I don't love them, but I haven't loved any ancient yet and to be frank I'm relieved (long-boring-ancient-apparel-post-anon here). Doesn't really impact my enjoyment of the site not to have ancients; it will be a long time before I get bored of creating color and gene combinations on modern dragons. (When I come up with a scry I like enough to do a breeding project for it, it's almost always a Wildclaw, because apparently I live to torture myself with limited gene pools and long cooldowns.)
This does bring me to my other big issue with ancients though - proprietary genes. In this batch, I adore Rattlesnake and particularly Diamondback, and maybe they'll be ported to moderns someday, but with dozens of ancient genes out there, the odds aren't great. (I know modern genes are time-consuming to create because of the number of poses they need to be drawn across, but I'm not saying "Modern genes should come out faster and more often, damnit!!!!!!!"; I'm saying that instead of creating new modern genes out of whole cloth, I wish they'd take advantage of proprietary ancient genes instead.)
(long-reply-to-your-long-post-about-ancient-apparel-anon here 🤝)
while I wouldn't dare speculate on a timeline, we've been increasingly seeing proprietary ancient genes get released on a wider scale! mosaic/breakup and flecks for moderns are of course the most prominent (and relevant to your interests) examples, but imo the fact that previously totally unique ancient genes are being offered to other ancients is a trend that points to the fact that staff will almost certainly be doing more gene availability expansions going forward.
I was indeed heartened and delighted by those two examples - somewhat ironically because imo Mosaic/Breakup are the absolute ugliest Gaoler genes in existence, but I was so happy to see them get ported over because it meant that the Official Policy wasn't "nope, proprietary genes are a super-special thing just for ancients and no modern dragon will ever get to use them ever". But when we're getting at least one ancient breed every year with at least three prim/sec pairs and a variable quantity of portable pattern-type terts (excluding linebreaking terts designed just for that ancient, which it makes sense to keep as proprietary), and only the three examples you mention in the past four years of any ancient gene becoming a full-blown modern gene, it's hard to be optimistic about a particular one.
(I'd personally prefer it if ancients only ever got parallel genes (+ special case linebreaking terts), to keep cool gene ideas from being 'wasted' on them, but I know that's a bit of a selfish preference.)
Yeah, it would be great if that were what seemed to be happening, but with one prim/sec pair ported over in four years, and as you say, it being that one - and at one point, in a fit of mild pique, I dragonsearched Gaolers with various gene pairs and Mosaic/Breakup was indeed the very least-popular selection, so it's not just me thinking they're rather ugly - it just doesn't seem to be the case. (Flecks I'd call a much better pick, nice and versatile for themed dragons, although I like Crackle and Smirch for similar reasons, and they're pretty generally derided. But also non-linebreaking ancient terts are in the minority anyway, so there was less to choose from there.)
So literally every ancient release thus far has had me saying 'Well, the breed itself is forgettable, but nbd, moderns keep me plenty busy...but ouch, that one gene though, wish it wouldn't be ancient-locked for years and probably forever'.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Re: New Ancients
(Anonymous) 2023-07-19 10:06 pm (UTC)(link)This does bring me to my other big issue with ancients though - proprietary genes. In this batch, I adore Rattlesnake and particularly Diamondback, and maybe they'll be ported to moderns someday, but with dozens of ancient genes out there, the odds aren't great. (I know modern genes are time-consuming to create because of the number of poses they need to be drawn across, but I'm not saying "Modern genes should come out faster and more often, damnit!!!!!!!"; I'm saying that instead of creating new modern genes out of whole cloth, I wish they'd take advantage of proprietary ancient genes instead.)
Re: New Ancients
(Anonymous) 2023-07-20 12:13 am (UTC)(link)while I wouldn't dare speculate on a timeline, we've been increasingly seeing proprietary ancient genes get released on a wider scale! mosaic/breakup and flecks for moderns are of course the most prominent (and relevant to your interests) examples, but imo the fact that previously totally unique ancient genes are being offered to other ancients is a trend that points to the fact that staff will almost certainly be doing more gene availability expansions going forward.
Re: New Ancients
(Anonymous) 2023-07-20 12:35 am (UTC)(link)I was indeed heartened and delighted by those two examples - somewhat ironically because imo Mosaic/Breakup are the absolute ugliest Gaoler genes in existence, but I was so happy to see them get ported over because it meant that the Official Policy wasn't "nope, proprietary genes are a super-special thing just for ancients and no modern dragon will ever get to use them ever". But when we're getting at least one ancient breed every year with at least three prim/sec pairs and a variable quantity of portable pattern-type terts (excluding linebreaking terts designed just for that ancient, which it makes sense to keep as proprietary), and only the three examples you mention in the past four years of any ancient gene becoming a full-blown modern gene, it's hard to be optimistic about a particular one.
(I'd personally prefer it if ancients only ever got parallel genes (+ special case linebreaking terts), to keep cool gene ideas from being 'wasted' on them, but I know that's a bit of a selfish preference.)
Re: New Ancients
(Anonymous) 2023-07-21 01:56 pm (UTC)(link)If I saw a non-line-breaking ancient gene getting overwhelmingly used I would then think, hmm, let’s expand that.
No idea if that’s tracked on the site though. Especially since Breakup/Mosaic was chosen to port over early on, lol
Re: New Ancients
(Anonymous) 2023-07-21 06:23 pm (UTC)(link)So literally every ancient release thus far has had me saying 'Well, the breed itself is forgettable, but nbd, moderns keep me plenty busy...but ouch, that one gene though, wish it wouldn't be ancient-locked for years and probably forever'.