I have heard two interesting tidbits and I am wondering if they are true and how we know!
1) I have heard that if both parents have a trait in their pedigree (say, both have spritely) the offspring will inherit the trait. I would have thought that one would have a 50% of getting it from each, or a 75% chance of getting it from one parent or the other (or both!), but 25% chance of not getting it at all.
2) Do the odds of inheriting a trait go up if the trait is actually manifested (that is, the pet actually has the trait after levelling up) rather than sitting latent in the pedigree? (that is, if my Nighthawk actually has spritely and casts it regularly, is the offspring more likely than 50% to inherit?
3) I have also heard that it isn't actually a 50%-50% shot because sometimes one might inherit six traits from one parent but 4 from the other.
As I'm sure you have surmised by now, many aspects of pet hatching remain shrouded in mystery (or secrecy, from KI's point of view). Here is what I have been able to figure out from my experience and that of others who have posted here and on Central.
1. Your original understanding appears to be correct. Many people, including myself, have failed to get a talent that both parent pets have, although I have to say it has only happened to me once. Although when you say "inherit," do you mean "manifest?" Because we can't really know about unmanifested--but still inherited--talents, can we?
2. The chance does seem to increase significantly if a talent is manifested. I have no numbers/stats, but I have only very rarely had a pet manifest a talent that neither parent had manifested. However, some people have hatched pets with good talents that neither parent manifested. This would seem to be a long shot, but possible.
3. I don't know the answer to this, since we never can figure out what the "empty" unmanifested slots may have contained. We can only count dots...and that's just guessing.
The programmers at KI know the answers to all these questions, but so far, they decline to enlighten the rest of us. That makes the process both more interesting, I suppose, and occasionally more frustrating.
Probably this didn't help much--but you can rest assured that most of us are as in the dark on this as you are. :?
