Hey guys, sorry about all the craziness with Creature Handlers on Test Center the last couple days. As I'm sure many of you have begun to see some pretty extensive changes have gone in and not all the code made it out on the first push to TC. Everything should be in now and you should be able to try out the new systems first hand. Please check out the details of the changes below and post any feedback in this thread.
Pet Growth Changes
- Pet growth now based on experience earned instead of time.
- Babies now have the same level and stats of a full grown creature.
- Babies still grow in size as they mature and will be able to be trained with new Pet Abilities that take their stats and capabilities beyond what they were born with.
The pet growth system has been rewritten to give a more engaging play experience that lets you start working with your new pets from the moment they are tamed. Babies have the same level and stats as their parents and will be able to fight along side their master at full capacity from the moment they are tamed. As a pet fights with it's master it will earn experience which contributes to it growth (in physical size) as well as gaining the capacity to learn new abilities which can make the pet more powerful in specific ways then a wild creature of the same species would be.
Pet Training Changes
- A new command training UI was implemented which should make training commands easier and faster than previously
- Verbal training of commands works the same as previously after selecting a command to train from the new training UI.
The new command training UI will show every command you pet is able to learn as well as the voice command known for each. Selecting a command to train and pressing the "Train" button (or double-clicking a command directly) will start the voice training. Voice training works the same as previously. When your pet is ready to learn a new voice command a "?" will appear over it's head and you just need to speak the command you wish to train it. If this is it's first time learning a specific command it will need to pass a training check to see if it can learn that voice command. Once your pet knows a specific command changing it will always succeed.
New Pet Abilities
- Wild tamed pets now have a chance to start with an innate Pet Ability.
- Creature Handler can learn these abilities from their pets and train them to other pets.
- Pets gain Pet Ability "Slots" and Ability Training Points as they mature to learn new Pet Abilities.
- Pet Abilities can be taught to pets to allow for combat specialization as desired or general increases in combat effectiveness.
As some of you have already noticed, wild tamed pets can now start with innate Pet Abilities. These abilities will automatically increase the effectiveness of your pet, but more importantly Creature Handlers can learn those abilities from the pet by fighting with the pet long enough. Once you have learned an ability from a pet you be able to train it to your other pets.
As a pet matures they will gain Ability "Slots" and Training Points to learn new Pet Abilities. You can see the progress to the next maturity level on the Pet Control Device under the heading "Training XP". This will show you the current amount of XP earned and the total amount of XP required to reach the next maturity level. Experience is earned by fighting opponents. At each maturity level your pet will grow in size as well gain Training Points and possibly Ability Slots. Ability Slots will not be earned at each maturity level but likelihood of earning one will increase as a pet reaches full maturity. Pets will continue to Ability Slots until they have earned the maximum possible for their level and they will continue to earn Training Points until they have been fully trained.
To train a pet with a new Pet Ability, target your pet after you have called it and use the Train Pet command (/trainPet). If the Creature Handler knows abilities that can be trained to the pet and the pet has available slots then the Ability Training UI will open. From there an ability can be selected and the "Train" button pushed to teach the pet the new ability. Using the Train Pet command with nothing targeted will show a list of all Pet Abilities known by the Creature Handler.
Many of the Pet Abilities permanently modify your pet's statistics and capability though several of them are triggered abilities which must be given a voice command the same as any other pet command.
Please post any bugs or feedback here and we will fix them as quickly as possible. Due to the extensive nature of these changes functionality associated with any type of pet may have been affected so please check out all types of pets including factional and droids and report any problems with them here as will.
I hope everyone enjoys the new changes.