(This topic hasn't been brought up in awhile but I felt that it was worth seeing again.)

I would love to be able to name the pets that we have. I feel like right now no one is really interested in pets, unless they are hardcore collectors of them. If we could name them, interact with them, and get attached I think that it would encourage them to be more a part of the game as opposed to the pixels on the screen that follow you around.

Thoughts anyone?

I don`t care for pets in TOR at all, when I played wow I had all but the hardest to get achievement for pets and mounts. I cant pinpoint the reason why I don`t care for them at all in TOR, but I don`t think naming them would make it count.

I have not tried the new battle system in wow with pets, I will probably try it if I ever play any wow again.

I was a vivid pet collector long before the achievements came.

I don`t think I have grown up much since then.

I cant pinpoint the reason why I don`t care for them at all in TOR, but I don`t think naming them would make it count.

Mm, I think a lot of it has to do with exclusivity. Bioware is frequently too "fair" about everything (though you'd not know it from the forums) and most of the pets are achieved too simply, and with no fanfare, story, or anything. They're just drops, straight purchases, or conciliatory mailed items from BW. Everyone is given ample opportunity to get most of them, and they aren't made to seem special.

To go one further, the ones that *are* special and are hard to get are *too* special and too hard. If you didn't purchase a CE, you're missing one. If you didn't attend PAX back when BW went to conferences, you missed one. This game needs less fairness and more differentiation (ironically, PvP has pretty good differentiation...oh, right, that was supposed to be the fair part)

With regards to OP--I think it's a good idea, but per the first reply, I don't think that alone will have much impact on pet popularity either way. Hopefully, there'll be more to it in the future; even just naming pets at the moment you "use" them would give a bit of weight (and a thousand "I made a mistake/thought I was clever and turned out I wasn't" posts about needing to change names )

Yeah, I'm just disappointed at how pointless they are. I know that just naming them wouldn't change a whole lot of course, but I think it could open up a lot more options for them to consider for us. Either that or I just say get rid of them. They are literally serving no purpose right now.

And you're definitely right, a lot of them are too hard to get or are just not available anymore. Having some of them rare is good, but I think they should treat pets like they do speeders and have vendors for the less rare ones. Encourage a bit more competition for the harder to get ones.

My suggestion is put Name Collars on sale on a vendor on Carrick. These would allow you to change the name of one of your pets. And maybe get clever with it, such as make the item RE'able and the materials needed is the Dog Tags gray loot and 2 other random though relevant junk loot items. Since those can't be sold on the GTN it would make it very interesting.

Another thing that would make pets more interesting is if they can also sell Junk Loot (so you don't have to ditch your combat companion for 5 seconds - 60 seconds), as well as some other useful things like actively pick up all the credit-and-junk-loot from corpses as soon as they drop. And auto-harvest for Scavenging / Bioanalysis / Archaeology, even during battle, and even while pulling them along on your speeder.

Oh just thought of another thing. Also put on a vendor a Pet Backpack. This would be applied to a pet, and would add a menu option on your pet that opens a 20-item inventory. Perfect for storage for alternate DPS sets of equipment. The backpack would be visible on the pet and could bulge a few variations depending on how full the inventory is.

Also add Pet tricks. And they should make a characteristic noise of some kind. And they should have a mood that can be changed and their sound changes depending on their mood. And let us equip them with some kind of pet armor item to make them look ready for battle environments. And have same-pets interact with each other when their owners are just standing still. And some pets should be just large enough that they can double as a pet mount that reverts to /follow when you dismount.

Maybe even have options to have your pet interact with other players, to show affection, chase off, run in cirlces, etc.

I spun off 2 threads from this, for:

a vendor that sells Name Collars for pets

_____(pet name collars that are RE'able for a schematic)

__________________and

major enhancements for Pets

_____(pets can sell junk loot, Backpacks, tricks, sounds, moods, etc.)