Archive for September, 2011

Happiness is KEY to Fervor/Heat

I have listened in group chat and have seen some tickets lately that have been about fervor not rising. Your horses/K-9’s fervor will only rise if your horse/k-9 is awake and above 75% happiness. Now there are many ways to increase the happiness of your breedable.

Lets start with Horses: Riding is one of the ways you can increase the happiness just ride your horse some if he or she seems to be unhappy and not gaining happiness ( they have to be age 7 though before you can ride them).

Another way you can raise the happiness is with salt licks, rezzing out a salt lick with your food will make your horses happier. This stat booster gives a 1% increase in happiness over time. One Salt Lick last 2 horses 2 weeks.

Also you have two other consumables at your disposal to help raise the happiness level some.

The first consumable, sugar cubes, when used give your horse a 15% increase to the happiness though you can only give this consumable to them once in a 24 hour period.

The second consumable that effects happiness also effects all the other stats of the horse and that’s the Amaretto Cocktail! This wonderful little concoction is just what your horse wants to feel happy and ready to start producing bundles by raising energy,happiness, and fervor by 5% and decreasing hunger and thirst by 5% ensuring that your horse can stay up late with his favorite mare! Note that again this consumable can only be given once every 24 hours.

Lets talk K-9’s. You can increase the happiness of you K-9 by using your hud and playing with your K-9. Always remember that your K-9 will not start to gain fervor until they are 7.

Another way you can raise the happiness is with a Chew Toy, rezzing out a chew toy with your food will make your K-9’s happier. This stat booster gives a 1% increase in happiness over time. One Amaretto Brand Chew Toy last 2 K-9’s 2 weeks.

Also you have two other consumables at your disposal to help raise the happiness level of your K-9 some.

The first consumable, Rawhide Lollipop, when used gives your K-9 a 15% increase to the happiness though you can only give this consumable to them once in a 24 hour period.

The second consumable that effects happiness also effects all the other stats of the K-9 and that’s the Mega Woof Vitamins! This wonderful little concoction is just what your K-9 wants to feel happy and ready to start producing kennels by raising energy, happiness, and fervor by 5% and decreasing hunger and thirst by 5% ensuring that your K-9 can stay up late with his favorite gal! Note that again this consumable can only be given once every 24 hours.

Happiness does naturally go down while the horse/K-9 is sleeping but will come back up while its awake. Sometimes for whatever reason you may have a stubborn horse/K-9 that doesn’t want to get happy or its fervor go up once its happy ( fervor can only rise once its age 7 ) if this happens just submit a ticket and send that horse/K-9 on in so we can give it a checkup ( re-rezzing sometimes also fixes this ).

I hope this has helped you with why your horses/K-9’s don’t seem to be increasing in fervor at times.

The Importance of being in the Market

The Importance of being in the Market.

Lately there has been lots of chat in the groups about markets and so today we are going to spend a bit of time talking about them.

One of the greatest pleasures of the breedable sector is wandering around the markets looking for our next greatest find for our horse herds and now K9 packs. They come in all shapes and sizes, from the small 4096sqm to 2, 3 and 4 sims large. If you click on search right now and type in “Amaretto” in the find field you will quickly discover there are lots to visit. The various markets all offer some kind of feature that will appeal to nearly every method of buying/selling our breedables: Auctions, Bid/Offer Boards, Showcase/Spotlight stands, Raffles, Stores, Pens and more! There is something out there for everyone!

Its worth a moment to recognize the amount of time, money and effort that goes into owning a market. For example the start up of a full sim market (if bought direct from linden labs) can easily run a startup bill of over 385,000 L (1500.00USD – SIM+Rental Systems+Bid Boards+ Raffle Systems+Other start up costs). This can also easily cost the owner roughly 125,000L (500USD – Tier+Staff+Other Montly Costs) monthly. Now these are just roughly the costs associated with a 1 sim market. Let us not forget the amount of time the owners/staff have to put in trying to be the best market and to keep it that way. So you can now see that its not so much to do with making millions but rather a love of running a breedable market for people like you and me to sell our breedables.

“Markets are what you make them!”

Sure we all want the markets we visit to have friendly, knowledgable and helpful owners/staff. But lets be honest … that only helps us so much! Let me explain… You show up at “Un-named Market”, you’re armed with some of your awesome breedables that you’ve worked so hard on, you rent a store, you rezz your breedables/food and you walk away expecting they are going to sell… 5 days later your awesome breedables are still sitting there and now your considering to reduce the price in efforts to try and push them. However you notice 5 doors over the person there has taken the time to really make their store “POP” and there are people there looking around and perhaps buying.. The key here is that when you rent your space in a market – This is your store front! Come up with creative ways to make your space “POP”. Its a like an awesome photo… ….Its not always so much about the subject as whats happening in the background to make the subject stand out. In this case the subject is your breedable and the background is what will make them stand out from the rest. GET CREATIVE! Afterall this is why Philip Linden (founder of Linden Labs) created Second Life. So that we could create to no end.

If you asked the owners of markets and top breeders “What makes you successful?” I can assure you they will all say something along the lines of “Word of Mouth”. There is LOADS to be said for passing information along. You are now armed with a store that really “POPS” at “Un-named Market”. The friendly owners/staff are doing their bit to push the market and bring in traffic. BUT… ….Every single market that you can find in search is reliant on “word of mouth”. I promise you that every successful seller is looking for any way they can to bring in their own traffic to their stores. They are telling their friends, passing out landmarks, they have their store easy to find in profile picks and advertising in the groups. Look at this formula …

Owner/Staff boosting the market + renters boosting their stores = Increased traffic
Increased traffic + Your eye “Popping” store + Your awesome breedables = increased sales

So you see… Markets are amazing places to sell your breedables but its equally important that you really be just as active as the owners/staff that run them…

I’m left thinking of the old saying

“Don’t wait for your ship to come in; swim out to it.” — Unknown

and

“Markets are like department stores… Each vendor in a department store spends millions and countless hours to sell you their product” — Ford Carver

Watch next week and I’ll share more stories of my experiences as a breeder.

Starving K9’s

I have seen a few people sending in tickets about their k9’s not eating and in most cases when I go visit their sim in world I find this is happening in user error.

Currently when you buy kibble it is set to group only you will have to make sure that your k9 and your kibble are set to the same group.

If you don’t want to do this you can change the setting of your food to owner only or all.

To change the settings on your kibble you click on the food, and from the menu you chose the option you want to use. Owner Only, Group Only, or All.

If you are a Phoenix user there is a option in your second life preferences that will make this very easy to do.
Edit > Preferences> Phoenix > Misc > Always rez objects under the land group if possible (make sure this is checked)

If you do this every time you rez things out and you are a member of the land owner group they will be set to that group!

Another thing I have seen is that people have pet kibble and the k9 is set to breedable kibble.

Remember guys
1. Re-rez fixes 99% of the issues.
2. If the land is set to a group, are the K9 and food set to that
group?
3. If the land isn’t set to a group, are the k9 and food set to
the same group as each other?
4. Check to see if the k9 is set to the type of food out (more
stats)
5. Re-set home position.

If none of this works please file a ticket @ http://support.amarettobreedables.com/index.php

Zing K-9 Cola

Does it seem like sometimes your K-9s tend to get tired at just the
wrong moment?? Well no worries, just give them a refreshing Zing K-9
Cola and it will boost their energy by 10%!!!

This one time use Zing K-9 Cola will increase one of your K-9’s
energy by 10%. 

1.Open boxed Zing K-9 Cola and rez next to the K-9 you
wish to increase the energy.
2.Click the K-9 and go to the consumables option on the menu.
 
3.Find Zing K-9 Cola from the options on the menu and click it.
 
Once the K-9’s stats have been updated the Zing K-9 Cola
bottle will disappear.

Hello Everyone,

Today I would like to talk about something I am seeing a lot of talk in the group about. How people think Amaretto is done with the horses now that the K-9’s are out.

Well this info is WRONG. I am glad to say that Amaretto is not giving up or stopping work on the horses at all. As matter of fact we are hard at work on lots of ideas. So please remember even though the K-9’s have come out that does not mean we are no longer working on the horses. In all honesty, we are very proud of the horses and will never stop work on them. There are exciting things to come!

We love hearing everyone’s ideas and we do listen to each and every person. If you all have any ideas for the horses or K-9’s please feel free to file a ticket and put “Attention Richie” as the topic. They will get it right over to me to be looked over. No idea is a stupid idea. 🙂

Until next time happy breeding everyone 🙂

Enchanted K9’s!

Hey guys! Well its monday agian, sorry for the late nite post 🙁
Better late than never??

Well i wasn’t sure if everyone got a chance to see the enchanted k9s that have popped up on the grid!

So with the owners permissions of course I wanted to share the pics with everyone!

Remember enchanted k9s are random and can be born from any K9 its kinda like winning the lottery! Congrats to those of you on the grid that have a enchanted K9! And tyvm for letting me use your pics !

Well until next time!
Happy breeding!

K-9 Hud

Hello everyone today I want to cover how to play fetch with your K-9. First you have to attach the HUD (if you do not have a HUD you can click on the K-9 and then help and Get HUD the K-9 will give you a HUD) just wear it and you’re ready to start.

To start first you have to connect the K-9 and select the HUD button ( the movement must be set to physical before this or it won’t work ) then you click on the connect button on your HUD and the K-9 is now connected and ready to play.

Next click on Get Ball and a ball thrower will be given to you from the hud. Wear it and you will notice that the ball is in your hand then press Fetch on the hud.

Next go into mouse look (the letter M or zoom all the way in until you are looking through your avatars eyes).

Now throw your ball away from you by aiming and left clicking (just click on a mac) and the K-9 will attempt to retrieve it 🙂

Once the K-9 returns with the ball you can throw it again 🙂

If for some reason the HUD doesn’t work detach it and reattach it. If this still doesn’t work get a fresh HUD from any of your K-9’s

I hope this helps people have fun with their K-9’s 🙂

Bundles and Kennels

This week I have seen a lot of tickets where mares and k-9’s have been in recovery, yet they have not dropped their bundle or kennel.

This can happen because of interference with Second Life, Amaretto servers , lag, and other disturbances. When the mare/ k-9 goes to drop her bundle/kennel she will go into recovery but the bundle/kennel will not automatically drop.

The mare will try to contact the server again and if all the conditions are favorable the bundle will then drop. Depending on the issues stated this may take some time so just be patient. If it does not drop a bundle/kennel, please file a ticket and include mothers UUID.

When you file a ticket for a bundle fix, always include mothers UUID, as most of the time we will need that information.

How much is that Doggie in the window ?

First I should start out by saying the owners and staff at Amaretto Breedables aren’t able to advise people on the pricing of K9s/Horses etc…

HOWEVER… Some suggestions to pricing your awesome breedables…

1) Check around markets… Find some breedables that are similar to yours and see what they’re selling for.

2) Check the Amaretto Forums for items for sale at http://amarettobreedables.com/forums

3) Ask your fellow breeders in the ~Amaretto Ranch~ Breedables group

4) Check out items listed on myslk9s.com or myslhorses.com – Both sites offer a market for sale area and you can visit some really interesting places along the way…

These are just some suggestions on how to price your breedable. Happy Breeding!!

Two big announcements direct from the Amaretto Ranch!! First we want everyone to join us in welcoming the one, the only, Diamond Holiday as the new moderator in the Amaretto Ranch Breedables group!  Diamond will be a shining new addition in the group regularly to answer questions and help out where she can.  Welcome Diamond!!
We also want to let everyone know that we have had overwhelming requests to keep the Combination Jumbo Food/Salt Lick packs once the sale ended, so you will now find in all the Amaretto stores a Jumbo Mix Pack containing 25 Breedable Food/25 Salt Licks for 6500L PERMANENTLY! On top of the Jumbo Mix Packs for the Horses we have also added to the K-9 stores a Mega Mix Pack containing 25 Breedable Kibble/25 Chew Toys for 6500L PERMANENTLY!  We hope everyone is happy with the new convenience of buying these popular items in the new Mix Packs at the savings price!