06 September 2007

Pets

One thing I want to work on, after I am done with the astrology and the landmines, is a 'pet' system.
I didn't finish designing it, but here is an outline (which might change):
1. Each player would be allowed to have ONE pet.
2. In order to get a pet, you will need to buy an egg. To prevent the overcrowding of the game with pets, those eggs will be expensive (100K gc or more).
3. There might be different kind of pets, and some might be available only for real money. However, all the pets will be equal, they will just look different.
4. Pets will level up, but not by fighting (because if they level up by fighting, a lot of spawns will be taken by people and their pets). Instead, you will level them up by 'feeding' them with various items. Not sure yet what items, how much they will cost, and how many would be required for a level.
5. The pets levels will be different than player's levels. I plan to have only a limited number of pet levels, maybe 10, maybe less. Each level will considerably increase the power/combat capabilities of the pet. For example, level 1 will be good enough for rabbits, level 2 for wolves, level 3 for armed goblins, level 10 for yeti. Again, those levels will need to be determined by testing and by players feedback.
The attributes for the pets (coordination, physique, perception, etc.) will automatically increase with their level.
6. There might be a few classes of pets (pets that use magic, pets that summon, pets that are meele fighters, and so on). However, they will all be free in terms of real life money, and the paid versions will only have a different avatar, not different capabilities.
7. The pets will have a limited 'life', and they will die after a while (probably depending on their level). Players will not be able to heal them or to prolong their life. However, they will be able to ressurect the pets, with some special stones, which will cost in the 100-1000 gc range. I think I will have stones for different levels, so if you have a level 3 pet, you will need a level 3 (or higher) stone. The higher the level, the more expensive. The stones may or may not be manufacturable by the players, this is yet to be decided.
8. There will be an 'upkeeping fee' for the pets, in order for them to keep their level. If you don't 'upkeep' them every month, their level will decrease. The method to upkeep them has to be determined.
9. The pets will fight animals/monsters in normal maps, and other players or pets in PK maps. Some maps might not allow pets (such as Isla Prima). However, the pets will not gain any experience from fighting.
10. Pets will follow their masters, but they will not be able to change the map (when the owner disconnects or changes maps, they will die).

This is the basic outline for the pets, but things might change by the time I actually start working at implementing them. I don't know when they will be done, but I think they will be in the game in less than 6 months.

16 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just a question. How will they be useful if they can't leave maps? Maybe you can absorb them into an item for storage (only example I can think of is like a pokeball for pokemon)? Or perhaps use a pet sitter NPC.. and like a storage, you can take your pet out on different maps.

6/9/07 01:08  
Blogger Nyiti (Gabor) said...

Have you considered a way of controlling summoned/pet monsters? Something like Ctrl+LMB on the ground tells it/them to move there, Ctrl+LMB on enemy tells it/them to attack it.

6/9/07 02:53  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

10. Pets will follow their masters, but they will not be able to change the map (when the owner disconnects or changes maps, they will die).


Lets say we are going from White stone to morcraven marsh, how can we take them there?

6/9/07 03:07  
Blogger Radu said...

Nyiti: Yes, I was thinking of a way to have some control over summoned animals and pets. Not sure how/when we'll do it though.

As for the pets not being able to change the map, that shouldn't be a problem. The idea is that you summon them in the map where you need them, you don't take them all over with you (unless if you feel like summoning them in every map you pass).

6/9/07 14:10  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You said some pets for summon, or meele fight etc...

Can I please buy a pack mule...

pretty please??

6/9/07 15:17  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So say our pet dies.. can we ressurect it in another map?

6/9/07 15:48  
Blogger Radu said...

Hmm, mule pets..
That's not a really bad idea, actually.
In fact, I'll really consider having something like that.

As for ressurecting the pets, yes, you can ressurect them wherever you are, except for some maps (like Isla Prima).
So the idea is to have the pet only where you need it, not just walk it all over the game like you'd walk a dog.

6/9/07 17:26  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Can you summon your own pet with a high enough summon level?

- Nin :)

6/9/07 20:16  
Blogger Radu said...

I don't know yet, that is to be determined.
Summoning the pets will require some stone/device that will be made by the summoners and/or bought from an NPC.
I will post more details when available.

6/9/07 23:41  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, a muling pet is almost worthless if it can't change maps because most things like ores where pets would be helpful are in caves where you need to do atleast 1 mapchange. And if pets can't move maps they are just another sort of summons, nothing special.

9/9/07 08:35  
Blogger Radu said...

How about we wait until implemented, and complain then if we don't like it?

9/9/07 22:18  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was thinking the levels of the pets could be a bit like WoW, where you have level 1 - Nervous to Level 10 = Best Friend, each level would mean that your pet listens to you more, or could open up more things for your pet to be able to do. For example at level one your pet has a 1/100 chance of attacking an creature, as it isn't use to you, but at level 10, you have a 1/2 chance of it attacking as it will listen to you as it is your best friend.

Just a thought.

Foxblade

26/9/07 06:55  
Blogger Radu said...

We don't want to copy WoW here.
However, the pets will do more stuff as they levle up. For example, a level 10 mule will be able to carry much more than a level 1 mule.
Or a level 10 magic pet will be able to cast more powerful spells, etc.
They will however all listen to you and do what you want them to.

26/9/07 16:36  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I had an idea for another kind of "pet". It occurred to me that a character wearing Roja's pirate clothing might want to have a parrot perched on his/her shoulder. I then realized that other small creatures could be used also. The way I see it they should increase the character's visibility, but might have no other impact on gameplay (or each kind of creature might have a different small impact like a mini-perk: owl=night vision+1, etc). Some small pets/familiars might be: parrot, owl, raven, small rat. Since they would be added to the actor they wouldn't add the overhead that another actor would.

14/10/07 12:15  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

lets take a look at untima in taming animals instead of pets mabey be able to tame those bears alot of us see but cant kill and give different levels to different enemys

11/11/07 00:39  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

great concept. i really would like a pet fox or something like that.

but what ruins it is the thought that they cant follow you around to different maps. why spend several k gc when i can just summon a "pet" alternatively amd almost have the same thing.

5/4/08 10:25  

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