Help me do ND math?

[jocosa]

I'm trying my very first ND experiment. I know the odds are against me. :) Can someone help me with the TOD math, pretty please?

I stole a CB egg at 1pm PST today. It lost an hour at 2:00:01 PST and is now at 6 days, 23 hours.

When do I unfog it and toss into ERs and hope for the best? Thanks!

Also, any other tips would be super appreciated! :)

Comments

[codyne]

If you stole it from the Cave, the ToD is exactly 7 days from the time you caught it. It's only AP eggs you have to worry about calculating times.

I used to like to accumulate a few views on my experiments before ERing them -- it doesn't hurt, and unless you're planning to incubate it and pass it along to a partner if it turns, or try to force it, you'll have a slightly better chance of having it hatch before it dies. Maybe 50 views or fewer. A few clicks also help a lot.

I haven't done any experiments in a long time, so I don't know how the ERs are doing these days. I have a feeling views are accumulating a lot slower. I used to wait until under two minutes to ER mine, but I suspect that's not enough time these days. Maybe 5 minutes? 10? If I were going to do an experiment now, I'd probably grab a couple of eggs to sacrifice and start by sticking one in at 10 minutes, and time it to see how long it takes to hatch. If it dies without hatching, give the next one a few more minutes (like 12). If it hatches, note how long it took, and then give the next one about that much time. (For example, if it hatches in 8 minutes, stick the next one in with 8 minutes to live.) You want to time it so that the egg gets just barely enough views to hatch. If you find your experiments are hatching without turning too often, shorten the time you give them. If they die without ever turning, increase the time a little. It's all very iffy and it does change depending on the time of day, day of the week, which ERs are working, and so on.

I would also generally avoid using eggs grabbed right at the top of the hour -- you're going to hit the hourly lag right when your experiment is ending.

What I used to do was this: I had all the ERs I could find bookmarked in their own folder. When I was getting ready to do my experiments, I'd open all the ERs in separate tabs, plus AoND's auto-refresher. I'd get each page ready so that one click would enter the egg. Then I'd watch my computer clock until it reached the time to ER, then bam through the tabs click and close as quickly as I could, just leaving the Auto-refresher open. I'd watch the egg on the auto-refresher to see what happened. (Then go through and remove the dead egg/hatchling from all the ERs afterwards.) If I was planning to force the egg, I'd have the kill page all set up so that if the egg turned, I could kill it with one click.

I've thought about starting to experiment again, especially now that I don't have that much to collect. If you want to try doing one together sometime, let me know!

[jocosa]

Wow, thanks so much!! That was all super helpful! :)

I'm kind of bored with most things DC related so decided to see if I can get a ND someday. Gives me something to work on DC wise.

I did not think of the lag factor, darnit. I snagged at the top of the hour so it would be easy to recall the time I got it. Next time I'll grab two at a :05 mark, and try what you suggested. Put one in sooner, see how it does and adjust the time as needed on egg two.

I've seen people comment on the forums that NDs are tougher now, the slower view accumulation hurts them a lot.

Today counts as day 1, right? So Saturday at 1pm PST would be the TOD time?

Should I try to get the 50ish views now or wait a day or so? 50 should not hurt it, even at this young age.

[codyne]

Your egg's time of death will be next Sunday at 1 PM -- exactly one week from today. Unless you incubate it. Then it would be Saturday at 1 PM. If you incubate it, you can set up a transfer link and give it to someone so they can grab the egg if it turns. Then it will lose the incubate and gain a day, giving it plenty of time to hatch. A lot of people do experiments that way. But you do need someone you can trust to stand by while you do your experiment. They can also help refresh the egg and give it more views.

The lag shouldn't hurt you too much, since it doesn't start until after the top of the hour. It will be all over for your egg by then. :)

I don't think it really matters when you get the views, now or later, a few at a time or all at once. Just make sure you can keep an eye on it so it doesn't accidentally get too many.

Glad I could help, and good luck with your experiments!

Welp ...

[jocosa]

Try 1 was a success and a failure. *grin*

I threw it into Yarolds at 10 minutes before TOD for some clicks. Then into 4 click sites at 7 minutes till TOD. And it hatched. Into a CB Stone. Grrr! :P

Time to jettison him and try again. Not sure if I need fewer click sites or to add it with even less time left. At least I'm not stuck with a dead egg, so there is a bit of a silver lining. :)

Re: Welp ...

[codyne]

What were its stats when it hatched?

Since it hatched normal, I'd wait another minute or so next time. Did you see how long it had left when it hatched?

Exciting! I remember always getting sweaty palms when I was about to do an experiment. Heh. I'd get so nervous, I was afraid I'd be too shaky to click the right buttons to ER the egg. One of these days, I'll try again.

Re: Welp ...

[jocosa]

I was nervous too. I opened up all my tabs super early, filled in all teh boxes to make sure I did not mess it up when I really needed it, and then went back and just submitted afterwards. I was watching that second hand like a hawk, checking and double checking the time. :P

Stats were:
Overall Views: 1483
Unique Views: 118
Clicks: 15

I didn't see because I was feeling superstitious and nervous, so I did not look at it again until a minute or so after TOD. I know I need to look, but.. I don't wanna! *grin*

And I think you're right. I need to hold off a bit longer next try. I already added clicks to them both so may skip Yarolds next time. Not they they had much to OV/UV anyway. And use maybe less boxes on AOND. That may be what pushed it over the top, not sure.

You should try again soon! That way I am not out her stressing and yelling alone. :P

Re: Welp ...

[codyne]

My records on the experiments where the eggs turned show stats of around 1100/100/10 at ToD generally. My one that successfully turned and hatched had stats of 1117/113/17 when it hatched. Sounds like you could have waited another minute or two to ER yours. Which ERs did you use? Off hand I can think of Allure of Neglected Dragons, Eggs Around the World, Valley Sherwood, Silvi's, DragHatch, Egg Drop Soup... There are others, but they are probably too low-traffic to really make a difference. Egg Drop Soup seems to be offline half the time, but if it's running, it's useful.

I think I will try again! I like to use low-time AP eggs, partly because I don't have to wait as long to experiment, and partly because I think the extra day added to their time helps them to hatch with a bit lower stats. I was trolling the AP for eggs last night, but everything I picked up was bred, and I want a CB this time. (My one Neglected is spectacularly messy and inbred, which is fine by me -- but if I'm going to make a second one, I'd like a CB. Also, then I don't have to feel bad about killing someone else's babies.) Also, it would be nice to have a complete set of Male/Female/Ungendered sprites.

Re: Welp ...

[jocosa]

HAtchies again! Urgh! I waited till 6 minutes before TOD before submitting them both.
Stats:
Overall Views: 679
Unique Views: 275
Clicks: 18

Overall Views: 2652
Unique Views: 177
Clicks: 22

Not sure why the OV on the second is so much higher. I submitted them both at the same time, more or less.

Have you tried any experiments of your own? :)

Re: Welp ...

[codyne]

That is odd about the difference in stats! The first one has way more UVs and the 2nd one has way more OVs. Huh. I have no idea!

Right now the hatcheries are stuffed with Christmas eggs, so they're getting a lot more views than usual, probably why they're hatching so quickly.

I haven't done any more experiments myself. Too busy catching Christmas eggs! I'm having too much fun with the limit for bred holidays being removed. I'll try some after things settle down again. All those low-time AP eggs should make for good experiments!

Re: Welp ...

[codyne]

I tried an experiment tonight with a flamingo egg. Didn't bother to get it views ahead of time, so it had 13/9/5 when I stuffed it into 6 ERs with 5 minutes to live. It hatched without turning in about a minute with 363/188/5.

Next time, I'm going to ER at 2 minutes or less! It started to crack almost as soon as I ER'd it, I knew it wasn't going to turn. Maybe use fewer ERs. Once all the Holiday dragons are grown up, the ERs should slow down a bit.

Re: Welp ...

[jocosa]

Yeah, I think that was what ruined mine before, the previous holiday breeding season had kicked in and all the sites were packed.

At some point, we WILL make it happen! :P

How do you figure TOD on a random AP egg? I would love to have shorter wait times but math is tricksy.

Re: Welp ...

[codyne]

Basically, you just have to watch the egg to see when the time left changes. For example, if you have an egg that has 4d 1h left, you will watch to see when it changes to 4d 0h, and then you know its ToD is exactly 4 days from that time.

When you first pick up the egg, it helps to narrow down the time to a 5- or 10-minute interval first. So, check it every 5 or 10 minutes and see when the time changes. For example, if it changes sometime between xx:20 and xx:30, then sometime later you can refresh the egg's page once a second between xx:20 and xx:30 to see exactly when the time changes.

Say your egg changes from 3d 6h to 3d 5h at exactly 3:25:30. Then you know its time of death is 3 days and 5 hours from 3:25:30, or in three days at 8:25:30.

There's a tutorial on finding ToD on Allure of Neglected Dragons: http://www.coup-detat.info/NDER/ToD.php

I should go see if I can find some AP eggs for experiments now. Hmm, they're at 5d 3h and 5d 4h at the moment, so their time of death will be Sunday between 8 and 9 PM. That's a good time for experiments.