Suggestions

:/ let us color the genes our dragons have plez. i wondered why the heckle i couldn't find banescale accents that worked with porcupine, decided to make my own, and then when i opened the .psd to get started realized why. then i read through the gaoler template release thread and there's just like 8 pages of people being disappointed. i am now one of them. i have several ancient dragons with linebreaking tertiary genes and knowing, now, that i literally will not be able to make skins for them nor find or commission skins from others for them--despite the fact that they can't wear apparel--really harshes my mellow. (sidenote: i understand that i can make or buy skins/accents that work 'around' them but this just seems needlessly restrictive, especially in the case of my wintercoat gaoler, whose fluff i would have loved to slap a pattern on since i can't exactly dress him up) a quick AH search or scroll through the forums will show that QA doesn't seem to mind accents that make dragons look like they have genes they do not. (Gembond, bee, glimmer, underbelly, etc. etc. etc.) so that's clearly not the reason--or if it is it feels very inconsistent to me. i understand for genes like spines & firefly we're expected to work around them, but they're small, unobtrusive genes and we can cover those dragons with clothes to customize them. ancients' genes literally affect sometimes almost 50% of the dragon and they can't be dressed. what if i want my banescale girl to have gold-capped quills? if i can't breed her except with another bane, can't put apparel on her, and am willing to pay USD to acquire gems for a blueprint and put the work in to do up the skin i should be able to do that, no? if there's concern about linebreaking in places like with spines then perhaps only accept it for ancient breeds? since skins are submitted by breed anyway and it will be easy to dismiss any that aren't. (oop, this goes outside the lines on a fae, sorry, nope! as is procedure currently.) if the issue is 'accents that look like genes that aren't on the dragon,' it seems unfair to only start enforcing it now, 7 or so years down the line now that there are so many accents for non-ancient breeds that do just that on dragons that can also wear clothes and can interbreed. (i know that's a weird point to bring up but i dislike male banes and would have to have one in my lair if i want to breed one of my girls lol so it IS a downside to ancients for some people, however minor). some of this issue is also offset by the fact that the original lines and shading of the dragon need to stay visible, so you wouldn't be able to slap a gnarlhorn accent on a non-gnarlhorn gaoler without it looking ridiculous. especially since UMAs are a feature people pay USD to use it just seems like we should be able to customize our dragons as much as possible to offset the fact that we can't individualize them with apparel. idk. just my two cents as someone who has fallen back on creating UMAs time and again. [b]Edit to add:[/b] if the issue really is 'genes the dragon doesn't have' then maybe put some kind of 'check' in place to keep it from going on a dragon that doesn't have that gene? you can't put a coatl F skin on, like, a tundra M, because there's a provision for that. perhaps a provision could be made that makes that tert a pre-req to apply the skin and just have an extra checkbox on the skin/accent submission form that a person has to click when they select the species. [b]Like so:[/b] [img]https://i.gyazo.com/a73bfccb6d7fa5d4d97cf5532f10bb7d.png[/img] -- [quote name="cantrip" date="2020-01-06 22:58:35"][quote name="J///emadar" date="2020-01-06 22:39:24" ]It would take a bit of coding, but if they truly wanted to, they could code simple checks so that a skin/accent can only be applied to a dragon with a particular tertiary (though this could also get confusing on the skin template, though it could just say it right out: This skin can only be worn by a 'Sex' 'Ancient Breed' with the 'Hugely LineBreaking Tert'.). That way you wouldn't have 'floating' pieces when people apply skins created using the line breaking tert templates to dragons not using those terts. [/quote] yessss!!! this is what i was trying to get at with my mockup. i don't think it would be [i]super [/i]hard, either? just an extra couple lines in the coding and the number associated with the gene attached to the skin like that so that it checks for it the same way it does breed & sex. like for a male banescale wraith-only accent (tert ID 48) it would require the breed value (18), the sex (0), and the tert ID (48) to apply the skin. [i]edited to clean up some goofy sentences[/i][/quote]

Fully agree, it severely limits customization options for Ancients, and with the staff not adding any art assets for Ancients beyond their genes, allowing ancient-tert-friendly accents should be standard

They can't wear apparel, they can't interbreed, they can't even carry over genes that are shared by Moderns and the Ancient (huge negative imo), and they can't have full coverage skins that work with half their terts.

yea,,, plus, idk, i think it would help curb some of the outcry for more ancient genes.

because people want dragons that are personal and custom to them, and with a limited gene pool you can only go so far with that.

so this would be like... some work up front from the coded side and re-releasing the .psd files (not that hard since the site's artists should have copies of them) but take some of that heat off in the long run. cuz it's only gonna get louder as time goes on and the more obscure genes become commonplace u_u

I agree as well, that since terts for ancients can be massively line breaking, then accents/skins should at least be able utilize those lines as well.

I can get behind not letting the skins/accents break the line art of the dragon, same as with modern dragons, as I have seen a site where you are allowed to, and believe me, it can get pretty confusing to have to determine 'does this break more than X% of the silhouette? Do I need to tone it down?'.

However, these terts could be considered part of the official line art for the breed, and thus allow users to utilize them in making accents/skins.

It would take a bit of coding, but if they truly wanted to, they could code simple checks so that a skin/accent can only be applied to a dragon with a particular tertiary (though this could also get confusing on the skin template, though it could just say it right out: This skin can only be worn by a 'Sex' 'Ancient Breed' with the 'Hugely LineBreaking Tert'.). That way you wouldn't have 'floating' pieces when people apply skins created using the line breaking tert templates to dragons not using those terts.

[quote name="Jemadar" date="2020-01-06 22:39:24" ]It would take a bit of coding, but if they truly wanted to, they could code simple checks so that a skin/accent can only be applied to a dragon with a particular tertiary (though this could also get confusing on the skin template, though it could just say it right out: This skin can only be worn by a 'Sex' 'Ancient Breed' with the 'Hugely LineBreaking Tert'.). That way you wouldn't have 'floating' pieces when people apply skins created using the line breaking tert templates to dragons not using those terts. [/quote] yessss!!! this is what i was trying to get at with my mockup. i don't think it would be [i]super [/i]hard, either? just an extra couple lines in the coding and the number associated with the gene attached to the skin like that so that it checks for it the same way it does breed & sex. like for a male banescale wraith-only accent (tert ID 48) it would require the breed value (18), the sex (0), and the tert ID (48) to apply the skin. [i]edited to clean up some goofy sentences[/i]

Agreed! This would be a great, hopefully low-effort, way for ancients to have more potential!

As one of the people who was disappointed in the gaoler template thread I of course support this. I would love to see tert-bound skins. gnarlhorn especially is so flat and has so much potential. I'd love to redo my scenecore skins to fit wintercoat, too

Support, especially because there's so many cool things you could do with Wraith.

(I was imagining a steaming hot-cocoa skin for the Crystalline Gala contest, I am so sad that that can't happen).

I don't have any ancients but I really support this. The limitations on a dragon who is already SUPER limited in decor options seems not well thought out.

If the dragon has the line breaking terts, let people draw on it.

[center][quote name="Jemadar" date="2020-01-06 22:39:24" ] It would take a bit of coding, but if they truly wanted to, they could code simple checks so that a skin/accent can only be applied to a dragon with a particular tertiary (though this could also get confusing on the skin template, though it could just say it right out: This skin can only be worn by a 'Sex' 'Ancient Breed' with the 'Hugely LineBreaking Tert'.). That way you wouldn't have 'floating' pieces when people apply skins created using the line breaking tert templates to dragons not using those terts. [/quote] This!! Similar to how I think the concept of permababy skins and accents could be handled. A few simple checks to make sure the dragon the skin is being applied to has the corresponding requirements so it doesn't end up looking off. Plus it would allow skin and accent artists more freedom to make multiple copies of their accents that are compatible with all the different line-breaking terts, which would potentially facilitate the purchase of additional gems from the site by customers to buy said accents.