Hey everyone!

Something that has always struck me as odd is how easy it is to breed a lioness. Every article or video I've looked at about real life lioness conception shows that rates are very low. So when I saw that Very Low fertility goes up to 50% I was very surprised. Sounds pretty doable to me. So why, in a realistic sim, is getting that bun in the oven so easy?!

Here is what I propose:

• Lower fertility levels drastically to both lower cub populations and make pregnancies much more important in the game.

• Make NCLs have fertility levels no higher than average. Perhaps have a very small chance (3-5%) of getting a Goddess fertility NCL?

• Find a way to make the Average fertility levels actually be the average around Lioden.

• Have the fertility levels of High and above become more difficult to inherit.

• Revamp the coding for fertility inheritance to pass average fertility more often. *See below for explanation*

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Here are the current fertility levels:
Goddess = 100%
High = 90%-99%
Good = 80%-89%
Average = 70%-79%
Low = 51-69%
Very Low = 1%-50%
Infertile = 0%

I believe we should change them to look more like this:
Goddess = 100%
Very High = 80-99%
High = 50%-79%
Good = 40%-49%
* Average = 30%-39%
Low = 20-29%
Very Low = 1%-19%
Infertile = 0%

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* To elaborate on point 4: *
I believe we should incorporate some sort of coding into the fertility levels so that the bolded fertilities have the highest chance (50-80%) of passing on to cubs, making extremely high or low fertilities rarer.

Goddess => Goddess | Very High | High | Good | Average
Very High => Goddess | Very High | High | Good | Average
High => Very High | High | Good | Average | Low
Good => High | Good | Average | Low | Very Low
* Average => Good | Average | Low | Very Low
Low => Average | Low | Very Low
Very Low => Low | Very Low | Infertile
Infertile => Very Low | Infertile (With use of Chasteberry only)

***I am not suggesting *any* changes to the coat passing rates. I am only using the mechanics behind them as an example. ^,^ ***

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The reasoning behind this is to try and push fertility levels back down from an exceedingly easy rate of conception and back down to something a bit more challenging.

So what does this mean? Breeding becomes a bit more difficult, requiring more tries and energy. It becomes both more realistic and more of an achievement.

It also makes fertility levels more important when purchasing or selling lionesses - do you really want to have to work hard to breed that Very Low girl or would you prefer an easier (no pun intended) lioness? All of a sudden that Goddess fertility babe looks really nice...But of course, one can always fall back to Chasteberry or Tackweed as a last minute resort.

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Extra Points/Notes:

• Very Low fertility lionesses will still have the greatest chance of gaining mutations. That coding/mechanic should not change at all except to modify the percentages that Very Low girls have.

• I am not suggesting *any* changes to the coat passing rates. I was only using the mechanics behind them as an example. ^,^

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Other Ideas (Not officially part of the main suggestion):

• Fertility plays a part in litter size.
(Mentioned by ::VulpesFelis:BBro:OC::.. (#17507))

Let's take the presented new fertilities:

Goddess = 3-4 (cubs)
Very High = 2-4
High = 2-3
Good = 2-3
* Average = 1-3
Low = 1-2
Very Low = 1-2
Infertile = 0

Perhaps the more fertile the lioness, the more cubs will be produced. The numbers written would be AVERAGES, but any fertility level could still give you any number of cubs.

• Limited breedings by SquiggleBoof (#45520):
"I like any idea to help curb the current lion population... however to make to make it a bit more realistic have it so you can only attempt to breed a certain number of times per day. Yes this means that sometimes your lioness wont get pregnant but hey u can try again next week right? This will further make pregnancies all the more valuable and further help reduce the number of lions."

I'm not too keen on this implementation. Maybe instead of adding a limit we could raise the energy level needed for a breeding from 5% to 10% per fail and 10% to 15% per success?

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No Support: 15

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Cause:
a m b e r p e l t (#15417)
"I feel as if this is going to make the process of buying and breeding for cubs even more tedious than it already is."

Reply:
Lukio (#7391)
I must disagree because, with this system, the higher fertilities are meant to be very rare while average would be that: average. So, in my opinion, it could even increase the worth of some cubs with higher fertilities, while the lower fertility girls would still be wanted for mutation breeding.

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