New Nests, New Coats, New HUD, Oh My!

Sometime in the near future Meeroo Nests are going to undergo a slight change, for the better. As part of an update Nests are going to be improved in subtle but significant ways. The biggest and most welcome upgrade is that, post update, CSR's will be able to replace lost Meeroo Nests with another Nest. They will no longer be restricted to replacing only live Meeroos. If you have ever required a Nest replacement for a Meeroo you had plans to save in its Nest you will understand how important that is. Tiger makes a very important note: "If you do get a nest replaced and sent to you by a CSR, it is imperative you rezz it immediately as the process is not complete until after you do this." It sounds like the replacement Nest will need to communicate with the database, with you as the owner, to complete the transaction. If you do get a Nest given back to you by a CSR do not keep it in Inventory. Rez it first and give it a few minutes to connect, then it should be safe to take back to Inventory. This improvement is not live yet, as far as I know CSR's can not replace lost Nests with new Nests yet.

 Nests are also getting visual gender identification in addition to float text: The small white flowers that we are used to seeing on Nests are going to get some colour. Nests containing male Meeroos will be adorned with blue flowers and female Nests will have pink. Colour coding the Nests will save a huge amount of time when shopping. On a less practical note the varied colours on the Nests should make my Nest filled Meeroo area a touch brighter.

Also announced in THIS blog post by Tiger: "There will be a new HUD that kicks off the start of Chapter 2 content." Not only do we have the new and improved Nests to look forward to but also an update to the now very familiar HUD. I do not know what we might expect to see change on the HUD but it is bound to be interesting.

Preceding all of the above there have recently been three (3) new Coats discovered: Darkmire, Silverbay and Mistwalker. I have not been able to locate any to photograph yet, but the links on their names above go to photos of them posted online. Catherine says that these Coats are not from the twenty five (25) new Coats promised and that they have always been available for discovery: "The new coats we're seeing are not a part of the update. They've been in the current genetics since release, and there are still more I'm sure we'll see soon." from THIS forum post. We can expect to be notified when the genetics update is applied, as Catherine says: "The genetics update includes a large amount of new content, and I'll definitely let you know when that goes live!" That is the genetics update to our current Meeroos, unrelated to the Chapter 2 expansion.

Keep your eyes out for those newly colour coded Nests and of course new Coats. Soon we should be seeing more facets of Chapter 2 dropping into place followed by the release of the Nocturnals themselves. There is much to come.

The Q and A

Recently Levio and Allison attended a Q&A session held by Sacred Tome. They had a decent chat and answered a few questions, some of them with very interesting information. The meeting was held using voice and the recording has not yet been transcribed as far as I know, the audio is about 105min long. I have listened to it all and intend to share some of the highlights. If you wish to listen to the recording yourself it is available on the Sacred Tome blog HERE.

A few quick items: There will be a script update. Sounds like it will be before the expansion, Chapter 2. Team Meeroos intends to ensure there is always something new to discover. So when all eyes, or all tails, or all of any trait have been found the goal is to immediately add new content. This has nothing to do with expansions, like Chapter 2, but only with updating existing Meeroos. There has been no official decision on what the remedy to the Regard situation will be. I suspect that decision alone may hold Chapter 2 back a few days. Levio has awesomely reiterated that there are no plans to develop or release "add-on" products for Meeroos such as fertility boosters. Excellent news, good to see Malevay Studios is maintaining their dedication to that issue.

Fascinating factoid: Levio says in the recording that Meeroo Personalities were added to the game specifically to stimulate the secondary market. Another example of foresight on the part of Malevay Studios. I think it has worked out well, and also birthed a trade network where Nests and lives are swapped to create compatible pairs. Some of my best Meeroos have come from Nest trades.

Not much can be said about the Nocturnals yet, prior to release most everything about them is secret. Levio was able to share that Nocturnals and Diurnals will be interbreedable immediately upon release. So the day Chapter 2 goes live you will be able to begin pairing new Nocturnals with Diurnal Meeroos you have now. For the curious: the Bengal coat Meeroo is a Diurnal, it will be breedable from the Meeroos we have now.

A major piece of data concerning the retiring of coats emerged during the Q&A: When a Coat is retired from the starter kits it will no longer be available to have as a new Nest either. Once the Coat is retired it will be impossible to produce a new Nest with that Coat. If we use, as an example, Winecoats; say Winecoats are retired. There would not be any in starter packs. I assume one of the higher Coats would drop down into the starter packs. Levio said that new genetics would not be available in starter packs, so it is a fairly safe guess that another Coat will move down into them. Even if you pair two (2) Winecoats, once the Coat is retired, they will not have Winecoat offspring. Retirement will cap the number of that type on the Grid, there will be no way to create more. Which Coat will be withdrawn has not been announced. I use Winecoats as an example only, it could be any of the current starter Coats.

Other miscellaneous items of note: There will remain only one HUD, even once Chapter 2 is released there will be one HUD only. It will work with all Meeroos. Much in the same vein you will not need new Home stumps for Nocturnals. Levio mentions at one point that there was, once, a plan to add rarity indicators to the Meeroos HUD. I had never heard of it, but in any case the idea has been scrapped and that data will not be added to the HUD. Things that Levio tells us will also probably not be happening: Copyable Homes, Having more than eight (8) Meeroos on a Home and Affiliate Vendors. All fine with me. The Meeroos per Home thing sounds like a script memory issue, and I would think not worth trying to circumvent. I totally understand their Affiliate Vendor stance after all the attempts made to defraud Malevay Studios and its customers. I would never have expected copyable Homes to be on the table, they would have to be inordinately expensive. A note on Home stump distances, Levio advises that the ideal ratio of Homes per square meter is less than twelve (12) Homes per 20sqm area. Maintain that spacing and you should rarely, if ever, experience stump hopping.

Finally, in more super good news, once released the Nocturnals will dig up their own unique Treasures. Levio was uncertain if they will have their own basic Treasures analogous to the Tin Can and Rotten Banana of the Diurnal Meeroos or if it will be restricted to the "better" Treasures. I hope they have their own basic Treasures, they are a small touch but they add so much to the experience. I am always in favour of adding in more Treasure types, both basic and spectacular [epic?].

There is more in the recording that I have not mentioned here, what I have done is the highlights of my notes. If you have the time, pop over to the Sacred Tome website and have a listen for yourself.

Chapter Deux

It looks like Team Meeroos will not make the deadline for the release of Chapter 2, or will they? Catherine writes in THIS blog post that the date will certainly be pushed back: "...so much has occurred between development and now, that we're too far behind to reach that release date. I'm disappointed, absolutely..." Having said that the Roo Region has been redone, and is worth a look. There is now an Orlex statue in the centre of the store and Vashara is nowhere to be seen. Where has she gone? In all likely-hood she needed her hair done, or perhaps she just avoids Orlex whenever possible. Either way it is something new to check out. It makes me wonder how far off Chapter 2 really is.

It bears saying that pushing the release back, if required, is a good move by Malevay Studios. We would all prefer a completed product that performs to the same standard as the Meeroos we have now, not something hurried. In no case will it be perfect. I have no problem waiting as long as it takes, I much prefer stability over speed. For some people Meeroos may be all about breeding and unlocking and also selling. While those things are all of interest to me as well I, embarrassingly, become attached to my Meeroos. It is one of the things that I think has held me back a bit as a breeder, I just can not release a Meeroo that has not had a full sixty (60) day lifespan. I mean what if they can not find a mate in the wild? For anyone who shares my affliction loosing a Meeroo, even temporarily, to a Second Life or Meeroo coding error can be devastating. To be fair the same is true even if your goal is financial; if a Meeroo who is near breeding time is lost it may not be replaced until it has missed its chance. Right now I think that is unlikely, I had a Meeroo poof and it was replaced within hours of my filing a ticket on the WW of Meeroos site. Response times have improved an incredible amount. That will all change if the Chapter 2 Meeroos have significant issues requiring CSR intervention. So, here is my chant: What do we want? Chapter 2! When do we want it? When it is ready and not before! Going to try and get that going on Roo at some point, if everyone is up for it...?

While we are waiting it behoves us to take a look at what Chapter 2 will bring, there have been some very interesting quotes from the official site on the matter. To begin with Catherine writes in THIS answer post: "The Expansion is a whole new editions of the game, everything is new, new content, new Meeroos, new personalities..." So the first thing we know is that there will be new personalities, one wonders how the compatibility will work? What will the new personalities be? Also from that answer: "These will arrive in separate starter packs, and will be priced exactly the same as the current ones. There will be no changes to the food." Of course we will have to buy Chapter 2 starter packs if we want to participate in it and it is good to know the starter pack prices are not going up. Looks like there will not be any new food either which is probably a good thing. They will not even need new Homes, and both the current Meeroos and the Chapter 2 Meeroos will continue to receive genetic updates as the game progresses, as we see in THIS answer post: "We will continue to introduce new genetics for both, and the two kinds will be just fine together. You don't have to have new homes..." Keep in mind the Chapter 2 expansion is optional, nobody has to buy new starter packs if they do not wish to do so. You can continue with the Meeroos you have now and bypass Chapter 2 altogether if that is what you want to do. Finally, something I think may have been a bit overlooked, from THIS blog post: "..we're retiring some Meeroos. These are being removed from Starter Kits." Wow, since the only coats available from a starter chest are: Winecoat, Fawn and Ursine it must be one, or more, of those. Will their removal increase their value? Probably. So we will loose some Meeroos and gain the ability to purchase new ones, sounds good to me.

While all this has been going on there has been a major change at Malevay Studios, I am unsure how major but Catherine is taking a "...step back from a few roles at Malevay Studios." I do not know which roles she is giving up nor which she is retaining but it is both a sad and encouraging change. While I hate to see Catherine take a back seat on the Meeroo bus I believe she has excellent reasons for doing so, the view is better back there. It also leaves a spot open which has been filled by long time CSR Allison Bluebird. Already she has written her first blog post and has been active in the Forums. Welcome Allison and I can not wait to hear more from you. Delegating some of her duties should free Catherine up to focus on Meeroo development, or whatever else she chooses to pursue, leaving poor Allison with the task of dealing with, well: us.

Finally and perhaps most excitingly there is a Meeroos photo contest under-way right now. If you have photography skills and/or Photoshop skills you should check out the information post HERE. There have already been a ton of exceptional entries which can be viewed on the Roo Region. If you go to the main store there is a teleport sign close to where the Homes used to be located. It is just to the right of the berries food vendors. Right click and select the "teleport" option and it will pop you over to the display area. You can TP in directly using this SLURL. When I was last there MeeroosContest Resident was adding even more graphics to the display wall. It is definitely worth a trip to Roo to check it out, some of the entries are amazing. I have one entered myself, wonder if anybody can spot it? Team Meeroos will be accepting entries until October 21st at midnight and the winners will be announced on the following Monday the 24th. Five (5) winners will each receive one of the very limited edition black-light skeleton costume brushes. Bet nobody will be using the soap on those!

The Arrival of the Dryads

The four (4) Meeroo messengers have arrived! The Dryads: Troo from the South, Myrr of the East, Sula from the North and Azra from the West; they have returned bearing a message. It must be a message of some epic importance to warrant such measures. We have not yet seen the message, the scroll. When we do it is in Merunic and will take some deciphering. Preceding that we have the messengers themselves. All four (4) are fantastic, if offered a free Cinder coat to pick, I would have to admit to the Azra being my preferred messenger with the Myrr coming in a close second. Myrr is next up for MeePet/Shoulder Pet treatment however. They are going to be popular come Halloween season.

I did manage to obtain an entire set of Dryads, mostly made possible by the recently reinstated Trading forums on the WW of Meeroos website. I can not express how much of an aid it is having it back, how much simpler it is to facilitate swaps in a recognized Meeroo-central forum. I say I managed to put together a full set but scarlett did all the actual work, you know, contacting people and, as it were: exchanging the Meeroos themselves, both while keeping track of Nests and the like. Since we were not lucky enough to buy a Sula directly from the Meeroos store, which is by far the rarest of the bunch, the trading was essential to completing our collection.

Some people do not seem to understand Dryads. Since the traits that make them Dryads do not pass on to offspring, that is the coat and eyes do not pass, the claim is they may as well be Winecoats. For the most part they are. As I understand it these Dryads have the same genetic limitations as any other starter Meeroo. They can be Winecoat, Fawn or Ursine and have both short ears and tails. But they can not be a Loch genetically because that is not something you can get, from a starter. That does not mean they do not carry Loch genetics, just that it would not be apparent on the surface even if they were not a Dryad. It does irk me slightly that the photos given out in the WW of Meeroos InWorld group show Dryad Meeroos that could not possibly exist on the Grid at this time. They have traits not available from starter Nests, like the very short tail and neck fluff on the Sula and the long main fluff on the Azra. I take it that these represent Dryad Meeroos from the ancient past that no longer exist. I am thrilled we have the ones with us that we do. Now if we can just get that message sorted out. In the meantime, enjoy the photographs:

There can be only one: The Highland Coat Meeroo

Today I got to check out a Highland coat Meeroo named Ian. I took some pictures while he generally played around, as Meeroos do. Ian's ancestors might well come from the highlands of Scotland. These are the northern areas of Scotland to the North and West of the Highland Boundary Fault. It is a bit more complicated than that, but you get the idea.

I encountered the highlands/lowlands divide myself when visiting a highlands whiskey distillery. While the factory which produces the whisky is in the highlands, on the North side of the street, it has its warehouse on the south side of the street; technically in the lowlands. Still bottled as highland whisky though. I should note I did not see any Meeroos there at all, well perhaps towards the end of the tasting, I do not remember much after that and may have seen many amusing things.

Back to Meeroos: The Highland coat is amber or copper in color. It is a Gael Meeroo and is marked as such. Ian's owner, Noel Hammill told me that the Highland coat is one of his favorites. You can see for yourself in the photos below. Thank you Noel for inviting me to take Ian's photo, and here they are:

Introducing: The Emperor

From the Masked Meeroo species out of Japan comes yet another new coat, and an impressive one at that: the Emperor. It is a bit purpley and a lot brilliant. I can not wait to get one of these for myself. They are still incredibly rare so I am not holding out much hope, but you never know. With a bit of luck and the right genetics anybody could coax the next one, maybe even me. No, strike that, never am I that fortunate. I will do it the old fashioned way and wait till I see one on sale for a reasonable price and buy it.

I do not have much to go on to even guess the era this coat might be from, perhaps the Kofun period which starts about AD 250 an ended in AD 540 or so. Those dates are inexact, but you get the idea. Compare those dates to the Caledonian coat which I place at about AD 120. Four hundred (400) years in not a huge amount of time in genetic terms. I would say it is possible that these coats do in fact come from genetics that date back to about that time in history. With more breeding and more Regard I hope to see breeders push the genetics even further back. Who knows what we might see next? For now we will have to ohhhh and ahhh over this one:

The Caledonian

I recently got to take a look at another new Meeroo coat, the Gael Caledonian. It is a dark coat similar to the Ursine coat but with some subtle differences, as you can see from the photos. Interestingly "Caledonia" is the Latin name for Scotland. It was named that by the Romans during the time that they also owned all of England, then known as Britannia. This would have been about AD 120 or so. I imagine that the genes for this coat originate from about that period in history. Shows how far back we have managed to reach with breeding already. I can not even venture a guess at just how far back Meeroo DNA might go. I would actually poke myself in the eye to see a Meeroo from the Mesozoic era [250 - 60 million years ago]. That might take a bit of time, and Regard, to breed out though. I may have to wait awhile. But I digress, here are the photos for you: