Creature Handler Archive
Thread: True Initiative from pets, a concept Revision 1
I like what your saying - increasing the bond between man and beast, and seeing a tangible effect, its like trying to give personality to a robot, the players in game are people (allegedly) the animations arent. I think I know what you mean though, there is nothing like it to be honest. Its a brilliant prof at times, gives a real buzz.
I would love to able to command a pet (hate that word, a little kitten is a pet not an 18 foot Rancor) to Eat a fallen mob, cue rending of a broken corpse, blood and bones flying everywhere accompanied by the grizzly sounds of chewing and slurping. Then finally your Rancor turns around with a big happy grin and rubs his tummy happily, finishing off with a jabba sized belch.
I like it. Like fantoq (we agree again /shrug), I would favor no toggle. Or let me say it this way. If there is a toggle then it should add more XP, for those choosing to roleplay the hard way. The worst fear I have is much like Vert's that any beneficial effect would simply be macro'd. Even with timers people will likely macro it somehow. But there needs to be some safe guard. Even if it is you can only earn one point playing per hour (hypothetical number because we don't have any system for this yet) and no combat can start in that given hour. Liken it to telling your kids you will play ball with them and then opting out because something more fun came along. If I can macro petting from midnight EST until server shutdown at 7am EST then I could effectively erase any and all bad effects for the day. That is not roleplaying it is using the system.
Pluto,
You don't want to hinder gameplay too much by having to feed a pet every so often and having to rest every while, but if it's very easy to keep your pet happy, we might as well give em the rewards already.
So that means this system should require some devotion on the CH's part, and to do that for every single animal would be simply a pain. Nuttynoah here already shows not everyone would be that happy about having to do that. Not to mention low-level CHs with low HAM pets lose fights more often, and would therefor suffer from the Experience in Battle factor a lot without being able to do much about it.
I don't really think every single CH out there is so happy with this concept that they would be prepared to devote themselves to maintaining all their pets all the time with vigorous care, even if some of us are.
trandoshan,
The XP thing sounds like a nice reward and incentive to try out this baby at least. Shouldn't be too high of course, since then players would switch this on, keep going until their pet finally tells them to stuff it, switch it off and continue as normal. Actually, I think players would do that anyway if it meant 10XP more per kill, since there's no penalty for doing it a short while and then switching back. We could combat this and put the rule in that if you switch this thing off, your pet will be left with whatever penalties it had permanently. Obedience shouldn't be affected anymore, since someone who has this off must be able to expect reliabiltiy.
nuttynoah,
well, I can't say I like the 'not changable after fully grown' part of your post. While I can see that forming a bond with young animals you've tamed is quicker and easier than doing so with adult animals, pets grow too fast to justify doing it all in that time. 5 days of gameplay, perhaps less, and you'd have to have all your care done, your devotion high or low as you want it, and your pet loving you. That's just not achievable (shouldn't be, that is) in that amount of time. I also think we want this system to be somewhat forgiving. If you mistreat your pet at the beginning, but end up caring for it a lot, it will regain trust.
The basic thoughts of the CH who cares the most, gets the most, is true.
Or this alternative . . . some pets just aren't smart enough to grasp guarding their master. All wild mounts, for example, could fall under this, as well as the "piddley" pets. They could have a Devotion factor. Pets with low devotion wouldn't guard, while pets with high devotion would in time. BE's could make animals with higher or lower devotion as well.
~~The Secondhand Lion