Quests & Challenges

@Kaibutsu Definitely, thank you for the interest! I'm happy my journey helps inspire other folks to try and achieve their dreams as well!

It is a tough choice to have to choose between gening up current gene projects or saving up for this future-but-might-never-happen-dream dragon.
I put all my gening projects to a halt when I started this quest. There have been some dragons that received a gene or breed change, but those were either Plentiful breeds (only 45k with Dom discount) or Python, Morph and Firefly genes, which are basically free if you farm the coliseum long enough.

I guess I am lucky my favourite genes can be obtained for free, albeit at the whims of RNG.

My advice would be to start saving for the Gen1 Imperial! Why? Because Gen1 Imperials (and the Imperial scrolls) are only getting rarer. Genes on the other hand wil always have the same price (unless they decide to also cycle genes).

Additionally, more and more genes are added every month. If you gene your current dragons up later, there will be a wider variety of genes to choose from. Some of them perhaps cheaper but better than your original idea. Or if you were to gene them up now, and a new gene is released that you like even better, that's twice the expenses!

And finally, if you at some point decide to abandon the hunt for a Gen1 Imperial, you can use all that you've saved up to gene your current projects anyway. The other way around though; once the money is spent, it's spent.


I hope that after this inspirational speech I'll see your own quest thread pop up soon! :D

[center][img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/oummgrma2dntglw/earthtop.png[/img] [size=6][font=garamond][i]Progress update [img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/uau4yamn96qep5a/earthmid.png[/img][/center] [font=Garamond][size=4]Good afternoon everyone (or morning, evening or night for the other timezones) I hope everyone is staying safe with the extreme weather throughout the globe. While the temperatures aren't quite dangerous in the Netherlands, they sure are capable of uprooting our public transport system. :-/ It takes a bit of time adjusting to 'post-NotN' Flight Rising. I farmed so much during Night of the Nocturne, that I'm afraid I kind of burned myself out. The first two weeks I couldn't get myself into doing much more than just logging in to gather, feed, breed and bond. I wouldn't even be surprised if I missed a day or two. [center][img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/uau4yamn96qep5a/earthmid.png[/img] [size=5][font=garamond][i]Auction House Sales[/i][/center] [center][img]https://imgur.com/9U5d1kr.png[/img][/center] [font=Garamond][size=4]I didn't sell all that much during January, but I also didn't have a lot to sell. The vast majority of these auctions are Wildclaw Scrolls. With them cycling in January 2018, I reckon most people expected them to cycle in last month as well. As a result priced dropped dramatically as everyone was trying to get theirs to sell before they cycled back in, and potential buyers became less and less likely to buy them, rather waiting for their return in the Gem MP. Despite that, I luckily managed to sell the majority of mine, although at a way lower price than I had originally wanted. I only have less than a dozen left now. which I will most likely sell this coming month. This will also mean that the time of mad proceeds in my ledger are over, sadly. But maybe new opportunities will arise. Although I reckon, with them being a Roundsey price this week, it might actually mean it will be another while before they cycle back in. And it seems people agree with me, as prices have shot up from 2,400g to 2,800g in a few days. Enough economics, when it comes to raw profits, I can't complain about last month, especially given the low amount of auctions sold and the general lack of activity on-site from my side. [center][img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/uau4yamn96qep5a/earthmid.png[/img] [size=5][font=garamond][i]Coliseum spotlight[/i][/center] [font=Garamond][size=4]As said, with post-NotN blues, I couldn't really bring myself to spend a lot of time in the coliseum, or on the site in general. I guess for the time spent I did get lucky with my drops. [item=unhatched fire egg][item=ambush][item=searing jackalope crate][item=primary gene: python] [center][img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/uau4yamn96qep5a/earthmid.png[/img] [size=5][font=garamond][i]Other activities[/i][/center] [font=Garamond][size=4]January felt like a good month to wrap up my raffle. It had been going on for half a year, and while I didn't reach my target ticket sales to break even safely, I didn't want to keep the entrants waiting any longer. The announcement of the end date did do wonders for ticket sales, and I sold over 1000 tickets the last week. That burst of ticket sales was enough to push me a lot closer to the break even point, so all in all I am very pleased with a successful raffle and a bunch of happy winners. While I love raffles, and will definitely host more in the future, I think at the moment I'm gonna take a small break from them. 1. Because I have no clue what to raffle off next, and 2. If a plethora of gem genes isn't enough to draw in a steady stream of entrants, I don't know what else will, and I don't want to be stuck with a raffle that isn't budging. (If you have any ideas for popular prizes I'm all ears. I've done eggs (Noc eggs, Bog eggs, all eggs) eliminate, genes, and gem genes before) Perhaps when (if ever) a new breed is released I might do a raffle for that. Such novelty usually does wonders for the popularity of a raffle and the speed of ticket sales. Anyways, onwards ... [center][img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/uau4yamn96qep5a/earthmid.png[/img] [size=5][font=garamond][i]Updated totals[/i][/center] [size=4][font=garamond] On-hand currency: 70.6% (+ 2.1%)* Hoard value: 9.1% (- 2.2%)* Investments: 3.0.% (- 4.5%) Total: 82.7% (- 4.6%)* *While I generally try to be optimistic, I also need to be realistic. It has been a long while since the gem to treasure ratio was 1:800, and while I held on for a long time, I think a small miracle will need to happen for it to fall below 1:1000 again. Because of that I have now calculated my totals based on a 1:1000 rather than a 1:800 ratio. Sadly, because I have 174.5million treasure that is a difference of 43,625 gems (nearly 5.5%). Similarly for my hoard value being worth 73.5 million treasure, the difference as a result of the changed ratio is 18.375 gems (about 2.2%) While I gained over half a million in hoardsell value, 11 million on-hand treasure and 47k on-hand gems, changing the ratio makes it seem as if made a loss, and set me back a little, progress-wise. But it does now more accurately reflect the market value of what I have. [center][img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/uau4yamn96qep5a/earthmid.png[/img] [size=5][font=garamond][i]Plans for next month[/i][/center] [font=garamond][size=4]I want to get back into the coliseum; I need to find my motivation somewhere. And I also need to start hunting for a new niche market to get my profits from; With my wildclaw scrolls as good as gone, food and leftover cycled gem apparel not selling or running low, and level25 Gen1s only selling once in a blue moon, I need another source of profit to keep the steady progress we've had the past months going. I don't have a clue yet as to what this source might be, but maybe I'll get some inspiration. [center][img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/uau4yamn96qep5a/earthmid.png[/img] [size=5][font=garamond][i]Question of the month[/i][/center] [font=garamond][size=4]A small light-hearted question this time. What's your new favourite emoji? I guess mine is obvious; [emoji=owl] [font=garamond]That's it for now. Thank you all for your continued interest and support. <3 [center][img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ed14j4hr5jhxspv/earthbottom.png[/img][/center] [font=garamond]Pinglist @SariStar @Gusted @StarlitFire @ShadowSwirl @Skorpion @Cakeless @SolusPrime379 @Tiger33621 @Shrine @ladylilitu @LightningShatter @mayanaz @Alphaeon @Tufira @Inkbrush @Iceex @PixelSpiral @Neptunite @phandalin @Katargo @GlitterDCMarvel @Kiowa @depinvenom @Hainu @pulses @CelesteNova @Wianes @boi @Youmeanies @blitzhund @megalizardon4736 @Dandie @ShianneJanelle @Lunamore @inkandbone @Cyrx @Bumpsly @Naahva @AlbinoWerewolf @buythestars @PinesAwait @echolaliate @Zac @Cotera @Jaspernoir @SpiceCookie @BerryPop @aleksey @Sealterbloind @Drakeswing @techmess @FrostDragonRose @Aersolace @TrustRae @Utahraptor93 @Featherycats @TheClassCalico @Zaharawolfkin @Jinoga @Vauvenal @take2thesky @Sawvren @smolelf ------------------------ @SmaugTheAlmighty Oh my, that is on hell of a quest! I guess in that sense I am lucky I am not a big fan of doubles or triples myself, and much prefer XYZs. That'll save me so much pain and agony when trying to find the right dragons to scroll into Imperials, not just with the difficulty of finding a suitable dragon, but also paying for it! I really hope that your 1300 eggs will hatch some nicely coloured XXX dragons soon, so that'll you'll have a nice headstart on your scroll savings. And already 580 eggs?! I thought I had a lot of eggs, reaching 400 last week, when a few raffle entrants exchanged Nocturne eggs for tickets, but 580 is so much more! Congrats! Do you buy your eggs, or do you mostly trade, brew and pray to RNG to get them from gathering and the coliseum? (Also did you want to be on the pinglist or were you just dropping in for a chat? ^^)

@Neptunite No worries! We all need a bit of a break sometimes!
I hope the hosts of the Light Raffle will take the third one! :)

And exactly, that's why I decided to update it! I think I will already face an 'I'm there! Oh wait, not yet!'-moment, because the prices of the Scrolls seem to fluctuate and might be higher than what I'm aiming for by the time I reach my goal. So rather than having 2 disappointments, I figured I'd fix one that would be easiest now, and see what I'll do about the other later.

And yeah, I've been here since the first day, and back then the ratio was 1:75. And no, I did not forget a 0. You could literally get 1 gem for 75 treasure. Mind you, back then the fairegrounds hardly worked, we didn't have fully fletched coli builds yet, the AH sometimes contained no dragons, because we all only had 2 dragons to start with, and dragons listed for 30k treasure were snatched up within moments, so exalting wasn't feasible. (Don't even get me started at the exalt payout at that time!) So the only reliable way to get funds fast was to buy gems, and exchange them for treasure. Oh how times have change. And I kick myself for not buying gems back in those days.

Sadly the only thing that I think will reliably bring down the ratio is lair expansions! They are treasure-only, account-bound and in pretty darn high demand right now.
A new treasure MP breed could make a bit of a dent as well, although I think the effect would be less severe and last less long as well.

@Meowesty Not at all, not at all! I spent every penny I had and bought 126 scrolls. While I sold the vast majority for more than 2500g, if we take 2500g as a pessimistic average, that's 63,500g pure profit gained by doing nothing but wait. I had set the limit for myself at 2750g, rather than 2500g, but it took a looooong time before the scrolls reached those prices, and I must admit I was afraid they'd cycle in before I got to sell all of mine, so in the end I went well below my self-set lowest price, and sold a couple for between 2500 and 2750, but I also sold a couple for 2900 when the demand was high.

I have close to 400kg at the moment, so I could purchase at least 200 when they cycle in. If I manage to exchange my treasure for gems as well, that's another 88. Again taking 2500g as sell price, that's 144kg of free profit. If I am patient and wait until the price reaches 2750g, the profit would amount to 216kg! Definitely doing that again if they ever come back! The only downside is that it takes a long time to really pay off. For me, still having a dozen left, it'll be 1 year and 1 month before I fully managed to reap the benefits of the investment.