Suggestions

Flaw in this suggestion that never gets brought up: hibden renders this moot.

One of my dragons was recently-ish on the FP. He lives in my hibden. He was put in my hibden months ago. I could have quit the game in that time but his energy still shows as full. So using energy as a metric for activity doesn't work from the full side the same way it doesn't work from the empty side, since opposite of actives who don't feed there are also inactives will fully fed hibden dragons that can't be sorted out by energy.

Unless we're restricting this to "lair only," which would VASTLY increase the number of ugly naked fodder/breeders that get picked over well-dressed, well-loved hibden permas.

The point of the featured dragon mechanic is to show off the dragons you could potentially make on the site, it is intended to inspire players and attract new players with the unlimited potential of beautiful and fun dragons FR offers.

It doesn't matter if they're from dead accounts because that's not the point - the point is to demonstrate just how much diversity FR's dragons have. That's what a LOT of pet sites do, in every other petsite I have joined that was the primary intention of this mechanic and it is incredibly safe to assume it's the same of FR considering the dragons are randomly selected every five minutes.
I'm not staff, so I could be wrong.... but again, it's a very safe assumption based on other petsite's and the way it works in the first place, as well as it being located on the front page, where guests and newbies will be first directed through.

The only players who SHOULDN'T have dragons show up are banned accounts. Depending on the user, those dragons could have been unfairly obtained or created, so it isn't honest to show them off as an example of what you can get on FR and it doesn't look very good.

no support - featured dragon is about showcasing to potential new players what they can do with their dragons

it really shouldn't matter if the account is dead or not, plus you can't tell sometimes because some people are active but don't feed their dragons

[quote name="ArchAngellus" date="2023-09-14 05:43:51" ] Tbh I had no idea so many players just don't feed their dragons. Maybe it's the role player in me talking, but to me it's like... Kinda mean, why let them starve? But hey, if you're saying there's a lot of players who just don't care, then I'll take my L and acknowledge I didn't know. [/quote] Many already displayed their no support reasons, so I won’t repeat that again. I will just say that a great thing about Flight Rising is the ability to return anytime (and even more so with how it feeds your dragon after a long period of inactivity). An empty bar is not an extremely punishing thing. It only takes away like a few bonuses and gameplay elements. You can feed single dragons now as well if you need breeding or coliseum. I do enjoy the random dragons as it shows different timelines of Flight Rising’s life in a way. It really does show different things you can do outside of current popular genes every now and then.

No support. People often take breaks and then come back again, sometimes they don't have food or forget to feed their dragons so the account may look inactive, but in reality it isn't. (That's often my case, cause I don't have time to grind food and only feed dragons to fight at the colliseum and have some benefits. Only few dragons are fed, others stay at 0% most of the time. While I agree that it's kind-of sad looking at currently inactive accounts (who knows if they left the game for good, something happened, or if they just took a longer break, we can't check that), I don't agree with hiding their dragons on a feature page. You can miss some really stunning dragons that may inspire you or make you want to create a simmilar one. I don't see how would it work. Marking as inactive or even deleting accounts would be a terrible move. We and admins simply can't know if someone will one day return or not. [quote name="ArchAngellus" date="2023-09-14 05:43:51" ] Tbh I had no idea so many players just don't feed their dragons. Maybe it's the role player in me talking, but to me it's like... Kinda mean, why let them starve? But hey, if you're saying there's a lot of players who just don't care, then I'll take my L and acknowledge I didn't know. [/quote] Well, from a purely gameplayish-economic standpoint, and giving myself as an example (but I assure you there are more people like this than just me), people have jobs, they study, go to college, or just don't have time to grind out food to keep the dragons well-fed. You can have more than 150 dragons in your lair, and I currently have 118 dragons of different breeds that to stay well fed would need all types of food. Considering that dragons lose up to 3 food points per day, I would need 354 food points daily to feed all of them. I can't adjust my life to the rhytm of the one browser game I like to play in the short free time, and that means that I will not play daily and will take 2-4 day breaks often, and sometimes there is a full month or two between my playtimes, where I will play daily and then simply stop again. My point is: my dragons won't need ''just'' 350 food points, but much more. And since almost all of them are at 0%, I would need a whopping [i][b]11800[/b][/i] food points to fully feed all of them. I 've never in my life had that much points at once. It's simply not worth it for me and many people to keep so many dragons well fed all the time. From the RP perspective, yes, that is a sad thing to think about. But Let's remember, that it is just a game and you can consider the time where you are not playing as a ''paused game''. It's like closing a book with a bookmark. Also, if you return after 45 days, your dragon's energy status will return to 100% That's the only way to not waste so much food. But even taking a quick peek once a 1,5 month will return dragons to the ''active'' status.

No support for excluding dragons based on food points- that dead horse is basically dust at this point- but, I do have a counter-suggestion.

Do not feature dragons with a Basic gene, unless the dragon has an outfit/scene/apparel.
(This is operating under the assumption that this check wouldn't cause undue server strain)

My logic is thus- while some people like Basic as a gene, it's got a much higher correlation to unfinished dragons than to purposeful choice. The apparel/scene stuff catches the people who are using Basic on purpose, and everyone else is saved a bit of pain when their fodder is featured.

I'm torn on if Familiars could count as a "this is intended" too; some people slap 'em on their fodds for bonding while the fodd is in training, but that's probably not super common? Idk.

The thought here is that, if you're gonna feature a dragon as a cool design, it should actually have some level of customization put into it.

[quote name="Renaiwom" date="2023-09-16 01:10:48" ] No support for excluding dragons based on food points- that dead horse is basically dust at this point- but, I do have a counter-suggestion. Do not feature dragons with a Basic gene, unless the dragon has an outfit/scene/apparel. (This is operating under the assumption that this check wouldn't cause undue server strain) My logic is thus- while some people like Basic as a gene, it's got a much higher correlation to unfinished dragons than to purposeful choice. The apparel/scene stuff catches the people who are using Basic on purpose, and everyone else is saved a bit of pain when their fodder is featured. I'm torn on if Familiars could count as a "this is intended" too; some people slap 'em on their fodds for bonding while the fodd is in training, but that's probably not super common? Idk. The thought here is that, if you're gonna feature a dragon as a cool design, it should actually have some level of customization put into it. [/quote] Nice idea but in reason of achivments lots of fodders could have scenes and vistas (heck I did it putting those on my exalt and sale dragons in reason I didn't has so many permas without those decor)

No support for excluding dragons, basic or not, from the featured dragon.

Basic is a valid gene. Sometimes a dragon doesn't need a tertiary or whatever to make their look work. The point of the featured dragon is to show off what kind of dragons you can make on this site. Basic is plain, but it's a customization option, too!

The majority of actual fodder is fully gened, too, so this doesn't achieve much save for arbitrarily excluding mostly WIP G1 projects and the offspring of fresh progens. Either way, it doesn't matter what intended purpose any dragon has by its owner - the point is to show off as many existing dragons as possible.

I don't want to see anything implemented that excludes certain dragons for subjective reasons, especially something like a dragon not having "enough" customization put into it.