Quests & Challenges

[center] [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=52580209] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/525803/52580209_350.png[/img] [/url] [b][i]Project Complete![/i][/b][/center] Check that baby out, what a nice Arcane primal! This lucky baby came out of the Purple/Purple/Orchid, Lavender, or Mist project, and, well, though he doesn't [i]really[/i] look like the goal, I figured, hey, why not ask if the person who wanted the goal will take him? After all, getting a primal like this again... is pretty slim odds. Well, it never hurts to ask, and they said yes! So, that was a surprise ending to this project, and a very good reminder that even if the odds are slim of getting the goal baby, getting the right eye colour can really pay off for those fluke babies. In other news, I did manage to get all 16 pairs for the Red/Red/Metals project, and since that project has been sorted out (for now) and this project is complete, I am looking to pick up maybe another project or two in my near future.

Of course, with freed up lair space, I am always quick to take the next project! [quote][columns] [img]http://www1.flightrising.com/dgen/preview/dragon?age=1&body=20&bodygene=23&breed=11&element=8&eyetype=0&gender=0&tert=172&tertgene=20&winggene=25&wings=111&auth=fa18b444b88ec3991f84a91b79b2de86d36fe4bd&dummyext=prev.png[/img][nextcol] [b]DWF wish:[/b] Navy Python/Eggplant Constellation/Sunset Ghost Light Male Nocturne Start date: June 19, 2019 [i]Status: 8 pairs neatly acquired![/i] [/columns][/quote] I did head off to the new Dragon Search, but a quick glance showed I was highly unlikely to find any good dragons to request a breeding from - I never request breedings from dragons that are unlikely to produce the goal. For me personally, it's quite a favour to ask of someone to breed their dragons, and I feel it is rude if those hatchlings aren't even going to be [i]extremely[/i] useful - I don't want to ask for re-breedings. Anything farther than 1 colour off the goal, I'll just buy my own dragons instead, which is what I did for this project. Not particularly surprising that there wasn't anything close in existence, as he's quite unusual. At a first glance, I figured I'd have to get a Python scroll, which is quite easy, for the goal, and I didn't pay too close attention to the primary gene. I was hoping to find at least one dragon with Ghost, which initially did not happen. The initial four pairs were fairly simple to put together, though I wanted an eight pair start, as those four pairs aren't particularly close and would make lousy great-grandparents. The AH a little drained of dragons in the approximate colour ranges, I waited a few days for new dragons to pop up again, and today finished buying the other four pairs. Having put them together and taken a look at what I have, the project has a few... challenges, shall we say. First, just like with the Dust/Plum/White project, Constellation is a rarity - 3 dragons in 2 pairs have it. One of those pairs is guaranteed Constellation as a result, which is nice, however, to make sure I've got Constellation on both of the final dragons many months down the line, I cannot pair their kids together. Next, two dragons are pretty closely related. I usually don't mind if they're barely related, but two of my pairs cannot have their kids bred to each other, so I must make sure I keep them separate as well. Lastly, Ghost. Initially, I had resigned to having to buy it, but in purchasing the last 4 pairs, I found some (far-off on the colours) dragons with Ghost, and now have a small problem: Ghost and Smoke are on the same tier of rarity, and I'd like to therefore eliminate Smoke as soon as possible, meaning I should pair kids with Ghost to kids with Smoke. The end result has been that the pairings for the next generation are almost entirely already decided, by virtue of who I must pair with whom, and what pairings I must avoid. It's a pretty tight fit, but the 8 pairs do actually all work together - the hard part will be getting kids from each set that will actually work with each other in terms of getting the colour ranges right. I predict there will be much re-breeding, which is [i]obnoxious[/i] when the cooldowns are 30-35 days. Crossing my fingers for some lucky babies. Oh, and in the end, I bizarrely wound up with 3 dragons with Python. I am not sweating over getting it to pass on, though, as there are no other genes in the project of equal or lower rarity. Figures that the one thing I guessed would be the problem, wound up being the least of my concerns.

And, just as lair space is getting ever so slightly more cramped, I received a reply from another wisher. When I took the Red/Red/Metals project, I was going down the list of unassigned wishes, sending messages and assigning the projects to myself, until I got to an active wisher, and wouldn't begin the inactive wishes unless they actually replied. Well, one did, and the goal is... intimidating, to say the least: [quote] [columns] [img]http://www1.flightrising.com/dgen/preview/dragon?age=1&body=111&bodygene=13&breed=12&element=10&eyetype=0&gender=1&tert=139&tertgene=21&winggene=0&wings=133&auth=aaef1a376876c077e6474841e0bc9c3bf4b45663&dummyext=prev.png[/img][nextcol] [b]DWF wish:[/b] Eggplant Petals/Carrot Basic/Flaxen Filigree Coatl Start date: June 21, 2019 [i]Status: I'm probably going to cry.[/i] [/columns] [/quote] Perhaps the only saving grace of this is I don't have to worry about the secondary gene. Other than that, this project has all the markers of a difficult project: Coatl, gem genes required, XYZ colours. I actually waited a couple days before searching for dragons, as there was a small mix-up, another breeder with the DWF had begun this project, and somehow I didn't know. It worked out, however, because they were getting very cramped for lairspace, so I officially took it over for them, and was waiting for the last of the dragons they had for the project, to see what I've got to start with. This morning, I finally sat down and had a good, hard look at what I've got, and managed to make 5 fairly lousy starter pairs - for their quality, I think I may need a 16-pair start, and I will need to collect those pairs probably over the next month, as the AH has a very limited selection available. 5/16 isn't a terrible start, but I've got a long way to go. ----- In some good news, I actually managed to make really good progress on a couple projects: The White/Sanguine/Swamp now officially has 2 pairs, and it is really a matter of time and a little luck before I'll [i]finally[/i] have that darn hatchling. I also eliminated most of the White/Blue/Sky project when I got Canna and Demise's nest back. 2 extremely close brothers will pair with the best female offspring that the third unrelated pair produces, for a total of 3 final pairings. Hopefully, if all goes well, I'll also be finished this project soon, too! The Sunset/Plum/Banana project also had a few dragons eliminated - I'm still struggling to get useful offspring from the last two generation 2 pairs to make the fourth generation 3 pair - but the other half of the tree I've created in this project has progressed rapidly, and I managed to eliminate 2 of the generation 3 pairs to create a generation 4 pair. I realize this probably makes utterly no sense to anyone except me. I am officially on the second generation of the White/Orchid/Amethyst project, and my lair space sighed a great sigh of relief to be rid of so many dragons. ----- Finally, the Red/Red/Metals project is starting to come off breeding cooldowns! I actually got the first two nests back, and discovered they each had 1 useful baby, and those two babies happen to pair together perfectly, meaning I now have a pair for the second generation of the project already, and I got to eliminate the parents. Normally, I prefer to wait until I have useful babies back from every pair and figure out the best way to pair them all up, but when there's 16 pairs, that's 32 parents plus a potentially very large number of offspring to be holding onto all at once, so for these very large projects, pairing up the kids and getting rid of their parents/siblings as soon as I see two that can pair to each other, is the way to go. The drawback of making next-generation pairs on the spot, rather than waiting, is that you might end up with a few laggard pairs that just aren't producing offspring that work with each other - such as in the case of the Sunset/Plum/Ivory-Banana project, which was another 16-pair start. The benefit of holding onto all the offspring until the last pair has produced some, is that you can carefully figure out who you need to pair up, to produce all the next generation pairs. For example, pair A's boy pairs really well with pair B's girl, but you notice that pair C only has 1 useful kid, and of all the 8 pairs you've got, that kid can only pair well with pair A's girl, so you shouldn't pair up A and B's kids when you need to pair up A and C's kids, in order to make sure you have unrelated dragons later on down the line. You can't do that when you're making pairs on the spot, which is why I have pairs in the Sunset/Plum/Ivory-Banana project of multiple different generations - in the tree, I still have two generation 2 pairs, while having already eliminated the other 6 - the last two pairs of that generation just aren't producing kids who will work together. It's strange that, once upon a time, 16-pair starts were absurdly overkill, but now, have increasingly become the norm - at least, for me, as I tend to pick up the most difficult projects on the list. I am guessing that it is a combination of things: The expanded colourwheel makes it more difficult to hone in on exact colours than before, the ever-increasing number of genes inherently reduces the percentage of a particular gene's availability, especially if it isn't super popular, and the selection available on the AH - the selection that people choose to breed, has, over time, become more and more restricted - the oddballs are generally relegate as fodder, and therefore disappear much more quickly. Ah well, what can I do, other than breed more oddballs?

[center] [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=53238745] [img]http://www1.flightrising.com/dgen/preview/dragon?age=0&body=10&bodygene=17&breed=13&element=7&eyetype=0&gender=0&tert=92&tertgene=10&winggene=17&wings=140&auth=ef477698745103b0a789e9b099fa92f7cd908220&dummyext=prev.png[/img] [/url] [i][b]Project Complete![/b][/i] [/center] He wasn't quite perfect - I'll need an Alloy gene for him, but at this point, the project is so old, that since the DWF has the funds for the gene, we will be getting it for him, instead of waiting who knows how much longer for an actually perfect baby. I am super happy and relieved to be done with this project. It had been a project of impatience, that wound up costing me greatly in time. Instead of waiting for better offspring, I had selected less than optimal kids just to get on to the next generation, and by the time I had reached was was supposed to be the final pair, their quality was far too poor for me to realistically get the kid. I wound up having to create a second family tree, just to try to get another unrelated pair, whose offspring could then be used with all the very narrow near-misses I kept getting from these dragons. I was well on my way to finishing that when this kid did, eventually, pop out of an egg from the lousy 'final pairing'. Was the second branch I made then, not needed? Well, technically, yes, it wasn't. However, this could have not happened for many months still to come, and if it hadn't, I'd be kicking myself for not getting progress on the second tree. Overkill is always better than underkill, I guess. ----- The nests that kid came from must be made on a mountain of four-leaved clovers and horse shoes, because this girl, another one-off for a different project, also came from them: [center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=53238748] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/532388/53238748_350.png[/img] [/url][/center] Other than her primary colour, which is one colour off the goal, she is perfect. I had already shown her to the wisher, and, understandably, Peach is quite a bit different from Sunset despite being so close, and they didn't want her, which is perfectly fine, because... she came from a long-range pair. One of the long-range pairs, in fact, that were "holding up the line" so to speak and preventing me from progressing further down the family tree. However, being a 1-off, she is definitely final pairing material, meaning I can get rid of that half of the tree entirely, skipping 2 more generations of breeding, and start pairing her up with the offspring of the two sibling pairs from the other side of the family tree - the ones who were so very close, and themselves have a real chance at producing the goal. That project went from a sprawling mess to just 6 dragons - 3 pairs, the two sibling "grandparent" pairs, and her and her partner, who is temporary until I get closer mates from the sibling pairs. This project just leaped from "kinda close" to "very close" to being done. Crossing my fingers!

[center] [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=53426032] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/534261/53426032_350.png[/img] [/url] [i][b]Woah, what's this? Another project done![/b][/i][/center] So, today I am apparently continuing my lucky streak. Got a 5-egg nest back, to find this little girl in it, only lacking Ghost, which was an easy enough fix! One of her siblings also had goat, and this came right on the heels of another nest from this project yielding an actually decent [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=53210884]Plague primal[/url], which I sent back to my friend, who has been giving me such lucky hatches. Two fairly significant projects done, I've got the itch to pick up more, but I'm still stuck with getting starter pairs for the Eggplant/Carrot/Flaxen project, and would like to focus on getting that sorted out first, as difficult as it is, and I am in the middle of preparing for a significant dominance battle, Nature versus Arcane, so am low on cash, and uncertain on lair space. The itch, though. It's strong, and I swear I will scratch it as soon as this battle is over.

Oh man, it's been a [i]while[/i]. First the insane push, where I absolutely shattered my past records for most dragons exalted during a push by exalting ~1200 dragons VS Arcane, then it was vacation time, followed up with doing my bi-annual check-in for the Dragonwish Foundation, messaging everyone on the wishlist making sure they're still around and still wanting their wishes, and scattered in among and after all that has been time spent on preparing for going back to school in 3 days from today. It's been [i]busy[/i] is what I'm trying to say. But, more or less, I've also been keeping up with all my breeding projects, and not too much has happened that I felt the pressing urge to post about here. This post is a lot of little things that have accumulated over time. So, itches, and scratching them. I never did actually scratch that itch, until now, because I kept telling myself, "okay, after I do this thing, I'll pick up another wish." Over and over again. But I've been hovering at around 60 empty lair spaces and over 100 empty den spaces, and it's time. ----- First off, I updated the second and third posts, and 3 projects have been removed. The White/White/Ice Tundra was indeed hatched in a single nest, and I am stoked to have Rengar in all his ferocious glory: [center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=53814633] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/538147/53814633_350.png[/img] [/url][/center] Second, I did manage to hatch a White/Blue/Sky Coatl, but it appears the wisher is currently MIA, so he's just chilling in my lair for the moment. I will eventually move him to the [url=http://www1.flightrising.com/den/33793/1426272]Icebox[/url] tab to join the other wish dragons I've bred whose owners are gone, and hope the wisher comes back. I just noticed they're all Coatls... [center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=54066831] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/540669/54066831_350.png[/img] [/url][/center] Lastly, when I did the check-in, the wisher for the White/Orchid/Amethyst Mirror decided they didn't want him anymore, and canceled the wish, so I have removed that project. I've been asked before, and no doubt I'll be asked again in the future, how do I deal with the canceled and inactive projects? Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't really mind. I know I have a couple breeders with the Dragonwish Foundation who get very frustrated when the projects they've been working so hard on... suddenly amount to nothing, but it's a let-down I've learned to just be prepared for. Usually, it amounts to my lair breathing a huge sigh of relief when I get rid of a pile of dragons, much like when I [i]finish[/i] a project. Additionally, for the inactive wishers, in my three years of doing this, I have learned one thing: Never assume someone is [i]truly[/i] gone. People will come back, and have messaged me out of the blue saying yes, they still want that dragon, and by the way, they're back! I've noticed that people tend to disappear around certain times of the year, and pop back in during others - specifically, winter break is a great time to suddenly see people come back, while September tends to see a lot of folks having to drop Flight Rising for a while during school. At the end of the day, I have 2, maybe 3 dragons now, sitting in my den, waiting patiently. When those dragons get to be more than a year old, I can, by that point, safely assume they're no longer needed, but 2 extra den slots is not going to be needed for a very long time. I am also endlessly patient, which probably helps a lot. ----- Before I get to the new additions to the list, I have a couple highlights to mention of my in-progress wishes: I just got a nest back yesterday that gives me a 1 in 8 pair for the Sunset/Plum/Banana-Ivory Coatl, so I am pleased to say that one is nearly done! The triple Aqua project did actually get a triple Aqua male... with primal eyes. Which, hilariously enough, conflicted with the wisher's plans, so he has been sent back to the lucky [i]nester[/i], and since his parents have a 1 in 4 chance, I am comfortable re-breeding them for a non-primal remake. [center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=54634733] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/546348/54634733_350.png[/img] [/url][/center] Other than those two, everything else has been business as usual. So... ----- ...About those new projects I've got. [quote] [columns] [img]http://www1.flightrising.com/dgen/preview/dragon?age=1&body=17&bodygene=24&breed=12&element=9&eyetype=0&gender=0&tert=104&tertgene=22&winggene=20&wings=137&auth=a19b2f92d18c858b829db0bb6eae823279e08026&dummyext=prev.png[/img][nextcol] [b]DWF wish:[/b] Violet Starmap/Fog Bee/Yellow-Banana Firefly Arcane Male Coatl Start date: August 14, 2019 [i]Status: How did I get two dragons with the exact opposite genes, but not one with the right genes? Is that how this project is going to go?[/i] [/columns] [columns] [img]http://www1.flightrising.com/dgen/preview/dragon?age=1&body=42&bodygene=7&breed=10&element=8&eyetype=0&gender=1&tert=42&tertgene=18&winggene=8&wings=102&auth=64694e0dd4bd4e4abda7734a6beac6473cf2d45b&dummyext=prev.png[/img][nextcol] [b]DWF wish:[/b] Lemon Crystal/Honeydew Facet/Lemon Capsule Light Female Wildclaw Start date: August 23, 2019 [i]Status: Slightly unrelated but triple Lemons are harder than I thought to find.[/i] [/columns] [columns] [img]http://www1.flightrising.com/dgen/preview/dragon?age=1&body=11&bodygene=17&breed=7&element=10&eyetype=0&gender=1&tert=78&tertgene=18&winggene=21&wings=78&auth=0cf7fcb37de3288547e3b8b5ec5ec13e9745aa5c&dummyext=prev.png[/img][nextcol] [b]DWF wish:[/b] Midnight Metallic/Spearmint Striation/Spearmint Capsule Nature or Wind Female Spiral Start date: August 28, 2019 [i]Status: Temporarily working on this one for another breeder while they tend to IRL concerns.[/i] [/columns] [columns] [img]http://www1.flightrising.com/dgen/preview/dragon?age=1&body=62&bodygene=17&breed=11&element=4&eyetype=0&gender=1&tert=2&tertgene=5&winggene=25&wings=21&auth=8b39a824e65b1160a5ff202bc6072de9ad48b61a&dummyext=prev.png[/img][nextcol] [b]DWF wish:[/b] Red Metallic/Blue Constellation/White Underbelly Water Female Nocturne Start date: September 5, 2019 [i]Status: 8 pairs acquired, and their kids' pairings are already determined. Some terrifying colour ranges, but we're sticking to just 8 pairs because once we get close, there's like half a billion dragons I can request breedings from.[/i] [/columns] [/quote] The first one, Violet/Fog/Yellow-Banana Coatl, I inherited from another breeder, who was getting swamped and busy, so needed to downsize on the projects they took. I supplemented the dragons they sent me with more pairs to bring the total up to 8, and I think I meant to get to 16 pairs but completely forgot about that. Hmm. Should probably look into that, now that I'm looking at it. The second one, Lemon/Honeydew/Lemon Wildclaw, started the exact same way as the Eggplant/Carrot/Flaxen - they were in that batch of wishes who appeared inactive, and this one also finally came back, so I have finally begun to work on their wish. This one IS an 8-pair start, and intended to be, as the colour range was not that difficult to work with, being near-monochromatic. We'll see if I've shot myself in the foot a few months down the line, but for now, I'm confident these 16 dragons will get me what I want. Third one, Midnight/Spearmint/Spearmint, is, if all goes well, only temporarily mine. The breeder who has this one is currently tending to IRL business, and needed to lighten the load on Flight Rising for a bit. That doesn't mean I'm letting it stagnate in my lair - I bought a bunch more dragons for it to help them get it finished. And last, the first project I've taken to scratch that "new project" itch. Red/Blue/White. It had a surprising lack of dragons available on the Auction House, though there are plenty of dragons when I look at the Dragon Search results, so I am going for an 8 pair start, with the idea that the would-be "final pairing" will be bred with requested breedings to all these other dragons - the only hurdle is Constellation. That being said, for the quality of the pairs I've got for it, I am taking a massive risk with the 8-pair start, and I really hope it pays off with some requested breedings. Either way, this one is going to be slow, as, in order to make the best use of the spread of genes and breeds I've got, the "who pairs with who" has already been determined. Now it's a matter of hoping those kids pair nicely with their colours and not having to do too many re-breedings.

@ganondorf

I was wondering what happened, because i wanted to ask what resources you use for breeding, but it felt like a bad idea to bump this when my senses were telling me you were very busy.

Because currently, i'm trying to recalculate all my pairings for my lair so that the color range for the tertiary gene isn't just always blue.

I got a bit desperate twice and have pulled up the large color wheel, but having to zoom in and draw imaginary lines to figure out the opposing color was fairly annoying.

I have a feeling it's likely google sheet resources which i can't use myself but i might as well see just to be sure.

edit: btw, if you're curious, my shotgun pairs are on my first tab of dragons, the only ones paired right now.

@Eyesofblue, for colour wheels, I use this website! It's pretty simple, just put in the potential parents' colours, and see what lies between them.
http://fr.fintastic.net/

Fairly useful, though it doesn't tell you what the opposite color would be in order to get the widest range possible.

I also considered finding this wish thread just so i could get a dragon who would provide the widest range. For now though, just making sure that blue isn't the only tertiary option is good enough.

@Eyesofblue i actually was looking for the same thing a while ago, and came across this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1y6tHIvHR3y2PhtefNKKCcBgJ_LfU_8Z-IofU5_AYBcM/htmlview#

You can go to the "new colors" tab, scroll to the color you need, and the colors under "Snap" are the farthest possible colors! hope this helps <3

@Ganondorf good luck on your wishes! I've sealed a breeding request for my project, but I have something like a 6 in 10,000 chance for the right colors, so I'll probably end up submitting it to Dragonwish if I don't end up with anything close :P