Pets?

[Anonymous]

What kind of pets (NPC or vNPC) are there in Armageddon? Which are categorized for nobility, ultra rich, rich, commoner, dirt poor scum? Are things like dogs and cats existant in Armageddon?

Only rich people would have them, commoners probably couldn't afford to feed them. Anyway, there are birds commonly available. And if you ask borsail, you could most likely get a quirri or a jozhal or something like that.

Quirri are like cats, and I've heard of Gortok being trained into guard dogs, maybe someone was just bsing.

[Crazy Fox]

There are tamed gortok NPCs roaming around in some places.  I've yet to see a PC have one as a pet.

[Savak]

That's probably a fair question, and the short answer is -- nobody has really created a definitive list.

There aren't really any "common" pets, primarily because of the difficulty in feeding them.  On the other hand there are a great many beasts of burden, or perhaps better put, beasts of work.  True pets tend to be very small, such as birds or small lizards, and may double as message carriers or living alarms.  The larger the animal the higher the upkeep and thus the more the animal is expected to pull its own weight.

-Savak

[tland]

I'd realy LOVE two pet gortok attack dogs...

who needs veteran mercs when you have a 5 foot tall Roky with you  :twisted:

So how would I go about getting one?
there is no place that sells them, so guessing I have to e-mail the staff or wish up and have alot of cash?

[The Lonely Hunter]

Having pets is something I've thought about a lot in the past. I think it would just be pretty damned cool.
Maybe a merchant house can begin to domesticate a few critters and sell them at crazy prices to anyone who would buy...anyway, just an idle thought that I am sure will be flammed heh.

I just had a thought, give rangers a skill tame to branch from something? (I know they have enough skills, but whatever)

They could try and tame animals to be their friend, then hitch them. If you enter combat with a tame animal hitched to you, it joins it?

-kanks beetles inix etc, mount animals would have to be set so they don't when hitched to you.

thoughts?

[Armaddict]

Ehhh, well...there's already something in-game that allows rangers to tame certain animals.

MAYBE it could be extended into taming other animals just for pets, but I -really- don't like the idea of some guy just being able to go around, tame an animal, hitch it to him, and have it assist him.

I think there are some pets, in game, who will act as guards for you, but I also think it's a better idea to keep it as is -- You have to get one of these special 'guard pets' through communication with the imms and they can decide whether it's a good idea or not.

I just see way too much of a hack'n slash aspect coming into the game if people can freely go out and get a whole bunch of auto-assist pets.

[Cyrin]

Only rich people would have them, commoners probably couldn't afford to feed them. Anyway, there are birds commonly available. And if you ask borsail, you could most likely get a quirri or a jozhal or something like that.

Quirri are like cats, and I've heard of Gortok being trained into guard dogs, maybe someone was just bsing.

I could imagine a 'rinth kid or a commoner having a tame rat or even one of the bigger cockroaches as a pet.

[Angela Christine]

I could imagine a 'rinth kid or a commoner having a tame rat or even one of the bigger cockroaches as a pet.

I agree.  People on the edges of society who don't have a tribe or family need love too.   :wink:   An orphan elf might  well "adopt" a rat (and possibly it's offspring) as a tribe.  Wild rats are nasty, but if domesticated they can be as gregarious as dogs.  Start with a young orphaned ratling, raise it and it will probably hang out with you despite being a little skittish.  Two or three generations later, the pups that have known you all their lives will be tame and loyal.  They will also help keep your food supplies free of mice and other small pests, rats hunt and kill other small animals.  Once you get pass the diseases and the biting, rats rock.  And in the rinth, who doesn't bite and have diseases?   :twisted:  As further evidence I offer: http://www.brunching.com/rodents.html

Cockroaches . . . not so much an affectionate relationship, or even a relationship at all really.  But you can talk to them, and could probably get one or two to hang around if you fed them.  Chances are there will be a cockroach around, and since they all look pretty much alike you can assume that whatever cockroach you find in your clothes is your pet, Roachy the roach.

Anyway, back to my point.  You'll often see street kids in real life with dogs, rats, even kittens.  When everyone hates you, giving away half your food to have a "friend" seems like a fair trade.

AC

AC

[Rindan]

I don't see anything wrong with having a small animal, like a rat for a pet.  However, you don't need anything coded for that.  A VNPC rat will work just fine.

[Angela Christine]

I don't see anything wrong with having a small animal, like a rat for a pet.  However, you don't need anything coded for that.  A VNPC rat will work just fine.

That also makes it tricky for someone to kill your beloved pet.  So em Grabs %kid rat off ^kid shoulder, and snaps it's neck Would be power emoting and probably against the rules.  You have to try something like em makes a grab for the rat on %kid shoulder which would let the owner of the virtual rat decide if the rat gets grabbed, if it is quick enough to dart down the owners shirt, or if it runs off into the night.  

AC

[Rindan]

Tue, you will have to be on the one to decide if your lucky rat is stolen, but I don't really see that as a bad thing.  Perhaps it is just me, but I generally trust myself to decide such things.  I suppose if you feel you are not able to make such a decision fairly then perhaps it is not for you.  That said, I don't think that spending time coding a rat that will stick with you and follow your commands is really the way to go.  If anything, I think that a VNPC rat would be open to far less abuse.  If you emote that your rat runs up your leg into your sleeves when a big mean group of nasty 'rinthers come anocking, they can't use the code to kill it.  This makes sense, as the rat in question is in your sleeves, and in order to kill it, they better be taking swings at you.

In general though, I really would not be terribly thrilled about the idea of having a horde of pets running around.  As others have said, it would seem too H&Sish for me.  Even the most loyal pets rarely are always at your side.  That said, the code for a pet is in.  Just look at the body guard code that nobles use for NPC body guards.  I imagine it would take very little modifcation to apply that to a gortok or some other beast.  If the imms felt like granting someone who had been RPing an attempt to get a pet (or having a pet), then that seems fine.  I just don't want to see a pet store in Allanak (or anywhere else for that matter) any time soon.

[crymerci]

I can see it now...just when you get that gortok nice and tame, some templar comes along and 'appropriates' it.

[tland]

*starts looking for a baby desert Terantula Muahahahaha*

"Apropriate THAT"

[John]

how would I go about getting a pet?
there is no place that sells them, so guessing I have to e-mail the staff or wish up and have alot of cash?

Well, you could do that, or you could always try finding a PC Kadian merchant. I mean a pet would be a "luxury" and they deal in luxury items, so you'd think they would have means to find pets (i.e. RP talking to a VNPC who deals in such things and then e-mail their Imm). Although if the merchant doesn't want to bother with that then they'll say nope, don't sell it and you wish up or whatever.

Worth a shot IMO.

[Morninglight]

I wouldn't mind seeing a place that sells songbirds, barakhan lizards and even pet rats or snakes as objects in Allanak. (Remember the songbirds up north?) A travel cake or two every couple of days would keep them fed, and since the poor usually don't have luxuries like fine clothing or food, a pet might be the next best thing.

Also, it could be termed as a way to teach kids responsibility at an early age. The average VNPC commoner in Nak's probably married with two kids by twenty-five, so parents might give their kids pet rats and that to learn how to care for critters. (Rats are cheaper to feed than spare babies. )

Objects aren't as open to abuse as NPCs when you think about, and there's already such things coded in-game. Just emote around the object like you would with any other, and have some fun.

Just my two 'sids for today in this topic.

[Deathtakeusall]

Can you tame silt flyers

[Carnage]

Any animal that is mountable can be tamed, according to the code.

As such, you should find out IC.

[Savak]

Few quick points:

1) Songbirds aren't likely to be very common around Allanak; they'd probably have to be shipped down, and would probably be quite expensive at the least.

2) Many of the larger pets would *not* be allowed in the major cities without the owner being a noble or having some sort of license.  This is primarily because of the potential damage they could cause.  While I agree that IN THEORY a large city such as Allanak or Tuluk would even have large animals (gortok sized or so) roaming around just as strays, not to mention as pets, for the moment I'm not terribly comfortable with letting recently "tamed" wild animals into the city.

3) If you have specific ideas for new pets, particularly small ones, feel free to write them up and mail them in as a proposal.

-Savak

[X-D]

Ok, Well let me start by saying, I love the idea of having pets in game, I think that there should be pets and that anybody should be able to tame small animals  into a pet with certain subs able to tame larger more diffacult animals and rangers and half elves the largest types.


Now, before you go screaming bloody murder about this let me continue as I think it is also something that aside from the very smallest of animals for the most part would not be done, and so, the diffaculties should be great.

First, NO PET STORES (ie, no npc pet merchants) as I do not think that there would be a merchant who would be spending sid on feeding a bunch of animals that most people would rather eat anyway on the off chance that somebody might want to BUY this animal to have to feed and care for.

So, starting with the smallest types (small rodent types, bugs, small birds etc) A person would have to find one, subdue it, keep it with them for a few ic days working with it and then the tame pet skill would turn it into an object, this would entail a reasonably simple script with some time checks or a skill script that had say three options, maybe four and take a lot of time, say the animal is subdued, you go sit somewhere and type tame gimpka into pet gimpka rat, then the script would do it's delay and a skill check against time animal subdued etc and the outcome could be nothing, gimpka dies, gimpka runs away (then you may recover it but would be starting over) or gimpka tamed, if gimpka tamed script changes it into item, if possible this item should be flagged to cause the char with it to become hungry and thirsty slightly faster, this would reflect having to feed the animal, also the item would not save except with a char, so, if you put it down and quit out, it would run away (go poof)...also, if the skill check failed in that gimpka died you would have a gimpka corpse of course:)

Now, that was the easy one, the larger forms of pets would involve a reasonable amount of work on the part of them imms, at least in my thinking because I think if it was put in, mounts would become pets also
and have a chance of running away or starving to death or dying of thirst, but in doing this, you could work off the current mount code, except most of the 'pets' would not have the mount flag but just a hitch flag or in some cases maybe a take flag.


this type would work off the ride skill and maybe even branch off it as a seperate skill of say animal training, In most cases I would not allow the animal to assist in combat except for possibly at very high levels of the skill and I would only allow one pet of this class, to be with a char, hitched or in inv only ones with mount flags would be rentable and if it only had hitch or hitch and take you could not rent it, oh and on the combat only certain types would be able to assist anyway.

Now, as you can see, this type would be a lot of work because I at least can see no way to do it completly with scripts so would most likly involve some code change, I think it would be neat none the less.

Oh, and I think that it would have to be taken into account said pet could and would be sold sometimes, if it was and to somebody without the skill, there should be an increased chance of the pet running away or turning on the owner, in the case of running away the pet should be non aggro to anything and maybe even go poof if it got more then X number of rooms away.


Also, this would alow you to actually have a 'Pet' Kank or inix or whatever that is still a mount or a (non-mountable of course)  tregil or Gortok maybe, and just maybe even something as high up as Jozhal, but no scrab or raptors or tembo, maybe a tandu, you get the drift.


Well, if any part of this long but I hope not to rambling post is of at least some interest to any staff, I would like feedback on it, and weather they think any part of it would be feasable.


X-D, who still thinks he should not be aloud to post after 1 am.

[X-D]

Ugh, maybe I should have put that in code discussion or something, Oh well, But I guess I am really "asking the staff" if such an idea is feasable in any way or has been thought on.

going to bed now

[Anonymous]

I've always liked the idea of 'pets' and am always jealous of PCs who have them when I don't.

I've had one PC w/ a pet.

Personally I think there would be a lot of live food being sold that could be also kept as a cheap pet.

Rats in the 'rinth, lizards in 'nak, that sort of thing.

Small creatures that can live a few days off of a single tuber or a piece of stale bread.

Kinda like the woman in Michael Moorer's move 'Pets or Food' who was selling rabbits with a sign that read just that "For Pets or for Food"

I think that larger things such as gortok, jozhal and the like would not only be unrealistic for normal commoners to be able to feed but probably only allowed by law to those of sufficient position that can pay for the license to bring a dangerous creature in town.

I definitely wouldn't like to see gortok NPCs for sale, unless they were at ridiculously high enough numbers to keep us from seeing people running around with twenty guard gortok.

[Savak]

I tend to agree that the "fresh food" of Zalanthas would generally still be alive, leaving the buyer to prepare it however they see fit.  While it's probably not extremely well indicated in some of the shops yet (someone has been working on this recently, however), the majority of foodstuffs for sale would be dried, salted, or otherwise crudely preserved in some way.  The remainder I could easily see as alive (if barely so).  If not, critters or foods would become caked with sand/dust, stiffen, and dry (at least the exterior) in minutes to hours of preparation ANYWAY.

I don't think, however, that many of the "living" foods/mini-pets ever need to be coded as NPC's.  There may be a place for them as objects.  Some perhaps with scripts for ambiance.

There are several issues with making pets as NPC's, including how they will save when you log out, how criminal code deals with them, how they might react in combat, and how zones save them or lose them if you 'tame' one.  These are a lot of significant OOC issues for something which seems to be mainly of "neato" value.

-Savak

[Anonymous]

I don't think, however, that many of the "living" foods/mini-pets ever need to be coded as NPC's.  There may be a place for them as objects.  Some perhaps with scripts for ambiance.

Definitely agree.  The one 'pet' I had was an object that I emoted around feeding on occasion.

[blah]

Having pets is something I've thought about a lot in the past. I think it would just be pretty damned cool.
Maybe a merchant house can begin to domesticate a few critters and sell them at crazy prices to anyone who would buy...anyway, just an idle thought that I am sure will be flammed heh.

i think there should be pets or companions i think there should be like something resembling a hawk and you should have commands to make it do things depending on how tame the pet is and how good you are with animals and they should be able to go off on thier own just an idea think it could work?

[HaiWolfe]

I don't think, however, that many of the "living" foods/mini-pets ever need to be coded as NPC's.  There may be a place for them as objects.  Some perhaps with scripts for ambiance.

Definitely agree.  The one 'pet' I had was an object that I emoted around feeding on occasion.

Did you actually write up the pet as an object and send it to the staff?

(This question directed to any staff member) Can I write up an object as a small pet for myself and send it in?

[Savak]

Yes, you can write up a description and send it in.  We prefer to create objects which are generic enough that we could load them for other people as well, but sometimes there are exceptions to this.  E.g., a squirrel with one blue eye and one red eye is quite unique and the object would likely get very limited use in the grand scheme of things.  But a simple grey squirrel we could load for anyone with a reasonable story of having a pet squirrel..or whatever.

-Savak

[swordmaster]

why do they have to be rats why not hawks?