by Kodai » 04/27/2012 4:59 PM
Okay, let's see. P=
Let's just get this out of the way first: Battle Traits are not meant to be just for battling. They are supposed to be descriptive of your pet, too. That's why we have several Traits that are similar, like Extended Claws/Hard Hooves/Powerful Jaws/Sharp Beak. If Battle Traits were meant to be purely for battles, we wouldn't have multiple Offense-improving Traits – there would be no need for multiples. Even Elements are as much for describing your pet as they are for offering another facet to battling. Thinking of what a pet would or could do in a fight is the basis for any Battle Trait I might make, not whether we need a Trait that produces X effect in battle (and I have the feeling most users consider their pets above battle mechanics when they suggest Battle Traits, as well). Really, Battle Traits should be thought of as Passive Traits that have the added benefit of doing something during battles, not as something completely unrelated.
Concerning 'middle/third' categories: I was afraid people would get stuck on this. =/ Even when Shieba and I originally started batting around this idea, I knew that I should try to stay away from making the concept a new category, since I know that we already have quite a few and people get confused over them. Still, I didn't really have anything better to call the concept, which is where the title of this topic comes from. Allow me to say this now, then: This would not be a new/separate category. True, you'd potentially have a bunch of Battle Traits sitting in your pet's stats that weren't actually being used in battle, and you'd probably want to make a note to yourself about which ones you were using (you'd only send the Battle Traits you would be using with your tournament entry, so you don't have to differentiate them there), but that's as much of a 'new category' of Traits as they would be. In other words, do you know how some people (like me, if you want a reference) list all their pets' Passive Traits together and highlight the Personal ones in some way (I put them in green text), so that they know which ones are Personal and which ones are Racial? You would pretty much be doing the same thing with Battle Traits now – listing all the Battle Traits your pets have and highlighting which ones your pet uses in battle.
And that's even assuming that you'd take more Battle Traits for your pet! Naturally you wouldn't have to if you didn't want to. This is really for the people that think that the six-Battle Trait limit is too restricting for describing their pet properly (again, think of the person that has an elemental battle mage). You're still only allowed six Battle Traits during battles, so really, nothing is changing aside from the fact that people can now list more Battle Traits in their pets' descriptions (and have a more legitimate way of 'switching out' Battle Traits, since their pets now actually possess the Trait[s]).