Requiem for the Creature Handlers

[Spectus]

Once upon a time, there was a MMO that allowed player characters to capture and tame creatures from the in-game wilderness.

 

These intrepid explorers, known as "Creature Handlers," pushed into the deepest, darkest, most inacessible corners of the galaxy in search of rare creatures they could capture and tame in their infancy.

 

THey didn't need convoluted, expensive quest arcs with Fully Voiced Dialogue™ -- their endless search and the reams of discoveries they brought back to civilization was its own quest, far more detailed and diverse than anything any human writer, no matter how creative, could concoct.

 

And discover, they did.

 

The world teemed with mount-trained kaadus and tauntaun-like cu pas, and dewbacks and banthas and falumpasets and bagerasets. Saddle-trained flightless Corellian birds the size of a binary load-lifter droid carried them proudly above the crowds. A dizzying array of fearsome creaures like rancors and razor cats fought alongside their masters.

 

Until one cold November day, when they disappeared forever.

 

Articles mourning their demise erupted across the landscape like volcanoes across the paper-thin surface of a young world, then slowly died away as the years passed, absorbed in site admin's archive files. The database that chronicled their thousands of discoveries was assaulted by hackers, prompting its creator to finally shut it down completely.

 

And the humble Creature Handlers were forgotten by the rest of the universe.

 

Or were they?

 

I remember. Maybe you do, too.

 

Maybe you remember the thrill of astonishment, as I do, the first time you saw another player character ride by on a kaadu, with a dewback in tow. Maybe you remember seeing an enormous bioengineered kimogila towering over your town, as your guildmate, a Master Creature Handler, stood guard while you prepared your lowbie for a levelling run into the wilderness of Rori. Maybe you even remember the thrill of the on-screen white-letter message, "You tame the creature" when a tiny, infant version of one of Yavin-IV's most deadly creatures became yours as you stood, scent masked and trembling with fear, in the midst of a nest of venomous Giant Crystal Snakes. Or maybe you remember standing on Dantooine in your squishy taming togs in the shadow of a nest of Graul Maulers, as you coaxed an infant Graul to you: "Good... er... boy?" "Don't bite me..." "Easy..."

 

And maybe, you long like me for a day when the entire SWTOR galaxy becomes your giant playground.

 

REMEMBER THE CREATURE HANDLERS.

[Darth_Halford]

I long for the day when the people stop thinking that we can turn this into SWG2

[Spectus]

I long for the day when the people stop thinking that we can turn this into SWG2

I long for a day when trolls shrivel up and die.

[Blaac]

I long for a day when trolls shrivel up and die.

 

Meh, I agree with him tho. This isnt SWG or SWG2. Its made by a different company, under a different name, with different classes, different skills, during a different timeline, and on mostly different planets. SWG had its positives, and some extremely bad negatives as well (pretty much everything after NGE).

 

This game was never intended to pick up where SWG left off. Players just assumed that. If SWG is what you are truly after then I think you want SWGEmu.

[Tom_Tom_T]

I long for a day when trolls shrivel up and die.

 

I agree with him too. This isn't SWG, nor is it SWG2, this is SWTOR. I'd rather they take a brand new direction with the game than recycling old ideas personally.

[Zaemiel]

I do love the idea. The more different activities are in game, tha better. So, why not? it sounds fun and I see no harm that could be done if made properly!

[ModaanOfTarq]

Personally, I would love to see Creature Handlers in this game. I don't care where "they came from originally" or what the name of this game (or that) is. Point is, the "CH" idea was brilliant in my opinion and it would make this game more interesting. Again, my opinions. Everyone has a right to their own, even if they difer.

 

All I know is it would make a difference to me, I find my interest "lacking" in this last month.

[Spectus]

I agree with him too. This isn't SWG, nor is it SWG2, this is SWTOR. I'd rather they take a brand new direction with the game than recycling old ideas personally.

I don't want to see this game become a "SWG-2" either.

 

However, just because a good idea happened to appear in SWG doesn't mean it's automatically a bad idea.

 

I think it would be relatively easy to implement here in SWTOR, and it would add a LOT in terms of easy-to-create gameplay value. We already have Beastiary Lore entries that pop up when we encounter new creatures. In gameplay terms, this is simply an extrapolation on that.

 

Who wouldn't want their own pet kath hound or mount-trained tauntaun? I know that every time I set foot on Taris, I find myself missing my mount-trained kaadu.

 

And even if they went so far as to make pets combat-capable, the existence of SWTOR's companion-character system removes the one big problem that made balancing Creature Handlers against the rest of the player base such a nightmare for SOE. In SWTOR, everyone already has a NPC companion as an extra comrade-in-arms. So in this game, it's even MORE usable. And the lore DEFINITELY is part of this era. We have lots of NPCs (such as the Justicars on Coruscant) who use pets in combat, so why can't we? And SWTOR's former Senior Writer, Drew Karpyshyn, wrote about the drexl-riding pirates on Dxun. We also have flying thrantas as taxis on Alderaan.

 

And that's not even touching on the existing lore in the Star Wars movies themselves: Stormtroopers on dewbacks; Republic Clone Troopers on translucent ground beetles on Feluccia; Mustafarian miners riding giant lava fleas; fambaas as heavy-weapon platforms; eopies, falumpasets, giant dragonflies carrying diminutive pilots on Kashyyyk, aiwhas on Kamino, the varactyl Boga and the flying dactillions on Utapau, the acklay, reek, and nexu in the Geonosian battle arena, and on and on.

 

People can say "this isn't that game" all they want -- but regardless of what this game does, exotic pets are definitely a big part of the Star Wars lore. And as long as this game does not include them, it's missing that part of its own lore.

[Jawstheshark]

For myself, I realize this is not SWG or SWG2 and never will be.

 

That being said. Having a class that performs its role via trained animals would be an excellent thing.

 

Many MMO's have such a class. I would play and level up one if it existed.

[Spectus]

For myself, I realize this is not SWG or SWG2 and never will be.

 

That being said. Having a class that performs its role via trained animals would be an excellent thing.

 

Many MMO's have such a class. I would play and level up one if it existed.

In this game, with the existing Companion Character system, I could see it evolving as a complete add-on subsystem that any character could pick up. The only catch could be that if you wanted to use a combat pet, you would call it out in place of your humanoid companion.

 

Noncombat pets (such as mounts) could be summoned like speeders. And if they really wanted to impress, they could allow players to have noncombat mounts for both player characters and companions, with maybe a noncombat pack animal in tow for extra loot-carrying capacity.

 

As for how these pets could be acquired, the possibilities range from finding and taming a miniaturized "infant" version of a creature in the wild (and which would tend to be hard to find and/or somewhat of a rarity), to consulting a friendly neighborhood NPC bioengineer. At any rate, I think a big part of the charm of such pets would be interacting with an "infant" version of the creature and watching it grow over time.

 

I could also see such pets introducing a new special attack to the game: a "fear" response, in which the target sees this ferocious beast bearing down on him, and attempts to flee in terror. And from there, all sorts of special attacks suggest themselves, depending on the species: speed bursts, pounce attacks, lacerating movement-speed debuffs, attack impairments (such as if a kath hound locks its jaws on your target's arm), stuns, bleed-damage-over-time attacks, venom strikes, and so forth.

 

And I think it would be cool to expand on an idea presented in SWG for healing or buffing pets: pet food and pet tricks. Only in this game, it'd be cool if we could have a cutscene in which we employ a favorite pet toy to amuse the pet, or serve up its favorite dish of clotted blood chowder or Corellian Savanna Stalks, or whatever. Or perhaps, if this idea really strikes a creative spark with a dev or two, maybe even evolve a whole backstory for the pets, in which we progressively watch the pet's personality unfold, and if we really want to get far out, maybe even develop an empathic connection with them. That may strike some as extreme, but it's fully in keeping with the Star Wars meme.