Design Approval Check List

There's a good amount of basics in designing that we catch and while minor, we have to send you to corrections for. A lot of these basics can be added with Dye or nail polish later on!

1. The flesh around the eyes and the nostril; this is a common mistake, but it comes in two parts.
   
1. The flesh around the eye is flesh, and is on the flesh layer! This means it is not the eye. The round part inside it is the eye! Make sure you don't color like this!
   
2. The flesh needs to be darker than what it is sitting over. If you have a white mask but a black body, and mask is covering the eye, the flesh needs to be darker than the white mask. This includes if you have color modifiers. Just because you made it red with crimson, doesn't mean it doesn't still have to be darker! Always check and make sure!
3. Nostrils were previously always darker, however it now can be lighter or darker than the base, or very desaturated pinks!
   
2. Paw Pads; All your paw pads need to be the same color except for a few conditions.
   
1. Piebald, Inkwell, and Appaloosa can cause your paw pads to be different colors only if they are covering a toe and wing finger. So if you only put piebald on the tail and not the feet, it cannot be different colors. Chimera also allows this!
   
2. Minimal mark doesn't allow this, and neither does socks, so double check that you aren't doing this without the allowed markings!
3. After approval you can submit to design modification and change the paw pads to different colors!
   
3. Claws; Just like paw pads all your claws need to be the same color, except unlike paw pads, you can't change them.
   
1. The only exception to this rule is Chimeric! where you can have different colored claws since two geno strings are present.
   
2. You can apply nail polish later on to change them to any color!
   
4. Eyes; Make sure you filling in the eye, and not the flesh with it. The flesh around the eye is on the flesh layer!
   
1. Eye can be any color so long as they are following rules about the eye types [i.e. don't make your eyes all black if you don't have omen eyes!]
   
2. You can add heterochromia to any dragon, it's a totally free thing add!
   
3. We realize the eyes are small, and because of it we don't really get to strict on the eye shape, but make sure you are getting the right shape for your dragon's trait!
   
5. Minimal mark and other free marks; We don't often have to send back for these, but please make sure you read these guides over!
6. Markings; ALWAYS make sure you have these open for your dragon and you follow the rules they have outlined! Especially ranges, we often have to send players to corrections because of the markings are out of range by too much [one or two pixels is nothing, we won't do that to you].
1. Make sure your gradient markings especially are both gradient and staying in range [especially thing like sable!]
   
2. Make sure your colors are right! A few points off is fine, but if your colors are too far off, we have to send you to corrections.
3. Markings that are too dark will get sent to corrections. Anything below 7 point value on a 0 - 100 scale is too dark. On a 0 - 255 scale (such as Sai v1) below 18 point value is too dark.
   
4. Ensure your marking edges are not mix matched, you cannot have a blurred edge and a solid edge for the same marking, it should be the same all around for that marking.
   
7. Base Coats; Make sure your base coats are picked directly off a slider.
   
8. Breath Abilities; Always ensure your breath abilities are not covering too much of the design. If we can't color pick your tongue, or it obstructs the colors of the face, it is too much or too bright!
1. The only breath that is exempt from this is if your doing Radiation breath and it's creating the "pooling" or "dripping" effect from the mouth.
   
9. Line Coloration; You can color your lines, but make sure they remain darker. A nifty trick to doing this quick and easy is to copy all your markings and merge the copy ones together. Then clip it over your line layer and tone down its opacity! All done and ready to go! If you can't still your lines on the black markings, your black markings are probably too dark. Black markings become too dark when they reach below 5-6 value points.
   
10. Layer Layering; This only applied to horns and ears on the Ravager. If you have a ravager:
    
1. Horns have to go behind ears.
   
2. If you have curled style horns, you can actually do a thing where the ear fits into the horn curl, but its base still needs to be in front of the horn.
3. You can later remove the ears with a small item kit, you don't have to be stuck with them forever!
   

Import Info Basics

This section covers everything about the import information template.

1. If you don't fill this out, or if you leave out the geno/pheno/traits, we will tell you to fill it out and repost to approvals. The only time we won't is if you tells us you don't know how to fill out your geno/pheno because it is a custom. In which you just need to tell us what markings you used. If you don't tell us in a stash comment, we will ask you to tell us and resubmit. It might seem unfair, but it slows us down considerably if we have to guess what markings are going on, and it's a quick easy thing to fill out. We won't send you back if you don't fill out the personality or don't know your lineage [customs and eggs only].
2. Fill out the import info correctly;
   
1. Healthy should always read healthy OR one of the inbreeding defects. If you choose to give your dragon an inbreeding penalty you can, but be aware of the irreversible consequences!
   
2. Want to Add age, weight, height, more detailed health, anything like that? Add it to the personality!
   
3. Nicknames can be an added field or removed, it's all up to you!
   
4. Don't remove anything else unless it is:
1. Skills and breaths
   
2. Mutations
5. Rank and breath icons need to go right next to each other, this is minor and we can fix it in uploads, but please make it easy on us!
   
3. What's Too adult for the import info? 
1. If you have to ask yourself it is probably too adult.
   
2. Avoid slurs or anything that might give something above a PG-13 rating. Using fowl language or hate speech against others can not only get you sent to corrections over it, but you will get a warning right away.
   
3. Chances are if an admin tells you something is too adult, it's been spoken about in the admin discord!
   

A General Reminder

The admin team consists of very vocal admins who talk to each other about designs in the design admin area. Even Cryptid-Horror and Livard bring up designs that they might be unsure about! Here's a few things we do, and what you can do as well if you disagree with an admin!

1. I want a second opinion; You can request this, but you can't always choose what admin is going to review it. Most times it is going to be a founder. If you feel your design is legal and talking to the admin about the rules isn't helping, you can ask for a second opinion. However don't abuse this just to try to get it to pass. If the design really is illegal, you'll get the same answer from the another admin.
   
2. I'm being told something that isn't written as a rule; We don't like hidden rules as much as the next player, but sometimes we have to discuss what's happened with a marking among ourselves when it pops up, or it just hasn't been updated yet. We understand the frustration, but please remember we don't do this to be mean, and we will update guides as soon as we can.
   
3. I feel like an admin is being rude with me; It can be difficult to know if an admin is really being rude, as we go through lots of a designs a day, sometimes we can lose our chipper wording. If you are worried, feel free to ask the admin, but if you are pretty sure an admin is targeting you and being rude, alert Cryptid-Horror or Livard immediately. If you don't say something, we can't stop the behavior!
   
4. An admin told me something was wrong when it's right; This happens, and it's ok! We stare at the guides a lot and we might get confused, be patient with us and if you feel something is wrongly dinged, just let us know politely!
   
5. We go through lots of designs; You can help! the best way to help us is if you have a pretty large or complicated marked dragon. Let us know what's modifying what, it helps us out in the long run to see what's going on and we can better understand what you were trying for. It also lets us give you advice on how to accomplish what you were trying for!
   
6. I keep getting sent back to corrections; This happens but there's usually two reasons why.
   
1. You've changed something that was right before, and now it's wrong! Be careful if you make changes to a marking that wasn't dinged as incorrect. Just because you got sent to corrections doesn't mean the design isn't reviewed again. The easiest thing we see is the changes, so be careful!
   
2. An admin found something that the original approver missed! This also can happen. Like mentioned above, we go through a lot of designs, we might miss that your base was the wrong color, or that your horns were an illegal color. The corrections is admin is just doing their job if they have to tell you that needs to be fixed. We understand it is frustrating, please be patient!