WWs are fun and all, but the current wolf value meta makes breeding... kind of seem discouraged or even, worse, uncool to do and a little pointless for anything besides fodder.

So, here's maybe some gameplay ideas for how to make people not feel discouraged from breeding things in a Breeding Game

• Some sort of visual mutations, to the tune of FR's funky eyes, making sure at least some are only obtainable through breeding
• Some sort of small gameplay mutations that don't affect the game a lot but are fun to chase down [gets extra stuff from a specific companion, has a tiny loot boost from a specific encounter, gets a slight buff against a specific enemy, has a slightly higher chance of having more puppies per litter, uses slightly less energy for a profession, gives a slight boost to a profession when assigned etc etc]
  
• Cool wolf profile badge displaying what exact gen they are, which becomes less plain looking each generation threshhold [G10 G50 G100...] which could make really high gen wolves feel like a good goal to set. This would also make high gen studs valuable as people naturally would want to compete for a high number
• Wolves having stats naturally raises the question 'but could I breed for higher stats?' the answer is currently 'no' but that doesn't have to be the case. I'd love to, say, breed a less squishy lupin to take advantage of pack mentality + damage boost properly. [that one might be bad for the balancing though, but the thought is fun. maybe just no arena for these will be fine though since pve is not as bad to be op at]
  
• Size is already a thing on the page and I'm pretty sure[?] is affected by parents' sizes. Could give it more substance aside from just the number, telling you if the wolf is bigger or smaller than average and by how much.
• Having some of the new breeds that come out be sourced aside from obligatory special items via a rare chance during a mix of two existing breeds. Say, for example, a lupin + jocol ordinarily producing lupins or jocols but having a tiny chance of a new special mixed breed that emerges from them intermingling. Would only make sense, the clans are all canonically comprised of all breeds and therefore cross breed romance is not by any means rare and many irl dog breeds started via mixes of preexisting breeds simply getting officially codified

I'd love to hear other people's ideas for gameplay that would encourage people to engage with breeding in some way too!

Support!

I'm only quite new to LW, but I love the idea of having wolves be valuable for different reasons. It would also encourage breeding programs beyond a progen pair or bracc pair.

No support except for the generation badge and size which would be fun. (And also good because it could prevent scams.)

I will also note that this would not only lock wild wolves out of being cool but also existing bred wolves and people's progens.

I especially don't support another breed that existing wolves can't access, especially as most of these are rather strongly rng based meaning even if you get the perfect wolf you'd have to try again a ridiculous amount of times.

The cross breeding occasionally producing an item that can change any wolf into the new breed may be fun though.

Higher stats can easily make it so that people can't use existing favorite wolves to fight as content would more than likely be balanced for higher stat wolves.

@darkrat the 'obligatory special item' is indeed the breed change scroll, the idea being that sure, you could buy it or you could try to make it a fun breeding challenge to produce one organically

@Reanimagpie

oh sorry I didn't understand that part, yeah having it be an extra challenge and reward seems fun (as long as the item isn't ridiculously overpriced)

@darkrat

as for 'locking out WWs out of being cool' i don't think this is going to happen purely because of so many FR players bringing G1 brainrot with them. The issue is currently that WWs are the only thing that's cool and they will always be valuable to people that want that coveted blank parent name field for lore/fan wolf/greater control even if all else is somehow magically devalued

As for progens, I'm sure the site can award special souldbound items that roll special traits for progens if it's really that much of an issue? Or majority of them could still also be expensive MM items like the FR sight vials, just not all of them so having a puppy with the otherwise unobtainable one still feels like finding something rare

For a gameplay element to feel valuable certain things should be unique to it, so people that decide to specialize are appropritely rewarded with either Something Cool or a hefty chunk of change for selling Something Cool

We really could use reasons to besprinkle a G2+ wolf that isn't a low id, and a fun unique mutation could be that reason, since otherwise, if Everything is obtainable WWs win by default with no competition

Support!

Support!

Maybe higher level wolves breed higher level babies? Like my progens are both level 10, maybe their pups should be level 5 ish? (Half the level of the average of the parents? Idk, wouldn't want it to be too OP but idk how you balance that lol)

Support!

I like the leveling idea! I do think 10 isn’t going to be the max level so this would give a benefit to breeding wolves.

I actually really like this idea! As a 10 year veteran FR player I do have moments of 'G1 brainrot' when looking for new wolves. Giving G2+ wolves small mutation chances (with soulbound exceptions for progens) this early in release would curb a lot of the backlash FR experienced from players with years worth of dragons unable to access the content.

Special generation badges and prelevelled pups from max level adults (no more than half the parents level) sound good too.

Most importantly, anything like this needs polling and implementing EARLY.