Pet slot balance, hues, new tameable ideas, champ spawn balance

[Olahorand]

Eventually a slayer property for a pet could be earned by experience - once a pet has slayn xxx daemons, it becomes a damage bonus against daemons ...
Stable slots should be no longer limited to a fix number, but being able to increased either by gold, crafted stable add on for homes, ingame quests or EA store purchase.

 

[Samaira]

Stable slots should be no longer limited to a fix number, but being able to increased either by gold

This would be an excellent gold sink. I only have about 20 mil across 7 chars, and I'd part with a substantial amount of it to fit more pets in.

 

[Logrus]

It would be interesting to more customization options to pets, equipment, maybe special abilities, or maybe even something like an ability tree.
Say a dragon can learn more magical abilities, or more melee abilities. That would add diversity to the individual pets themselves, and equipment, you could essentially build your pet like a character. And you could have 2 pets of the same type which played quite differently.

 

[yadiman]

I think the main thing is just survivability for pets. Whatever creative ways that can be accomlished is just a benefit. (pet armor, talents, bonuses to vet -like taking half damage for 5 sec after being bandaged-, etc...) And pets that already have survivability like GDs could choose talents that increase damage.

 

[yadiman]

I don't think you fully read my post.... There's a lot more pets than just greater dragons.

And pets that already have survivability like GDs could choose talents that increase damage.

Edit: also a Greater dragon with even more survivablity would leave the player free to deal damage

 

[Wenchkin]

Pet customising is lower priority when we have bug fixes, art fixes and balancing fixes to be done before that. There are some good ideas, but I'd like fixes to current content before we add more.

Changes to vet skill are a great idea these days, its importance and benefit have fallen over the years. Area effect can be vetted around, but it's tricky and dangerous. Yet a player can just cast heals from a distance and be safer and as effective as the vetting tamer. This is one of the silly things in UO, if you make a template that specialises and you put a lot of skill points in it, someone is going to come past with a hybrid and do much better than you lol. When that player is using items and getting the same perks you trained up for, you're inclined to feel like that crazy person who wasted hours training up skills and maybe should have just itemed up.

I like Logrus' ideas about pulse vet healing, especially if that can work around area effect critters so the tamer is able to support a pet with vet and not have to cast heals. If a player with spellweaving can cast gift of life on a pet and avoid it's death, then stay back to heal, surely a tamer with vet skill should have some perk to equal that. Not necessarily the same, but if you take time to learn how to care for an animal and vet care, surely you'd be better placed to keep it alive than someone who didn't

Survivability is an issue, but I'd say that issue also includes players logging out to save pets. Because that has a huge impact. I don't think it's fair for us to ask for increases in survivability and trying to keep that "trick" in game.

Wenchy

 

[Thrakkar]

Some really good ideas here. I really like this real skill bonus idea as well as the pet-tamer-distance bonus.
I.e.:
Bonus = ( (Taming(real) - 100) + (AnimalLore(real) - 100) / 2)
If Bonus < 0 Then Bonus = 0
This gives us a bonus from 0 to 20. Now add in tamer distance:
100%, if the tamer stands at the same tile or right beside it.
75% one tile away.
50% two tiles away.
25% three tiles away.
No bonus any further away.

Multiply the bonus into str/dex/int/HP/stam/mana:
Modified = Real * (1 + Bonus / 100)

I.e.:
A perfect GD with 999 HP would have 1198 HP if the Tamer has 120/120 real skill and stands right next to it.
A perfect Cu with 599 HP would have 718 HP if the Tamer has 120/120 real skill and stands right next to it.

Add the bonus flat to any skill. Exceeding the cap.
Modified = Real + Bonus

I.e.:
A perfect GD with Wres/Tac/Anat/Res/Mage with 130/120/100/120/120 would be at 150/140/120/140/140 if the Tamer has 120/120 real skill and stands right next to it.

Also add the bonus tho it's resists like this:
Modified = Real + (100 - Real) * Bonus / 100

I.e.:
A perfect GD with 85/90/55/60/75 would have 88/92/64/68/80 if the Tamer has 120/120 real skill and stands right next to it.
A perfect Cu with 65/45/85/50/85 would have 72/56/88/60/88 if the Tamer has 120/120 real skill and stands right next to it.
Any pet with a resist of 0% would have 20%.

And finally add the bonus flat to the base max damage (which is roughly a 50% average damage increase if the Tamer has 120/120 real skill and stands right next to it):
I.e. a GD would do 24-53 or a Cu would do 21-48 if the Tamer has 120/120 real skill and stands right next to it.

And for veterinary add a heal over time for every point real skill over 100 to the bandages.

If you then also implement my idea with the 3 item slots, this would be perfect. Maybe numbers aren't perfect and need some tweaking, but something along those lines should do.

 

[Warpig Inc]

DEX Apps

Lets see. Vet bandi healing one of five Ostard in combat is much easier then bandi healing a human bathed in dragon breath, ducking a claw swipe.

As far as all that hand jive used while casting a spell needing any agility. FC/FCR one neg each if below 50 DEX, "You fumble and drop reagents after smacking yourself in the forehead while weaving your incantation." *Fizzle*

 

[Lady Storm]

I have been thinking hard on the color debate and I have concluded in a limited use color on some pets would be a good thing. Now the idea of GD's in rainbow hues sounds fun and could help alot in fighting as each owner with a different color GD could be followed more easy in the healing and who needs what when someone yells i need help healing....
Perhaps new spawning of colored Pets would boost tamer sales and help this out. Rare spawning of a colored pet (not limited to GD's) possibility.
I also would feel that if Mesanna could look into a perment buff potion you could add to perhaps a one time feeding that would boost up my WW to close to GD status I'd be happy camper. I like many of my fellow tamers have had these pets for years and have an atachment to them and prefer them to the GD. Dont get me wrong I have many very good GD's and dont advocate a change in that, but just to bring up my long owned WW up to speed of my GD would be super.

Color and pets looks like a great idea...
Pro's:
Ientifying your own pet in a mob of pets
Individuliality (sorry if its mispelled) players like the idea of being themselves not some cookie cutter character.
Con's:
Over use ......... addmittedly many players would color EVERYTHING in a burst of exuberance at getting that ability.
Would limit the Dev use of color in a event situation where color would be used to identify the critter your after ... and if someone dyed a pet that color could be trouble.

 

[yadiman]

Bonuses from real skills should be a flat number instead of a %. Otherwise it benefits the pets who are already the strongest.

For example, 120 Vet can give +200hp to all pets (or you could include control slots in the equation....1 slot creatures get +75hp, 2 slots get +100hp, etc.)

Pet armor could give a simple damage reduction similar to swamp dragons. (% increases and flat resistance increases would benefit the strongest pets the most... Example: going from 80 FR to 90 FR is a 50% reduction in fire damage)

the standing close to your pet thing is cool

and Skrees should act like familars that never leave your side, and Reptalons need more wrestling and FR~

 

[Gorbs]

On the coloring issue, what if you could buy pet dyes of all sorts of neon hues from the Origin store, but the coloring change would only be seen by the owner of the pet? To clarify, if I bought a glacial blue dye and used it on my pet dragon Fido, I would see Fido as glacial blue, but my friend Bob when logged in would see Fido as normal brown/grey.

 

[Vor]

I have been thinking hard on the color debate and I have concluded in a limited use color on some pets would be a good thing. Now the idea of GD's in rainbow hues sounds fun and could help alot in fighting as each owner with a different color GD could be followed more easy in the healing and who needs what when someone yells i need help healing....
Perhaps new spawning of colored Pets would boost tamer sales and help this out. Rare spawning of a colored pet (not limited to GD's) possibility.
I also would feel that if Mesanna could look into a perment buff potion you could add to perhaps a one time feeding that would boost up my WW to close to GD status I'd be happy camper. I like many of my fellow tamers have had these pets for years and have an atachment to them and prefer them to the GD. Dont get me wrong I have many very good GD's and dont advocate a change in that, but just to bring up my long owned WW up to speed of my GD would be super.

Color and pets looks like a great idea...
Pro's:
Ientifying your own pet in a mob of pets
Individuliality (sorry if its mispelled) players like the idea of being themselves not some cookie cutter character.
Con's:
Over use ......... addmittedly many players would color EVERYTHING in a burst of exuberance at getting that ability.
Would limit the Dev use of color in a event situation where color would be used to identify the critter your after ... and if someone dyed a pet that color could be trouble.

That pet buff potion is pretty cool. But the buffed WW would surely then pain into comparison again against a buffed GD.

I would love my nearly 9 year old WW to be top of the line again though.

 

[G.v.P]

On the coloring issue, what if you could buy pet dyes of all sorts of neon hues from the Origin store, but the coloring change would only be seen by the owner of the pet? To clarify, if I bought a glacial blue dye and used it on my pet dragon Fido, I would see Fido as glacial blue, but my friend Bob when logged in would see Fido as normal brown/grey.

I wouldn't care too much for client side changes because I'd like to flash my bling. I mean, I understand what you're saying--give owners the chance to use unique, possibly not universally accepted pet colors--but I don't know. I think--know--there are several acceptable hues for the base model of a dragon or WW. Just look at frenzied ostards, for example. The main problem with pets--as I see it--is there is no reason for a legendary tamer to hold on to what is deemed as lesser pets, even if said lesser pet is a firesteed, something that is meant for legendary tamers except not used really because they aren't practical. One of the few reasons? Pet hues. For example, purple rabbits, haha. If only we could get substance and style. But I'm off on a tangent now.