Suggestions

Egg rot, from what I've read, was removed because there was too much downtime that it was a punishing mechanic for users. I think the Nocturne event showed us that, even with a HUGE amount of activity, the site is still able to function reasonable well for everyone (especially the non-coli aspects). It doesn't have to be as punishing to casual users as it was (rotting if an incubation period was missed), but if there was a random increasing %-age chance of rot for every missed incubation period over X, that would be a pretty cool mechanic and add a little bit to the game. [b]NOTE: YOUR EGGS WOULD NOT ROT IF YOU DON'T INCUBATE FOR A DAY OR TWO.[/B] Because based on the comments people seem to think that missing 1 incubation period = dead nest, and that's NOT what I'm suggesting. So, for example: Missed 1 or 2 incubation periods: 0% chance of rotting Missed 3 incubation periods: 2% chance of 0-1 egg rotting Missed 4 incubation periods: 4% chance of 0-1 egg rotting Missed 5 incubation periods: 8% chance of 0-1 egg rotting Missed 6 incubation periods: 16% chance of 1 egg rotting Missed 7 incubation periods: 32% chance of 1 egg rotting Missed 8 incubation periods: 64% chance of 1 egg rotting Missed 9 incubation periods: 100% chance of 1 egg rotting Missed 10 incubation periods: Counter resets. 0% chance of rotting. etc. . . [center][img]http://i.imgur.com/j4jc9B7.png[/img][/center] [b]Edit[/b]: Points (and counter-points) brought in the discussion so far: 1. [b]Allow people to "sit on" unhatched nests because they don't have the lair space for them.[/b] [list][*]It is more convenient to be able to breed dragons you don't have the space for. [*]Egg rot would encourage players not to breed dragons until they have the resources/space to care for them. [*]It might not be a [i]bad[/i] thing for the site if less dragons were bred. [*]Lair expansions are an important treasure sink for the site. Players should be encouraged to use these sinks rather than "work around" them by leaving nests unhatched for weeks/months. [*]Players with fully expanded lairs have no options if they get a "baby boom".[/list] [b]Compromise[/b]: Allow people to sit on nests indefinitely once they are finished incubating and ready to hatch. 2. [b]It punishes people for "real life" stuff coming up and preventing them from logging in.[/b] [list] [*]The site already "punishes" inactive or infrequent users by making them lose their bonuses. [*]Someone unexpectedly being unable to access the site at all for weeks at a time is really rare. Losing a handful of eggs is (for most users) less damaging then having to feed 50 starving dragons. [*]Casual players are the most likely to be affected negatively, but also are likely to lose the least (less dragons, less nests incubating at a given time, etc). [*]Small nests are punished more severely than large nests. Losing 1 egg means much more for a 2-egg nest than a 5-egg one.[/list] [b]Compromise[/b]: Negatives are mitigated by having the "rot counter" reset to 0% every time a nest is incubated. [b]Compromise[/b]: Have the counter only effect the "5th" egg in a nest, don't start the counter for the "4th" egg until the "5th" egg has rotted. Effectively, not incubating for 10 days means you lose the 5th egg, but the 1st egg (the only egg in a one-egg nest) wouldn't rot until almost 1.5-2 months have passed without the user logging in. Alternatively, have rot never affect the "last" egg in a nest - singleton nests are safe. 3. [b]A mysterious bug.[/b] [list][*] I have no idea about this one. It's bad news but what I'd been reading about it suggested that it had to do with the server lag and too many requests too close to rollover. [*]Periods of extended downtime on the site's part can hurt players, regardless of their willingness to be active.[/list] 4. [b]Lore elements[/b] [list][*] Dead babies :( [*] It causes stress to the portion of the player base that would not want their clean record of "Eggs Lost" to be tarnished. [*]Being able to "lose" (or postpone) a nest intentionally for RP or clan lore purposes is a powerful positive force. Egg rot can be used as the equivalent to "smashing a nest", with the added benefit of already being partially implemented on the site. [*]It doesn't make sense thematically to have immortal nests, or that dragons could hatch a nest and then immediately breed again (if they've been "sitting" for the entirety of their breeding cooldown). [*]Immortal eggs exist onsite already as "unhatched X egg"[/list] [b]Compromise[/b]: List eggs as "Stolen" rather than "Rotted." Unattended eggs do not [i]die[/i], but are stolen by interlopers. This makes sense thematically, as it explains why unhatched eggs can sometimes be found while scavenging on in the coliseum. It also reduces the ":(" aspect by not implying the dragons inside the eggs are dead. 5. [b]Other Stuff[/b] [list][*]A feature of the site was removed not for its inherent badness but because of an external issue. The reason it was removed (because of server lag) is no longer an issue. Therefore, it should be reintroduced. [*]Economically, it would stimulate people to use the treasure sinks because they would be encouraged to actually BUY lair expansions and sell/exalt dragons, because they no longer have the option of using the nests as a "dragon vault" or storage space. [*]If Flight Rising is meant to be a completely casual game without any difficulty or encouragement to visit daily, why does it have "dailies" in the first place? Negative encouragement (egg rot and being unable to Coli with hungry dragons) is balanced by positive encouragement (daily bonuses).[/list] [list][*]How to deal with the loss of eggs in shared or rented nests?[/list]

I'm sort of in the middle on this one. Like yes, it's a punishment system that would help make sure people stay active on the site, but there's already a benefit system in place for being active nearly every day (keeping your dragons well-fed = daily bonuses).

I also run into a problem rather frequently where I won't have enough lair space to hatch a nest. Sometimes I'll have to wait several days before being able to upgrade my lair or have more space made from dragons being sold/exalted. Even if I were active every day, there's a chance I'd still get "punished" because I was unable to hatch the nest right away.

Then there's also the idea of it that bothers me like. I don't want the babies to die. That's just...so sad. :(((

I think for me the idea of forcing people to make space of lose dragons is a good one, and discouraging people from "sitting on" unhatched nests they can't care for is a benefit.

I know it's kinda sad, and it is a "punishment" in a lot of ways, but I think it's a positive one ultimately.

It also allows people an option (albeit a little bit of a slow one) to wreck one of their own nests, either for meta reasons OR lore/RP ones. I think anything that promotes each lair's personal legacy/storytelling is really powerful and positive (even if I don't really care about that aspect personally).

lol dont put in egg rot

i dont want to have play this game everyday just so my baby dagons dont die

some of us have lives and also other video games to play than this one lmao

Taking care of your nests take like 2 minutes.

Support.

@Jacq

I can definitely see where you're coming from because then people would have to exalt dragons more quickly and stuff. idk, just personally for me it can be difficult to save up enough for a lair expansion, and selling dragons is a major way to make the treasure to afford said lair expansion. Selling dragons is dependent on other users and you can't really control how quickly they'll be bought. Of course, you can get treasure from exalting, but in the case of something with a rarer gene or breed (crystal, facet, nocturnes, etc), you'd get much more benefit from selling.

There's also the whole "what if something happens and you can't get online" scenario, and it'd totally suck if a major storm came through, blew out the power/internet for several days, then you came back to a dead nest. The days missed idea you suggested would help avert that, yes, but for longer term life issues that aren't a matter of just forgetting to get online it isn't fair.

I do like the legacy/storytelling idea, though that would be dependent on the FR staff being willing to code some sort of viewing log for dead nests/rotten eggs/etc. I guess that would end up looping around to improving profile pages or something? I guess a records tab where you get to choose what stats are displayed publicly??

@Sylveonne
I think there will always be extenuating circumstances where it's sad to lose a nest, or even part of a nest. I think if the "counter" reset every time you incubated that might be a way to counter them, though.

So, if you don't visit the site for 2 days, but incubate on the third, the counter's reset to 0% and you have another few days before you need to incubate again. That way, you could ultimately stretch a nest out for nearly two weeks before being forced to hatch or start losing dergs. That's a really long time to be unable to access the site, and one of those things where you probably have more on your plate than pixel dragons to deal with (how sad).

I've seen it suggested previously that there be a way to "smash" nests. Neither are really pretty pictures when you think about them too much, but practically I think egg rot would serve that purpose as well.

I think it's good to see these though. If there's a way to make the mechanic "work" without hurting too many people for stuff beyond there control.

As a fairly new user, I find it a bit sad that there's ain "intended" feature of the site that was removed, presumably for "meta" reasons (ie - the instability and server crashes preventing people from incubating and causing them to lose nests). Now that the issue seems resolved for the most part, I'd like to see it reimplemented in some form. :)

@Jacq

Ooooo, I really like the bit about it resetting each time you incubate. I'd be totally fine with it if that were the case.