Pets, y u no liek?

I, too, was expecting something awesome to top a brand new race and a fossil/archaeology system.
$1,000,000 is be a big landmark for Chucklefish. They were worried about hitting $50k, and here we are skating toward $1,000,000.
You would think they'd want to reward those loyal enough to push them to such limits with something awe-inspiring and incredible.
Instead, we got non-combat pets who stand next to the player.

I don't mean to be negative, but I really feel like the $1 million stretch goal could have been used for some incredible new mechanic or feature; but instead, pets.

I wanted pets in the game. I was excited when the first pictures of the penguin pet started surfacing.
I just think this big landmark in the history of the game/company was wasted on a lackluster addition.

 

My concerns:

1. Pets have no purpose aside from vanity. At least the monsters you can have following you serve a purpose. (Maybe if you could transform your pet into a monster at any time, I'd go for it. That would be cool.)
2. Adding in pets will require development time. If you focus that time on pets, you can't focus it on other stuff. Post-release content would be different, but if it's affecting when we get beta or release, then it really needs to be something worth the wait.
3. There's nothing being mentioned about servers having the option to toggle whether pets are enabled. This suggests that there would be no such option, which can be a problem for those who specifically do not want to have pets available on their server. I'll leave the reasons for disabling pets to others who have more specific complaints. I just want the option.
4. After playing Edge of Space (which does include this feature) I feel underwhelmed by its inclusion of pets. The only difference between that and Starbound including pets would be variety, and I just don't see how variety would improve the feature. See point #2.
5. Pets are being offered as a $1 million stretch goal. I was expecting something more impressive than the previous stretch goals, and this just doesn't meet that expectation.

I'm not against pets entirely, but I don't believe they're fit for a stretch goal, let alone the $1 million stretch goal. Personally, I'd push it back until post-release.

I'm assuming that most of the other people have the same concerns that I have, but that their more hostile reaction is due to the shock of seeing an underwhelming stretch goal as the $1 million.

EDIT: Since I don't want to be completely negative here, I'll suggest something that would have been fitting for the $1 million stretch goal: a Let's Play of the game (as the game is right now) showing off what's already implemented and what they have planned for future content. Of course, things could end up differently from now until beta, but we've only seen the game in smaller pieces via livestreams and tech demos. If we could see how it all fits together, then it would not only be fitting as a stretch goal, but it would give people more of an idea of what they're preordering. Chucklefish hasn't really done much to pitch the game to casual observers, so unless you spend a lot of time on the forums and IRC, you probably don't know much about the game at all, and especially not why you should be preordering it now.

 

If they realized before the preorder showed up that they COULD hit $1,000,000 in a couple of days, I'm pretty sure they would have put the Novakids there as the $1,000,000 stretch goal, $500,000 for fossils, and probably $100,000-$250,000 for starter pets.

 

Agreed.It seems like a lot of people think that just because starter pets were the $1 million goal, that the starter pets are worth 1 million dollars.
It's just more content that is optional - chill out, guys.

 

Obviously the solution would have been to make it the $999,999 goal, so nobody would have to think it would be something special because of a benchmark number coming up. Seriously though, even the stock market reacts strongly to benchmark numbers.

 

I had no interest in pets, but do not think it's any drama. Hope he did not fuss with the following stretch goal, which at this rate will be soon. I'm surprised with the good pace kept with the pre-purchases. I was satisfied with the game before the additions, and do not think either is annoying.

 

1. They already said these pets will have uses.

2. So does any stretch goal, but with the extra money they've gathered they can hire more people, like a pixel-artist, to do a majority of the work on the pets which won't slow down the development of anything else. Also, this arguement is conflicting with your 5th argument, pets are a relatively simple feature that won't require a lot of time to develop (which is one of the reasons mollygos gave for choosing pets), a more impressive feature would require much more time to develop.

3. Pet's detract nothing from your gameplay experience, nor anybody else's. To my knowledge, There are no servers on WoW (First multiplayer game with non-combat pets that comes to mind) that disallow the use of non-combat pets, I've never seen anyone complain about this.

4. Ok, you think pets in game's feel underwhelming, That's your opinion and I can't really argue against it.

5. See 2, also, Chucklefish is adding new features to the game at no additional cost to you, the fact that you wanted more content for free isn't really a logical argument, nor is it fair to Chucklefish that tons of people are getting upset with them because the free content they're adding as a thank-you to their community is being rejected because it's not good enough.

I believe you covered most of the concerns that have been voiced by the community, but if you have anymore or want to debate any of my arguments against you be my guest.

 

I could've sworn that anything multiplie... Oh wait. Order of Operations. Nevermind.
Onto the thread topic; I don't understand the rage. You guys who preordered, including myself, already get INSTANT access to something that probably wouldn't have came out for at least a month once the game has been released. Not to mention that the developers didn't even have to do any of this. People are ungrateful and selfish.

 

Not so much as us getting pets, as it is us not getting whatever we would have gotten if we didn't get pets. I don't know what alternatives they had planned, but I think just about anything would be better. I mean, making a vanity item that everybody has defeats the purpose of being a vanity item. Doubly so if they actually make the pets do something, because then not only will everyone have the same few pets, but everyone will feel compelled to use then.

 

sacrifice is the key to victory if you want to master the universe you must appease the space volcano gods

pets will be good for this

 

Can't understand the people who hate starting pets, when its going to be a main feature with us taming several randomly generated monsters anyway... And for the people saying they won't DO anything? They will, perhaps not something amazing or flashy but they will.

 

they will serve as great sacrifices to the space volcano gods why does no one else realise this am i the only one who believes

 

Since you do not understand I will explain to you why there is such rage... First there was Starbound and everyone was happy. Then there was a preorder and everyone remained happy. Then Starbound gave the players moar...

 

Well, I DO understand, I'm just disappointed in humanity. I'm not saying that I didn't want something other than fossils, because I seemed to be the only one who doesn't like the concept, but that doesn't mean I'm ungrateful for the Developer's kindness.

 

To be honest I thought that was 0 as well.
I have always been taught that anything times 0 is 0!

As a result I just ignored the whole "1+1+1+1" thing, and looked at "X0".
I figured that it was 0 without calculating anything at all.
I didn't think of the order you are meant to do the calculations because I didn't even start applying math to it.
Apparently most others didn't either.
It's more of a laziness test than anything.

On topic, though:
I think that it's pretty sad when people throw temper tantrums over additional features that don't harm them in any way.
It's like a car salesman saying "you get a free towel with your car purchase!" and a purchaser not buying the car because he doesn't like the color of the towel.

 

>complains about stupidity on the Internet
>shows rage comic

 

>complains about complaining on the the internet
>makes pointless post that isn't even comical

 

I should have been more prepared if this is a comedy contest.

 

I don't have anything against the pets.

Besides, they will be optional if you seriously hate them.

 

I don't really understand why people are appalled by pets or even it being the 1m mark.

Let's say they threw in pets first, fossils next and then the Novakids at 1m. Would that have made any of you happier? Would it have eased your fragile mind that a brand new race was pegged at the 1m mark? No, people just like to bitch because they can.

Don't like pets? Don't use them.