Creature Handler Archive
Thread: Time for a new Top 5 list... need input!
Another one.
NON CH's shoul dbe allowed to get pet xp.
I thought they could...but when it comes to selling mounts it takes too much time to grow them for other people. If they had the option of levelling the mount it would make things easier. then we could train it.
Call Timer. Remove the Call Timer for pets. Keep the store timer in to prevent pet spam. Allow CHs to call their pet while in combat.
Taming. High level creatures have too high a rate of failure. While it shouldn’t be easy, it shouldn’t take over a dozen attempts when the MCH is wearing max clothes and food. And babies seem to aggro more often, even with mask scent on and maxxed.
Pet Storage. Some sort of storage needs to be available for retired pets or pets with abilities that need to be trained, or even just pets that we will be using once we’re done learning the specials. And it gives something else for crafters to do if you make it a specially made structure. I agree that 20 is fine for the datapad, if we had someplace to put pets that weren’t currently in use.
Max Pet Level. Should be CL80, not CL70.
Pet Gains No XP Bug. If I travel with my pets from one mission to another, no matter how small the distance, no matter if I walk them slowly there myself, they bug and will not get xp until I store and call them again. Removing the call bug will go a long ways to making me happier about this bug, but it should still be fixed.
Wasn't easy getting the list down to five!
1. Call timers - Severely reduce or remove the call timer for pets in the wild, and allow pets to be called when you are under attack. No other profession has to wait 15 seconds to ready their weapon when out on missions, nor do they have to fight without their weapon if they are ambushed. The storage timers are fine, they prevent exploits like pet cycling in combat, and I am perfectly willing to wait to store my pet if I can get them out quickly in a pinch.
2. Reward MCHs over dabblers in the new special system- For the most part, there are compelling reasons to master this prof, which is good, the master box should be worth it. With the new system though, a novice CH is just as good at learning skills as a MCH. As a casual player who's only managed to pick up 3 skills so far, I'd love to see a MCH bonus to learning tamed skills (it could take 30-40% less time on average, for example).
3. Lair aggro issues - This one is nasty, because, especially with a small, brown pet, it's easy to not notice that he's munching on the lair until every humbaba in 64m radius comes crashing down on you. It seems like pets just aren't releasing lair aggro when they're commanded to attack something else, fix it, we'll all be happier, and live longer.
4. Hate generation issues - In the above scenario, my pet is munching the lair, but ALL of the aggro generated by said munching transfers immediately to me, even if I am a full 50-60m from the lair. When the pet falls, or the pet and I are BOTH attacking a lair or mob, the aggro should certainly be transfered/shared, especially with NPCs, who should be VERY keen on killing the CH after they kill his pet. Also, if a pet wanders into a social or aggressive pack of creatures, the creature he attacks will engage him, and all hate generated by that combat amongst his fellows transfers back to the CH, even before the CH opens fire. These situations need some tweaking with the new hate system, if a pet's solo actions aggro a group of mobs, those mobs should aggro the pet at least 60% of the time. I can understand some coming after the CH and the rest going for the pet, but it should be a split, not every single mob hitting the CH every single time.
5. Grouping issues - Ideally, make it so I have a mini-group with my pet which functions seperately from the player grouping mechanism, allow me to see my pet's HAM bars, location, and buffs and allow my pet to have my CL80 bonuses without taking up a group slot. It would be really awesome if the group could see this info too, as the CMs and DOCs could then heal/buff pets just like other group members. If that's not possible, make a "pet tracking" window similar to the network status window that I can toggle on and place on my screen to watch my pets.
- Creature CL- CL70-80 was originally targeted as idea for rare higher pets. Instead I believeCL80 should be reinstated then CL71+ pets made a rarity. You may still keep the idea for rare CA, but in the sense of a higher creature combination. Also I think CH's should have some kind of quest, and perhaps a +5 bonus Max Lv necklace or something of the sort.
- Creature Handler Armor- Being of the scout class I think we should actually have Recon armor... We are ideally more of light armor'd class then someone who goes into battle...
- Creature Maturity- A listed maximum learnable ability number would be nice on the creature data.
- Range/Melee Defense- Ranger has it, Creature Handler doesnt? I think my char has cat scratch fever.
- I'll reinstate the Creature Healthbars, cause yeah thats an addition well needed.
- I'll reinstate the Creature XP problem, cause that's just a servere problem.
- I'll reinstate the Bugged Abilities, cause that should've been tested throughly instead of us testing it.
and the rest of the minor bugs. Oh btw.. I'm done with SWG due to the obvious lack of vision and concern for the player enjoyment of the game. I don't feel this game is going far. I just logged on and am annoyed by the lack of testing and warning of a major game revamp. I think you should fire the entire SWG team.
I would list the following:
1) Pet store/call timers need to be removed. There can still be a delay in combat but it should not be 15 seconds. More like 5 seconds.
2) Since pet attacks now drain mind/action the Trick commands should heal both mind and action. Maybe have pet Trick1 do Action and Pet Trick2 do mind.
3) Pet following inside buildings etc. They still get lost somewhere under the floor when you go inside a house. This should be fixed as it nearly got me killed when doing the Secrets of the Syren quest part 4 when I got ambushed inside a building and my pets were stuck UNDER the floor and would not fight.
4) Make the Pet abilities list sortable
5) Increase pet speed. It's just to slow now.
UrukXul wrote:
1. Pet Experience. Creature experience requirements are far too high. We should be able to learn a skill from a creature very quickly, since we have to find it and tame it in the first place. Even though the leveling requirements should still be lowered, leveling a creature the handler desires is generally acceptable, but leveling a creature the handler does not desire is not acceptable. (Trolls go away! I like the new system, I hate the pet exp requirements!)
2. Pet Pathing and Speed. Very frequently, pets will not appear, follow, or fight in structures. Very frequently, pets freeze or do not follow, or they follow at a snails pace.
3. Call Timer. Remove the timer when calling creatures and allow calling when in combat; however, keep the timer when storing and of course incapped or dead pets that haven't been stored count toward max number of pets the handler can call. This should mitigate concerns of pet swapping during combat yet allow us to use our beloved weapons like everyone else can.
4. Mounted Combat. Allow base attacks while mounted, AND get rid of mount slowing down for combat.
5. NO NEW CONTENT! FIX THE PROBLEMS FIRST! The database administrators, developers, and programmers have lists of known bugs throughout this game, not only with our profession, which should be fixed, not just "addressed."
After using incap recovery, pets do not properly regen health until they've been stored and re-called - *IF* incap recovery even works. (About 30% of the time it doesn't work at all, and you have to wait for the combat timer to count down, then store, call, store, call in order to get the pet regenning health at a normal rate).
The "you can't tame that" bug at region borders (the same "zone" borders as we used to have pets lose their follow wayyyyy back when)
Taming critters above CL 50 or so, is seriously troublesome for MCHs, even with taming clothes and food. It's gotten far, far worse than it used to be.
Mount size on the high end. CL 70 dewback (BE'ed) is WAY too big, to the point where a tall zabrak can stand under his stomach. This makes pet pathing in narrow areas almost impossible, as well as meaning he's "too far" away to mount. (His saddle has disappeared, but he still has the mount option)
OOOOOOOOOOOO 
Learn something new every day!!!!!
THANK YOU! 
Ko-aIri wrote:
Hey folks,
Since the complete revamp to our profession had a massive effect on our most problematic issues and bugs, it's time to start a completely fresh Top 5 list.
Please list any major issues/problems/bugs that you are experiencing and I'll put a new list together over the next week.
Current problems I'm seeing just with a quick glance: complaints about the amount of XP required to level pets and/or learn skills, the "you can't tame that" bug (which has already been band-aided with a 60 second timeout and is supposed to be fixed completely in a future publish), call timers (especially now that they're removing vehicle call timers), missing specials (like Pinning Attack and the L3 version of several specials), etc.
Please list your issues in order of how much you'd like to see them fixed, worst problems first. Thanks a lot!
1. I think the most pressing issue at the moment is the horrible amount of time it is taking all of us--but most especially us MCH's-- to grind up a full repertoire of fully trained pets. In the first place, all our hard-won pets are pretty much trash. I think we should at LEAST be gettingtriple xp or SOME kind of compensation for being masters. Novice CH is the thing to be, right now. My MCH toons are at a disadvantage over my novice. (I tell you, when I hear the jedis moaning about their loooooong grind, I want to belt them. Let them try going to MCH school)
2. Call timers. Our pets are our weapons and our vehicles. Every other profession can call its vehicles and produce weapons on demand; we are the only profession penalized like we are. Groups lose patience with us when they have to waaaaaiiiiiitttt on us to drag our pets out and then waaaaiiiiiittttt on us to put them away.
3. Pet speed. If I leave my pets out and run to the next lair, I am still slow as Christmas, waiting for them. There needs to be MAJOR improvement in pathing and speed.
4. Pet levels. We need to have pets on level 80, just like we are.
5. Pet grouping. It is extremely difficult to keep up with our pets (directionally and health-wise) unless they are grouped with us.
1. If it's a bug, FIX IT!
2. If it's "working as intended", tell us! Don't keep us wondering if it's a bug!
3. If you are thinking of adding new content, don't! You will just be adding new bugs!
4. If you are thinking of changing something that is "working as intended" now, don't! You will just be adding new bugs!
5. If it's a bug, FIX IT!
Hummmm ... now that I look at my list, I think it's more of a guide to be used when addressing the Top 5 List! 
1. Size. I hate the way you have to level up a pet to have it gain in size... and that the sizes get to be monstrous when you do so. Not only does that make for some HUGE CL70 pets 3x taller than me (which is completely undesirable) it also causes probs with BE CL10 pets being too small because Non-CHs can't level them... thus CHs shouldering the responsibility of having to level a CL10 for a non-CH and waste our time. It'd be a different story if I didn't feel like I had to be selfish with my time considering how long it takes to levela pet, learn skills from a pet, gain maturity, etc. I just wish pets were normal size when full grown asthey are when foundin the wild. So I can have a CL70 pet that still looks like a cat, and not a horse. I've always chosen pets that were "smaller" because I hated how grauls and rancors used to get in the way of the lair or mobs when I fought in groups. Now my cat will get 3x taller than me, and be just as undesirable as the graul or rancor, and there's no way to get around that except have a low CL pet or not levelmy CL70much. Not acceptable OR practical since to make my pet worth anything I need to level it to be able to have slots to train it special abilities. Fix pets (wild and BE) so they gain in size over time and age(which is more realistic anyway), but also fix sizes so theydon't get bigger than theirnormal wild adult sizes when full grown.
2. Pet Group Space. No one wants to fight with a CH because their pet takes up group space, and CHs don't want to fight without them because their pets are their profession. Make a separate window for CHs so they can monitor their pet's HAM bars without being grouped, and add a secondary slot in group windows for CHs so their pets don't take up human group spots, and yet the whole group can still see the pet as well.
3. /tellpet problems still buggy. It's a gamble whether it'll work or not (some nights it works fine, other nights I need the pet name in there, sometimes only "store" and "stay" commands work, but "group" and "attack" won't work...) and when I'm in combat, that's a gamble or waste of time I don't want to take, BUT I hate spamming spatial with commands when I should havea working ability to /tellpet privately.
4. Call Delay. If a pistoleer can change weapons with no delay, I should be able to change pets with no delay, since I have my pets tailored to be like different weapons. No brainer there.
5. Increase pets to CL80. Otherwise I'm no better than any other mediocre non-master. Plain and simple. If I'm a master CH, I should have that power.
FIX OLD BUGS BEFORE ADDING NEW CONTENT WHICH ADDS NEW BUGS.
My biggest problem is the size issues. Because of this ridiculous sizing change, non-CHs lose the ability to have mountable pets (unless CHs do extra work) and my CL70s are undesirable because they are too large to want to fight with anymore. I sure hope we're listened to and these silly broken problems get fixed.