A Different Approach to Pets - what do you think?
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• Xbox: NA and EU megaservers for maintenance – March 19, 6:00AM EDT (10:00 UTC) - 9:00AM EDT (13:00 UTC)
• PlayStation®: NA and EU megaservers for maintenance – March 19, 6:00AM EDT (10:00 UTC) - 9:00AM EDT (13:00 UTC)
Michael308
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So, recognizing right up front that there are issues we all would like to see addressed before this, I wanted to share an idea about Vanity Pets just to get some opinions from the rest of you. DISCLAIMER: If you do not like Vanity Pets, this idea contains the addition of a “Hide everybody’s vanity pets” checkbox right next to the “Hide Helmets” box in the current settings, so you can stop reading now and go on to the next thread.
So consider this: right now if I use the emote /sitchair, a wooden chair will appear and I will plop my butt into it. /torch, /juggleflame; there are a bunch of these prop-conjuring emotes already in-game.
What if vanity pets worked like that? Here is the logic:
Current vanity pets have almost zero interaction with their owner, who is really just a GPS beacon that the pet follows, only to largely ignore us on arrival. I am not a programmer but I’d guess that the AI path-finding that allows a pet to chase us adds overhead to the game engine, as does adding another item on screen to render. I don’t see my pet much when moving, so for the most part it is more of a “pet statue” that appears when I stand still.
Enter Emote-a-pet!
In the new model pets come to us as a consumable, i.e. you can trade or sell it until you use it once. Then it falls into a separate pet inventory that is shared account-wide. This encourages players to “carry” and display pets without sacrificing bag space. The pet inventory panel has a single box above the normal grid and choosing which pet is Active is done by moving any pet from the grid into the Active Box.
So now a player can run emotes like /petsit where the character sits and whistles; the pet appears a few feet away, runs up and cycles through some brief behavior really interacting with the character. I have a German Shepherd in real life and half the photos ever taken of me include the dog leaning against me, draped over my leg, head in my lap, etc. There might be only one or two emotes at the onset (presuming emotes require a fair bit of work) but over time things like /petfetch, /petsleep, /petsnuggle or /petplay become realities.
Why bother?
For those who like pets, I think this would offer two values. First is a different RP experience, maybe better, maybe not. Second is a decidedly better “posed photo op” ability for those who like screenshotting. Pets and emotes are both clearly part of the ESO vision because both are visible and growing. And those who dislike pets altogether toggle the whole system off with one checkbox. Just my view but I think it is a win-win.
Shortcomings
Movement interrupts all emotes, so you lose the ability to run or ride with the pet following along. I’m interested to hear how people might feel about that. From my own perspective, the limits of pathing diminishes my awareness of the pet while I’m in motion already so I don’t think I’d miss that so much. How about you?
Advantages
I think this would have a unique advantage for flying pets, that in some games simply hover next to you like an air-parked quadrotor. A flapping bird parked in the air has always seemed sort of odd to me. In this model your falcon fades in coming down out of the sky to land on your arm, interact with you, then launch back into the sky to disappear once more.
Also, as an emote, your could choose to toggle your pet as part of an alternate idle state. If you AFK you sit down and your faithful pet comes over to sit with you. Thats how it works in my house and I kinda like it.
Summary (aka TL:DR)
As a pet-lover, I would love to have a pet that I can hug, scruff his head, toss a ball, or just lean against and watch the sunset. I’d trade persistence of a largely non-reactive pet for quality time with one scripted to interact with me. I’d carry and use pets more often if they moved out of my inventory. An emote-based pet system as described above might deliver those items and reduce engine load.
Caveat: on a purely personal note, I have no interest at all in things like crabs or monkeys as pets. I can see the appeal of something exotic like the new Ice Wraith but honestly, I’d love, LOVE to see some simple dogs and cats. A falcon would be very in-game cool as well. I would do long long achievement lines or pay real-world money for one of the wolves or tigers already in the game.
So consider this: right now if I use the emote /sitchair, a wooden chair will appear and I will plop my butt into it. /torch, /juggleflame; there are a bunch of these prop-conjuring emotes already in-game.
What if vanity pets worked like that? Here is the logic:
Current vanity pets have almost zero interaction with their owner, who is really just a GPS beacon that the pet follows, only to largely ignore us on arrival. I am not a programmer but I’d guess that the AI path-finding that allows a pet to chase us adds overhead to the game engine, as does adding another item on screen to render. I don’t see my pet much when moving, so for the most part it is more of a “pet statue” that appears when I stand still.
Enter Emote-a-pet!
In the new model pets come to us as a consumable, i.e. you can trade or sell it until you use it once. Then it falls into a separate pet inventory that is shared account-wide. This encourages players to “carry” and display pets without sacrificing bag space. The pet inventory panel has a single box above the normal grid and choosing which pet is Active is done by moving any pet from the grid into the Active Box.
So now a player can run emotes like /petsit where the character sits and whistles; the pet appears a few feet away, runs up and cycles through some brief behavior really interacting with the character. I have a German Shepherd in real life and half the photos ever taken of me include the dog leaning against me, draped over my leg, head in my lap, etc. There might be only one or two emotes at the onset (presuming emotes require a fair bit of work) but over time things like /petfetch, /petsleep, /petsnuggle or /petplay become realities.
Why bother?
For those who like pets, I think this would offer two values. First is a different RP experience, maybe better, maybe not. Second is a decidedly better “posed photo op” ability for those who like screenshotting. Pets and emotes are both clearly part of the ESO vision because both are visible and growing. And those who dislike pets altogether toggle the whole system off with one checkbox. Just my view but I think it is a win-win.
Shortcomings
Movement interrupts all emotes, so you lose the ability to run or ride with the pet following along. I’m interested to hear how people might feel about that. From my own perspective, the limits of pathing diminishes my awareness of the pet while I’m in motion already so I don’t think I’d miss that so much. How about you?
Advantages
I think this would have a unique advantage for flying pets, that in some games simply hover next to you like an air-parked quadrotor. A flapping bird parked in the air has always seemed sort of odd to me. In this model your falcon fades in coming down out of the sky to land on your arm, interact with you, then launch back into the sky to disappear once more.
Also, as an emote, your could choose to toggle your pet as part of an alternate idle state. If you AFK you sit down and your faithful pet comes over to sit with you. Thats how it works in my house and I kinda like it.
Summary (aka TL:DR)
As a pet-lover, I would love to have a pet that I can hug, scruff his head, toss a ball, or just lean against and watch the sunset. I’d trade persistence of a largely non-reactive pet for quality time with one scripted to interact with me. I’d carry and use pets more often if they moved out of my inventory. An emote-based pet system as described above might deliver those items and reduce engine load.
Caveat: on a purely personal note, I have no interest at all in things like crabs or monkeys as pets. I can see the appeal of something exotic like the new Ice Wraith but honestly, I’d love, LOVE to see some simple dogs and cats. A falcon would be very in-game cool as well. I would do long long achievement lines or pay real-world money for one of the wolves or tigers already in the game.
Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.
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daneyulebub17_ESO✭✭✭✭✭
✭Not good for me I'm afraid--the whole "movement doesn't work with emotes" breaks it. I like to know that my trusty mudcrab is always behind me, intimidating all evil doers, and I don't want to always have to be re-emoting to see my pet. I want to do it once and have him be there until I send him back to his bag.
I'd prefer to just to give us a "pet slot" bar, or something like horses are done now, with a stable.
I wouldn't mind, though, using part of your idea and seeing emotes that WORK with animals. Once you have your pet out, typing something like:
/dog fetch
Causes your pet dog to fetch a stick that your character emotes throwing, or
/cat kick
Causes your character to drop kick the cat (complete with "MEOWR!!" sound)
(OK--I wouldn't really want to kick my cat.)
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