Chapter 3.8 Breeding and Hide Crafts
Pattern and Trait Changes in Creature
Creatures are genderless and will generate horns, patterns, and other features based traits, or events that cause traits to appear. Creatures will have a range of designs. At world creation, a select amount of random traits from their design will be determined as the base norm. Base norm traits are what will appear in the wild. Creature shard creation will generate a random set of traits and patterns from the norm. These shards can hatch in the wild, or through player or NPC interaction.
Discovering Creature Colors and Patterns
After the world is generated and base norm traits are set, previously unseen colors and patterns will appear either in the wild or through ranching with a % chance. The chance is determined when a shard is created, or when a creature is duplicating, or replicating with another creature of the same species.
Age and Leadership Patterns and Traits
The older creature of a wild group will be the leader. The leader will mix traits with the 2nd oldest in the group. In some instances, such as traits, or having no herd/pack member, creatures can just duplicate themselves.
Mating/Breeding
Mating is when a creature mates on their own. Breeding is when a player selects a specific pair, or groups two together in an enclosure intentionally. When mating/breeding occurs, creatures will reproduce magically. They will glow, and a magic circle will appear if there is room in their radius. From the magic circle, another creature of the same species will appear. Some ranching buildings will include creature summoning circles, or players can build their own. If the creatures linked in the right location, their offspring will appear in the summoning circle after mating/breeding.
If interrupted, they will try again after some time. But you can stop them from trying again, or immediately restart if desired. Ranchers and Wildlife claims can also construct controls, or set certain creatures to mate automatically with cooldowns, or to stop them.
Pattern Selection for Breeding Pairs
For both domestic and wild creatures, each species has a texture map for each pattern that can be applied. The center point of where the texture map is applied, is a saved valued on each creature. The offspring of the two will choose a random point from the radius around and between the two parent center points for each pattern. (Imagine a capsule shaped selection option on the texture map.) The replicant will have the same chance of a random pattern as in the wild, unless controls are in place.
Trait Selection for Breeding Pairs
The replicant will take on a random trait combinations from both parents. But will not duplicate traits. Offspring will have the same chance of a random trait as in the wild.
Personalization of Patterns in Crafting
There are some crafting items that can use hides. Hides are harvested from creature corpses. Players can drag the texture to crop texture placement to a crafted item. Some crafts will automatically apply the hide, like if creating a stuffed trophy. You will lose pieces of the hide in tiles based on usage. (Not specific slices.) This gives players the opportunity to hunt and breed creatures with more connection between the items they make, and the creatures they hunt or raise.
Players can optionally dye crafts after creation, if they want certain solid colors and gradients instead.
Simple Graphics
Due to this, there will be some stretching deformations in some areas based on the model's UV meshing. For this, (and for other reasons,) Spirit Relics's game models will not be highly realistic, and will embrace simple stylization to help old and new patterns blend into the world and clothing. This will most likely showcase itself as cell shading and simple flat textures.
Other Pattern Notes with Domestication
Solo domesticated creatures can duplicate themselves, same as in the wild
Has the same wild chance of random traits
This allows players can start ranching with just one creature
Creatures created by remaining character points (after character creation) will only have a random basic solid color, no pattern, and limited random traits
Player created creatures cannot duplicate, or mate/breed