A RARE BREED OF BLOG

Enclosure Mechanics Revamp

Created by RBG_Xorphix

Reptile Breeder 'Standard'


This article is now outdated. The proposed changes are no longer going ahead.

Re-thinking Enclosures

This is a proposal of changing the entire room/enclosure/habitat system to make it more intuitive, efficient and streamlined. The new system will be visually more intuitive, while retaining alot of the mechanics of the original (existing) system of assignment. The intention would be to make the ownership of individual enclosures and tubs obsolete, and instead assign reptiles to "psuedo" enclosures/tubs via the reptile's profiles (or via the reptile room using mass action).

The current system functions as so:
  1. Purchase reptile/s
  2. Purchase an enclosure
  3. Assign that enclosure to a room when viewing enclosure
  4. Customise that enclosure's habitat when viewing enclosure
  5. Assign reptile/s to that enclosure via that enclosure screen

The new proposed system of housing a reptile would require the following sequence:
  1. Purchase reptile/s
  2. Assign reptile to an individual enclosure via reptile's profile page
  3. Customise assigned enclosure via reptile's profile page

As you can see, the sequence would be significantly shortened when housing a reptile. Note that the last two actions in the above sequence will be achievable via the breeder's reptile room as a mass action. The cost of assigning each reptile to an enclosure would still infer a cost based on the reptile's space requirement.

What about racks?

The rack system would see a similar overhaul, where each reptile is assigned to a rack via a dropdown select menu on the reptile's profile page, however a player must own one or a number of racks, allowing a reptile to be assigned to them. This differs from enclosures, as you won't need to own individual enclosures/tubs to be able to assign reptiles to them. There would be no enclosures or [rack] tubs to view or clean, or assign reptiles to. Instead, when viewing a rack, it would display all the reptiles assigned to that rack, instead of unique tubs (which currently need to be viewed individually to see which reptiles are assigned). Racks will still be limited to allowing reptiles of a certain space requirement to be assigned, much like the older/current system.

We feel a shift away from the seemingly clunky and convuluted enclosure management of today would allow more focus into breeding projects from the massive array of reptile species in the game. This overhaul would also offer a colossal improvement of page load times, freeing up that time for players to focus on their actual reptiles, while still offering a certain degree of housing management.

This is the idea, anyway. TL;DR? Nothing is changing right now. Proposal is: Enclosures/tubs gone, racks and room space remain plus some more snazzy awesome mechanics in place of them. We will post more details once we've received the first wave of feedback!
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Article Comments
#302
I've read the proposed changes a couple of times and am still a little confused, especially where it says a cost will be assigned when a reptile is added to an enclosure. The rack system is confusing as well. We no longer own enclosures and assign a reptile to a rack from it's page with a drop-down menu? Is that menu going to show us how much space is available in the rack and can we house different species in the various tubs of that rack like we can now (as long as the habitat requirement is the same)? I move my reptiles around my enclosures and racks each turn, filling empty space that just opened by the sale of an adult with others that have outgrown their current enclosure. I fill enclosures and rack tubs very efficiently each turn and shuffle my reptiles as often as necessary. I still want to be able to do that without incurring a cost each time. I accept having to spend money changing the habitat of an enclosure when necessary but I don't want to have to spend money when I move 6 neonate corns into a 3 space enclosure, then to a 1 space, 2 space and the same 3 space enclosure, then to a 4 space, a 6 space and the same 2 space enclosure, and finally into two 6 space and two 3 space enclosures when they reach adulthood. All of my current 954 reptiles have been shuffled like that, and from enclosures to racks and back again, depending upon the needs each turn. Will I still be able to do that or will I be stuck having to assign each reptile to a single living space, be it enclosure or rack, and have it stay there it's entire life, wasting a lot of space during the long growing period?