{Papillon} Ember Q&A

Q:  Are the Embers a breedable?
A:  They reproduce, but not in the traditional sense.  They can make new Embers over time, but they do not mate
together or perform any kind of normal reproductive process.  An Ember can create Fairytale Crystals over time
that can be used by an Ember Queen to create more Embers.  

Q:  Does my garden absolutely need this?
A:  Nope!  I'm willing to bet that most experienced breeders already have all of these bonuses in their garden.
This is a pretty alternative to Familiars and some of the other boosters laying around your garden.  It is in no way
necessary, and it does not perform any duties that cannot be done by some other pet/booster.

Q:  What will the Embers eat?
A:  Magic!  Unlike most of the other pets that need food-sources to survive, the Embers survive entirely off of the
fairy magic provided by your garden.  They don't use up, or consume anything at all.  Even if there is nothing else
in the garden at all, an Ember will slowly absorb sunlight, starlight, and moonlight just like a moon pool does and it
will eventually reach Fairytale status.  

Q:  Does this save me prims?
A:  It might.  An Ember can perform several duties.  It might just replace a few pets or boosters that you have out.
The Ember itself is 7 prims, the same as a Flutter.  Unless you have very high-tier pets (Tier-15+), a Fairytale 
Ember will likely outperform a pet in the Ember's primary purpose.  It can also accept magic from Fairy/Snails,
which means that you can pick up any dummy portals until the real Fairy Portals are finished; it also feeds your
Fishies for you, and can replace the helpful snail if it was only transporting food from your garden to the Fishies.

        Most accessories operate at Tier 2 to 4, which means that an Ember with a Purpose and Tier rating higher
        than that can replace the following accessories and can fulfill that role within your garden: 
        
        An Ember with the Maintain Order purpose replaces a Fluttertrap
        An Ember with the Produce Light purpose replaces Motes of Light
        An Ember with the Produce Energy purpose replaces Energy Pools
        An Ember with the Tend the Garden purpose replaces Familiars and Helpful Birdies
        An Ember with the Defend the Garden purpose replaces Bee Hives
        An Ember with the Mating Speed purpose replaces Warming Stones
        An Ember with the Promote Prosperity purpose replaces Psychedelic Shrooms and Longevity Pools
        
        A Fairytale Ember operates at Tier-14 for its Class-based Purpose, Tier-12 for it 2nd Purpose, Tier-10
        for its 3rd Purpose, Tier-8 for its 4th Purpose, Tier-6 for its 5th Purpose, and finally Tier-4 for its
        6th Purpose, which is the maximum number of Purposes that an Ember can potentially unlock.  This
        is the base Tier, which is increased by +1 if the Ember's Race is synergistic with its Class, and an
        additional +1 if it has the Helpful Trait.  This means that a Fairytale Ember with the right combination
        of Race, Type, Class, and Purposes could potentially replace several boosting pets in your garden,
        allowing you to free up prims for other breeding purposes =)
        
        Because the minimum Tier that an Ember can perform at is Tier-4, no matter whether it is a newborn
        Ember or it is a low-tier Purpose, it still does the same job as the low-tier accessories that it can
        replace.
    
Q:  How much will it cost?
A:  It requires Purified Fairy Magic (L$199 in the main store) to empower an Ember Queen with the magic necessary
to summon Embers.  When empowered, the Ember Queen will begin with a special token necessary to
create an Ember.  Once an Ember reaches Fairytale status (which may take a few days), it will begin to generate
Fairytale Ranks that can be crystallized into Fairy Crystals.  These Fairy Crystals can be given to the Ember Queen
to create more Embers at a cost of three Fairy Crystals/Ranks per Ember.  Embers created from Fairytale Crystals
have a chance (based on your garden's bonuses) of manifesting with up to three traits and a particle mutation.

The granted Ember created with Purified Fairy Magic from the store cannot produce traits or mutations.  There is no 
reason to buy more than one Purified Fairy Magic in hope of gaining traits or mutations from it.  Traits and Mutations
can only come from Embers born from Fairytale Crystals created by other Embers.

Q:  Are they laggy?
A:  The Embers are probably the most sim-intensive project that Papillon has.  They are able to perform a number
of different tasks, A single Ember is unlikely to have any affect on your sim, performance-wise, but having more
than a few Embers out can definitely impact your garden's overall performance.    The more Purposes your Ember
has, the more work it does, the more messages it sends to your sim, and the more lag overall that it generates.
Every Fairytale Embers is doing the work of a pet for every Purpose that it has.  If your Ember has 5 Purposes,
it is doing the jobs of 5 pets.

With regard to particle usage, the Ember only uses 16-20 particles per second unless they are moving (there's a
trail of sparklies in their wake) or they possess a secondary particle effect through  mutation.  The Ember's three
layers are only a single particle each that are produced every 0.25 seconds with a lifespan of 0.5 to 1.0 seconds.

Q:  So...if they aren't a traditional breedable...what are they!? o.O
A:  Embers are tiny bits of fairy magic that gain a life of their own.  These brightly glowing little sparks of magic
go about your garden performing a variety of tasks, based on the Ember's Class and what Purposes it unlocks
as it increases in power.   Embers are designed to replace the various Familiars that were available through
the gift stockings.  They are more powerful than the familiars, and do their jobs more often, leading to more
stable results.

The body of an Ember is composed of 7 prims; a core, and six orbiting "lanterns" that gradually appear as
the Ember increases in power.  Each Ember is assigned a Race, Subrace, and Class that defines the body
of the Ember.  There are 9 Races, 9 Types, and 9 Classes, each of which has a unique inner circle, glowing
ring, and outer circle for a total of 729 visibly different Embers.  Each ember also has a base color that is
between the ranges of <0.2,0.2,0.2> and <0.6,0.6,0.6>.  The visible rings of the Ember, chosen by Race, 
Subrace, and Class, are then tinted in a sequence away from those color vectors to create different shades
of color.  As a result, there are no "Pure" Embers -- color is entirely cosmetic, and can be rerolled using
Fairytale Ranks to change the Ember to an entirely new and random color.

Despite the fact that there are technically 729 Embers, there will only be a handful of them that are sought after.  
Each of the Classes has a Race that increases its effective Tier by +1, and a Type that reduces the delay between 
it performing its duties.  As a result, the "best" possible Ember is an Ember with the correct Race and Type that
enhances its performance.

This is similar to how fairy classes each have a race that bolsters their performance.

Q:  So...I bought an Ember...now what?
A:  Give it some time!  It will go up in tier as it does its jobs/purposes.  When it reaches Fairytale Rank it will
begin to turn experience points into Fairytale Ranks that can be converted into Fairytale Crystals.  'Infuse' those
crystals into an Ember Queen and you will be able to create more Embers once you have enough of them. 
These new Embers created by the Ember Queen have a chance of having special traits and mutations!