Pet slot

Is the pet slot in your inventory currently functional? If so, how do I use it?

 

It's in the nightly, if you see it in the original then it's probably a tease to what the interface will be like, patience my friend! But if you want to know it's basically used for pets you capture in the creature pods, and now the pods don't disappear you can re summon your pet back at anytime like a pokeball!

 

In the nightly version it's replaced with a weird display that shows the stats and health of your current pet, you still have to equip the capture pod and use it to release the pet though so it's not exactly useful. I think the pet system is still very much a WIP even in the nightly considering how useless pets are and how some capture able creatures' AI simply don't work when used as pets, and probably won't be fully done for 1.0.

It's still a nice system though and when it's done it'll definitely be worth it, the new "pet tethers" that allow you to place down tamed pets into the world as NPCs is a great step in the right direction

 

I also saw it's called critters now. I hope they will make a way to make them fight again, like before. Should I get my hopes up?

 

Pets were always intended to fight alongside you, so of course the devs will make them fight. What would the point be if they just followed you around as decorations?

 

The same point that vanity items have. That's why there's a collar that makes them non-combat. Some critters also act as a light source (though they absolutely suck at following you around, because they keep their "shamble-along-mindlessly" AI).

The slot just acts as a status display of your currently summoned pet; you don't actually equip anything.

 

Damn but I want those illegal animal fights which are terribly cruel back

 

I don't know what aerionop is talking about here in their first paragraph, but in the current stable version they're "critter capture pods" and can only capture those tiny biome-based creatures that die in one hit. It allows you to move them around where you'd like without them despawning but they're nothing like actual pets, and that mechanic is only a placeholder until the next version which is the current nightly.

In the current nightly it functions exactly as you want, and as aerionop says in their second paragraph. Almost any creature can be captured and used to fight along side you, and can be equipped with a collar to augment their fighting skills (Although most just make it so they explode when they die)

 

I got this all from http://playstarbound.com/final-approach-to-1-0/ and from the picture you can see that it's not a critter it's a monster so hopefully this will be added later, as of now it's not in the nightly (also I'm pretty sure he named it)
Revamped Pet System
The pet system has been massively improved, captured pets now appear in your inventory, the range of creatures you’re able to catch is much wider, the capture animations have been improved along with the pet behaviors. Pets can also be equipped with collars which provide them with special abilities and you’re able to craft healing and tether stations to heal and tether your pets to a location.