Identical Twins

[purplehaze]

I rather like this idea. I think it should be kept as simple as possible -- just identical twins of the same breed, same gender. I don't see any reason for them to have a similar code. The codes should just be random like any other dragon.

 

I don't think there should be any message identifying an egg as possibly being a twin and I certainly don't like the idea of one embryo dying if they are traded. That would just be too sad to get a message like that!

 

I would like the possibility of keeping both hatchlings on your scroll and think they should stay even if you are scroll locked. You would just need to wait until enough creatures grow up to unlock you before you could get any more eggs. I also think you should be able to trade, gift or abandon one if you wish. Freezing one shouldn't have any effect on the other as they would be two separate dragons once they are hatched.

 

I would hate to see them be so fragile that they would require constant tending to keep them from dying. That would take all the fun out of it for me. I don't mind if they need more views to hatch and are slightly more likely to get sick as hatchlings, but having to constantly fog and unfog them to keep them alive is just more trouble than it's worth IMO.

 

Sorry for a sort of stream-of-consciousness unorganized post. It is just some of the thoughts that I have had as I read through the posts.

[MessengerDragon]

I rather like this idea. I think it should be kept as simple as possible -- just identical twins of the same breed, same gender. I don't see any reason for them to have a similar code. The codes should just be random like any other dragon.

 

I don't think there should be any message identifying an egg as possibly being a twin and I certainly don't like the idea of one embryo dying if they are traded. That would just be too sad to get a message like that!

 

I would like the possibility of keeping both hatchlings on your scroll and think they should stay even if you are scroll locked. You would just need to wait until enough creatures grow up to unlock you before you could get any more eggs. I also think you should be able to trade, gift or abandon one if you wish. Freezing one shouldn't have any effect on the other as they would be two separate dragons once they are hatched.

 

I would hate to see them be so fragile that they would require constant tending to keep them from dying. That would take all the fun out of it for me. I don't mind if they need more views to hatch and are slightly more likely to get sick as hatchlings, but having to constantly fog and unfog them to keep them alive is just more trouble than it's worth IMO.

 

Sorry for a sort of stream-of-consciousness unorganized post. It is just some of the thoughts that I have had as I read through the posts.

This pretty much sums up my views on this.

[cyradis4]

I think they should be identical in all ways, to simplify things.

 

I agree, they should be more fragile as both eggs and hatchies. In avians, there are almost never twins that survive to adult-hood, because the birds are so fragile. Most die in their eggs, and of those that hatch, most fail to thrive.

 

In captivity (ie, bred eggs), they get the best of care without having to deal with survival of the fittest, and so it would make sense that they'd happen in bred eggs, but not in CB ones.

 

The other thing is:

Identical twins come from one yolk splitting. Fraternal twins come from two yolks ending up in the same egg. When two yolks end up in the same egg, that egg is almost always larger than the others.

 

 

 

Now, if we wanted Fraternal twins... I think this might work for it:

- The egg: two possibilities, either an indeterminate color (so we could use one sprite for all breeds)

- The description: "This egg seems unusually large, and the color is not what you would expect from the parents."

- The hatchlings which came out of it would be fraternal, so they could be different breeds

- If the egg was uninfluenced, it could be either gender, but if influenced, it should be just the one gender.

 

 

 

I think it would still be a good idea to use only identical twins, but... there's an idea for fraternal ones.

 

Cheers!

C4.

[JavaTigress]

I think they should be identical in all ways, to simplify things.

 

I agree, they should be more fragile as both eggs and hatchies. In avians, there are almost never twins that survive to adult-hood, because the birds are so fragile. Most die in their eggs, and of those that hatch, most fail to thrive.

 

In captivity (ie, bred eggs), they get the best of care without having to deal with survival of the fittest, and so it would make sense that they'd happen in bred eggs, but not in CB ones.

 

The other thing is:

Identical twins come from one yolk splitting. Fraternal twins come from two yolks ending up in the same egg. When two yolks end up in the same egg, that egg is almost always larger than the others.

 

 

 

Now, if we wanted Fraternal twins... I think this might work for it:

- The egg: two possibilities, either an indeterminate color (so we could use one sprite for all breeds)

- The description: "This egg seems unusually large, and the color is not what you would expect from the parents."

- The hatchlings which came out of it would be fraternal, so they could be different breeds

- If the egg was uninfluenced, it could be either gender, but if influenced, it should be just the one gender.

 

 

 

I think it would still be a good idea to use only identical twins, but... there's an idea for fraternal ones.

 

Cheers!

C4.

Actually, I rather like C4's suggestion.

 

It'd be cool to have both fraternal and identical twins.

[bbik]

I wasn't thinking that these twins should die easily if you don't take special care of them from the first possible moment. What I suggested was

Let them need extremely high stats for hatching - and quite often more time than until they reach 4 days left. A big fat warning sign should be high stats and a big hole that stay for a day or longer without the hatchi(es) actually coming out of the egg.

Let the hatchlings be more prone to sickness. Since sickness only occurs when an egg/hatchie gets too many views/UVs too quickly, I don't really see it as that much of an issue - unless you get viewbombed.

Maybe make the twin hatchies need extra high stats or extra long to grow up, too.

So, as long as you're not too careless and know what you're doing and when to do it, your twins should be safe.

I see a few issues with this.

 

First, from everything I have seen, it is not how quickly a dragon gets views that makes it sick (at least, not in the sense normally meant). It is how many views it has for its age. Whether it gets the excess views all at once (in an ER or similar) or over the course of continuous minor over-viewing for three days, too many is still too many. Plus, a fresh new hatchling's tolerance is lower than that of a 3-day-old egg, so even if the egg doesn't get sick with a higher than usual number of views, the hatchling may still be sick when it comes out, making point 2 a concern.

 

Additionally to that, I would see point 1 as a problem, as well. If I have a common egg that just went ER, and I only have a few minutes online, I will toss that egg in the ER and leave, because history says that it will hatch safely once it gets enough stats, without any further precautions on my part. If I have a prize/GoN/similarly stubborn breed, I will frequently fog the ER egg until I have time to track its progress, so that I will be able to immediately fog the new, probably-sick hatchling. If I have a common egg, that unexpectedly is a twin egg, and I ER it like any normal common egg, and come back to find either a shell or two tombstones because it needed excessive stats to hatch "on time" and then didn't get protective fogging right away when it finally did hatch, I would be pretty annoyed.

 

 

As for the idea itself, I'm neutral. It's not often that I have a use for more than one offspring from a pairing, but if it's as rare as all that, then it's also not often that it'll matter. So while I don't see a need to have this option, I don't see any real need to not have it, either.

[Angelina Gienah]

This could be a really fun idea... I would definitely be in favor of it. I just wonder if there could be any way to show others that these two were twins besides the similar codes? They would be a rarity people would want to be able to show off after all

[Starscream]

I am intrigued with the idea here.

 

I think, if you are about scroll locked One hatchie away, one auto's - incentive not to lock yourself silly if you want both twins.

 

Twin code - interesting idea or possibly a 6th character in the code on the twin. this could signify that the dragon was a twin. such as 12345 and 12345b

 

Bred eggs only - agreed

 

More common occurrence in more common breeds - but a possible mortality in at least one of the hatchlings in common breeds.

 

I suggest auto-abandons cannot be reclaimed by original scroll in any circumstances. A flag is added when it auto's - this is to prevent people posting threads "my twin auto'd and I'd like it back" Sometimes twins are separated at birth and are then raised in loving families.

 

it would be interesting if the twins could be either identical, or not identical (like each parent's breed) or same gender or opposites. I'd toss a Chimera in but I think spiriting a chimera would be awkward - and well you'd only get one baby as a chimera is its own twin...

 

Smaller, weaker, sicker? Yeah, I think I could live with that. i'd toss in a thought of an extremely rare event of a neglected occurring in the twins. But that is as unlikely as me marrying TJ. (not that I would, I have been married for 17 years) I would be okay if one or both of the twins took one extra day to get to maturity than regular hatchlings.

 

forced hatchings?

Perhaps. A possible twin egg could indicate on the scroll "the hatchling inside is having trouble breaking its shell, perhaps you should help it." I am of two minds about this, I could see it being a rare requirement and that one or both hatchies could zip away, but then again, they could be too weak to try to abandon scroll.

 

BSA affected? Could be interesting with Purple fertility if fertility was modified to multiclutch, the chance of a twinned egg in there would be interesting. Which one would you choose?

 

in regards to eggs (ie chickens or birds IRL)And this is a common misconception that chicks come from the yolk.

 

Yolks, for the record, is not where the babies come from. they are born of the blastodisc that is on the outside of the yolk. you will see it when you crack an egg open and see a sort of pale spot. the embryo then sends a web of blood vessels around the yolk to draw in nutrients. The yolk is there specifically as nourishment for the developing embryo. Chicks will absorb the yolk by the time they hatch or just after.

 

 

[edwardelricfreak]

It wouldn't have to be the case, but if two babies in one egg are fraternal twins, they could be either breed possible from their parents' pairing (breed of mother, breed of father, potential alts, potential hybrid) - independent of each other. That's why I wanted to simplify things by insisting on identical twins.

So then don't allow those things for fraternal twins from one egg. If you want fraternal siblings that can be either species, that's where multiclutches come in. But in THIS case, you CAN keep it simple! Only keep it to where they can be different gender and/or alts/color morphs. They can't be any other species other than what the type of egg is. That's all. It would tie in to this suggestion.

 

Yes, they COULD be two different species but ONLY if you don't have limits on the idea. Clearly state that they would NOT happen if that idea were implemented.

 

HOWEVER, I do like C4's idea if we WERE to allow fraternal twins being different species from one egg. o3o

Smaller, weaker, sicker? Yeah, I think I could live with that. i'd toss in a thought of an extremely rare event of a neglected occurring in the twins. But that is as unlikely as me marrying TJ. (not that I would, I have been married for 17 years) I would be okay if one or both of the twins took one extra day to get to maturity than regular hatchlings.

That would be kind of awesome. Considering that it's already a rare chance to get a twin egg, on top of a rare chance of one being a Neglected hatchling, I think it might be ok!