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Search Options ►PSA: protecting your customs
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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
- Arinaya Rutherford
(#34865)
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Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 10:40pm
All of these are fantastic suggestions. It's unfortunate that such measures can't be implemented for computers that crash and wipe out everything on them...
- ♑ Kat & AK ♈
(#80)
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Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 10:43pm
Marjo (#5741) I had a thread up in 2015 and Kyte (#51) took it upon herself to test for us coz we needed to know that info... >_> Kytey is way too nice to self sacrifice... And Marjo if you need to compile what can or cannot do after pet is locked, you may check our results... https://www.aywas.com/forum/topic/2004475938/
- Shycat
(#45175)
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Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 10:54pm
The main reason I don't is because I can never remember which ones I've locked and which ones I haven't. Is there any chance that that information could be added to the pet's profile? Maybe a little lock symbol?
- Kyte
(#51)
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Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 10:58pm
Shycat (#45175)
On a pets profile it says if its locked or not. Its under "Information", right below "Breedable".
- Shycat
(#45175)
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Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:00pm
...............Huh. I missed that. Now I feel dumb. XD
Thanks for the info, Kyte (#51)!
- Kyte
(#51)
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Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 11:10pm
Deathberry (#3713)
I think its cause originally it had to be manually locked by the owner. Something about coding and possibly messing it up. Idk. It cost $ because it took time and stuff. Coders changed since then. After that items were added through seasonal shop and premium for other, cheaper options. Like...everything pet-related we have to pay for, so we can adjust the pet to our liking. Some things just cost less than others and some more.
- moyaofthemist
(#53849)
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Posted on: Sat Mar 11, 2017 12:09am
If you put a locked pet through any of the following, will they come back still locked?
- Overlaying your pet via the Custom Pet feature
- Dawn Crystal
- Recolor Potion
- Essence of Revamp
AKA if I overlay a crumbs pet using a proper crystal/orb, will they still be locked? Or will the locking go away when they come back from the custom queue?
- Marjo
(#5741)
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Posted on: Sat Mar 11, 2017 1:28am
Okay, let's see if I can answer all questions without missing anyone.
Saphire <3 Lassombra (#407) Eve and I did some (really boring) testing, and we're pretty sure any and all custom items (including animated ones) work on locked pets =) So feel free to go on a locking spree!
Kyte (#51) Ouch.... now I feel silly xD
Deathberry (#3713) Tratser (#38002) As Kyte touched upon, it's an extra "service" kind of thing, and those kind of actions require payment. We also want to avoid people to lock pets without thinking about it, as it's 100% irreversible. The locking feature has been around since long before I joined staff, so as to the actual reasons why it was put at 5 GP, I honestly don't know. But as mentioned above, there are now affordable alternatives (Creek is right, lockboxes are worth the investment!) and there are users lending their lockboxes to others for free, so really it doesn't need to cost you anything at this point.
Zaria (#14800) Can I be frank for a second? I've asked the other staffers for this several times x3 Yes, the PSD upload/download limit can be a pain, but there was a valid reason for it - I just can't remember what it was OTL For now, I suggest resizing your huge PSDs (anything over 400px does not really have benefits over a 400px resolution, so resizing to that could already help, as it's sometimes sufficient to get the PSD's size under the limit), uploading the smaller version and hanging onto the larger version yourself. Not ideal, but better than nothing? It's what I do, anyway.
Altheora (#30554) I hear you - but for this, too, there was a valid reason (that I forgot) why we don't allow it. I believe it had to do with storage space and whether or not PSDs were automatically overridden - I'll ask again for a less vague explanation ^^'
Conium[treat4treat] (#39365) Daph is right - there should be no issues when trading, selling, lending, borrowing, gifting, ... a locked pet; it will work just like with any other pet.
The Aywas Tree (#80) I'm going to take a look at that thread, thanks for the link!
Shycat (#45175) As Kyte said, it's listed on your pet's profile - I'll add that to the KB as well, in case other people overlooked this =)
moyaofthemist (#53849) Locking your pets is permanent, so none of those actions will "unlock" your pet =D
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Did I get everyone? If not just poke me (gently! *glares at some of her friends*).
- Draylin (Saphire)
(#407)
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Posted on: Sat Mar 11, 2017 1:35am
Marjo (#5741) Awesome! I'm gonna lock my Xaoc then! I just didn't want to if I couldn't animate it after! <3 Thank you both for your hard work! <333
Posted on: Fri Mar 10, 2017 10:22pm
Yes but is there a good reason why this feature requires payment, or an item? It should just be a preference, like changing your display name. Unless there's some actual good reason for it, I think it's kind of silly to charge for it.