Merge splits with normal dragons

[angelicdragonpuppy]

I was working on split lines recently and realized, wow, there's only seven breeds of them, in over eleven years of DC existing! Which got me to thinking... what if they were just merged in with normal dragons?

 

I know, I know--a different solution is "just make more," but considering how they've fared over the years, I don't see that drastically changing. Even if their numbers doubled this year, they'd still be a very small group.

 

More than that, though... the reason to separate them out doesn't feel as strong. Pygmies have extreme size differences and drakes extreme intelligence differences, but splits simply have an extra head, and the same size eggs. Considering how many drastically different body types we already breed together, that seems a weird thing to get hung up over. 

 

I know some people like different breeding groups, but I just think it's a shame to see these very nice dragons sequestered off into such a small pool without much to do with them, and unlike with the other two groups, their merging would be much logically easier to swallow.

 

 

Edited July 29, 2017 by angelicdragonpuppy

[Luxrayx]

I've had the same thought myself. Sure, it's cool that they're kind of unique, and limitations can lead to creativity... But mostly, it's just a source of frustration. Besides, if a dragon with six limbs can breed with a dragon with none, I feel like an extra head isn't all that noteworthy  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Sundew]

Support. Pygmies and drakes make sense, but an extra head doesn't seem like enough to make a species incompatible with every other breed, especially considering the enormous differences between normal, breedable dragons.

[IsmaielDeath]

I always wondered about this. To me it never made sense. The breeding restriction together with the look of most two headed made me less than interested to collect them. I only rellay like d one and that was the bloodscale one. Now I like the leviathan type too (the one in the cost more than the other for some reason). It would be lovely if the breeding restrictions would fall away and make them breedable with other water dragons. Since the newcomers especially would look strange if breed with a dragon from volcano.

[blockEdragon]

That would be an improvement, I have been thinking about them for a few weeks and I've come to the conclusion that subgroups are mostly pointless and also really bad for gameplay, I like a lot of dragons IN the subgroups but I hate the actual mechanics of subgroups.

 

If this is happening then why not merge pygmies with them as well? The size difference rule is seemingly arbitrary considering full grown dragon is allowed to be a little larger then a pygmy to MASSIVE, and then they can breed with any other dragon without issue.

 

Drakes are the real issue here, they can't simply be added like the two headed or pygmies because they are animals and bestiality is gross and extremely amoral.

The only way i'd see them being absorbed into the main group is to retcon "drakes" out of existence, which I would have little to no issue over, a few minor edits to the existing descriptions and you're pretty much good to go. Sure they wouldn't be animals anymore but the actual impact that has on most concepts is so minor that it probably won't change much if they are sentient.

[The Dragoness]

Support! I agree that not being able to breed teensy tiny pygmies with large dragons like Stones makes sense, as does the restriction on drakes, but I would really live to be able to breed my two-headeds with "normal" dragons. I've fallen in love with blue Baikalas and Gilded Bloodscales, but none of the existing two-headeds look pretty in lineages with them in my opinion. A single head really isn't a monumental difference.

[IsmaielDeath]

18 minutes ago, blockEdragon said:

Drakes are the real issue here, they can't simply be added like the two headed or pygmies because they are animals and bestiality is gross and extremely amoral.

The only way i'd see them being absorbed into the main group is to retcon "drakes" out of existence, which I would have little to no issue over, a few minor edits to the existing descriptions and you're pretty much good to go. Sure they wouldn't be animals anymore but the actual impact that has on most concepts is so minor that it probably won't change much if they are sentient.

 

Thing is its only DC drakes that make them animals by default. A drake is described as the 'dumb cousin' of dragons so to speak. Dragons are described as 'higly intelligent' on the other hand. Fun question: If someone compared a normal intelligent person to a genius what would happen? They would look dumb. They might be a LOT more intelligent than the people they are usually around but next to a real genius all this becomes relative.

 

So yes drakes are less intelligent than their highly intelligent dragon cousins. Which might mean ANYTHING between intelligence of an earthworn and a human. And to be honest... There are big enough intelligence differences within a spacies.. maybe the described gap in intelligence is not bigger than what is common between one individual and another of the same species of.. lets say a trihorn wyvern.

[angelicdragonpuppy]

Honestly I'd support drakes being merged with changes to their intelligence too, since they're not a very visually distinct group (or, alternately, make new drakes be 70x70 pixels, putting them at the medium size their eggs suggest). But... for now splits are the closest, so one thing at a time.

 

I don't think Pygmy merges would work, but I don't mind as much because we actually have decent diversity and numbers there. 

[purplehaze]

My instinctual reaction was to scream, "No! You can't mess with my Splits!" But after a bit of thought I realize it probably wouldn't change much in the way I collect them. Except for one lineage back when the Lindwurms were added and I wanted a lineage with "all the 2-heads," I only breed PB anyway. The one thing it might affect is my ability to pick up eggs from the AP for my massive even gen PB-Split lineage that is going for its 11th generation. But the truth is I have trouble now finding EG PB Split bred eggs on the AP that are not somehow related to mine.

 

I can see advantages to the change and I'm sure it would boost the popularity of a lot of the 2-headed breeds. I guess at this point I am pretty much neutral on the issue.

[TJ09]

I think this falls into the same bucket as this thread, which I closed a few months ago:

In that original thread, I see pretty much the same arguments as those forming here, except swap around "two-headed" with "drake." In fact, I'm even seeing the same "[Drakes/two-heades] aren't like [two-heaeds/drakes], which are fine" types of thing.

 

Overall, my opinion is the same as that of drakes: If the actual issue here is that the breeding options are limited, releasing more is IMO a more fitting solution. I don't buy the claims that the anatomy is actually similar enough to merge.