Taming

Tamable creatures may fit creature templates with pre-defined behaviors.

Taming may be a gathering profession in Ashes of Creation.

• Animals can be found in herds across the lands of Verra that represent a gatherable resource.
• Genetic lines react to the type of mount or creature that has been captured or tamed.
• Combat proficiency may be required in order to tame wild beasts.

If you need to tame a giant beast for husbandry as an example, it will be nice to be able to handle yourself in combat should that beast want to eat you instead. – Steven Sharif

Tamable creatures

Tamable creatures may fit creature templates with pre-defined behaviors.

• For example: A wolf or a dog may look different but may be balanced to the same templated behavior.

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  Dawnbreaker progression

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  Glimmering Geode

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  Horses

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  Tidesnapper

Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is a profession within the processing artisan class.

• Animals found through taming can be bred to discover lesser-known species variants with untold powers and abilities.
• Mounts, such as horses are an early gateway into the Animal husbandry profession.
• Animal husbandry will be an exploritative profession.

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.

Breeding mechanics

Gryphon concept art.

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. – Steven Sharif

Animal husbandry will have discoverable blends of breeding.

• Rare creatures can be captured and tamed to breed animals with specific traits.
  • Pets, Mounts and Livestock have unique traits that can be bred.
• Special mounts such as Dragons are not breedable.
• Breeding will change the stats of the mount that is being bred.
• There is a form of genetics, but it won't be complex. Genetic lines react to the type of mount or creature that has been captured or tamed.

Animal husbandry and taming create unique mounts with unique abilities and stats.

• Speed.
• Health.
• Armor.
• Energy.

Animal husbandry involves a tree of its own that players get to discover via what pairings they choose... That's going to be a pretty fun aspect of creating rare mounts that haven't been seen in the world. – Steven Sharif

There are stages of development within breeding.

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

A modified character creation system allows customization of Summoner pets and Animal husbandry.

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

There is a compendium of acceptable parameters for breeding, which isn't going to be known until players discover it.

• This discovery may be different for different players.
• Trial and error and exploration and discovery of certain breeding habits and different quests may grant access to slots in the compendium.
  • This may grant access to specific types of mounts.

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. – Steven Sharif

Mounts

Mount concept art by Jeff Delierre.

Mounts are obtained through an early quest that is available to players in starting areas.

• Mounts can also be found in the wild and tamed.
• There are three different tiers of mount.
  1. Ground/land mounts.
  2. Gliding/jumping mounts.
  3. Royal/flying mounts.
• Cosmetic skins can be applied to the appearance of mounts that were earned in game.
• Mount skins are applicable to specific classes of mounts.
  • For example, the Ramstrider skin will only be applicable to the class of land mounts (tier 1), and the Nighthunter Gryphon skin is only applicable to the class of royal mounts (tier 3).
  • Certain tier 2 mount skins (such as the Emberstorm Dragon) can be upgraded to tier 3 skins if they also apply to royal mounts.
• Mounts will be purchasable from players utilizing Animal husbandry and taming.

We kind of want mounts to be ubiquitous for people. – Peter Pilone

There are going to be classes of mounts; and you will be able to achieve skins in the game or you will be able to achieve different types of those classes and summon them. – Steven Sharif

We won't have mounted combat, but we will have mounted abilities.

Aquatic mounts

Tidesnapper aquatic mount concept art.

Aquatic mounts are able to be obtained from taming underwater creatures.

Combat pets

Combat pets may be tamed from certain creatures in the world.

• Combat pets will not increase a player's power and will require a sacrifice from the player.
• Combat pets will have a horizontal progression, not a vertical one.

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. – Jeffrey Bard

See also

• Gathering
• Animal husbandry