Scales and Tales

My laptop was in the shop for three days, and it was like being in mourning. :D The good news is that I have it back and am out less money than I might have been; the bad news is that they couldn't repair it (broken touchpad) due to the part being unavailable, so the only thing I got for my money is a slightly cleaner broken laptop. D:< Technology exists to try us!

Before my enforced separation, I was reading two Cnovels - Married Thrice to Salted Fish (new to me), with a reading group, and After I Married the Disabled God of War as my Concubine* (which I'd started some time ago and lost track of). Hopefully I can get back on track with both, but especially the former since I don't want to read the group discussion till I'm caught up.

Without a laptop, I found myself in the mood to read mysteries, so I reread two Sayers (Have His Carcase and Gaudy Night) and two Kings (The Beekeeper's Apprentice and A Monstrous Regiment of Women).

The laptop's absence also put a crimp in my Flight Rising gameplay, so now I'm scrambling for treasure. Lair expansions and expensive Gen1 projects await me!





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*Every single time I trot out this title I'm torn between groaning and giggling. It is The Most Cnovel Title Cnovel title I have ever encountered! I can't say it without feeling that it comes out slightly mocking, it's just that absurdly typical.

Since the guide I've been using while leveling up in Arlo's Artifacts is so old that it doesn't include the fourth level, why not make my own? It will be slow going, but it's not as if taking five seconds to jot down the contents of a plot will add any measurable amount of tedium to an already tedious process. :D

( Long list that will take even longer to fill in, beneath the cut: )

Man, it is a problem how much baby Skydancers appeal to me. I want to buy every single one, even the ones in colors I don't like, because their pose is so cute. XD

(Guess I need a FR tag now, but it's sharing the Dragcave tag for the foreseeable.)

DragonCave - in the fine internet tradition of fixing things that weren't broken - has updated its forum software, and now I can't log in. My choices are to log in with my email address (which I attempted, but it says the password was wrong... Well, since I can't see my forum account info to know what email address was linked to it, I can't reset the password) or to log in with my DC account, incidentally consenting to give DC "access" to my username and email address. Meaning what? Presumably something beyond 'knowing what it is,' because they already know that in order for the account to exist.

If I didn't have Halloween trades lined up, I honestly wouldn't bother to ever log in again, because this annoys me so much. And if I could log in, I'd tell them so.

>:[

THIS GAME. I'M DEAD.



Tsoko has edible glitter and I cannot stop laughing! Are we absolutely sure this game is rated PG?!

The prompt from hamsterwoman was "Dragon Cave!"

Dragon Cave, DragonCave, DC or DragCave are all the same thing: dragcave.net, an online sprite-collecting/digital-pet game where you collect, trade, and raise dragons of many breeds. Your dragons are displayed on a "scroll" to let you keep track.

I started playing in, uh, Feb 25, 2009, wow. o.O My intention was to play just long enough to accrue a handful of dragons to put in my signature to decorate my posts on a forum I frequented. As a bonus, I could use them to decorate LJ posts, too. Instead, I fell captive and now I'm the mod of dragoncavers, meaning I run a community just so I can decorate it with dragons!

The most interesting thing about DC, I think, is that there's no set way to play. Some people just want one of every breed, from common to rare. Some people set a "scroll goal," such as having 5 of each kind. Breeding is completely optional, but can be done in many different ways, and some players end up producing lineages with special meaning or a visual pattern. Others prefer dragons without a lineage and focus on collecting those. Some players have fun with the naming feature, such as creating funny names or using an entire text within a lineage. [Note: those two aren't mine!] There are people who do roleplay, with a dedicated forum board for that or freeform via chat.

New breeds are released regularly, and there are also a number of tricky options you can mess around with: some breeds will produce hybrids when crossbred, or the color of the offspring can be manipulated. You can turn your dragons into zombies by killing them and successfully reviving them, or into "neglected dragons" which have a different sprite! There are unbreedable types that must be caught in the Cave or summoned by the actions of a dragon you own. There are eggs which will hatch into different dragons depending on the time of day or the phase of the moon. Some breeds are common and some are rare; there are players who do their best to figure out the ratio system and alter it, by mass-breeding certain types and estimating the offspring ratios!

Special new breeds are released on three holidays each year, with those breeds only able to produce their own kind of egg for a week at that holiday. Holidays usually bring fun mini-games ranging from an "Easter Egg Hunt" all over the site to an RPG adventure, but it's all optional and doesn't affect your game if you're not interested.

Basically, it's a wide-open sandbox and you can do your own thing. While looking at cute dragon pictures. :D

All right; I think I've decided on my Valentine breeding programmes!

( Projected Val '09 breeding (i.e. for next year) )

( Rosebud breeding plans )

( Heartseeker breeding plans )

( Arsani breeding plans )

So...

Has anybody else noticed there's a Homestuck-themed egg in the DragCave egg hunt? :D

I just got my very first gold egg! With an awesome lineage! I am so excited I cannot stop using exclamation points! (Sorry!)

If you love me (or, hey, if you just love clicking stuff), will you click these ridiculous things? Thank you very much!