flora/fauna QA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4TxIbx2Gfc

I'm not sure mutations will be a part of the game. I don't recall talk about them. They would require an additional mechanic over and above basic heredity. Moreover, if mutation is at all like it is in RL, most of them will be undesirable (as in debuffs) as well as random, and as such will tend to rain on players' parades. Undoubtedly, some people would become quite angry if their breeding experiments were to unpredictably sport entirely unprecedented and unwanted attributes.

Posted By Poldano at 07:46 AM - Fri Mar 15 2019

I'm not sure mutations will be a part of the game. I don't recall talk about them. They would require an additional mechanic over and above basic heredity. Moreover, if mutation is at all like it is in RL, most of them will be undesirable (as in debuffs) as well as random, and as such will tend to rain on players' parades. Undoubtedly, some people would become quite angry if their breeding experiments were to unpredictably sport entirely unprecedented and unwanted attributes.

Who's saying I want the positives, well I suppose i may have hinted at that.... In all honest my question was generalising since I want to keep my ultimate plan under wraps

As I understand it, mutations will not be part of the game, but the range and potential combinations of heritable traits should be enough. This game is planned to run for 500 game years. That is enough time for selective breeeing. It really isn’t enough time for significant natural evolution, even with an insulated population forming a genetic bottleneck.

That said, there might be some potential for inbreeding to have enhanced effects depending on how the inheritance system works. (However, that would require that traits manifest in different degrees rather than as binary switches, and I have. It heard that that is a planned or possible mechanic.) Inbreeding is how we enhance and fix desirable traits in artificial selection. It results in a lot of negative traits passed in an enhanced way to many of the offspring, who then can’t be allowed to breed and are culled. Not something for the kind-hearted animal lover to do in real life.

Some things are opposites, others are with a certain threshold.

Let’s say you have lung traits (wet lung, (like To’resk and janoa iirc) dry lung (the Waerd and Owem iirc) and in between) so let’s say that is a slider between 1 and 100 and if the slider is 25 or lower you have wet lung, if it’s 75 or higher you have dry lung, if it’s anywhere in between you have regular lungs. (Just an example, no actual numbers).

For others it could be a gradient potentially (again, an example, not neccesarily accurate). Let’s say janoa stripes, they could be on a scale from 1 to 100 too but in this case it’s the transparency, so at 1 they’re very visible and noticeable while at 100 they’re basically absent. (100% transparent).

With other genes it could be a hard on/off switch, like Kypiq squirrel eyes. You either have them or don’t have them, there’s nothing in between. (Could also be a 1 to 100 slider again, but in this case anything below 15 means you have them, anything above means you don’t have them).

Just some theoretical examples.

Posted By SinTax at 10:16 AM - Fri Mar 15 2019

All I know is that a group of secretive nuns will try to breed a superhuman to peer into the collective knowledge of humanity.

Kwisatz Haderach

Posted By Poldano at 02:46 AM - Fri Mar 15 2019

I'm not sure mutations will be a part of the game. I don't recall talk about them. They would require an additional mechanic over and above basic heredity. Moreover, if mutation is at all like it is in RL, most of them will be undesirable (as in debuffs) as well as random, and as such will tend to rain on players' parades. Undoubtedly, some people would become quite angry if their breeding experiments were to unpredictably sport entirely unprecedented and unwanted attributes.

According to the developer journals, yes there will be negative mutations, and positive mutations.

You will get a chance to reroll if you get one, but if you reroll, whatever you get, you’re stuck with.

Caspian specifically referred to defects from inbreeding, as being a multiplier for birth defects.

It will be an important aspect of animal and plant husbandry in the game, as well as the players houses.

Posted By DanielBlack at 9:00 PM - Fri Mar 15 2019

Posted By Poldano at 02:46 AM - Fri Mar 15 2019

I'm not sure mutations will be a part of the game. I don't recall talk about them. They would require an additional mechanic over and above basic heredity. Moreover, if mutation is at all like it is in RL, most of them will be undesirable (as in debuffs) as well as random, and as such will tend to rain on players' parades. Undoubtedly, some people would become quite angry if their breeding experiments were to unpredictably sport entirely unprecedented and unwanted attributes.

According to the developer journals, yes there will be negative mutations, and positive mutations.

You will get a chance to reroll if you get one, but if you reroll, whatever you get, you’re stuck with.

Caspian specifically referred to defects from inbreeding, as being a multiplier for birth defects.

It will be an important aspect of animal and plant husbandry in the game, as well as the players houses.

Strictly speaking, defects from inbreeding are not mutations.

Mutations are changes in genes, not merely existing defects exposed by recombination of genes. From a game perspective, a true mutation would be like introducing a trait that never existed before, even in a suppressed or recessive form.

If Caspian used the term mutation to refer to anything other than that, then he was not using it in a sense that was correct in RL terms. That being said, he is free to use whatever terms he want for anything he wants in game terms, even if it's not exactly the best thing to do.

Posted By Poldano at 05:17 AM - Sat Mar 16 2019

Posted By DanielBlack at 9:00 PM - Fri Mar 15 2019

Posted By Poldano at 02:46 AM - Fri Mar 15 2019

I'm not sure mutations will be a part of the game. I don't recall talk about them. They would require an additional mechanic over and above basic heredity. Moreover, if mutation is at all like it is in RL, most of them will be undesirable (as in debuffs) as well as random, and as such will tend to rain on players' parades. Undoubtedly, some people would become quite angry if their breeding experiments were to unpredictably sport entirely unprecedented and unwanted attributes.

According to the developer journals, yes there will be negative mutations, and positive mutations.

You will get a chance to reroll if you get one, but if you reroll, whatever you get, you’re stuck with.

Caspian specifically referred to defects from inbreeding, as being a multiplier for birth defects.

It will be an important aspect of animal and plant husbandry in the game, as well as the players houses.

Strictly speaking, defects from inbreeding are not mutations.

Mutations are changes in genes, not merely existing defects exposed by recombination of genes. From a game perspective, a true mutation would be like introducing a trait that never existed before, even in a suppressed or recessive form.

If Caspian used the term mutation to refer to anything other than that, then he was not using it in a sense that was correct in RL terms. That being said, he is free to use whatever terms he want for anything he wants in game terms, even if it's not exactly the best thing to do.

Mutations was the term I used, and I know I used it wrong, at the time I couldn't think of what I wanted to say properly and should probably have waited.

Posted By Sir_Skylos at 10:15 AM - Tue Mar 19 2019

...

Mutations was the term I used, and I know I used it wrong, at the time I couldn't think of what I wanted to say properly and should probably have waited.

Please don't apologize. I noticed that you did not actually use the term in your post. I chose to unleash my pedantry to attempt to forestall a tangent based upon misconceptions.

Perhaps the game will eventually add true mutations. If it does, it would not be well to have used the term inappropriately.