[Kyttias]

Both parents are taken into consideration equally. Novu don't technically have sexual genders, even though some may grow different features as adults based on their pre-determined gender. (Apparent gender can be changed with a potion that won't be any more expensive than changing a name.)

Baby Novu come from dust that falls off their parent's fur when they do a courtship dance. Both gender and species are irrelevant when it comes to breeding - so any two Novu can be compatible! (This was both easier to program and... well, I'm part of the LGBT community and don't at all mind catering to it.)

Colors are relatively equal. Like on Flight Rising, babies are given a random color chosen from the range between that of the two adults. Colors exist not just on the body but also on patterns. Patterns have varying degrees of rarity and, yes, some of them are more dominant than others. There are tiers in place meant to keep rare patterns rare. But, further, patterns also come at varying opacity levels.

There are also other interesting things such tail styles, wings, and gender variance.

  Spoiler: Breeding 

Semi-Realistic Alleles

My gf did most of the breed coding, and rarity tiers pitted against the Novu's genetic code - constructed like real alleles! A lot is determined by what the Novu's alleles are, but this is actually a hidden attribute. Super dedicated breeders will be given the means to pay to scan a pet's alleles so they can make more informed breeding choices.

Alleles have capital letters and lowercase letters. Capital letters represent dominant traits, so, the more capital letters your Novu's genetic code has, the more dominant it's genes will be in determining the outcome of the offspring.

Pattern Opacity

A weaker opacity rare gene will still count as fully having that gene in terms of next generation breeding, but it may not have been the outcome the breeder was hoping for. Opacities come at full, high, half, low and none. None still counts as a dormant version of the gene and is 10%. The others are 100%, 75%, 50%, and 25%, respectively.

The final opacity of a pattern is determined by the baby's inherited alleles (which can be different than it's siblings - two from each parent) and by the tier rarity of the pattern. There are four tiers of rarity, and four possible letters that are examined in these cases. The number of capital letters in the baby's alleles are counted up and pitted against the tier level.

If a baby inherited all capital letters, it'll come out with a full opacity coat regardless of what rarity tier the pattern has, because the maximum of both is four. (Which pattern a baby is getting is determined before it's opacity is determined.)

If a baby inherits no capital letters in it's alleles, no matter what pattern it's getting, it's only going to come out as a dormant pattern at 10% opacity.

From there, it gets complicated.

If the pattern is at maximum rarity, tier 4:
Capital Letters? Opacity. -- Three? 75%. Two? 50%. One? 25%.

If the pattern is at rarity tier 3.
Capital Letters? Opacity. -- Three? 100%. Two? 50%. One? 25%.

If the pattern is at rarity tier 2.
Capital Letters? Opacity. -- At Least Two? 100%. One? 50%.

If the pattern is at rarity tier 1.
Capital Letters? Opacity. -- At Least One? 100%.

And, again, no capital letters, in all cases? 10%.

Species Rarity

That said, certain species will be rarer than others.

Above, you saw that opacity was determined by the Novu inheriting two alleles from each parent, for a total of four alleles being looked through for capital letters.

Actually, Novu have a set number of total alleles based on their species. The rarer the species, the more pairs of alleles the parents have to give. Which two letters chosen to be given to the baby are still random, there is just more to be given.

If you breed two species together and one is rarer, any babies that come out will have a longer genetic code even if they are the less rare species. However, the extension given to the more common species' genetic code will hold recessive alleles. This will make these children not great for breeding bold 100% opacity patterns. But that's the risk you took to try and get a rarer species of pet. And hey, maybe you want more recessive alleles because you like the look of lower opacity genes.

I haven't fully programmed in the species rarity tiers, but I plan to make safe guards against limited edition pets become eventually common. You know how in Pokemon, the god-tier stuff just doesn't breed, and if it does, it's baby doesn't quite look like it at all? Probably going to have to happen for a few extremely rare species.

I have notes on this somewhere, but apparently not where I can find them... It'll be similar to Flight Rising with a few exceptions. It's a less a concern about breedability but how easy they are to obtain by other means.

That said, I may tweak a few rarities once the site picks up. If a Novu is purchasable with real money (but is available all year long) you can breed it with relative ease for the first year. After a year of being released, it will not longer be purchasable for real money, AND, it's breeding rarity will be increased -- so as to sustain its rarity even after it's no longer able to be purchased. (I might also do this on a monthly scale.)

Wings

If both parents have wings, the offspring will also always have wings.
If only one parent has wings, there is only a 10% chance of wings passing on.

Tails

There are three kinds of tails. Ordinary, Alternate, and Luxury.

If the tails of the parents are both the same, that's what the kid gets.
Ordinary vs Alternate? 70% Ordinary vs 30% Alternate.
Ordinary vs Luxury? 90% Ordinary vs 10% Luxury.
Alternate vs Luxury? 85% Alternate vs 15% Luxury.

Gender

Remember how I said gender didn't matter? I lied a little. If the parents are of the same gender, you are actually 25% more likely to also have a child of that gender.