Spiral Knights - Pets in Spiral Knights

Pets in Spiral Knights

17 replies [Last post]

Tue, 03/06/2012 - 20:40

Supmyppl

A thought has just occured to me pets in sk: for example you know the turrest that cost 5ce to use in depth exploration? you see them in the 3rd depth in the crismon hammer mission how cool would it be if you could have one as a pet that follows you around and helps you fight

The way it could work

Pets don't cost much but once you pick a type you are bound to it for example pets can be classified in classes such as Mechanical, Beast, etc.
Pets don't cost much to get for example the starter pet is nooby and costs about 400ce to upgrade your pets you don't use ce or crowns but a sepcfic set of missions based on "pet xp", in which they are different types of mission with a small prestige award and the rest is focused on pet xp.
There could be like 3 tiers to your pet classifying it's strenght pets would not be able to die, and do a normal amount of dmg but are not a game changer just a companion, the higher the tier the more effective it will be on well.. tiers. Just an idea i had thought i'd share it please leave any responses on my idea, Thanks!

Tue, 03/06/2012 - 20:50

Iron-Volvametal

NOPE

Tue, 03/06/2012 - 20:46

Nixk

I had a survey in spiral

I had a survey in spiral knight ask me If I would like pets added to the game, so if enough people aggreed, maybe it's already on their agenda :D I wanna little wolver >o<

Tue, 03/06/2012 - 20:54

Schattentag

Sorry...

Read this post.

The community has basically turned against any concept of a pet for a variety of reasons including but not limited to:
The current companion AI sucks. See: knights in Candlestick Keep attacking a grimalkins, knights in anywhere shielding against friendly fire and preventing that friendly fire from hitting enemies, etc.
Undying pets would be OP
Dying pets would be pointless
Healing pets (or healing anything) would be OP
The Devs have already said no

I've only been on the forums for a short while, but ask others and they'll probably be able to provide more reasons.

Tue, 03/06/2012 - 21:06

Thexenicsniper

java talk for fast pet movements

why not use multi-threading to make the pets(if added) be controlled faster

Tue, 03/06/2012 - 21:09

Nixk

@schattentag the community

@schattentag the community has not. Just one person, don't worry. I like the idea c:

Tue, 03/06/2012 - 22:25

Amaki

Right ...

To be perfectly honest, out of the five reasons you've mentioned for not adding this to the game, the first four are just design challenges. Any halfway competent developer could find a way around AI and balance problems, so the fact that they might have issues is no reason to not look into it.

As for the fifth reason: link please? I'm seriously doubtful the developers would rule anything out.

Tue, 03/06/2012 - 22:30

Nixk

@Schattentag It was in one of

@Schattentag It was in one of the pop up surveys I had in game though, so I don't think its ruled out entirely.

Tue, 03/06/2012 - 23:33

Psychodestroyer

Yeah

That survey was released last year as far as my memory serves.

Surveys pile up if you don't do them.

Tue, 03/06/2012 - 23:53

Nixk

I go the survey recently, and

I go the survey recently, and i had cleared all of my surveys weeks before i got that survey. That was at the start of this year. Or last month.

Wed, 03/07/2012 - 00:07

#10

Demonicsothe

Healing pets/weapon is a

Healing pets/weapon is a design challenge?

OOO, hire this man. He obviously knows how to code and add everything in this game while avoiding all the problems.

Wed, 03/07/2012 - 03:25

#11

Schattentag

@Nixk, Amaki

Alright, after going through the first 15 pages of threads that popped up when searching "pet," I can't say that I found a single admin post regarding pets. I'll give you that.

However, I am still going to refute your arguments. If you look through those 15 pages as I did, you will find a few interesting things. First is that every single one of those pet threads has either been outright shut down by the community (not just one person!!) or simply died out because of a lack of continued support and detailing. Second is that almost all of those pet threads say essentially the same thing. Their original posters either didn't use the search bar to see if their idea had been mentioned or simply didn't care and decided to bring it up again anyway only to have it snuffed out once more. Third is that other people, like I, have stated that the devs already turned down this idea. Lastly, the list of pet threads goes on for 30 pages. If you care to look through all of them to find a dev response, you get a cookie.

As indicated by posting times in all of those threads, the pet idea has been thrown around for more than a year now. Has anyone heard of a pocket veto? It's basically when an idea or proposal gets some support and some flesh, but the authoritative figure who would implement that idea decides to ignore it until it dies out. If the devs wanted to put in pets, would they not have done so already? If balancing was really just a design challenge, would they not have solved it by now?

EDIT: Please note that I'm not trying to seem rude or to blow you off. I'm simply trying to argue my stance. Let it be known that when I answered the survey regarding pets, I checked the box that said "Very Interested." Back then, I thought pets were an awesome idea. Having spent a couple of weeks in the suggestions forums, I've come to change my mind after seeing some of the issues that would come with pets. I still think pets would be cool, but I also think that they seem too impractical to implement and that the devs seem to be too focused on other features to be spending time trying to make pets more practical.

Wed, 03/07/2012 - 04:27

#12

Asukalan

Omg, pets again, its that

Omg, pets again, its that time of the year?

Wed, 03/07/2012 - 05:27

#13

Aureate

Processing Thoughts of You Always

I have no desire for pets, since they would take a while to program to actually DO ANYTHING INTELLIGENT (aka not trying to kill Grimalkins and so forth).
I also have the sneaking suspicion that they would be lagalicious if introduced, and certainly a P2P only option.

I think I'll pass.

Wed, 03/07/2012 - 08:19

#14

Amaki

/shrug

I see your point, and it doesn't seem that we're exactly getting much of anywhere on the subject. Personally I suspect a lot of the backlash is due to people just being tired of the idea, which I understand. I tend to think the argument "if they wanted to they would have done so already" is faulty because the game's been out for only a year and they've been doing a load of other content instead, but the rest of the argument is sound. After all, you were only pointing out the community response, not its absolute merits.

Demonicsothe, that was 1) hurtful, 2) rather ignorant of how games are designed, and 3) mildly ironic since I'll actually have a CS degree in about two years and wouldn't mind working for Three Rings. Not that I'm saying this would be easy to implement, but it would be possible. Well, whatever, really. I can live with my "pet" being my Leviathan Blade.

Wed, 03/07/2012 - 08:36

#15

Juances

I can agree with decoration pets like accesories, but not as a free win-ticket.

Also 'design challange' or not, developers did say NO to any healing besides pills/hearths, Demonicsothe had a point.

Wed, 03/07/2012 - 09:51

#16

Demonicsothe

Nope. I have absolutely no

Nope. I have absolutely no idea how to code or design or do any computer stuff. Can't even HTML or whatever.

But I do know, from an ingame point of view, how design would be hard.

Pet usefulness: Either they live forever, and can slowly whittle down enemies while you go afk, or they die, and is basically treated like a respawning pickup.

Anytime where the pet's dps is high enough to beat a mender in the same time one beats a thwacker of a same tier, it is too high and makes the game easy. And if it is too low, one would not bother to use it for whatever cost it might have, and other side effects such as aggro and knockback.

Healing: Let's make SK more of a cakewalk than it already is. Pamper the new players, and we get more rage threads on how hard wolvers are, how zombie range is op, and retrode beams shoot too far. It helps SK none, they don't make money. And if you make this behind a paywall, people are going to rage about more paywall content.

You can't balance out healing. Either it heals as fast as fsc pads, or it is fast enough to make a difference in a suicidal-no-shield-all-out-swingfest. In which case, you might as well go solo UFSC and be done with the game.

My previous post was not meant to be hurtful. And yes, irony was intended. I do encourage you to apply for a job at OOO if you do know how to balance from a coding point of view. I don't object to being proven wrong, just the way you immediately assume you know how OOO coded/programmed SK.

Wed, 03/07/2012 - 10:35

#17

Thimol

-----

NO simply for the reason that it would detract from the actual fighting the players would have to do themselves.

I'm tired of 90% of the player base sucking more than I do. And I'm really bad.

Search

Pets in Spiral Knights