Pets

[Bella_Astrum]

Was talking to a friend about Dual Universe and pondering some possibilities, and for some reason the idea of pets popped into my head. I wonder if pets would be a possibility in DU. Maybe ones we can make ourselves from blueprints and using scripting, and/or even maybe alien animals from planets which we can tame and capture and bring back to our homes/spaceships. 

 

Just a random idea I'm throwing out there. 

[Cybrex]

I'd like to have my own R2-D2.

 

Nuff said.

[Kiklix]

I imagine because we can script constructs that its possible to make ED 209 sized automated robots....that will be the kind of pet I keep around anyway. Although if would be fun/funny to have a little alien cat thing that follows you around on your ship. Or goes around and does its own thing. 

[Dreamstar]

there was a similar topic where Nyzaltar gave a response, although quite some time has passed, and maybe the team has more to say now.

 here- https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/49-what-if-we-had-pets/

 

For me though I do not understand having 'pets' in games. You can't really cuddle or enjoy the company of your pet in any significant way, and if the team goes out of their way to create overly elaborate and flashy visual pets to try and be eye candy, it usually just upsets me and decreases my enjoyment levels.

 

I also think its funny to see an army of warriors with tiny tabby cats, puppy's and ponies charging onto the battlefield. or worse floating alien strobe light pets.

 

I would not be against either having pet areas or a module or something you can put inside your ship that lets your pet roam around the area.

 

Things about pets that really upset me at times

• companies trying to make pets relevant, by making them involved with loot, salvage, selling items, ect
• pet pet battles
• pets giving stats or advantages
• overly extravagant pets, with lights or eye clutter in pvp

being able to tame wildlife and keep them in a zoo like setting could be really cool.

If they were to implement battle fatigue or 'mind wounds' similar to what was in SWG, maybe playing or watching pets could be a relaxing thing that cures the fatigue / wounds. Kind of like recovering from post. traumatic. stress. disorder.

 

lastly, for me Id like to say that if its done in a good way I have no problem with pets if they dont conflict with any of the following.

Will adding pets detract or distract the team from making other content. Like more weapon, armor, clothing models.

Will pets significantly increase the size of the game?

Do they have any chance of causing stability issues, or overwhelming players personal computers cpu / gpu ...

 - would it mean decreasing the player model quality, or terrain / fauna quality.

No looting, extra inventory, stats bonus, no pet pvp against players or other pets.

[Cybrex]

there was a similar topic where Nyzaltar gave a response, although quite some time has passed, and maybe the team has more to say now.

 here- https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/49-what-if-we-had-pets/

 

For me though I do not understand having 'pets' in games. You can't really cuddle or enjoy the company of your pet in any significant way, and if the team goes out of their way to create overly elaborate and flashy visual pets to try and be eye candy, it usually just upsets me and decreases my enjoyment levels.

 

I also think its funny to see an army of warriors with tiny tabby cats, puppy's and ponies charging onto the battlefield. or worse floating alien strobe light pets.

 

I would not be against either having pet areas or a module or something you can put inside your ship that lets your pet roam around the area.

 

Things about pets that really upset me at times

• companies trying to make pets relevant, by making them involved with loot, salvage, selling items, ect
• pet pet battles
• pets giving stats or advantages
• overly extravagant pets, with lights or eye clutter in pvp

being able to tame wildlife and keep them in a zoo like setting could be really cool.

If they were to implement battle fatigue or 'mind wounds' similar to what was in SWG, maybe playing or watching pets could be a relaxing thing that cures the fatigue / wounds. Kind of like recovering from post. traumatic. stress. disorder.

 

lastly, for me Id like to say that if its done in a good way I have no problem with pets if they dont conflict with any of the following.

Will adding pets detract or distract the team from making other content. Like more weapon, armor, clothing models.

Will pets significantly increase the size of the game?

Do they have any chance of causing stability issues, or overwhelming players personal computers cpu / gpu ...

 - would it mean decreasing the player model quality, or terrain / fauna quality.

No looting, extra inventory, stats bonus, no pet pvp against players or other pets.

 

I can respect that opinion, and from an immersion perspective, I agree on some of your points. 

 

I'd like to see "pets" be capable of being created (IE: Robots etc.) or finding various wild life on the planets we travel that you can tame. I'd also love to see a degree of functionality besides being just vanity items to show off. They need to serve a purpose and provide some reason to exist. Compliment your character, but not be a detriment to the player if you don't have one either. Just a helpful companion if it can serve said purpose.

 

Judging on the scripting this game will have, I can expect to see us players creating interesting AI programs to task machines to do interesting things for us. 

 

Wild life is a tough one for me to think about, mainly because I am pretty sleep deprived at the moment. Though, Ark: Survival Evolved has a pretty cool system in regards to taming wild life and what not, and that also runs off the Unreal Engine. So it is possible, but the trick would be to procedurally generate the wild life. I suppose NQ could create multiple base templates for wild life, that the engine could then work within the perimeters of, and then create the creature itself out of random, but retaining the functionality that the template it was created off of. 

 

I don't know if any of that made sense. Maybe when I get some sleep I can explain better, hah!

 

As far as hindering game play, I can't bring up a counter argument right now. Unreal Engine is a very capable engine, and can be manipulated to do many things. I wouldn't worry about that stuff until we further know what NQ are doing with UE. 

[Shadow]

Hello there,

 

I copy/paste here Nyzaltar answer from https://board.dualthegame.com/index.php?/topic/49-what-if-we-had-pets/for having it handy : 

Hi there!

 

Pets are currently being discussed.
It's not 100% sure yet, but there will probably be some pets as rewards for backers during the crowdfunding campaign.
If it's the case, these pets won't be giving any ingame advantage. This will be purely cosmetical.

 

For more evolved pets, having specific ingame uses and available to everyone, it's too soon to develop on this aspect.
But this might be a crowdfunding campaign stretch goal. Who knows ?

 

 

That being said, I totally agree with Saffi, key points being:

• As far as we know, mechanical pets could be built by players (and would probably represent a quite healthy market) ;
• I would enjoy taming wild beasts, but pets should not give advantages to players ;
• NQ should not focus on pets as they are not central gameplay.

 

Regards,

Shadow

[Bella_Astrum]

Some good thoughts/points. Thanks for the links provided. I wouldn't consider NQ focusing on anything like pets for a long time, I'm under no illusion that there are far more important aspects.

 

When I think of pets, I think of cosmetic, none-advantage giving types. And not necessarily anything that's going to follow you around everywhere. That said Ellegos, I would not say no to my own droid either

 

If organic pets were ever something we see, I'd definitely not be seeking earthlike animals, such as cats, dogs etc, but instead things unique to the planets NQ design.

[Astrophil]

If organic pets were ever something we see, I'd definitely not be seeking earthlike animals, such as cats, dogs etc, but instead things unique to the planets NQ design.

 

Ah yes. Makes me think of that gazelle-zebra sort of hybrid in the hunting concept art. Imagine if you had a pet like that. And you could see it in VR too...mindblowing!

[vylqun]

maybe we'll get an genetic engineering addon where we then can create new lifeforms and assign predefined character patterns for them  

[Astrophil]

maybe we'll get an genetic engineering addon where we then can create new lifeforms and assign predefined character patterns for them

 

Ah...Kubrow imprints. I see your thinking.

[vylqun]

heh, i had to google kubrow imprints, sounds to me like breeding, was thinking about somehting more "spore'ish"

[NQ-Nyzaltar]

Hi everyone,

 

Lots of interesting points raised in this topic

Here's an update on the Pets that might be included in Dual Universe.

 

1) It's important to make the distinction between "Pets" and "Mechanical Workers".

a ) By definition, Mechanical Workers will be craftable helpers for a player wanting to delve into industrial activity. But it won't be a Pet. 

It will: 

- have a precise activity pattern, defined by an AI script.

- have a real practical usefulness in-game.

It won't:

- be a reward of any kind (reserved to backers, founders, or any specific group of players)

- follow the Player Character anywhere.

 

b ) A Pet will be more or less the opposite of the Mechanical Worker:

It will:

- be a reward representing an achievement (it might be backer/founder related, or for an exceptional community activity)

- follow the Player Character when his owner will decide it. 

It won't:

- have a customised AI script. Just a basic script to follow the player (with maybe a few scripted actions, lore related)

- have a practical usefulness. Otherwise, it would be considered as an advantage given to a limited number of Players. 

 

2) Don't expect a whole part of the gameplay centered on Pets.

 

Because:

 

a ) while it can in some cases add a little something to the immersion, this is not a part of the current game vision.

 

b ) It's an incredibly time consuming and expensive content to develop if you want to do it well.

(Side note: this has been one of the biggest features developped in the 4th expansion of a popular MMORPG involving murlocs, just for comparison ).

 

c ) We make a difference between "Pets" (as creatures following the Player Character and having only a cosmetic or mini-game purpose) and "Wild Beasts" (as creatures that can be tamed and having a practical usefulness in the game once tamed. This category is also generally called "Hunter Pets", "Animal Companions", or "Familiars" in other MMORPGs). Gameplay about taming wild beasts might appear at some point in Dual Universe, but if that's the case, it will be after the official release, again for priority and budget reasons. While it makes sense in a game oriented exclusively on survival to focus on that, Dual Universe will probably have a survival component but keep in mind it's meant to be also oriented towards other kinds of gameplay.

 

3) Focus remains on main gameplay features: Pet development will be kept to the minimum (at least for the time being).

 

Currently we have only planned to develop the Crowdfunding Reward Pet, along with the Crowdfunding Reward Outfit. 

While we can totally understand that many players might not care about this kind of rewards, stats have proven in the past that a significant amount players like to see a "thank you" from the team for their support, materialized either physically (T-shirts, Collector Edition Box, etc) or virtually (ingame Pet, Outfit, etc).

 

4) Use of pets by a massive amount of players might become a hindrance (for PvP or CPU/GPU workload) and it has been noted. 

We might think of something regarding this, in the future (maybe a way to deactivate Pet Display ingame, as a client optional parameter?).

 

Best Regards,

Nyzaltar.

[Bella_Astrum]

That all sounds good to me Nyzaltar, so in theory a mechanical worker could be a droid like R2D2  potentially anyway, but obviously creations more original and unique to DU. 

 

The way you describe pets is exactly as I'd expect, not game impacting, and perhaps only significant of achievements obtained etc. It's definitely not something I'd expect to see lots of development in, because that would take away from things that are infinitely more vital to gameplay. I see pets as vanity items to a degree, things that could eventually be added after the game has been released for two or three years. Much as I remember in Aion, they eventually added pets, but I'd left shortly after that update strangely enough, and that was due to endgame no longer keeping my interest.

 

However, I see DU as the kind of game that will grow over time, and expand by the hand of both developer and player. It's going to be amazing.

[Shadow]

Hi Nyzaltar,

 

That sounds good to me too.

One question though: are mechanical workers a static craft with predefined AI, or will player be able to build their own worker (using standard ship construction mechanisms) with their own scripts ?

 

Regards,

Shadow

[Cybrex]

Hi Nyzaltar,

 

That sounds good to me too.

One question though: are mechanical workers a static craft with predefined AI, or will player be able to build their own worker (using standard ship construction mechanisms) with their own scripts ?

 

Regards,

Shadow

 

Good question.

 

I would imagine it would be the case, considering we will be able to make our own scripts to execute functions. Though, from Nyz's post it seems like AI scripts will be available via pre-made templates? I could be just reading that wrong however. 

 

@Nyz - would like to get an answer on this!

[Astrophil]

 

 

a ) By definition, Mechanical Workers will be craftable helpers for a player wanting to delve into industrial activity. But it won't be a Pet. 

It will: 

- have a precise activity pattern, defined by an AI script.

- have a real practical usefulness in-game.

It won't:

- be a reward of any kind (reserved to backers, founders, or any specific group of players)

- follow the Player Character anywhere.

 

 

 

I'm interpreting that as just a general script, whether player-made or predefined. When Nyz mentioned "customized AI scripts" I believe he just means pets can't have AIs, since they're not artificial. So pets, as lifeforms, will have pre-scripted actions, while mechanized machines can have player-scripted AIs.

 

Just my two-cents. And by the way, 999th post right here.

[Cybrex]

I'm interpreting that as just a general script, whether player-made or predefined. When Nyz mentioned "customized AI scripts" I believe he just means pets can't have AIs, since they're not artificial. So pets, as lifeforms, will have pre-scripted actions, while mechanized machines can have player-scripted AIs.

 

Just my two-cents. And by the way, 999th post right here.

 

You make a valid point, guess I skimmed over that statement. 

 

Oh, and happy 1000th post? 

[Bethell]

I like the idea of pets in the game. I used to play World Of Warcraft and enjoyed collecting the pets. I also play Guild Wars 2 at the moment as a hunter and there are several pets to charm within this game as well. There's something nice about having pets around either following you or doing their own thing within the environment.

[Kiklix]

I like the idea of pets in the game. I used to play World Of Warcraft and enjoyed collecting the pets. I also play Guild Wars 2 at the moment as a hunter and there are several pets to charm within this game as well. There's something nice about having pets around either following you or doing their own thing within the environment.

 

I started wow in vanilla and mained a hunter for the past 10 years. Up until quitting the game last year, I used the same wolf I got at lvl 26 in Ashenvale, the Ashenvale Ghost Paw Alpha. Back then they had a 1.3 second attack speed which was only beat by the Zul Gurub Bats 1.0 sec attack speed (which I used to as a PVP pet to grind high warlord). 

 

I loved that class up until they gutted it by removing scatter shot, scare beast, made the aspects kinda useless etc. Every time blizz changes hunters they go 2 steps forward and 3 steps back. .

 

Anyway, I would love to see pets in DU but not sure if I want to see combat pets as this starts to create "classes" or at least you have to then balance for combat in pvp scenarios. I would love to have robots follow me as "pets" or be assigned to do tasks on ships (well those robots we could make ourselves I believe). 

 

Pet classes in traditional MMO's are great for bringing players to the game in games that have classes, the issue is weening them off that class and onto others for a balanced class architecture. This is why hunters in wow have been the most played class in 10 years (dont get me started on blood elf females and cats). 

 

 

Off my current thought about pets and onto another. I was having a conversation today about pets in DU and we talked about dogs and cats. I think traditional "Earth" pets are viable through cloning, having some that were in cryo sleep, or through the quantum mechanics resurrection thing. 

[Cybrex]

 

Off my current thought about pets and onto another. I was having a conversation today about pets in DU and we talked about dogs and cats. I think traditional "Earth" pets are viable through cloning, having some that were in cryo sleep, or through the quantum mechanics resurrection thing. 

 

You probably aren't too off the mark with that statement. It would make sense to put DNA samples inside the arkships to help with colonization efforts if you were evacuating your home world. 

[Kiklix]

You probably aren't too off the mark with that statement. It would make sense to put DNA samples inside the arkships to help with colonization efforts if you were evacuating your home world. 

 

Exactly. In that year with the tech they have it should not be difficult at all. 

[Bella_Astrum]

 

 

 

Off my current thought about pets and onto another. I was having a conversation today about pets in DU and we talked about dogs and cats. I think traditional "Earth" pets are viable through cloning, having some that were in cryo sleep, or through the quantum mechanics resurrection thing. 

 

I wasn't keen on the idea of dogs and cats, but this is a good idea. Considering how bonded humans are to domesticated animals (I have two cats myself), it makes sense some humans would want to bring their beloved pets along with them on the Arkships. Makes me feel sad thinking of all those people boarding the Arkships, leaveing behind their loved ones who couldn't make it onto a ship....but maybe it could lessen the hurt a little if their pets DNA was saved for cloning later on, or simply put into cryo sleep as well.

[Astrophil]

I wasn't keen on the idea of dogs and cats, but this is a good idea. Considering how bonded humans are to domesticated animals (I have two cats myself), it makes sense some humans would want to bring their beloved pets along with them on the Arkships. Makes me feel sad thinking of all those people boarding the Arkships, leaveing behind their loved ones who couldn't make it onto a ship....but maybe it could lessen the hurt a little if their pets DNA was saved for cloning later on, or simply put into cryo sleep as well.

 

Cryofreezing pets wouldn't have been possible. There was a very strict limit on the number of humans allowed on the Arkships, let alone pets. Not to be biased to humans or against animals or anything, but there would have been an outrage among the other humans denied passage. DNA samples is much more likely.

[Kiklix]

Cryofreezing pets wouldn't have been possible. There was a very strict limit on the number of humans allowed on the Arkships, let alone pets. Not to be biased to humans or against animals or anything, but there would have been an outrage among the other humans denied passage. DNA samples is much more likely.

 

I dunna.  I know some people who put their pets before themselves.

[NQ-Nyzaltar]

That all sounds good to me Nyzaltar, so in theory a mechanical worker could be a droid like R2D2.

 

Yes, in a way. It will have useful skills. But it won't follow the player everywhere as pets will do.

 

Are mechanical workers a static craft with predefined AI, or will player be able to build their own worker (using standard ship construction mechanisms) with their own scripts ?

 

This hasn't been defined yet.

Mechanical workers will be "crafted" from craft components.

Constructs like standard ships will be "built" from voxel and elements (either from a factory or manually by a player).

Elements will be the parts where LUA scripting will be possible. It hasn't been decided yet if custom LUA scripts will be possible for mechanical workers. If these will be considered as Elements themselves, then maybe yes. But that's not sure yet, as Elements are generally non-autonomous pieces of a construct, with at least a Core Unit as Element. The topic is more complex than it seems at first glance. We can't give you an exact answer for now.

 

I wasn't keen on the idea of dogs and cats, but this is a good idea. Considering how bonded humans are to domesticated animals (I have two cats myself), it makes sense some humans would want to bring their beloved pets along with them on the Arkships. Makes me feel sad thinking of all those people boarding the Arkships, leaveing behind their loved ones who couldn't make it onto a ship....but maybe it could lessen the hurt a little if their pets DNA was saved for cloning later on, or simply put into cryo sleep as well.

 

Interesting lore question.

I will transmit the topic to the team, and see what comes out from there

 

Best Regards,

Nyzaltar.