Disconnect pet special ability from family

[Worba]

This is concerning the best way of handling pet family, and is based on some good points made by both sides in pop's thread here http://forums.wow-petopia.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=5820; pop suggested that shoveltusks be added to the boar family, which I liked alot - from a very general / game balance perspective. But someone else pointed out that from a physiological perspective, shoveltusks really wouldn't be related to boars at all.

We want more pets to be tamable, but, at least imo, the sheer volume of pet skills is getting a little overloaded for what is essentially just one class - condensing them into existing families (boars, rhinos etc) is one way to simplify this, but when you do so you also run into species/genus/etc problems, which ends up looking messy.

The solution I think, is very simple - stop adding new pet abilities except where there is an especially obvious case to be made, and "share out" existing abilities similar to how cats and SBs already share courageous roar. E.g. if you tame a shoveltusk it looks like this:

Type: Shoveltusk
Diet: Fruit, cheese
Ability: Gore
Tree: Tenacity

And voila, you have something that functions like a boar (save for diet), but isn't stuck in with nonrelated creatures, and didn't require the devs to add yet another new ability.

Again, I'm not saying they shouldn't add anymore new abilities, just that doing so shouldn't be a mandatory part of making a new creature tamable, as long as it's abilit(ies) are more or less already covered by existing creatures.

[Araniis]

Well it wouldn't be too surprising if blizzard DID do that, considering that they have done it already. The Fox and the Tallstrider already share their special abilities, albeit with different names and cooldowns, and the updated Carrion Bird from the beta shares the Demorilizing Shout Debuff that Bears have.

In all honestly, I wouldn't just limit the family to shoveltusks, as they are really just freaking cool looking Deer/Elks. I'd say make it a Deer/Elk family and have us be able to tame some of the older Deer models, like that cool Black one from northern Ashenvale.

[Lisaara]

I thought that too Worba but i was afraid someone would jump on me for saying Shoveltusks and Boars are no where near related to each other, so I didn't say anything. ^^;

[WildcatTM]

There really isn't a large demand for a Shoveltusk family, though. I mean, I wouldn't tame one unless I absolutely have to. I bet we'll see a Hydra family way before we see a Shoveltusk one. Considering that certain families are already sharing special abilities, if a Shoveltusk family is made, that's more than likely the route Blizzard will go.

[Worba]

Well it wouldn't be too surprising if blizzard DID do that, considering that they have done it already. The Fox and the Tallstrider already share their special abilities, albeit with different names and cooldowns, and the updated Carrion Bird from the beta shares the Demorilizing Shout Debuff that Bears have.

And that's somewhat redundant - imo they should rework spells to essentially have a pet specific "RP description" and have the one spell encased within in, appearing with its safely generic name.

<spell name> Distraction

<generic description> aoe debuff bla bla

<pet tag:> The fox spins its tail / the tall strider scratches up dirt / etc

I'm just trying to think of a way to make it less complex / easier for devs to expand on ==> more skins become tamable

In all honestly, I wouldn't just limit the family to shoveltusks, as they are really just freaking cool looking Deer/Elks. I'd say make it a Deer/Elk family and have us be able to tame some of the older Deer models, like that cool Black one from northern Ashenvale.

Well you could lump them all together as ungulates or some such but I was thinking more along the lines of

Elks / shoveltusks - tenacity, gore

Stags - ferocity, "bravehart" buff (beloved emo raiding pet)

Etc