Animal Handling Bug/Question About Animals and their Breeds

[Grin]

Hello all! First post on a gaming forum, so be gentle :) I really like this game and I want it to succeed so I figured why not get active!

1) I wanted to report a bug that I've run into. Whenever I use the Animal Handling abilities "Sic' Em" or "Clever Trick" the pet's special abilities do not activate. I've asked around and other animal handlers are having the same issue. I've reported the bug in-game, but I wanted a place to document it/assure newer players that they aren't crazy lol.

2) The wikki has SOME info on the different animals/breeds, but I find it impossible to choose which breed to tame and level. What I mean is that the different animals/breeds are tamable at different levels and have varying amounts of health/armor/dmg; there's no way to discern if a certain animal/breed is going to have the stats your prefer in the long run. My question is this: Is the only way to compare different breeds' stats to level them all to the same level, or is there an easier method that i'm missing? Something like each pet level gives all rats/cats/bears/grimalkins a certain amount of health/armor/dmg.

Hopefully, someone can shed some light on this :) thanks in advance!

-Grin

[Citan]

1- Thanks for reporting the issue! We'll be looking at animal handling bug reports very soon, hopefully for the next snapshot build.

2- There's no way to tell from looking at them, at least not at the moment. In fact I expect that will get even more complicated in the future when players can breed their own pets... then, it won't even be based on a specific animal type, but on the genetics of each individual animal. I might be able to add something that previews the pets' future stats at a given level or something like that... will have to think about what's possible in that vein.

Right now the most useful general thing I can say is that similar animals tend to have similar advancement.

[Grin]

Thanks so much for your reply! I did some testing on the various rat breeds and found that the Giant Rat, Giant Plains Rat, and Hearty Cave Rat all have the same stats at lvl 23; We can safely assume their growth per level is the same. By "similar animals" do you mean looks-wise? If so, that would actually be super helpful. If all animals that share a model have the same stat growth you wouldn't have to train up each different breed to figure out their stats.

[Ibn]

WOW!!! Influencing the outcome by the genetics of an animal's parents is amazing!

[kazeandi]

I hope pets will receive a buff before you implement breeding etc.
Right now they're so weak, I rarely see anyone bother.

[Tagamogi]

I hope pets will receive a buff before you implement breeding etc.
Right now they're so weak, I rarely see anyone bother.

I'm not sure that the pets are necessarily too weak. The reason I have been avoiding any pet class for the last year is just that I feel I don't have enough control over what my pet does. If I could just get my pet to stop being willfully stupid, it seems weakness would be less of an issue.

But yes, as much as I look forward to breeding special pets, I hope something happens with the existing pets first.

[cr00cy]

I'm not sure that the pets are necessarily too weak. The reason I have been avoiding any pet class for the last year is just that I feel I don't have enough control over what my pet does. If I could just get my pet to stop being willfully stupid, it seems weakness would be less of an issue.

But yes, as much as I look forward to breeding special pets, I hope something happens with the existing pets first.

Same as me. Stats-wise pets (at least some of AH ones) dont seem too bad, but they often bug out - they eitehr dont follow you propely or dont attack. I noticed taht they have trouble of getting aggro (not sure if its becasue of high difference in dmg, or becasue of some bugs)

As for pets stats - i did soem testign on bears a whiel back and here is what i found out:
- All green named bears in Etibule share stats.
- All bears have the same Power value and groth rate
- All beasr fall into one of 2 groups in terms of dmg - at lv 50 they have either 56 or 74 dmg. Growth rates for both are the same
- Most bears have significant difference in hp and armor values, and they growth rates.
- Named bears are NOT stronger than "normal" ones. In fact, i would say they are weaker - at least if we look only at stats.
For example Grottofang (boss bear from Yeti cave, caught at lv 50) has lower Hp/armor than ice bear (they share model, and dmg value) - Ice bear has 430/497 armor/hp, grottofang has 375/449 armor/hp.

[Grin]

1) I guess we can count on animals that share a model to share stat growth then, that's a relief :D. The exception being "named" animals, it seems they have their own unique stats even if they share a model with other animals.

2) About the comments regarding the usefulness of pets/AH. I agree that their base attack power is unimpressive, and the AI can be a bit wonky, but the mods....the mods! There is SERIOUS synergy between AH and select combat skills. There are also mods that directly increase how much damage your pet does if you want to go that route(you'd need to build a specific set to have your pet do decent damage by itself). I have confidence that the AI will tighten up over time and when that happens AH will be downright nasty.

3) Unrelated, but I'm ending this post with another question :p When the damage type of your pet is crush/slash or slash/crush does that mean their basic attacks do both types of damage? Is it 50/50? Or maybe they have a hidden rage meter/timer that occasionally sets off a separate crushing or slashing attack? Maybe Citan can answer this?

[kazeandi]

AH pets are weak. They can't tank a trash mob solo while I'm busy with another add.

Pet heal in combat is on a timer, this timer should be shortened drastically. That may fix the issue.

[Asashoryu]

Some added thoughts to what the OP has already said on Animal Handling after leveling it up past 45 as a new player to PG:

Pet managment is terrible, and this is the root of most of the problems with Animal Handling for me. It's difficult to judge whether pets and Animal Handling skill line abilities are too weak, or whether itemization is poor when basic pet managemnt is so bad. To this end, I recommend replacing the current method of toggling through a rotating list of guard, assist, stay and follow with four buttons which appear in the pet GUI window itself:

Button 1: 'Attack' - When pressed, the handler's targeted enemy (if valid) is added to the pet's hate list, causing the pet to aggress. If any additional targets are aggressed in attacking the original target (adds), these are also added to the pets hate list. A pet will attack until it's hate list is empty, or it has died.
If already aggressed, the 'Attack' command has the effect of elevating the handler's currently targeted enemy to the top of the pet's hate list (the success of this may be influenced by loyalty and/or happiness).

Button 2: 'Disengage' - When pressed, the pet's hate list is cleared (the success of this may be influenced by loyalty and/or happiness), effectively causing it to cease aggression.

Button 3: 'Follow' / 'Stay' - In it's default state, this toggle button displays the 'Follow' text. In 'Follow' mode the pet will attempt to follow its handler to the best of its ability. When clicked, the text changes to 'Stay'. In 'Stay' mode the pet will remember its current position and attempt to maintain that position when not aggressed until it returns to the 'Follow' mode. When a pet has aggressed this toggle button is greyed out, maintaining its current state. Once the pet has ceased aggression it will cease being greyed out and can be toggled once again.

Button 4: 'Assist' / 'Guard' / 'Focus' - In its default state, this toggle button displays the 'Assist' text. In 'Assist' mode the pet will add any targets attacked by its handler to its own hate list, choosing its current target from that list based on what it (the pet) currently most hates. When clicked, the text changes to 'Guard'. In 'Guard' mode the pet will behave similarly to how it behaves in 'Assist' mode, but will choose the most hated enemy on its hate list that is currently attacking its handler in preference to others (the success of this may be influenced by loyalty and/or happiness). When clicked again, the text changes to 'Focus'. In 'Focus' mode the pet will not add new targets to its hate list unless directed to by its handler's 'Attack' command (the success of this may be influenced by loyalty and/or happiness).

[Tagamogi]

Asashoryu - I like your suggestions a lot. We may need an additional mode for how the pet should behave if it itself is attacked, rather than its handler? One of my usual pet frustrations is my pet lagging a mile behind me, getting attacked by something and stopping to fight that mob, without me even being aware what is happening... Alternatively, some games code pets so that they will never get aggro from a mob unless they actively attack it first. That may not be realistic, but not having to constantly worry about odd pathing is a really nice bonus for the pet owner.

[kazeandi]

A pet should simply ignore mobs when set to Assist. Assisting me when I attack is what this mode is for, if the pet does whatever it wants, it's useless.
Follow should make the pet inactive, just following me around and not fighting back in case it got face aggro somehow, so I can grab the mob off it if I want.
Guard is okay as is, only that in this mode, the pet needs to focus on mobs I have aggro of. 3 mobs beat on me, taunt the first, switch to the second, and so on.

[jacksin125]

Some added thoughts to what the OP has already said on Animal Handling after leveling it up past 45 as a new player to PG:

Pet managment is terrible, and this is the root of most of the problems with Animal Handling for me. It's difficult to judge whether pets and Animal Handling skill line abilities are too weak, or whether itemization is poor when basic pet managemnt is so bad. To this end, I recommend replacing the current method of toggling through a rotating list of guard, assist, stay and follow with four buttons which appear in the pet GUI window itself:

Button 1: 'Attack' - When pressed, the handler's targeted enemy (if valid) is added to the pet's hate list, causing the pet to aggress. If any additional targets are aggressed in attacking the original target (adds), these are also added to the pets hate list. A pet will attack until it's hate list is empty, or it has died.
If already aggressed, the 'Attack' command has the effect of elevating the handler's currently targeted enemy to the top of the pet's hate list (the success of this may be influenced by loyalty and/or happiness).

Button 2: 'Disengage' - When pressed, the pet's hate list is cleared (the success of this may be influenced by loyalty and/or happiness), effectively causing it to cease aggression.

Button 3: 'Follow' / 'Stay' - In it's default state, this toggle button displays the 'Follow' text. In 'Follow' mode the pet will attempt to follow its handler to the best of its ability. When clicked, the text changes to 'Stay'. In 'Stay' mode the pet will remember its current position and attempt to maintain that position when not aggressed until it returns to the 'Follow' mode. When a pet has aggressed this toggle button is greyed out, maintaining its current state. Once the pet has ceased aggression it will cease being greyed out and can be toggled once again.

Button 4: 'Assist' / 'Guard' / 'Focus' - In its default state, this toggle button displays the 'Assist' text. In 'Assist' mode the pet will add any targets attacked by its handler to its own hate list, choosing its current target from that list based on what it (the pet) currently most hates. When clicked, the text changes to 'Guard'. In 'Guard' mode the pet will behave similarly to how it behaves in 'Assist' mode, but will choose the most hated enemy on its hate list that is currently attacking its handler in preference to others (the success of this may be influenced by loyalty and/or happiness). When clicked again, the text changes to 'Focus'. In 'Focus' mode the pet will not add new targets to its hate list unless directed to by its handler's 'Attack' command (the success of this may be influenced by loyalty and/or happiness).

This. I have suggested just 2 buttons, (pretty much attack and disengage on your list), since the devs seem to be busy and Animal Handling has needed some sort of quick fix until they decided to focus on it for a very long time. However, when the skill is finished (and the AI actually works), this is pretty close to what I'd imagine.

[kazeandi]

Try rerouting your pet from one enemy to another, impossible. Even giving straight orders with the mob targeted you want your pet on, it won't turn on it unless a) pet is set to "assist" and b) attack the mob (thereby adding to the aggro you already hold and wanted to shed).

Then, sometimes your pet runs off straight into another group, chasing a mob, and there's nothing you can do but flee, because there's no way to call your pet back to you.