of interest I will post it up. The new breeding rules does lend itself to some interesting opportunity cost analysis (and it makes it somewhat harder to 'value' gems as well).
Re the hibernation cave - I've been struggling here as well.
I'm not sure what dragons you are hoarding, but my advice would be to only keep singles of all low fail time dragons (e.g. poison, flower, cactus etc). If you ever want two later, it's easy enough to breed them. Same goes with dragons you get frequently as fails.
Also, consider completely selling off your prime dragons as you can simply buy them from the market without having to do anything.
Obviously if you have levelled them to 15, this is no longer viable (well it is, but obviously you have a sunken food cost).
For this reason, I don't level my prime dragons to anything other than 10 unless they are out earning money (light + dark).
Eventually I want one of each to level 20, but the prime dragons will probably be last on that list.
I'm not going to bother breeding any of the light / dark hybrids as I just don't have room. I'll get a few dark / plant hybrids for breeding for profit, but that's it.
Gems are in my too hard basket at the moment, so I'm just hoarding them. One new thing I haven't done the math on yet is to figure out if it's better to level up purely with gems or to spend the gems on other resources. Given it's so expensive to level even from 18 to 19 and I could only a few times it's a bit of a moot point.
It's a long story, but I've gotten doubles of everything except for the last 25-30 light/dark dragons. Unfortunately, in the past, instead of leveling one thing at a time to 20 I've been leveling all dragons at the same time. They're all on level 17/18. This was a mistake, it turns out, because now I don't want to get rid of any of them. I wasn't really paying attention and leveled most of my light/dark dragons to at least 16 before I really started paying attention to the HC.
I am in the process of shuffling things around and building another SE/DR/Solstice island, and I think I've room for everything if I stop breeding, but if they release say 3 more limiteds I'm going to have some hard decisions to make. As it is I am going to sell my panlong island to make room for more SE/DR/Sols.
I'm hoping they increase the size of the HC or release some new habitats. But who am I kidding, if they release more habitats I'm just going to breed more solstices, so they'd better make a bigger HC.
Gems are in my too hard basket at the moment, so I'm just hoarding them. One new thing I haven't done the math on yet is to figure out if it's better to level up purely with gems or to spend the gems on other resources. Given it's so expensive to level even from 18 to 19 and I could only a few times it's a bit of a moot point.
It's a long story, but I've gotten doubles of everything except for the last 25-30 light/dark dragons. Unfortunately, in the past, instead of leveling one thing at a time to 20 I've been leveling all dragons at the same time. They're all on level 17/18. This was a mistake, it turns out, because now I don't want to get rid of any of them. I wasn't really paying attention and leveled most of my light/dark dragons to at least 16 before I really started paying attention to the HC.
I am in the process of shuffling things around and building another SE/DR/Solstice island, and I think I've room for everything if I stop breeding, but if they release say 3 more limiteds I'm going to have some hard decisions to make. As it is I am going to sell my panlong island to make room for more SE/DR/Sols.
I'm hoping they increase the size of the HC or release some new habitats. But who am I kidding, if they release more habitats I'm just going to breed more solstices, so they'd better make a bigger HC.
Gems are definitely the hardest things to value. You can take the value as the conversion rate in the market, but it is more complicated than that.
I can save you the time on the gems for food issue though - don't do it! I spent literally thousands of gems during the magic event (before I realised there was a 500 cap in magic per day). And it cost me literally hundreds of millions of dollars. You can make over 30% more cash by trading the gems in the market and then using that money to buy treats. It does save you SOME time using the gems, but it isn't that hard to grow treats. And besides, there is no real 'saving' in growing treats quicker. At all. It is not like breeding where there is an opportunity cost. I can elaborate on this if you like - but I realised a long time ago that there was no point 'stressing' if I forget to replant my treats for a few days...
Yeah, I sold most of my Panlongs. They have outlived their usefulness now.
Haha agree about the habitats! I'd just make more epics rather than actually take out anything from the HC.
Actually, that was another interesting analysis I was undertaking. Let's assume they increase the capacity of the hibernation cave.
Now, the next upgrade would cost probably a minimum of 200 gems (for say 100 extra spaces). Now consider this - each gem is worth at least 690,020 (at level 50) in the market. I say 'at least' for a number of reasons that I won't get into here - but at the very simplest level, if the level cap is increased, the gems will be worth more in the future.
Think about this - it costs 2 gems to hibernate ONE dragon. That is nearly $1.5 million for the option. The 200 gems would cost (at an absolute minimum) $138 million - the amount that you could directly convert that to in the market.
Now what you really need to consider is whether buying the upgrade and hibernating the dragons is EVER going to net you more than the $138 million that you could have spent the gems on
If they do introduce an upgrade to the HC, it will definitely not be an 'automatic' upgrade for me. I will have to thoroughly consider it. Granted it gives you some increased flexibility, but I will definitely be selling off any non-essential dragons before I even consider buying the HC upgrade.
And besides, there is no real 'saving' in growing treats quicker. At all. It is not like breeding where there is an opportunity cost. I can elaborate on this if you like - but I realised a long time ago that there was no point 'stressing' if I forget to replant my treats for a few days...
Thanks, that's what my intuition was telling me too! I would never spend gems on speeding up treats, but I imagine you could earn some money speeding up dragons. Probably not on par with the market, especially when you consider the egg bottlenecks you'd generate. You might have already done this research.
I do think there's a point to making sure you replant treats every day, however. It's not possible to plant beanstalk type treats all day every day, but it IS possible to plant Pumpermelons. You can get 3 cycles in a day with a little effort, and over a month you could get 792,000 treats, which would have cost you almost ~$40M in beanstalks, but only costs $15M for melons... you're saving $25M a month. Not much but it adds up - for me it's something like a 1% improvement in DC income.
Now, the next upgrade would cost probably a minimum of 200 gems (for say 100 extra spaces). Now consider this - each gem is worth at least 690,020 (at level 50) in the market. I say 'at least' for a number of reasons that I won't get into here - but at the very simplest level, if the level cap is increased, the gems will be worth more in the future.
Think about this - it costs 2 gems to hibernate ONE dragon. That is nearly $1.5 million for the option. The 200 gems would cost (at an absolute minimum) $138 million - the amount that you could directly convert that to in the market.
Now what you really need to consider is whether buying the upgrade and hibernating the dragons is EVER going to net you more than the $138 million that you could have spent the gems on
If they do introduce an upgrade to the HC, it will definitely not be an 'automatic' upgrade for me. I will have to thoroughly consider it. Granted it gives you some increased flexibility, but I will definitely be selling off any non-essential dragons before I even consider buying the HC upgrade.
Very interesting, I hadn't considered it like that, thanks! Your situation is slightly different from mine, because the dragons I have in the HC are level 17 & 18. If I spend 200 gems to upgrade the HC it would mean I didn't have to sell two level 17 dragons which alone are worth $130M in treats. If 200 gems is $138M then in my case it almost is an automatic purchase.
I just realised that I also have a few Sun & Moon type dragons in the cave. I could get rid of those to free up some space without having lost too much other than frustration getting them again. In fact, I could probably get rid of most of my non-limited epics (olympus & treasure dragons)... It would suck, but it would save time.
Very interesting, I hadn't considered it like that, thanks! Your situation is slightly different from mine, because the dragons I have in the HC are level 17 & 18. If I spend 200 gems to upgrade the HC it would mean I didn't have to sell two level 17 dragons which alone are worth $130M in treats. If 200 gems is $138M then in my case it almost is an automatic purchase.
I think you're looking at this the wrong way round. They are not WORTH $130M. They COST 130M. Quite a different thing.
They are worth what they earn, which in the HC is zero. Plus of course, what they return you when you sell them, which is the same as an unhatched egg. And no egg is worth more than 3M.
Your way of thinking only makes sense if you think you may need to get them again, and feed them to L17-18. This will only be the case if BFS up the level of the shrines AND make it necessary to feed dragons to achieve the higher level again. Highly unlikely given the difficulty in feeding even one dragon to L20. I cannot imagine doing 50 of each element. Even doing it "optimally" that's well over 100 dragons. I think the last count was 125 but could be wrong.
The only other case where you "need" extra dragons is to breed them to get the new you beaut dragon xxx. So keep two of each, and sell the rest. Perhaps keep a third for the dragons you need for the racetrack/Colosseum. And don't even bother with that many for the easily obtained dragons.
Last Edit: Dec 9, 2013 6:12:45 GMT -6 by GregDarcy
Main GCID: GregDarcy Secondary: GregDarcyToo All gems friends spoken for. Happy to accept friends for party hats. I blame Apple's auto incorrect for all my typos. I actively discourage challenges. All challengers are unfriended.
I optimize DC production by putting my dragons in the habitat that has a higher limit (except for Smoke, Blazing, Mountain, and Glacier). I have no boosts. And I have a few epics (Rainbow, Summer, Zombie, 2 Suns, Cyclops) that give me the DC. For example I have only 1 Large Lightning Habitat with a Cactus(11), Ash(11), and Lightning(11). My only large plant habitat has only a lv 11 Plant dragon. I don't use boosts because I randomly put habbies on the sides and corners on my islands. (I will have another epic added soon because I got an Ouroboros this morning.) The reason I didn't put the mentioned non-epics in the highest holding habs, is because I think they look right in them. Forgot to mention, Kairos helps a TON in earning cuz he speeds up time!
Post by Administrator on Dec 9, 2013 14:57:00 GMT -6
Optimized for what? There are a lot of ways to play this game and the definition can differ widely depending on what the players goals are in the game.
I have given up *a lot* of raw production of gold coins and treats over the past 2+ years playing this game because I had many other goals. There have been times I have wanted to display an adult and baby of every dragon. I did that at the expense of keeping many high producing dragons in the HC. So I gave up ultimate production in order to achieve my goal. However, I did attempt to optimize production under the scenario that accomplished my goals.
An all out pursuit of gold coins is a way of playing that I wouldn't enjoy, but I am fascinated with it. As I understand it, the ultimate objective is to crown every dragon. I haven't done the math, but my sense is that with the continuous introduction of new dragons that the carrot will always be just out of reach. All crowns is a goal that should infinitely engage however.
DV can get a little routine and boring after playing for a long time. If you're not crowning dragons the resources quickly pile up to levels that make every other new acquisition or endeavor simple and easy.
What are you optimizing (optimising) for?
Poppy
This account was previously Poppy’s account. All posts are by Poppy.
If you’d like to contact adlerist, please use adlerist. Thank you!
As this thread was created in response to a request to find an easy way to get to pj's posts, I think it is squarely aimed at cash production. It think it should be titled "optimizing your park for DC" or similar rather than its current ambiguous title. As you say poppy, there are many ways to play the game and optimisation will depend on your current goal
Personally I think optimizing for cash is quite simple: breed 174 solstices and have 58 large sun habitats to keep them in. Come back once a day to collect all that cash. Sell off all other habitats and decorations or place them into storage. Likewise with all other dragons. If you are really desperate for gems as well, keep one other habitat out so you can have the appropriate L20 dragon out for the day. Rotate that habitat and dragon as needed. When you max out the DC counter, bring out your other dragons, and feed them up. Sounds boring to me, but if it rocks your boat...
Main GCID: GregDarcy Secondary: GregDarcyToo All gems friends spoken for. Happy to accept friends for party hats. I blame Apple's auto incorrect for all my typos. I actively discourage challenges. All challengers are unfriended.
I optimize DC production by putting my dragons in the habitat that has a higher limit (except for Smoke, Blazing, Mountain, and Glacier). I have no boosts. And I have a few epics (Rainbow, Summer, Zombie, 2 Suns, Cyclops) that give me the DC. For example I have only 1 Large Lightning Habitat with a Cactus(11), Ash(11), and Lightning(11). My only large plant habitat has only a lv 11 Plant dragon. I don't use boosts because I randomly put habbies on the sides and corners on my islands. (I will have another epic added soon because I got an Ouroboros this morning.) The reason I didn't put the mentioned non-epics in the highest holding habs, is because I think they look right in them. Forgot to mention, Kairos helps a TON in earning cuz he speeds up time!
One more thing, I started in about July this year and couldn't get Panlong or Solstice, but I might get them if there is a BeB, but I will not breed them with anything.
I think you're looking at this the wrong way round. They are not WORTH $130M. They COST 130M. Quite a different thing.
They are worth what they earn, which in the HC is zero. Plus of course, what they return you when you sell them, which is the same as an unhatched egg. And no egg is worth more than 3M.
Your way of thinking only makes sense if you think you may need to get them again, and feed them to L17-18. This will only be the case if BFS up the level of the shrines AND make it necessary to feed dragons to achieve the higher level again. Highly unlikely given the difficulty in feeding even one dragon to L20. I cannot imagine doing 50 of each element. Even doing it "optimally" that's well over 100 dragons. I think the last count was 125 but could be wrong.
The only other case where you "need" extra dragons is to breed them to get the new you beaut dragon xxx. So keep two of each, and sell the rest. Perhaps keep a third for the dragons you need for the racetrack/Colosseum. And don't even bother with that many for the easily obtained dragons.
You've hit the nail on the head. My eventual goal is to get every dragon to level 20. Selling a dragon that's already leveled somewhat is essentially doubling up on that cash I need for that dragon, so dragons in the HC are worth something to me. I've been at the point for a long while now where I've gotten all the dragons available, and there's nothing else for me to do except wait for new things. It keeps me playing.
If you get treats through buying beanstalks, it's roughly $130B at current dragon numbers for a level 20 dragon and baby (or 2.6B treats). This is where my form of optimisation comes from - how to reach that number in the shortest period of time. It's a crazy goal when you start doing the math, but I enjoy it.
Sure, I could breed 174 solstices and off I go. However because I've gotten quite an investment in treats already tied up in my HC - plus the limiteds like paper or the gemstones that are in there which I could never get rid of - it gets a little more interesting making the most out of the room I have left.
There's lots of other types of optimisation, this is definitely an extreme form. I love hearing about how people are changing their parks to suit their goals.
Personally I think optimizing for cash is quite simple: breed 174 solstices and have 58 large sun habitats to keep them in. Come back once a day to collect all that cash. Sell off all other habitats and decorations or place them into storage.
Ah, but it isn't that simple. Firstly, you will run out of space in your HC. You need to display at least SOME dragons otherwise you run out of capacity to hold 2 of every other dragon (of course, if you don't want 2 of every dragon, than this is a moot point).
Plus, you need habitats out for breeding purposes - even if you are only breeding for profit, you will need a habitat for those dragons. When limiteds come out, you will need the habitats for the required dragons.
Then you need the dragons out for the colosseum.
I have found for me, the balance is to have 1 of each basic habitat except metal and lightning. This gives me the most flexibility while sacrificing very little income. I still have about 4 giant earth habitats as they earn me almost the same amount as the large sun / moon habitats anyway, but they allow me to keep 5 dragons out instead of 3 (reducing the pressure on my HC).
And a lot of people ignore the setup costs in such a scenario. For Solstice it isn't too bad, but for all the people who bred Panlong armies late in the game (and levelled them up to 15, or even higher(!)), they will almost certainly never make back their initial investment.
Here is my current park - I don't think I am going to be optimising it any further (the pressures on my HC really won't allow me to hide anything else).
43 Sun/Moon habitats 5 Rainbow habitats (1 of which contains DRs) 4 Giant Earth 1 Treasure 1 of every other Giant habitat (except metal and lightning)
There is really very little extra that I could be earning here. I could get rid of the Treasure and Rainbow habitats and replace them with large Sun/Moons - but this would only net me an extra $1m per day. The setup costs would take a long time to pay off and I simply don't have the capacity for the extra dragons anyway.
On top of that, I don't have space for the extra habitats either (I haven't upgraded my storage tower). Seeing as upgrading the storage tower actually costs a LOT, this is another 'setup' cost (I am unlikely to ever actually upgrade this).
As mentioned earlier, I am not going to replace any of the giant habitats as they are simply too useful for breeding flexibility. And again, I am limited by the HC capacity anyway. Being able to put 5 dragons out in one habitat is very, very useful for me. Really though, the plant habitat is the only habitat that has a really abysmal earning rate per day - but I'll be using it almost entirely for breeding anyway.
And for all of that, my total park earnings per day is only ~$5m short of the absolute max that could be earned by having 58 huge sun / earth habitats. This max doesn't include the fact that you can't breed for profit (or at all) in this situation. So really, 57 habitats is the max (and one plant habitat to breed dark + plant hybrids). In which case, I am only about $4m off the max profit per day. For this $4m per day, I have complete breeding flexibility, colosseum flexibility and more space in my HC.
So my park is pretty much as optimal as it is going to get now.
If you include converting the gems I receive daily into cash, my park is now earning over $100m per day
Which means one crown every 5 days - which is probably still not enough to ever actually crown all the dragons...
As this thread was created in response to a request to find an easy way to get to pj's posts, I think it is squarely aimed at cash production. It think it should be titled "optimizing your park for DC" or similar rather than its current ambiguous title. As you say poppy, there are many ways to play the game and optimisation will depend on your current goal
Personally I think optimizing for cash is quite simple: breed 174 solstices and have 58 large sun habitats to keep them in. Come back once a day to collect all that cash. Sell off all other habitats and decorations or place them into storage. Likewise with all other dragons. If you are really desperate for gems as well, keep one other habitat out so you can have the appropriate L20 dragon out for the day. Rotate that habitat and dragon as needed. When you max out the DC counter, bring out your other dragons, and feed them up. Sounds boring to me, but if it rocks your boat...
Actually, the thread was created with an ambiguous title on purpose, because there are so many ways to optimize a park. It is up to the posters to determine how they want to address the issue.
I'm in a very similar situation to you, pjsteel. I have one of each habitat so I can breed, do the colosseum and level up whatever I like, and the rest is cash generating.
My current park: 14 Rainbow habitats, 11 of are full of DR's (which I got just before they changed the breeding rules thank goodness) 20 Sun/Moon habitats currently, working to 28 9 Giant Earths full of panlongs 8 Giant habitats (one for each element) 2 Giant Light (which I want to get rid of) 1 Giant Dark (which I want to get rid of) 1 Treasure 1 Seasonal 1 Apocalypse 1 Olympus The 2 giant Light/Dark Reward Habitats
I'm in the process of getting rid of Panlongs for more Sun/Moons. I've been keeping the epic habitats for somewhere to level up/display the new ones that come out, but I might get rid of them. Upgrading those epics to Sun/Moon would earn me $2M a day more.
As I mentioned before, I have the same HC capacity problems. I've 178 dragons in the HC at the moment and putting the epics and light/dark dragons I have out into the HC would get me pretty close to the limit. Once I finish selling off my panlongs I'll be close to my earnings limit without solving the HC prolbem
I haven't done the exact math yet, I think I'm close to $80M a day, not counting gems (too hard basket). $130B/$80M = ouch. It's not as bad as that because I've already done a chunk of the $130B, but every little bit helps. Once I get the Sun/Moons up and going I think I'll be closer to the 90M a day mark without gems.
The only other optimisation would be to upgrade everything to DR, but it'd have to be a VERY long term proposition to make money out of it. Each rainbow habitat earns $110k more than the moon habitats. So converting my 20 something moons would make $2M more a day. It actually takes less time for two DR's to pay back a rainbow habitat vs 3 solstices paying off a large moon (27 days vs 33). But the loss of income from not being able to breed for profit for four days (two DR's at two days each) is something like $20M on top of that. If you factor in the money you'd recoup by selling the solstices and the moon habitats you're looking at a little over 6 months to recoup your investment per DR habitat.
The catch is this is also assuming you always get DR's when you breed with the new rules...
Edit: I feel like I've done my math wrong on the DR setup ROI. I'll have to do one on paper instead of in my head one of these days.
Last Edit: Dec 9, 2013 22:37:18 GMT -6 by Kelthorn
I've always thought the real game was the cat-and-mouse between BFS and us active players. How many times have they disrupted DC strategies with new dragons, new habitats, or new earning rates? I feel like having two of most dragons when I can get them, buying/earning upgrades, maybe crowning as many dragons as I can afford to--these are diverse capabilities that position me to take advantage of the next change. Good supplies of money, gems, and food are good as well, but BFS controls the scarcity of all that. Historically, when they close one door, they open another. When they mooted the shrines, they paid out big gems. When they nerfed panlongs, they added habitats and new stuff. The breeding rule change is an outlier, and another thread altogether.
What happens if Solstices are 20% behind the optimal strategy three weeks from now? If boosts work differently? If earnings depend on combinations of dragons? If the rift opens again and we chase after some new legendary dragon that does X? It seems like a multi-factor earning strategy is more robust, limiting the carnage when BFS changes the rules again. Unless they put DV on a predictable glide slope, I think optimization is more like crafting an investment portfolio. Except that the value of specific investments (rainbow, solstice, panlong, mud, etc.) is decided by an entity (Oz, say) with interest in optimizing RC profit from sale of gems. The only random variable in the equation is how human players will respond in aggregate to some combination of interesting, maddening, manipulative and addicting inputs. The breeding change pushes us away from monocultures, and I suspect they'll keep up the pressure to diversify.
This has been an intriguing game. I've had to reset expectations a few times, and am more comfortable being a little less driven, maybe more poised to adapt. I guess that's optimal for me at the moment.
Realistically, the only way anyone will ever get one of every dragon to level 20 is if they allow epics to be raised higher than level 10. This will be a huge setup cost in terms of the additional food required, but it could increase earnings dramatically.
Huge epic habitats would be useful as well (although this would take ages to breed the extra dragons required).
I've contemplated breeding more Solstices now in case of such an event. But as Brickler mentions above, you can't really plan ahead in this game. For that very reason, I'd never invest in DRs - by the time they pay off, the game may very well have changed.
In addition, I don't have any storage space to breed any more epics in case they increase the size of the habitats (or increase the habitat limit). I'm keeping a few excess sun / moon dragons in storage, but that's about it.
Edit: I feel like I've done my math wrong on the DR setup ROI. I'll have to do one on paper instead of in my head one of these days.
I've done plenty of analysis on this. From memory, DR setup did pay off pretty quickly, as did Solstices. But the real catch is in the additional setup cost (lost breeding earnings and extra habitat cost). The additional cost of setting up a DR habitat in place of a Solstice habitat took something like 12 months to pay off. And considering how much the game could change in that time, it was just never worth it.
With the new breeding rules in place, this is a terrible strategy as DR + DR could give you any dragon in the game. You could be looking at a week or more just to breed one DR! Solstice and SE are still viable due to the glitches in the breeding results at the moment. Even if you get really unlucky and get a string of fails in a row, the 2 hour fail time means you really aren't that far behind. But if you got a long string of fails when going for the DR, you could be out of action for a while.
I have contemplated breeding more Solstices of SE now as I suspect they will fix the rule in the future. But I can't afford the space and besides, who knows what will be viable in the future.
So for now, I am simply breeding for profit and waiting for the next limited dragon to come out.
GCID: -pjsteel-
Redeem my friend code for good karma!
35012351
'... overwhelming goodwill, and witty humour, profound grace and compassion blended with the spice of relentless taunts.'
Note: This is an independent forum and is not affiliated with Deca Games, the developer of DragonVale.
It was created by and is managed by DragonVale fanatics.
All who observe the following brief guidelines are welcome to this great community: no personal attacks & no spam.
Solar Eclipse island is nearly complete. Both Jets are bred. All I need is my Turquoise and then I think I'll be breeding for profit.
