Something special for wild pets

[Hobbitpolitics]

Taking inspiration from the Pokémon franchise (which evidently pet battling is based on) wouldn't it be amazing if some wild pets would have "ultra rare" skin variants, or shiny if you will. We already have alternate skins on lots of pets, but this time there would be this one skin that would be rarer than the rest. Take for example the [pet]Harpy Youngling[/pet] pet, it currently only has a blue skin variant but what if there was an ultra rare one that was bright yellow. The change would be purely cosmetic but also an incentive to waste time farming wild pets and show off your rare variant. It would be more rewarding since they are not tradeable


PS the lack of reveals at Blizzcon has left me hungering for ideas

[Peanutty]

The dark green skinned [pet]Wood Wasp[/pet] fits that criteria. I'd love to see more pets like that as well, only because I like suffering for my collection.

[Peterc]

I like the idea (providing they are cosmetic and do not count extra in the total collected).

Basically what you are proposing is a standard rng based reward so some could farm for years and never get it and some could get it 'by accident' when collecting a wild pet.

Maybe have a mix of RNG and some that can be worked for (like the 100th type of a particular pet captured would be a 'special' version)?

Peterc

[Hobbitpolitics]

I like the idea (providing they are cosmetic and do not count extra in the total collected).

Basically what you are proposing is a standard rng based reward so some could farm for years and never get it and some could get it 'by accident' when collecting a wild pet.

Maybe have a mix of RNG and some that can be worked for (like the 100th type of a particular pet captured would be a 'special' version)?

Peterc

I agree, the RNG would be controlled in a way, for example we wouldn't want some bloke getting it on first try and somebody who really really wants it doesn't get it in 100 kills. Chances of meeting a rare colored pet would be in a range that you would eventually meet one if you wanted it. Meaning that sure you would have to farm a bit, also considering the fact that there could be multiple pets with a rare variant it shouldn't be a massive time sink for collectors, only a moderate. Perhaps there could be an item buff that increases chances of finding one, just a thought.

[GormanGhaste]

As far as I know, we have three pets now that have rarer color spawns:
Icespine Hatchling and Thicket Skitterer have a 1/10 spawn chance and
Wood Wasp has about a 1/100 spawn chance.

What ratio seems best to all of you? I would suggest if we have any more of these in the future, to continue to have them spawn as secondaries--makes getting the rarer colors easier

[Nagini]

I think the whole point of stuff like this is that its rare. 1/100, in battle pets, doesn't feel very rare to me, and its nowhere near the RNG of a shiny pokemon unless we're talking pets with extremely limited spawns as is (but making those rare and give them a rare recollor, would be too much). I also think that rare recolors should really stand out. Just a color they don't normally come in would mean that alot of people, even experienced pet collectors, would probably kill it because they don't realize its rare. Pokémon uses sparkles for that, not sure what would work in WoW.

I have gone out and captured pets for specific colors before, like my avatar, the shiny rabbit. I think its a very cute idea.

[GormanGhaste]

I think that rare recolors should really stand out, not sure what would work in WoW.

What about giving the pet a glowing outline, like mana sabers have?

[Griselda]

What about actually SEEING said rare pet out in the wild? I'm obviously not talking about the ones you get in queue when you engage in battle, but the first one you initially see as you're out and about.

Instead of a pure or mixed RNG situation where you need to engage in battle with pets to reveal whether or not its a "rare" color variation, I'd love to actually SEE that pet out there.

Take the example mentioned before: all Harpies come in blue and you can clearly see them as you go looking for them out in the Barrens (or wherever they are now post-Cata, lol)--but if you were hunting for said pet and SAW a yellow one fluttering around the group--how awesome would it be to engage in battle with that rare color?! Instead of leaving it up to chance, the only 'chance' would be whether or not its spawned in the particular zone.

The spawns could be 'engaged' by multiple people if they are around the area--similar to the books you used to collect in Dal during LK. If one person clicked a book, there would be like 5 minutes or so where anyone else in the area who happened on it, could click it before it despawned.

With SO many wild pets, the chances that you have a huge influx of people trying to camp or farm that 1 single color variant isn't likely if we introduce this idea across a lot of the wild pets. Then it would allow people to just go battle and collect based on personal preference at that point, instead of having a limited number of pets who could spawn a rare color.

Another point: these rare color variations should only come as rare (blue) quality. I'd be hella pissed to capture a "yellow" colored Harpy at grey quality. That takes away from the experience, imo.

Just an idea!!!!!!