Flight Rising Discussion

idk why everyone's acting like we're outright insulting the staff here for voicing criticism of the breed or Ancients. There's a few different threads being happy about them and complimenting them, because y'know they're a relatively alright design with some decent genes, having one where people are collecting their thoughts on why they don't like them in a respectful and thought-out manner isn't like... people getting crazy mad and unreasonable and mean towards the staff.
Especially when people are just mostly being like "awh man I guess they're pretty alright even if it's not what I expected!"

Feedback is healthy, no one's being insulting just by providing some until they start calling the staff names or something.

[quote name="sedge122" date="2024-04-17 12:29:14" ] i could also go on a whole rant about how the rushed feel is negatively impacting my perception of the future of ancients on the whole but i don't really know how to phrase it exactly, and it's late at night and i don't wanna be too negative... in the end i just hope the team is going at a pace they're comfortable with and not crunching to get new breeds out faster :[ [/quote] @sedge122 i don't know if this will come close to how you feel, but you helped me pin down what makes me sort of uneasy about these past few ancient releases. i feel like it's hard to fall in love with projects ([i]especially[/i] ones that will take a while to save up for) when a new breed is constantly looming right around the corner. why settle on plans when they may be upended in a few months? i'm overwhelmed with options NOW and when i think about the future it only gets more and more intimidating lol. maybe it's crazy to be complaining about [i]too many[/i] options though. i kinda wonder if the avid UMA makers feel similarly. new breeds always seem to generate good business from that end though, so maybe not. but that's wildly off topic from this thread, so-- man i just thought maybe they'd be rolly-polly bugs lmao

If Dusthides have no fans that means I'm gone

You literally can't win with anything you make. Not in this economy.

They're pretty darn unique in design, they have a very plated body, skink-like face (Sandsurges are the only ones that come close to it), their hands are pretty unique too and so are their tails. I think if we had straight up gotten an isopod, that wouldn't be a dragon anymore, it would be an isopod. I don't think most people here are actually ready for really messed up speculative evolution designs, they would likely fall into the "uncanny valley" territory for a large number of people, unfortunately. I've seen what it does too many times and it's sad, because I'd love to see stuff like that explored. If anything, an isopod familiar would be suitable for such wishes.

No matter what you do, someone's gonna be disappointed. Let it sit, let it churn in your head for a while, get used to the design and then figure out how much you might like or dislike it. It's just been a few hours, that's not enough time to establish a proper opinion for most peeps.

I don't dislike them, I actually like them more than others Ancients. However I do agree they couldve been a bit more unique? Like yeah they follow the usual body plan, that's whatever to me, it's the fact that there isn't more being done with a mythical fantasy creatures like dragons. while these guys are definitely a little chunky and have unique claw things they have nothing else to stand out with, except maybe the big tail. I really wish they did some crazy armor or thick scales like pangolins, gave them massive gnarled horns instead of being bald. Or maybe had more line breaking tests that adds more armor and craziness to them. The Antler and Spore tert are great, but I kinda wish we had more than them or those two genes were already on the base dragon.

I feel like comparing them to other Ancients doesn't help their cause either. They're easily the most plain design wise out of them I think. Other than claws and kinda big tail they don't stand out sadly.

They remind me of leopard geckos so I am pretty content with them. That said I do agree with the general sentiment that as an ancient they're kind of dull. The terts also easily do away with the baldness which other than the feet being unique seems to be it's most prominent feature? I kind of wish the wings were smaller and more like decorative bits (like the extra feet on Aethers) to make it feel more like an interesting ancient. They're not bad though. I'm just not sure how many I'll feel like collecting.

I don't dislike them, their unique linebreaker genes are pretty fun! But it would be more fun if they pushed them a little more, while I do like the look of their wings maybe replacing the wings with a different feature, or giving them a prominent snoot to snuffle through dirt with or something would make them more unique. Less traditional dragon form. Maybe really feature the shelled back since these guys can't wear clothes, and while logically here in the real world I understand why that is, in universe I don't see why they wouldn't be able to.

I don't really want to be negative about it, because I think there's a lot of good qualities to these guys and the team worked really hard to bring them to us. And again, the linebreakers are really neat. I get why people are feeling under hyped, but we should all try to be a bit more supportive instead of just venting grievances, after all we're not really entitled to anything, and it's the devs choice to do whatever they want. We just benefit from them sharing their hard work with us. So if it's not to our own individual taste we should just accept that and not push it on the devs, but there's no harm in trying to be constructive!

If everyone just bites at them all the time that's no good, but thinking about how things can be improved for next time and encouraging them to push things into a more experimental direction could be better. If it fits their vision and they like the idea, then great! But if they don't want to take things in that direction, well we can't really make them and I don't think it's fair to push them to. The Dusthide does feel like it leans into a more standard, safe design, so I hope they try playing around a bit more and really make a prominent theme in the design next time. Right now some of the ancients lean on their theming in a cool way, but some of them feel underplayed, and could be pushed more. But it's alright if they're not interested in doing that, after all this is ultimately their project, and nothing can appeal to everyone.

I wasn't expecting them to have wings, like others stated, and seeing they have access to Batty... Could've used Batty to give them wings if you reaalllllyyyyy wanted to, while still using plating to display their secondary color.