Pets!

[SB Hecate]

On Friday (if all goes well) the pet shop will officially begin selling NPC pets.

The pets available will be:

Dogs
- puppy, pitbull, terrier, snauzer, boxer, collie, dachsund, german-sheperd, poodle
Cats
- kitty, calico, tabby, manx, siamese
Fish
- goldfish, clown fish, batfish, box fish, moorish idol, tang, eel
Snakes
- boa constrictor, milk snake, corn snake, ball python, burmese python
Lizards
- iguana, bearded dragon, chameleon, gecko, anole
Turtles
- box turtle, mud turtle, slider turtle, painted turtle
Birds
- parakeets, cockatiels, finches, lovebirds
Rabbits
- angora, english spot, american, lop
Rodents
- syrian hamster, dwarf hamster, mouse, rat

Things you should know:

1) All pets will share the naming/owner function.

When a pet first comes into existance it doesn't belong to anyone, and anyone at all can pick it up.
To name your pet, you must be holding it.
>name my dog 'Cuddles'
Once a pet is named, it will recognize the person who named it as its owner. From then on only the owner, and people that the owner designates, will be able to pick up the animal.
To designate people who can pick up your pet, you will use the command 'share'. Again you must be holding your pet to do so.
>share Cuddles with Lecter
To see a list of who you have shared your pet with, you will use 'share' without a target.
>share Cuddles
You are sharing your pet with:
StoryHost Willow (http://javascript<b></b>:document.skotosLink('share my pet with Willow');)
StoryCoder Lecter (http://javascript<b></b>:document.skotosLink('share my pet with Lecter');)
From there, you can click on any names that you wish to remove from your share list.

2) Dogs and cats will have command capabilities.
To command your pet, you need only speak the keywords to it using any evoke.
Examples:
>say to Cuddles 'Sit'
>beckon Cuddles 'Come'
>order Cuddles 'Stay'
The 'Come' and 'Follow' commands will set your pet to follow you, and the 'Stay' command will elude them.

3) Small animals will have cages.
Birds, rodents, rabbits, and reptiles will emit both in and out of their cages. Fish will just be 'dead' if not in water.
Bird cages will only work with birds, rodent cages will only work with rodents and rabbits, fishbowls and aquariums will only work with fish, and terrariums will work with all reptiles - or amphibians if you happen to possess one.

4) Pet/Cage emits are not generally visible when the object is being held.
If you're holding an animal you may see some of its room emits with you as the subject, and they may be a little..confusing. If you see an emit that just doesn't "work" that way, feel free to file a change suggestion, but keep in mind that no one besides you is seeing it anyway.

5) Custom pets will be an option.. eventually.
Right now, if there is a breed of one of the above animals that you really want, let me know and we can add it to the shopping list. Completely custom/exotic pets will be available with storypoints, but lets make sure these guys are working out before we get into that realm :p

6) Emit submissions are still open .. and will be for awhile.
So if you get your pet on Friday and it seems a bit lifeless, please come back here and suggest some emotes! Remember to include your character name, and you will be awarded 1 storypoint per emit used.


Any questions?

[SB Hecate]

Already submitted emits

F.E. Neubauer

A few quick ideas:

A snake flicks its tongue in and out of its mouth.

A bird idly preens its wings.

A finch trills a high-pitched song.

A hamster quickly scurries beneath an object.

A goldfish swims into the side of its fishbowl, making an audible *plink*.

Sensing danger, a turtle tucks its head into its shell.




Oliver White:

here's some random generic emotes.

(and for the fish, steal the ones from the aquarium in the pet store that was broken last time Ollie went there)

BIRDS
flit to-and-fro around here
tuck my head under my wing
studiously preen my feathers
fly back-and-forth
animatedly chirp

RABBITS
energetically hop around here
thump my leg


HAMSTERS
enthusiastically squeal
energetically dash around here
fastidiously lick my paws
animatedly chatter

SNAKES


LIZARDS
raise my body with my legs
lift my tail
bob up-and-down
whip my tail
lick my eyeball with my tongue
laps at the water in the terrarium
gecko: climbs the terrarium's glass


TURTLES
tuck head inside my shell
completely hide inside my shell
plod slowly
laboriously crawl
peek outwardly from my shell
dives into a terrarium's water

[Miriam]

(Again, this is Clover Shepperalk)

BIRDS
flutters in a soft flurry of wings
coos gently
warbles a lilting melody


RODENTS (GENERAL)
gazes with its inscrutable rodent eyes
gnaws ineffectually on the bars of its cage
(RATS)
painstakingly grooms its scaly tail

SNAKES
slithers soundlessly
tastes the air with a flicker of tongue
remains absolutely motionless for an extraordinary length of time

LIZARDS
(CHAMELEON)
blends into its surroundings, rendering it almost invisible

I never saw the fish emotes Oliver's talking about so I'll just do a few in case anyone likes them.

FISH
slides placidly through the element of its underwater world
darts to the surface in search of food
swirls its tail elegantly as it changes direction in the water

[SB Hecate]

A couple of changes and additional information ..

1) Cats now have domestic short-hair and domestic long-hair added to their breed.

2) All pets are genderless 'it', except for cats and dogs.. you will find they spawn with 'he or she' in their description.

3) There is no 'kitty' or 'puppy' breed afterall.. instead, your dog or cat may spawn as a 'kitten' or 'puppy' in *addition* to its breed.

4) Dogs have more commands than what I listed above - finding out what they are is half the fun =P

5) Since this is the first day of a new release, and because shopping is always a bit of a hassle, if you need some minor adjustments to the pet you bought feel free to @page hecate and I will fix it up for you :)

[Pyra]

feel free to @page hecate and I will fix it up for you :)

From the Heavens, Bob Barker smiles down upon you.

[SB Hecate]

:rolleyes:
All pets come pre- spayed and neutered.

[Kenza]

:rolleyes:
All pets come pre- spayed and neutered.

So I can't make puppies and sell them? Damn.

[SC Lecter]

I've started to notice a bit of lag over the past couple of days and after a bit of investigation, I saw that pets were sucking up a good chunk of resources. Some pets have been turned off (they won't give any random emits) until we think of a convenient way to only have them turned on when they are being interacted with.

[Oliver White]

Lecter,

I gave Hecate this idea, and now I'm giving it to you. It's a most fantabulous idea:

Treats.

Buy treats at pet store. Give pet treat. Pet then will emit for 1 hour, at the end of the hour, pet will whine for more treats, if you don't feed it then, it shuts off, no more emitting.

Pet problem solved.

(And if you don't log on and give your pet a treat at least once a week, you might log on to find: There is a surprise on your carpet. Surprise!)

[SC Lecter]

Oliver,

That is a neat idea. I can see it being useful for tanks and cages too because right now there is no way to turn those off.


We are trying a new solution now though where your pets should shut down if left in an empty room and will turn back when someone enter (if the pet has not been turned off by other means). You can also use the "follow" and "stay" commands to turn your pets on and off.

So if you tell your pet to stay, it will stop emitting. If you want it to start emitting again, tell it to "come".