#i think whatever tone-deaf standardization guidelines they're following are likely also actively detrimental to ancient breed design creati

[here-there-were-dragons]

judging by the "fixes" they've applied to fern and i'm fairly sure also to a few other genes, they likely intend to flatten and generic-ify EVERY gene that does anything interesting with especially the top feathers portion of the wings. :/

#flight rising #the ridiculously strict standardization guidelines they seem to put every gene through recently are actively detrimental to looking good #i don't know why they can't seem to get the idea that different body shapes showing the same gene a little differently is a GOOD thing #rather than every single gene appearing to be the exact same flat pasted on texture. undel's book had a whole thing on that how'dthey forge #we like it when each dragon's shape does something a little unique with gene expression! it makes it worth actually having different breeds #i think whatever tone-deaf standardization guidelines they're following are likely also actively detrimental to ancient breed design creati #and might even be part of the reason why we haven't gotten any dragons with stuff like turtle shells for the secondary gene yet #because under the current personality-sucking apparent standardization guidelines they would not be allowed to try to adapt any modern gene #to a shell-backed dragon shape #because tweaking them to work on that shape and actually look good would be considered by their standards changing them too much #even though the difference on a majority of genes wouldn't be any greater than the difference between some genes on skydancer vs other wing #under the standardization rules they seem to follow they may literally not be allowed to design even any ancient dragons w/ nonwing seconda #much less with any truly mold-breaking shapes or concepts of wings. they seem to struggle just with figuring out how to apply it to feather #off the top of my had some wing-“wing”-and secondary gene area ideas that would be absolutely possible but i'm fairly sure they'd never do- #“feathers” are actually smaller membranous wings like a fractal. mane. elaborate peacock tail instead of wings. body fins. head frill. bell #throat fan. head crest. overlapping hard scalelike spines flattened into something like a spinosaurus crest. sailfin 2!. inorganic wings. #all of these things are entirely feasible and i have thought on how to adapt genes to them extensively but they would likely never do it #because peregrine-for example-would look perfectly fine-better even- applied to the trailing edges of overlapping armadillo plates #except fr's standardization rules seem to be so ridiculously strict that they would say it can only be on the trailing edge of a wing shape #they just seem to want every gene to be the exact same pasted on flat texture on everything even when it makes no sense on the dragon shape #and even when following that design principle actively looks worse. which it mostly does. it demands they suck the 3d out of everything. #so we end up with a game where every dragon looks like someone put a cutout of a texture on it and adapting it to the 3d shape is a “bug” #give us MORE breeds with anatomical features that cause small but consistent deviations in the depiction of genes! #not less! #it's the tundra butterfly dark manes all over again #we LIKE slight variety that makes sense on the dragon's unique shape! unique forms demand unique adaptations! not flattening! #undel wrote an entire section of an artbook about how patterns should be adapted to your subject's anatomy and shape how did they all forge #is this one of those corporate “to preserve our brand identity” things? is it a loud minority/“listening to the wrong feedback” thing? #it's gotten to the point that there's basically no point even scrying most breeds until at least a year after they come out #because inevitably they're going to abruptly “fix” every single gene that looks interesting and good