What are Predicts?
A prediction is a user-made set of babies. Instead of submitting a breeding pair and getting surprise offspring from the site artists, predictions allow you to create your own offspring, or commission someone to make them for you. Submitting predicts is free except for three types of breedings - Breeding Coin (gold), Delicious Eggnog, and Holiday Breeding Coin. These three require an extra item, BC Candy, to submit predicts.

PSDs & Predicts
As of March 2012 you are required to send in the .PSD files for all of your predicts to this email: Aywas.predicts@gmail.com The subject of these emails should be "Breeding between ___First parent ID___ and ___Second Parent ID___".

Staff will no longer be rejecting predicts for simple and fixable mistakes or errors; instead, staff will be fixing your predicts to be acceptable. If your predict is fixed by a staff member, you will receive an email reply from the above email with the new .PSD for your baby. Like always, if a predict has too many errors or is not following rules at all, it will be rejected.

It is the user's responsibility to send .PSD files of received babies to the aywas.psds@gmail.com after the baby is hatched, so the .psd is on file for breeding artists. The subject of those emails should be "Custom ____ID HERE____ PSD" with the .psd file attached. Please send only one .psd per email.

Site Bred vs. Predicts
Predicts are optional - if no predicts are submitted with a breeding, it is assigned to a site breeder. The main differences between the two methods would be that predicts are faster but stricter in design, where site bred are far slower to arrive but may be more liberal, and you won't have access to the baby's PSD. Site artists are given more liberty because they do not have a vested interest in bending or breaking the rules - the babies are not theirs, and if they are too far out of line, the artist will have to redo or fix their work.

To read more about Predict Pros and Cons and the difference between predicts and site bred babies, click here.

"But in all seriousness, breeding artists get more leniency to be creative because they are not YOU and they are not seeking to abuse the system by making your babies, because they get no benefit from doing so."
-Slash

Same Species, Different Lineart
The current (sometimes called new or standard) lineart for all species is listed in All Pet Genuses. Alternate and Old lineart can be found here.

Old x New - choice of 50/50 mix, or all new
Old x Alt - 50/50 mix
New x Alt - 50/50 mix
Event x Any - 50/50 mix (Not LBC compatible with Old/New/Alt lines.)

If there are an odd number of predicts, your choice which lineart gets two, while the other gets one.

Friendly Reminder
If you are consistently abusing the prediction system and not listening to staff advice and requests, you will be at risk of a ban from the predicts system, the length of which will be determined upon staff review.


Commissioning Predicts
If you do not have the time, inclination or skill to make your own predicts, there are many freelance artists who take breeding predict commissions. Predicts Commissions has it's own subforum. There are price ceilings for predicts - you cannot be charged more than these amounts for a set of predicts.

7 GP per baby = Breeding Coin, Holiday Breeding Coin, Delicious Eggnog, Evil Breeding Coin
5 GP per baby = Lesser Breeding Coin, Half a Lesser Breeding Coin
3 GP per baby = Metal Breeding Coin

Predicts for same species, different lineart breedings (old x new, alt x old, etc.) have no price cap.

Breeding Processing Times
There is a limited window of time in which you can submit predicts before the breeding is assigned out to a site artist. To be safe and make sure your predicts are submitted before your breeding is assigned to a site artist, submit your predicts within the first week after you have submitted your breeding. It is recommended that you have your predicts ready before you submit your breeding.

Submitting Predicts
The person who submits the breeding coin also has to submit the predicts, if any are being used. Babies must be uploaded as PNG file type and 200x200 pixels.

Kickback
Kickback is a partial refund you get when submitting predicts for a coin that does not require BC Candy. The refund goes to whomever submits the predicts, and is automatically credited to your account by the system.

Breeding Coin, Delicious Eggnog, and Holiday Breeding Coin get no kick back.
Half a Lesser Breeding Coin, and Metal Breeding Coin, get a 300k BP kickback.
Evil Breeding Coin, Lesser Breeding Coin, and Breeding Coin get a 3 GP kickback.

How Many Predicts?
Predict number is the same as the maximum number of babies a coin can give, except for EBC. If your pets are married and the coin qualifies for an extra baby, add one. If you are using a Fertility/Greater Fertility Potion on a compatible coin, add one. If you don't know how many offspring you should be expecting see the Breeding Tutorial.

Predict Amounts Required:

EBC - 2
Eggnog - 1 per side
HLBC - 1
BC - 2
HBC - 2
LBC - 2
MBC - 2


Everything can be summed up in one single rule - Predict sets must be a logical, balanced outcome of the two parents. Everything else is just specifics.

* Predicts must be mixes of the parents in colors, markings (if possible) and edits (if possible).
~ No edit/marking should appear on every baby unless both parents share it, or it is split amongst siblings.
~ If the parents have different, multiple edits, all the babies must have mixed edits.

* The set of predict(s) should not favor one parent heavily over the other.
~ Both parents should be readily identifiable in all predict(s), none should look like single parent mixes.

* Color area use should be similar to the parents (+ up to 50% area)
~ Tiny areas of color (such as eyes, nails, etc.) can only be used for similarly sized areas.
~ Mixed colors combine available area, so a half white parent + a half red parent can make an all pink baby.

* New colors are possible only by mixing parent colors
~ Color mixing should be done by straight blending. See Color Mixing.

* No new edits or markings - filling in missing bits by redrawing is okay
~ Markings below removed edits can be continued
~ Holes left by removing overlapping edits should be repaired
~ Edits can be tweaked to fit varying bases but must remain on the same body part
~ Markings can be redrawn to fit differing body parts (i.e. an edited tail vs. standard base tail)

* No parent clones or sibling clones
~ The more different the parents, the more the predicts will be expected to vary.

* For additional notes about Silver Species and their additional rules click here.

You must submit PSD's to aywas.predicts@gmail.com before your breeding can be processed.


What are Layer Blending Modes?
LBM's are options found in the Layers palette. They are sometimes erroneously referred to as filters. They combine two layers by overlaying them and applying a specific rule.

Straight Blending Predicts
Allowed: Lighten, Darken, Screen, Multiply, Overlay, Soft Light, Hard Light, Color, Hue, Saturation, Luminosity

Place one parent's PNG on top of the other and apply a LBM to the top one. No other alterations are allowed except varying opacity or clipping to the base parent. Normal predict rules do not apply.

Blending & Recoloring
Use any filters you want on any part of the predict. Cut / Paste, Masking, Tracing and applying different blending modes to different parts are all acceptable. Normal predict rules apply, specifically those about colors / color mixing.


Please remember, Blending modes may not be used to create new colors, and then paint those colors into a PSD. For a more detailed explanation of Layer Blending Modes, click here.


Breeding coins with special considerations or rules are listed below.

Evil Breeding Coin --- Two predicts
Edits and markings may be added/modified (in moderation) on the evil offspring to achieve "evilness", when necessary. If the pair produces hybrids, both babies will be hybrids. If the pair does not produce hybrids, make one baby of each parent's species, your choice which is normal / evil. Maximum 30% lineart edits. Since EBC yields only one baby, both predicts may be up to 30% edited.

Possible things you can add to get the "evil" effect: (Examples only, you are not limited to the things on this list.) Blood, empty eye sockets, gore, guts, intestines, spikes, claws, strange growths, devil wings, spade tail tip, devil horns (horns in general), toxic fumes, glowing eyes, extra mouths, extra eyes, long tongues with saliva, scales, skulls, bones, big teeth, ooze, scars, wounds, pestilence, poison barbs.

Delicious Eggnog --- One predict per side.
Each owner may choose to submit 1 predict or allow their half of the breeding to be done by the site artists. If the parents produce a hybrid, make one hybrid predict. If they do not produce a hybrid, make one baby of the other user's parent species. Maximum 30% total lineart edits per baby.

Breeding Coin --- Two Predicts
Self-explanatory. Make two predicts that combine the parents into the appropriate hybrid babies. If the parents do not produce a hybrid, make one of one parent's species and one of the other. All edits and markings must be drawn from scratch.

Maximum 30% total lineart edits (Total edits on the predict set, *not* per baby!). The 30% edits may be spread between all predicts in any fashion you choose (example: 20% on one baby, 10% on the second; or 30% on one baby and 0% on the second.)

Holiday Breeding Coin --- Two Predicts
Same as Breeding Coin, but does NOT produce hybrids. Make one predict of one parent's species and one of the other.


Further questions about why your predicts may have been rejected or general questions relating to predicts?

Click here to read more!