Flight Rising Discussion

I saw that post, and unfortunately, my trust in staff isn't... that great right now. To me the rainbow underbelly is a "clear inconsistency:" the opacity's too high. I'm worried about something like this: [img]https://i.imgur.com/gDIa2yF.png[/img] It's a tiny change that would preserve the consistency within the breed, and given that fixing overbolded lineart can also mean redoing some coloring, I wouldn't put it past them not to take the opportunity. Some people would argue that it'd look better, but it's not what I bought her to look like

[quote name="SkralDrog" date="2021-12-30 17:02:46" ] I saw that post, and unfortunately, my trust in staff isn't... that great right now. To me the rainbow underbelly is a "clear inconsistency:" the opacity's too high. I'm worried about something like this: [img]https://i.imgur.com/gDIa2yF.png[/img] It's a tiny change that would preserve the consistency within the breed, and given that fixing overbolded lineart can also mean redoing some coloring, I wouldn't put it past them not to take the opportunity. Some people would argue that it'd look better, but it's not what I bought her to look like [/quote] I hope I'm not being pedantic but I really doubt this will happen. Not only have Staff clearly read the frustration outlined in this thread considering there are four staff posts here, the masterpost clearly states that Iri/Shim inconsistences between breeds "is not considered an error." They also mentioned that they "consider errors to be black linework and overblown highlights." Overblown highlights are a simple layer mode fix, and linework should be able to be corrected easily [at least speaking from my experience with updating old digital art]. Completely recoloring the genes be much more work, and considering the response from the userbase with Flair [a much newer gene than Iri/Shim], it would be for very little reward. IMO, Undel and Aequorin have also expressed a want in this thread to prevent this confusion from happening again. So if for some reasons they change their minds on Iri/Shim, I expect we will get a poll or some other way to influence the decision.

[quote name="condonzack" date="2021-12-30 18:02:15" ] No matter how much the devs interact with their players, the dev experience is a very different one from that of a player. I can easily see how from a dev perspective the difference between the ob flair and that of other breeds was an obvious error that needed to be corrected, without realizing just how many people had come to love it. [/quote] As an artist myself, I understand the desire for one's work to be perfect. If I were the artist, and I felt the current Obelisk Flair was a mistake, I know I'd certainly want it "fixed." But at the same time, part of what makes this game so great [in my experience] is that it really feels like we users have an impact on the site [Staff interacting in the forums, Custom accents, Familiar and caption contests, etc], so it's also incredibly important to make the playerbase feel heard. Sometimes, you have to let a "mistake" you made go. Such is creating art for an audience.

[quote name="SkralDrog" date="2021-12-30 17:02:46" ] I saw that post, and unfortunately, my trust in staff isn't... that great right now. To me the rainbow underbelly is a "clear inconsistency:" the opacity's too high. I'm worried about something like this: [img]https://i.imgur.com/gDIa2yF.png[/img] It's a tiny change that would preserve the consistency within the breed, and given that fixing overbolded lineart can also mean redoing some coloring, I wouldn't put it past them not to take the opportunity. Some people would argue that it'd look better, but it's not what I bought her to look like [/quote] I genuinely feel at this point that you've talked yourself into getting upset at a hypothetical based on legitimately no evidence. I understand that this whole Flair incident has got some hackles raised, but staff has made it as clear as they can that this was a misstep, and that they will not continue to make drastic changes to the appearence of genes without consulting the player base. They very clearly and explicitly have shown us that they're willing to listen and adjust based on what the community wants. They haven't changed iri/shim the way you're worried about. They haven't said they'll be changing it that way. They have made it clear the ways they do intend to change iri/shim, and the ways they don't. You're genuinely just arguing "Yes I know that's what they said, but technically it could be read this way." But it isn't being read that way? We know what they meant, and it wasn't what your examples are showing. The only ways they plan to change iri/shim are the blown out highlights and the dark lineart. They said explicitly that color variation among the gene is not going to be changed. What more could they possibly offer to not have you worried about this, if they've already said they won't change it the way you're suggesting? Genuinely, what do you want them to do? How do you want them to respond? They've done all that they possibly can short of saying "We will never change anything in the game ever again."

Not trying to start arguments or rants, or to go on rants myself.

But, my main issue here is that twice now staff have made an art-based decision, were met with backlash and people saying they should have consulted the community first with staff agreeing the communication was poor, then made an art based decision without consulting the userbase first again anyway.

First with the steampunk set, then with butterfly, now with obelisks. Possibly even further back if you want to count the roundhorns or Jupiter/Saturn(which was just an incorrect version being released, but as far as I know there wasn't any user input on which version should be released, or any poll for the people who preferred the original to have a chance at reinstating it. Could be wrong tho) You could argue that that was years ago, and it was! When there were less people and the community was arguably tighter!

I'm also not just talking about irishim, it was a bad example. I'm sure staff are doing their best to keep the colors the way they are now. It all just... Ties back into the issue of staff correcting errors most players would probably say they don't want to be "fixed," but aren't given a say until after the change, if at all. Most of these errors being things players didn't or couldn't expect them to change. "They said they wouldn't change that!" Is the point.

For me, staff would have to say "no more art changes that affect player's dragons without player input" and mean it. Have actual discussion areas for genes with non-serious errors like f guardian petals and m tundra scales to be determined by the community who will be using them as "too inconsistent" or not. Put them up to polls if possible. (That doesn't include stray pixels or broken genes.)

Before anymore major changes to genes or apparel, put them up to discussion first. I don't think people will mind if it delays whatever's release or takes staff a while to comb through.

If one can understand why people are upset about their pixel dragons changing color, one can understand why people are upset with the people responsible for changing the pixel dragon's color doing it without asking for input first, multiple times, with nothing to go off of but their word about whether they'll do it again.

I'm hoping that this will be the backlash that finally convinces them not to.

[quote name="lonelyspaceegg" date="2021-12-30 18:06:02" ] [quote name="condonzack" date="2021-12-30 18:02:15" ] No matter how much the devs interact with their players, the dev experience is a very different one from that of a player. I can easily see how from a dev perspective the difference between the ob flair and that of other breeds was an obvious error that needed to be corrected, without realizing just how many people had come to love it. [/quote] As an artist myself, I understand the desire for one's work to be perfect. If I were the artist, and I felt the current Obelisk Flair was a mistake, I know I'd certainly want it "fixed." But at the same time, part of what makes this game so great [in my experience] is that it really feels like we users have an impact on the site [Staff interacting in the forums, Custom accents, Familiar and caption contests, etc], so it's also incredibly important to make the playerbase feel heard. Sometimes, you have to let a "mistake" you made go. Such is creating art for an audience. [/quote] after having read through some stuff, yeah this is kind of my general opinion on all this I'm glad they made the original poll, plus the 2.0 with another requested option!