Ghostcrawler’s Arcania: Cubs & Crabs
Ever wonder how come our favorite Blizzard poster uses a red crab as an icon?
It’s my fault. I chose the avatar. My first pet was a Pygmy Surf Crawler. Sushi.
Ghostcrawler also dropped by the WotLK Beta hunter forum today to answer some recent questions:
These seemed to crop up in several different threads, so rather than contaminating those, I thought I would start a new one.
Polar Bear Cub — This wasn’t intended to be a tamable pet, and it looked ridiculous.
Black Arrow — This was an ability we were experimenting with. It isn’t actually in the plan for hunters at this point in time. Usually we hide internal abilities better, but we’re trying to get beta builds out quickly and this one slipped through the cracks.
Freezing Trap — The intent was that this trap break on a flat damage amount. However, we found that pets did not respect traps set up that way as CC and would happily break them. When and if we get the pet AI fixed, we’ll revert it to the less fragile form of the trap.
Lock and Load — The design we settled on is 2/4/6, making it better than Nightfall (for comparison). If it’s too low, we’ll adjust it.
Aimed Shot — The intention is that it is better than Multi-Shot against a single target, and that the two share a cooldown so that hunter shot rotations don’t get back into crazy land too quickly again.
Apologies if I didn’t address a question that was important to you.
Finally (although this is actually from yesterday), Ghostcrawler responded to a request for a pet volume control:
We try not to put in too many player options lest we baloon those pages even further, but this may just be the kind of thing that calls for an option. Even before the newer pets, it could be annoying at times. I once trained Dreadmire, the albino crocolisk, but had to let him go after a few weeks of heavy breathing. Most of the flappers get old too. Some of the warlock pet VO is cute the first few times, but then everyone but the warlock wants to disable it. Or maybe the warlock especially wants to disable it. :)
This would be an option for you to hear pets, not something where the pet owner would have to volunteer to mute Stompy.
We’re discussing it.
If I could mute my imp, I might get a warlock past level 10!
37 Comments
I would love to shut my succubus up… She’s so embarrassing. -_-
I loved the polar bear cub, and now it’s gone ? Awful enhancement from Blizzard - instead of doing important corrections they are doing ridiculous things.
@Peter
You know what was ridiculous? Seeing a GIGANTIC little MASSIVE cute HORRIFYING cuddly polar bear cub running around, shoulder-height to a tauren. The polar bear cub was NEVER intended to be tameable — some coder screwed up and typo’d the line of code that determines whether or not that particular mob can be tamed by hunters, and now the bug has been corrected, that’s all.
Peter: As Sade stated above, the polar bear was never intended, and just by looks alone one could tell it was a mistake. A critter model was not meant to be tamed. I would’ve never expected it to stay in honestly.
Now, about the muting, that would be great, because I hate my friends Crocolisks’ hissing ><
The Polar Bear Cub would have been cute, but I agree they’re just not practical as a hunter pet. Maybe we’ll get one as a non-combat pet though.
As far as pet volume control…seeing as I’m now into raiding (and having heard most of the game music 50 plus times) I always play with my sound off. This is especially true in dungeons and raids, because otherwise with all the spells, guns, and whatnot going off, I can’t hear vent. I know not everyong plays with the game sound turned off, though, so an option for a person to decide whether or not they can hear the pet noises would be a great idea.
Seeing a GIGANTIC little MASSIVE cute HORRIFYING cuddly polar bear cub running around, shoulder-height to a tauren.
I don’t know…that actually sounds kinda cool.
..I hope the code for the Vargul Blighthound wasn’t typo’d.. I’d be quite unhappy if they made it untameable..
Mania, could you check the new build to see if it’s still tameable? :3
I’m all for allowing a disabling pet noises options. Another option I’d like to see is pet scaling onscreen…in which each individual player can choose to have large hunter pets scale down in size on their screen. (That way, no more Rhino butts in the way or Core Hounds parked on top of vendors).
My only concern about disabling pet noises is how it will effect other NPC sounds in the game…to be honest I’d rather leave those in there (especially the aggro noises the mobs make. Its an extra alert to me that there is a mob incoming!). In other words, I want the disable for the pet and NPC noises to be two seperate things.
well 1 Core hounds are now about the size of bears you don’t have to worry about them standing on vendors all that much. Rhinos.. yes.
but 2
Pet sound options is one of the things, as a beta tester, I’ve been plinging away with my comment button. It needs to be able to be disabled. I for one love my wasp and love my core hound, but stompy and buzzy do get old.. fast. The buzz is at just the right tone to start drilling into your head after about 10 minutes. Love the wasp. Hate the buzz. Love the core hound. Don’t like the stomp (( Or the screen bounce on rhinos… ))
Blizzard should defiantly add an option on this. I support it compleatly.
Thank you Blizz for the change proposal! I hope Blizz will not discuss it any longer and simply implement it. Watching a hunter movie with Devilsaurs on youtube.. the heavy walking of the pet is so devastating ears ..and brain! :) It was one of the reasons not to tame Devilsaurs althought his skill is so nice for pvp and is a must for all pvp freaks ;)
I LIKE my Succubus. I’m actually ticked off that I can’t really use her as my primary pet on my Warlock who is now running around with her Felhound Greethun. Of course, right now, Shijoshin is busy melting faces off faster than you can blink. I mean, Glynnona sounds like she’s enjoying herself. Ok, maybe it’s comments like that which explain why people think I’m a guy.
Still, turning off the sound, or down the sound of our pets is a good idea. I have a feeling it might sound good, but won’t be easy to impliment.
It’s not on live or PTR anymore, but I could have sworn there used to be an option to change what perspective the sound was from. By default the sound came from the perspective of your character, or you could turn the option off and presumably get sounds relative to the camera position.
I’d really like that option back. When you zoom the camera out 50 feet and rotate to look behind you, it shouldn’t sound like your four foot moth is sitting on your left shoulder!
Taking out pet sound will be good only to silence the whining of other players. If they don’t like it they can shut it off. I’d hate to go into a raid with my favorite pet only to be told he’s too noisy.
Oh lovely, I’ve never had a huge problem with pet noises (leveled from 30 to 50 with a crocolisk) but it’s always good to have options.
the polar bear cub may have been cute, but it makes us look like a joke class. I would rather have a pet that i could take with me in real life(stay with me here lol) and defend me in the wild against scary things. Not have those things wanna nuture my pet or look at me as if iam from a anime. Anyway Where are the hydra’s!!
Two new beasts have been added to the wowhead database for beta build 9014: Ice Mammoth and Lava Hound. Seems that one is a core hound of some sort (likely tamable), and the other may or may not be tamable. Now we just have to locate them ingame :P
I’m sorry, but I miss the polar bear cub. It was small, effective, and /cute/. Why do all our pets have to be big, viscious, and drooling?
It wasn’t hurting anyone. :/
I couldn’t stand the screeching on my raven, but unlike skins and models, you can still override sound files. Many people use an empty file to make screech silent, but mine is a caw-caw file I made at about a third the original volume. The only downside is now bats etc go ‘caw caw’.
While they could add a slider to seperate pet ‘Sound’ from the general ‘Sound’ option right now, it would probably be easier just to cut the starting volume in half.
I use an override trick like Xota describes to nix the chattering from my Succubus and Imp, replacing them with the noises their NPC counterparts make.
I rather enjoy my Tallstrider’s screeching.
Shame about Black Arrow, a cool ability name like that belongs in the MM Tree (though more likely would wind up in the now gutted Surv Tree).
I think “mute” should be optional.
I have had various pets, but the same type 80% of the time it took to lvl my hunter up to 70, and I am not at all sick of the sound it makes!
I actualy like it! She seems more alive to me, and I like it that way.
I tamed an Owl once for a skill, and that almost drowe me cracy though!
So yeah, I see both sides in the matter!
But to me, not hearing Alyssia would take away some of the xperience in having her.
Maybe it should be something in “Interface” or something, rather that muting the whole bunch! Many pets have cool roars (The talking ones) and I bet there are some hunters out there who would like to keep it that way :)
Kady & Alyssia
I knew that would be the reasoning behind the aimed/multi linking, but I still don’t like it; changes everything. OTOH, hearing it from Ghostcrawler makes it easier to see as a true balance issue.
Polar Bear cub mauling your face off with its gums..Yeah, scary. Pet muting? Hurray! Wait..I hope it doesnt mute my wolfs howl, its so beautiful just like him!
Heck with the polar bear cubs; if they return as a non-combat pet, I’m good. (They looked a bit too cute.)
What I want to see—as I’ve mentioned before—is basilisks, pterrordax, and maybe hydras as potential pets. (Seriously…why silithids, moths, rhinos and devilsaurs before any of those? I mean, why spiders and scorpids before pterrordax and basilisks? Inquiring minds who never got a beta key want to know!)
I actually like some of the sounds, and it seems like they may have altered the croc sound rotation.
Someone had a great idea taht you could roll the Basilisks and Dimetredons into the Crocolisk family, maybe call them ‘Lisks. Not all Basilisks have a root ability.
I owuld like to see Pterrordax and Hydra brought in.
That’s the whole point. I want my pet looking all cute and cuddly. It’s fine if it makes me look like a joke. I want my enemies to go “oh look, he’s got a cute ‘ittle bear cub…isn’t he just the cutest OMG…GET THIS THING OFF ME! HEAL! HEAL ME! OMG….IT’S RIPPING MY THROAT OUT….AAAAAgggggghhhhh….”.
Or something like that.
Polar bear cub wouldve been awesome if he’d kept the same size he had in the wild, but blown up, he looked terrible.
On the muting, I’m all for it so long as it’s a client side option. Then anyone who has a problem with my pet’s sounds can sort it out for themselves leaving me to leave them noisy on my own client.
I like the “noise” pets I actually go out and look for them. I play alone alot due to my work scedual and the pets who make sounds make me feal like they are talking to me. But I can see how some are anoyed by it so the option should be there.
I can understand why people don’t like Screech. Me? I adore it. And the clicking of my old crab’s claws was soothing, and the sound of the crocs is thrilling (I named mine ‘Vader’), the buzzing of Wasp wings I’m finding intriguing already, and the fearful hiss of my attacking Serpent is wonderfully chilling… if I had the option, I wouldn’t turn them off for the world.
However, I’ve got major sympathy for the people who don’t like the sounds. My bird rarely comes into instances, and when it does, 99% of the time I have Screech turned off, for instance. I thus am *really* big on the idea of being able to turn off the sounds *you* hear, rather than force the hunter to turn off the pet’s ‘voice sounds’. I’d love it even more if you could selectively turn them off, but I guess that would be *too* difficult.
*coughs* For the pet volume, I just keep headphones off. Yes, the music is pretty, but my hunter chanting.” I can’t cast that!” or “Spell isn’t ready yet!” just drives me nuts! Besides, it’s in big red letters, what more could one ask for? *wink*
Oh, and 30th post! Squee! It’s Eeeeven!
Firewing: You can turn off the voice-overs for the character error messages under the sound menu. I always do — my orc sounds like a freak. :/
I have to say I fully support pet muting! I had the same problem ghost crawler had but at levels 10-20. I love the crocolisk pet but I couldn’t stand the breathing. If the muting was implemented last year the crocolisk that ran me threw WC may still have been my main pet. I often regret having to get rid of him he was one of my favorite pets but the breathing drove me up the wall. I want a hiss free croc that can tank for me without having to constantly check if /wrist is a working emote yet!
@Talonatreyu-
Looking like a joke class and actually BEING a joke class are two different things entirely.How you play with the bear cub would dtermine that.I,for one,hope they bring the cub back someday…once they get the kinks out.lol! Meh,too each their
own.
Kitairra
Ok, for a lot of people, i dont think looking like a joke would be an issue. how many people play gnomes just so they can tick someone off when they get killed by one? and then there are the people who actually want the cute pet….
omg, i want to mute hunters GUNS
i have a belf and my bf has a tauren and he WILL NOT switch to bows.
i don’t want to turn my sound off, but i really hate questing with him cos it’s POW POW POW POW … god, turn that thing OFF.
I was never really bothered by the hissing of a crocolisk or squawking of a bird. Granted, I didn’t get into any sort of bird, and not heavily into Croco’s, but I never thought, “I find your pet’s noise disturbing, Admiral. -forcechoke-” or anything like that. The only noise that ever really bothered me was the laughing of a horribly named Gnome twink or my pretty blood elf boy sounding like a butler.
I’m sure no one is checking this post anymore, but does anyone have a picture of a the giant polar bear cub? I can’t seem to track one down.
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