[Ariento]

So I purchased a sketch from username by me and lined it, and I plan to make it into a full-fledged species. They're a short-legged feline species with masks for faces, that live in mountainous caves and have magical abilities. The designs of their masks typically reflect their powers to some degree.

Something I haven't really seen any other closed species do (only ARPGs and the create-a-games) is have pelt colors be determined by genetics. I'm a huge genetics nerd, and I would love to incorporate that into my species. Right now I have the beginnings of a genetics system based mainly on felines, with a bit of dog and rabbit mixed in. It's highly realistic, with only natural fur colors and patterns possible, though I plan to have unnatural colors and patterns available very rarely from special events. Would that interest people? Would you rather have unrealistic coat colors be more accessible?

Another thing I need input on is rules! What kind of rules do you like to see a species have? What are the kind of rules you can't stand? I want to hear all about it!

Last thing is financial stuff. Some adopts will be paid and some will be free. I plan to have a species currency with which you can buy breedings, edits, and myos. You can buy the currency with C$, earn it with art/writing/being staff, or win it in raffles. So, what ratio of free to paid adopts would you like to see? How expensive in C$ do you think a MYO should be? How many art/writing prompts should it take to be able to afford a typical MYO?

If you have any thoughts that aren't covered by the above questions, feel free to share them too! Thank you for your time!

[Ariento]

liddol bump

please give me some advice on pricing at least, I'm rather out of touch with the art economy on this site.

[L U C I F E R]

I'm busy right now, but I am so hyped for this l, and I have so many ideas to help you! Ah!
Watch this space for me updating this post.

Okay, so I saw this and was immediately interested, but reading what you want to do with this species is even more interesting because I, too, am a genetics nerd! I have so many ideas for every section of this, so I'll just get on with it!

The Use of Genetics

Okay, so I'm a biology nerd, so genetics really excite me, and I think using them in a closed species like this would be such an interesting and unique idea! It allows for a much more involved breeding system where people can try and obtain their ideal creature without resorting to an MYO or other custom, but also opens possibilities for things like breed-only colours or markings that can only be obtained by certain pairings and won't be available as first edition adoptions.
I am also a sucker for natural colours and markings and actually much prefer them to wild, unrealistic colours that you see on most closed-species. I think having Unrealistic markings as an event thing could really add some more interest into Breeding potential, etc and tough competition (or auctions) for event adopts.

Breedings

With the use of genetics, it is pretty obvious to go down the breeding route. With this in mind, and my previous stated Breed only additions, you could not only increase interest, but also income (to be able to perhaps buy advertisements or commission buttons, etc).
I think that you could also have the chance where Special (event) markings and colours have only a small pass rate so that there is appeal to breed them, but you don't become overrun with these Special markings, keeping them as a rarity.
The breed only markings/colours could be interesting, with certain genetics obviously allowing for new combinations so new colours and marks which aren't available to adopt (unless for am event or something), allowing for appeal to breed, but also the chance to allow inter-player trading where they can exchange their Currency for this species with each other to obtain certain breed-only results (and possibly CS currency, but that can be a little harder to moderate).

Marking/Colour rarity and mutations

For every closed species, they always have different rarity features. I think these are often done a little...annoyingly. Not to cast shade, but so often they have TOO MANY rarity categories, I think this could work really well with like Four rarities: Common, Uncommon, Rare and Special.
Common - Basically just using the above lines, no edits, normal markings, normal colours. Possibly things like different tail lengths or fur lengths depending on the lore you want to follow.
Uncommon - More edits, floppy or bigger ears, easy to get Breed only marks and colours, that sort of thing.
Rare - The harder to get breed only Mark's and colours, possibly longer legs, maybe a missing mask (powerless), just some other things that COULD happen but not often
Special - All of the marks, colours, line edits, etc that occur during events. Possibly some breed only things. Anything you want to have like maybe one or two of in the whole species.

Currency

IN. GAME. CURRENCY. YES. HECCIN. PLEASE.
Ah! This kinda thing is so satisfying and I think being able to earn it AND pay for it is so good and means that it isn't entirely Pay To Play. Also having people complete prompts could make for some great world building, too!

Rules

Okay, so there are some obvious, needed rules:
No bullying, no begging, no stealing, please credit, etc, but there's some which I think you really don't need because they often put me off.
I don't think you should limit how many people can have, have people have to store them somewhere where you can access them (such as a thread dedicated to them), requiring people to have a DA/TH/Discord account (but you can make groups on there that are optional to users).
However, some rules that will probably be needed and I like to have in place: No Inbreeding, no private sales or trades of the species (easier for you to keep track of and moderate), just that sort of thing where it reduces scams and also keeps within moral alignment.

Paid vs Free adopts

It's always good to have different ways to adopt a species! I think having the most free (especially at the start, to gain momentum before making certain adopts more elitist), bit also having a spread of different ways to get these, such as Auctions, Raffles and Compete to adopt. Giving variety gives an equal chance to anyone trying to adopt.
I also think you could use the in-species currency to your advantage here when making adopts where you need to pay with this currency, like an MYO ticket, but these are ready made adopts and could possibly have more of the rare traits.

MYOs and other purchasables

Having a store where you can only use the in-species currency would be pretty good in terms of you being able to moderate what people can afford, what they've spent and what they've bought, but could make it a little laborious if people have to buy currency to then spend it, so perhaps have a conversion rate of X C$=Y Currency but to pay for things in the store it is cheaper to pay using currency than buying it direct with C$. For example, an MYO costs 300 C$ worth of currency, but you have to pay 350C$ to buy it directly with C$ (also encouraging participation in writing prompts).
Now, for actual pricing, MYOs range from species to species, and rarity to rarity. I think starting out, you'd be looking at a range of 150-200C$ for a mid-range (Uncommon) MYO, possibly going higher as your species gains momentum. If this seems really affordable and people keep buying an MYO over an adopt, then up the price, MYO tickets should be something harder to obtain than an adoptable.
Now, this comes back to the question of conversion rates as we look into how many prompts would an MYO be worth. Say you go for 200C$ for an Uncommon MYO, you could say that it's worth 150C$ of Currency tokens, so perhaps you say 1 token = 10C$. Seems reasonable: 15 tokens for an MYO. Say the average prompt requires 100 words for 2 Tokens, with 1 token being awkward for every extra 100 words (so that's 50 words = 1 token for main prompt and then 100 words = 1 token for extra words), it would be about eight prompts, but prompts can very easily vary in length with some being 200 words, or even more, so it varies as to how many they have to do.
You could also allow for drawing prompts, but I'm not an artist, so I don't really know what art could be worth in tokens, sorry.

I'll shut up now

Sorry about my absolute essay, but I've just got so many ideas about how you could grow this species, and have it run well! Sorry if anything seems super overpowering, I'm not trying to take over, I just wrote all of my thoughts down. That being said, I'd love to get in on this project and help with moderating, archiving, pricing, story building, etc, so PM me if you'd be interested in that.
Other than that, thanks for listening to/reading my rambles, I wish you all the luck with this project, I am SO excited.

[♡HappyAlpaca♡]

OOOOOOOOOHHHHHH THESE LOOK AMAZING!!!
I'm intrested

[sacrilege]

I'd love to get one :0
Maybe rarer genes are released through paid adopts usually?
Will you be making a dA or Discord perhaps?

[Ariento]

I'm busy right now, but I am so hyped for this l, and I have so many ideas to help you! Ah!
Watch this space for me updating this post.

*eyes emoji*

OOOOOOOOOHHHHHH THESE LOOK AMAZING!!!
I'm intrested

Thank you so much, I'm glad to hear it!

I'd love to get one :0
Maybe rarer genes are released through paid adopts usually?
Will you be making a dA or Discord perhaps?

Thank you!
I'll consider that idea, but I'm worried it'll be unfair to poorer users. Maybe paid adopts and harder competitions, like DTAs.
I'm not very active on DA, but I could definitely make a species discord if people want one!

[inky.]

*sees genetics* am instantly interested

[Ariento]

*sees genetics* am instantly interested

Always a pleasure to see fellow genetics enthusiast! Hi inky!

Im def interested !

I'm getting a lot if interest here, and no complaints! I'm gonna get working on opening these guys up to the public soon!

[sacrilege]

I'd love to get one :0
Maybe rarer genes are released through paid adopts usually?
Will you be making a dA or Discord perhaps?

Thank you!
I'll consider that idea, but I'm worried it'll be unfair to poorer users. Maybe paid adopts and harder competitions, like DTAs.
I'm not very active on DA, but I could definitely make a species discord if people want one!

Ooh I see! I for one would love a discord! I just (personally) think that the oekaki is super tedious to work with, which is why I'm asking about a dA group, lol ;;

If this species gets realized, how will you be managing them? Will there be a masterlist?

[Ariento]

I'd love to get one :0
Maybe rarer genes are released through paid adopts usually?
Will you be making a dA or Discord perhaps?

Thank you!
I'll consider that idea, but I'm worried it'll be unfair to poorer users. Maybe paid adopts and harder competitions, like DTAs.
I'm not very active on DA, but I could definitely make a species discord if people want one!

Ooh I see! I for one would love a discord! I just (personally) think that the oekaki is super tedious to work with, which is why I'm asking about a dA group, lol ;;

If this species gets realized, how will you be managing them? Will there be a masterlist?

Definitely going to be a masterlist, in order to prevent scamming. I can look into a DA group if you'd like, just know that this is something super new to me.