I want my dragon friend
Finding the quest
Similarly to the planned Siren Alliance quest, you would need to go through the dark Sea to find the quest giver.
In order to get the quest, you first need to find the other sea cluster that has been overrun by dragons, once you have found it you must go to say, the tallest Island within that Sea Cluster, or some other place where one of the really old and smart dragons live.
When you find the ancient/old dragon you can speak with them, they could also give some lore/info such as "none of these newer dragons know your tongue, it has been such a long time since i last saw one of your kind with both mind and body intact"2. 3. 3. 3. 3.
The quest line itself
This will be one of the main attractions for the sea, the old dragon will give you some tasks and objectives so you can “prove your heart/desire to us”
As of current/first iteration before any editing from ideas i may be given, here are 3 ideas for things that could be done for the quest line
- Hunt down any Behemoth class sea monster, perhaps so you can give the meat to the dragons since they cannot often taste the meat of such beasts when they hide beneath the waves. Possibly could be 1-3 sea monsters total as well to show that you are no pushover as well
- Deliver some treasure to another possibly old or young dragon as payment for something that may be owed since it would cut down on time delivering by ship as opposed to hold it in their claws for multiple back and forth trips to deliver it all. Said other dragon is likely to be waiting on the shore of another island waiting for the delivery when you start to pack up the items on your ship to send over
- An Extermination where we need to go into some small/tight cave(by dragon standards) to find and kill some “parasites” underground creatures that are a threat to some dragon eggs, (maybe an ancient cave bear or some other more powerful creature hiding in the caves that the dragons are much to large to fit in/fight inside) also some bioluminescence creatures attached to the walls and ceiling of these caves would be a nice to allow us to see what we are actually hunting down there so you are not blind half the fight.
Quest line completion
Once you have completed the previous quests, all dragons within that sea cluster specifically should no longer be hostile if they were previously, instead they will now all be neutral, only applies to dragons within the sea cluster as they may spread word around about you while those out in the dark sea and raiding the war seas have likely not heard of you helping out those other dragons yet
The first dragon you have spoken to may also teach you the language of dragons so you can communicate with the other dragons of the younger generations, along with a horn of some kind that you can use to call the dragon you later take as your companion
Also after having completed the quest and taught the language of dragons, you may sail around and speak to some of the younger dragons of the smallest size available that are currently resting. You can either offer them tons of food, like Kraken meat. maybe a bunch of other food options instead, or some jewels and gems in order to get them to join you as follower you can call upon. Bribe with food or treasure, you have a choice how you get em and what kind of dragon you want to try and get.
Only the young ones can be bribed though, as most of the other dragons of larger sizes will be more content to stay or go when they feel like it. When you bribe the dragon wether with food or treasure, they will lift off and start to circle around your ship, and they may occasionally/rarely either land on the ground near where your ship is, or in the water next to it to rest.
Dragon reqs/limits
The dragon pal of yours will start out at the smallest size available of course with stats similar to other dragons at that same size, I’d imagine a lvl req would be like 330+ or maybe even past 400 so you will simply be unable to have that extra travel option till you already have the “Ship of the line”
The dragon can earn experience through combat, whether it be by helping you sink ships, or fighting other dragons near its own level.
The max cap of your dragon will also be attached to your own current level, just to prevent someone from having an over leveled dragon crushing all your competition. With plans to add dragons in full release or a following update also would reasonably mean dragons can be fought at/around the high 100’s/low 200’s. So to avoid being OP the dragons can be made available when you have already past the level at which you fight them while also making it so they are limited by being below your own ships power. For the 1 dragon you are allowed to have, it’s max cap should be around 100-150 or so levels below your own current lvl
Also your dragon will be capable of regenerating naturally, however they cannot regenerate during combat and cannot start till about 5 minutes after having left combat (as to not be infinitely abusable constantly attacking people but also be a living creature healing as opposed to acting like a flying structure)
Behavior
When you join a server, your dragon does not immediately appear around you or your ship when it spawns, instead you will need to use the horn that is given to you from the final quest, when called they will start by flying in from a fair distance away, heading to your location where they will then land, could be used to call for help during a fight, though you do still need to stay alive for a bit before they get to your location.
from there you can interact with them, you can have them follow you which they start out with as the default Behavior since you just called them over. From there you can command them to guard your ship, causing them to circle around your ship, or if you ship is large enough (none of the current ships, masts are in the way & unsure about the future ones) they could land on the deck, otherwise they may land on nearby land or just float in the water when not flying.
You can also tell them to wait at a location, and like deckhands they can also be used to hold sealed chests which will be held in their front claws, however unlike deckhands they cannot effectively place the chests on the deck, so when told to unload they will drop it in the sea next to your ship to be picked up and delivered which much less distance to travel
You may also send your Dragon away from you and your ship to hunt another Player/NPC in the server, but if that player is in the dark sea you don’t have the option, and if the player enters the dark sea after the fact, you will receive a notification as your dragon turns around and heads back to your location, also applies if the player/npc died before your dragon arrived. (Also allowing them to go after Npc’s cause damn Evander is obnoxious to find sometimes)
(Inspired from the qna about the “possibility” even if unlikely of sending assassins after other players/npc’s, also thank you @yummers for the qna transcript, should be linked to the part i have referenced for the paragraph above)
Arcane Odyssey Full Release Developer QNA Transcript by Yummers - Google Docs
When your dragon “Dies” you can usually call it back after around 5-10 minutes by using the horn, however If it was killed after you sent them after another player or npc it will instead take half an hour before it can be re spawned as to prevent players from harassing you with a dragon every 10 minutes/using the dragon to find your location by following it and being very annoying. Also when killed by the dragon or you kill it you will be told who sent the dragon after you if they had not followed the dragon after you.
Dragon Advancements
After every so many levels you will be given a task to get a certain amount of energy worth in cooked food, specifically meats that you need to hunt from behemoth or above sea monsters, with behemoth/behemoth being the baseline for the first advancement/size increase, or you may need to return to the Dragons home sea cluster to do some other singular quest to allow your dragon to become more powerful
After the first Advancement your dragon may also be able to learn to use one of the base magics instead of its breath alone (could be why you need to return to the home sea cluster, could also be a behavior change where you get the option for them to guide you by being a certain distance away from your ship heading into the dark sea for you to follow before a forced spawn to allow you to go into the other sea cluster occurs)
Unlikely Theoretical i want but do not believe can be easily balanced therefor can be ignored/skipped while you read
Also I’d like to throw around the idea of Dragon armor, perhaps blueprints or the full thing itself can be found in underwater structures exclusively found in the dragons home sea cluster as a way to increase the durability of your dragon and little else (mainly durability cause i doubt we will need them to deal any more damage than what their base will be)
If Dragon armors can somehow be balanced, here are some possible types/classes of armor that could be put in game:
- Heavy, this armor increases the durability of a dragon by a considerable amount, however it also slows them down considerably unless they are descending from the sky
- Aerodynamic, this armor prioritizes speed over everything else, covering parts of the dragon that would cause drag with a more sleek and sharp design to cut through the air, increases the damage of a ram if dive bombing and increases/gains self damage along with a minuscule health increase
- Stunt, this armor type is more so for just how sharply and quickly that you can turn, with must of it going on the turning part, this is mostly for those who want to constantly be on your opponent so you can swiftly turn around and strike again after a flyby attack, more so for those who can aim and predict/better skilled
Dragon Riding
When riding the dragon there will be a (massive) stamina bar that will increase with the strength and power of your dragon, if the stamina runs out they will be forced to land on the ground or in the water to rest and recover which does not take very long.
They control similarly to a skyship, though if moving forwards the dragon will visually tilt up and down when you increase or decrease Altitude, though you will not have the specific height limit that sky ships have, so the altitude meter won’t show for a dragon while riding & you can turn sharper than a skyship can, while flying still at least.
When riding doing M1’s would be a basic breath attack going wherever your mouse was being aimed/dragged over during the attack, if your dragon has unlocked magic they would show up similarly to how deckhand abilities work where they show the name of the spell and the cool down.
If you hold shift you can descend at a rapidly increasing speed to dive at the water to charge and and ram ships, or release early to do a low attack run from when you were at a previously high location where you would have dealt less damage
If you are currently active on the ground/water, you may also press shift+click to have your dragon swing its claws or bite, though, at that point it might be better to not be riding your dragon while doing a ground fight and instead tag team the foe.
Alternative If it cannot be balanced per player (1 per Clan/Guild, mainly clan since we don’t know how guilds work yet)
Alternative Obtainment
you can find a dragon egg with a 25-30% chance on an island in the dark sea that a dragon was inhabiting, and high ranking clan members will receive a horn
Alternative Behavior
High ranking members can use the horn to call the dragon and issue 1 of 3 commands
- Guard this island. The dragon will circle around the island and attack anyone that is part of a different clan if they are actively being attacked by the islands defenses or have reached the island itself
- Guard the flagship. The dragon will circle around the flagship of the clan, always staying near it attacking foes that either the ship attacks, or those that attack the ship, whichever comes first
- Attack [Selected] Island. the dragon will fly to the island claimed by another clan and lay siege to it and will mainly target the opposing dragon first if there is any before it focuses on the other defenses
Alternate Advancements
Since you are raising em from an egg this time, lots of food will be needed to rank this up, requiring much more food to rank up, similarly to how much galleons/drachma it takes for the higher tier defenses
Also at tier 1 (baby) they can only defend your island/flagship, as they do not know the direction of nearby islands, they are still smoll
If dragons can be balanced for players, then i suppose the “Clan dragons” will be capable of growing to stronger levels than the personal dragons while also the only dragons that can have armor being in clans
