I really included this on the survey for fun just because I know a few players in particular request it on every single survey, haha. What I did not anticipate is the overwhelming number of responses that did wants cats and also went back to the comments section to reiternate to me how much they wanted cats.

Soo, I kind of feel like we should talk about it, so I'm making this thread so that we can discuss it. Although, truly, no promises, this is not a decision anyone on the staff wants to take lightly and we didn't actually think the suggestion would be so popular. But, let's talk about it!

It would be a lot of work to add cats, but less work than you probably think. So it IS possible, buuttt.

My concerns are the following:

#1 it would be more information for the server to handle, and it would be more things happening internally. Our server should be able to handle this, but it's worth noting anyway. I think it would have to come with a massive clean up of old accounts and old horses/dogs (which should happen anyway, but it's a lot of work for a small organizational payoff right now, but if we were to add cats, it would be more necessary).

#2 it would be a pretty major deviation from the genre. Although, to be fair, I think only the old HL-style games have horses AND dogs. Most of the them these days are one or the other. So really, there's nothing stopping us from doing whatever we want. But we did just get new art that does not involve cats (although, yes, this could be fixed) and since our name is HORSE Phenomena, I think we're already at a marketing disadvantage because we don't have an inclusive name, haha.

#3 I don't know a goddamn thing about cat genetics, so if we all collectively decide that we want genetics and cats, that might be a problem.

#4 is kind of an expansion on #2, but HP is meant to be a specific type of old-school game, and I don't want to lose touch with that. That's our whole schtick. And I don't want to add things that would alienate players who really do want an old school horse and dog SIM game experience. But we are our own game, we're not HL despite the similarities, and we've been our own game for a whole decade, so I don't think we should be beholden to old industry standards just for the hell of it. So if truly you all want this, then YOU are HP's playerbase and you should get to decide how you want to play, you know?

Soo, tell me this:

Do you want cats? Why or why not?

Orientals, Siamese (technically oris and Siamese could be seen as the same in theory just coloring difference) Cornish Rex, lyoki

Persian, sphinx, exotic short hair, pixie-Bob,

Oriental short hair - they are cute but resemble dobby from Harry Potter xD

If cats WERE added, which is obviously still a huge question and a ways down the road, there's really not a huge reason to limit the cat breeds, right? -shrug- There's a million horse and dog breeds already, plenty with no breeders, so obviously that isn't a big deal on HP. May as well add what people are potentially interested in. Keep wild cats as a potential cash-shop item, but otherwise go nuts. If cats get to exist on the game, why not?

yea calico is a color and i wanna say most calico's are almost always femals. 

jaya, i think wild cats in the cash shop would be a great idea!

also a suggestion i have (idk if it's been said before) but with all the horse and dog breeds we currently have that have no breeders, they can be removed from the game in placement for the cats?? (if they get added?)
idk if this would help with server space or not, i have no idea how that kinda coding would work lol. 

its very rare to get an calco that is male.

I would definitely be a breeder of some maine coons :D

I got the Cat Fancy magazine too when I was little!!! xD

Here's a small list with pictutres of the kitties....
Clicky for Link

I have a pretty big book of cat breeds, but that's super unhelpful because it's shoved in a bin on a moving truck, soo it's poop out of luck for that one until I can get it back! :(

Yes to only cleaning up animals with inactive owners! Probably if an account is elligiable for deletion, that would be more of what I'm looking at. Wouldn't want to delete people's sentimental animals.

i personally wouldnt mind REMOVING unactive breeds. Like if you want it added back cool, but there needs to be a "fee" to encourage players to actually stick to it.
Im not a fan of adding, then 3 (or however many) people say they will breed it and then once its added they all back out. 
I personally would stick with adding a limited amount because it would encourage sales/breeding
keep it small to start with so if it doesnt work then we dont have a ton of clean up to do :)

I know that this isn't about cats.. this is about clean up. So maybe we should have a separate thread about clean up? 


But - I like the idea of cleaning up the game so to speak. Getting rid of inactive accounts, inactive dogs/horses. Basically a new year clean up so that we can start the New Year with active players, horses, doggos. etc. Maybe that would help with the server? I know personally I have extra accounts that I do not use and would not mind them being permanently deleted. 

BUT (before someone tries to kill me for saying that) I also understand sentimental value! So, maybe there can be a way for the inactive players / dogs or pups up for deletion to have a way to say : Yes- it's okay delete them or NO- I want to keep my sentimental pixels. 

I say no to cats being added and if we did maybe only a few cash shop ones available for upgrades only or something...

I like it horses and dogs. If we got rid of dogs id probably leave

dogs wouldn't be removed as a whole, it was suggested that dogs that don't have any active breeders be removed since, they don't have any breeders and don't server a purpose 

I've always bred dogs on here and I have only dabbled in horses on hl very briefly when I joined and with partnerships but I actually think I'd try a line of cats before i'd go into horses. Not 100% on why lol I think if we were to do them they should be different to dogs. I mean yknow how horses have a higher retirement age I think cats should have a lower age than dogs. So they'd be a bit different.

Would it stop me from playing? No

Would I breed them? Yes I think I would. 

Would I be upset if we did or didn't get them. Not at all. I feel like if this is a thing a lot of players want then I'd be open to it. I never play HP or HL for the horses even though that's what both their names were. 

Basically I feel like it could be a nice addition but I also agree with if you're going to have them in the game you need to able to have them like horses and dogs. Could you cut back on horse/ dog breeds that aren't used and say people can request them if they don't see them there and then start off with a few lines of popular cats and see how it goes? Could we try a trial period when you say we're launching cats for 1month to see if they're popular or not and if we find they're not then they will be removed from the game and we can always address it again. Obviously I realise there's work involved in that so you'd have to see how feasible that is for you and the game.

I kind of disagree on the retirement age being lower than dogs. Dogs retire sooner because their life expectancy is a lot shorter than that of a horse. Cats would realistically fall between the horses and dogs. 

I agree with Con, the idea of the dog's shorter lifespan on HP I believe is to reflect the rl lifespan of horses vs dogs. Cats do tend to live longer than dogs so I could see their lifespan equaling that of a 18yr HP lifespan vs a shorter one.

Yesss! And I think it would be kinda cool to have a cash shop option for some bigger cats/mythical cats

What about tigers,lions,servals, caracals, oscelots,leopards,cheetahs, mountain lions/cougars and sand cats etc...these are in the felinus deathicus(megamind thinking) category....or is it just gonna be domestic breeds? 

i would say regular breeds be in store with if ever wild animal types be a cash shop item (i think wolves/foxes/dires should be in this same category though)

^this :D

cats can liive up to 20 or more yrs it shouldnt be lower then dogs.