Sunday, May 2, 2010

Et tu, Brute?




I come to bury KI, not to praise them! ok, perhaps that's a bit too dramatic, but this post's purpose is not to look at the silver lining like I usually do here. This post's purpose is to look at what could be improved and at the same time help me understand why I'm coming away from this advanced pet expansion feeling . . . unsatisfied?

I, like most of you, have now played through a few days of the new advanced pets expansion to Wizard101. I, again like most of you, found a lot of fun in the new features like I was a kid at Christmas time opening a brand new present. what I found there was shiny and new! But after the glow of Christmas is gone, we start to kind of see the flaws in a toy, and unfortunately, it if isn't our favorite, we tend to ignore it and it eventually ends up in the basement.

For us, however, it may not be too late since we're still on the test realm, and if there are enough voices raised, then there will be more chance for change. So, if you see some issues with the test realm, now is probably the time to talk about it. Here's my jeremiad:

1- Pet Hatchery--my egg hatched! It's a fire-school only Helephant pet that I spent 80,000 on. I can't equip him, so I can't build him up or anything. In my hands he's an eternal baby. I don't have a fire school alt on this account, so . . .


80,000 gold to me roughly equates to around 8 hours of farming ravens. That's a lot of work. Something isn't right with this system. You might think if I had been able to equip my helephant pet, that you wouldn't be reading this right now, but you're wrong. If the pet had turned out to be an unusable death-school Wraith for Bailey, then you'd be hearing the exact same rant, because she'd be out 80,000 gold. Something isn't right with this system. That's too much risk.

Also, I thought perhaps that some pets would combine to create hybrids. I haven't really seen that yet. Combining pets now just means that you'll both get one of the pets back with more potential built into them. (How is that fair for both people if they're using class specific pets?) I kind of thought maybe just maybe out of 50 pets combining with 50 pets there would be a few instances where you would get a hybrid. I hope that happens occasionally, but I've yet to hear about that happening.

2- Pet Energy--As it is now, At Grandmaster you get to play 6 games twice a day (it takes 12 hours to refill your pet energy and you get less energy if you're a lower level) without spending 50 cents real money to play more (the real cost of pet energy being refilled). I feel that we should ALL get to play 6 games three times a day (in other words, lower the regeneration of pet energy to 1 every 10 minutes instead of 15 minutes and account for the time people are asleep). People will want to play the game before school/work, after school/work, and before bed time . . . AND, if not that, then please consider having each pet maintain their own pet energy rather than have it be "my own" energy.

3- Mini-games and the derby. I kind of feel like there's a couple things that could be improved with these games.

3A- The dance game: man this feels less than stellar. With all the wild popularity of Dance Dance Revolution, why wouldn't you take the scrolling arrow approach with this game? And if not the scrolling arrow, why wouldn't you take the ever-growing pattern-based Simon says approach rather than the random-based Simon says approach? Both of those are much more fun applications of the dance game. A dance game should be fun, and a HUGE part of the fun with dancing is the music, which sounds GREAT. It's just that it's buried so far in the background I can hardly hear it and the sounds of the arrows clash with the sounds of the music. There's so much potential for coolness here, why is it not implemented better? Also, please let us use WASD for controls as well as arrows.

3B- The cannon game: We need a practice shot to get our bearings please. After a practice shot, it becomes much much more clear where you need to point the cannon. Also, please let us use WASD as well as arrows to aim.

3C- The maze game: If you're going to give me a time limit, then I need a reasonable amount of time to finish the maze. If you're going to make it like pac-man, then please make it like pac-man: more opportunities to gobble ghosts, they should change color when I grab a blue star, they should be worth more than dots (or cake slices as the case may be), there should be a magic pet snack fruit appear near the tree in the center that gives a bonus stat increase. I want to see video of someone actually finishing this maze in the time that's allotted. I want to know it can be done.

3D- The dropping food game: I should be able to jump to grab food I'm under. It would really help the fun of this game. Much like the dance game, i don't end up watching much of the colorful graphics, I'm concentrating on the shadows on the ground, which don't really match up well with what I'm catching btw. (shouldn't a chicken leg shadow look like a chicken leg shadow?)

3E- Pet Derby--I like the pet derby. I'm a Sergent, but what I've found is that this mini-game really feels more like "battle of the ping rates." Besides being completely dropped from races, there's times when I seem to just run the course and lose control of what I'm doing because of extreme lag. I basically lose control of the ability to jump for the entire course because of lag. It usually ends up with me completely destroying the other racer because they have horrible lag, or I am completely destroyed because they're Sigbritt Lothberg or something. Also, I'm not too impressed that the courses are so static. They should be random; otherwise, I just need to memorize 9 tracks. It's like they got the dancing game and the pet derby backwards. The dancing game should be on a static track and the pet derby should be more random (e.g., change ground cover textures between each match randomly and make star placement more random too).

4- Pet Experience--To raise a pet from baby to Epic, you're going to spend about a month of dedicated pet grinding I would guess. I have no problem with this really . . . it's just that I have 5 pages of pets. That means most of them are pretty much just house decorations (especially since each pet doesn't have their own energy level).

4a- pet decorations (since I'm talking about them)--I know that if I *dance*, then my pets will start dancing around me randomly, but would it be too much to ask for some additional controls to command pets to dance, or stop dancing, or come to me, or go away from me, stay in place, guard here, etc. I'm sure there's a number of controls that could be given that would help increase the fun with pets in housing. (LOVE that my pets can be in my house, just, once again, could be implemented better.)

5- Pet Assistance in Battle--I've actually yet to see my wraith step into battle and do something cool. My son's ice cat attacked on Unicorn Way, but that's the only time I've seen it happen. Wouldn't it make more sense that as you leveled your pet, they would become more trained? I think when a pet is a baby or a teen, they should be more apt to randomly attack, but when they are an adult they start asking you if they can attack? For instance if I'm in the battle circle, then wouldn't it be more awesome if my pet would suddenly get a button over his head asking if he could assist? By the time my pet is epic, this should evolve from a button to a subset of 2 or 3 cards where I can pick and choose what my extremely well-trained pet does in battle for the cost of its favorite snack? In real-life well trained pets respond to my commands and are instantly rewarded. Like this fella:


HOURS of training and rewards have made this dog do things on command . . . to the point you are creating art through your animal. In Wizard101, dueling is an art.

I hope this helps. I hope I haven't just "ranted." I hope I've given some constructive criticism that helps. I don't just want to kill Ceaser. That's not my purpose here. My purpose is to try and rid myself of that feeling I mentioned earlier: feeling unsatisfied.

Happy Dueling!

34 comments:

Wolf Winterstaff said...

You're not the only one, Friendly. I kinda felt disappointed as well. It seems like they both expect it to be a side project (due to the limits on minigames per day) while at the same time a huge thing to devote time to (with the 80,000 gold cost for hatching). Also, I figured out that your pet won't cast spells unless one of it's talents is a spell. My Ice Colossus's three Ancient level talents only raise it's strength and power, and increase my power pip chance by 4%, because it's only Ancient. It won't cast a spell until it hits Epic (maybe). ALso, I agree about the lag in the derby(are you supposed to be able to smash through walls without the slow down?) and the minigames (Dancing is too easy, the rest are a little difficult for a game played by children).

Taji34 said...

Me too! And the hatchery costs are outrageous! I mean 80,000 gold! i've never had that much gold ever! I Agree with you completely.

Kestrel Shadowthistle said...

I agree with most of the things you said. If there were pet combos available to be made, like the general public seems to think from what KI has been telling us, I would definitely be willing to shell out the 80,000 needed to make an egg. But for a duplicate of a pet that you could just get by farming (and therefore MAKE money, not lose it), or a level 48 pet that you can't use, it's a complete waste of time, money, and effort. I like the dance game, and it's the only game I'm really good at. The other games all require pure skill and agility, with the exception of the cannon one, which I just cannot seem to master. Since the arrow keys on my netbook are less than suitable for gaming, it makes these games impossible as well as just not fun. But if I play the dancing game over and over to level my pet, the only thing it increases greatly is my agility, which I'm worried will max out. I wish there was more variety in the dance game, maybe easy, medium, and hard. I don't want to make this like a mini blog post, so I'll stop there, but you make excellent points, and I hope KI listens.

-Kestrel

Wolf Shadowheart said...

I'm dissappointed as well. I think that its waaay to expensive to hatch pets (80,000 is more than the dragonspyre mansion), its super hard to get that much, and you may not even be able to use them. I would really like to be able to use this to get an Orthrus with a Wraith spell, that I can USE. Another thing that dissappoints is the derby rankings: I reached knight and couldn't get the Storm Elf, because its set to Knight in the PVP, not the Derby. I rock at the derby, but I'm the worst PVPer ever.

Anonymous said...

Are you gonna have to pay crowns to unlock the pet pavillion, or is it part of the trial? I couldn't really get on the test realm since i haven't bought crowns in the last 30 days

Andrew Firerider said...

I totally agree with everything you said. And I hate how if you mix school specific pets, you can only equip the pet if it's your school! 80000 gold thrown away! It's ridiculous!
You should DEFINITELY send this to KI. If you don't, then I will. They will probably listen to you more, since you are a renowned blogger.

Stingite said...

@wolf winterstaff: ahhhh, it has to have that "talent" . . . ok, well that explains why my pet hasn't broken any of my traps yet. Good to know I'm not the only one experiencing weird lag issues in the derby.

@Taji: It's a lot for sure.

@Kestrel: Thanks Kestrel. What do you think about having to grind the dance game 100's of times to level your pet?

@Wolf Shadowheart: Now that you mention that . . . that REALLY irks me. I was under the assumption I could get those pets by gaining rank in the derby. That's just simply not right.

@Macaroni: it's free from what I understand. Free Players can have epic pets.

Jasmine SoulBreaker said...

AGREED!
It's exactly what I've been thinking after got used to all the things that were added. At the begging I was so excited but then I got bored and I thought "is that all?"...The minigames..I agree with Kestrel.
AND I dont understand why was my hydra pet ancient state when I first played and the other pets babies? (the wraith and helephant). Is that a bug or what?
About the Talents and skills: I think you should be able to have more than four.. If you train your pet properly you should have the posibility to choose four talents when you enter a fight or a dirby but to have more.
The prices are indeed too high.
When I used hydra and dream ghoul to hatch an egg I couldn't wait to see the result. I expected to see a hydra with three ghoul heads or something like that. Biiiiig disappointment. And I hate that that pet's energy is actually your energy and that it's available for all your pets. I don't like that I have to pay with crowns to refill my pet's energy which is actually my energy btw.
I hope KI will do something about this. I almost wish that I wouldn't have entered on the test realm

Jacob Thundersword said...

I agree with every thing you say here. 80,000 gold for every combination is like buying a mount in gold or a pet, and the pet is even a gamble. that's outrageous.

However your idea for the battle tactics of pets is brilliant. It seems more realistic.

witchwarrior said...

I agree with your thoughts on pet refill(need pet wisps), cannon game(which stinks to me), the Hatchery(lower the price and make it equiptable to every school), and a fighting pet in combat(does absolutely nothing).
KI, please change it!! D:

shadowfist said...

Yup... paid 80k for a VERY high-pedigree (59!) Stormzilla that my Necro can't use. If I'd known that was even a possibility, I never would have chanced it. Glad it's only test realm.

For high-level players, it doesn't seem as though the pet expansion really offers much benefit for time invested. My Wraith gives me extra mana (really not necessary when you already have 460) and an extra +1% powerpip chance (pretty trivial, when you're already at 80%). Maybe such benefits will be more helpful to lowbies, but I can't see spending much time developing pets for my grands.

P.D. (Luke GoldHorn) said...

Go FN! You're amazing! I feel the same exact way! Btw, I'm horrible at the cannon game lol. But I think a reasonble cost for mixing would be like 5-10 gold. And like, for example, I mixed my Helephant with an Ice Colossus, so I think maybe I could have gotten like a magma colossus or something, that gave me a magma colossus card (You know, the fire version of colossus)I would have much perfered that to an ice colossus. An another example, An Orthrus and a Stormzilla. How about a furry Stormzilla with two heads, or a Orthrus with Dinosaur legs and a yellow spine scale line? they really need to change this stuff, so everyone, pls make sure you send them a report about it at the website

Anonymous said...

hey friendly its steven soulbreaker. i have seen a ton of threads about stuff like this. its been so bad as to people quitting if the live realm isnt better because they are bored cause they want more updates and this wasnt their expectations.

Silvershade said...

I totally agree! And I was SOO excited for hybrid pets!!!! Man, a Colossus-Orthrus would've been pretty cool. I recently made a pet egg with my friend's Wraith, but it's Ice-only. My Necromancer buddy feels your pain. I also wish that players could have more of a role in the derby, instead of cheering, changing lanes and using power-ups. I would love to have more control in the races. And I am basically in the same situation as Wolf Shadowheart. :P

Kevin BattleBlood said...

(continued from above...)

To go into a counter-example, had KI--with the same **overall** motive/plan--released Celestia before the Pet Updates, a lot of players would be disappointed and ranting about how they aren't able to explore far enough before getting devastatingly beaten and sent back to Celestia's "Commons" counter-part. From what I discovered in the past few days, our pets in the updates are meant to outdo our current pets in terms of stats; our Level 48 pets have the possibility of giving us 6%, maybe 7% Power Pip chance, assuming that Strength and Intelligence aren't maxed out, and that they have the power pip Talent.

So, with that in mind, in order to satisfy our want for a more challenging world (this includes tougher battles, so we aren't slaves to repetitive playstyles), KI would *have* to raise the standards to something our current spells, gear, and strategies can't handle.

This plays into (perhaps) why Pet Updates came first. so we may *train* our pets to raise THEIR standards to suit us for the crabby world. As a bonus, we aren't replacing our PVE Level 48 pets for "stronger" ones; some of us have grown close to them! Shoutout to Jack!

Therefore, should the Live realm end up paralleling the Test realm, let's not allow disappointment or dissatisfaction get in the way of realizing that the entire canvas hasn't been drawn yet. An elaborate sketch of dog droppings alone makes a portrait offensive or disgusting, until a person following the park rules is drawn in.



On another note, where I jump in agreement with you, Friendly, is listed below:

-- Yes, I would *love* to have the actual playstyle of Dance Dance Revolution incorporated as a minigame, rather than some sleep-inducing memory test.

-- The Pet Hatchery truly could use some work (like allowing us to choose what school our baby would come from, especially given the high fee to produce it). Then it becomes an actual game feature, and not a gamble. Keep the high fees though, it will keep the pet population down at least; since our pets aren't consumed after mating, we'll end up asking for more Bank space, assuming we end up impoverished from the ~frequency~ of making pet babies!

-- Allow us to have the option of (a) feeding a pet outside a mini-game to replenish its energy, or (b) feeding a pet after a mini-game to help boost its stats further after their exercise; KingsIsle, you can take away big factors like, like +3 (stat), and lower it down to +1 instead if you want to keep gameplay "balanced."

and last but not least...

-- Give us just one form of control, a leash at least, to say whether or not we want our pet to do anything. To keep it balanced between manufacturer's vision and consumer's satisfaction, make it so it is opportunistic to when our pets "ask" if they may do something; in other words, there's a chance they'll ask you every round, and there's a chance they won't ask you at all in that battle! Then whatever the pet does is due to the discretion of the player, not some primitive AI system!

Thanks for taking the time to write out your views, Friendly!

Kevin BattleBlood said...

I'm split on my satisfaction levels, but not in the sense of feeling like I'm on both ends of the prism. Rather, I have some dislikes (surely) on the new features, but the other half of me is moving transversely in a positive direction (think of a coordinate plane where my X is negative and Y is positive).

I understand that your post, Friendly, is not meant to include optimism for the sake of holding a strong stance in what we're unhappy about (and in turn, hoping that they will redo the unsatisfying parts of the new system). However, I can't stress enough about how we're only looking at a portion of the picture in our dissatisfaction, not because we're short-minded or jumping to conclusions hastily, but because that's all we are limited to, by the hand of the Company.

I don't mean that KingsIsle is purposefully holding out on us and changing the game to something we potentially will lose enthusiasm for; instead, I mean that they aren't going to give us the big picture just yet, which will include the features to come with Celestia.

My point is, we have to have patience with KI if our voices aren't heard and your blog entry wasn't thoroughly considered. Perhaps, (and I am trying to argue logically rather than optimistically here) certain enhancements, like the random behavior of pets in battle, will be conceptually and mechanically balanced by the new schools, or it may be necessary against the unknown challenges of the seventh world.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm not rooting for KI to continue to allow our pets to do whatever they want while we're fighting; heck, I'm a serious PVPer who favors skill over luck, and I would be very upset to see a friend lose to another duelist just because the opponent's Stormzilla luckily casted a Storm Lord while my friend's (also a Stormzilla) contributed only a Storm Snake. But, even if KingsIsle kept that feature, I'm not going to boycott PVP-ing or PVE-ing (seeing a nicely placed set-up for a damage record being taken down is moreso discouraging than painful). I'll continue on and give them a chance to fix it in August's updates. With our growing, innovative and helpful community, I'm sure we'll find a way around the mess strategically, but I digress. :)

(to be continued)

Unknown said...

The only thing that I disagree with is the Cannon Game. Having a practice shot would take out all of the skill of the game. To me the first shot is entire point of the game, since after the first shot you have a good idea of where to shoot. Having an extra shot would be like having mulligans in a golf game game. The 'do-overs' would make the game very stale since it would basically take away the skill aspect.

James Iceheart

Lyssie Silverheart said...

I have not seen anything of this in game yet since i am not on test nor am i wanting to be on the test. But with the price for hatching at the level it is at currently i plan to pass and just level up the pets i have or ever will get I am not interested in spilling the cash to buy a school house on sale for a pet that i posibly not get to use. If i can use it i would defently shell out that kinda cash for a wraith on Silverheart though

Heather Emeraldflame said...

continued...

On the minis. I only got on the first day in the TR because it was such a huge disappointment when I saw EVERYTHING they wanted to change. Also including the announcement about not being able to trade enhanced cards anymore(which I cover on my blog, so I won't clog your's with that.)
The cannon game: Are there any flags out there that really indicate wind speed and direction? They really NEED that. There is/was a similar mini on Neopets and one that you hit an object and the wind speed/direction determined how far the object went. They need to have something in there showing that wind speed & direction. Also a practice shot, or two, would be nice!
The maze game: This was my personal favorite, but as you said more time in there, and SOME indication of when it is ok to chomp ghosts would be highly appreciated! My pets eat the blue star but I can't tell when the time on that is up!
The drop game: You have a point on the shadows, and I, too, had a thought that there needs to be a way to tell two things apart that are falling really close together. I did like that game, but they could use better shapes on the shadows.
The dance game:...Ugh! Not everyone has perfect sight, I sure don't. I have a genetic disorder that fouled up my eyes real well and it's very hard for me to concentrate on those arrows going SO fast and flashing. It seems like they could slow that down a tad. I, personally, NEED the sound of the arrows so that I can match that in my mind with what I am pressing...so I am kinda glad the music isn't too loud, otherwise I couldn't concentrate on the sounds.

The Derby:I only tried the practice one one time.I did win and it was kinda fun, even when I was losing for most of the race. But to me this is another version of PvP, so I have little use for it.
And @Wolf: I was wondering when I looked at the Lightning Elf Pet if it was only equipable to PvP players(I know nothing of the ranking system in there, so it means little to me)...this answers that question! Why can't anyone just buy that thing? And the way it's going it would be a real help to Storm wizards to have that...or the Storm Hound(though I hate DoTs that take all my pips to use.

Back to Friendly...lol

One gripe I have is that I didn't get into W101 for the pets. They are a cute little pal we have had follow us around that might give us a few little bonuses. Now it's like they are taking over and this is some sort of mad version of Neopets.

Why are they seeing fit to change the workings of a game, that until this possible insanity takes over in the live realm, has worked wonderfully and been so much fun?

"If it isn't broken don't fix it."...

Heather Emeraldflame said...

Wow, everyone...I am glad to see I am not the only one who is not liking everything about all this new "Advanced Pet System." BTW, I find it strangely amusing that It says those words under a picture of a Gobbler pet on the main site page. Does the Gobbler really look "Advanced" to you? More like a caveman!...lol.

Anyway, to be serious here. I completely agree with most everything you said, and many of the things other people who commented said. It is way too expensive to mix pets in the hatchery. I mean that is one seriously expensive lottery ticket you are buying. And it sounds/looks like 9 times out of 10 you "lose."

I agree on the pet energy and if you read my most recent blog I mention that a bit too. Some think that this system favors those who have less time to spend in-game, but it really doesn't. I will get to play it more(if I even care to be on after all this) because I have all day with it...I can go play some minis, go farm, run quests or whatever for a while, then go back and do some more games, etc. While someone with more limited time might only get a few minutes a day. I think you have a great idea on each pet maintaining it's own energy, instead of a shared amount. If they each had their own you could train more than one pet more easily and it would not take months of grinding to do so...which is what it would take for many of us with more than a page of pets.

Also, I love your idea on the pets that are older needing to ask permission before attacking in battle. I think something could and SHOULD be done along those lines, or KI is going to lose a lot of us who have been playing this a bit longer and don't like having our entire set-ups destroyed by...a Myth Bat(haha) or what have you. The day my Taz(or any of my other lvl 48 pets) ever unleashes a Thunder Snake(or other low level spell) and takes out my traps is the day he gets put in the kennel!
This is the entire reason why I don't even WANT an Epic pet! And having an entire set-up destroyed cause of some random spell COULD cause Reshuffle to become a requirement to try to rebuild the set-up in hopes that your pet won't decide to mess it up, yet again.

Heather Emeraldflame said...

@Kevin: Good point on the Hatchery pricing being the way it is. If it was too cheap people would make so many pets that would take up space(as information) on the servers. So, yeah, I can see why that may be the way it will be.

The Evil Theurgist said...

Hey Friendly. I'm making an EVIL theurgist blog.
http://theeviltheurgist.weebly.com/

Unknown said...

There is a wind speed/direction indicator on the placed prominently on the top left of the screen. I really think they got this game completely right.

James Icehart
jkeener on twitter

Unknown said...

I just noticed that moving pets from your shared bank clears all of your energy. Ugg! Pfft!

JI

Elijah Stormheart said...

Professor Greyrose needs to see this. Case closed. =D

Anonymous said...

i hope that they will change the 80000 thing ITS HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!! i mean come on at least mix the pets not like turn them into an ordinary helephant or something like if you mix a hydra with a orthrus it should have 6 heads not for you know and ITS OWN SPELL i would love that i wish that they would lower the hachery to five one ten thousand gold not 80 come on kings you are WWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY better then that ugh i want that fixed PLZ.

Alex Deathshade said...

ALEX WANTS TRIDENT!
that trident which should be storm (yes it should be storm!) why ice though, hmmmmmmm.
i do think 80000 is A LOT of money to farm up. i played some of the minigames and the food catching one is hardish, the maze is REALY cool, but i never realized you could only play 6 a day.

some times, kingsisle makes me REALLY mad. the only way people would buy mounts that were like over one hundred thousand gold was with crowns. KI needs to stop grubbing money and make the awesome things in the game possible to get with out buying like $80 worth of crowns, BE REASONABLE!
i am lucky, my birthday is around the time i think pets will come out so i will be able to get the TRIDENT! the cat thug, red gobbler, pale maiden, and wildclaw are all preety cool but a ghost lady for that many crowns? really, BE REASONABLE!
Ki needs to realize we dont have bottomless pools of cash to buy crowns with and make things reasonable!

yes, that was a rant!

-Alex deathshade

Sierra Starsong said...

The only spells I've seen my pets cast - any of my pets, on any characters - is a Pixie. And it's not really the pet casting, I picked the card and I spent the pips and mana, but the animation makes it look like my pet's casting the Pixie.

I'd be a lot happier in general if I could get the graphics to work properly, all I'm seeing is red dolls sliding around. But I'm working on tweaking my laptop to hopefully fix that.

TylerH said...

Hey friendly! With the maze game you actually only need to get 70 to get a perfect game. That being said it is possible you just need to get the red stars don't worry that much about the blue stars. If you get hit once by a ghost you won't get a perfect.

Lenora NightWraith said...

Hey Friendly, I'm not going to write some super huge comment because I think you pretty much summed up my feelings about this new update to a "T". I know you're also not the only who feels this way. I'd like to think that maybe this whole huge pet system disaster was due time constraints and KI just wanting to give us something new to hold us over until Celestia is released, but I'm really unsure. There are just so many con's to this whole pet thing and I think that KI really mislead us when it came to the pet hatchery...it was NOTHING like most of us expected. You're right, though. While we still have the chance we NEED to let KI hear our voice more now than ever.

P.D. (Luke GoldHorn) said...

Guys, if you want your voices to be heard, got to their website and report to them about what you think, good and/or bad. If you need directions on how to get to their contact page, I have them here: http://www.wizard101central.com/forums/blog.php?b=1692

Alric Ravensinger said...

I think leveling is fine I believe it doesn't matter how many pets you have if you want them strong train them if not then don't train I have 5 pages of pets too doesn't mean I'll train them all I'll just train the ones I use want a tip craft Ambros Cereal and use it it really speeds up the process and is easy to make and a last note I enjoy the cannon game the most I've gotten pretty good at it

Oran Starbane said...

I completely agree with your comments Friendly. I was pretty much underwhelmed by the new features on the test server and have really only logged in since Saturday to remind KI of all of the Ideas I had last test cycle to improve the game.

For me anyway the ability to let pets roam the house and the new spells from Mildred Farseer on Colossus were the only enhancements I like with this update.

I may change my mind in time but at the moment I don't see the benefits of the new pet system. My suspicion is that the entire reason this system was added at all was to compete with other MMO's. I think KI over-hyped what was actually coming out thereby raising everyone's expectations. I'm also suspicious that the reason we've been getting these half-updates (i.e. mount$, $chool houses, pets) instead of full updates like Celestia and Grizzlehiem is that less attention is being paid to W101 while they work on whatever their new project is. I'd prefer to think that I'm wrong but I have my doubts.

smvb said...

One thing I was amazed about is how much some of the minigames copy those in Toontown. The dropping food game is very similar, but while I can play the one in TT quite well, lag ruins it for me in W101 by making it VERY hard to get under the stuff. It's either lag or the characters just don't move like I expected them to. The dance game is a copy of one in TT, except that in TT it is cumulative Simon, as you suggest might be better. Racing is also very similar, but without the lanes. They even have a cannon game, although that isn't as similar. (I agree with Lipsome123, that a practice shot would take away something from the cannon game, though. I like it as it is. It only takes a few tries to get an idea of how much power to give a first shot.)

My major complaint is the pet energy. It takes SO VERY LONG to regenerate. I was shocked at how long it took to get even one point. It feels like yet another grab for more crowns. I understand that they need to make a profit, for sure. But make it so that it is reasonable to wait and not spend crowns. If someone is at all serious about training pets, then they would feel COMPELLED to spend crowns, I would think. I like the idea of having an energy globe per pet.

@Lipsome123: I read *somewhere*, maybe in the update notes, that the energy would disappear when getting a pet out of the shared bank. I couldn't understand why they did this, until I realized that it prevents you from shifting a pet between your wizards to more quickly level that pet up. I think it will just make people angry.