Pets in general are what I Am curious to see if Pantheon will have them. Cosmetic and or combat related. There were some threads on summoned pets for class specific needs but what about the guy that wants a Falcon to train or have a pet rat. I know, I know I can see the responses now. I guess what I am looking for is to see if the VR team is going to pull pets in so we can engage with them. I remember the vanilla WoW trailer with the dwarf and the bear. It was a fantastic bit of cinematography and I can’t forget the music. A great intro and even better advertising for the class that could get pets and use them in that game.
Is Pantheon going to do that sort of thing? Also what does the community think of pets in general.
Ox
Full disclosure: Im not a fan of pet classes. Dont want to play them and dont particularly like them. But wouldnt want to deprive those that do.
I dont think we have heard anything official about pets or pet classes other than that they will exist.
All I ask is that they limit it (thats limit classes that can have pets not limit pet functionality). I dont want to see half the classes have pets because this class or that class had it in some other game. If we went that route we could probably justify pets for half the existing classes and then give them to Bard and Necro when they come in. Please no.
Existing classes Id like to se get pets:
Summoner
Enchanter (charmed)
If you twisted my arm....... maybe Shaman (would rather them have something unique like shapeshifting into animals)
Future classes:
BeastLord
Necromancer
Basically I think pet functionality should be somewhat special. Just like not every class gets FD or Trap Detection, etc. Tried to be fair and so I hope the pet hate didnt shine through lol.
LOL not at all. I know some folks don't like them and others love them. I like the pets but did not like the cosmetic ones. Anoying but I know people like them. I guess I have always thought it would be cool to rasies a dragon and ultimately fly it. I think the classes should get pets in limited capacity too. Just have a ton of questions and fielding them here.
Ox
I'm all for pet classes like shaman, summoners, and necros and with EQ and VG having pet classes, I'd be pretty surprised if Pantheon didn't have them also. Cosmetically, I personally don't care for them. Maybe when they come out with player housing, letting people have pets that walk around their house/property might be cool. Maybe I just haven't seen it done right is all, but I don't want to see people killing a camp full of orcs or a dragon with a cute bunny or kitty cat just chilling beside them the whole time. It's just plain weird. :)
Is the pet the primary source of damage of the class? If it is, then the strength of the pet must be balanced by the weakness of the player. If the player is the primary source of damage then the pet needs to be weak. Put the two versions side by side and their overall damage output is the same, its' how they go about it is what is different.
That is what needs to be decided first. How important is the pet.
Then we need to look at pathing then pet AI. What was a common problem with pets on raids (and in many groups too)? Horrible pathing pretty much everywhere. You tell your pet to attack an NPC 5 feet away from you to your left? Pet paths back 30 feet, and takes the most circuitous route imaginable to get to that NPC...probably aggroing other mobs in the process.
Then there is the pet AI. Pets are stupid. It wasn't until far into the AA system that true control of pets was finally obtained. Put good pet controls in early.
Fix all these issues and pets will be a welcomed addition to the game and those classes with pets will enjoy them.
I hope they take a good hard look at the pet classes. I feel like in the past they have been designed, either on purpose or by accident, for solo purposes and ovbiously PRotF is not a solo MMO. Not by a long shot. But even if they were designed on purpose to be a solo class they still function well in groups, small or large, for most part. The major concern is raiding though. The fights are usually too complex to have your little Leeroy Jenkins out there trolling the entire raid. Basically, in the raids I have been in and from what I've heard of others raids, we ask for pets to be turned off during sometimes large portions of the raid and we wind up with a few classes who have to shut off like half of their abilities in order to raid.
The pets have to be designed better so that they path better and so that they don't aggro on to every Tom, Dick, and Jerry in order for them to not be so much of a liability during raids. And I'd like to think that with today's tech this could be achievable. But if the pet classes have to be asked to turn off their pet during ANY part of a raid, EVEN IF RAIDS ARE ONLY A SMALL PORTION OF PANTHEON, shouldn't their design be thought out better?
This was where LOLBST came from in XI. Beastmaster was a great class. Designed to be the one good solo class. Oh other classes could solo but not like BST. However they ran into the same endgame problems you talked about Noobie. And even worse is that many endgame areas didnt even have beasts they could charm so they were forced to use jug pets which were really really weak. Fot this reason they were not wanted at all in endgame and if someone brought one along it was mostly charity. This touched on one of my pet peeves (see what I did there :0), that I wont get into here, useless or unwanted classes. This should never be the case.
On a side note I was quite impressed with a group of all BST on my server that fought that fact by forming their own endgame guild composed of all BSTs lol.
While I like pets and the true pet classes, I am not fond of vanity pets. Pets that are useful in combat should be limited to few classes, and vanity pets have no place in combat situations IMO.
Now little pets that are bound to a specific place, that could work: If Pantheon should have housing, maybe a dog that you can have "guard" your house. But it shouldn't go out with you adventuring. (That said...what do you think of dogs or cats running around in cities, or the wilderness?)
Tralyan said:I am in the interesting predicament of agreeing 100% with Amsai.
Strange.
That said, I did enjoy the pets with Vanguard's Ranger. It seemed fitting to me.
LOL. Yes Tralyan come to the dark side muhahaha. I kid I kid.
Also, I wasnt even thinking about the whole vanity pets thing but yea.......... I want to take the cute little cosplay pets to the river and drown them too.
Amsai said:This was where LOLBST came from in XI. Beastmaster was a great class. Designed to be the one good solo class. Oh other classes could solo but not like BST. However they ran into the same endgame problems you talked about Noobie. And even worse is that many endgame areas didnt even have beasts they could charm so they were forced to use jug pets which were really really weak. Fot this reason they were not wanted at all in endgame and if someone brought one along it was mostly charity. This touched on one of my pet peeves (see what I did there :0), that I wont get into here, useless or unwanted classes. This should never be the case.
This was pretty true for necros early on in EQ. The necro was arguably the pinacle of solo'ing, and could do things most other classes simply could not do alone. But they suffered from the fact that it took them a while to do their damage, and they often needed room to do it. They also relied on a pet that was subject to pretty awful pathing issues, which could be catastrophic in dungeons. So groups would rarely take a necro, and if they did they would tell the necro not to use their pet, which reduced the usefulness of the necro.
But the pet issues here were a matter of mechanical issues with the game, not balance or philosphical issues with the class. I would hope (and other games have proved) that technology and industry maturation will resolve this.
One thing I would like to see, that I believe is lacking in pet classes, is pet customization. We all want to be unique, but when it comes to the most defining skill of pet classes, we often aren't allowed that luxury.
Give the option of Pet customization as much as you have for customizing your character. Facial, hair, tone, height, musculature, etc. Give us slides and ratios. And for the love of pete, old EQ Janober was a great novelty, but let me name my pet.
Here's some information about our plans for Pets -- disclaimer: we're not at a point yet where this is set in stone, so please consider it our current thoughts but not a commitment to exactly how Pets will work in-game. Also, some of these design plans may be implemented after launch -- at this time it is too early to, with certainty, commit to what functionality is present at launch vs. added later via an expansion or update. All that said, this should pretty clearly show you what we're thinking, the direction we're going, etc. Of course, as always, quesitons and comments welcome.
Transient Pets
A transient pet is similar to a no-rent item – when you log out, it is removed from your inventory. Transient pets may also have timers associated with them – if so, when the timer runs out, the pet disappears and its icon is removed from your inventory. There may also be ‘unsummon’ spells that you can cast or can be cast on you. If one of these goes off on you, it would be very similar to your transient pet running out of time – the pet would disappear and the pet icon would be removed from your inventory. When a transient pet for any reason is ‘unsummoned’, not only does the pet’s icon disappear from your inventory, but any items stored on that pet or equipped on that pet are also lost. Transient pets are created by casting an Ability that creates the pet. A transient pet’s level is typically at or around the level of Ability (or, if we choose, it could be based off another field in the Ability class). The pet’s character model, it’s stats, its abilities, and its behaviors are all determined by the Ability used to summon the pet.
The greatest variety of transient pets are summoned by the Summoner class. Since transient pets are generally ‘summoned’, the idea is that the player is grabbing an elemental or some other type of being from a different plane and forcibly bringing it here to the player’s plane and then being able to command it to fight or do other tasks. So transient pets are typically elemental in nature, with the traditional resistances and weaknesses to heat, cold, etc. That said, while most summon spells will be cast by Summoners and while most transient pets will be elemental based, these are by no means hard and fast rules.
Persistent Pets
Persistent Pets are also represented by an icon in your inventory and as a 3D character model in-game (in world space) if they are activated. Persistent pets can be activated (summoned into the world) by double-clicking on their icon in the player’s inventory. Typically, only one Persistent Pet may be active (in world space) at a time, although there could be exceptions to that general rule.
Persistent pets are more typically associated with the player character’s race and not class (the opposite of transient pets, which are more typically associated with the character’s class). There are, however, exceptions to this rule, one being a Crusader’s Warhorse (traditionally Paladin-like classes have the ability at certain levels to summon a loyal Warhorse to their side). Whereas transient pets are often elemental in nature, persistent pets are often akin to ‘familiars’. Some persistent pets will fight with you. Some will not fight, but can be damaged and killed. Some will not fight and are not affected by damage and therefore typically cannot be killed. Note that if a persistent pet is killed, it will die in world space and there will likely be an indicator in the UI on the icon letting you know that the pet’s status is dead. Also note that when a persistent pet is dead, you cannot access items stored on that pet or equipped by that pet. To that end, depending on the type of persistent pet, there will be ways to resurrect or ‘bring back to life’ your persistent pet. These resurrections, how they are accomplished, and what triggers them can vary widely depending on the type of persistent pet.
Persistent Pets are generally purchased, dropped as loot, or given to a player as a reward for finishing a quest (as mentioned previously, one exception would be the persistent mount that Crusaders can call to themselves). The level, type, abilities, behaviors, etc. of a persistent pet are typically all based on which NPC spawns when that particular pet is activated (brought it into world space). Many persistent pets that will fight by your side also gain experience and can thus level up, have its skills go up, etc., just like a PC or NPC. Their initial level would depend on the data for that NPC, but after that, the pet could level up and become more and more formidable. There are some goals associated with this behavior: 1. There should be an advantage to obtaining a persistent pet and then leveling him up over time, keeping him in your possession, over merely selling your pet when you find another one that is inherently higher level (those advantages are TBD and need to be thought through) and 2. There should be an attraction to collect pets as well as build them up as you play Pantheon – we should try to incorporate the ‘gotta collect them all’ paradigm from similar games where applicable.
Vehicles
Vehicles are a Persistent Pet sub-type. Typically, pet vehicles are mounts (e.g. horses) or boats/ships. The key is that Vehicle Persistent Pets can be used as transportation. Mounts typically allow you to travel faster overland than normal travel speed. Boats and ships typically allow you to traverse over water at reasonable speeds, almost always far superior to swimming. Some mounts may allow you to traverse certain terrain types, while others may be restricted. Likewise, boats and ships may be restricted to how deep the water can be that they sail over – this means you could find a boat that would allow you to travel down a river, or up the coast (staying near to shore), but not allow you to head out into the open ocean.
Vehicles, like other persistent pets, may or may not engage in combat. Typically, a mount like a War Horse would both deal and receive damage. A ship or boat, however, would typically receive damage but not deal it (until perhaps post-launch when we allow ships to be equipped with weapons). Mounts die and ships are ‘destroyed’. Mounts leave a corpse, while ships leave ‘flotsam’. Just as with other persistent pets, a Vehicle’s inventory may not be accessed when it is dead or destroyed. Bringing a mount back to life or repairing a destroyed ship will be possible, although the methods will likely vary significantly depending on the type of Vehicle. For example, one might require a player with certain ship building crafting skills to repair a ship, allowing you to use it again and to access its inventory. Regardless of the proper method, doing so will usually require spending resources so that allowing your Vehicle to be destroyed/killed is something players may risk, but will also do their best to avoid.
When you are riding on a mount or traveling on another type of Vehicle, not only might your movement speed vary depending on the type of vehicle and how it is equipped (perhaps your Warhorse has magical horseshoes equipped, increasing its movement speed), but your movement type or status may change from normal travel (walking/running) to a special status (e.g. horseback). Travelling on ‘horseback’ may offer additional advantages (or even disadvantages) in addition to changing your movement speed. For example, an NPCs ability to aggro you, or their aggro radius, may vary if you are on horseback (making it easier for you to avoid being attacked when riding a horse). That said, some NPCs may have the ability to forcibly dismount you, essentially knocking you from the saddle and returning you to walking/running mode. Some mounts may inherently offer you protection from a dismount, while others may be advantageous in other areas, but more susceptible to a dismount.
Restricted Access to Specific Regions/Zones
Zones and/or regions within zones (perhaps even climates/atmospheres) may include restrictions on pets. It may not be possible to have an activated (in world space) pet in certain regions or climates/atmospheres. You also may be more or less susceptible to the effects of a climate/atmosphere when using a Vehicle. In many instances, you will not be able to descend into a dungeon while mounted on your horse, but if you dismount and order the horse to follow you (like a traditional pet), you’ll be able to enter the dungeon. Once inside such a restricted region, double clicking on the mount in your inventory will not enable you to mount the vehicle but will rather display a message explaining that you mount vehicles where you are currently located.
Pets and their ability to possess/contain Items
All pets can carry items in their general inventory, and many can also wear items and wield weapons. To place items in a pet’s General Inventory or to equip a pet with an item, ‘open up’ the pet just as you would a bag or other container by right clicking on it. If the pet can wear or wield items, the UI container windows will indicate what locations the item slots refer to. If the pet can only store items in its general inventory, you will only see generic slots. Some special types of pets will have specific location slots; for example, a mount like a horse may have slots for a saddle, saddlebags, horseshoes, etc. Also, just as with other containers, the items placed inside of a pet may have some of their weight mitigated or even totally eliminated, making storing items on a pet advantageous in relation to encumbrance. Many pets that will fight by your side can be equipped with items, taking full or partial advantage of that item’s attributes, damage, speed, procs, etc. By making equipping pets an important part of Pantheon, we are creating yet another reason to hold onto and hoard items, even if they are not your current ‘best’, which should, along with many other systems, slow MUDflation and reduce the frequency items are twinked (given or sold to players lower level than the item). This behavior should be encouraged, just as other systems with the same goal are encouraged, enabling us to avoid hard rules like ‘bind-on-equip’ and ‘no-trade’ without having MUDflation and twinking run rampant.
Flying Mounts
At this point, there are no plans to include Flying Mounts in Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. Flying Mounts present quite a few problems when it comes to implementing and preserving content. Unrestricted flying mounts allow players to simply fly over content they wish to bypass. If that content was not meant to be bypassed, then lots of rules and game logic for Flying Mounts must be implemented. If you don’t build the game world from the ground up keeping Flying Mounts in mind, it can become quite a mess. We have found that, typically, Flying Mounts are more trouble than they are worth. An exception might be a ‘ferry ride’, where you can use a specific Flying Mount that you come across in a specific location, or as part of a quest reward, etc. In such a controlled environment, the player can use the Flying Mount, fly up into the sky, follow a predefined path, enjoy the view, and then land in a predetermined location. Pantheon may use restricted path Flying Mounts, at least post launch. Unrestricted Flying Mounts, however, create many problems we want to avoid in Pantheon (including preserving the joy and reward of exploration, preserving meaningful travel, and stopping players from bypassing content). It is therefore unlikely, even post-launch, that Pantheon will feature unrestricted Flying Mounts.
One very general bit of advice, do be careful with the extent to which you will be making pets "necessary".
Not everyone fancies playing with a pet. Reminds of a pet class. Not everyone likes pet classes :)
Assuming that is not overlooked (ie that you mitigate/balance pet bonuses, trivialise non-fluff benefits), i like the way this could be going. Reminds me of a certain other game i used to play a necro in ^^
Aenra said:One very general bit of advice, do be careful with the extent to which you will be making pets "necessary".
Not everyone fancies playing with a pet. Reminds of a pet class. Not everyone likes pet classes :)
Assuming that is not overlooked (ie that you mitigate/balance pet bonuses, trivialise non-fluff benefits), i like the way this could be going. Reminds me of a certain other game i used to play a necro in ^^
While not everyone likes pet classes, as you can see from my post above, pets are a much bigger part of Pantheon than just those available to you based on your character's class. They're a pretty big deal, especially the persistent pets. I suppose there may indeed be some players totally disinterested in pets of any kind, but I think it's pretty safe to say that the majority of our target audience is interested in them -- all the more when they experience the in-game advantages you receive for having pets.
Certainly no one will be forcing you to have a pet, but you may be at a disadvantage if you decide you absolutely want nothing to do with them. That said, I'm pretty confident that the vast majority of our target audience do indeed want pets, at least to a certain degree. Especially if the advantages outweigh the disadvantages (we certainly don't want them to be a hassle, or difficult to manage or direct, etc.) The Pantheon community is definitely one, however, that enjoys collecting things -- items, etc. I think collecting pets fits in quite nicely, especially if you can level up certain types of pets, equip them with your 2nd tier items, etc. And vehicles will be very important in the game, even if initially they're limited to horses (and other traditional mounts).
All that said, speak up and let us know your thoughts! That's why I posted as much detail on the system as I did -- it's pretty important to the game and our plans, so the sooner you guys know what direction we're heading the better.
Really appreciate the information provided!
I'm really excited to hear about the ability to equip pets and level them. Increasing or specializing pets is a great sub-game for many of us, and I'm realy looking forward to hearing more about it. But I have to say, I'm really most interested in hearing how all this applies to Necromancers, and you're not planning on putting that in at launch.
For the Summoner, could you say that it's possible to summon persistent demon-like pets as well as elementals?
I dont know if you're familiar, but I love the Harry Dresden book series by Jim Butcher. He goes pretty deep into the nuance of summoning critters from the nevernever, and I love his approach. Does this couple with Pantheon in any notable way?
Edit: Actually, come to think of it I really liked Jim Butcher's approach to summoning in another of his series; The Codex Alera. A very different take on elementals and summoned creatures, but fascinating nonetheless.
Vandraad said:Is the pet the primary source of damage of the class? If it is, then the strength of the pet must be balanced by the weakness of the player. If the player is the primary source of damage then the pet needs to be weak. Put the two versions side by side and their overall damage output is the same, its' how they go about it is what is different.
That is what needs to be decided first. How important is the pet.
Then we need to look at pathing then pet AI. What was a common problem with pets on raids (and in many groups too)? Horrible pathing pretty much everywhere. You tell your pet to attack an NPC 5 feet away from you to your left? Pet paths back 30 feet, and takes the most circuitous route imaginable to get to that NPC...probably aggroing other mobs in the process.
Then there is the pet AI. Pets are stupid. It wasn't until far into the AA system that true control of pets was finally obtained. Put good pet controls in early.
Fix all these issues and pets will be a welcomed addition to the game and those classes with pets will enjoy them.
+1
Awesome post Aradune!
My thoughts -
If everyone can have pets, the first thing that came to mind was a group of 6 players who all 6 had pets. It seems like it will be a lot going on there. From playing past mmo's many people would geet annoyed when players had too many cosmetic pets out and would be asked to hide them. I'm ust imagining a 24 player raid and seeing a pack of 24 cats and dogs rush at a dragon haha. I'm guessing it won't be how im imagining it but hey I'd still be down for Petheon :)
I hope summoners pets will have impressive visuals so they don't feel like everyone can do what they do.
Collecting pets sounds fun.
Please give more summoner info asap. pleaseeeeeeee :P
About the war horse, does this mean there will be mounted combat? In outdoor groups will everyone be always using mounts for exta stats?
Thanks for the post Brad.
I'm very excited to hear that there will be boats that will presumably be made by crafters. That is exactly what I wanted to hear. Hopefully there will also be player housing as well made by crafters. I'm very keen on the whole crafting aspect of the game and the more details that come out about it the better.
I also like the idea of collecting pets. If nothing else it'll be a fun side hobby and at its best it could really increase the power of your class if done correctly. Leveling up pets could turn into a bit of an obsession with the player base which is a good thing :).
Aradune Stated:
Flying Mounts
At this point, there are no plans to include Flying Mounts in Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. Flying Mounts present quite a few problems when it comes to implementing and preserving content. Unrestricted flying mounts allow players to simply fly over content they wish to bypass. If that content was not meant to be bypassed, then lots of rules and game logic for Flying Mounts must be implemented. If you don’t build the game world from the ground up keeping Flying Mounts in mind, it can become quite a mess. We have found that, typically, Flying Mounts are more trouble than they are worth. An exception might be a ‘ferry ride’, where you can use a specific Flying Mount that you come across in a specific location, or as part of a quest reward, etc. In such a controlled environment, the player can use the Flying Mount, fly up into the sky, follow a predefined path, enjoy the view, and then land in a predetermined location. Pantheon may use restricted path Flying Mounts, at least post launch. Unrestricted Flying Mounts, however, create many problems we want to avoid in Pantheon (including preserving the joy and reward of exploration, preserving meaningful travel, and stopping players from bypassing content). It is therefore unlikely, even post-launch, that Pantheon will feature unrestricted Flying Mounts.
I wanted to say thank you for responding as always it is great to hear insight and what the plans may be for the game. I am glad to see what you are doing or at least the current plans are for pets. Looks like it will be interesting and actually engaging to have one. I focused in on the flying mount for a few questions and or solutions. I know that they are problematic so I was thinking about this in a way to make the flying mounts the hardest to get and one would have to learn how to use say a dragon or giant bird. One would simply not be able to hop on a gryphon and fly across the world. Not unless they wanted to become a lawn dart.
Possible solutions: emphasis on possible:
Make the flying mounts an epic/legendary quest (Nothing like WoW or even EQ2 has currently) These are supposed to be creatures that inspire awe and fear and to mount one and actually fly it would need to fall into that category.
It also should not be once you actually get the opportunity to get one you are an instant expert on flying so off you go flying across the world. Also the beast would have to get used to you and the weight just like a horse or pack mule would.
Training for basic flight. Make it a skill tree. Crafting could fall into here also for gear to ride. Not some five minute quest either. Make it a massive chain. Throw faction in there too.
Breeding beasts for this. This can spin an animal husbandry profession for sure.
As for the distance issue and just flying over content there are ways to make this very difficult. The beast also must build stamina and ability to fly distance. You are already putting weather in the game so that is a huge factor. Flying in the cold has issues unless your dragon has de-ice units installed.
I think the pet and rider need to trust each other. I am not sure what to do here but I think that is very important. They are not cars.
Possible combat roles for them? Tough one I know but holy cow that would be sweet!
Rough ideas but this one is a favorite of mine. Not from gaming but from before that with DnD and books. There is so much of a story and adventure there is make me excited for this game and what you guys are coming up with. If anyone can do this sort of thing it’s you guys.
As always I am trying to get the discussion to lift off to see what we all can come up with regardless if it gets into the game.
Ox