Why I don't like Starter Pet Stretch

Starter pets are quite the controversial topic around the forums at the moment, so I just wanted to share some of my own viewpoints and ideas about them.
Personally I dislike the idea, but this is mainly due to time and money. As the developers mentioned, the money stretched for is what will fund these creations, and I ultimately believe that starter pets, whom are essentially another cosmetic addition to your character, are not actually worth the stretch.
Of course, without knowing many details, it is not fair of me to say this so surely, but I don't think they are worth another 250,000 stretch.
Yeah, I know, the developers could have left us without any stretches at all, but the starter pets still feel as though it was a hastily decided idea.
The job of creating these pets will probably be rather simple, just a bunch of animations and sprites, etc. No armor required, no new weapons, nothing extremely special... In other words, even our first stretch goal, the Novakid, are a much more extensive and large piece of work.

I'm sorry to those of you who disagree with me, I am just throwing my ideas out there.

If you didn't bother to read all this, I basically disagree with the starter pets because they are simple, not game changing or special, and are lesser beings than the Novakid, who will require whole armor and weapon sets added onto the actually creation of them.
Pets are just pets. We have already been promised pets. So why are starter pets now a stretch?

If we do reach 1,000,000 dollars, which may or may not be possible (depending on when the pre-order ends), then I hope we have a much more exciting stretch goal announcement from the developers.

Perhaps a new set of bosses? Enhanced commands and features for admins/moderators on servers?

Yeah, I will be using a starter pet and I think they are cool, but as the stretch goal they slightly dissapoint me.

Please post your own ideas, and I am sorry I wrote so much.

 

I see, I guess that does make sense.

I suppose they had already planned on creating Novakids and fossils, so upon deciding to make stretch goals, the top three things which had been planned for a later-release were added.
This ended up being Novakid, fossils, and then pets.
I am a bit annoyed that they put the best first, but oh well.

 

I like the idea of starter pets.

Being a higher stretch goal, it has a chance to not be in the game at release. If your cake ends up without icing, but you still have the cake, that's okay.

 

I personally like the concept of pets having some sort of utility. Like I mentioned in another topic, some firefly-type bug could prove to be a minor light source.

In addition, I really like the concept of escaping your homeworld alongside a little friend of yours. It'll make that pet somehow more special, from a "roleplaying" (I'm not a fan of using that word much) perspective: you two made it out of complete destruction together.

 

The first and second poll options should be added together. If you like them, you like them. I personally do not like the idea of starter pets and would not want them in the game even if they were instantly and magically added.

 

Some text for thought.

In a business, everyone needs to get paid. That means all the devs working on the game. The first 750k of pre-orders has handled this.

Now consider, what about further development? What about future content? What about upkeep? With this third addition, it is a simple addition. It's not a game changing mechanic, and exists as a cosmetic. I am under assumption that the remaining money is going to be put towards more important aspects of gameplay, and the improvement of the game as a whole.

The pets are just something special. A bonus, not an incentive. Most companies nowadays would be just as happy to provide the same things Chucklefish is, but as DLC. CF is giving it to you with the game at no extra charge.

Think about it.

 

True... Remember how buying the deluxe edition of Terraria only got you a pet bunny rabbit?

 

That is exactly what happened and is exactly the point of the Starter Pet stretch goal.

The amount of community support for this game was completely unexpected by the developers and the reason the Novakids are the "most extensive and large piece of work" is because it literally was a "Stretch Goal". They felt it was unlikely to happen, hell before pre-orders started they were thinking that $25,000 was going to be the MAX money they would make, so setting a stretch goal of $500,000 is like, "psssh yeah. Like THAT will ever happen.... but if it does, I want it to be SUPER cool. As a thank you to those who pre-ordered."

So they put the most effort into the first stretch goal, thinking it would be the ONLY stretch goal, and it would most likely NOT happen.

And then it did.

And the panicked thinking, "holy shit this is more money than we know what to do with!" and the community was saying "we want a new stretch goal!"

So Tiy, who has been thinking about the fossil system for awhile, but had not done any actual work on it or even planning for it says, "Okay let's do fossils at $750,000. I doubt it will happen, but it wouldn't be too hard to implement before release, and will please the community. *bathes in money*"

And then as we started to get close to the $750,000 goal the devs are like, "Holy shit, we already have a HUGE plate of things we need to do, and things we plan to do, and things we WANT to do, and things the community WANTS us to do." and the community is all like, "we want a new stretch goal!"

And so the devs are like, "Okay, Starter Pets. That won't be hard to put into the game, and I think people will like it."

Then it leaked before they released it and a bunch of people are like, "Bleh! We already have pets, and that is weak compared to the other two HERE IS MY IDEA FOR A COMPLETELY NEW GAME CHANGING CONCEPT I WANT INSTEAD!" and the disappointment was beginning to set it to the devs, like, "But... But... We are already giving you other stuffs, and we thought you would like it?"

So mollygos makes the thread, and it turns into a shit storm and the devs realize that nothing they could do at this point will make people happy so they say, "Fuck it. Starter pets. We have a game to make guise."

And that is where we stand.

Sorry but this whole thing is just getting on my nerves.

 

Why? They made sure the ones we would like the most were what we got first.

 

I have to agree, it was only logical that the biggest feature stretch goal was first, the other ones are just extra goodies I'm glad to have.

Keep in mind that *all* of the stretch goals are nothing too core to gameplay.

Why people are complaining is beyond me.

 

They are complaining because its the internet, and it gives people a voice to inform everyone of their opinion. Besides, first lesson of the Internet: Everyone on the internet, myself included, has an inflated sense of self worth. See? I'm posting my opinion, proving my point.

 

My opinion on this is...

I'm glad they are a stretch goal, but being the $1,000,000 stretch is a little out of place in my opinion. I would have gone with something like $850,000 as a stretch goal for the starter pets, and then had something more suitable as a $1,000,000 stretch goal. I'm not annoyed about it though, just think it's a little out of place that's all.

 

I just don't like them because I don't want a bunch of people running around on my screen with friggin vanity pets muckin' up the space.

 

The starter pets are not very bad idea.
But 1M goal (solely because of amazing number of dollars) should be something epic. As OP said, current stretch goal does not contribute much.
I think Molly should not create a poll in the first place. If they just added the pets, the amount of flame would be much less.

Main reason for that goal being accepted. despite its controversial, is lack of time and ideas at dev team.
That's why community really should suggest more ideas and be more active in discussion for the next goal. So we could give variety of good suggestions for the dev team beforehand.

 

Already mentioned that they considered them to be the $850,000 goal, but realized that they'd then have to figure out another goal for a million, and thought that it wasn't exactly doable. The Starter Pets are less extensive in regards to the amount of workforce. Anything more could eventually bungle things up.

 

You know what would be the best stretch goal?

Adding the guide from terraria as a NPC

 

Am I on the right track by thinking that one of the reasons people are getting so riled up about this are that "1M for starter pets" doesn't not make a large of a headline as it could? I can kind of understand that, but I think news about this game will travel well enough without that.

 

More than likely a lot of the people just think that starter pets isn't enough of an incentive to get more people to pre-order. However, the fact is, if someone is going to pre-order, then it will be because the game itself looks like it'll be fun to play.

The other more likely reason is that a bunch of people probably wanted something other than pets. Something that would seem more 'worthy', annoyed that something that is a bit on the minuscule side managed to become the big one million goal.

 

I agree, I'm just a little worried that it won't reach the $1,000,000 stretch goal because of what it has in store, and then having the starter pets left out would be a downer.

I agree with this too, it probably will reach the $1,000,000 stretch goal even when excluding the starter pets as a incentive. Although it's still unknown, it's like a gamble.

 

If they are useful, then they are basically force-fed to players, some of whom may want to travel alone, experiencing vastness of space in solitude. It will be stupid to get rid of useful pet. Not a good thing.

If they are useless, then they are a clutter at the game start. And it also kills solitude atmosphere, but at least it could be disposed of. Although painful for a collectioner-minded people. Not a good thing.

And both variants of the pets are fine if they came into play not at the start of the game.