Help & FAQ

What is Pikoversum?

Pikoversum brings together Breedables, resources and buildings, a marketplace and the Tamer Game, under one account, in Second Life and on this website. Everything in Pikoversum can be traded, even the food of the Breedables.

The Breedables live on our server. Mating, feeding and births run here; in Second Life a Breedable is only shown. So your Breedables can breed on the website alone, without being rezzed inworld.

How do I start?

Get the free Pikoversum Ankh and HUD at the Mainstore in Second Life and sign in with the HUD. “Getting started” in the help shows both steps.

Breedables

Breedables mate in Second Life and on the website. Which ones mate on the website is decided by the pairing groups. Nobody has to put food in front of them: you choose which Breedables are fed, and as long as you have food in stock, they eat.

Breedables do not die of hunger. A hungry Breedable does not mate; once it is fed again, it recovers. From the age of 100 days a Breedable is retired: it no longer mates and eats nothing, and it still counts in your stable.

Pairing groups

Two Breedables only mate on the website when they are in the same pairing group. Each Breedable is in one group. A group can be limited by age or number; the Breedables over the limit are then killed automatically.

Three groups are always there: group 0 does not mate, group 1 is for Breedables in Second Life, group 2 is where new Breedables arrive. Up to 20 groups are possible.

Mating inworld

In Second Life, a female must stand within the mating range of a male. The range is a square around the male, with at most 5 metres up or down; you can set a range for all your males or for each male. “Region” takes the whole region. Females need no range.

With “global pairing” Breedables of different owners mate, within 5 metres.

Birth rules

Birth rules help with breeding projects: by traits you choose, a new Breedable goes to a group after its birth, and it can come alive at once. The rules apply from top to bottom; a later rule wins over an earlier one.

Times of the unicorns

Mature (ready to mate) after 3 days. Pregnant for 24 hours. A female rests 72 hours after mating, a male 24 hours.

Food is handed out every 2 hours. A Breedable that is not fed shows hunger after 6 hours and stops mating after 24 hours; its hunger grows up to 72 hours. A hungry Breedable eats twice as much until it has recovered.

Retired, no more mating, from 100 days of age.

Food

You never have to put food out. Feeding happens automatically every 2 hours: each Breedable that is fed eats one portion of food from your storage, a hungry one two, until it is full again. All you need is enough food in storage; the Food page shows how long it lasts. Buildings like the unicorn farm save food. Food is a resource like any other: you can buy it in the shop and trade it.

Stable capacity

You get your first stable as a gift when you open breeding for the first time. It has room for 20 living and 25 unborn Breedables; stables add room. When more Breedables stand in it than it has room for, no more mating happens until there is room again.

A tamed unicorn comes into your stable when breeding is open and there is room. Otherwise it waits 12 hours in the queue and comes in by itself as soon as there is room; after that it lapses.

The tile in the stable

Each tile shows the name with the gender (mare pink, stallion blue) and the age, the group as a coloured circle with its number and its name, and at the bottom a fixed bar: food, mating, protection, inworld; the number is in the details. Tap a field or move the mouse over it, and a bubble says what it means. A tapped bubble also offers what never harms: turn feeding or protection on, open the details. What is off stays pale; “What the symbols mean” below the stable lists them all.

Food: green when the Breedable is fed and not hungry; yellow when it is hungry (after 6 hours without food); red when it is so hungry that it does not mate (after 24 hours). The hunger counts the missed feedings. Crossed out: it is not fed.

Mating: a full heart when the Breedable can mate now; a heart with a dot when it is pregnant; an empty heart when it rests after mating or is not grown up yet; crossed out when it does not mate (not fed, too hungry, or its group never mates). Retired (from 100 days) shows a moon instead of food and mating, an unborn one a wooden crate.

Protection: a lock, green when the Breedable is protected; open and yellow when it is not protected and its group has auto-kill. Inworld: a globe, green when it stands in Second Life, yellow when it is ordered. At the group: a crossed-out heart for group 0 (no mating), a globe for group 1 (Second Life only), a skull for auto-kill.

Killing

Breedables can be killed one by one, several at once, or automatically by the limits of a group. Each killed Breedable gives 1 meat, from the age of 5 days 2; with a chance of 4 % there is a perfect unicorn horn as well.

Genetics

When two Breedables mate, the traits of the young come from up to 30 ancestors: parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents. The closer an ancestor, the more likely its trait.

The background is mostly new; it is passed on only rarely.

Starters

Starters bring new traits and backgrounds into breeding. New starters come in the shop, some in limited numbers. A starter shows its traits; what it can pass on to its young as a special trait stays a surprise.

Trading Breedables

Breedables can be sold for L$ or for PKS on the marketplace, and sent to another player through the post. A gift waits for the receiver to accept it; until then the Breedable stays with you.

Assets

Assets are resources, buildings and sources of raw materials (for example forests), bonus buildings, talismans, potions and backgrounds. Some you build or brew yourself, some come from the shop or from events; sources of raw materials are sold in limited numbers.

Production

There is nothing to collect. Every 6 hours, at 00:00, 06:00, 12:00 and 18:00 UTC, your switched-on buildings work on their own. Sources such as forests bring new raw materials, the other buildings process what is in your storage. Everything goes straight into your storage. Special buildings yield once a day until their yield is used up. Bonus buildings raise the yield of a raw material.

Population and level

Your estate has residents, at least 10. Every day they eat 0.1 food each. With enough food they grow by 10 %, faster with a surplus, up to the housing your buildings give; without enough food they shrink by 5 %.

Every account has a level. How a higher level is reached is being reworked; until then the level stays as it is.

Marketplace and shop

On the marketplace you offer anything you own: Breedables, assets, even food and potions. A listing costs 1 PKS and runs 365 days; it can renew itself for 1 PKS for another 180 days. An offer for L$ needs its stand in Second Life; a stand that has not reported for 6 hours ends its offer, and the goods come back to you.

The shop offers what Pikoversum sells: starters, food, resources and buildings.

PKS

At our terminal in Second Life you pay in L$ and get Pikos (PKS), 1 PKS for L$ 10. With PKS you buy in the shop and on the marketplace. PKS is not a currency: we do not change PKS back into L$. You can pass PKS on to other players.

Ankh & HUD

The Pikoversum Ankh and HUD are free. The Ankh connects the website with Second Life: it rezzes your Breedables and items inworld. The HUD shows new messages and signs you in on the website. Both use hardly any resources in Second Life.

Under “Me” you can have both sent to you in Second Life.

Tamer Game

In the Tamer Game you find unicorns at Tame Spots all over Second Life, tame them and get a reward in L$ or an asset. A tamed unicorn comes to your stable as a Breedable when breeding is open and there is room; otherwise it waits 12 hours.

Will there be more Breedables?

Pikoversum is built so that new Breedables can join easily, also of other artists, and not only animals. Our engine supports 3D Animesh Breedables as well; the focus stays on the art.