Note  59  Aule         (01/28/08 15:58)  Abandoned Pets

Dear Ardans,
 
For the past 6 months or so, Valinor has been working on a
system that would enable each player to have a 'pet' animal.
 
In the past month the pets have been in playtest, and several
issues have been raised which, despite our best efforts, we
have been unable to come to a consensus on to resolve:
 
- Pets will cause a lot of spam: in movement, during combat,
  room inventories, 'shape all here', etc.
 
- Pets which participate in combat can potentially imbalance
  the game, as there is no correlated 'cost' for the combat
  'benefit' they will provide.
  Addition of drawbacks in an attempt to balance the pets
  limits their usability, and brings in to question about why
  we have them at all.
 
- Despite attempts at making pets thematic to Tolkien's
  vision of Middle-Earth, the fact remains that each player
  fighting alongside an animal will completely change the
  face of the game - so much so that T2T may no longer be
  recognizable as a Tolkien game.
 
In light of the above, Valinor has decided to abandon the
pets project and direct our efforts elsewhere.
 
Aule