Obviously, I've been gone too long to say that I'm keeping up on everything. ^_- However, while reading through some of the latest archives, I noticed that people are still commenting that 'the less likely a combination is, the more stat points it will have'. I'd just like to offer my two-cents in here. I've been practicing with the genetic engineering of 'Great' combos over several months RL time, and I've yet to find that rule coming into effect. While it does happen a lot of the time, I find that no matter whether the combination is hard-to-get or direct and easy, the best stat-gains are from monsters with high numbers, and in direct 'corrected' patterns with their baseline stats.

For example: A Durahan/Durahan is raised with the corrected stats of Intelligence, Defense, Power, Skill, Life, Speed. You then raise a Dragon/Dragon with that same pattern. Breeding the two together, you'll have a chance at several creatures. However, the most likely combination is the Durahan/Dragon. The numbers, however, will end up being better than a Dragon/Durahan, a Dragon/Dragon, or a Durahan/Durahan.

If people want to correct me on this, please do. I'm just reporting what my testing has been proving to me.

I think you see the effect more clearly when making a great combo with the /??? types and the pure of the same main breed, where the only result possible is a pure. I had made a pure watermelony, same patterns as the pure, that was all 999s and combined it with a pure Ducken that was all 999s, and Dadge said the Combo was great, but the actual stats involved were all under 240.

BTW, in testing this, and I think there's a dex drive save I made to show it to people floating around out there, I did see that the stats varied if you re-set and re-did the combo. Not huge variations, but sometimes as much as 10 points difference in a couple stats.

Lately, I've been trying to make a great combo between a Gali/Tiger on death's door, and a spry young Suezo/Zuum, in hopes of a powerful Gali/Suezo or an Orion. Their modified stats match perfectly, and they make a "good" combo. After combining about 50 times, the best stats are coming from Orion, Fanged Mask, Yellow mask and Suezo. These are all among the higher percentages. All Tiger/ breeds end up with sad stats, though Mono Eyed usually has as many techs as the better combos. Pure tiger, at a 5% chance every time, tends to be the worst, with only Skill at a reasonable level (250, with a crab claw). This may be an isolated case, but I don't think the rarity of the combo is a very important factor. I saw a post somewhere suggesting that the more closely the created monster's statgains matched up with the parents, the better the monster would be. So far, that looks like a reasonable idea.
There's my 2 cents. *clink clink*

I thought we determined this a long time ago?

Basically, matching up the stats will only get you so far.
You have make the stats match up by using the
modifiers and match them up with the base stats of the
monster you are trying to get. The closer the stats are
ordered (after modifier) to the base stats of the monster
you are trying to get, the better the baby will come out.

Some monsters (like mock) make it VERY difficult to get
good combos. They have a 1 in life (modifier X 0) and
yet it's their highest base stat. -_-

Yes. Phoenixes have the same problem, what with their high base power and '1' in POW gains. Plus, Phoenixes don't have the number of sub possibilities that mocks have. You can get a great a mock from two Arrowhead/Mocks, for instance, with a little number engineering.

I see what you mean, Lisa. I wonder why that is. I wonder if it'd work that way with other subs, too. As in, breeding a Beaclon/Ducken with a Watermelony... would the stats end up being low, too?

Hmmm. Maybe a subject to look into...

What mepersoner said is correct. However, there is another factor involved in the process. Torey and I discussed this in chat some months ago. The idea is basically this:

In addition to the modified stats of the "parents" matching the baseline stat order of the offspring, the percentage chance of the outcome in question also affects stat carryover. Basically, the LESS likely the outcome of the combo, the greater the stat-carryover, provided that the stats in question line up in the first place.

It is diffcult to do, but when this happens with a combo with, say a 5% chance, the resulting stats tend to be VERY high, sometimes approaching the 600 range.

This explains why same breed combinations tend to be so crummy. In the case of Lisa's Watermelony combination, there is only one possible outcome. Since the probability of that outcome is 100%, the effect I described is minimized, resulting in stats of only 200 or so.

I also noticed the effect when working on "the DP files" section. Just look at the mocchi outcome. The outcome involving the three 500+ stats turned out to be, of course, the least likely outcome.

Hopefully, this sheds some light on the subject.

DP