First thread

[Administrator]

Finally, new page! Heaps of stuff on the last one (6).

17 April

Been sketching more breeds. On the site, though...

- made a page that collects your flock statistics. Next, need to add mutation and element checks, then lists of your top 10 griffs, by level/EXP, battle victories, age...


- added link to the Memorial page, listing your dead griffs.
- now working on location tracker map feature. It finds out where in the realm your griffs are currently exploring, in case you forgot where you left them, or want to quickly jump to a place.

First, the visual map:


And then you can 'search' them. Since AJAX is a bit tricky to use in this particular PHP framework, I had to go with JS as usual... and it works a treat!
Later these divs will have pretty background images for each location, and there'll be icons representing each griff's breed and sex (since loading their individual dynamic sprites would be slow). Everything is very sparse for now.


19 April

Decided I'm fed up with the broken pagination system on the flock page. It's really messy trying to switch between groups, on one page. So am moving group displays to their own pages. Other sites all do this, should've tried it from the start...
- Added the quick filter options. Works like a charm.
- Groups are public to view, and link to griff profiles. If it's the group creator (the user) viewing own group, display is a bit different and links will instead go to griff perches.
- Added message if group doesn't exist.
- Removed dropdown list and form from flock page, instead groups are listed as buttons/tabs. With a bit of styling, they'll look much nicer than dropdown.

Hmm, should I keep the create/edit/delete group stuff on the main flock page? Or would it be more convenient to have those options on group pages themselves?
Eh, gonna leave it as it is, for now. CBA to fiddle with form stuff tonight.

And not sure how to deal with ungrouped griffs. Easy enough on flock page - just show those belonging to user, with no group - but how will others see them?
All ungrouped griffs share the group number 0, regardless of who owns them, so obv can't have a public group page for that.
Perhaps they simply won't be visible to others (users may want to keep some private)? Uh yeah, I'll go with that for now.

Ooh, but what if user wants to organise griffs, but still keep them private? ... groups need a public/private option... done.
- Added red/green colours to indicate that status.
- Added visibility checks to group pages - if user has set one to private, others will get message and not see any griffs.

Also updated flock page to use the JS filtering, same as the group pages. Absolutely looove this new trick!
Could get awkward to load if user has zillions of griffs here (like, maybe hundreds... thousands?!) but will worry about that later.
Pagination should work now it's simplified (a single fixed query for the page, not switching to others) and can be re-enabled if needed.

Tomorrow, must tackle the user profiles. At the moment they just have one ginormous list of the whole flock, no group stuff. Need to instead show tabs to link to the user's (public only?) groups. But users might still want to show off SOME favourite griffs, even as a teaser... x)
Guess one featured griff isn't enough - and it's not really 'featured' but the current active one. Maybe have up to 8 slots to show off best griffs and write a bit about them?

20 April

Doing that. There are 9 slots for featured griffs (could increase to 12 or 15 later if users want it? or it could be a premium option) and then user's groups are shown.
Now need to edit account options page, with a bunch of dropdowns and textareas to choose these griffs... done.
Might get rid of the "wanna write about them?" bit, it's pointless lol.


Hmm. Wonder what to work on now?

[Administrator]

22 April

- Gonna finish studbook. It technically works already, but having to reload the page twice (second time fixes the pagination) for each new breed-select query is super annoying. So I'll split all the breeds onto own pages, and add some insta-filter options for each one.
Not sure if it can be case-sensitive, hmm... if not, there can be no colour-gene searching. But elements, horn colours and materials, and mutations certainly could be searched, as they use full words rather than upper/lowercase letters. Markings could be searched too, later.
Prices can maybe be graded as 'under 500', 'under 2000', 'under 10000'. Can't sort them in asc/desc order, but this should be close enough.
edit: done. Add elements and marking stuff, and maybe extra genes, later.

- Also going to add a 'fertility' column (y/n) for each creature. Users will be able to voluntarily neuter some of them, like champion ones they want to sell for money or share to help others out, but don't want others to breed from.
edit: done, and added an item for it. It gives stat boosts if done before a creature has ever bred. Later, depending on personality, it should make them happier or sad too.

- To avoid anyone cheating by selecting griffs to breed, neutering one/both in another tab (possibly getting bonuses) and then confirming breeding, I added a fertility check in the breeding script.

- Went on a grand item-function-cleanup and added some stuff. Now there are a wide selection of stones that change sex/element/give mutations.


Tomorrow: try adding some items that are applied to griffs. 'Aging' item that jumps ahead to the next day, 'energy' item that fully recovers their energy for next 7 days (instead of +6 every day as usual), 'time freeze' item that stops their age increasing for X days, and 'immortality' item that lets them age forever without becoming elderly and dying.

23 April

Indeed. The item 'Ancient Breath' confers immortality. Griffs can age up forever without getting elderly.
Three items, 'Moon Tear', 'Onyx Scale' and 'Flawless Eye' will freeze time for 10, 30 or 50 days (years). So griff won't get older on each new day.
And three edibles, 'Crisp Leaves', 'Honey Stems' and 'Spice Bubble' will ensure griffs wake up with max energy for the next 2, 4 or 6 days.

Just need to add these indicators on perch page somewhere, to show status/numbers of days left... done. The buttons are neatly under the info box.
And then an option for 'aging', if user has at least one 'Time Droplet' in inventory... done. Item is not actually removed from inventory yet (testers will be using it a lot to see griffs rapidly grow etc).
Whew, that was all rather complicated for a few small features! Glad they're done.

24 April

A few plans today...
- keep adding more and more, and more, and more, of the personality trait texts to Google spreadsheet. Aaaaaaaaaaa.
- genetic info on griff profiles really could be presented better...
- possibly merge the Lineage and Children sections, and use spare section for griff's Accomplishments? Like how many locations they've visited, their current role, battles won, trial results, any trophies from winning 'beauty contests' or notable art/writings by owner, other challenges out in wild later...
- And add their skill info and learned-abilities to the Stats tab, with inborn stats. That tab should also show bonuses from companion, treasure, element, level etc.

25 April

Honestly running out of ideas lately. Without a world map to create lots of small territories from (and link them together for travelling between), there's no point in me working on content for places yet (mines, forests, cities etc) and there's nothing for griffs to do in their daily commands (hunt, observe area, etc) - the idea is that the results are generated based on the location they're currently in.

And there are serious issues with the JS map thing. I'm now 99% sure that I should give up on that idea... it's too stressful, and I don't have hundreds of pounds to pay a proper programmer to do this. Must think of a new, much simpler way to show griffs moving around areas.

Maybe something like a Point And Click adventure? A large pre-drawn background scene (could have animated bits overlaid in divs too!) and a tiny sprite that runs to where you click. Would need pathfinding...
Failing that, use buttons to make griff move. Then do simple collision detection if griff reaches a gate/box/whatever and do a bit of jQuery there, to make NPC or item dialogue pop up.

edit: wooo! Done a bunch of fiddling and got a very nice result. Griff can be moved in 8 directions using buttons - can hold down to keep moving - and the X,Y co-ordinates are updated and shown in real time. When griff is at certain co-ords, divs with some text pop up. "You're at the nest", "You found a lake" etc. It doesn't use a tile map at all.
A very good start! I learned some stuff too.
All that's left is some sort of collision detection, so griff can't fly outside the container div, or through obstacles... and, ideally, show different sprites from sheet / play different animations for each direction. Not sure how to set up either of these yet. But this is totally playable as-is!
Screenshot:


27 April

It's going well! I'm keeping track of progress and writing code-tutorial here: http://griffusion.elementfx.com/mysite/g...plore.html
Only thing left to do is changing sprites. edit: done.

30 April

Always goes without saying, but: fuck endo.

[Administrator]

3 May

Back to work! Rush rush rush.

- Made a 'gene lab' page where you can select all the colours etc and view the coat. Currently there's no function to actually create the creature, only preview coats.
To do: that, obviously, using a rare item as payment... and keep track of selected colour names, so user can see what they just entered last time.

- Trade system... should be finished? All that's left is to add automatic PMs when deals are finished, and notifications on Activity page listing exactly which griffs, items and money were transferred each way.
Maybe also update each griff so it's publicly marked as 'in a trade offer' so nobody will be surprised if it suddenly changes owner.

- Might try adding custom coat stuff soon... think I've figured it out x)

- Figured out 'tags' too. It's like a pedigree title, an extra bit after a name. Most games just list it after the name, sometimes in different font, but I might try using little icons and tooltips to save space (and look a bit cooler?) as some names are long enough already.
OK, so... DB table set up.
Adding tag list/create/edit/delete options in flock page... done.
Making public pages where all tagged griffs are listed... done.
Adding "attach a tag" option at griff perches... done.
Adding tag display to griff names, uh, everywhere names appear... this may take a while, I'll finish it tomorrow!


- Also just had an idea about clans/guilds. Every griff can be a member of one. Each guild has a purpose/advantage, for example one might be a herbalist guild and all the members have extra chances to find wild plants when exploring forest maps, and extra areas like protected forests, and roles, are open to them.
Another guild might be all about fighting, so members have access to more training opponents, wild monster hunts, areas, roles, ability to learn certain offensive spells/wear armour etc.
There must be competition between guilds. Maybe a monthly check: which one's members have collectively earned the most points doing... relevant things. This will need some planning. Winners get... I dunno yet.
Will users be able to set up guilds (leader chooses name, purpose, location, max number of members allowed before closing entries) or will there be a large preset list to choose from? Hmm. I'm leaning towards the former. The leaders can moderate own guild, kicking out members or changing details.

4 May

A random surprise person wandered in and has given some very useful testing feedback!
Seems the Exchanges need more work:
- parts of messages not appearing, after blocked trades
- should pre-emptively check that user has enough of the items/money they're offering, to prevent jokes/impossible offers
- should also check that target username exists
- good idea to merge some pages, so one can see existing counter-offers while also entering own

Note, currently I'm unsure about restricting griffs to being in one offer at a time. Yes, it could be really annoying if one goes somewhere and a bunch of other offers are left, unable to complete... but users might want to make variations of offers, to see if any are accepted.
Hmm, must think about this. It would certainly be possible to add an "in trade?" flag for griffs and block them.
(It would be near-impossible to track items like this though, due to how quantities are all merged in inventory.)

Will finish tags later. Today, gonna challenge myself with custom coats. Probably won't all be done tonight - let's see how far I can get!
- DB table and basic pages set up. Scribbled some ultra crappy coats.
- Coats are listed in correct breed categories, and all have own pages with details.
(Oh shit, this is gonna need pagination! I hate that so much. Blah, will tackle that later, there aren't enough coats to test with yet)
- Check user's active griff details, and if user has an 'Amazing Plume' in inventory. If incompatible, servant tells the issue, else option to apply coat appears.
- Add coats to griffs, update coat's Uses number... done. Item won't be used up yet, for testing reasons.

Tomorrow, must make the Submit and Edit pages, and the 'my coats' list.
Must also make coats appear in place of normal generated coats, in Flock, Groups and some other griff-displaying places.
(Maybe not in Studbook or when breeding though... it'd be deceiving, and also hard to code in. Real genetic coats must be shown.)

[Administrator]

5 May

Now you can submit and edit coats, and use them on griffs. There currently isn't an item function to remove coats, but you can just overwrite them for now. Need a page where mods/admins can approve or reject them (with automated PM with reason) but it's nearly 3AM, wtf am I doing up still.

Slowly going through nearly every page in the site where griff images appear, and adding checks so their custom coat appears instead of the usual dynamically-generated image. x__x Manually adding it a zillion times on profiles, manage pages (when getting details of 14 ancestors and 9 relationships) with different variables etc. Funnn.

Also adding tags to names, someone poke me if I miss a page...

6 May

Aaaaaaa it's a scorching hot day and night. I feel like doing something new, easy and fun. Like... start some encyclopedia pages that list all items, wildlife, clothing, talk about locations and lore. Very little content to add yet, but it helps to be organised.

Just had a cool idea about game rules/gameplay. Four reasons:
- This is a world where magic energy is finite - it radiates from sources and can be used up if mages or their machinery get too greedy (as happened in the lower world, thus invaders are trying to conquer this floating realm to get at the juicy magical goodness). So it's a bit weird if everyone can spam powerful spells every day. Could it be limited?
- I'd like the user (flock master) to be a character too, not just in customiseable appearance and faction reputation, but also have own skills and such, so they can fight in battle alongside griffs.
- The flock master is meant to be magically 'linked' with one griff at a time, to see through their eyes wherever they're exploring. And joining in battles (by mind? or by teleporting there?). By necessity, masters must be important people. They don't just do good deeds and help their flock live longer than usual, but must really be needed in this war, hence the natives start training invaders-turned-allies. (perhaps too many natives have changed themselves, or learned magic for other pursuits like architecture, and lost the art of linking and fighting with creatures, as it seemed archaic, barbaric and would never be needed again... right?!)
- I don't like the HP and MP stats for griffs. Dunno why. They're non-inheritable, being fixed at birth for all breeds. I just find them really boring.

Anyway, it could be interesting if griffs themselves have no HP or MP, and instead it's the user who has those stats. The user is providing the griff with magic source, so they can cast their spells, and also the link keeps the griff protected from death if enemies defeat them. They can get exhausted, hurt and run away, but never killed. This is what makes them privileged compared to wild griffs, which are getting slaughtered all over the place.
It's the user's own HP and MP that are shared between all their griffs, and it's finite every day. You could go sparring with 40 griffs, using spells here and there, and use up your daily MP. Or go on a big journey with one griff and use a crapload of their most powerful spells. Or lose to a load of wild monsters and use up all the HP. Your mage-character would then become too exhausted to link with any more griffs.
Using certain magical items (that draw magic from somewhere, not already contain it) and doing activities like harvesting magic (in some locations) would also take points from your MP allowance.

Mmmm, I like this! Will think about it. There must be ways for players to train up their HP/MP, from beginner levels to... dunno what the limits would be. Perhaps if you do quests for certain pantheon deities/forces, you can get temporary boosts/refills. And if factions or guilds are added, 'winning' members will get free magic usage for certain types of activities.

Well, I'm gonna spend the night sketching more breeds, toodles.

10 May

Meh. Been ill and busy. What little things can I work on?

- on explore page, added quick option to change active griff. If you came here without one, you get a list of them all, with some details, and a button to choose each one.
- am now playing with AJAX a bit. The item search is much nicer now. Gonna apply same changes to griff and user searches...

Had another idea for exploring later: a schedule of different weather conditions on certain days/times.
This would be visible on the maps as rain/sunny/stormy/whatever, and barriers/NPCs/items hidden on certain tiles would change for each case.
Also when you visit location pages, like an NPC's house or an observatory, different activities will be available.

Need to...

- finish exchanges, adding notifications/PMs.
- try a 'random event' feature, where a box appears on certain pages with a message, free item, free money, or some other change being unlocked somewhere. Should be very easy, it's just the contents that will need loads of adding-to in future...

[Administrator]

11 May

Attempted to re-write a bunch of the breeding stuff (generating dropdown lists and sending data in a new way) but somehow broke it. Whoops. Restored from backup >.>

Would really like to use AJAX actually, to grab info about the two selected griffs.
And could use it in all sorts of other places...

- gonna develop character stuff a bit. Added HP and MP, and latest online-date so it can be replenished daily like griffs' statuses.
- next steps: scribble some quick shitty bases and clothes and making wearable items of them... must think about layer order.
- then think about learnable spells. Character will be in wilderness battles with their griff, so make a parallel battle system.
HP and MP will be hooked up to griffs later, once I've figured out some way of adding AJAX to battles.
- add MP-draining effects to some items, and maybe prevent some being used if no MP left.
- make user's HP/MP refresh every day.
- think of ways that user could increase the numbers, and items that could replenish them.

Also had some ideas for making the world/community 'interactive'. Each Master could get their own small island, where their garden, workshop, perches etc are visibly seen as small plots on the map. You could decorate the map a bit, by placing rivers, flowers, terrain patches, a layer of weather/clouds above, or whatever. Wouldn't have any effect, just added graphics.
Everyone would be able to view others' islands... and perhaps make griffs run around on the maps! There would have to be some fixed boundaries (island edge, places where buildings are/will be). And doorways will be in same places... so griffs can actually enter the buildings too!
Again, Masters can do some interior decoration in their grand hall, lair or whatever the dwelling is.
Gardens and workshops can also be looked around in. If griff runs past a plot, they'll be able to see what's growing there, if anything. Maybe have options to try and harvest sth, or leave a poo in the garden before they leave. Free fertiliser

12 May

Dropping exchanges, and making separate griff and item trades instead. It's so nice using AJAX for searching offers now! Griffs will be fully searchable by genes, which wasn't possible before. Well, working on it now...

13 May

I just can't seem to stay on one task! Ended up starting the genetic guide. Done complete colour and horn palettes, and explanations of which genes do what.
Just need to code in the cere changes (currently it's a single lazy gene but that looks outta place, so now there will be 12 neatly-arranged colours and 4 alleles - Goldness and Shade - to determine them) and then... think more about how marking layers will work later. And do some little sketch-illustrations of what body parts are coloured with which genes, in every breed.

And then must rethink all the griff, peg and dragon breed tables... as I went researching and couldn't resist sketching some new dragons. >.<
Sea slugs, horned lizards, axolotls, fish... not sure how to arrange/link them all yet.

15 May

Zzzz, finishing item trades. Also extremely difficult to test alone. But a few bits are definitely working. Will need to invite someone to test...
Should be easy to duplicate and tweak the code for griff trades!
Was tempted to add a strict 'in trade' flag for them, so if you've offered them once, you can't offer them to anyone else. But then there'd need to be extra limits; you can't use any items, breed or go battling/exploring with them, to avoid changing or killing them (would disappoint the receiver).
Eh, probably won't bother. Won't be storing any info in the offers, except griffs' ID numbers. When viewing offers, all other details will be grabbed fresh from griff table. So if counter-offerers notice a change, they can always withdraw.

note: when anyone views a starter-offer, should automatically check if the user still has the griff/item to give. That would be a useful warning to those considering buying/swapping/countering. Others (or a mod) could message the user to see if they're aware of the offer still being up, and give them a chance to either delete it or regain the item/griff.

[Administrator]

17 May

Ugh seriously need to get sth codey done. Griff trades time!

18 May

Have now ironed out all the issues. I think. Still very difficult to test alone...
Griffs do have 'up for trade' flags now, so can only be in a single offer at a time. The ID number of the offer is in a column in their table, so it can be easily linked to. The AJAX 'offer search' actually looks in the griff table for their genes etc, and fetches any griff with a public offer number (there are 2 columns, one for a public offer and another if it's private; griffs in private offers won't appear in the search).

Note that the search still contains some incorrect griffs, from while I was adding that stuff. Now when you delete an offer, the griff's set back to 0 (free again) but it wasn't there before, so a bunch of griffs still have numbers and appear as being in those offers. They're not really in any offers, ignore them. I'll clear them all later.

Just need to add some checks/blocks in a few other places, to prevent griffs 'in trade' from dying, aging, breeding, being abandoned, getting injured, being changed with items etc. What was put up for trade should stay that way.

note to self: when doing *anything* with griffs, check 3 more things: that 'pubtrade' and 'privtrade' are both 0, and that 'life' is 'fine' (not 'dead' or 'hurt').
It's not enough just to omit them from dropdown lists for breeding, item use etc. Added further checks in every item function, and will have to update breeding later.

19 May

It's Saturday, it's 3:30pm, it's scorching hot, I spent the morning gardening and cleaning the chickens out... now it's time to ignore TV/radio/rest of the world because That Bloody Wedding is so annoying (royalty can piss right off, scroungers) and sit down for an epic long Dev Afternoon and wonder how much I can get done! Woo.

Not sure what to tackle. Players' islands/bases/gardens being visitable by others, and griffs can run around in them? Or focus on scribbling more breeds as fast as possible? Choices, choices... oh, I had some ideas about how to improve the JS maps (making the co-ordinate and collision stuff much more efficient) but also had some ideas about lore, the native people... hnnggg!

[Administrator]

20 May

Aww yissss. Had a sudden idea of how to massively simplify the paint markings, so whipped up a few test marks, and... behold!
There are 4 layers, and each one has separate colour and shape genes. So if you crossed an Opal 10 mother and a Black 17 father, the chicks could also get Opal 17 or Black 10.
The most common colour is white, like real paint/pied markings (it's actually a kind of leucism... uh, but here they'll have to be treated like normal markings) and others may include: black, silver, gold, opal etc.
At the moment they're merely *visible* on griffs - I'll update the breeding script after all marks added.

(gah, I utterly love the Minoans. No idea what makes their shape so special, but I've never had an awful-looking one in 300+ test griffs)

Next stage will be to dynamically recolour some paint marks, depending if griff has a mutation. So in the case of erythrism, black paint will be turned reddish, etc. Done!
These two griffs aren't the best examples, as they don't really have mutations (else the rest of the coat colours would have shifted too; it's set at birth).


Finally, how on earth am I gonna cut out opal/metal/textures, in these shapes AND the base shape.. hmmm.

[Administrator]

21 May

Hnngggg!! Fighting with Imagick to get these textures working. So close. It keeps either breaking the image, or covering the rest of the body, instead of the paint layer it's supposed to... but it does look funky. Here's the poor frizzle.


.. OK, woohoo! Managed it. There are 16 available opal colours; they match the horn options (see this table: http://griffusion.elementfx.com/guide/horns ).
The genes are shortened versions; 'cs' means Copper Silver opal, 'oo' means Onyx Onyx opal, etc. Of course plain black and white are still working as usual.


I can't (yet?) be bothered to split the gene into two parts (so you could cross 'oo' with 'ss' and get 'so' or 'os') - so for now it'll just be straight-inherited. Boo.
At least there are still infinite combos. Did I mention there are 99 possible paint shapes? ... yeah. Combine that with the 4 layers... have fun

Well, later. As well as adding these and the new cere genes, to breeding/adoption/other scripts... I also need to add the random personality traits. In the DB they'll merely be stored as numbers - but I don't yet know how many of each type there'll be, so uh... might spend the night writing out some more!

Note to self: sometime soon, add AJAX search to flock and group pages. Will be able to search griffs by genes etc. Not sure how to add pagination here, uh, but we'll get to that later.

[Administrator]

22 May

Added AJAX search to the flock page and redid the tooltips in CSS, as the JS wasn't working for some reason. Got rid of the vanishing griffs during pause; now the current results stay while it searches, and new griffs suddenly appear. Extra search options are tucked away in collapsible box. Much neater!
Also cleaned up flock and group/tag page.

23 May

Added same search to group and tag pages. Now what? ... might have a go at the breeding page, fetching selected parents' info in boxes.
edit: Yes! Woo! Working like a charm. Also tidied up this page, and added studbook search.

Still haven't updated the script with newest genes, so can't actually breed. Must get these traits written asap.

24 May

Figured out how to approach some annoying issues... haven't actually tried these yet, but guessing *how* to do them is important first!
- in breeding validation script, check if male griff has same owner as female. If not, it's a stud breeding, so instead of checking user's money for the default cost, look up his stud fee and check against that instead.
- should also (while there) check that the male is still up for stud. This will prevent anyone leaving his tab open and getting breedings, after his owner has withdrawn him.
- could use AJAX for updating names, bios, studfees etc on the perch pages. Much nicer than PHP post-ing and reloading the page over and over.
- could also use AJAX to instantly 'refresh' images, in the gene lab (when users are designing griff coats). Again much nicer than reloading for every gene change.
- when adding the sea slug dragons, hermaphrodism might work by changing breeding dropdowns/validation to check for "female or other" and "male or other".
This, uhh... might make it possible to breed a dragon with itself? As their 'sex' won't be flagged up as a problem anywhere. o.O
Well, some real animals do that... and offspring will quickly become severely inbred, so users will be deterred. But it could be allowed. Genes can still vary a lot, so you wouldn't get clones, unless the dragon was homozygous in every way.

Note for later, must prevent those dragon eggs from using any sex-influencing items.
Also need to add private stud option. Owners can specify a breeding group whose members their males be available too. For example, Griffin Bob can be used by members of group 19. Have an extra column called 'privstud' or sth, to hold that number. If Bob is 'yes' for stud and his 'privstud' number is 0, he's public and will be searchable. If 'yes' for stud but 'privstud' contains a number, he's for a group and will only be listed on a page accessible by group members.
... something like that, anyway. Will need to plan 'breeding groups' in general. If decide against them, studs could at least be made available for specific users, like with trades and coats.

[Administrator]

26 May

Rrrgghh it's time to do some big gene changes and update all the scripts involved in generating griffs. Some have been left behind for quite a while... must bring them all up to same standard >.<

DB colour-table is updated with all the new cere colours. I still hate having to manipulate palettes in Photoshop and manually paste hundreds of hex codes to the table. Thankfully this was the last body part; will never have to do it again!

Now hastily adding hundreds of personality traits to another table. Only the adult descriptions have been written; chicks, adolescents etc will be described with slightly different texts as they grow, to show how their personality is forming. Those other ones will just be placeholder text atm.

I've planned out the personality-changing mechanic, for later. The 200 traits are split into 8 categories: Nice, Playful, Bossy, Just, Anxious, Flawed, Odd, Nasty.
And then a number is chosen for the specific trait, from the griff's category. So "Playful, 16" or whatever.
Naturally (meaning, if you don't do anything) the trait will stay the same as the chick grows up.
But you can do actions like bathing, cuddling, playing, teasing, taunting, hiding food, scaring, challenging them, etc. Some are positive, others negative, some can be either depending how the action goes. Each time, there's a tiny chance that it will change the griff's category. There'll have to be loooots of checks for each scenario.

Example: You keep constantly teasing, challenging your young griff and hiding their food (it's random whether they'll find it) and every time they're unsuccessful, they'll be frustrated. After enough of these tiny chances, it's likely the griff will turn Anxious or even Nasty, so a new trait-number will be chosen, from that category.

Other examples: keep handling, playing and socialising them, they'll likely become Playful or Kind. Endless treats will probably make them Nice. Use challenges and discipline and they'll likely become Bossy, maybe Anxious. Keep teasing and confusing them, never socialising, and they might turn Odd.

27 May

Aaaargh I underestimated how long this would take >.> And there'll be... 100? random traits for a griff's "favourite place to be", and so on. I haven't even started writing any of those yet! So it'll be placeholders everywhere.

edit: wow, it's actually taking hours just to type/paste some descriptions. My computer has crashed about 5 times tonight. The joys of ancient tech... but maybe sometime in 2018 these traits will all be working x)