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[DarkCloud]

A few scattered ideas relating to evolution, should it be implemented.

1. Dwarf Blood Types/ Genetics
As the world gen creates the world, there can be several blood and genomic type "families" of dwarves, each of which has certain genetic trait likelihoods. As time goes on, the lineages of particular dwarves can be tracked and determined on the basis of their ancestors genes and blood types.

For example:

Urist Rockham is blood type O+, he is susceptible to hemophelia
his wife, Urist Cella is blood type A, she carries male pattern baldness.
They have 10 children.
5 have blood A; 2 females carry male pattern baldness, 2 males are bald, and 1 is not.
4 have O- and 2 of them have hemophaelia
and 1 has O+ and has hemophaelia

Also: Pimples, fatness, tallness, etc. could also be genetically passed.

2. Evolution of the Races (May require genetic mutations)
- The megabeasts can evolve. Now that Toady has enabled more tags, for example, prehistoric dwarves could for example, have prehensile tails that disappear by the time the game starts, but the fossilized dwarves would still have the tails.
- In year 0 the megabeasts could be smaller; that is, all sharks are size 10, however, over time only the successful sharks survive and breed, which leads to larger sharks being begat. Thus, over time the size of newly born sharks increases.

3. Genetic Mutations
- When a creature is born, it is likely to have certain attributes from its parents; but it could also have a genetic mutation, like a hare-lip, or a sixth finger.
- Certain other genetic traits could include the ability to curl a tongue, or wiggle ears.
ex: "Urist Abellethane had a good day today. She likes it when her friend, Urist Donlan wiggles her ears. Urist A. wishes she could wiggle her ears, because then she would be more popular."

[madrain]

I like this idea.  In particular I think it would be great in animals, especially once mounts work, but also very fun for dogs and other animals that can be trained for different jobs as well as pets.  You could implement breeding to get traits you want, as well as looks.  Well, it'd also require mating be done by physical proximity rather than spores or telepathy..

The only thing I'd worry about is all the evil dwarf fortress players undertaking campaigns of racial purity.

[EverybodylovesTJ]

The only thing I'd worry about is all the evil dwarf fortress players undertaking campaigns of racial purity.

Where's the fun in having a group of dwarves with mixed hair colors? Long live the Blackbeards, I say!

Read as: Having physical appearance come into play in world gen.

A ruler likes his dwarves to have black hair.
Tries to wipe out the rest. 

Profit.

[DarkCloud]

- This could also allow for genetic variations as interesting as albino dwarves with glowing red eyes who just sort of hang out with the other dwarves, "dwarf" dwarves who are strangely shorter than the average dwarves, and "giant" dwarves the size of humans (! What will happen to the dwarf race if giant dwarves become predominant in world-gen!), and dwarves with recessive alleles. Much fun. Lots of research for Toady.

[DarkCloud]

- It would also be useful to have a "reports" system where the genetic traits of all of one dwarf's ancestors could be tracked.

Thus:

Urist A
Blood Type: O+
Hair: Obsidian Black (Dwarves would certainly have over 10 different shades of black)
Eyes: Coal Black
Height: Slightly Above Dwarfish
Genetic Defects: Diabetic
Other Distinguishing: Has Four Fingers (One was eaten by a bat)

Father:
Urist Strongheart A
Bloodtype: AB
Hair: Jet Black
Eyes: Coal Black
Height: Slightly Above Dwarfish
Genetic Defects: Diabetic
Other Distinguishing: None

Mother:
Urist Glittering B
Bloodtype: O-
Hair: Dirt Brown
Height: Average Dwarfish
Genetic Defects:
Other Distinguishing: Anorexic

Father's Father
Urist Large A
Bloodtype: A
Hair: Darkness Black
Eyes: Coal Black
Height: Normal Dwarfish
Genetic Defects: None
Other Distinguishing: Died of the Gout

Father's Mother
Urist B A
Bloodtype: B
Hair:  Average Black
Eyes: Blue
Height: Sub-Dwarfish
Genetic Defects: None
Other Distinguishing: Pimples

Mother's Mother
Urist D A
Bloodtype: B
Hair:  Dirt Brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: Sub-Dwarfish
Genetic Defects: Susceptible to Warts, Haemophiliac
Other Distinguishing: None

Mother's Father
Urist e A
Bloodtype: B
Hair:  Blood Red
Eyes: Black
Height: Above Average Dwarfish
Genetic Defects: Bad Eyesight
Other Distinguishing: None

And So On...

[Footkerchief]

Toady already mentioned that basic inheritance (at least for appearance-type stuff, maybe for attributes too?) is being implemented for this release.

[G-Flex]

Question: Why would blood type ever matter for a game based on medieval Europe?

[DarkCloud]

G-Flex: Good point about the fact that they probably won't be able to do blood transfusions. Still, blood type is an interesting inherited type. Apparently blood type, moreso than hair/eye color goes directly to your genetic history (I believe.)

So by using blood type you could track the descent of different dwarf families and see which bloodline or type is superior as a matter of trivia.

And footkerchief- really? I didn't notice that. I saw he was working on descriptors for appearance, but didn't see the inheritance comments. I must have overlooked them.

[Fieari]

Some people have a psuedo-scientific belief about blood types dictating personality.  It's a buncha hooey.  The Japanese are particularly fond of that bit of hooey.

Which is to say, there's no reason.  The only reason would be for personalities, which are coded separately in DF anyway.

Other things could track family history better than blood-type anyway.

[G-Flex]

Except the world of DF wouldn't have any superstitions about blood type and personality, since those living in it wouldn't know about blood type in the first place.

[Footkerchief]

And footkerchief- really? I didn't notice that. I saw he was working on descriptors for appearance, but didn't see the inheritance comments. I must have overlooked them.

It wasn't in the dev log.  I only remembered because I was the one who asked in the Future of the Fortress thread:

I wonder whether heritability is being taken into account in some fashion for the new appearance stuff.

The 30 in the body part of the countdown after wounds but before venom and then site/civ stuff is mainly this.  Hair and skin colors should be more or less preserved by offspring, and I think there will probably also be links for other appearance variables and perhaps att modifiers.  Whatever comes up really.

I wasn't trying to say this thread lacks a legit purpose, by the way.  The potential for genetics goes far beyond whatever we'll see next release.

[Fossaman]

I'd love to be able to breed giant cats by letting only the largest ones live. Dwarves need big cats, right?

[Tormy]

Genetics? Seriously, this is a bit too much and trivial also in the same time. I don't think that Toady should spend a minute even to code in stuff like this. The game is complex enough, and it will be much more complex without features like this even.

[EverybodylovesTJ]

Genetics? Seriously, this is a bit too much and trivial also in the same time. I don't think that Toady should spend a minute even to code in stuff like this. The game is complex enough, and it will be much more complex without features like this even.

Then why not add it in?

Also, footkerchief stated that toady already is implementing this, at least in some way.

[Sunday]

It'd be cool if certain creatures had Lamarkian evolution (a dwarf with a finger bit off passes on its four-fingeredness to its children.