User:Muldrake/sandbox



Dragon Statue, or Scales of the Dragon, is one of the simplest skill games to play in Dragon's Tale, but requires subtle strategy to master. As such, it is one of the most potentially profitable wagers for the expert player.

The basics are simple. The player paints the scales on a dragon statue, trying to paint all scales the same color. Solid red is the highest payout in the game. However, other color combinations, called duotones, blazes, and splendors also pay.

How to play
Gameplay is simple. The scales of the dragon start blank, and with each play, the player wagers a certain amount. The only play available on the first, second and third turns is "Light Touch of Paint," ([1] with Hotkeys), which randomly paints one of the six scales of the dragon. With each brush of paint, one of the scales turns color, starting with purple. A second brush of paint turns the scale to blue, then green, yellow, orange and finally red. A brush of paint on a red scale turns it black and ends the game.

After three brushes of paint, the player gets the option to apply a "Moderate Brush of Paint," ([3] with Hotkeys), which instantly paints three of the scales of the dragon. These three brushstrokes can hit any combination of scales, or even the same scale all three times. This costs the same as applying a single brushstroke. The impact on the game is that if there were any payouts in the first two brushstrokes, the player misses those and is only paid for the final result after all brushstrokes are applied. If any of the brushstrokes hits a red scale, it turns black and this ends the game.

After six brushes of paint, counting a combination of brushes applied with "Moderate Brush of Paint" as three brushes, the player gets the option to apply a "Full Brush of Paint," ([6] with Hotkeys), which randomly applies six brushstrokes to the scales of the dragon. As with "Moderate Brush of Paint," this option skips any intermediate payouts and the player is only paid for the final result. Also, as with the other methods of painting, if any of the brushes hits a red scale, it turns black and ends the game.

The only other option in the game is "Clean the Statue," ([0] with Hotkeys), which resets the game to its blank state and begins a new game. This is the only available option after the player has painted a scale black. It is also how to reset the statue if the player decides the current game is hopeless and wants to start over. A player may also wish to reset a game if the previous player did not reset an unfinished game. It is also possible to step in and continue an unfinished game, although one should be certain the previous player has actually abandoned it.

Payout tables
The intricate payout table is what makes determining the proper course of action on any particular turn. Any combination of colors containing three or more of one given color qualifies for a payout, but there are also combinations called Duotones, Blazes and Splendors that also qualify for payouts. Any Duotone, Blaze or Splendor that also contains three or more of one color qualifies for both payouts.

The payout tables are based on a multiple of the base bet (BB) for the statue. Therefore, if the base bet is 1 BTM and the sum of the payouts is 3, the payout is 3 BTM. For example, for a statue with a base bet of 5 BTM, the payout for a Yellow-Orange Duotone with Three Yellow and Three Orange is 44 BTM (8.8XBB). This represents 35 BTM (7XBB) for the Yellow-Orange Duotone, 5 BTM (1XBB) for the Three Orange, and 4 BTM (.8XBB) for the Three Yellow.

However, as with other skill games, the base bet is not the bet the player actually pays. The size of the bet changes based on how well or badly previous players have fared, with winning players driving up the price and losing players driving it down. Regardless of the current price to play, the payouts for any given statue remain constant.

Solids and Multiples
The biggest payouts in the game are solid colors, with red being the most valuable. The following payout table details the payouts for each color.

(Note: the author does not yet know the payouts for solid red or solid orange, and will buy a Natural Drink of the finder's choice at the bar next to the Dragon Statues on the second island for verification on either of these values.  The author also offers a drink of the author's choice for corrections of any errors in the paytables.)

Duotones
Duotones are the next highest-paying combination, and a Duotone is any combination consisting only of two adjacent colors, such as Red-Orange, the most valuable, or Purple-Blue, the least valuable.

Blazes
Blazes are any non-Duotone combination consisting only of colors within two steps of each other. For example, a Red-Yellow Blaze could consist of two red, two orange, and two yellow. A Red-Yellow Blaze could also consist of five red and one yellow.

Full Splendors and Partial Splendors
Finally, there is the Full Splendor. This is a combination that consists of one of each color. The only combination that does is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. However, there are also payouts for partial splendors. Four Colors of Splendor is any combination that contains four of the six colors, and a Near-Perfect Splendor is any combination that contains five of the six colors.