The Pet Battle system is being iterated on in Midnight, and changes will continue to come with future Alpha builds.
In the first builds of the Midnight Alpha, we have several goals:
For players who love collecting pets, there should be significant numbers of pets to collect.
For players who love to do pet battle combat, that will be available.
As time has passed, we’ve seen fewer and fewer players enjoying pet battle combat, so this is an area we want to iterate on.
There will be some new pets in Midnight that are capable of battling.
All parts of the pet battle system that were implemented in previous expansions should continue to operate as they have before.
We’re experimenting with some alternate methods to obtain pets in Midnight, and we expect to iterate on that, based on your feedback. Please let us know whether you’re an experienced pet battler or engaging with the system for the first time when you leave feedback.
Look in this thread and in the Midnight Alpha Development Notes for adjustments and bugfixes made throughout the testing period.
Please note that off-topic or inappropriate posts will be strictly removed.
I’ll try to restrict this first response to feedback about Midnight’s wild pet capture:
I’m gonna be honest, getting a guaranteed pet with a single click onto an eligible creature in the wild is extremely boring.
We have no reactions from wild pets we’re channeling our “Capture!” spell on. They don’t resist, don‘t need to be „calmed down“ or whatever, no puzzle, no preparation required, no capture game that could lead to fail-tries, no challenge at all.
In its current state, please don’t let this be the future stand-alone capture standard for the whole playerbase. If this will be added as an alternate way to collect wild pets (e.g., by adding it as a draggable trap spell to the pet journal) for those who prefer little to no effort for their collection, I’d be fine with it. But please keep the existing wild pet battles as a capture method as well.
1-click capturing could be put in a spot where the players using it get Level 1 wild pets with the lowest rarity and some random breed. As a backlash for avoiding backline pets and the battling part, I would even say it‘s okay when they have to put more effort into finding specific pets which players using the standard battle to capture may find as backline pets. This could lead to more 1-click capture users engaging in battling later on.
1-click capturing could count towards the achievements that provide improved pet traps. With them unlocked, the spell for 1-click capturing could change and add/increase the chance to get pets of better rarity for later battling intentions.
To lower the hurdle to interact with wild pet battles, they could be scaling fights, and then the captured pet is handed out with the max-level of the player’s team. This could help beginners not face max-level pets directly in actual content, and more collectors (open-minded about battling) to level their roster (to level the captured pets and/or return with other higher-level pets to capture pets with higher level)
Midnight wild pets can be aggroed (running out of cast range?) and even be killed while we cast our „Capture!“ spell, which needs to be changed. In an ongoing standard wild battle, we have the pet „locked“, so whatever happens outside of our battle bubble won’t affect the pet we desire.
What happens with the 1-click capturing when more than one player channels the „Capture!“ cast on the same wild pet simultaneously?
Can other players in PvP interfere with an ongoing „Capture!“ cast? (Someone fears you and channels himself? PvP brawl for a super rare wild pet that dies to the curtain fire? )
So, in general, I’m asking to keep the actual pet battle capture method, consider changes for the new 1-click capture to make it less boring, and continue to add abilities to the majority of new pet additions.
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