It appears that an immature moderator deleted my posts ( I posted this here and in Animal Taming forum ). It is pretty sad that someone who is in position of power cannot handle a view contrary to their own, and must censor the opposing view. I feel sorry for anyone who knows them, personally and through these forums. If they cannot handle free expression on a game forum, I can only imagine how they handle real, important issues.
Animal Taming Fixes
The animal tamer has been given too much power with the advent of "bonded" status. It is basically a freely insured item that never needs repair or powder of fortification applied to it, and on Siege Perilous and Mugen, that is a huge advantage, as you still have your "Siege Bless" available for use. The other problem with "bonded" status is it allows the pet owner to be wreckless with thier pets lives, as there is no real consequence for letting it die while you're away from the computer, leaving it to farm silver for you, or when you're in battle and you decided it is okay to leave the vet skill on a soulstone because the pet really doesn't matter. What pet would bond with this owner?
My proposal to fix this is what I will call "Life Force". Upon bonding of an animal, the animal will roll a random number between 10 and 25, and this will be indicative of the number of times the animal can die and be ressurected, forcing players to take better care of their pets. Those who use Greater Dragons for PvP will also have real consequences should their dragon be killed.
Bonding - bonding by feeding a pet then stabling it for a week, then taking it out of stables and feeding it again, is pretty rediculous. I would assume the pet would bond with the stable master before it bonded to you, as the stable master is the one who's been feeding it for the past week. I propse changing the bonding system to 25 meals, with a 1 hour timer between meals ( that count towards the bonding ), so the pet will bond with owner in 25 hours at the earliest, and as you would expect an animal to bond to the one who is regularly feeding it. I believe this will help with the turn over rates and keep tamers playing steadily as their old pets run out of life force, they can bond another fairly quickly.
Grandfathered Pets - I expect the new proposed format will anger the older players who have pre patched pets who have odd stats or eat different foods than the current animals that are in the wild. The thought of losing their pets to a "Life Force" system would be unacceptable to them. I propose that all pets which are bonded before the patch implentation be not subject to the new format, and the life force counter displayed upon loring the pet would read "infinite". Should the Grandfathered pets be traded to another player however, they lose grandfathered status and will roll 25 to 50 life force at that time ( potentially twice the amount of newly trained pets ).
Trading - Trading a bonded pet ( not grandfathered ) will keep the original "Life Force" rolled upon bonding, it will not be re-rolled at the time of bonding with its new owner.
I believe these changes would bring back the Animal Taming business, and we would see bank sitters selling their pets once again.
I am going to try replying to only this part of the original post:
The animal tamer has been given too much power with the advent of "bonded" status. It is basically a freely insured item that never needs repair or powder of fortification applied to it, and on Siege Perilous and Mugen, that is a huge advantage, as you still have your "Siege Bless" available for use. The other problem with "bonded" status is it allows the pet owner to be wreckless with thier pets lives, as there is no real consequence for letting it die while you're away from the computer, leaving it to farm silver for you, or when you're in battle and you decided it is okay to leave the vet skill on a soulstone because the pet really doesn't matter. What pet would bond with this owner?
I believe you would like to have in-game solution of pet owners violations of
ToS. The following tamer conditions should create a triggering conditions for
a timer upon the bonding of the pet; the tamer logs off for more than 15 minutes,
the tamer is off screen from the pet for more than 15 minutes, or the tamer
gives a command to pet without tamer skill below the value necessary to
tame the animal.
This timer should be obviously evident to all players on the screen with the
pet. A pet with a timer only stands and defends itself. Only the bonded owner
of the pet can remove the timer by proper in-game action.
The length of time for the timer may be established based on proper treatment
of the pet.
*stares*
Yahaxithonix
