Posted at 2013-02-28 22:28:56 — Link
EVENTUALLY.
Seriously, I cannot stress that enough. This isn't something that needs to be done, if it's going to be done, soon. As more species are added, perhaps this feature could be added as well. in the future. Maybe it's even planned already, who knows.
Certain mythological creatures either are or easily could be a combination of other magical creatures. For example, a hippogriff is said to be the offspring of a gryphon and a horse. We don't have horses but we do have unicorns.
There are many others, since most mythological animals are a mix of different ones, but I'll leave that interpretation open to Angel if she wants to add something like this in the future.
Not all mixed breedings would result in a new species, in fact most would just fail outright. Only certain species can crossbreed successfully for a variety of reasons.
For example trying to breed a roc and a unicorn to get a hippogriff would always fail because a) rocs are freaking huge and incompatible with unicorns and b) just because it's a bird/horse creature doesn't mean it's made by breeding a bird and a horse, it's a distinct combination of genes required to get the species.
Even species that look like a combination of other species may also be their own distinct species and cannot be made by cross-breeding. For example gryphons could be their own species, not hybrids, breeding a puma with any bird would never result in a gryphon for this reason. Just because they look like a mix doesn't mean they are.
I would say, for balance reasons and just how unlikely it would be for the two species to come together in the first place, both would need full 10/10 energy for the breeding. Whether it's successful or not, would deplete energy entirely. Even if the species does have a "hybrid" that can be made by breeding them there is still at least a 50% chance of failure.
Genes could either be assigned randomly or based on the equivalent parents' genes. Because magic, how's that for an explanation?
Hybrids could occur naturally too, but extremely rarely.