Curse

HotSnack · Feb 28, 2005, 08:48 AM // 08:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halfy

I wouldn't see the point of changing a whole lot. It takes time to get your pet up to max with you. Better to decide early and take him/her with you on the journey to lvl 20.

I realize there are pet differences but marginal at best to the present date. Time will tell if ArenaNet tweaks the pets according to the suggestions made.

Don't take it the wrong way, I didn't do this research so I could deduce which is teh uber pet.

I did it due to my love of knowing the numbers in games, plus the lack of information on pets on all the fansites I've visisted.

thegriffgeeks · Feb 28, 2005, 08:19 PM // 20:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halfy

I became a proponent for pets after I teamed up with several rangers on a mission and just about everyone brought one. There was no need for warriors there that we could tell, we breezed right through most enemies.

The pet made a huge difference for me....especially noticeable in pre-searing when i was out and about by myself. Also when in the Academy playing w/ a team of NPCs.

Problem is that the thing fights other non-threatening animals constantly...

William of Orange · Feb 28, 2005, 11:00 PM // 23:00

Pets are nice if you're just out wandering by yourself earlier on in the game (i.e. Pre-Searing Ascalon). When I did the mission to tame the Melandru's Stalker, I just kept him with me because it was handy in dealing some extra damage, and who can resist something with a name like Melandru?

It is annoying sometimes that you can't really control them, especially if a Moa bird comes into range and you can't stop them from ripping on each other. Every now and then I try to disengage an enemy (or Moa) and my Melandru keeps on attacking, so I'm forced to decide between letting him die or going back and trying to fend off enemies on my own...

Zaklex · Feb 28, 2005, 11:59 PM // 23:59

I found that lingering near an enemy your pet attacks or is attacked by tends to make it stick around and not follow you. In explorable areas where my Moa was following, if it did get attacked or stopped to attack something, I found that if I kept on going, eventually it would disengage and catch up to me.

Kaiwyn · Apr 12, 2005, 03:37 PM // 15:37

It really would be nice if you could control the animal with a Follow (follow but don't fight) or defend (fight) like they have for the henchmen in NWN. I don't know if I even want to get an animal. The last one I had was forever getting itself ripped up and killed, battling where it shouldn't. I am trying to keep myself alive so I finally just let the thing keep dying. It took too much of my resources constantly healing it. I don't see much of an advantage to keeping one around.

RitchDavis · Apr 12, 2005, 10:02 PM // 22:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lunarhound

If he paid you for them, you could just keep charming them and selling them to him.

Just for the record ... he does buy they from you. When you sell your pet you get a warning that states something like: If you sell your pet you can never charm that animal again.

So no, you cant sell it then charm it and sell it again. I took it to mean you could tame that species of animal again, as well.

And animals make a HUGE difference especially if you're a monk/ranger. A good animals will hold the enemy back long enough for you to pummel it with your big spells.

Davion · Apr 12, 2005, 10:10 PM // 22:10

Fansite Friday #40

For your perusal kaiwyn

Roken · Apr 13, 2005, 12:25 AM // 00:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halfy

I became a proponent for pets after I teamed up with several rangers on a mission and just about everyone brought one. There was no need for warriors there that we could tell, we breezed right through most enemies.

Now I know pets aren't popular in GvG, but come one there is a whole skill set in beast mastery devoted almost entirely to them. There has to be a way to make them an effective tactic. I think people have overlooked a valuable resource. What I would like to know is their damage output at their top level.

In most games, there is always a way to make the weakest anything useful, you just have to know how to use it, and once you learn how to use it, it isnt weak anymore

Added double post content:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaiwyn

It really would be nice if you could control the animal with a Follow (follow but don't fight) or defend (fight) like they have for the henchmen in NWN. I don't know if I even want to get an animal. The last one I had was forever getting itself ripped up and killed, battling where it shouldn't. I am trying to keep myself alive so I finally just let the thing keep dying. It took too much of my resources constantly healing it. I don't see much of an advantage to keeping one around.

Hrm, seems to me like pets are more of a burden than a help. I havnt played, yet, but I don't know if I want to play a character whose one whol attribute is pretty much useless

Halfy · Apr 13, 2005, 07:25 PM // 19:25

Have no fear! Us pet-keepers will soon be respected! Gaile Gray expressed in the latest fansite friday.

Quote:

...it’s my understanding that more control options for pets and henchmen are definitely on the design and programming list. Where it will fall remains to be seen. There are 21 days until Guild Wars is released. If in that 21 days we are able to work on controls for these NPC’s, we’ll definitely do it. If we cannot implement control changes before month’s end, you can rest assured that our streaming technology will make it possible for us to include such improvements in one of our free Guild Wars updates.

So there is hope. Most people ignore pets because of the lack of control, especially in PvP.

Double Wolf · Apr 14, 2005, 12:21 AM // 00:21

I dont see why I couldn't name my pet since it levels up like I do and it belongs to me. Also, when many people in PvP or PvE had the same pet (like the m.stalker)I could not tell which one was mine by looking at the life bars in my party. This was dissapointing since I couldn't tell when my cat was dying. It would really help if the color of the pet's life bar is a different color so players can tell them apart.

P.S.: Guild Wars=Best Game Ever!

Silmor · Apr 14, 2005, 11:37 AM // 11:37

Quote:

...it’s my understanding that more control options for pets and henchmen are definitely on the design and programming list.

Hmm, I can understand why they look into henchmen control as well as pets since it should be quite a similar thing, but it brings up a nice issue - who ends up with the controls for the henchmen if those are implemented? Giving every party member control seems unwise, so maybe the party leader should be the one to control them.

Imagine the possibility of four henchmen and a pet to control though, that would get confusing pretty quickly and use up quite a bit of interface space.

chalt2 · Apr 14, 2005, 02:16 PM // 14:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Double Wolf

I dont see why I couldn't name my pet since it levels up like I do and it belongs to me. Also, when many people in PvP or PvE had the same pet (like the m.stalker)I could not tell which one was mine by looking at the life bars in my party. This was dissapointing since I couldn't tell when my cat was dying. It would really help if the color of the pet's life bar is a different color so players can tell them apart.

YES! I agree, I have been in parties with several of the same pet and trying to figure out which one belongs to who is almost impossible. Having different names and or color bars would be VERY helpful, even if it just YOUR pet that is identified.

Roken · Apr 14, 2005, 02:35 PM // 14:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silmor

Hmm, I can understand why they look into henchmen control as well as pets since it should be quite a similar thing, but it brings up a nice issue - who ends up with the controls for the henchmen if those are implemented? Giving every party member control seems unwise, so maybe the party leader should be the one to control them.

Imagine the possibility of four henchmen and a pet to control though, that would get confusing pretty quickly and use up quite a bit of interface space.

Im sure there's a way to work out the interface problem. It could be a pop-up box and you could select the controls from there, or hit a certain button to make the pets/henchmen aggressive, defensive, passive, etc.

The game so far looks great, Im sure the Anet team can work it out.

Fenix Swiftblade · Apr 14, 2005, 07:02 PM // 19:02

I think that if a high level of control is implemented for the pets, it should be available only to people with high level of Beast Mastery.

I.E:
At level 0 in beast mastery you can have a pet, and it can level up, but it thinks for itself (follows you for the most part but doesn't even attack called targets).

At the levels in between you should have different ranges of no control to full control. Maybe unlocking the use of specific commands at certain levels. (Level 5 you get 'attack my target' or 'stand your ground', level 7 you get 'defend me' etc.)

At Level 12-16 you should have total control, possibly to the point of being able to use the keyboard and mouse to move it and select targets, though this could be a bit much. Having a full range of either hotkeys or pet specific emotes to control the pet would be good at this level.

Another idea would be to make the all of the commands available at all levels, but then the chance the pet obeys would be based on your beast mastery level, at level 0 the pet will not obey (or even do the opposite maybe :P) and at level 12-16 it would obey every time.

Silmor · Apr 14, 2005, 10:29 PM // 22:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fenix

Another idea would be to make the all of the commands available at all levels, but then the chance the pet obeys would be based on your beast mastery level, at level 0 the pet will not obey (or even do the opposite maybe :P) and at level 12-16 it would obey every time.

I was thinking the same thing - a failure chance for lower level beast mastery. The problem with this implementation, as well as getting more control options at higher levels of beast mastery, is that without rebalancing the damage increment by the attribute and the effect it has on pet skills, it will skew the general beast mastery balance. It would make it yet another Ranger line which requires high attribute investment to be of any use.

Well, the Fansite Friday promises beefed up Pet AI, so hopefully it won't even be necessary to implement the controls. Even if they still get people killed, I'm sure everyone will be much more forgiving now that we can name our beloved fur- and featherballs.

Roken · Apr 14, 2005, 10:53 PM // 22:53

Aye, I have not played a Ranger yet, but so far the Beast Mastery line looks useless. One pet, that goes off and attacks things without your consent, and it does petty damage against a level 20 character. Although, I do not know how effective it is in PvE. I still say replace it with a blade (sword) line.

Olfin Bedwere · Apr 14, 2005, 11:58 PM // 23:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Double Wolf

I dont see why I couldn't name my pet since it levels up like I do and it belongs to me. Also, when many people in PvP or PvE had the same pet (like the m.stalker)I could not tell which one was mine by looking at the life bars in my party. This was dissapointing since I couldn't tell when my cat was dying. It would really help if the color of the pet's life bar is a different color so players can tell them apart.

P.S.: Guild Wars=Best Game Ever!

Ask and Ye shall recieve:

3.Pluses for Pets
You can imagine reading the advertisement in the Tyrian Times: “New pets! Improved! Now with 15% more IQ and with a +2 to Chance of Greater Loyalty.” As we mentioned last week in Fansite Friday #40, all non-player characters, including pets, are far less likely to wander off and get themselves into trouble. They’ll remain at your side, assist with your called targets, and generally prove themselves more worthy of their Pet Chow.

More importantly, there should be no more confusion about which of the pets in the party menu belongs to you. Now, each pet can be given a name, with a simple command that look like this: /namepet. If I see you this weekend, you can meet George XVI for yourself.

http://www.guildwars.com/community/f...iday-bwe6.html

Marksmann · Apr 15, 2005, 12:25 AM // 00:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by HotSnack

Also to add in, supposedly the more points you put into beastmastery itself, the higher the attack and defence of your pet (sort of like weapon masteries then).

However, I've tried comparing the damage of a pet with 0 points in beastmastery, with one that had 7 points of beastmastery and still saw no real difference in damage (I never checked for defence).

The problem with pets in GvG though is the lack of control of your pets. All they do is attack, reducing them to the poor man's warrior. I think people will only start to take beastmastery seriously if there will be calls that will actually have good synergy with the ranger's other skills. For instance, Call of Disruption would have been an interesting skill to augment the anti-caster ranger's own abilities, but the pitiful chance of an actual disruption combined with all pet's slow RoA makes this one to pass over pretty quickly.

Maybe add calls that increase pet damage when attacking a bleeding opponent, calls that give a chance to knockdown on hitting moving opponents, just anything to make players sit up and think how they can actually incorporate pets into their own play style, rather than all these calls such as - Call of B, this is just like call of A, only instead of set damage infliction/reduction it gives armour penetration/increased regen to increase/decrease the damage inflicted/received.

I like your thinking on this, HotSnack. Whether of not these animals are all that effective in battle, may not be that critical for some players, especially early on in the game, or if they are primarily role players or PvE players. They just like the idea of having pet companions! And since having a pet requires that multiple skill slots be dedicated to managing them, it would be nice if they were more effective in battle for the owner and his party. I know that there have been some more beast spells added this time around, and I'm looking forward to seeing how they add to the effectiveness of my Mes/Ranger's pet stalker. With the addition of some tweaks, like what you suggest in your post, a "Ranger Tamer" would not be dismissed out-of-hand. And then maybe Kaiwyn could warm up to having a cat along for the fight again. Lol.

Ilya Khan · Apr 15, 2005, 03:40 AM // 03:40

The one reason I would EVER be some sort of beastmaster/animal charmer is any game is to either tame a pig, a duck, a penguin, or a seal, and name it a fun name like Morty or Pooka. I beleive that in order to attract players to beast mastery, one needs to give the owners a connection with their pet because if you have a horse named "Horse level 3", then you feel no connection to it. But when you have a level 3 Horse named "Pooka", it is what really attracts you to wanting to have a pet. And a bit off topic, I wouldn't mind having to feed my pet to make an even stronger connection. But thats just my 2 cents...
Sorry if my mind works as though I am 1/2 my true age, but I am a child at heart.

MindBullets · Apr 15, 2005, 04:49 PM // 16:49

I'm unable to play until tomorrow.

I was wondering if anyone could take a moment and comment on the changes that have been implemented to the pets AI etc?

Thanks in advance,

Mind