Pet Revamp Proposal from latest Newsletter

[Escaflowne]

Pet Revamp
We are in the process of laying out the particulars for the way pet advancement is going to work with the revamp. As you may have read in previous newsletters and from our meet & greets, you will be able to train pets in a way that will increase the # of control slots they take. The number of advancements a pet can take depends on each pet (You won't be able to take a rabbit from 1->5, but may, for example be able to take a grizzly bear from 1->5). At each advancement there will be an increase in survivability that will increase some combination of the pet's Hit points, Hit point regeneration, and resists.

What we are asking for your help in is determining what method you would prefer to further customize additional attributes (things like mana, defense chance increase, AIs). In this case keep in mind that all pet behavior is controlled by an AI - so the pets won't do anything but a basic melee attack unless there are AIs to direct it otherwise.

There are currently two approaches we can take,

The "Reforging" approach would mimic the reforging system (minus the randomness) in that attribute gains/AIs would be grouped together in that you would select a package of attributes to enhance when a pet was eligible for advancement. For example, when your grizzly bear moved from control slot #1 -> #2, you would be able to select a full defense package that would increase a group of stats consisting of something like defense chance increase and hit lower attack, or you could select a full offense option that would include more offensive attributes like a bleed attack AI and hit physical damage.

The "Imbuing" approach would mimic the imbuing system in that at each advance you would be able to select individual attributes that are weighted and count against a cap for the control slot tier. In our grizzly bear example when you advance from control slot #1 -> #2 you would be able to select from a pool of attributes that would each have an associated weight. For example you may select a "bleed attack" AI weighted at 50 points and a "hit physical" attribute weighted at 100 points to count against a 150 point cap at control slot #2.

The major difference is in how you select the customization as the pet is trained up. Would you prefer a pre-packaged (reforging) approach or a more open selection (imbuing) approach?

We look forward to hearing your feedback regarding both approaches!

Original Link:
Ultima Online Newsletter

 

[Escaflowne]

I personally would prefer the pet imbueing system, would add more variety and customisation for more personalised pets. Im so excited for a 5 slot bear! ive been waiting years for an armoured bear or something similar!

 

[Aibal]

Personally, I have full belief that whatever route they choose, they will **** it up beyond imagination.

 

[TheRealDanno]

I would like to see everything tameable within reason. Such as wverns, shadow wyrms, maybe even hydras and such. Just saying if it moves we should be able to tame it. Less the boas or kini boss like creatures. I also think we should be able to tame animals in a champ spawn.

 

[Hendric]

I too like the idea of the imbuing system. The customization would be great and no two pets would be quite alike, although I'm sure there would be flavor of the month pets but that's okay. I'm excited for the revamp and will most definitely come back and play.

 

[Mister Sinister]

Yes, definately imbuing over reforging system! Also let us drop powerscrolls on our pets to increase their skillcap.

I made two suggestions in this thread in the ToL forum, maybe you would like to comment on them:
some suggestions for bug fixes and improvements

 

[Merus]

@Kyronix

Here are a few of my thoughts:

First, we need to seperate the ability to level up stats/skills/resist from the ability to add abilities like HCI/DCI/HLD. Otherwise how would you ever add the abilities to a pet that doesn't level up.

Skills: I would recommend skill bands based on slots and to a lesser degree the starting skill. Slot 1 and 2 pets would remain capped at 100. Level 3 would increase cap to 105. Level 4 to 110, and level 5 to 120. Any skill above 120 would come from the natural taming process (GD can go over 120, so can rune beetle poisoning, etc). Addionally the percent of the cap achievable would be scaled by the percent of max skill when tamed. So if your nightmare starts with 92% of max wrestling, you would get 92% of the increased cap (109.2 instead of 110 at level 4). This would make looking for good skill pets at the time of taming relevant. Other skill changes: eliminate the skill loss when ressed by a player with vet. Allow pets to eat SoTs (training magery on pets is a disaster).

Resists: I would change to resist caps based on level unless exceeded by natural resist at taming. Level 1 pets would would bump to 30 in all resists, then add 10 for each level. This would get you to all 70 for a level 5 pets. Any resist over 70 would come from being tamed that way and would add 5 resist per level up (a Cu with 74 physical resist at taming would go to 79 at level 5). This would cap at 90.

Stats: Rebalance starting stats based on slot. Hp would have a 200 hp range per level starting at 0. Mana would have a 100 point range per level starting at 150. Stam would remain capped at 125 unless exceeded at the time of taming. Each level up would add a band (+200 hp and 100 mana per level up). Level 5 pets would cap at 1000hp and 650 mana.

Skills, resists, and stats would not be selectable by the player as they level up, but remain a function of the pet attributes at the time of taming. Finding a good pet to tame would still be important!

I would do abilities via some sort of quest system based on the ability you want to add. (Slay 50 lich lords for a DCI boost, etc) Each quest would add +5 of an ability and a pet would be capped at 5 quests. Maybe I want a 3 slot rune beetle with 25 HLD, or a pair of fire steeds with 25 DCI on one to tank and 25 HCI on the other. If you don't seperate the abilities from the slot increases, you basically hose any pet that you don't want to or can't level up.

Ultimately you would end up with pets whose strength is on par with its slots within a given range with the better pets based on taming level. Those pets would then be customized based on abilities added supplemented by the pets natural abilities.

Finally add some sort of timed effect to provide slayer bonus/vulnerablity. My vote is a seasoned tasty treat made by cooks.

 

[Merlin]

I hope pets don't become too OP with the training process that it pretty annihilates the usage of all older pets.

I would be interested in both the "imbuing system" and the "package system". Tough call to make until you see it in action. While the customization does sound nice, I don't want another over complicated system either.