[S] Alternate species on Mer Lines

[Sabin Duvert]

Heyo!

Just kind of shooting the breeze and stirring up some discussion mostly.

A lot of people really enjoyed the expanded mini breeds - not only did it help stir up some more interest in minis as a whole by having more options for mixes/breeding, but it brought some more templates into the shop that worked well to translate ideas... and in some cases allowed for some people who had a quest concept to be able to transfer it to a mini.

My suggestion is to do the same with the Mers.
They've had some help with opening them up to be able to breed with kelpis and kelpi crosses,and I know that there are more template options in the works for hair/fin styles - which is also great (they really need them as their options paled in comparison to the standard four-footed templates.

My suggestion here is to find some more uses for the mer shape/design and I think that it could open up to some really cool designs/concepts like:

- Naga:
Not the WoW race, but actual half-snake. They could use the same template, but expand the length of the tail a bit and have some options like with rattles at the end perhaps.
Maybe theoretical kelpi/naga crossbreeds could be like the WoW-style nagas with the longer tails.

- Djinn:
Have the tails fin-less and fade off into transparency. They could float and maybe have a lamp or lantern or container that they can hide in. Not having supreme powers like Genies, but able to hide in the containers.

Other Ideas
- feel free to toss some.



In General
Let them be able to interbreed with mers and Kelpi, and well, just in general I think these could be a new out-of-the box option for new character types smile

((I'm also still/have always been down with opening up breeding of mers with all soquili breeds, but there's been pushback for that in the past. *shrugs* ))  

[Kamiki]

I think this is a pretty cool idea! Personally I still think Mers should be able to breed with Regular Soquili, but I so think having some other interesting Mer options would be a good way to stir some interest.

Maybe even adapting other Soquili traits to the Mer templates - like Kalona horn styles or unicorn horms?  

[Tygress Dream]

Being the resident crazy mer-lady I'd love to see something to bring more interest to these lovelies. The fact that mixer breedings brought the same pair together twice speaks of how few active mers are in the current breeding pool. Even with the kelpi breeding options, there are so few people willing to give it a try.  

[ATh e a r t]

Just a note that there are other things being added that haven't been released yet that -doesn't- make the mer have a new subspecies.

The subspecies idea doesn't really make sense to me, mostly because... usdia were expanded to have equivalents to the full sized.

I can sorta see expanding them to be able to breed with at least water 'suti, but yeah. I don't really agree to a new subspecies.  

[Laroawan]

I know extra template additions are already being worked on but there are so many different types of tails/finnage you could add to the mers including equivalents of all the current kelpi tails, just wanted to post a few ideas.

Templates I'd love to see added:
-Long flowing goldfish tails
-Chinese water dragon scales and fins
-whale tails
-fan tails/fins
-lionfish fins
-leafy sea dragon fins

Possibility of horns/antlers - narwhale or axolotol esc.

Sehorse features - spikes, curled tails that can grasp etc.  

[one over three]

I think... If there were more species based off the mer template I'd rather the new species remain aquatic.

 

[ProphetOfProfit]

Just a suggestion to increase the amount of active mers.

Could we Maybe have a mer only customs raffle? Just to get their numbers up?

And maybe incorporate them more into events? So they can be up for grabs?

Because I have always admired the breed I just haven't had any chances to get my hands on one. Other than customs slots which are the most crowded slots of them all because they compete with other much more popular breeds.
then if i did get One the mate and rp options s are like nil to none because again no one has them.

so It's not really a lack of interest it's just a lack of representation. For me anyway.
I mean When's the last time you saw one in a raffle Flaffle or whatever.

I would be happy to help sponsor a mer shop event. I don't even really care about winning one but I would like other people to get them so when I do manage one ill have some options.

EDITED.  

[Jackariah Beckett]

For now, I'd just like to say that a narwhale horn would be amazing *w*. Mostly because I have a pet in another shop I've been dieing to get here, but because she is a mutant I would not be able to. And yes, I could just turn her into a uni..... but it wouldn't be the same nwn;;. Besides that custom idea, I can personally say the met lines have never really sparked any ideas in me. At least, nothing that would be allowed in customs that wasn't a mutant nwn;;.

I actually made narwhale plushies one year xD


Also, I think a mer with hyppo claws could be pretty cool smile . And it certainly would help them with catching fish x3.


And I'm still trying to wrap my head around Mers breeding with non-aquatics. Would that be like a tiger breeding with a lion? If so, I don't necisarily see a problem with it owo? It just reminds me of the Futurama episode where Fry falls in love with a mermaid and wonders why she couldn't have been a fish on top and lady bits on bottom xD.  

[Sabin Duvert]

Regarding mers breeding with other races, I just think if mers can breed with kelpi and kelpi can breed with other races, then there's not really a physical boundary.

Shallow water could accommodate meetings X3.

Offspring could be of either parents' species, or perhaps a kelpi could result as a crossbreed from the breeding between a regular and a mer :3  

[kaliskanny]

ladyfirefox89

And I'm still trying to wrap my head around Mers breeding with non-aquatics. Would that be like a tiger breeding with a lion? If so, I don't necisarily see a problem with it owo? It just reminds me of the Futurama episode where Fry falls in love with a mermaid and wonders why she couldn't have been a fish on top and lady bits on bottom xD.

It would be more like a horse breeding with a fish. One is on land, the other is in the water. With the kelpi being like a seal...that can be on both land and water.  

[Andranis]

I like the idea of some new types based on the Mer template! I'd also like to suggest, with the idea of Djinn Soquili, tweaking the template a bit, too, so they also have back legs. Regardless of depiction, unless the djinn/genie had a whole 5 minutes of screen time in the whole thing, most depictions have them switching freely between having the smoke tail and actual legs and feet. I have a few djinn pony characters myself, and I'd LOVE to get them in Soquili, lamps, bottles, and all smile

Which brings another suggestion related to the suggestion of djinn ponies - Females in bottles, males in lamps? Also, for RP purposes, one of their few powers could be to change their form(But only in RP, with limitations - Like turning into, say, a griffin or changing type purely in the RP, with 0 impact on breeding other than RP count for those that have the inspiration to do RP couples).

I think the idea of a naga soquili would best be reserved for the Seathi, though, as far as a 'pure' naga Soquili goes - The pose of both genders is better suited for it. BUT for the actual Mers? A type of naga based on sea crates would be awesome! It keeps them mer, but it also gives us a naga-like option smile  

[kaliskanny]

Andranis

I think the idea of a naga soquili would best be reserved for the Seathi, though, as far as a 'pure' naga Soquili goes - The pose of both genders is better suited for it. BUT for the actual Mers? A type of naga based on sea crates would be awesome! It keeps them mer, but it also gives us a naga-like option smile

Mind already has said and shown the WoW naga to be hippo'suti.

The only things I can think of for the mer lines are the snake things that CitrusCupcake's Skald is. (I forget the race...) But, it's a mutant on soq lines.  

[Phail Ninja]

Laroawan

I know extra template additions are already being worked on but there are so many different types of tails/finnage you could add to the mers including equivalents of all the current kelpi tails, just wanted to post a few ideas.

Templates I'd love to see added:
-Long flowing goldfish tails
-Chinese water dragon scales and fins
-whale tails
-fan tails/fins
-lionfish fins
-leafy sea dragon fins

Possibility of horns/antlers - narwhale or axolotol esc.

Sehorse features - spikes, curled tails that can grasp etc.

I like this ^.^ we need more template options (and we have recently received a bunch and more are coming on Valentine's, so I'm not complaining at all! x3).

Personally, I dislike the idea of multiple mer species as you've shown them, especially this idea of 'Djinns'. They just aren't relevant to mers at all, and don't make sense in the context of this shop o_0 If we had "sub-mer species" they should all be aquatic and based on the mer lines - which to me seems pointless as more template options basically do the same thing.

The same with seathis, yes more can be done with them, but new species? They were made to fill the niche of "aquatics" which they already encompass as a whole as a species.



The only thing I really agree with from what you've said is to open up mating between aquatics and non-aquatics. I feel this would massively open up people's opinions towards them - as the reason mers don't get that many breedings is that kelpi owners don't want to breed with them because of the possibility of having partner-restricted offspring. I would love this to be an option. I mean, biologically speaking, if a Kelpi can breed with the mers, then mers should be reproductively similar enough for mer/land Soq breedings anyway. The same with seathis and Nixies. ^^

tldr; I really love mers, and think they should be allowed to breed with a wider range of Soq, but disagree with your subspecies - they aren't relevant to mers, instead we should focus on more template options.