Encouragement through mechanics

[dire meadow]

The game lacks mechanics that would encourage "fun" ways of playing the game. And discourage “unfun” ways of playing.

The game lacks proper ways of encouraging the right type of play, if newbie juvie enters someone’s territory then the optimal choice for the “defender” is to fight them.
In that case the mechanics encourage “unfun” play. because the newbie feel like they died for seemingly no reason.
A territory marking system could help this. And if we add some type of stacking buff for staying within your area, that would also discourage clans from chasing potential hostiles for miles. While not actually making it harder to do so.

We could also use a way of communicating easier. Like a call that shows your nameplate and your clan. (this could give you a defense/offense boost against those who haven’t done the call recently, encouraging players to announce themselves through mechanics, while also not hurting attempts at stealth) And if the nameplate signals if you've hurt another dragon recently, it can also "prove your innocence" if someone nearby attacked a clan-member.

And if we continue with this idea, we could have a "peace" emote. Target a player, do the emote, and if they do it back, you both get reduced damage against each other, so when you encounter a potential enemy, do the emote, and attack if they don't reciprocate.

Also if there was more PVP "opt in" type activities, then those who enjoy pvp won't go around looking for a fight with newbies and neutrals, but rather will do content that will pit them against other players who want to do the same. like more areas with timed resources.
Another example of this could be something like an arena where losing your health will stun you, but dying requires someone to do a “death strike” by button prompt (encouraging players to participate in pvp with no gain and low-ish stakes, so newbies get experience in fighting, and experienced players can do duels with friends/rivals)

[grand gulch]

I love all of these ideas so much. I'm a player who mains pvp, but I'm a nomad who's allied with several people from several clans. There have been times where I'm literally raising or protecting a hatchling from a clan, and their clan members decide to hunt me down and get rid of me.
With the territory claiming system, t strongly recommend an ally system (for clans, and some individual players), so that allied clans can see each other and go through each other's territory without problems. A limit on how much land a clan can claim as well- because some clans controlling the entire map is ridiculous.
And a maintenance for retaining that territory - so that if the clan goes inactive for a month or two, their territory starts to fade, or other clans have a chance to fight over territory and duel to see who gets to keep it.

Also areas that are unable to be claimed- such as hatchie spawn areas, hotspots like Br, ect

[dire meadow]

That would be nice, perhaps you do an activity in the area you wish to claim, and you can only do those every x minutes, and if it's not done enough, it'll stop being claimed area.
Having any visual to show territory would do amazing things for solo play.

Myself, I've had an event where two clans were fighting nearby my clans area, and they not only ended up killing multiple of my clanmates by accident. Both sides attacked me on separate occasions while i was still trying to heal from the previous damage, i wanted to leave, but it's not safe at 30% health.

[grand gulch]

Yes yes, It would be nice to be able to tell the difference between clans during a fight. It might even discourage the infamous Hatchie Killers if people were able to tell what clan they come from.
Granted, It would only be fair for cloaked ss to be fully invisible, but with the "Uncloak once attacked/attack" mechanic it should still be viable

[nimble mural]

That would be amazing