Proposal: Pet Mog. (Solution for stable slots)

[Teigan]

Besides, I'm just trying to find a way to make OP's idea work or come up with fun creative new ideas. Take my ideas with a grain of salt, I'm just brain storming here

People want their pets to have more value
People want more space
People want a limit of sorts

I think there is a way to come up with something to satisfy all this, it's just hard

I fail to see how this makes pets feel more valuable. It does the opposite.

Well my aim isn't to find a way to make a pet feel more valuable, since I think they're kinda at a stasis in how they're viewed whether the stables change or not.

I'm just thinking of ideas to switch around how stables work so that they themselves have more worth, can improve an rp experience, or be helpful to newer players.

I want pets to be important too, I just think OP had an interesting idea! Bc if Blizz revamped stambles, it'd be nice if it'd put an end to the slots issue for good
Besides I think everyone has good points here, so maybe we can put them together in some way!

*headtilt*

Ok.

[Quiv]

OK so what if our immediate stables were shrunk to like, idk 20. However we can "store" other pets we want to hold on to. Think of it as an inactive stable.

So in each major city of the faction (Org/SW), there is a special stable master NPC, like king of the stable masters. Lets call him Master Stable Master.

When you talk to him, he can port you to a scenario around the city (kinda like how Org brawler guild is instanced). This "inactive" stable could be a sprawling grassy field, and it can have some forest or a cave, whatever the case. And the pets that we "stored" at the Master Stable Master are actually here. We can run around this scenario and see pets wander around naturally (inb4 predator pets eating prey pets), and we can walk up to them and interactive with them to add them to our "active" stable. And adding them back to our active stable could be more than just clicking a menu item, maybe make a mini game, idk.

This way we can keep hard to get or pets with meaning, or whatever reason we have to keeping pets, but its not as boring as a simple UI. Its interactive. It also allows us to keep pets available, but still requires an element of choice.

OK so its probably a shite idea cuz theres no way they would put THAT much extra into one class, but I'm trying here!

[Teigan]

Pet Void Storage, sort of? I actually really like this idea. Maybe it could be streamlined by letting you select a certain group of pets that will appear so you don't have to wade through mountains of them, and you have to sort of re-gain their trust? Maybe have it be in Fenryr's old haunt in the Halls of Valor. Sort of a happy limbo between worlds, and plenty of room and habitat types and that area is special for hunters anyway.
You're right that Blizzard would probably never do it. It's far too nice of an idea, which means too much work. Seems like if this were going to happen, it would have come with class halls. Bleh.

[Quiv]

Yeah like a Fields of Eternal Hunt. Well we could even use the Fields, I mean we ARE the Huntmaster. Idk its something!

[Teigan]

Yeah, Fields of the Eternal Hunt. That's what I was thinking of, but forgot what it was called. I think that would be really fitting. The scenario for the wolfhawk took place there, and since we proved worthy, they might not mind our pets hanging around. And maybe do something like a little tracking activity for finding your old pets, like we tracked the spirits for the mount. Except with less killing and all.

[Inay]

I would love that.

[Valnaaros]

That is a very nice idea, Quiv, but as you said, that is a lot of work for them to be into one class (assuming Blizz's tech can actually do that). It really is a shame they didn't do something with Trueshot :/

[GormanGhaste]

What if they added a special large plot for the garrison? A little small for our tastes, but seems more feasible.

[Valnaaros]

I like that, but I doubt they would ever get within a mile of the Garrisons due to how poorly received they were in WoD. Besides, Hunters that didn't have their Garrison built up would then have to go through the whole process of doing that.

[Rhyela]

I would rather have 500 slots than some kind of pet mog. The stable isn't perfect, but it's better than reducing them to just skins. Tetsusaiga is way more to me than just a white lion skin. Ew. No, there has to be something better and yes, I feel pretty strongly about this.

Edit: a "void storage" for pets seems like a great starting point. Have active pets you actually use, and then a little retirement home for the ones you want to check in on once a year on holidays. Make people pay to use them, and they'd have to determine which pets they truly use, and which ones they have as collectibles. I still don't see why we'd need more than 100 slots total. So...50 active, and 50 "retired"? I'd be fine with that.

[Tooth]

I like the idea of infinite slots better, but then again that makes sense, what I was picturing was a UI at the top with squares of the skins, clicking the squares (example brown and white skin / black with white spotted skin) will change the pet you have's skin, IF collected... That seems to work nicely....

But I feel like it'd be more realistic in terms of keeping hunters "cultured" (as in, how they've always been.) By having our stable slots, as to why I feel an increase/and or infinite increase is much more better for the game wise.

[SlickrockGhost]

I would rather have 500 slots than some kind of pet mog. The stable isn't perfect, but it's better than reducing them to just skins. Tetsusaiga is way more to me than just a white lion skin. Ew. No, there has to be something better and yes, I feel pretty strongly about this.

I get that.. but.. let me ask a question. Do you honestly feel that way about all the other 49 pets you have tamed? Do you remember them all?

My idea isn't that far off from what we do with Hati, we've all mogged him quite a bit this expac...

[Valnaaros]

Hati isn't a true pet at this point, and we mog over Hati because of the fact that we would rather have him look like a pet we care for than a wolf we don't. If we could swap him out for a real pet, we would. Unfortunately, we have to use an item to make due.

I remember all of the pets that I have, though I only truly care for a few. I would only have those few if it weren't for the glitch pets and a few others that I have. I fully intend to cull a good chunk of my stable.

[SlickrockGhost]

I remember all of the pets that I have, though I only truly care for a few. I would only have those few if it weren't for the glitch pets and a few others that I have. I fully intend to cull a good chunk of my stable.

Yeah, I'll have to cull as well. And apart from my main pets, my stables are mainly filled with rares I've collected. Time to let a lot of them go.

[Rhyela]

I don't have all my slots filled. XD And I periodically release ones I no longer use, i.e. my "this seems interesting so I'll try it" pets that then sit there and never get used, lol. The ones I truly care about, I absolutely do remember and even where I got them. They would lose that if they became a mog system. I'm glad that folks are brainstorming, though. It's obviously something a lot of people care about!

[Quiv]

In a recent Wowhead interview with Muffinus, stables slots came up. Muffinus had a very interesting answer:

"Every time we start discussing whether or not were going to do more stable slots, the discussion largely comes to 'what do we want this system to be?' Ultimately is it a place to store individual pets or should it be more of a collection game similar to how the transmog system works? So its not something were quite ready to talk about right now, but the discussions are in place for 'what is the best way to improve this system', and we definitely know there is a problem there for some of those hunters."

He then looks directly at the camera, as if he were talking directly to me us...

"Its on our list, we're looking into it."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyDQF0S ... .be&t=1104

[Teigan]

Interesting, to be sure. I just am uncomfortable that the phrase "a collection game similar to how the transmog system works" is even something that exists in their heads. Purge the thought! In my own, personal and humble opinion, of course.

[Valnaaros]

Same here, Teigan. I would absolutely hate Hunter Pets becoming the next Battle Pet or Mount.

[Quiv]

Yeah it felt weird in Guild Wars 2 to me.

[WerebearGuy]

I personally love the battle pet and mount tabs. The merits include little to no limit on collected individuals, lots of space, alphabetical order by default (the way I prefer it!), and a search bar for quicker searching. The battle pet tab also includes a species finder, allowing you to find pets of a specific family. Let's say you've got 10 cats for some reason, along with 45 other pets; you search for cats only, and grab from a list of ten instead of 55. Like battle pets, this would allow them to remain unique with a streamlined and more efficient tool for taking out the pets you want. It's just too good to not use for anything cosmetic, especially since pets are 90% cosmetic next expansion anyway.

On the flip side, I can see how people would find it less appealing; the current stable is set up like you're holding special troops rather than nameless objects. Even though we have 55 slots (5 pages of 10 in the stable, 5 slots on us at all times), it's not unreasonable for anyone to expect a hunter to name all of their own pets. Despite being digital 1's and 0's, they're still characters people grow attached to. Hell, I'm guilty of it with my first tamed pet Garnet, a Springpaw Lynx from the blood elf starting zone; I did a corpse run from Wetlands all the way there on a level 20 Draenei hunter just because I wanted a red cat back in Burning Crusade. As a result, that specific hunter pet is one I've never let go of. It's the same with people who grow attached to material objects, such as a doll, a letter, or their dead cat's ashes; it means something, and you want to keep that meaning.

Personally, I'm all for a change towards the mount/b.pet tab style, since I prefer that over the small and lacking stable we have now. It's not like the change would hurt anything, as you'd still have meaning to the pets you liked as well as access to those pets. All it would be is a direct upgrade, nothing less. I've wanted a stable in that design for a while, and I hope it happens.