With the start of the new school year we thought it was time to revamp the Classroom section of the blog.  If you look to the left bar area of the blog you will see many different tabs some old some new take a look at the different tabs and you will find some wonderful informations and resources for you.

On 9-11-2001 the world looked on with shock and horror at the events happening in New York City. Many of us can remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news and the images of the tragedy are indelibly etched in our memories forever.

The losses that day were felt worldwide, so to honor the victims and survivors of 9-11, to honor the heroic efforts of the rescue workers and that we may never forget this terrible tragedy, we are reissuing one of the most beloved of all the special eyes we have introduced.

The Remember eye will drop in randomly on newly created Big Cats and Wild Dogs beginning 2 pm Thursday the 10th through 2 pm Saturday the 12th.

As in the past, the Remember eye will pass like any other eye.

Are opportunities floating right past your nose?

As I was watching chat the other evening I noticed a breeder talking about WK Big Cat fur and they said that one particular fur was “a dime a dozen” and I realized that he and other breeders were missing an important component of the furs…the nose.

Many breeders tend to overlook the nose. A Morocco is a Morocco, right? Wrong! Just saying Morocco does not tell you which fur you have. The full fur name would be something like “Morocco-RedBrick Nose”. Why does that matter? Let me explain.

Most breeds have several base furs. Let’s say there are 9 of them for the breed you are interested in. Couple that with 9 different noses and you have a total of 81 different furs for that breed. That is important to understand because the rarity calculator does not calculate the rarity based on “Morocco”, for example, but on the full fur name like “Morocco-RedBrick Nose”. This means that not all Morocco furs are created equal. Some will be rarer than others and may be worth more points on the rarity calculator.

Here’s another example for you. Everyone that breeds Bengal tigers knows that Kolar-GreyNose (trait value 4 currently) is the most common of the Bengal furs at this point. Even though it’s 1% of all the tigers it’s easily the most prevalent of the Bengal furs. However, Kolar-CoralNose (trait value 5) is not nearly as common and is still 0% of all tigers.

Remember, levels are no longer a part of the rarity calculator but fur is. Pay attention to nose when evaluating which furs to breed and improve the rarity of your cats. It should be as plain as the nose on your face.

As many of you know on 29th of July Cecil the South African Lion was hunted and killed. This was a great loss in many ways. We would like to help his pride and his reserve.

The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has set up a Zimbabwe Endangered Species Fund to fundraise for the conservation and protection of endangered species like the late Cecil the Lion.

We know that the breeding community is a lover of big cats in the real world as well as in Second Life help us give back to the real life animals and make a positive come from an extremely negative and senseless act.

Remember Cecil and build your own family of his here in Second Life.

Tribute to Cecil the Lion

We thank you for your support to our effort to give back to the animal world.

What Passes –

Cecil will pass his traits like all other cats.

Cecil Fur with the black nose is the only thing that will not. The Fur with a similar nose will pass if Cecils Fur is the winning fur.

Cecil has a stunning mane and there are two possible fathers for Cecil and each are wearing similar but slightly different color manes.  Porky is wearing the Fearless Leader Mane and Tinker is wearing the Braveheart Mane.

Thank you all for the comments and the concerns. We will go back to the regular operation with our own designs but with a passing fur as the added reason to get the sanctuary cat.

We were give some really neat ideas so stay tuned as always.

With the latest update to the wolves, they are able to enjoy the wagon that the cats have been enjoying.  While they willing to share the wagon there are times you may find them growling at them when they always want to ride.

There is an update to the wagon the current version of the wagon is 3.1. If you find your wagon needs an update you can put it in a box with your name and wagon update will send an updated wagon to you.

Wild Dogs and Big Cats Love their WK Wagons

You can find the WK Leopards at either of the main sims.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Crystal%20River/117/161/21   (homestead)

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/WK%20Wild%20Kajaera/118/89/22   (Full Sim)
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/WK%20Wild%20Kajaera/113/109/1502   (Full Sim)

Today we rolled out an update to our Big Cat Systems Servers.  The updated include language updates to some of the behind the scenes magic that we do as well as a revamp to a few other bits that have been in development for a long time now perfecting it this last week in the Beta.

This updated rolls out the separation of Fur from Level.  Fur has become a independent trait free to move up and down the levels as breeders see fit, much like the rest of our traits.  Furs are still tied to the Species and Breed they represent.

Level no longer being tied to Fur has moved off the rarity calculator as it no longer represents a given fur on a given level. Yes, Furs will be introduced at certain levels but they may not stay there, just like any of the other traits once introduced they are free to move around on the levels.

Breed has also become more important with this update. Breed once held no importance at all as just a description of a line of fur with no ability to control the breeding of it. Now when you select a set of cats to breed you will have a much greater chance of passing the breed from the parents.  It will be possible to create a pure line of a certain breed within just a few breedings.

Which brings us back to the Level and we know you have tons of questions and the simplest way to say it is Level and Breed have now been tied together.  While in the Beta test we did look at joining level to the species but this was just not a good solution. When we tied it to the Breed we were able to get results that were expected. Each breed will need to work its way up to the higher end.  This for the Big Cat Market is a wonderful thing as it allows new breeders to come in and join and get started in all the fun.

As the beta is coming to its completion we are happy to announce that the Leopards will soon be joining the rest of the big cat family.  That does mean that you will be able to breed them with the Big Cats.  We would like to once again thank all the testers that helped us perfect the genetics on the Big Cats. Big Cats are still a level base up one, down one or the same level.  The fur has been liberated it is now free to move up or down its breed line and pass forward or back.  Species and Breed maintains its levels they are not allowed to cross over from one to another.

In the next few days we will be moving the updated system from the Dev area to the Production Area.  We will keep you posted on how the next few days go and will try to keep any interruptions to a minimum.

We have a new page for you under the Classroom section to the left here that talks about Marketing. We get many questions about this daily and Jaed is really a wiz at this stuff she’s been in the breakable industry as a Breeder a Seller and an Auctioneer and has taken the time to write out some of her tips for you.  From a personal experience Marketing is really the heart of any business.  Realize that your product has more then one buyer is key and YOU are your Brand. If your not out and about and positively communicating your message it will effect your sales.