Remove Combo Markings from RMA's

Currently, there's not much of a market or interest in breeding combo markings in the game. I think this is largely in part due to the fact that it is easier to roll a random combo marking onto a wolf from an RMA than to breed it. I think this undermines a part of the breeding aspect of the game that could be very interesting and fun by making it feel like it's all up to chance, and not from carefully selecting wolves to breed together based off marks. I think it's interesting to have markings available only from RMA's, but including combo markings only serves to devalue combo markings as a whole. 

I 100% support this.  A large part of my enjoyment from this game comes from breeding combo colors or deviated shapes in different slots.  Now, deviated shapes are natural, you only get those through breeding and it’s really fun.  But as I’m working on silver marks toward sterling, it’s really discouraging to try to breed something of value to eventually put on the market or keep, only to have someone RMA same slot exactly what I am trying for, with no effort and just some cash, then put that up for stud.

Now, I’m not saying we shouldn’t support the site and spend money, in fact I would spend more I think if I needed breeding items ect to keep the ball rolling on my breeding projects.  But when I can just go find a stud that has what I want with no effort on their part (breeding), then I’m less likely to even want to try to do any projects, which is the place where I currently find myself.  

It takes the breeding aspect out of a breeding sim, is what I’m trying to say.  I enjoy the harder aspects of this game and want to see my breeding projects have an effect.

I support! 

I tried to breed for combo marks with specifically designed parents and out of like 4 litters got ONE zircon mark out of 3 or 4 possible combo colors.

Then I made enough GC to buy some RMAs and rolled a combo color. On the third one.

And sure that's maybe just luck, but I have talked to people who use RMAs (and I have used more since) and it seems that a combo color pops up every 6-8 rolls. It doesn't make me very excited to breed when literally any mark can be slapped on with a RMA. And if it doesn't look good just tone down the opacity, no big deal. T3 bases, stats, and eyes are the only things that can't be RMA'd, and are consequently really the only things that still hold value in this game.

Higher-gen wolves are already valued lower than NBWs because of their long family trees, and one way to re-ignite interest in them and make them worth something again is by making more incentive to breed them. Currently I barely breed any of my wolves because the kids will be worth less than their parents so what's the point? Making combo marks special and something you could breed for would help a lot!

It might be a hard sell though after so long being included, so maybe it could be done simultaneously with a release of new RMA-only marking shapes (like merle is now)?

I support removing combo marks from RMAs. The breeding aspect of a breeding game isn’t that fun when you can spend GC and get what you want instead of actually working for it. 

Web, you’re absolutely right, I hadn’t thought of that.  It does put more value on higher-gen wolves and in turn helps market stability.

I support removing combo marks from RMAs as well! 

When I first started playing the game, I had a goal of breeding wolves with multiple silver markings. I bred wolves with several black and white markings in the same slots only to get one silver marking from my breedings. It was very discouraging for me, especially since I saw people easily getting combo markings from RMAs. I ended up cancelling my project and just using RMAs to get combo marks since the success is much higher. 

I also support. At the very least, reduce the frequency of "breed only" combo color markings in RMAs. Like, to be on the same tier as merle rarity.

I love the breeding aspect of breeding sims. As a new player unfamiliar with the market, my first stud was one I picked to match colors with some of my females to create combo color mark babies. I had no idea you could just get lucky and achieve a combo mark from an RMA. It completely took the wind out of my sails. Nowadays, I slap RMAs on my wolves and don't even feel it's necessary to keep combo marks that I roll because I can just roll another one in a few more RMAs (and same with Tamaskan and Inuit rates).

And as a result of how easy it is to randomly get combo marks from RMAs, they don't hold much market value. Breed-only coats and T3 coats, plus a handful of eye colors that can't come from applicators, are the only aesthetic part of a wolf that makes or breaks a stud. If I get a lineage, stats, and/or T3 coat that I want on a wolf, I really don't care about its markings at all because I know I can sink money into RMAs to end up with nice new markings that are also not on siblings or parents in the same bloodline. Markings are the last thing on my mind when breeding, buying, and selling.

There's a real lack of breeding related goals onsite aside from stat breeding, which not everyone feels like doing. Combo color markings would be an amazing breeding-related goal. It would help studs with the same coat as each other have different appeal based on their markings. It would add value some value to non-combo color markings because you'd need those on a parent to breed new combo color markings into that slot. It would give people goals to bring them together, like combo focused breeding groups and R&C efforts to spread combo markings into the wild. And like Web pointed out, it would add value to higher gen wolves because they'll be able to accumulate more combo marks over the generations.

It's a change that would take a while to really sink into the breeding pool since so many popular studs right now have multiple combo markings from RMAs. But eventually, seeing a pup born with 8 markings would actually feel like a huge win compared to its sibling who only has 3 markings. Eventually, I wouldn't be fine with just picking the first gen 2 pup from a new T3 pairing to become my next stud, and I'd actually want to wait to find one with a good marking set even if that means a slightly higher gen.

And I also agree with Web that taking them out of RMAs (or drastically reducing their frequency) would smooth over better with an update that adds new markings to RMAs. And that would keep RMAs valuable compared to just picking a decent marking from a Marking Applicator. RMAs would have a wider variety of shapes but a smaller selection of colors, leaving the really interesting colors to be obtained through breeding. And if not new marking shapes, then at least adding new colors of existing markings like merle at the same time would benefit both RMAs (new merle to attempt rolling for!) and also breeding combo colors (unlikely/impossible to get from RMA, and none exist in game yet, so everyone has to start from scratch).

Support!

I didn't know you could get combo markings from RMAs... Wow, that discovery just ruined them for me. I thought it was one of the few exclusive marking-based things we had left. :/

I don't like how much markings there are in RMAs that really shouldn't be there. Can't you get selene from RMAs too? That's really strange. Some stuff should be limited to specific ways to achieve only - raffle-only, event-only, breed-only, RMA-only, etc.. Mix and match a couple ways to obtain, for sure. (Like selene being an event thing, but still passing through breeding.) But not everything should be dumped into RMAs like that. It just devalues everything and defeats the whole purpose of exclusives. (And means whales can get whatever they conceivably want without the hard work, which I don't think I need to explain the problem with that.)

As you guys already said, this is a breeding sim. There should be more emphasis on breeding for specific genetics.

It might be good to go about it the way Websteak mentioned, though.

Big support here

i literally spent a week trying to breed auburn shaded awhile back only for a friend to get it on the first go. Which was like… great for them, but then what’s the point of having a supposedly “breed only” mark? 

Kinda neutral on this, I think combos should stay in RMAs. However, I agree the rate of rolling a combo mark through RMA is high and could be balanced so it's not easier than the pass rate. 

Speaking of the pass rate..... it's unknown as combo marks don't show in the scrying stone - for those unaware.

Also agree that it would be nice to see some actual breed-only marks in the future. For example, anything like Sterling marks as they are a combo of a combo.