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...

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:

Meeroos in Ancient Egypt

If you take a look around the Roo Region, where the Meeroos store is located, you will eventually come upon a large pyramid with a few Meeroo looking statues out front. If you venture inside you will see a single adult Meeroo and what looks like a human holding a smaller Meeroo in his or her hands. All of this is quite a bit bigger than life. I do not know what to make of it yet. Could be for almost anything. I hope it has something to do with the Meerunic language. I am quite curious about that. [I think all my guesses were very wrong]. Here are some photos to give you an idea what the place looks like. I suggest you go check it out yourself, when you have time. There are signs up warning that it is under construction, so watch out for falling prims, statues, Avatars, etc...

That is it for pictures, I will keep checking back and will keep you informed if anything changes.

Watch Your Language

I have been investigating the Meeroo language as of late. Well, the symbols that comprise part of it anyway. I do not believe we have enough yet to really figure much out. I have failed to make any earth shattering discoveries. I have compiled what information I can and will present it here, perhaps someone else can improve on my humble beginnings.

Image 1

To start with there are two symbols we do know something about. The symbols on the Pre-Order program necklace spell, or mean; "Meeroos" as per Catherine's quote in THIS blog post: "...Unisex necklace that ACTUALLY spells out "Meeroos." If you pay close attention, you'll notice those little Meeroos have their own runic alphabet that means special things!" A photo of the necklace close up is shown above as: [Image 1].

I think it unlikely the language, which I now call Meerooish, is directly phonetic. That is, I doubt one of those symbols is "Mee" and the other "Roo". Especially as the language would have to pre-date their being called Meeroos, first done by the Unnamed Anthropologist: "...his creature, which he affectionately called a Meeroo." I do not even know which direction the language reads from, it could be right to left, or left to right. The beads on the necklace go both ways, on each side of the golden Meeroo. For now I am assuming it reads right to left like English does.

Image 2

Image 3

The symbol on the right side of the necklace close-up [Image 1] I have seen in two (2) other locations: 1) On the newly unearthed ruins at Roo [Image 2 - right side] and 2) on the inside of the store archway at Twas [Image 3]. It is interesting to note that in [Image 2] you have the symbols for Meeroos but with another symbol in the middle, the one below in [Image 4]. I wonder what that might mean, if anything? I do have a far fetched theory, but I will get to that in a bit.

Image 4

The symbols on the stone arch at the Twas store are interesting in that they are all very similar with the exception of the number of dots they have. This leads me to believe they might be numbers. There are three basic symbols which have either one, two or three (1,2 or 3) dots each. I do not believe the numeral zero (0) is represented. Nor are two (2) others since there are seven (7) symbols total. Taking it as a given that numbers with one (1) additional dot, on the same base symbol, are one more than without the dot I plotted the possible number to symbol mappings and came up with the following: There are six (6) ways to map the symbols to numbers that "work" on the arch. The six (6) variations, or options, are shown below:

Now for my wacky theory: if the symbol in [Image 3], the second symbol in "Meeroos", is in fact the number one (1) it could mean that Meeroos are in fact called "something - one" in their language. What might the symbol that comes in-between them in [Image 2] mean if that is so?  If it is the symbol for one (1) then either Option D or E is correct above. Will have to wait on more information before I can even guess further.

Keep in mind I could be completely off-base here and they may not even be numbers. This is all a theory which is, most likely, poppycock. But there you go, maybe one of you has a better idea what it might all mean than I do. If so, leave a comment and, in time, we will get it figured out. Most likely when they tell us in October (if they tell us).

Some more symbols from the other ruins at Roo and from the Home Stones:

Meeroo Personality Profile: Aggressive

Time for another Meeroo Personality Profile, this one dedicated to all the Aggressive Meeroos out there. The animation unique to Aggressive Meeroos is performed while standing and is a little stomp along with a fearsome look. In theory anyway, I do feel a bit bad for Aggressive Meeroos, it is like they are trying their best to be tough but are just too cute to pull it off. Perhaps other Meeroos find them a bit scary? I wonder if fathers tell their newly Coaxed Meeroo daughters to avoid the Aggressive boys at school because they are bad news; often sneaking extra berries behind the bike shed while skipping their Meerooish lesson.

Speaking of which I would love to know what the Meeroo language is called. I am sticking with Meerooish until I hear otherwise. Perhaps there will be some clues, or an outright answer come October. In any case, if anybody is going to be skipping their language lessons I bet it is a gang of Aggressive Meeroos and a few of their Mischievous mates. I just hope the Head Master [AKA: Principal] is Friendly!

My partner scarlett discovered an interesting Meeroo fact, something I am going to try and get either photos or a video of soon: Meeroos grow when they eat! If they have growing to do that is. Check out your baby Meeroos next time they head to a food bowl. So long as they have not reached their maximum size they will grow, just a bit, right after they eat. This means baby Meeroos grow four (4) times a day. So a Giant fourteen (14) would grow a total of fifty-six (56) times before it reaches maximum size. The easiest way to see the effect is if you wait until your Meeroos are asleep. When asleep they will only get up to find Treasures, make Nests, and eat. Watch closely if they head for a food bowl, it is a wow moment the first time you see it. It is that kind of attention to detail that makes Meeroos so immersive, and it is a credit to Malevay Studios that they even thought of doing it in that way. I have some other fun facts I plan on sharing in these Personality Profiles, might even start a Meeroo Fun Facts feature if I compile enough.

I hope you enjoy the Aggressive photos, it is not easy getting the leg mid-stomp, let me tell you. Special cuddly thanks to scarlett for taking them all for me. You are awesome sweetheart! And, of course, Team Meeroos rocks!

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: