Flight Rising Discussion

I would have liked a new tab to go with this update, that states what the dragon was originally born as! It would be out of the way, nobody HAS to look at it if they don't really care or want to know whether it was natural or not.

Not sure how hard that would be to code though.

I’d have made scattersights a rare occurrence in the coliseum

Best option: The way it is now, but that's how it was originally released in the first place.

What my years-later bandaid solution might've been:

• Normal looking variants (uncommon, unusual, rare, goat, pastel etc.) released in treasure MP like they did.
• Primal and multigaze left as random.
• Odds for special eyes increased for dragons hatched from nests and unhatched eggs while a flight has dom bonus, scaling bonuses for first, second, third. (Make us fight for it) (This would probably also be highly controversial lol but it sounds like fun to me personally)

I think it's okay for some specific things to be like, expensive. But I'm not too fussed about any of this.

Before I get started, here's my pov: I'm an old-ish player? My account is slightly older than NoTN, although I didn't play for very long at first, and came back a few years later. The first eye update made me decide to take a hiatus, and although nothing about the system had changed when I returned for the Banescales' release, I decided to just deal with the system as it was. I definitely, mechanically, consider this "eye redux" to be an improvement for the way I play FR (tldr I invest in items, not dragons, so I am attached to my dragons' appearances in a way that would take several less popular updates to upend, and barely engaged with the previous eye system beyond selling a handful of Primals that I wasn't going to keep anyway) and I sympathize with the people whose playstyles were upended.

The original release of Eye Types and the redux ultimately both had the same pitfall: coming out of left field.

With the original release, staff released an entirely new mechanic, effective immediately, that they had (to paraphrase) 'been planning since the beginning', but I, at least, hadn't been aware of this, and I doubt much of the playerbase at the time had the idea of Eye Types as implemented in mind at all. The announcement, to me, seems clearly excited about the implementation, but for an anniversary-day update, it seemed... very hard to engage with, because the only way to interact with the system was by hatching eggs (which take days to incubate or significant RNG luck/gems to buy unhatched eggs), which still had 50% odds of hatching with Common eyes, or by using Scattersights.

Any amount of "here's what to expect this anniversary" would have been a massive help - especially since the update changed every dragon's eyes, some very notably, in order to standardize things on the backend (or at least that's my understanding). However, I also understand their desire to keep certain expected updates, such as Anniversary and April Fool's content, entirely secret until release.

In that case, I think the best reasonable option would be to update the Common eyes first (although they weren't called common back then, since they were the only eyes), ideally months ahead of the Anniversary itself. Staff could take in feedback from that about the change, including probably hearing specific feedback of people who felt the different color had an impact on the rest of their dragon's appearance, and then have forewarning that people were going to care about their existing dragons' interactions with the new system. Additionally, if they explained the eye update was due to new backend systems, people would probably be less surprised to see Eye Types upon release.

On the Anniversary itself, the same excitement could be shared with the userbase, and like many others, I would ideally not retire Scattersights. Scattersights would be a Coliseum-exclusive drop, probably with about the same rarity they had in actuality (but I can't remember what that was). Like Python, Morph, and other Coliseum-exclusives, prices would start high and fall over time. In a worst-case scenario, they'd be priced like Eliminates, but probably only if someone went through and purchased large amounts at one time. A Scattering journey for a pre-eye types dragon would still be a challenge, to grind enough Scattersights or grind enough currency to purchase them, but it would actually be an attainable goal for more players and more dragons because there would always be more Scattersights. However, this would probably shift the focus of the mechanic onto cosmetics and existing dragons instead of the hatchlings it was meant to highlight and the breeding system, but I think that's better than locking most existing dragons out of the Eye Type mechanic entirely the way that the original implementation did, especially when people already spend a lot of time and effort idealizing their dragons through gening projects (that couldn't change eyes to anything but Glowing until more eyes were released) or breeding projects (that, as some people calculated, could easily take over 5 years and/or tons of dedicated lair space to get Primal or MG on an Imperial with a specific appearance).

I think I would ultimately still add the specific vials as well, although I don't know when, exactly. I'd put Faceted/MG/Primal somewhere outside of the marketplace, where players would determine their value (with Scattersights as a Coliseum drop, I wouldn't put any eye types there, not even Swirl). The rest are fine in the Treasure marketplace, especially as a treasure sink.

If I could only ideally change the redux and not the original implementation, I think we needed a Developer Update first. This is the change with the biggest impact recently that hasn't gotten one, even if it's not a new feature or UI update, and considering the wait and the radio silence on the subject, I think we needed one, for most of the same reasons I said that pre-Anniversary info would have softened the first blow.

I would've liked either

a) releasing scattersights (either in MP/Gem MP/Random Drops)

or

b) releasing eye vials for all the tints/goat and keeping MG/Primal as breed/hatch only.

or even

c) doing what's been done, but adding some new breed/hatch only eye types.


And doing this when the eye update was released, not this late.

I would have made scatter sights an item in the gem mp for the same price as a scatter scroll. I know they said that they wouldn't bring them back, but I feel like that maintains the rarity of eye types.

the exact same thing except i would've done it 3 years ago

i would've only made the tints available in vials, leave the "special" eyes as RNG (faceted, primal, multi-gaze). scattersights? too bad. they are retired and still have their original function, which doesn't render them useless.

Honestly, I think this whole eye update had a very easy fix.

My unpopular opinion, there is nothing wrong with scattersights as an item. The issue is not with what they are but that they were retired. I think rng elements, though they have the potential to be painful, are a part of the game and can make aspects exciting. Scattersights have the same vibes as scatter scrolls and unhatched eggs, you roll the dice and most of the time it's a mediocre outcome but when you get something nice there's no beating it. So what staff should have done (in my opinion) supposing they released eye types as they did and saw the feedback. Is have a week long event, or even micro holiday every year and have scattersigts drop from the coli as they did in release.

Think about it, having a micro holiday timed annually with the BotE would be fun. There would be so many cool lore possibilities like 'ever since the bounty of the elements dragon all around sornieth have noticed magic coalescing at this mysterious time of year and as a result some dragons are seeing some... strange effects to their eyes.' That would be so cool and fun. Having the scattersights cycle back annually while also working the eyes into the site lore is a missed opportunity in my opinion.

And yes, it would probably drop the scattersight worth, no where near their last LAH at 900 gems. But they would still be valuable because of the rng element. That way users could grind and or save them when they come back. And users could use them more freely knowing that they're not retired and they'll always get another chance to reroll eyes either during the holiday or buying from a user who sells. This at least somewhat maintains the value of scattersights and special eye dragons, adds a cool new holiday to look forward to, adds cool lore opportunities, and keeps the rng excitement alive. IMO just slapping every eye type in the marketplace has a cheap, almost lazy feel even though I absolutely think the devs were just trying to help and I in no way blame them.

tldr there was nothing wrong with scattersights, all we had to do was cycle them back into the coli annually for a short time every year and most people would be happier.

[quote name="skinklegs" date="2021-05-09 16:19:54" ] the exact same thing except i would've done it 3 years ago [/quote]