[welo]

Originally Posted by AutomatikStudio

And you are still avoiding the issue that there is another pet hack here that has EVERYTHING I planned on doing...b/c remember...he stole all of our ideas. The only plans I have for future versions are very small changes to add a little functionality.

Pardon me for jumping in here, but I've been looking over these hacks and think you now have the ability to take yours a slightly different direction a lot of people would appreciate. Much as I admire the amount of work having gone into these, I would never install zsdave's hack on my board because it's too ... violent (for lack of a better word).

My forum is designed to appeal to mature minded people - most of them pet lovers - who have no desire whatsoever to engage in "Petz Wars". However, they would be more than willing to interact with a clever system that addresses everything else you must do to keep, raise, and maintain a pet.

The stuff you had about pets losing health points if a member didn't show up to feed it etc. is good, but this can be endlessly extrapolated. For instance pets need shots (and other medical attention), grooming, you have to clean up their poop, make sure they have a nice place to sleep, give them special treats, make sure they get exercise ... the list is endless.

You could build in something that allows people to customize their pets so pet shows could be held every once in awhile where everybody votes on the best one, and the winner gets a chunk of added reputation. Maybe find a way to train pets, so maybe if you've proven over time you've taken care of your pet they can do things for you, like automatically respond to a preselected user's post with a funny random comment. Stuff like that.

Might not sound as exciting as a whole roomful of pets fighting each other, but damn, a detailed system operating a little closer to reality would find an endearing market quickly, I'm betting.