Need Suggestions Thanks Guys <3 I think I've got things figured out now

[Spiderfly]

New Question!!

What do you guys think of being able to specialize as a trainer or breeder and receive bonuses in competitions for it? Say a trainer gets bonuses in races for their competing flits, and breeders receive bonuses in pageants? Perhaps there could be people who are undeclared that get a lesser bonus in both?


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I'm still trying to figure out how exactly I should work the ownership of babies in frenzy breedings for my Wickerflits. Please let me know if you think what I have up now is reasonable, or how it could possibly be changed. If you've already entered my raffle you will get a second ballot for helping me with this.

Although you can't win 2 raffle prizes, it'll make it more likely you'll at least win one!

Main Info/Adoption Thread

Part in question:

In a frenzy, the owner of the Pen gets first choice, any ownership past that point is to be worked out BEFORE the breeding by the owners with the owner of the Pen keeping no more than 2 babies.

[Neocridders]

Alright, umm... first of all, in the info, you have that a pen is a her, and I thought a cob was a her.

So I think you've mixed my mind up a little as to what gender is getting what and etc.

Alright, so it seems that the female (cob)'s owner should get first choice in babies (so they get ONE baby).

If there is more than one baby, since dad's aren't discovered until later, they will need to hatch first before any further plans be discovered.
I think that a fair thing to do is give female owner the first choice, but only one choice. The male gets the rest. The reason is because the male may not get any at all, if there is only one baby from the breeding.

Does that make sense? I hope that helps. I don't know if you like how I did that, but it's a suggestion.

[Spiderfly]

Ah! Thanks for pointing that out, I went and fixed it. Hope I didn't miss that anywhere else x.x

Humm, good suggestion. I'll definitely be keeping that in my mind. Especially since 4 babies from the same clutch could all have separate fathers.

[Neocridders]

Wait, so each clutch has one female with possibly all different fathers? Ok, that might make things more difficult.
Personally, I think it should be one male will get one female, possibly more than one female, but only one male per female. So, a female can't have a clutch with more than one father. This might make it easier to distribute the babies, since... well, if possibly there are all different fathers, and the mom's owner gets a baby for sure, then one father's owner won't get a baby. And that doesn't seem fair. But that might be what is more realistic and what you're going for?

[Spiderfly]

Yeah I was going off of cats. One cat can have a litter that has multiple fathers. But I can see how it's definitely going to make things much more difficult. If I did go with only one father per clutch, it would make things much easier. And it would still be a chance of who ends up the father. Humm. . . that could work for sure.

Perhaps a limit of a Pen can sire no more than 2 litters in any frenzy? I can't imagine a male could compete well enough to snag more than 2 females with ample other suitors running around.

[Neocridders]

I think that sounds really good. Yeah, that makes sense if you're going with cats, but I think this way will be just as fun.

And it makes it possible that one male may just not be lucky, and may get no females.
And it might be less mind boggling to you. Maybe.

[Spiderfly]

Hahha one can hope. I like the ideas you've helped me out with so far. ^_^ But I'm going to keep this open to anyone's elses opinions. Even just throwing in an "I like it because. . " or "I don't like it because. . " will net you guys another raffle entry ^_^

[Nako]

Cob is most certainly a male. And Pens are females. It is not the other way around

[Spiderfly]

darnit, why do I keep messing up my terminology? I switched it around the wrong way XD *goes to fix. . . /again/*

[SeaCrest]

Hm...the way I see it, you have a mixture of males and females, right? So the pen's owner will always get first pick.

Do the owners of the bred Wickerflits get to find out who the parents of their babies are, or is it just guess? Because if they get to know I say the cob's owner gets second pick, and any babies after that are to be divied up BEFORE.

So it's like this.

Pen's owner: Gets first pick
Cob's owner: Gets second pick
Say there are two others. The two owners get one each, etc.

And the pen cannot keep more than one cygnet from a frenzy breeding.
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OR the option is that once the Wickerflits breed their frenzy breeding, nobody gets to know whose Wickerflit fathered/mothered which egg. Each Wickerflit owner picks ONE egg from all the eggs produced by the breeding, and any extras must be dealt with when the eggs are revealed. Owners do not have the option to view the parents of eggs or change their minds once they pick. I also think it's fairer to have all the eggs look the same if this is the case. Otherwise, the prettier eggs will be picked by whoever gets online first, ya know?

Make sense? O_o Its 11 pm over here, so I'm not too coherent

[sera]

i like the frenzy option; i think it's hilarious.  i also think it's going to be super complicated at first. xD;

So.  . . *thinkies*  i would also make sure that there were always enough babies so that every WF participant got at least one.  So, if your WF is in a frenzy, you'll get a baby, but it may not be one from /your/ WF.  If you had more WFs in the frenzy, you would then have a higher chance of getting babies from your crits. 

i'm not positive if there's a chance of a male not having a baby, but maybe you should have a variety of items available for frenzies to help people get wot they want? 

Male Items
Guaranteed Offspring (guarantees the male will have at least one offspring)

Neutral Items
Guaranteed Different Mates (guarantees Wickerflit will breed with all available mates of opposite gender) (( thus causing, like, females to have all babies from different fathers?))
Choice Tokens (randomly generated number 1-number of WF participants.  Each owner gets one per WF involved) (( are tradeable so people can basically trade for first choice?  This item, i think, would be free or covered in the cost of the frenzy breeding. ^.~  So, yes, free. xD;  But perhaps that would be the breeding fee instead?  Would also allow people to gift their choice of WF to someone else.  ^^))

Female Items
Guaranteed # Fathers (# guarantees the number of males that will cover the female in that frenzy)

Shall edit if i can think of anything else. xD;;;;

[Spiderfly]

^_^ thanks for the suggestions guys. I think I'm starting to get an idea in my head of what might work. But I like hearing your input!

[Spiderfly]

New question! What do you guys think? (top of the first post)

[Nako]

That's not a bad idea, but I think it would be hard to control. Perhaps instead of having everyone specialize, perhaps there are rare certificates and items that you can acquire that gives all of your critters boosts, or perhaps increases fertility.

I was actually considering using a similar specialization, but instead of giving it to users I would create NPCs that they go to for services.

[vyntacular]

I think the bonuses sound like a great idea though I definitely believe it should be a bonus that is 'earned'.  Say each undeclared trainer starts with a certain amount of 'points' and then choosing to specify in Training or Breeding would add modifier points to your status - increasing one stat while decreasing the other.  That way a user could go for one or the other or - if they decide to take a neutral ground - can work to maintain the best of both worlds.

Of course you could just keep it simple and say that trainer's simply get a +1 bonus for entering races or.. something? XD

As for the frenzies - I have a few thoughts on that.

I believe that a pool of people should enter into the frenzy and, in return, each person should receive at least one egg.  Percentages for 'extra eggs' and such should go up depending on fertility rates, amount of Wickerflits entered into the frenzy by the particular owner, and maybe tokens that (like Sera mentioned) increase fertility or all that fun stuff.

I also think that the likelihood of receiving an egg from a pair that you didn't enter would be fantastic because it would quickly and easily expand your breeding stock.  For those who want particular DNA mixes, stick to the one on one breeding. It seems simple and perfect to me.

Hope that helps, at least a little. ^____^;

[Neocridders]

I don't think that would be a good idea to be honest. I don't think being declaired specialized takes any work, so it would be easy to say I want to specialize in breeding, and then get awesome benefits that take no work. It's just not what I think it should be about. I personally think I'll try to do both, but mostly be a breeder -for- traits beneficial to training, and then I'll train my flits.

I think it should just be whatever people want to do, and if someone wants to breed for one reason or another, that should be purely choice with benefits based on whatever the person works for.

You get what you put into it?

[Nako]

I second Vyn's opinion about the frenzies

Well, to play devil's advocate, in theory nobody has an advantage with specialization. You merely choose your focus. So, you could focus on breeding and get more into genetics and litter sizes, or you could be better in competitions. Different bonuses for different areas.

"Earning" is very subjective. Essentially earning it would mean you have to pay for it with either trade or currency.  So in a sense, it's not so much a bonus as a feature of the adoption.

Though what I personally think and agree with as a potentially bad side effect, is that specialization makes things more difficult for newbies to get into it because it's just one more thing to understand and learn. Unlike a certificate which you're read about and buy, picking a specialization is more of an immediate decision that needs to be made to feel like you can raise your little critters effectively.

[Keilin Alyr]

On the one hand, there could be a certain trade-off for the bonuses, like trainer Wickerflits have a deceased chance of passing along full crests or other traits that would be detrimental to racing, or breeder Wickerflits having a lower chance of placing in contests. On the other hand, it's definitely no fun to be penalized, especially on a wide scale.

Maybe we could have the option to declare certain individual Wickerflits as breeder or racing stock, with the appropriate bonuses and penalties, and we as the owner could see items or other points of prestige the longer we could maintain those trends. Maybe we could declare certain goals as well, like several generations of champion competitors from our first racer or offspring of every color of the rainbow from a solid white progenitor.

Just some food for thought to munch on. =D

[Spiderfly]

Alright! Here's what I've come up with for frenzies ENTIRELY because of you guys and all your awesome suggestions.

Pens lay eggs in communal nests. This way, nobody knows who's eggs are whos. This way I can also have one pen have eggs by separate fathers just like cats as I originally intended. I'll roll to see how many eggs each owner gets, and you just come and claim eggs. When they grow, you find out who the parents are. This way /everyone/ gets at least one baby, and it spreads lines around.

If you don't want people owning babies off your flits, or you don't want to end up with a random baby, sign up for a one-on-one breeding. You take your chances when entering a frenzy. It's made to be fun! And a good way to get new blood.

[Ryuukokoro]

I think that's awesome! The communal frenzy sounds like a lot of fun, but I'm really glad you're also having one-on-one breedings since I know I can sometimes be a bit picky about where my breeding lines are going, I imagine there will be others who feel that way too. ^_^

[sera]

i do like the idea of specialization, though i don't really have anything useful to add. xD;

[jojo]

The idea of specializing in training or breeding makes me feel like... like I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was. To catch them is my real test, to train them is my cause...

I like the idea XD But I think there should be an *equal* bonus if you're undeclared, just in a different way, otherwise I feel like everyone may want to specialize since there'd be no point in not specializing. So instead of getting a lesser bonus in both, maybe undeclared people could have some non-competition-related edge. I have no idea what that would be, though. Maybe some RP-relavant abilities, like being able to understand language better (since Wickerflits that aren't specialized are more companion-y? I am just throwing stuff out there). Or something. I don't know. ^^;

[Keilin Alyr]

Gotta catch 'em all, Jojo? XD

I see what you're getting at, though from a lot of the games I've played, the reward for generalizing/not specializing is usually that you're not subject to whatever drawbacks you'd get from specializing. Another common theme is being the jack of all trades and master of none, meaning you'd get open access to the full list of abilities/benefits/what have you, some of which a specialized character would either be denied or have to pay extra for.

To use the example of my Vampire game last night, vampires have access to special powers known as Disciplines, and each clan has 3 specific clan disciplines. Consider being part of a clan as specializing. Improving the rating of a Discipline after character creation costs rating x 5 experience points for in-clan Disciplines, rating x 7 out-of-clan.

A clanless vampire always pays rating x 6 for any Discipline they wish to improve. You don't get any fancy rewards or save payment costs, but you don't lose out or pay extra either. It's both the boon and bane of not specializing... or in the vampire's case, of having been bitten by someone who held loyalty to no clan. XD

[Neocridders]

I think jojo said what I failed to spit out. I wanna be the very best. I want to not be like all the rest, if that makes sense.
And If you're going to have a bonus to breeding or training...

Ooooh i has idea
Not sure if it's been said but here goes. So you can have a bonus that is similar to how 'TheKennel' does a registered kennel.
If you breed so many -insert sort of flits here, with large crest or etc rare trait- you can become a registered breeder.
Maybe by paying a fee and showing you diserve the status of registered breeder, like dedicate a website page to explain your breeding goals and display your flits.

And for getting so many training points total from your flits, you get to be able to apply for being registered trainer or handler or something.
And you do the same thing with a fee and a site page explaining your goals.

Now, the bonuses would be earned this way, since you are a proven breeder or trainer, so you won't have to give a bonus for being 'undeclaired'.
Bonus might be like being able to sell and trade for money, breed more often, or something else. Bonuses might need to be different between the trainer and breeder, so people can aspire to be both?

Wow, umm if you need help breaking that down to understand, let me know.

[Spiderfly]

Oh wow, so many good ideas here. I have to say I really like the idea of 'earning' the title. That way people that are into it could be both registered trainers AND breeders, which allows people the freedom they might not otherwise get! Also, that way it wouldn't have to be worried about until later into becoming an active part of the Wickerflits and wouldn't be overwhelming to a new person.

I'll definitely have to mull over a lot of this stuff before making a final decision. I really, REALLY, appreciate the amount of input and thought you guys have given to my questions. <3 It helps more than you know. I couldn't have come up with my decision on Frenzies without you guys! Seriously, awesome, awesome people.