Exhibited Press - Comments

We're back, everything went smoothly, and the new server is up. Emails are still being configured (le'sigh) but everything else has gone well!

During downtime, I decided to put in hex codes. Everyone put in a good argument for and against these on the forums but in the end I decided that the pros outweighed the cons. From 816 possible combinations for dinosaurs we have leapt to over 256,000,000,000,000. Of course many of these may be unnoticably different to the naked eye but they are different.

What does this mean?
- All dinosaurs have their same colors and markings.
- All lab dinosaurs will still be generated from the original 51 colors and 16 markings.
- All color potions still work and produce the same color they would have done previously.
- Custom dinosaurs can be ANY color under the sun.
- Color and marking color genetics have been removed.
- Colors and marking colors are now determined through mixing the two hexes. However:
- All breedings have a 30% chance of a dad-similar color, a 30% chance of a mom-similar color, and a 40% chance of a mix of the two.
- All breedings will now display color and marking color on chick pages.

But.. I liked genetics! Why are you limiting them?
Well, it's not permenant that dinosaurs have a couple less lines of genetics. I am planning 16 new markings for every species that you can breed for through genetics.. The art is in process for these by the lovely Semisonicstar (;D) and a preview of one of the markings is here:


A heavy pinto marked atrociraptor.


A heavy panda marked atrociraptor.


A heavy tiger marked atrociraptor.


A heavy siamese marked deinonychus.



But I still have concerns, and they are:

- People will just breed for colors now. Thanks, Kitty. -.-
The color option was aways there, and people bred for color before. Seeing as gameplay on Exhibited is NOT restricted to breeding for color or markings, I don't see this as an issue.

- What about all the muddies and horrible colors that will be bred?
First up, you can test breed, see what colors eggs are and lastly, dinosaurs die at age 100. The game can effectively push them out if nobody wants them. They aren't immortal and aren't here forever, so it's down to breeding and personal preference to determine what the gene pools are like. And if color doesn't bother you - who CARES? :D

-I don't like the way this will change the way the community does things on EX.
I don't honestly think that it will. Like I said, as there's so many gameplay options here, I view color as just a sideline thing - something you can either make your primary focus or something extra to tack on, or something to ignore entirely.

-What about all colors turning dull eventually, as people breed?
Dinosaurs will still be generated by the original 51 colors and 16 markings, and customs are always available. Let's not forget about color potions either. ;D

-But the hex codes don't always look completely "true" on dinosaurs.
This is because every species has their base coloring/shading just that little bit different. The differences are hardly worth mentioning but they are there, because I simply don't want every dinosaur being the exact same. This also adds to the challenge, I feel, and makes things more interesting. It will be the same when I bring markings in (one set of marking genes will make one marking on one species of dinosaur, but another on a different species ;)).


I think this will make things even more exciting on Exhibited and I hope everyone can appreciate this new addition. :)

P.S. - you may or may not have noticed, but we have a Halloween banner up now. Points to everyone who notices the adorable pumpkin! XD