Scalwolves

[Rei'sari]

Scalwolves

Developed by Rei'sari

Price: Living: NA, Dead: 1 WP for one adult or two adolescents, or three cubs
Habitat: Scalwolves live in the Scalvoris Mountains, and the Sweetwine woods.
Appearance: Scalwolves look like normal wolves for the most part. They tend to be a bit bigger than normal wolves, but not so much that one could be mistaken for another save for one thing. The Scalwolves have feathered wings, and can fly. Their fur can be black, white, creme colored, grey, or more rarely brown or reddish brown. Their wings match the color of their fur, but their wing pinions may have bands of another color or then may gradually lighten or darken into another color or shade. And their eyes can be varying shades of blue, green, or amber/gold. Males tend to be larger than the females.
Lifespan and Development: Scalwolves live for 15-20 arcs. Scalwolves are much like normal wolves. They live in packs of 10-15 individuals that include one male, several females, and their offspring. Scalwolf packs are led by a single male since the males tend to be bigger and more aggressive than the females are. All other males are driven out of the pack when they reach adulthood unless they challenge the current alpha male. In the case of a challenge, the winner becomes the new alpha, and the loser is either driven out of the pack or killed. Their breeding season is in early Cylus. The female's gestation period is 62-75 trials, and she will bear 4-6 cubs in a litter. The cubs are weaned when they are eight seventrials old. At half an arc old, they begin hunting for their pack, and at two arcs old, they are considered adults.
Diet: Scalwolves are carnivores.
Temperament: Scalwolves are very social animals. They have a pack structure where they are led by the alpha. All of the scalwolves in the pack will help to raise and protect the cubs. Scalwolves are stupid animals. They hunt by scent, but they will attack the ground where a prey animal has spent some time as readily as they will their prey because the ground smells like their prey, and they cannot tell the difference between the two without attacking it first. They are very territorial, and are aggressive towards anything they feel is a threat. Threats are considered to be anything that tries to hunt or attack them as well as something dangerous (a hunter or bigger predator than them) in their territory. Once they feel threatened, they will attack anything that moves near them until they don't feel threatened anymore. This includes their own packmates, falling leaves, etc.
Abilities: 1) They have wings, and can fly
Weaknesses: Their lack of intelligence
Fast Facts Skill Levels Required
Knowing It
-- Scalvoris: Novice
-- Idalos: Expert
Wealth Tier
-- Scalvoris: Tier 7
-- Idalos: Tier 10
Sell/Buy It
-- Scalvoris: Novice
Rarity
-- Scalvoris: Uncommon
-- Idalos: NA
Finding It
-- Scalvoris: Expert
-- Idalos: NA
Collecting It
-- Scalvoris: NA
-- Idalos: NA
Using It
-- Furs/Feathers: Competent
Killing It
-- Master
Capturing It
-- Master
Danger
-- Low to Moderate due to their stupidity
Tending It
-- NA

[Avalon]

Hey Rei - I'm going to have Peg pop in here and take a look. I know this part of the SkyHaven dev so we want to look at it collectively with Vulpes.

I do have a quick note - you mentioned a few times that these wolves are only dangerous is they feel someone is a threat to them, but you never really explain what they would find threatening. I think we might need to establish that.

Thanks!

[Rei'sari]

Should I edit that in now, or wait for Peg and Vulpes to take a look? What they would find threatening is rather simple; something dangerous (a hunter or bigger predator than them) in their territory, being hunted/attacked...that sort of thing. Unlike a deer who was being hunted (except for the OhDeer), a Scalvwolf would fight back if they couldn't flee.

[Avalon]

Should I edit that in now, or wait for Peg and Vulpes to take a look? What they would find threatening is rather simple; something dangerous (a hunter or bigger predator than them) in their territory, being hunted/attacked...that sort of thing. Unlike a deer who was being hunted (except for the OhDeer), a Scalvwolf would fight back if they couldn't flee.

Please edit that in. As for being 'rather simple', please be aware that people trying to follow these write ups need clear, concise information. What you consider 'rather simple' may not be for someone else, and they can't read your mind. Thank you.

[Rei'sari]

I've edited the information in.

[Pegasus]

Thanks for Dev'ing these, Rei - that makes the Scalvmutts etc more able to be dev'd.

I've got a couple of issues here.

1. Could you put in an "Appearance" heading - a winged wolf is something that needs to be made explicit, I think? It's not mentioned until we get to abilities - and it's pretty important! Also- how big are they? What's their colouring etc?

2. I'm concerned about the number of animals that are as intelligent as a grey parrot which are big and protective and aggressive to a threat and have one person or mate for life. I think we need to be giving Scalv a bit more variety than that.

3. Why do they only live in the mountains? I'd think they'd live in a number of places.

4. What are they sold for? In the fast facts you have them as Tier 5 or 7. Is this right?

Thanks for putting up with the gazillion questions!

[Rei'sari]

1. Added.

2. I changed the mate for life aspect of it, and the one person part doesn't apply to them as they are very much not pets.

3. I added the Sweetwine Woods to this. And would love your advice on it if you think there should be more. I was thinking that they would be uncommon, and was thinking that with their wings, they'd need space to take off/land, so wasn't sure if a forest would suit them.

4. I changed that to 7 and 10, but would like your advice. These are meant to be a challenge to hunt, so would fetch a high price. Especially as they aren't common. And it'd be higher in other lands since they only live in Scalvoris.

[Avalon]

I'm bacccccccck! Let's see what we have going on....

They are very territorial, and are aggressive towards anything they feel is a threat. Threats are considered to be anything that tries to hunt or attack them as well as something dangerous (a hunter or bigger predator than them) in their territory.

So, by this definition, any person that walks into their territory will be a threat, so I don't feel that there is a need to specify anywhere else "if they consider you a thread", etc. These write ups are geared towards informing players about the ins and outs of a specific fauna/flora/place. Walking into their territory means threatening nature. Done. Which means....

Danger
-- Very high if they see you as a threat

.....needs to be changed. Also, I'm a bit concerned about the 'very high' danger rating. I get that they are slightly bigger than normal wolves, aggressive and wild but this write up doesn't impress upon me the idea that they are super aggressive, monster-ish type material. Those are the types I would personally classify as very high. Thoughts?

Scalwolves have the intelligence equal to that of a chimp or a grey parrot.

I'm going to echo Peg's thoughts here. We've had a lot of animals that have 'intelligence'. Across the animal kingdom, there is a vast difference in intelligence, but it doesn't seem to be something that is focused on, or in my opinion, should be focused on unless its extra-ordinary. I think that the ability for this particular wolf to fly makes it unique enough that intelligence wouldn't really be a factor. It can still be difficult to kill/capture. Wolves are, by their nature, successful hunters, so it seems odd to chalk that up to a superior intelligence. Thoughts?

I'll let you work on those things and we will take a look again, alright?

[Rei'sari]

So, by this definition, any person that walks into their territory will be a threat, so I don't feel that there is a need to specify anywhere else "if they consider you a thread", etc. These write ups are geared towards informing players about the ins and outs of a specific fauna/flora/place. Walking into their territory means threatening nature.

Originally, I was thinking that they would be smart enough that this would not necessarily be the case. A person who wasn't acting aggressively - gathering herbs, for example (and paying attention to the plants rather than to them), or was simply passing through (not stalking them, etc.) might not have been determined to be a threat. This has been changed however.

Also, I'm a bit concerned about the 'very high' danger rating. I get that they are slightly bigger than normal wolves, aggressive and wild but this write up doesn't impress upon me the idea that they are super aggressive, monster-ish type material. Those are the types I would personally classify as very high. Thoughts?

I think that I do not have a firm grasp of the threat ratings. I would have considered a pack of wolves attacking me to be very dangerous myself. But this has also been changed.

I'm going to echo Peg's thoughts here. We've had a lot of animals that have 'intelligence'. Across the animal kingdom, there is a vast difference in intelligence, but it doesn't seem to be something that is focused on, or in my opinion, should be focused on unless its extra-ordinary. I think that the ability for this particular wolf to fly makes it unique enough that intelligence wouldn't really be a factor. It can still be difficult to kill/capture. Wolves are, by their nature, successful hunters, so it seems odd to chalk that up to a superior intelligence. Thoughts?

This has been fixed as well. I was wanting them to be intelligent mostly because I wanted the hybrids that would be bred from them to be intelligent if the Scalmutts and Scalpups are approved. You can't really breed a significant amount of intelligence into a breed you are trying to create if the parent species don't have it, after all. With this change, the Scalmutts will need a major rework as they will not be smart enough to be trained as hunting companions and guard animals (or at all, really, I don't think), but I will fix them when I can.

[Avalon]

Hey - so I think we are at a point where we need to set this dev aside for now. Peg and I asked for some reworking on the intelligence factor and it seems now that this breed is 'stupid'. I'm not sure what got lost in translation, because neither Peg or I ever suggested that. There has to be a middle ground and going from superior intelligence to 'stupid' is very dramatic.

This animal, right now, is unworkable. I'm going to put this thread in limbo. My suggestion is to think on the concept and then resubmit when you feel like you have a better idea of what you'd like this animal to conceptually be.