Catherine, in one of your posts recently you mentioned you're still Think Tanking what to do about Regard. Here's my thoughts.

The Regard System, as currently implemented, is all Source and NO Sink. That means scores can only go up.

What you should consider is adding things which COST Regard Points. Many players will disagree with most of this .. I don't care .. the point is to consider options, and only set policy once those have been weighed.

When I look at Regard, I see:

- 250 points created, per nest or starter
- 250 points created, per parent, per nest
- 10 points created on a coaxed Meeroo, per petting
- 100 points created, per player, every 10 coaxed Meeroos petted which are owned by other players
- varying points created by Treasures
- varying points created by Oracular Questions

In addition: all Regard points for Meeroos are passed to players upon Release. This more than doubles the effect of petting, if desired by the owners.

What first comes to mind is adding a Regard Cost for producing a nest. By this, I mean that the 250 points each parent gains for producing the nest comes, as a 500 or more point COST, from the Player's regard. This raises the question of what to do about negative Player regard. You could ignore it, saying the Cost is "up to" 500 points. You could carry it forward letting players go more and more negative. You could deny nest production is the player is negative. This last is the option I'd look toward first. Yes, it makes it a bit tougher for new players (handled, perhaps with a new-player starting with, say 2500 Regard instead of zero). BUT, it provides another method for players to slow, or even stop, nest production.

Next, would be some form of Regard Cost when "bad things happen". I don't mean software or networking issues. What I mean here is, for instance, if a Meeroo desires to be cuddled and is ignored, it looses 10 points; if a Meeroo is hungry and misses more than N (say, 2) nibbles, it looses 10 points per attempt thereafter.

Finally, and where most players would probably agree, would be Regard Store Items which cost Regard Points instead of Linden Dollars.

As you've learned, automata, as you're in the process of creating, skews the entire process. One way to mitigate that skew would be to make Batteries a Regard Store Item as well as a Normal Sales Item. Those with huge excess Regard Scores could, then, expend some of those scores to obtain batteries. If, for example, a Battery allows 100 pettings for a net of 1000 points, the player could purchase a Battery for 2000 points. This means the player will expend 1000 points (gone forever) to get a Battery which eventually distributes 1000 Player Regard points back to living Meeroos.

I'm sure there are any number of other ways to turn Regard from a Race-To-The-Top into an Economy. But, once it's an Ecomony, I think you'll find players handle it FAR better than under the present race system.