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Search Options ►PSA: protecting your customs
Site Update
I don't know about you, but my heart always bleeds a little when I see someone lose their pet (or its PSD) due to a small slip up (it's happened before you know it - trust me, I've been there). It's even more awful when the pet in question is an expensive pet bought during a sale (think Teos, Fauxes and Snoodles), and there is no way for you to undo your mistake!
Therefore, please take a minute to read our suggestions on how to protect your precious customs from those derpy moments.
In short, there are three steps you'll want to go through to protect your pet as much as possible:
1) Download your pet's PSD
2) Attach your pet's PSD
3) Lock your pet
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Downloading your pet's PSD
No matter the kind of pet, you want to gain control of the PSD as soon as possible. You never know when download links might break or expire and your pet's PSD is lost forever.
This is especially true for sale pets: all links to PSDs for pets sold during the Black Friday and Mayday sales will only stay active for about 6 months. After that the links are wiped and not even staff can recover the PSD for you. Even if you don't plan on using the PSD yourself, you should always grab them and keep them somewhere safe, just in case.
Extra tip: pets that have their PSD are in general easier to sell than those that don't - and they often fetch a higher price, too!
(If you haven't grabbed your Black Friday '16 pet's PSD yet, do it now! In a month or two, the PSDs will be wiped permanently. Go on, I'll wait here until you're done *pulls up a chair*)
Attaching your pet's PSD
Not only does this greatly simplify things if you ever decide to breed the pet, it also acts as some kind of back-up. If your computer decides to have a meltdown and all your files are gone, you can still re-download any PSDs attached to your pets. So even for those who never breed their pets, attaching PSDs is a must! Don't get rid of the original PSD on your own drive, though! There's always a chance the aywas drive someday has a meltdown of its own.
For gen 1 pets, you can attach the PSD yourself by visiting your pet's profile, clicking "Edit Pet" and then "Select file". Gen 2 pets should come with their PSD attached, but if your pet is a bit older or needs its PSD updated, you can post in the Gen 2+ Pet PSD Upload thread (note: the thread is currently closed, but Rudy promised me she'll make a newspost with an update soon).
Locking your pet
Even if your PSD is safe, that won't do you much good if you accidentally zap or potion over your pet. Getting your pet back after a slipup like that, can be very expensive or even close to impossible. The only way to protect your pet from this fate, is to lock it. At the time of writing, there are three different ways to do this:
1) Through the locking feature:
Visit your "my pets" page and click "Lock ___ from Modification" next to your pet. This costs 5 GP.
2) By using a Save Point:
This is a one-use item that was released during a user event. As a result, it's not available in any site shops, but you might occasionally find one in the user shops.
3) By using a Lockbox:
This item was the premium item in December 2014 and regenerates once per week. It is by far the best choice if you're looking to lock a lot of pets in the long term and don't want to spend a fortune on doing it. In addition, you might occasionally find generous users on the forums who are offering to lend out their lockboxes to others!
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Thank you for taking the time to read through this huge lecture newspost. All of the info above can also be found in a freshly revamped KB article. If you have any questions or additional tips to protect your pets *points down* please let us know in the comments!
Posted by Marjo
(#5741) on Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:18pm
- ErrantMisty
(#51563)
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Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 5:17pm
You can use recolor potions on locked pets?!?!? SWEET! There are a bunch of fauxes I have held off locking because I know eventually I want to get them redone (loved the poses and edits but wasn't a huge fan of the coloration) so I wouldn't lock them but then I"m terrified to touch them and mess them up. :S
- Deathberry
(#3713)
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Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 6:29pm
It would be nice if locking were also available for BP and not just GP. I'm not entirely sure why it should have to cost anything at all, actually.
- Tratser
(#38002)
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Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 6:58pm
paying 5gp, which equates to just barely under 5 USD, per pet just to make sure you don't accidentally transform them seems a bit... excessive. I was always under the assumption the pet lock feature was a free one, since it seems too important a thing to have a pay barrier on. especially given the number of items easily available that can transform your pets in a variety of ways in just a couple clicks.
- ChaosAzeroth
(#43055)
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Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 7:09pm
While I understand the feelings on the cost, only the active is really at risk. You don't need to lock every single custom, and there are plenty of people with the lock box item that lend them for free or cheap.
- Zaria
(#14800)
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Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 7:10pm
Any chance the .psd size limit can be bumped up. I know I have at least one pet I can't upload the .psd because the file is too large.
- Quit
(#10084)
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Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 7:14pm
Lockboxes are worth the investment *0*
- Altheora
(#30554)
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Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 7:52pm
May I put in a request to allow us to upload our own Gen 2 PSDs if we have them? We currently cannot, and this drives me slightly crazy. I want to keep them safe, but I don't want to make some poor staff member upload 100 files to my older Gen 2's, especially when I already have the PSDs.
- Conium
(#39365)
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Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 8:21pm
Is it possible to trade/sell a locked pet? I keep my main locked for exactly this reason and I'd be glad to provide use of mine for other people but... I don't want the lockbox leaving my posession.
- Daph
(#318)
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Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 9:38pm
Conium[treat4treat] (#39365) Yep, locked pets can be transferred between accounts :) I used to have people send pets to me to get locked before the feature to transfer regenning items was created.
Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 4:06pm
As far as I know, if you use a custom item on a locked pet it will overlay the pet, but Marjo and I are going to check through all the custom items to make sure - obviously we don't want anyone buying custom items or locking pets and finding themselves unable to do what they planned! We'll also double check to see if the locked status remains with the pet or not.
I apologise that this isn't something that's written down anywhere - I'm sure it was all thoroughly tested before, but like a lot of notes and information about the custom system it was lost with the previous admin =(