Ok, going to play devil’s advocate here and think up some negatives to this interesting idea. I’m curious to see responses.
1. The biggest problem I see with this idea is that it only benefits Rangers. That means that less than 1/9th of characters would benefit from this (but of course, more than 1/9th of the playerbase would benefit because people don’t tend to stick with just one character).
Think how the legendary journeys got scrapped, because of how much dev time they required and how little impact it would have on players proportionately. In one of the recent polls I seem to remember around 1/10th of the playerbase actually owns a legendary (who engaged in the poll) and of course that means an even smaller percentage would go on to complete one of the legendary journeys. So if this pet idea was more than a simple colour edit or added top-hat, would it really be worth the dev’s time?
2. How could it be introduced fairly?
There has to be some scarcity otherwise there would be little interest in it. It would make sense if it was locked behind skill- perhaps pre-existing content that had few rewards (let’s say at the end of a JP). The black widow spider, black moa and rainbow phoenix (I think) were sort of “exclusive” ranger pets in GW1, they randomly appeared in regions that were a bit more challenging to get to and were also more difficult to charm, if memory serves me correctly. Of course the mechanics of GW2 are quite different.
3. How different would the models be? Would they be confusing in PvP/WvW?
4. Does this idea overlap with the idea of minipets and exclusive minipets that we already have?
No negativity taken, how i look at it everyone has their opinions and questions towards the subject, so I’m just glad you took the time out to actually make some very good points!
But because im not a very intelligent person myself, i’ll just reply to the ones i have ideas towards! (These might not be answer chronologically)
The statement about benefiting just rangers, i can understand. However i suppose every class has their really special thing about them, that only benefits them! The point i brought up a little earlier was the Weapon limitations. Like Thief’s cant use Longbows, Necros can’t use Hammer, ect. And the point may be brought up “Why would you want that class to wield them anyways, theres no way it could be used properly” Well, i suppose, but My very LARGE Norn-Necro should be able to carry around a darn hammer. But thats something special Anet does to stick them out, A hammer on Guard is different than a hammer used my Engi’s. So there that. Mesmers have portals, which i’d LOVE to have access to personally, but i don’t run a mes. Classes wear different clothes, Races have different outfits. So if you do end up liking those things, you simply just switch and make one. Like ranger, you see they have new, difficult to find, rare pets, you might hop on ranger and trey it out. But i know thats not the best defense statement, but i probably am just looking at it differently.
Introduced fairly, honestly, mix them in with where you find the others, just make it have a spawn rate? Or maybe Put them in totally different places, but still very rare to find. The point was brought up that if its something that can be found, or easily found, there WILL be a guide on the internet within a few hours. Which, for the lazy… it works. SO to avoid making it just “Oh man… i really wish i knew where the juve oinkoink was, let me just google it!” make the chance so incredibly low for it to actually spawn, in the bunch. Doesnt have to be Chak Egg Sak %, but even if it was, i feel would making finding such creatures 10x more rewarding. Which might actually just decrease the popularity spike, people have spoke of, in the rangers itself. People would get on try to find the new “Shinnies” and end up realizing… its very hard to find, so screw it, ill move on. I know myself, i HATE to farm, search, hunt for anything, i’d end up giving up and going back to my thief.
Model difference i feel should be, subtle yet quite noticeable. Honestly, like how a legendary differs from a regular weapon. You see pony’s flying thru the air, you can bet your money The Dreamer is loafing around. So i’d like to think the new “shinnies” would maybe have their own Footprints, maybe just tweek a color, give them flames, electricity, ice all depending on what the Juve is and match it accordingly. Someone brought up a point earlier “they’d need to fix the option where once you caught the juvenile, you caught it, that’s that.” And i figure the only way around it is to maybe code it in as if it were… a skin? Like you find the “shiny” out in the wild, assuming is super duper rare and you got hella lucky, you capture it as you would, which im sure is just the click of a button, no pokeballs are thrown. Then afterwards, you’d get like an item skin for that particular shiny you captured. So for example you see a golden juvenile pig out there, you run up cap it, get in your inventory “Golden Bacon Skin” or… well, something like that. Now, this game is very party oriented, by that i mean, when out raiding a boss, the more people the better! Why? because others can res you when you’re down, and who cares if they get good loot, because you have the exact same chance. So this might throw a curve ball, but I idealy thought, these “shinnies” would need to be rare, and difficult to get. So if some guy walking down the road see’s one, if he captures it, its gone. No /map “hey guys found a shiny! everyone come get” or “hey found a shiny! pay me 5g ill tell you location” No… none of that Finder keepers! Yes its a sad system, but they ONLY way if can be done as fair as possible. Just have to be in the right place at the right time.
Minipets i cant accurately say, because i have no idea if thats actually a thing, or an idea that was brought up in this thread :P But thats just my thoughts on it, i’m sure its very flawed and lots of errors that just would be impossible, but then again, this whole darn thread is hypothetical, so oh well ^^
