kivovisrising - Tumblr blog

[kivovisrising]

I feel like when it comes to the Dusthide debate, a lot of people seem to misinterpret the main point of Ancients as both a game element and a product.

A big part of Flight Rising is dress-up. While users can argue on what the sole draw of FR is (dragons themselves, breeding, the Dominance system, etc), it's generally agreed that the dress-up aspect is one with a lot of care and resources put into it, and is therefore very important to site gameplay. Dress-up keeps getting updated with new apparel, and if there is to be a new dragon breed, it needs every piece of apparel re-drawn on it. This takes time. A lot of time. Gaps between dragons (now known as Moderns) stretch for years at a time.

Ancients were initially created as a way to fill in these time gaps between Moderns, and the easiest way to do that was to release dragons without apparel. However, this is a game that puts a lot of emphasis on dragon dress-up. Imagine if Obelisks were released without any coded apparel. You'd just have a naked dragon missing a huge element of the game, and for most players, there's no fun in that.

This is where the second point of Ancients comes in: because the appeal of clothing is gone, there has to be some kind of compromise. So... if Ancients can't wear apparel, then they are no longer restrained by the requirements for apparel (1 head/4 legs/2 wings)...

which means that they can break the modern mold freely! You can have a dragon with no legs, or six. Or with two heads, or no head. And now that you don't have to worry about apparel clipping, the tertiary genes can go wild! There is room for customization that apparel can't fulfill - you could give it extra wings, or a jellyfish head, or giant tree horns, or you could give it nothing at all as tertiary genes are optional, and it wouldn't matter because there's no apparel to be drawn around it!

Ancients are supposed to be a trade-off. There's no selling point to a dragon without clothing on the Dragons With Clothing Game, but there is a selling point to a dragon with, say, 13 legs, no wings and no tail. It doesn't wear apparel, because it physically can't, and it makes use of this function in creative ways. The inability to wear apparel is justified by the Ancient's unique proportions.

And this is where the criticisms for Dusthides and other 'basic' Ancients stems from: if your Ancient dragon is just the 1 head/4 legs/2 wings setup, then is it really an Ancient or a Modern you can't dress up? You could have the wildest, gaudiest, 15-limb tertiary gene on a Dusthide and it wouldn't matter, because tertiaries are optional and aren't a permanent part of the dragon that would inhibit the usage of apparel.

If a dragon doesn't have a justifiable reason to not wear apparel, then there's no reason for it being an Ancient.

No amount of linebreaking tertiaries will be able to hide the fact that some dragons seem to be created only for the first, initial purpose: just to tide people over until a better, 'real' dragon is created.

And that's just disappointing.

[kivovisrising]

no one is talking about this

[kivovisrising]

okay but hear me out

[kivovisrising]

get me put of the coli PLEASE

[kivovisrising]

I love them your honor

[kivovisrising]

...i must have booboo wheel i simply must!

[kivovisrising]

...i must have booboo wheel i simply must!

[kivovisrising]

...i must have booboo wheel i simply must!

[kivovisrising]

[kivovisrising]

please everyone send energy with me that the new ancient will be Fat..

[kivovisrising]

Someone messages you and offers to trade you a Boolean. It’s legit, there’s no funny business, but in exchange you must give up your most prized dragon that isn’t a progenitor. It could be a dragon with years of lore and art, a roundsey raffle prize, your special dragon you worked years for. It doesn’t matter.

No maybe answer. You have to decide.

[kivovisrising]

HEY!

I’m starting a part-time job next week, and would really like some help getting a car! I have a little saved up, but getting on my own feet has been an uphill battle and I’m just short of a downpayment for something halfway decent to get around in. If you’d be interested in helping out a transmasc lesbian, I have a couple of premade items up right now (see above) for 15% off as well as commissions on my e*sy. I also have kofi link in my pinned.

RB’s appreciated, even if you can’t get anything!

[kivovisrising]

Gaoler Fieri.

[kivovisrising]

The dirt between my claws. ⛰️

The wind through my wings. 🍃

[kivovisrising]

I've been hoping Flight Rising would add button eyes ever since the stitched/patchwork genes came out. I was really excited to see them for April Fools, although unfortunately I feel like the execution leaves a lot to be desired on most breeds... they look weirdly flat, and in many cases bigger than I think they really need to be. I decided to try my hand at redesigning them.

Unfortunately I think I just ended up making myself more wistful for what Could Have Been... ah well ^^;;

[kivovisrising]

Coat of arms based on Guardian dragons and Water Flight.