From the onset of our Kickstarter, we have been very clear that we had no intention of creating a pet class at the launch, or maybe ever, for Camelot Unchained™, for a variety of technical reasons. Well, what if pets were more, say, ephemeral; more like spirits than flesh, more like spells rather than like NPCs? And with that idear in mind and many internal discussions, the path to adding some form of pet classes to the game has become a realistic Stretch Goal.
Why are “spirits” easier than flesh & bone pets? Well, spirits can fly/float over the ground and move through objects. Pathing, one of the banes of so many pet-based classes, would no longer be a major issue. Treating some of them as spells also means that we can leverage our tech to add them to the game at a very low cost. All of this would also reduce the usual amount of “tris” that pets normally use.
Then there is the coolness factor. Spirits, ghosts, and similar creatures can be way cooler than the average pet, and they can fit very nicely into our crazy, post-apocalyptic world, especially with The Depths™ and our day/night cycle.
Now, what the heck is an Extender Pack Plus? It is our way to sticking to our “swords,” by not adding content to the game that will negatively affect our release date. An Extender Pack is content that won’t be developed until after release. They are free to all of our Backers, and are not Expansion Packs. An “Extender Pack Plus” is content that might be released prior to launch, ONLY IF we can do so without adding to the release date but if not, it will be released post-launch.
In this case, adding one pet class to each Realm will be the first of the “EPP”s that will be considered for addition prior to launch. EPs/EPPs are the perfect way to balance the needs/wants of our Backers while maintaining our commitment to not delaying the launch due to a constant stream of new features.
As you will see from the artwork we will release over the next few weeks and from Michelle’s live streaming, it’s a pretty cool and unique concept for one of the most popular classes in MMORPGs.
BTW, what about the mechanics? Well, our design will comprise so much more than simple, common (and frankly, kinda tropish) pet classes. More on this later!
