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Hey all, I've been working on a game (Game Design Document status) for several years now and there's one thing that keeps wondering about what to do: Mounts & Pets I know I liked the pets from puzzle pirates, althought hey really did nothing more then be there, but it was fun :) Then there are the loads of pets from other games where you get them either from a quest (where even human companions are called pets) or where you can catch them in-game. Then there's also the mount system. But what's the real difference, if there's any? I can imagine that you'd have mounts which are the big pets/monsters that you can actually ride and who can have combat skills. Next to the mounts you could have pets which are pets/monsters that you can NOT ride but who have combat skills and thus help you in fight. What would you do? Have either one of them in the game? Or perhaps both? And if you'd have both, would you let a player use them at the same time, so ride the mount and have the pet with you at the same time in a fight? And how about companion pets like cats, dogs, bunnies and the like? I'd love to hear your opinions! Regards, Grisaline. ~Have fun~ |
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10/29/10 10:07:31 AM#2
As a player I’ve always wanted to do more with pets.
Sure, I enjoyed having pets fight with me in Guild Wars, being able to use special powers for them.
Really enjoyed the amount of control you had over pets in City of Villains with masterminds.
Liked having to worry about my horse in Fallen Earth. (they would get attacked if you weren’t nearby).
But what about leveling them up with their own skills like a player?
Being able to make a large animal a pack animal or a mount?
Being able to train a dog or cat to track for you?
Have an animal help you with crafting e.g. by growing wool or a bird catching rabbits?
Having different ‘breeds’ of domesticated animals for different roles? (Bloodhound v. mastiff)
I think some games have one of these elements but I don’t know of any that have them all.
Basically, having animals fulfill the roles we have actually had them fulfill in real life.
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga |
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10/29/10 11:22:10 AM#3
One of the features that I would absolutely love, especially in a sandbox game, would be to have a very in-depth pet/mount system.
I've always wanted to be able to just go out and raise my own wolf pack, breed them to specific traits, train them for battle, etc.
If a game had that, I would play it until it closed. Top MMOs: Asheron's Call, Shadowbane, EVE Online, Planetside |
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Originally posted by astoria I like your ideas! Many of your ideas I had already implemented in my GDD even before you brought them up :) You're talking about leveling the pets up with their own skills. Would that also mean that your pet has to level it's skills, like a player has to level his/hers skills? Or would you prefer it if the pet simply learned the skills and could use them immediately to the max? I like the idea that you have to think about your pets whereabouts. You have to keep an eye on them, just like in real life. Good idea! About crafting: Do you mean: let the animal have the skill or more something like have sheeps and goats for wool, cows for milk, etc? I'm not sure about the breeds of the same species. I'd have to do more research on the possibilities of that. I have been thinking about making more breeds of one monster species, though, simply to make the game more entertaining. One of the features that I would absolutely love, especially in a sandbox game, would be to have a very in-depth pet/mount system. Originally posted by jasimon I think this kind of in-depth pet/mount system is very intriguing. In my game the lifeskills and tradeskills (and with those the accompanying professions) is what comes first, before battle. I think an in-depth system as you described would fit perfectly well. I can imagine that the traits you're talking about, could be something like the breeds within a certain species Astoria was talking about. One more question: Would you want all monsters to be able to become:
I had been thinking about limiting certain combinations to make it more of a challenge.
Also, would you like everyone to be able to become a "beastmaster" (lets call the profession that for a moment), or would that be something really specialized?
I'm asking this because I'm still (theorethically) building my profession system and thinking about the possibility for people to have a second (or third or fourth or whatever) profession. I know WoW has the possibility of a second profession, but personally I'd go for only one profession in a fully player-based economy. This way all the profession are really needed and thus all players are really needed.
The Beastmaster would be able to really train the monsters, while everyone can catch a monster. But those who are not a beastmaster have a much higher chance that the monster will run away because they don't know how to tame and train it.
I'd love to hear your opinions about it all!
~Have fun~ |
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10/30/10 10:40:11 AM#5
Mounts are good in 2 cases, when you have to move long distances or if you have stuff like jousting and knights charges. To have mounts and not lance is just a mistake in most games, it takes away a lot of the points. In a game with small zones and no real mounted combat it is just a waste of resources you could put to better use. In a game with knights and mounted archers it really makes combat more fun, particularly PvP. I would love a game based on the 100 years war like that.
As for pets there are a few uses I see for them besides classic fighting pets. Tracking. Bring a dog to track whatever you are looking for. Resources. In some case you can have dogs and pigs to find resources. In other cases you can keep the pets for resources, you know milk, meat, leather and so on. Giant spiders to get silk or so. In games with player housing you could more or less have a farm to get materials, I think crafting fans would like something like that. |
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Talgen
 Old School
Joined: 9/04/02
This is just my opinion and should be viewed as just that, an opinion |
10/30/10 10:47:55 AM#6
companion pets in my opinion are great, fun to collect and show off, perhaps they can do a trick or two.. combat pets should only be available to those who posses the skills to command them, and be able to acquire new skills and attacks, sniff out stealthed opponents, special attacks, bonuses in this or that environment... it should really be a skill based pet not just something you can pick up.
mounts, in my opinion again, should be both.. they are great for moving around quickly and everyone should have access to them.. mounted or mount combat should be skill based, you have to sacrifice to gain anything and all that, skills for teaching and controlling something that large is a must, let alone the skills from attacking while on the thing takes skill as well..
but again this is all just my opinion. |
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10/30/10 10:50:23 AM#7
Originally posted by Loke666 This ^ ..... but not just this though. Mounts have served other purposes as well in games like UO. Some were hybrids, meaning they were mounts as well as combat pets. Others had another use, they could carry things. Pack Mules, Giant Beetles and then there were some unique mounts like the Fire Beetle which was basically a portable forge. Pets and mounts in UO were fairly epic imho and I have been waiting for an MMO to bring these things back oO. I also liked that not all pets and mounts were equal. One dragon wasn't necessarily the same as another even if they were the same skill level. When you went out to tame a pet/mount they had different stats and skill levels. It was somewhat random, which of course let the search for that perfect pet be a very long one which was friggin great lol. After finding your perfect pet, you then had to skill them up which was great as well. It was work being a tamer in UO but it was the most rewarding skill lol.
Outside of a UO or a Mount and Blade kind of use for pets and mounts, well... I don't really see the point in having them in game really. For just travel, institute a rune type of system or portal type of system. Saves on resources. |
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10/30/10 11:16:51 AM#8
Originally posted by GrayGhost79 Yeah, pack animals is of course a good idea too. I remember in Daggerfall where you always had a mule outside the dungeon and at times run up to it to dump loot. But they are really only needed in games with realistic (or somewhat realistic) carrying capacity or in games where it drops a lot of junk. The portable forge pet is somewhat silly. But I do like the idea about going out and collecting pets, putting them in your barn or whatever and breed or sell them. And pet training is a good idea. All pets have different abilities but if you breed pets you could train in a skill or feature to them too. AoC tried a little at mounted combat, but it didn't really work out since there was no lances. Mounted combat should be in and well made or mounts should not be included at all. |
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5/15/11 8:53:34 AM#9
id like a game where you can train flying mounts with anime style graphics and taming easy ps wats it gonna be called |
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