Hi. I'm at it again. I poured more hours into this than I'm willing to admit LOL

This thread is going to be very very long and have a lot of ideas, as well as a TON of images, in it so be prepared for a doozy!

LD Genetics are... awkward at best. You have four basic genetic groups: Black, Cream, Gold, and Red. This is further split into Dark, Medium, and Light. Then we have rarities - Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Special.

Most of this is fine. It sounds like a nice system! Except... it's not.

Examples of this silly weirdness under the spoiler!



What?

Genetics Overhaul!

Okay, sarcasm aside, LD's system is a little bit dated! And there's no shortage of people who think it should change. There are quite a number of genetics rehaul threads, and I've seen dozens of conversations about how it could be done better. Most of the rehaul threads I've read, supported, and chatted about myself. I've played with vague ideas before, but it wasn't until a couple days ago that I got inspired - after watching a conversation on the topic in a Discord server - to actually sit down and think hard on just how a complete overhaul would be done. And not just redone in part - completely, totally, wholeheartedly. My way.

Before I hop into how this might work and ways that groups could be made and bases reorganized, I have some pros and cons that I need to address:

PROS:
- a new, easy to understand system with groupings that make sense visually and logically
- easier to fit new bases into, and much easier to see where color gaps are
- more refined groups make breeding specific colors easier

CONS:
- new system everyone would need to get used to; completely replaces and shuffles the old system
- might be slightly more complex codewise
- some groups will have radically more bases than others until slots can be filled in

New Groupings

I suggest ENTIRELY NEW GROUPINGS to replace the old. There would be four main groups, and then a rarity. The rarities are staying the same!

It would be laid out like this:

NATURAL → CREAM | GOLD | RED → DARK | MEDIUM | LIGHT → SHADED | MIXED | FLAT
UNNATURAL → DIM | PALE | VIVID → DARK | MEDIUM | LIGHT → SHADED | MIXED | FLAT

I also propose that this information be laid out like so:
Base: Dhahabi
Base Group: Natural Special
Genetics: Gold Medium Shaded

Why did I choose this particular way of grouping? I think it meets all needs - that it counts both crazy fantasy bases, and more natural ones well, and allows for an easily understood way to group in future releases. They make sense, they span the spectrum, and they make it so these bases will work in a way that doesn't try the brain for logic! It's also simple and not overly complex.

Base Reorganization

Now THIS is the big section, the area where all of the bases are redrawn into their new little groupings. I'll periodically update this with new bases if I can, and will include stats such as current base count and how many specials/commons/etc are in a particular group, things like that. These will use the wiki's icons, as well, for easy visual reference!

Keep in mind: these WILL be imbalanced. LD will need to work to fill in the color-gaps, and even out the ratios. Why? Because far too many bases were put in genetic groups they were ill-fitted in, and thus we have an imbalance today. At time of writing, I haven't sorted these yet, and I hope the gaps won't be too bad! We have almost 300 bases, so... ;D

Here are all of the bases in alphabetical order. Pretty mixed bag, right?

So, next we have to split up and sort all of those into the new genetic groups, down here. Remember, there are two primaries split into three sets of three, so there's a lot of sorting to be had!

Reorganization will be in the next post down (it would not fit in this post LOL)! It's also on this page for easy viewing.

Reorganization Stats

Some stats on how I've reorganized the bases! Keep in mind that these will be imbalanced, as I've stated before.

NATURALS: 164
Creams: 63
- 5 app, 9 BO, 45 custom/NCL, 4 combo, 0 NCL exclusive

Golds: 65
- 13 app, 18 BO, 28 custom/NCL, 2 combo, 4 NCL exclusive

Reds: 36
- 12 app, 4 BO, 17 custom/NCL, 3 combo, 0 NCL exclusive


UNNATURALS: 120
Dims: 40
- 17 app, 8 BO, 11 custom/NCL, 4 combo, 0 NCL exclusive

Pales: 32
- 14 app, 7 BO, 5 custom/NCL, 6 combo, 0 NCL exclusive

Vivids: 48
- 29 app, 11 BO, 0 custom/NCL, 8 combo, 0 NCL exclusive


TOTAL: 284

Reorganization Logic

Why are the groupings this way? Why are some bases in some groups? Why are there SO MANY CREAMS?



Creams aside, because this (hopefully) makes some sort of reasonable sense. Creams go with creams, golds with golds, unnatural freaky space colors with other unnatural freaky space colors. Similar shades should go with similar shades - and similar gradient styles with similar gradient styles. Now, not everything can match, and that's okay. But this should hopefully be a tad bit better than it was!

An explanation of the groupings:

NATURAL: more naturally-geared colors, ignoring pattern. creams, golds, reds.

UNNATURAL: unnatural colors. bright colors (like purple, blue, and green) along with impossible colors (such as silver, pure-white, and black).

CREAM: self-explanatory; creams, tans, beiges, and browns

GOLD: self-explanatory; golds, yellows, and oranges

RED: self-explanatory; reds, reddish browns, some pinks

DIM: darker unnatural bases; can be anything from black to dark purple, dark grays, anything deeper in color and not fit for the natural groupings

PALE: lighter unnatural bases; can be anything from pure white to silvery blue, light greens, anything lighter in color and not fit for the natural groupings

VIVID: bright, bold, unnatural bases; includes vibrant pinks, purples, blues, greens, and everything in-between

DARK: bases on the darker spectrum

MEDIUM: bases in-between dark and light

LIGHT: bases on the lighter spectrum

SHADED: bases with a lot of gradient, shading, or other extravagant changes from one color or pattern to another

MIXED: bases with some gradient, shading, or other changes from one color to another

FLAT: bases with little to no gradients, shading, or patterns

Base Removal and Combinations

In doing this, I've discovered there are a TON of bases that are... almost identical to each other, save a single shade or a couple of hues. I suggest that some of these bases be thinned, combined, if it's possible in the coding! I know there's another topic that addresses this here, and I fully support it. Several bases that are 99% identical are listed there, please check it out!

Reorganization groupings in the following posts! Thank y'all!