I understand a small chunk of this is a "cat suggestion" and could go in the "cat suggestions thread" but it's moreso largely an economy and gameplay suggestion, and I didn't feel it suitable for that reason. I've been.. thinking about this a lot, and I really like PCE, so I figured I'd actually say something.

I'm really excited for alchemy. I can't wait. I'd love to change up a bunch of cats. but at the same time, I'm concerned that Alchemy might disrupt a lot of what keeps me so invested in the site. I don't want a lot of what makes PCE unique from other pet sites, and other sites with breeding mechanics to change.

Alchemy worries based suggestions:

1. Alchemy using, ideally, a significant amount of gathering resources on top of Alchemy ingredients. In particular, Bricks or Iron, which serve very little endgame mechanical purpose outside of crafting wearables and cosmetic buildings.

2. Might already be in the cards, but tangibly utilizing the Luck stat.

3. Alchemy changing one "pattern" gene at a time.

4. Alchemy not being able to change a cat into a chunk of existing cosmetic not-cat attributes.

5. Additional sources of cat changing beyond alchemy.


Before I start, I want to note that the perspective I'm coming from is that of someone who has been playing PCE very mechanically-- My entire village is dedicated to students, I do very little in the way of roleplay, cat profile customization, and abstraction. Don't get me wrong, I'm attached to my pixels, but I'm playing PCE very much like it is a game, and my opinions on this subject are coming from that kind of thought process. My cats on PCE are worth more to me as individuals than almost any other creature I have on other pet sites, because of PCE's unique systems.

I also want to clarify that I am very excited for alchemy. I want alchemy to happen in any form more than not at all, regardless of how it functions.

Right now, my town is a school. When my cats graduate I send them travelling and usually don't sell them. (Although a chunk of my graduates get given to friends and new players.) While I don't interact much with *selling* on the cat board, mostly just buying from it, I am very aware of it. For this reason I'm already invested in an element (stats) that probably won't be effected by alchemy, and would honestly be on the winning side of most game elements that end in devaluing cats. That doesn't mean I want them to lose value.


1. Gathering Resources
On the first point, I think the idea is relatively simple. Once you've built everything, the best materials to produce seem to end up being paints, catmint and ink.
I have a lot of Iron. I don't know what to do with it besides make lots of knives. Same with Bricks, except, no knives can be made from bricks.
Giving the other resources "something to do," especially if they need to be used in large amounts for practical purposes in the same way as Catmint, Tea leaves or ink, would be marvelous.

I know the idea of using bricks for alchemy is a little weird, but, Alchemy is all about changing metals into other metals, right? Could the alchemist job potentially utilize Iron in their daily job to turn it into some sort of new alchemy potion-specific crafting metal?


2. The Luck Stat.
I want to use it in a daily job of some sort, and this seems like a good place for it, not just in eventual magic spell adventuring.
Look at this guy. She needs it



3. Alchemy changing one "pattern" gene at a time.
This is for two reasons-- the first being that I'm imagining, hypothetically, all pattern genes will interact with each other, thus creating a situation where changing just one of a cat's genes will change the pattern. This has a lot to do with my... Essay, in the fourth category, below.

If you start with genes that exist outside alchemy, I think that giving people the ability to "change" a cat from a state that exists to make a unique hybrid that otherwise would be created via breeding is something that would improve the value of existing cats instead of decreasing it.

The second reason is to make alchemy harder. I think it should be hard. I think it should require a lot of materials, time and effort. I think that working up to things, slowly building towards goals, and having to specialize your village towards certain goals and ends is a huge benefit to PCE's gameplay, and how slow everything is has become a huge factor on why after a year and a half I just keep coming back almost every single day. I want to have more to grind and work towards.

If this isn't the case though, and Alchemy changes both pattern genes, It would be nice for that to incentivize breeding for combinations.... I love breeding for rare stuff, but no breeding sites (where your pets don't die) ever seem to utilize these sorts of mechanics. PCE even having genes that combine in fun ways is a major step up from sites like Flight Rising.


4. Alchemy limitations
My proposal: Ideally, as a bare minimum, All Existing Pattern genes and specifically the Classic White Type are unavailable as Alchemy potions.

Why All Patterns: Most existing cat patterns aren't worth much. The only pattern that holds value in the market is "point." Preserving the existing patterns as something cats can only be born or generated with will make their patterns gain value instead of losing value.

Why just classic white type: Early cats and custom cats from new players can only use this white type. The first 90000 cats all have this white type. There are so many of them compared to the new white type cats that I don't feel like the value will be significantly altered.

That said, ideally, all traits created by alchemy would be unique to alchemy, with enough variety that there is something people "like for" the cats they desire to change within it that patterns, white types and colors from other sources aren't missed. This is because I want the value of cats to *only improve.*
As it stands currently, adding more types of cats to the game makes old cats more unique. Expanding the pool of genes new cats can have makes older cats who were already rare more impressive. And it does just about nothing to existing, common cats. Which is fine. Adding the ability to make any cat into any other cat would destroy both of these ideas entirely.



Value in a player economy is determined by scarcity. This is why players on gaiaonline, roblox and runescape will parade around wearing the ugliest thing you've ever seen to show off. If they're one of 30 active users who even have one, that's more valuable than looking good, because that item will be more expensive, and more in demand than much prettier items.

To some extent, aesthetic factors interact with this-- two things of the same or around the same scarcity will have different costs in a player market based on how they look. But by and large, the rule is, the rarer, the better.

Something that I value very highly in this game, especially compared to other games, is the *inherent value* that cats have.

They may not be one of thirty cats, and instead one of ten thousand, and you may be able to spend three months printing two copies of them, but the cat, as it exists, is unique. I cannot simply go to the store and paint my cat, like on neopets or Flight Rising, and I like that for both the rare cats and the common cats. It makes the rare cats feel more special, and makes the common cats worth anything at all.


For example. A cat who is born with the Spotted Pattern isn't worth much in the market or economy, and is very common, but it does have something going for it-- The traits it was born or generated with. It has a unique identity, not inside the meta elements of what number it generated with or what it's out-of-universe birthday is, but instead within it's own appearance, traits and stats.

The hypothetical spotted cat is what it is-- a Spotted cat. A Mackerel cat, as the website currently exists, cannot become a Spotted cat. This gives the Spotted cat inherent value, and a much larger identity. Cosmetically, this applies to the cat's color, white level, white type, pattern, hair length, if or not it's solid, and eventually, species. All of these things are combining into a unique creature, especially when we have dozens of cats.

Compared to a lot of other pet sites, this is a pretty big deal. It's something PCE really has going for it right now. On a site like Neopets, the only inherent value a pet really has is it's name. On a site like flight rising, the only inherent value a modern dragon has is it's number-- and to a certain extent if or not it's an imperial. Names or Numbers (or both, in the cases of some sites, like Goatlings!) end up being the *only trait* that are unique to an individual.

The reason for this is the fact that creatures on most other sites can essentially be turned into nearly any other creature. Sure, a creature with a rare item applied to it is worth more than a creature without, but the difference between two creatures on other websites, and thus the inherent value, is nearly completely abstract compared to two cats on PCE.

If I have, on neopets, a Red Acara, and you have a Christmas Zafara, if I have enough ingame currency, I can make my Red Acara into a Christmas Zafara just as easily.

And that's fine, and it's how neopets has always been, and not only does neopets doesn't have a breeding mechanic, it purposefully starts you off with "blank slates" when PCE doesn't. But it causes an issue for me: As a mechanical player, as someone who doesn't play neopets to roleplay, tell stories, or have abstract relationships with my pets, I start seeing my neopets not as the sum of their parts, but almost exclusively as their names.

If Alchemy is implemented in such a way that any cat, with enough effort, can turn into any other cat, I fear my priorities slipping in the exact same way. Focusing on numbers, as the inherent value of the cats is immediately lost. Which despite how prevalent it already is to seek out lower numbers on PCE, I've been able to completely ignore caring about "abstract values" the pets have. Clean family pages, ID Numbers, Real Life Birthdays and other user-determined abstract value specifications haven't had me in their grip at all, because cats have inherent, intended value. Which I think is a *massive strength* of the current game design.

Stats help too in this aspect, as PCE is unique in having set stat totals. (and gives me something to do) But... I don't think most people are playing for stats.

But as it currently stands, I can look at, say, a solid color cat and not think to myself "I should replace this cat with another identical cat with a lower number, to improve her."

Because that cat has so many unique, *intended* cosmetic traits that the number is, to me, rendered nearly meaningless.

I will clarify that cats that aren't desired by the community do still have some market value as well. There are still things a spotted cat could contribute in an economic sense as an individual-- the spotted pattern on this cat could, if you chose, be bred with a colorpoint cat to make exclusively baby minks if you wanted. It could also be saved in a corner for until (hypothetically) new marking genes come out, and you could breed it with another cat with new genes to try and get new stripe combinations. There is still use for this cat as an individual, mechanically, and if or not it results in currency doesn't really matter.


But adding the ability to change cats entirely, every aspect of them, regardless of how hard it is, makes this hypothetical spotted cat not a spotted cat, but instead just a blank canvas.

Adding potions That change a cat's pattern genes into things that are already widely available, such as the spot, stripe, and marble genes, is going to make those genes less valuable than they already are. Suddenly, from my perspective, the cats will not be seen for anything but numbers, birthdays, stats.

The scarcity of the cat, the value of the cat, will be gone for me. If of middling stats and a current generation ID number, as most cats are, that cat will be completely without value. That cat, (unless you want to wait 10 years for it's number to be worth something,) mechanically, is a Packaged Gift waiting to be opened. I don't want that to be the default state of most cats.

Alchemy might be really hard at first. It might take lots of time, it might take lots of resources and not be super feasible. But given time, eventually, it will simply erase any "scarcity" these cats are generated with. Just knowing that with enough effort I can change any cat to be Spotted devalues the Spotted cat, even if it would take a month to do so, in part because they are already common. It's not like changing your cat into a rare new beast-- you're changing it into an old, currently extremely accessible beast.


But on the subject of the market and the playerbase-- The first element is that the economy on this website, in my opinion, is one of the healthiest in any game with a breeding system where the pets don't die. Cats, individually, are worth quite a lot in PCE. Obviously this isn't all related to the genetic systems in place. Them all having jobs and purpose helps this a lot. There's no reason to have an empty town. When selling them, the Packaged Gift you get for sending one to the city gives them more value than otherwise, (and with no other real way to make EF, a cat as it currently stands has a nebulous value), But when it comes to "rare" cats-- colorpoints, high white, rare white types, light colors, generation 2 cats often sell for at least half as much as their gen 1 counterparts. Which is WILD. It's incomparably good compared to the economies of other sites I've played.

This is probably partially due to the limitations breeding gives. Less space in your town, a 90 day waiting period and cooldown. These are elements I'm extremely attached to in PCE. You can see how this impacts the economy easily with how long it took for elements like the new white types to decrease in value, which gave a lot of people time to catch up, as opposed to sites like Flight Rising, where the initial high value in a new species or pattern only lasts a few days.

(and while breeding seems to give me cats with lower BSTs overall than kittens found outside by the moose, putting them through school is a nice way to increase their value a little too. Not that I actually sell any of my kittens...)

But I fear that this will go down the drain quickly when Alchemy is introduced. I do not see the lasting monetary success of bred kittens on the marketplace if any cat can become any other cat. I do not see there being as high a demand for them in general.

Why breed a spotted cat to get a mink, if a mink created through alchemy will always be "better," marketwise, in the only inherent cosmetic values we have left-- the abstract ones, The number and clean family slate? Why "ruin" a potential blank canvas by breeding it?

Even when I'm not fond of abstract values, I kind of need to start playing games like this according to them when I have interest in the player market or getting ahead. It's not the type of element you can "simply ignore" if someone will pay more for a low number cat than for a high number one, or more for a cat with no family than for a cat with grandparents. And while this sort of thing already happens on PCE, I fear it would multiply, and the value of, and incentive for breeding as a whole would go down.

This isn't simply a question of the site-wide pastime of selling babies, but also a question of if or not players who think like I do will even allow their cats to have kittens, or allow certain cats to adopt nestor kittens if they are aware they are removing one of the few points of value either cat has-- a blank relationships page. Essentially, ignoring game elements you wouldn't otherwise in favor of player-determined value, by not allowing your otherwise blank slate cats to have families, or not allowing your otherwise blank slate cat to adopt what is in the lore, a little baby kitten.


On the subject of breeding: I really don't want it de-incentivized! Not just from a market standpoint, but from a general standpoint. Breeding and genetics are fun, and while my kittens seem to universally come out with worse stats than their parents, (which I hope isn't a bug...?) I enjoy it a lot as it stands. If I know I can simply alchemize a few potions to get any combination I want, a lot of the fun from this goes away.

Additionally, the appeal of having a rare thing, or a cute cat, and then trading it's rare and unique baby to your friend or selling it, that's honestly a really good feeling. Being able to carefully raise a new little guy who's special or important or has rare genes. It's rewarding. Having only a chance for two cats to say, have a colorpoint kitten, but seeing they've had one, that's a joy that I don't want erased.


And, another concern on this note: New players and old players. As the site opens up, adds more features and grows, new players will have a harder time catching up. "missing out on good names and low numbers" is a real gate for me on a lot of pet sites and breeding sites. It's here on PCE, but it's quiet and gentle. It's not a big concern when joining like it is on other websites.

If alchemy can change any aspect of a cat to any other aspect, Numbers will suddenly be a much bigger deal than they were before. And don't get me wrong. The value of ID numbers will go up, drastically, with any addition of alchemy! Suddenly the dozens of orangeish-brown 5 digits in my travelling cats will see their day.

But most people aren't going to have a cellar full of 5 digits. And that sort of dynamic just doesn't seem fair to me if we're also going to be removing a bunch of value from all new cats and cats-to-be at the same time.

Often, if you didn't start with one already, it's extremely hard to get a "low number" on a pet site. There isn't an entry point, because collecting the low number is a player-invented scarcity. It cannot come from anywhere. If you lose it, there's no mechanic to get another. It's gone. Like a retired item, but one you miss out on just through other players existing. So people don't want to trade them.

This will happen no matter what as the site ages, but as the website currently exists, the cats can and do have value independently of number, new players can be excited to find the rare and valuable in their gardenhome cards or from nestor, and I'd really like it to stay that way.

On PCE, to me, these cats have always been a lot more unique and alive, and a lot of that is in that individual value. And while I will jump at the opportunity to change them into different colors and other silly stuff, I want to do so while still feeling like it's the same cat, not just an ID number. If I chose to change every single element of a cat to an alchemy exclusive one, so be it, but I want at least the opportunity and choice to... Retain an identity outside of a number.

Basically: I want the starting cats of new users to continue to be worth something, like they are now. I want the custom cat of a new player to hold value as to them in the way they made it, regardless of what changes are added. I want the new cats a player receives to be worthwhile on some level, for it to still be worth it to check what sorts of genes it might be carrying.

I know a lot of people have tons of sentimental value for their cats, even if the cat has nothing unique about it, but... for someone who plays pet sites like I do, I very much play the game as a game, moreso than as a roleplay. All that's there for me is what's actually on the screen.

Additionally on this subject, Essence fragments.

If there is alchemic potions in the cash shop, lot of the most valuable items will be in EF related appearances and changes. This is going to happen no matter what. I don't mind this, because it won't do anything to the value of existing cats.

But things that can be generated over time to some extent, infinitely-- notes, job resources, adventuring rewards, are never going to be as valuable as something like premium purchases. The value of things that can be casually generated isn't going to be super high compared to anything from the "cash shop". Anything a person can "make" or choose to pursue is going to be less valuable than what they can't. Which is why having something that comes into the world in a limited manner, like the existing cat patterns and colors, (and the nestor exclusive items, boxes of secrets that cannot be opened, etc) provides something to unpaid players. It gives them a chance at something that can't simply be recreated, and something they can always sell to paid players to level the playing field.


Another point: The excitement of receiving a rare cat from nestor, that's something I would want to preserve. The "hehe, what kind of cat will I get" feeling that comes from Nestor's weekly-ish cat gift will be replaced with more of a "time for my free essence fragment" situation for me. I want it to be exciting! I want a surprise.


Potential concerns:

• Hypothetically, this means someone could change their cat, and then never be able to change them back to their former state.

I, obviously, don't mind this. As long as there's a warning in place like there is when sending a cat to the City, I don't see a problem. As the website currently stands, we also already have the custom cat, which you can customize once and never again. You can throw away a cat and not get it back, and that's a choice you're making.

That said, while I doubt this capability is within the website as it stands, maybe some sort of "magic nail polish remover" could restore a cat to it's original state ... Assuming the genes the cat had to begin with were stored somewhere. But I feel like this would work in the opposite direction and unnecessarily devalue alchemy patterns and attributes.

• Why not just make it so Alchemy takes a long time/is really hard?

Aside from the fact I'd want it to already be really hard, two reasons.

The first, The more time that passes, the more ingredients and potions will exist, and the less that "common" attributes will be worth. While common attributes will always devalue over time, no matter what kinds of guards are put in place to make alchemy harder, things that most cats already are/can be aren't going to be valuable to begin with.

The second, just the ability to change to common, existing attributes, even if it takes a long time, will automatically devalue them by removing scarcity.

• What about people who collect gen 1 cats?

Nothing would change for them from the way the site currently operates, and I would argue it would preserve the value of cool gen 1 cats they have already collected.


uh, the tl;dr here is, in my opinion

• individuality is value is cats traits

• being able to give any existing traits to a cat is erasing individuality of existing cats
  

• i don't think it is fun when the value of a pixel animal is stored in meta elements like birthdays/id numbers instead of gameplay elements, so I want to preserve as many ingame elements that introduce scarcity and rarity as possible

5. Additional Cat Change Sources

On this subject, I just think that the more ways in which a cat can have it's appearance modified, the better. I think different elements of the game granting tangible, physical rewards is an ideal, especially when combined with the existence of Ascension as a physical modifier.

In a game like this... the appearance of the pets is usually the most important value to a player, so I feel like it would be fun if it weren't locked entirely behind just one class/job. This is partially because these things, potions from alchemists, etc, are probably going to become one of the most desirable items on the site really fast.

Alchemy introduces a second source-- the first source being initial cat generation through nestor, gardenhome cards, and starter cats.

I'd really like to see more sources for potential physical generation or change that are based on different gameplay elements or aspects. like, for silly examples:

• Other deities that give out other types of cats with other sets/combinations of traits after moving allegiance from Nestor as outlined in the long term plans
  
• Genes that can be applied to a cat who reaches a certain high level in a specific adventuring class, in the far future where we can have high levels in adventure
  
• Trinkets (potentially ones that hinder your cats stats?) that turn into potions with enough daily EXP
  
• Some horrible rogue wizard who lives in a hut somewhere and has a random chance to change one of your cats genes to a silly wizard gene, move one stat point around, or other, silly things. Maybe wants to be paid in hundreds of low level gathering items for each attempt

And ummm. Yeah. there's my massive post. Whoops.

I genuinely, really really love this game. I cling for things not to conform to the "dress up doll" mold of sites like Neopets, FR and Lorwolf because a lot of what makes PCE unique is what makes it, in my opinion, so good.

edit: a couple grammar mistakes

I don't really think I will like alchemy. I will probably change my opinion a million times before the update comes out, but as I stand right now I don't want it to happen. The concept of being able to change everything about a cat just makes them seem replacable. The value of cats will also switch to digits, id numbers, and stuff you can't change as you mentioned, which is something I don't want to happen. Because I join a lot of pet sites years and years after they were started, I usually stop liking them very quickly because I can just never catch up. Same reason I don't really like changing traits feature in other pet sites because you can't catch up and it makes everything seem replacable. This is one of the things I like about PCE because there isn't a lot of things to catch up on because it doesn't have a bunch of collectables yet. New players coming after alchemy gets added mght feel lost and like they will never have the cool things, and stop playing. To stop this from happening I propose a few solutions:

1. Make alchemy EXTREMLY hard to get. I mean extremly extremly hard like village lodge times 5 for one recipe.
Pros
-Will allow people to change small things without getting a whole new cat while keeping cat prices stable
-Won't shift cat focus strictly to id numbers, birthdays, ect.
Cons
-Cats will still feel replacable
-It might be cheaper to just get a new cat making alchemy kinda useless

2. Only add alchemy for certain more common traits
Pros:
-People can easily change cat traits
-Rare traits will still be rare as they can't be changed
-Cats will feel less replacable
Cons:
-Alchemy is again kinda useless if you can only change certain common traits (which few people will want to change)

I really hope Squid can come up with a good balance of rarity and accessibility in the future. But at the end of the day the alchemy update is a long time from now so a lot may change in that time so we will just have to see how it goes.

im going to add this to it because its under the same topic

- lock null wind to breeding only. South, North and Trade winds can be changed by alchemy

we already know wind is going to be able to be changed though being able to change winds straight to null makes it less valuable when they're pretty valuable all because they cannot breed with other cats the only way you can get them is because of hidden genes and are giving more incentive to breed like how pure colors and gems are locked behind breeding on ovipets and are worth a bit.

I didn't have time to read most of this but want to drop a few core points about how alchemy will work:

1) Alchemy will be VERY difficult and very hard work. I do not want it to influence prices too much (if at all). Getting an alchemy item will be much more dedication and patience than getting even a handful of business cards (though it won't be purely adventuring like those are).

2) Not every combination will necessarily be possible with alchemy.

3) Alchemy releases will lag considerably behind normal releases.* That is, if I give you a new white marking group, you probably won't get alchemy for that group until the market slows for it months or even years later. (Your cats have to research it first of course!) Because of this, at no point will it be possible to sit down and turn a cat into every possible other cat.

*Exception: there will be a small number of alchemy-unique traits where alchemy is the implementation method.

Basically, I have no intention of undercutting the current market. I want alchemy to be a long-term goal you work very hard saving up for for cats you have an emotional attachment to and want to spice up from time to time. It's not designed to become the core method of obtaining certain appearances and traits, but rather to complement the existing cat sales market by adding some side quests and long-term goals.

I'm sure everyone can tell this by now, but I'm a big fan of slow pacing and long-term goals. This is not going to change because it's just my personal tastes!

EDIT because I skimmed a little more but, yes, alchemy will be using luck. It's magicky!

I'm all for Alchemy being hard, and for not all traits to be immediately be available compared to the general populace, but I wouldn't want any trait to be permanently locked out of Alchemy.

I'm at the point now where I'm not really planning to add many more cats to my village? Unless we get a drastic increase in cat slots then my plans are to be changing a lot of the older guys I'm attached to in order to make them more distinct, rather than getting new guys in. If I have a specific character idea in mind for them, I wouldn't want to be unable to achieve that.

Sorry it was so long, extreme relief hearing all this, honestly! Thank you for your time.

I agree with this, I also want to be able to change my older cats that I'm really attached to. I teally don't like the idea of different traits being arbitrarily locked away from them. I'm willing to put the hard work in to customize my babies but I want to be able to customize them the way I want to.

side note: does anyone else remember flight risings eyepocalypse debacle

To avoid confusion, let me elaborate on this line:


Hypothetical situation: Alchemy item that turns your cat to the special new alchemy-exclusive Magenta Color. This changes both color genes to Magenta as it effectively dumps your cat's genes into the pink soup. Tortoiseshell cats with Magenta + Black may require breeding a Magenta kitty with a Black Kitty together to get silly little Magenta-Black babies.

Other Hypothetical Situation: The new species Blorbo-Cat comes with its own unique pattern gene called Blobby. Getting Blobby on a Not-Cat may require cross-breeding Blorbo-Cats with Not-Cats.

Would more specific gene edits for these situations come out eventually? Possibly, but it would be on even more of a delayed schedule. Those are powerful powers we do not yet possess, the kitties would need to do much extra research to develop them.

Eyepocalypse, and that entire situation, was based in them changing an existing system/rule. In FR, you're playing a dress up game. So adding an actual element of inherent value like all the not-cats have disrupted it's neopets-like paper doll gameplay, and lead a lot of people to become disappointed with the gameplay style being changed.

As PCE currently exists, it's not fully "a dress up game" as far as the cats physical capabilities are concerned and... I really don't want it to turn into one. For me, being able to fully transform a creature into another creature removes gameplay from any game with breeding, removes a lot of pet appeal. Adding alchemy is changing a system that exists, much like adding the eyes in FR, (not being able to change the cats,) and I don't want appeal associated with pet uniqueness, pet individuality, and pet value to be lost. OTL

I understand some people might have been playing a certain way in hopes that the game might eventually be more of a paper doll game like FR, but... as the game is right now, you can't change the pets. So I can't really feel like it's comparable to the FR eye situation, except in wanting and waiting for the game to be more like games like Lorwolf and FR.

But I think this is a situation where me as a person who's playing the game mechanically, and you who's playing it as a roleplay, are finding different things in it. But I feel like at our heart, we kind of want the same thing? You can see your cats as individuals, and I can, right now, too. For you, to replace your cat with a cat born later with a new appearance is a disservice to the existing cat, and to me, being able to change the cat into having any appearance is a disservice to the existing cat, because it reduces that cat to nothing but a canvas, and all of it's existing traits are meaningless.



This sounds well thought out, and I genuinely appreciate the clarification. Honestly, I really want to crossbreed hypothetical future Blorbo-cats. Adding elements like this would open several doors for PCE's breeding gameplay.

I love both these hypotheticals. It will be so exciting to get those new colors and patterns. Especially colors, I am psyched waiting for the ability to somehow get blue cats!!

And, @Fawn - that was a great, very crunchy essay as the OP here, a lot of food for thought. Thanks so much for sharing it. I agree with you on most of the things liked, though I do roleplay also, but the game aspect of games I play always affects me a lot, in many of the ways you explained. I'm glad not to worry about those changes because the "special unique individual" aspect of the kitties here is a big part of what I love about PCE.