Traits

[Tad Carlucci]

The Royal baby's. While everyone gets the special collection (that is, costume) eye, some people have seen it as the dominant .. that is, the one you see .. when they look at the Pedigree View (the family tree).

Each cat has nine traits.

Each trait has three values.

1) The Costume. This is what you see in-world, on screen; what you see in-world, in Local Chat, when you click on the cat and ask for Info; what you see in the Pedigree Roster (the list of all your cats); and what you see in the Cattery. For most cats, the Costume is the same as the Dominant. But for some, 'Special Collection' cats, the costume is different. You generally get Special Collection cats as a direct purchase from KittyCatS, say, for a Christmas collection. But, occasionally, usually for Saint Patrick's Day and for special occasions such as the recent birth of a British heir, you receive a Special Collection cat in the normal course of box production.

The Costume value NEVER participates in breeding. It's sole purpose is to determine how the cat appears.

2) The Dominant. This is usually the same as (that is, it "looks like" not necessarily "is") the Costume. The only place to see the Dominant is on the Pedigree View (the family tree).

All Dominant values have an equivalent Costume. The converse is not true: there are Costumes which do not have an equivalent Dominant.

The Dominant value ALWAYS participates in breeding.

3) The Recessive. This is of the same type as the Dominant since, in an offspring, it may become the Dominant just as the Dominant may become the Recessive. You can NOT see the recessive, ever. The only way to know its value is by deduction; either by examining the parentage, or the offspring, or both.

The Recessive value ALWAYS participates in breeding.

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When producing a box, each parent chooses (randomly) either its Dominant or its Recessive and passes that value to the box. The odds are always exactly 50%. There are NO adjustments. Furthermore, the box being produced has no way to know whether the parent considered it Dominant or Recessive .. it's just "a trait value".

The box, having received two values, one from each parent, compares them and declares one as Dominant and the other Recessive.

It then examines the Dominant to determine the associated Costume.

For a normal box, the process is now complete.

But, for a Special Collection, a random check is now made. If the check succeeds, the Costume is replaced with the non-breeding Costume for that Collection.

For most Special Collections the process is now complete.

But, for **some** Special Collections, such as the Royal babies, a further random check is now made. For these collections, there is a new, breedable, trait value which could become either the Dominant or the Recessive. When this check succeeds, the value passed from one of the parents is discarded and replaced with a new value. This value **might** (or might not) appear to be one of the Costume trait values. The box re-examines the values and declares one Dominant and the other Recessive.

The "kicker" here is that, sometimes (often?), the check for that new trait being replaced into the box depends upon the values passed from the parents. We don't know when this will be done .. but .. IF the new value would discard a more recessive value, then the check "fails" and the box does not get the new value.

The rationale is that breeders working on extremely recessive trait values would be upset if, suddenly, their breeding program was ruined by a more dominant value suddenly appearing. This puts those working on deeply recessive values at a disadvantage when it comes to receiving the random new trait value. But it rewards those working on more dominant traits .. generally newer players.

The very first time this happened, I complained about it. Not the process, but that we were not warned it could happen. Some of us working on deeply recessive trait values have no problem at all taking a week off and concentrating on the stuff we generally ignore, simply to have a chance at the new value.

I now view these types of Special Collections as a Good Thing.