Combat pets

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Combat pets (also referred to as Item pets or Universal combat pets) may be acquired by any archetype.[1]

It’s important to note, combat pets are primarily horizontal in nature. Where as class pets (like summoner) are a very vertical mechanic.[3]Steven Sharif
  • Combat pets may be tamed from certain creatures in the world.[6]
  • Combat pets are categorized by class and will adhere to a simple trinity structure (Tank/DPS/Support).[4]
    • Tank pets will maintain threat against enemies independent of the pet owner.[7]
  • Combat pets will also be categorized into different rarities.[4]
  • Combat pets may not be able to be summoned in certain dungeons, instances or other spaces.[8]
It will participate in combat. It will allow you different options sometimes, but it won't necessarily increase your power and... you'll be sacrificing something for it.[5]Jeffrey Bard

Pet progression

Combat pets will be levelable and will have gear available to them.[9][10]

  • Combat pets will incorporate some of their owner's power in a way that keeps the power progression horizontal.[1][4][5]
    • Power is delegated to the pet when it is summoned and returned to the player immediately when the pet despawns.[11]

Summoner summons (Summoner pets) do add to the summoner's power when they are summoned.[1]

  • Gear is not available to Summoner summons.[9]

Combat pets, which can be acquired by any archetype- and this is essentially an item that exists within your backpack- you cast the item to summon your pet. When it is summoned it's not intended to be a vertical gain of power, because when you make combat pets a vertical power gain, then it becomes a no choice solution: you must have a combat pet if you want to play efficiently- you must have a combat pet; and I wanted to steer clear of that because the way I wanted to approach combat pets was more of a horizontal power choice; meaning: depending on the type of encounter you're facing, depending on the threat assessment you have, a combat pet might be relevant, or it might not. One combat combat pet might be more relevant than another combat pet and that's part of your gear acquisition, your item chase to attain this more comprehensive selection of combat pets that you can have available to you and can be summoned in the event that you want to engage an encounter with a different aspect of your power curve: Not vertical, but horizontal.[1]Steven Sharif

Animal husbandry

Screenshot of Dawnbreaker variant achievable through the Animal husbandry profession. 3D model by Jessica Jennings.[12]

Those variations that were present with the Dawnbreaker: those are examples of how Animal Husbandry surfaces subtle changes- from subtle to extreme. Those were more subtle; those are wing variations, those were fur variations, color variations, eye color variations. All of that stuff gets represented as part of the Animal husbandry system and it's cool to see what's available for players to experiment with.[13]

Rare Flailrunner[14] mount that can only be obtained via breeding two tamable creatures through the animal husbandry profession.[15]

Animal husbandry is meant to be a pretty diverse profession: One that has a significant importance because players in MMOs love their mounts and we wanted to do something unique in that regard.[16]Steven Sharif

Animal husbandry is a profession within the processing artisan class.[17][18][19]

Many animals that can be tamed and bred through the animal husbandry profession can be found in herds across the lands of Verra. These herds represent a gatherable resource, of sorts, that masters of the animal husbandry profession may then use to discover lesser-known species variants with untold powers and abilities. Mounts play a large role in Ashes of Creation, and animals like the horse are an early gateway into the unlimited possibilities that await those skilled in the arts of husbandry.[21]

Breeding mechanics

Gryphon concept art.[29]

These are some concept iterations of exactly how the animal husbandry profession's going to work as you create the offspring of different combinations of animals and you find and discover types of mounts. For example this Gryphon: You will have the ability to open up an in-game character customization screen for the animals; and you'll be able to use certain dials to touch different aesthetic aspects of the actual animal's features: On its wings, on its head, its beak, its armor that's going to be present; the claws and talons. You will be able to actually make a unique representation of this mount, so you're just not a cookie cutter like everybody else.[30]Steven Sharif

Animal husbandry will have discoverable blends of breeding.[18][31]

  • Pets, Mounts, Livestock, and Beasts of burden can be captured and tamed to breed the best version of that species.[18][22]
    • Geographical location may be relevant for the creation of certain types of breeds.[18]
    Creatures will have a wide variety of traits and characteristics, strengths and weaknesses, within their species. The best version of a species will need to be blended from creatures from many places across Verra... For example, the best horse would need speed from desert horses, the coat and the health from tundra steeds, and the size and strength of ones that might be in the riverlands.[18]Steven Sharif
  • Royal mounts (such as Dragons) are dropped as eggs that can be cultivated by Animal husbandry artisans with a high enough stable upgrade on their freehold.[32]
    • These mounts are not breedable.[33]
  • Mounts that are bred through animal husbandry may be sold at auction.[34]
    • These mounts can also be applied as certificates toward the construction of caravans.[34]
  • There will be a cap on the number of times an animal can be bred. This is defined by the type, quality, and purpose of the animal.[35]

Once an animal is born, there are stages of development to raise that animal from birth to adulthood. Animal husbandry practitioners will be able to specialise their focus into raising and training creatures to maximise the quality of the creature in adulthood.[18][36]

  • Youngling stage: For mammals this relates to baby animals. For lizards (reptiles) this is an egg stage.[36]

Once these creatures are actually born there is an element of raising the creature. So animals need to be raised from birth to adulthood and trained for the intended purposes, either as a mount, a pet, a beast of burden, or livestock. Animal husbandry feeds a lot of these different aspects; and you'll be able to specialize your focus as an 'animal husbandrist', if that's a word, to one of those particular ends. Players have a multitude of activities to perform like feeding, cleaning the creatures, taking them out for practice rides, training them to fight monsters, etc. This period is very important however- the training period- because it will have the greatest influence on the resulting quality of the genetically determined stats and abilities of the creature once they reach adulthood. So basically as you're discovering these different genetic paths when pairing different animals, and the offspring is born, it will have a window of where a stat block will land. But where it lands will be determined by the training phase by raising the creature up- and that's going to be an important aspect.[18]Steven Sharif

There may be a user interface rather than recipes for the animal husbandry system that records successes and failures of breeding attempts.[37]

I'm not sure that there are going to be recipes per-se. Instead what we're thinking about with the husbandry system is going to be a user interface panel that gives a record of your successes and failures with certain types of breeding attempts; and then from there, if you choose to share that information with other individuals you can of course. But it's not something that's going to be streamlined through an interface that we would use for the player.[37]Steven Sharif

There is a compendium of acceptable parameters for breeding[38], which isn't going to be known until players discover it.[34][39] This discovery may be different for different players.[39]

  • Animals have a unique ID that is tied to the husbandry chart (compendium) that takes into account possible combinations between animals.[34] There will be odd combinations, but there will be limits to what is possible.[39]
  • Discovery of certain breeding habits and different quests may grant access to slots in the compendium.[39]
info-orange.pngSome of the following information has not been recently confirmed by the developers and may not be on the current development roadmap.

A modified character creation system allows customization of Summoner pets and Animal husbandry.[30][36]

  • Changes at the Youngling stage affect the appearance of the animal at adulthood.[36]
  • During the Youngling stage there may also be quests for specific types of cosmetic features.[36]

There's definitely going to be odd combinations, whether it's a butterflyger, giraffealope I don't know, but there will be definitely caps that are present.[39]Steven Sharif

Cosmetic pets

Cosmetic pets were available for purchase from the cosmetic store.[40]

  • Cosmetic pets can be summoned from level 1.[41]

Cosmetic pets, since non-functional from a gameplay perspective, can be summoned at lvl 1.[41]Steven Sharif

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Interview, January 14, 2022 (42:18).
  2. Interview, September 10, 2023 (1:05:52).
  3. 3.0 3.1 steven-combat-pets.png
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Livestream, October 30, 2020 (1:21:14).
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Livestream, June 28, 2019 (1:24:27).
  6. Livestream, January 18, 2018 (33:09).
  7. Livestream, February 24, 2023 (1:27:22).
  8. Livestream, April 30, 2021 (1:10:04).
  9. 9.0 9.1 Livestream, November 30, 2020 (1:26:00).
  10. Pets.jpg
  11. Livestream, July 30, 2021 (1:15:29).
  12. Livestream, October 29, 2021 (30:34).
  13. Livestream, October 29, 2021 (37:34).
  14. Livestream, April 30, 2021 (56:43).
  15. Steven Sharif Twitter, April 17, 2021.
  16. Podcast, November 15, 2020 (35:42).
  17. Livestream, October 14, 2022 (32:38).
  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 18.6 18.7 Livestream, February 25, 2022 (25:24).
  19. Livestream, June 16, 2017 (28:07).
  20. Video, June 30, 2023 (7:37).
  21. 21.0 21.1 21.2 Blog: A noble steed
  22. 22.0 22.1 Livestream, May 17, 2017 (1:04:12).
  23. Livestream, May 29, 2020 (39:02).
  24. Livestream, November 17, 2017 (33:17).
  25. Interview, July 9, 2023 (51:26).
  26. Twitter - The animal husbandry system will affect aquatic animals as well!
  27. Interview, July 9, 2023 (56:37).
  28. Livestream, June 1, 2017 (28:42).
  29. stevengryphon.png
  30. 30.0 30.1 Livestream, August 17, 2018 (12:27).
  31. husbandry discoverable.png
  32. Interview, July 18, 2020 (49:46).
  33. Livestream, May 26, 2017 (46:43).
  34. 34.0 34.1 34.2 34.3 Livestream, May 29, 2020 (43:19).
  35. Livestream, July 29, 2022 (1:06:15).
  36. 36.0 36.1 36.2 36.3 36.4 Podcast, August 4, 2018 (1:22:24).
  37. 37.0 37.1 Livestream, February 25, 2022 (34:00).
  38. Twitter - Verra's lush creatures.
  39. 39.0 39.1 39.2 39.3 39.4 Podcast, May 11, 2018 (1:02:02).
  40. cosmetic skins.png
  41. 41.0 41.1 cosmetic-levels.png