Okay, someone please explain.. (Lineages)

[danegrrrl]

All the lineage stuff to me.

As some of you know, I used to DC a couple years ago and took a long hiatus. I'm just getting back into things and I notice a lot has changed since I last played.

I notice lineage is a HUGE thing now. Last time I played, if you had a male- you clicked breed, found a female and bam. If you had a male/female pair of the same species, cool. If not, no biggie. You just found another female and clicked breed. There was no pedigree stuff.

So, can someone give me a quick summary on what is the correct way to breed now? What makes a lineage good, and what makes it bad. I see comments like "Sloppy lineage" or "The lineage is messy" and I wonder what determines a good vs. bad lineage.

Like this one for example:  Is this a good lineage? So-so? Bad? Why? And how would I go about breeding to this lineage without "messing it up" if it is a good lineage. I notice that all the embers are male and all the tinsels are female on the pedigree. So if my tinsel genders male, should I not breed it to a female ember in order to keep the lineage the way it is?

Sorry, so many questions. If there are links to explain this all, feel free to add those here for me to read too.

Gah, I feel so out of the loop. 

[Golden]

If you go into the DC Spoiler (link is on our forum index with mystery egg) there is a lineage page showing examples of what lineages are and what they are called. Generally the shorter a lineage is the better the worth of the dragon, unless someone is specifically looking for something long of lineage. Also inbred dragons are usually not wanted, meaning that a dragon appears in a lineage more than once, again unless someone either doesn't mind it or is specifically looking for a dragon like that.
What you have in the lineage you posted is called a tinsel stair-case, you would want to influence your tinsel by using a female pink's BSA to make it female, and then breed it to a caveborn (aka CB) male ember. If it genders male it would essentially end the staircase and switch it to another direction. You still have until your egg reaches 3 days to influence it female.

[Doll_81]

Messy/Sloppy lineages are ones where you have dragons all over thee place.   
Something like this:  http://dragcave.net/lineage/CGBM

Messy/Sloppy can also refer to the fact that the linage is so long it doesn't all fit on one page.  Meaning you have to click another dragon, click to see its linage and go from there.  A lot of Dork's tend to have this 'issue'.

Most people like even lineages.
Something like this: http://dragcave.net/lineage/VgvaH  <-- this would also be considered pure bred.
Or something like this: http://dragcave.net/lineage/Tb39t

[Bandahar]

There is not a correct or incorrect way to breed the dragons. It just depends on what kind of lineage you want. As was already mentioned, some like staircase lineages, some like spiral, some like even generations, some like pure bred , some like short, some like long, some don't really care about the lineages and are just collecting to get all the different dragons breeds.

So breed how you want to breed depending on what lineages you like. Just have fun!

[LadyA]

I have a few interesting lineage projects in my cave!  Feel free to click the "Clan Mystal" Pick in my siggy to visit and have a look! 

[danegrrrl]

Thanks everyone, it makes a little more sense to me now. 

[Golden]

Okay I'm going to move this on to FAQ in case someone else comes along with a similar question...