Creature Handler (Game Mechanics)
Game Documentation - Creature Handler Mechanics
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PetsNew info from the Creature Handler Designer: emote-triggered pet animations! You can: /pet, /reassure, /nuzzle or /hug a pet and it will either perform a "happy" animation, or it will sit, or it will lie down. Some pets have a "sit trick" or two. Telling a pet to do trick1 or trick2 while it is sitting will make it do the sit-trick instead, if it has one. You can /bonk, /whap, /scold, /bad or /slap a pet and it will perform an "ashamed" animation. You can /pointat or /tap a pet to make it perform the 'alert' animation. Using /summon or /beckon on a pet will either make it look confused, or will make it follow you.
Training pets:
'Tiny lets go' 'Tiny attack' 'Tiny you're free' 'Tiny do a trick!' This will replace the creature's original name with 'Tiny' and will also give you some Creature Handler experience. When you teach a pet a command, what you're doing is binding that action to a particular spoken phrase. Once you bind "Attack" to the phrase "Sic'em, Fido!" you can make your pet attack your lookat target simply by having your character say that phrase aloud (in this case: "Sic'em, Fido!"). To do this, choose the "Attack" sub-option under "Train" on your pet's radial menu. The radial menu will disappear, and a little question mark (?) will float off your pet's head. This indicates that it's waiting for you to speak the phrase you want to associate with this command. At this point, just make your character say "Sic'em, Fido!" If you're successful, you'll gain a little Creature Handling XP and you'll get the message "You have trained your pet a new command." If you fail, you'll get the message "Your pet doesn't understand you." In this case, choose "Attack" from the "Train" menu again, and then speak whatever phrase you wish to bind to the command again. Keep repeating the process until you're successful (it shouldn't take more than a few tries in most cases). The success rate at training seems to be determined by creature taming skill for that particular creature type.
Certain types of pets can be trained as "mounts," which will allow the pet's owner to ride around on it. Normal mount walking speed is faster than a player's running speed, and the mount equivalent of burst run (called "gallop") is faster than a player's burst run (and tends to last longer). You can't make just any pet into a mount, however. At this time, the only creatures that can be mounted are: Dewbacks (Tatooine), Bantha (Tatooine), Cu Pa's (Tatooine), Bols (Dantooine), Kaadu (Naboo), Carrion Spats (Corellia), Falumpasets (Naboo), Humbabas (Corellia/Talus), and Brackasets (Dathomir). All variants of a mountable species will work (i.e. dewbacks, lesser dewbacks, mountain dewbacks). Entirely different species that are similar in appearance will NOT work (i.e. NOT bagerasets, bolmas, mawgax, etc). Anyone can own and use a mount (if they have enough skill to control it as a pet), but only a Creature Handler can teach it the "Mount" command. Non-CHs are limited to creature pets CL 10 and below, but fortunately each currently mountable species has such a variant in the wild (lesser dewbacks, lesser plains bols, motley kaadu, carrion spats, plodding falumpasets, and lowland brackasets). A pet has to reach a certain size (which varies by creature) before the Train As Mount command becomes available in its training menu. In most cases this will be around 50-75% of its total adult growth, though some of the larger variants (like giant carrion spats and savage humbabas) may be mountable much sooner. Giant carrion spats in particular can be made into mounts immediately after taming, making them a popular choice among Creature Handler salesmen. When a giant carrion spat reaches a certain size, it can even become too large to be used as a mount. When this happens, the owner will receive a one time pop-up box asking if he wishes to stop its growth, or no longer have it function as a mount. This is your only chance to decide, so make sure you choose carefully. You can climb aboard a mount by choosing "Climb On Mount" from its radial menu, or targeting it and typing /mount. You can dismount by choose "Dismount" from the creature's radial menu, or typing /dismount. You can still engage in combat while mounted, but you will be unable to use any of your special profession moves. In addition to being limited to default attacks, your mount will drastically slow down to prevent you from attacking while keeping out of your target's range (a.k.a. "kiting"). While mounted, you can give your mount a momentary boost of speed by typing /gallop. You cannot attack while galloping, but you can still be attacked. Since you cannot attack, however, the normal speed restriction while in combat is not in effect (making this a handy way to escape from tight situations). After a few moments your mount will become "winded" and return to its normal running speed while it rests (just as with a player's burst run ability). You can end the gallop earlier by using the /gallopstop command (for example, if you are already galloping and wish to stop to engage in combat).
. attack (current target) . befriend (current target) . clear patrol point . column formation . embolden pet (player requires ability) . enrage pet (player requires ability) . follow (current target) . follow target . get patrol point . group (group leader must be in range) . guard (current target) . patrol . special attack 1 (current target) . special attack 2 (current target) . stay . store . tame (current target) . train as mount . transfer (ownership to current target) . trick 1 (uses commanding player's HAM) . trick 2 (uses commanding player's HAM) . wedge formation With most commands, you must manually train your pet. Some commands will be listed in your Command Browser under the combat tab.
Here is a list of other commands that can eventually be taught to pets: Guard: Makes your pet attack anything that attacks you or that you attack. Stay: Makes the pet stay where you tell it. Patrol point: Adds a Patrol point to where you stand. Patrol: Makes your pet roam between patrol points, attacking any aggressive creatures that come close to it, or PC's of the Enemy faction. Clear Patrol Points: it clears all current patrol points, be sure to do this after your finished making your pet patrol. Follow Other: Makes your pet follow your target. Group: Makes your pet join your group. Befriend: Makes your pet accept orders from the person you have targeted when you say the command. Wedge Formation: Makes your pet go into a Wedge formation, which is useful when you get multiple pets. Column Formation: Makes your pet go into Column formation, which is useful when you get multiple pets. Trick1: Makes your pet do one of its tricks, costing you some mind points and healing its entire mind pool along with its mind wounds. Trick2: Same as Trick 1 except it has a neater graphic. Enrage Pet: Makes your pet go berserk making it do more damage but makes it also take more. Transfer: Transfers Ownership of pet to the person you have targeted. Only works on Other Creature Handlers. Embolden: Makes your pet braver (practically useless since your pets are willing to fight anything you tell them to unless they have changed this since beta)
- Storing and Calling Your Pet
You can store a pet in the ways: by getting close to the pet and choosing "Store" from its radial menu, by choosing the "Store" option from the radial menu of its pet control device in your Datapad, or by using whatever phrase you've bound to its "Store" trained command. Voila! The pet will be safely stored. All of your pets will automatically store after a few minutes if you logout or are disconnected, so there's no need to worry about an exploding router at your ISP causing you to lose your favorite pet. Pets will also auto-store if they're incapacitated in battle (unless they are quickly healed back to their feet). You cannot manually call or store pets if your character is in combat, however, and there's a 30 second timer on pet storage once a pet himself has left combat.
Note that your skills determine how many pets you are allowed to have stored at once, in addition to how many you are allowed to have out at once. As a non-CH, you can only store two creature pets in your Datapad at a time. You'll need to advance in the CH profession to gain access to more pet storage slots.
- Using Your Pet in Combat
Sooner or later, you're probably going to want to use your pet in combat. You can either order your pet to attack a target (by selecting the target and speaking whatever vocal command you bound to 'Attack'), or you can order the pet to Guard you (assuming you have earned the Guard command and given it to the pet) and then attack the target yourself. Pets who have been ordered to guard a player will automatically defend him if something adopts an aggressive posture toward him, so just causing a creature to attack you at this point will be enough for your pet to charge into the fray. Please note that pets do NOT automatically Guard their masters, so you will have to explicitly order them to do so (or they'll just stand there and watch you take a beating).
Just like players, pets are incapacitated when one of their Health, Action, or Mind bars reaches zero. At this point, an enemy can execute a "coup de grace" (a.k.a. "deathblow") to kill the pet. This is a Bad Thing, and should be avoided. All creature pets have a statistic called "Vitality" that starts at 100/100 and decreases each time they receive a deathblow. When your pet reaches 75, 50, and 25 vitality, it will receive a corresponding percentage decrease in its statistics (i.e. Health/Action/Mind). While you can restore some of the lost vitality with a Bio-Engineer's "vitality pack," doing so will decrease the maximum vitality. Thus, if a pet is killed enough it will eventually reach a point at which its stat loss cannot be recovered.
- Healing your Pet
If you have at least the Novice Medic skill, you can heal your pet's damage with stimpacks, just as you would another player. Even if you have no medical skills, you can use Pet Stimpacks (which are made by Bio-Engineers) to keep your pet healthy in battle.
Pets can be wounded like players, as well. If your pet takes a Health or Action wound, you can heal it by feeding the pet after battle. Your pet will think "(Fido) Hungry!" out loud when it has such a wound (if its name is 'Fido'). Pets will eat anything players can eat, so travel biscuits are just as good as melons for this (beverages cannot be used... only food). If the item of food has multiple charges, the pet will only consume one charge per feeding. Though it's not a prerequisite skill, I like to have at least Wilderness Survival I from the Scout tree, to gain access to the Forage ability. This gives you a pretty good chance of finding food for your pet in almost any outdoor area, which is great for healing pet wounds on the run. Even more useful is purchasing a factory crate of food from a Chef, who can experiment more charges into each treat. This way the crate itself will only take up one slot in your inventory, and you can pull a single multi-charge piece of food out at a time. Food will not heal health and action damage.
If your pet takes a Mind Wound or battle fatigue, you'll need to Play with your pet. Your pet will think "Fido Play!" out loud when it has a Mind wound (if it's name is 'Fido'). In order to play with your pet, you'll need to have taught it one of the two pet Tricks (which you get by advancing to Creature Empathy I and Creature Empathy II). Simply say the phrase that you bound to the trick, and the pet will do it (and heal his Mind wounds). The second trick heals more wounds per use than the first, but it may take several uses of either trick to fully heal your pet (depending on how many Mind wounds it has). Using Tricks will also heal the pet's mind pool as well and they cannot be performed during combat.
Also, storing and recalling your pet will bring it back full health.
Creature Handler XP and Advancement
There are three ways to gain Creature Handler XP: successfully taming a baby for the first time, teaching a new command to a pet for the first time, and having your pet contribute to the death of an NPC or creature.
The non-violent means of Creature Handling advancement is "tame and release." Simply tame a creature, teach it every command that you have access to, then release it and find something else to tame. Keep in mind that this is a form of "grinding," and is both slow and mind-numbing. Still, if you have access to a lot of commands (and only need a few thousand XP for your next skill), you might decide to close the gap with a little tame and release.
A faster (but riskier) method of advancement is using your pet in combat, which is by far the more normal method. You need to kill something that's powerful enough to be a challenge to your pet (not necessarily to you) to get decent amounts of XP this way. If the target's CL is less than half that of your pet, you'll get 1 XP from the victory. If you find that you're consistently earning 1 XP per kill, then you need to find something more challenging for your pet to hunt. If you're using a particularly powerful pet to advance, this might require finding a group to go big game hunting with.
If you earn the Pack Management skill and start using two pets at once, it's important to note that your XP per kill will be divided by the current number of active pets.
Q: So if I'm not a CH and buy a Companion Pet, can I train it new commands? A: Nope. Any command the pet has or lacks is the fault (or favor!) of the CH that trained it before it was sold/traded to you. If you want to add more commands later, or change the wording that your pet responds to, you'll also need to seek out a CH. Your pet will also need to know the "transfer" command. Be certain you trust this person with your pet, as you have to give it to them for the training!
A: A CH can teach a pet any commands that are available to that CH before he/she sells the Companion pet. For example, I have lvl 1 CH skills, so can teach a creature: follow, attack, release, group, trick1(play), and stay. Whomever I then transfered the creature to would then have access to those commands.
A: Yes, but since the last patch very slowly. Tricks restore mind (wounds and damage), but can no longer be used during combat. Food will heal Health and Action Wounds, but not damage to the Health or Action pools.
Q: How many creature pets can I store on my datapad as a non-CH? A: 2. In order to store more, you would need to be a CH
A: For non-CHs, you can have 1 creature, one droid, and 1 faction pets fielded at the same time. Increasing the number of pets you can have in play at a time requires the CH skill Creature Management at lvl 3 or higher.
A: You can't buy pre-trained pets from the bazaar; pets sold there are consider in "deed" form. You'll need to find someone with at least novice CH skills to tame and train it for you, at which point they'll be able to pass it back to you for you to control. Unfortunately, once the creature has been tamed it is in data format so can only be passed from hand to hand.
Q: How do I know what my pre-trained pet's commands are? I can't seem to get it to do anything! A: If you look at your creature in your datapad, it will have the commands that it knows along with the verbage that it will respond to invoke that command listed. For example, it will have "Attack: Fluffy attack" and similar.
Q: How do I name my pet? Do I have to wait for it to become fully grown? A: You do not have to wait. Any trained creature can be named as young as a baby. The way this is accomplished is using its name during training. You click on it, select "train" and then the command you'd like to teach it. Use its desired name as the first word of the command. After learning 4 commands this way, the pet will figure out you're calling it by name. For example, if you wanted to name your new Rancor "Fluffy", you could train the attack command as "Fluffy attack", the follow command as "Fluffy follow", and so on. On the fourth such command the Rancor would now have "(Fluffy)" above its head. Once a pet has been re-named, you can change the commands to whatever you like, omitting the name if you desire.
Baby pets start off with 10% of their adult form ham pools and stats. A pet will grow at a rate of 10% every 12 hours beginning from after the pet was tamed. In order for a pet to grow the player must log in during the 12 hour cycle periods. It doesn't matter if you call them, feed them or anything else. It is all based on you logging in once every 12 hours.
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