Important Stretch Goal Thoughts -- Pets?

I like the idea. I'd like them to be optional. I think Starbound is going to be a great game

Now *cracks whip* Get back to work

 

Actually, I thought about it some time earlier. It would be great. Hanging trophies on the walls... and hunting, of course.

 

And you guys must do a trailer and some publishing work to boost the marketing side of this thing. You guys managed 750k in support of its fan base, imagine what they could with a little marketing.

GO GO STARBOUND!!!

 

I want taming on Starbound, so starter pets are not that necessary for me.

 

Can I have my own Lydia? I mean, portable chest.... ähhh lovely pet that carries my ore around while I dig. Also the interaktion of different pets would be awesome. Maybe you could use your pet to "befriend" other monsters...
I want to create an army of pets and call myself "Master of clawed Fluffyness"

 

Seems legit, I like the "different pets for different races" thingy... don't them fleshy humans getting nova pets!

 

i love the idea, it must be implemented.A lot of different types of pets can be breeded and u can find the like POKEMON!!!!

 

As a smaller stretch goal this would be good, but it would be too underwhelming for the big $1 million.

 

What about this: integrate the already announced pet taming and combat system with this idea.

On your travels you can encounter randomly generated creatures that you can tame and bring along with you for combat. We already know of this feature.

Make the vanity pets part of this. You may randomly encounter these smaller pets that can be tamed, but which don't fight with you. Instead they could be more of a utility. Think of a pet that glows in the dark, a pet that emits warmth, a pet that starts wagging its tail when you're near a treasure chest. That kind of thing.

So you would have bigger pets on the one hand, that fight with you and don't do much else, and you would have smaller pets on the other hand, that bring more of a utility to your gameplay while not assisting in combat at all.

 

Yes Indeed. There are more possibilities with a thing like Fishing than with Vanity Pets.

 

Yes to starter tamming pets!!! That's very cool!

 

Theyve mentioned many times that the next stretch goal won't be a million

 

The pets should be nice! But non combat? Eh that sounds boring. And if the new features will delay the release date - thats fine! You guys can just make the beta soon and add the new things piece by piece.

 

I personally love them, and having a pet around with you all the time is always awesome. I think it would be a great stretch goal, maybe 850k or so? Maybe slightly more of a pet system too than just 'choose one at the start and you're stuck with it'?

• I'd love it if there was a way to have more than 1, so you could swap them out occasionally for a bit of variety if you found new ones while exploring. And the ones you don't have equipped just wander around your ship to bring a bit of extra atmosphere and life there. Trying to collect all the pets is always something I love in games.
• Maybe one inventory slot or so would be cool too, to equip some slightly useful pet specific items. A backpack or torch etc, that can be equipped to any pet. I do realise this would mean a lot more work to draw everything though, so maybe only items that you cant actually see.

 

Pets are fun, it would be a nice feature

Even better : character pets, like partners in SWTOR, with interactions, personal wishes, and so on ^o^ (okay, we're speaking of a 2Millions stretch goal here )

Jokes asides, choose what YOU like, we trust you : strech goals are nice gifts, but not mandatory at all (we could simply give you money to be sure that you continue to give us good games, that's the strech goals for each new $ )

 

I can dig it. (I haven't sifted through all the pages, Im not used to 52 page spawns in such a short amount of time here haha) but Maybe pets can have there own tech slot and you can get special pet tech upgrades but the techs should just be things like lighting up areas or making a sound when close to a chest or over time create a resource of some kind.etc. maybe not player buffs though? just thought i'd throw it out there if it hasn't been mentioned.

congrats on the 750,000 goal, Keep on keepin' on. /waves chucklefish flag

 

I like that idea

 

I want an army of raptors.

 

well, I think pets would be nice but could see them patched in after the fact rather than something release was waiting for them to be worked out. As a player of Terraria (which lacks pets but is a 2D digger like Starbound) and Minecraft (3D digger with pets,) and a ton of other games and MMOs with pet mechanics, I can say on pets in this kind of game (my opinion only...)

1. pets move around. Give them even a simulated life of their own. Busy animations. Sniff at bushes. Pounce on bugs. If they are just a sprite that is 2 paces behind you and they resume formation when you reverse direction, that's not a pet, it's a fluffy piece of equipment. Pets must live.

2. pet has to stay out of the way. Either does not collide with player or at least has to have sufficient AI that they don't randomly nudge you off of cliffs or into lava. If they do collide with players and you can interact with them (walk around them fore or background) give the player position management, with commands to follow, sit and stay, etc. Mindless pet collision is just a constant hazard in a world with simulated hazards of position (falling, crushing, drowning, burning if you move into the wrong spot.)

3. let us learn to love our pets. Play fetch. Make them toys. Catnip. Option to bring them with you or leave them at base. However if pets are not involved in combat, they don't die. Cannot fall or burn to death randomly. If they are not engaging or endearing, they are not a pet.

4. if they are non-combat, have them not influence or interact with combat in any way:
4a. they can't accidentally wander within range of hostile creatures and "train" them back on you
4b. they can't get killed in combat, aren't targeted by hostiles, etc.
4c. no friendly fire! You can't accidentally shoot, stab or otherwise kill your pet unintentionally! The shots pass in front of/behind them in the foreground/background mechanic I've seen described.
4d. creatures, all creatures, do not see the pet as a threat, or food, or notice the pet, it's not going to get randomly dead or get you killed if you are otherwise being careful about aggro radius/tactics yourself.
4e. basically, if it's a non-combat pet, the pet should not bring combat with hostiles upon you through random AI, and should not be a target. I guess the latter would take care of the former.

5. if they are vulnerable to hostile action, again, give players positional commands and the ability to leave them safely at camp if planning to raid a temple or something.

6. Pet breeding. Offspring/litters. OPTIONAL (preferences) pet aging and death to go along with those mechanics. I mean in a game with procedurally generated everything, think how awesome to have procedural variation in a litter of kittens.

6. long term future patch, perhaps pet enhancements and craftable gear and upgrades, even making them MINOR combat pets. Not Bruticus Maximus or things that would unbalance combat, but maybe something like crowd control, confuses one hostile by circling it yapping. But waaaay down the road and somewhere deeep in the research tree so only a dedicated pet enthusiast would bother to pursue that.
7. same idea but upgrades and gear to make a pet a useful utility companion, like backpacks and carrying a light source and things. Again, something that doesn't make you an Ultra-Miner, but a reason to bring a little buddy along into the mines for more than amusement value.

Minecraft and Pets:
On how Minecraft handles cat and dog pets, I like that they can't get lost and will port to you if you get too far away, but that can be buggy. I cover water rows in Minecraft wheat farms with half-blocks or lilly pads to avoid losing crops and seeds in the water, but Cats have a bad habit of teleporting under that and drowning. Cats repel Creepers but unless you sit them outside your door and never move them which makes them a tool and not a pet anymore, they tend to sit on your chests blocking access too much. Dogs are handy for hunting but unless you're hunting, they tend to be underfoot nudging you back and forth while you're trying to dig or something. Minecraft pets are good at having a mobile, curious motion life but are dumb about lava and cliffs, to the extent that one of them had to be made immune to fall damage.

 

Yes Vanity Pets for just walk around... They doesn't have or make or be used to anything special makes them not worthy of a Stretch Goal.