Does incest cause lower fertility?

[Moldy_Turtle_Burgers]

Question here. Does incest cause lower fertility? I've started a new game but have yet to really find any mates outside of my current gene pool who really have any desirable traits for what I see to be the future of my pack. Right now I've pretty much been just breeding the pack with eachother in a desperate attempt to keep population levels at a tolerable level to run my pack. I pretty much mass breed two compatable (non-matching immune systems and good stats) family members over and over again untill I find another compatable couple to breed. Then the current breeding couple die of old age, rinse and repeat but you get the idea.

However; I'm noticing a new alarming trend: the general fertility of my pack has been slowly decrease through the generations, and even some of my new cubs are showing signs of infertility. Is this because of incest or just bad luck? I know it really isn't a good idea to breed siblings, but I really couldn't find any compatable mates for the pack besides maybe one here or there, and even then It caused even worse inbreeding because the adopted member of my pack would be of even worse genes than the inbred ones, which I found to be hilarious in a downright morbid way.

Furthermore, if this is because of inbreeding, are there any ways to really find any genes outside of my gene pool that really are worth adding to my pride without tainting it and making everyone in it actually look like a bunch of inbred ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥? Thanks.

[Jojo]

It does not (yet). You are save to inbreed in that way but the infertility genes and lower fertility genes tend to be pretty dominant. They also usually are carried by wanderers. Meaning if you have a wanderer with low fertility it can easily spread throughout your tribe when you breed him a lot because the lower fertility is passed on more often. So as Fuzzy said just keep an eye on the fertility of the mates you choose.

[[H0N0R] HPz]

Happens to me all the time!

[Fortuna]

Just bad luck. My tribes are entirely in-bred pairs and the fertility only ends up dropping if I bring a wanderer in.

[Moldy_Turtle_Burgers]

Ah, so is inbreeding going to be somewhat of a last-ditch option?

[The Grug]

its just bad luck sometimes you have to commit incest to keep your tribe alive and i have never had that happen to inbreeding your starter creatures just may have had some bad fertility

[Rho]

Originally posted by Moldy Turtle Burgers:

Question here. Does incest cause lower fertility? I've started a new game but have yet to really find any mates outside of my current gene pool who really have any desirable traits for what I see to be the future of my pack. Right now I've pretty much been just breeding the pack with eachother in a desperate attempt to keep population levels at a tolerable level to run my pack. I pretty much mass breed two compatable (non-matching immune systems and good stats) family members over and over again untill I find another compatable couple to breed. Then the current breeding couple die of old age, rinse and repeat but you get the idea.

However; I'm noticing a new alarming trend: the general fertility of my pack has been slowly decrease through the generations, and even some of my new cubs are showing signs of infertility. Is this because of incest or just bad luck? I know it really isn't a good idea to breed siblings, but I really couldn't find any compatable mates for the pack besides maybe one here or there, and even then It caused even worse inbreeding because the adopted member of my pack would be of even worse genes than the inbred ones, which I found to be hilarious in a downright morbid way.

Furthermore, if this is because of inbreeding, are there any ways to really find any genes outside of my gene pool that really are worth adding to my pride without tainting it and making everyone in it actually look like a bunch of inbred ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥? Thanks.

Hi Moldy Turtle Burgers, your question may have been answered but I'll tell you my perspective as well.

Incest (close relative matings) do not cause lower fertility to *magically* appear (unless lower fertility is already a problem in your pack or you mutated a lower fertility in your mutation menu for some reason. If your pack members all have the highest fertility (which is 6, from being homozygous for High Fertility), then the fertility genes will not change. What you should be concerned with is Immunity Genes (A, B, C, etc.).

In fact, I do the same thing, where I mate immunity compatible Nichelings.

When mating with a wanderer, they often have very poor fertility. The same with Bearyena hybrids. (Which, you are right, is hilarious.)

In Niche, it would actually be favourable to inbreed. Outbreeding is purely egoistic, but it does allow for new immunity genes, which are indispensible.

TL;DR:
Look at the last pair of genes in the genetics tab. Those are the fertility genes. There are four types: infertile, low, medium, and high. Nichelings are diploid, so they have two copies. The minimum value is 0 (two copies of the infertile allele), and the maximum is 6 (two copies of the high fertility allele). Make sure to track the lower fertilities, and try to not breed them excessively.

Originally posted by Moldy Turtle Burgers:

Ah, so is inbreeding going to be somewhat of a last-ditch option?

I would say inbreeding (in this game) is the normal option, as outbreeding requires meticulous record keeping of multiple genes that are not as good as your pack's. If and when your pack is ready for breeding in a stranger, it takes some time to reverse the effects of the stranger's less-than-desirable genes.

Cheers!

[RaeShePlays]

Originally posted by dappled:

incest now causes sickness.

I don't think so. What tends to lead to sickness is double immunity genes and being to close to a sick creature. I primarily do inbreeding for the reasons stated above. Make sure your immunity genes are different and you should have no sickness.

[TamTroll]

nichelings are genetically very simple creatures, incest doesn't do much harm.

One way to potentually make sure that only higher fertility genes get passed on would be to make a soft rule that each individual creature can only try to mate so many times, if the mating fails every time, they can't have any kifs. this way, only the fertile and lucky will ever have the chance of baring the majority of offspring.

[Fortuna]

Originally posted by raelsimmergal:

Originally posted by dappled:

incest now causes sickness.

I don't think so. What tends to lead to sickness is double immunity genes and being to close to a sick creature. I primarily do inbreeding for the reasons stated above. Make sure your immunity genes are different and you should have no sickness.

This, pretty much. If actual incest caused sickness on its own, then every tribe would be almost certainly doomed to fail because the first couple of generations are going to be related in some way unless you find several wanderers very quickly. Just keep an eye on immunity genes.