A few questions, hopefully a better understanding

[Cymas]

On your 2. about the thyla with a huge number of mutations, an expanded reason on why it's not good for breeding:

Because it was sold to you, you might not know the base stats of that bloodline, nor where all the mutation points are. I'm just assuming here that the tribe you bought it from didn't really provide you with that information and you didn't know enough to ask. So it could have a bunch of mutation points in useless stats but you don't really have any way of knowing that. If you want to raise a thyla with good stats, this animal will not be beneficial to you because you don't know its origins, basically. Also if it's imprinted and you've used a lot of level up points without recording the pre-leveling stats, this further muddles the issue. If you really like the colors, your best bet is to breed a good high stat animal first and then work the colors in at the end, or don't even use it at all and try to get your own mutations.

Personally although I'm not adverse to acquiring clean (non mutated) animals for my own breeding lines, I find it's very rewarding to "build" my own animal from the ground up to have the stats I want, the colors, etc rather than relying on someone else's work. But I know I'm also hugely picky and even breed for natural colors, not just mutated ones.

[Ice1089]

2 hours ago, Cymas said:

On your 2. about the thyla with a huge number of mutations, an expanded reason on why it's not good for breeding:

Because it was sold to you, you might not know the base stats of that bloodline, nor where all the mutation points are. I'm just assuming here that the tribe you bought it from didn't really provide you with that information and you didn't know enough to ask. So it could have a bunch of mutation points in useless stats but you don't really have any way of knowing that. If you want to raise a thyla with good stats, this animal will not be beneficial to you because you don't know its origins, basically. Also if it's imprinted and you've used a lot of level up points without recording the pre-leveling stats, this further muddles the issue. If you really like the colors, your best bet is to breed a good high stat animal first and then work the colors in at the end, or don't even use it at all and try to get your own mutations.

Personally although I'm not adverse to acquiring clean (non mutated) animals for my own breeding lines, I find it's very rewarding to "build" my own animal from the ground up to have the stats I want, the colors, etc rather than relying on someone else's work. But I know I'm also hugely picky and even breed for natural colors, not just mutated ones.

Thank you, that does explain a great deal about the number of mutations. Sadly, I was still very new (still am new, still learning) one person was giving away thylas, he said it was because he needed to down size his population. I received 3 females, again I have no Idea what level or original stats were, but after looking they are un-mutated 0/20, however the male I bought has high mutations, decent color. You right, I did not ask about its origins, and they didn't say. After looking it actually has 576/20 mutations. I may just have to attempt to find an un-mutated male (wild) and start clean.

 

Thank you again, this information is very helpful!!!  

[Ice1089]

Hello everyone,

I would first like to thank everyone for their replies, the information is very helpful. It has helped me understand a lot more. Once trying suggestions, I have a new round of questions.

1. I have come to understand high mutations are not desirable, is there a way to tell what the mutations on a dino are? or can one only guess by what their parents were? Say if a 576/20 thyla and a 0/20 thyla where to mate what would the resulting offspring be? I have not tried it, and am not sure I will after @Cymas had pointed out very useful info about mutations, am purely curious to know if the 576/20 would transfer to the offspring so now it would be 577/20. I don't know where to look to see the offspring mutation counter

2. I play primarily on PVE Official servers, where space is limited and I believe I have no ground to expand horizontally, is there a limited to how far vertically I can build? Would it be worth the time and resources to invest by building up? I know on the ground there is a set distance from anothers base/pillar, but vertically does that boundary go straight up?

3. I managed to expand my base a little (now at the limit horizontally), so I could spread out the cluster of tames, but ever since I have done that, I am no longer getting any eggs from some (its been 4 or 5 days since I moved them)? Do they need to be closer together? Do they produce more eggs (any) if they would be in a more highly travel area?

4. With regards to generators, my oldest son was exploring (finally joined the tribe) and was somehow in another persons base. He was turning their generator off then back on. If the tribes items are locked, is this still possible for someone to land in a base and power off your generator? I can see the havoc this could create, especially if incubating eggs or having meat/eggs in a fridge. Is it better to enclose the generators in a lockable building?

5. Thylas in the redwood forest, I know they spawn in trees, I am wondering what mounts they will not knock you off of? I am trying to find a good male, I have gone in their with a Yut and a Rex, they don't attack, but you can't use weapons unless you dismount and stand on the dino. It makes it a challenge, just when you are about to shoot, the dino defecates and ruins your shot. Is there a better way to tame a thyla? 

Thank you in advance!

 

 

 

[Moonie1]

4. You can turn campfires, grills, generators and more on and off even if you dont own them. Trolls love to burn up all your gasoline if they get the chance. To prevent this, keep those items in a locked room. I always build a 1x2 metal room within my base, over and around my generator with a locked door for access to keep people from turning it on and off and using up all the gasoline inside prematurely. I dont leave gasoline or wood in anything else that uses it as fuel.

5. They wont knock you off Wyverns as well. You can always shoot the Thyla while its on the tree to get it to jump down, then lead it to a trap.

Also, I dont think I saw anyone explain why it is a bad idea to put a wyvern on turret mode in your base. This is bad because the wyverns breath weapon will damage both you and your own dinos with the special AI feature on.

[Ice1089]

18 minutes ago, Moonie1 said:

4. You can turn campfires, grills, generators and more on and off even if you dont own them. Trolls love to burn up all your gasoline if they get the chance. To prevent this, keep those items in a locked room. I always build a 1x2 metal room within my base, over and around my generator with a locked door for access to keep people from turning it on and off and using up all the gasoline inside prematurely. I dont leave gasoline or wood in anything else that uses it as fuel.

5. They wont knock you off Wyverns as well. You can always shoot the Thyla while its on the tree to get it to jump down, then lead it to a trap.

Also, I dont think I saw anyone explain why it is a bad idea to put a wyvern on turret mode in your base. This is bad because the wyverns breath weapon will damage both you and your own dinos with the special AI feature on.

Thank you for your reply, I now know to enclose the generators if I plan on leaving them run overnight or when I am away. I will try the wyvern, problem would be leading it to a communal trap, as practically every spot around the redwoods is taken or pillard!

[Cymas]

Keep in mind the matrilineal and patrilineal (mother and father) mutation counters are separate. So if your hypothetical 576 mut thyla was male, if you bred it the resulting offspring would be 576/20 and 0/20 (from the mother). So in this example you can still get mutations, but your chances are halved because it can only mutate on the mother's side. If it did mutate on the mother's side it would be 576/20 and 1/20. As a side note, this is how the inbreeding penalty works--when you breed siblings with identical mutations, your mutation counter doubles but the mutated stats don't, effectively halving your counters for no benefit. So it's also highly possible your thyla may not even have as many active mutations as that 576 would indicate, depending on the pedigree. This is why low mutations and "clean" (not mutated) animals are important in breeding. You want to start with the highest possible base stats and then mutate only the stats you want to get the strongest possible animal.

But with your thyla, you don't know the base stats, where the mutations are, or even how many actual mutations it has. With a lot of work, backwards math and calculators you could probably figure it out to an extent, but you'll never know for sure.

Another unknown factor is if this animal was bred solely for color mutations or not. Color breeding does tend to generate a lot more mutations on the counters in order to get the colors to breed across reliably, ie a lot of siblings and back breeding to parents, etc. So the mutations it does have might not even be of any use to you even if you could work out what they are. If the animal was sold to you for a very low price, I would wager it's probably a retired color breeder they wanted to get rid of and make a little profit on the side.

[Ice1089]

16 hours ago, Cymas said:

Keep in mind the matrilineal and patrilineal (mother and father) mutation counters are separate. So if your hypothetical 576 mut thyla was male, if you bred it the resulting offspring would be 576/20 and 0/20 (from the mother). So in this example you can still get mutations, but your chances are halved because it can only mutate on the mother's side. If it did mutate on the mother's side it would be 576/20 and 1/20. As a side note, this is how the inbreeding penalty works--when you breed siblings with identical mutations, your mutation counter doubles but the mutated stats don't, effectively halving your counters for no benefit. So it's also highly possible your thyla may not even have as many active mutations as that 576 would indicate, depending on the pedigree. This is why low mutations and "clean" (not mutated) animals are important in breeding. You want to start with the highest possible base stats and then mutate only the stats you want to get the strongest possible animal.

But with your thyla, you don't know the base stats, where the mutations are, or even how many actual mutations it has. With a lot of work, backwards math and calculators you could probably figure it out to an extent, but you'll never know for sure.

Another unknown factor is if this animal was bred solely for color mutations or not. Color breeding does tend to generate a lot more mutations on the counters in order to get the colors to breed across reliably, ie a lot of siblings and back breeding to parents, etc. So the mutations it does have might not even be of any use to you even if you could work out what they are. If the animal was sold to you for a very low price, I would wager it's probably a retired color breeder they wanted to get rid of and make a little profit on the side.

That does stink, I paid 2K Metal ingots for it, not sure if this was good or bad. Unfortunately I wanted a male, and not knowing anything about the mutations ahead of time. I bought it thinking I could use it for a breeder. Now with a much better understanding of mutations (with your advice) I am looking to find a new tame for breeding purposes.

 

Thank you very much!

[Onimusha759]

Ok guys i hav to ask a question now, iv heard 4 a long time, and ur ancestry log even shows it, that the max number of mutations on a dino is 40.  Isnt 200 and 400 impossible?

[Cymas]

@Ice1089

That's fairly cheap so at least be happy you didn't get ripped off, lol. So, one thing you can do is browse the Cross-Ark Trading & Dino Breeding to get an idea of what different things are worth--obviously there's some variance based on preference and what people need, but you'll get a general idea of what good bloodlines, muts etc are worth. I don't even play on officials but I browse it all the time just to see what's out there and see all the cool mutations and things people have.

When it comes to taming for breeding purposes, be aware that it's a very involved process, especially if you're looking to get into buying, selling and trading. Only the very best stats are worthwhile, so you'll need to find a lot of high level animals to build a decent base line. When I was doing ankys, I tamed probably 30 or so and there was still plenty of room for improvement. (The project is now defunct as that server no longer exists, but I documented the process in the Diary of an Anky Breeder thread I have in my signature.) Expect it to be a very long process, or if you don't mind the grind start saving up to buy some good animals to breed from.

[Onimusha759]

Can someone please answer my question...The fact its being ignored makes it llok like you guys are creating false info saying theres 200 or 400 mutations on a dino.  The ancestry log says u can have 20 per parent.  Thats 40 and ive heard it told before that 40 is the max number of mutations.  Someone please shed some light on this.

[Ice1089]

12 hours ago, Onimusha759 said:

Can someone please answer my question...The fact its being ignored makes it llok like you guys are creating false info saying theres 200 or 400 mutations on a dino.  The ancestry log says u can have 20 per parent.  Thats 40 and ive heard it told before that 40 is the max number of mutations.  Someone please shed some light on this.

I honestly don't know if there is a max number of mutations, but I do know that I have one Thlya that has 576/20 on its ancestory, I can take a screen shot of it. I am very new to the breeding aspect of the game. Initially I wanted a male to start breeding, then thanks to everyone on here I have learned that this animal would be only good if I wanted to have a lot of thyla's (Personal expendable use), but not good for breeding strong/high stat bloodlines.

[Onimusha759]

8 hours ago, Ice1089 said:

I honestly don't know if there is a max number of mutations, but I do know that I have one Thlya that has 576/20 on its ancestory, I can take a screen shot of it. I am very new to the breeding aspect of the game. Initially I wanted a male to start breeding, then thanks to everyone on here I have learned that this animal would be only good if I wanted to have a lot of thyla's (Personal expendable use), but not good for breeding strong/high stat bloodlines.

Are they all color mutations i wonder?  Ive heard every time you get a color you also get a stat mutation.  Maybe color is infinite but stat caps at 40?  Another idea, maybe the number of mutations in the genes is infinite/to max of all possibilities but only 40 are chosen to be active

[Cymas]

@Onimusha759

I only had time to answer one question so I opted to answer Ice's as this is his thread and we've been going back and forth a few times.

Honestly the mutation counter is a discussion all on its own. Yes, mutations cap on a single animal at 40--if it has more than 20/20 on both sides it cannot mutate anymore. However, the mutation counter tallies all mutations in that bloodline, not just the ones on a single animal. In color breeding you do see these very high mut numbers because you have to do a lot of back breeding and sibling breeding for the colors to breed true; in essence, that is the inbreeding penalty, as I was saying earlier, because the mutation counter will keep adding together all those points even though only a single mutation or set of mutations is represented in the animal. Color inheritance is independent of mutations which is why breeders will keep using a capped animal in order to pass their desired set of colors down.

And as I said earlier also, you can get around the mutation cap by breeding a "clean" (non mutated) animal with a capped one, although it does halve your chances of getting a new mutation.

While technically using this chain breeding method you could say mutations are infinite, official servers do have level caps so any animal above a certain level (I think 465 or something like that, including level up points) will simply vanish on server restart due to a previous exploit that enabled very, very high level animals to exist. So, pick your mutations wisely. Personally any time I get a color mutation I like I'll set that animal aside until I'm done with my stat build in order to keep the mutation counter lower, and work the colors into the finished stats.

And yes, every time you get a stat mutation it is also a color mutation. However, for some reason all animals can mutate colors on all 5 color regions, even if they aren't actively using them. Thylas for example only use 3 color regions, but they can still mutate colors on the other 2 they don't use. That's why sometimes you "only" get a stat mutation, and why it's so much harder to get color muts on some animals. Technically they do have them, they just aren't visible! 

[Onimusha759]

12 minutes ago, Cymas said:

@Onimusha759

I only had time to answer one question so I opted to answer Ice's as this is his thread and we've been going back and forth a few times.

Honestly the mutation counter is a discussion all on its own. Yes, mutations cap on a single animal at 40--if it has more than 20/20 on both sides it cannot mutate anymore. However, the mutation counter tallies all mutations in that bloodline, not just the ones on a single animal. In color breeding you do see these very high mut numbers because you have to do a lot of back breeding and sibling breeding for the colors to breed true; in essence, that is the inbreeding penalty, as I was saying earlier, because the mutation counter will keep adding together all those points even though only a single mutation or set of mutations is represented in the animal. Color inheritance is independent of mutations which is why breeders will keep using a capped animal in order to pass their desired set of colors down.

And as I said earlier also, you can get around the mutation cap by breeding a "clean" (non mutated) animal with a capped one, although it does halve your chances of getting a new mutation.

While technically using this chain breeding method you could say mutations are infinite, official servers do have level caps so any animal above a certain level (I think 465 or something like that, including level up points) will simply vanish on server restart due to a previous exploit that enabled very, very high level animals to exist. So, pick your mutations wisely. Personally any time I get a color mutation I like I'll set that animal aside until I'm done with my stat build in order to keep the mutation counter lower, and work the colors into the finished stats.

And yes, every time you get a stat mutation it is also a color mutation. However, for some reason all animals can mutate colors on all 5 color regions, even if they aren't actively using them. Thylas for example only use 3 color regions, but they can still mutate colors on the other 2 they don't use. That's why sometimes you "only" get a stat mutation, and why it's so much harder to get color muts on some animals. Technically they do have them, they just aren't visible! 

Thank you guru of breeding, that was very very helpful and im sure the OP will learn something from that too.  I haven't got into breeding yet but this info will definitely help a lot when i do.  I was thinking of starting with gigas because once tamed they go from epic to epic fail lol so they kinda need the breeding boost to get that epicness back.

[yekrucifixion187]

2 hours ago, Cymas said:

And yes, every time you get a stat mutation it is also a color mutation. However, for some reason all animals can mutate colors on all 5 color regions, even if they aren't actively using them. Thylas for example only use 3 color regions, but they can still mutate colors on the other 2 they don't use. That's why sometimes you "only" get a stat mutation, and why it's so much harder to get color muts on some animals. Technically they do have them, they just aren't visible!

In this light, you may also not see the stat mutation just that you have a new mutation. This happens in two ways.

1) The stat mutated was one off the other parents stats. example;

Quetzal father has 1500 base weight. Quetzal mother has 1516 base weight. The patrilineal side shows a mutation. You don't see a color because it chose a natural Quetzal color on region 3 (freckles) and you don't see a stat increase anywhere. in this example it chose to mutate the fathers weight which matched the mothers weight. So it looks like it pulled the mother's weight but it could have just pulled the father's new weight. you can't really distinguish this because

2) Mutations are selected before stat distribution. example;

You breed Quetzal twins male and female. They have 0/20 mutation counters on their matrilineal and patrilineal sides. They are twins so they also have identical stats. They are both level 233. The baby pops out with a matrilineal mutation and is level 235. You look at the stats but they read as matching the mother and fathers current stats. What happened here was the mutation was selected to happen but then RNG (random number generator) chose to select the fathers unmutated stat for the baby. It still reads as having a mutation but the baby doesn't get that benefit of a new stat. kill those babies with prejudice as they are a waste of the mutation counter. 

[Onimusha759]

9 hours ago, yekrucifixion187 said:

In this light, you may also not see the stat mutation just that you have a new mutation. This happens in two ways.

1) The stat mutated was one off the other parents stats. example;

Quetzal father has 1500 base weight. Quetzal mother has 1516 base weight. The patrilineal side shows a mutation. You don't see a color because it chose a natural Quetzal color on region 3 (freckles) and you don't see a stat increase anywhere. in this example it chose to mutate the fathers weight which matched the mothers weight. So it looks like it pulled the mother's weight but it could have just pulled the father's new weight. you can't really distinguish this because

2) Mutations are selected before stat distribution. example;

You breed Quetzal twins male and female. They have 0/20 mutation counters on their matrilineal and patrilineal sides. They are twins so they also have identical stats. They are both level 233. The baby pops out with a matrilineal mutation and is level 235. You look at the stats but they read as matching the mother and fathers current stats. What happened here was the mutation was selected to happen but then RNG (random number generator) chose to select the fathers unmutated stat for the baby. It still reads as having a mutation but the baby doesn't get that benefit of a new stat. kill those babies with prejudice as they are a waste of the mutation counter. 

I assume this problem could be shown 3/20 for triplets?  Also im assuming that since not used color regions can be mutated that you can waste a stat mutation on unused stats like speed for flyers.

[yekrucifixion187]

17 hours ago, Onimusha759 said:

I assume this problem could be shown 3/20 for triplets?  Also im assuming that since not used color regions can be mutated that you can waste a stat mutation on unused stats like speed for flyers.

Triplets would all show same mutation count. so 1/20 for all 3 of them. I believe speed on flyers does not get any points added to it anymore so nothing to mutate. A raised Quetzal does get speed points when imprinted though. That's a bit tougher of one but since wild flyers no longer have wasted points in speed I would guess they can't get a wasted stat point there either while being raised. 

[Cymas]

On 3/3/2018 at 5:06 AM, Onimusha759 said:

Thank you guru of breeding, that was very very helpful and im sure the OP will learn something from that too.  I haven't got into breeding yet but this info will definitely help a lot when i do.  I was thinking of starting with gigas because once tamed they go from epic to epic fail lol so they kinda need the breeding boost to get that epicness back.

Hardly a guru my friend, I've just been around long enough to read the research other people have done.

Here is some further reading on the topic you may find useful:

Reddit - Mutations and You - A Guide on Breeding Mutations

[Psych0P3nguin]

1 hour ago, Cymas said:

Hardly a guru my friend, I've just been around long enough to read the research other people have done.

Here is some further reading on the topic you may find useful:

Reddit - Mutations and You - A Guide on Breeding Mutations

Cymas, i miss reading ypur what you did in ark today stories lol.

[Cymas]

Really? I've been posting in the thread since I'm playing regularly again. Maybe the narration isn't as good though since my tribe has since left our old (now defunct) server and split up and it's just me and M now. Fewer shenanigans in general, especially without P around to conveniently fall off cliffs or get killed in some new and unusual manner. M did die to mantas earlier today doing his first whale tame, he didn't know the mantas weren't attacking the whale, lol. There's something funny about a veteran player not knowing something like that, but then again as a spino tribe we tend not to prioritize water tames very much. He just learned krakens are breedable too so I expect we're going to have a whole squid fleet at some point...

But, that's not really related to the scope of this thread.

I honestly don't even have a lot of experience with mutations. I don't know if I'm just really unlucky but I almost never get any. I don't really like using the S+ mutator though, it's too easy for me. I want my mutations natural! Lol. I spent months working on my Indominous Allos, hundreds of dead allo babies, not a single mutation on the entire line. Same with my ankys. Meanwhile M was getting a new argent color seemingly every other day, and P who rarely did any breeding at all got one on his second bary breed. I finally got a mutation...on a sheep I bred as a birthday gift for someone on the server. #arklife

I guess that's kind of why I feel like I specialize in natural color morphs, because I just want pretty animals with good stats. My new megalania line is pretty promising, my thylas are being real stubborn with colors now that I have the stats. And I think I want to do my allos again, the colors were finished but I never got all the stats into it so as a project it was never completed. I hate official rates but I'd love to be part of the greater Ark economy to share my projects, I take a lot of pride in my bred animals. Alas, officials are not for people with full time jobs, long commutes, second jobs, relationships and social lives...but maybe someday, they've certainly started to go in the right direction with some things such as the imprint timer.

[Onimusha759]

Ok guys, is it possible to have a mutation not be seen, it is seen on the parent, not be seen on the child?  The child is showing a mutation in the ancestory log.

[invincibleqc]

12 minutes ago, Onimusha759 said:

Ok guys, is it possible to have a mutation not be seen, it is seen on the parent, not be seen on the child?  The child is showing a mutation in the ancestory log.

Yes, it is possible. Babies have 50% chance to get either the color of their dad and/or their mom and that, for each region. Then they have 55% chance to inherit the stronger stats of their parent. Whether they get a mutated color/stat or not, they will still carry the markers in their ancestry because they are stacking no matter what.

[Onimusha759]

2 hours ago, invincibleqc said:

Yes, it is possible. Babies have 50% chance to get either the color of their dad and/or their mom and that, for each region. Then they have 55% chance to inherit the stronger stats of their parent. Whether they get a mutated color/stat or not, they will still carry the markers in their ancestry because they are stacking no matter what.

Thanks, ok 1 more, is it possible for the mutant color to show but not the stat?  Im messing around with dodos at the moment and i got purple wings really quick.  1 baby didnt have the wings but it had the mutation in the log while another has the wings but its stats and level are exactly the same as the dads.  The mom has the mutation.

Nvn i read the wiki on mutations, stupid you cant breed a mutation onto a better stat dino.

[Ice1089]

On ‎3‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 3:52 AM, Cymas said:

@Onimusha759

I only had time to answer one question so I opted to answer Ice's as this is his thread and we've been going back and forth a few times.

Honestly the mutation counter is a discussion all on its own. Yes, mutations cap on a single animal at 40--if it has more than 20/20 on both sides it cannot mutate anymore. However, the mutation counter tallies all mutations in that bloodline, not just the ones on a single animal. In color breeding you do see these very high mut numbers because you have to do a lot of back breeding and sibling breeding for the colors to breed true; in essence, that is the inbreeding penalty, as I was saying earlier, because the mutation counter will keep adding together all those points even though only a single mutation or set of mutations is represented in the animal. Color inheritance is independent of mutations which is why breeders will keep using a capped animal in order to pass their desired set of colors down.

And as I said earlier also, you can get around the mutation cap by breeding a "clean" (non mutated) animal with a capped one, although it does halve your chances of getting a new mutation.

While technically using this chain breeding method you could say mutations are infinite, official servers do have level caps so any animal above a certain level (I think 465 or something like that, including level up points) will simply vanish on server restart due to a previous exploit that enabled very, very high level animals to exist. So, pick your mutations wisely. Personally any time I get a color mutation I like I'll set that animal aside until I'm done with my stat build in order to keep the mutation counter lower, and work the colors into the finished stats.

And yes, every time you get a stat mutation it is also a color mutation. However, for some reason all animals can mutate colors on all 5 color regions, even if they aren't actively using them. Thylas for example only use 3 color regions, but they can still mutate colors on the other 2 they don't use. That's why sometimes you "only" get a stat mutation, and why it's so much harder to get color muts on some animals. Technically they do have them, they just aren't visible! 

You advice on breeding and mutations have been very valuable, thank you!!

 

[Ice1089]

After reading all the responses and from the Wiki (a lot), I wanted to try and figure this out first hand. Mid last week I Had a breeding pair of Oviraptors, I thought I could start real small (could have gone with Dodo's or Lystro's, but Oviraptors are needed more) I set my plan in motion to figure out:

    1. Is my breeding/hatching pen adequate (size/refrigerators/air conditioners/ etc?

    2. Am I understanding the process (mating/hatching/baby - adult stages)?

The Oviraptors are set in place in my little enclosure, I set them to allow wandering. I find out really quickly that I need to whistle for all stop, as they have enough room to move to far enough away from each other. First thought is the breeding pen is too big. After managing to complete the mating and have a fertilized egg, it is now placed close to the air conditioners and incubating nicely at 98%. I notice the time remaining at just over an hour, which gives me time to make sure I have all the food I think I will need for when the egg hatches.

Ok so the egg hatches, twins. I look at their stats, but really am not concerned since they are oviraptors and merely a starter test. I start the hand feeding, so far so good. After two hours they reach the juvenile stage and can eat from the feeding trough. At this point I think I am relatively done with them, just to make sure they have food in the trough. So 8 hours after they hatch comes the first aspect of imprinting (was worried they would want a kibble that I can not make), they only wanted to walk with me. Somehow I had enough food stashed in the feeding trough, as they progressed nicely from juvenile to adolescent to adult without a hitch. Finally success! So to answer my initial questions for myself:

    1. Yes the pen is big enough (almost too big), 1 refrigerator is plenty, 5 air conditioners is plenty (for this sample, as I found out later in this narrative)

    2. I feel I have a good handle on this! Success!! Yay time to celebrate! (NOT!!! as if found out later)

Now that I think I have figured something out, I wanted to move on to a slightly larger animal and figure that out, Thylas! I know that the mutation counter on my male is high and not really worthy of good breeding stock. I just wanted to conduct another test. To test out a longer maturation timeline to see how I handle this. Oh, am I in for a surprise!!! Thus far I have made a spread sheet noting the dino's that I have and the incubation time as well as Baby time. That's it no other times as I figure once they get to Juvenile, I am good. WRONG!! Anyway I know for the Thyla I need a 4:11 (Hr:Min) gestation and a 4:53 Baby time, so the weekend looks to be the best time. Here is the account of what happened:

    Friday:  I complete all the daily tasks that needed to be done, I have the food needed for the pregnant thyla once mated as I had read they eat more. I try to figure out the best time to start the mating, I decide that 12AM would be a good time for gestation to start. Now I get bold, thinking I had a great success with oviraptor, I decide to breed the 3 female thylas I have. I move all 4 into the breeding pen, now I find out it is a lot cramped, but manage to crawl around to get out. Still being fairly naïve I think that once mating is done I will just move the male back to the staging area. Ok, that works, sort of, it is still tighter than preferable but manage. Set my alarm for 4AM (which should give me 11 minutes to make sure I am prepared) and go to sleep.

    Saturday: I awake with the time to check and make sure I have enough food for the hand feeding. Feeling confident that everything is adequate for what is needed, I wait. I start to worry as I had read the possibility of twin and triplets is low but can happen. My luck it would be triplets, panic starts to set in thinking what am I going to do if it is indeed triplets? That would be 9 baby thylas, too late to think of that, just let the cards play out and figure out what to do with what happens. The babies are born (thankfully only single birth), I claim them, looking at their stats, nothing impressive, but I knew that going into this test. Did not wish to kill them as this would be a good test to see if I can do this, plus I would have 3 extra thylas, win/win I think. Now for the hand feeding, wow they eat a lot! Now am worried that as prepared as I thought I was, was completely off. Now thinking that only have to get them to 10% or juvenile is all that matters, then I can do something else. Right sort of, but wrong at the same time!

        Juvenile finally arrives, I make sure the feeding trough is full, the refrigerator is full, so off I go to do something else (take a nap, daily tasks, or log and watch a movie). 3 hrs later, I check on them, the feeding trough has 5 meat left. Oh My (actually it was a little more colorful choice of wording) what am I doing? I have seriously bit off more than I can chew (little did I know, more was to come). Oh well, I was committed to see this test through, gather more meat this time raw and cooked. Fill the feeding trough and the fridge also a nearby dino (herbivore). Imprinting closing in, so I get ready. They want cuddle, walk and dilo kibble (yay something I can make), I got this, am on top of something for once in this test, woohoo! So off I go to work on a base I am building in the snow biome. I did go to the wiki to see the other timelines, juvenile, adolescent, and realized early Monday they should be adults, provided they last till then. I make a more concentrated effort to check on them frequently, to give myself a guideline on how long the food will last. One nice thing, is they are eating it before it spoils, the bad thing is wow they eat a LOT! Did not plan for that!! Feeding trough is seemingly always empty. Need to make more for future reference.

    Sunday:  Somewhere in the wee hours they made the transition from juvenile to adolescent, and I may not have been completely on top of the imprinting, but they survived the night. Still lacking on the amount of food. I hurry and get more (I thought cooked meat would hold them overnight), I realize I am making more mistakes than moves forward. Someone please slap me!!! Why did I ever think I could do this? Buckle down and just get it done! At least I know, sometime Monday morning they will be adults. Monday can not come soon enough, I am WAY in over my head, thinking to try 3 at a time, I am still figuring this whole breeding thing out and now know I have much to learn and plan for. But hey, this is what this test was for right!? for me to learn. The day goes by relatively without a hitch, I go do something, run back check on them. This goes on all day, finally night rolls around, I set the feeding trough full and the fridge full again.

   Monday: Woohoo they have made it to adult!!! I am done (serious celebration)!! I move them into the general populace, close the breeding pen. Time to reflect. I look at the questions I wanted to answer from the Oviraptor experience:

    1. NO the pen is no where adequate in size (maybe if I only do one at a time), 1 refrigerator is not going to cut it, 5 air conditioners seem to be adequate (not needed for this test)

    2. NOPE, not even close. I learned a lot in this sample.

         A.  Until I know more about what I am doing, stick to only one dino at a time.

         B.   PLAN AHEAD (Way more, pay attention to all timelines, not just incubation/baby)

         C. Make a board with engraving " If attempting to breed/hatch dino's, slap upside your head repeatedly, until notion is gone or unconscious (which ever comes first)"

         D.  I eventually want to build up experience to attempt a REX or Therizino or Yutyrannus .....Seriously!!!? Take "C" and break board over my head.

         E.  All reality aside, I did learn a lot. It is hard to do this all alone, and planning and time management are very crucial. As well as space available.

I will get better at this, the test is a success, even if I failed at preparation and execution, it will be a tool for going forward.