Publish Notes from 2002-07-12 Taming Changes

Publish Notes from 2002-07-12 Taming Changes

These changes are being implemented in order to help balance Taming as a class, as well as toward improving the overall in-game experience of playing a tamer.

Please also note that the stats and skills of “legacy pets” (those pets which are in existence prior to the publish of the system changes detailed below) will not be affected by the changes listed here.

Animal Lore

The usage and utility of the Animal Lore skill will be altered in the manner described below. (The exact nature of how “legacy” pets are incorporated into this system has not yet been determined.)

• The Animal Lore skill will display the following data for any tamed creature:
  • Numeric values for the skills: Wrestling, Tactics, Anatomy, Resist Spells, Poisoning, Evaluate Intelligence, Magery, and Meditation.
  • Numeric values for Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity, as well as the current and maximum values for Hits, Fatigue, and Mana.
  • The creature's Armor Rating
  • Any pack instincts the pet may have.
  • The creature's preferred food that it will eat when tamed.
  • The creature's loyalty rating.

You are restricted to the creatures on which you can use the Animal Lore skill, based on your skill level:

Animal Lore	Creature Types
01 to 99.9	Any tamed creature
100+	Any tamed or tameable creature
110+	Any creature

Stable Slots

• The current stable slot system will continue to be in use.
  • All characters are allowed to store 2 pets with an NPC Stablemaster.
  • A character that has a combined total of between 160 and 199.9 in Animal Taming, Veterinary, and Animal Lore skills can store 3 pets with a Stablemaster.
  • A character that has a combined total of between 200 and 239.9 in Animal Taming, Veterinary, and Animal Lore skills can store 4 pets with a Stablemaster.
  • A character that has a combined total of 240 or higher in Animal Taming, Veterinary, and Animal Lore skills can store 5 pets with a Stablemaster.
• The currently allowable stable slots will be increased. Players will be awarded another stable slot for each of the following skills at 100.0, 110.0 and 120.0: Animal Taming, Animal Lore, and Veterinary.
  • In this way the maximum possible number of stable slots per character will be 14.

Pet Limit

• You will only be able to control a number of pets based on your pet control slots. Every player has 5 pet control slots. Most pets only require 1 slot, with the following exceptions:
  • 2 control slots: hirelings, fire steed, unicorns, ki-rins, nightmares, drakes, and imps
  • 3 control slots: white wyrms, dragons, and golems
• You must have the required control slots available for your mount. Ethereal mounts will require 1 control slot. This means if you go hunting with a dragon (3 control slots) and a drake (2 control slots), you'll have to go on foot.

Pet Loyalty

• Loyalty checks will have a much tighter range. For example, a dragon used to have a chance to obey someone with 50 Animal Taming/50 Animal Lore skill, whereas now they will not obey anyone with less than 90.1/90.1.
• The number of previous owners will no longer affect control.

Pet Bonding

• After a real-time week of ownership, pets may bond with their owner.
• If the animal requires more than 29.1 minimum skill to tame, you must have the minimum skill to tame it before it will bond with you. Examples of animals with 29.1 or lower are horses, ostards, dogs, cats, pack horses, etc.
• Bonded pets will recall with you.
• Bonded pets will turn into pet ghosts when they die.
• Instead of [tame], the [bonded] tag will display above a bonded pet.
• A bond is only broken if the pet goes wild or is released.

Pet Resurrection

• When a bonded pet dies, it turns into a “pet ghost.” This ghost can still obey the movement commands (follow, come, etc.). The pet ghost will not dissipate or lose loyalty, but cannot be stabled.
• Any player can attempt to resurrect the pet with bandages if they have at least 80 Veterinary and 80 Animal Lore. The pet owner or a friend of the pet must be nearby to confirm they want the pet to be resurrected.
• Resurrected pets suffer skill loss. Pets resurrected by their owner receive less of a skill penalty.

Pet Taming

• If you hide, or come under the effect of the invisibility spell, while using the taming skill, you will automatically become visible
• Except in the case of paralyzation, if an animal cannot pathfind to the person trying to tame it, the taming attempt will fail. This limitation includes situations where placed objects, walls, energy fields, and any other such object block the creature.
• Pets will suffer 10% skill loss when they are tamed, but have full potential for training. To further clarify, if you release a pet, it will not receive skill loss if you or another person tames it again.
• If a creature is paralyzed during the taming attempt in which it is successfully tamed, it will suffer 14% skill loss instead of the normal 10%.

Pet Training

• Pets will learn skills at an accelerated rate compared to players, although they will not use GGS [Guaranteed Gain System].
• All creatures, including pets, will have a faster Mana regeneration rate if they have the Meditation skill. Just like players, they will be able to gain Meditation skill when they regain Mana.
• All pets will be able to learn Anatomy, Resist Spells, Tactics, and Wrestling.
• Spellcasting pets will be able to gain in Magery and Evaluate Intelligence through casting spells in combat.
• Pets with Natural Poison will automatically learn the Poisoning skill through combat. The Poisoning skill is used to determine how often they inject poison. Pets with 99.0 or greater Poisoning skill will sometimes inject a poison 1 level more potent than their normal level. The chance to poison is given an additional boost at 100.0 Poisoning.

Pack Instincts

If you have at least 2 pets with the same pack instinct under your control, each of those pets gets a bonus to their damage. Use Animal Lore to determine what pack instincts your pet has. Some typical pack instincts are: Arachnid, Canine, Feline, and Ostard. See the chart below for more information.

Pets in Pack	Damage Bonus
2	+25%
3	+50%
4	+75%
5	+100%

Veterinary

• You will only be able to use veterinary on pets. However, you will be able to use it on any pet, except golems and hirelings.
• The bug that prevents you from using veterinary due to the z-axis or flying will be fixed.

Guarding, Friends, and the Stop Command

• The “guard” command will require a loyalty check.
• Pets will only guard their owner.
• Friends of pets will be able access the pet’s pack if it is a pack animal.
• Friends will only be able to issue movement commands to pets.
• The “stop” command will stop a pet from guarding, following, and attacking.

Unicorns and Ki-rin

• The bug where you need to double-click twice to dismount a unicorn or ki-rin has been fixed.
• Unicorns are now immune to poison.
• Unicorns will no longer open a gate for their rider. Instead, if their rider becomes poisoned and falls below 40 hit points, they will cure them. Once they cure their rider, they cannot cure them for another hour. This cure is always successful, regardless of the level of poison.
• Ki-rins call down the force of nature on any creature or player that brings its rider below 30 hit points. This wrath is in the form of a 35-100 damage lightning bolt that cannot be resisted. They may only do this once per hour. Previously, this ability only worked in Ilshenar, but now works everywhere.

Fire Steed

• A new mount, the fire steed, has been introduced. It requires 106.0 Animal Taming to tame.

Miscellaneous Taming Stuff

• Animals that could not be fed before (snakes, rats, etc.) will now eat food appropriate to their type.
• Spellcasting pets will no longer cast Mass Curse.
• Hellhound Leaders and Predator Hellcats will spawn with a range of bright hues again.
• Legacy nightmares and white wyrms will display correctly in UO: Third Dawn. Their appearance will not change in the 2D client.
• Shadowlord warhorses will be correctly hued green in the 2D client.
• Feeding your pet a stack of 4 or more food items at a time will restore its stamina. The exact formula for the amount of Stamina restored is: Number of Food Items In Stack * 15 - 50. If the amount is below zero, then no Stamina is restored. So, a stack of 10 ribs would restore 100 Stamina.
• Newly spawned white wyrms can "eat" gold in addition to meat. Stamina is restored at: Number of Gold Coins - 50. If the number is below zero, then no stamina is restored.
• Feeding your pet any quantity of food will give it maximum loyalty.
• Rideable pets can be mounted in combat. Attempting to do so requires a successful command check with a 25% penalty (although, it will not reduce loyalty if you fail). Some players may find it easier to give the "stop" command and quickly mount their pet instead of frantically double-clicking.

8th Circle Summoning Spells

The 8th circle summoning spells have been modified to work with the new system.

Spell Name	Follower Slots	Spell Ability	Melee Ability
Summon Air Elemental	2	Good	Fair
Summon Earth Elemental	2	None	Good
Summon Water Elemental	3	Very Good	Fair
Summon Fire Elemental	4	Good	Very Good
Summon Daemon	5	Great	Great

• Because they are strong spell casters, the Air Elemental and Water Elemental attempt to keep a distance from their foes.
• The difficulty to dispel high-level summoned creatures has been increased.