1) What if 2 players wanted to start in the same family but also want characters from different tribes?

The answer is the marriage, you can start a family and your friend join it by marriage (and same gender marriage is allowed).

2) Would one family have to be of the same tribe? Again, since you can join a family by marriage, no matter which tribe they are.

3) How would the offspring be like when the parents are from different tribes? Character appareance depend on their parents, so they will be a mixture of both. In the event that you play one of your children - speculation here - I think you can use the character creator's bars to adjust their appearance. You also have more information about this on this wiki page.

4) Will offspring from people of the same tribe boost tribal bonuses, or marrying people from different tribes possibly cause the offspring to loose a tribal bonus? I am not sure how to answer this, but it is a good question for a Q&A.

The answer to question 4 is that the tribal bonus will be watered down to a degree if the tribes are different or have different degrees of "purity" in their bloodline.

From Caspian in Discord on 10 JUL 17:
"Having a cross-breed child outside of 100% Waerd lineage would strip the collective advantages of being a Waerd. They do not tolerate cross-breeding."

Related to this question: What if in the surname reservation, 2 friends buy the "Bloodline Pledge" and choose the same surname. Will these two automatically be in the same family? Even if they choose different tribes? (For example, having the history of the family have an intertribal marriage, resulting in this possibility)

Posted By Snipehunter at 11:20 AM - Thu Feb 22 2018

There's a "true" genetic component to question 4's answer as well, though everyone has been, in general, spot on: Some traits only breed through if both parents possess them. So it is possible to lose some tribal traits in the next generation when mixing tribes.

Edit: Hope that helps! :)

And all hopeful future CoE geneticists let out a sad sigh upon reading this.

Posted By Snipehunter at 12:20 PM - Thu Feb 22 2018

There's a "true" genetic component to question 4's answer as well, though everyone has been, in general, spot on: Some traits only breed through if both parents possess them. So it is possible to lose some tribal traits in the next generation when mixing tribes.

Edit: Hope that helps! :)

So in let's say 5 years of playing the game some traits could actually go extinct? Could there also be a possibility of a mutation and a new trait starts?

Posted By 1mmaculateDeception at 09:15 AM - Mon Feb 26 2018

Posted By Snipehunter at 11:20 AM - Thu Feb 22 2018

There's a "true" genetic component to question 4's answer as well, though everyone has been, in general, spot on: Some traits only breed through if both parents possess them. So it is possible to lose some tribal traits in the next generation when mixing tribes.

Edit: Hope that helps! :)

And all hopeful future CoE geneticists let out a sad sigh upon reading this.

Note the use of the term "some".

Which begs the following questions;

• Which "some" do they refer to?

• If it requires both parents to possess a trait does this mean the trait is lost forever from your line when you breed with a line that does not possess it, or does it mean we have Mendelian genetics and these traits are recessive, meaning you still carry on one gene that can eventually be expressed again by breeding with another who has it also?

Posted By Strider33 at 3:05 PM - Sun Feb 25 2018

Related to this question: What if in the surname reservation, 2 friends buy the "Bloodline Pledge" and choose the same surname. Will these two automatically be in the same family? Even if they choose different tribes? (For example, having the history of the family have an intertribal marriage, resulting in this possibility)

This should not be possible using surname reservation. When one player (account) chooses a surname with the surname reservation tool, all other accounts are locked out of it. This is the only way of guaranteeing its uniqueness for the player who selected it. After launch, it will be possible for the owning player to unlock NPC family members to other players, by giving them the character codes. This comes with some risk, since family members share everything in their household by default.

Please check one of the threads that deals specifically with the issue of sharing a surname. Also, keep tuning in, because I think more information will be forthcoming about some of the details. There is quite a bit of interest in doing this.

Posted By Snipehunter at 2:20 PM - Thu Feb 22 2018

There's a "true" genetic component to question 4's answer as well, though everyone has been, in general, spot on: Some traits only breed through if both parents possess them. So it is possible to lose some tribal traits in the next generation when mixing tribes.

Edit: Hope that helps! :)

Is it possible to breed, say, a Janoa and a Dras to get the extreme poison/disease resistance of Dras but with Janoa skin, effectively eliminating their only weakness?

Posted By boomel at 9:31 PM - Fri Mar 02 2018

Posted By Snipehunter at 2:20 PM - Thu Feb 22 2018

There's a "true" genetic component to question 4's answer as well, though everyone has been, in general, spot on: Some traits only breed through if both parents possess them. So it is possible to lose some tribal traits in the next generation when mixing tribes.

Edit: Hope that helps! :)

Is it possible to breed, say, a Janoa and a Dras to get the extreme poison/disease resistance of Dras but with Janoa skin, effectively eliminating their only weakness?

There is supposed to be a non-genetic cause of Dras's extreme skin coloration, which is probably (per my best guess) slated for a lore reveal in the game. Therefore, that cross-breeding attempt would probably not have the desired outcome, and would likely have some undesirable consequences. Your best bet would probably be to try it with player characters, because it would be hard to rationalize NPCs of either tribe agreeing to the contract, without an exceptional degree of enticement.

Posted By boomel at 11:31 PM - Fri Mar 02

Is it possible to breed, say, a Janoa and a Dras to get the extreme poison/disease resistance of Dras but with Janoa skin, effectively eliminating their only weakness?

Specifics for breeding between specific races haven't been discussed by the development team yet. In theory that might be possible, but in practice anything could change.

Posted By Sharielane at 10:15 PM - Tue Feb 27 2018

Posted By 1mmaculateDeception at 09:15 AM - Mon Feb 26 2018

Posted By Snipehunter at 11:20 AM - Thu Feb 22 2018

There's a "true" genetic component to question 4's answer as well, though everyone has been, in general, spot on: Some traits only breed through if both parents possess them. So it is possible to lose some tribal traits in the next generation when mixing tribes.

Edit: Hope that helps! :)

And all hopeful future CoE geneticists let out a sad sigh upon reading this.

Note the use of the term "some".

Which begs the following questions;

• Which "some" do they refer to?

• If it requires both parents to possess a trait does this mean the trait is lost forever from your line when you breed with a line that does not possess it, or does it mean we have Mendelian genetics and these traits are recessive, meaning you still carry on one gene that can eventually be expressed again by breeding with another who has it also?

Oh yes yes, I asked these very same questions in my head. I realize it is just some, but I would hazard a guess that it is the traits that most define a tribe that are the ones that require both genetic entries to contain it for it to be passed on.

For instance, I would hazard a guess with this knowledge that Dras Poison and Disease IMMUNITY requires two Dras contractual parents to be passed on.

I'm glad to be reminded families can be joined -during- a lifetime, thanks! Been busy recently investigating some family stuff of my own and how folks can join it. For a bit was thinking the only option was handing out babycodes.