Flight Rising Discussion

Personally I'm, uh... kind of alarmed that so many people seem to think hatchling skins being allowed as festival submissions is a good idea?

There are currently 24 dragon breeds, for a total of 48 adult poses. Every festival only adds 16 official skins to the site. It already takes three festivals for every adult dragon to theoretically get one skin each, and in practice I'm willing to bet it takes much longer than that, thanks to popular breeds getting more submissions than others. If hatchling poses are added to that pool, that will bring us up to 72 possible poses and five months minimum for every pose to get a single skin.

Only permababies are going to be able to wear hatchling skins. Permababies can only exist if someone spends 350g on a special item to create them. 350g is a huge paywall to put some of the most affordable and plentiful skins in the game behind. If you collect permababies and usermade skins, I'm sure it seems like a drop in the bucket, but I think there are a lot of players who would agree with me.

Permababies are also a niche type of dragon to collect, since they can't do a lot of the things normal dragons can, so you've got the official site skins suddenly catering to a much smaller group of players than usual...

I'm just... worried seeing people asking about hatchling festival skins like they're really excited about the idea, or even like it's a foregone conclusion, when it seems to me that the only fair choice is to exclude them.

Honestly, with how much new breeds are being introduced it would be nice to up the number of skins for festivals, at least 20? It would help a lot imo and from those only one being from hatchlings if they get to be selected

why exclude people with permababies from cheap, easy-to-get skins? i have a few permababies and i would enjoy getting to zazz them up without having to spend thousands of extra gems on umas. it doesn't make sense to introduce a feature people have been asking for for like a decade and then punish people who will actually make use of it.

double the amount of skins accepted each fest. we've been needing an expansion for a long time.

Honestly, I don't think hatchlings should get festival skins, mostly because they're only available via an item in the premium currency shop, and that would lock a lot of players out of being able to use these skins. Yes, WC and Coatl breed changes are also gem items, but you can breed more of those, they're not exclusive like permababies are. Besides, anyone who can afford permababy scrolls can afford UMAs.

[quote name="NightmareValley" date="2024-04-29 08:54:08" ] Honestly, with how much new breeds are being introduced it would be nice to up the number of skins for festivals, at least 20? It would help a lot imo and from those only one being from hatchlings if they get to be selected [/quote] This The solution (at least to me) Isn't to exculde the hatchling poses from the contests, but to increase the amount of winnable spots! for example increase the baldwin brewable to 3 or 4, and the chest/buyables from 6 each to 7-8 each, or even more! We're almost done with the current fest cycle, so this (brightshine) would be the perfect time to implement the change.

I'm kind of mixed on the idea because at a certain point we're going to need more slots for festival skins anyways. the amount of ancients we have is rapidly growing and thus it's getting pretty bloated. Personally i wouldn't mind permababy skins being festival skins, even if permababies themselves cost a hefty chunk of gems, so do the gem breeds like veilspun and coatl even if they themselves can be bred and have their offspring sold for cheap.

I feel if they dedicated say, 2 new slots to permababy skins only, it would be fine. however i think permababies aren't the worst part of this situation, but merely another pile ontop of the "breed bloat" for festival skins.

[quote name="skinklegs" date="2024-04-29 08:59:46" ] why exclude people with permababies from cheap, easy-to-get skins? i have a few permababies and i would enjoy getting to zazz them up without having to spend thousands of extra gems on umas. it doesn't make sense to introduce a feature people have been asking for for like a decade and then punish people who will actually make use of it. double the amount of skins accepted each fest. we've been needing an expansion for a long time. [/quote] while I'm in full agreement on your first point, I feel as if increasing the amount of skins by [i]double[/i] when there is a very finite amount of money to be earned by more casual players who are usually the users who benefit most from cheap, easy-to-get skins, when each skin costs over 30kt a pop already (maxing fairgrounds for the day only gets you 2 skins at that price), might be a bit excessive and honestly kind of overwhelming for a completionist. there's also the fact that permababies are technically a premium feature because their scrolls cost almost 400 gems each, having the usability of so many FEST skins locked behind a premium feature doesn't seem very intuitive imo

I figured if they did add them, they'd very much up the skin count and keep winning entries pretty limited to one or two a fest. If they get any at all, there may be no good skins that year.
Because in all honesty, 350g isn't as big of a paywall as it sounds compared to actual gem breeds who do very much get fest skins. You can buy those off the AH for cheaper sure - but the same goes for permababs. Similarly to gem breeds, it can be a matter of settling for either something not quite to your tastes for cheaper, or saving up for that very special dragon it'd fit perfectly.
I can't speak for them being niche though, but in general, niche dragons don't get a lot of submissions or winning entries period anyway. I have a billion Skydancer F skins and like two Mirror F skins. If they really aren't popular, then they won't get much to begin with even with staff restrictions.

However... I may be considered relatively comfortable and established on site, even if I'm only really gaining money via ordinary gameplay means, so my perspective on the money front could be a lot more skewed than I realize. Like... if 1g = 1kt, then you can get a permabab from 5 days of maxing Fairgrounds. It's a bit difficult but it's not unreasonable.

[quote name="ShiningLatios" date="2024-04-29 09:08:01" ] [quote name="skinklegs" date="2024-04-29 08:59:46" ] why exclude people with permababies from cheap, easy-to-get skins? i have a few permababies and i would enjoy getting to zazz them up without having to spend thousands of extra gems on umas. it doesn't make sense to introduce a feature people have been asking for for like a decade and then punish people who will actually make use of it. double the amount of skins accepted each fest. we've been needing an expansion for a long time. [/quote] while I'm in full agreement on your first point, I feel as if increasing the amount of skins by [i]double[/i] when there is a very finite amount of money to be earned by more casual players who are usually the users who benefit most from cheap, easy-to-get skins, when each skin costs over 30kt a pop already (maxing fairgrounds for the day only gets you 2 skins at that price), might be a bit excessive and honestly kind of overwhelming for a completionist. [/quote] tbh i forgot that commonly people will buy all of the fest skins and not just the ones they think they'll use like i do LOL. i'm still of the mind that we need a significant expansion to winning entries though. we've been getting at least 2 new breeds per year whose [i]only[/i] option for customization is skins and accents. now the same thing with permababies. we should easily be having 20 winning entries per fest imo.

I agree the amount of skins accepted each year needs to be increased.

As for permababies in the fests, maybe one or two (peramababy only slots) that are only in the shop or brewable (not in chests)? That way people who have no interest in acquiring them aren't going to find themselves with a skin they can't use. Treat them as an extra, rather than something that takes a slot away from the usual entries.

If there are no qualifying permababy skins to fill those two extra slots in any given festival, the slots can go to other non-permababy entries or simply not be included for that particular festival.

If players having a finite amount of treasure for so many skins is a concern, maybe with the increase of fest skins, drop the individual cost of each one down (to 15kt for example only).