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Iern's Spirit Fish Minigame Information for those who are interested in this warren-wide pastime!
What are these fish all about?
The breeding and showing of ornamental fish is a favorite hobby of Iernatai young and old. Babies and adults can stand together in the showing ring, both hoping for their fish to catch the eye of the judge and net them a prize...and the supreme honor of being known as a talented fish breeder.
It's ridiculous.
It's pointless.
It's addicting.
Fish Naming Rules
Fish naming is an interesting process, and it's possible for their names to change over time. When your Iern buys a fish, they may give it a one-word name that isn't ridiculously long. When that Iern first acquires or begins to breed fish, they must assume a simple one-word 'breeding title' that will go in front of the names of all of their fish. For example, if you named your fish "Tulu" and assumed the title "Dragon", its official name would become Dragon's Tulu. Each Iern who breeds fish needs to have its own title, regardless of whether they have the same trainer. I'd suggest picking a title you know will work as the beginning of a name, whether it's a real word or a made-up one.
When Iernatai with fish join a burrow, the names of their fish are again augmented. Because burrows have a naming style of "Burrow of the ___", the descriptive term would be added to that of the burrow members' fish. Say your Iern joined the Burrow of the Lake. Tulu would then become Lake's Dragon Tulu. The first word in the name is always the possessive.
This naming pattern makes it clear who is due prestige in competitions. If Lake's Dragon Tulu won Best in Species, the entire Lake burrow would rejoice right along with "Dragon", whose name might be Fluffy or some such. Below is a list of all current breeder titles.
Buying Fish
When you buy a fish, there will be several things with it. There will be a picture, a description, and a string of genetics. If you find the genetics confusing and intimidating, that's okay. Everyone else probably does too. An example of what would come with a fish bred or for sale is below.
[picture] Dark orange fish with medium spots; average vivid green fins; poor-quality yellow topaz gem Aa, Dd, Gg, JJ, KK, LL, Mm, NHnh, Pp, QQ, ss, YY, ZZ
Breeding Fish
Breeding fish is what it's all about! In order to get the best-quality show fish, you have to breed them. What I'm talking about is brilliant gemstones, vivid colorations, and flowing fins, which are the most valuable traits for a show fish. Also, being of an interesting sub-type can help tip the scales in their favor...if they possess other valuable show qualities.
Breedings will come around every so often, so look for posts relating to the fish minigame. There will be a certain number of spots open for fish pairs. If you wish to use a fish owned by another Iern for breeding purposes, contact them and work out some sort of deal. Maybe they'll want a portion of the offspring, or monetary satisfaction. Remember, since each fish can only be bred twice before they die, each breeding counts and contributing trainers will want to be compensated for shortening (or ending) the lifespan of their fish.
Once all spaces are filled, breedings will commence. Because these fish are magically enhanced, their breedings can be very easily regulated. A special alchemical compound must be added to the water for a successful breeding to occur. When you pay for breedings, you're basically paying for that compound. Each breeding will produce between one and four surviving offspring, determined randomly. In case your agreement with another trainer involves offspring and only one is produced, I suggest you have a backup agreement ready.
When you receive your offspring, you may be confused. You may be disgusted. You may be enraged. Please don't take this out on the Jenn. It's all determined randomly through their genes. Yes, there is a system, and yes, that fugly little thing is the offspring of your beautiful fish. Or vice versa. Or maybe you'll hit the jackpot and get a beauty from beauties, or lose and get a fugly from fuglies. It's all semi-random using their genes. Y'know, those puzzling little letters below their descriptions. There is a 'master key' to the genes of the fish that Ams and I use when determining the traits of the offspring.
To show how the genes of the offspring are determined, I'll use an example with a gene that doesn't exist. Let's say the mother has a blue horn sticking out of her head and the father doesn't. In this hypothetical case, the gene for a blue horn is BB and the gene for no horn is bb. Fish with the heterozygous gene, Bb, have a mini blue horn. Therefore, blue horn is dominant over mini blue horn and no horn. Likewise, mini blue horn is dominant over no horn. To see what genes the offspring will have, I first make a Punnett square like so.
The chart above is what I use when determining the genes of offspring, though I mostly do them in my head rather than going through the trouble of writing out the chart. Yeah, I'm good. XP Because the mother is BB, her two genes are represented at the top in the columns as B and B. Likewise, the father's are b and b in the left rows. Like a multiplication table, you combine the terms for each column/row into possible gene outcomes for the offspring. In this particular example, every offspring will inherit one B from their mother and one b from their father. Thus, all offspring will have mini blue horns. There's no need to roll and find out which of the possible outcomes applies. Let's do a more interesting example to detail the rolling. In this one, two of the offspring from the batch above are mating, meaning both parents will have mini blue horns (Bb). Inbreeding these fish isn't forbidden, since sometimes it's the only way to get the traits you want and it doesn't seem to harm them in the long run. Yay for magic!
Obviously something's changed! Rather than having a 100% chance to have Bb offspring, this couple has a 25% for BB, 50% chance for Bb, and 25% chance for bb. Think of each of the four squares as 25%. For every offspring, I will roll a four-sided die to select one of the four possible outcomes. The probability is reset each time, so if this couple already had two Bb children, they still have a 50% chance to have another Bb child. To complete the example, let's say they have four children. Each square is assigned a number on the die corresponding to its label. If one, BB, If two or three, Bb. If four, bb.
Roll one is 2. Roll two is 2. Roll three is 4. Roll four is 4. Therefore, this batch of offspring will contain two fish with mini blue horns and two fish with no horns. If the fish actually had a gene for blue horns. Which they don't.
Showing Fish
Breeding show-worthy fish is the goal of most breeders. Color and gem-type are more personal preference than anything, but the traits that increase their value are the crowd-pleasers. Below is a list of traits that are, while not required, very valuable to any competition fish.
- Long, flowing fins - Vivid body color, not relating to the color itself but its shade - Vivid fin color, not relating to the color itself but its shade - Spots and stripes together - Brilliant-quality gems - Feline or dragon sub-type in some cases
Even as there are certain traits desired by breeders, there are others that detract from the overall show score of a fish. If your fish has more than a few of these characteristics, I would advise against showing it. It could, however, be useful for breeding purposes. Undesirable traits have the potential to yield desirable ones if the proper gene-matching is done. Below is a list of undesirable showing traits.
- Short, stunted fins - Dark body color, not relating to the color itself but its shade - Dark fin color, not relating to the color itself but its shade - No markings - Poor-quality gems - Feesh sub-type
Intra-burrow shows are held by one burrow and may be entered only by members of that burrow. The overall winner of such a show is titled Best in Burrow, the second Second in Burrow, and the third Third in Burrow. Creative, ya? Once a fish has achieved one of these three titles, they are allowed to compete in inter-burrow shows. These shows are hosted by Iern's Spirit and eligible fish from all burrows are allowed to enter for the coveted Best in Species title. Such a title gives prestige to both the burrow and breeder in question, as well as whatever prize that show offers. Usually they're pretty good. There are no secondary Species titles.
Once a fish receives the Best in Species title, they are effectively retired from showing and may no longer be entered in intra- or inter-burrow shows.
The scoring system of fish shows is detailed below. Undesirable traits earn you less points in the category they effect. Desirable points earn you more than the listed value. For example, a fish with long, flowing fins would receive a score of 20 in the Fin Type category. A fish with average fins would receive a score of 15. A fish with short, stunted fins would only earn a score of five, the trait being extremely undesirable in a show-quality fish. A truly show-worthy fish can earn a score well above 100...but of course I'm not going to give all of the exact scoring information to you. Who did you think I was, Santa? Suffice to say that there's a system with no room for bias or cheating. Dice don't cheat. Well, unless they're loaded. Which mine aren't. So.
The "Judge's Preference" reflects the preference of the judge of the competition. Before each competition, the burrow or warren sponsoring it will select a judge...who is an NPC adult Iern. Always. This just-recently-created character has a favorite and least favorite body color, fin color, and gem type, determined randomly through a roll of the dice. New preferences are rolled for each competition. What, did you think one trainer was going to discriminate against another? Heck no! It's all random.
When the judge looks over a fish that isn't his favorite or least favorite color in that category, he'll shrug and give them a five. Nice fish, good color. When he passes by a fish of his favorite color, imagine him admiring the beauty of the coloration and giving them a ten. Way to go, breeder! Keep 'em coming! When he passes by a fish of his least favorite color, a bit of bias comes into play and it's given a zero in judge's preference. Heh. Maybe that'll keep the color from spreading. If your fish is marked low in the preference section, don't take it too hard. Such things are re-rolled for every competition, so hopefully the next judge will have a more favorable opinion of your fish's colors. Because this section is an unpredictable one, it is worth much less than the rest. It can, however, tip the scales if two top-notch fish are vying for that title.
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