Nay, and I say that as someone who normally expends a lot of effort to collect all the various mounts, pets, etc. in my game of choice.
The fact that I can only ever have one out at a time and that they effectively do nothing sort of renders it moot. It's nice from a completionist perspective, but that gap can be filled with all sorts of more meaningful content. For example, I'd rather collect bunch of fun clicky effects that I can actively play around with / use to interact with my group and the world.
Now, if we were talking about pets with a greater degree of functionality or interactivity (my mind immediately goes to Sea of Thieves with pets that participate in emotes, freak out during battles, can be launched out of cannons etc.) I may feel differently, but if it's just another passive thing that randomly wanders around I'd agree with Jobeson - leave it as something to collect for housing, and put the art and animation resources on something more impactful.
In FF14, afaik they can only be summoned in safe (city) zones. So they won't be around in the wilderness or in combat. But in the cities, you see pretty much everyone running around with a minion :)
Tbh I don't see any harm in them if they work like this. In fact they can add a bit to the lore, and they are nice for collectors.
That said, I wouldn't want the Pantheon devs to invest any development time into such fluff, to the detriment of more vital systems.
I’d prefer the pet was helpful in someway, alerting me to dangers from its behavior, storage if it’s capable, ect.. but I would take a purely cosmetic pet even if I was the only one who could see it just because I like pets. That said, please only pets that fit the environment.
fazool said:I also agree that some low funciton could make them interesting - like a canary in a coal mine, testing for dangerous toxic gases. Other than that type of thing, a solid "no" from me.
Now there's a thought. Summon a squirrel and command it to go into that ice cave to test for acclimation, and see how quickly it turns into a popsicle!
I'd be into something like that, but would preferably just see that manifested through certain class abilities. Like charming said squirrel from the regional squirrel populace!
Big fat nasty NAY for me. haha. I get that people think it's fun, but seeing hundreds of different types of "pets" running around the world makes it look so fake to me.
If we insist on having pets I'd at least like to see them being real in-game animals. Maybe a ranger tames a wolf, or a druid befriends an owl, or a necromancer has some undead squirrel following him around. I don't know...it just feels like clutter to me. There are already going to be classes with pets in the game. I'll send all my delegates to vote nay on this one for me.
Could go either way. They are decent non-combat "progression". Keeping them only in housing or civilized zones could make sense. Pantheon is already going to be a theme park (limited hand sculpted "exibits" rather than vast procedurally generated) game and not a sandbox so there is a certain amount of suspension of disbelief already required.
It's a good thing that I waited to respond. My first thought was: No, please no. Don't ruin it with cosmetic pets!! Reading several replies helped me come up with a proper reply.
1) If they should arise some time after launch, design it so that you can toggle on/off viewing these pets. Similar to toggling off mounts, for example.
2) If there has to be fluff, keep your lore in mind and take your time coming up with appropriate pets that suit the race, region, appearance, etc.
3) To allow them to join the character's side in a civilized area, perhaps linked to a bought residence, makes more sense.
4) In case they are manageable as a housepet, even better.
5) How these pets are obtained can really be beneficial to keep players busy within city walls. (It's not the only way, but it's yet another motivation to keep the cities busy and alive.)
6) Talking about micro management, if you want that silly but adorable/kick ass looking cosmetic pet, you might be required to invest into some micro management. This keeps those players even more into the game, they can show off their pet.
7) Like mentioned earlier, it's a good motivator for completionists. And these kind of players are always welcome in mmorpg's, because they are part of the bloodline that drives the active community and the world in the game.
So this summary results into a: Yes, but with a well thought design, goals and proper ui options to prevent disrupting others with this excess of particles. Still a big no, if you're thinking about a pink jellybean with a santahat on, running along in a raidfight.
I would have to say yes to having cosmetic pets. When I think of a cosmetic pet, I think of a pet that just travels with me and looks cute. If I'm playing a class that doesn't have a pet, I would like to have something tagging along with me. Somewhat like a familiar or something to that effect. I would have to agree that doing it now, and taking resources away from the game seems like a detriment to release time. Though if you have already got a ground work laid out for it, or possibly were planning to just use the digital skeletons of the class pets, then I'm all for it now then. For most people I know, a cosmetic pet becomes part of their back-story or even part of their present story. They incorporate that into the story they make for the character in-game. To a lot, a cosmetic pet isn't something that is annoying or seen as immersion breaking, but seen as a lore tool to help them flesh out their character in the RPG. I don't find cosmetic pets or mounts all that annoying, let people have them. I'll ignore them and move on, no big deal. I play the game to play, not worry about who has what cosmetic pet and how THEIR pet effects MY immersion. For all I know telling that person to put their pet away is breaking their immersion, which seems to be something everyone here doesn't want. Also, I find it kind of odd that some here have stated that if they are going to be in game that they are automatically abused in some way to the gain of the player...that just seems weird lol.
