If they were to add a new pet, what would you like?

Would be great to see revisions for some pet models, but I doubt they'll go back and change them. AE rarely fix old content unless there's some actual urgency to, particularly if it affects gameplay. Yet they did change things that players didn't really ask for as much like player face models, so I wouldn't rule it out as impossible.

 

AE prioritizes new content over improving old content and that's just how they roll even though having the old content be up to par with new content would be better, but their release schedule doesn't really allow that unless that release is about revamping old content. Waiting for a new cat model is going to be a something we would have to wait a long time for.

 

It's easy for new players to be put off by the game because of that, because a large portion of what they play is older, unimproved content. And when they start playing some of the new content, comparatively, they'll see just how stale and boring the old content really is. Ideally, it'd be a better move to prioritize most of the old content and focus on quality over quantity. Even with some of the newer content, they end up focusing more on quantity anyway.

Even I find myself unimpressed with AE's quantity approach. They'll just throw in a quick-and-dirty 3D model and reskin it several times, and we end up buying them (either with in-game currency, or paid-for currency). I typically avoid buying pets for DCs, because you never know if AE's going to reskin the pet and make it look more 'superior' than the original, or make that reskinned pet cost gold (while the original costs DCs). A lot of players get upset when that sort of situation happens; if it costs DCs, it really ought to remain a unique model instead of getting reskinned multiple times.

 

If AE wants to improve that new player experience, just making a few changes to starter quests is not enough. We need to have all of the old content updated/revamped so the flow of gameplay doesn't change too much.

AE has been making updates with quantity over quality approach in mind for years and I can't see them adjusting to quality over quantity approach.

When it comes to pets, we haven't received that many of those that are obtainable through gameplay and they are just mostly that you can purchase with DCs even though they aren't that hard to make in practice because most of them are just resized monster models that just follow you around.

 

Yeah, and to think of it, it would be nice to see storyline pets... like pets you actually obtain while playing through the story. In other words, pets that you aren't required to farm daily Pet Feeds for, open up daily loot boxes for, or pay Guardian membership or DCs for. They would be pets that you craft at the end of the story, get as a quest reward, get from a reward shop, or as a drop (like from a dungeon challenge or something).

The game just lacks variety when it comes to balancing things like pets. With pets being out for over a year now, you'd think they'd revisit some older story areas and add pets there. Like a wolf pet for Greenguard, skeleton pet for Doomwood, Acevorah pet for Barrow Drop, Gorillaphant pet for Arcangrove, and so on. But instead, they focus too much on exclusion... where a pet would best fit a certain story map, they instead place it with all of the other pets in the Pet Shop or somewhere unrelated to the story. If a panda pet ever comes around, it'd probably be added to the Pet Shop or daily lootboxes instead of something fitting like Yokai Isle.

If a Pet Tamer class ever comes around, players, especially new players, will have disdain for it since most pets are locked behind dailies or paid methods. The game should really open up to a higher degree of plurality.

 

AE has been focus on pets a bit more when it comes to getting them through gameplay, but they definitely should include them in story content because there are many opportunities they could make them fit in.

 

They probably can't find a way to balance it in time, or just never thought about it. The worse "story-related" thing they could possibly do is add pets to daily class craft shops (where daily tokens are required), and people wouldn't like that because they don't like getting barred behind daily quests. I'm just hoping that if they ever revisit older areas, they make the right decisions that'll please their players.

 

It really feels like AE lacks time to implement something like this properly when looking how they get releases out and it's the fault of their releasing schedule.

 

In terms of something completely new, I’d like to see a variety of bear cubs (like polar bear, grizzly bear, and Arctic bear) added; they would make a cute companion.

As for re-using models, I’m interested in seeing pet Vurrmen. It would be funny and cool to have a knapsack rat following me around. Plus, I imagine they’d pair well with player who are wielding a Traveler’s Pack or Lost Hiker’s Pack.

Spoiler: Vurrmen Image Samples

 

There are a bunch of monsters that don't get reused as forms or pets that would probably fit well in certain places. With 2020 soon being the year of the rat, I can see a rat pet being a possibility.

 

Ah, this reminds me! There are pigs in the game; the AQ3D devs could've held a mini live event and spawn them as a celebration for Chinese New Year last year. But too bad that's a missed opportunity.

Anyhow, I don't expect any new content that will celebrate for the Chinese New Year, since I presume they'd have to work on the 2020 Hero's Heart Day collection.

 

Possible, but they don't have to add collections every year, or even new items for a particular season. I remember in 2018, they said they would do collections for Black Friday along the lines of "next year" due to popular request, but ended up not doing it in 2019 (maybe due to time constraints like they couldn't add enough items to make value for a collection, simply forgetting to, or something else). As for collections that were skipped during a year, I don't recall one ever happening, but it's something they could consider, especially if a particular season isn't as popular and players want to see other new seasonal events that fall on a particular month. I think alternating among collections works best in terms of work flow for new releases, but I don't see them skipping out on any core collections like TLAPD, Mogloween, or Frostval since those are the most popular collections, but I think it's possible that they can skip out on the other seasons and just alternate.

And I don't think a collection's really going to stop them from possibly adding a rat pet to the game. They already have the 3D model made, so all they need to do is give it a name, description, and find a place to add it.

 

Dage gave us a sneak peak for a thing related to the year of the rat so we might be getting a pet or a travel form or both out of it.

 

I would lke to saw a more dragon pet

 

Kind of a shame they used their mouse model (from the Mousehole Parkour) instead of their rat model (Vurrman). Also a missed opportunity of using a model that they haven't yet used as a form or a pet.

 

I also wanted to see Vurrman model see use and because it's an actual rat and it's kinda strange to see them use mouse model instead.

 

I can guess that they chose the mouse model because of its small size, as it would be easier and less time consuming to add clothes to it, and the mouse has more visual appeal than Vurrman to the general player audience. Regardless, they should still include a Vurrman with Yokai-themed clothing for their future Lunar New Year(?) content, because it would make sense to use an actual rat to properly celebrate for the Lunar New Year. If they release the Lunar New Year stuff without any Vurrmen, then that would be a missed opportunity.

 

If it was because it's easier and less time consuming to make, then I think that's a poor excuse for not going a step further, but I don't think it'd be any more difficult to add textures to Vurrman, if they can do it for the mouse. They could end up giving us two options instead of just the mouse. And I don't think small size is the problem either, because they can always rescale the model.

 

AE's excuse not to use Vurrman model was that the word Rat can both mean Mouse and Rat in Chinese and Mouse model was cuter. Kinda lame excuse not to use Vurrmen model considering the fact it hasn't had any use as a travel form nor a pet yet and that Mouse model has been already used as both.

 

Also the same model reuse isn't as enticing for people who already own the original mouse (the Mousekin Pet and/or the I Like Cheese (A Lot) form). Just defeats the purpose of getting players to buy the exact same model but with different clothing.

I'd be disappointed if they priced the form for 4,900 DCs, because it's just another model reuse. The "I Like Cheese" form for 1,900 DCs was already enough, but they had the "I Like Cheese A Lot" form for 4,900 DCs which was already too much. I think the people who'd be most disappointed are the people who spent 4,900 DCs on the "I Like Cheese A Lot" form. Only way I can see AE lessening the disappointment is by giving players who bought any of the two forms the ability to get the new Mouse form for free, or give them the ability to craft it (maybe craft the new form from the I Like Cheese A Lot form, so then it's like transferring an old item for a new item).

As for a pet, if it was for DCs, it wouldn't really matter, because the Mousekin Pet is a free version anyone can obtain.

AE is really guilty of rehashing the same model and adding a few new minor details, even when players have already spent real money on the original version of whatever item. You buy something for DCs not expecting AE to reuse it, then you see that item heavily devalued because they reuse it for other items. In a recent example, when AE released the Frostval variant of the Alice in Chains Wraith, people were bummed out (they either felt disappointed that they bought the VIP AiC Collection because AE just released a reskinned model or felt disappointed at the Frostval 2019 collection because they already have the original form). I barely spend any DCs at all because later on, it's just pointless when none of the items you buy are future-proof.