Thanks again for an awesome mod, which adds lots of enjoyment and a whole new "dimension" to Minetest! My kids also really enjoy your mod!
I have a few ideas/requests/suggestions, to make it even more awesome... if I may be so bold as to express these :)
1. There is one thing that I really do NOT like about the petz mod, and that is the fact that it has a whip and encourages lashing animals :(
Would you consider rethinking that and possibly removing it, or at least having an option to disable its use (perhaps disabled by default?) and make it disappear from the inventory completely, should a player not wish to experience animal cruelty within an otherwise amazingly wonderful mod?
2. Players have the option to have a puppy or a kitten, but how about having an adult dog or cat?
3. Would it be possible to add "life stages" for the animals (similar to how the farming mod for example has growth stages), but obviously with far greater time lapses between stages, and to have (some or all of) the animals grow from "child" to "adult" stage and possibly even have in-between stages? Perhaps the player could also have a setting to choose whether to just have your pets always remain the same age, or to have them age naturally (which would make it more realistic). There could even be an option to allow animals_grow_old and then for them to turn grey and eventually die of old age...? Perhaps you are already using such a mechanic for the chick-hen-rooster "chicken family"?
4. Could you perhaps add lion cub and bear cub pets (and how about tiger cubs)? These would not need to be tamed, as the player raises them from "infancy" and they would naturally bond to you, without need for "traditional taming" methods (which would also negate the need for having a whip and the lashing mechanic, which really isn't what I want my kids to learn from a game... that you should hit/hurt animals, because you want them to do your bidding). BTW I did a web search for lion taming methods and found this
https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com ... taming.htm which confirms that humane methods are in fact used nowadays, and lions are not whipped anymore in most taming processes.
5. How about more toys for playing with pets... e.g. a frisbee and stick to throw for your puppy and dog; a ball of yarn for a kitten and cat, etc.? And to have more pets play with the ball, rather than just the puppy playing with it? Would it be possible for them to fetch and return... to bring it back to you, to throw again?
6. Perhaps a tranquiliser / dart blowpipe could be added, for sedating an aggressive animal, so it doesn't bother you and is rendered harmless for some time, without the need to kill it? And the option to "capture" and relocate it, which might make it "teleport" some x blocks distance away?
7. Would it be possible to add a dog whistle to call your pet puppies and pet dogs, if they are within reasonable distance from you? Oh wait, you do have a pet whistle already.. does that work for all animals?
8. While on the subject of puppies and dogs... How about an option to set the breed of the puppy when you first "get" it, and then it gets locked and it will grow up to be that type of dog (and use the model and textures for that, and to have aggression / lack thereof, and loyalty, etc. associated with that particular breed)? Maybe also select the kitten's cat breed similarly?
* OR might it be possible to get a prompt/formspec popup when the kitten, puppy (or some other animals' young) is placed, to choose the age and breed (and gender?) and thereby remove the need to have zillions of variations for the pets, for various life stages, breeds, gender, etc.? Essentially just setting a few flags/variables for the specific instance of the pet, and letting the code decide which models and textures and attributes to apply to that pet?
9. Could we also perhaps have petfood ("dry" pellets, "wet" tinned, etc.) and bowls to put the food and water (or milk in case of a kitten/cat) in for them? This could even allow creative players to build feeding "machines" where food and drink items from chests could be sent via tubes, hoppers, etc. into the pet bowls (or troughs for farm animals)?
10. Can one's pets perhaps play with each other? For example, if you have more than one puppy / dog...
11. Could petz have lifecycles for all animals that are present in it? This would be great for helping kids to learn within the game what most schools teach them in a rather boring way from textbooks... :) Lifestages of the butterfly, silkworm, frog, fish and chicken (already done)...? Having "baby" animals for all animals in the mod, would also help kids to learn the animal-offspring names associated with each other... and to experience in game which animals are related (parent and child). Maybe rename the animals to show this more clearly: e.g. lion (adult), lion (cub), pig (adult), pig (piglet)?
12. How about having a lizard and/or gecko added?
Yes, I know some of these are quite "out of the box" and perhaps pushing the boundaries of what might be possible in Minetest, but I think most or all of it will be possible... even if not right away ;)
What do you (and everyone else) think about these ideas?
PS I've seen a few times how some animals somehow get stuck on top of things (tree, built structure, etc.) and are apparently unable to get down by themselves, until a player builds a way down, by placing blocks or breaking down some of whatever the animal is stuck on... Could you look into this?