Why do people stop playing DoD and what do they feel is the biggest issue?

[plush hollow]

Self explanatory title, I think making a feedback thread getting players opinions on what's driving them away from the game may help the dev's prioritise what to improve first. It would also be nice to hear what would bring people back too.

So, why do people leave? is it because of:

Game Performance/Optimisation - 2
Map Design - 5
Dragon Design - 6
Number of Playables - 0
Lack of Things to do - 10
Balance Issues - 8
Overall Game Design - 4
Cosmetics - 0
Breeding/Nesting - 4
Stats - 3
The Community - 1
Clans - 8
Growth Times - 6
Lack of Skins/Skin Design - 4
Hatchling Gameplay - 5
Time to Elder - 1
Time to Kill - 3
Method to Elder - 2
Lack of Development Updates - 3
Bugs - 1

If there's anything I've missed be sure to add it in to your post! I will add a count to each section based on responses of why people leave also, to help make the information easier to see.

[turbid mirage]

I think one of the biggest problems was that you started again at 0 at the beginning. There were still many game mistakes that put a strain on the gameplay.

For example, the initially unfinished map also bored me a lot.
I used to like to just travel through the map, but when the new one was released, large parts were just bare landscape.
But they have already done a little better. 👍❤️

It was also boring for many because there were too few skins, but that works better at the moment because they released smaller patches.

😊 I'm also much more in the mood
I think that the game will go into the roof again as soon as more skins come out, for example, and the map becomes more prominent.

🗺️🤔 If you are interested, you can take a look at my idea for the new map, I have labeled the map with all known places.
This would make playing much more interesting and better, especially for new ones, because they know where they are and what the place is called. (and which coadinates they are)

(The mapping took about 3-4 hours, which means that the map has also become a lot better🗺️💖😁)

[worthy edge]

I've left DoD because the growing times were just too long to be worth getting killed on sight by a clan on PvP. Hatchie gameplay is just pure slog, hatchlings have pretty much nothing going on for them except finding food and water which is pretty difficult in a huge and mostly empty map
PvE servers have the same growing issue, yes you don't get KOSed by a clan but there's pretty much nothing to do
Also the performance isn't the best, areas with more than five dragons become nearly unplayable even on low graphic settings

[muted patrol]

For small clans without outside help I cannot IMAGINE how hard it is to upstat. I wouldn't blame any of them for giving up or even leaving over it or joining a different clan to reap the benefits. Reasons why it is difficult is lack of people who don't have 6+ accounts to help with breeding. Bigger clans finding and hunting breeders/babies/players down that push back time quite a bit. As well as the breeding system is not as beginner friendly as it was in legacy due to stats not being just upstatted easily because recessives now come into play.

As far as DOD goes as a game I enjoy the PVP a lot... When it's there. Due to the lack of numbers that hasn't been the case majority of the day. There's nothing to do otherwise that keeps the game enticing other than eldering which if no one is around, it's easy game for the most part.

I would also like to second the growing times. I should not have to log in multiple days to grow a dragon even with a growth buff because the time takes that long 💀 kinda nuts in my opinion that isn't a behemoth.

[strange vapor]

I think the biggest reason for me boils down to how little substance there is to the game versus how long it takes to get there. Growth times are long, eldering is long, nesting is long, upstatting etc they all take so much time that if you want to actually get ANYWHERE you need to spend hours “playing” every day. In reality, you sit and wait to grow, you sit and wait for nests, then you fight, you die, and you wait again.
In the end, all that time doesnt go anywhere of substance. The combat and flight system is so inconsistent that it is extremely easy to die even when it seems like you’re doing well - you’ll bite and miss someone that was entirely in your mouth because of animation delays, you could fire a shot that explodes like it hit but the enemy takes no damage, you play any dragon other than a Shadow and youre kind of just,,, on the wrong dragon automatically, unless you’re using specific tactics with a group. There’s one correct way to play this game, and it sucks.

[loud nymph]

It does feel like it takes a long time to grow but a genuine question…have yall ever played The Isle? Try a 14hour grow time for a Rex lol. The grow time isn’t entirely too bad, it’s just boring cause you’re mainly just sitting in a bush or cloaked while growing with nothing to do. The isle you are constantly moving, running around to kill the AI and all that. I agree with A.VI. about if you are playing anything other then a shadow you’re automatically on the wrong dragon cause of how meta, broken and how boring it is lol. Don’t get me wrong, full charging something and watching it flop out the air is super satisfying at times but majority it’s just boring doing circles in the air.

I brought up a while ago an idea to bring up some PVP action and that was about turning one of the crystals into a Gold Elder Crystal where you only need to cal it once and it has a 5 minute timer where it’ll pop and whoever is in the radius, you’ll get like a 5 ticks worth of elder growth. Idk something different 🤷🏻‍♂️ I also think white crystals during the night and day need to be increased 🤷🏻‍♂️

[strange vapor]

That’s the reason I dont really play the Isle either. I have the game, but only ever play on custom servers with very fast growth times, same thing on Path of Titans, custom servers only with fast times. Those games are also significantly more in-depth with stat trees that actually do something and ways to significantly speed up your growth - being a hatchie isnt a death sentence because the maps are so thorough and full of life and places to hide.

[tame iron]

Lack of skins for sure and lack of skin crafting. I miss crafting skins and being promised an updated skin crafting for april of 2024 only to still not have it now. Im thankful for the new skins we are getting for sure. But I have been turned off of playing this game since the update due to the lack of skins. I sometimes go back to legacy to see my old cow skins, Broken Nebula, aurora, swamp geyser, etc. But hardly anybody goes to legacy anymore to even make going back worth it. So lack of skins are a big thing as someone who loved breeding and skin crafting, and lack of people as well

[alpine gale]

This is a huge reason I don't play anymore. You put in 3-5 hours to get to adult, with very little things to do during that time other than try your best to hide away from large clans, and then once you get to adult, the time to kill is incredibly fast - usually just 1-2 actual hits is all it takes.

And because the main way of improving your dragon is nesting, there's a positive feedback loop - large clans are more likely to upstat quickly, and less likely to lose those stats once they have them. They're ALSO more likely to field more players in a fight, so for a small/new clan, you're fighting with a large number disadvantage and a large stat disadvantage too, making it quite hard to protect your few breeders while up statting.

To compound the problem further, there's only a few spots on the map, at least until very recently, where it was even possible to feed more than a single dragon, and that made it far too easy for clans to find enemies before they grew powerful enough to contest.

[graceful wing]

I agree its too easy and fast to die.
most of the time while playing i found myself tabbing out to watch youtube or something(even on a PVP server!)
There's a huge lack of nothing to do one you reach adult and then elder, there's no way to improve your dragon solo, and clans still have the ability to deathball.
the elder process feels uninspiring. the crystals look like they were airdropped onto the map and feel so out of place.
making the elder snappers drop sand/snowslayer pearls instead of making a snapper pearl was a strange decision. now when fighting the worms (in a few years??) those skins are going to feel so cheap.

overall, its mostly the endgame content. there's just NOTHING to do.

[pastel cove]

The reason I left is the lack of transparency from the Devs about what is going on with this game. No idea what’s being worked on, there’s bugs that have been in this game for YEARS (flight bug, AI dropping through the ground, and jump bug being a few), and the actual gameplay is just… it feels bad. Hours to grow, hours to nest, hours lost upstatting and growing again. The stat system lowkey killed the fun of the game. It feels more like a cashgrabby mobile game than an indie survival game in development. Maybe it’ll change, maybe it’s maybelline. Who knows. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[steep narwhal]

Ive quit dod for reasons of..

• Clan dynamic being extremely toxic and just overall bad
• Lack of map changes/diversity
• Map is extremely small for PvP
• Nothing to do, been doing the same thing for years……
• Repeat everything over and over daily…

Only leaving this for post add-on purposes.

[polar pumice]

I think the shadows need to be nurfed hard. And why are the only two dragons with decent armor either slow as a cow or has short breath range? I don't plan to come back to play thisbgame unless there is a better balance to pvp or something else to do on pve other then nesting dragons or hunting the same bug for food. The aging in the game takes way to long to get any where in pvp. I don't see the point in making it to elder when the moment you become a juvi you are hunted down by a pack of ss that have all ready made it to elder, just to spend another 2 hours running for your life as a baby. Add a story mode that offers quest and a decent story to it. The skins are lame and textureless. The emotes are (in my opinion) kinda pointless. There is nothing to explore or do beyond hiding till you are an adult, if you make it that far before you become bored of the game.

[rapid lintel]

Needs to be incentives to wander as a young dragon because for the moment game rewards the games best survival strategy known to man.... afk in a bush do something else
Only thing thats seems enjoyable aside from just chilling is the clan wars and many a dragon say nah cause the weeks endeavor to nest said dragon

[torn vale]

Theres just nothing to do, the eldering system has a horrid gameplay loop of just sit and hope the crystal you needs spawns. Other then Elder or nest theres just nothing else to really do pve wise, lack of skins doesnt help either especially for dragons like SS that doesnt have any new unique skins yet

[loud gate]

Within the group of players I used to play with the main complaint is how performance became abysmal after 1.0 and the second complaint is the lack of things to do (also no SA servers)

[dreamy yacht]

Balance. Most dragons can kill with 1 or 2 well aimed hits, while also having large health pools and escape/mitigation abilities, while some dragons can be 1 hit killed by any attack, while also having attacks that are low damage. You'll find those unbalanced factors make people refrain from playing certain dragons. And it shows by how many SS outnumber every other dragon type in pvp.

[fiery solar]

In PvP, there's only two viable caves on the map, the map went from having a bunch of smaller clans to only just 2 - 3 mega clans

They are also no places to hide in nooks and crannies on the map as the devs made an conscious effort to remove them as they get found leaving all the people who are not part of the mega clans absolutely no chance of surviving on the map leading to very toxic gameplay

In other similar games, you have plenty of hiding options, in dod (unless you are ASD or SS), death is guaranteed if you get spotted by one of the mega clans and ain't nobody got time for that

Finally, I think SS needs a major rework, they are the only ones who can bring a gun into a knife fight against every other dragons

[compact crypt]

I'm not going to be very detailed but I stopped playing because of the community + balancing for PvP.

[soft dagger]

my only issues with the game is balance issues, issues with the moderation system, lack of transparency and communication with what the developers are working on currently, being unable to see my ping fluctuate as i am playing, and what the reasons for lack of patches and updates are.

[amber flax]

While this is not a problem for me, I like to think of other players experiences + the money problem

The amount of money this game is. Obviously there is the argument that you can get nested in, but in PVP that chance is 1%.

Now, for solo PVP players (even experienced ones) The only dragon they can play without being killed immediately is SS. There is the high risk of clans swarming, so SS is the only chance solo's can get away if they learn how to. Now the 2 other dragons they might be able to survive on is ASD and BS, but having them both at a $8 DLC is INSANE.

So now they cant really enjoy the other dragons, I mean it will be hard and they could, but still very futtering. Then people might say "Play PvE!" But not everyone wants to nest and do nothing.
Additionally the emotes being alot of money too is very frustrating, likeeee?

My suggestions (I'm not fully sure but they are ideas)

• PVP No clans (pretty sure that is a server already or was going to be)
• Make more hidey holes
• Get rid of arch water (this isnt related, but 1 its pretty OP, and 2, it dosent make ense why there is water in it? Either get rid of it or add a skylight to show that is where the water came from.)
• Add more solo friendly dragons (This is needed, but SS is pretty overpowerd. I would add something else they dont have to pay for and that isnt as bulky so they have a chance of surviving)
• Add quests or something else to do

I always like looking at perspectives that a design choice might impact. This is killing solo player PvP'ers.
Legacy did not have this problem because the 3 dragons somewhat balenced each other out, and the ASD being the only DLC. Had a higher chance of living as SS and FS (thought you would have to be smart)
big rant lol