Pets should do SOMETHING. Maybe auto-loot, for you?

In today's live-stream, it was specifically mentioned that pets will be fully-cosmetic. Yours truly understands that some people collect pets in MMOs, but I never have. It just always felt annoying to have a floating/following cosmetic item on the screen that served no purpose.

Even if they don't grant bonuses, couldn't they at least serve as an auto-loot function?

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Atama

SirChancelot wrote: »

Have they said whether there will be AoE loot, or will I have to click each corpse individually?

This is subject to change, of course, but in Alpha 1 you had to loot each enemy individually. On a positive note, there were indications that something was lootable, so it wasn't that bad.

McMackMuck

If pets had auto-loot then @Simurgh would be disadvantaged.
Boom! another ninja-loot headline appears, yoinks your spare change and disappears in a smokeflash.

Simurgh

McMackMuck wrote: »

If pets had auto-loot then @Simurgh would be disadvantaged.
Boom! another ninja-loot headline appears, yoinks your spare change and disappears in a smokeflash.

Lies & Slander I tell you!

Where's my rogue when I need him?

Boanergese

I believe Lost Ark may have pets that can loot for you. Guess we can see how it works in that game.

Radiglaz

Hopefully the looting system wont be too cumbersome to warrant one. But if it is, sure.. why not. Im open to it. Just make sure it is strictly attainable only in the game and not through some shop.
Im very 50/50 to it, just depends on how looting feels at launch.

Kreed

mcstackerson wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that would fall under pay to win.

I prefer them being purely cosmetic so they aren't required. I don't really like to have them and find it silly that my bdo character is surround by small animals collecting items.

How is that pay to win? it is not even close. At best its pay to be lazy...

Tyranthraxus

Kreed wrote: »

mcstackerson wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that would fall under pay to win.

I prefer them being purely cosmetic so they aren't required. I don't really like to have them and find it silly that my bdo character is surround by small animals collecting items.

How is that pay to win? it is not even close. At best its pay to be lazy...

Pay-to-convenience is still pay-to-win; The goal is to completely avoid both.

Merek

At the end of the day, no matter what ability a pet gets, people will complain about it. Especially because they can be bought from the store, so any positive they can give, turns it P2W. A sad turn of events.

Happymeal2415

I think the cosmetic pets should be cosmetic. However I wouldn't be against some sort of mini game that doesn't relate to the core gsmeolay.

Asgerr

Pets already DO something. They follow you and look insanely cute. That's all anyone needs them to do.

Any other mechanics would just create a forced need to have pets with you at all times. If I don't wanna have a pet with me, for any reason ranging from RP to screen clutter, I shouldn't be deprived of auto-loot if that were to be a thing.

Geronimo

I would be cool with giving my doggy some saddle bags and inventory space.

I don't think he can select the coins and gems from the dead mobs pockets but leave behind the useless frayed leather chest piece.

Atama

Asgerr wrote: »

Pets already DO something. They follow you and look insanely cute. That's all anyone needs them to do.

Any other mechanics would just create a forced need to have pets with you at all times. If I don't wanna have a pet with me, for any reason ranging from RP to screen clutter, I shouldn't be deprived of auto-loot if that were to be a thing.

Just to reiterate, pets do have useful mechanics. You can develop them as allies in combat. Any character can do that.

To prevent players from having a “forced need”, you have to sacrifice your limited skill points to develop a pet into something useful. Steven calls it horizontal, rather than vertical progression. A combat pet won’t make you better, it just gives you a different way to fight. But having one means giving up skills and/or not having your skills developed as high.

So remember, there will be useful pets, but you can safely ignore them and won’t be any worse off for it.

Asgerr

@Atama

From what has been announced in the past, those battle companions won't be pets, but mounts. Which will be breedable and you can eugenics your way into getting the best stats and skills for your battle-mount.

Noaani

Yeah, this game seems to have three different types of pets.

The first are cosmetic pets. They have no function.

Then there are "mounts". These are mounts that players ride, mules to carry more stuff, pack animals to pull caravans and battle companions. The majority of these are from animal husbandry.

The third type are summoner pets. These are the pets that you put skill points in to improving.

Atama

Asgerr wrote: »

@Atama

From what has been announced in the past, those battle companions won't be pets, but mounts. Which will be breedable and you can eugenics your way into getting the best stats and skills for your battle-mount.

Steven has talked about combat pets, with no mention of them being mounts. Here are his words:

“Combat pets, which can be acquired by any archetype- and this is essentially an item that exists within your backpack- you cast the item to summon your pet. When it is summoned it's not intended to be a vertical gain of power, because when you make combat pets a vertical power gain, then it becomes a no choice solution: you must have a combat pet if you want to play efficiently- you must have a combat pet; and I wanted to steer clear of that because the way I wanted to approach combat pets was more of a horizontal power choice; meaning: depending on the type of encounter you're facing, depending on the threat assessment you have, a combat pet might be relevant, or it might not. One combat pet might be more relevant than another combat pet and that's part of your gear acquisition, your item chase to attain this more comprehensive selection of combat pets that you can have available to you and can be summoned in the event that you want to engage an encounter with a different aspect of your power curve: Not vertical, but horizontal.”

That is different than combat mounts. When you do mounted battle, that mount doesn’t fight independently of you. You just have different skills on its back. Combat pets are like Summoner pets in that it becomes a companion. Mounts aren’t companions.

Here are some things Steven has said about mounts in combat:

“All mounts will have certain types of abilities: Whether those abilities are utility, or sprint, or some type of combat charge through that knocks down players or something. It just depends on the type of mount and the skills associated with that mount. That's also one component of the animal husbandry system is in creating these mounts you can have unique skill sets associated with them that obviously creates an economy for mount types and puts some relevancy on the profession of animal husbandry to present unique mounts.”

“Mounts have obviously many different applications and that's also going to speak to its identity when it has a skill selection choice too. Like do you- are you more aggressive in initiation with your mount? Okay well you probably want the ones that are going to be able to charge through and do some type of CC effect on players in front of you. Are you more about kind of using them out to dodge and avoid you know different types of things? Well then you probably want some type of invulnerability skills or some type of protective skills that you can activate at certain times. Are you going to be more traversal and focus on kind of speed you use your mount just kind of go around the world and you don't really care about the combat aspect? Well then you probably want some skill sets on your mount that reflect that.”

Combat pets will add a companion to fight by your side, so you have to sacrifice skill points for that. Mounts, on the other hand, will give you mobility in combat and can have their own unique combat skills, but you won’t be able to use all of your usual skills when mounted. So each has a trade off of some kind, but they are done differently.

RazThemun

I see no issue with their design philosophy. I have pets in wow and gw2 that just follow me around. They don't have to have abilities. Maybe a person just wants a dog to follow them around

Roko

idk man yes it would be nice if we could have them do something but sometimes you don't want to have anything following around without feeling like you're missing out.

Perhaps nothing gameplay related. For example if it was like some animation of interactions with the mobs you killed like inspecting it or sniffing it or cowering and hiding in your backpack if they fit when an enemy targets you.

Volmet

Kionashi wrote: »

Auto loot in general is a pretty bad idea, it would make bots easier to implement and just afk farm resources decreasing their market value..

100% this...

tautau

What if I could command my pet to go pee on another player? It would cause no damage, so purely cosmetic urine.

Or I could order my pet dog to sniff another pet dog's butt? Or growl at something? Or just bark? Or throw up?

Voidwalkers

As a cat owner I'd say the primary purpose of pet is to provide companionship and look cute.
And for in game pets I guess we can take the companionship part away. So just look cute.

Auto-loot imo should not be tied to pets. Either have auto loot, or no auto loot at all, or let it be a toggleable option whether you have a pet or not.

As I've said in another thread, having 20+ looting squirrels hopping behind a raid party is just ... odd. Fun to watch, but odd. absolutely odd. Insanely odd. Heck if I love the idea of working furry animals in a game why don't I just play timberborn.

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