Spookinesses

Yes; the post title means multiple instances of spookiness. I am sure it is a word, I mean once it is added to the user dictionary it is official, right? Moving on: things have been pretty uneventful Meeroos wise for me lately. I am sort of waiting with baited breath for the impending advent of Chapter 2. There is now a deadline associated with the release, but it is not firm. Catherine says: "We hope to make our October 31 release date but that remains to be seen." in THIS answers post. I would not count on that being the date of release, these things tend to run behind. If anybody can pull it off in time it is Team Meeroos. I will be updating my public Meeroos events Google calendar with the thirty first (31st) as the launch date and crossing my fingers.

Chapter 2 looks like it is going to bring some interesting changes, in the answer post linked above Catherine also says: "The Expansion is a whole new editions of the game, everything is new, new content, new Meeroos, new personalities, and new angles to the game." I am very interested in what new personalities might mean. Will they be compatible with current personalities? What will their unique animations be? Will I ever manage to catch up on my Personality Profiles if they keep adding more? Regard will also be undergoing some changes: "There are pretty strong changes coming to Regard and the way it behaves and what it rewards." To me that implies that regard may be gained for things other than petting, perhaps just being in the presence of your Meeroos will generate Regard. I have thought, since I started my involvement with breedable pets, that there should be a reward for spending time with your creatures. Simple avatar presence may not be enough however as people would use bots to keep their avatar present all the time. There has to be some method to ensure the player is there and not automated, how that might be accomplished is beyond me.

One thing I have been undertaking is creating a more focused breeding program. Because I am lazy I have not been participating in the secondary marketplace for Meeroo sales, as such I have had a limited budget for berries. I look at it as a good thing, I have reduced the number of breeding Meeroos I keep to about twenty (20) and am keeping a close eye on them. I love how when I have fewer Meeroos I can remember all their names, and when I get the new-nest offlines I now know exactly who the parents are and what I might be expecting from them. Before I had so many I would have to check the spreadsheet or log in to find out who the parents were, what their traits are and then I could decide if I was thrilled or disappointed with the Nest. I do have far fewer Nests being produced now, but they are more in line with what I am trying to do breeding wise. As I wrote in an earlier post I have also switched to Short-Cycle breeding and am spending more time evaluating pairs and switching partners around in the hopes of getting more traits from them. It has not been long enough for me to judge the results yet, but it will soon be time to swap a few Meeroos around; dare I hold out hope for an ever elusive Snowpaw?

Malevay Studios has outdone itself again with the Halloween content they have created. The concept of "costumes" for Meeroos is genius, I do not know why nobody else has ever though of it. Brilliant discoveries always seem easy after someone else figures them out I guess. The way the outfits work is this: You buy the costume for L$350 and you can then paint it on to any Meeroo you own. It works on both normal and MeePet Meeroos. The costumes are limited edition, only available until November first (1st). That means you have the chance to turn any Meeroo into a limited edition one. While all of the costumes are well done, in my opinion the monster and ghost costumes are exceptional. I suggest the ghost for un-traited Meeroos since you can not see most of the Meeroo anyway because, you know; its a ghost. The monster is absolutely adorable in very short tail. I still have a few of my very first Meeroos, ones I persuaded to forgo the wild for the time being in exchange for unlimited honey. They are only special to me, their value is sentimental. What could be better to lift their spirits than a fancy new spooky outfit? They get to chill out with the breeding Meeroos in style. I bet the others are jealous*.

If for some reason you change your mind and wish to revert your costumed Meeroo back to its original coat you can do so with a bar of soap, also available at the Meeroos store. The soap is currently on sale for L$50 but looks like it will eventually be priced at L$350. I do not know why anybody would want to remove the costumes but the choice is there.

As if the costumes were not enough there are also new Meeroo Homes to choose from. My favourites are the scary stump of infinite fright and the spooky green gourd. Also the pumpkin. Really I like them all. Do not forget that there will be new Homes arriving with Chapter 2 as well, although from what I understand the current ones will work fine for Chapter 2 Meeroos. Perhaps I am a bit unusual (perhaps??) but I like the Halloween "look" pretty much all year round. Some things are a bit over the top, even for me, like candy-corn in May. In this case I will have no problem finding permanent locations for my haunted Homes or my mysterious Meeroos. There was some mention of games being available before Halloween where an additional costume will be one of the prizes. I am no good at games, but you never know; I might get lucky.

* I have already gotten at least two (2) IMs from my breeding Meeroos, one of the older ones, claiming that the MeePets getting costumes is unfair and threatening to halt Nest creation until everyone gets a costume. I explained the impracticality of that but it went over like a broken pipe. They might be unionising...

So Much Stuff

So many things happened this past week with Meeroos I do not know where to start! For one the Pre-Order and initial Release Meeroos all turned sixty (60) this past week. Either on Sunday or sometime Wednesday, depending on when they were Coaxed. This means they have reached Elder status and can no longer breed. Many of them were subsequently Released as a result. I personally went up about eight (8) levels due to Releasing my Elders that I did not want to keep. I say I did not want to keep them: I did. I can not keep forty (40) Meeroos around forever, even as MeePets.

Yes: MeePets! The release of the MeePet option has been announced on the Official WW of Meeroos blog in THIS post. The option is out now at the Roo store. One fantastic piece of news: players who use the MeePet option will receive the Regard points from their converted Meeroos. So keep petting those Meeroos, even if you plan to MeePet; you will still get that Regard! For those of you who have had Meeroos starve and run off the Whistle to call them back is also available, right next to the Honey Dipper. MeePet Honey Dipper is L$999 and the Whistle is L$350 both are single use items. The Whistle will not work on Released Meeroos, only ones that have run off due to hunger.

Honey Food Bowl for MeePets

Team Meeroos also announced the release of a few more products planned for the near future. As well as the opening of the Regard Store; where having certain Regard levels unlocks the ability to purchase specific Malevay Studios Meeroo related products. There will be a Seasons calendar available if you are level five (5) or over and for level ten (10) and up: the fabled Primbie bird. Slated to open this weekend.

It keeps going, there are now starter and non-starter Meeroos. I did not see that coming. I am OK with it, just took me by surprise. Before recently you had a chance to pull extremely rare Meeroos from starter Trunks. According to Tiger player Regard was playing a part in that as well, pushing the chance higher for players with massive Regard. The chance of getting rare Meeroos from a starter Trunk right now is 0%. Team Meeroos says it can not be done. So there you go, all rare Meeroos are non-starters. From what I can tell that means the only coats you will be able to get from starter Trunks are: Winecoat, Fawn and Ursine.

While you may no longer be able to randomly obtain super rare Meeroos from starter Trunks it is now a bit easier to do so through breeding. Once again Malevay Studios has raised the effect of Regard [Both Meeroo and player] on breeding. This means that having 10,000 Regard points will have more of an influence now than it did a week or so ago. The posts points out that "...it is more of a nudge in popping out coveted traits, not a sledgehammer." There is no guarantee that high Regard will pull out any traits at all. If there are none in the Meeroos genetics it is impossible to get no matter how much Regard you or the Meeroo has. It is time to put the starter Nest lottery aside and concentrate on breeding. It is now the only way to find new rare Meeroo traits.

Tiger notes that the number of rare genes has been reduced in starter Nests a few times now. That, in combination with the fact that Nest genetics are permanently set when the Nest is first rezzed from the Trunk, means that older starter Nests potentially have more rare genes hidden within than newer ones. His advice is to not only buy Nests from the secondary market, but to keep an eye out for older (lower Nest number) starter Nests. I suggest any of you with Nests out for sale check to make sure none of them are low Nest number starter Nests, they may be much more valuable than you think.

As for the Oracle, there are more new questions coming. To quote Tiger: "new oracle questions? these are still coming, i know, i know..." I believe Team Meeroos has been working on more important updates, like the MeePet and the Whistle. Both of which people have been very much looking forward to. Getting the MeePet option released close to the time that the oldest Meeroos would become Elders strikes me as far more important than new Oracle questions. Of course, I do want more Oracle questions, with more trivia and fewer song lyrics! I just do not mind waiting until more important projects are finished.

I have been paying a lot of attention to this Meeroo alphabet that has been cropping up on statues and around the Meeroos stores. I do not have anything of interest to say about it yet, other than it looks pretty cool. I have photographed all the glyphs I can locate and will be attempting some analysis over the next week or two. I have already noticed the symbols for "Meeroo" on one of the statues but with another character in the middle. What might it mean? I think we might just have to wait and find out.

On a personal note; the Elders I Released were replaced, plus a few, with newly Coaxed baby Meeroos. They all turned five (5) last night and began having Nests of their own. Already I have my first ever Very Short Tail! Interesting to note it came from two (2) Short Tail parents. There should be some interesting discoveries before October. I know I have high expectations for my Meeroos and my breeding program. There are tons of breeding Meeroos out there on the Grid now, tons of Meeroo breeders. I have not even seen all the currently known traits in person yet, I can not wait to see what shows up next. The Azure coat is amazing by-the-way, if you have not seen a picture I suggest you ask for one in Group chat. I have not found one to photograph personally, but I will post pics here when I do.

Honey part 2: Why Tiger Rocks

All of my MeePet worries are a thing of the past. Not only that, I am once again incredibly impressed with Team Meeroos. Some of you may have noticed Tiger's comment on my last post about the MeePets. He says: "They are still animals that want to eat, right? They will still starve if you don't let them eat their free honey. But, no matter how much/long you starve them, they won't run away." So a MeePet can eat Honey but does not have to! This mean they can be kept in Inventory and can easily be given to people as gifts. Even if the recipient knows nothing about breedables, or Meeroos, they can just pop their MeePet Meeroo out when they want, if they want, as an adorable pet. This is very good news for me as it means I can convert one of my favourites to have on my shoulder all the time! [Do not worry, I will let him down from time to time to nibble a bit of Honey.]

I said in my last post that I thought having an optional food for MeePets seemed like a lot of extra work and I am sure it was and is. Team Meeroos is doing it anyway and it is a brilliant touch. It adds realism to have food even for Meeroos that do not need to eat. It is so subtle that I was sure that was not how it was going to work. I did not think anybody would go to those lengths for an optional item. I should have known Malevay Studios would do things differently and not compromise any aspect of the Meeroos experience. So; thank you for the clarification Tiger and way to go. Team Meeroos rocks!

The Trouble With Honey

I am a little concerned about MeePets, here is why: apparently they will still need to eat. As per Catherine's blog post: "It [the MeePet] will need to eat honey to thrive, and honey will be made available from the main stores for free." What this means is that a MeePet can not be kept in Inventory. Nor will it be easy to gift them to people who might want a pet without any hassle. They would still need to go to the store periodically to pick up food and keep the Meeroo rezzed almost all the time. Which brings me to the Prims issue: if they have to be rezzed to eat they are going to be using Prims and Home Stump slots as well. I was really hoping for a Meeroo I could wear; all of the time. A little fellow I could pop on my shoulder and just leave there but Meeroos do not eat when attached.

There is some hope however, the FAQ on the WW of Meeroos site says: "...this will mean that you no longer have to buy them food, and they will not starve or run away to the wild." [Emphasis added by me] I would be interested in some clarification on this point: can a MeePet starve, or not? According to the FAQ: No, they can not starve. Then why the requirement for Honey? Unless the eating of Honey is purely aesthetic and is optional. It might be nice for them to have their own food bowl they could nibble on from time to time, but it seems like a lot of work if they do not have to eat. If they are required to eat then I have to assume they could also starve, which is contradicted by the FAQ. Hence my, now abject, confusion.

I feel that for the MeePet option to be viable for any but my very best, most special, Meeroos it would have to allow them to be kept indefinitely. When Open Beta ended and everyone was waiting for their "Real" Meeroos I used the term "ForeverRoos" to mean the ones we would get to keep as long as we wished. For the MeePet option to validate the term ForeverRoos there has to be a guarantee that they will never be lost. Once the procedure is performed, in this case once the Honey Dipper has been used, they should have no further breedable-like requirements. For all intents and purposes they should act like a non-breedable, non-eating, pet. The resultant Meeroo should be able to stay in Inventory forever if need be and should not require anything else to  continue existing when rezzed. i.e. It must not require food, although optional food would be cool. If the MeePet option is implemented in a way that they still require feeding then it will not be of much use to me. I would very much like to keep quite a few of my current brood, but I have neither the Prims nor the Home Stumps to do so if they need to be rezzed like ordinary Meeroos.

I understand that the Honey will be free. There will be no charges for keeping a MeePet which is great. But if it can not go into Inventory, or onto my shoulder, then I am going to have a difficult time justifying the L$1,500 cost for the Honey Dipper. However if they genuinely can not starve and will never run away, then consider it justified and I'll be saving up to MeePet all of my favourites. We will all find out how it works soon enough, but if anyone who knows from Team Meeroos would like to comment in advance of release please leave a comment here or contact me InWorld.

[EDIT: As you can see from Tiger's comment below, this is now a non-issue, please have a look at my follow-up post HERE explaining how it really works.]