Hot take but I think the novelty of Ancient breeds and their line breaking genes has worn out, and I don’t think it makes up for them not being to wear apparel at all or breed with Modern dragons or even other Ancients.
Dusthides, Gaolers, Sandsurges, and Veilspun all have the same body layout as Modern breeds. They have a head, neck, two wings, two arms, two legs, and a tail to accommodate any existing apparel pieces without getting too creative.
Abberations and Aethers have additional body parts compared to Modern breeds - Abberations have two heads and two tails, and Aethers have four wings and four arms - but they don't differ much in terms of placement and you can reasonably imagine how they'd wear normal clothes. In cases where there's extra parts where apparel could go, just put it on both.
"But what if I don't want it on both?"
Well, I'm sure someone has wanted one of their dragons to only wear one glove or boot, but that isn't possible either, so I see that as a moot point. Carrying on-
Banescales don't have arms, but they do have wings in the place where their arms should be. You could argue that this would cause problems with arm vs. wing apparel, but it wouldn't be too hard to think just a little creatively to solve the problem. My vote is to treat the wrist joint of the wings as their hand and call it a day.
Auraboas don't have legs and have two pairs of arms in different locations on their bodies. I've addressed duplicate parts before, but the lack of legs is hard to deal with. I can tolerate them not being able to wear apparel out of fairness, but someone on Tumblr said it'd be funny if you gave them leg apparel and it showed up next to them in a neatly folded pile. That gets points for funny.
Finally, Undertides. They lack arms and legs entirely, which I can also tolerate them not being able to wear apparel. That's fine. I'll live.
I hear you. I understand. But I will counter with three words: Make them apparel.
"But-!"
Hold your horses! Let's take a look at something real quick.
You know Augment? That one line-breaking gene for Abberations, Dusthides, and Sandsurges?
Take a good look at it, then look at the forum announcement Augmented Apparel.
Notice how we have a cyborg-looking Ancient tert and a cyborg-looking apparel set. Why can't this just be done with the rest of the line-breaking terts?
Just make them apparel.
"But there wouldn't be enough colors!"
You're definitely right, there wouldn't be the same variety in colors as there are with tertiary genes, and that might suck a little, but would you rather have baked in add-ons with terts, or be able to mix and match stuff with apparel? You could have an Abberation with Augment, Polypore, and Riot if you wanted to, because it'd be apparel! You could just layer it on there!
"But the layering would be weird!"
How many pieces of apparel on this site already layer weird? Some things just aren't gonna layer right, and we've accepted that. It's just part of the game.
That and a lot of the recent Ancient gene additions have been repeats of things older Ancients already had on another Ancient breed or the holiday ones which amount to little more than flowerfalls / halos / any number of "this sure is an image on top of a dragon" apparel with little to no bearing on the dragon itself, particularly Brightshine and Rockbreaker.
And now with the addition of an Earth ancient after the Earth holiday gene has been released... How are Dusthides going to get it if they're supposed to be the Earth dragons? If this was apparel, it could applied retroactively, but now it's seemingly not available to them at all.
I don't expect them to change anything. They probably won't, and even if they did, I don't expect them to complete that backlog for all the current Ancients. I just love this site and the art and it's one of those things where I criticize it because I just know they can do better. I can wait for greatness and would prefer to do that than sit through a somewhat steady stream of okay additions.
What's the point of a breeding and dress up game if all these new dragons can't breed with 90% of the other dragons and can't be dressed up? You're left with, like... 1/4th of a game there at best.
• • • BODY PLANS • • •
Dusthides, Gaolers, Sandsurges, and Veilspun all have the same body layout as Modern breeds. They have a head, neck, two wings, two arms, two legs, and a tail to accommodate any existing apparel pieces without getting too creative.
Abberations and Aethers have additional body parts compared to Modern breeds - Abberations have two heads and two tails, and Aethers have four wings and four arms - but they don't differ much in terms of placement and you can reasonably imagine how they'd wear normal clothes. In cases where there's extra parts where apparel could go, just put it on both.
"But what if I don't want it on both?"
Well, I'm sure someone has wanted one of their dragons to only wear one glove or boot, but that isn't possible either, so I see that as a moot point. Carrying on-
Banescales don't have arms, but they do have wings in the place where their arms should be. You could argue that this would cause problems with arm vs. wing apparel, but it wouldn't be too hard to think just a little creatively to solve the problem. My vote is to treat the wrist joint of the wings as their hand and call it a day.
Auraboas don't have legs and have two pairs of arms in different locations on their bodies. I've addressed duplicate parts before, but the lack of legs is hard to deal with. I can tolerate them not being able to wear apparel out of fairness, but someone on Tumblr said it'd be funny if you gave them leg apparel and it showed up next to them in a neatly folded pile. That gets points for funny.
Finally, Undertides. They lack arms and legs entirely, which I can also tolerate them not being able to wear apparel. That's fine. I'll live.
• • • LINE-BREAKING TERTS • • •
"But the special terts would mess up how apparel looks!"I hear you. I understand. But I will counter with three words: Make them apparel.
"But-!"
Hold your horses! Let's take a look at something real quick.
You know Augment? That one line-breaking gene for Abberations, Dusthides, and Sandsurges?
Take a good look at it, then look at the forum announcement Augmented Apparel.
Notice how we have a cyborg-looking Ancient tert and a cyborg-looking apparel set. Why can't this just be done with the rest of the line-breaking terts?
Just make them apparel.
"But there wouldn't be enough colors!"
You're definitely right, there wouldn't be the same variety in colors as there are with tertiary genes, and that might suck a little, but would you rather have baked in add-ons with terts, or be able to mix and match stuff with apparel? You could have an Abberation with Augment, Polypore, and Riot if you wanted to, because it'd be apparel! You could just layer it on there!
"But the layering would be weird!"
How many pieces of apparel on this site already layer weird? Some things just aren't gonna layer right, and we've accepted that. It's just part of the game.
That and a lot of the recent Ancient gene additions have been repeats of things older Ancients already had on another Ancient breed or the holiday ones which amount to little more than flowerfalls / halos / any number of "this sure is an image on top of a dragon" apparel with little to no bearing on the dragon itself, particularly Brightshine and Rockbreaker.
And now with the addition of an Earth ancient after the Earth holiday gene has been released... How are Dusthides going to get it if they're supposed to be the Earth dragons? If this was apparel, it could applied retroactively, but now it's seemingly not available to them at all.
• • • BREEDING • • •
Ancient breeds can't breed with Modern dragons or Ancients of other types. If you have an Aether, a Tundra, and an Undertide, they can't breed with each other in any configuration. You could argue this is because not all Ancients share genes with other breeds, but they've been making parallel genes anyway. If Ancient A breeds with Ancient B and ends up making Baby A with an exclusive Ancient B gene, just... Default to Ancient A's gene or make it turn into Basic. It's not very complicated and it'd only allow more freedom.
• • • IN CONCLUSION • • •
I respect the FR team a whole lot. As good as the Ancient breeds sounded, getting more dragons in less time with cool tertiary genes with the tradeoff being no apparel, I don't think it paid off the way they expected it to, and it's becoming sort of meh whenever they release a new Ancient. I would much prefer to wait a longer period of time for more Modern breeds with all the apparel at their disposal (considering that's half the game) and Ancient breeds with more creative themes than a new Ancient every so often more frequently that has potential but misses the mark on execution.I don't expect them to change anything. They probably won't, and even if they did, I don't expect them to complete that backlog for all the current Ancients. I just love this site and the art and it's one of those things where I criticize it because I just know they can do better. I can wait for greatness and would prefer to do that than sit through a somewhat steady stream of okay additions.
What's the point of a breeding and dress up game if all these new dragons can't breed with 90% of the other dragons and can't be dressed up? You're left with, like... 1/4th of a game there at best.
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