http://www.psypets.net/original en-us http://www.psypets.net/original/gfx/pets/desikh.gif http://www.psypets.net/original 48 48 would you like an MP3, little boy/girl?

two things based on the broadcast:

new poll! how to improve the Smokehouse.

possible uses for the new Daycare:
* have her take care of pregnant pets until they're ready to give birth
* control the "emphasis" of your pets. ex: keep constructor pets in the Daycare until you need to build an add-on (and you don't want your house improved when it's maxed); move in more gatherers when your crafters are getting too demanding, or when you need more food.

and two things I forgot all about!

March 21st is PsyPets' birthday! (It's also my mom's!) pets will start gathering party hats and other odd things, from gathering itself, but also from hunting and defeating. as we get closer to the date, they'll collect these things with greater frequently. but don't worry: it doesn't replace normal gathering/hunting/defeating - it's in addition to what they normally get

I updated my city hall-posting thing so that I can specify whether or not the city hall post has an associated thread. ex: "broadcast == go" doesn't need a thread ]]> http://www.psypets.net/original/viewthread.php?threadid=65893 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:15:20 -0700
a. http://www.psypets.net:7000
2. http://www.psypets.net:7000/listen.pls
iii. /broadcast2.php]]> Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:02:02 -0700 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:44:07 -0700
as I recall, there was some debate last year about the rewards given by the winning NPC... so this year I'll try to do something a little better I barely remember last year, so if people want to remind me, and/or make suggestions for what to do this year, let's do that during tonight's broadcast! you could even send the message in advance!

---

also, the Daycare is now implemented!

it's for residents with a Breeder's License only, but if that proves problematic, it can be changed. I saw a suggestion for making access easier with a Breeder's License, so maybe I'll do that.

also, the Daycare is currently allowing any number of pet transactions, in and out, for free. we should pick a date for that to change on, so that she can mention it, so that no one gets surprised when it switches to the normal "once/hour" behavior.

also-also, it seems people would like their daycare pets to show on their profiles! since the daycare will not have a limit to the number of pets it can hold for you, this could be very problematic! would having something like "10 Pets, plus 51074720 in Daycare" on your profile, with a link to view those daycare'd pets all paginated like, suffice?

I'd also like to, now that the Daycare is implemented, do three things:
* do away with "exuberant pets" - the house would not allow you to pass hours if you were over your pet limit
* give every pet a free respec (pet level reduced to 1, with exp enough to level it back up again; claim at your leisure, per pet)
* reduce the max number of pets allowed at home from 200 to 100

those three things should all be done at once, so if we'd like to tweak any details, let's figure that out before making any of those changes.

it does occur to me that requiring extra pets to be in the daycare + daycare limit of once per hour could prove extremely annoying and bad, unless people don't mind tossing the babies into the pet shelter. if pets are born above the max allowed, could we automatically put them in the daycare? or is there a better solution?]]> http://www.psypets.net/original/viewthread.php?threadid=65887 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:00:04 -0700
* the park
* your house
* the pet shelter
* the wand of wonder
* sated infinitygon
* unleveling potions
* resident profiles
* pet resurrection
* pet regraphicers
* almost any page that lets you select a pet
* almost any item that lets you select a pet
* etc
* etc
* etc

all these had to be updated to confirm "oh, and is this pet in your house?" in addition to regular checks, like "is this pet dead or not?" "is this pet a zombie", etc.

I also updated some old item actions that didn't care about zombies... ex: you can't accidentally waste a Child's Play on a zombie anymore.

next I need to code the daycare itself, but by comparison: EASY

oh! I've decided on a fee structure for the daycare: no fee!

there will instead be a simple limitation: one daycare 'transaction' per hour... that is, whenever you drop off or pick up a pet, you will have to wait an hour before you can drop off or pick up another. and that's real time, not house time, so I guess if you really want to change your entire house around before letting the house hours run... ... well, have fun with that ]]> http://www.psypets.net/original/viewthread.php?threadid=65865 Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:48:53 -0700
* Laze
* Desympathize
* Close
* Introvert

2: there's a new NPC who can make a handful of maze piece exchanges. find him/her at The Pattern.]]> http://www.psypets.net/original/viewthread.php?threadid=65843 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:06:40 -0700
this column describes additional requirements that are needed of a pet to hunt/defeat the creature in question.

* Evasive - the pet must be sneaky in order to approach
* Athletic - the pet must also be athletic, in order to keep up
* Crafty - the pet must be clever, or else be outwitted
* Lives in a harsh environment - the pet must have nature survival skills in order to approach (since nature survival is a key skill for hunters, no prey has this requirement - it'd be redundant )

generally speaking, higher-level Evasive monsters require more stealth than lower-level ones, etc.

The purpose of these new requirements is two-fold:
* to give "personality" to pets - while any of your pets might be able to defeat most monsters, only a couple may find themselves regularly hunting the evasive Rangoon. hopefully, you'll remember! ("Roy's the one who can catch Rangoons!")
* to give value to "off stats" - for example, if a level-up question presented your defeater with the option of increasing one of either stealth, nature survival, athletics, or wits, you previously would have cursed the the question. now, such a question provides new avenues of improvement for your pet, giving it access to new monsters, and the loot they drop.

along these same lines, I have added an "openness" requirement to several of the more-unusual crafts/inventions/smiths/tailors (ex: Sandwich Press of the Damned, 'cause... sandwich press of the damned? wtf?) if an item concept is strange or unique, it probably requires at least a little openness on the part of the pet.

once a craft/invention/etc project is started, any pet is free to work on it, even if they do not meet the minimum openness. (the starting pet was the pioneer - everyone else is just following suit.)

[edit] clarification: pet's won't fail more hourly actions due to this change! if a pet does not meet the wits requirement to face a monster, for example, it won't even consider facing that monster - it's like that monster doesn't even exist for that pet.]]> http://www.psypets.net/original/viewthread.php?threadid=65842 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:58:50 -0700 Pet Care help page is now the first link from the Help Desk. it contains articles on all of the hourly activities - take a look!

the help page on house hours (accessible by clicking the "?" link when you have hours waiting to pass) also links to the hourly activity articles.

I hope these pages will prove useful in helping you decide how to level - and equip - your pets.]]> http://www.psypets.net/original/viewthread.php?threadid=65829 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:05:05 -0700

besides making answers more clear, questions have been grouped into three types: personality, skill and knowledge, and physical and mental attributes... previously, a single question might have answers that boost any bizarre combination of stats, from intelligence to extrovertedness to sewing. now the questions focus on only one of these three categories... for example, a question might ONLY relate to personality stats. further, the level-up question tells you what category it's in!

there's still the remaining problem that even if you know that a given answer makes a pet more nimble, you don't necessarily know exactly what activities require a nimble pet, or to what extent nimbleness plays the part.

to help with this, I am making help pages about hourly activities that explains what the activities do (gathering brings back resources and food), the kinds of stats that are required (it requires a perceptive and knowledgeable pet), and examples of tools that help (nets, axes, fishing rods, and other outdoorsy tools are good equipments for this activity).

I'll let you know when I've completed that page, and where to find it.]]> http://www.psypets.net/original/viewthread.php?threadid=65828 Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:51:55 -0700 stop by today!]]> http://www.psypets.net/original/viewthread.php?threadid=65822 Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:10:15 -0700