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? AboutPillbox Wonderland was created partly to satiate my curiosity as to whether I could use my (quote-unquote) 'l33t PHP skillz' to write a passable, interactive online pet. There are so many awesome pets for sale here at Gaia, but very few of them make use of a truly 'automated' interactive backend. I figured one couldn't be too hard to write, and so this project was vomited up from the depths. It is mostly imspired by Rejected Material's My Pet Lolita, and those funny little iSig things.
Because I really like things like Alice in Wonderland and Gothic Lolita, am generally not particularly original, and have a couple of years stock in trade back in my grungefur (anthro) days, Pillbox Wonderland's first interactive species will be the cheshires.
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? News & Updates (24th March, '0 cool For those of you who are interested, there is an online alpha demo here.
Currently, the program:
Assembles the Cheshire Image
The 'base' of an adult-form cheshire is made up of a crapload of individually coloured pieces, which are then layered over the top of one another into a single image via ImageMagick. I'd like to be able to have only one 'base' image and recolour it dynamically via a script, but at the moment this looks like it might not be happening (alas). Currently, the cheshire is a .png, but I'm a little leery of the image getting too large, and IE doesn't display 8-bit transparencies properley anyway, so I might as well save the bandwidth and output it as a jpeg. The base layers (and equipment/mutation layers) will stay as pngs to preserve the fidelity of the lineart (no bad anti-aliasing with the overlapped images); this is necessary because the base layers will need to be custom-recoloured as per individual specification.
Gets Stuff From the Database
Including stats and lifecycle info, and the inventory. Inventory images are still in my sketchbook, but I'm not yet sure how I want to implement them (8-bit alpha pngs would be droolworthy... stupid IE).
Uses Items
Food and interaction items are currently up and running and working well. They are increasing base stats (both negatively and positively) and the two mood indicators as appropriate. User logins regulate if and how non-owners can 'play' with the cheshire. In general, a non-owner can feed a cheshire so long as it doesn't push it up into the 'overfed' danger zone. There is also a general item list.
Works Out Mood
Hunger and energy now both increase the longer a cheshire has gone without being played with or fed.
Coming Next...
Fixing up the mote-form art and getting the script to properley account for a cheshire's changes in status. Adult cheshires will also have expressions (eg. when they are hungry or cranky they will look hungry or cranky), and will occasionally sleep or partially vanish (leaving behind only a tail and a grinning head... or just a grin). Then probably working in layering for equips (more drawing; groan) and the specifics of mutations (ie. putting in some kind of block to stop someone from just equipping-unequipping the same item constantly until it 'sticks').
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? The Cheshires..."The order of the world is always right -- such is the judgement of God. For God has departed, but he has left his judgement behind, the way the Cheshire Cat left his grin."
-- Jean Baudrillard
Sit down, kid, and I'll tell you a story. A story about a smile; you think you know this one, I can see it by the cant of your brown and the quirk of your lips but let me tell you something, kid. You don't know jack.
There are things in this world, old things and dark things and things left over from the time when gods walked the Earth not only in the guise of men, as they do today. When the things that went bump in the night didn't vanish when you switched on the lamp, it was a good time, kid, and not so long ago now that there are those of us who don't remember it. It was a time when ideas had power. Not power like you think you understand it; the power to influence, the power to sway. But the power to create. You had to be careful what you thought, kid, because back in those days...
Not all thoughts are good, kid, and not all are bad, either. Some are just... sitting in between. They could go either way, but the one thing they have in common -- the one thing that sets them apart -- is that they mark out a boundary. A space between; what you know, what you think you know. The question no-one wants to ask, the answer no-one wants to admit to knowing. These things, kid, these thoughts and feelings and funny itches, they all go somewhere, all become something.
They become the Cheshires.
Yeah, I can see this is the part you know. You know what I'm talking about, how they're a little bit like cats and a little bit like a waning moon. A grab-bag mix of uneven stripes and not-all-there laughter. They point the way, but are not the way. All these things you know, I think, but they are only the start; the surface, the fake. There's something else there, hidden underneath the mangy fur and vacant smiles; as elusive as the vanishing trick of the things themselves and twice as hard to catch.
But catch it you can, with the right lures, the right trinkets. I know; I caught one once, all yellow teeth and burning claws. Or perhaps it caught me, it's hard to tell sometimes. It's a fool's game, and no game for fools; and I can see by the glint in your eye you've a bit of both in you.
So, tell me kid; you ready?
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? Basic StatisticsA cheshire is a little bit of a lot of things; a little bit of heart, a little bit of soul, a little bit of madness. Every cheshire is different, depending on the thoughts and circumstances that birthed them, but when it comes down to it, they can generally be defined by the following:
Soul is a measure of a cheshire's overall level of influence. No matter what has gone into the making of one -- good thoughts or bad, obsession or devotion -- all interactions with a cheshire will increase its soul; like a child scratching at a scab. A strong soul is needed to move the cheshire through its various cycles of life; mote, distraction, muse and perhaps even beyond.
Sanity measures a cheshire's overall mental endurance. A cheshire with high sanity is likely to last much longer under pressure than a cheshire with low sanity. Sanity can be increased by feeding, but is decreased by mistreatment.
Empathy registers how emotionally attached to others a cheshire is. It is a scale that can swing both ways; obsessive affection will cause a cheshire to grow more attuned to the emotions of others, prolonged abuse will teach it to use others solely for its own needs.
Will is a measure of a cheshire's mental strength. Unlike sanity, which deals with long term stress, will represents the ability to hit hard and hit fast. Any kind of interaction with others -- whether negative or positive -- will raise a cheshire's will, whilst laziness and an idle lifestyle will decrease it.
Hunger and energy are two reasonably self-evident indicators of a cheshire's general mood. Hunger will increase the longer a cheshire goes without feeding, whilst energy increases with rest or 'idle time'. Both can have a negative effect on will if indulged in too frequently, but similarly a cheshire cannot function if it is exhausted or starving.
In addition to these stats, a cheshire has sephira affinities with the various schools of magic of the Otz'Chim. Because of the nature of opposing forces in the universe, a cheshire who is highly attuned to one sephira will likely be vulnerable to its opposing force.
? Evolution
All ceshires start out life as a mote. Motes are the smallest, tiniest hints of ideas -- a daydream of revenge, a niggle of doubt -- and as such have very little form or force. They are mostly just a floating head, tail and two large, staring orbs for eyes. They have not yet even developed the cheshire's rictus-grin. A mote's only real desire is to live, and like most babies they will do almost anything to gain the attention of a suitable locus. Once they have fixed themselves in an appropriatley receptive mind, however, they grow quite quickly. The average mote is about the a foot in length, though the distance between head and tail varies this somewhat. They do not 'talk', except via a kind of empathic transmission of broad feelings.After settling on a locus, a cheshire will quickly evolve into a distraction. Less all-consuming than an obsession, nevertheless, the locus find herself spending more and more time thinking about whatever question or notion the cheshire has introduced into her mind. Distractions are much more self-reliant and mobile than motes, and by this stage will have developed a small, fuzzy body. They are considered to be suitably evolved enough to start to develop the kind of sephira affinities that will eventually develop into grifts, and their cheshire-grin is readily apparent. Distractions are -- as their name implies -- distracting; constantly pushing the boundaries of their new forms and their ability to interact and understand the realms around them. Though still not particularly verbose, they begin to develop the ability to speak, usually in short, sharp exclamations. They are roughly the size of small dogs, and have a tendency to partially vanish.The final stage in a cheshire's 'natural' evolution is the muse, considered to be the 'adult' form of the cheshire. While they are still quadrupedal, they are highly intelligent and cryptic, and enjoy decorating themselves with various items and 'clothing'. During this stage, a cheshire's appearance beings to vary more wildly; strange new markings may appear thanks to higher attunement to the sephira, they may sprout wings of varying shapes and sizes, spines or other more esoteric mutations. Muses are about the size of a large dog, and much, much more lanky than their younger counterparts. They can speak, and do so often; generally in riddles or verse or nonsensical dadist poetry. Other cheshires generally understand a muse, though their poor locii often don't. As their name implies, muses generally inspire their locii to various acts; for good or for ill.Some of the most powerful cheshires begin to exhibit such wild mutations that they hardly resemble each other at all. One such evolution is the ego. Egos are tall, lanky bipedal anthropomorphs, generally slightly bigger than an average-sized human. In general, egos are usually concerned with the 'higher' things in life; they are usually exremely good at games of skill such as chess and the more logic-orientated sephira such as Hod. This hyper-rationality does not necessarily make them more 'human', however, nor necessarily any kinder or more sane, and egos often tend to lean towards paranoia and obsessive-compulsive behaviour; something which will almost invariably rub off on their locii, who by this stage are generally almost totally consumed by the cheshire's particular one-track desire (whatever it may be).At the opposite end of the scale to the rational ego is the bestial id. Ids are an uncommon kind of cheshire mutation in that the form almost seems to be a regression of sorts. An id is far, far more animalistic than either muses or egos, and they tend to act accordingly. Ids are likely to act predominantly on impulse and immediate desire than the long-winded schemes of the egos or the riddling counter-logic of the muses. About the size of a small horse, an id's rictus-grin seems somehow more hungry than devious. They can speak, though rarely do. An id's animalistic nature does not necessarily make it any more vicious than its counterpart cheshires; indeed, they are often less so due to the fact that they are less likely to try and involve others in complex pranks or schemes for their own amusement. Which is not to say they don't indulge in their own fair share of carnage and slaughter, only that it is generally on less 'personal' grouns. They often make extremely protective guard animals for their locii (again, for good or for ill, since it is difficult at the best of times for a cheshire to understand human motives and needs and doubly so for an id), though like egos their extreme power often overwhelms their locus; though for an id this is more likely to be an unintentional by-product than a deliberate possession. They tend to be better at controlling the powers of the more primal sephira, such as Netzach... and more besides? Due to the changable nature of cheshires -- embodied thoughts as they are -- it is likely that there remain many other different evolutions out there, waiting to be discovered.
? Starting Statistics
Each new cheshire starts out with only minimal power, including 0 soul and 0 empathy. The cheshire has 1 each in sanity and willpower, with an additional two points to be allocated between these attributes (eg. so 3 sanity, 1 willpower; 2 sanity, 2 willpower; 1 sanity, 3 willpower). Additionally, at birth most cheshires are slightly attuned to one base sephira, with a slightly decreased resistance to its opposing force. They are born both hungry and playful.
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? ItemsMost interactions with cheshires come through various items. Food items are perhaps the most basic example, and are used to feed a hungry beast. Some food is more effective at curing hunger than others, while other food does less for curing hunger but in the long run a prolonged series of small meals may be more benificial than one huge one. Certain food items, such as coloured mushrooms or joss sticks may also raise a suitably powerful cheshire's elemental affinities... though power almost invariably comes at a price. With the exceptions of the most basic food items, food is a consumable resource; you can only cut a cake so many times until it vanishes.
Interaction items come in two varieties; play and punishment, each with their own effects on empathy and sanity.
Finally, equip items are things that can be put on a cheshire to change its appearance. Most will also give small (or large!) bonuses to stats. In addition to this, certain items come with a 'mutation' factor; any time a cheshire equips one of these items it has a chance of getting 'stuck' and becoming part of the cheshire's actual body. Mutated items will generally provide much higher bonuses than equiped items -- as they cannot easily be removed -- and also have a chance of being passed on genetically if a cheshire ever breeds.
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? Grifts(more info coming soon...)
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? Beta(aka. "How do I get one?" wink
24th March '08: Beta test is back open!
Yup, soon I'll need some adventurous people to test a beta version of the program. Please PM me or post in this thread if you want to be considered for beta, listing the reasons you are interested in the project and how you think you can help. Currently, I'm looking for around 3 to 5 beta testers. Beta will be free (ie. one free cheshire for those chosen) and should start in 2-4 weeks. It will go until I think the product is 'releasable', after which people will be able to buy cheshires in general flatsales/auctions. I currently have no idea how much they're going to cost, having never priced something like this before.
Please Note: When beta is over, it is highly likely that your cheshires will be 'reset' (ie. sent back to starting stats and Soul 0). You will still get to keep them for free during release, but they will have to be 'regrown' from motes. This is because it's likely I will have to adjust item attributes during beta to balance out statistics, and I don't really want someone to have a totally tricked out cheshire just because they found some 'sploit in beta.
Please Also Note: Beta is not just a fun time where you get a 'free pet'. There will be bugs in the system and you will be expected to find them. Bugs include anything from actual script errors, to weird things or 'sploits you think shouldn't be happening, to suggestions and comments about how the cheshires can be improved and made more fun to own (within limits; things like "I think the 'Eat Me' cookie should give more Soul" are okay, things like "OMGOZ u shud leik totally animate them" are not). In other words, you will have to give feedback; that means coming to this thread regularly and sharing your thoughts, questions, problems and opinions (even if it's just "OMG I evolved and this is awesome no problems here!" wink . People who are found to not be participating to my satisfaction will recieve first a PM, and then possibly have their cheshires removed and given to someone else on the waiting list. In other words; it's a task, not a gift.
Finally, in the unlikely event that anyone out there has PHP, ImageMagick or graphics experience and wants to help me on the project, feel free to contact me and state exactly what it is you think you can do.
Beta Test Interest List...
FeenixCat MaliskaBesanque XtremeGayPinkFairy Quinny-chan Glennis NeverAndEver7 Ixxis
? Roleplay(more info coming soon...)
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? Rules Bumps are luff! So are questions, comments, kudos and general feedback. Don't act like a 'tard.... that's about it. Don't make me put more in here!
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? Frequently Asked Questions Wow! These are awesome... I want one!Well, thanks, but they're not yet avaliable to the public. Currently your best bet for obtaining a cheshire is putting your name down for the beta.
Will there be other breeds avaliable besides the cheshire?Probably eventualy, but not in the immediate future. I have a lot of work to do as it is getting the backend scripting up and running and the current set of items drawn. Once that is all sorted out, I'll see about offering different breeds.
Can I at least recolour my base? What other customisations are there?Currently, the recolourable regions are: the base fur colour, the fur shading, the tail tip, the tail tip shading, the stripes and the stripe shading. With the mutations system and with elemental affinities, in future you should be able to change things like the stripe pattern and add horns or wings or a different shaped tail or possibly head. With items, you will be able to dress and re-dress your cheshire as you see fit (because the image is generated dynamically, items will appear on or be removed instantly from your cheshire; no waiting around for me to edit the art). Finally, expressions will change your cheshire's, well, expression from time to time.
What is the point of stats and grifts?Eventually (once the basics are done and running), I want to put in a kind of duel system wherein two cheshires can fight each other (and possibly a general arena where they can fight random monsters) for soul and glory. Stats and grifts will obviously have effects here. In the meantime, you can use them for roleplay.
What effect do the different stats have on battle?Will is roughly equivalent of strength. Positive sanity helps with constitution and negative sanity with dexterity. Therefore a highly abused cheshire is likely to be stronger and harder to hit, but also will take more damage when it is. An obsessivley cared-for cheshire, meanwhile, will be able to tank a lot more damage. At the current time, the subjective nature of empathy means it has no effect on battle (because there will be certain items for very high level cheshires who have managed to maintain a neutral empathy, as well as a very high or low one, and I don't want these people to be penalised). Note that the stats are only roughly equal to STR/DEX/STA; soul and elemental affinities will also likely play a role. I'm not currently sure how grifts will be 'cast', but there will be no INT/mana style link (they are not 'spells' per se).
Will cheshires be able to breed?Again, probably eventually. Breeding cheshires will have the chance to pass on some of their stats, mutations and grifts onto their children, so it pays to have good lineage!
Are cheshires RP-centric?Not really. Because I can just log in and look at your cheshire's stats and soul to see whether or not you've been taking care of it, you don't really need to RP. However, if you do want to, feel free! Good roleplay will also likely score you stat boosts and free items, so it's likely worth it. In fact, you can start right now, if you really want to...
Aren't cats really overdone?They're cheshires, not 'cats'; in the same way koalas aren't bears.
Isn't that just playing with semantics?... shut up. Anyway, it says in the sticky about the only thing that hasn't been done with cat pets is making them zombies. Well, there you go; look at those blank, soulless eyes and rictus grin. Looks pretty zombie to me!
Hey, you stole this idea off--No, I probably didn't. Honestly, I didn't really start to look seriously around the Breedables here until after I started the project. I don't think I'm stamping on anyone's leet idea, but sorry if I am. If, on the other hand, you are referring to the style of art and the concept... yeah, kinda. I used to play about with the grungefurs for a while before the whole scene got too hysterical and I moved on, so there's definatley influence from those quarters in here. But personally I'd hardly call it 'stealing' since I was involved. Besides, I've seen quite a few pets in here that I know a few artists would go off their nut if they saw...
Do cheshires have gender?No, all cheshires are technically 'its'. You can refer to them as 'him' or 'her' if you want to, but technically they are asexual (and before you ask, reproduce asexually as well; they're personified thoughts for crying out loud).
Isn't that just so you don't have to draw different sets of lineart?Yes, and I'm not going to pick any bones about it. Currently with the amount of equipable items I'm planning you wouldn't want to have to draw all that crap a third or fourth time either.
Hey, you draw good! Can I commission you to do a--No, not right now you can't. At the moment I want to keep my art (and my style!) unique to the cheshires. Maybe ask me again later.
How much will cheshires cost when they are released? Will you trade them for other pets?I'm not sure (if you have any suggestions, feel free to share them), and it depends on the pet. PM me to find out.
OMG I am dying to have one of these right now and I understand they are alpha and still buggy as hell and most things don't work yet but please please please!... er. Bribe me. I am not cheap.
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? Concept Art(Coming soon...)
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? Link to UsTo link to Pillbox Wonderland, please feel free to use the following link. Affiliations are welcome; PM me to work out the details.
[url=http://tinyurl.com/338guj][img]http://tinyurl.com/2rlxsy[/img][/url]
? Links
Links to various pets that have caught my eye. If you're here, it just means I like what you have to offer; no obligation to recriprocate the link.
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? Miscellaneous... alright, you can post now!
Feedback, comments, questions, kudos and coughdonationscough appreciated.
? The Blackball
I really hate having to do this, but this is the list of people who are currently banned from ever owning a cheshire.
Quote:
Culerpica
For stealing Ragnarok Online lineart to set up a phony 'pet' shop in order to raise money to bribe me into doing images for another pet shop shi wanted to set up. Got all that? Oh, and also for assuming that I'm stupid enough not to know how to work the 'Find All Posts By This User' link. That really rankles.
For stealing Ragnarok Online lineart to set up a phony 'pet' shop in order to raise money to bribe me into doing images for another pet shop shi wanted to set up. Got all that? Oh, and also for assuming that I'm stupid enough not to know how to work the 'Find All Posts By This User' link. That really rankles.
? Disclaimer
Please note that all art here has been painstakingly created by yours truly (Loqia Dee), and is not really intended for redistribution. If you own a cheshire, you may use its likeness for various non-profit enterprises (LJ icons or whatever), so long as I recieve due credit. You may not re-colour and/or redistribute the artwork elsewhere on Gaia for any reason, or outside of Gaia for any kind of profit, real world or otherwise. If you wish to use any of the Pillbox Wonderland art (including the header graphics or layout) for any purpose, please PM me and I'm sure we can come to some kind of arrangement. I am quite agreeable if asked nicely. Really.