Creature Handler Archive

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dragonace wrote:
Shaylin:

On test right now they have halved both timers. The 60 second timer AFTER combat to store a pet is now 30 seconds. The 30 seconds to CALL (or BEFORE combat) a pet is now 15 seconds. This is still on TEST CENTER only. These are both without a camp being necessary. With a camp the timer for calling is removed, as it is now.

So, yes if it goes to live as it's now being tested it would be faster to "reload" with a new pet than is currently possible. It would still be nice if the 15 second timer for calling was done away with or reduced though, but as was mentioned earlier since the vehicles are treated as "pets" (heck, everything is treated as a pet: droids, vehicles, faction pets, BE pets, wild pets) its something we may have to live with.

Since they are leaving camps as they are though, its not too bad of a compromise. WAY better than the proposed 60/30 timer! Now if they could just leave vehicles on the 15 second timer and get pets down to 0 seconds to call (as they currently are in Cities now) we'd all be happy!

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Thanks Dragon, I am glad to hear that's how it is working on test.

Surely there is a way for them to impose the timer on vehicles without putting it on pets..... Theremust besomething already that distiguishes them, since the vehicle doesn't count against how many pets we can have out.

Cressida

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Shaylin wrote:

Surely there is a way for them to impose the timer on vehicles without putting it on pets..... Theremust besomething already that distiguishes them, since the vehicle doesn't count against how many pets we can have out.

Cressida

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Yep Shaylin, there's a MYRIAD of things that distinguish the vehicle class from the pet class. (At least more of a myriad than there are griefs!) Just a few would be:

You can't call a vehicle in a house, but you can a pet

You can't repair a pet, but you can a vehicle

You can't feed a vehicle, but you can a pet

You 'generate' a vehicle, but 'call' a pet

You 'Enter vehicle', but 'mount' a pet

and so on......

My latest thinking is that they're playing players vs CH. In other words, when addressing the general player base it's " We need these timers to keep the CHs in control" Everybody nods... Because if they said they need the timers to keep vehicle users in control, there would be a screaming fit from most of the player base.

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dragonace wrote:
Heh, yeah there is probably "a way" for them to put seperate timers on vehicles and pets.
Can that "way" be accomplished quickly? Not sure.
Can that "way" be accomplished without breaking something? Not sure.
Can that "way" be accomplished without taking time away from even more broken areas? Not sure.

So, that's why I think this is an acceptable compromise... for now (Especially since camps will continue to work as they do now). It should be revisted sometime, but there are probably better uses of the Devs time.

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That's probably true. But I have the feeling once it's in it will be forgotten that it should be revisited.... Look at what a "surprise" it was to them that we were not all somehow exploiting by fighting with a camp up to constantly switch pets. lol

Anyway, with the reduction, and how you say it's working on test... it will be an improvement for me over how I did things before... so I am fine with it.

Cressida

I agree with you again Shaylin. It most likely will be forgotten and most likely never changed.
Bottom-line though:
Right now, it's better than what we currently have on live (Since the 15 seconds isn't an issue if you use a camp). It's not perfect, but it's something everyone can live with. If we press them to make it exactly the way we want - they might break it and make it worse.

So, I'm willing to take my winnings and walk away. (For some reason I want to hum a Kenny Rodgers song.)

Take out the 15 second timer already and then take TH out back and smack him around for not knowing a damn thing about what he's talking about.

This has already been stated, but I'll say it again in reference to the little "poke-battle" surprise comments made by TH:

You can't store a pet in combat

You can't call a pet in combat

You can't peace in the middle of a PvP duel if the other person is still fighting

Pets are completely useless in PvP

Pet specials do next to nothing in PvP

PETS ARE OUR BLOODY WEAPONS, it would be like someone getting a "pistol-surprise" when a pistoleer grabbed a pistol in PvP, anyone that's surprised by a creature handler using pets in combat shouldn't be operating complicated machinery like computer games.(how does TH not fall down more?)

Remove the timers because they don't make sense, remove the timers because it is pissing off a huge portion of the gaming populace, remove the timers because you can't come up with a single real way someone could grief with pets, remove the timer because monthly subscriptionsis going to become an issue with CH soon.

Message Edited by ShigatsuLi on 03-04-2004 01:16 PM

Message Edited by ShigatsuLi on 03-04-2004 01:18 PM

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fantoq wrote:

My latest thinking is that they're playing players vs CH. In other words, when addressing the general player base it's " We need these timers to keep the CHs in control" Everybody nods... Because if they said they need the timers to keep vehicle users in control, there would be a screaming fit from most of the player base.

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Well, this is a good way to approach it, from their perspective, because CH is far and away the most hated profession in the game. TKAs, CMs, Riflemen, and BHs fall in behind us. With the exception of BH, which has been successfully nerfed into submission as far as PvP goes, the other three are derided as overpowered gods in PvP. But the CHs are still the hated poke-masters; they still have their terribly uber rancors that utterly dominate PvP; they still cause mega-lag in Coronet and Theed because of their huf duns and tortons.

(Note for the literal minded: I am perfectly aware that rancors suck in PvP and every CH knows this, but don't tell the n00bs who are scared to death of rancors, and those who use the rancor as a terror club when making their anti-CH arguments. Also, the reason for the lag in Coronet and Theed is the number of players there and their insistence on barking out advertisements and pleas of every type imaginable, not any creature pets that have been called out in the vicinity.)

So why not make the CHs the scapegoats for this, instead of being upfront about it?

Right now in combat we can not call a pet at all.. so this new 15 second timer.. does it give us the ability to call our pet durring combat anywhere? If that is right..then i will enjoy the change.. hate to be caught with me pants down out in the wild and have to run due to not weapon out (pet).