Idea I came up with on the fly for a possible way of obtaining scales in some other thread, but I thought it deserved some attention beyond the issue of other ways to obtain scales than the Nurture grind.

I'd like a system where you can help others level their pets in exchange for a reward (scales??). While you can do this already by just asking around on the forums, I feel a specially coded way would provide more security against people taking your pet and running, going inactive, or not leveling as quickly as you would like. While Krin can help with the first two already too, a coded in way will take some of the work off his back as the site grows and the number of people potentially needing an admin intervention also grow.

The idea is that you go to a location (maybe a lost grove building?) and sign up to become a Trainer. Then a pet picked randomly from a pool of pets who have been signed up for the service will join your party. A few different ways they could do this:

1) The pet just "tags along". You use your own team, and a portion of the experience is automatically funneled towards the trainee.

2) The trainee provides a unique ability that strengthens your team, as an incentive. Like maybe it increases all your pets' damage by 10%. Maybe you could tie this to pet proficiency--like an Earth pet would increase everyone's stamina, a Fire pet would increase their intellect, a Wind pet their dexterity, etc. Other than passive buffs, the extra pet might also provide an extra heal or attack that's on a cooldown of, say, 10 rounds.

3) The trainee straight up takes the place of a pet in your party.

Now for a few "wishlist" items for this:

1) Be able to pick out of, say, three pets offered to you randomly, or pick a specific Trainee proficiency if such has a bearing on any special abilities offered to you by being a Trainer. Choice is good!

2) Be able to search for specific pets/owners so you can help out your friends. Maybe you wouldn't get an extra buff with this feature so as to discourage any cliquing.

Anything else y'all can think of?

This could be interesting... I dunno if it's feasible, but it could definitely help cut down on people getting scammed. (Not that that happens much, but it does occasionally. Someone once tried to sell me a lup that someone else had asked to be levelled up.)

My two cents, though- the Lost Grove is probably not the best place to implement it. ._. Definitely not if the pet is going to join your party. Low-level pets + TLG = no. Also, it would mean that well-meaning users who haven't gotten to TLG yet wouldn't be able to participate.

But the whole thing with the buffs and getting random pets to tag along and stuff could be pretty fun.

I feel like there would need to be something to prevent pets from exceeding the level of their owner, though... I can imagine a lot of new people who don't understand how user levels work and asking for pets levelled to the max, only to get upset when they can't use those pets anymore.

I'm also not sure if scales are the best reward, though... I know that a lot of people (myself not included) don't have the time and/or patience to nurture a whole bunch. But if scales suddenly get so much easier to obtain, then scale shop items (which are very limited to begin with...) would probably devalue quickly. Good for buyers, but very bad for sellers.

I would be interested in this system just for the sake of it, though a reward would probably help make it repeatable rather than just a Phase that someone goes through.

I think putting it in the Umbra Forest - Sanctuary of Saerielle would be a better location. It has the requirement of players being about level 25 before they can sign up (Which, to be honest, isn't that hard). Could even have "3 party slots" be a pre-requisite.

Rewards could be tokens for towns or reputation, and pets probably would be limited to the level of owner. People might also be able to offer up their own rewards for people to do this for them (which helps keep the economy from having a sudden influx of goods) but might cause issues with people not gaining as much as they actually paid for (eg, leveling a pet and paying someone a million gold... eh, you got scammed bro)

Rather than scales, preferably this would give rewards to a whole new system, possibly with the focus being on experience orbs, health philters, etc, but that means a lot more coding.

On the function: if the pet isn't involved in the fight, it shouldn't be able to take damage. If it is involved in the fight, it should probably take slot 3. Damage dealt to it this way doesn't actually hit it for the owner, but does for the trainer.

Perhaps the reward could be Ability Expertise (from 1 star to 2 star only)?

I love this idea ^w^