Summary

This mod started as a simple cat conversion from unused base-game assets and has grown into a full pet system with:

• Taming + ownership
• Capture/spawn with persistent appearance variants
• Command controls (Follow, Hold, Recall, Move To Ping, Set Home, Return Home, Attack Target)
• Happiness/needs simulation with resource seeking
• Passive companion breeding
• Trait generation and inheritance for bred companion cats
• Leveling and a 30-talent tree for pet cats
• Multi-language localization

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Required:

• Alec's Tamework! >=5.4.0 <6.0.0

Recommended:

• Alec's Nametags!
• Alec's Animal Husbandry!
• Taming Addon for MMO Skills

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Craftable Items

With Alec's Animal Husbandry! installed, every recipe below moves to the Cats tab of the Animal Husbandry Workbench. Without it, the benches listed below apply. Catnip Seeds are always crafted at the Farmer's Workbench.

Cat Collar (Capture/Spawn Item)

• 3x Light Leather
• 1x Gold Bar
• Bench: Workbench Tier 2 (Tinkering)
• Stored cats use generated collar icons that match their body type and coat.

Cat Treat Bag (Command Item)

• 2x Light Leather
• 5x Raw Fish
• 5x Raw Meat
• Bench: Workbench Tier 2 (Tinkering)

Cat Cardboard Box

• 10x Plant Fiber
• 5x Catnip Plant
• Bench: Workbench Tier 2 (Tinkering)

Large Cat Cardboard Box

• 20x Plant Fiber
• 10x Catnip Plant
• Bench: Workbench Tier 2 (Tinkering)

Cat Teaser Wand

• 2x Stick
• 3x Light Feathers
• 2x Plant Fiber
• 1x Catnip Plant
• Bench: Workbench Tier 2 (Tinkering)

Cat Yarn Ball

• 4x Wool Scraps
• 1x Catnip Plant
• Bench: Workbench Tier 2 (Tinkering)

Cat Bed

• 6x Linen Scraps
• 10x Plant Fiber
• 2x Catnip Plant
• Bench: Workbench Tier 2 (Tinkering)

Cat Scratching Post

• 4x Stick
• 12x Plant Fiber
• 2x Catnip Plant
• Bench: Workbench Tier 2 (Tinkering)

Cat Tower

• 8x Softwood Planks
• 20x Plant Fiber
• 6x Linen Scraps
• 5x Catnip Plant
• Bench: Workbench Tier 2 (Tinkering)

Cat Bowl

• 2x Clay
• 1x Catnip Plant
• Bench: Workbench Tier 2 (Tinkering)

Quick Start

1. Find a wild cat.
2. Hold raw fish to draw it in curiously, then feed it to make it friendly.
3. Use a Cat Collar to capture/tame it.
4. Place your cat from the Soul Lantern item.
5. Use one of these control methods:
   • Interact directly to cycle basic modes (Follow / Defend / Stay).
   • Use the Cat Treat Bag for advanced commands.

Cat Treat Bag (Command Item)

• Left click on a cat: link/unlink that cat to the bag.
• Right click: open the companion command panel.
• Left click (while not targeting link action): execute selected command on linked cats.

Default commands:

• Follow
• Follow Close (through a Tamework 4-compatible Animal Husbandry flute)
• Hold
• Recall
• Move To Ping
• Set Home
• Return Home
• Attack Target

Notes:

• Commands require ownership + tamed cats by default.

Cat Teaser Wand

Hold the Cat Teaser Wand (Cat_Teaser_Toy) in your main hand to draw in your awake, idle cats within six blocks. Hold the left or right mouse button, or Use, to bounce the feather while cats gather in front of you and play with harmless swats and pounces. Swats are more common; before a pounce, the cat backs away to roughly three blocks, pauses briefly, then hops forward toward the feather. Releasing the button cancels the preparation, and a blocked retreat times out.

After you release the button, cats watch for another three to four seconds before returning to idle. Use it again to renew their interest. Putting the wand away, moving out of range, losing line of sight, or taking damage ends play. Commands and urgent needs take priority.

A cat that swats or pounces gains happiness, at most once every few minutes per cat. Front positioning follows the player's body facing direction and can look off around obstacles and moving players.

Cat Furniture and Toys

Idle pet cats use these on their own. Each one gives the cat a small happiness gain when it finishes, then the cat rests before choosing another. A command, sleep, hunger, or thirst ends the activity.

• Cat Bed (Cat_Bed): cats walk onto it, lie down, and nap for 30 to 60 seconds.
• Cat Scratching Post (Cat_Scratching_Post): cats walk up, rear onto their hind legs, and scratch for a few seconds.
• Cat Tower (Cat_Tower): two blocks wide and two tall. Cats leap onto the top perch and sit there for a while, and they also scratch its post. Leave the space above the perch open, and leave at least one side of the post clear.
• Cat Litter Box (Cat_Litterbox): now and then a cat walks in, digs a spot, squats, and kicks litter back over it. Each cat uses it at most once every 15 to 25 minutes.
• Cat Yarn Ball (Cat_Yarn_Ball): use it to throw it. Where it lands it stays as a ball on the ground until someone picks it up; a throw that hits a creature drops to the ground there. Idle cats within ten blocks chase it, swat it, and now and then back off and pounce on it, and it rolls away each time. Walking into it kicks it too. It stays within about six blocks of where it landed. Press Use on the ball to pick it up.
• Cat Bowl (Cat_Bowl): one bowl for food or water, like Tamework's feed trough.
  • Food: open it and put in raw fish or Tamework Carnivore Kibble. Hungry cats walk over and eat from it.
  • Water: right-click it with a filled water bucket or a filled tankard. Thirsty cats walk over and drink, and the bowl empties after about 20 drinks. Hold Use to pour the water out.
  • The bowl shows what it holds and how full it is. Empty it before switching between food and water.

The bowl uses Tamework's feed trough system, so other Tamework companions can eat and drink from it too.

Install Tamework 5.4.0 or newer in the 5.x line on Hytale 0.6.7 or newer, and restart the world/server before using these assets. Reloading Cats assets cannot add the Java builders to a running server.

Taming and Ownership

• Taming assigns ownership.
• Only the owner can interact with/store the cat by default.
• When stored in an item, ownership can be cleared until re-spawn (trading-friendly flow).
• Owner damage/invulnerability behavior is controlled by Tamework companion config:
  • Alec's Cats!\Server\Tamework\Companion\ACCompCat.json

Happiness and Needs

• Happiness fluctuates based on if the Cat's needs are being met
• Cats will automatically eat raw fish or Tamework Carnivore Kibble from storage containers nearby
• Tamework Carnivore Kibble can also be used as backup hand-feed, but it is less satisfying than their preferred food
• Cats will automatically drink water from water sources nearby, including a Cat Bowl filled with water
• Playing with the Cat Teaser Wand or a Cat Yarn Ball, and using cat furniture, makes cats happier
• Cats prefer to have at least one cat friend nearby, but don't like to be overcrowded
• Cats like when their owner is nearby

Breeding and Traits

• Cats can automatically breed if they are happy and have a suitable partner
• Cats can spawn with 0-4 traits
• Traits can alter anything from size, to strength, to fertility and more
• Traits can be inherited from parents, and breeding cats with the same traits together can result in higher trait values (or lower!)
• Fur and eye color are also inherited from parents
• Body type roles can be inherited from either parent, with a small chance of a different body type appearing as a mutation
• Cat breeding uses Tamework gender support, so compatible breeding pairs must be different genders when that Tamework setting is enabled

Leveling and Talents

Pet cats gain XP and level up, to a maximum of level 30. Each level gives a little more health and speed and one talent point. Open the talent page from the Cat Treat Bag's companion panel.

Cats gain XP from:

• Being fed (at most once every 15 minutes)
• Breeding
• Fighting
• Playing with the Cat Teaser Wand or a Cat Yarn Ball
• Napping in a Cat Bed, using a Cat Scratching Post, and sitting on a Cat Tower

The tree has three branches. Each branch has a first talent, two paths of four talents, and a final talent that needs both paths. A whole branch costs 21 points and the whole tree costs 63, so a level 30 cat can finish one branch and one path of another.

Branch	Path one	Path two	Final talent
Housecat	Happiness rises faster	Hunger and thirst drain more slowly	Lap Cat: while idle near its owner, the cat purrs now and then and gives the owner a short health regeneration buff
Mouser	More damage and speed	Less damage taken, and a faster return after defeat	Gift Giver: while idle near its owner, the cat brings a small gift now and then (feathers, raw fish, raw meat, sticks, plant fiber, or catnip)
Pedigree	Higher fertility and more trait mutations in kittens	Shorter breeding wait and more coat and eye mutations in kittens	Show Cat: more trait, coat, and eye mutations in kittens

Final talents need level 12.

Spawns

Cats are uncommon but not extremely rare.

• Mediumhair: Zone 1 Plains and Forests
• Shorthair: Zone 2 Oasis, Plateau, and Savanna
• Bobtail: Zone 1 Mountains, Zone 2 Plateau, and Zone 3 Mountains
• Longhair: Zone 3 Forests and Tundra

They usually spawn solo, but can spawn in small groups.

1,216 Appearance Variations

All cat textures are now made by an artist far more skilled than me, Celly (@Excel Lynt).

Appearance combines body type, coat, and eyes. Eye colors are separate randomized attachments, so cats can inherit eyes independently from coat color.

Category	Count	Variants
Body types	4	Mediumhair Longhair Shorthair Bobtail
Coats	19	Black and White Gray Light Gray Silver Tabby Orange Tabby Brown Tabby White Cream Cream Tuxedo Gray Tuxedo Brown Tuxedo Light Orange Tabby Tuxedo Black Tuxedo Black Snowshoe Sand Tabby Dark Gray Tabby Chocolate Point Blue Point
Eyes	16	Bright Orange Bright Yellow Dark Orange Forest Green Green Hazel Ice Blue Light Blue Blue and Green-Yellow (Rare) Blue and Green (Rare) Orange and Yellow (Rare) Yellow and Green (Rare) Pumpkin Orange Teal Yellow-Lime Yellow

Total combinations: 4 body types x 19 coats x 16 eye variants = 1,216 appearance variations.

Config Files

• Companion Config:
  • Server/Tamework/Companion/ACCompCat.json
• Interaction Config:
  • Server/Tamework/Interactions/ACIntCat.json
  • Server/Tamework/Interactions/ACIntCatTemp.json
• Spawner Config:
  • Server/Tamework/Items/Spawners/ACSpawnCat.json
• Command-item Config:
  • Server/Tamework/Items/Commands/ACCommCat.json
• Happiness Config:
  • Server/Tamework/Happiness/ACHappCat.json
• Needs Config:
  • Server/Tamework/Needs/ACNeedsCat.json
• Breeding Config:
  • Server/Tamework/Breeding/ACBreedCat.json
• Trait Config:
  • Server/Tamework/Traits/ACTraitsCat.json
• Leveling Config:
  • Server/Tamework/Leveling/ACLevelCat.json
• Talent Config:
  • Server/Tamework/Talents/ACTalentCat.json
• Attachment Migration Config:
  • Server/Tamework/AttachmentMigrations/ACAttachmentMigrationCatEyesPre190.json
• Attachment Display Config:
  • Server/Tamework/AttachmentDisplays/ACAttachmentDisplayCat.json

Want More?

If you're interested in bringing the same mechanics to vanilla mobs in Hytale, check out:

If you're a modder interested in adding these mechanics to your NPCs, check out my comprehensive taming framework built specifically for modders to integrate my systems with their mods. By referencing Tamework, you can add complex systems to your NPCs without writing any Java code at all:

Known Issues

• Some wake/laydown animation transitions are still placeholder quality and will be improved.

Issue Reporting

If you run into issues, please report them here:

• https://github.com/Alechilles/AlecsCats/issues/new

Telemetry

Alec's Tamework, and thus Alec's Cats, utilizes Beacon to report crash, error, performance, and usage telemetry data to the developer.

This data is anonymous and does not contain any personally identifiable information, and is exclusively used to diagnose issues in the mod to provide a better user experience.

You may disable this feature at any time in the `/tw settings` menu in the Telemetry section.

Alec's Tamework also reports anonymized active user numbers to HStats to track active user count summaries.

Companion icon mappings live in Server/Tamework/DynamicIcons/ and are shared by capture items and both command panels. These assets require the matching Tamework dynamic-icon development build; update both mods together.