In Progress!
The Base
This is what I call the “base file” – it is literally what you get when you remove everything from the breed file and have all defaults at 0 (pixel) or 100 (percent), lines at 100, and no outlines. It’s a decently cute little petzy thing, whether dog or cat.
What is interesting is that it doesn’t matter which file you start with, they will all look identical once all information is removed (dogz and catz each different, of course). There is apparently some code hidden somewhere that tells the balls to start at these positions. But those aren’t currently accessible via LNZ Pro.
Scales
The scales are something that haven’t been used a lot in hexing, especially in the PKC as 2nd gen editing wasn’t allowed. Now that it is allowed, hexers are exploring the limits more so than what we were previously limited to when solely using natural breeding. Having default scales out of a certain range would cause a second generation to have a different size and/or look.
There are two numbers under the default scales, the first is the “pet scale” and the second is the “ball scale.” The pet scale moves all balls closer to or further from a central point. The ball scale on the other hand changes the size the balls are overall. So, let’s play with these numbers and see what that means.
Setting the pet scale to 0, while leaving the ball scale at 100 will result in a single ball. It is actually every ball of the pet stacked on top of each other and the pet doesn’t show up in the game at all, though you can take pictures of it. The size is that of the largest ball.
If you reverse the options, with 100 pet scale and 0 ball scale, you end up with a “skeleton” of a pet with 1 pixel wide lines showing the basic outline. It shows up in the game and can be seen running around, but can’t be picked up by the mouse. Notice that while the balls are now tiny, they are still in the same position.
Setting both scales to 0 creates a 1 pixel ball that you can’t do anything with or see (at least until you take a picture).
<- there is actually a picture of a 0 pet scale/0body scale dog right there, that tiny dot!
Changing the ballscale to a negative number does the same as setting it to 0. Changing the petscale to a negative number creates a mirror reflection of the same dog over the horizontal plane. For example, -50 is an upside down fluff ball, -200 is an upside down skinny dog, -100 is an upside down, but otherwise normal dog. What is interesting is that all actions are also reversed, so the dog faces away from the camera while trotting, dal posing, and other interactions. For some reason, once the pet goes off the sides of the screen, it seems to get stuck and you need to either close the game or use PetA to Send to Petz Door to get it back, so unfortunately they aren’t a lot of fun to play with.
Now, something interesting is that these almost seem to do the same thing – you can in fact get a similiar effect (though differently sized) by fiddling with numbers. 200 pet scale/100 ball scale is almost identical to 100 pet scale/50 ball scale – other than overall size.
Pet Scale 200 | Ball Scale 50
No matter how large you go with the pet scale though, it will never form a skeleton, but will continue making a larger and larger pet, and no matter how large you go with the ball scale, you will never get a perfect ball, you will get a puffier pudgier pet (rather cute ones).
Ball Scale 300
As far as I can tell, there is no limit to what number this can be in the game (though Pet Workshop may crash when you get into the thousands). Of course, setting it to 5000/5000 makes some weird stuff happen. It does seem that the ball scale doesn’t make balls larger after around 500, but you can continue increasing the number. The balls continue to expand up to 5000 (highest I tested) with the pet scale however – at that point they just fly around the screen with most of the “pet” not visible. If you are okay with hexing bred petz, then the sky’s the limit!
Pet Scale 5000 (image is sized down for space, this is actually a full screen and it goes OFF the screen)
If you do want to have a file that will breed 2nd gens that look like the parents without hexing, you’ll need stay over 75 and under 159 in adults. Puppies/kittens can be as small as 45 and the second gen puppy/kitten will be the same.
Here you can see that the offspring of those who have larger/smaller scales.
Pet/Ball Scale 170 1st and 2nd Gen
Pet/Ball Scale 45 1st Gen | 2nd Gen
Now, obviously the crazy shapes above are things you probably don’t intend to do, so what good are the Default Scales?
In the original files, they are most commonly used to make puppies and kittens small, fluffy, and cute. With a pet scale of 60 and a ball scale of 75, our base pet turns into a cute baby. You may need to tweak the numbers slightly depending on what scales are used in the adult, but using default scales is the easiest way to make a quick puppy/kitten.
Pet Scale 60, Ball Scale 75
If you are making a breedfile of a heavier dog, or one with a thick coat, just slightly decreasing the ball scale, even by 10 can have a nice effect. Adding these into a file as variations (ie. 90, 100, 110) makes for a subtle, but visible coat variations.
Ball Scale 125, 110, 100, 90, 75, 90, 75, 50
The pet scale, likewise can be used to give some variation to the size of the file. A subtle change in just the ball size will give you a slightly taller/slimmer or more compact pet. This can especially be nice in breeds where there is a gender difference (especially when paired with the Force to Male/Female options).
Pet Scale 150, 125, 110, 100, 90, 75
What gives really stunning results, however, is when the two are adjusted together. In fact, we can quite quickly turn our base dog into something that looks like some of the original breeds.
Pet Scale 120, Ball Scale 125
Pet Scale 150, Ball Scale 115
Pet Scale 125, Ball Scale 150
Pet Scale 125, Ball Scale 110
Extensions
Like the Default Scales, the various extensions had limits to what would pass on to second generation petz without significant issues.
Leg Extension
The leg extension is pretty obvious, it extends the legs, the first number extending the front legs, the second number extending the hind legs. These are extended by pixels, rather than by percent. What is interesting is that it isn’t actually just the legs themselves moving, but the foot/hand and toe/finger balls remain stationary while the butt/chest ball are the ones moving. The other balls (hip, knee, shoulder, elbow) move in preportion. You can end up with some very odd looking creatures by extending one futher than the other, as the front will move the head with the shoulder, but it will not affect the hind end and the hind end will not affect the front end, including the head. Negative numbers will push the same balls downward, including below the paws.
Front Leg Extension 100
Hind Leg Extension 50
Front Leg Extension -50
Normally, you are going to move these together or in much smaller increments than above. This can be helpful with adjusting a breed that has a sloping topline or to extend the legs. This is how the original breeds get the the stubby legged dachshund from the long legged great dane.
Front Legs Extension 5, Hind Legs Extension 10
Front Legs Extension 15, Hind Legs Extension 5
Front Legs Extension -12, Hind Legs Extension -15
Combining this with the Default Scales and we can see the base file transform into something that resembles the great dane.
Pet Scale 160, Ball Scale 125, Front/Hind Legs Extension 17
Body Extension
The body extension, like the leg extension, works on pixels, rather than percent. It proportionately extends the butt and chest balls away from each other horizontally, and moves the belly ball in proportion between the two.
Body Extension 100, 0, -20
Blah, blah, blah
Body Extension 1000
Blah, blah, blah, blah
Body Extension -100