Post by Accalia on Dec 15, 2011 17:33:14 GMT
So, your characters are having kits and you want to know how staff are deciding the stats?
Well, rest assured we're not deciding based on how much we like you! It's based on a number of important measures and randomised selection, described below.
This is decided based on two things. Firstly, the number of players available to play the kits. If there are no members who currently wish to play any more characters and the parents don't want to play the kits, then only one kit will be born, or maybe none (all stillborn). If there are no Roleplayers available who wish to play the kits and the parents will play one each, then that's 2 kits. If there are loads of Roleplayers available who want to play the kits, then there will be 3 kits, maybe even 4. This is to ensure that kits which are born have people to play them and aren't just quietly forgotten or tossed from RPer to RPer.
If there aren't a very low or very high number of people who want to play the kits, it will simply be randomised.
This is randomised. There is a 10% chance of complications in one kit. If the randomiser does select that complications will be present, another randomiser will be used to select the nature of the complications - stillbirth, difficulties with birth, mother's death or serious injury in kit-birth (the mother will not die unless the RPer agrees, but serious injuries can occur), disabled kits, and so on.
This is generally simply based on when the mating posts were made, when the post in the Kits board was made, and when the staff reply was. Site Time will be used. Cats will be pregnant for around 60 days Site Time, which is around a month in real time.
This is flip-a-coin. Purely random. However, if the ratios are going badly out in the kit's birth group (there are many more females than males, or vice versa, in the part of society the kit is born into - either lonerdom, the Timekeepers, the Tribe or a Clan) then the kits' genders may simply be chosen to increase the numbers of a minority gender in the Clan.
The parents' (and grandparents', if known) pelt colours and close variations will be put into a randomiser, along with a low chance of another colour. For instance, if the ancestry went...
Mother: Pure white
Father: Ginger tabby
Mother's mother: Pure white
Mother's father: Black and white
Father's mother: Black
Father's mother: Tortoiseshell
then I would tell the randomiser that there should be a 40% chance of the kit being pure white, a 30% chance of the kit being a ginger tabby, a 9% chance of it being black and white, a 9% chance of it being black, a 9% chance of it being tortoiseshell, and the remaining 3% would go to three randomly chosen colours not already on the list, so as to introduce variety - in this case, maybe solid grey, silver tabby, and copper.
The same is done for eye colour, height and weight, lankiness/stockiness/bulkiness, and so on.
If I don't have the grandparents' info, I will give some of their percentage to a higher chance of parents' attributes, and some of their percentage to randomly chosen traits.
Markings will be chosen by the same method, but if the randomiser threw out things which don't go with parents' colours, I might make the markings the parents' colours to make up for it.
For instance, if everybody in the family was black and white except for the mother's father, who was a ginger tabby, and the kit ended up a ginger tabby, any markings he/she had would probably be in the colours black and/or white - no matter what the randomiser might say.
This is a sort of average of one-third Clan traits, one-sixth father's traits, one-sixth mother's traits (the mother's or father's shares can change if only one is really having a hand in their upbringing or if one has a very strong character), and the final third randomisation, possibly including grandparents' traits if stated. So a kit with a kind, calm and quiet father, a brave, quick-thinking and fierce mother, and was in DawnClan, they might end up kind, quick-thinking, loyal and decisive - taking kindness from their father, quick thinking from their mother, loyalty from their general Clan traits, and decisive from the randomiser.
Of course, if the whole randomiser thing throws up 'kind, ruthless, sweet, candid', then we'll rethink and adjust.
First, a randomiser will be used to tell me a number from 1 to 5. Five is a very talented cat who I will give 5 different talents to, one is a very un-talented cat who will need to work hard to be skilled at something, so I'll only give 1 talent to them.
After that, I will input a list of the parents' major talents, the Clan's major talents, and a few random knacks and talents, such as 'good hunter', 'good tree-climber', 'very stealthy', 'persuasive talker', and so on. Then I will get the randomiser to spit out the number of talents that the cat has been given by the first randomiser, and this will be the kit's talents.
Well, rest assured we're not deciding based on how much we like you! It's based on a number of important measures and randomised selection, described below.
Number of kits born
This is decided based on two things. Firstly, the number of players available to play the kits. If there are no members who currently wish to play any more characters and the parents don't want to play the kits, then only one kit will be born, or maybe none (all stillborn). If there are no Roleplayers available who wish to play the kits and the parents will play one each, then that's 2 kits. If there are loads of Roleplayers available who want to play the kits, then there will be 3 kits, maybe even 4. This is to ensure that kits which are born have people to play them and aren't just quietly forgotten or tossed from RPer to RPer.
If there aren't a very low or very high number of people who want to play the kits, it will simply be randomised.
Complications
This is randomised. There is a 10% chance of complications in one kit. If the randomiser does select that complications will be present, another randomiser will be used to select the nature of the complications - stillbirth, difficulties with birth, mother's death or serious injury in kit-birth (the mother will not die unless the RPer agrees, but serious injuries can occur), disabled kits, and so on.
Birth Dates
This is generally simply based on when the mating posts were made, when the post in the Kits board was made, and when the staff reply was. Site Time will be used. Cats will be pregnant for around 60 days Site Time, which is around a month in real time.
Kit Stats
Gender
This is flip-a-coin. Purely random. However, if the ratios are going badly out in the kit's birth group (there are many more females than males, or vice versa, in the part of society the kit is born into - either lonerdom, the Timekeepers, the Tribe or a Clan) then the kits' genders may simply be chosen to increase the numbers of a minority gender in the Clan.
Physical
The parents' (and grandparents', if known) pelt colours and close variations will be put into a randomiser, along with a low chance of another colour. For instance, if the ancestry went...
Mother: Pure white
Father: Ginger tabby
Mother's mother: Pure white
Mother's father: Black and white
Father's mother: Black
Father's mother: Tortoiseshell
then I would tell the randomiser that there should be a 40% chance of the kit being pure white, a 30% chance of the kit being a ginger tabby, a 9% chance of it being black and white, a 9% chance of it being black, a 9% chance of it being tortoiseshell, and the remaining 3% would go to three randomly chosen colours not already on the list, so as to introduce variety - in this case, maybe solid grey, silver tabby, and copper.
The same is done for eye colour, height and weight, lankiness/stockiness/bulkiness, and so on.
If I don't have the grandparents' info, I will give some of their percentage to a higher chance of parents' attributes, and some of their percentage to randomly chosen traits.
Markings will be chosen by the same method, but if the randomiser threw out things which don't go with parents' colours, I might make the markings the parents' colours to make up for it.
For instance, if everybody in the family was black and white except for the mother's father, who was a ginger tabby, and the kit ended up a ginger tabby, any markings he/she had would probably be in the colours black and/or white - no matter what the randomiser might say.
Personality
This is a sort of average of one-third Clan traits, one-sixth father's traits, one-sixth mother's traits (the mother's or father's shares can change if only one is really having a hand in their upbringing or if one has a very strong character), and the final third randomisation, possibly including grandparents' traits if stated. So a kit with a kind, calm and quiet father, a brave, quick-thinking and fierce mother, and was in DawnClan, they might end up kind, quick-thinking, loyal and decisive - taking kindness from their father, quick thinking from their mother, loyalty from their general Clan traits, and decisive from the randomiser.
Of course, if the whole randomiser thing throws up 'kind, ruthless, sweet, candid', then we'll rethink and adjust.
Talents
First, a randomiser will be used to tell me a number from 1 to 5. Five is a very talented cat who I will give 5 different talents to, one is a very un-talented cat who will need to work hard to be skilled at something, so I'll only give 1 talent to them.
After that, I will input a list of the parents' major talents, the Clan's major talents, and a few random knacks and talents, such as 'good hunter', 'good tree-climber', 'very stealthy', 'persuasive talker', and so on. Then I will get the randomiser to spit out the number of talents that the cat has been given by the first randomiser, and this will be the kit's talents.
