Personally, I would love to have a pet on my Islander, as self-looting drops for hours on end starts getting to me after a while. This would have been possible on the pre-wipe server and also post-wipe until very recently, but since ~storage has been disabled for Maple Island, there's no longer the option of getting pet food in via storage. Chokladkakan suggested using Cash Shop pet food, but having looked at the prices, you'd only be able to buy 8 pet foods per day and that would would not only use up your entire daily nx allowance but it wouldn't be enough to keep your pet fed if you were grinding regularly. I'd very much like the opinion of both other Islanders and of the staff on this subject. - Would other Islanders also like to be able to have pets and feed them regular food? (It would be something to spend money on, lol, as there's really nothing else we need to buy at higher levels.) Do you feel that this would ruin the nostalgia and/or the point of being an Islander? Or is it something you couldn't care less about? - How about the staff perspective? Is this something feasible and relatively simple, or a waste of time and effort? Also, how do you feel about the idea in general?
I'm torn; on the one hand I don't want the island contaminated, but at the same time I appreciate how pets could perhaps bring some more people here. Since I personally only play on the island sacrificing the daily allowance does not seem such a monumental loss but I understand how people enjoying life off the island with other characters might feel differently. I suppose one could also consider the compromise of lowering the cost of the premium pet food, assuming that is technologically viable.
In an effort to assess both the experience of having a pet picking up my items and money and the viability of marooned pet ownership I spent what NX I had on a penguin and the suite of equipment required to make the little one pick up the spoils of what I like to consider a flower parade (think about it: someone flapping about a rose longer than they are tall is weird). My findings are thus: after roughly four hours of almost uninterrupted flower swinging the penguin in my care is alive, albeit famished. As I write this he or she has a fullness value of twenty out of one hundred. Interestingly, the fullness value of the penguin seems not to decrease consistently; now and again, seemingly without reason, it will jump back up to fifty-four. I do not know if this is common behaviour as I haven't had a pet in this game previously. My conclusion is therefore that if one fully fed pet can remain productive for four or perhaps five hours without additional food, the premium food seems a sustainable source of food when needed. Granted People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals might not approve.
How did you feel about having a pet picking up for you? Did it make grinding easier/more relaxing, or did it feel wrong having a pet on Maple Island?
I think I prefer not using it. Not because it seemed wrong—it didn't—but because the path finding of the flightless little bird isn't terribly good; it will seek the oldest available item first, even if a shorter route exists between the items on the floor. Similarly, if I move ever so slightly he or she will feel compelled to stop seeking the items previously in his or her sight and turn around. The experience is somewhat sluggish and because of the second point in particular I find myself being stationary much more often. Edit: again its fullness jumped to twenty from what I believe was eight.
I would most likely have to agree with '@Chokladkakan' for the mere reason that I find it more "island-like" to have to pick up everything that I want from the drops. A pet takes away that experience and I personally enjoy 'looting' my own findings.
Being an Islander myself (and a bit lazy), I would also like a way to obtain Pet Food. Although having a vendor isn't what I would like most. I would rather see some sort of exchange quest. I think that would be more balanced, and would be a little bit more challenging than your regular vendor.
