I know you're all completely confused, angered, upset, and "done" with all of these breeding updates and changes to rules and percents and chances and what have you.

When it comes down to it, you're spending a lot of money with no guarantees on anything but a pet. I don't want anything to prevent you from getting not what you want, not what we want you to have, but what you deserve and should be entitled to.

Therefore I have discussed with users, staff, and for a lengthy amount of time with Slash and we have set up a new system that guarantees quality and offspring. A system that will work with our current numbers and that will also work in the future as we continue to grow. This entire post will also be found on the Breeding Guide soon to be published (it just needs a few more revisions). This leaves little 'ifs' and will not require future tweaking into amounts or percents unless it's an increase or new types of coins/items are implemented. Want to make it as simple as possible.

Starting off with LBC Same-Species Breedings:

All users will receive 2 offspring per breeding unless the pair of pets being bred are married in which case the user will receive a total of 3 offspring.

Breedings will no longer be simple overlays no matter if a .psd file is provided or not.

I'm in the middle of developing a tutorial on how to create simple, yet unique offspring using multiple layers and color changes and not just overlays when no .psd is available. The tutorial will be made available to artists and users alike and will be finished on Friday.

Official artists will still receive 2gp per offspring completed. Users must still submit 4 choices for offspring created themselves.

BC and LBC Hybrids:

All users will have a 50/50 chance of receiving either one or two offspring. Married pairs give you a 50/50 chance of getting two or three offspring.

LBC hybrid offspring edits will work the same as usual, like the lbc same species breedings.

BC Hybrids only:

In the case of edits, users will either receive a hybrid custom that has 30% edits or if the user receives two offspring they have a 50/50 chance of getting either one offspring with 30% edits and one with 0% edits or both offspring having a mix of edits. However, the type of edits that get carried, the amount of the edit, and the size of the edit are at the discretion of the artist. (basically what we've been doing). If your customs have some type of edit, your offspring will be guaranteed an edit. Example: both parents have edits that equal to one bracelet, a hair edit, an expression edit, and an ear edit. The artist chooses to give both offspring a bracelet edit and one gets the expression edit and one gets a hair edit. Or the artist chooses to give one of the offspring the expression, ear edit, and bracelet while the second offspring has no line art changes)

Official artists will now receive 4gp per offspring, versus 4gp per pairing. Users are still not allowed to send in their own hybrid offspring.

You should also be informed that LBCs are going to be split into two coins. The LBC will let you breed lineart that have different edits, while another coin will come out that will let you breed identical* lineart pets for cheaper. However, this will not come into effect until after the recode is complete. Please do not ask questions about this split, how much the coins will cost, nor the projected date in which to expect this to take place as I don't have concrete answers for you.

identical* subject to about a 5% difference in line art such as base line art x base line art with expression edit or base line art x base line art with a elbow fur tuft edit

In light of these changes, a few offspring artists are currently back close watch due to their lack of quality and a few new artists are being given trial periods to see if their quality can remain consistent. Unfortunately until the recode I can't look over ever single offspring for quality so if you have an issue with one of your offspring please post on this thread.

If you're interested in becoming an artist i'm still hiring! The lbc offspring application has received a makeover, so if you've applied once, feel free to apply again. The hybrid application has also received a make over and again, if you've already applied feel free to apply again. All application requests need to be sent to [email protected].

Crystal Updates:

Hybrid custom crystals now allow up to 50% edits to reflect on the breeding percents.

Hybrid potions have gone back to their original 30% edits.

Also in case of any misunderstanding from the previous news posts, dawn crystals only allow you to remove edits on customs and offspring, not add them.

In other news...

The writing contest is on its way to being judged and results will be announced on June 1st.

April's custom contest is also currently being judged and May's custom contest will be posted shortly.

The design threads will be updated soon with acceptance and payments.

If you have any more questions, comments, ideas, or concerns, please post. There's also a BUCKET LOAD of news posts below this, so make sure you read them too.

Posted by Aywas Official (#2) on Tue May 4, 2010 9:30pm

Comments: 62

User-Run Raffle Rules Update

Pets

Goto News Post

Hey guys! I just have a quick rules update for you. It's nothing terrible, I promise. We've just added some short and sweet raffle guidelines to the Giveaway forum because our regular sales rules didn't explicitly cover them. Click here to take a look! Make sure you understand these before participating in or hosting a raffle. If you have any questions or need clarification, feel free to post on that thread. Thanks!

Also, if you haven't noticed, I've been working on a thread that lists all important threads/stickies around the site. It's not complete yet since we still have a few threads to post and add, but you're more than welcome to take a look at it so far here! When we get everything cleaned up there should be an announcement on that as well. :)

As always, if you haven't read the News posts below this, make sure you check them out!

- Eri

Posted by Eri & -- (#17) on Tue May 4, 2010 5:42pm

Comments: 6

Plush Prototypes

Pets

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We got in our prototypes and the next step is to make suggestions on anything we want changed. Please voice your changes on this thread:

Click me

It'd be especially helpful if any people who make plushes/textile stuff made helpful suggestions the company could follow easier than subjective suggestions :)

Posted by Jack (#1) on Tue May 4, 2010 2:38pm

Comments: 8

Hybrids, take two.

Pets

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More discussion has prompted that we're going to allow a better compromise for how edits on hybrids are handled now. We're hoping this ends up sounding fairer in the end.

We are going to let you have edits 50% of the time when you breed using a Breeding Coin, which is similar to now. However, to push our agenda of non-edited hybrids, any breeding where the two parents are non-edited will have a slightly higher chance of getting an extra offspring. We are also putting the limit at edits on hybrid offspring at 25%. Keep this in mind when you breed hybrids from now on.

Again, that means that we will randomize the chance like a basic coin flip to see if you get edits on your hybrid offspring. If the parents have edits, you go by our standard determinate in the amount of offspring you get. But the percentages change slightly higher if the parents do not have edits to get more than one baby.

Any other questions/clarification needed can be addressed in comments.

Posted by Ash (#90) on Mon May 3, 2010 2:32am

Comments: 17

Hybrids and Dawn Crystals

Pets

Goto News Post

Alright everyone, another newspost where we address more issues about breeding.

There has been some concern with how people are expecting edits on hybrid offspring to pass over from two edited parents. The sheer fact that people expect this is something that needs to stop, as it was intended to be a rare occurrence for babies. Edits are a privilege. All hybrid artists have been informed of this and now I am informing all of you that the chance for hybrids to have edits is now 10%. Edits will also from now on be limited to small things, such as jewelry, a small expression edit, etc. The artists have been extremely generous to you all in giving users any edits whatsoever, so when we get complaints that the edits aren't done right, that they didn't get any edits at all, or that they wanted more edits, it's plain ridiculous. Too many edits on hybrid offspring would make the Hybrid Custom Crystal obsolete anyway.

Be thankful for your offspring as the artists work very hard on what they come up with! No artist is too lazy, too uncaring or otherwise, and it saddens me to think people would say that about the breeding crew. Please respect them as you would anyone else.

That being said, Dawn Crystals now include the ability to 1) completely remove one edit from a pet or 2) return one edited part of the pet back to the default lineart. An edit is defined as something not in the official lineart, so you can remove something that you may not want on your custom or gen. 2 if you want. This does not apply to any official site pets, only ones labeled as customs/offspring.

Posted by Ash (#90) on Sun May 2, 2010 10:49pm

Comments: 38

GP Update!

Pets

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On the front page, you can now purchase GP without being logged in (EG: someone can purchase for you if they don't have an account), or you can purchase directly for another person - you just need to know their ID number!

Please note that this feature is not automatic and requires me to send out the GP upon receiving the email/my next login. :]

Posted by Jack (#1) on Sun May 2, 2010 5:43pm

Comments: 14

New Pets, New Shop!

Pets

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It has so been decreed that those with ridiculous amounts of BP can finally have somewhere to spend it! The bank (if you go to the bank, click on your BP amount) has established a partnership with a local business... who is now selling some very rare new pets and items for large amounts of BP!

Visit the BP Shop of Richness!

Here are the pets available in the shop:

In other news, the SP shop has restocked some new pets, for those of you with SP to spend from April.

Huzzah huzzah!