zanz's personal pets

[kev]

It’s become common for game design to include unlockables or ways to personalize your character, which both give players a sense of achievement and a greater connection to their character.  Currently in elements, we have our collection of cards.  I’d had an idea a while back to give players an avatar when they select their first element during account creation.  This avatar could earn weapons, armor, etc, maybe by completing quests or achieving various scores.

Needless to say I was pretty excited when I read the following in an interview with zanzarino (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,20705.0.html):

vrt: What future plans are there for Elements, besides things such as the t500? How are the plans to prevent 'grinding'?

zanz: I had lots of ideas in my mind, but not much time, so I'll have to make some decisions soon. Some of my ideas are:

• Adding personal pets; that gain experience, level and gain skills is also something I thought about.

My mind was immediately awhirl with some of the things personal pets might be able to do.  A one sentence blurb by zanz leaves a lot to the imagination.  I picture personal pets to be creatures you can effectively “equip” that take up a creature slot a la daily pets.  They may be useful in battle or they might be useless in battle but possess some other skill when equipped.  I thought it might be fun to hear the community’s thoughts on this.  If zanz happens upon this thread we might even succeed in helping his own brainstorming for what would ultimately be a kickass addition to an already great game!

 I’ll kick us off:

Achievement	Pet Name	Effect
Win 100 AI0 matches	Noobsis	Earn 3% more electrum per match
Beat a FG using no upgraded cards	David	2% of unupgraded cards appear upgraded when drawn (return to normal after match)
Use Cloak seven times to beat the AI5 “Shadow”	Shade	Enter the game with a Cloak in effect
10k score	Gift	Creature card has a Reward Code written on it.
Lose 13 PvP1 matches in a row	Trixxie	PvP opponents see their field upside-down

[killybob]

sounds really great! i particularly like the pet idea. maybe you could purchase pets via some means and have a guarantee that that creature will appear on your side at the beginning of each match. there could probably be a time limit for how long you get to keep your pets (speaking day wise).

this sort of thing would be an awesome expansion for the forums

[Essence]

Pets should eat Relics.

[Daxx]

Interesting ideas, but I don't know whether this is what Zanz was aiming for. I had assumed something similar to the way the Oracle "pets" work.

[TheIdioticIdiot]

pets could kind of imbalance the game between veteran players and newer players
vets would have most, if not all, the pets, and the newer players have only a few, if any at all...
which does offset the balance quite a bit

I think pets should be limited to just AI

[GG]

Pets should eat Relics.

word.

[The_Mormegil]

I agree with TII. I would personally keep pets more off-combat oriented, but it's a personal idea. If you make them combat oriented, though, limit them to AI matches. Possibly add a PVP3 option for pet duels, but... yeah.

I think off-combat pets could be cool. You could have a pet that grows with your battles, gains experience, and has some side effects that enhance your gameplay. For instance, you could have your pet:
- increase score you gain
- increase electrum you gain
- make you gain Relics somehow
- let you gain rares on a difficult task or lucky chance
- allow you to play different AIs or possibly give quests


Some ideas for combat-oriented pets:
  pet reduces the cost of retreating - you lose less money in a lost duel
  pet gains extra experience for every death effect you trigger (probably broken, needs a cap)
  pet makes the AI have a chance to misplay its cards
  pet reduces your and your opponent's HPs.
  pet increases your hps.
  pet allows you to see your opponent's hand.


Another possibility is to have pets - or elementals themselves - have different means of transport based on the element - a WoE ripoff - that allow you to reach "hidden areas" of the game, probably with specific quests. You need to gather all 12 pokemons pets and train them to reach all the areas (and catch them all).

[Tea is good]

cloak one is OP. In a world where 3 turn kills are possible and cloak lasts three turns.

[Raptor6789]

thats why getting it is so situational.
...
wait... how can you have 7 cloaks in your deck?

but other than that, i think the pets idea is great. hopefully it is implemented, for it gives players a new aspect of customization.

[Sir Valimont]

I like to think of pets more like personal avatars, but not so much as having game effects. If they were to have effects, they should be independent of battles. (Except for one ability I created because it's cool )

Please note that these systems work best after Top-50 is no longer active (so you can't give your pet rare weapons constantly).

Maybe something like this:


1. Basics
You can choose from one of 12 different pets, one for each element type. You name your pet. Your pet gains experience when you complete activities in accordance with the list in section 2 below. For each experience level, your pet has abilities as with the table in section 3 below. Once you max a pet's experience (very hard to do, takes a long time), you can get a new pet from a different element! Pets keep gaining experience beyond level-9 just so you can keep track of how uber they are (but there are no new abilities beyond that level).


2. Earning Pet Experience

Exp earned	Activity
1	Spin the Oracle.
3	Have Oracle land on same element as pet's element.
2	Defeat AI3 that has the same Mark as your pet's element.
4	Defeat AI5 that has the same Mark as your pet's element.
8	Defeat AI6 that has the same Mark as your pet's element.
12	Upgrade a pillar or pendulum that is the same Mark as your pet's element.
25	Feed pet a Relic.
10	Feed pet a rare weapon of different Mark than pet's element.
20	Feed pet a rare weapon of same Mark as pet's element.
100	Pet Redeem Code 1.
300	Pet Redeem Code 2.

3. Pet Abilities

Level	Exp Req.	Ability
0	0	None. Pets start on this level.
1	40	Eep: Pet (which appears on your main screen in a little box called your pet interface) makes noise when you click it.
2	150	Bounce: Pet jumps when you click it in your pet interface.
3	350	Bright Color: You gain 1 extra electrum each time you win against AI that has same Mark as your pet's element.
4	750	Happy Color: You gain 5 extra electrum each time you win against AI that has same Mark as your pet's element.
5	1300	Chatty: In your pet interface, you can click pet for a 10% chance to have the next FG accurately predicted, and a 5% chance of being wrong (85% chance of saying nothing). One use until you fight a FG.
6	2000	Moneybags: When you win, you get 4 spins instead of 3 against AI3, AI5 and AI6 that has same Mark as your pet's element.
7	2800	Teacher's Pet: You gain 10 extra score each time you win against AI that has same Mark as your pet's element.
8	3700	Element Superstar: You automatically go first against AI that has same Mark as your pet's element.
9	5000	Pet Store: Choose a new level-0 pet from a new element!
10+	6000+	1000 Experience needed per level-up. No new abilities.

[teffy]

To me, all of the pet effects look very unfunny.

Example:

kevkev: Do you think it´s fun to beat the very low opponent AI0 100 times ?
How often will you beat one of 144 AI5 opponents, and this with the card Cloak ?
Is an upgraded card always a better version of the unupgraded ?

@ gaining extra money:
Too many special rules. Who shall remember them ?

@ feeding with rares.
Unfair. Some people keep their rares  - and Relics and could feed the pets with them. Other decided to sell.


To create cool pets I would try to think outside of regular boxes. The Oracle is or was one of the most clever and unique features zanz created and I don´t know that other games have something , which is similar to it.

The personal pet should be like the oracle. Unique.

A spontaneous idea I had:
Players get a special pet, which is better (better attributes, bigger or more wonderful art, whatever), when you have more electrums, and is less wonderful, when you live in poverty. You can choose some of it´s attributes . It can assist you in a way. It could fight, give you access to some PvP Duel features (higher HP games, open hands , 2 drawn cards /turn, whatever), and the opponent could see the pets. Or it could simply be there. But that´s boring.

I think personal pets are possible with game mechanics, which aren´t copied 10.000 times. And with game mechanics , which make fun for all. Like the oracle. I hope it.

[Ekki]

And with game mechanics , which make fun for all.

Well, at this point, you should remember something:

pets could kind of imbalance the game between veteran players and newer players
vets would have most, if not all, the pets, and the newer players have only a few, if any at all...
which does offset the balance quite a bit

Seeing vets twelve miles avobe you isn't fun. Seeing how others can have 2xHP, 2xDraw or whatever, and you can't, isn't fun. It's like adding OP rares. It would just imbalance the game.


So I agree that:

pets should be limited to just AI