Keeping Track of Your Dragons - Spreadsheet Discussion/Tips Thread

[DeeDe99]

Introduction/Background

This thread has evolved out of discussions in response to questions about lists of dragons.

There will be specific topic posts on this thread as it develops and I will put an index here as the thread grows.

Index:

My KISS Principle Spreadsheet (http://forums.storm8.com/showthread.php?87991-Keeping-Track-of-Your-Dragons-Spreadsheet-Discussion-Tips-Thread&p=1232046&viewfull=1#post1232046)
Habitat Tracking (http://forums.storm8.com/showthread.php?87991-Keeping-Track-of-Your-Dragons-Spreadsheet-Discussion-Tips-Thread&p=1232054&viewfull=1#post1232054)
Arena Battles Tracking (http://forums.storm8.com/showthread.php?87991-Keeping-Track-of-Your-Dragons-Spreadsheet-Discussion-Tips-Thread&p=1232055&viewfull=1#post1232055)
Battle Colour/Type Cross Matching (http://forums.storm8.com/showthread.php?87991-Keeping-Track-of-Your-Dragons-Spreadsheet-Discussion-Tips-Thread&p=1232056&viewfull=1#post1232056)
Intro to Pivoting Your Data (http://forums.storm8.com/showthread.php?87991-Keeping-Track-of-Your-Dragons-Spreadsheet-Discussion-Tips-Thread&p=1232205&viewfull=1#post1232205)

Before we start discussing our own techniques and sharing our various ideas, I want to do a little recap, an Introduction/Background post.

There are already spreadsheets and lists maintained by other users which can be found in the Game Guide under Dragon Story Lists - In Progress (http://forums.storm8.com/showthread.php?41090-Dragon-Story-Game-Guide&p=472096&viewfull=1#post472096). It looks like this when opened in Google Docs.

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The work that has gone into this is amazing and the player who did all the hard work is given as 1crazycajun (http://forums.storm8.com/member.php?34754-1crazycajun). It is still being updated and includes breeding results collection (from all players who want to contribute data) and statistics - very comprehensive.

There is also the Dragon Story Inventory, Chart and Checklists (http://forums.storm8.com/showthread.php?41090-Dragon-Story-Game-Guide&p=472101&viewfull=1#post472101) if you have missed it! Thanks to Sehana (http://forums.storm8.com/member.php?368-sehana) for those.

For many of you already using or wanting spreadsheets, this may be a great starting or reference point.

I had found these before I started my spreadsheet, but found them a little more complicated than I personally wanted, although they are brilliant pieces of work.

On the thread that hatched this thread (http://forums.storm8.com/showthread.php?87923-dragon-list), the Album (iOS only at this stage) and various other ways of looking at lists of your dragons has already been discussed and suggested.

A quick recap is as follows.

The Album

At this stage only available to iOS users, greyed out in Android. Lists all currently available dragons plus expired/limited dragons that you have acquired. Very limited information and is not sorted in any useful order. Does not include rarity or evolution/breeding time. The stars under the dragon image indicate the evolution stages completed for that particular dragon; if you have more than one of any one dragon, it is the more senior dragon's status that is reflected here.

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Dragons you do not have are greyed out.

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The information available is as shown:

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Arena Selection List

Dragons that are otherwise occupied are covered over with that information. Ideal for the Arena, of course, but not for listing your dragons. Not available during Arena sleep time or to those under level 30.

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Evolution Flower List

Only lists those not yet Epic and if they need more food, covered over with "Feed More" so the details can't be seen.

Trading Portal List

Excludes dragons that can't be traded. Be careful not to accidentally trade something! There IS a confirmation screen, so don't worry too much.

Market Lists

Excludes dragons you may own that are not currently available or cannot be purchased. Dragons you already own that are available in the market are listed at the bottom of the Market list. Can be useful as a quick reference guide.

[DeeDe99]

For those who may not be in the know, the first question we should answer is, what is a spreadsheet?

A spreadsheet is comprised of columns and rows, the columns are usually labelled A, B, C etc while the rows are numbered 1, 2, 3.

The intersection of each column and row is called a cell. Within the cell can be entered data: alpha characters or numbers or a vast array of formulas. If you want to know more, Google and Youtube are great learning resources. The rest of this thread assumes basic spreadsheet knowledge!

I've kept my own tracking spreadsheet very simple. I have future plans for linking various spreadsheets such as specific dragons to habitat location etc, but just haven't got around to it.

The main questions I initially wanted to be able to answer quickly were:

What dragons have I got?
How did I get them?
What level are they?
What rarity are they?
What types/colours are they?
What is their evolution time?
How much revenue are the dragons earning an hour and a day? (Need this for budgeting purposes re food and expansions outlay)
Do I have spare habitat slots for which types/colours? (Those eggs hatch, you see, and need a bed)

I wanted something compact and quick, where I could filter the list by selection criteria (i.e. find all my level 3 dragons or find all the purple primary types).

There are no pretty pictures in my spreadsheet, it is a basic working tool only.

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I can use any of the filters at the top (Rarity circled in red in this example) to find specific groups of dragons, or an individual dragon.

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At the bottom I have a total of the Earning column so I know how much coin I can afford to spend on food before I start going backwards! I reconcile the total dragons to the total on the profile page of the game, remembering that number on the profile page includes Arctic dragons and excludes anything in the Stable.

I have a pivot table built on this to tell me how many of each level I have. The two blank at the bottom are the Arctic Isles dragons and I leave it that way deliberately. While preparing this post, I realised changing my notation in the main spreadsheet from "Epic 10" to "10 Epic" made this pivot table much more readable, hence the difference between this screen shot and the one above!

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I have similar pivots for Rarity and Dragon, so I can quickly see what % of each rarity and how many duplicates of any dragon I have.

Under Parent I enter source indicators when I did not breed the dragon and my Legend is as follows.

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I have spreadsheets for Habitats and for Arena data, but that's for another day, another post. Enough for today. :)

[DeeDe99]

Habitats: do I have a spare bed for a new dragon? A new red dragon? Green dragon?

I got tired of having to click on every habitat to see, so I set up a simple habitat list with conditional formating of cells to show me instantly where I have free beds.

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I won't go into much detail of the list, I think the columns are self-explanatory! :)

To conditionally format, select the top cell in the Occupancy data column. From the Home Menu, select Conditional Formatting

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Select Highlight Cells Rules, then select Less Than

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From the 27556 range button, select the corresponding Capacity cell. Set your preferred format. Click OK.

Using the Format Painter tool (the little paintbrush), copy this format down the column. Hey, presto, your vacancies are highlighted automatically.

Of course all this means updating this spreadsheet when you hatch and place a new dragon, but the number of times it has saved me from leaving an egg sitting on a nest for 24 hours waiting for a habitat to build, it has been worth it!

What I want to work on now is giving each habitat a unique identifier so I can link each dragon on the dragon list to a habitat, using a selection list, but I've been moving my dragons around too much to bother at the moment - I'd spend more time updating my spreadsheets than breeding dragons! But I can see as my numbers grow and the dragon locations settle down, I'll find such an enhancement useful.

Edit: Due to inspiration from Roguebee, I have now linked each dragon to a habitat. Details are in post #20 (http://forums.storm8.com/showthread.php?87991-Keeping-Track-of-Your-Dragons-Spreadsheet-Discussion-Tips-Thread&p=1232591&viewfull=1#post1232591). I no longer need to update this spreadsheet at all (unless I add a new habitat, of course), it automatically updates.

Mapping the habitats to a specific island plot is a little further away for me. I just haven't had the need, yet.

[DeeDe99]

When I first got to level 30, the Arena was new and exciting! I was so totally ignorant about the whole battling thing. Then I got to my first tournament. What a struggle that was! Many thanks to all those who encouraged me through that tournament! It was the Warrior Prince tournament and looking back now my record keeping was atrocious!

By the next tournament I had improved. One spreadsheet, Tournament battles on the left-hand side (very neatly recorded) and non-tournament battles on the right hand side of the spreadsheet. But I was REALLY bad at recording non-tournament battles. Look at this example: a couple I've forgotten who I actually used to win, no levels recorded a lot of the time, just really useless!

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After the Black Ice Tournament I decided to get a bit more serious. Several of us were experimenting with magic in the arena (http://forums.storm8.com/showthread.php?86330-Magic-in-the-Arena), and there is often much discussion on tournament threads about particular dragons being great fighters on one island yet not so great on other islands. On top of that, I was (still am) developing my own colour cross-matching theories and I needed better reference data! So I revamped and may well do so again. Yes, of course there is a pivot table (http://forums.storm8.com/showthread.php?87991-Keeping-Track-of-Your-Dragons-Spreadsheet-Discussion-Tips-Thread&p=1232205&viewfull=1#post1232205) involved, did you really have any doubt?

I opened another spreadsheet and took all my well recorded tournament data and pasted it all into the one list. I then looked at my very badly recorded non-tournament data and copied what was useful (i.e. where I had actually recorded properly) and left the rest behind. Over time that missing data will matter less and less as new data is collected.

I then sorted it by opponent and added filters at the top, so it looks like this (I've scrolled down the list a bit here).

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This way I can quickly see what I've used against what and been successful in the past, especially useful during tournaments. Most of the time recording doesn't take much effort - just copy/paste (or insert copied cells) an existing record for that opponent and update the data that is different: my dragon or the levels or the strike.

The Pivot Table? It just tells me who has won the most. Oh, that's out of 340 recorded battles.

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In reality, who has won the most is pretty useless information because that all depends on what opponent types I have faced. If I'd faced a run of dragons needing be fought with Rainbow hybrids, Nouveau could be at the top of the list instead of Warrior Prince. If I had different dragons, I might use different dragons, so these percentages would be different. However on my island if you win more you are likely to get fed more, so it does serve some purpose!

I don't record losses unless it is a tournament and then only on the actual tournament sheet. Once the tournament is finished I copy/past the records (excluding losses) to this main summary sheet and sort the list again. (Bragging warning) I don't lose often enough to make recording losses worthwhile (you can believe that or not as you see fit :cool::p).

My next (and last unless I am asked for something specific) post will be about recording colour/type combos. Weekend job that is, I think.

Good luck in the arena!

[DeeDe99]

Last one! Aren't you all relieved about THAT! This is a bit wordy as it requires explanation. It also really isn't about tracking your dragons, more like tracking your Arena opponents I suppose, so maybe a little off-topic.

Now this is messy. It is also a work in progress because when I started I wasn't sure how I wanted the final product to be. SimDiva and I have talked about using a database application, but neither of us have had the fortitude and with the Tales starting I think this will continue to be a "one day" sort of project. What I have achieved to date suits my purpose and really, once it is done, it is done.

For those who haven't already figured this out, when it comes to the Battle Arena I don't use the unmentionable tool. I found it way too cumbersome and I don't have one third of the dragons etc etc etc. I also had different ideas about how to pick winners.

I forget which tournament it was now, but I started to depend on the Colour Chart. The problem was, it was hard to work out what to use just by looking at the chart, especially with tri-colours. I'd pick a fighter, lose and then realise I had a "bad" colour I hadn't noticed in the list. I needed something clearer.

So I started creating little groupings in a spreadsheet and marking off the good colours that appeared in the list of bad colours as shown below.

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The Caesar example shows clearly how few colours/types are actually left to use! Now, I don't know, but I work on the basis we gain points for good colours and lose points for bad colours so my aim is to take a fighter into the arena who has only good OR good + unmentioned colours if at all possible. Unmentioned on the basis that might not earn a point, but it won't lose me one either. Sure, I compromise if I don't have the perfect combination! But at least I know what I'm aiming for. I'll try to compensate with level or rarity if my colours aren't as good as I'd like.

I don't know if types get extra points for being mentioned three times! But it is a possibility, is it not? Champions, being strong against virtually everything are mentioned multiple times, but often so is Rainbow or Gemstone.

As I come up against dragons with the same type combinations, I add their name to the cross-match BUT when I choose a fighter I pay careful attention to whether the opponent is a (for example) white/blue or a blue/white. My results indicate that this may make a difference. I like to have my dragon's first-named type be against the opponent's first-named type. It may mean absolutely nothing!

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Rarity and level I can do in my head on the fly although I usually only worry about level as a "tie-breaker" if rarity and colour/type are tight.

My problem is this spreadsheet is cumbersome - or has been cumbersome to develop. A spreadsheet is not the right tool but it has been OK for prototyping. I now have 76 different colour combinations cross-matched and while I get a new one every now and then, it is not too often.

I have the "Find" tool on the quick access toolbar, so it is just a click and enter the opponent's name to jump to the right cross-match.

I have also made some changes to my own copy of the Colour Chart, which I have detailed previously on the Master Battle Thread in this post (http://forums.storm8.com/showthread.php?68069-Master-Battle-Thread-Part-III&p=1225893&viewfull=1#post1225893).

That's it. I'm done! Thank you for reading, I hope some of this may have been of use to some!

[MaribouMay]

Great content! Thank you for taking this on.

I appreciate how organized you are and how easy it is to understand. I would love to learn about pivot tables. Maybe you could show us how they can manipulate a spreadsheet?

[DeeDe99]

Great content! Thank you for taking this on.

I appreciate how organized you are and how easy it is to understand. I would love to learn about pivot tables. Maybe you could show us how they can manipulate a spreadsheet?

Thank you May. Certainly I can give a Pivot Table Intro which should get most people started. I'm using Excel, so people using a different spreadsheet application may have to search out the appropriate function in their application, but it shouldn't be too difficult to locate.

The great thing about Pivot Tables is once they are set up, that's it! You only need to update the raw data in the main list and the Pivots will update themselves (well, OK you do have to hit "Refresh" if you don't set them to auto-update).

Select the Insert menu, then Pivot Table

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The following dialogue will pop up:

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Click on the range button 27545 and highlight the range containing your data. If you select the range before selecting Insert > Pivot Table, this box will already be populated, as in my screen shot. I have marked an "Insert Rows above this line" row in my main data so I never have to change the range the Pivot Table works from: by inserting rather than adding at the end, the range grows dynamically.

Select if you want your pivot table on the same spreadsheet as your data, or a new spreadsheet. I usually select a new spreadsheet for the first one and then put all my pivot tables there. That way I don't have to move the pivot tables later if I make changes to my base data layout, such as adding additional columns.

Click OK and you will then be shown the Pivot Table Field designer. I have pre-completed this one. Simply click and drag the fields you want into the areas of the table as shown.

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In the above, I am counting the Hybrid column as it always has a value in it. It doesn't matter what the value is, as long as the cell isn't blank, it will be counted.

Then I use the same column to display the value as a percentage of the total, so I drag that field down to the Values area twice. On the second one, click the little arrow beside the "Count of" and a sub-menu will display, select "Value Field Settings" to open the dialogue.

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To be continued in next reply, as there is a limit of 5 pictures per post.

[DeeDe99]

Part two Pivot table

Click on the "Show values as" tab then select "% of Grand Total" from the dropdown. You can also change the name on this dialogue, so I have called this pivot table column "Percentage".

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You can also add a filter to the Pivot Table, to look at a sub-set of your data, for example, Gemstone dragons only.

On the Pivot Table Fields dialogue, I have dragged "Type 1" into the Filter area.

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I can now select from the Filter:

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To see my Gemstones by Rarity.

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Hopefully that is enough to get people started.

To update/refresh your pivot tables after you have made changes in your base data, you can either:

Right click in a pivot table and select "Refresh"

Click in a Pivot Table, select Analyse from the PivotTable Tools menu, then Refresh. You have the option to refresh all, or just the one you have active.

Have fun! :)

[roguebee]

I'm going to stay quiet and read. This discussion has already far surpassed what I've done with mine.

[MaribouMay]

I'm going to stay quiet and read. This discussion has already far surpassed what I've done with mine.

To the contrary, I think you should share yours. I am guessing that many will not want a complicated spreadsheet and will benefit from seeing yours. I will work on a post to show mine; I'm sure it won't be as fancy as DeeDe99's.

[nicsdragonisle]

WOW DeeDee! To say this is impressive would be the understatement of the year! I'm running out now but will def be back later. thanks so much for sharing this!!

[amerirish]

Simply amazing work Dee!!!! You could seriously be a Dragon Story Professor! :D

My spreadsheet is pretty plain and not nearly as sophisticated as yours, but here's how mine is set up in the column section (I don't know how to post a screen shot):

Type - Level - Name - Colors - *Status - Evolution Time - **Location - ***Habitat

*Status: the term I use for rarity level (Common, Super Rare, etc.)
**Location: I have nicknamed the different islands (Bottom Left, Top Right, Mining Area, etc.)
***Habitat: either the color (for commons) or the name (Candy Clouds, Passion Pit, Cosmic Expanse, etc.)

Hope this helps a little bit :)

[amerirish]

Forgot to mention one other feature of my spreadsheet; at the very bottom I have lists of dragons I want to get with the best (IMO) parents, the number of potential outcomes and the hatch time of the dragon. For example:

Diamond Hybrids: Breed Time: Colors: Combo:
Black Diamond 24 Black/Diamond Night & Diamond (18 poss.)
Dark Angel 23 Diamond/Black Night & Diamond (18 poss.)
Diamond Prism 27 Diamond/Rainbow Rainbow & Diamond (15 poss.)
Helios 12 Mythic/Diamond Mythic & Diamond (16 poss.)
Prism 8 Diamond/Stone Stone & Marble (6 poss.)

[DeeDe99]

I'm going to stay quiet and read. This discussion has already far surpassed what I've done with mine.


To the contrary, I think you should share yours. I am guessing that many will not want a complicated spreadsheet and will benefit from seeing yours. I will work on a post to show mine; I'm sure it won't be as fancy as DeeDe99's.

Roguebee, I agree with May - the more who share the more ideas there are for everyone.

Compared with the other users' spreadsheets I linked to in the Introduction post, my spreadsheet is really simple - just a list of dragons really, with basic information about each dragon. It is the conditional formatting and pivot tables that perhaps scare less experienced spreadsheet users, but really, neither function is very difficult once you start clicking. You might surprise yourself with how easy it really is!

[jim23cash]

Great work! Thanks for sharing, it's great to see different ways to track them!
I have trouble with the Google docs having too much info for my iPad. It takes forever to open them, much less try to use them! I'm not sure yet what I'll use, I might go to excel on my laptop... But I'm gonna wait and see the different styles posted first! Thanks for starting this thread DeeDe99! :D Annie

[DeeDe99]

Thank you Nicsdragonisle - I hope you get some use out of it.

Amerirish, I think you are on the track I'm heading down at some point with Locations. I'm thinking of giving each habitat a unique identifier, e.g. BR1 for Big Red Rocks #1 on the Habitat list. I can then use that column of unique identifiers as an input selection list on the Dragon list and should be able to get the Habitat list Occupancy column to update automatically using database formulas. I like automatic updates! Now, THAT is when it starts to get "fancy"! LOL

I like your WIP area. I wish I could be so organised to plan ahead like that. I tend to be very haphazard with my breeding plans, unlike my Battle plans which are VERY well planned.

"Hmmmm - Ice Queen and Black Ice - they look cute together" and I pop them on the Breeding Den - then I wonder what I'll get after the coupling is already done! LOL

Other times I think to myself, "I really want Mercury", check what I need to breed, try once and get Coral or something: by then I've decided another couple looks cute together. Absolutely hopeless, I am!

PS: I want all those dragons you want too!

[DeeDe99]

Great work! Thanks for sharing, it's great to see different ways to track them!
I have trouble with the Google docs having too much info for my iPad. It takes forever to open them, much less try to use them! I'm not sure yet what I'll use, I might go to excel on my laptop... But I'm gonna wait and see the different styles posted first! Thanks for starting this thread DeeDe99! :D Annie

Thanks Annie. I prefer to use Excel on my laptop, that way I can do whatever I want without being constrained by a spreadsheet that is being used by many (which of course it would be very bad to change on the fly). I really wanted something very plain and simple.

I haven't tried Google Docs really. The only problem with having it on my laptop, of course, is that it isn't on my iPad if I am playing in bed during a period of insomnia and so sometimes I'm a little late updating - but that doesn't really matter, I usually just update in the morning while I have my wake up coffee.

[roguebee]

My "spreadsheet" is more of a "PowerPoint" display on Excel. It was designed to be printed out on paper so I could write notes on it, like what dragons to Epic next. I still use a desk top computer. I originally set it up to maximize coin collection when I first started playing. I was constantly moving dragons from habitat to habitat as I leveled them up to try and optimize coin production. So I needed to know what I had and where they were and how much they were earning. By the time I considered adding other information, I had forgotten a lot of it (like where the dragon came from). Earlier last year, I thought I would get a little more serious about converting this to a true spreadsheet so I downloaded Sehana's spreadsheet that goes with her egg chart. Spent about 3 days trying to adapt it to my needs. Gave up. Decided even if I did succeed, it is too much work to maintain. I sent her back a copy of her spreadsheet with the updated information I had added; a small payment for all the work she puts into the egg chart and other game support.

The chart is simple:
Column 1: Habitat type and coin capacity
Column 2: Dragon(s)
Column 3: Evolution time
Column 4: Rarity
Column 5: Color/Type
Column 6: Level
Column 7: Coins/hour

Once I broke the 100 million coin barrier, I deleted column 7 as worrying about coin collection is a moot concern these days. Now I use it mostly to keep track of my dragons and as a guide for when I need to add another habitat to ease overcrowding in any one color. It still serves a purpose and I only need to update it once a month or so. Dragons don't come as fast as they did in the earlier days.

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[DeeDe99]

Ahhhh - you have the dragons and habitats on one spreadsheet, Roguebee. I guess my data normalisation training from relational database theory took over without me even thinking about it - I tend to automatically think of data as tables in a database. I can see your approach would work well on an island at a more mature stage of development where moving dragons around a lot is less likely. At the moment I still have no way of seeing what dragons are on what habitat other than by looking in game. If I do get to migrate this to a database..........

I also totally understand your logic, trying to maximise coin production. I never thought of using a spreadsheet to do that, so there you go! I think that is because I started playing when I became unemployed, so I am home a lot and can collect so regularly it really hasn't been an issue except overnight. However you have certainly given me food for thought if I am lucky enough to again be gainfully employed.

[DeeDe99]

Roguebee, THANK YOU! You inspired me to do it!

I added unique identifiers to each habitat - that took all of five minutes:

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Then I added a column to the dragon list, set data validation to look at the ID range and allocated each dragon the appropriate habitat ID - THAT took me about two hours of data entry (and checking dragon locations), so I'm so glad I did it NOW and not 100 dragons later! It never has to be done again, just updated for individuals if I move a dragon or two.

Then 2 minutes to pivot the data:

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Thank you so much for the inspiration!

It shows me straight away I have a problem with the Champion Ruins, but there's not much I can do, other than buy another habitat.

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I can make it a bit prettier and bring in the habitat full names, but for my personal use this is fine.

Happy to share with anyone who wants it, but here is the Pivot Field Settings if that helps.

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Edit: Since I'd gone that far, I have now updated the Occupancy column with a formula, so I don't have to update this Habitat spreadsheet at all. The formula is (copied from just one cell): =COUNTIF(Dragons!Q$2:Q$218,Habitats!A77) so it looks at my dragon list and counts the dragons that have the Habitat code attached to them.

[roguebee]

Your example of the Champion Ruins is a good illustration of how I used the spreadsheet originally. I would have seen that I was losing coins as each ruin can only hold 5000 coins and you are producing that many in an hour in one of them. I would have bought a third ruin, moved 2 dragons to balance the coins better, and collected a little more each time I checked in. Also, that would leave me 2 slots for the next Champion I won from a Tournament so the possibility of waiting to expand and/or add a habitat becomes a non-issue. I tend to level every dragon up to 4 to get bombs for the mine. The spreadsheet helped point out for some of the special habitats (Mythic, Zodiac, et al) that I needed to level the single dragon up to 7 for a better return on investment. That's not as obvious since I dropped the coin producing column.

[roguebee]

DeeDee, I noticed you have more than 1 Big Red Rocks (2500 coins). Why? Again, this goes back to my early days of madly collecting coins. I sold all mine, but 1 and converted them to either Big Yellow (2900 coins) or Big Greens (3200 coins) to increase coin generation.

[hiabarara]

Your lists are impressive! I thought about creating such a list once, but oh the laziness! :D

A few months ago I used a specific website to keep track of my dragons. Am I allowed to name it? I know there's one specific website we aren't even allowed to name, but what about others?
Well, that website let's you click at the dragons you own and you'll find the type/colors for it, the rarity, breeding time, egg, if it's limited etc. You can also write down your own breeding combos. Unfortunately it's always sorted by name. But it shows you how many dragons you have and it's a simple way to keep track.
But at some point I lost interest. If I want to know a certain breeding/evolution time I can easily check it on the internet. And I don't need that many other informations. I know the important things about my island (which dragons I own, which dragons I want to level up next etc) and that's enough for me. Nevertheless I'm really impressed by all your lists :) And if someone would create such a list for me it certainly wouldn't be uninteresting :p

[DeeDe99]

Hiabarara, the beauty of pivot tables is you only have one list. The pivot tables update automatically from that one dragon list. All that's needed is to enter new dragons on the main list. That's not much effort.

The other thing I like about having my own is I can sort it anyway I like and change it any time I like.

As for doing it for you..... Ummmm no, sorry. Give a man a fish, you feed him for today, teach a man to fish, you feed him for life....or something like that! Happy to share the spreadsheet, not happy to do your data entry! Lol

[hiabarara]

Hiabarara, the beauty of pivot tables is you only have one list. The pivot tables update automatically from that one dragon list. All that's needed is to enter new dragons on the main list. That's not much effort.

The other thing I like about having my own is I can sort it anyway I like and change it any time I like.

As for doing it for you..... Ummmm no, sorry. Give a man a fish, you feed him for today, teach a man to fish, you feed him for life....or something like that! Happy to share the spreadsheet, not happy to do your data entry! Lol
Of course your lists are way better than the online one I used. There's no question about it. Just wanted to say that there are alternatives. But if you're in deep enough to want to keep track of your dragons, then I would recommend to create your own anyway :)

Don't worry, it was a joke! I would never want someone to write such a detailed list for me, haha. If I really want it I can do it on my own :)

[DeeDe99]

DeeDee, I noticed you have more than 1 Big Red Rocks (2500 coins). Why? Again, this goes back to my early days of madly collecting coins. I sold all mine, but 1 and converted them to either Big Yellow (2900 coins) or Big Greens (3200 coins) to increase coin generation.

Because I like balance. So I have 3 of each. I need another White Meadow. Ultimately I'll upgrade them all to the 10,000 habitats, but for the young fry they are OK. I couldn't have all green and yellow, it wouldn't be balanced, but that's just me! I understand your point, I'm just weird like that. :D Coins are really no longer a problem and I've always had the big earners on the higher capacity habitats. But a very good hint for new players just starting out.

I need another Champion Ruins though as you suggested. And more Champs will come.

[zyfazix]

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This is the chart I started when I had around 83 dragons (I now have 248 different types)
Besides the obvious the table includes dragon rarity, goal level, habitat type it's in, hatch time, food pattern, a little calc to tell see what dragons are waiting to evolve based on level
I don't really use this for calculations about total earnings or best habitat situation like some of the people in the thread, that's simply too much effort for me

Elsewhere in the Excel tab I have calculations for World events, crafting dragons and records of tournaments, neighbours and a complete list of dragons that are currently available to me

[DeeDe99]

Zyfazix, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the colour coding of the types! Will be so easy to do with conditional formatting too!

I wish I'd recorded the hatch date from the start, but I didn't and I figure now it is too late to start, unless I just gave everything before today yesterday's date as a dummy default.

Yes, I too have other areas for calculating all sorts of things - food production, Tales timelines, I used to keep a budget of how much coin to spend per day on food, expansions and save for future use - I no longer worry about coin.

[roguebee]

Because I like balance. So I have 3 of each. I need another White Meadow. Ultimately I'll upgrade them all to the 10,000 habitats, but for the young fry they are OK. I couldn't have all green and yellow, it wouldn't be balanced, but that's just me! I understand your point, I'm just weird like that. :D Coins are really no longer a problem and I've always had the big earners on the higher capacity habitats. But a very good hint for new players just starting out.

I need another Champion Ruins though as you suggested. And more Champs will come.

We all have our own idiosyncrasies when it comes to playing these games. I assume that is why so many different people enjoy them. We each have our own goals and ideas of how to play best. I prefer to clump all the same colored habitats together, symmetry doesn't matter. It also makes swapping dragons around a lot easier.

[Jackiesq]

DeeDee, I noticed you have more than 1 Big Red Rocks (2500 coins). Why? Again, this goes back to my early days of madly collecting coins. I sold all mine, but 1 and converted them to either Big Yellow (2900 coins) or Big Greens (3200 coins) to increase coin generation.

I can't understand why I see so many Red habitats at my neighbors... I put a dragon in that habitat that holds the most coins and put that dragons together so that the habitats flows over about the same time as much as possible. First time I read I'm not the only one who choose for the coins and not for the looks! ☺
But what I like most if I visit my neighbors is to see what there way of playing is, and the differences between them! So for everyone, keep your way of playing!

[DeeDe99]

We all have our own idiosyncrasies when it comes to playing these games. I assume that is why so many different people enjoy them. We each have our own goals and ideas of how to play best. I prefer to clump all the same colored habitats together, symmetry doesn't matter. It also makes swapping dragons around a lot easier.

Yes, we do indeed all have our own ways. Funny, I deliberately try to keep my same habitats apart, I hate having them all together! Not that I go for symmetry, but I do like overall balance.


I can't understand why I see so many Red habitats at my neighbors... I put a dragon in that habitat that holds the most coins and put that dragons together so that the habitats flows over about the same time as much as possible. First time I read I'm not the only one who choose for the coins and not for the looks! ☺
But what I like most if I visit my neighbors is to see what there way of playing is, and the differences between them! So for everyone, keep your way of playing!

You and Roguebee are a matched pair when it comes to coins, I see! LOL I do pay attention to the coin overflows, so I'll put an Epic with little ones if the Epic is a high earner - unless that upsets my grouping - for example I have all my Tales dragons on their respective habitats. My World Event dragons are split over two habitats because I wanted Franken and Bride of Franken together. I have Lotus and Pink Lotus together (Mr & Mrs Lotus, they are). I've decided Eve and Shadow are a couple, as are Ice Queen and Black Ice. :D My island is full of romance! :o

REALLY annoys me that I can't put Prime Chroma and Prime Eternal together, as I've decided they are dating (despite the fact PE is currently breeding with Night Elf).

OK - so aside from (or should that be "as well as") my spreadsheets, I'm weird. :p:cool:

[Bastiaan0]

I'm on Android, so when I started this game almost 2 years ago, it was just breeding and feeding. No mining, crafting, battling or trading. Despite that I found out about the coin/food dilemma soon enough, thinking "I need to know how much I earn every hour". So I started a list. A small one, all data fitting on one sheet. :)

I spread my dragons and made sure there wasn't a habitat maxing out within two hours. This means if I tapped all collection signs after an hour of farming, I would get all possible coins. I only farmed what I could pay with these coins. E.g. when I was at 80,600 coins/hour, I planted 3x Rushrooms and 4x Firapples. Saving all extra income from the daily bonus and visiting neighbors for expanding and buying habitats. I still remember the big struggle obtaining my first black habitat...
About the same I did for sleeping and working hours, only now looking at total habitat capacity and planting 5 (and 8) hour crops.

After a while the game began to crash more often, at a certain point I had to restart the game about 10 times to get everything done. I bred a lot of Fairytale/Virtue in those days, because I couldn't even reach the desired dragons in the list or the game would crash again. I was about to give up playing at all, but exactly at that moment there was the big update on android about a year ago and playing DS became fun again...
The first thing I did was changing my breeding couple to Life and Mist, as I still didn't have a Diamond. After only(!) 3 fails I had a 44 hour timer! And of course figuring out how those mining/crafting/battling/trading things worked... The spreadsheet was growing rapidly...

Nowadays my spreadsheet consists of several (rather large) sheets:
The base is the list of dragons, containing data like color, rarity, food level, earning rates.
27639
As you can see I set up my own one-character-color-system. It's a good thing I don't have Soccer, Egyptian or Artic dragons as only U and I are still available :p
Also I really love conditional formatting... :D

Then there is a list of my own dragons, I only enter the name, level and feeding status of a dragon:
27640
The heart of my spreadsheet is the header of this sheet as it contains all information on how much I earn, food I need, timers and a lot more.

This list is used for the habitats, I only have to enter the dragons name:
27641
Easy to see now how fast a habitat is full, also finding a free spot for a new dragon is done in seconds.
By the way, still not a single habitat filling up in less than an hour ;)

To make finding the right habitat (especially the multi-colored ones) somewhat easier I made a map:
27642
Not completely up-to-date as not all decor is in the map, but it gives an idea :)

And then I have lists for food, breeding, expanding, mining, crafting and battling, but that's mostly just data, so not showing all:
27643
Yes, this is my battle tracking list. As you can see those lines I post during tournaments are generated automatically :)

My biggest problem right now is I'll have to rebuild the spreadsheet as I didn't take in account that dragons can grow to level 15... Think that is the reason why I don't tend to feed dragons above level 10 ;):p

OMG, this post really is getting too long, I should stop now :p

[DeeDe99]

Well, Bastiaan0, I am very disappointed. I do not see one mention of a pivot table at all! ;) :p

You have the MAP! You will have noticed I want to plot habitats to island locations at some time in the future, but you are about 18 months ahead of me, so I'll get there.

If I am reading your post correctly, you have a list of ALL available dragons with the base information and then a second list of YOUR specific dragons. Not a bad idea at all, if I may say so. Where did you get the base list from or did you compile it yourself?

With the structure of my sheets, I don't have to worry about the dragons' max level changing in the future, but then I don't think I am recording the level of detail you are (as in all the feeding stages and earning stages). I'm just updating as each dragon as that dragon's status changes, but I REALLY like your approach, much less data entry over time.

You and I had similar budgeting ideas. In my early days, when I was earning about 600,000 coins a day, I spent one third on food, one third on expansions and tried to save the other third for future development. I still have the spreadsheet where I tracked it all, but I don't bother now my dragons earn over 4 million a day.

I see you are using a lot of formulas and lookups - makes life a lot easier, doesn't it? Another player commented to me spreadsheets were too much like what she does at work, she didn't want to do them in her relaxing time, but I guess some of us actually find tinkering with spreadsheets relaxing!

[roguebee]

DeeDee, if you go to the Breeding Combos and Questions ( Part III) thread, click on the egg chart and follow the link, you'll get to a website where there was once a link to her spreadsheet for all the dragons. Don't know if the spreadsheet is still available to the public. I used it once when deciding if I wanted a fancier spreadsheet.

[Anaboe]

Ok, my spreadsheet, I made it myself. I went back to the first updates and put ALL dragons ever released in the spreadsheet. As far as I know, it's the only site that keeps track of when a dragon was released, and that keeps a complete list of it.

My colums:
* release date
* available till date
* date I recieved the dragon
* way I recieved the dragon (breeding, tournament, spin-to-win, bought etc.)
* type of dragon (fire, prism etc.)
3 counting rows with a 1 or a 0: weather I have the dragon, weather I don't have the dragon and if it is available (these can be filled automaticly, depending on the first 3 rows)
* then some rows about how you can get the dragon (if available in multiple ways) and why it isn't available anymore (eg limited due to Christmass season),
* finaly the kind of dragon (color, diamond, gems, tropic etc)
* and a column with the rarity

At this moment, I have a list of 637 rows, and can see that I have 481 dragons at this moment :) (I need to update it with the dragons of this week). I can only get 79 dragons at this moment, the rest is expired.

I used to keep track of which dragon to feed, in which habitat they were, what level they were, how much coins they make, but since I alway put any dragon in the most coin-keeping habitat he can, I no longer need to keep track of that (A red-yellow always goes in a yellow habitat, etc.). And since I have stopped evolving dragons (all of them are atleast lvl 7, lots are lvl 10 and the good fighters are lvl 15), and I don't see any reason to level them beyond that), and have over 2,500,000 food (no that's no error) and 525,000,000, I don't see reason to keep track of those things as well. Most of the dragons I get as an egg (eg from a tournament) I don't even hatch: they can be in storage for all eternity.

But in order to get here, I did ask my hubby to make a program that calculated the optimum habitat-placement for my dragons, so that I could make the most coins in the least time. I'm still happy and gratefull he did that for me :)

27653

The spreadsheet is mostly in Dutch, so the date's can be a bit confusing :)

[Bastiaan0]

Well, Bastiaan0, I am very disappointed. I do not see one mention of a pivot table at all! ;) :p
I didn't mention it because I don't have any. I'm sorry :o No, not really :p Maybe if I start using it one day, I might see the advantages of it.

You have the MAP! You will have noticed I want to plot habitats to island locations at some time in the future, but you are about 18 months ahead of me, so I'll get there.
My map doesn't do anything but being beautiful. No links to or from it, just colors. I made it while being bored on a rainy sunday ;)

If I am reading your post correctly, you have a list of ALL available dragons with the base information and then a second list of YOUR specific dragons. Not a bad idea at all, if I may say so. Yes, that's correct, and yes, you may so. Thanks ;)
Where did you get the base list from or did you compile it yourself?
I compiled it myself, using the info found in the store. It doesn't contain all available dragons, just the ones that were in store when I started the game and the ones I obtained afterwards. All data is only there if I confirmed it for myself in my own game.

With the structure of my sheets, I don't have to worry about the dragons' max level changing in the future, but then I don't think I am recording the level of detail you are (as in all the feeding stages and earning stages). I'm just updating as each dragon as that dragon's status changes, but I REALLY like your approach, much less data entry over time.
I hate to do things twice if I can do it at once, besides that it reduces entry errors.

You and I had similar budgeting ideas. In my early days, when I was earning about 600,000 coins a day, I spent one third on food, one third on expansions and tried to save the other third for future development. I still have the spreadsheet where I tracked it all, but I don't bother now my dragons earn over 4 million a day.
Nowadays I don't bother, but it was very useful. I passed the point where I can plant consecutive Upgrapes without losing coins only two months ago. My dragons now earn 371873 coins per hour; if I take breeding, evolving and questing in account that is 364362 coins per hour. This is also the reason I started battling with my commons as I lost less coins when healing them :D

I see you are using a lot of formulas and lookups - makes life a lot easier, doesn't it? Another player commented to me spreadsheets were too much like what she does at work, she didn't want to do them in her relaxing time, but I guess some of us actually find tinkering with spreadsheets relaxing!
As math has always been my favorite subject I love formulas. Because I don't use pivot tables, vertical search is most common in my spreadsheet. And I use a lot of conditional formatting, too. If I need to find a specific dragon I only enter it's name or breed in the right place and it will be highlighted.


That makes at least two of us who find tinkering (didn't know this word, but it says it all) with spreadsheets relaxing ;):D:p

[Bastiaan0]

...
The spreadsheet is mostly in Dutch, so the date's can be a bit confusing :)

Nee hoor, valt wel mee :p:D:D
(Translation: Oh, well, no, it's not too bad...)

[DeeDe99]

Thanks Roguebee. I managed to find it, the website has moved. I also managed to import the complete table into my spreadsheet. Not at all sure how I will use it yet, but I have some ideas. Minimising manual data entry is a primary objective!

[DeeDe99]

The spreadsheet is mostly in Dutch, so the date's can be a bit confusing :)

Thank you for sharing, Anaboe. No, I don't speak Dutch, but I understand from your post your objective. I so, so wish I'd collected dates now, so there is a hint to any newer players starting out - collect dates because you'll regret it later if you don't!

I am sad your eggs are in storage for eternity. Hopefully one day there may be space enough to hatch them all.

Your husband sounds like a dream husband, although I am sure he enjoyed the challenge. Definitely a very useful tool in this game. Oh, the program, not the husband - I re-read and that sounded terrible!

[DeeDe99]

That makes at least two of us who find tinkering (didn't know this word, but it says it all) with spreadsheets relaxing ;):D:p

We could be a very bad pair, Bastiaan0. Can you imagine? No evening TV, just two computers with spreadsheets firing! I keep adding in new formulas as I develop the overall thing, such as my habitat list is now auto-updating aside from new habitat purchases.

You must get pivots happening, you'd love them, I can just tell!

[marslaura]

Dee dee well done on explanations and presenation of this wealth of info. Oh pivot tables/spread sheets / databases how this took me back more than a decade when I was merrily plugging away into custom ones while working as an accountant. It has been so long since doing anything basic lletalone the visual basics programming I feel like a novice again. I would be delighted to help build a database however I don't own any "good software" that can run on my windows 95 PC (yep running win95 is a drag) I have utilized Google docs for some things but with such a stripped down program their is essentially little worth to what I've managed to get it to do for me.

[DeeDe99]

Oh Marslaura, I did not think anything still ran on a Win95 - you have to get something newer, you'd love it I am sure.

Welcome to the forums, by the way. :)

Yes, I think Google Docs is probably fine for reasonably elementary stuff, but anything more sophisticated is not there.

Another accountant here - although I'm a bit of a hybrid as I'm also IT.

I'm really not working on a database at the moment, to be honest - my spreadsheet is meeting my needs and I am focusing on job hunting these days now the "silly season" is over.

[eva178]

Ok, my spreadsheet, I made it myself. I went back to the first updates and put ALL dragons ever released in the spreadsheet. As far as I know, it's the only site that keeps track of when a dragon was released, and that keeps a complete list of it.

My colums:
* release date
* available till date
* date I recieved the dragon
* way I recieved the dragon (breeding, tournament, spin-to-win, bought etc.)
* type of dragon (fire, prism etc.)
3 counting rows with a 1 or a 0: weather I have the dragon, weather I don't have the dragon and if it is available (these can be filled automaticly, depending on the first 3 rows)
* then some rows about how you can get the dragon (if available in multiple ways) and why it isn't available anymore (eg limited due to Christmass season),
* finaly the kind of dragon (color, diamond, gems, tropic etc)
* and a column with the rarity


27653

The spreadsheet is mostly in Dutch, so the date's can be a bit confusing :)

Mag ik jou spreatsheets eens zien?

[AnglChk507]

Spread sheets? Where would i even go to do this? I play this game religiously but never heard of spread sheets being done

[DeeDe99]

As you can see AnglChk507, there are a few of us who are just spreadsheet addicts. :)

I do mine on my laptop using MS Office Excel, I think there is a basic spreadsheet offered on GoogleDocs and there is always Open Office which is the shareware version of the MS Office Suite, perfectly legitimate. I used it some years ago and I believe it is still going strong.

[Bastiaan0]

I just found the downside of having an extensive spreadsheet: You've got to keep it up-to-date... Very busy and away last week, only taking screenshots and making notes... Took me almost 2 hours to enter all data :( Not that I mind doing that on sunday morning :p



As you can see AnglChk507, there are a few of us who are just spreadsheet addicts. :)

I do mine on my laptop using MS Office Excel, I think there is a basic spreadsheet offered on GoogleDocs and there is always Open Office which is the shareware version of the MS Office Suite, perfectly legitimate. I used it some years ago and I believe it is still going strong.

This spreadsheet addict over here is using Open Office at home, works perfectly :)

[DeeDe99]

Ouch Bastiaan0! I must admit, I hate updating after the event, so to speak. If I'm home, it is OK, do it at the time. This tournament, for example, I was battling on the go so have not recorded my losses properly. The wins I did.

[roguebee]

I just found the downside of having an extensive spreadsheet: You've got to keep it up-to-date... Very busy and away last week, only taking screenshots and making notes... Took me almost 2 hours to enter all data :( Not that I mind doing that on sunday morning :p

This spreadsheet addict over here is using Open Office at home, works perfectly :)

Keeping it up to date is why I never seriously upgraded mine.

[eva178]

Here how I have done it, with iOS Numbers program on my IPad

[DeeDe99]

Eva178, I play on the iPad, but didn't know about the Numbers app! I will see if I can convert easily, because I'd prefer the spreadsheets on the iPad rather than the PC - just more convenient for updating when playing. Thanks for the tip! It looks great!

[amerirish]

I found that I sometimes let my spreadsheet get out of date because I update it while at work so during the weekend, I wasn't recording my changes. What I do now is use the 'Notes' app on my phone to leave myself messages about any changes I make over the weekend. Then on Monday, I update my Excel spreadsheet and voila, I'm up to date :)

[Anaboe]

Mag ik jou spreatsheets eens zien?

Als je me je email adres even in een prive-bericht stuurt, mail ik je hem :)

Translation: if you give me your mailadres in private message, I'll mail it :)

[roguebee]

Just bumping thread to the top.